Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
ABCD
On 11/14/05, ABCD en.abcd@gmail.com wrote:
Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
ABCD
makeing the edit this page tag bigger than the others and makeing it coloured perhaps?
-- geni
How about just bolding it?
--gkhan
On 11/14/05, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 11/14/05, ABCD en.abcd@gmail.com wrote:
Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
ABCD
makeing the edit this page tag bigger than the others and makeing it coloured perhaps?
-- geni _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
On 11/13/05, Oskar Sigvardsson oskarsigvardsson@gmail.com wrote:
How about just bolding it?
--gkhan
It's already bolded, at least in Monobook.
Kelly
On 11/14/05, Oskar Sigvardsson oskarsigvardsson@gmail.com wrote:
How about just bolding it?
--gkhan
Ohh, it is already bolded..... Silly me..... I'm with Alphax, make it blink!
--gkhan
ABCD wrote:
Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
Apart from serious abuse of the <blink> tag? :)
Change [[MediaWiki:Sitenotice]] to "From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia that anyone can edit (just click on ''edit this page'')"?
Put [edit] next to the first section headings (there's a bit of javascript on [[WP:US]] that can do this)?
Read http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ for a laugh and resign ourselves to the fact that no matter what we do, some people will NEVER "get it"?
On Mon, 14 Nov 2005, Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:
ABCD wrote:
Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
[snipping several suggestions]
Read http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ for a laugh and resign ourselves to the fact that no matter what we do, some people will NEVER "get it"?
I've spent two years doing phone support, & I can attest that you are closer to the truth than you might think.
One of my fellow workers did support for Berkley Software's AfterDark screensaver program for the Mac. One day he had to vent about the people who called for assistance. "The instructions are on a 5x7 card! The Mac is the most user-friendly interface ever invented! How the #$%@!! do people manage to get it wrong?"
I could tell a lot of stories like this, but most of the true tales aren't funny, & most of the funny ones I sometimes suspect aren't true.
Geoff
A lot of the supposed "stupid user" stories on rinkworks are really "stupid techie" stories in which the customer/user makes a joke the technie doesn't get, says something seemingly inane to make friendly smalltalk, etc.
Read http://rinkworks.com/stupid/ for a laugh and resign ourselves to
the fact that no matter what we do, some people will NEVER "get it"?
-- Ben Yates Wikipedia blog - http://wikip.blogspot.com
On 11/14/05, ABCD en.abcd@gmail.com wrote:
Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
Is the problem really that they can't find it, or just that they don't know what it means? I remember seeing that link in early 2003 and I had no idea at all that it actually meant *I* could edit that page, though luckily I tried it anyway. :)
I don't know how to get across to people that they actually can edit Wikipedia without introducing instruction creep onto every page. The link is already expanded from the default "edit" to "edit this page" and it now appears in bold text. I think the issue is more the concept of an editable website that is difficult - not the format of the link.
Angela.
Angela wrote:
On 11/14/05, ABCD en.abcd@gmail.com wrote:
Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
Is the problem really that they can't find it, or just that they don't know what it means? I remember seeing that link in early 2003 and I had no idea at all that it actually meant *I* could edit that page, though luckily I tried it anyway. :)
I don't know how to get across to people that they actually can edit Wikipedia without introducing instruction creep onto every page. The link is already expanded from the default "edit" to "edit this page" and it now appears in bold text. I think the issue is more the concept of an editable website that is difficult - not the format of the link.
Having been an internet forum regular since 2000, the concept of being able to edit stuff on webpages (your own posts) wasn't exactly new to me, but the concept of being able to edit things written by other people *was*.
The earliest I remember finding Wikipedia was about July 7, 2004 (I saved the pages) - even back then, it said "Edit this page". I probably found a few {{stub}}s too, which would have helped.
Hrm, we need more stubs! :)
Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote: <snip>
The earliest I remember finding Wikipedia was about July 7, 2004 (I saved the pages) - even back then, it said "Edit this page". I probably found a few {{stub}}s too, which would have helped.
Oh yes, the main page text - "Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" - probably helped too.
On Monday 14 November 2005 05:39, ABCD wrote:
Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
A solution I can think of, is that wikipedia leaves a cookie that says ¨this person is not a competely and utter noob¨. If such a cookie does not exist yet, a big fat, blinking (ok, maybe not blinking) box is displayed which tells you how to stop being very lost. It would also contain a link to never ever display this box again. A smart implementation would be to use this only for Windows/Mac users coming on the page with either IE, Firefox or <Standard Mac Browser> __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Peter Shaw wrote: <snip>
or <Standard Mac Browser>
Safari. But don't forget all the Linux web browsers! Konquerer etc.
On Monday 14 November 2005 13:48, Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:
Peter Shaw wrote:
<snip>
or <Standard Mac Browser>
Safari. But don't forget all the Linux web browsers! Konquerer etc.
The point kinda was, that people who can cope with a linux desktop, will be able to figure out how to use wikipedia. But perhaps it´s true that the filtering would have to be by distro as well. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Peter Shaw wrote:
On Monday 14 November 2005 05:39, ABCD wrote:
Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
A solution I can think of, is that wikipedia leaves a cookie that says ¨this person is not a competely and utter noob¨. If such a cookie does not exist yet, a big fat, blinking (ok, maybe not blinking) box is displayed which tells you how to stop being very lost. It would also contain a link to never ever display this box again. A smart implementation would be to use this only for Windows/Mac users coming on the page with either IE, Firefox or <Standard Mac Browser>
The trigger to turn off the annoying feature would be to edit anything. :-)
Ec
ABCD wrote:
Looking through the Helpdesk-l mailing list, it seems that some people are having a hard time finding the edit link at the top of the page, although they can find the edit links for the sections. Should something be done about this?
I find it amazing that people on this mailing list -- who are familiar with Wikipedia -- find it so hard to acknowledge that the "edit this page" link is really invisible to people who are not familiar with it and don't already know that the link exists, much less where it is.
Just look at the page. Look at any article. What do you look at? You look at the article, obviously. You don't look at the little boxes on the left unless you're specifically looking for something. You absolutely totally especially don't look at the things at the top. They're just visual sugar, they don't exist until you know they actually serve a purpose. Most users won't even look for the edit link, and if they do, they would be looking for it in the toolbar on the left. Since it's not there, they would conclude they can't edit the page they're currently looking at, unless it has sections.
It has been suggested before to move the section edit links to _below_ each header because with the current layout most newbies assume the link lets them edit the section _above_ it. An "edit this page" (or "edit this article") link should then be placed directly underneath the main article heading. _Not_ above it where no-one looks.
Timwi