On 4 January 2013 13:03, Fred Bauder <fredbaud(a)fairpoint.net> wrote:
The MUD I reference has both a MUD school where a presumably new user
goes through the basic game moves and is instructed in them and, much
more interesting and engaging, a complex Newbie zone where the new player
faces an increasing complex series of challenges which successfully
accomplish learning by doing. The coding on the particular MUD generously
rewards every "right" move with "experience", "money", and
other goodies.
This is all very nanny and I doubt the average highly educated user who
is a university professor or professional could accept being put to
school in this manner in a compulsory way before being allowed to edit,
but it could be available as an option. We could even have a "practice"
wiki which was set up in this way as an option. Probably no one would use
it though, I suppose, so whatever is done would probably have to be on
the main site. It would be a sandbox, but a more active and monitored
one, actually a set of practice articles in sandboxes.
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:The_Wikipedia_Adventure
which is a project very much along these lines. I'm not sure what the
current status of that is, but it definitely seems like a good
approach for at least some groups of newbies.
Pete / the wub