Why is MediaWiki so low-tech?
I understand the imperitive for maximal accessibility, but is it not also
true that, these days, fewer and fewer people are using browsers that can't
handle advanced features? The fact of the matter is that a website's
*usability* is improved by taking advantage of the higher-tech architecture
that modern browsers allow you to use. Can't MediaWiki default to its
current state, but offer a per-user preference to turn on advanced options?
Look at a site like Facebook, (http://www.facebook.com), for example, which
is possibly one of the most beautifully constructed websites I have ever
encountered. It is simple in layout and ridiculously easy to use on account
of very good design, and the use of advanced code generating popups,
immediate editing, etc. Furthermore their code is pristine; I have never
seen an error, even in the advanced features, on any browser.
The kind of MediaWiki advanced features I'm talking about could be something
like instant editing. Think about if you're reading a long section of an
article, and midway down there's a spelling error. There are so many reasons
to not fix it: you'd have to scroll up to click the edit link on that
section, you'd have to wait for it to load, you'd have to find the place
again in the edit box, you'd have to wait for it to load again, and all this
time you won't be able to continue reading your article, and you'll have
lost your place. What if you could just click next to the relevant
paragraph, turning it into an edit box on the same page - no loading - edit
it, save it, and never once have to switch page. Something similar to the
way you can edit posts in vBulletin without having to change pages. I know
for sure that a feature like this would double the speed at which (and the
likelihood of which) articles are improved.
Obviously once you accept the usage of advanced elements like this there's
no stopping how much easier you can make the site, and how user friendly. If
the only grounds to not include this kind of feature are accessibility, just
put each feature on a switch in user preferences.
Gordon Joly schreef:
> At 17:49 +0000 7/1/07, Virgil Ierubino wrote:
>
> .....
>
>> If lack of developers and money is the only problem then why not be more
>> WIKI about it?
>>
>
>
> Money pays for servers. Developers work for nothing.
>
Hoi,
You would be surprised how many developers make a living programming and
maintaining MediaWiki. It is also very much NOT according to the
philosophy of the Free Software Foundation that programmers should not
be paid. They are entitled to all the money they can earn.
I would also not want to say that our volunteer developers work for
nothing.. They work to make a difference, and they do. The thing is
there are "demands" for all kinds of functionality and much of this does
not materialise. It does not happen because there are too few
developers. It happens because they are volunteers too and they do what
they like to do (and who would blame them?). The big projects that are
wished for take a LOT of time and it helps a lot when the work can be
done in a limited timespan as it makes the work more effective and economic.
So please, there are many big projects that the WMF wants to develop.
They do not happen because there are no developers. Given the problems
raising sufficient funds, we are not able to do the things that were
planned in the way we hoped we were able to.
Thanks,
GerardM
To follow up some of the replies:
I'm not suggesting WYSIWYG. I don't like Wysiwyg personnally, I think it
makes content editing more difficult and less clear.
My point in its simplest form was that there ARE ways of doing VERY funky
stuff. And I don't mean flashing animations, I mean stuff that actually
makes MediaWiki run better, be easier to use, attract more users, etc.
Compatibility isn't that much of an issue because:
* The features can be opt-in via user preferences (could even be as simple
as selecting one of 3 modes, or something)
* This kind of funky stuff IS actually very stable, and can even detect the
browser it's being viewed in and turn itself off.
* Most people CAN run it without problems.
For the Somalians without Dell Dimensions, (interesting example!) there's
always the normal Wikipedia (before turning on these options), CDs, DVDs and
Print Encyclopedias.
If lack of developers and money is the only problem then why not be more
WIKI about it? Call to the Wikimedian community for volunteer coders to help
improve MediaWiki. Of course this is a lot more complex than I make it
sound, but the point is that somewhere out there will be a professional AJAX
coder willing to code free for Wikimedia. I know that if I knew the
language, I'd do it.
Hi All,
I've just committed a change that allows users with the permission key
'ipblock-exempt' to be exempted from ALL forms of IP blocks, including those
which come from DNSBLs.
This permission is by default assigned to the Sysop group, although it can
be, as usual, applied to any group using $wgGroupPermissions.
(See bug 3706 and r18904)
Take care,
Andrew Garrett
(Werdna)
Maybe this is what you want?
Wikiwyg brings Wiki WYSIWYG to MediaWiki:
http://www.socialtext.com/node/90
Wikiwygify wikipedia.org:
http://demo.wikiwyg.net/wikiwyg/demo/wikipedia/
--
Hsiang-Tai Chien (H.T.)
Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia! http://en.wikipedia.org
My Wikipedia User Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Htchien
My blog - Hsiang-Tai @ Taiwan: http://htchien.blogspot.com
My Flickr Photo Album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/htchien
Think Different, Do Smarter, Work for Joy!!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: foundation-l-bounces(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> [mailto:foundation-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf
> Of Virgil Ierubino
> Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 12:31 AM
> To: wikitech-l(a)wikimedia.org; wikipedia-l(a)wikimedia.org;
> foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Foundation-l] Why is MediaWiki so low-tech?
>
> Why is MediaWiki so low-tech?
>
> I understand the imperitive for maximal accessibility, but is
> it not also true that, these days, fewer and fewer people are
> using browsers that can't handle advanced features? The fact
> of the matter is that a website's
> *usability* is improved by taking advantage of the
> higher-tech architecture that modern browsers allow you to
> use. Can't MediaWiki default to its current state, but offer
> a per-user preference to turn on advanced options?
>
> Look at a site like Facebook, (http://www.facebook.com), for
> example, which is possibly one of the most beautifully
> constructed websites I have ever encountered. It is simple in
> layout and ridiculously easy to use on account of very good
> design, and the use of advanced code generating popups,
> immediate editing, etc. Furthermore their code is pristine; I
> have never seen an error, even in the advanced features, on
> any browser.
>
> The kind of MediaWiki advanced features I'm talking about
> could be something like instant editing. Think about if
> you're reading a long section of an article, and midway down
> there's a spelling error. There are so many reasons to not
> fix it: you'd have to scroll up to click the edit link on
> that section, you'd have to wait for it to load, you'd have
> to find the place again in the edit box, you'd have to wait
> for it to load again, and all this time you won't be able to
> continue reading your article, and you'll have lost your
> place. What if you could just click next to the relevant
> paragraph, turning it into an edit box on the same page - no
> loading - edit it, save it, and never once have to switch
> page. Something similar to the way you can edit posts in
> vBulletin without having to change pages. I know for sure
> that a feature like this would double the speed at which (and
> the likelihood of which) articles are improved.
>
> Obviously once you accept the usage of advanced elements like
> this there's no stopping how much easier you can make the
> site, and how user friendly. If the only grounds to not
> include this kind of feature are accessibility, just put each
> feature on a switch in user preferences.
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
>
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On 02/01/07, Luiz Augusto <lugusto(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> To avoid generating a nonsense phrase in Portuguese language, I've changed
> the word sequence in the translation made for the Portuguese Wikisource.
> This is displayed as " Wikisource é uma marca comercial da Wikimedia
> Foundation, Inc <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org/>., uma
> 501(c)(3)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501%28c%29>
> beneficiente <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitable_organization>, dedutível
> de impostos <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Deductibility_of_donations>e
> sem
> fins-lucrativos <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-profit_organization>."
> ("charity, tax-deductible and nonprofit" instead of "tax-deductible
> nonprofit charity"). I don't know if this is wrong or right for the
> desirable effect on inseting this in the [[MediaWiki:Copyright]].
As long as it makes sense, gets the idea across and is legally
correct. (I've heard no shouting so far, and it's 11:27am in Florida
as I write this ...)
Note that "501(c)(3)" refers to a paragraph in the US Internal Revenue
Code, which is why I referred to "US" in the en:wp version.
- d.
[cc to wikien-l, wikipedia-l and foundation-l - this is why the text
on the bottom of each page on en:wp is suddenly a bit longer ... I
shoulda found the MediaWiki message in question a month ago!]
On 08/12/06, florencedevouard <anthere(a)anthere.org> wrote:
> David Gerard wrote:
>>On 07/12/06, Brad Patrick <bradp.wmf(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>I want to get your ideas on how we can take this message forward as part of
>>>our PR blitz for the fund drive. As I think back to the Atlantic and New
>>>Yorker pieces, and even Mick Brown's piece, "the good ones" - "charity"
>>>wasn't really an emphasis. We have been a "phenomenon" - but not a
>>>phenomenal charity.
> >The message at the bottom of every page of English Wikipedia says:
> >"Wikipedia(r) is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc."
> >How about:
> >"Wikipedia(r) is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation,
> >Inc., a US-registered 501(c)3 tax-deductible nonprofit charity."
> >Or something like that.
> You got it right David !
> With a link under us-registered 501 :
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Deductibility_of_donations
This is actually a Mediawiki message, [[MediaWiki:Copyright]] - so
anyone with admin access on a given wiki can change it once we have a
translation.
I've just put the above text (with link) on en:wp since Florence
approves of it. If the wording is not *precisely* legally correct,
could Brad or Danny please correct it promptly!
The text I've placed (a curious mix of wikitext and plain HTML) is:
All text is available under the terms of the <a class='internal'
href="{{localurl:Wikipedia:Text of the GNU Free Documentation
License}}" title="Wikipedia:Text of the GNU Free Documentation
License">GNU Free Documentation License</a>. (See <b><a
class='internal' href="{{localurl:Wikipedia:Copyrights}}"
title="Wikipedia:Copyrights">Copyrights</a></b> for details.) <br />
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the <a
href="http://www.wikimediafoundation.org">Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc.</a>, a US-registered <a class='internal'
href="{{localurl:501(c)}}" title="501(c)(3)">501(c)(3)</a> <a
href="http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Deductibility_of_donations">tax-deductible</a>
<a class='internal' href="{{localurl:Non-profit organization}}"
title="Non-profit organization">nonprofit</a> <a
href="{{localurl:Charitable organization}}" title="Charitable
organization">charity.<br />
Note the links to [[501(c)]], [[Non-profit organization]] and
[[Charitable organization]] as well.
> Also, on Foundationwiki, at the bottom, we have "About Wikimedia Foundation"
> Instead, we can change it in "[[About Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia
> Foundation]] is a us registered blablabla
Wiki admins and translators, please? The essential message is that
this is a charity, not a for-profit company.
- d.
-----Original Message-----
From: jklein(a)electronic-boardroom.com [mailto:jklein@electronic-boardroom.com]
Sent: Monday, January 1, 2007 02:01 PM
To: wikipedia-l(a)Wikimedia.org
Subject: [Wikipedia-l] contact Jimmy Wales
How do I send him an email? I have a unique search engine methodology for
financial services and for managing change, complexity and risk that could
uniquely work with his ventures. Further, I literally wrote the book on
Electronic Trading, past, present and 'next chapter' in the global money
business. Because of Mr. Wales' background as an options and futures trader
and both of us knowing the Oxford Internet Institute, I would like to see
how we can proceed further together before my other contacts tailor my mass
implementation. Thank you.
www.EvolutionOfTrading.comwww.electronic-boardroom.com/trademarkuses.html
The Evolution of Trading: How Technology and Governance are Changing
Finance in the 21st Century by June Klein, CEO Technology & Marketing
Ventures, Inc.
Best for your purpose is to join this mailing list at Wikia
http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/search-l
Fred
How do I send him an email? I have a unique search engine methodology for
financial services and for managing change, complexity and risk that could
uniquely work with his ventures. Further, I literally wrote the book on
Electronic Trading, past, present and 'next chapter' in the global money
business. Because of Mr. Wales' background as an options and futures trader
and both of us knowing the Oxford Internet Institute, I would like to see
how we can proceed further together before my other contacts tailor my mass
implementation. Thank you.
www.EvolutionOfTrading.comwww.electronic-boardroom.com/trademarkuses.html
The Evolution of Trading: How Technology and Governance are Changing
Finance in the 21st Century by June Klein, CEO Technology & Marketing
Ventures, Inc.
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