In addition to the addition of more explanatory text, and -- most importantly -- making that information far more prominent. I'd really like to see a light background, of whatever color, added to each of the different subspaces.
This will make it possible to see at a glance which subspace you are in. I am very confident that this UI improvement will be of tremendous value in making the namespaces issue clear to new users, without the requiring them to read a complex explanation of the concept of namespaces to them in a FAQ.
Yours Mark
-----Original Message----- From: Jimmy Wales [mailto:jwales@bomis.com] Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 1:17 PM To: wikipedia-l@nupedia.com Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] RE: Plea for help
Julie Hofmann Kemp wrote:
(partially because I seem to have offended some delicate programmer
sensibilities
by saying that they were acting exactly like programmers --
good at what
they do, but less interested in making it clear to the user through documentation).
Oh, I'm not offended by that -- it's accurate. :-)
Whether or not people want to hear it, the new site is not all that user-friendly as far as explaining subpages and namespaces
goes (or how
to report bugs, for that matter -- why isn't there a bug
report link?).
People are still trying to create /Talk pages and /whatever
subpages.
All we need is a carefully placed announcement or two -- I suggest adding a special page (changes to the system) and links on the home page, on how to edit a page, and on recent changes. I know
that Lars
added some stuff on namespaces under the article, but what
is needed is
a primer -- something that says...where one did x in the
old version,
please do y in the new. I'd do this myself, but am pretty sure I can't create a special page (guessing it's an admin thing)
and I'm still
not clear on it. It appears that, instead of subpages, we should be creating link pages (maybe) and that each page is generated with an associated talk page.
I think this is a great idea. In fact, I think that we should link to a "changes to the system" page directly from the edit page. "Need help with the new system? Click here for a few short tips."
--Jimbo [Wikipedia-l] To manage your subscription to this list, please go here: http://www.nupedia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l