[Foundation-l] Proposed overhaul of Meta

[James Hare]

I withdraw my entire proposal except the whole improving Meta:Index thing,
since I'd rather be banned than see it not improved. (Also, it doesn't seem
to be very active.) The naming is another issue, as I hadn't thought of the
whole implications of English names. (Incidentally, "Meta", "pub", "Babel",
and "Babylon" are all English words.) We could probably figure something
out.

Also, I do not endorse the attacks on Meta by David Gerard. I expect at
least some level of maturity from people who claim Foundation-wide titles.

On 4/6/07, Sean Whitton (Xyrael) <sean at silentflame.com> wrote:
>
> > I remember some time ago there was an effort
> > for cleaning up, but that seems to have turned to dust.
>
> See http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WM:OM
>
> I would suggest that simply reviving this may be a good way forward
> because it would draw on a bunch of already interested people who want
> to help.
>
> --Sean/Xyrael
>
> On 4/3/07, James Hare <messedrocker at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello Wiki folk,
> >
> > After approximately two and a half months of inactivity, I have decided
> to
> > return to Foundation-l. And today, I would like to address something: an
> > overhaul of Meta.
> >
> > The Wikimedia Meta-Wiki is, in my opinion, the portal of things relevant
> to
> > every single involved member of Wikimedia projects. All of them. Yet,
> Meta
> > is not quite to my standard. I remember some time ago there was an
> effort
> > for cleaning up, but that seems to have turned to dust. This won't be
> some
> > fancy project, this is just what I am thinking about and I want to see
> if
> > you all get where I am heading at.
> >
> > 1) The current primary navigation system, [[Meta:Index]], is looking
> unhappy
> > with needless branching out. I could probably do this on my own, but I
> was
> > thinking that Meta:Index should be condensed as much as possible and -be
> > restricted to functions on Meta only-. Things for other projects can
> have a
> > similar navigation page. Likewise, the Meta:Index page should link to
> each
> > of the language categories. Additionally, I would like to see the Index
> page
> > more prominently featured on Meta.
> >
> > 2) The three messageboard pages -- Meta:Babel, Metapub, and Meta:Babylon
> --
> > have very terrible names, considering their purposes. You'd think
> Meta:Babel
> > would be about languages, but it's about Meta. You'd think Metapub would
> be
> > able Meta, but it's about the WMF in general. Meta:Babylon may hint
> towards
> > the idea of languages, but Meta:Babel sounds like a better candidate. I
> > discuss this more here:
> > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meta:Babel#Renaming_some_pages
> >
> > 3) The Main Page is a bit big. It's not really a problem, but some
> things
> > could be transitioned over to Meta:Index or similar pages.
> >
> > 4) The feature where you get to select a language and then the interface
> is
> > in that language is really cool -- but I think its implementation should
> be
> > more conspicuous. For registered users, if they haven't selected their
> > language(s) of preference yet, they should be able to set the options in
> > Preferences. When this feature becomes available, there should be a
> message
> > in the Sitenotice advertising such a thing. For anonymous users, it
> could be
> > cookie-based; if there is no evidence that there is cache of Meta since
> the
> > implementation of such a feature, then before they could view any other
> > pages, they must set their language of preference first. This way, it is
> out
> > in the open, and there is little possibility for confusion.
> >
> > 5) I've heard about discussion of this, but I think the translation
> > functions of Meta should be moved to their own wiki. It would operate a
> lot
> > more efficiently (more main page space could be dedicated to
> translation),
> > and through special features made for translation wikis, it would be
> much
> > more convenient as well. A translation community, so-to-speak, could
> > establish a presence on such a wiki.
> >
> > These are ideas to consider. Additionally, I have thought of an idea
> > involving streamlining communication throughout the Foundation, but I'll
> > have more information on that later.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > MessedRocker
> > (you can call me James)
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
>
>
> --
> —Sean Whitton (Xyrael/xyr)
> sean at silentflame.com
> http://xyrael.net/
>
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