[Foundation-l] foundation-l Digest, Vol 92, Issue 1

[Robin McCain]

On 10/31/2011 7:18 PM, foundation-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
> On 10/31/2011 10:09 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo) wrote:
>> >  Robin McCain, 31/10/2011 17:20:
>>> >>  We must also remember that the wiki edit interface and markup can be a
>>> >>  little intimidating to a newbie, so opening an edit window and making no
>>> >>  changes may be more common than we think. Are there any stats on this?
>> >  Yes, it was something like 70 % of "edit" clicks are not followed by
>> >  save. It's difficuilt to tell how many of those were people (or even
>> >  stupid bots) looking for the source text.
> For me, the most common reason why an "edit" click is not followed by a
> "save" is because I end up not having the time to complete the work, or
> the edit I had in mind becomes more complicated than I thought
> (sometimes the latter partly explains the former). To put it
> idiomatically, it's a reaction to biting off more than I can chew.
>
> That may not be entirely typical, but in the sense of "editing proved
> more difficult than anticipated" it probably explains many abortive
> attempts at editing. I suppose it's been suggested before, but I think
> more fine-grained section editing capability, so you can simply
> highlight any portion of an article and open an edit window for just
> that portion, could be helpful.
>
> --Michael Snow
Unless a page is extremely short, it is a good idea to throw in a few 
===section=== headers here and there to make it easier to edit just one 
section. I would think that an editors time would be much better spent 
adding a few of these to a new entry rather than waste time telling 
someone their new topic isn't important enough to be included.

As for the "freeze" you experience, we've all had such moments - 
especially when trying to apply for grants online - where every 
character counts and you only have one chance to make the maximum 
positive impact. I learned a long time ago to write my stuff in a text 
editor then cut & paste into a html form for markup - avoids butterflies 
in the stomach. :-)