[Mediawiki-l] Re-Writing page titles

ccornell - OpenOffice.org ccornell at openoffice.org
Mon Dec 7 10:58:11 UTC 2009


> huh. interesting. But I think it's too bad that users (non-technical and
> otherwise) need so much hand-holding when it come to software.
> 
> With a DVD player (or a car or house), a user will press the button or flip
> a switch to learn what a thing does. With software, and tools like
> MediaWiki, there is this underlying fear of "breaking it", so a user won't
> play in the sandbox. It's too bad.

Well, back in the days of VCRs under everyone's television, how many 
people did you know that had one with the clock permanently flashing 
12:00 because they couldn't figure out how to set it?

I try to take the approach of making as easy as possible for new users 
to get over that fear and jump in.  Some do, some don't.  Some still 
open bug reports (a complicated process) instead of simply editing the 
Wiki text.  Others wouldn't use the installed functionality on the 
OOoWiki because they weren't aware of it, or were intimidated by the 
Versions page.  By putting the list into the Help: pages it's made them 
more visible somehow... and I also have started announcing new 
Extensions using MediaWiki:Sitenotice.

It all helps :-)

C.
-- 
Clayton Cornell       ccornell at openoffice.org
OpenOffice.org Documentation Project co-lead
Sun Microsystems, Hamburg, Germany



More information about the MediaWiki-l mailing list