[WikiEN-l] Categories vs lists vs navboxes (was Re: Deletions, lists, etc?)

[Steve Bennett]

On 12/4/06, charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com
<charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> And the capacity to irritate people who can navigate without the intrusion, thank you all the same. One per article is quite enough, and often too many.

Let me ask you, what do you see as the basic model for readers finding
a given article? Are you focussing primarily on a reader coming to
Wikipedia to find information on a very specific topic? What if he
just wants to browse? What if he doesn't know what he wants?

Let's take an example, [[Template:Energy Conversion]]. Do you consider
this intrusive? Do you not think there is value in raising the
visibility of all these topics? Do you not think there is value in
showing how many different solar power topics there are compared to
only three wind power topics? Had you heard of "blue energy"? Does it
make you wonder what "Anaerobic digestion" is doing in amongst energy
conversion topics?

I think navigation boxes serve to stimulate interest and lead readers
to other, related topics. And if we can stimulate the reader's
interest, we can stimulate him to help us, don't you think?

Steve