[Wikipedia-l] RE: Plea for help

[Jimmy Wales]

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