[Wikipedia-l] Re: Suggestions from Magnus, Mark, and Jimbo

[Mark Christensen]

> 1)How do I create a special page (New 
> system features?) that will show up on the 
> sidebar?

Right now this can only be done by changing the PHP code that runs the
wikipedia.  

>2)Can we place a link at least on the recent 
> changes page and the homepage (could it be in a 
> different color and blink?) and how does inserting a 
> link to a special page differ from inserting a link 
> to a regular page? 

Editing the special pages is something which can only be done
programatically, or by a sysop.  I think we can and should make
the link a different color, but I'm sure a blinking link will 
become distracting very quickly.

> 3)Is a namespace the same as an article and/or a page?

A namespace is a separate section of the site, which can have 
any number of articles.  The part before the colon is 
the namespace, and the part after is the name of a page.

We call them namespaces because they allow you to use 
the same page names in multiple places.  For example
there is a page called "main page," and also a page in 
the talk namespace called "main page."  So people know
which namespace they are in, all namespaces other than
the main article namespace are prefaced by Talk: or 
User: or whatever the title of their namespace happens
to be.  This means that what used to be "Main Page/Talk"
should now be "Talk:Main Page."  This is not a subpage 
of "Main Page" but a page in a separate section of the 
wikipedia site devoted to talking about the main page.

The conversion script automatically changed all of
the zzz/talk pages into Talk:zzz for us.     

> 4) Mark mentioned using parentheses rather than a
> slash in an article title to indicate what used 
> to be a subpage (I think).  Does this mean that 
> the article is independent, or that the parentheses 
> associate it with a main article in a similar manner? 
> How does this relate to the talk page generated 
> with each article? 

> (and for my own sanity, are they related at the same
> level or do sublevels even exist?)

Subpages automatically linked back to their root page
(the page before the /) and the software does not do 
this anymore.  Subpages are no longer a part of 
wikipedia.  

> 5)If the system still functions in a way that says
> "subpage" to the users, is there any reason to even
> dicuss functionality?  It seems to be that the UI may
> still look like a duck and walk like a duck -- even if
> it doesn't talk like a duck behind the scenes -- so
> why not let the users think it is in fact a duck?

Because Larry, and others have argue strongly that 
subpages are a bad idea.  Perhaps we need to post
a summary of why they believe this to be true.

We want people to stop thinking that they can 
use the software to create a fixed hierarchy of
ideas in the wikipedia, or else we might end up
not being able to find an article on George 
Washington because it is actually: 

"Presidents/Washington," 
"Famous Generals/George Washington,"
"George Washington/Biography"

We can still set up hierarchies by using regular pages
with links, but we shouldn't be allowed to force the
use of a particular hierarchy on everybody...

I hope this helps.