[Wikisource-l] Changing the Main Page

[Ray Saintonge]

Syagrius wrote:
>
> The recent mass bot addition on Portuguese Wikisource (whose "number 
> of articles" overtook French and Chinese) should  make us think about 
> changing the main page  system. There was a discussion there : 
> http://wikisource.org/wiki/Talk:Main_Page#Changing_the_main_page . 
> Must we adopt the "page views" system, as Wikipedia did, 
> http://stats.wikimedia.org/wikisource/EN/TablesPageViewsMonthly.htm ?
>

In this instance I must concur with the prevailing view that there is no 
need for change.  I believe that most regular contributors have little 
need to look at the Main Page.  Their access to the system begins from a 
page that is key to whatever they are doing.  Thus, the ones who are 
more likely to need the Main Page are the pure readers, and casual 
visitors.  Before we consider the proposed change we need to consider 
why we have a Main Page in the first place.  The number of pages in the 
project is far more informative to the casual user than the number of 
page views.  Knowing that there are a lot of articles that might satisfy 
his needs is useful; what can he do with the knowledge of how many 
people have looked at these pages?

The most useful function of the Main Page is to help the user find what 
he is looking for.  That should be the overwhelmingly primary principle 
that guides the design of that page.

Occasional anomalies such as what you mentioned about pt:wikisource 
should not be driving the agenda of what happens on the Main Page.  Even 
if some kind of massive gaming or mischief was intended such anomalies 
tend to be overwhelmed by more steady and consistent behaviour.

Ec