On 8/14/06, mboverload mboverload@gmail.com wrote:
Ok, present me a case on how WYSIWYG would help a new user on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire
We are not assuming they are idiots. They can figure out by comparing the regular text and the final version that [[ ]] makes a link, ''' ''' makes bold, and == == makes a header.
Put it this way. We have a lot of readers, and few contributors. The vast majority of our readers are willing to expend precisely zero effort learning how to use our system in order to help us. The easier we can make the system, the better for everyone. Even just replacing the two step view page/edit page process with a single step "edit on the same page" process we're making progress. Especially as if the user clicks the most obvious link on the page (the "edit" tab) and has to wade through around 40,000 characters trying to find that typo he wanted to click....as compared to simply clicking "edit" then clicking directly on the typo, which hasn't moved!
Anyone *can* figure out lots of things, they just may not be bothered doing it.
Note though, that I'm really talking about our minimal contributors - the people who could fix typos, remove mistakes, etc, if only it was incredibly easy. These arguments apply to a lesser extent to our seasoned contributors (though I would still be much more willing to fix typos and to copyedit in general if the required effort was lower).
Steve