Ok, I now understand what you meant more clearly.
We are suggesting that a home page customized for mobile viewing is perhaps
more suitable, but I also understand the point you are making and will take
that into consideration.
One issue with desktop customized home pages is that some formatting will
not render properly, such as some tables and columns. Some of these
problems will be fixed over time, but also it is worth considering a new
layout for mobile viewing.
We currently have some data regarding navigation to the overall portal page
of Wikipedia (
), and it seems that in all countries for
which we have data, the number of users going directly to the home page is
in the minority. However, in some countries, such as India, it seems that
mobile users will be more prone to navigate directly to the portal page,
though that number is still in the minority. Possibly this has something to
do with the cost of data connectivity, and the various means by which users
access the mobile site.
Thanks for your comments.
Phil
On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 10:30 AM, bawolff <bawolff+wn(a)gmail.com> wrote:
It just seems like a weird design choice - In the case
where the main
page has not been customized (Which is easy to detect
programmatically) we show something like
http://pt.m.wikinews.org
instead of something like
http://pt.m.wikinews.org/wiki/Utilizador:Bawolff/testMain_Page [that's
just pt wikinews's main page copied to my user space] . (Obviously the
second choice is not exactly ideal for a mobile site, but it seems to
be the better alternative to displaying just a search bar).
Well it's certainly true that people will only see the home page if
they directly go there - I'd imagine that's where most people go.
Thanks,
-bawolff
On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 2:09 PM, Philip Chang <pchang(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Hi bawolff,
Please understand that automatic re-direction to the mobile site will not
"break" the intended site.
Most content of the site will render in a way that is more appealing on
mobile devices. The only potential issue is the overall home page for the
site, which will only appear when a user enters that URL and goes there
directly.
In the case of the home page, if no content has been selected by the
administrator, the search bar will appear by itself. And of course the
user
is free to select the desktop view at any time.
We are considering a scheme in the future whereby the home page will be
country-specific, so this exercise is a good first step in that
direction.
There will be separate communication and
discussion about this.
I hope that clears up any misunderstanding. Please ask further questions
if
you like.
Best regards,
Phil
On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 12:28 PM, bawolff <bawolff+wn(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:48:48 +0900
> > From: Philip Chang <pchang(a)wikimedia.org>
> > Subject: [Wikitech-l] Final mobile switch-over
> > To: wikipedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, wiktionary-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
,
> > wikiquote-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
textbook-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
,
> > wikisource-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
wikinews-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
> >
wikiversity-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
> > wikispecies-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
> > wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org,
> > incubator(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > Message-ID:
> >
> > <CAE1jH8LD=drV79wNb4iJMGm9_XYxCh7b5rPFEpKyhfY+gmuuiQ(a)mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> >
> > TO: All Wikimedia Project Administrators
> >
> >
> > As a follow-up to this original blog post about the new mobile site:
> >
> >
> >
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/09/14/new-mobile-site-launched-on-wikipedia-…
> >
> > Please note that the conversion to the new Mobile Frontend extension
> > will
> > be completed in the week of November 28.
> >
> > This means that by default any user of a mobile device will see the
> > mobile
> > interface rather then the desktop version. Users will no longer have
to
> > add
> > the extra .m by hand.
> >
> > This also means any home pages not yet designed for mobile viewing
will
> > appear with a search bar only - unless
you create a home page in the
> > next
> > three weeks, which is very easy to do!
> >
> > Instructions for creating a home page are here:
> >
> >
> >
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/Mobile_Gateway#Mobile_homepa…
> >
> > Please forward this email as necessary.
> >
> > As always, the mobile-l and mobile-feedback-l mailing lists are
> > available.
> > There will be many more announcements in the coming months on
mobile-l,
and
always feel free to send comments to mobile-feedback-l.
Thank you.
Phil
--
Phil Inje Chang
Product Manager, Mobile
Wikimedia Foundation
415-812-0854 m
415-882-7982 x 6810
Surely it would make more sense for the mobile frontend to detect that
no ids match the looked for pattern and treat the main page as a
normal page in that case instead of totally and utterly breaking if
the admin didn't customize the front page properly?
-bawolff
--
Phil Inje Chang
Product Manager, Mobile
Wikimedia Foundation
415-812-0854 m
415-882-7982 x 6810
--
Phil Inje Chang
Product Manager, Mobile
Wikimedia Foundation
415-812-0854 m
415-882-7982 x 6810