Hi,
I'm writing a proposal to improve the usability of the automatic taxobox on
Wikipedia; specifically, to create a GUI such that all future taxoboxes
could be created with it, and most current taxoboxes could be edited
without ever touching the templating syntax. In the optimal case, this
would obviate the need for the extensive support needed (~10 archived talk
pages over two years!) and might spark a conversion from the manual taxobox
to the automatic (which is desirable to the micro-optimizing programmer in
me) -- in the suboptimal case, such an improvement would still save many
people many hours of work and even out the learning curve.
As an ancillary benefit, the wizard-like processes described in the help
pages could be easily converted into actual wizards, which would also cut
down on errors (i.e. when steps are applied incorrectly, out of order or
inappropriately).
A quick blurb about myself: I'm 19, nearly into my third year of university
and majoring in Computational Linguistics at Simon Fraser University. Also,
I'd really, really like to be given the chance to contribute something
positive to Wikipedia's community!
Proposal Page <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Baconprime/GSoC2012>