Task | Draft Page Status

[purps]

I've just viewed this page on my netbook for the first time, and the text is wrapping in a stupid way, probably due to the stupid way in which I have done it. I will change this also.

[bongowongo]

I agree on the colours for the version info, will change that shortly.

Regarding the page type, I see no reason why both can't be displayed as per the example. Doesn't make sense to split pages up just for the sake of it - if there is RELEVANT background information to an instruction, or vice versa, then fine, just have both.

Makes sense.
Ok, I will wait till you modified all, so we can finalise it.

[twodogs]

A lot of our current wiki articles assume a level of knowledge that many beginning and intermediate users do not possess (i.e. change the polarity on the flux capacitor and Bob's your uncle - it works!). I find that really irritating. If I knew as much as the author, I probably wouldn't be reading his wiki article. So it might be nice to include some verbiage in the template on the preferred level of detail. Something like...

"Wiki articles should be written with beginning users in mind. Readers should be provided an overview of what they are doing before being given a laundry list of steps to perform. If the overview already has already been covered elsewhere, a link to that source would be helpful. If no overview exists, then an introductory paragraph might eliminate repeated cries for assistance in the forums."

This is a pretty simple thing that will pay off in a big way. It makes LinuxMCE less intimidating to new users, so we will increase our user-base. It will also allow users to graduate more rapidly from beginner, to intermediate, to advanced, to developer. A larger and smarter user-base is nothing but good.

[bongowongo]

A lot of our current wiki articles assume a level of knowledge that many beginning and intermediate users do not possess (i.e. change the polarity on the flux capacitor and Bob's your uncle - it works!). I find that really irritating. If I knew as much as the author, I probably wouldn't be reading his wiki article. So it might be nice to include some verbiage in the template on the preferred level of detail. Something like...

"Wiki articles should be written with beginning users in mind. Readers should be provided an overview of what they are doing before being given a laundry list of steps to perform. If the overview already has already been covered elsewhere, a link to that source would be helpful. If no overview exists, then an introductory paragraph might eliminate repeated cries for assistance in the forums."

This is a pretty simple thing that will pay off in a big way. It makes LinuxMCE less intimidating to new users, so we will increase our user-base. It will also allow users to graduate more rapidly from beginner, to intermediate, to advanced, to developer. A larger and smarter user-base is nothing but good.

It makes sense.
I just reveiced a link from the dev's that was to difficult for me.
Maybe make a class

Novice
Intermediate
Expert

[davegravy]

In addition to the 3 levels mentioned, what about a "needs simplification" tag for novice level articles that aren't simple enough.

[bongowongo]

If a target reader is a novice it should be able to read it
 
If it is not the writer will just have to take another class.

[davegravy]

Not sure if I described my idea very well.

I'm thinking:

3 levels of intended audience (novice, intermediate, advanced)
AND
for articles that are intended for novice/intermediate users, but are clearly not simple enough for that group, a "needs simplification" tag.


That way if a wiki editor comes across an article that is intended for novice users and it is too complicated, he can tag it as such, and then the article author knows he needs to do more work to simplify things. It's a notice system to the author.

[purps]

I do agree that the pages should be written for the novice, and something need to be in place to ensure that this happens. What twodogs said to do is vital - I will think about creating a wiki template/standards page and start getting things like this in it.

With regards to marking the pages as novice/intermediate/advance, is that not a bit overkill? Who decides what is intermediate and what is advanced? I completely understand the need for it, but isn't there already a wiki feature in place that says "this page is a stub" and "this page requires simplification", etc? I've seen this on wikipedia before, but I have never known how one would flag this up.

[bongowongo]

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Draft_Frequently_used_Command

Hi Purps, I tried to do the status page for this page.
Somehow the alignments do not work if you edit the status boxes specifically for the page.

[purps]

Yes I am going to lay it out in a different way, tables within tables perhaps. I've been experimenting with different browsers on different devices and the current layout is definitely no good.

[posde]

A note of advice: When setting up templates and pages, always remember the KISS principle. Make sure that

a)  writers can easily setup pages without needing to dig around in obscure formatting
b)  make sure stuff is linked to categories as much as possible

[bongowongo]

In my opinion, the page status should present fixed choices in a drop down menu.
But I am not sure how this will work with the wiki.