Community Portal/Second Revitalization

Decision: A new thread was started coinciding with the unveiling of the new Main Page and Portals|Portal System.

2nd Revitilizing the Wiki thread?

The first Revitilizing thread seems to have helped quite a bit, and is nearing the 200 post limit. I think it would be good to make a second one, and as per the suggestions by SciMuse - keep the discussions out of it and, if we do pop in, keep it light and only mention things that can currently be done. I was also thinking that we can add to the OP as we fix/update the wiki to address the comments. Finally, thread title - "Te h wiki - Comments, Suggestions, Rants" with an OP that explains we'll stay out this time.--Haama 18:50, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

As I mentioned in PMs, I think this thread should start with the unveiling of the new Main Page and Help sections. Hopefully this week? We could use some (a lot) more DYK factoids, some more featured articles would be good, and I need to bash my head against the W3C some more before then.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 19:02, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

It can't hurt to make another thread. We could announce changes every once in a while to bump the thread and get a few idea's. I guess it's better than limiting the discussion to the Wiki only, that didn't work a few months ago and I don't think it will work now.

Waiting for the new main page sounds like a good idea, we could recap the changes made since Haama started the previous thread, including the ones that haven't been mentioned (help section (I should finish that), liquid layout/user CSS, admin noticeboard). We should probably point to the thread somewhere on the Wiki too. Something for the new news item?

--Qazaaq 19:27, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

Agreed. OK, here's how I see it: when the Main Page and Help pages are finished, hopefully later this week, we have a big unveiling both in the News item on the Main Page and on the forums, noting the addition of Portals, Search Terms, User Styles, Administration Noticeboard, plus making a bigger deal out of Article Tags, the Request an Article page, and a recap of the reasoning behind the deletion of the Questions section. Does that cover everything?

Dragoon Wraith TALK 20:00, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

Toolkit! Otherwise that covers everything, and sounds like an excellent plan.--Haama 20:13, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

Actually, there is one thing I'd like to see - specific instructions for others to add new or heavily rewritten/fixed tutorials to a "What's new" box on the main page (link, date, fix or new, etc.) In that sense, the heavily updated OBSE functions and plug-ins (TSFC and Pluggy) should be mentioned. This might interest people who wanted to leave signatures on the tuts - they still can't leave their siggy but they can keep it out front and in the open. To be fair, we should limit the number of tutorials in the box to 10, or something similar.--Haama 20:13, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

That sounds like a good idea, it's easy to maintain, and it's a good way to inform people with changes on the Wiki. Not everyone wants to read a piece of text. A list of improved and new articles and categories would be easy to follow. We could redirect to the forum thread for input.

And DW, you forgot the Help section which is no longer just an outdated FAQ (when I'm done with it).

--Qazaaq 20:30, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

OK, done, done, and done. I think we're good here; I'm looking to unveil this Saturday afternoon-ish. Thoughts? I'll start working on a Forum thread.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 09:37, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

Wow, you've done a lot of work. I've been away most of the day and seeing the result is amazing! I certainly think we're good to go. The Wiki will always need more work, but what's been done should be presented to the public.
There's one thing I've been thinking about for a while, and that's where all the Wiki related questions should go. I'd prefer not to spread them over several talk pages. A link to the right page on top of those talk pages would be best. Maybe we should reopen the questions category, or something similar?
--Qazaaq 18:59, 25 April 2008 (EDT)

Looks pretty good. I'm going to add a "Misinformation" section to Welcome to the Wiki to explain why some code/tutorials may seem to fail when really Oblivion's just being fickle. Otherwise, it looked perfect.

Should we make it clear in the new thread that we won't jump in this time, or has enough time passed that it shouldn't matter?

wrt Reopening the questions category - I can only imagine that spiraling out of control, as it did before. If you mean questions that are good for the wiki, I think most of the questions in the past few months were specific to a certain page and should have been on the page's Discussion page. I'm not sure that's what you mean, though.--Haama 13:57, 26 April 2008 (EDT)

Qazaaq, I'm unclear exactly on what you're asking. Questions specific to a given article should definitely be on that article's Talk page. In terms of questions that are a little more broad, I imagined those would go on the Talk page of the appropriate Portal, or else on the Community Portal. How does that sound?

I think we can mention that the thread is specifically for feedback on the Wiki, and that we are going to largely avoid getting into large internal debates in the thread.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 03:17, 27 April 2008 (EDT)

I'm referring to questions about Wiki syntax and organization, like: Where should I put this/Where can I find this, How do I do this, Can I do this at all, etc.

These questions can be in several places, which means we'll be answering questions more than once. It's hard to find a talk page with an answer if you don't know what you're looking for.

For example: Should I use = or == for headers in my article?, this question could go: here, or here, here also, maybe even here, or at the Community Portal.

It's not a big problem, hardly anyone contributes anyway, but I thought I'd point it out.

--Qazaaq 08:04, 27 April 2008 (EDT)

I think it's going to be unavoidable that we'll be anwering questions more than once, unfortunately. At the same time, you have a good point, we can help out ourselves and others by giving some direction in this matter. I say questions about Wiki syntax go in the Talk page of the Syntax Guide. Questions about finding things should go on the Portal of the subject it's in, I think. Suggestions and thoughts for improvements, either at a Portal if specific, or here, if not. Questions about Wiki policies should go here.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 20:57, 27 April 2008 (EDT)