Features I would like on the Ubuntu wiki

[Corey Burger]

On 2/21/06, Henrik Nilsen Omma <henrik at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> >
> > As raising as the CC meeting, here are some things I would like on the
> > Ubuntu wiki:
> >
> > Things to make my life easier:
> > 1. Talk pages for all pages, not searched by default
> >
> Talk pages can be made with a /talk sub-page. These have been used a bit
> in the past but haven't been very popular or very useful. The
> accessibility of such pages could be made better by adding a 'Discuss'
> link to the skin that would take you off to that page.
>
> One alternative would be to use a PageComment macro to collect comments,
> either on the page itself or on a /talk sub-page. See it used here:
> http://www.theopencd.org/forum/lounge/testing
>
> If we used this macro it would be fairly simple to disable searching of
> the comments, just hack the search feature to skip pages ending in
> /PageCommentData
> > 2. Notification to a user to their talk page if it is edited, via
> > email as well as in wiki.
> >
> If someone sets up the page comment macro on their user page I guess
> they could then subscribe to the WikiName/PageCommentData page, which
> should provide this functionality.
>
> The one worry I have about adding these features is that it turns the
> wiki into something of a forum which would dramatically increase the
> data contained in it over a fairly short time and that may lower
> performance drastically.

Wikipedia does not run into this issue by making it clear that talk
pages are for internal encyclopedia communication. If they can scale,
then so can we.

>
> > 3. The ability to filter recent changes by the following criteria -
> > Categories, Edits by a user, a list that users choose (watchlist)
> >
> So this requires some moin development work. I'm not sure how big the
> job is. Perhaps you can start by suggesting it here:
> http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/FeatureRequests/

Will do.

> > 4. Listing of users in RecentChanges and Get Info to be links always,
> > with a link to their talk pages
> >
> When are they not links? When the person doesn't have a wiki page,
> right? In that case would you suggest auto-creating a page for them when
> they register? That would dramatically increase the number of wiki pages.

Yes it would, but it would also encourage people to create an
identity. Alternatively, if they don't have a wiki page, it could link
to their LP profile. The key thing is that you need to be able to see
who they are, quickly.

> > 5. Change "Show changes" to "Show last change" and "Get Info" to "History"
> >
> I agree with the second one. There is also a case for removing "Show
> Changes" altogether, since "Get Info" has that functionality.

I had wondered about removing it entirely, but thought some might find
it useful.

> > 6. Add buttons  labelled "Move" and "Delete" beside the above, out of
> > the drop down list
> >
> This sounds a bit like a power-user feature. I'm not sure making it
> trivial to delete a page via a single click is always a good thing.
> Also, I'm generally hesitant about clogging up the interface with too
> many direct links. Clean design takes discipline ;)
>

These should only be shown for those who have the rights, as Mediawiki does.

> What we could do is make a power-user / editor skin that had extended
> functionality. You would then simply select a different skin from
> UserPreferences
> > 7. Merge text and title search to both, by default
> >
> That can be done, as is currently the case on the Ubuntu website. Text
> search also searches titles by default. I agree that the interface would
> be cleaner with this change. I guess the title search is not very
> useful, or?

Title search is a useful power user feature, but nor for the common
user. Hide title only search on a search page.

> > 8. Better handling of images and attachments, where they are their own
> > first class object, ala the Image: namespace in Mediawiki
> >
> Why is this useful? It let's you store meta-data about the image;
> anything else?

Meta data about the image is very very useful.  A bluesky feature
would be to have all the doc team images be available both in the repo
and in teh wiki, but the design for that is something that would need
to be worked out.

> > Things to make docs better:
> > 1. A slideshow thing, ala http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4731266.stm
> >
> >
> There is a slide function in Moin:
> http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/HelpOnSlideShows
>
> Does that do what you want?

I have looked at it and wondered who it works (it is about as clear as
mud on how to actually get it going)

Corey