the wiki editing needs to be more user-friendly

[Brian Shumate]

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Hi All,

The Wiki syntax is infinitely more simple than even HTML, so I  
believe people should at least commit to learning such a simple thing  
as WikiText before even trying to edit pages.  Sure, some toolbars do  
make it very simple-  the one in DokuWiki is minimalist, and  
functional for example, but again, these are taking away from the  
spirit of actually learning how the Wiki works through learning the  
syntax IMHO-  Editing goes much more quickly when one can open up  
their preferred editor, start hammering out WikiText, spell-check,  
revise, and then just slap into a new page without the constant need  
for a cycle of highlight, click, highlight click... Same goes for  
editing, or revising an existing page.

Matt makes an excellent point about the syntax reference available at  
the bottom of every edit window too.  Perhaps more robust  
encouragement for experimentation may be used, to get new folks  
interested in editing the Wiki to try the playground,  and maybe  
making their own user pages before diving right into the mainstream  
content?

Just  my € 0.0165104 ;-)

Peace,

Brian Shumate
GPG: 0x441E06C0


On Jan 16, 2006, at 4:56 AM, Matthew East wrote:

> On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 09:33 +0000, Paul O'Malley wrote:
>> Mauricio Hernandez Z. wrote:
>>
>>>> Moin 1.5 still has issues on WYSIWYG though we should probably wait
>>>> for a few more releases before actually embracing it on our current
>>>> Moin.
>
>>> IMHO, I am very happy with current Moin version we have. A java  
>>> editor
>>> is not my ideal editor but it sure is a simple way to edit pages  
>>> to many
>>> people, and even encourages others to make nicer docs (esp.  
>>> tables!, if
>>> you have been there).
>
>> Yes, I acknoledge that there are free implementations, however to do
>> this you would have to document the java install on the wiki at the
>> "editing link" on every page not hard to do but if you are new to the
>> game and want to participate, it may be fair to say that you consider
>> that the bar is high enough already.
>
> Let's be honest about this, the bar isn't actually that high. All that
> is necessary to understand formatting on the wiki is to read the text
> underneath the edit box. I'm all in favour of making it easy to
> contribute, but if users go away because they can't read that text, or
> don't read the WikiGuide page, I don't think we can or should do much
> about this.
>
> Naturally, the burden is still on us to make the help as good and as
> visible as possible, so that those who want to contribute can do  
> so. We
> should also make it clear that material can be mailed to the mailing
> list instead of inserted directly into the wiki.
>
> Matt
> -- 
> mdke at ubuntu.com
> gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF
> -- 
> ubuntu-doc mailing list
> ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
> http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc

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