[ubuntu-za] Gripes about the wiki

[Justin Hartman]

Just for the record I offered my assistance in reworking the
layout/design for the wiki some time ago. I tried on two different
occasions to get this process started but hit a brick wall (for lack
of better terminology). I'm still willing and able to assist. MoinMoin
doesn't seem very complicated and I'm sure I can be of assistance.

That said I feel we need to setup something concrete in terms of
planning and implementation. Maybe we need to setup a Trac system to
plot this project out and assign to those who've offered help but we
can't put this together on a string - we need proper planning for
anything to happen.

Just my 0.02c worth.

On 3/23/07, Morgan Collett <morgan at penguinlabs.net> wrote:
> Jason Norwood-Young wrote:
>
> > Okay, then it's just the links that are wrong. On the edit page,
> > HelpOnEditing and SyntaxReference point to
> > http://www.ubuntu-za.org/HelpOnEditing and
> > http://www.ubuntu-za.org/SyntaxReference respectively.
>
> I'll look into this - it may be a moin configuration option that is now
> incorrect on the new server.
>
> >>> 3. All the page template names are in another language.
> >> I don't believe that any templates have been created other than the
> >> default templates which come as part of MoinMoin. I have not worked with
> >> templates on MoinMoin, maybe Morgan can assist here.
>
> Yes, they are just the defaults and maybe we have a misconfiguration
> about the defaults here too. There is a lot we can do with moin -
> previously we were hosted on the personal server of one of the Ubuntu
> developers as a favour, and now we are hosted on some server sponsored
> by Canonical for LoCoTeams. http://wiki.ubuntu.com is running the same
> software, but has a good theme etc. We need to get a theme going that is
> consistent with the ubuntu.com sites and pleasing to the eye.
>
> > I guess I just feel the Wiki isn't really getting enough attention, and
> > that might be because of a lack of community involvement. Hence my
> > Friday morning bitch-session. There's so much that could happen with the
> > Wiki - how-to's, local news, local success stories etc. But the lack of
> > community involvement is due in part to the Wiki not being a great
> > destination on the web for Ubuntu information, and it being a bit hard
> > to use and clunky. I think some more attention to detail and some more
> > action on the Wiki would perpetuate a growing cycle of involvement on
> > the Wiki.
> >
> > I also think that some more info on *how* to interact with the Wiki
> > would be helpful. Like the 3G how-to I just posted - I'm not sure I put
> > it in the correct place (should it be under FrontPage or Wiki?), and I
> > found marking it up to be tricky. An introduction to using the Wiki,
> > disseminated on this list, I think would go a long way to lowering the
> > barriers.
>
> I'm all for this, and have been tweaking the wiki here and there on an
> ongoing basis, but it does need more coherent information, especially
> for new visitors.
>
> I've got a GettingInvolved page started but it needs a lot more love.
>
> We need to plan a WikiTeam meeting in the near future, via IRC. We have
> people who have put their names down and then disappeared, and others
> who are probably interested but don't know how to get involved.
>
> I've seen wikis used very effectively, and it does require people
> knowing where to put what. My vision for the WikiTeam is a (small) group
> of people who can fix up anything they think has been done wrongly, and
> keep information up to date. I hope this will then give others
> confidence to contribute, knowing that if they make a mistake, somebody
> will help them make it work better.
>
> My starting point at the moment is to go through the minutes of the IRC
> meeting from December:
> http://www.ubuntu-za.org/Wiki/LoCoMeetings/Summary7Dec
>
> There were points raised there that are worth discussing and some of
> them are relatively easy to address.
>
> Regards
> Morgan
>
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-- 
Regards
Justin Hartman
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