Furthermore, if you can't browse you must guess or use search, which leads you into a maze of twisty little passages all alike (but not what you want).<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 7:38 AM, Eben Eliason <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:eben.eliason@gmail.com">eben.eliason@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="im">On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 1:15 AM, Bernie Innocenti <<a href="mailto:bernie@codewiz.org">bernie@codewiz.org</a>> wrote:<br>
> David Farning wrote:<br>
>> When things settle down, I would like to get google analytic running<br>
>> for the static portion of the site to see how the click through and<br>
>> bounce rate compare with the wiki.<br>
><br>
> Please use our analytics account based on Google Apps for all<br>
> <a href="http://sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">sugarlabs.org</a> websites: UA-6267583-1 .<br>
><br>
> I guess Christian should do it, or it will be overwritten the next time<br>
> he updates the website. In the future we should consider using better<br>
> collaborations tools, such an SCM, to let multiple people work on the<br>
> static web site.<br>
><br>
><br>
>>> I think as a rule we should make sure that any given page with a<br>
>>> number of related sub-pages has an index of sorts which exposes the<br>
>>> next-level-down to make browsing as natural as searching. In other<br>
>>> words, every sub-page should have (at least) an incoming link from its<br>
>>> parent page, so the tree of all pages is connected in a browsable way.<br>
>>> (We get a link from the sub-page back to the parent page—all<br>
>>> ancestors, actually—for free.)<br>
>><br>
>> Does anyone know how to do this in mediawiki?<br>
><br>
> Dunno.<br>
><br>
> I think the #1 issue with the wiki is not navigability, but clutter.<br>
> We're not helping the user by increasing it with adding 10 more links to<br>
> the 100+ we already have in every page.<br>
<br>
</div>My point here is really one of discoverability, so in a sense we're<br>
arguing similar high level points. It's not easy to find what you<br>
want among 100+ links on a given page, but it's impossible to find<br>
what you want if there is no link to it at all, and search doesn't<br>
work reliably. Perhaps my previous statement about making a general<br>
rule is too strong, but I still think there are lots of places that<br>
need to be more browsable.<br>
<br>
Honestly, I think almost any situation which merits hierarchy on the<br>
wiki for logical grouping *probably* merits links from parent to child<br>
pages anyway. Consider the DesignTeam/Designs page: It discusses<br>
design goals at a high level, and it summarizes each of the posted<br>
designs, with links directly to the individual design sub pages so<br>
that people can get more detail about each. Why would we not want the<br>
DevelopmentTeam/Release page to have links to release notes for recent<br>
releases (at the very least, the most recent!)?<br>
<br>
In other words, what good is a hierarchy if it's not a browsable one?<br>
Things may as well be flat if there's no way to move through the tree.<br>
I raise the issue because I myself have fought this many times,<br>
frequently attempting to browse through the hierarchy to find things,<br>
only to find no links to pages I know full well exist. In order for a<br>
wiki to be usable, it must be both well organized and well linked<br>
(well linked doesn't imply excessively linked; just intelligently).<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
- Eben<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
> I especially dislike the blue translation bar containing lots of weird<br>
> scripts. People know to use Google Translate without every web site in<br>
> the world hinting them at it.<br>
><br>
><br>
>> Search is currently pretty nonfunctional because mediawiki can not<br>
>> search within words. So we need to get rid of the CamelCase as soon<br>
>> as possiable:(<br>
><br>
> I will ask SJ what he did on <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org" target="_blank">wiki.laptop.org</a> to improve upon it.<br>
><br>
> --<br>
> // Bernie Innocenti - <a href="http://www.codewiz.org/" target="_blank">http://www.codewiz.org/</a><br>
> \X/ Sugar Labs - <a href="http://www.sugarlabs.org/" target="_blank">http://www.sugarlabs.org/</a><br>
><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)<br>
<a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." -- Upton Sinclair<br>