Creating consensus regarding page types in wiki

[Ben Edwards]

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 21:09:58 +0100, sparkes <sparkes at westmids.biz> wrote:
> Ben Edwards wrote:
> > Thats common sence to me - i've been developing interfaces for 0ver 15 years.
> 
> well why are you prescribing a method that runs totally contry to this idea?

well - I think having the wiki look the same as the polished
documentation is going to lure the user into a false sence of
security.  If I do something off an official page that trashes my
system I am going to be upset.  If i know the information was provided
by another user and is done at my own risk that is another story.

> > Not exactly sure what your point is.  My point was that the wiki and
> > the official/polished documentation are diferent.  I think the wiki
> > should be as easy as posible for new users to edit and the
> > documentation use a very flexable standardised markup.
> 
> your point was the wiki and the main site should look and work
> differently.  My point was they shouldn't ;-)

Look a little different - maybe just a different background colour. 
and have a 'warning' on it. The only way I think the wiki should work
differently is that the editing should be easier.  Anyway if it a wiki
it will work differently - i.e. anyone can edit it.

> The normal user is not a wiki editor they are a wiki browser.  The use
> case requirements are exactly the same from the end user perspective and
> they should therefore be expected to work exactly the same and look
> exactly the same.

And the information should be of the same quality?

> > I think having the wiki looking a little diference is good.  Users on
> > the main site who do a search and end up on a wiki page may be
> > 'suprised' if it is not as polished as the main site.
> 
> well any pages that aren't polished should be clearly marked as work in
> progress.  Documents that are growing and evolving in the wiki might not
> always have the same polish as the rest of the site but they should
> always maintain the same professionalism.

The wiki is a work in progress so making it clear visitors are in a
wiki will show this.   If it is not obvious the only way to do this
would be to mark the page as edited automaticaly and have someone from
the doc team check it is OK and 'passing' it.  I however think that
having a wiki and doc area gets round this.  Also the whole site is
going to look unprofesional with pages sprinkeled all over the place
marked as work in progress.

> If a contributed page isn't up to scratch one or more of the core team
> needs to wade in a bring it up to scratch.  I thought that was the main
> job of the wiki gardeners, to prune and maintain the flowers that make
> life unique ;-)

In an ideal world but anyone can edit the wiki and the garderers are
not going to have the time to polish all the pages quickly .  Also the
gardener would have to check for technical acuracy and all the
examples work  - what if the information involves an area the
gardeners do not understand?  Of if it would take a houre of so to
check something works?

> > There seems to be a bit of confusion here - there is a big diference
> > between the requierments of a wiki and a documentasion CMS.
> 
> not really.  The wiki backend is a tool for document development but the
> front end should work exactly the same as the rest of the site.  The
> principle of least astonishment again you see ;-)
> 
> Think a little about the requirements you are talking of.  The end user
> requirements are exactly the same for the wiki and the plone cms.  I
> can't think of any end user requirements that are different for the two
> systems (and would therefore potentially justify any differences) but I
> stand to be corrected if you can think of one ;-)
>
> remember end user requirements not editor requirements.  Count the
> number of editors on the wiki and compare that to the number of site users.

I am not saying the end users requierments are the same as the editors
but I think they need to know if the information may be misleading.

> 
> >
> > Ben
> 
> 
> >
> 
> sparkes
> 
> --
> <davee> "Sparkes, the Pete Best of LugRadio"
> 
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-- 
Ben Edwards - Poole, UK, England
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