Re: putting wiki in shape
 

should we create category for maemo5, os 2008(i think that exists allready) etc?

or does somebody have better idea how to separate old stuff from the new in general? not only way to separate os08 and later vs maemo5, but also maemo5 vs maemo6 etc.

Re: putting wiki in shape
 

I think that there needs to be more links off the hompage perhaps?

At the moment on the homepage you have downloads for OS2008 featured very prominently - this will confuse alot of new users, I had to goto wikipedia and check to see the difference between OS2008 and Maemo 5 - it's a shame, but the majority of new users hitting this site are going to be looking for n900 stuff, so there should be links to take them to where they want to go as well as the wiki being advertised as the first port of call.

Try going to the homepage imagining that you are a new n900 user, do you think its easy to find what you want?
Has anyone thought about changing the design so that the homepage directs people to where they want to go rather than advertising OS2008 downloads and the latest news, both of which are accessable via links at the top?

Please don't take this as a slap in the face, as a noob, I am just giving you my impressions, I don't know much, but there will be alot of people hitting this site that know even less..

Re: putting wiki in shape
 

There is already Category:Fremantle and Category:OS2008

Re: putting wiki in shape
 

JosefA has a great idea for a new Intro page: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...8&postcount=18

smarsh has been busy on a New Users page: http://wiki.maemo.org/New_users

Re: putting wiki in shape
 

Reading New_users I thought, is there a plugin for Mediawiki to auto convert certain text for example sometimes one writes n900 while the name is always N900. It should be autoconverted when article is submitted. We should be very conservative with this, but it is useful in some cases. Alternatively, it could sent to Preview and say 'did you mean ...?'. For example Chinook and Diablo are almost always to be capitalized too. Same for Fremantle. One situation where should be omitted is in URLs.

We're also working along side because some discussion is in different thread (see Texrat post above this one).

I'm still not convinced about splitting Beginners and Power_users. 2 issues:

• Need one word/name for Power_users which is recognized as English word. Intermediate or something? How do other communities solve this?
• Am not convinced differentiation works on long term because overlapping and different viewpoint for values. This Bluetooth profiles stuff could be for a Beginner interesting while the article is aimed for Power_users. Or Extras. I think one can be Beginner in one type of way (like using N900) while in other way Experienced (like using Linux). So we must outline these definitions IMO.
• Maybe we could put on top of article a difficulty rate?
• Or add on top what the user should know before reading article, and link to documents (preferably on-site) helping reader understand these subject.

Above written with long-term in mind. Costs lot of work to implement but on long term viable. Just like we must be careful we not write too much as if 'now' is still 'now in 1 year'. Example: assuming current release is Fremantle or writing as such without mentioning when statement was written. To solve one should add when statement is made or omit such.

User Guaka is Wikipedia contributor and may have interesting viewpoints in this regard. I PMed him about this thread.

Re: putting wiki in shape
 

I'm just going to chime in that an International Section, pointing to those Maemo site (not blogs) that aren't necessarly English-speaking be added.

*similar to the Internationalization idea posted in one of the Arabic threads this AM.

Re: putting wiki in shape
 

haha, must start gathering motivation for tagging spree then ;)

Re: putting wiki in shape
 

I've changed New_Users again, with the aim of fitting it all in one small page, and links off to various places that are better done by others. Please take a look and let me know if it is going in the right direction.

It links also to a new page, N900_FAQ, which is more of a 'if I wanted to buy it, could it do...' page than a regular FAQ but may grow into something else. It's not the best formatted right now, and we'll change, but it needs: answers to questions that have none, and accuracy checks for what's there. If anyone here is up to that, I'd be mucho happy.

For me, the purpose of the New_Users page always was a jumping off point. There's a bunch of info out on the wiki that interested yet uninformed people will want to know and finding it is often difficult. Perhaps this is a way to get there. It's also aimed at being small so that it's quick to leap to other pages from.

Comments as always welcome.

Re: putting wiki in shape
 

smarsh I've been hacking away at the wiki content, and I like the new more compact page, much less intimidating

Mike C