- From: Janet Swisher <jswisher@mozilla.com>
- Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 13:39:42 -0500
- To: public-webplatform@w3.org
- Message-ID: <534836EE.5080209@mozilla.com>
Hi Amelia! Welcome! and thanks for sharing your observations as a new contributor. These are very helpful, and I'm in favor of doing all of them. Jen Simmons might have a response about the header nav inconsistency. Cheers, Janet On 4/10/14 7:29 PM, Amelia Bellamy-Royds wrote: > Hello all, > > My name is Amelia, and although I'm still relatively new to the world > of coding for the web, I'm a firm believer in the philosophy that you > don't fully understand a subject until you can explain it to someone > else. So while I've been teaching myself web programming over this > past year, I have also been active on Stack Overflow answering other > people's questions and creating demos and tutorials on CodePen. A > recent comment from another Stack Overflow user suggested that my > explanatory skills could make a more lasting impact contributing to > the Web Platform project. > > I'd come across the docs previously as a learner, and liked the idea > of having a browser-independent reference source, but hadn't found it > yet ready as a reliable reference. Now that I'm more confident with > my own understanding of many areas of the material, I've been poking > around the site this week trying to figure out how best to contribute > (and making a few small edits where I can). > > In doing so, I've stumbled across many useful pages or pieces of > information geared towards new contributors -- and then found it > difficult to find them again when I need them as reference! > > While this experience is fresh in my mind, I thought I'd sum up all > the things that I've found useful as a new contributor, and my > suggestions for making them easier to find. I'd be happy to make some > of these changes myself (to the extent they are do-able by a new user > with limited permissions), but they are the sort of major > re-organization that I wouldn't want to do without discussion with the > established community. > > * The Web Platform home page, http://www.webplatform.org/ > > A good overview of the project, current status/priorities, and plenty > of hints about how to get involved. However, it's a little difficult > to find once you're inside docs.webplatform.org > <http://docs.webplatform.org> -- the only link back is through the > breadcrumbs. > > My suggestion: make the big "W" logo on each page redirect back to the > home page. (It currently links to the doc main page, but there is > always a "DOCS" navigation link right beside it that does the same thing.) > > * The Docs Main Page, http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/Main_Page > > Currently a bit of a multi-purpose page, serving both as the main > table of contents for the docs as well as a bit of an "About" page for > the project. Since most of the second type of content duplicates > material from the home page, it might be worth considering removing it > from here or shifting it to a dedicated About page. Removing it could > be problematic for the translated versions, since the web platform > home page is English only. > > On that note: Although the English version is easy to get to from > anywhere in the main site (just hit the "DOCS" link in the header), > the only way to get back to a translated main page is through the > breadcrumbs. Is there anyway to over-ride the header links while > inside a translated version? There are already more than enough links > that bump people back to English -- when there *is* a translated > version of a page it should be easy to find! > > * The Editor's Guide, http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Editors_Guide > > I saw a mention that you're planning to rename this the "Contributor's > Guide". I definitely support that -- "Editor" suggests a > top-level/administrative function -- but otherwise this is great > content and easy to find. The only thing I would change would be to > add in a section at the top that links to the following hard-to-find > pages for contributors: > > -> The "Getting Started" Page, > http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Getting_Started > > This page needs to be cleaned up (the tables are random), but is > great content for new contributors. It deserves more prominence than > a link from Step 3 of the Guide. > > -> The "Projects" Page, http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Projects > > This page could use a little more information (is there a > template that could grab the last-modified date and summaries for the > linked sub-pages?) and of course it would need to be kept-up-to-date, > but a page like this, showing active projects and goals and required > tasks to achieve them, would be great for helping new contributors get > oriented. > > Currently, there are a number of links around the site to the "Web > Platform Wednesdays" pages. However, since regularly scheduled > activities don't seem to be sustainable long term, maybe those should > all be re-routed to the Projects page, and the WPW projects be > integrated within it. The idea of having specific projects with > clearly defined tasks and a coordinator who can be a contact point for > new contributors is great, but having it linked to a specific date can > make it look stale and out-of-date quickly. > > * Filing Bugs, http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Filing_Bugs > > The only link I've discovered to this very useful page is within body > text at the bottom of the main docs and community pages. Would it > make sense to have the "ISSUES" link in the navigation header redirect > here instead of going straight to the project issue tracker? Or would > that be frustrating for regular users who already know how to report > bugs and just want to go straight to the bug list? > > At the very least, there should be a link to this page from the top of > http://project.webplatform.org/ (if possible), to provide context and > guidance for anyone who follows the "ISSUES" link to report a simple bug. > > *** Other Notes *** > > * Get rid of or update the Discussion Page, > http://www.webplatform.org/talk/ > > This is one page which I DON'T find useful, in fact I find it > problematic. It isn't up-to-date (doesn't have the link to the web > client for IRC) but even if it was, the material is all already > covered, with better context, in Step 2 of the Editor's Guide > (http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Editors_Guide/step_2_communicate_with_the_online_community) > and in the "Community" page > (http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/WPD:Community). > > Does anyone have any reason for keeping this page alive, let alone in > the header navigation? I really don't see it adding anything to the > Community page. > > * Header navigation: > > Currently, some pages have a header navigation bar with the options > > THE DOCS / CONNECT / CONTRIBUTE / BLOG > > while others have > > DOCS / EDITING / DISCUSSION / BLOG / COMMUNITY / ISSUES > > As I mentioned above, I don't think the "DISCUSSION" page is adding > anything useful. I also think the name "CONTRIBUTE" is better than > "EDITING", and "CONNECT" may be clearer than "COMMUNITY". But > whichever headers are chosen, there should be consistency across the site! > > Any other perspectives on which version should be made universal? > -- Janet Swisher <mailto:jREMOVEswisher@mozilla.com> Mozilla Developer Network <https://developer.mozilla.org> Developer Relations Community Organizer
Received on Friday, 11 April 2014 18:40:10 UTC