Hi, Rob.
A new theme would be great to simplify the front view ... I've noticed that the WINE wiki is a pretty good example of how to not make it quite so scary to people unfamiliar with wikis:
As for the "should it be the front-page?", it'll come as no surprise to anyone (and possibly annoy some) but I would suggest that once we have all the useful content (i.e. not out-of-date references to sites and ppl which shouldnt be there anymore) moved to the new wiki, the old site should be archived.
At the moment, the current main site is made up of two separate ways of updating - the main site has a CGI script to edit the HTML directly, whilst there's also the six year old wikiwikiweb functionality in the Contrib section. Neither of these is particularly user-friendly.
I think it's because of this, the site has been left to stagnate for far too long. The emphasis for updating the content on the current site seems to mainly be on those who are managing the server - which is surely wrong (and, yes, I think we could technically go in and use the CGI script or Contrib section - but it's not clear, and does not appear to the casual user to be encouraged). All members be responsible for the content, whilst those who manage the website should concentrate on the admin functions that require access to the server - keeping the moinmoin wiki installation up to date, secure and installing extra modules (if required) etc.
Note: this isn't a slur on the current site or how it's built, it's just that the content is not current and having a mix of systems, including the editing of raw html, is not encouraging to less experienced users. It should be the responsibility of all members to maintain, rather than those few who have web experience.
Let the angry responses flow ... ;)
Peter.
P.S. Those with management access to the wiki might also want to decide what's best to avoid spammage in the future, as well. It could be that you restrict sign up so that someone has to ask for an account by mailing someone ... ? Or we could see how things go, with the current policy and react if necessary.
On 25/02/07, Rob Page page.rob@gmail.com wrote:
Hi All,
I've been having a look into setting up a nicer looking default theme for the alug wiki, at:
http://www.alug.org.uk/wiki/moin.cgi/
However instead of writing my own, it might be worth nicking one that someone else has already written, and if required just tweaking that. So, I propose that all who are interested, go have a look at this nice friendly list of stuff we can steal and pick one:
http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/ThemeMarket#head-ff1060dba5fbc752171749e9b34c...
Bear in mind, this isn't going to be *the* alug wiki theme, merely the one that gets set by default and for non-logged in users.
Unless one is vastly more popular, I'll set up a few of the favourites on my website, and then we can have a final vote on which it'll be.
Also, as a slight ps, is the alug wiki frontpage supposed to be the alug frontpage, as that is what it's looking like at the moment. If it is going to be the frontpage, shouldn't we make it the frontpage, and iif it's just being the wiki frontpage, then it possibly needs to be less 'welcome to alug' (and have this sort of thing on another page).
Cheers, RobRob.
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