[Foundation-l] Re: How could information flow ?

Fri Jul 16 04:30:47 UTC 2004

Angela_ wrote:
> Anthere wrote:
> 
>>5. The message appeared everywhere in english, and people did not know how to have it translated
> 
> 
> The message did have an [edit] link attached to it. Is there a way of
> making this clearer? Perhaps just having the word "edit" in the target
> language would help?

Sorry, but I do not understand your comment at all.
When I look at any page on en right now, say my watch list, I currently 
see a message at the top of it, with a red border all around it. The 
message says "To help support Wikipedia, please visit our fundraising 
page, or read about how we use the money.".

There is no [edit] link within it, attached to it. Where do you see one ???

>>6. The message is not pretty (location in the page, red border, police size...)
> 
> 
> This can be changed in [[MediaWiki:Monobook.css]] but I expect many
> people don't know that. Bill's suggestion of including a link to
> "What's this announcement all about?" could address that issue and
> explain how to reformat the message.

Yes.

>>>>7. The message appears on every page (not enough discretion)
>>>
>>>That's a ridiculous objection. The Wikipedia logo also appears on
>>
> every page. Current Events appears on every page.
> 
>>I agree. But still that is an objection which was made. And this is one of the reason why the message was removed from non en pedias.
> 
> 
> I don't think that the notice appearing on every page had anything to
> do with being removed from the non-English Wikipedias. It was removed
> from them only for the reason that it was never supposed to be there
> in the first place. Jimbo requested that it be put on the English
> Wikipedia because of the expected increased in traffic from Slashdot.
> As the Slashdot article was in English and linked only to the English
> Wikipedia, the message was only required on the English Wikipedia. As
> a result of trying to set up a system where the message would be
> editable, it was accidentally placed on all Wikipedias, a situation
> which was rectified as soon as Tim Starling was made aware of it.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia%3ALe_Bistro#Gratuite_.3F

And yes, I was the one who suggested that the message be put on the 
pedia after Jimbo told me of the interview. That created such an uproar 
I regret it.

> Anthere wrote: 
> 
>>What I would like to see is something similar to the current "you have a message"...
> 
> 
> I think this is a great idea, as long it is not abused by people
> wanting to draw attention to some dispute or edit war they are in.

Since these would be global community messages, I do not see why local 
dispute or edit war would be there. Some users try to spread edit wars 
on the wrong mailing list, but usually, they are told they are in the 
wrong place. Here, more simply, their message would be deleted.

>>Once the page is read, the warning message would disappear...
> 
> 
> It wouldn't disappear for non-logged in users unless we want to start
> sending them cookies.
> 
> Angela.

True. But, the current message with red border does appear constantly as 
well.