Talk:Projects

How is this different?

Confused by the identity of this page as it relates to Category:Projects —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Andrew Mallis (talk • contribs)

A category page is a search tool displaying articles to which the category has been added. A directory/list page (like this one) allows greater options such as explanations, multiple display modes, and so on. - Amgine / ^t·e 22:54, 16 April 2012 (CEST)

And as for why both exist.. well, this here handmade page came first (I think), and as the listing became unwieldy and categories started to become widely used, the category page was linked from the front page, though the sidebar link still goes here. Yes it should probably be standardized. The problem is (IMHO) that we ultimately want a category page which is dynamic, but also lists more than just the page title. See: a mockup of what might be nice. Lippe 00:50, 17 April 2012 (CEST)

This page is becoming highly problematic

People are telling me they're extremely confused by this page. Can we change it's name to Uncategorized Projects and direct the project link on the sidebar to category:projects?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Devin (talk • contribs)

Yes, but the pages serve different purposes.

A category page is a database search page. As such generally it should be extremely brief, and describe what the category refers to. That way people clicking on the project link will see the search findings right away. A page about projects should present the context of projects, perhaps organizing efforts in topical or thematic sections like 'social media efforts' or 'German-language centred project'. Readers will use the table of contents to find the header of the section they are interested in.

It's the difference between the Dewey Decimal system, and a recommended reading article. - Amgine / ^t·e 00:30, 30 April 2012 (CEST)

Understood. The situation right now is just confusing - especially with the sidebar item pointing to the list page. Personnaly, I haven't added anything to that page in months and have been adding all my projects as categories. I'd be much more interested in a "reading list" style project page be constructed as dynamic lists than what it is now. Devin 07:47, 30 April 2012 (CEST)

The projects menu on the left Amgine added when we made the change a while back for reference, if I recall correctly. Can't we just take that off the left navigation and just leave the generic links? Why should projects be highlighted more than any other kind of documentation on the wiki? Dana 11:07, 30 April 2012 (CEST)

So from yr [email on the wiki list] you're suggesting that we:

• Change the title of the handmade page so as to explicitly say that they aren't categorized.
• Use the category:projects page as the primary listing of projects.
• At some point create categorized project pages.

None of this seems like an improvement to me.. The category listing page is even more inscrutable, even to "insiders." I'd posit that one of the more confusing aspects of the page is that the divisions aren't coherent. We have divisions by associated WG, Occupation, and by an unclear term of "type." You not using the page points to a level of required maintenance, which would only increase if it were broken into separate pages. (Unless we used section includes to make those pages, but that might be confusing)

I personally feel there's jargon to be tweaked, and cruft in the form of both redlinks and pages which are not obviously projects.

So alltogether, I think that clarifying heading structures, removing cruft & jargon, and reviewing copy for conciseness & clarity would all be beneficial. Using HTML [definition list] syntax might lend some readability, but it's not a very kosher use of the tag and would increase barrier to editing.

Final note: The category:project page already *is* an uncategorized (so to speak) list. Is the Category namespace not satisfactory? Lippe 08:30, 30 April 2012 (CEST)

Definition lists in MediaWiki

This is just a small aside to this discussion thread.

; Definition Term : Definition of term

produces

Definition Term 

Definition of term

Addtional paragraphs required for the definition of a term are preceded with a colon.

; Definition Term : Definition of term
: Additional paragraph

produces

Definition Term 

Definition of term

Additional paragraph

- Amgine / ^t·e 15:50, 30 April 2012 (CEST)