Wikipedia talk:Main Page/test
| Current text | New suggested text |
|---|---|
| Welcome to Wikipedia, a free-content encyclopedia in many languages that anyone can edit. In this English edition, started in January 2001, we are working on 6,915,169 articles. Visit our Community Portal to find out how you can edit an article, or experiment in the sandbox. | Welcome to Wikipedia: a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, with 6,915,169 English articles. |
| Current 1ext | Suggested text | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome to Wikipedia | Welcome to Wikipedia | Having this in bold is eye-catching for the intro. The current "Welcome" and "Wikipedia" links are unclear - how can Wikipedia link to Wikipedia? |
| a free-content encyclopedia | a free encyclopedia | "Free-content" is critical to Wikipedia, but not an easy concept. We shouldn't confront new users with our licensing restrictions within the first few words they read! And linking to the copyrights page is complete madness, it's mostly legal text which doesn't explain free content well at all. |
| in many languages that anyone can edit. | that anyone can edit, | Removed language link, replaced with big language link in the top-right. Removed link to wiki, as it doesn't explain how to edit Wikipedia. |
| In this English edition, started in January 2001, we are working on 6,915,169 articles. | with 422919 English articles. | It's obviously the English edition. Starting year is slightly important, might put it back. The articles count shows the size of Wikipedia, so it doesn't come across as some little project. Statistics link isn't needed and not obvious. |
| Visit our Community Portal to find out how you can edit an article, or experiment in the sandbox. | Replaced with single "anyone can edit" link above - which would then link through to the community portal, sandbox, and editing tutorial in simple steps; it's currently overwhelming. |
I like it, but...
[edit]I think we should strive for making it absolutely clear that anyone can edit without an account. A lot of people I've introduced to Wikipedia, even after viewing the main page, still struggled with the concept you didn't need an account to edit. It may not seem like much, but it counts; I persuaded a scoutmaster to copyedit Persekutuan Pengakap Malaysia through the fact that an account is unnecessary for editing. Johnleemk | Talk 18:41, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)
- Yes, it's vitally important we get across the message that YOU can change this NOW. I suspect Wikipedia:Introduction could get that message over a bit better. Tom- 23:00, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)
- I am very impressed with Wikipedia:Introduction and the changes proposed here. Though maybe the third page of the intro could use a link to the tutorial? I'd think that some brand new users would still be a bit overwhelmed, even after the intro. Perhaps adding something like "Still feel a bit overwhelmed? Take a look at our editing tutorial for more information." would help. -- TomPreuss 19:46, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)
- I originally had a link to the tutorial, but removed it because the tutorial is so long, text-based and unfriendly. I really think it needs rewriting, along with Help:Contents and most of the help, but it's a huge job, and not something that can be done overnight. Tom- 20:06, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Pros and cons
[edit]I must admit that this version is much more readable. However, the reduction in links is not without some cost. Especiallly of concern to me is that Wikipedia:Welcome, Newcomers is now virtually an orphan save for talk pages. Is this page being phased out? --L33tminion | (talk) 15:35, Dec 23, 2004 (UTC)
'Anyone can edit' vs. 'Is Wikipedia valuable?'
[edit](transplanted to [Talk:Main_Page/intro]])