Talk:Foundation wiki feedback/Changes to home page (spring 2013)

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Hi. I wanted to explain some of my recent changes to wmf:Home and then explain where I'd like to see this page headed.

Recent changes
  • Removed {{HomeLang}} for now: translations of wmf:Home are embarrassingly out-of-date (e.g., this one or this one, both of which mention reports that are outdated or show videos that are outdated).
  • In this edit, I moved the wmf:vision statement to the bottom of the page. I think it's fine to include on the home page, but at this point in Wikimedia's life, I don't think we still need to be including it so prominently. It's fine as a footer, in my opinion. I also bumped up the font size of the intro paragraph and made some other very minor coding tweaks (syntax cleanup, mostly).
  • I also inserted "educational" into the intro text as I believe this is part of the scope of every Wikimedia wiki (Commons seems to place particular emphasis on content being educational), but that whole block of text could use some (grammar) love, if anyone would like to help.
Upcoming changes

For reference, this is the current version being described below.

  • Move a bunch of the strategic plan description text to its dedicated page (wmf:Wikimedia Movement Strategic Plan Summary); this content doesn't need to be on the home page any longer.
  • Consolidate the following sections into a "Latest reports and releases from the Wikimedia Foundation" section:
    • Strategic Plan
    • Annual Report
    • Annual Plan
    • "Latest reports" index
    • "Latest press releases"
  • The five reports/releases sections mentioned will likely end up pointing to two different portals (or indices): wmf:Press releases and wmf:Reports.
  • Re-title the blog section "Latest news and views"
    • Related issue is that the page currently claims the blog contains the "latest news and views from the Wikimedia Foundation", when many blog posts are specifically disavowed as being the Wikimedia Foundation's view, as I understand it. Best to not be so specific here, I think.

Please let me know if you have any comments, questions, concerns, etc. regarding these changes. I imagine the upcoming changes will happen in the next week or two, if there aren't any objections. I'm happy to use a sandbox to showcase/demonstrate some of these changes, but I'll only do so as necessary. If there's no other interest in this page, it doesn't make too much sense for me to focus effort on creating a demo when I can simply update the live page. :-) --MZMcBride (talk) 20:08, 18 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever you do, please keep a simple structure with most of the content being on the page itself rather than on templates or subpages, so that at some point we can easily switch to Translate extension translation. Thanks, Nemo 20:28, 18 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
That change needs more thought. The gray projects "blob" is a very unappealing way to present Wikimedia's diversity of content and community. Perhaps keep them in the footer, but have a "Featured project" similar to the "Featured article"? That would of course require at least a monthly commitment to keep the feature updated.--Eloquence (talk) 23:21, 28 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I agree. I'll likely change the color back to a white or transparent background as well. That said, it just moves all the... less exciting parts back up to the top. --MZMcBride (talk) 00:09, 29 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Reply/question
What-ends-up-where on the home page needs to be part of a discussion about who the home page is for, who is coming here and why. I would argue that it is not for the more experienced Wikimedians, and things like leaving the mission statement in a more prominent place still has value for people coming to see what the Wikimedia Foundation is about. I would like to hear more thoughts on the purpose of this page and who it is intended to serve. (Feel free to fix this format, wasn't sure the best way to reply.) Thanks! heather walls (talk) 20:40, 20 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Recalling the issue with people being able to reply, maybe people could do so here.
That particular discussion has been archived, but sure, we should definitely discuss the purpose of the page. I've moved this discussion to Meta-Wiki to encourage more participation (thanks for the suggestion!).
I think incremental improvements might be easier than a grand redesign. Focusing only on the strategic plan text for now, do you think it's reasonable to move that text to wmf:Wikimedia Movement Strategic Plan Summary now? --MZMcBride (talk) 21:06, 20 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
That is an issue that requires other input, I've pinged Jay and Matthew and I expect someone will reply when they have a moment. :) heather walls (talk) 21:25, 20 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
It's good to see people thinking about this; but I don't see any rush for the current list of proposed changes (including moving the Plan summary). Having a simple bugzilla-equivalent for listing suggested incremental improvements, and checking them off (as done / won't do / in discussion) would help, both in tracking what's been suggested/considered, and keeping threads together across many months. –SJ talk  15:49, 26 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. I've moved this discussion to the talk page and I'm working on the subject-space page now. --MZMcBride (talk) 00:17, 29 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
A note from Jay @ WMF

Hi MZ and others - my thanks for taking an interest in the wiki and for pulling together some initial suggestions. I've shared other thoughts on changes in the past, and in general I'm supportive of the need for us to improve the way WMF wiki works.

That being said, there are a lot of stakeholders here at WMF when it comes to this wiki and the information conveys. I've been talking about a reboot of the wiki for a while, but honestly it just hasn't been something that I could properly resource over the past 6 months. That doesn't mean financial resource, just time - the communications team's time, mine, other staff members etc.

I've started a super preliminary conversation internally a WMF about what the staff need from the WMF wiki at a very basic level, which I'd like to move soon to this discussion page. To be clear: I believe it's very important that we lay out our needs and requirements alongside any proposed changes, be they minor or major. There's a lot of critical information on WMF wiki, and I'm not saying it's laid out perfectly and that it shouldn't change, I just want to be involved in the changes and I want to help the staff get organized around that. It may not happen in the next week, but it should happen in the next month at least.

I'll share more as soon as I can move the WMF conversation forward. Thanks for your understanding and your help so far. JayWalsh (talk) 22:30, 29 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This all sounds good. I don't see anything in your note that precludes deleting old, unneeded pages (particularly fundraising-related pages) or improving the home page. If you and others in the Wikimedia Foundation communications departments also want to get active and involved in the wiki, that'd be wonderful, of course. --MZMcBride (talk) 02:47, 30 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Ordering of sections in the right column

I just made some adjustments to the new arrangement of sections in the right column:

  • before (since March): Strategic Plan, Annual Plan, Annual Report, "Latest reports" index, "Latest press releases"
  • after: Annual Report, "Latest reports" index, "Latest press releases", Annual Plan, Strategic Plan

The rationale is to bring some the more rapidly changing content higher up again, as in the version before March. Happy to keep it open to other rationales/aspects though (e.g. we could also try to have the newest "big" document on top, in this case the new Annual Plan). There doesn't seem to have been a lot of discussion about the previous ordering (and it also differed somewhat from the one proposed here on Meta). Regards, Tbayer (WMF) (talk) 05:19, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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