FeatureMePotentials:Discussion

Please comment on how this mechanism for promoting featured pages is working. Feel free to add any suggestions on how to improve the process.


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Using "Add This Here" to nominate a page for featuring

Add This Here

I have created a Demo for how we can use it for Feature Me Process. If you click the Nominate your page to be featured badge above (or on any FeatureMeProcess page), and add a page name, it will automatically add that page to the list. Although it will not solve all the problems, indeed it's only one step forward, but I think it's something to celebrate. Maybe we add this link somewhere on the main page, and on the Portal:AboutUsFeatureMe and wherever else we think it makes sense. We still need to understand, however, how best we can use this tool for this process.
The only problem we have right now is that the template that is added can only be in the Site Tools box in the form of a badge. Developers say that the ability to add a template to the bottom of the page is very easy to implement and that we can have it soon. Asad | *~talk~*
Right now, we only have the ability to add something to the page in a specific format. We are asking for more flexibility from the developers for this process which of course can then be used for other purposes. We'll be able to add a new template to the bottom of the page, and so the discussion section can also be created when a person adds his page to the nominated page. We can then have a notice in the domain box which says:
"This page has been nominated to be a featured wiki page. You can either wait for some community member to process this nomination for you or just click here and paste the following text in it: {{PAGENAME}}/Featured Discussion.
This will create the discussion page for it with the format that we can specify for it. Thoughts? Asad | *~talk~* 03:16, 14 February 2008 (PST)
I think that place a notice is a very good idea; it's very important to inform the page owner what are the next steps, so they don't get lost in the middle of the way, not knowing what to do. Cle Silva 14:45, 14 February 2008 (PST)


Inviting Participation in the FeatureMe process

Problem is, from where I can see, the community (I don't mean the staff, of course) doesn't seem to be much engaged in participate; we have a discussion going on here and no one else (AboutUs users like me, I mean) bothered to leave a comment, at least. So, I don't feel very confortable to point a page or my entire list, since I have no one else to back me up. If I did, I think I could spend 10-20 minutes per day to have a look on several pages and make my list (by placing comments on their respective feature discussion). Cle Silva 14:41, 11 February 2008 (PST)

Cle, I see your point. This is to be expected since we just started to figure out how to do this as a community. First off how do we get the community interested or even seeing this conversation! Let's brainstorm some ideas about how to get that kick started. Sound good? Best, MarkDilley

Actual edit link invitation text

I think that it should be made clear to everyone that they are being invited to participate. The way it is now, it looks like "Ok, you may pass, but beware the dog!!". Ok, maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but my point is: people have to feel confident to place their comments. Things like "Edit/Add to this discussion" could be more appealing if it were "You are welcome to edit/Add to this discussion".
Cle, I like your idea of changing "Edit/Add to this discussion" to "You are welcome to edit/Add to this discussion". I've already made this change in the process for all pages that will be nominated in the future; I've also changed some pages already on the list, would you be interested in helping out with the rest? I like the second idea too, but I'm not very clear about its logistics. Obed Suhail 04:10, 13 February 2008 (PST)

Advertising the whole featured area

Also, we need to advertise the FeatureMe area. Let me give a practical example: we need to have more links pointing to the FeatureMePotentials page. For example, the "logged in" page: this one have a big blank area and, in my opinion, this should be used for more links pointing to other interesting areas on AboutUs.
When we log in, we can see a text saying "You are now logged in. You can return to (Page-You-Were-Browsing-Before)" or something like that, I can't remember exactly the text. So, what if we have an additional text and link, saying: "Or else, go to the FeatureMePotentials and give your opinion on the next pages to be featured.", or any other text, just to bring more people here. Cle Silva 02:57, 13 February 2008 (PST)
Loginsuccessful newlinks.jpg
Obed, I edited a screenshot of the "logged in" page to better illustrate the idea (new suggested links are in the red rectangle), please have a look? I resized to 50px to not mess with the whole text. Cle Silva 14:45, 14 February 2008 (PST)
Cle, I made this change you suggest in your image. Great idea! Keep them coming! TedErnst (talk) 16:49, 14 February 2008 (PST)

Opening Up the Process

I could see us moving two directions. I'd love comments on either as well as other options.

1. I am implementing this idea here: FeatureMePotentials:ReadyForFeaturing

2. We make a radical change, from this model of an individual editor building a page and the rest of us in the peanut gallery throwing suggestions, to a more community, barnraising model. The way I'm envisioning it, as a community, we choose a page or two (or whatever number we can do at any one time, with the number of people we have participating) that we're working on together, that we're barnraising. When someone new comes, they are welcome to nominate themselves to be the beneficiary of a future barnraising, and then they get to work barnraising the pages we're currently working on. That's how the community gets to know new people, and the ones that are known, will be barnraised, while those that are unknown, that don't participate helping others, will not be barnraised.

Comments:
Well, this is what is expected, but we know we can't count on this. How many people had their pages nominated and came back to give a little help? I have one idea that may be seen as if I were trying to force participation, but think of something on the "Featured Discussion" section, like "While your nomination is being processed, please take some time to review one of our New Candidates" with a link pointing to this page? Of course, this should be shown only on the candidate page, not on this one. Cle Silva 02:57, 13 February 2008 (PST)
I don't think it's clear that this is what's expected. I think everything we have written here is that it's your page and we'll make comments, rather than us all working on the page together. I think we'd need to radically re-write the instructions for the process if we decide to go this way. And then we'd all be working on pages together, rather than simply suggesting and waiting to see if the editor comes back to implement those suggestions. TedErnst (talk)

Separate page for FeatureMeNotReady idea

Also, I think that this page should have only the pages that are REALLY ready-to-go. Other pages should be put in a FeatureMeNotReady list or something like that.

One part that is not so clear is to question of how we decide which pages are on which list. Do you have ideas about that? TedErnst (talk)

No ideas. I'm afraid to suggest something that may be misunderstood. Anyway, what if once in 2 weeks, pages that are on the "New candidates" list were moved to the "Under discussion" list, and then pages that are "Under discussion" were transfered to the other page? Cle Silva 08:49, 7 February 2008 (PST)

But, what "ready" means and who decides, I just don't know. And frankly, this is something I wouldn't like to dive into. Anyway, I can picture the kind of page that in my opinion is not ready, not even to be listed on the "New Candidates" list:

  • not much information;
  • too much text (blah-blah-blah), and not much information;
  • no images at all;
  • clearly intending to take advantage of the free advertisement provided by AboutUs, by announcing products and putting prices, as if AboutUs were a free ads newspaper;
  • Too much external links;
  • Not following the AboutUs wiki design standards (no wiki formatting, too much visual styles, etc...)

and the list goes on... Cle Silva 02:55, 8 February 2008 (PST)

Ah, I think I have it! If we create the new poll on it's own page, then by definition, that's the ready list, whereas everything else is not ready. The answer to "Who decides?" is "everyone" and "anyone". What do you think? TedErnst (talk) 03:18, 14 February 2008 (PST)

That's exactly what I was trying to say: the poll should be the "ready" list! And about "who decides", that's it: "everyone" is invited to, and "anyone" can have its voice heard ;) Cle Silva 14:45, 14 February 2008 (PST)

People don't like long pages

Cle Silva has made several suggestions about this same point. One was to have a FeatureMeNotReady list. While we're not there yet, we have moved FeatureMePotentials:LastChance, FeatureMeProcess, FeatureMePotentials:Discussion and FeatureMePotentials:RecentlyNominated to their own paages, as well as moved the longest list (FeatureMePotentials:UnderDiscussion) to it's own page, in preparation for possibly splitting it in to 5 pages. Obed is thinking about how to make FeatureMePotentials itself into a portal. We need very good inviting language that clearly explains the process and how participation is needed and what people need to do. What do you think?

I think that the FeatureMePotentials page, if it's not perfect (and I reckon it is), it's very close to that now. Now we have notices everywhere and people can clearly see that they are being welcomed to take part in the process, which will surely attract more people to get involved! Well done! Very well done! Cle Silva 14:45, 14 February 2008 (PST)


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