HRWiki talk:Welcome

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[edit] Portal?

Should we kick off some kind of portal for all the international welcoming pages over at this location? I think one might be useful, as there have been times and there will be times when we need to link to a non-language specific welcoming page - when describing things that apply to all translations or when recommending the article to a person whose language we don't know, for example.

There is already a need for it, and that link really speaks for itself for why we do need this kind of a thing. I've started a prototype over here. Anyone agree/disagree? --Sysrq868 22:27, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

I think this is probably a good idea — I'd like to hash out exactly what should go on this page — for example, the title suggests that this is a welcome page for the wiki in general, whereas it's actually a portal only for the welcome pages in other languages.

Related to this is the whole question of whether or not there should be an English welcome page equivalent... it seems like there should be something located at HRWiki:Welcome/en, but the international welcome pages are very much translation- and subtitle-centric, so pasting User:Trey56/HRWiki:Welcome/LANGUAGE_CODE there isn't really appropriate. And HRWiki:About and HRWiki:Introduction already serve the purpose of a general welcome to the wiki for English-speaking users.

So, here are my initial thoughts — create this page as something like the welcome portal you suggested, but also provide a small bit of wording in it about a welcome to the wiki in general and directing newcomers to HRWiki:About and HRWiki:Introduction. And perhaps HRWiki:Welcome/en should be made into a redirect to HRWiki:About or something like that... Trey56 22:57, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. --Sysrq868 23:07, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

So you guys know, I had started a similar discussion here but it was missed. --Stux 23:23, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

So.... is this a yay or a nay? --Sysrq868 10:34, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm copying this from the discussion I'd posted earlier, since this is a more appropriate place:

I think it would make sense for this list to also contain a link to an appropriate english-language welcome page. I was thinking HRWiki:Introduction but it doesn't seem quite right. Perhaps HRWiki:About is more appropriate? The nice thing I like about these pages is that they serve as an all-in-one "welcome" portal for foreign-language speakers. <run on sentence>Of course given that these are smaller, they serve three purposes: 1. serve as a "language-specific main page/hr portal", 2. introduce the wiki (what it is to new users) -- er ok not really after reading the spanish version (but maybe it should!), and 3. explain users how the subtitles system works.</run on sentence> I'm starting to realize that I'm trying to hit many points here all at once. So I'll make another list! Er, here goes:

1. Where did you guys get the english-version template for these welcome pages? I don't see it. It would be very useful for future welcome-page translators to find it easily (a link can be added to the category or something.)
2. Links to editing guides (with explicit mention that they are all in English) might be useful.
3. Okay, this is a big one, so I'll try to be brief: these, being "Mini" Main pages, to me, point out links/information that's missing from the main page. Mainly information for would-be editors. Granted, wiki-ing can be complex, and the welcome templates try to help new users get acclimated, but I'd like to ask/postulate: we lack a compact and "centralized" new-editor resource, I think. Do we need one? Would it be useful to somewhat condense and reorganize editor welcomed (yeah I'll copy this later to HRW:DB). I'm posing these welcome pages as compact examples (sans the Subtitles instruction stuff). Please stop me if I'm losing anybody.
4. Given the above point, and my previous question of adding an english-language link, I think the best option would be to include the Main Page as the english link. Especially since there's talk of a redesign. I'll voice my opinions on that issue (reflecting some of these) later.

That's it. --Stux 04:06, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Ooh, I missed this discussion. Let me just offer a couple replies to start with. First, the English version that translators have been working from is at User:Trey56/HRWiki:Welcome/LANGUAGE_CODE. Second, it sounds like what you're suggesting is creating a centralized English welcome page at either HRWiki:Welcome or HRWiki:Welcome/en (correct me if I'm wrong). This might be a good idea, but if I had to help out a new user, I'd probably direct them to HRWiki:About for a welcome page and HRWiki:Introduction for a resource for a new editor. Is your idea to combine the functions of these into a single page?

For a short-term solution, I would advocate making HRWiki:Welcome/en a redirect to HRWiki:About for now, I think. (For other readers, see the related discussion at HRWiki talk:Welcome.) Trey56 23:41, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

In reply to what Trey asked in the quote above (Is your idea to combine the functions of these into a single page?), my reply is in short, yes. It would be nice to consolidate the "welcoming" of a user into a single and simple welcoming page (i.e. this one) that would both help new editors and new users alike. New Editors would benefit from a list of basic things and guidelines they must know to familiarize themselves with the wiki, and new users can get a notion of what the content found in this wiki is (this also helps editors know what to write). We could then tailor the foreign language welcomes in a similar fashion. This could come in concert with the main page redesign project that's been placed on hold. --Stux 21:04, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

I'm not even entirely sure what everyone here is after for. But my opinion is to create just the kind of a simple portal thing, that I have kicked off here. Often times we do not know a new user's native language, and linking to a specific language version of the international welcoming pages might be a bit confusing. Yes, the person might find his/her language in the top navigation, but I do know personally a lot of dwellers who would just ignore the box - the massive content below it might be a bit distracting.

As such, this kind of page - whose only purpose is to face the user with the language selection, nothing more - would be neat. We could direct people to it, and they could simply select their language, and then see the welcoming page in their language. No extra paragraphs or blurbs to distract the people, just the language select, in my opinion. --Sysrq868 10:26, 9 December 2007 (UTC)