[Vim-l] Ideas go grow vim.wikia.com

[Robert Melton]

Background: I am the channel owner of #vim on Freenode, I am a long-time vim
user, full time developer, and the owner of http://vi-improved.org among
other sites.  I have setup multiple wikis for business and personal use over
the last decade, generally I acted as an agent of change within the
organization I worked for bringing in and getting wikis (and proper source
control, documentation, etc) and up and running -- all 4 organizations I
have setup with wikis still maintain them, with thousands (and in one case,
tens of thousands) of pages.  This means I have had to deal with getting
buy-off and getting people to actually use them, a fun challenge.

The reason I am writing this little-post (I was advised to by John
Beckett<http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/User:JohnBeckett>)
is a plea to change the front-page (and to a lesser degree, the focus) of
the wiki.  Beyond that, to open-up the culture to be less "tip" focused, and
more vim focused, in order get people more involved.  So let me outline what
I think are the main problems with the site as is.

#1. It doesn't address the primary reason people come to the site, to get
help.  The lack of a focus being put on what I imagine (please correct me if
I am wrong) the vast majority of people who come to the site seems somewhat
misguided.  Most of the features on the front-page seem to make it very
busy, as if someone is looking to "browse" tips when they come to the site,
which I think is unlikely, they need help!  Now, when I say "FAQ" -- I don't
mean the entire VIM FAQ, I mean let grow naturally -- let people add
questions, the common questions will be answered, and you link to the real
VIM wiki for the less common questioons.

#2. It doesn't encourage anyone to contribute.  It is overwhelming, and
intimidating.  Beyond that, generally you create a tip in an anonymous
fashion, no ego stroking.  It might sound petty, but being able to attach
the work you do to your identity is a powerful piece of encouragement.  Now,
as John pointed out to me, there isn't anything wrong with doing it via
userpage, but I think we need to go beyond and specific recommend people do
it that way.  The trick with a wiki is getting that "first" bit of usage,
creating a user page, etc -- once you do that, you got your foot in the
door, makes it much easier to create that second page.

So, my concept is basically, change the front-page to do three major things.


#1. Answer the common questions, add a FAQ (right on the front-page would be
great), add links with specific "sections" of problems.  File format issues,
syntax highlighting issues, etc.  Once these sections are defined, it is
easy to add new "tips" to them.  Also, link out in an obvious way to places
where people can get more help (#vim on freenode, the vim user list, etc).
Don't bury these next steps, make them obvious and easy to find.

#2. Encourage people to create vim.wikia.com user accounts, and start to add
their own content via their personal userpage.   This is something I have
done with every wiki I have implemented, make the persons userpage be their
personal safe zone, where they can add content rapidly and safely without a
ton of concern about formatting and perfection.  Fear is the enemy of
contribution.  Don't jump on them for formatting or other mistakes.  :)

#3. Try to create a nice cross-connect with the other vim-help resources,
and reach out to the authors of tutorials and other valuable vim content,
and see if putting it on the wiki would be acceptable.  For example, using
the vim.wikia.com site as the web-resource for the #vim channel would be
fine with me.  I would just need a nice little section, and our community
would maintain it.  Cross-connects and more user-generated content will
drive up "direct links" to the site, which will hopefully bring in some new
contributors (assuming we make it easy to contribute, and have an obvious
path).

These are my random two cents, take them for what they are worth.  :)

--Metacosm <http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/User:Metacosm>)
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