User blog comment:NOBODY/Improving the welcome message - the Help index + others/@comment-3060206-20140527020516

It would save you the trouble of rewriting help pages by just linking to Help:Contents instead. Tutorial 1 is pretty overview and outdated imo. Contents leads users into a form of categorisation, which they can narrow their points down to. There's not really a lot to say about most topics, so I'd suggest refraining from reiterating what's already been written down by Wikia.

I sure hope you're aware that special pages can't be deleted from the wiki...they're records, not article pages. We can't edit them; they're instilled by default. Removing them is out of the question.

While I'm in agreement that the Welcome message definitely needs updating, I totally disagree removing our maintenance categories. Did you say you wanted to reduce them to a single project page? Absolutely no. That just makes the process more messy.

Oh wait...are you talking about the links to the categories or the pages themselves? 'Cause I can live with that. But it's a terrible idea to delete the templates that help the more experienced users who actually want to find things to edit, well, edit.

I understand that editing can be kind of an overwhelming process, but honestly, there will always be users who don't understand. We could have the help pages written in baby talk and users will still make blog posts asking these questions. All the help you could possibly need to know how to edit is already written by Wikia.

My advice is to not waste time on editing these help pages. Just don't. You'll only be repeating the same things stated by Wikia. It's redundant, it'll give you a migraine and if you really want to change the way the help pages are written, edit them on Community Central, not here. Then again, I came at a time when I had to teach myself how to edit the wiki, and when I asked for help from other users, they often wouldn't answer. I learned not to rely on other people and seek help from these pages on my own.

Yes we definitely need to adjust the Welcome message; it was more suited for the wiki three years back:


 * Replace Help:Tutorial 1 with Help:Contents. This has great navigation, a prominent search bar and categories for users who want to know the basics or tackle the harder stuff. Beats Tutorial 1, I can guarantee.
 * We'll keep just Category:Article stubs as a link, since some users come to this wiki wanting to know how to help out. Article stubs is a great first step for them. I'd avoid linking to more than that, but maybe point out Helping out as well? I feel like just linking to Helping out is also overwhelming for noobies who too want a suggestion on one way to help out.
 * Battle of the Week linking is a must. This is a great, casual way to get new members involved.
 * We need to keep the policies and manual of style in the message. It's important for users to know right away where to access these so that they understand our expectations for them.
 * Ultimately, the message should let a user know that they can ask questions on your talk page if they want to. Encourage it, and expect the same old same old. Some users need it personal, others can find things on their own. There's no "one size fits all", and as long as you understand that, you're good to go.

Ergh sometimes I wish we had the new forums involved. Wikia slightly changed how they display on mainspace pages and it's almost perfect for getting users to discuss solely Nitrome related things. It's also fantastic for highlighting a topic so that all users see it.