Wiki :(

[robin1979]

Since the wiki now a battlefield of work-in-progress, here's the link to the previous version, which contains a lot of useful links to older content:

http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php?titl ... oldid=4101

We can only pray the layout and the colors of the current page will be fixed soon .

[svache]

You can't set it back to that original state? And well, it sure is colorful but oh oh oh... what a mess.. it's as if I am in kindergarten all over again :S

[waynemcdougall]

Hardly a battlefield. You seriously prefer the older version?

At any rate all the links to valuable content are still there. If they are country or language specific they are on thespecific pages for their country.

As for design, please suggest a change, join in the discussion on the talk page, or just make it better.

[svache]

As for design, please suggest a change

I suggest a change back to what it was, a similar design as in all wiki's. The current version looks like, to say it very blunt, as something a 4 year old would've done.

Personally I really don't see why it had to be changed.

[robin1979]

It's not all bad though, I like most of the content you have added. It just the main page that makes my eyes water (not from joy though ).

[waynemcdougall]

It's not all bad though, I like most of the content you have added. It just the main page that makes my eyes water (not from joy though ).

Thanks for that. And I thought you did really great editing on the Banks of Servers. I didn't know exactly what the story was with Israel so glad someone who knows could clarify that.

I think it was good to remove the negativity. It wasn't my words, if you were wondering. It came from someone else's forum post. I thought it was a good point so I included it. Your wording is much better. Thank you.

I suggest a change back to what it was, a similar design as in all wiki's. The current version looks like, to say it very blunt, as something a 4 year old would've done.

Personally I really don't see why it had to be changed.

I'd really suggest you read http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Talk:Main_Page

I'd seriously be interested in your response to the points there. As to why it had to be changed: It was unhelpful, unscalable to an increase in countries, languages and activities, unstructured, incomplete, undirected, unclear, inconsistent, unfriendly. And not providing any support or guidance to new users. There were other problems too. But hey, if you think it was better, revert it back.

As to a similar design to all wikis. Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org or http://de.wikipedia.org - all this is covered in the discussion page, but a case can be made - I'm trying to make it, that a front page can be exceptional.

[robin1979]

The wikipedia pages are cluttered as well, but in a slightly better layout than the waze wiki main page currently is.

Have a look at this (quick mockup):
http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page_Test

All topics in 1 index without them being spread all over the page. Surely this is way more pleasant to look at?

[unwallflower]

I think that the new content in the wiki is fantastic. It was definitely out of date and pretty much useless except for the very basics.

However, I don't believe that tables have any place on the front page of THIS wiki.

It isn't really fair to compare the waze wiki to wikipedia. Wikipedia is home to a very, very wide range of topics and it is common for people to go there just to browse. Therefore, their front page is fitting... it provides a broad range of information so that some of it might catch your eye.

The waze wiki, on the other hand, needs to be more about finding what you need and getting out. I don't sit down to browse the waze wiki in my free time. I visit it when I need to know something specific, and I want to be able to find something quickly and then apply it to whatever I was doing.

Just because they are both wikis doesn't mean they are entirely comparable. They both have very different purposes and should be treated as such.

[morlano]

I think wayne invested a lot of work into the wiki.
As you can read here im also not very happy with the layout changes, but the structure that was brought to the wiki is worth much more.
The design can be changed easily.

[waynemcdougall]

1. Well its 4-1 [so far!] so I think a 2 column structure gets to go. Having tipped my hand, I'd make the following pleas:

a) please consider http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page_Test versus http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Deutsch
I am NOT happy in the first case with the contents expanding to subcategories - it won't scale and pushes things too far down. It's too many English links at the top.

Really, if you think about it, the front page would just be a heading and 6 links. The topics aren't connected.

That's why a contents is a bad idea to begin with. Numbering them 1-6 when they are not related topics suggests an ordering that just isn't there. I can tolerate it it if it is just here are 6 main topics to get you start, but if you start putting the subtopics there as well it is bad. In my opinion.

b) The column layout isn't for browsing. It's to cater to the different use cases of Wiki.

I visit it when I need to know something specific, and I want to be able to find something quickly and then apply it to whatever I was doing.

is all very well for your use case. But what about new users? or someone looking for source code? or how to edit maps? And in all cases when they speak polish as their first language? Or Spanish as their only language?

c) So can we agree on http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page_Test versus http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Deutsch for contents, and then really consider how http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page stacks up against the preferred contender, consider all the use cases?

Please?

2. I like Robyn's addition of the flags. But again I'm concerned that it doesn't scale. Already it is too long. 50- countries - 100 countries - most with 2 or more languages - keep the flags but put them side by side. Also can we think NOW about how we layout the many languages in one country. So I'm thinking (with flags by the side - I'm too lazy to put them in here - I'll use a *)
* Australia | * Austria | * Belgium [Dutch|French|German] | * Czech | ... | * USA [English|Spanish]

Your views?