Difference between revisions of "User talk:Martin"

Revision as of 22:47, 9 March 2007

Welcome to AboutUs, Martin! I saw (and responded) to your note in the SuggestionBox as well, but I wanted to say hello here to make sure you got it. Your site is ready for cultivation and editing at IBESI.org. You can look on the Help pages for references, or you can ask us for help. You can always contact me on my user pages. We're glad to have you here! Drew

welcome!

Martin,

I saw what you wrote on the community portal page, even though you took it off. Very poetic! Let me know if I can help! TedErnst

Martin, I'm responding to what you wrote on Drew's talk page. I'm afraid that the future you want is not yet here. I also want what you want. I want to be able to edit a page using the aboutus.org software and have that change show up at ibesi.org. That day is not yet here. What we have right now is a page ABOUT ibesi.org at aboutus.org/ibesi.org and that actual ibesi.org page at ibesi.org. Some others are working with this now, like http://intentionalnetworks.com. Click that link and see that it actually goes to teh IntentionalNetworks.com page. That's cool, but not exactly what you want. You want what we do not yet have the ability to do. I don't know when. Brandon knows better, I think. Hope this helps, at least with expectations. peace, TedErnst

Yes, I was guessing you had been talking with Brandon, as your desires match perfectly with what he talks about for the future, but we don't know when. He's been promising me to do a test for a few weeks now, but it hasn't happened yet. It will happen, just don't know when.

As for your questions about talk page etiquette, we ought to start a page on that, to document. In most wikis, you simply reply to a comment wherever it was left. So if I asked you a question on your page, you'd answer it there. That makes sense, right? Well, for now, we're using MediaWiki here, the Wikipedia software, and at Wikipedia, they do it differently. I'm not sure exactly why, except that there's a different kind of notification when someone leaves a message on your talk page. Of course there's a software issue and a social issue. YOU are exactly the person to bring this up because those already here before you are already familiar with Mediawiki so don't notice how wrong (not understandable for a person inexperienced in these ways) this way of doing things is. By the way, did you know that a link that is red means the page it points to doesn't exist yet? So clicking on it is actually starting the new page. Hope this helps and look forward to more dialogue.

And unfortunately, if the url is really important and you want a community process, I don't think aboutus.org will meet your needs right now. peace, TedErnst

Really helpful stuff Ted - much thanks!

So as you tell me, I reply to you here, in my own talk section.

I wonder if the computer techies could figure out a way to "mark" new people coming to aboutus, perhaps after a short query like, "do you know what a Wiki is and the relevant etiquette?" If their answer is "no" they might get a symbol next to their name. Thus more experienced users reading their postings might cut them some slack, or offer useful advice, at exactly the time they need it- when they had noticeable bad conduct or messed up. It is exactly at this time (that the new person needs the help or is frustrated) that they are most receptive to getting the help and remembering the advice given (in contrast to reading lots of text in a help section). Thus an "old timer" might say to this new person, "I see you are new here, so let me give you a tip" Maybe the Newbe symbol is even a number, so one also knows how new this person is - been here only 2 days or 30 days, etc. Ted, maybe this has already been thought of? - do you think this content should go in the suggestion section?

Hi Martin, I think everyone should be cut some slack :-) this is the one goal of AssumeGoodFaith and I like to think that folks are inexperienced (ExperiencedInteractionWithInexperience) Mark

Hi again, Martin. Your suggestions are great, AND that's exactly what Mark and all of the community team has been working on, not with a symbol, but with an attitude. We all have lots to learn! TedErnst

Thanks Mark and Ted – from my “green” perspective I note a very helpful tone at aboutus.