Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Usability/Main Page/Draft/Election Discussion

Election Discussion archive 1

Our course has been set. We are now working on preparing a final draft to pit against the main page. So we need to set differences aside and work together on running a smooth election. May I suggest as a first step we create the procedures we shall be following in the election. Here are some suggested steps: --Go for it!


 * 1) Announce upcoming election
 * 2) On the Main Page
 * 3) In the Signpost - by their submission deadline
 * 4) At Goings on
 * 5) On the Community Portal
 * 6) Far and wide
 * 7) Keep election page simple: "The proposal is to replace the Main Page with the presented design" (followed by:)
 * 8) "Support"
 * 9) "Oppose"
 * 10) Announce the election itself
 * 11) On the Main Page
 * 12) In the Signpost - by their submission deadline
 * 13) At Goings on
 * 14) On the Community Portal
 * 15) Far and wide
 * 16) Policies
 * 17) Protect the draft to prevent alteration, vandalism, etc. We want to make sure everyone is voting on the same version.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something. So please help me out here. --Go for it!


 * In addition to asking voters which version they prefer (current vs. new), we must make sure to include sections in which they're invited to express their likes and dislikes. If the new design fails to garner consensus, we'll need to apply these criticisms to our next attempt.  If it succeeds, we might be able to apply minor tweaks, as dictated by the community.  &mdash;David Levy 22:49, 4 February 2006 (UTC)


 * At last, Go for it!, you agree! "Keep election page simple". I think that we all will benefit from the simplicity. Also: How about the Community Portal? I've added it above.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 22:50, 4 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Good point on the like/dislikes. Therefore, I've changed the election page above to include one item. --Go for it!


 * All the above sounds good to me. --Aude ( talk | contribs ) 22:57, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

A suggestion for promotion; what is the one thing you see almost evreywhere? This!: Flying Canuck 23:43, 4 February 2006 (UTC) A small little reminder or icon in a users signature would act as a reminder to people to vote. If you were reading through any talk page and you noticed Vote! in a signature you would probably click to see what it was. If we got enough peeople to put a small symbol, piece of text or anything in their signature it would have a huge impact. This may be a bad, crazy, or impossible idea but I thought I would put it out there. Flying Canuck 23:43, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm willing to try it. --Go for it!


 * All the drafts should be protected while the voting is taking place. I wouldn't want to be the one responsiable for reverting an older version. --^BuGs^ 13:55, 5 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah. Well, one of them is already protected for us!--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 13:59, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Before the new Main Page is put in place...
We'll have to make sure everything works. Get POTD in order (it already updates but still requires the tedious making of subpages). Have DYN remove the title and then we can template it in. Also, DYN should change back from "Today's second feature" because we now have both of those feature's running all the time.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 22:54, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Right, we'll have to make arrangements with the various subdepartments concerning the changing of the formatting of each feature to accomodate the new Main Page. Then we get the new main page completely operational and supported by the subdepartments in its present location, and then copy it to the Main Page when it is running smoothly.
 * Did you know - it has an extraneous heading which will need to be removed.
 * Picture of the day - the version for the new main page needs to be stripped of all code.
 * On this day - the bullets are too far to the left. I've checked the source, and there is a particular piece of code that needs to be removed.

If you don't mind, I'd be happy to deal with these departments. I've got a transclusion fix in mind, whereby they would create a new underlying version, which can be automatically transcluded into their current format (for pic of the day, for instance) so that their current operations aren't disrupted. Pic of the day is primarily formatted for inclusion on user pages. In the current procedure, creating the version for the Main Page is an unnecessary extra step, a step which can be removed from the system. That is, they could create the streamlined (Main Page) version first, and transclude that into their departmental format. Besides, the Main Page alternates already need the new format, and I'm currently duplicating the efforts of the Pic of the day department in keeping those pages supported. So I need to talk to the POTD guy anyways. --Go for it!

P.S.: David, now you know what the Blue boy draft-from-scratch you asked about is for. ;-)

After the new Main Page is put in place...
Let's imagine that the draft wins. What can we expect to happen after the draft is placed on the Main Page, and how should we deal with it? --Go for it!
 * I expect a lot of complaints. Not because it will be worse than the original, but because people who approve rarely comment, while people who disapprove always comment. Loudly. - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 00:48, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * If we can petition a Bureaucrat (or whomever it is) to have a message similar to ArbCom on the watchlists, I think we'll get enough publicity to not suprise anyone.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 12:32, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I could edit it directly but there have been complaints of so called "spam" being placed there. For now I've placed a query about it and if noone respnd I'll put it on tonight. -Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 16:20, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * You mean for the watchlists? Where do you put queries like that?--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 16:42, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * MediaWiki talk:Watchdetails &mdash;David Levy 17:07, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 17:14, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Recommendation
The most serious disagreements will come from people who don't yet know about this project, and are surprised. To avoid the worst of this, I recommend the following: announce the vote well in advance; solicit comments widely and plan to apply one last round of changes.


 * 1) Set up a fresh page for comments from people who have not yet been involved with / heard about the discussion.
 * 2) Make a public announcement that a new Main Page design has been developed.
 * 3) * Point people to a concise page detailing the improvements over the previous design (you also show them, of course, but a short list of descriptions helps; especially for the many users who no longer visit the Main Page and have forgotten what its user experience is like).
 * 4) * Explain that a vote is going to take place in -- something like two weeks.
 * 5) * Point people to the new comments page.
 * 6) Prepare the vote page well in advance; limit comments to its talk page.  Have all copy on the vote page finalized over a week before the vote.
 * 7) Stay on top of comments on that talk page, reply to each commenter briefly and politely.
 * 8) Make a list of good suggestions which should be further implemented after the change, if the change is made.  (for instance, the sidebar on the Main Page might not be identical with the sidebar on all pages... the double "search" area for one thing might be confusing).  Do not change the vote options; simple let people know that other suggestions are also being added to the back burner, with thanks.

This should help smooth over the transition. +sj + 03:41, 17 February 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree that this can be a real problem. However, I proposed a different solution - to defer all changes after a certain date to the next election.
 * --Gogino 21:01, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

These are good suggestions. Without the benefit of having an announcement on the Main Page, a lot of users probably don't know about the project. We had a notice there, but it lasted a few hours before another sysadmin removed it. Because of this, and the fact that the election date has already been announced, we will not be having another round of changes. We plan on having a notice on the Main Page (if any of our sysadmins are bold enough) for the election itself (Which starts March 1st). Deferring all changes from this point on is a must, since the draft needs to remain static during the election so that everyone is voting on the same version. For it to change would render the election meaningless. There is no time for another round of changes on this draft (they can apply to the next draft and to the next Main Page draft design team), since we have to apply the remaining week to debugging the draft. Thanks for the suggestions, these will certainly help. --Go for it! 05:23, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Sent a query to Solipsist re: Pic of the day
Solipsist seems to be single-handedly running the Pic of the day department. This means we need to work with him to determine how the new Main Page will be supported. And since the Main Page alternates also rely on the pic of the day, we might as well cover those at the same time. So I've sent a message to Solipsist to open discussions about the future of Pic of the day department and how to best support the pic's various applications. In order that the discussion does not take place in a vacuum, I'm letting everybody know so that you can monitor and/or join in. Perhaps you will think of something that escapes us. --Go for it! 06:39, 21 February 2006 (UTC)