Project talk:Manual

Category:Manual
I propose we use Category:Manual instead of Category:MediaWiki Manual. Nothing on the site is about anything except MediaWiki. So putting MediaWiki into the category name complicates things unnecessarily. Keeping it just Category:Manual makes it easier for people to type it the same ever time. If no one objects, I will make this change next week. --Rogerhc 05:33, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes I'd agree with that. -- Harry Wood 18:42, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Manual: namespace
There's a question posed on this project page: Do we answer this question anywhere? If not ...well what is the answer?
 * What content should be in the Manual: namespace?
 * What should not be in the Manual: namespace?

-- Harry Wood 18:42, 27 June 2007 (UTC)   (...ok 2 questions)


 * The answer is that there is no official position, and that it has not really been discussed properly yet (which is why the questions are still there). As far as I am concerned the manual: namespace should contain all instructional information about the software (not extensions, etc.) except for the information held in the Help: namespace.  The main namespace would then be used for development discussion, test-cases and notes.  However that is only my opinion.  If you are referring to the Installation/Manual:Installation issue specifically, then in my opinion they should be kept separate.  The former is part of our quick introduction, and doesn't deal with anything too technical.  The latter is a much more detailed installation guide. However I can see an argument for moving them to Manual:Installation and Manual:Detailed installation notes, respectively (but not merged - that would be too daunting). --HappyDog 18:34, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I was chatting to Tim and Angela about mediawiki.org (at a London Wiki Wednesday meet-up). They immediately mentioned this namespace as a confusing factor. There are disadvantages to using namespaces. They're harder to search, harder to link to, and generally less newbie friendly, but I suppose it's too late for me to suggest moving everything out of the Manual namespace!
 * Anyway there are advantages too of course. So maybe we view it as a more 'polished' set of pages under the 'Manual' namespace, and then we keep the more chaotic wiki expansion within the main namespace. Main could also be viewed as an incubator for information which could be written properly and moved into the manual, and conversely area for demoting information out of the manual which is not well polished (development discussion and notes as you say)
 * The trouble is, if you create a page on a topic relating directly to mediawiki, then it's likely that that topic ultimately belongs in the manual. The distinction is not really a clear one. Maybe it doesn't matter, because things can be moved later, but people like to add stuff and link it in the right place.
 * -- Harry Wood 08:59, 24 July 2007 (UTC)


 * The manual namespace is searched by default, unless you registered here before that option was turned on (Hmm... I wonder if we could run a bot to update all old users to include it?) so searching shouldn't cause any problems. I also don't think that it's particularly harder to link to. I concede that if you aren't sure where the content is then it is hard to link for, but in practice this applies to the page name too (is it Manual:Upgrading or Manual:Upgrades or Manual:Upgrading MediaWiki?  You still have to find the page to make sure... and in this case, it's none of them, but two of them are redirects, and that is a problem that has nothing to do with the namespace).  I would like to hear your reasons as to why it is less newbie friendly though, as I've not considered that before.
 * Personally, I think the idea of staging in the main namespace and deploying in the Manual: namespace would be a lot more confusing than the current situation. In particular, there are lots of pages that should definitely not be moved in this way, for example the Configuration settings - it would be mayhem if the 'good' ones were in the Manual: namespace and the 'ones that need work' were in the main namespace.
 * My general feeling is that if we clearly define what should be in each namespace (which we are not doing at the moment, or at least not explicitly) then a lot of the confusion would go away. --HappyDog 16:31, 24 July 2007 (UTC)