Talk:MediaWiki/Homepage redesign/Design Document/Texts

Copying current texts
, could you please copy the texts we are currently using in the homepage or other main pages that try to accomplish equivalent missions? This way we don't start from scratch. For instance, currently the homepage says "MediaWiki is a free software open source wiki package written in PHP, originally for use on Wikipedia"... It is worth seeing whether the current texts are good, and if not why, and how to improve them, tuning them or starting from scratch? Thank you.--Qgil (talk) 23:27, 16 January 2014 (UTC)


 * ✅. Yes, of course. --monteirobrena (talk) 17:58, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Featured MediaWiki users
The current mockup suggests three "testimonials". Well, I'm not sure whether they will end up being testimonials or featured projects. In any case, if I had to pick three I would highlight Wikimedia, Wikia, and SemanticMediaWiki. We could also consider to give 50% of space to Wikimedia, founder and biggest user & developer of MediaWiki, since we have plenty of Wikimedia specific content in the site. Selected therse three it will be easier to start thinking in all the smaller icons.--Qgil (talk) 23:32, 16 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Oh, now I see that the last mockup has a single row of bigger logos at the same level. Actually the previous version with 3 featured and then many small logos was more adequate to portrait the MediaWiki community.--Qgil (talk) 00:03, 17 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I put the testimonials section back in the mockup. See if it's better now ;) --monteirobrena (talk) 12:22, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Splitting text and discussion
I propose that we do like Wikipedia, using the main page for actual text and moving all the discussions here. This way we can feel clearly the tone of the page. No it is very difficult, with all the comments inserted.--Qgil (talk) 00:12, 17 January 2014 (UTC)


 * ✅. Thank you. --monteirobrena (talk) 11:47, 17 January 2014 (UTC)

Previous versions
The current homepage contains a link to last version of MediaWiki and two links to the previous versions. Moreover has a download button that redirect to Download page. Keep just a prominent download button give more highlight to "How get MediaWiki?" and occupies less space. --monteirobrena (talk) 11:42, 17 January 2014 (UTC)


 * What about consolidating all this in a big clear simple "Get MediaWiki", moving all the details to that page. It's not only that you can get differnt versions of MediaWiki, you can also get MediaWiki in different ways, from a tarball download to available in many hosting panels, joinging a farm...--Qgil (talk) 22:27, 17 January 2014 (UTC)


 * ... and in fact I just proposed to get rid of everything around the "Get MediaWiki" button. Some of those options can be elsewhere in the homepage (sidebar included) and some dn't need to be there. Let's keep everything as clean as possible, focusing the attention where it matters.--Qgil (talk) 20:00, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

Features / Benefits
Let's agree on the most relevant features that make MediaWiki stand apart. We will base our story in the frontpage on these.


 * A safe bet on freedom
 * Widely tested, reliable, scalable... exactly like Wikipedia
 * Developed and maintained by a big community
 * Wikimedia Foundation guarantees freedom, transparency, and continuity


 * Versatile
 * Extensible, plenty of extensions, shape it to your needs
 * Skins, customize look & feel (let's not oversell this)
 * Fine tune CSS and JavaScript from editing interface
 * (Lua) templates
 * Javascript gadgets
 * Maintenance bots
 * Mobile UI, including editing and uploading
 * Spam and vandalism


 * Designed for community collaboration
 * From WYSIWIG to wiki syntax and HTML
 * Publish and embed media
 * Easy access to Wikimedia Commons free media
 * Collaboration behind the scenes aka discussions tied to pages


 * Best i18n support
 * Multilingual
 * Translation workflow
 * Crowdsourcing translations

Sources: Manual:MediaWiki feature list, Possible uses of MediaWiki, Manual:Before installing.