Thread:Project:Current issues/Adding a dev namespace for "Data and developer hub" articles/reply (4)

The dicussion about the namespace is still open and we can evaluate the implications of using "API" instead of "Dev".

About the different skin, the starting point was to create an own site with own look&feel, following the example of most API/developer sites versus their products. The intention was to avoid Vector's outdated look & feel and mediawiki.org's fully charged sidebar wiith links that could be definitely confusing to third party developers not interested in MediaWiki itself or in contributing patches.

While I was among the very determined advocates of improving mediawiki.org instead of creating a separate site, I agree with the original problem. While using "a different skin in a same site" might confuse to some, I think the confusion and loss will be higher and more expensive if we stick to the current mediawiki.org interface.

In fact, I think this exercise might be useful to sanitize and improve mediawiki.org's UI. For us regular users it is easy to become blind to the problems it has, but this project is all about reaching out to new developers and engage them in the use of our APIs (which can lead to other type of contributions over time).