MediaWiki/Homepage improvements 2018

This page is about potential improvements to the mediawiki.org front page as per September 19, 2018. Please discuss and provide input on the talk page, based on the time line below.

Note that discussing the site-wide side bar content is out of the scope (one thing at a time). Further iterations or corrections are always possible later (it's a wiki).

We might not be able to make everything perfect but we can certainly make it better.

Current problems

 * Duplication of content
 * Example: Three links to download MediaWiki (if you include side bar content), "Current version" duplicates what's already listed under "News".
 * Unclear links spread over several navigation areas
 * Example: "support desk" under "Welcome to MediaWiki.org" vs "Help and support" under "Welcome to MediaWiki.org" vs "Get more help" under "Using MediaWiki". Side bar (out of scope here) in addition has "Community Portal" linking to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Help
 * Missing or hard-to-find content for some audiences
 * Example: "Translate content" is only somewhere down in the side bar.
 * Example: Manual:FAQ is only linked from the side bar; Manual:Errors and symptoms is not linked at all so people repeat common questions on the Support Desk. Pages are not among the top 100 page views.
 * Example: As a sysadmin, will MediaWiki solve my problem? I'm supposed to read "Manual:What is MediaWiki?" hidden behind "About MediaWiki" but there is also a link "What is a wiki" to enwp under "Using MediaWiki". I still won't know its features (probably https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Principles comes closest as high-level overview, https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:MediaWiki_feature_list exists and is long and partially outdated). Manual:Deciding whether to use a wiki as your website type might be worth to link? Professional development and consulting might be worth to link?
 * Content for same audience spread in different places
 * Example: The "News" box recently only listed new MW releases, only relevant for administrators. (That might become wrong if https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/News was updated by more parties to e.g. include conferences or if the section also linked to Tech/News)
 * Irrelevant content.
 * Example: How many people care about the exact numbers and release dates of the latest MediaWiki tarball versions on the front page, and what does it mean that my version is not listed here? If people want to download MediaWiki they should go to the Download page. If administrators think for some reason they should upgrade MediaWiki they should go to Manual:Upgrading. I doubt anyone informs themselves about a need for an upgrade of their installation by visiting the front page and then manually comparing with their version.
 * Example: "For general questions about MediaWiki see the communication page": How that page help me exactly if some venues are already recommended on this very page?
 * Page does not tell you that there is also a community that in theory anyone can join, and not only some software project.
 * Visually looks a bit more dated than needed. (Highly subjective though.)

Define action groups / audiences
Time frame: Sep 20 – Oct 11

Provide paths for audiences based on which actions they plan to perform:


 * General (high-level info, across actions/audiences)
 * Edit and use (users/editors of MediaWiki and extensions)
 * Administrate (potential and existing maintainers of a MediaWiki installation)
 * Develop (potential and existing volunteers and professionals who code)
 * More (Translators, Tech Ambassadors, Documentation writers etc)

Must cover both new people that have not been exposed to MediaWiki/Wikimedia before, and current users.

Out of scope: "MediaWiki core and extensions" vs "other Wikimedia software" - Not relevant enough for the front page that should focus on MediaWiki and its extensions and skins mostly; could be a separate follow-up discussion though.

Define content per action group
Time frame: Oct 18 – Nov 08, 2018

Details to be sorted out once previous item is settled. Start with existing content/links; remove duplication; carefully add more useful items and rephrase when needed. Link to {user|developer|admin} manual for each audience, etc...

Define presentation and layout
Time frame: Nov 15 – Dec 06, 2018

Details to be sorted out once previous item is settled. In general: Avoid bigger changes; any potential changes must be accessible and work on smaller screens.
 * Header: High-level explanation what MediaWiki is and offers, for people who have not been exposed to MediaWiki before. Limited number of links to more specific information. One Download link. Plus it's a community.
 * Areas with most relevant information by audiences/actions above.
 * Translation box at bottom

Implement
Time frame: After Dec 06, 2018


 * The technical part after all the previous steps. Current page uses templates which use templates which are only used on this very page (example) - there might be technical reasons for such complexity that I do not understand.

Previous attempts

 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki/Homepage_redesign
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/MediaWiki.org_Main_Page_tweaks