[pmwiki-users] Re: Re: Reader docs (Was: audiences revisited or revised ???)

H. Fox haganfox at gmail.com
Sat Aug 6 13:24:53 CDT 2005


On 8/5/05, Radu <radu at monicsoft.net> wrote:
> Anyway, what does a reader care about the list of uploads? If the
> readers reach an upload and they want the file, they can click it to
> get it, like in any normal web page. Same as for the sidebar links;
> we don't have to give the reader our terminology for something unless
> it's wiki-specific.
> 
> So let's agree to disagree for now and wait for other people's
> opinions on this :)

Let me advocate for the reader for a moment.

A reader of a web site is looking for content.  The easier it is to
get the content, the better the site is designed.  It should Just
Work. If a navigation tool needs to be explained in documentation then
it needs to be refactored until it's usable without any documentation.

Ideally readers shouldn't see anything that gets in the way of the
content they came for.  There's no reason for them to know or care
that the site is a wiki unless they might become authors.

A lot of the responsibility for this falls upon the skin developer,
and fortunately skin developers are addressing it.  For example a skin
can hide author-oriented links from readers until they log in and
become authors.  Some skins have subtle or even hidden author-oriented
links.

PmWiki itself is also moving in the direction of reader-friendliness. 
Renaming "Main.SearchWiki" to "Site.Search" is a perfect example.

PmWiki documentation should be oriented toward authors and operators,
not readers.  Just to be clear, I'm not saying reader docs shouldn't
be written, I'm suggesting they ultimately shouldn't be necessary if
the skin, the wiki engine, and to some degree the content, are done
well.

Hagan




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