Usability Issues list

Michael Allan mike at zelea.com
Sun Jul 4 05:45:43 EDT 2010


Alex Rollin wrote:
> I think I get what's going on, but if I find stuff I need to write it
> down.  I think it better that we have a place to do that.
> 
> That said, getting users...means working on help docs.

PS - I set a bad example by tagging the help pages as [[Category:Site
help]].  I forgot that categories (is-a relations) aren't much needed
in a semantic wiki.  Usually they can be replaced by well chosen
properties (has-a relations), which are generally more flexible.  So
I've re-tagged the help pages as:

  {{#set: topic=site | topic=help }}

I also tagged your [[Category:P2P]] pages (pages that talk about P2P
stuff) as:

  {{#set: topic=P2P }}

I guess this is a folksonomy approach.  It's nice because the users
don't have to worry about creating formal categories/hierarchies.
Instead, they simply tag their pages with adhoc keywords, like this:

  {{#set: topic=housing | topic=cooperative }}

Those keywords are then browsable via the factbox (which I just
enabled) at the bottom of each wiki page.  In addition, for more
complicated queries, there's this:

  http://u.zelea.com/w/Special:Ask

For example:

  http://u.zelea.com/w/Special:Ask?title=Special%3AAsk&q=[[topic%3A%3AP2P]]&po=&sort_num=&order_num=ASC&eq=yes&p[format]=broadtable&p[limit]=20&p[headers]=&p[mainlabel]=&p[link]=&p[intro]=&p[outro]=&p[default]=&eq=yes

If you click "Show embed code", it gives you the corresponding
wikitext to insert, e.g. in your listing page.  For example, to
generate a list of all housing polls in my local electoral riding, I'd
insert something like this in my listing page:

  {{#ask: [[Category:Poll]] [[Topic::housing]]
    [[Division::Tor/riding/Trinity-Spadina]] }}

A more complex example: To list all polls that are administered
*either* under the Global or the P2P area, *and* where the issue
concerns housing cooperatives:

  {{#ask: [[Category:Poll]] [[Topic::housing]] [[Topic::cooperative]]
    [[Division::Global||P2P]] }}

For more info: http://semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:User_manual

> I am plowing away, but did my pass at it for the week at this point.
> Next week I'll take another crack at the poll and position, because I
> think those are next, then area.
> 
> If all three of those can be documented then I think I'll be ready to
> bring in more testers.

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 647-436-4521
http://zelea.com/



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