Adding a theatre stage to the wiki, for Votorola users

[Ed Pastore]

This is really excellent, Michael et al. Since I have a competing draft, I see that the "my draft" button works for me and leads to:
http://metagovernment.org/w/index.php?title=User:Ed_Pastore/draft_rules
although from there, I can't click on the Draft button.

(Note, any reason why it goes there instead of the more friendly http://metagovernment.org/wiki/User:Ed_Pastore/draft_rules url?)

It seems to be running fine in Safari 5.1.5 for Mac. In iCab 4.8 (not exactly the most popular browser), I do not see the bar.

I very much like the hover-text labels on the icons, so I have some idea of what they are. Would it be possible to build it out further into a label-plus-description so the uninitiated (which is basically everyone at this point) can have a deeper understanding of each icon just by hovering over it? As the tool gains in sophistication, you could eventually make the description be an option that users could turn off.

Concerning decentralization, what role does zela play in this? The poll button leads to
http://zelea.com/w/G/p/m00
Is that simply another configurable point as any other?


On Apr 16, 2012, at 8:29 AM, Michael Allan wrote:

> The theatre stage is now installed in the Metagov wiki.  Its purpose
> is to deliver cross-site consensus-making tools (props) into web pages
> (scenes).  The latest bit of work enables us to "stage" any MediaWiki
> site.  Staging ordinarily affects only formal draft pages, such as
> this one: http://metagovernment.org/wiki/User:Michael_Allan/draft/m00
> 
> If it works in your browser, you'll see a black toolbar under the wiki
> tabs (our only stage prop at present).  That same toolbar appears on
> other sites.  For instance, imagine C and I are discussing our
> differences here in the list.  I post a link to one of them:
> http://zelea.com:8080/v/w/D?a=4203&aR=2886&b=4314&bR=2899&s
> That takes you to the difference bridge.  The difference bridge is
> staged, so the same toolbar appears there.  Click on the draft link
> (third from right) and you land back on my draft page.  This time (if
> it works correctly) you see the difference highlighted there.
> 
> This is technically challenging (browsers aren't designed for it), but
> a lot rides on pulling it off.  It's a good fit with democracy if we
> can deliver the tools everywhere, because everywhere is where the
> people are.  Ultimately the tools need to be placed in their hands.
> (The alternative strategy of attracting people to central sites places
> them in technical hands, so to speak, where the opportunity is more
> one of manipulating *them*.)  Ideally we'd leave the browsers behind
> and code mobile apps (literally hand held), but we're tied to
> collaborative drafting and that's currently tied to the web.
> 
> Customizing the stage
> ---------------------
> 
> Users may customize the stage to activate on every page.  In this
> case, the toolbar moves to the top like in a pollwiki.  You might do
> this if you use the Metagov wiki primarily for drafting and want the
> toolbar to be aligned consistently across sites.  For instructions,
> see: http://metagovernment.org/wiki/Category:Remote_draft
> 
> Bugs
> ----
> Only tested under Chrome and Firefox.  It will probably work with
> other WebKit and Gecko browsers.  IE is not supported, yet.
> 
> Alignment of bridge footings under the Vector skin is slightly off in
> the Metagov wiki.  Most users will still be using the Monobook skin.
> 
> The mailish username of the logged in user is not currently detectable
> in MediaWiki pages external to the pollwiki.  This means that user-
> -oriented links such as "my draft" will not be properly disabled when
> they are redundant, e.g. when "my draft" is already being shown.
> 
> Please let me know if you see any other bugs.
> 
> -- 
> Michael Allan
> 
> Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
> http://zelea.com/
> 
> 
> Michael Allan said:
>> To users of the wiki,
>> 
>> I'll do some administrative work in the next few days.  My aim is to
>> install a Crossforum Theatre stage for Votorola users, similar to the
>> one described here:
>> http://mail.zelea.com/list/votorola/2012-March/001323.html
>> 
>> Other users should be unaffected (no change in appearance or function
>> of the wiki).  I'll post an update when I'm finished.
>> 
>> -- 
>> Michael Allan
>> 
>> Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
>> http://zelea.com/
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