[rt-users] The RT Wiki - Restructure (start using categories?)

Thu Dec 1 03:08:54 EST 2011

Hi,

To summarize:

   - Category page for user profiles (in order to automatically link to RT
   users)
   - User manual needs special treatment (needs some pondering)
   - For the RT config, a separate page for each configuration option. But
   they need to be grouped based on a specific topic.
   - FAQ category page, listing all FAQ items as an option. (makes it easy
   to add just about any page with a brilliant explanation to the FAQ)

And last but not least, make sure to chop things into smaller pieces.
(basically approach this as a project with milestones, etc.)

For the pieces, I believe we're already kinda working towards it :-)

   1. Think of a structure with the categories in mind.
   2. Think of other things that will help make the wiki better. (usage of
   Wikia special features, RSS feeds, etc.)
   3. Create the steps in which we'll transform the current wiki towards
   what we want it to be.
      1. First step could/should be to clean all current category pages
      (fresh start).
      2. Create the new categorie pages & structure.
      3. With the "Uncategorized" special page, work towards categorizing
      all wiki pages:
         1. With the goal to categorized everything.
      4. Modify the front page to display the new structure/category pages.
      5. . . .
   4. And once the steps which we should take are clear we can start doing
   stuff ^_^

Something like that at least.

-- Bart

Op 30 november 2011 18:48 schreef Ruslan Zakirov
<ruz at bestpractical.com>het volgende:

> Hi,
>
> Idea is good. Here are some ideas about categorizing and where people
> with MediaWiki experience can help kickstart content improvements.
>
> I think good and easy point to start is to organize installation guides.
>
> There are lot of pages that are sort of user profiles. They should get
> particular category, for example OldStyleUserProfile. Some of them are
> linked from http://requesttracker.wikia.com/wiki/RTUsers. May be we
> can replace this page with generated page that links to wikia's user
> profiles.
>
> User Manual is a special beast. It should be continuous reading and at
> the same time splitted into smaller topics. I believe MediaWiki has
> some tools to include content of pages into other pages.
>
> Every config option and right should get a page matching its name,
> however they should get included into other blocks. For example
> WebDomain, WebPath, WebPort and couple of options should be described
> as one thing. For example OwnTicket and ownership related rights
> should be described as one thing. I don't know media wiki best
> practices to organize such thing.
>
> FAQ may win from better structure. At this moment it's not very managable.
>
> There are more, but enough for today. I think that if you find a good
> solution for some particular problem and describe how it should be
> done then people would help you clean cages and normalize content.
> Just split things into smaller steps.
>
> On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 3:44 PM, Bart <bart at pleh.info> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Jay, thanks for your input. I do feel that approaching it with a blank
> sheet
> > of paper will be the best approach.
> >
> > Though we'll have to use Wikia's abilities/structure, the below is aimed
> at
> > just that with a slight eye on "structuring from scratch".
> >
> > --- A rough sketch of the idea ---
> >
> > The idea I have relies allot on the categories within Wikia.
> >
> > A categorie page can contain content, thus e.g. the contributions page
> could
> > instead be a categorie page with some specific information on what you
> can
> > expect, maybe some extra links to other stuff, etc. But the difference
> would
> > be that since it is now a categorie page, that all scripts/contributions
> > that have the categorie set to contributions would be automatically
> listed
> > on that one page. (alphabetized)
> >
> > With that in mind you can quite easily create "general" categorie pages
> for
> > all major topics and have any page regarding that topic being linked to
> that
> > categorie.
> >
> > The front page would then contain a hierarchical structure with links to
> all
> > the "sections" (a.k.a. categorie pages). And obviously information on
> what
> > RT is, latest news/updates/etc. Another thing which you can easily add to
> > the front page is an RSS feed of the Bestpractical blog, and maybe add a
> > feed of the RT wiki itself showing the latest updates & newest pages.
> > (should both be doable I think)
> >
> > Other things that might be nice to add are some Wikia features for the
> > community to promote the usage of the RT wiki (achievements and other fun
> > stuff).
> >
> > --- The structure (concept) ---
> >
> > Since the above shows what categories and categorie pages can do for you
> > it's important to create a structure (at first on paper) which will make
> > sure that all major topics regarding RT are covered so that any new
> article
> > can add a categorie appropriate for that specific article. (I assume that
> > the structure will eventually grow naturally)
> >
> > Since this is just a concept I've sort of just looked at the current wiki
> > and tried to gather some basic topics, what I want to achieve with this
> > concept is to get input from others so that we can improve it further:
> >
> > RT Basics
> >
> > User Manual
> > Custom Fields
> > Articles
> > REST
> > RT Tool
> > RT Cron Tool
> >
> > RT Installation (rough categories so that people can link install guides
> to
> > an OS categorie, no more/no less)
> >
> > Linux
> > FreeBSD
> > Other
> > Manual
> >
> > RT Config: (a categorie for each major release)
> >
> > RT 4
> > RT 3.8
> > RT 3.6
> >
> > Plugins:
> >
> > A categorie page for all plugins! This way you can link
> scrips/configs/other
> > goodies for a plugin to that specific categorie page.
> >
> > Scrips:
> >
> > Basically a summary of all scrips available for RT.
> >
> > Automation
> >
> > At this point I'm blank on ideas, I'll just leave it at this and see what
> > responses there are. I'm pretty sure this list can be better/structured
> > better, but you have to start somewhere ^_~
> >
> > --- Rough plan of action ---
> >
> > This is a rather rough plan for setting up the structure:
> >
> > Remove all current categories (double check that the categorie pages
> don't
> > contain content of any kind).
> > Add every single page currently in the wiki to a new categorie called
> > "Archive".
> >
> > This sounds ugly but it's an easy way of keeping track of all the wiki
> pages
> > that still need better categorization.
> > Basically a todo list, anything still in there needs to be categorized.
> > The idea is to do a few articles each day and eventually everything will
> be
> > nicely categorized.
> >
> > Create all the categories which have been though of, make sure that
> theres's
> > at least some basic information on the categorie page.
> > Modify the home page to, at first, also contain the new categorie
> structure
> > (keep the old links for now).
> > Start categorizing anything that's still in under Archive.
> > And last but not least, at a certain point modify the front page to only
> > contain the new categorie structure.
> >
> > So, those are some ideas.
> >
> > Time for everyone to shoot at them ^_~
> >
> > -- Bart
> >
> > --------
> > RT Training Sessions (http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html)
> > * Boston — TBA
>
>
>
> --
> Best regards, Ruslan.
>
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