A couple of conversation starters
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Fragment of a discussion from Task force/Wikipedia Quality/Archive 1
I'd like to see the same principles elsewhere, with generic "wizard hooks" in the code, and a "Wizard:" namespace so users can actually code up the wizard contents for these hooks on-wiki:
- New account wizard, asks users "These are the issues with name choice, please choose a name"... asks "have you already got an account or used one in the past" and notifies them the basics of sock policy"...
- Edit war wizard, detects 3+ reverts (not quite 3RR) and advises users "I see you've reverted this page a few times recently, are you sure?" -> Yes / Help me! / Cancel my edit
- Citation wizard, "I see you've added a chunk of text (or new article) but there aren't any citations in it. Would you like help in adding citations so other users can check your edits are verifiable?"
- Controversial topic wizard, advises users "You're editing a controversial topic. Would you like some hints and tips first?"
- Deletion wizard: [if we gave users a "delete" button even if not admins] -> "You've clicked "delete", but you aren't an administrator. Wikipedia has a number of deletion tools and processes. Would you like guidance on the appropriate one to use, and on making your request?"
- ... etc ...
In other words, don't demand users read most policies, or hit them with a stick for not doing so. Instead, guide them when they have actual need for the information.
So the links for a deletion wizard might be buttons for "Help me!" and "Cancel request", and also a link for "View policy summary" which opens a short popup that includes a link to "View full policy". The popup doesn't need to say everything covered in the policy, just what's relevant to the action they're doing.
- (I also wouldn't make this "ad hoc". I'd design a proper "Mediawiki Wizards" extension, so that all that would be needed in future is a bugzilla request: "Please add a wizard hook for X, that provides parameters P, Q, R". The conditions it fires (parameter based) and the actual wizard pages, are then configurable on-wiki, either via a "Wizard:" namespace, or stand-alone like AbuseFilter.)