User:Fox/Virtual classroom/Archives

Announcements

Interiot has completed the beta version of his new keymarks extension for Firefox, and it is ready for testing. To try it out, just point it at Interiot's server-side files (here). Interiot says "It should be well-behaved, or at the very least be easily uninstallable." 09:09, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Moving along...

Tip: to help keep up with discussions here, add this page to your watchlist, and add the assignment template to the top of your talk page with {{VC assignments}}.

Many ideas came out of the user interface show and tell, and I pulled many of those out and have started a new tools page, accessible on my user page menu above. The user interface discussions continue below, so if you have anything to add, please feel free to do so. We're always looking for ways to improve our toolboxes.

Grutness, our resident expert from the stubs project, has written a short course on the topic of stubbing, and that project is our current topic of discussion. Please share your ideas, methods, and questions directly into the course itself. And of course, have fun...

Questions and miscellaneous comments - anything goes

Hi Quiddity! Feel free to join us

And by the way, we have an audience. Quiddity is in here with us. He is very knowledgeable about Wikipedia, especially page layout. Quiddity, you are cordially invited to share your Wiki-expertise here whenever you see fit. You are warmly welcomed to participate. And anyone else who is reading this, please feel free to join in. Since comparing activities is a good way to learn from others, please share with us a description of the programs you make use of on Wikipedia. "What programs and power tools do you use?"   The Transhumanist 23:50, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

• Firstly, hello Quiddity! I look forward to learning from you too. As for OS X, it truly is a thing of beauty. All Macs now ship with the Intel PC, some with the shiny new dual-core job which makes them amongst the fastest machines available. I'd rather that Apple didn't try to usurp the PC OS market - like most Mac-ites, I'm just a little bit smug about the whole thing! Budgiekiller 13:49, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

But don't forget the point of this

Don't over talk things too much. Remember, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and the best way to learn what goes on here is to just start doing it. Yeah, you can figure out ideal interfaces or whatever, but don't spend so much time on that that you don't get experience in what actually matters. The interface is just the means to an end, not an end in itself (unless you're an interface programmer, but we have very few of those). --Cyde Weys 02:51, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I hope it didn't sound like I was rambling about the interface without emphasising the usefulness of the interface to my work on the encyclopedia. On the other hand, I don't mind being an interface programmer, its what I do i guess. Ansell 02:56, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Thank you Cyde for the caveat. I agree, "at some point you have to shoot the engineers and just build the thing". (I have no idea who I just quoted). So one approach would be to add a single improvement, and then apply it for awhile before adding another, rather than trying to revamp your entire system all at once.

Here are some links to help find areas of Wikipedia to work on:

• Wikipedia:Contents
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory
• Wikipedia:Community portal
• Wikipedia:Department directory
• and random article on the sidebar menu.   The Transhumanist 03:06, 7 November 2006 (UTC)