Talk:New main page

I just put up a new draft, below Jim Schrempp's version. Comments are welcome. Here are some questions that I think are worth asking:

• Which topics do we want to have linked directly from the Main Page and which are we happy to leave two or more links away?
• For the one-link-away topics, how should they be named and organized so that someone looking for one will quickly and accurately find he right link?
• For the two-or-more-links-away topics, how can we maximize the likelihood that someone with a question about one will quickly and accurately find a link that will take them a step closer to the answer?
• Which topics deserve to have a spot in the sidebar so that they'll be one click away from anywhere?
• For any link, how likely is it that someone might think that it leads to a different topic than the one it really does lead to? Could the link have a better name?
• How well would this page layout (or any change to it) serve prospective members? new members? longstanding members? people from other maker spaces looking for ideas?
• How can my (non-link) prose be augmented, diminished, or changed to be clearer and more to the point? to be friendlier and more engaging, without being too wordy?
• What else should I be asking?

JSaxe (talk) 21:39, 5 February 2022 (EST)

I could see that the first split for a person coming to this page is: I'm interested in Maker Nexus OR I'm interested in making but not MN. In our new main page I think we should have a clear link at the top that says something like "Information about making, not specific to MN" and shunt the people off to a new page. Jschrempp (talk)

In the opening paragraph of text, where it says

... relating to (1) Maker Nexus, (2) makerspaces and making in general, and (3) using and editing this wiki.

The three items are clickable links. Clicking on item (2), "makerspaces and making in general", jumps you down the page to the relevant section, which in my draft is very much abridged from the corresponding portion of the current main page. We can decide how long or short to make that section. We also might use the "Main article: ..." pattern that I've used a couple other places, where the link after "Main article:" would take you to a comprehensive page for the topic and the links below would take you either to sections of that page or directly to page linked from that page.

Some questions: Do you think it's insufficiently obvious then the items in "... relating to (1) ..." are active links? Would it be helpful to make them into bullet points? If we offer a "Main article:" link for some topic and list some links for selected subtopics below it, is there a danger that some readers will think that list is complete when it isn't? If so, can we do something (preferably non-clunky) to reduce that risk?

By the way, regardless of what we do on the main page about MN-specific content vs. general content, we still need to think about how to help readers know what kind of content they've landed on if they get to some article by using the search box. Also, it has occurred to me that the distinction between MN and non-MN content isn't completely sharp. A page about frundelglomping may be completely unrelated to MN until we happen to acquire a frundelglomper, perhaps even of a specific model discussed on the page. And some general woodworking technique might be completely applicable, or even an example of best practices, for use some tool at MN. I believe the wiki had pages about Slack and about Boss before MN had a Slack account or a Boss laser cutter. On the other hand, I note that those old pages don't (at least not yet) say anything about OUR Boss laser_cutter or about use of our Slack space (e.g., all members should join the #general channel). Both the MN-specific stuff and the MN-specific stuff are valuable and should be easy to find. What can we do to keep readers from wondering where to find our frundelglomper when we don't have one (but there's stuff about them in the wiki) or from wondering about the paucity of information on the Boss page when the information they're looking for is on the MN-S Laser Cutters page? JSaxe (talk) 17:09, 6 February 2022 (EST)