Test-Scratch-Wiki talk:Community Portal/Connect Wiki and Website

This is a Talk Page with Suggestions about "Connecting Scratch-Wiki and -Website" in a better way. This could be a great chance for the Scratch Community to profit from the Wiki even much more than it does today. Feel free to add and discuss suggestions in the section #Brainstorming like you would do it in the CP.

BACKGROUND

The reason for having this as an separate article (as a subpage of the CP) is, that the Scratch-Team asked explicitly for suggestions of us Scratch-Wikians and we agreed upon making a wiki-page for it. (Hangout de:Scratch Club with Christan (user:Ceebee ) + Linda (user:LiFaytheGoblin ) who is also at the Scratch-Team now and also thinks that this could be a good idea. At  de:Scratch-Wiki:Scratch_Club we decided to make a start.  ( user:jvvg, user:ErnieParke, user:LiFaytheGoblin, user:frodewin, and user:MartinWollenweber) This suggestions result also from a translation of de:GP.

Ordered Suggestions
please post only in the #Brainstorming-Section, where your post stays untouched (like in the community portal). We will try to order all suggestions later in this section, so the Scratch Team has a "easy to read" Suggestion-List + the original discussion.

Links at the Tips-Window
At the end of the tips-window in the Scratch.Editor there could be a link to a scratch-wiki-articles with futher information MartinWollenweber 22:55, 4 January 2016 (UTC)
 * You could do that already when translating at the pootle server, at least at a test MartinWollenweber 23:04, 4 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Support!
 * 17:53, 5 January 2016 (UTC)
 * We especially need to tell this to the translators! Maybe the ST could write an email to all of them, telling them that they are free to add a link to a wiki article in their language and that if they don't have a wiki yet, they can register at the Test Wiki. - LiFaytheGoblin Avatar.png LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 14:39, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

More suggetions
Maybe add scratch wiki to the scratch family! Also why not add Scratch Wiki to then tutorial and possibly add it to the front page - Scratch have been good though on wiki Wednesday

Language dependent links
The Scratch-Wiki-link at the Footer of the Homepage could be language-dependent. MartinWollenweber
 * Only if your language is English or there is no wiki in your language, this should link to the English Scratch-Wiki. Else it links to the Scratch Wiki of your language MartinWollenweber 23:04, 4 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Support!
 * 17:53, 5 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Support, should be easy to implement as well!
 * Hamish752 11:46, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Having our featured article appear in the news
Have the front page of the Scratch Website include our featured article. This will alert people to the fact that the Wiki exists, since I think a lot of people don't know about it. jvvg 15:05, 5 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Support!
 * 17:53, 5 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I love this idea! - LiFaytheGoblin Avatar.png LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 21:44, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Brilliant: So easy and so effective! MartinWollenweber 21:58, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
 * That's a nice idea especially since HOW often do we change it? (hint:not often) Programmer1121
 * This seems to me to be a very wonderful idea! Amateurradiogeek15 01:42, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Great idea! Coke11 13:44, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Complete support! I think this would show people just how cool the Wiki is! :D
 * Hamish752 11:46, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Or just having our featured article in a separate box. That way it doesn't clutter up the news. Tymewalk 19:20, 9 February 2016 (UTC) LiFaytheGoblin (Talk)
 * accepted - With the introduction of Wiki Wednesday, this suggestion was approved by the Scratch Team and will be done in a slightly modified way :) -
 * Wiki Wednesday was good, but I don't understand where the featured article *is* exactly. -Radical- 15:54, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * support JonathanSchaffer 19:49, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

Button "comment this article at the forum"
It should not be to difficult, to make a Mediawiki-Plugin that does the described task. It would make a great connection between Scratch-Forum and Scratch-Wiki. There must be no changes at the forums for that, forum works as it works today. This technique has many advantages: MartinWollenweber 16:48, 5 January 2016 (UTC)
 * 1) At the end of the Wiki Page there will be a button called  "comment this article at the forum"
 * 2) If a Scratcher uses this button, a forum thread will be created starting with standardized post containing the Link to this wiki-article as a Headline of that Thread (by a bot-user: nobody can change this "Headline-post")
 * 3) Also a second post of the same thread will be created and displayed in edit-mode at the end of the wiki article: Here the user can post his comments ideas and questions to that article.
 * 4) Forum-Thread and Wiki-article are connected forever via the first post and all followings posts to this forum-thread can be made and seen in the forum and at that wiki article in the same way.
 * Forum user find out about the wiki and wiki user get active in the forum
 * Wiki authors get motivated because they see their readers feedback and can use it to improve the articles
 * A subject that is explained in the wiki has not to be described again and again in the forum, but the wiki article gives a knowledge base and in the forum-thread details can be discussed
 * Support!
 * 17:53, 5 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I see your advantages. But this would 1) require someone who can code that plugin and dedicate time in maintaining that system and 2) it is a possible security risk since it's an easy way to spam - it'd need much work to moderate this and 3) I'm not sure if people would like to have bot generated forum topics, especially with such a high risk of spam. I agree though that there should be more possibilities to have feedback on articles. Unfortunately I can't think of any good way to realize that... - LiFaytheGoblin Avatar.png LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 21:43, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Good idea, but which forum would it go in? Mitopolis 21:29, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Translated SDS/Welcoming Committee Descriptions
Since there is no feature that automatically loads a user-made translation (eg. German if your website language is German) as studio description for the SDS and the welcoming committee, we could add links to translations. Like that we don't need to create many studios in many different languages which would especially be a bit annoying since they would probably not get any attention, compared to the english studio. These translations could be put in wiki articles (eg. SDS/NUMBEROFSDS) (in the appropriate wiki of course). One problem I see is that there aren't wikis for all languages yet, so where would we put those translations? - LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 22:44, 5 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I agree with this idea. And I'm not completely sure where we'd put the translations, though. AghaCool 15:17, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Easy Linking to Wiki Articles in Comments
I think a feature that you could comment a short link to a wiki article would be very handy. For instance, if you wanted to explain what the SDS is you could link a person to the article by typing "wiki:SDS". The_Grits 04:14, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Great idea! In forum-speak, +9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999! Mitopolis 16:41, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I love this idea! So we don't just have the BBCode in the forums where you type [wiki]ARTICLENAME[/wiki] or what you suggested! :D - LiFaytheGoblin Avatar.png LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 21:40, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Or maybe for shortness, [Wiki:ARTICLENAME]?
 * I do like this idea. I would use the suggestion quite a bit.
 * Edit: I'm not sure how/if this is possible in BBcode, but maybe we can link to different language wiki articles?
 * Ex: [Wiki, Article:Scratch Katze ,Language:DE] ErnieParke 21:27, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that'd be shorter. Or to fit in the codes we have so far, it could also be _wiki:ARTICLENAME_ or @wiki:ARTICLENAME... There are many possibilities! Also, yes to link to other languages you do [wiki]de:ARTICLENAME[/wiki]. Just put the interwiki code in, basically. Obvs. this only works for wikis that are connected with the english wiki via interwiki... - LiFaytheGoblin Avatar.png LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 09:53, 14 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I love this idea:D Fmtfmtfmt2 04:02, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Wiki-Article-Tags in Forum Post Editor
The_Grits' suggestion above gave me the following idea: In the Scratch forums, we have the BBCode tags [wiki][/wiki] that you can put around a wiki article name and it'll transform into a link to that wiki article. You can also use it like this: [wiki=articlename]text[/wiki]. Not many people know about this I think, so I suggest adding a button to the forum post editor that will add those tags for you (this would work like the button that adds eg. [b][/b] tags to make your text bold). What do you think? - LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 21:40, 6 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I think this is GREAT! I was actually going to suggest that such a BB code be created. To think that I have almost 5,000 forum posts, and never knew that code existed when I could have used it so many times...  Yes, I diffidently support that this should be added to the post editor. Amateurradiogeek15 01:47, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * This is a great idea! I've been wanting something like this on the forums for a while now.:D AghaCool 15:22, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I tried the wiki tags out for the first time yesterday. They seem to work quite smoothly and well. :) Now if we could just make them more readily accessible. :) Amateurradiogeek15 15:24, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * YES! I NEVER KNEW ABOUT THESE! SO USEFUL!!! +100000000000000000000 Programmer1121 22:26, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

New Scratcher Message
You know how when you first sign up you have that one message in your inbox saying congratulations and links you to the explore page? What if it also said something along the lines of "Wondering something about Scratch or have a question? Check out the [Scratch Wiki]!


 * Such a simple but great idea! I love it! And it should be easy to implement :D - LiFaytheGoblin Avatar.png LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 12:25, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes! As I say, "Capital Idee!" :P Amateurradiogeek15 15:58, 11 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Amazing! Or as The Scratch Team would say it "Purrrrrrrrrfect!"
 * Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes! The only problem is the hundreds of thousands of non-new Scratchers wouldn't see it. Mitopolis 02:34, 12 January 2016 (UTC)
 * +1 :-) MartinWollenweber 10:52, 12 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I agree with Mitopolis Coke11 13:46, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

I really like this idea. It's simple and easy, yet super effective.

I just wonder what the Scratch Team will think about it, though, since it will be such a bold mention of the Wiki. The ST has traditionally put the Wiki in a bit more obscure places... ErnieParke 21:25, 13 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Why is that I wonder? Amateurradiogeek15 13:58, 14 January 2016 (UTC)
 * @ErnieParke And why can't traditions change? It's not like fish suddenly walking on land it's more of... Every first child being named this certain name but then your parents name you something else! Programmer1121 00:55, 17 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Well, I don't know if the ST will change the traditions or not, but I will have to say that illusion made me laugh. Amateurradiogeek15 01:44, 17 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I think a better idea would be to show it at account registration, that way everyone would see it.
 * Hamish752 11:46, 17 January 2016 (UTC)
 * This is a great idea! Therefore new Scratchers will know where to go if they need help or want to know more about Scratch! AghaCool 18:22, 18 January 2016 (UTC)
 * @Hamish752 I don't think putting it in account registration is a good idea. Most people blow through that fast, entering the boxes and excitedly getting started (this has led to problems with people not reading the Community Guidelines). On the other hand, most people will probably notice messages.
 * Tymewalk 19:20, 9 February 2016 (UTC)
 * support, +1, whatever JonathanSchaffer 19:52, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

Wiki link on the bar at the top of every page
I've been thinking about this for a while now. What if we had a link to the wiki along with Create, Explore, Discuss, About, and Help on the bar found at the top of every page? Here's a quick mock up.

I feel that this would make the wiki far more well known. I know a lot of people who never even knew the Wiki existed until I told them. Hamish752 11:38, 17 January 2016 (UTC)
 * That would of course be nice. But it wouldn't fit in my blue bar :( My search is already almost non-existant:
 * Mockup wikibutton ger.PNG
 * -LiFaytheGoblin Avatar.png LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 14:40, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Maybe the ST could remove the about tab once and for all... Rollercoasterfan 14:44, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
 * To be honest, I think the about tab makes sense because at least from my experience, that's what people first click when they find a new, interesting-looking website... I don't think the menu bar would be changed. But I just thought: What if when searching for something, it would also display results from the wiki, like you can chose to display results from projects, the forums, studios, etc? - LiFaytheGoblin Avatar.png LiFaytheGoblin (Talk) 15:31, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Ooh, I kind of like that idea... Rollercoasterfan 15:33, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
 * @LiFayTheGoblin Yes, but if I found a new interesting website, I would click a "Wiki" link before an "About" link. Mitopolis 21:26, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Ok...So I see that it won't fit on Lifay's screen because she's using German, and the German words are longer than the English...So. If it's true that people often click the About tab...why not have that tab bring you to a page where you can select to go the Wiki? Kind of an off the ball idea, but maybe?

EDIT: Or better yet, could we just have a prominent Wiki link on the About page? Amateurradiogeek15 13:20, 21 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Also, the wiki is a lot more helpful than About. Maybe move About to be a wiki page? I'll make a mockup at User:Mitopolis/Scratch Wiki Home. Popular GIF.gif Mitopolis (Talk | Contributions | Edits | ) 17:36, 1 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I know i'm late to the party, but would you really first check a wiki before an about page when visiting a new website? Chances are i wouldn't. And chances are most people wouldn't. In fact, many of the visitors will be kids who may never have even heard of a wiki. I would not advocate removing the about button in any way, shape, or form. Scimonster 21:14, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
 * How about making the about tab have a dropdown menu, where one of the options is the Wiki? Hamish752 07:02, 24 February 2016 (UTC)
 * In the very early betas, or maybe it was alpha, the help menu had a dropdown. I think it was removed the first time 2.0 was opened to the public and was never put back. Scimonster 08:02, 24 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Oh, really? Do you happen to know why? Hamish752 08:52, 24 February 2016 (UTC)
 * The temporary reason was because they made help link to a page explaining the open beta. I guess they then decided to leave it as a link to the current page. Scimonster 14:13, 24 February 2016 (UTC)

@Hamish752 No, Help should have a dropdown, with Discuss, Help, and About, with Wiki as its own tab. Which one better explains what Scratch is: The Wiki or About? The Wiki. 16:48, 24 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Show me a good wiki page that actually explains what Scratch is as well as the about page does. Scimonster 14:03, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Scratch 19:43, 13 March 2016 (UTC)

Promote the Wiki in the Questions About Scratch forum
Many questions in the Questions About Scratch forum could easily be answered by looking for one or two minutes on the wiki. In fact, some users even get the answers to post from here. I think that there should be either a link or topic somewhere that tells users to check the Wiki for answers to questions like "What is the first project?", "Who's Kaj?", "What's a forum signature?", etc. Tymewalk 16:25, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm not a forum user, but I used to be, and Yes! Mitopolis 16:32, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
 * sorry mitopolis, but use human speak. JonathanSchaffer 19:56, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

Promote our Tutorials in the Help With Scripts forum
Similar to my above idea, we can promote our tutorials in the Help With Scripts forum. We could make a small topic about the Wiki and how you can learn commonly-asked topics from it, and get it added to the "Helpful Topics for Scripting" sticky. I think this would work really well, plus if anyone found the tutorial didn't work or didn't help, instead of making 20 posts back and forth, they could just add it to the page's talk section and other people (or themselves, if they know a better way) can edit the tutorial to make it better. Tymewalk 19:20, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

Make Project Version of Articles
I think some articles, such as Kaj, Remix, and BYOB, would go good with a project alongside it. -Radical- 15:55, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Do you mean like a project actually imbedded in the article? Amateurradiogeek15 20:53, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * I brought up including projects in articles/userpages ages ago (wow i was so immature back then) and i think the reasons it was rejected for still stand. If that's what you were suggesting. [That old discussion was really hard to pull up!] Scimonster 22:05, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes...That's kind of the lines I was thinking. Wow! You must have hunted for awhile to bring that up. xD Amateurradiogeek15 22:30, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * It was hard to search for, because i didn't remember the exact title i used (i tried "we need this extension"), and "extension:scratch" aren't exactly rare terms. I eventually turned to Google for help. Scimonster 22:55, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Do you mean to have a project that tells the same info as the article? If so, I don't really see the point in that. The Wiki can be accessed from mobile devices, while projects can not, so I go to the wiki a lot on mobile devices. Pianogirl84 23:20, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Banner in forums signature
I made a banner to put in my sig on the forums advertising the Wiki: I put it in my sig, and it would be great if other Wiki editors did the same. It would not only help Scratchers discover the Wiki, it would be a lot easier in the Questions about Scratch forum (you could say, "Check out the article on Kaj on the Scratch Wiki! A link to it is in my signature ;)")

By the way, I'm the first person to edit this page in a while... have we stopped using it or something?
 * Support! 19:18, 4 June 2016 (UTC)