Talk:Solar Cooking Wiki (Home)

Organization of this page

Tom, why is Articles in the Press under Solar Cooking Basics? Solar Cooking Basics to me implies how, why, where, etc., whereas Articles in the Press is news, promotion, and (eventually) history - quite a different beast. --Beth Ogilvie 21:42, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

I put it there because newspaper articles about solar cooking are always very superficial and don't really give any useful detailed information. They might be helpful though to people who know nothing about solar cooking. Articles that feature good information on a specific project can go on the NGO page for that project. Does this seem reasonable to you? --Tom

Yes. I get it now. Thanks. (Next time I'll ask first :) --Beth Ogilvie 17:27, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

The reason I moved the Why, Where, and How links to a separate page is that I wanted some real estate at the top of the page to short announcements. --Tom

I thought that was fine. As we get more meat on the wiki, we'll have to keep condensing what's on the Main Page. --Beth Ogilvie 17:27, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

Creating sister wikis in other languages

• How to start a new Wikipedia has a lot of hints.
• We need someone (preferrably multiple someones) fluent in the language to champion the new wiki
• There are 2 kinds of things to be translated: the MediaWiki interface and the Solar Cooking content.
  • MediaWiki namespace has information on the interface. A good wiki in another language would have translations for all the MediaWiki, Template, and Help files (500+ pages). Gulp.
  • Solar Cooking content to be translated includes the main page and whatever other pages the translator wants to include. Some material could be copied from the SC Archive if the new language matches on of the translated mini sites.

Considering the mountain of work required to translate the interface, either we need to bootstrap off some existing wiki in that language (e.g. the French Wikipedia) or we need to temporarily give up on having complete wikis in other language, and for now just support translations of individual pages. This forces the other language speakers to cope with English sidebars, messages, etc., but it's better than nothing. I will explore with Wikia whether the former is possible... --Beth Ogilvie 01:42, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Users can set their own language in their Preferences. For example, if you change your language to French, most of the interface will appear in French, using text that originally developed for the French Wikipedia. Angela ^talk 21:54, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I tried this and it works. Looks like we could just start with es.wikipedia.com. I'm fluent in Spanish. User:Tom Sponheim

Placement of events

I moved this under directory since it seems to be a good addition there. Tom Sponheim 23:49, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Changes to this page

Wikia:Help:Improving your wiki suggests renaming the Main Page. For example, the home page of Wikianswers is at "Wikianswers", not at "Main Page". It might be better if when people first get to our wiki (presumably at the main page) they see "Solar Cooking" in big print at the top rather than "Main Page". Thoughts? --Beth Ogilvie 16:17, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

That sounds right to me. However, it is called "Main Page" at Wikipedia:Main Page and at Commons:Main Page so it may deserve a little more thought. Walter Siegmund 06:22, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I've gone off this idea. --Beth Ogilvie 16:31, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

How about adding something in the blue box like: The purpose of this wiki is to encourage the spread of solar cooking worldwide to improve quality of life and reduce the contribution of wood fuel cooking to deforestation and global warming. I'd like to show people right away that we have a serious intent - it's not just experimenting with technology. --Beth Ogilvie 19:50, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I wonder if Image:Panel-type.jpg or a similar one might serve much the same purpose and be more inviting. It might suggest the diversity of the community as well. BTW, this is a casual suggestion for your consideration, not an opinion that it should be done that way. However, I think an image or two used in one way or another (I suggested another way elsewhere) would make the main page more inviting. Best wishes, Walter Siegmund 06:23, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I think having a picture is a great idea. Let's do both. According to Google Analytics, 30% of the people who see our main page bounce right back out of the wiki without going to any other wiki page. Let's try to make the main page more inviting. Maybe if it looked more like a magazine and less like a reference manual, more people would step inside. We could still have the reference sections below the intro part. --Beth Ogilvie 16:31, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

To make The Minimum Solar Box Cooker article (for instance) link around here better, some words that are unrelated to solar cooking in itself, such as "cardboard", "aluminum", "UV", "sheet metal", might be good articles to create since other articles here also have those same words in them. Though they are only peripherally related to solar cooking, it allows articles to wikilink together easier. Just a suggestion.--RangerDave 20:53, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, yes, having a "featured article" on the mainpage and changing it once every couple of weeks is an excellent idea. That aricle should have as many links in it as possible, so this might encourage others to link into other pages here on this wiki.--RangerDave 21:02, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

I added a featured picture section to the main page. I'm not very good with layout, so won't be disappointed if someone rearranges things. I suggest that the featured picture be changed every week or two and that preference be given to pictures depicting cookers or related items being used.

My suggestion in response to Beth's research and RangerDave's comment is that we make Minimum Solar Box Cooker our first collaboration of the week and try to improve its linkage to the rest of the site. That may involve importing some articles from Wikipedia and images from Commons. Then, we can make it our first featured article. Walter Siegmund 04:10, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Featured article or image

Wikipedia has a daily featured article on its main page. That might be a good thing to try here, perhaps changing weekly or bimonthy at first. I think a featured image would add interest. We have quite a number to choose from now. That might be better to try initially. Walter Siegmund 22:52, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

What you can do

Tom, I'm curious why you removed "What you can do to spread solar cooking" from the main page. --Beth Ogilvie 16:31, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

I removed it because it could be subsumed under Promoting solar cooking. I could be talked into putting it back though. It sort of 50/50 for me. Tom Sponheim 20:47, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Promoting solar cooking sounds rather formal to me, like something an organization would do. What you can do to promote solar cooking sounds immediate and personal, so yes - I would like to have it back. :-) --Beth Ogilvie 22:21, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Great! Can you put it back then? Thanks Tom Sponheim 23:10, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Bottom of page

• Do people start articles using the box on the bottom of the page? Is that a question that Google Analytics can answer? To me, it seems likely that someone would begin by reading some of the other articles and editing them before starting a new article, probably as a result of typing "xxxx" into the search box and getting "There is no page titled "xxxx". You can create this page."
• I wonder if "Questions?" should direct people to Forum:Help desk? Regarding that point, maybe we should seed the help desk with a couple of questions and answers so that it looks more inviting. Also, everyone should put Forum:Help desk on their watch list so that people will get a response. Walter Siegmund 04:26, 18 February 2007 (UTC)