Create New Page

To edit this page, click on the EditText link at the end of the page.

Each WikiCase word results in a link, either to an existing page or a new page. So NewTestPage? is shown followed by a question mark link to that new page (if no-one else has already created it).

When editing a new page, replace "Describe [new page name] here" with whatever you want and click Save.

To see a list of some pages which are already linked to, but not yet created, see http:wantedWikiPages?n=6.

Easier way: when you see one of the WantedPages (those blank links with a ? mark after them), click on the question mark. Type whatever you want into the EditText box that pops up.

Easiest way: change the URL displayed in your browser's address bar, so that wiki?PageName becomes wiki?edit=NewPageName and press the return key. You will then go straight to the editing box for the new page. However, we recommend the previously described methods so that OrphanPages are not created.

Firefox and Chromium, at least, also accept keyword bookmarks. I use 'c2 PageName' to quickly access a page, and 'c2e PageName' to edit one. (I have similar links 'wp' and 'wpe' for wikipedia.)

Many non-programmers find this wiki software actively hostile. They want a button to create a new page, a button to delete a page, a button to create a link, etc. Programmers find this somewhat incomprehensible, regarding the existing system as trivial to use once you've tried a bit. My direct personal experience of introducing others to wiki, people whose insights would be enlightening and useful, is that they are driven off by the lack of such convenient and obvious ways of doing things.''

Regard this as a feature if you will. Perhaps we don't want these people, but as a designer of interfaces to very complex systems I have gained some appreciation for the unrecognized technical abilities of programmers. "Normal" people have trouble with this wiki's interface. I've seen it.

[I've had the same experience, normal people do want a create page button, but that doesn't mean they should get it. If people could create pages with just a button, we'd have tons and tons of pages with no links to them from anywhere. Forcing one to create a link, to create a page, promotes the idea of pages being linked to other pages. It promotes the idea of the link itself being valuable content. It's the massive hyperlinking of pages that make wiki valuable, not the pages themselves. If we had just the pages, without the links, the site would be pretty worthless. New users need to be taught that LinksAreContent, and learn to use the interface as is, it is better this way than with a new page button. Same goes with links, if you needed a button to create them, not as many would get created. Smashing words together is the best possible interface to link creation, as it requires the least amount of effort from the user and promotes accidental linking. Users simply need to learn to accept that buttons will not improve wiki, it will hurt wiki.]

I know that, and you know that, but it is exactly that attitude that people find so bloody infuriating.

[That's their problem, you don't break a great product to make it easier to people who don't want to learn. Wiki is like any other tool, learn how it works, and it's wonderful, don't learn it, and it'll be frustrating. The wiki interface as is, is better than any proposed alternative for a number of reasons. Programmers understand this, users can too, or they can go use something else.]

If they don't find it infuriating they just won't use the software. Pages will link as they need to link. You don't need to force anything. One wiki entrance point is the search. Another is categories. Another is recent changes. Another is the index. Links are just one such way of accessing pages.

Do these "normal" people have trouble with editing existing pages as well? Do they find OneMinuteWiki incomprehensible? If so, I haven't noticed it, and I am not sure whether they'd make good contributors anyway. Those who read widely before contributing, as is suggested elsewhere, will discover how to create a button for creating a new page, and shouldn't need a button for creating a link, given that that happens automagically.

New people are precisely the people you need, especially on an internal site, because they are the people who have new content that needs to go into the wiki, but are put off by the arcane rules of wiki.

[The rules of wiki are simple, not arcane, and are designed to make wiki a better product. Wiki isn't a discussion board, and users simply need to accept that.]

The rules of wiki are not simple. They are arcane. As a member of the inside group, this doesn't bother you. If you are trying to sell wiki to a group, it matters a great deal.

We need new contributors, but contributors who can learn would be far more beneficial than those who can't easily do so. Surely, any one reader of these pages cannot fail to notice that help is readily available just by editing a question into a page and waiting for a few minutes.

Help is available using the same mechanisms that they are confused about. Help is available via a mechanism that is totally different from any they have ever used before. Not good marketing.

[I claim we neither need nor want new contributors who won't both do their homework and learn something new. People who have valuable contributions to make and can't figure out how to do it are probably rare. For the sake of the wonders of AccidentalLinking and simplicity of concept, most here will tolerate the loss.

[I recently demonstrated AccidentalLinking to an experienced WikiPedia user and they were blown away by it. "Why doesn't WikiPedia do that?" she asked. The answer seems to be because it's set up for non-technical people to be able to contribute.

[Do you really want to be all-inclusive and have no barrier to entry? This is intended to be a technical forum. If you want a community center, go somewhere else.]

There's nothing about this being a purely technical forum or having a barrier to entry in the original WikiDesignPrinciples.