I have a few suggestions for Wikihow. I’m sure that no one will read or heed this, but whatever. 1. Add ability to embed video from link. I think that embedded videos would be higher quality if we were allowed to embed ones from custom links. We could even make our own videos, meant for the viewers of the article! The pre set videos given as embed options are pretty trashy and the search honestly sucks, so it isn’t even worth embedding anything. 2. Dim the page for writers. I like the white theme of Wikihow, but it literally burns into my eyes along with the black letters against it when I am typing something. I use an extension called Nicer Inverter and I can’t tell you how much better everything looks when I activate it. I’m sure that people would use something like this if they wanted to but an optimized one would be way better, and Nicer Inverter sometimes makes certain buttons completely disappear. 3. Add ability to change name of article after it is published. I prefer editing more than creating, and I’ve come across some articles with pretty terrible names and good content. If it has to do with links becoming invalid, I think that the address can stay the same and new articles created after this update will have randomly generated addresses. It will add some flexibility in terms of name choosing because many articles beyond fixing have stolen good names and you can’t replicate an address, so you can’t choose the name. 4. Add some kind of guide to editing. I think that I’ve really evolved in terms of editing since I started. I used to have to use guided editing and since I’ve learned how to master the normal editor, I now realize how bad the guided editor is. I’m still sure that there are some tips and tricks which I’ve missed, though, and there aren’t any proper guides online. Most “guides” just tell you how to click Edit or Publish. http://www.wikihow.com/Edit-a-wikiHow-Page
5. Change some guidelines. I know that patrollers are following their rules, but, honestly, how is a separate section for “Introduction” a violation? I’ve also seen many troll articles which have slipped past patrollers. So, adding an “informal” section that’s called “Introduction” is bad but a Speed up Windows guide misleading people to damage their PCs is okay? Geez. 6. Simplify image uploading. Some articles require a lot of images in order to visualize them, and the extra “Your image has been uploaded” page and how the uploader defaults to the Flickr thing (which no one uses) isn’t helping. Sorry if I was rambling, but here are my suggestions. I’m sure I have a few more that I forgot, but I’ll add them if I remember. =)
Marina
2
Alrighty, I’m going to choose a few to respond to and I’ll go ahead and reply to the rest a little bit later if I’ve the time. 2) A ‘dim the lights’ function is just another thing that the engineers would have to create. They’re pretty busy and if you want to glance on some of the current things they’re working on, check out the ‘Bugs Reports’ category. You can see all the urgent things they’re working on now.
The reason I assume this wouldn’t be on the top of the list of tools and things to create is because most modern laptops and computers can do that manually. Some laptops even have the function on automatic. If it honestly bugs the author THAT much, they can ‘fn’ and ‘f6’ or whatever the buttons are on their laptops or computers. It doesn’t bug me personally and I’ve never had anyone else say they have a problem with the brightness. It’ very clean and makes it really easy for users to read. 3) I hear this one a lot. Especially from new users like you. But there’s a LOT of problems with this. At this point, admins are the only ones who can change article titles. You can put a title tag on an article, however, and admins will sort through it and decide if the change is good or not. I check the title list fairly often as do many admins. The reason none of the other users are able to do this is because it could cause a lot of issues such as spamming, inexperienced users getting into title-edit wars or just plain giving unsuitable titles. Here, a lot of users tend to ask why the author can’t have control over that. That’s for similar reasons but also because wikiHow is a collaborative site. By giving only the authors and admins control of the title, it opens us up to users who come back in after a long break and change the titles to something unsuitable. Now, one thing that I need to point out about this paragraph is your usage of the sentence where you said “articles beyond repair”. No article is beyond repair if it passes all our nfd’s. If you don’t like an article, fix it. It’s on you. People don’t steal good titles. Edit it if there’s an article with raw information that isn’t developed as you’d like. 4) Writer’s guide, my friend. http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Writer’s-Guide
5) I’m going to let someone else cover a lot of this. If an article is hurtful or misleading in any way but you’re not sure what to do, ask an editor or make a thread in the forums asking what to do so we can decide as a community and discuss it.
(1) Good idea. Video adding in wikiHow is surely a pain in my ass lol. Approved! Edited: I think embed videos from links should be YouTube, rrrrrrright?
(2) He/She means it looks like this:Dimming the whole laptop or desktop background can make certain people feel uncomfortable. Dim the page for writers means dim everything except the writing/editing area, so editors won’t be distracted (somehow it’s like “Turn off the lights” addon for Chrome which I’m using). I think it’s a good idea and not so difficult to make. The editing area can easily be located, so they can simply put a dark-transparent layer on everything else and leave that area open. (3) Marina is right. (4) You’re on a roll, Marina! (5) The new design of wH doesn’t need a seperate Introduction since, it is right here:(6) One of many problems we have to deal with when uploade pictures to wH is copyright. As pictures on Flickr and wikiMedia are allowed to share on the Internet, it’s the safe way to pick pictures and place them on articles. Of course you can upload your files in your own PCs, but you need authorization if they’re not your own work. Also, you need to fill the “Licensing” field ASAP or the uploaded images will soon be deleted.
I use the Flickr picture function.
