Front Page/Talk

This page is for discussing the contents of Front Page.

Layout issues for front page.

Items to include:

1. Create a Wiki
   

2. Featured Wiki
   

3. Search All Wiki Spot wikis
   

4. Wiki Spot News
   

5. Link to "Tour" and FAQ maybe in the Featured Section?

Create should have a different color background

Search needs to clearly show that it searches all of the Wiki Spot wikis. Having it near the upper right might be confusing if the normal search is also still in the upper right. Search will not take a lot of vertical room, News will have to start higher on the page than Featured starts.

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Which gives a lot of space to news.

Featured would rotate between a pool of active Wiki Spot wikis.

News should work a little like a Wiki Spot Blog / announcements center.

I just made some changes to the front page and realized I should have put my changes on this talk page first...

I would suggest this list of front page content:

1. What is Wiki Spot? - as the main attention getter
   

2. Link to "Tour" and FAQ just under "what is wiki spot?"
   

3. How to Create a Wiki - Just some initial information, like an outline of the steps without a lot of detail and a link to a page with more details and the actual functionality of creating a wiki.
   

4. A Featured Wiki - in a sidebar
   

5. Search All Wiki Spot wikis - in a sidebar
   

6. Wiki Spot News Headlines - in a section of the page, with link to more/past news.

I think this layout will make more sense to a first time visitor and also includes information for repeat visitors. First time visitors will need a good, concise introduction to what the site is more than anything. using examples like "in just a few clicks you can have 'yourwiki.wikispot.org' up and ready to use" will help people understand what wikispot does.

- Steve

I think we need to improve the "What is wiki spot" section. It currently reads:

Wiki Spot enables you to create a wiki for your community as quickly and easily as possible. Wikis have been shown to be an easy to use and tremendously helpful community resource¹, but often require a hosting provider and specific skills for the initial installation and set up. At Wiki Spot we take care of all the hosting and set up, you simply configure your wiki and add content. We've tried to make the interface as simple and easy to use as possible.

Are you ready to start a wiki? Check out Create a Wiki to get started!

So there's a few major things we need to get across in the short paragraph. What is Wiki Spot? A non-profit that helps communities collaborate using wikis. Emphasize two things, after that first major point: you can contribute to wikis here, and you can create a wiki for your community extremely easily. I would be weary, as we've discussed before, over over-emphasizing the "create a wiki as easily and as quickly as possible" part, because we want people to create wikis for their communities, not just their personal use.

Welcome to Wiki Spot! Here's some text about us!