Talk:Using Wikibooks

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

[edit] Layout

Very nice layout Urbane User. As long as Whiteknight doesn't mind, it'd be OK with me to delete the earlier version. I think the two of us were the only contributors. -- Jim Thomas (aka Jomegat) 18:14, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm very glad you like it. I look forward to getting cracking with this wikibook. Urbane User (Talk) (Contributions) 08:56, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

If anyone still looks at this, I was thinking of changing the layout to match the one on User:Reece/Using_Wikibooks made by the person who originally made the pretty layout, but leaving out the policies part, because I can't really think of what more you could say on the policies than what is said on the help pages, unless you're going to go into the history of the policy and linking to important discussions and stuff, but then I think that would be more suited for a book like Wikibooks Community.

I think providing the extra pages with things to do will make it easier for people to see what needs to be done and will give contributors a better sense of direction. I'll just add the links into the table I guess. Ikarsik (talk) 16:09, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

I hope you three don't mind, but I went through and simplified this TOC a lot. The older version was nice looking, but it was very difficult to edit or modify. I also flattened out the TOC, since there didn't seem to be any real reason to separate it out into chapters like we were doing. I think we can do a lot of beautification to this page without sacrificing editability like we had. Suggestions always welcome! --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 14:09, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merger from Wikibooks Community

I'm suggesting a merger from Wikibooks Community. I created that other book as a sort of guide for new users to understanding our environment and processes. However, the more I think about it, the more it should be included here in Using Wikibooks. The community book is relatively short, and wouldn't add too much bloat to this book. My big hope is to make Using Wikibooks printable and distributable soon, and the more information we can add to it to help new users, the better. I would love to hear what other people say about this. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 14:12, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm in favor of that proposal. I'm also thinking that Using Wikibooks ought to be more prominently featured on the site - maybe even in the navigtion section in the left panel. --Jomegat (talk) 18:08, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I've long wanted to merge all the {{useful}} and policy pages into this book wholesale, and use the Wikibooks namespace for this book. Instead of separate pages about the Wikibooks project, have a textbook with it's own namespace. That would certainly encourage the idea of having a coherent, organized resource about this wiki. And similarly for the Help namespace. That should be a textbook about using MediaWiki, not random, poorly-organized single pages.

But that is quite a large decision - I'd want community input on both those proposals before doing anything so radical.  — Mike.lifeguard | ^talk 18:38, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

I agree with both Jim and Mike about this. I've said for a long time that our old help pages should be redone in book format. Using Wikibooks is exactly the book that could replace those old pages. That's going to be a huge project though, so this probably isn't the time or place to discuss it. If people like the merger with Wikibooks Community, I will start working on it later today or tomorrow. It should be relatively straight forward. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 14:46, 30 November 2008 (UTC)