On 10/31/2011 7:18 PM, foundation-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org wrote: > On 10/31/2011 10:09 AM, Federico Leva (Nemo) wrote: >> > Robin McCain, 31/10/2011 17:20: >>> >> We must also remember that the wiki edit interface and markup can be a >>> >> little intimidating to a newbie, so opening an edit window and making no >>> >> changes may be more common than we think. Are there any stats on this? >> > Yes, it was something like 70 % of "edit" clicks are not followed by >> > save. It's difficuilt to tell how many of those were people (or even >> > stupid bots) looking for the source text. > For me, the most common reason why an "edit" click is not followed by a > "save" is because I end up not having the time to complete the work, or > the edit I had in mind becomes more complicated than I thought > (sometimes the latter partly explains the former). To put it > idiomatically, it's a reaction to biting off more than I can chew. > > That may not be entirely typical, but in the sense of "editing proved > more difficult than anticipated" it probably explains many abortive > attempts at editing. I suppose it's been suggested before, but I think > more fine-grained section editing capability, so you can simply > highlight any portion of an article and open an edit window for just > that portion, could be helpful. > > --Michael Snow Unless a page is extremely short, it is a good idea to throw in a few ===section=== headers here and there to make it easier to edit just one section. I would think that an editors time would be much better spent adding a few of these to a new entry rather than waste time telling someone their new topic isn't important enough to be included.
As for the "freeze" you experience, we've all had such moments - especially when trying to apply for grants online - where every character counts and you only have one chance to make the maximum positive impact. I learned a long time ago to write my stuff in a text editor then cut & paste into a html form for markup - avoids butterflies in the stomach. :-) _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l