Maybe useful for Appropedia:

  • Set "text-decoration" of links to "underline" (I believe this enhances usability)
  • Consider moving discussions to the bottom of articles. See the bottom of this page for an example (see source code).
I think that this is a very good idea, especially for the social networking component of Appropedia. Is there a way to have the discussions show up below all other page content such as Categories? --Lonny 02:48, 2 November 2006 (PST)
I fear that some template and script hacking would be necessary to achieve this. Clearly beyond my abilities, unfortunately. --Helge 07:06, 2 November 2006 (PST)

implemented

  • Wording changes, for better usability (can easily be changed with sysop privileges)
Thank you. We had already personalized some messages, but these really add to the usability. This is especially important for Appropedia, which will probably attract many non-tech focused users. --Lonny 02:48, 2 November 2006 (PST)
  • Beautiful URLs in the form www.appropedia.org/ArticleName
    • Set the path in LocalSettings.php to $wgArticlePath = "/$1";
    • Place the following code into a file named .htaccess in the root of the server (add more folders in the first line if needed to exclude from being rewritten. use a folder "nowiki" for random future content you don't want to be rewritten.):
RewriteEngine on

# Don't rewrite requests for files in MediaWiki subdirectories,
# MediaWiki PHP files, HTTP error documents, favicon.ico, or robots.txt
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(stylesheets|images|skins|extensions)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(redirect|texvc|index).php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/error/(40(1|3|4)|500).html
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/favicon.ico
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/robots.txt
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/nowiki
# include these last two lines if you use the analog stats
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/failed_auth.html$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/stats

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?title=$1 [QSA]
Your solution is better than most of the ones I have tried, especially with the added exclude from being written lines, but I am still having a problem with pages breaking at an ampersand. See this page at our test wiki buildcapacity.org for an example. --Lonny 02:48, 2 November 2006 (PST)
I have no idea how to fix this, my knowledge of rewrite rules and regexp is very limited. On my wikis I simply use "and" instead of the ampersand ;-) --Helge 07:06, 2 November 2006 (PST)
This is really a reply to Lonny's question, but since the conversation is here, I'll put a pointer to my comment here. See Appropedia_talk:Technical_questions#Short_URLs for some stuff I found regarding ampersands in page titles. --CurtB 13:29, 2 November 2006 (PST)
Short URLs are now implemented here. Thank you for the push. --Lonny 16:40, 20 November 2006 (PST)
Nice! --Helge 18:13, 20 November 2006 (PST)
  • Replace the title "Main Page" (on top of the page plus in the browser title) by something that makes more sense. Do that by "moving" (=redirecting) Main Page to a new name. See http://www.osafa.org/english/Main_Page for a demonstration.
Another great idea. I just changed it to "Welcome to Appropedia", which also solves the clumsiness of the previous double headings. --Lonny 02:48, 2 November 2006 (PST)
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