Help talk:SP Cheatsheet

From Studyplace

[edit] A home-grown cheatsheet?

I thought a home-grown cheatsheet might help new users get past various editing thresholds. Even though there is much redundancy between this and more comprehensive help resoureces, I think our new user populations are somewhat different. In the case of both Wikipedia and Studyplace, I think it is safe to assume that most potential contributors are not technophobes by virtue of their interest in seeking out the site and creating accounts. But Studyplace also has those users who encounter the site only (or initially) through courses, and in these cases the primary motivation may be the course content, not the chance to engage with a wiki (despite whatever statements may exist in the course syllabus to the effect that the wiki is integral to the course). It seems to me that this population is not well served by our existing help resources, given that they require some navigation to find. Yes, the help link is in the resources column, but most technophobes are often so unlikely to think they will get anything out of online help resources, however clear they are, that they won't even click that link. With that said, perhaps we can situate a table like the one below on course assignment pages and/or course syllabi, making explicit to the technophobe what may be tacitly obvious to the technophile. I don't know if this is the best page title for this effort - is You Type, You Get any better? Or maybe that ought to be the name of a template that puts this table (or something smaller like it) on course pages, etc. Eric Strome 17:51, 17 September 2007 (EDT)

I intended to put the more common conventions used on SP into this table, but the few versions I attempted earlier weren't rendering at all properly, and then I had other work to do. Beyond the basic text markup and linking already there, I was thinking we ought to list the indenting convention, headings, numbering, bullets and perhaps a few other things I can't recall just now. Any other ideas? Eric Strome 02:08, 18 September 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Changes to {{Template:tool_set}}?

Are the Wikipedia help resources in the Wiki-work Tools template still preferable to the more general Mediawiki help resources that are elsewhere in the site? Eric Strome 20:39, 24 September 2007 (EDT)

A minor point i know, but it doesn't seem that the link US women 1600-2000 includes CU authentication. I was asked for login info when i tried to use it to post Charlotte Perkins Gilman resources. Eric Strome 00:12, 27 September 2007 (EDT)