On 04/04/2011 02:45, Wookey wrote:
> It's a wiki CJ - nothing ever goes away. Every old and current version
> of a page is still there. Nothing has been hidden _or_ thrown away.
> All that's happenedn is the static webpages being merged into moin so
> ther website has a consistent layout and it can all be updated easily,
> not just part of it.
 > ...
> Now, back to your specific complaint of the old index wiki frontpage.
>
> There are several ways you could get to the info you were looking for.
> 1) The search box works well - you get a page name search by default, and
> a full-text search if you hit 'text'.
>
> 2) Then there is 'Findpage' which seems only to search page names (as
> opposed to content), but has quite detailed options for
> inclusion/exclusion.
>
> 3) And if you really couldn't remember any keywords from the page or
> page title you were looking for, then looking back at the old revisions
> of the 'Frontpage' for the old index is very easy. (click on 'info',
> select a pair of revisions to diff, and click on 'diff'). Looking back
> past the 20-odd edits hector recently made finds that familiar page
> back at edit 74.
>
> 4) Towards the bottom of the front page is "Old Wiki Frontpage is still
> available", which is the page you were looking for.
>
> That's _four_ ways of finding what you want on the front page, so I'm
> afraid I'm not convinced by "I can't find an alternative route to
> navigate the site". I'll put it down to general rage from the
> pleasures of 'menuconfig2' clouding your normally-incisive mind :-)

With respect, I think this is really missing the point. Yes, of course 
it's a Wiki, so everything is effectively still there. But if I can't 
see it, then it's gone as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, I should be more patient and try grovelling around in various ways 
to find old versions. But I'm trying to read the documentation because 
I'm in a hurry and I want to know something, and I *thought* I *knew* 
where to find it. It turned out that my mental index had been invalidated.

I did, of course, click on the promising-looking links 'Software' and 
'Hardware' only to discover that there was nothing behind them. My 
search patience ran out at that point.

> That 'oldfrontpage' page won't last long before stuff gets hived
> off into categories, but for the time being it'll be familiar. I expect
> Hector would like to get some feedback on how the pages/categories and
> navigation _should_ be arranged so people can find things.
> Probably more useful than rants about how the frontpage looks
> different.

Let me be clear about this: I'm not complaining that the frontpage had 
changed, just that the content behind it seemed to have vanished.

I'm thoroughly in favour of improved presentation of the Balloon Board 
and making it easier for users new and old to find information. But the 
recent change made it *more difficult*, just for a short, but critical, 
time, for this old user to find what he wanted, and he wasn't happy. In 
this case everything worked out OK because the user in question knew who 
to ask, but that might not be the case with a Balloon customer who is 
less involved with the development team.

I'll be delighted to contribute to the new, improved Wiki layout.

Chris
-- 
Chris Jones - chris@martin-jones.com
Martin-Jones Technology Ltd c/o Element Energy Ltd
Twenty Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2JD, UK
Phone +44 (0) 1223 655611 Fax +44 (0) 870 112 3908