Home » Other » Suggestions & Feedback » New WIKI Site?
New WIKI Site? [message #352008] Sat, 04 October 2008 20:44 Go to next message
Kevin Meade
Messages: 2103
Registered: December 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Senior Member
Is it me or is has something changed. Why when I put www.orafaq.com into my browser window do I end up at a WIKI page?

I spent 40 mintues trying to figure out how to get off the damn WIKI page and to this forum so I could post a complaint.

Anyone know what the hell is going on and who's "bright idea" is was to destroy the identify of ORAFAQ by pointing its main page to a WIKI?

A very upset Kevin Meade.
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352013 is a reply to message #352008] Sun, 05 October 2008 03:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Littlefoot
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Calm down, it isn't worth it. Have a cup of coffee, clear up your mind, wipe your spectacles and take another look. Because, the truth is out there - just if you can see it.

/forum/fa/5119/0/
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352016 is a reply to message #352008] Sun, 05 October 2008 03:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Frank
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Registered: March 2000
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You spent 40 minutes looking for the Forum Home?!
Check the left-hand menu...

By the way, I don't think the navigation differs that much from the old layout.. Getting from the old main page to the forums was done from about the same location on the page.

I think this new layour looks far more professional then the old layout, which was (in my humble opinion) a bit too 'designed by techies in the nineties' with the weird colouring-scheme.
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352019 is a reply to message #352016] Sun, 05 October 2008 04:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Michel Cadot
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Frank wrote on Sun, 05 October 2008 10:27
You spent 40 minutes looking for the Forum Home?!
Check the left-hand menu...

Unfortunatly when you click on "site home" you fall back on wiki page. It seems there is a bug... or maybe the new site home page is wiki one.

Regards
Michel

Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352048 is a reply to message #352019] Sun, 05 October 2008 11:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Barbara Boehmer
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Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
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I have a link saved to the OraFAQ forums home page in my Firefox favorites and use that to go directly to the forums. I rarely visit the home page and occasionally check what's new on the wiki using a saved link for that. So, if nobody had posted anything here, I would not have noticed. However, I do believe that when you go to http://www.orafaq.com you ought to get a menu for the whole site, not an immediate redirect to the wiki with a little note to click there if you want the menu that you should have gotten to begin with. I suspect the intent is to draw more attention to the wiki, but this is still backwards. Just put a wiki link in big letters on the original menu.

Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352056 is a reply to message #352008] Sun, 05 October 2008 12:11 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kevin Meade
Messages: 2103
Registered: December 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Senior Member
Thanks all for your quick replys. My rebuttals:

Quote:
1) yes, the old ORAFAQ page looked like it was a technical forum. Gee... I wonder what a technical forum should look like?

2) I did indeed spend 40 minutes fumbling over the web page looking for a way to the old orafaq. My own stupidity definitely played some part in this, but I figured I'd read the damn page to see what it contained. As one who has done a bit of WEBPage work, I can tell you that this "old page here" link is temporary and will after some period of time be removed.

3) Yes, I too now have several ORAFAQ pages saved as favorites. This works OK, for someone who has already been to the site and knows what it is.

4) I think Michel gets it. The link goes to a WIKI page and it should not. Is this a bug? Maybe but I think the existence of "old page here" link says it was intentional, which leaves this as just a bad design decision, nothing more.

My bottom line is this:

The people who decided to makey ORAFAQ home page, be a WIKI page, have no clue about what it means to HAVE AN IDENTITY on the Internet, for a website. They have removed our identity as THE ORAFAQ COMMUNITY and replaced it with someone else's identity. This is horrible.

I predict a significant loss in new traffic. This decision only creates confusion especially both amoung those who know the site and wonder where it has gone, and those who do not know the site and wonder what it is. Those who do not know the site will see a WIKI page and figure "crap just another definitions page, I'll have to back up and pick another link".

This is a mistake and must be fixed or we will all suffer for it and our value to those looking for Oracle expertise will disapper.

Quote:
Does anyone know who made this decision?
How can I contact them for a personal discussion?
Are they commited to monitor new web traffic to see if hits to our website are negatively affected?
To whom do they intend to report monitoring results?
Are they be willing to undo their decision and go back to the old setup after some period of time if hits go way down?


I fear that those who pointed us to a WIKI are not really concerned about traffic to our site but instead have some other ideas in mind that they have not thought through.

Am I the only guy who can see this for the real problem it is?

An upset and sad Kevin
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352058 is a reply to message #352056] Sun, 05 October 2008 12:33 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Barbara Boehmer
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Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
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Kevin Meade wrote on Sun, 05 October 2008 10:11

Am I the only guy who can see this for the real problem it is?

An upset and sad Kevin



Kevin,

I think we all see it and hopefully Frank Naude or whomever will see this and put it back the way it was, and there will have been no major harm done. Relax! Everything can be changed. Nothing is permanent. I think most people that find us using searches do so by finding individual pages, not the main one, so either way it should not drastically affect such things. I know someone else recommended coffee. I use coffee to wake up, not to calm down. For calming down you might try drinking some milk or going for a walk or watching some television or something else to focus your mind on something else for a while or just browse the forums as usual, now that you have found them. In the grand scheme of things, it is not worth getting that upset about.

Barbara


Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352060 is a reply to message #352008] Sun, 05 October 2008 12:43 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kevin Meade
Messages: 2103
Registered: December 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Senior Member
Yes, you and Frank, et.al. are correct. I am sipping a cup of rooibus right now, mmm...

I do not mean any disrespect. I know doing webwork is just as difficult as any other job and I am sure those who created the WIKI had only good intentions at hand.

My thanks to everyone. I have stated my views, I will sip more tea and maybe take the girls shopping for Prom dresses. Oh yes, shopping for Prom dresses, that will for sure calm me down.

Kevin
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352102 is a reply to message #352060] Mon, 06 October 2008 03:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Frank
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Registered: March 2000
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Kevin Meade wrote on Sun, 05 October 2008 19:43
Oh yes, shopping for Prom dresses, that will for sure calm me down.

lol

Michel wrote
Frank wrote on Sun, 05 October 2008 10:27

You spent 40 minutes looking for the Forum Home?!
Check the left-hand menu...


Unfortunatly when you click on "site home" you fall back on wiki page. It seems there is a bug... or maybe the new site home page is wiki one.

I did not mean the link "site home" but the "Forum home" link.
The forum never has been the site's home.

Quote:
1) yes, the old ORAFAQ page looked like it was a technical forum. Gee... I wonder what a technical forum should look like?

Ah, but I did not mean it looked like a tech forum. I meant it looked like it was "designed" by techies.
Designing websites is a skill better not left to techies.
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352153 is a reply to message #352102] Mon, 06 October 2008 06:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
rleishman
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Registered: October 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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The thing I liked about the old page is the recent articles/blogs on the main page. It made the home page topical and different on every visit. The wiki home page is quite static and dull.

My personal favourite tech full-service site is http://www.eeeuser.com/ (as I sit in front of the tele on myy Eee). It has topical new stuff on the home page and obvious menu bar links to the wiki and forum.

OraFAQ could do a lot worse than to learn from this model.
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352231 is a reply to message #352153] Mon, 06 October 2008 13:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
dr.s.raghunathan
Messages: 540
Registered: February 2008
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i am very lay man and not technically stuffed person on various web backgrounds. Whenever i receive message from noreply i just click i will straightaway land in topic and that too on the required message. Now it is not working properly. i have to quit from my mail box and i have write address for orafaq and round the way i have to reach my destination. I think i must learn many things other than oracle too
yoursa
dr.s.raghunathan
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #352458 is a reply to message #352231] Tue, 07 October 2008 17:27 Go to previous messageGo to next message
djmartin
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Location: Surges Bay TAS Australia
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Shouldn't the word 'OraFAQ' appear on the main page now that it is our home page?

How about having a brief history of OraFAQ at the first entry instead of "Oracle: the Company"?

David
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #354794 is a reply to message #352008] Tue, 21 October 2008 05:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Michel Cadot
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Location: Nanterre, France, http://...
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Is this me or is Wiki currently offline?

Regards
Michel
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #354818 is a reply to message #352458] Tue, 21 October 2008 07:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kevin Meade
Messages: 2103
Registered: December 1999
Location: Connecticut USA
Senior Member
Mr. Martin, how did you get your picture posted as part of your ID? I'd like to do that too.

Kevin
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #354820 is a reply to message #354818] Tue, 21 October 2008 07:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Michel Cadot
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Control Panel => Account settings => Custom Avatar File

Regards
Michel
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #378340 is a reply to message #354820] Tue, 30 December 2008 01:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Frank Naude
Messages: 4579
Registered: April 1998
Senior Member
Hi Kevin,

You will be glad to know that the old home page is back where it belongs. I just couldn't figure out how to fix all the broken links. Anyway, the question now is: what do we put on the front page; and, what do we need to do to modernize it?

Best regards.

Frank
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #378360 is a reply to message #378340] Tue, 30 December 2008 02:47 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Littlefoot
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Registered: June 2005
Location: Croatia, Europe
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Frank Naude
what do we put on the front page?

Us, perhaps (something like this - please, scroll down a little bit to view the second picture!)
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #378527 is a reply to message #378360] Tue, 30 December 2008 20:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
rleishman
Messages: 3728
Registered: October 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Senior Member
Notwithstanding LF's excellent graphic design skills, I reckon - like I said above - that http://www.eeeuser.com is a great model for a tech site:
- Links to sub-domains at the top
- Shortcuts down the left
- Topical content on the main frame (so you see something new each time you return)

Following this line, I would:
- Add a navigation bar to the top of the page with all of the main sub-domains such as FORUM and WIKI
- Change the default view on www.orafaq.com - which includes only headers to articles - to be the same as www.orafaq.com/articles - which includes headers and teasers.
- Blow away the other sections on the home page (New forum posts, Recent comments, Content queue)
- Pimp it up with a new stylesheet.
Re: New WIKI Site? [message #378592 is a reply to message #378527] Wed, 31 December 2008 01:04 Go to previous message
Frank Naude
Messages: 4579
Registered: April 1998
Senior Member
Thanks Ross! To have a topical front page we need to get people to submit stories to put on it. If you guys can occasionally help with the odd story or two, we can go for it.
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