Kindle Developer's Corner Master Index (aka. Where Do I Start?)

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Any suggestions how to format the first post (master index) in this thread?

No.

On MiniModding.com I used a top menu bar drop down list that served the purpose of this thread's top post.

Like this thread's top post, those drop down list entries lead to wiki pages that any member could edit.

On TikiWiki, the forum, blog, wiki, etc all recognize the same formatting syntax.
Here, the forum text areas recognize only a sub-set of the wiki formatting.

The only suggestion I can offer is select the "Advanced Editor" in your user profile options (unless you already have).

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

The only suggestion I can offer is select the "Advanced Editor" in your user profile options (unless you already have).

The indenting was done in the "Advanced" editor. I have used "fancy formatting" in a number of my OTHER threads and posts. There really are limitations. At least the bug in the CODE and PHP boxes got fixed...

I suppose we could make a MASTER INDEX wiki page, and then turn the first post in this thread into a large CLICK ME button that goes to that wiki page.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

The indenting was done in the "Advanced" editor. I have used "fancy formatting" in a number of my OTHER threads and posts. There really are limitations. At least the the bug in the CODE and PHP boxes got fixed...

I suppose we could make a MASTER INDEX wiki page, and then turn the first post in this thread into a large CLICK ME button that goes to that wiki page.

This web-site package is already on life-support.
It will be replaced, the only unknowns are: When and With What.

There is ten years worth of content put here by over 150,000 users.
That is something to be protected during any site overhaul.
Needless to say, a big job for the Web-Mastering crew here.

- - - -

We can't get a new drop down in the top menu bar, the top menu bar is common to all forums.

The next box with the breadcrumb trail and login box has a life long lease on the top of the page(s).

The next box (td.alt1) which is now showing "Kindle Developer's Corner etc." and sometimes has messages in it might be "up for grabs".

Placing a forum specific menu bar inside of td.alt1 might be an answer.

I can do that at MiniModding.com (TikiWiki) but I don't know if it could be done here (vBulletin).

The only other idea that comes to mind is to make the title sticky point into the wiki instead of currently pointing into a forum thread.
That might be fairly easy to do and would lead to your "Master Directory" page.

Some feedback from our active users before making these suggestions to the Web-Master crew would be nice to read.

[knc1]

Brain Fart #999:

Why not just make the thread prefix field "click through" to the appropriate Wiki index page?

All Wiki index pages have a navigation bar (including a return to forum link).

Then the "Master Index" sticky can go away all together.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

Brain Fart #999:

Why not just make the thread prefix field "click through" to the appropriate Wiki index page?

All Wiki index pages have a navigation bar (including a return to forum link).

Then the "Master Index" sticky can go away all together.

Some web pages are (correctly) linked into multiple indexes, but can only have one prefix.

An app that only runs on a K4 or K5 would go into its "type of app" index, and into the K4 and K5 indexes. A developer would find it as an example in the "type of app" index that he wants to develop for. A K4 user would find it in the K4 index without needed to search each "type of app" index/

You cannot do that just with prefixes on a thread. But if you meant having a prefix field at the top of the forum, then that COULD do the job.

The way it is done now, the sticky thread can also have new non-prefixed indexes added to it, if we need to...

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Some web pages are (correctly) linked into multiple indexes, but can only have one prefix.

An app that only runs on a K4 or K5 would go into its "type of app" index, and into the K4 and K5 indexes.

Kindle models K20 and K33 do not exist outside of this post, just example numbers.

Adding a serial port to a K20 might be in both Hardware and in K20 but the post can only have one prefix tag and could only go a single place.

So there would still have to be a "Master Index" of some sort, be it the leading post of this thread or a Wiki page.

Maybe then all of the prefixes should click-through to the "Master Index" - however the "Master Index" was implemented.

Consider the situation right now (as first time visitor to site) - - -

Person pulls up a thread prefixed Hardware and reads that it is about the serial port on the K20.
Thinks: "I want one of those for my K33".

Now what does this person do?

If observant the visitor might have noticed the titles of the stickies when they first landed on this site (yeah, right!);
Might even have remembered there was one titled something about a master prefix index. (yeah, maybe!)

Having surmounted those mental challenges, which of the master index lines does this person pick?
Hardware (which was the tag), K20 (which was in the subject), K33 (which is the only thing this visitor is interested in)?

Dealing now with the "instant gratification generation" they will pick: K33
But the K33 didn't exist when the O.P. put up their post - no link.
Pick: Hardware?
Hmm... There is a Wiki:Hardware:Serial Port (about 6 hours old now).
No K33 mentioned, the K33 didn't exist when the O.P. listed it under Wiki:Hardware:Serial Port:K20

Well, even though a single destination for a single prefix would have landed this visitor at Wiki:Hardware it wouldn't have given the "instant answer" but at least all of the above mental handsprings could have been avoided.

And if the O.P. had not indexed their post at all?

There are 156,000 members here - think they can all "get it right"?

At least landing the new visitor on the "most significant of many" by a click-able prefix would not have made the situation any worse.
The new visitor would still have to use the Wiki navigation bar to go searching for K33 or K20 or ...

Translation:
Technically you are correct, one prefix to many destinations can't be programmed;

In practice, one prefix to "most significant" Wiki page + the page top navigation aid would be better (in my opinion) than what we have now.

But those are just our opinions, still to be heard from is the other 156,000-2 members.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

Adding a serial port to a K20 might be in both Hardware and in K20 but the post can only have one prefix tag and could only go a single place.

So there would still have to be a "Master Index" of some sort, be it the leading post of this thread or a Wiki page.

Maybe then all of the prefixes should click-through to the "Master Index" - however the "Master Index" was implemented.

Consider the situation right now (as first time visitor to site) - - -

Person pulls up a thread prefixed Hardware and reads that it is about the serial port on the K20.
Thinks: "I want one of those for my K33".

Now what does this person do?

If observant the visitor might have noticed the titles of the stickies when they first landed on this site (yeah, right!);
Might even have remembered there was one titled something about a master prefix index. (yeah, maybe!)

Having surmounted those mental challenges, which of the master index lines does this person pick?
Hardware (which was the tag), K20 (which was in the subject), K33 (which is the only thing this visitor is interested in)?

Dealing now with the "instant gratification generation" they will pick: K33
But the K33 didn't exist when the O.P. put up their post - no link.
Pick: Hardware?
Hmm... There is a Wiki:Hardware:Serial Port (about 6 hours old now).
No K33 mentioned, the K33 didn't exist when the O.P. listed it under Wiki:Hardware:Serial Port:K20

Well, even though a single destination for a single prefix would have landed this visitor at Wiki:Hardware it wouldn't have given the "instant answer" but at least all of the above mental handsprings could have been avoided.

And if the O.P. had not indexed their post at all?

There are 156,000 members here - think they can all "get it right"?

At least landing the new visitor on the "most significant of many" by a click-able prefix would not have made the situation any worse.
The new visitor would still have to use the Wiki navigation bar to go searching for K33 or K20 or ...

Translation:
Technically you are correct, one prefix to many destinations can't be programmed;

In practice, one prefix to "most significant" Wiki page + the page top navigation aid would be better (in my opinion) than what we have now.

But those are just our opinions, still to be heard from is the other 156,000-2 members.

Although I see the intent of your K33 and K20, they could be confusing. K3 and K2 are more common. No matter WHAT you do, it will be confusing to somebody. All we can do is TRY to make our indexes and prefixes easy to find and easy to use. And with index wikis, they CAN be made more (or less) clear by end users...

Some people get upset when you leave out a step (they want a COMPLETE recipe), and other people get upset if you use too many words. If you compromise, you can piss off the people at both ends of the spectrum... You cannot make all of the people happy all of the time...

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Although I see the intent of your K33 and K20, they could be confusing. K3 and K2 are more common. No matter WHAT you do, it will be confusing to somebody. All we can do is TRY to make our indexes and prefixes easy to find and easy to use. And with index wikis, they CAN be made more (or less) clear by end users...

I will edit my post to highlight that those are non-existent model numbers used in the example.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

I will edit my post to highlight that those are non-existent model numbers used in the example.

The K6 is the kindle fire. Hopefully by the time they get around to making a K20 (or K33) we will be using bio-powered implantable computers with direct neural interface, so we do not have to worry about mundane things like font-smoothing and display update speeds.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

The K6 is the kindle fire. Hopefully by the time they get around to making a K20 (or K33) we will be using bio-powered implantable computers with direct neural interface, so we do not have to worry about mundane things like font-smoothing and display update speeds.

Maybe you want lab126 dicking around with your neural interface?
It is bad enough that Amazon lets them write Kindle firmware changes.
- - - -
PS1: Have you visited Wiki:Hardware this morning?
PS2: Have you paged all the way down to the bottom of Wiki:Tools? Nobody uses their pgdown key.

(Yes, DaleDe saw that and made no comment.)

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

Maybe you want lab126 dicking around with your neural interface?
It is bad enough that Amazon lets them write Kindle firmware changes.
- - - -
PS1: Have you visited Wiki:Hardware this morning?
PS2: Have you paged all the way down to the bottom of Wiki:Tools? Nobody uses their pgdown key.

(Yes, DaleDe saw that and made no comment.)

Hopefully somebody SMART will work on the neural interface by then.

Yes, I saw the "lab126 end of the internet" link a couple of days ago. A little humor now and then is a good thing.

[knc1]

So far in this thread, you have been reading the opinions of 2 of the 156,000 members here, but until some of the 156,000-2 decide to join in...

Point 1: The sections (and sub-sections) of the existing index pages may be directly addressed, as in:
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Hard...ex#Serial_Port
https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Tools_Index#Software

Point 2: Suppose that GM's suggested "Master Index" is put on a Wiki page with generous use of sections and sub-sections.

Change 1: Convert this thread title into a re-direct to GM's "Master Index"

Point 3: Presume the O.P. of a thread starter has prefixed the thread with the "most significant" of multiple possible tags.

Change 2: Make the prefix (category) tags "click-through" to the associated section of the GM "master index".

A "Master Index" section tree might look like this (for prefix Hardware):

MI:Hardware
MI:Hardware:K1
. . .
MI:Hardware:K5
MI:Hardware:K1:Serial Port (this is still a directly addressable (sub-)section link into the existing index pages).
MI:Hardware:K3:Reading Light (does not exist at the moment)
. . .

I think the Wiki supports five (or six) header levels, that should get the browsing visitor fairly close to what they want to find with only two clicks. (prefix, MI:index link) or (This title, MI:index link).

I have re-formatted a lot of Tools and Hardware to match our newly suggested index entry style guidelines (and added those to all index page introductions).

Comments from the 156,000-2 not yet heard from are welcome here.

A bit of Wiki index editing from the 156,000-5 not yet contributing to this effort would also be welcome. Go ahead, whatever you add can't be less than what we have and "Management by Exception" is not a policy here.

[Alexander Turcic]

knc, I have a good grasp of the direction you are heading at, but would you mind to walk it through in an example with a hypothetical new thread?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

knc, I have a good grasp of the direction you are heading at, but would you mind to walk it through in an example with a hypothetical new thread?

Humans are very difficult to interface with, let me see now...

Hypothetical new Wiki page names: Prefix_Index

Starts out with top level section headers, same name as prefixes.
I.E: The target of the prefix link for "hardware" will always be Prefix_Index#Hardware.

New user registers, posts new thread:
"My K3 is broke"
New user notices the (new to us) thread prefix drop down box and tags their post "K3".

No other changes in user actions at this point than with any other new "My Kindle is Broke" thread.

But for anyone browsing this forum, there is now a single click path to the section of the master index: Prefix_Index#K3

Even if nothing else is done, the next "My K3 is broke" poster will be able to check the index based on the earlier thread title related to their problem (perhaps without even posting another "My Kindle is Broke" thread).

Now suppose some member is browsing the forum and clicks on the that K3 prefix field...

What do they find? No entry in the Prefix_Index#K3 for "Broken Kindle" -
Ah, but now they are viewing the proper (top level) place to add it with an "edit" button on the right hand side.

This second viewer, being a more experienced member here can say: Hmm... This section of the master index needs a link directly to the k3_index wiki page (perhaps even to a more specific section of that page) and types in that update.

Now the third viewer of this post title will be that much closer to the list of existing answers (two clicks: prefix:MI-link, or stick:MI-link).

If somewhere in that thread, a post should turn up that has good, useful to everyone, information...
Maybe our third viewer (now looking at prefix -> MI#prefix -> prefix_index) thinks: "I will add a back link to that forum post, it belongs right here".

Or, at least a person could hope that is how the new feature would work out in practice.

Edit:
Another way to look at it: All (prefixed) thread titles become entries of a "Master Concordance" of how a human might title a "My Kindle is Broke" thread leading into the structured index system of existing content.

Edit:
Another side-effect -
The new index entry format lets Google index on the "long title" field.
Some of the entries that I have changed to the new format are already "first page" search hits.

[geekmaster]

On the index wikis, links to other wiki pages are different from links to the forum. The are of the form:

[[Wiki_Topic|optional clickable description]] : optional non-clickable text

There should never be a URL containing "wiki.mobileread.com" in it. I recently fixed one (but it took me multiple attempts to get the extra description added to it so it looked good. The colon ":" helps...