Update userbase.kde.org and remove outdated information
Open, Needs TriagePublic
Actions

Description

The wiki for our end users (located at userbase.kde.org) is feeling outdated in various aspects. Current problems:

Most screenshots from applications are very old (> 2 years), and give a bad first impression towards a potential user
There are still many references to unmaintained versions ( "KDE 4" appears ~2000 times)
The Glossary site misses important terms (such as Breeze) but includes ancient things (e.g. aRts)
We assume that all our users run Linux as their operating system; this is clearly no longer correct. We therefore need to include more information targeted at Windows/Mac OS users
Application pages are often nearly empty (e.g. the one from KDevelop)
...

The Userbase is an important part of the user experience: they can find answers and "Getting Started" pages there and expect to find correct and polished information. It is therefore also important that we as KDE can stand up to those expectations as to ensure the satisfaction of our users.
We should consider doing a general cleanup of the whole wiki content which could for example be done like this:

Flag every page/image that is outdated or a stub
Remove unnecessary pages if needed
Assign people who will update application screenshots when needed (maybe twice a year)
Make sure that prominent pages (https://userbase.kde.org/What_is_KDE, https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials, etc...) are up-to-date, rewrite if needed
Coordinate effort with translators to ensure a quick rollout for other languages

I do have a lot of free time in the next month and would be willing to spearhead this effort if this is wanted.
Feedback is greatly appreciated!

STATUS UNKNOWN
https://userbase.kde.org/KFTPGrabber (obsolete page but no content)
https://userbase.kde.org/KuickShow

Related Objects

Mentioned In: T11096: First-class user & developer documentation centralized on a portal
T9122: Promoting KDE as a brand through KDE apps

xyquadrat created this task.Jul 6 2018, 12:44 PM

xyquadrat mentioned this in T9122: Promoting KDE as a brand through KDE apps.Jul 7 2018, 10:20 AM

xyquadrat added subscribers: KDE Promo, Documentation.Jul 7 2018, 3:13 PM

ognarb added a subscriber: ognarb.Sep 26 2018, 10:11 PM

This comment was removed by ognarb.

ognarb added a comment.Sep 26 2018, 11:01 PM

This comment was removed by ognarb.

In the last two days, I updated a lot of screenshot (not all are yet displayed, because of some sort of cache). I found out that, the page structure differ from an application page to an other and I think it would be better if we create a template, so that the user can find more easily information.

Some think like this:

Section 1: Short description with main function, functionality, difference with other similar software, target user... (Shouldn't be bigger that 3 paragraphs) -1 or 2 screenshots
Section 2: How to install (=> link to the software installation page)
Section 3: A guide how to use the main functionalities. Don't need to contains all functionalities, we already have the tutorials for that. Screenshot can be useful here.
Section 4 (optional): Link to some specific tutorials/tip and tricks (=> existing tutorial pages) and we should then remove the page listing all tutorials.
Section 5: How to get help. link to forum, bug tracker, telegram user group, forum, irc, ...

It is a good idea?

It's great to hear that you've already been updating screenshots on userbase @ognarb ! I am currently on vacation, so I won't be able to help you until next week. +1 for your proposal, we really need a more clearly defined structure for the application pages. I also experienced some problems when updating screenshots, this might be related to the fact that userbase currently needs to be based upon an older version of MediaWiki. If the problem persists we should ask the Sysadmin team if they could take a look.

Hi, I still updating screenshot. Do you have an idea that we should do we article about app that are 'dead'?

In T9142#162602, @ognarb wrote:

Hi, I still updating screenshot. Do you have an idea that we should do we article about app that are 'dead'?

Nothing is really "dead" in the open source world. These applications can be revived some day. So I'd like their pages to be kept as is. However, if you like, you can remove their items from the list (category) pages.

Thanks in advance for your work.

So I'm still updating screenshot, there is really a lot of them. ;) I also created a not complete list of all page where the screenshot are up to date or not.

unknow
https://userbase.kde.org/KFTPGrabber (obsolete page but no content)
https://userbase.kde.org/KuickShow

It's not complete because I only realized yesterday, that such a list can be helpful to me and others :)

I'm also thinking about writing a blog post, about how contributing to the wiki is an easy first contribution (was for me) and how people can also help. Opinion?

In T9142#167968, @ognarb wrote:

I'm also thinking about writing a blog post, about how contributing to the wiki is an easy first contribution (was for me) and how people can also help. Opinion?

Do it and let us know when it's out! =) It's a great way to publicize this task, share your experience and hopefully inspire new contributors.

In T9142#167968, @ognarb wrote:

So I'm still updating screenshot, there is really a lot of them. ;) I also created a not complete list of all page where the screenshot are up to date or not.

Many thanks for your work.

not done
https://userbase.kde.org/Krecipes (need to look if this application is still maintained)

Never was completely ported to KDE 4, might be dead. One of my favorite KDE applications. Still can be run on ~1.5 years old distributions.

https://userbase.kde.org/K9Copy

Unmaintained (see the homepage: http://k9copy.sourceforge.net/ ).

https://userbase.kde.org/KMediaFactory

Unmaintained.

https://userbase.kde.org/KMid

Unmaintained.

https://userbase.kde.org/Calligra_Author (probably obsolete)

It is not, but Words (its base) is not developed with the previous pace.

https://userbase.kde.org/Kivio

The application should be merged with Karbon.

https://userbase.kde.org/Braindump

Unmaintained.

https://userbase.kde.org/KPilot (probably obsolete)

Yes. No Pilot devices on market anymore.

unknow
https://userbase.kde.org/KFTPGrabber (obsolete page but no content)

Unmaintained.

https://userbase.kde.org/KuickShow

https://cgit.kde.org/kuickshow.git/

Revived some time ago.

Thanks again for your work.

@yurchor Thanks for the information, I will update the list.

@neofytosk I started writing a blog post (https://carlschwan.eu/kde/wiki/2018/11/18/contributing-to-the-kde-userbase-wiki.html). It's not finish yet, but feedback before posting it to reddit/mastodon is welcome.

Here are some Kdenlive one's if you like to use.

@afarid Thanks, I just saw that kdenlive also has a rich tutorial. I see that you are a Kdenlive dev, could you quickly look if the information is up-to-date. I can add new screenshot later.

@ognarb I am not a dev but part of the team. We will look into it and give you feedback. Thanks for updating the screenshots.

Hello, I'm now working on the system settings page. I created a temporary wiki page: https://userbase.kde.org/NewSystemSettings. For the moment I only did the appearance category. I tried to use the same icon and same configuration hierarchy as in the system settings app. And I also tried adding each time link to KDE doc, Arch Linux wiki and other tutorial on userbase in a more information section.

Can someone look at this and give me some improvement suggestion, before I start doing the rest?

ognarb claimed this task.Dec 3 2018, 11:46 PM

GB_2 added a subscriber: GB_2.Dec 4 2018, 1:48 PM

Looks great to me, keep it up! =)

Nearly all screenshots are now up-to-date 😄.

I'm also maintaining a small list of remaining pages: https://userbase.kde.org/User:Ognarb. If someone wants to help :)

You are amazing, thanks for your hard work! I'll see if I can help out this weekend.

Just finished updating the screenshots for the kde-pim suite :) My TODO list is getting smaller and smaller.

I'm starting working on the Tutorials page. I already moved some obsolete tutorial links to their respective project page.

And I think we need to reorganize the content into some logical section. So here is my proposition:

Getting Started
Internalization/Localization: change language, change keyboard layout, RTL and other language specific tutorials
Plasma: tutorial about Plasma (widget, panel)
File Management
Web Browsers: Link to a tutorial page about Firefox and chromium (for Firefox the content is already here)
Kontact: link to the tutorial section for each pim components and how to set up nextcloud, google, kolab, ...
Privacy & Security: set up gpg, kwallet, ...
Customization: use another WM, create a look and feel theme, ...
Multimedia
Graphics: link to the Digikam, Krita, Kdenlive tutorial pages
Development
Others????

Any comments? Should other contains tutorial, about every KDE apps?

Hi @ognarb, just wanted to say that I like this initiative a lot, and if needed, I would love to help create/edit/update the tutorials.

In fact, I think this idea is a great candidate for Google Season of Docs. Would you be interested in putting together a short proposal? You can add it here: https://community.kde.org/GSoD

This way, we could get more contributors to help with this effort.

No pressure, though! I'm just asking. :) It's totally OK if you're not interested.

In T9142#182093, @skadinna wrote:

Hi @ognarb, just wanted to say that I like this initiative a lot, and if needed, I would love to help create/edit/update the tutorials.

Thanks, help is always needed ;).

In fact, I think this idea is a great candidate for Google Season of Docs. Would you be interested in putting together a short proposal? You can add it here: https://community.kde.org/GSoD

This way, we could get more contributors to help with this effort.

No pressure, though! I'm just asking. :) It's totally OK if you're not interested.

The idea looks interesting, but I don't know yet how I will organize my summer vacation. Does mentoring GSoD take a lot of times?

In T9142#182095, @ognarb wrote:

The idea looks interesting, but I don't know yet how I will organize my summer vacation. Does mentoring GSoD take a lot of times?

Well, this is the first time Season of Docs is being organized, and it would be our (KDE's) first time participating. I've never been a mentor in a project like this, so I can't judge from any previous experience. But it would definitely require active engagement from mentors, especially in the first month while new contributors are learning about KDE. The good part is that every project would have two mentors, so we could split the work in such a way that no one feels overloaded.

In T9142#182095, @ognarb wrote:

The idea looks interesting, but I don't know yet how I will organize my summer vacation. Does mentoring GSoD take a lot of times?

Might be. There are some things that were learned by me from a similar project (Google Code-In):

Sometimes you have to invest more time in teaching somebody to do something (in my case, translating and writing docs) than would be spent if you do it by yourself.
Almost nobody will continue with our project when the Google project is over.

Other considerations:

Wiki editing is not very prominent skill on the market for participants.
We have specific rules on the wiki markup which should be learned before editing if we do not want to have this work to be rewritten later.

@skadinna I looked more closely at my calendar, and in September I have exams and in October I need to start my Bacherlorarbeit (Bachelor's thesis). So I won't have time to be a mentor, but if someone wants to be the main mentor, I could find some times to help.

In T9142#182503, @ognarb wrote:

@skadinna I looked more closely at my calendar, and in September I have exams and in October I need to start my Bacherlorarbeit (Bachelor's thesis). So I won't have time to be a mentor, but if someone wants to be the main mentor, I could find some times to help.

Hey, no worries. Thank you for checking anyway. :) My offer to help with this task still stands, whenever you want to start working on it.

So here are the task that still need to be done.

Tutorials

https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials

We could need some basic tutorials for people with:

How to change Plasma language
How to change the keyboard layout (a lot of people at my Uni with Plasma in a VM could not find the settings).
Find your distribution name.
Setting up Plasma accessibility features.
...

Digikam and some Plasma tutorials also need to be updated with new screenshots: e.g https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/Installing_Plasmoids, https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/Plasmoids, https://userbase.kde.org/Digikam, ...

Create new pages

Some KDE apps don't have a Wiki page yet: https://userbase.kde.org/User:Ognarb#Page_that_need_to_be_added.

Updating existing pages

I'm adding some 'More Information' section, with link to Wikipedia, Arch Linux Wiki, Dev blog post, handbook, ... And there is still a lot of pages without this section.

jucato added a subscriber: jucato.May 21 2019, 9:08 AM

schweingruber added a subscriber: schweingruber.Jun 11 2019, 12:32 PM

In T9142#167968, @ognarb wrote:

So I'm still updating screenshot, there is really a lot of them. ;) I also created a not complete list of all page where the screenshot are up to date or not.

done

...

not done

...

https://userbase.kde.org/Amarok

...
You can leave this one to me, so far it is up-to-date with the latest released version AFAICS, and I usually take care of it if there is any change.

Thanks a lot for your great work! You rock :-)

For the Plasma 5.16 release:

thiagosueto added a subscriber: thiagosueto.Jun 13 2019, 2:29 PM

ognarb mentioned this in T11096: First-class user & developer documentation centralized on a portal.Jun 15 2019, 2:34 PM

Now https://userbase.kde.org/KDEConnect is almost done, maybe adding phone screenshots and polish the text would render it up-to-date.

In T9142#206301, @thiagosueto wrote:

Now https://userbase.kde.org/KDEConnect is almost done, maybe adding phone screenshots and polish the text would render it up-to-date.

Thanks 😍

In T9142#188117, @ognarb wrote:

For the Plasma 5.16 release:

https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma

I think I spotted some leftovers. :)
https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma#Activities needs some revision:

Go to this blog to read a few tips on using activities. Chanis blog has a number of examples as well as screencasts about activities.

The first link leads to blog post which is 10 years old and speaks about Plasma 4.x. Chanis blog post is 8 years old and is barely readable overall. Those two posts should probably be replaced by something non-external.

The next paragraph talks about Plasma Desktop 4.x

In Plasma Desktop 4.4, this can be configured by entering System Settings and navigating to Desktop -> Multiple Desktops, and checking Different Activity for Each Desktop.
In Plasma Desktop 4.3, You configure this by zooming out and choosing configure Plasma.

I don't have enough time for this task anymore. So @alexde feel free to update the page yourself. It's quite easy to do ;)

thiagosueto added a project: Plasma Accessibility.Nov 22 2019, 11:32 AM

The accessibility pages all need to be updated as well.
Some of them hasn't been updated since KDE4.8 (Jovie and Simon in particular) and all of them require more comprehensive info.
I think it is vital that there be better access to information concerning a11y tools for them to be, well, more accessible.

https://userbase.kde.org/Applications/Accessibility
https://userbase.kde.org/Accessibility/Plasma
https://userbase.kde.org/Accessibility/Getting_Started
https://userbase.kde.org/Accessibility/Application_Overview
https://userbase.kde.org/Jovie
https://userbase.kde.org/Simon
https://userbase.kde.org/KMouth
https://userbase.kde.org/KMouseTool
https://userbase.kde.org/KMag

I won't be able to work on this so soon (especially since I'm not yet familiar with these tools), so I added Accessibility as well.

I found these too:
https://userbase.kde.org/Kubuntu/Contribute
https://userbase.kde.org/Kubuntu/Contribute/BugReporting
and also a community wiki page that seems stray despite being there on Kubuntu/Contribute:
https://community.kde.org/Kubuntu/BugTriage

thiagosueto updated the task description. (Show Details)Dec 9 2019, 9:16 PM

Update userbase.kde.org and remove outdated information Open, Needs TriagePublicActions

Description

Related Objects

Tutorials

Create new pages

Updating existing pages

Update userbase.kde.org and remove outdated information
Open, Needs TriagePublic
Actions