User talk:Raidarr/The Meta Project

Meta categorization
Between reviewing this topic a few times, discussion with a number of volunteers and having gone through category work elsewhere, I think I have an idea of a) how to clean this area up and b) use the cleanup to encourage areas of Meta development. This is essentially my proposal to change how categorization is done on Meta at a fundamental level. I know of no policy that would forbid me from 'just doing it', but I would like input from other volunteers if this should be done, as well as feedback and even support to implement if there are no glaring issues.

First is the top level breakdown (those linked by the top category, Category:Miraheze). Currently, this is the top level category list:
 * Category:Documentation‎
 * Category:Essays‎
 * Category:Global policies‎
 * Category:Hidden categories‎
 * Category:Meta policies‎
 * Category:Miraheze help‎
 * Category:Projects‎
 * Category:Requests‎
 * Category:Tech‎
 * Category:Templates‎
 * Category:Users‎

I would revise the categories that appear with three goals. 1, top linked categories should not hold pages. 2, top categories (and their immediate derivatives) should indicate 'areas of contribution' which people can go to and 'handle' with various skill sets, if needed. 3, indicate the 'gravity' of categories - what the individual can do and how they should do it is different in addressing policies than in addressing collaborative support articles or materials that relate to particular namespaces.

The list I would like to develop looks like this:
 * Category:Policies - self explanatory; bundles and includes things which are formally agreed upon by the community. Edits should be clerical or discussed first, if the pages are not already protected to enforce this.
 * Category:Documentation - changed from current purpose, more on it below. Include all non-policy support which compliments policy. However, everything here should be subcategorized for area of relevance.
 * Category:Maintenance - also changed to include a few items, more on it below. Main area of Meta technical contributions.
 * Category:Users - The userspace and its conventions.
 * Category:Essays - Put here to encourage people writing essays on topics of Meta relevance, which may even join Documentation in some form.
 * Category:Projects - Also here for encouragement, in this case of initiatives and official Miraheze functions which are not necessarily RfCs.
 * Category:Requests - This system and its conventions. Much the same as now, though I would like to clean it up.
 * Category:Fields - Experimental name for namespaces or sections which have a very specific purpose. Similar in gravitas to the 'policies' category, but would include categories like the current Tech and Board, areas which maybe should be at least collaboratively discussed with their handlers and left here rather than being addressed outright by this suggestion. Also include things like board meetings and reports which would not fit elsewhere.

If acceptable, this process should be executed in order of ease. For example it would be easier to build the policy/fields category and keep current ones the same than to overhaul documentation and maintenance. Certain pages may bend the gist I have above; for example I would like to see a page that outright lists policies globally and on meta and states their pertinence, and this page would likely be in both the policies hub and the documentation hub for its wide range.

Documentation
The most ambitious part of the project, which would bundle Category:Miraheze help and Category:Guides as they exist now. The purpose is to make this the 'supplement hub' - information which is conventional and not strictly policy (what should be done, vs how to do it). It would be broken down as follows:
 * Category:Volunteer guides - renaming and repurposing the current Guides category so it is focused on information for Miraheze volunteers. Subdivided into a category for meta volunteering, global volunteering and the existing Category:Guides for sysadmins. Pages would mainly be based on particular rights, in the vein of Wiki creator guide and referring to articles which should be kept in mind or describe certain features. This would including all information that is conventional wisdom such as dmehus's guide for meta patrollers, while adding resources for other rights such as global sysop that may need to be known if a user is interested in the role or would like a quick reminder if they are already in place.
 * Category:Miraheze help - much the same as now, with a focus on expanding pages for features, functions and common questions/issues requiring a detailed look. These pages would likely begin in the Essay space and after collaborative building and review, become part of the Miraheze help space. Essays would remain as they are to allow niche, individual or 'unique' writing styles that shouldn't come with an expectation to update them if they lean too far into these attributes, at least assuming the essays are not built to be collaboratively developed. If they are, they should be explicitly noted as such, but not start off in this space.

Maintenance
Transfer and include categories such as Template, Hidden categories and anything else which is more technical, including maintenance reports (lint, delete nomination, etc). This is something I'd actually like particular volunteers on, since part of the 'maintenance' ideal would also be to catch up on the new stream of templates that are inconsistently integrated into Meta, to encourage/create native documentation for translation (for 'just anyone' + someone going deep) and to have a particular niche for wiki gnoming. These top level categories are as much intentions as they are blocks of pages, which is of course what they'll be as people go down the category tree even if the consequences of one 'intention' naturally affects other areas.

Comments
And that's my thinking. The above may update as thoughts come to me, or if someone has an intuitive change to offer. I'm particularly flexible on the design ideas, the intentions of top level categories, and the particular names. --Raidarr (talk) 12:31, 2 December 2021 (UTC)