Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

Hi all,

Can someone perhaps explain to me what the difference (to the reader) is between the pages "Maemo5 101", "New users" and "Maemo basics"? The all appear to be addressing the same basic need: how do I get started with my device?

Perhaps I'm missing something, though - which is why I'm asking here. It seems like providing too many front doors into the house is almost as bad as providing none - especially if behind each door you have a slightly different room.

Shouldn't these pages be consolidated? I'd prefer to consolidate them into a page called "Getting started" since I like page titles that talk about what the user wants to do, rather than the type of person the page is aimed for, or what the content of the page is.

Dave.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

I changed the basics wiki category page to point users to some appropriate pages based on their intent a day or two ago, and that revision basically answers your question. More specifically:

Me and the other writer or two of Maemo basics intended it to be an introduction to maemo.org and Maemo targetted to mainstream (would be/current) Nxx0 users who happen to be interested in going behind the scenes. The default landing page of m.o is most definitely not appropriate for such people, so it was requested and hoped that maemo basics or some similar type of content could be offered as an alternative walk-through on the landing page of m.o. Nothing came of that (yet).

Maemo5 101 is more about how to (largely videos) use a maemo device, obviously the N900 in this case.

Is new users actually a different page than maemo basics? i think maemo basics started life as "new users" and was renamed to reflect its role as an introduction to maemo independent of whether the audience was actually a "user" or just prospective user.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

The problem I have with that is that the new user has to read that page (the "New users" page) to get the answer as to which page they should read.

Just wondering which page "it" is? "Maemo basics"?

There are so many landing points for new users to Maemo now - and we've tried to make them all suitable for new users. Off the top of my head, I can think of:

• http://maemo.org
• http://maemo.org/downloads
• http://wiki.maemo.org
• http://maemo.nokia.com

For the main maemo page, we bring the new user to the top applications, to where they can get involved, get help, and a top menu which has, among other things, an Intro section.

For downloads, apps are ordered by popularity and rating, and searchable.

For the wiki, we have a "Users" section, and a newly added "Beginner" section that someone added recently.

And maemo.nokia.com is completely user-focussed.

So I kind of disagree with your suggestion that the main Maemo landing pages aren't targeting new users.

There are different pages for them. And also Category:Beginners also.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

I was referring to "Maemo Basics". I see that someone created another New Users page after it was moved to Maemo Basics. I guess they'll have to answer the original question, as they apparently felt that it was necessary on top of the other two pages. I agree that we've got too much of the same as it is now.

As for the changes to the Beginner category i referred to:
I clicked on the link in the Maemo Greeters' signature that goes to the Beginner category of the wiki and found it rather rough and uninviting, and thought that it should at least give a beginner landing there some suggestion what to start reading (look at the pages in that category--does that look like something a beginner should just start wading through sequentially?)

Sorry, i am mostly referring to the Intro tab. For its prominent link location that is visible on every single page, it's really not a very good showing. I think the fact that it takes three clicks to get to it (as near as i can tell) from the default landing page without using the menu bar link suggests it is probably the weak link here (ie needs some love).

I gave some suggestions about how to improve it in the previous Community thread on the matter.

Maybe "Intro" should simply be removed from the menu strip.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

Couple of things:
- Intro is being dealt with in the Sprint: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=33577 feel free to join in the discussion! It's not great right now and needs help, for sure.

- I started new users as a result of what was going on via Greeters etc. At its inception it was only intended to answer 3 questions - what maemo is (point to maemo basics); what the N900 is; where can I go next? I guess it's really a jumping off point, but there you are. Specifically, if you want to buy an N900 but aren't sure, is the approach this page takes...

As for user-centric pages in wiki, there are several approaches to user centricity, but the maemo.org approach, IMO, doesn't approach any of them right now. It's true that one can arrive and see stuff, but if you're a really new user, seeing OS2008 downloads, for example, is not suitable. Maybe it's just me, but I don't think any new user is going to care that you can d/l Personal Menu (right now it's there) for your Diablo device. Really?

Further, for instance, clicking on on 'Get Support' takes you to the maemo.org/support page, which is fine if you're at all interested in bugs or problems associated with them, but not if you just want to figure out how to set up yer email, or whatever.

I just don't think some of the landing points are user centric, at least not 'new' user centric. Enter the New Users page. It's not difficult to read, points to the right places to further your research, and is easy to figure out how to get to. I hope.

Caveats: (assumptions?!)

1. new users are going to be coming here. I mean, really new users.
2. other (older) users, and those with some expertise, can easily find what they need to find without too much help. They *know* what they need!
3. those in #1, they don't know. Point them gently.

There's work to be done in merging, for sure. I can't answer for maemo basics vs maemo5_101, but to me they seem different in flavour (101 closer to 'new users howto' than anything else, and maemo_basics being a step 2 in the new users lifecycle, so:

Step1: new_users
Step 1.5: 101
Step 2: maemo_basics
Step 3+: get involved more, ask sensible questions at t.m.o., stuff like that.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

Maybe it's time we get rid of "101" as has been suggested, and consolidate/restructure.

For top level, how about something along the lines of:

What is Maemo?
Beginning Maemo
Intermediate Maemo
Advanced Maemo

?

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

I actually like this structure. I think it gives the 'steps' I wanted to bring in and makes them explicit in a good way.

I think I'd put 'What is Maemo' as what new_users currently is, but change the title to reflect the 'new NXXXX' device because for a new user it's the device name they'd look at. Perhaps a quick redirect from an otherwise empty page might do it, e.g.:

'What is N900' --> 'What is Maemo?'

And the 'What is Maemo' page (currently new_users) would start with a spiel explaining why you're here (because the device you're interested in runs Maemo) and goes from there.

THat might cover the bases. (?)

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

found this post on another forum, it just goes to show some of the confusion out there..

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...&postcount=324

Whilst true, Maemo2008 is not the app store/OS for the n900, maemo5 is, but alot of new users will get confused with that one,,

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

I wouldn't make anything high-level device specific. This is all about Maemo.

"What is Maemo?" should describe the OS (brief history, purpose, future, etc), with a few links out, nothing more IMO.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

Can you point me to the thread, by any chance? I don't follow everything that gets written in Talk, I'm afraid so I missed it. I'm very happy to make changes on request to Intro - indeed, Intro was redone recently by Peter Schneider from Nokia, and he did his draft in the wiki - I'd be happy for anyone else to do the same thing, and have a discussion on the proposed changes.

Cheers,
Dave.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

It might be the one I pushed in http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=373874&postcount=5

S

PS Texrat, you're right. Damn, I hate it when other people are right ;) The OS should in fact come first because you never know what devices might run it. Still, a pointer that says - if you have an N1000 go here - for instance (tags on pages?) might just cover my initial concern.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

I really believe that first we need to agree on the Intro page, and then scale down to the "introductory" pages deriving from this one.

You can more or less start from the last post at http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=33577 since I left a "radical" post this morning. Radical only because I try to go to the root of the problem to solve.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

Or even, ideally, if there is agreement that the introductory pages in the wiki are better than the "Intro" section, then just use those & have all links from there go into the wiki directly.

maemo.org/intro still needs to cater to developers - but if we can have a big red button with a label "Developers and über-geeks go here!" which brings them somewhere else, that might do.

But to me it's important for a new user coming to maemo.org to know in the intro that this is a community project, and be pointed to places where they can join in and listen to the conversation also.

I'll bring all that to the other thread...

Dave.

Re: Maemo5 101, Maemo Basics, New Users: what's the difference?
 

As I outlined here I suggest to put the topics of Maemo5_101 in their own entries:

• One covering video howtos
• One covering shortcuts