PageIntroduction

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Intro

This page describes the habit and rationale of starting wiki pages with a short introduction. It does so in the pattern form (see WikiPatternLanguage).

The short introductions become especially useful when you consider the habits of people online: the [F-shaped reading pattern] and [[very selective reading]. Putting the summary on top lets the users decide whether they should devote their time and attention to reading the page and perhaps even joining the discussion -- otherwise the risk of wasting their time makes them less likely to participate. Even if there is no consensus on the what the page should contain exactly, it's still useful to have some work-in-progress summary, or at least a general explanation of the topic. On the other hand, to avoid [information pollution], the conversation (and other hard-to-digest forms of information) are best put later on the page. This also helps avoiding lazy people who will only read a few sentences from elaborate and complicated article, and add polemic that really is just [bikeshedding].

PatternForm (WikiPatternForm from WikiPatternLanguage)

Pattern Name: PageIntroduction (maybe PageIntro)
Context: A wiki contains lots textual information that has to be organized efficiently.
Problem: Readers have difficulties to find what they are interested in. Often they have to read a large part of a page before they can decide whether the page is worth reading for them.
Solution: Add a short introduction at the top of the page that explains the page.
Result: The reader will understand more quickly what it's all about. He can make a quicker, more efficient decision to read on or not. SpeedIsSimplicity.
Examples: this page. Most pages in this wiki. Almost all scientific papers start with an intro called 'abstract'.
Variations: Sometimes the introduction is less about the actual content of page than about what the creator of the page intended. So he may say "this page is intended to collect links for..." or perhaps even "here I want to write an article for ...". Sometimes the introduction assigns a special CollaborationMode for the page. See for example BrainstormMode or MaintainerMode.
Connected patterns or ideas: PageNameConsistency, ImportantInformationFirst, SpeedIsSimplicity.
Alternatives: Stories that are meant to be read as a whole (a novel won't tell you the story in short, neither would you spoil a joke). Therefore most literary forms don't have an intro. Homepages don't have an intro because the purpose of a HomePage is clear or explained on a separte page to avoid the redundancy.
Additional Comments: Sometimes a lacking or missing intro may be seen as a hidden signal of the author to involve people. Sometimes he is not yet sure about his topic, not sure enough to make himself clear. Sometimes he is shy to make himself clear, to avoid a quick reaction, that might be negative.

FridemarPache: Thank you Helmut for the harmonized description of PageIntroduction.

Conversation

FridemarPache makes a new start: As the style of introduction of a page mirrors the style of the living community and can be a key factor for the success of the community and beyond, it needs some friendly conversation to establish it. He therefore makes room for a consensus based, (contributors signed) exemplary Introduction.

AnonymousDonor [original intro under critique]: This page describes the useful habit and rationale of starting wiki pages with a short introduction. It does so in the pattern form (see WikiPatternLanguage).

FridemarPache: I agree that enormous knowledge is concentrated in the pattern form, However I miss:

Openness to adaption.
Transparency (who wrote the guidelines, in case newcomers want to address the authors, responsible for it)

I don't have a good feeling with

apodictic claims as "useful habit" (which in a changing world might not be useful anymore)
intimidating UPPERCASE crying

HelmutLeitner: Fridemar, I very much appreciate your engagement and suggestions to improve the usage of pattern work. Of course, the content of a pattern form is open for discussion and adaptation, as everything in a wiki, although we have little experience how to do it. The strictness of the form is artificial (Zen). I won't mind if you add author credits. It is good that the "useful" was removed, because it is redundant in the idea of patterns as solutions to problems in certain contexts (but not in others, which fits to your argument). We can remove intimitating uppercase, now that there is a hero that is not intimitated (Zen).

['copied to the top'] The short introductions become especially useful when you consider the habits of people online: the [F-shaped reading pattern] and [[very selective reading]. Putting the summary on top lets the users decide whether they should devote their time and attention to reading the page and perhaps even joining the discussion -- otherwise the risk of wasting their time makes them less likely to participate. Even if there is no consensus on the what the page should contain exactly, it's still useful to have some work-in-progress summary, or at least a general explanation of the topic. On the other hand, to avoid [information pollution], the conversation (and other hard-to-digest forms of information) are best put later on the page. This also helps avoiding lazy people who will only read a few sentences from elaborate and complicated article, and add polemic that really is just [bikeshedding].

FridemarPache: Thank you Radomir for removing the (imho) unnecessary claim "useful" in the Intro and instead of this giving links to usability studies. As wiki has much more to offer as being only a passive reader's medium, I miss the integration of the authors part in the above pattern. So I am glad to see you here as an author of a living community, who was happily provoked by the empty intro, to "fill the gaps". There might be a lot of Zen, say Wiki:WabiSabi qualities, that cannot be caught by a fixed pattern, so I would like to see the page intro as an expression of flow and not as a (possible) fossil.

CategoryWikiPatternLanguage CategoryCommunityStyle?.

PageIntroduction

Intro

Conversation

Discussion