[jacquesm]

In the announcement say they've tried to make things easier for the users, but most of the entries listed there are actually for editors.

The FAQ entry linked ( http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/What%27s_new,_questions_... ) has a lot more info than the announcement, the primary entry there is:

Why are you making these changes?

Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation are written and edited by volunteers. When knowledgeable people cannot participate in editing Wikipedia because they find it too confusing or difficult to edit articles, it is a serious problem that undermines the potential quality, breadth and depth of the content that we can offer to you. In other words, even if you don't contribute content, the easier we can make it for knowledgeable people to join our projects, the more useful our resources become to you.

So it seems they're really focusing on making the editor user friendly.

They also say that this is only the beginning of a series of changes.

[nailer]

> In the announcement say they've tried to make things easier for the users, but most of the entries listed there are actually for editors.

Yes, they consider users to be potential contributors.

[jacquesm]

Sure, that's the whole idea behind wikipedia, but the reality is that the majority of the users are not contributing.

[nailer]

Yep, that's the problem they're hoping to fix by making it easier.

[jacquesm]

Where did you read that?

[nailer]

The article constantly refers to users as being people who will benefit from making editing easier, so it's fairly clear they consider all users potential contributors. That usability of editing tools leaves something to be desired is implied by them improving it. That Wikipedia wants more contributors is implied by its mission.

[jacquesm]

A few tweaks to the UI are not going to undo the cumulative effect of people having their articles axed because of 'non notoriety' and a very hostile attitude towards 'newbies'.