We really need to see the context for the decisions that go into making changes like these. From just comparing the two versions I can't tell what the intent of any given change is.
I currently feel that this new version is a regression from the old version.
For me, any page whose intent is to communicate information is only useful when it also communicates the context of that information. For the Contribute page, that means the first thing a reader should see is an explanation of what this page is and what its target audience is.
The old version does this briefly - "Want to contribute to the SCP Foundation? Well, you've come to the right place!" - immediately outlining that (theoretically) this page will help the reader with understanding how to contribute to the site, and that the page is for users who want to do that.
In my eyes contribution has 3 steps:
- Read a lot and familiarise yourself with the content, or at least enough to start getting ideas and wanting to add to it
- Write a thing
- Post the thing
To me, the answer to the question "How do I contribute to the SCP Wiki?" should cover all of these steps. Both the old and new versions of the Contribute page mainly only address step 3 - "How do I post to the SCP Wiki?"
Step 1 goes unaddressed by both versions of the Contribute page - in fact, the site as a whole pushes contributing to the site as the default mode of interacting with it, so they can't really be blamed for that. (But I'll be touching on this at the end of this post.) Both versions of the page at least mention the kinds of content that can be found on the site, but it's in the context of 'this is the sort of stuff you can write if you want' (i.e. early step 2) rather than 'this is the library of content you may inspect if you want to make an informed contribution, which you are expected to do'.
Step 2 is partially addressed by both pages, and most of the legwork is done by linking to How To Write An SCP. This is good, because that's where the information is and it doesn't make sense to duplicate it. The new version goes an extra step and mentions essays, which is great - I'd really like to see some more detail here, even something as simple as a selection of that essays and a recipe for how to find more information, rather than just telling the reader to find the info themselves.
The Contribute page focusing solely on step 3 would be totally fine if its scope had been constrained to step 3 by one of the following methods:
- By clearly defining its target audience as writers who have already written something (i.e. the Contribute page defines its own context).
- By there being a guide 'before' this one that explains what a contribution is on the SCP Wiki, allowing Contribute to solely explain the how of contributions (i.e. the Contribute page's context is defined by another page).
Either of these would ensure some level of flow, even if it's coming from a parent page, and would enable the page to be scoped to only step 3 of the contribution process. I would much prefer that the page cover the whole thing, though.
Okay, touching on that thing I was going to touch on: I said that the Contribute page can't be blamed for not taking up the responsibility of properly explaining how to read the site, because it's neglected everywhere. That's true for any individual page. So, it's our responsibility to fix that issue by updating pages in unison to work together with each other. The combination I have in mind is Contribute and the front page. I'd really like the Navigation and Official Pages teams to work together on this one.