T244239: Request creation of <Wikimedia Cloud> VPS project seems to be an example of a new contributor trying to follow https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Portal:Cloud_VPS and ending up with a project request ticket rather than a self-created Developer account.
Is https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Accessing_Cloud_VPS_instances#Required_accounts now the primary point where Developer account creation is described?
| Status | Subtype | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resolved | TBurmeister | T321582 WMCS doc improvements for FY22/23: Improve the navigability, freshness, and topic coverage of Cloud Services docs | |||
| Resolved | TBurmeister | T327319 Redesign Cloud Services documentation information architecture | |||
| Resolved | TBurmeister | T341366 Update Cloud VPS docs structure and landing pages | |||
| Resolved | TBurmeister | T347349 Revise Portal:Cloud_VPS | |||
| Resolved | TBurmeister | T244256 Portal:Cloud_VPS on wikitech highlights projects over accounts |
After some clicking around I found https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Create_a_Wikimedia_developer_account. I think that page should be more prominent in the various getting started/overview pages for Cloud VPS. It is listed in the "Getting started" section of the help nav for Toolforge, but if folks are accessing via mobile that will be hidden from them due to T242931: Improve mobile experience on Wikitech (as navbox classes in templates are intentionally not displayed).
@bd808 good point.
Probably the best place for this would be both Cloud VPS and Toolforge Portal pages -- since they are the first pages folks encounter on mobile when they click through the Wikitech Mainpage.
I added a note to both of these pages, so they should appear prominently in mobile view.
I linked to the wrong task, but yes the investigation from T242931: Improve mobile experience on Wikitech (as navbox classes in templates are intentionally not displayed) revealed that MobileFrontend removes all class="navbox" DOM elements by design. This means that the nice new help navigation is not available if wikitech decides that your user-agent should be served the MobileFrontend view (https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/?useformat=mobile).
I have made revisions to the following pages to emphasize the prerequisite of having/creating a developer account:
https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Cloud_VPS_project
https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Cloud_VPS