Just for posterity on this thread. most people get the basics of WordPress from articles they read and direct experience through WordPress.com, just plunging in clueless. Then they want information. They find the Codex. I'd love to have them start with the Codex, which is why we put so much energy into WordPress Lessons and the basic introductory articles like:<br>
<a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress">http://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress</a><br><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_WordPress_-_Where_to_Start">http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_WordPress_-_Where_to_Start</a><br>
<a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging">http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging</a><br><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Semantics">http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Semantics</a><br>
<a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Templates">http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Templates</a><br><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Template_Tags">http://codex.wordpress.org/Stepping_Into_Template_Tags</a><br>
<br>We found that people were arriving with some of the basics known and plunging into the deeper more complex issues. They'd end up on the forum or our blogs and we'd point them to the basics and they'd go back and see these articles. Circuitous route, but by the time they arrived at the basics, they know much of this stuff. We served it up anyway and are now putting a lot more energy into more juicy content instructions. Pointing them to these basics, as Jennifer said, is critical to encourage them to put on the parachute before they jump, but they jump first, think later. ;-)<br>
<br>The redesign I'm hoping to finalize in the new few weeks of the table of contents should make these introductory articles more prevalent and help guide people to the right information more efficiently, while hopefully not encouraging them to bypass the basics...ha! But I can hope. <br>
<br>The Quick Start is great, it just needs to integrate into the whole and you're on the right track. Thank you so much!<br><br>Lorelle<br>