User talk:JoeyDay/Main Page Mock-up

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 03:38, 23 May 2005

Table of contents suggestion

I like the new look, however from a usability point of view, you'd want to make sure people can still find all the information easily, so maybe there could be a new "Contents" page to make up for losing the table of contents on the main page? -- thejesterx 06:00, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Categories

Great looking page Joey. I would like to see the categories added as a major means of navigation. See my user page for a sample layout of all the top level categories. - Dr Haggis - Talk 06:10, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

I just tried a version with the cats. I'm not really sure how we'd get it all on there with out it being too cluttered. Can you take a stab at it Drhaggis, so we can see what you mean? -- Tom 14:01, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

I think Tom has a point with categories getting out of hand on the main page. I was thinking we could have a separate page for major categorizing schemes, similar to the way Wikipedia does Browse by overview. I also built an alphabetical index for use on the front page.

My only concern about using, for instance, the Toons category instead of the Toons page, is what will happen to the toons page? Should we even have a toons page? (What about a more important page like Strong Bad Emails?) I like the idea of having the actual Toons page linked to from the front page, and then have alternate categorizing schemes on a separate "Browse" page. I'm willing to reconsider, but it would be a radical departure from tradition and I'm trying to be conscious about how the community might react. — Joey (talk·edits) 17:06, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Addendum: With the exception (imo) of the Strong Bad Emails page, most of the current "Lists" pages are absolute eyesores. Switching to categories for main navigation would probably be more elegant. — Joey (talk·edits) 17:09, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Categories are great when people want to find something alphabetically, but obviously some things can be easier to find chronologically, etc, such as Strong Bad Emails. One possible way to make categories do a chronological listing, for example with Strong Bad Emails, is to make redirect pagess to all of the emails, titled like "129 garage sale", and put them in a category called something like "Emails Chronologically". I also think that more information could be put in Category pages than just "This is a category of ...", without cluttering the page. Anyway. Just some thoughts. -- thejesterx 17:44, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

I commented on the talk page for the quick index about this already, but I don't know if there are enough articles to make it work. Also, case is a factor, as articles that start with "A" and articles that start with "a" are no where near each other in that schema.

Additionally, I wouldn't be too quick to get rid of pages like Toons. While it may not be as pretty as other pages, it provides a functionality for describing the Toons menu content and structure. -- Tom 01:16, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

What's new

Okay, here's how I propose we do the "what's new" section. We split Template:updates into two templates, creating a new Template:recent-updates. The recent-updates template would appear both on the Main Page and at the top of the updates page. The problem is that it becomes more of a chore to move updates off the recent-updates template into the other updates template. Keeping them separate is a violation of once and only once, but it might be more convenient. I dunno. Ideas? — Joey (talk·edits) 17:28, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

You could do it just using the Template:updates template, and put it in a size restricted <div>. For example:

<div style="width: 300px; height: 100px; border: thin black solid; overflow: hidden;">
{{updates}}
</div>

Which looks like:

But thats a bit of a hack. -- thejesterx 18:01, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes, that's a hack, but we have to start somewhere. If we can come up with a more elegant solution like that, it would solve the problem. Thanks for stepping out on a limb. — Joey (talk·edits) 18:47, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

That would be horrible for people using Lynx or other non CSS browsers and expecially horrible for blind people using JAWS. Remember to keep in mind Section 508 standards. I think we have enough active users that two seperate templates would be fine. -- Tom 01:12, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Are we ever going to do this?

This has been kind of sitting here for a while, and I'd really like to see it happen. Are we ever going to go through with this? →FireBird|_(Talk)

No offense or anything, but I don't like this. It may work for the Wikipedia, but it don't think it works for this place. Besides, I like the big list for easy access to the main pages much better than the small list on this idea. There, that's my opinion. Don't hurt me. -- Joshua 14:46, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

If it does start, does it need to say "in this English version"? EDSMILDE 12:57, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Considering we aren't gonna do other languages, no.

Anyway, the biggest thing I don't like about it is the article of the month. I mean, it's huge. Who wants to waste all that space on a single stupid article for a whole month? It might be interesting for a few days, when you read and check it out, but then for the rest of month, it's just gonna be a huge waste of space. -- Joshua 14:00, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Maybe "This Week's Featured Article" would do. Or maybe it could change whenever there's a h*r.com update.EDSMILDE

Perhaps we should keep the general format, with just the title of the article of the week on the top? And the newest couple of updates? I feel a merge of the two webpages might work best... ⇔Thunderbird⇔ 21:26, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Added back in a lot of links

I just made some significant changes, adding back in every single Homestar-related link that is currently on the home page. That seemed to be the biggest thing keeping people from liking the new layout. In my opinion, the main page should simply be a portal to the Homestar-related content. The specifically wiki-related links should all be moved to HRWiki:The Stick. What does everyone think? — Joey (talk·edits) 22:32, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

It looks very cluttered and crowded like that. I do agree that the links need to be there, just ordered and arranged differently. —FireBird|Talk

I've labelled the groupings to show why they are arranged the way they are. I'm sure there's a better way to arrange them, but this is the best I can find. I like how they don't take up nearly as much room this way. I agree it looks a little bunched up, but I think it works. — Joey (talk·edits) 00:06, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

Looks better. —FireBird|Talk

Definitely better than before, but I don't think the whole right side of the page needs to be devoted to H*R updates, because they don't change too frequently and I don't think anything beyond the most recent update is much important. Maybe if it merged with the article of the week... but then what will fill up the other side? Okay, I'm being picky. I'll shut up. -- Joshua 00:52, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

I think it's mighty good. Plus we've gotta remember, some weeks are so busy, that whole right side could be filled up in a week or two. Personally, I think this format is just what we need. I'm happy with it. Three questions though, are User pages eligible for page of the week? :) Two, how are the recent updates shown? Is that a template, or do we need to update the main page and the usual place every week? And three, how do we put the first paragraph or so on more... Specialty articles, such as Floppy Disk Container, Halloween Costumes, ect (some of my favorites). But all in all, I've gotta say, A+. Thank you JoeyDay, for all your hard work. ⇔Thunderbird⇔ 01:15, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

The what's new section on the front page will probably be a seperate template from the h*r.com updates page. I realize that's a violation of once-and-only-once, but I think in this situation, two templates will actually be easier to manage than one. We'll just have to keep an eye on things to make sure the two templates stay synced. — Joey (talk·edits) 03:38, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

Last chance

I think there's enough community support to put this in place. If anyone thinks this shouldn't be the new main page, speak now or forever hold your peace. Of course, we can always tweak it more once it's in place, but I'd love some last minute feedback before this thing goes live. One thing to think about is what articles to feature? If you know a good article that should be featured, go ahead and start making nominations (for an example of how this page could be used, see Wikipedia:Featured article candidates). Thanks to everyone for the great feedback so far. This thing is 100% better than my initial mock-up. — Joey (talk·edits) 03:38, 23 May 2005 (UTC)