Wowpedia talk:Main Page Dev/Old-Archive

This page is for discussing significant change suggestions to the MAIN PAGE article. Minor changes and bugs can be put on the Main Page discussion area.

Please see WoWWiki:Main Page Dev 2 for a simpler alternative.

General discussion is done on the Village Pump and it associated subpages.


 * Past discussions archived to...
 * ...WoWWiki talk:Main Page Dev/Archive01 Archived
 * ...WoWWiki talk:Main Page Dev/Archive02 Archived
 * ...WoWWiki talk:Main Page Dev/Archive03 Archived

=Comments=

Not sure this is where you want these comments, but there needs to be a faction link on the main page.

-thund

Principles
This process seems to have gone in to the design phase without any kind of planning phase. Questions like Fandyllic asked need to be answered as a matter of principle before a redesign can really be done. Silverside doesn't believe in browsing off main page, Fandyllic does, and so do I.

Forcing people to use search is, to be blunt, silly. It breaches well-regarded usability guidelines (ie. Jakob Nielsen).

Good websites need to have discoverable content. A list of browse categories immediately on the front page is good way to do that. I much prefer this pseudo version of the main page to Silverside's current iteration.

(As an aside: I think wikipedia's search function is inferior to Google's. When you're not sure of the page's name, but have just a general idea of its content, Google always returns reliable results based on relevance, and wikipedia's doesn't. I'm hoping we keep Google's search but just add a 'go' function.) -- Hammersmith 15:41, 30 Dec 2005 (EST)

Some principles we could discuss are below. The main page should:
 * be no more than approx three A4 pages long.
 * explain the majority of content of the wiki (by listing top-level content categories)
 * use colour only where it gives additional meaning to the content (ie. not use colour for decorative purposes)
 * clearly separate all WoW content links from Wiki-editor links (ie. 'content news' and 'contributor news')
 * put priority and important content in the two top-most boxes of the page (if we were to keep the current look and feel)
 * de-emphasise content that is external.


 * Discussion on this moved to forums: Topic 5

I don't edit many pages, but wanted to give a suggestion about the front page and I hope this is where I'm supposed to do it. In any case, I think a quick link regarding new and/or up-and-coming events in WoW would garner a lot of hit if they were placed on the main page. For example the category could be "New or Coming Soon to WoW" And could list thinsg like the Lunar Festival, 1.10 changes, CC armor sets in 1.10, the new Brood faction, and such. I would be wrong, but I think what makes wikis so powerful is their ability to generate new information quickly, and this should be emphasized on the main page. Thanks Killswitch1968 23:30, 3 Feb 2006 (EST)

Reverted
Well, I reverted the page to the version that hammersmith likes. -- &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 17:15, 30 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * Cool thanks mate. BTW, I looked at the community page. You know some pretty fancy template tricks! --Hammersmith 17:21, 30 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * Hehe been using wikisyntax for a very long time... I would tentatively say I know my way around! -- &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 20:08, 30 Dec 2005 (EST)

Big Change, tabs
How do you like it? Nowhere near finished, *PLEASE* add content I cannot get it all, I am mostly doing structure and usability set-up; more helpers = happy silverside!

This whole change arose when I noticed above where hammersmith said: clearly separate all WoW content links from Wiki-editor links (ie. 'content news' and 'contributor news') - I thought, why not completely separate it? I mean, the vast majority of the people visiting just want to find info on something, so they should first an explanation of what wowwiki is (at the top, which is there always) then an information-dense page where they can quickly pinpoint what they are looking for with one or two clicks and preferably under 5 seconds from loading the page before they are at the page they want. Then there are the editors and writers, who want such stuff as news, policies, links to special pages, helpful articles on writing pretty / stylistically excellent pages. They have their own tabs, which can be laid out differently with totally different content and everything. It was just an idea, but I think it'll work out wonderfully! Please, though, add content, as at this moment it is pretty much as good as a bald chicken; it can fly but it needs some dang feathers! rofl ok anyway, I'm off to add more content... got questions or comments? Shoot! I'll answer ASAP. Oh and by the way, as of this post I am officially back from wikibreak; I found just cause the river is flowing against me isn't a reason to stop going, I just have to get out of the river and walk (-; -- &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 17:27, 31 Dec 2005 (EST)
 * Could you add the "Interface customisation" links from the current Main Page to this new Dev page? They should be in a box you've called "game info". Also, retitle 'game info' to 'interface customisation'. I couldnt work out how to do it. (Btw: that is a slight problem with this nice new page- its difficult to work out how to change it). I like it though. Also the words 'monsters/places/NPCs' shouldn't be links to their normal wiki pages, because when you click them you expect them to expand a section. Perhaps unlink the words altogether or give them the same functionality as the + sign.  Lastly, if you could post a few links to the pages which would like me edit things like this, that'd help :)  I like what you've done, though. -- Hammersmith 18:43, 31 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * Add it yourself (see below) rofl! The reason such stuff isn't there yet is I am still working on it.  I am trying to actually *COMPLETE* a section, no more edits needed at all, before I go on to the next one.  At this rate, it'll be a day or two at least before I can get to the Editors and Writers section (thinking of combining those).  Did you notice the tabs? Anyway, about editing; its a hidden link cause casual passerby have no reason to click on it.  Try clicking on the section headings (Player info, World info, Game info, whatever) then editing the resulting pages. --  &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 20:13, 31 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * Ah, OK got it. Thanks.  Yes I think the 'write and create' and 'clean and edit' tabs could be made into one, called 'Contributing and Editing'.


 * Will do! Also, the "Professions" need to be on the player info section - the player info is everything about the player character and the choices the player makes - make sense? -- &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 21:18, 31 Dec 2005 (EST)
 * Yeah that makes sense. (1) I wanted to reduce the scrolling it took to get to the Interface Customiation part. By moving Professions into a bottom box it reduced the overall page length a lot. I figured that it would still make sense in the 'other' section and the benefit was smaller page length. (2) All the red links in the Interface Cust section looks unpleasant... do you have plans to fill that out?  -- Hammersmith 22:21, 31 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * Yes and no - I am going to contact authors and ask them to create pages for the mods here, and perhaps I myself will migrate info for some of the more famous mods from the curse-gaming page for that mod... oh well, in the future... you could help perhaps by just copying and pasting text from the curse-gaming page for some of those mods, while I get on with the main page structure. I am working on the main page at the moment, not all the pages that link to it... --  &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 23:13, 31 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * Silver, since I last looked you've changed the way content is layed out. I prefered your first iteration (where you had expanding sections within the topleft box, PC info in the topright, Interface in the bottom left and I had put professions in bottomright). I liked the first version because it put all the high-level links on the front page (which means new users don't need to look any further to establish what kind of scope the wiki has) - in contrast, the current iteration has tabs within the main tab, which hides some of the content. -- Hammersmith 05:27, 1 Jan 2006 (EST)


 * The page was just too long though; we couldn't possibly introduce the info back to the front page without inducing scrolling... ah well. Also, the expanding sections in the world info category did the same thing as the new tabs do, really - I dunno, lemme think about it. --  &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 16:14, 1 Jan 2006 (EST)
 * I think you missed my point "I liked the first version because it put all the high-level links on the front page ". Currently you do not have as much info on PCs, professions nor interface customisation on the front page as you did in the first iteration. Scrolling is OK, btw. Its generally better to scroll than to have to click. -- Hammersmith 16:28, 1 Jan 2006 (EST)
 * True; oh well, time for Main Page v.whatever it is (see below) - i'll work on it when I get back i'm off to a good fattening lilly's breakfast (*yum*) -- &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 16:58, 1 Jan 2006 (EST)
 * P.S. See Main Page/Version history, and try to keep it up if you change the dev.
 * Also Silver, it is much more important to show scope than depth. So, eg: I'd remove the links to specific mobs (eg gnoll) - because that is more depth than necessary. I think just having links like Mobs and Bosses is enough. I intend to have a go at this in a few days' time, but til then wanted you to know my thinking. -- Hammersmith 03:11, 2 Jan 2006 (EST)


 * Discussion on this moved to forums: Topic 5