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Original Post
Due to development of the game ceasing, the "news feed" layout of the main page could use some revisions. This forum post is for suggestions and recommendations for what those revisions should be.
Current Concerns
- The left content column is much longer than the right, and can be revised.
- There is a large white space directly to the right of the wiki banner. If the viewer isn't using an ad blocker, however, a large ad takes its place, shoving the content in the right column further down.
- "Friends" section. It currently contains a link to the Russian-based wiki, and nothing else. Any ideas for more links we could put there? Terraria Online, perhaps?
- The gallery at the bottom right could use some work, or perhaps be removed/replaced entirely.
- What direction should we take regarding the layout of the main page in general? Should we keep the current newsfeed-like layout, or change it?
As time passes, please feel free to update this post as necessary. Dzylon Talk 05:31:52 April 07, 2012
Path's Opinions
To begin with
I definitely agree that the main page needs some heavy revision. My opinions as to Dzy's listed issues are addressed below.
The Nitty Gritty
- I do agree that the left column needs revision, but to a certain degree there is one thing I'd recommend; leaving the left column noticeable bigger than the right. Mainly for aesthetic reasons, but also due to resizing issues with a lot of the elements that would likely be featured on said column.
- I've not come across the white space issue, as I normally see the ad. It's the one spot on the entire wiki where I can recall seeing an ad, due to my ad setting being off. I also rarely actually use the main page, so I cannot really advise on this issue.
- I do think that Happypal would approve of a link from us to them, though I'm not sure of how they'd respond if we asked for the same, if we chose to do so.
- The gallery itself I don't think needs much work, though I do think it needs some new pictures, and some updated ones at that. We all know that "Mithril" is from before the release of 1.1.
- I do think we should move away from the newsfeed-style layout, due to the lack of development on Re-Logic's side, but; I do think we should also allow at least a small amount of "newsfeed material" to remain, even if it's pertaining to mods, such as the latest releases of Omnir's Weapons, or the Reborn Mod, for example.
In Conclusion
I hope my opinions have been enlightening in general. If there is anything else I can respond with, or offer anything on, please don't hesitate to ask. ^ᴗ^
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Dak47922's Opinions
With our current main page I dislike our long list of links. I feel that we would only need high traffic links:
If you would be so kind to look at the Combine Overwiki(Half-Life wiki).
I am very in favor of using what I call the "Icon System" of navigation. They use an 85 by 85 pixel icon to provide links to high traffic pages. Doing this will also free up some spots in our navbar. I also noticed that Russian Terraria Wiki employs a similar layout. In general this layout would really tidy up the main page and make it more user friendly.
Another thing I like about the half-life wiki is the "Did you know..." section. This section changes randomly every time you visit, providing the visitor with some new information that they might not have known before.
If I stumble upon some more examples or features I'll add them here. Dak47922 Talk 00:13, April 9, 2012 (UTC)
Continued Ideas
I know my icon idea can take up alot of space on the main page. I have came up with a method that reduces the amount of space required. On my wiki w:c:mccreate I have implemented tabviews. Like the name implies, it displays other pages in a tab style. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Dak47922 Talk 15:01, May 29, 2012 (UTC)
- Coding: "Did you know..." randomly generated content is controlled by w:c:half-life:Template:DidYouKnow — Mathmagician talk ♥ blog 00:32, April 9, 2012 (UTC)
A few things
First and foremost, I agree that we need to change the layout of the main page. I think that we should take hints from other Wikia wikis here, which is why I think it's great that Dak noted some cool stuff about the half life wiki (sidenote: half life wiki is having troubles lately). I have been looking at various wikis and seeing how the like to arrange their main pages, and I think we should all take some time to do that.
Here's some places we should link to:
I'm quite in favor of replacing our current links section on the bottom of the main page with a visual layout, as Dak said.
The note about the the "Did you know..." section which dynamically generates various content for different people / upon revisit is really interesting.
The wiki banner is slightly too small to match the entire width of the left column. It's a very minor thing, but if we're fixing up the main page, high quality content is important. I do feel that we should resize the banner so that it perfectly fits the width of the column -- or possibly the width of the entire page (both left and right column). (Also, with a visual layout for links, we would remove the imagemap from the banner as they would be redundant.)
For the main page redesign, we should do some testing both logged in / out and with adblock on / off and in various browsers to see how things appear.
We should consider developing the front page in modules for organization / ease of editing, either by simply templating each section or by using portals (e.g. http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Assassin%27s_Creed_Wiki?action=edit). For the record, the portal layout is used on various wikia wikis and it was originally Gracey's intention back in Janurary to switch the homepage to that layout (as can be seen if you view older versions of the fortesting wikia homepage). — Mathmagician talk ♥ blog 20:31, April 11, 2012 (UTC)
Also
Be sure to check back here and keep the conversation going when you have more to say. Also, feel free to do some main page designing of your own on your testing wiki (if you don't have your own testing wiki, you can click the "Start a wiki" button in the upper left corner to make your own, or you can use fortesting.wikia.com).
