Classic WoW Wiki talk:Main Page Dev/Old-Archive

This page is for discussing the MAIN PAGE article.

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

=Archives=
 * Before November 2005
 * Dec 01-15 2005

=Comments=

Archived, and extreme dislike
Ok, first so that I say something and give myself time while typing to cool down, I archived this page again, it's getting too long. That wasn't long enough. Nope, still exasperated - ok, takign the time to figure out how to spell exasperated was enough. Anyway, I hate those borders. That's a personal thing, and now that it has seen my revision and your revision, reverting would be a violation and just plain jerk action; so I think it needs a vote; see WoWWiki talk:Main Page Dev/Border vote. Ok, that was a personal thing, but this is a logical one that actually affects the running of the main page. Let me have you look at Main Page for a sec - see it? yes? how about the featured article, yes? ok, now look for a list of the major contents of the wiki. What? Where is it? Not there, I say... and I say rightly because it isn't. Now  think about how much more information Wikipedia holds than WoWWiki, and how many more iterations it has gone through; there are reasons not to simply list important pages prominently on the front page. If a user comes looking for something specific, then they will use the search - and there is more important info to be displayed on the main page than that. News, featured article, other WoW sites, help on using WoWWiki, how to help WoWWiki expand, ETC. I say we create some kind of Browse portal and link it from the main page - it can list oft-visited pages and such like that, but it does not need to be the first thing on there; and it should probably be listed along with the other browse methods like A—Z, and FAQ, and Ask A Question - in fact, putting it there now! Hmmm interesting, lemme hear you thoughts on what I just did. Anyway though, I will change the borders back, and ask you to leave it until a vote is taken (see the page, listed above). -- &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 20:35, 15 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * WoWWiki is not Wikipedia! It exists for a niche audience on a comparably narrow subject. Before you presume to know what most people do (you presume they use search alot), why don't you ask! I'll tell you that I don't use search much. Also, if you make search the only thing you can do unless you have a particular coincidental interest on what's on the front page (like wikipedia)... well, duh, people are going to use search! What I don't get about wikipedia is why they don't put the search in a prominent place in the middle of the stupid main page rather than in a little spot on the sidebar. Also, it is obvious you are mostly trying re-make WoWWiki in the image of wikipedia without much regard to anyone in the WoWWiki community!


 * More about searching: One thing I find is that if you are familiar with the WoWWiki structure, clicking a few links is much faster than typing something in search and clicking a button.
 * Lets take an example: Murloc
 * Search: Type "Murloc" in the search field and click Search button. That's 6 letters and a click, then you have to look for the right murloc article and click it.
 * Navigate from main page: If I had a Creatures category link there, I would click it, look for Murloc under M and click Murloc. That's 1 click, maybe a scroll or 3 and click Murloc. Much faster in my mind.


 * Also, you seem to be reverting to your old ways of making changes without much direct explanation. You pretty much nuked all my changes and hid my explanation in an archive before anyone could see what I'd done. Do I have to make a Main_Page_Dev_Alt to let people see what I did without you getting all huffy and reverting it right away?


 * I have more I'd like to say, but I'd rather other folks put in their, first.


 * --Fandyllic 02:37-8hrs (PST) 15 December 2005


 * P.S. If you want to see what the Main Page Dev looked like before it got reverted... Fandyllic pseudo-version


 * Umm as I see it in my version, they click the Monsters category at the VERY TOP OF THE PAGE, then scroll down a bit and find Murloc; or perhaps they click Browse, then your system (it is still there, duh!), or perhaps they click A—Z and navigate to MU... or search or list or caategorylist or or or or or... point being my way works fine! Search is not the only way, infact the easiest way (looking in category:monsters ((See below)) ) is at the very top of the page under welcome to WoWWiki! --  &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 22:22, 15 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * Schmidt's ideas:
 * For featured articles, maybe we could have some lore. And we wouldn't have to change it every day. We could change it once a week, or once every two weeks, or unscheduled.
 * If we had a legitimate "goto" box like WP did, I'd much rather type murloc in that box and go straight there. It's faster for me, because I type pretty quickly. And if I had a bookmark to WP's article on Linux, I'd rather go to WP's site (or type wp in my address bar in Firefox) and type kernel rather than going to WP's article on Linux and then clicking kernel on that page. So in fact, I've even erased the appendage to the wowwiki.com in the address bar and changed it to what I knew the address would be. I so hate the Google search. (But I know that it must be there, if we're to find what we're looking for if we don't know the address.)
 * I like outset rather than inset or solid.
 * I feel like I'm missing something else, but oh well, it'll have to wait until next time. Schmidt 22:54, 15 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * In response to Fandyllic: I agree with SilverSide on the layout topic of the Main Page. Or if anything, I'd go even more minimalist than he has in his layout.  (Not that I agree with the color choices or combinations, but meh.)  While the comment "this is not wikipedia" is taken to heart, I can't find anything that I normally look for on WoWWiki via the main page or the community portal.  The organization (or lack thereof) is too arcane for me to intuit.  I typically use search for anything I want to find, or edit the URL directly when I've become familiar with the exact URL.  And for the records, I'm typically visiting the pages on the end-game dungeons (i.e., Molten Core, Zul'Gurub, Blackwing Lair and Onyxia's Lair, and sometimes visiting the various  API pages.))
 * PS, do you have any standardize talk format policy? Trying to figure out who is responding to whom when I've not been reading the conversation as it develops is something of a challenge. I've taken to putting   around my comments to ensure that they can be logically grouped by anyone unfamiliar with a wiki. --Mazian 12:43, 16 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * The standard format for a wiki is earthier an indentation or list format - list format is used more often; unfortunatly people here got hooked on indentation early on. List format makes it easy, however.  --  &#8465;ilver&#167;&#8465;ide|undefined 12:55, 16 Dec 2005 (EST)


 * Oh well, it looks I'm losing this round. C'est la vie... I guess it doesn't matter until one of the admins reads any of this. For the record (if you haven't figured it out already), I hate the wikipedia front page. Also, WoWWiki did have a goto before the search was switched to Google, but the search didn't work at all most of the time.
 * --Fandyllic 11:06 PST 16 Dec 2005