Forum:Update main page

Index → Panopticon → Update main page

Spoilers are strongly policed here.
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.

I think the main page really needs to be updated. Other wikis now have sliders on the page, with links etc. I know we have the slider at the bottom, but what is the point? No one looks at it.

I like the Click on a logo etc. thing, so maybe we could incorperate the logos into a slideshow? This is what it looks like on the Wallace and Gromit Wiki. We could do the logos (i.e, the Doctor Who insignia, Torcwhood insignia etc) with a link to the latest episodes being shown on the slideshow. If you have a look at the W+G wiki and you click on one of the slides, you are taken to a page corresponding with the picture. Our main page is just too bland, and we need to add some more colour.

Any thoughts? User:Ghastly9090/sig 16:01, October 12, 2011 (UTC)

The main page has a colour scheme that matches in with the rest of the wiki, it's simple and easy navigate, whilst keeping all the most recent stories (most of them) on the page so people can get to what they want easily. Unlike some wikis I've seen it's not visually overwhelming/over done.

The issue with comparing our wiki to many others is we've got a gigantic amount of content to show on the main page compared to any other wiki. TV x 3, Novels x 6, Comics x 6, Audio x 6 there's a lot to have on the main page.

The world of Wallace and Gromit is 8 stories, so they can afford to play around with their main page because they can link off to their stories easily.

I think adding a slideshow would introduce too many clicks to get people to where they want, the logos and the various covers represent easily identifiable images/logos that people can go to. If we split the logos/TV shows into a slidshow that's an ext 2+ clicks to get to the latest story.

Other science fiction and larger wikis also tend to go for simple layouts the Wookipedia and Memory Alpha and Battlestar Wiki all have simple main page layouts. --Tangerineduel / talk 16:26, October 12, 2011 (UTC)

Well, Ghastly9090 is confusing two things. A slider is no the same thing as a slideshow. I'm not being nitpicky. It's important we're clear to talk about them.

Unfortunately, our subject material does not lend itself to sliders, which are a very limited technology. They only allow four images, which just isn't enough. The idea of sliders has already been mooted in at least two different discussions, as I recall. Forum:Main Page Slider was one such conversation that springs to mind. Now that the fates of all three spin-offs are on the wane, we actually have to think about removing or repurposing those four icons, since it will increasingly become silly to have a main page link to the "latest episode" of SJA. This is not, in other words, the time to be creating new and fancier links to latest episodes.

I'm not opposed to changing the main page. I regularly tinker with it, and just added a fairly major new component yesterday, in fact. However, sliders are just not feasible for us. Moreover, everyone on Wikia seems to be using sliders. (Don't forget, wallaceandgromit got a Wikia Staff makeover, so naturally it has a very "samey" look to it, that shows off the elements that the Staff are trying to push.)

Our front page is currently unique, and any changes to it should be similarly individualistic. We have had a slideshow up on occasion, but it has been temporarily taken down to make room for other elements. It'll probably come back. As for the front page being "bland", well, I dunno, it's got the highest picture count of any front page I've seen on Wikia. Again, this isn't to say that it shouldn't change, but, seriously, count the number of pictures. There are about 45 permanent graphical elements on the front page, excluding the ads and sprites (things like the pencil in the edit button).

That said, there are a lot of options we've never explored before, like having a background that is particular to the main page, having a different colour scheme on the front page relative to the rest of the wiki, changing the way the latest stories in other media are displayed, etc. There's still a lot we could play with. I personally have been thinking hard about changing the front page to primarily dark blue with light blue accents; effectively the reverse of every other page, thereby making the main page look like the front cover of a book.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  <span style="">16:53: Wed 12 Oct 2011