Forum:Main Page Format

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Hi, I'm Wendy, a helper with wikia Entertainment.

As described at Wikia's New Style, there are going to be some necessary changes to the ad layout on the main page. In the near future there will be both a banner ad, and a top-right box ad. In order to accomodate this, the main page needs to be redone in a two-column format.

I've made a first draft using the new layout at User:Merrystar/Sandbox. I used all of your existing main page elements and simply tweaked the layout from single-column to two-columns. Once the changes are put in place on the main page, the new, 300px-wide ad will appear on the upper right box that currently just says "ad".

I'd like to have your feedback and ideas on improving or changing the page, so let me know what you think! -- Wendy (talk) 22:15, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

According to the page you linked to, the new ad format went active on June 17th. This wiki's main page doesn't seem to have had any problems as a result of said activeness. After checking other wikis that have changed over, I've noticed that the new formating tends to push stuff together so that it is overlapping. (The muppet wiki is one such example)

As far as your suggested format change for the main page, it really doesn't look all that great. There's a huge empty block of space on the left side, and the Recent Adventures block looks horrible in two-column.

The new ad format went live on June 17th, yes, but the ads do not appear on any wiki until a switch is manually changed back at wikia. They won't do that until the new main page tags are live on the page. So this wiki hasn't had the ads turned on yet.

I'm not sure what you mean by a large block of empty space on the left side; I don't see that. Could you post a screen shot? There is some empty space on the right side as there is no easy way to make the columns even. The left-hand column will take up a different width at every screen resolution, and thus be a different length.

I'm also not sure what you see overlapping on Muppet Wiki? Nothing overlaps on my screen and nobody on that wiki has mentioned it.

I agree that the Recent Changes box looked better full screen. Simply converting existing elements to 2-column isn't always the best solution. It's possible to do a single column at the bottom of the page if the community wants it, but there will be an uneven white space before it due to the screen resolution issues mentioned above. -- Wendy (talk) 21:25, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Wow...these ads are big. Having a look at your example it looks like there would need to be a large shake up to maintain the 'look' we currently have. If we can swap News with recent adventures and keep the size of recent adventures, that might work. But uneven white space might be better to keep the spacing. --Tangerineduel 18:24, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

I did a mockup with the Recent Changes as a full-screen feature at the bottom so you could see the uneven white space I talked about. It is here. I wasn't sure what you meant by switching it with Recent News, so I left it :). Please feel free to edit the pages yourself if you want to try to reorganize.

I also added buttons at the top of both pages to view the page in either monobook or monaco. The new column tags are intended for use in Monaco, and sometimes have odd effects in other skins. Eventually all of the wikis will have a default skin of Monaco so there is a uniform look for visitors. Logged-in users will still be able to use monobook, but the site itself will have to change to monaco. So that's really just a side note; I think some of the layout issues brought up above in the unsigned post may be from viewing the page in monobook on a small-ish screen. -- Wendy (talk) 02:04, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Just for fun, I thought I'd give it a shot. :)

--Nathan (Peteparker) (Earth-1218) (talk • contribs • email) 14:43, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Nathan, that's brilliant. Brilliant. It keeps the layout, makes the feature article nice and featured, everything's there and it's great. Thank you. --Tangerineduel 14:48, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

That's a pretty good revision actually. Well done! The only problem is the huge honkin' ad space, but that's advertising for ya. No concern for actual content or aestic appeal. --Colleyd 15:53, 2 July 2008 (UTC)Woof.

Implementation of new format

I thought the "new format" with the ads and all was only supposed to be a) for the main page and b) for unregistered users. But I just edited a couple of Tardis articles and not only was the new format there, but the in-universe article on Internet had a big Google Ads box in the middle of the page! 23skidoo 02:42, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

• Is there any way of turning the ads off the main articlespace? They ruined Pest Control by shunting the infobox down in favor of an ad for ... get this ... pest control services. Argh! 23skidoo 13:15, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
  • I'm not really sure, I encountered the problem on Stargate wiki as well. Matthew R Dunn 13:26, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I've just been having a read around a few wiki and there seems to be a solution. If you want to read about it check out Muppet Wikia ads breaking pages. The net result is that it forces the ad to be a banner ad. Check out Pest Control where I've implemented it on the CD infobox. I'll add this formatting to all infoboxes to maintain page layout. --Tangerineduel 14:08, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Within the next week, it's true that logged-in users won't be seeing the ads on articles anymore. This is being discussed here. The ads on the front page however, will be seen by everybody on every wiki. So, hang on just a little while longer while the process is figured out. If anyone's bothered by the ads when this change is made, you can just tell them to log in and they won't see them anymore. Please let me know if you have any questions about this. —Scott (talk) 22:04, 3 July 2008 (UTC)