Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Usability/Main Page/Development
Article count
Forget about Jimbo moving us into an age of "quality over quantity", a lot of people dislike the exclusion of the number of articles. Maybe they are not yet aquainted with this goal, but the single biggest complaint people have is the absence of this. We need to work out phrasing before we go live with the counter, and it should probably be added only after the poll is over. I think that, considering no one has praised its abscence, we should be able to add it in without a problem.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 03:08, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
- It's too early to begin gauging consensus. Also, we haven't managed to come up with a suitable means of including the article count in the header, so it isn't as though we can simply slip it in. "Add it back" is a gut reaction that fails to consider how to go about doing that. If we were to make an attempt, it's likely that we'd draw far more complaints (due to the poor aesthetics).
- Of course, if someone were able to come up with a good method that we've overlooked, that would be a different story. —David Levy 03:28, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
- yeah, too early to start drawing conclusions. There are going to be specific things people dislike about the new design. We can't appease everyone nor should we want to. If 115 people said "support but i wish you had the 2nd search box in there" we wouldnt add it. It "would be nice" if we could have everything that everyone wanted exactly where they wanted it; but that's unpossible, and is why it's nice that we have userpages, and main page alternates, and templates, and such.
- Instead, maybe we could concentrate on improving Wikipedia:Main Page alternates so that it is ready for mentioning as the way to access the "old" main page when/if we implement the redesign. (?) --Quiddity 06:26, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
Current design
Will the current design still be available as a skin? I wouldn't mind a new front page if it's better for the masses, but I like the current one. Thanks.--AK7 05:45, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
- If the new design is approved, the current design will remain available as an alternative for those who prefer it. You'll be able to set it as your browser's home page and use it just as you do now. —David Levy 05:52, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
Search box in Monobook
A suggestion for improving the visibility of the search box, since a second one apparently won't be included in the new design: tweak MediaWiki:Monobook.js to make its border yellow (the same color as the border around the current tab) only when on the Main Page. This way, it still fits in with the general look and feel of Monobook, and it won't be overly distracting on other pages. It'll will be just sufficiently distracting on the Main Page that people will notice its presence.
Of course, IANAUE, but it seems to me that this approach would balance discoverability and subtlety decently well.