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)
- Okay. After a million articles most people won't care how much until we reach another major milestone (which will take awhile). And, true, we want to focus on quality now. And, very true, we don't have a good way to insert it now. Let's just hope nobody votes "no" based on this.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 12:43, 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.
– Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 09:04, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
Doh, I didn't read Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Usability/Main Page#Future issues well enough. Anyhow, I'd support putting the orange border around the search box only on the Main Page. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 09:08, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
Hidden Main page title
Hi, can anybody say me, how it is possible, that the "Main page" title in the new design is hidden. I searched everywhere in mediawiki and net, but got no answer. Is it CSS? Java? MediaWiki directive in one of the templates? Thank you very much. --Gorn 14:41, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
- This was asked during the draft too, and noone answered. I'm getting the feeling it's some sort of admin secret... Possibly because it would be particularly abusable in some way? Sorry, i don't know. --Quiddity 05:41, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Thank you messages?
Should we leave notes on the talk pages of the voters like people do for RFAs? Should we wait until the page is posted so we can tell them the outcome?--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 03:05, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
Searching page still needs work
I'm still very concerned about the inclusion of the "Searching" link in the header. The page is quite out of date in parts (delay), and there are unaddressed issues on its talk page (which has more than 50% posts from 2003, proving it's a low traffic metapage), and i'm fairly sure the opera instructions near the bottom are missing key info. And of course it still doesnt look anywhere NEAR the standard of the pages it's linked next to aesthetically (questions, help, etc). It needs a good going over by a bunch of people. (i dont know which cleanup-template to put at the top, otherwise i wouldve done that.).
OR we need an alternative link to replace the Searching link completely. --Quiddity 01:08, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
- I'll work on it, and recommend structuring it like the German search page, but with the search box at the top that's been added to Wikipedia:Searching. I've begun working on a Template:HelpTOC to use here (and on other help pages), but just beginning to organize what links to include. -Kmf164 (talk | contribs) 01:17, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
- Special:Search.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 02:20, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
- If we refer readers to Special:Search, they might believe that this is a required entry point (instead of realizing that there's a search box on every page). —David Levy 02:24, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
- True. I haven't realy liked the idea of highlighting the left search box, but using the orange already in the skin and only for the Main page seems the best way to do it. On the other hand, newbies may think there's something special about that search box over the others.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 02:40, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
- If it is technically possible to have the left search box highlighted on JUST the main page (which noone has confirmed), then it would be possible to also highlight it (the left search box) on the "Searching" page. I see no benefit in adding a second search box on the "Searching" page, for the same reason David pointed out for Special:Search, and as detailed against the second search box during the the main page draft.
- The German page does look informative and concisely laid-out, good plan, but i am against that second search box (which was just added on feb 27). --Quiddity 05:35, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
- True. I haven't realy liked the idea of highlighting the left search box, but using the orange already in the skin and only for the Main page seems the best way to do it. On the other hand, newbies may think there's something special about that search box over the others.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 02:40, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
- If we refer readers to Special:Search, they might believe that this is a required entry point (instead of realizing that there's a search box on every page). —David Levy 02:24, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
- Special:Search.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 02:20, 3 March 2006 (UTC)