Hi Folks,
There's been some talk recently on the positioning of the regular "feature blogs" (News/Hole/NFRPG/Polls etc) and how they detract from the positioning of Fallout 4 news on the front page. I've banged my two brain cells together and come up with a proposal on a few changes.
In looking at this, I've had the following in my mind
- Although the community features and other "fun" parts of the wiki are an important (and perhaps increasingly so) section of the site, the main anchor of this place is the wiki itself, and getting information to those who need it.
- The "Features" tend to be very popular, and are effective at drawing repeat traffic... Lets face it, no matter how good our pages on The Hub or Rivet City are, they aren't pages you're going to come back and read every month. The hole and polls however do have a very dedicated following that do just that.
- When Fallout 4 News hits, we need to ensure that it is not being drowned out by the features.
So without further ado... Here is a hacked-up proposal for a few changes to the front page:
The changes are made up of two main features.
- The one you've probably noticed first is the additon of imaged links to the features on the left.
- This is positioned as such to ensure that these popular pages remain "above the fold" on the front page, without detracting from the positioning of newsblogs.
- Each These would link to a blogroll for that particular feature.
- The positioning of The Polls, the News Digest, and the Character Poll (The Hole, and its off season replacement - coming soon) would be permenent to reflect they are our permenent weekly features.
- Obviously these images are placeholders, hence why they look a bit ugly.
- The lower line would be available for rotation... I'm not suire if the Role-Play is taking a break after the boss fight, The Apprentice is seasonal and will be twice a month this year. The Divide of course is on a long hiatus. We could also mix in Chat, and the Forums (and consider a third line if we're including the latter).
- When Fallout 4 news hits, a specific link to a Fallout 4 news blog should be put in - this would be particularly useful for when Wiki uses "long" ads on the right.
- Additionaly the Moose is a candidate for a rotating spot as its occasional. "Official blogs" and other one-offs can also be rotated in and out.
- On the right, there are now two blogrolls
- The first blogroll is for Proper news, and has the two most recent items added into the News category. The only sanctioned regular blog to use the News category would be the News Digest. Other breaking news would also appear in Category news.
- The second blogroll is for community news. This would be used for the remaining sanctioned blogs, and could also be used for project promotion, one off official blogs, etc.
- Because this is so far down, its likely many wont read it, neccesitating the "Features" section on the left.
- I've also worded the top intro a bit different to try and make better use of the space.
I must stress that this is a mock-up. It will require templates to be created or modified for each section.
I now open the floor to comments and suggestions. Agent c (talk) 16:02, February 11, 2013 (UTC)
Comments
Nice work. Since the main page is the most viewed page, would it be good to make a special image to insert on the borders (an example is this user page)? Energy X 
18:40, February 11, 2013 (UTC)
Looks great Chad. I'm all for everything proposed. --The Old World Relics (talk/blog/contributions) 18:58, February 11, 2013 (UTC)
Sounds good. Although I can't remember the last time I've looked at the main page... My bookmark goes to the RC. --Skire (talk) 19:18, February 11, 2013 (UTC)
Brilliant Chad, I have no qualms or opposition to any of that :)--TwoBearsHigh-Fiving 
19:20, February 11, 2013 (UTC)
I like it. It keeps the community content easy to navigate to and maintains the important game content news (of which I am sure there will be more in the near future). My only question is this: When linking to each community activity (The Hole, Polls, etc.) would you simply link to the most recent page, or to a roster list of the previous pages as well, with a focus on the most recent? 
nihil novi sub sole 20:09, February 11, 2013 (UTC)
I like it, except I don't see the point behind keeping the community blog-roll if we're doing the features section. 
20:48, February 11, 2013 (UTC)
Just in response
- A follower: We could do it either way. Creating a page that just contains a certain feature that auto updates is easy... The only problem with linking to to that list is that it then requires a second click to interact with the blog itself and potentially see all the content, the harder/longer you make people go for content, the more likely you are to lose them on the way. With linking to a direct page, we avoid that potential loss of viewer, but at the cost of someone having to manually update something (probably a redirect or template page as DG/Neko don't have access to edit the front page direct) every time they post... I know I'm a bit forgetful at that.
- Stars - it serves a few purposes. First for us regulars when on the front we can scroll down quick to see if when the last feature update was - the portal-style links wouldn't do that. There may also be one off blogs that don't warrant a feature link but can be included there. Also with things "changing" on the front page every few days from the Community section it makes this place look like things are happening - a wiki with a stale news section can seem quite dead, even when there is a lot of action below the surface... Agent c (talk) 21:56, February 11, 2013 (UTC)
Good, I like it. I have actually been wanting this change to happen for awhile now. Over at the Call of Duty Wikia they have the same system implemented and I think it looks and works out great. Great job. ट्रेलरपार्कप्रिमाते टॉक पेज 08:05, February 12, 2013 (UTC)
I would probably go with the second option, then. Makes more sense. I kind of agree with Stars, the blog roll seems a bit pointless to include as well, plus it might screw up the layout of the page or get pushed all the way down near the bottom by the Fallout 4 news roll. nihil novi sub sole 22:57, February 12, 2013 (UTC)
- The Fallout 4 News roll would be limited to 2 items for the forseeable future, rather then 5; this leaves in the existing space at least 3 for community features below. There would be no detremental effect to the front page as the remainder of that column (beyond the Wasteland wiki link that would be retained) is white space anyway. Agent c (talk) 23:05, February 12, 2013 (UTC)
- Alright, no more objections from me. Clearly this has been planned well and all variables taken into consideration. You have my support.
nihil novi sub sole 21:13, February 13, 2013 (UTC)
- Alright, no more objections from me. Clearly this has been planned well and all variables taken into consideration. You have my support.
Looks great to me. ---bleep196- (talk) 15:29, February 13, 2013 (UTC)
Looks like a good idea to me, and the proposed change looks good. Richie9999 (talk) 22:13, February 13, 2013 (UTC)
A little distinction will be perfect. Our main page needs a major overhaul, anyways. This will be a good step in the right direction. 
Some Assembly Required! 22:18, February 13, 2013 (UTC)
Moving Forward
Seems like a good response so far. What I'll try to do over the next week or so is nail down the template for the middle section... Given the Moose is going weekly I'll consider maybe a 3 line variant, but I think that might be too overpowering... In that I'll liase with DG, Leon and Neko (to see what he's doing after the current NFRPG season, if it's going to take a rest or run again) to get that done. If theres no objection to me doing it, I'll put everything together for a week or so's trial after that... After which we can either go to a vote, or if theres no controversy perhaps declare consensus. Agent c (talk) 22:51, February 13, 2013 (UTC)
- Looks ok to me. We needed a change on the front page anyway, this is a good idea and consistent with other wikis. I'd leave it 2 lines, otherwise it takes up to much space and pushes the overview below it down too much. If I understand it correctly when you click on an image, they go to the relevant category? Maybe we can split the image in 2 buttonlinks (at least for the top rank); 1 to the most recent blog and 1 to the category. Game news at the top seems a bit premature, switch places for now with community news I think. Jspoel 23:35, February 13, 2013 (UTC)
WIP
| Community Features | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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- As we get labels up for the News, Polls, Moose, NFRPG, "Character vote" and Apprentice this should instamatically update. Size here is 175x45. From my eyeball, we might be able to spare an extra 20px or so each perhaps... Agent c (talk) 21:06, February 14, 2013 (UTC)
- Dimensions look fine to me. I was thinking maybe you can add some color to the Polls, News Digest and Apprentice image and get rid of too much white. Or maybe make them transparent. Jspoel 22:14, February 14, 2013 (UTC)