Discussion: Index

Page Layout

What do the others think of the new index page layout? Myself I find it clear and I feel it adds some.. glamour.. to the site. The front page should definitely be something special, like this. ~Fquist

I think it looks wondeful! Let’s pay the creator of it! 8D 8D 8D ~Fl@$h aka BlewMeUp

Yep, looks very nice. ~BoggyB

Proposals for featured entries

If you have a suggestion for what entry to feature next, post it here. Vote by signing your name (Use: ~) after the list entry. Next featured entry is due on: August 10. Note that this is experimental policy which might change

I thought about nominating and voting for List Servers but it seems to be that although the entry is great, it can use some fleshing out still (like having a real introduction), so it could be featured after that. ~Fquist

It may seem selfish, voting for an entry that was mainly written by you, but it’s simply the best one in the list, and the good ones that aren’t in the list aren’t worth being nominated IMHO :( ~Fl@$h aka BlewMeUp

For previously featured entries, see .

Proposals for entries we want

If you have a suggestion (an entry we really really need) for the “entries we want” feature, post it here. Vote by signing your name (Use: ~) after the list entry. The entry with the most votes will be posted if there’s a vacant slot on the entries we want list. Note that this is experimental policy which might change.

A good place to look at for ideas about entries we want would be the wanted entries page.. I’m not linking it anywhere on the wiki because it’s buggy and serverintensitive and should only be used sometimes. But it’s a good resource ~Fquist

Monthly feature

Since there’s not so much activity or grand new entries every week, what about having the featured entry change every month? It’s a lot of work like this, with so little contributions at some times. ~Fquist

I agree with this. Need I say more? ~Cooba

No-one has objected, I’ll use my admin wand and make this policy unless someone objects within the week. It’s basically policy already since no-one including me has bothered making new things featured.. partly since there were no new contributions (before this week). ~Fquist

We’ve gots new policy. Since noone besides me added a vote, I’ll wait a bit with the new feature. Before October 1 votes should be in, though ~Fquist

I’ve been planning to post the monthly featured entry on J2O.. going to try if adding a ERE: Newsletter entry and have it be possible to edit it by everyone will function. ~Fquist

Frontpage Replacement of Wiki Process Information with Content Information

There’s something that is slightly related to the ERE elitism subject discussed in misc discussion, but which is distinct enough to warrant its own discussion. The current front page of the wiki has a nice layout, and works well for active wiki posters. I think there is something that should be thought about though: the frontpage is concerned with process a lot. Voting for featured entries for example, but more importantly Stub lists and Entries We Want. The eye doesn’t generally fall upon the subjects overview.

This format is fine for an active wiki with lots of contributors to manage these “process” lists that are concerned with streamlining work on the wiki. However, with only a few contributors to the wiki working on keeping the “process” lists intact seems out of proportion effort-wise to working on the wiki contents itself. There are barely any votes for featured entries, and these featured entries usually stand on the frontpage longer than a month (I am not good at writing summaries to attract the reader so I would like to stay out of it but noone else has taken this over). With a few people on a small wiki these people are also bound to know what to do. In the meantime, with the amount of readers being much larger than the amount of editors, the frontpage seems to be focused on the wrong audience: people already working on the wiki rather than people that need to be lured and shown what content the encyclopedia has got to make them want to read it.

I’d say the frontpage should be changed to focus mostly on content. Maybe with a few “portals” akin to the j2o content section (about, characters, levels..) with an image, displaying content and a description of the category. This could be done for popular categories. It would give people much more an idea of what material the wiki contains, while now they have to flock to the all articles pages, the small category list on top or the unattractive subjects list. Compare it to wikipedia with their highlighting of recent events and posting at the frontpage of “did you know?” factoids. Wikipedia smartly has moved all “process” functions to the community portal page.

I’m way too longwinded (esp. for such a small wiki), a property which should be added to my ERE entry should it ever exist. – FQuist

I think the 4 categories of Featured Entry, WIP, Entries we want and Subjects Overview should be kept. There is need for some streamlining of the introductory text (I’ve just edited it), and ‘maintenance categories’ such as WIP needs to be at the bottom of the front page. Maybe have the pictures on the left match with what they link to? And put Subjects overview on top, right below the ERE introduction text and the Featured entry. Also, there have been talks about an ERE logo, which will take over the role of the big, black ‘Earlong Royal Encyclopedia’ on the front page. Perhaps we should have logo proposals as well as slogan proposals. ~White Rabbit.