Talk:Main Page/redesign

We could probably use a more efficient front page. While the page works well as an index for those of us who are familiar with the wiki, it's not as welcoming as it could be for new users. In addition, it'd be nice to have a wiki front page that looked more like lonelygirl15 and less like Wikipedia. So jump in -- share ideas about content/features/style, etc. you'd like to see on the LGPedia front page.--JayHenry 21:55, 11 December 2006 (CST)

Awesome use of the seldom used sub-page feature of MediaWiki. I am very eager to see what ideas editors can come up with for a new main page layout -- Twjaniak 22:41, 11 December 2006 (CST)

Sorry I was gone so much lately, I've got three jobs, two kids and Christmas shopping to take care of, so I hope you'll understand if I'm not always here. (One of my coworkers asked me, "When do you sleep?!" I replied, "Um...never?") Anyway, this is a great idea for a page, and I'll leave some feedback on this stuff, which is looking pretty good.--Brucker 14:46, 12 December 2006 (CST)

The video column

My basic idea for a video column is to put the newest video at the top. That way you see the newest information first, keeps the page more dynamic. And also, to incorporate small pictures from videos (to make the front page more visual) and to include non-video, but still important events, on this list. What do people think of the basic idea?--JayHenry 23:13, 11 December 2006 (CST)

I do like it! Do you think it's going to be a lot more work to update it now though? It looks kind of advanced... OwenIsCool 23:53, 11 December 2006 (CST)

I think we can build some basic templates to make all the formatting automatic. If we do that, it should be pretty easy. If we're using a template, we can even add a quick note to explain how to add the newest video. But we'll see, if it ends up being too complicated, we can always stick with the current list.--JayHenry 00:04, 12 December 2006 (CST)

great, i was coming here to suggest that myself!--Skeeta 22:09, 13 December 2006 (CST)

Perhaps the video column should be called Latest News or something to that effect, since any new video would be news in the LG15 world. Labeling the column like this would allow us to put things there that go beyond just video, such as blurbs regarding GoodGollyItsHolly's decision. -- Twjaniak 10:10, 12 December 2006 (CST)

Yeah, good idea. I changed it and like it. I also think we should try to make the style sets look more like lonelygirl15.com, (blues and grays), and less like wikipedia, (greenish).--JayHenry 13:17, 12 December 2006 (CST)

I like the idea of having a column that has the "latest news" rather than videos. Now that the list is getting very long, I think it might be good to move it off the page. In general, I like the idea of changing things to be less text and more visuals, in general making the page a bit shorter. Keep only the latest videos and main topics on the front page, and move lesser items to index pages. --Brucker 14:46, 12 December 2006 (CST)

Personally, I think you should keep "videos" and "news" in different columns. It just adds to the confusion, and I agree with Brucker that the page should be, if not as short as possible, significantly shorter than the current main page. --Demosthenesdown 18:07, 14 December 2006 (CST)

By news we only mean -- news related to the lonelygirl15 story. Bree chat, for example, is the perfect example. Since the lonelygirl15 story is not told exclusively through videos, it's important that an event like Bree chat goes into the chronology on the Main Page. Something like a story about the lonelygirl15 production in Wired Magazine would not go on the list. That's not what we mean by news.--JayHenry 20:50, 14 December 2006 (CST)

Things become much clearer now... Thanks Jay, or Henry, or whatever...--Demosthenesdown 01:18, 15 December 2006 (CST)

Characters column

To echo your feel of the video column, how about heading the characters column with something like this. Anyone like? OwenIsCool 23:54, 11 December 2006 (CST)

Main characters
Bree	Daniel
Gemma	Jonas

See, now this is a very nice idea, but perhaps just a bit smaller. As I said before about major info staying on tha main page and more minor info going elsewhere, I think showing a small picture of every main character (bloggers only) with a link below to "supporting cast" or "other official characters" would be nice. --Brucker 14:46, 12 December 2006 (CST)

I tried adding in a modified version of the characters box. It doesn't look right at all for now, but it's an idea of what it might look like. If we don't use the box on the main page, it'd definitely be a nice touch for a characters page.--JayHenry 16:21, 13 December 2006 (CST)

That was a good try. I like it better than the current main page and better than what I made. Yeah, it might need some work (like it should be centered, prob)... but I like the direction that we're headed in, both for this col and for the videos. OwenIsCool 22:38, 13 December 2006 (CST)

New vid feature

Okay, so again, just an idea. Since OwenIsCool expressed some concern that a new template might be confusing... At the bottom of the page, I added a link that says "add new video." If you click on the link, it takes you directly to the video column, and even provides instructions on how to add the text. It's just a rough example of how it could work, but using templates I think we could make it pretty easy for any registered user to quickly add the newest video.--JayHenry 13:47, 12 December 2006 (CST)

I'm going to make a lot of repetitive edits to the page to add a notation system to make it easier to edit in the future. So that my edits don't interfere with the Special:recentchanges page, I'm going to make my edits as a bot. If you want to see the changes I'm making, you can always check the history of this page, or you can click on the "show bots" tab in the recent changes.--JayHenry 15:12, 13 December 2006 (CST)

Just In General

I was wondering if it is actually necessary to include ALL the information on the front page. It might be enough to link to certain catagories. Sure, listing the main characters (Bree, Gemma, Daniel, Jonas) is okay, but what about characters with very little airtime (Lucy, or the Deacon/Deacons) not to mention the space that all this stuff takes up. If you could just link to a characters portal page (or whatever it's called, my tech terms as you might be able to tell are limited) and from there jump to more specific catagories or direct characters, it would save space, and it would make the whole thing less confusing. Also the video column, to me at least, seems like a good idea, but what if you listed, with that little jpg preview (i like that) the name of the most recent video and then the description and the "author"/character. and then maybe, using only titles (like the current main page) listed the last three? there are about a million ways to do all this, but this was just my input. Of course I can't really edit things so these are all suggestions. --Demosthenesdown 21:41, 13 December 2006 (CST)

Yeah, I agree with almost every idea Demosthenes says. There's really no need to include something like Deacons (commenters) so prominently. If we could eventually pare down the page, so that very little scrolling is required to get to the bottom of it I think that'd be ideal. Of course, it will take some work to get the various portal pages up, but I think it's a good general idea for the direction we want to take this.--JayHenry 21:53, 13 December 2006 (CST)

As I said above, I think the main page should be considerably smaller. As was discussed elsewhere, I the HRWiki is an excellent example in the way they do so much. Look at their main page, and see how compact it is. I see no reason why our main page couldn't have a similar compactness. Rather than tossing up a link to every piece of information, there could be links to pages with lists of other links. We can have that little picture thing, followed by a single link to "Official Characters", a single link to "Locations", a single link to "spin-offs" or whatever. I think the main page should about one-third the size it currently is, if not more like one-quarter. --Brucker 19:09, 14 December 2006 (CST)

Featured Article

What do people think of having a featured article of the week on the main page? It's common on a lot of wikis. I personally like the idea, because it could circulate interesting pages that otherwise people might not find. What do others think?--JayHenry 23:00, 14 December 2006 (CST)

I like that a lot! I think a week is a good time period. It's a great idea and we should figure out what sort of minimum quality standards an article must meet, and who gets to decide each week. OwenIsCool 23:04, 14 December 2006 (CST)