Talk:Main Page

04:34, Thursday, November 14, 2024 (UTC)

This page is for discussion of or pertaining to the Main Page or general matters only. Irrelevant page-specific discussion may be removed.

We can do better

Hey folks. Since the main page is largely in the form of protected templates and is (I assume) the highest-traffic page on the wiki, I want to start a discussion about improving it. I think that a lot of it caters to the editors, rather than end users, and while that might fly on a small or new wiki, I don't think it's appropriate for the site that consistently tops the search results for many Magic related terms. I've uploaded a screengrab here that highlights my concerns, and I'd like feedback on where we all agree, and what, if anything, is sacrosanct to some higher power. A brief list of ideas:

• Create some portal pages! We've got plenty of articles - we're one of the biggest Gamepedia wikis! - but we hardly have any navigation beyond navboxes. We really should have something like Mathematics portal for our big topics. Things like Rules, Story, Developers, Blocks/Sets, Supplemental Products, etc could all receive a portal.
• Remove Template:Main Current, because it's hardly current, or find something that appeals to a larger audience to replace its current contents.
• Bring Template:Main Magic higher on the page, and expand it to cover tournaments and supplemental products.
• Remove bad links from Template:Main Left and push editor-centric links lower.
• Talk about guidelines for the Featured Article and see if we can find more content and faster refreshes. The latest expansion is rarely a bad choice, but especially if we can find a way to minimize the effort of updating that template, we can cycle faster, give the impression of activity, and expose more articles to more eyes and get more work done!

So, let's talk. --Corveroth (talk) 07:26, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

As you see, there are only a few of us who care. The other admins are not very active, anymore. Maintenance of the one portal is done by me, the last years, but is not my favorite job. That said, I can understand (and agree with) your points. If there is a way to make the front page more user-friendly without making it high maintenance, I am open for changes. --Hunter (talk) 07:24, 30 August 2015 (UTC)

I would also like to add one thing. I would move the Announcements and Current Events to the Community Portal and simply add something like this Template:Main General to the bottom part. The forums are dormant anyway and the community portal can be used without creating an account. - Yandere Sliver 12:55, 25 December 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure adding another platform (which even I didn't know to have existed) helps starting the coversations anew. And I'm not a fan of moving announcements to a page that's not seen by the usual visitors. At least the main page is seen. On the other hand, I've never changed the announcements anyway. Maybe Corveroth and others can chime in on this? --Hunter (talk) 06:33, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

That said, I am very gratefull of the fine workd that has been done in the last days by everyone. The wiki is more active than it has been for years. Thx all and best wishes for 2016! --Hunter (talk) 06:33, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

That explains why the community portal is so silent. If the announcements never change, we should replace them by something... More static. And Thanks, I find wiki work always relaxing. ^^ - Yandere Sliver 07:41, 26 December 2015 (UTC)

Alright folks, I'm back for a bit. Apologies for being busy elsewhere. I'm thinking, for starters: Let's remove Template:Main Current for now, since it's ugly and belongs on an editor-specific page. Next, let's talk about what we want in that navigation column on the left. Do we want that column on the left? What do we consider top-level navigation categories - do we have pages that belong there, or do we have creative work to do? I've got some thoughts, but I'll let you all chime in first. --Corveroth (talk) 04:26, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Sorry for the wall of text. I like the Using MTGS Wiki category. This is a wiki after all and these links are helpful.

I also like the two Releases sections. I am a bit confused after looking at it closely, why the sorting in both categories is not consistent. I like the Recent Release sorting better. Perhaps we could even unify the two sections to Releases with two subcategories: Upcoming and Recent, so that you have a bit of a pipeline feeling.

MTG Savation is an interesting section. I think you don't need the Category link and I am not sure how many people are actually intrested in it... It is a good read. Once. But I don't go back reading it.

Navigation is definitly the most disapointing part. I use category navigation a lot, but I would prefer links to pages rather then categories. So I do not tend to use these. To pick a few pages and say: Yes, these are the entries we are proud off, which hels you navigate the rest of the wiki would be much cooler.

Also on the topic of discussion pages. Perhaps we should link to the talk pages of active users to provide guidance. Perhaps Hunter's talk page? I have the feeling we are using his talk page as community portal. Because we are definitly not useing the Forum to discuss things. - Yandere Sliver 07:22, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

To be clear, you're referencing this forum? --Corveroth (talk) 07:38, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes exactly, I don't have the feeling that this really the place that we are discussing things. - Yandere Sliver 07:57, 17 January 2016 (UTC)