User talk:Corveroth/MP2

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Feedback

RivalRowan

Hey Corv, thanks for mocking this up! Overall I think this approach looks good on both desktop and mobile. Below is just some feedback/tweaks.
General

  • We're using two different date systems across the main page. In the news uses big-endian (yyyy-mm-dd) while everything else uses mid-endian (mmmm d, yyyy). As a list, I prefer the big-endian style because they're all a standard width (12 characters), it's easy to tell day changes because they're the last two characters, and it gives more room to the actual important text. As a reader, however, I prefer mid-endian because it's far easier to tell which month I'm looking at and it makes the entries more distinct. Where I'm stuck on deciding is with short lists like Tournaments and events. Because the text doesn't wrap and there are date ranges, I actually find it harder to tell what's going on.
    • Supplemental suggestion: Remove the year from the dates and put it as a heading. That cuts out six characters from all dates and makes it easier to read.
  • At 1920x1080 on desktop, the Tournaments and events subsection is off-screen. In the news is still partially visible, so that might encourage people to scroll down but it's a bit dependent on the length of the Featured article subsection.

Format updates and rotations

  • I like this subsection but I don't think Commander should get a special callout, especially based on the historic rate of changes (i.e. very few bans over a long period of time). That might change if the CFP is active with the Game Changers list, but we will have to wait and see what they do there.
  • Adding an "archive" link to Format updates and rotations that goes to Banned and restricted cards/Timeline, per In the news (MTG Wiki:Magic News Archive), might have some benefits to readers and means we don't have to leave up old changes.
  • The Standard rotation sets could probably be a two column list.
  • If people cared about Alchemy, I would recommend that gets added because it uses a completely different rotation schedule. But they don't, so no worries there.

General—Right-hand column

  • One thing I like about the front page's Upcoming events and releases is that it gives a complete overview of the Magic year (that we know about). It's particularly long now but only because WotC has changed their approach to announcements. While I like the split format you're proposing, I do want to mention that we will be losing that overview because tournaments are separate from set releases.
  • The other thing we'll be losing is the miscellaneous information. Things like "Introducing Beyond Boosters." as part of the Assassin's Creed release; or the upcoming announcement of "Unknown date in 2022: premiere of the Magic: The Gathering Netflix series" entry.

Upcoming expansions

  • Is this just Standard-legal sets? It's not 100% clear because of the uniqueness of this year. Would Innistrad Remastered have gone in this box?
  • For Universes Beyond sets, rather than the format "Date: UB: Expansion" I would recommend "Date: Expansion (Universes Beyond)". It will put the emphasis on expansion and you only have to link the very first instance of Universes Beyond'.

Secret Lairs and more

  • I'm not sure this should be a separate subsection, only because the number of entries is hugely variable. At the moment we have four but Secret Lair announcements are rarely more than one month ahead of time and not every set gets an Alchemy release. I think it should be straight merged with the Upcoming expansions subsection as Upcoming releases.
    • Alternately, it can be a separated section per the format used in Format updates and rotations.
  • Are we treating Alchemy releases as not expansions?

Tournaments and events

  • Date formats aside, I have no issues here.

Policies

  • I'm not a fan of the policies box being a one-sentence floater at the bottom of the right-hand column. Would it make more sense to put it in the footer as a second line (i.e. below "MTG Wiki is a free, open-content encyclopaedia ...")?
    • Alternately, it needs a header.

-- RivalRowan (talk) 00:38, 8 April 2025 (UTC)

(Choosing not to indent on this talk page due to use of lists) Great points! Going down the list...

  • Date systems: Agree with dropping year and picking a single format. I think that's a historical artifact from many years ago that just never got polished?
  • Sections below the fold: Would be slightly less a problem in practice, because in user space there's an extra row for the page title. I'm not *super* worried about this on desktop because the section headings are still visible (only ~8% of desktops in the latest Steam survey are running at a lower vertical resolution than you or I).
  • Formats: Called out Commander because of its popularity. Does it still follow its own cadence? If not, that's less reason to keep it separate. Archive link is a great idea, but do want to keep the summary of the immediately preceding announcement. Double column, perhaps, see how it plays with lower resolutions (we really need a mobile UI...).
  • Right column: Acknowledge the loss of a single continuous timeline as an intentional tradeoff. Pages like 2024 should still contain all events. As for miscellaneous, if that info is sufficiently important, it could still stay as part of one of the timelines, but I question whether Yet Another Booster Variant was ever significant enough to warrant Main Page mention. Netflix, I would file under "Tournaments and events".
  • Expansions, SLs, etc: I have a sharp mental dividing line between Standard expansions and everything else (Arena, Remastered, Horizons, etc). You can tell me I'm wrong! I question the value of keeping the UB tag on the Main Page at all, now that UB can be Standard, but kept it, abbreviated, as a concession to the recency of the shift.
  • Policies: Like the dating wackiness, I think this is a legacy of an older era, and I'd be happy to nix this box entirely.

--Corveroth (talk) 01:26, 8 April 2025 (UTC)

I strongly prefer the continuous right column. I don't think the five sections improve the readability, and as the guy maintaining the page this would make doing the work aggravating. Don't fix what isn't broken. No problem with changing the cosmetics though. --Hunter (talk) 05:58, 8 April 2025 (UTC)

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