Talk:Main Page

We should probably reduce the amount of subnavigation on the main page. There's something to be said for immediate drilling down, but the more junk there is on the first page, the more overwhelming it will be to newbies... who this will be most useful for. --mahuti 13:20, 27 February 2006 (EST)

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I moved the full table of contents to its own page and listed the main sections here. It's still just as confusing for noobs though, it really needs a friendly introductory paragraph with a couple of links to get people started. --JoyMonkey 13:56, 27 February 2006 (EST)

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Seems the Miscellaneous link is misaligned to "Miscellaneous_.28for_now.3F.29". Changing so it links to "Miscellaneous" on the contents page. CoachMcGuirk 16:24, 2 March 2006 (EST)

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Oh yeah, I changed the Misc link on the Contents page but forgot to change the link on the Main Page. D'oh! --JoyMonkey 16:27, 2 March 2006 (EST)

Look on the [Jukebox Page]. This should go this way, wich is going being nicely.

--Spacefractal 10:20, 19 March 2006 (EST)

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I would like to reorganize the look of the main page - into a main introductory paragraph with two columns underneath. That would let most users see all the links on one screen. Also I strongly recommend adding the __NOTOC__ tag to the top of the page to get rid of the silly contents box. Perhaps use a template to format the title. I'd be happy to do it, but I don't want to jump in and upset anyone.

Also, it would be best if the main page led into major portals (i.e. major subjects) each with their own page and category (does anyone use categories??) rather than just leading to one huge page with every link on it. This would require some rework, but not really that much once we have some major portal headings and categories defined. -- thoughts?? -- Doc- 22:28, 4 July 2006 (EDT) (aka Doc- on the forum)

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I say go for it, I don't like the look of the main page very much anyway. I use the search function when trying to locate a specific page becuase the main page is unwieldy.

--Buddabing 10:20, 5 July 2006 (EDT)

Go for it!

--Spacefractal 18:15, 5 July 2006 (EDT)

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I'm thinking of something along the lines of my homebrew wiki here - http://www.brewwiki.com -- I won't have time to do the bulk edits until next week, but I'm thinking of the following main portals:

• Getting Started
• Designing & Building (includes Tools)
• Control Panels (includes controls)
• Video
• Finishing (includes artwork, lighting, misc)
• Software (includes Emulators)
• Examples (includes most of the "link" type pages)
• Community (people, the BYOC community, etc)
• Suppliers (& vendors)
• Help Portal - contains info about, copyrights, info on Wiki editing, etc...

I think each should have a category assigned to it, plus one more category for the Glossary (the current glossary could be more easily done with a category) and another for Help. More thoughts?? Doc- 19:43, 5 July 2006 (EDT)

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What about the Contents Page (wich should been the frontpage)?

All MainPage does now it links to the content page, wich is not allways fine. if someone update the content page, they also forgot to update the mainpage as well.

I think the content page is fine, but the mainpage does require a rework. Either it would been fine with me, if these pages(s) can been tweeked, and the user easier can navigate around.

--Spacefractal 11:31, 6 July 2006 (EDT)

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I guess that is a good question. The problem is that the index has become quite large, which is why I think it might be better as several pages focused on different topics. You could create an index or Glossary that automatically lists major pages using categories instead (i.e. Category:Index or Category:Glossary). I'm not saying we need to rid ourselves of the index, but perhaps there is a way to make it easier to maintain.

Just some thoughts - I may have a few minutes to start on the main page this week. I won't alter the index. I may start on the portals, but I won't link the main page into them unti lwe sort this out. -- Doc- 22:53, 9 July 2006 (EDT)

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In my options, it most on the "General sections of this wiki" in mainpage, that is very ugly. It the same page as a content, but only contain shortcuts. The Content page is for me fine, it large, but it was setup like a table, and splittede software and hardware. It a good breif index of all aviable pages (like you would in a book in the beginning).

The mainpage could maybe directy take into a subpages of a category (like examples), rather than linking to the content page?

I guess these pages should been seperated, so they dosen't share links, so it need to update both page?

Let see, what you doing on the mainpage.....

--Spacefractal 12:49, 10 July 2006 (EDT)

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Reformatted the main page - this is just a start because I still need to establish portals to organize the main entry points on the website. At this point I did not change any content - just reformatted. Doc- 23:29, 11 July 2006 (EDT)

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--Spacefractal 12:49, 10 July 2006 (EDT)

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Reformatted the main page - this is just a start because I still need to establish portals to organize the main entry points on the website. At this point I did not change any content - just reformatted. Doc- 23:29, 11 July 2006 (EDT)

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The Category should been used on all subpages, since the index look very good. Im tried with the examples. Whaow, what a diffecent! You are complety right. These portal should use thier own category.

I have also changed the software section in the mainpage. It is that would you was looking for (this section called the software portal, Category:Software])?

This is a lots easier to navigate around. Later Im going to put the tag on all software pages.

--Spacefractal 18:04, 12 July 2006 (EDT)

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Spacefractal - see this page for a description of how I use portals together with categories to make it much easier on my Brewing site:

• BrewWiki Portal

About half way down the page you will see a table showing that each portal has its own category, and all the pages in that portal are members of that category. In addition I have a "super category" called "Glossary" that all of the main terms belong to so I can autogenerate the Glossary or index. The main entrance point into each major topic is a portal, and each portal has a category for easier navigation. It does eliminate the need for an index page, since the overall glossary/index serves that purpose.

 I just created a new Portal named "Software" - do a search for that page and see what you think.  Doc- 19:26, 12 July 2006 (EDT)

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I like that.

Found it from the recent changes page. Now there are 2 pages about software (Software and Software_Overview, that last one would been redirected to the new one). On the main page, I guess you simply add a link into the software page on the mainpage? The Portals should been created before changed the main page. And then all subartcles would been added the missing category tag. I would going to add "Software" category on all software pages (only links, that is really software, not the list).

Content/Index may need to been totally changed, but wait with this before the main page is finished. And until portals is finished, I should revert the main_page back to the changed design (before I changed the software)?

--Spacefractal 01:25, 13 July 2006 (EDT)