User talk:Eitch/Main Page

Solutions

Recently featured links from the "Today's featured article" are not hidden because the imported code does not properly open a div (if you view the source, it has a </div> — with nothing opening it); this causes the unexpected end to the collapsible section feature. Since you cannot directly edit the featured article's source (without administrative permission), you simply have to add <div> before the Wikipedia:Today's featured article template. ChyranandChloe (talk) 19:56, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's great, thanks! Fixed. — eitc h 15:37, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Space between the FA title section and FA and so forth is caused by the way the "hide begin/hide end" template is designed. To fix this place a <br> before the Wikipedia:Today's featured article template. The DYK template has a margin (space) intergrated with the template, you cannot edit the DYK template without adminsitrative priviliages; however, you can design your own. ChyranandChloe (talk) 19:56, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, adding that line break does push the FA away from the FA title. But still I think my tables are doing something funny, because the spacing's different from the current main page. FA/INT/OTD: Without a line break, it's more cramped than the current main page; with a line break it's more spread out. DYK: Currently more spread out. No matter what the aesthetics, I think that must reflect some sloppiness in the syntax. — eitc h 15:37, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am having difficulty understanding what you want by: "a little white square below the Today's Featured Article and Today's Featured Picture introductions", and "heights of the blue and the green tables independent of each other". If you continue to have trouble with the above fixes I can preform them at your request. ChyranandChloe (talk) 19:56, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Depending on your monitor's display preferences, this might be very hard to see. If you have an LCD screen, try looking at it from an angle. It's a 5x5 px white square that's an artifact of the line of small text I added above FA, DYK, and FP. FA and DYK: it's between the explanatory sentence and the section title, on the left margin. FP, Sisters, Languages (I did things a little differently from FA/DYK): it's at the bottom of each of the boxes, at the left. — eitc h 15:37, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I understand what you mean by 5x5 white boxes; they area result from nesting a table within a table without specifying its parameters. I don't understand why you would need to nest these tables, simply make another cell for it. To remove the table simply convert the table into a cell within the larger table.

Before:

{|width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" style="vertical-align:top; background:#f5fffa;"
|
{|
<font style="font-size:85%; padding:0.5em 0.5em;">Wikipedia articles of the highest quality are declared Featured Articles.</font>
|}
{{hidden begin

After:

{|width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" style="vertical-align:top; background:#f5fffa;"
|-
<font style="font-size:85%; padding:0.5em 0.5em;">Wikipedia articles of the highest quality are declared Featured Articles.</font>
|-
{{hidden begin

If you want to have more control over the distance between the FA and its title, remove the <br> and specify a margin either below the title or above the contents.

Before:

{{hidden begin
|title=Today's featured article
|titlestyle=margin:0; background:#cef2e0; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;
|bodystyle=font-size:100%; font-weight:normal; color:#000;}}
<div><br>{{Wikipedia:Today's featured article/{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}, {{CURRENTYEAR}}}}
{{hidden end}}

After:

{{hidden begin
|title=Today's featured article
|titlestyle=margin:0; background:#cef2e0; font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; border:1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align:left; color:#000; padding:0.2em 0.4em;
|bodystyle=font-size:100%; font-weight:normal; color:#000;}}
<div style="margin-top:5px;">{{Wikipedia:Today's featured article/{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}, {{CURRENTYEAR}}}}
{{hidden end}}

Depending on what you wan you can change the margin size by either increasing or decreasing the number of pixels. I specified 5px, you can specify a differnet amount. This is your entry and your ideas; most people even if you tell them to won't want to mess around with it, they'd more likely take your entry modify it and make it their own. I hope this helps. ChyranandChloe (talk) 02:50, 14 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Great! Thanks, that did it. (And yes, I'm sure you're right). — eitc h 16:34, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Featured Article Title

Is there anyway to Show the title and possibly one line of text while the featured article is hidden. otherwise people wouldn't bother reading it.Beligaronia (talk) 11:47, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm afraid that's just the way Hidden begin is written. I agree that that'd be a great feature. Maybe someone could figure out how to grab the FA blurb up to the first "." or something? — eitc h 15:42, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I like the explanations of the word "Featured", which isn't as obvious as some may think. --Hordaland (talk) 01:28, 14 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Too much header

The collapsing boxes are defeated by the excess of header. I can barely see the first two on my laptop screen. Phil Sandifer (talk) 04:49, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean the "Welcome" box, or the header above that where I talk about the ideas behind and problems with my design? If the latter, take a look at User:Eitch/Main Page (no intro). If the former, what size screen do you have? My own computer's in the shop at the moment, so I haven't had a chance to see what this looks like under different resolutions, but it looks fine on the couple computers I have seen it on. Please do let me know. — eitc h 15:48, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that the welcome box still seems unfinished, tho I appreciate the effort to inform newcomers. For starters, try a line break after "this English Wikipedia?" and after "New to read-ing or editing Wikipedia?" Can the line after that be shortened to fit on just one line for most people? On 2nd thought, leave out "English" in "this English Wikipedia?" - those who haven't figured out that, won't be able read it anyway. :) --Hordaland (talk) 01:41, 14 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Promising

I think this proposal offers a lot of promising ideas, but it needs a lot of work. (I've fallen for the Show/Hide idea as used on the French main page.) The big box at the top is, I'd say, in rough draft form at the moment, but I like the thought of emphasizing recruiting near the top of the page. I don't like the redundancy of repeating links which are in the far left column - mention or describe them, but make the user get used to using those at left. Ditto for Search box, now that it's been moved further up in the left column. --Hordaland (talk) 08:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Personally, I disagree for the nav links: I think the most newb-friendly thing is to put those links front and center, so they don't have to look around for even half a second to find what they want, and so that they realize that those are links they might be interested in following (otherwise, I feel, there's nothing but the sidelinks's vertical hierarchy to suggest that "Featured content" would be more interesting to them than "Special pages"). I don't have an opinion on the search box, because I always use the search box built into my browser (tangent: firefox + "searchontab" plugin (I'm not affiliated with either btw)). I definitely respect your point though, and I'm sure you're not alone. What do the rest of you think? — eitc h 16:26, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'd put the precise article count back in the languages box at the bottom and remove it from the top. --Hordaland (talk) 08:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not actually clear on what purpose having that number serves. I kept it because I'm more interested in formatting changes; I moved it up because of it's "wow!" value. Yes, it's cool that there's a template for the count… but do we really need it? — eitc h 16:26, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The coloring of the 'sister' box is nicer than that of the 'languages' box. --Hordaland (talk) 08:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Cool, I think so too. — eitc h 16:26, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Lots of promise - watchlisted. --Hordaland (talk) 08:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]