Difference between revisions of "Talk:Main Page"

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== Suitability for Small Screen Devices ==
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{{talk}}
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{{Archive}}
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* ''For talk prior to 2019, see the [[Talk:Main Page/Archive|archive]]''
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* ''For talk about the specific content, see [[Template_Talk:Main-content]]''
  
I have a netbook and this page is way too big for it, so I'm trying to compress it so it doesn't need as much scrolling.
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==2022==
Basically, it's a war on white space. Another trick is to link the images. By default, the mediawiki behaviour is unhelpful here -
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Thinking about how to make this page more attractive, how about modifying the SMW code to exclude pages without an image or logo? This might also have a side effect of encouraging editors to give new pages an image, which is good practice. -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 18:29, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
people like linked images and expect them to go somewhere. At the moment I'll leave the actual content untouched, though I reckon the links are of varying importance.
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:Yes, is improvement. -- [[User:Sunvalley|Sunvalley]] ([[User talk:Sunvalley|talk]]) 18:50, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
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::What about putting "recent edits" more prominent, as a button in the row of "documents, concepts, groups,people,events,years, etc?
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:::And based on last year's question here, I thought it was just me... -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 22:07, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
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How about some of the features that appear on the wikipedia main page. I think they could make the page more attractive and engaging; like featured articles/images, what's in the news etc. - [[User:UKpeacelibertyfreedom|UKpeacelibertyfreedom]] ([[User talk:UKpeacelibertyfreedom|talk]]) 23:58, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
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::::I've twice looked at this and recoiled in horror at so many [ and ]'s :-( Maybe time for another look... -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 17:51, 27 May 2022 (UTC)
  
[[User:Robin|Robin]] 05:56, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
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:second the news section. Just use a format similar to our 2021 new years idea. Would really help more traffic imho. I could copy some fun facts e.g. birthdays to social media - injection needle theory or smth --[[User:Jun|Jun]] ([[User talk:Jun|talk]])
  
== More... ===
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As we had two "aye" from me and [[User:UKpeacelibertyfreedom]], [[User:Robin]], there appears to be a positive consensus, but it appears you never gave us a answer. I do believe the new years [[2021]]>2022 try-out of this went good. I'd like to try it. If anyone objects, I'd like to hear it, otherwise I'll just see that as a green light, and we'll try it out sometime. --[[User:Jun|Jun]] ([[User talk:Jun|talk]]) 06:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
  
How about putting the ''' 'More...' ''' links under the images in a floating <div> in the top right corner of each section, so that it doesn't use up vspace?
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:::The new front page design looks good and very fresh when viewed on a PC! Maybe the list of "latest edits" should be a bit more prominent, but no need to change that now.
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[[User:Terje|Terje]] ([[User talk:Terje|talk]]) 09:21, 23 May 2022 (UTC)---
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:::: Noted.  
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PS: Refresh the page by pressing the refresh button. Changing that number in the source code doesn't work in current format. --[[User:Jun|Jun]] ([[User talk:Jun|talk]]) 12:48, 23 May 2022 (UTC).
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::::: I've added news cycle timelines along with our top 5 most viewed pages for this year under the permanent timeline, Terje wanted to add to Ukraine (and Robin to COVID-19) or some page this year. As visual images were a request from Robin as well. I'm trying to program the Semantic wiki to make everything smaller for Terje's request, but I'm time constrained and halting it here for this month. So. Feel free to help me make it smaller or edit it to your liking.
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Things I was thinking about for later; adding a monthly video to YT in a small preview box on the page. Sunvalley could maybe do that, or could be something we think needs to be seen this month. --[[User:Jun|Jun]] ([[User talk:Jun|talk]]) 12:54, 26 May 2022 (UTC)
  
[[User:Robin|Robin]] 06:10, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
 
  
: All good stuff Robin. I must also get around to u/grading the Mediawiki software itself because the latest versions are focussing on portable device compatibility and other 'uasabilty' stuff quite a bit. --[[User:Peter|Peter P]] 10:30, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
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=== How to refresh this page (Administrators only) ===
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Some edits to the source refresh this page. I just did it by changing '15' to '16'. I'm not sure why all edits don't refresh it. -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 21:11, 21 February 2022 (UTC)
  
== Redesign Coverpage for greater appeal? ==
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I'm able to refresh the main page just by clicking refresh, it seems. No probs whatsoever. --[[User:Jun|Jun]] ([[User talk:Jun|talk]])
  
How about "Latest People", "Latest Events" etc. ... Images would also be good. If it's {{SMW}} based, that should be fairly easy to recode this? [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 11:24, 25 April 2014 (IST)
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Am I the only one able to refresh this by clicking refresh? I do have that feeling, seeing the main page only updated when I refresh it. --[[User:Jun|Jun]] ([[User talk:Jun|talk]]) 13:36, 31 March 2022 (UTC)
  
:I'm happy for you to have a go at it Robin. It is getting a bit long in the tooth and your mods are always an improvement. I have a number of projects bubbling and too focused on them, plus content to be able to contribute much by way of redesign - also the server techie challenges take up more time than I like. --[[User:Peter|Peter P]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 11:39, 25 April 2014 (IST)
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==2021==
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This has not been reliably rendering as a tabstrip for me 100% of the time. I think it's possibly browser dependent. Is it rendering OK for you? -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 14:50, 27 July 2021 (UTC)
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:Actually, I do remember odd behavior for non-standard characters, or display of <ref> in unexpected places, such as properties. That might be it. Anyway: -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 16:21, 27 July 2021 (UTC)
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* [[Chromium]] - 2021-07-27 - Top tab rendered above the rest, which are normally tabbed, so the page is twice as tall as it should be
  
::That is impressive. I like it. I do a lot of Twitter posts and am considering an RSS feed of them on the Main page, together with a picture box to utilise along similar lines to the current video one. I'll maybe experiment with both when I can --[[User:Peter|Peter P]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 17:45, 26 July 2014 (IST)
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Are we gonna do a "happy new year" banner on the main page, and maybe smth like a news overview (similar to wikipedia?) similar to the "topics in the news" banner of this page; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events? Or maybe copy the [[2021]] page for a 2 days? --[[User:Jun|Jun]] ([[User talk:Jun|talk]]) 12:16, 29 December 2021 (UTC)
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:Good idea. Let's improve the [[2021]] page and link there. -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 18:41, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
  
== Known issues to work on ==
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==2019==
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What does the title "Main Page" add to the coverpage? -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 10:07, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
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:Nothing, but we're stuck with it just now. The <code>No Title</code> Extension crashes the site. There is probably a simple solution but I haven't looked for it yet --[[User:Peter|Peter]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 10:17, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
  
I've just refactored the source code for easier readability. In the process I've lost the orange (easily reinstated, but actually prefer just blue. I was never convinced orange was a good match:) but deliberately left it otherwise unchanged for now. However, since it's SMW based, adjusting the content should be a breeze. Issues to work on:
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:Fixed --[[User:Peter|Peter]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 10:49, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
  
* Lack of images
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Is there a list of articles with no content in the bio? I am working on filling in missing bios but they are somewhat hard to ID. There are a lot of outstanding VIPs especially for the more recent bilderberg meetings. -- [[User:Dan|Dan]] ([[User talk:Dan|talk]]) 02:01, 18 August 2019 (EST)
* Inclusion of relative junk (e.g. [[Test/Main-page-panels]] - visitors don't want this)
 
* Lack of structure (people, events, etc. all jumbled together, in a way this reflects the software structure, which doesn't interest people, not the semantic content which does)
 
* Lack of details
 
* Quite a lot of space used up - seems not good for small screen devices
 
* Annoying "File:" at the start of the list of files
 
* Lack of excitement?
 
  
This is not an exhaustive list. I ''never'' use the main page. I wonder what it would take to make it helpful for me. I note a test page which includes image/video...
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: We don't really do static lists, since it's too much work to maintain them. To generate live lists (this is how [[Template:SMWDocs]] works), you need to go to [[Special:Ask]], the interface to semantic querying. It's very flexible once you learn the syntax to type into the '''Condition''' box. Here are some to get started:
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: * Any page who describing a person: {{t|<nowiki>[[Has objectClass::Person]]</nowiki>}}
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: * Any page with less than 512 bytes of content: {{t|<nowiki>[[Has revisionSize::<<512]]</nowiki>}}
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: * Any page (i.e. anyone) who attended the [[2019 Bilderberg]]: {{t|<nowiki> [[-Has participant::Bilderberg/2019]]</nowiki>}}
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: * Anyone who attended 8 Bilderbergs: {{t|<nowiki> [[Has bilderbergCount::8]]</nowiki>}}
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: * Anyone who attended the 201? Bilderberg: {{t|<nowiki> [[-Has participant::~Bilderberg/201?]]</nowiki>}}
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: * Anyone who attended any Bilderberg: {{t|<nowiki> [[-Has participant::~Bilderberg/*]]</nowiki>}}
  
[[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 05:28, 27 June 2014 (IST)
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:These can be stacked, so for anyone who attended the Bilderberg since 2010, has attended at least 5 Bilderbergs, and has a page with less than 512 bytes of content:
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::  {{t|<nowiki>[[-Has participant::~Bilderberg/201?]][[Has bilderbergCount::>5]][[Has revisionSize::<<512]]</nowiki>}}
  
:I'm happy to leave any/all redesign work to you. I'll jump in as and when, either with edits, tweeks and suggestions but you are better at both coding and design then I. A few observations:
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A good place to see what sort of queries are possible is at https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Selecting_pages Alternatively, if you've any particular queries you'd like to make, feel free to post to [[User_talk:Robin|my talk page]]. -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 19:54, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
:* I'm happy with just the blue too. I have a vast collection of icons that repeat in 4 different colours and that's what prompted the original design; thought it a bit clever - then :-)
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:: Another approach would be to make a project of giving each Bilderberger of interest a description (add {{t|<nowiki>{{!}}description=...</nowiki>}} to that person template at the top of the page). This sets the line of text that appears in the {{t|Participants}} section of each Bilderberg meeting, so it's easy to see who is missing a still description (most of them). -- [[User:Robin|Robin]] ([[User talk:Robin|talk]]) 20:02, 19 August 2019 (UTC)
:* Junk - agreed
 
:* Structure - currently based mainly on NS's + edits of Main NS - Seemed logical at the time but could be much better
 
:* I have a few different display devices and current layout is reasonable-ish on all of them. I never use a smart-phone sized one. I guess they are becoming more important and should be considered. However, there's a fine balance between cluttered and pleasing appearance - judicious use of blank space does contribute to the latter IMO but present layout hardly optimal. One other thing that stands out like a sore thumb is that the Footer/Policy section runs right off the rh edge on my lower resolution screen. I've been meaning to fix it by having it either use smaller fonts and/or more depth but its a bit complex and I keep shying away.
 
:* How to get rid of "File"? - must be a doddle
 
 
 
:Visitor stats show that main page is always among the top few page visits every day, though with less average time spent there. It '''IS''' therefore important even as it is. My main concern is content. I'd prefer to spend 99% of my WS time on it. To that end I've been frustrated at NOT being able to show video and pics with links on main page. I want to be able to draw quick visual attention to a burning topic du-jour, changeable quickly and easily without getting bogged down in coding every time its changed. That's what [[MPTest]] is about. I'll re-hash it using the new Main Page code, then feel free to dive in and tear it to bits (ie improve it) --[[User:Peter|Peter P]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 06:41, 27 June 2014 (IST)
 
 
 
::'''More'''
 
:: I use Feedly pro as my RSS reader. I scan a vast number of articles every day and tag maybe a dozen or so as worthy of proper review - reduced to maybe 6 on reading. I would like to be able to display the linked titles of those tagged article - probably on the Main page but certainly linked from there. Since I include new WS pages in the reader, tagging those would result in links to them too. I'm bogged down in the technicalities and may cry help --[[User:Peter|Peter P]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 06:55, 27 June 2014 (IST)
 
 
 
:::'''Even more'''
 
:::I'd also like to be able to put a simple bit of linked text on the main header where the site maintenance warning goes, in order to draw attention to some other cause du-jour. For example [[Denis Rancourt]] is a long-standing colleague who has just lost his 3 year long defamation case for a cool $1 million - [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/denis-rancourt-legal-defence-fund/x/1311109 See here]. I want to link to that appeal. I'd like to be able to have the space blank or to show an appropriate link with brief detail and be over-ridden by the site maintenance warning when necessary - Simply!!! --[[User:Peter|Peter P]] ([[User talk:Peter|talk]]) 07:06, 27 June 2014 (IST)
 

Revision as of 19:38, 27 May 2022

Archive.png

2022

Thinking about how to make this page more attractive, how about modifying the SMW code to exclude pages without an image or logo? This might also have a side effect of encouraging editors to give new pages an image, which is good practice. -- Robin (talk) 18:29, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

Yes, is improvement. -- Sunvalley (talk) 18:50, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
What about putting "recent edits" more prominent, as a button in the row of "documents, concepts, groups,people,events,years, etc?
And based on last year's question here, I thought it was just me... -- Robin (talk) 22:07, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

How about some of the features that appear on the wikipedia main page. I think they could make the page more attractive and engaging; like featured articles/images, what's in the news etc. - UKpeacelibertyfreedom (talk) 23:58, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

I've twice looked at this and recoiled in horror at so many [ and ]'s :-( Maybe time for another look... -- Robin (talk) 17:51, 27 May 2022 (UTC)
second the news section. Just use a format similar to our 2021 new years idea. Would really help more traffic imho. I could copy some fun facts e.g. birthdays to social media - injection needle theory or smth --Jun (talk)

As we had two "aye" from me and User:UKpeacelibertyfreedom, User:Robin, there appears to be a positive consensus, but it appears you never gave us a answer. I do believe the new years 2021>2022 try-out of this went good. I'd like to try it. If anyone objects, I'd like to hear it, otherwise I'll just see that as a green light, and we'll try it out sometime. --Jun (talk) 06:31, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

The new front page design looks good and very fresh when viewed on a PC! Maybe the list of "latest edits" should be a bit more prominent, but no need to change that now.

Terje (talk) 09:21, 23 May 2022 (UTC)---

Noted.

PS: Refresh the page by pressing the refresh button. Changing that number in the source code doesn't work in current format. --Jun (talk) 12:48, 23 May 2022 (UTC).

I've added news cycle timelines along with our top 5 most viewed pages for this year under the permanent timeline, Terje wanted to add to Ukraine (and Robin to COVID-19) or some page this year. As visual images were a request from Robin as well. I'm trying to program the Semantic wiki to make everything smaller for Terje's request, but I'm time constrained and halting it here for this month. So. Feel free to help me make it smaller or edit it to your liking.

Things I was thinking about for later; adding a monthly video to YT in a small preview box on the page. Sunvalley could maybe do that, or could be something we think needs to be seen this month. --Jun (talk) 12:54, 26 May 2022 (UTC)


How to refresh this page (Administrators only)

Some edits to the source refresh this page. I just did it by changing '15' to '16'. I'm not sure why all edits don't refresh it. -- Robin (talk) 21:11, 21 February 2022 (UTC)

I'm able to refresh the main page just by clicking refresh, it seems. No probs whatsoever. --Jun (talk)

Am I the only one able to refresh this by clicking refresh? I do have that feeling, seeing the main page only updated when I refresh it. --Jun (talk) 13:36, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

2021

This has not been reliably rendering as a tabstrip for me 100% of the time. I think it's possibly browser dependent. Is it rendering OK for you? -- Robin (talk) 14:50, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

Actually, I do remember odd behavior for non-standard characters, or display of <ref> in unexpected places, such as properties. That might be it. Anyway: -- Robin (talk) 16:21, 27 July 2021 (UTC)
  • Chromium - 2021-07-27 - Top tab rendered above the rest, which are normally tabbed, so the page is twice as tall as it should be

Are we gonna do a "happy new year" banner on the main page, and maybe smth like a news overview (similar to wikipedia?) similar to the "topics in the news" banner of this page; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events? Or maybe copy the 2021 page for a 2 days? --Jun (talk) 12:16, 29 December 2021 (UTC)

Good idea. Let's improve the 2021 page and link there. -- Robin (talk) 18:41, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

2019

What does the title "Main Page" add to the coverpage? -- Robin (talk) 10:07, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

Nothing, but we're stuck with it just now. The No Title Extension crashes the site. There is probably a simple solution but I haven't looked for it yet --Peter (talk) 10:17, 6 July 2019 (UTC)
Fixed --Peter (talk) 10:49, 6 July 2019 (UTC)

Is there a list of articles with no content in the bio? I am working on filling in missing bios but they are somewhat hard to ID. There are a lot of outstanding VIPs especially for the more recent bilderberg meetings. -- Dan (talk) 02:01, 18 August 2019 (EST)

We don't really do static lists, since it's too much work to maintain them. To generate live lists (this is how Template:SMWDocs works), you need to go to Special:Ask, the interface to semantic querying. It's very flexible once you learn the syntax to type into the Condition box. Here are some to get started:
* Any page who describing a person: [[Has objectClass::Person]]
* Any page with less than 512 bytes of content: [[Has revisionSize::<<512]]
* Any page (i.e. anyone) who attended the 2019 Bilderberg: [[-Has participant::Bilderberg/2019]]
* Anyone who attended 8 Bilderbergs: [[Has bilderbergCount::8]]
* Anyone who attended the 201? Bilderberg: [[-Has participant::~Bilderberg/201?]]
* Anyone who attended any Bilderberg: [[-Has participant::~Bilderberg/*]]
These can be stacked, so for anyone who attended the Bilderberg since 2010, has attended at least 5 Bilderbergs, and has a page with less than 512 bytes of content:
[[-Has participant::~Bilderberg/201?]][[Has bilderbergCount::>5]][[Has revisionSize::<<512]]

A good place to see what sort of queries are possible is at https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Selecting_pages Alternatively, if you've any particular queries you'd like to make, feel free to post to my talk page. -- Robin (talk) 19:54, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Another approach would be to make a project of giving each Bilderberger of interest a description (add {{!}}description=... to that person template at the top of the page). This sets the line of text that appears in the Participants section of each Bilderberg meeting, so it's easy to see who is missing a still description (most of them). -- Robin (talk) 20:02, 19 August 2019 (UTC)