Talk:Main Page/Archive 3

Side bar mock-up
On right or on left?

Info on side bar mock-up
The following were moved to the bottom of the main page


 * Guiding principles
 * Policies

Should every word be initial cap, the first word, or what?

Other items may appear depending on whether signed in and rights.

Box 1
This is first navigation box that they see.


 * Wiki Tour is a new page?
 * Community &amp; Forums would go to an article discussing
 * Community Center
 * Community Meetings
 * Forums

Box 2
Article editing, etc.


 * I would LOVE to see a "page" be called an "article". I believe page sounds like a web page and article sounds more user friendly, like a newspaper article. This may something to be done with the main namespace? We do want to be consistent though to avoid confusion. Some indicate that some pages are not articles...like portal pages, tools, charts. I would like to see examples of those besides portals as they are going away. At this point, I personally say that a newspaper may have an "article" of a chart, picture, tools, etc. so why can we not? Not that we have to function just like Wikipedia, but they also call them articles.
 * Discussion or Talk? This seems to be an inconsistency! Also, same for "My Talk".

Box 3
Searching &amp; browsing


 * How about changing button to "Keyword search"???
 * Browsing is a form of searching. Put Country &amp; Category on same line. Used "Category" instead of "Topic" to be consistent.

Box 4
Toolbox

Box 5
Personal Tools


 * Instead of having name, how about "My User Page".
 * Add easy access to "My Sandbox"???
 * Sign out only in one spot . . . the header.

Comments on side bar
Please add your comments. Thomas_Lerman 20:03, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Nice...
I like what you've done. I've tossed in my comments in various spots below. In regards to the top box: I would rename Help to "Getting Started", since it navigates to the Help Options page. I would not have been as lost if Help had been called Getting Started, when I wanted to create my first page or was looking for all the help categories. Tom Huber 04:32, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Personal Tools
Box 5 Personal Tools - Instead of having name, how about "My User Page" ... If every user's page was labeled "My User Page" then I wouldn't know whose page I was viewing. I'm sure that I would recognize my own user page, but determining who was who on other user pages might be difficult. --Fran 18:23, 13 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I am not sure that I understand . . . the items in that box are YOUR personal tools. It ALWAYS goes to YOUR User Page (this text never changes for any given logged on user) and never goes to someone else's user page. You can always tell whose page you are by the title of the page. In other words, the suggestion was made to only change the user name in Personal Tools to "My User Page", not anywhere else. Am I confused (I know I need more sleep)? Thomas_Lerman 02:43, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

"I'm not even sure we have the option to change this feature from using the User Name to 'My User Page' I think that is part of Mediawiki or the skin. Tom Huber 04:37, 19 March 2010 (UTC)"

Don't move nav bar before NGS
Moving the nav bar from the right to the left will ruin the layout of a lot of pages that have been adjusted since the last move. We do not have time before NGS to correct this. RitcheyMT 04:01, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

I agree that it shouldn't be moved immediately, but to follow Wikipedia's lead, it works better on the left. (The new skin may negate that entirely') Tom Huber 04:32, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Search button on left, Exact Match on right
Since Search is the proper search by default, its button should be on the left. RitcheyMT 04:04, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Not all pages are articles
While the word article is friendlier than page, many, many wiki pages are not articles. RitcheyMT 04:17, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. Using page in place of article, particular on help pages, is more descriptive of what the user is working on (not to mention section editing or writing). Tom Huber 04:32, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Preserve the link to the 3rd most popular wiki page
The Browse by Country page, at 4,800 visits per month, is the third most popular page on the wiki, and it has a tiny bounce rate (11%) and a miniscule exit rate (4%?). Removing its link from the nav bar probably isn't a good idea. RitcheyMT 04:17, 18 March 2010 (UTC) I can't argue or disagree with the data. Fran 18:41, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Preserve the Forums link
It would frustrate me if the Forums link were replaced by a Community &amp; Forums link that pointed to an article. When I need to go to forums, it's usually to report a bug. Take me straight there, not to an article where I have to hunt again for a link to the forums. RitcheyMT 04:25, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't use the wiki forums link, but have added a favorite to my browser. If I'm on a computer I haven't used before, I'll access the forums from http://labs.familysearch.org/. Tom Huber 04:32, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

I agree with Michael. The Forums link needs to remain a link that takes the user directly to the Forums. Fran 18:22, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Browsing isn't searching
Browsing isn't searching, which is why I missed the Browse By Country link earlier. Please don't hide it under the Search box. RitcheyMT 04:29, 18 March 2010 (UTC) Agree Fran 18:23, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Leave username; not "My User Page"
Project leaders help users all the time. When doing this, it is useful for the nav bar link that points to the userpage to be a username like RitcheyMT rather than the words My User Page because helpers and the folks they help keep switching who is logged in during the help session. It'd be a pain to have to scroll up to the top of the page to see who is logged in and then to scroll back down to the bottom to click the link to the userpage.

Also, that link becomes an IP address for users who aren't logged in. So if I think I'm logged in and I want to go to my userpage, I glance at the link to click it. If it says my username, I click that knowing I'm logged in and I'll go to the right place. If I'm not logged in I'll see an IP address, which tells me to log in, which is helpful. If instead the link said "My User Page," I'd just click the link (thinking I'm still logged in) and end up on an IP userpage, which would just confuse me.

A third reason to preserve the link as a username instead of changing it to "My User Page" is the use case of library useage. If I'm contributing to the wiki from a public computer and I walk away, and someone else sits down, I want them to see that the link in question is going to take them to RitcheyMT's page rather than their user page.

I'm guessing there are other reasons why MediaWiki is designed that way, but these are the three use cases I could imagine. ;) RitcheyMT 04:36, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

I think the use of My User Page is just a placeholder. The skins will either display the user's name with a user icon or if th person isn't signed in, they will only see "Sign in" under this heading — at least, that's my experience on these Mediawiki sites. Tom Huber 04:32, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Personal Tools Addition: How about adding a link to Your Current Support Cases up at the top of the page or under Personal Tools. Each time, it takes me about ten minutes of hunting around to try to find where it is. Having to remember that I have to 1) click Help, 2) click Contact Family Search and then 3) View your existing cases to get there is NOT intuitive. It would be much better to have it under Personal Tools - two entries. One for "Submit a problem" and one for Your Current Support Cases. There is no reason to have to do so many clicks to find it. I actually had to call the library in SLC the first time to ask how I could submit a problem with the website. And I never can remember how to get here after that.