MediaWiki talk:Sidebar
Revised sidebar
I think it would be a good idea to revise the sidebar's popular page links (and perhaps main navigation as well) in order to optimize them. Considering the Popular Pages, it doesn't really correspond with the currently popular pages at all. For example Player Characters and perhaps Kinships could be removed, with Class, Traits, Deeds, Instances etc. added. What does everyone else think of this? --Fedaykin 04:42, 1 April 2011 (EDT)
- I agree about Player Characters and also the Kinships. But I prefer to see Deeds and Instances there / I'm not sure about the others --EoD 14:49, 2 April 2011 (EDT)
- Good idea to look at this, Fedaykinx! If you remove Player Characters, it would be nice if it could be found to click somewhere else though, like on the main page. I feel that Deeds indeed really should be here. After that I feel most for Instances, and just like EoD I'm not sure about Class and Traits yet. Don't want it to become a too long bullet list, I fear it will loose it's effectiveness then. --Ravanel 16:46, 3 April 2011 (EDT)
Create new
Wouldn't it be great if we had a button to the left (where Popular Pages is found etc) called "Create new..." so that every newbie editor can just click that and gets to the right place? Heck, I'd even use it myself! ;-) --Ravanel (talk) 12:33, 23 October 2011 (EDT)
- I see the smiley ;)
- I think going via Help is OK, but... yeah ... whatever that eases one's life :D -- Zimoon 14:15, 23 October 2011 (EDT)
- I like the idea and I tried it on testwiki. What do you think? (Yes, the links don't work there). --EoD (talk) 17:45, 23 October 2011 (EDT)
- That's a neat idea! Thumbs up. Sethladan 18:45, 23 October 2011 (EDT)
- Like it! I would probably rename "Create a... "to just Create Article or Create Page. --Lotroadmin (talk) 20:42, 25 October 2011 (EDT)
- I like the idea too, and how it's a drop-down. I use the link to the Help page all the time, but it's still a bit confusing. If I go there wanting to add a new Quest, for example, I have no less than four links on that page to choose between. I think a simple side-bar link would help a person get started quickly. -- Elinnea (talk) 20:56, 25 October 2011 (EDT)
- The "drop-down" is a feature of the vector-skin. If you use another skin you won't get a drop down, but a long list. --EoD (talk) 21:04, 25 October 2011 (EDT)
- Can we have a button that just creates an empty page too. Lately, I have been using partially filled in versions of the preload pages to make it quicker to get started with one of a series of similar pages. As it stands, I make a reference on a page, preview it, and click the red-link to start editing the new page. Hmmm. I just had a dark thought about the consequences of making too easy for robot spammers. Perhaps not. RingTailCat (talk) 01:40, 26 October 2011 (EDT)
- RTC, do you know that you can create new pages by just searching for the title and then press the red link "Create the page "Asdsad" on this wiki!" at the bottom? That requires 2 clicks, the same amount as a "Create Blank Page" would require. Or did I misunderstand you? :) --EoD (talk) 17:28, 11 November 2011 (EST)
- Can we have a button that just creates an empty page too. Lately, I have been using partially filled in versions of the preload pages to make it quicker to get started with one of a series of similar pages. As it stands, I make a reference on a page, preview it, and click the red-link to start editing the new page. Hmmm. I just had a dark thought about the consequences of making too easy for robot spammers. Perhaps not. RingTailCat (talk) 01:40, 26 October 2011 (EDT)
- The "drop-down" is a feature of the vector-skin. If you use another skin you won't get a drop down, but a long list. --EoD (talk) 21:04, 25 October 2011 (EDT)
- I like the idea too, and how it's a drop-down. I use the link to the Help page all the time, but it's still a bit confusing. If I go there wanting to add a new Quest, for example, I have no less than four links on that page to choose between. I think a simple side-bar link would help a person get started quickly. -- Elinnea (talk) 20:56, 25 October 2011 (EDT)
- Like it! I would probably rename "Create a... "to just Create Article or Create Page. --Lotroadmin (talk) 20:42, 25 October 2011 (EDT)
- That's a neat idea! Thumbs up. Sethladan 18:45, 23 October 2011 (EDT)
- I like the idea and I tried it on testwiki. What do you think? (Yes, the links don't work there). --EoD (talk) 17:45, 23 October 2011 (EDT)
Hey guys. Great to see all these positive reactions and a nice try-out by EoD! It's looking great! That was exactly what I had in mind. Obviously, I'd love to see this in practice. We should add all optional "Create new"s then I guess (Quest, Item, Location, NPC, Creature, Deed, Skill, Recipe, Item Set, Kinship, Player Character -- somewhat ordered in matter of importance, although you can also order them in alphabetical order, I don't really care). Would love to see them having capitals if the heading is renamed to something like Create Article. Hoping to see this live. : ) --Ravanel (talk) 05:03, 27 October 2011 (EDT)
- Removed "Blank Page" from the sidebar per request, as it was correctly pointed out that creating a page this way take the same amount of clicks and typing as doing it the usual way (typing the name in the search box and clicking the red link). --Ravanel (talk) 17:28, 11 November 2011 (EST)
I'm kind of busy at the moment, but I will write here how you can edit the sidebar. They syntax is the following
- capital letter word are keywords used by mediawiki
- lines without a "|" are just text
- lines with a "|" are links like "link | linkname"
For example:
* NAVIGATION ** Main_Page|This is an internal url to the main page ** https://www.google.com|This is a link to google * SEARCH * Create a .... **Create new quest|new quest? **User talk:Ravanel|Ravanel talk topic * TOOLBOX
I made the words capitalized, but I guess this needs further tweaking (from someone else? It's fully editable on testwiki). For a full description check out Manual:Interface/Sidebar. --EoD (talk) 08:00, 29 October 2011 (EDT)
- Updated sidebar on the testwiki according to what is said here. What do people think? Are these 5 links correct? And are they called the right thing/spelled correctly etc? All input welcome. I don't really care whether it's called "Create new..." or "Create Article" - I do think it might be confusing if we don't add the "New" thingy for careless readers. Or am I wrong? (Don't really like what all those "News" look like myself.) Feel free to write down all your comments here. --Ravanel (talk) 11:47, 9 November 2011 (EST)
Create new - the other approach
As no one did anything till today, I will drop that plan. But you should check out the new editor interface ;) (works only for logged-in users) --EoD (talk) 23:39, 8 November 2011 (EST)
- I think I prefer the sidebar solution since it's easier to find and might even prompt folks to fill out the templates. As for your tweak with the new editor, I think that is also great for the more advanced users. If we can keep the templates synced between the two methods i would prefer we enable both methods, if not then I would prefer listing items and quests in the sidebar, and list other smaller templates (nav/info bars, etc) that in the new editor. --Lotroadmin (talk) 02:07, 9 November 2011 (EST)
- I have been trying the sidebar thingy, but got ambitious and wanted to try to get it translated to, as some parts of the sidebar and wiki are, and then got stuck. I love the editor tweak too! I think we should have both methods, too, although I really think creatures and locations are important enough for the sidebar as well (agreed about small stuff like nav/info bars). It should be possible to link them to the active template page, so they get updated automatically with changed to the template, no? That would be so cool to have. :D --Ravanel (talk) 11:18, 9 November 2011 (EST)
- Currently, the scripts loads the "Template:Creature/Preload" page (as you can see on the variable "ourTemplates") as soon as you open the new editor and saves that value in the memory. So if you press the new "append creature" button too soon (I was too slow every try), nothing might happen (as loading hasn't finished). So if someone changes the preload page, you will also change the stuff which is pasted. (Copy&paste the whole template into the code and just "adding it" would have saved me around 5h of work, but that's not what I wanted). --EoD (talk) 12:13, 9 November 2011 (EST)
- I have been trying the sidebar thingy, but got ambitious and wanted to try to get it translated to, as some parts of the sidebar and wiki are, and then got stuck. I love the editor tweak too! I think we should have both methods, too, although I really think creatures and locations are important enough for the sidebar as well (agreed about small stuff like nav/info bars). It should be possible to link them to the active template page, so they get updated automatically with changed to the template, no? That would be so cool to have. :D --Ravanel (talk) 11:18, 9 November 2011 (EST)
Ok, after positive comments about that on #lotro-wiki, I think I will add it soon. I'd be great to have a list of templates you want to see there. So far, I collected those from comments:
- skill
- effect
- item
- Deed
- Recipe
- Worth
- Coords Tooltip
Sidebar Translated
The sidebar is now fully translated into Dutch and (almost) German if language settings are changed under Preferences. Many thanks to EoD for explaining me how to do this! If you'd like your sidebar to fully appear in your own language (and that language is still missing), leave a message on my talk page and I can help setting it up. --Ravanel (talk) 11:33, 13 November 2011 (EST)
- Cool! MediaWiki:mainpage/nl - learning nederlands! :D Sethladan 18:21, 13 November 2011 (EST)
Talk pages recentchanges
Could we add a link to recent discussions under recent changes? I'm afraid I have no idea how to do it even if we we're to add it :P Gwenwyfar (talk) 15:54, 15 October 2012 (EDT)
- I'm not sure how to do it either, but it looks useful to me. -- Elinnea (talk) 16:54, 15 October 2012 (EDT)
What's wrong?
A large part of the sidebar (including the "Create new..." links) has disappeared for me. Is this just me or is something not working as intended (or deliberately removed)? --Ravanel (talk) 13:16, 1 November 2016 (UTC)
- Looks OK for me on mobile. Not checked any other browsers. Amphoras (talk) 09:28, 2 November 2016 (UTC)