This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 10 | ← | Archive 13 | Archive 14 | Archive 15 | Archive 16 | Archive 17 | → | Archive 20 |
Great new front page! Can we archive the subject mentioned in "Did you know..." and "Featured article", so that we don't repeat topics too quickly. Either archive the actual paragraphs of text used, or even just the topics in a list. -- user:zanimum
I just moved over to a eMac (about 2003 or so), in another room, with IE 5.2 on it. The left hand side toolbar has completely disappeared, down to the very bottom of the page, every page. Did someone change the software for Wikipedia, because it's not just the main page that has changed. -- user:zanimum
But I believe it can still be improved upon:
But overall - a nice piece of work! Mikez 14:23, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
The Browse Wikipedia by topic link disturbs the layout for me in Camino 0.7 (Moz/Gecko). It does not serve much purpose anyway, so I'd like a different solution. —Sverdrup (talk) 14:32, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
The new frontpage (2004-02-24) is great! It lets you go deep into the content, and just asks you to come back to see what's new.
I think the text "From Wikipedia, the Free..." under heading should be removed from main page. The same idea is stated just above and just below it. Besides, it takes vertical space unnecessarily.
There are three columns side by side: two in the page, and one in the left side action bar. I feel the action bar should be off by default, as most of its functionality is available in the links on top of every page. Tero 14:49, 2004 Feb 24 (UTC)
Please! Bring back the old page! The new page provides more information, but at the cost of the beauty of the old page. Don't let this change be permanant. Auric The Rad 15:14, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
I wouldn't say it's awful (alil' disconcerting, but change always is). Overall I like it [initial impression] ... but the pics are distracting to me (YMMV on that though). I'd just suggest that you put the text in and leave out the graphics [ppl can see them in the article] ... Sincerely, JDR 15:49, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I don't want the text of a featured article (or any other, for that matter) on the main page. Same for the news. The previous one, with just a concise lists of featured articles, news items etc. was much better.
The whole thing is starting to look like one of those evil portal sites, that try to be everything but end up being nothing but clutter. The old page had everything it needed, with almost no scrolling required. This is much to long, and the useful information gets lost between news and other useless stuff. WikiPedia is not a newspaper and neither should it be one. rschroev 15:24, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
Simply put.. there is too much content showing at once on the front page. The previous layout was simple and provided the gateway to what viewers may want.
Hmmmm. I'm a little confused regarding the update process and coordination between the Current events page, the "In the news" part of the Main page and the Template:In_the_news page. For instance, the Morocco earthquake item of 24 February existed in three versions as of this writing (1815 UTC the same day). Shouldn't all updates be propagated in the order described at the top of this page? Bad coordination of this process is detrimental to the professional impression Wikipedia should aspire to make on its readers. -- Wernher 18:22, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
The yellow box has become too big because of the browse wikipedia by topic addition. One can barely see the top of the featured articles/news items/ photographs section(my resolution is 800x600 I think) without scrolling. This defeats the whole purpose of a happening main page. KRS 18:29, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
It's a good first stab at a new approach, but I think it introduces some problems which impair its usefulness:
- mhr 18:42, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I'll vote for the old page. The new Main Page is too busy; this saeems contrary to what might be the purpose of a Main Page. If we want to feature Julius Caesar a simple link is enough for those who are interested. In consideration of those with slow connections, there should be no pictures on the Main Page. ☮ Eclecticology 18:49, 2004 Feb 24 (UTC)
Since I am on a dial-up connection -- & probably will remain on dial-up for the forseeable future -- I'd rather not see graphics; one reason I like the front page to Google. I found the old version (by this I mean what I saw on the front page 23 February) far better for my purposes than what is there now: it has too much text, requires more scrolling to access links into the site, & the pictures don't impress me enough to want to endure the added download time. But from all of the praise, I expect to see sound & animated gifs added in the near future. :-( -- llywrch 18:52, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
This page could be a remarkable engine for promoting Wikipedia's growth. I think it's very important that we not revert to the Old Main Page. The pictures and the design direct and catch the eye. The old version was an initially unintelligible sea of links. jengod 19:09, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
We could change the margins from 55/45 to 50/50 and swap "day in history" with "Holidays". Not enough stuff on the right currently. (we might want to just add more to right since the stuff is "happening now" on the right as opposed to the left where all the stuff happened a long time ago. Perl 19:10, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Someone throw out that Obituaries link already. —Sverdrup (talk) 22:43, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
If it aint broke......... Tweaking design is fine, providing the site isn't compromised. I now have to scroll down to the bottom of every page to see/use what was previously the left hand column. Bordering on unworkable. Moriori 19:21, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
What happens if we put the "Browse by topic" on the left and the various features on the right? Then you won't need to scroll down for either (at least not for whatever features we put on top), nor will you need a hotlink in the intro box. -- Toby Bartels 20:24, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Out of all things in the universe two dictators on the main page. As for one of them philosopers used to say "Caesar non est ultra gramaticos" - (Ceasar ist not above the grammar rules. You should be ashamed for the intelectual prostitution in the world which will not be less free the picture of the turtle.
I gave it a day to try to get used to the new format, but I can't help thinking we lost something. In particular, I think the page is weaker for having moved the Wikipedia:About, Village pump, What our critics say about us, etc. pages from the front. Hiding them on the Community Main Page dilutes the chance to celebrate what makes the Wikipedia special. Rossami 21:36, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Also, the pictures struck me as slightly cheesy. Can't say why I had that unfavorable emotional reaction, but I did... Rossami
My opinion: the new Main Page is trying to steer Wikipedia away from the realms of a smaller web-community project to a mainstream audience. Trivia and big pictures are more likely to attract a casual user surfing through than a comprehensive page of links designed for those already hooked. I'm missing that community section being on the front page, as the community is at the heart of Wikipedia, and this is something we should be pointing out to all visitors. -- Kwekubo 21:56, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Looks like the mini-obits are now gone from the Main page, leaving the link captioned "Obituaries". If we keep it this way we need to go back the that "recent deaths" caption for the link, as we noted during prototying of this page that the link points to articles, not obituaries. Bevo 23:05, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
How about "{{today for UTC}} in history" e.g. "26th February in history"? Mr. Jones 18:43, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)
My vote is for the first one. -- Tim Starling 00:38, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
<AdamBishop> I'm sure I missed this discussion...but why is it "a day in history" and not "today" or "the day"?
<Xirzon> AdamBishop: mav thinks we can't keep it up to date
<AdamBishop> well if it's not up to date as "the day", it's not up to date as "a day," so what's the difference?
<Xirzon> AdamBishop: I was referring to "today". "The day" .. hmm .. looks ugly to me
<TimStarling> you should call it "today in history"
<TimStarling> that way it makes sense
<Xirzon> Well, I called it that
<Xirzon> but I'm not inclined to get into an edit war about it
<TimStarling> "a day in history" doesn't mean anything
<Imran> today in australia isn't today in america
<TimStarling> I understand this
<TimStarling> as do most people in Australia
<TimStarling> it's perfectly reasonable for "today in history" to actually be yesterday in history, people in other time zones will understand
<AdamBishop> but "a day in history" could mean "any random day in history"
<Xirzon> AdamBishop: change it to "today" if you want. I'll support you
<TimStarling> as long as it's changed at midnight UTC not some large negative time zone
<AdamBishop> well I don't want to get in an edit war about it either :)
<Xirzon> then stop whining ;)
<TimStarling> that's alright, I'll get into an edit war
<Anthere> Tim ?
<TimStarling> someone's got to do it
Mav, can you please point me to the initial discussion on this issue? I looked in 3 or 4 places but I couldn't find it. -- Tim Starling 00:56, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
I don't like the new page as much. The thing I really liked about the old page is that I could see everything and a glance and then beat down into the topics that were of interest. Now you have to navigate around to find things that might be of interest. I have been using Wiki as my Start Page because it gave me so much in one glance. I already miss it! Scott
See [1]. -- mav 02:03, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Has anyone taken a look at the French main page? They've redesigned as well, but it seems much less busy than our current main page. The French page was the inspiration for the original redesign a while back. The French page keeps the topic categories up high where they are easily visible, and it also retains many of the "community" links for regular editors. I'm mixed about our new page. It's nice to have context for all the featured articles, but it seems like a bit of overkill. The addition of images is nice. As things currently stand, however, the "welcome to wikipedia" message—the most important item on the page— seems to be lost in a maze of current events, et al., and the font size for that box keeps shrinking. Just some thoughts... Minesweeper 02:53, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
The next round of Featured Articles really must be on stuff outside Europe and North America. The narrow cultural focus of the present lot is very conspicuous. Adam 04:03, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I have tried a variation- Main_Page/Temp10 - where the encyclopedia is at the side for easy access unlike the present version which links from the main yellow box. It can be much better if it is formatted, I don't know much about layout guidelines. The advantage in my version is that the encylopedia gains importance. (Someone else has referred to the French main page, they seem to have a similar idea) KRS 05:11, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC) P.S. I also think that because my layout is asymmetrical, it is more interesting and aesthetic KRS 05:32, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I've changed the yellow box into a table, right-aligned the "Browse", "Languages" links, and added a text-only link. In Mozilla the top box is now slightly wider than the other boxes, I haven't been quite able to figure out the cause of this. —Eloquence 05:27, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
Ever since the new Main Page has gone live, the Wikipedia:Sandbox editing rate appears to have more than doubled. I attribute this to the new "experiment" link which goes directly to the editing window. This should also alleviate concerns that the new Main Page is less effective in communicating the open nature of Wikipedia. —Eloquence 05:33, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
Visitors would expect that clicking the image would take them to the article that the image belongs to. Linking to the image description page is uninformative and confusing. If it is not too difficult to change this behavior, it would be nice to change it. Arvindn 09:07, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
As I and Eloquence point out on Wikipedia talk:Plain_vanilla_main_page, this page should really be in the article namespace as Main Page (text only). Any objections to me moving the page there? -- Lexor| Talk 09:33, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Also I created a MediaWiki message: Template:wikipediatoc which can be reused for both the Main Page and Main Page (text only). I suggest we could do the same for the language pages and the sister projects, to complete the modularization of both the Main Page and the "text only" Main Page. -- Lexor| Talk 09:33, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
On Jamesday's suggestion I removed the yellow box around the top paragraph. He pointed out that a box makes it look like an advertising banner and therefore likely to be ignored. That seems to be a valid point. —Eloquence 09:59, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
Personally I think the new main page looks great... but I showed it to my brother, who uses the pedia occasionally as a reference, and he preferred the old version. His reasons were entirely different to mine, and equally valid, which I guess just goes to show that you can't please everyone all the time. He said the extracts were just fluff and the bit he wanted was the (alas nonexistant) search engine, or failing that an Index.
He did make one good point though - if we are going to have a seperate community main page it needs to have its own link in the sidebar. He also thinks that the 'Wikipedia by topic' link should be there too, and he thinks there should be a text-only version of EVERY page (he assumed the text-only button would disable pictures for the entire pedia, not just the front page. KJ 10:34, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
See new discussion page at Talk:Main Page/New Design
Shoot me down if I haven't searched enough of the archives to answer this myself.
What do people think of having a graphical article counter like this for the total number of en: articles and perhaps also total all-languages articles? - Gaz 12:51, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Self-promotion of Wikipedia mainly (thats why the current counter is on Main Page), and graphical because it looks cool. - Gaz 14:14, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
While I'm here, why is the main page called Main Page? - Wouldn't "Welcome" be more appropriate? - Gaz 14:14, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
A challenge to the team developing this page: How difficult would it be to present the correct date for the visitor's timezone? Since W is served from California, most visitors will experience some times when the date they see is "yesterday's". Here at GMT+13 (NZ + Daylight time) I see yesterday for 21 hours of each day. Given that there are a number of date-sensitive features, I think this would be worthwhile. The tricky bit is getting the info to php - This rules out using javascript, but I realize that reverse DNS would put too much load on the server. The compromise might be to adjust dates for logged in users only, with their timezone stored in preferences. dramatic 21:29, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I see yesterday for 21 hours of each day Nope. The servers of wikipedia run by UTC. And problem is, do we want to show the correct date? We cannot for example serve different historical anniversiaries to different people the same time, so the anniversiaries would be out of sync with the date showed. — Sverdrup (talk) 21:33, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 10 | ← | Archive 13 | Archive 14 | Archive 15 | Archive 16 | Archive 17 | → | Archive 20 |
Great new front page! Can we archive the subject mentioned in "Did you know..." and "Featured article", so that we don't repeat topics too quickly. Either archive the actual paragraphs of text used, or even just the topics in a list. -- user:zanimum
I just moved over to a eMac (about 2003 or so), in another room, with IE 5.2 on it. The left hand side toolbar has completely disappeared, down to the very bottom of the page, every page. Did someone change the software for Wikipedia, because it's not just the main page that has changed. -- user:zanimum
But I believe it can still be improved upon:
But overall - a nice piece of work! Mikez 14:23, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
The Browse Wikipedia by topic link disturbs the layout for me in Camino 0.7 (Moz/Gecko). It does not serve much purpose anyway, so I'd like a different solution. —Sverdrup (talk) 14:32, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
The new frontpage (2004-02-24) is great! It lets you go deep into the content, and just asks you to come back to see what's new.
I think the text "From Wikipedia, the Free..." under heading should be removed from main page. The same idea is stated just above and just below it. Besides, it takes vertical space unnecessarily.
There are three columns side by side: two in the page, and one in the left side action bar. I feel the action bar should be off by default, as most of its functionality is available in the links on top of every page. Tero 14:49, 2004 Feb 24 (UTC)
Please! Bring back the old page! The new page provides more information, but at the cost of the beauty of the old page. Don't let this change be permanant. Auric The Rad 15:14, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
I wouldn't say it's awful (alil' disconcerting, but change always is). Overall I like it [initial impression] ... but the pics are distracting to me (YMMV on that though). I'd just suggest that you put the text in and leave out the graphics [ppl can see them in the article] ... Sincerely, JDR 15:49, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I don't want the text of a featured article (or any other, for that matter) on the main page. Same for the news. The previous one, with just a concise lists of featured articles, news items etc. was much better.
The whole thing is starting to look like one of those evil portal sites, that try to be everything but end up being nothing but clutter. The old page had everything it needed, with almost no scrolling required. This is much to long, and the useful information gets lost between news and other useless stuff. WikiPedia is not a newspaper and neither should it be one. rschroev 15:24, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
Simply put.. there is too much content showing at once on the front page. The previous layout was simple and provided the gateway to what viewers may want.
Hmmmm. I'm a little confused regarding the update process and coordination between the Current events page, the "In the news" part of the Main page and the Template:In_the_news page. For instance, the Morocco earthquake item of 24 February existed in three versions as of this writing (1815 UTC the same day). Shouldn't all updates be propagated in the order described at the top of this page? Bad coordination of this process is detrimental to the professional impression Wikipedia should aspire to make on its readers. -- Wernher 18:22, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
The yellow box has become too big because of the browse wikipedia by topic addition. One can barely see the top of the featured articles/news items/ photographs section(my resolution is 800x600 I think) without scrolling. This defeats the whole purpose of a happening main page. KRS 18:29, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
It's a good first stab at a new approach, but I think it introduces some problems which impair its usefulness:
- mhr 18:42, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I'll vote for the old page. The new Main Page is too busy; this saeems contrary to what might be the purpose of a Main Page. If we want to feature Julius Caesar a simple link is enough for those who are interested. In consideration of those with slow connections, there should be no pictures on the Main Page. ☮ Eclecticology 18:49, 2004 Feb 24 (UTC)
Since I am on a dial-up connection -- & probably will remain on dial-up for the forseeable future -- I'd rather not see graphics; one reason I like the front page to Google. I found the old version (by this I mean what I saw on the front page 23 February) far better for my purposes than what is there now: it has too much text, requires more scrolling to access links into the site, & the pictures don't impress me enough to want to endure the added download time. But from all of the praise, I expect to see sound & animated gifs added in the near future. :-( -- llywrch 18:52, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
This page could be a remarkable engine for promoting Wikipedia's growth. I think it's very important that we not revert to the Old Main Page. The pictures and the design direct and catch the eye. The old version was an initially unintelligible sea of links. jengod 19:09, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
We could change the margins from 55/45 to 50/50 and swap "day in history" with "Holidays". Not enough stuff on the right currently. (we might want to just add more to right since the stuff is "happening now" on the right as opposed to the left where all the stuff happened a long time ago. Perl 19:10, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Someone throw out that Obituaries link already. —Sverdrup (talk) 22:43, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
If it aint broke......... Tweaking design is fine, providing the site isn't compromised. I now have to scroll down to the bottom of every page to see/use what was previously the left hand column. Bordering on unworkable. Moriori 19:21, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)
What happens if we put the "Browse by topic" on the left and the various features on the right? Then you won't need to scroll down for either (at least not for whatever features we put on top), nor will you need a hotlink in the intro box. -- Toby Bartels 20:24, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Out of all things in the universe two dictators on the main page. As for one of them philosopers used to say "Caesar non est ultra gramaticos" - (Ceasar ist not above the grammar rules. You should be ashamed for the intelectual prostitution in the world which will not be less free the picture of the turtle.
I gave it a day to try to get used to the new format, but I can't help thinking we lost something. In particular, I think the page is weaker for having moved the Wikipedia:About, Village pump, What our critics say about us, etc. pages from the front. Hiding them on the Community Main Page dilutes the chance to celebrate what makes the Wikipedia special. Rossami 21:36, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Also, the pictures struck me as slightly cheesy. Can't say why I had that unfavorable emotional reaction, but I did... Rossami
My opinion: the new Main Page is trying to steer Wikipedia away from the realms of a smaller web-community project to a mainstream audience. Trivia and big pictures are more likely to attract a casual user surfing through than a comprehensive page of links designed for those already hooked. I'm missing that community section being on the front page, as the community is at the heart of Wikipedia, and this is something we should be pointing out to all visitors. -- Kwekubo 21:56, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Looks like the mini-obits are now gone from the Main page, leaving the link captioned "Obituaries". If we keep it this way we need to go back the that "recent deaths" caption for the link, as we noted during prototying of this page that the link points to articles, not obituaries. Bevo 23:05, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)
How about "{{today for UTC}} in history" e.g. "26th February in history"? Mr. Jones 18:43, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)
My vote is for the first one. -- Tim Starling 00:38, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
<AdamBishop> I'm sure I missed this discussion...but why is it "a day in history" and not "today" or "the day"?
<Xirzon> AdamBishop: mav thinks we can't keep it up to date
<AdamBishop> well if it's not up to date as "the day", it's not up to date as "a day," so what's the difference?
<Xirzon> AdamBishop: I was referring to "today". "The day" .. hmm .. looks ugly to me
<TimStarling> you should call it "today in history"
<TimStarling> that way it makes sense
<Xirzon> Well, I called it that
<Xirzon> but I'm not inclined to get into an edit war about it
<TimStarling> "a day in history" doesn't mean anything
<Imran> today in australia isn't today in america
<TimStarling> I understand this
<TimStarling> as do most people in Australia
<TimStarling> it's perfectly reasonable for "today in history" to actually be yesterday in history, people in other time zones will understand
<AdamBishop> but "a day in history" could mean "any random day in history"
<Xirzon> AdamBishop: change it to "today" if you want. I'll support you
<TimStarling> as long as it's changed at midnight UTC not some large negative time zone
<AdamBishop> well I don't want to get in an edit war about it either :)
<Xirzon> then stop whining ;)
<TimStarling> that's alright, I'll get into an edit war
<Anthere> Tim ?
<TimStarling> someone's got to do it
Mav, can you please point me to the initial discussion on this issue? I looked in 3 or 4 places but I couldn't find it. -- Tim Starling 00:56, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
I don't like the new page as much. The thing I really liked about the old page is that I could see everything and a glance and then beat down into the topics that were of interest. Now you have to navigate around to find things that might be of interest. I have been using Wiki as my Start Page because it gave me so much in one glance. I already miss it! Scott
See [1]. -- mav 02:03, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Has anyone taken a look at the French main page? They've redesigned as well, but it seems much less busy than our current main page. The French page was the inspiration for the original redesign a while back. The French page keeps the topic categories up high where they are easily visible, and it also retains many of the "community" links for regular editors. I'm mixed about our new page. It's nice to have context for all the featured articles, but it seems like a bit of overkill. The addition of images is nice. As things currently stand, however, the "welcome to wikipedia" message—the most important item on the page— seems to be lost in a maze of current events, et al., and the font size for that box keeps shrinking. Just some thoughts... Minesweeper 02:53, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
The next round of Featured Articles really must be on stuff outside Europe and North America. The narrow cultural focus of the present lot is very conspicuous. Adam 04:03, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I have tried a variation- Main_Page/Temp10 - where the encyclopedia is at the side for easy access unlike the present version which links from the main yellow box. It can be much better if it is formatted, I don't know much about layout guidelines. The advantage in my version is that the encylopedia gains importance. (Someone else has referred to the French main page, they seem to have a similar idea) KRS 05:11, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC) P.S. I also think that because my layout is asymmetrical, it is more interesting and aesthetic KRS 05:32, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I've changed the yellow box into a table, right-aligned the "Browse", "Languages" links, and added a text-only link. In Mozilla the top box is now slightly wider than the other boxes, I haven't been quite able to figure out the cause of this. —Eloquence 05:27, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
Ever since the new Main Page has gone live, the Wikipedia:Sandbox editing rate appears to have more than doubled. I attribute this to the new "experiment" link which goes directly to the editing window. This should also alleviate concerns that the new Main Page is less effective in communicating the open nature of Wikipedia. —Eloquence 05:33, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
Visitors would expect that clicking the image would take them to the article that the image belongs to. Linking to the image description page is uninformative and confusing. If it is not too difficult to change this behavior, it would be nice to change it. Arvindn 09:07, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
As I and Eloquence point out on Wikipedia talk:Plain_vanilla_main_page, this page should really be in the article namespace as Main Page (text only). Any objections to me moving the page there? -- Lexor| Talk 09:33, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Also I created a MediaWiki message: Template:wikipediatoc which can be reused for both the Main Page and Main Page (text only). I suggest we could do the same for the language pages and the sister projects, to complete the modularization of both the Main Page and the "text only" Main Page. -- Lexor| Talk 09:33, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
On Jamesday's suggestion I removed the yellow box around the top paragraph. He pointed out that a box makes it look like an advertising banner and therefore likely to be ignored. That seems to be a valid point. —Eloquence 09:59, Feb 25, 2004 (UTC)
Personally I think the new main page looks great... but I showed it to my brother, who uses the pedia occasionally as a reference, and he preferred the old version. His reasons were entirely different to mine, and equally valid, which I guess just goes to show that you can't please everyone all the time. He said the extracts were just fluff and the bit he wanted was the (alas nonexistant) search engine, or failing that an Index.
He did make one good point though - if we are going to have a seperate community main page it needs to have its own link in the sidebar. He also thinks that the 'Wikipedia by topic' link should be there too, and he thinks there should be a text-only version of EVERY page (he assumed the text-only button would disable pictures for the entire pedia, not just the front page. KJ 10:34, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
See new discussion page at Talk:Main Page/New Design
Shoot me down if I haven't searched enough of the archives to answer this myself.
What do people think of having a graphical article counter like this for the total number of en: articles and perhaps also total all-languages articles? - Gaz 12:51, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Self-promotion of Wikipedia mainly (thats why the current counter is on Main Page), and graphical because it looks cool. - Gaz 14:14, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
While I'm here, why is the main page called Main Page? - Wouldn't "Welcome" be more appropriate? - Gaz 14:14, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
A challenge to the team developing this page: How difficult would it be to present the correct date for the visitor's timezone? Since W is served from California, most visitors will experience some times when the date they see is "yesterday's". Here at GMT+13 (NZ + Daylight time) I see yesterday for 21 hours of each day. Given that there are a number of date-sensitive features, I think this would be worthwhile. The tricky bit is getting the info to php - This rules out using javascript, but I realize that reverse DNS would put too much load on the server. The compromise might be to adjust dates for logged in users only, with their timezone stored in preferences. dramatic 21:29, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I see yesterday for 21 hours of each day Nope. The servers of wikipedia run by UTC. And problem is, do we want to show the correct date? We cannot for example serve different historical anniversiaries to different people the same time, so the anniversiaries would be out of sync with the date showed. — Sverdrup (talk) 21:33, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)