MediaWiki talk:Sidebar

New pages link

I question putting this in the sidebar, it isn't a vitally important link to deserve a slot in there, IMO. The new page creation maintainance is sure to be done through RC patrol, a link in the sidebar will cause more harm than good with readers stumbling upon a maintainance page full of half-baked articles. — Skuld 14:07, 7 February 2007 (PST)

Bump — Skuld 15:40, 12 February 2007 (PST)

I agree. Other opinions?

Also, while we're at it, does anyone have a proposal of which links they would like to see included here, or in what order to list/sort them? --Barek 15:45, 12 February 2007 (PST)

Done, just got distracted here at work as I did it.  :) --Rainith 15:47, 12 February 2007 (PST)

Game updates! - BeXoR 01:03, 28 February 2007 (EST)

Personally, I would love a "news" section, containing both Guild Wars news as well as game updates (and maybe Gaile news as well). I added a similar box to GuildWiki a month or so ago, and it seems to have been accepted well. With those in their own box, it helps avoid clutter and keep things organised. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 11:01, 29 March 2007 (EDT)

Wanted pages

What gives with the stub cat there? Special:Wantedpages Blastedt(talk)GuildWiki page 15:55, 8 February 2007 (PST)

ty BlastedtGuildWiki page 13:28, 9 February 2007 (PST)

Sandbox link?

pl0x?BlastedtGuildWiki page 15:46, 12 February 2007 (PST)

bump BlastedtGuildWiki page 13:04, 13 February 2007 (PST)

Dumb idea. The navigation bar should be kept a slim as possible, i'd suggest even moving the "wanted pages" link to the main page — Skuld 13:06, 13 February 2007 (PST)

Personally, I would love to purge both the "Wanted pages" and the "Random page" links. Although, I do like how GuildWiki now shows a secondary "news" box immediately after the navigation box. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 19:54, 7 March 2007 (EST)

Nooooo, not the random page link, I use that all the time :'( -FireFox File:Firefoxav.png 20:19, 7 March 2007 (EST)

The "random page" link is a handy dandy thing to click on when you're bored. I personally don't like the wanted pages link, but I think it should be kept until we establish significant foothold in the wiki's progress. It's a good way to see what pages need to be created (some pages on the "wanted pages" list are shocking - no wood planks? No challenge missions?). File:Esig2.jpg Eldin 20:25, 7 March 2007 (EST)

Hehe. I use the Random pages link for fun when I first get on the site, before I actually do stuff. Seriously, I do use the Wanted pages link. Though I know where to find it when I need it, new users may not. But then again, new users may not care to use it anyway. — Gares 20:56, 7 March 2007 (EST)

Proposed changes

Here's a proposed revision to the sidebar. It would result in two boxes, "Navigation" and "Support".

* navigation
** mainpage|mainpage
** recentchanges-url|recentchanges
** randompage-url|randompage

*support
** Official Guild Wars Wiki FAQ|Wiki FAQ
** Report a Bug‎|Report a wiki bug

Opinions / other changes to this proposal? --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 01:18, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

I like to use the wanted pages link (to see the most linked blank articles, even if I don't edit them), can we keep it? --Indecision 01:22, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

It's always accessible in special pages. - BeXoR 01:57, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

Looks agreeable to me. I dislike the wantedpages link, but wouldn't mind seeing a "How to help" sidebar link with wantedpages being prominently noted within that page. --Rezyk 03:27, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

Taking off wanted pages of the side bar is a good idea, but I'd like to see a "how to participate" (or something similar) link in the "support" box. --Xeeron 07:58, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

"How to help" is a great idea, we already have a page in place for "how to help" and it sounds less formal, more welcoming. --Jamie 08:01, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

Revised proposal

Based on the above feedback, how about this?

* navigation
** mainpage|mainpage
** recentchanges-url|recentchanges
** randompage-url|randompage

*support
** Guild Wars Wiki:How to help|How to help
** Official Guild Wars Wiki FAQ|Wiki FAQ
** Report a Bug‎|Report a wiki bug

We would could then incorporate the "wanted pages" link into the existing "how to help" article. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 10:06, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

Sounds good to me. --Indecision 10:35, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

I like it, but please keep with: Main Page, Recent Changes & Random Page not how you formatted them above please. --Jamie 11:00, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

No problem - the formatting that I show above will result in those links appearing the same as they do now (ie: "Main Page", "Recent changes", "Random page"). For reference, see the existing formatting in MediaWiki:Sidebar which produces the current links we see. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 11:07, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

I like. --Rezyk 16:25, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

Looks good and my favorite "toy", random page is still up there. ;) — Gares 16:29, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

Community portal link

Would it be possible to have a link to the Community portal somewhere in the sidebar? --Dirigible 02:09, 1 April 2007 (EDT)

I think it would be possible and beneficial. I don't think opposition to this will be likely so I will implement this soon. LordBiro 07:25, 1 April 2007 (EDT)

Bump. :) --Dirigible 04:44, 8 April 2007 (EDT)

Any preference on where it goes? Navigation, support or a new box? --Rainith 05:26, 8 April 2007 (EDT)

I would recommend navigation. I had completely forgotten about this! I will make the change now. LordBiro 07:22, 8 April 2007 (EDT)

Hmmm... actually I'll run this by everyone first, I propose changing navigation to look like this:

• navigation
  • mainpage|mainpage
  • Guild Wars Wiki:Community Portal|Community Portal
  • recentchanges-url|recentchanges
  • randompage-url|randompage

--The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:LordBiro .

Looks good to me! --Dirigible 13:13, 8 April 2007 (EDT)

Forgetting to sign? Dear me! Well, I don't think this is a very problematic change, I just thought I should post my intentions first for anyone watching. I will implement it now. LordBiro 14:37, 8 April 2007 (EDT)

Game Update and Guild Wars News link on the menu bar (under new paragraph "news")

How about two new links on the menu bar left: Game updates and GuildWars.com News? BigBlue 04:20, 29 March 2007 (EDT)

I would like to see those two along with Gaile News and Gaile/Frog Talk --Lemming64 11:15, 31 March 2007 (EDT)

Game updates, GuildWars.com News, Gaile News and Gaile/Frog Talk all seem to fall under the same topic of news (as stated). I'm not sure how each article is laid out, but I just feel like having all four in the navigation bar would be really pointless, even if they are under the heading of news.

Instead, could we implement a News article, which includes recent entries from the other four articles, and only link to that from the menu bar? LordBiro 14:15, 1 April 2007 (EDT)

• Gives Biro a cookie* That's a good idea right there. :) --Dirigible 14:20, 1 April 2007 (EDT)

I think if we used an <onlyinclude> tag around the first entry in every news page, and then included it in News, we would have a pretty good system. I'm going to try this now, but it won't work with the GuildWars.com news article because it doesn't use subpages. LordBiro 14:41, 1 April 2007 (EDT)

Help:Contents in the support section?

I'd like to request a link to the Help:Contents page under the Support heading. I'm currently trying to create a full help system for the wiki, and that's the portal page. It's still a work in progress, but that's also the page that's linked to when you try to edit a blank page, so I felt it was important to create it, even with less than an ideal amount of content. Anyway, long story short, that's the main portal page of our work-in-progress help system, and I think that we should have a link to it. Help:Contents|Help Center? MisterPepe talk 18:30, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

I'd rather wait and see if the help namespace gets enough momentum first. I know it's a bit of a deadlock, since the help mainspace might not get enough traffic without being in the sidebar to gain enough traffic to get into the sidebar :P but still, this is the first I've heard of Help:Contents and as such I'd rather not add it just now. LordBiro 19:11, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

That makes some sense, though every time you go to edit a blank page (at least on talk pages, I haven't looked for it on others), the wiki software links there automatically. You've seen the link before, we just didn't have anything there until earlier today =P I'm more curious than anything else what "enough traffic" would be defined as. MisterPepe talk 19:31, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

Traffic was a bad word. What I really mean is that if after some time (not necessarily a long time) people consider Help:Contents to be useful then I'd be happy to add it. LordBiro 20:00, 25 April 2007 (EDT)

With the discussion going on at Help_talk:Contents at the moment, and the quality of the help articles so far, I think that adding a link is reasonable and I'll do it now. LordBiro 05:10, 28 April 2007 (EDT)

Editing with personal css or js?

Can we edit our CSS or JS so that this sidebar appears different to us? I ask because I really would love customizing it. BLASTEDT 18:55, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

Yup, you can use either Special:MyPage/monobook.css to style it or Special:MyPage/monobook.js to change the content. Looking to do anything specific? -Smurf 19:05, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

Er, I meant how and what code :P. I want Recent changes, watchlist, etc.

Show me how to change it all to recent changes and I'll adapt from there :) BLASTEDT 19:12, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

Here's a couple of samples:

/* Changes recent changes list font size */
.page-Special_Recentchanges #bodyContent ul {
	font-size: 0.8em;
}

/* Change navigation border color and font */
#p-navigation .pBody {
	border-color: red;
	font-family: "Times New Roman";
}

/* Change the image next to your username at the top of the page to your T sig */
li#pt-userpage {
	background-image: url(http://wiki.guildwars.com/images/thumb/8/80/BlastedT.jpg/14px-BlastedT.jpg);
}

Also if you use firefox I would recommend trying the Firebug addon. It has a HTML tab that provides a nicely formatted source of the current page and you can make little changes and see instant results. and you can also look at my User:Smurf/GuildWars.com skin.css for some messy css :). Hope that helps. -Smurf 20:13, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

I meant change the links shown, once again :P. Thanks for the help. How do I change the font of the normal content to Verdana? BLASTEDT 20:30, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

Don't forget the dash between font and family. To changing the links you'll have to use javascript which I don't have enough time to explain tonight, but if you know javascript you can try looking at my User:Smurf/monobook.js. All it does is create a new portlet with links to the current page in various skins. -Smurf 20:42, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

I don't know Mr. Java :( BLASTEDT 20:53, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

lol here try this for now, it's nothing fancy but should work:

 function newLinks() {
 document.getElementById("p-navigation").innerHTML = '<h5>Navigation</h5><div class="pBody"><ul>'

 + '<li id="n-mainpage"><a href="/wiki/Main_Page">Main Page</a></li>'
 + '<li id="n-Community-portal"><a href="/wiki/Guild_Wars_Wiki:Community_portal">Community portal</a></li>'
 + '<li id="n-recentchanges"><a href="/wiki/Special:Recentchanges">Recent changes</a></li>'
 + '<li id="n-randompage"><a href="/wiki/Special:Random">Random page</a></li>'
 + '<li><a href="/wiki/Special:MyPage">My userpage</a></li>'
 + '<li><a href="http://www.guildwars.com">GuildWars.com</a></li>'
 
 + '</ul></div>';
 }
 addOnloadHook(newLinks);

It simply replaces the html inside the navigation portlet. It contains the default links plus 2 additional links. -Smurf 21:29, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

Doesn't seem to work :( BLASTEDT 21:33, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

now i know i'm getting tired. I forgot to wrap it into a function. i updated the code above and tested it to make sure it works. -Smurf 21:41, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

Thanks! Will try now! BLASTEDT 21:43, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

It works, but I want to get rid of the support thing. I tried this:

function Execute() {
document.getElementById("p-support").innerHTML =  ;
}
addOnloadHook(Execute);

...but it did nada. Thanks again though, BLASTEDT 21:53, 27 April 2007 (EDT)

An easier way to get rid of the support box is to just say the following in your CSS:

#p-support { display: none; }

LordBiro 05:16, 28 April 2007 (EDT)

No longer in use?

I'm now seeing the default MediaWiki nav-box ... is anyone else still seeing the modified version from this page? --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 15:39, 30 April 2007 (EDT)

Weird ... nevermind, it suddenly kicked in and started displaying again ... --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 15:41, 30 April 2007 (EDT)

Uhm, very weird indeed... Take a look at Guild Wars _Wiki:Reporting wiki bugs#System messages, the message cache has been acting up since yesterday. So why is the sidebar now suddenly working again, while MediaWiki:Common.css, MediaWiki:Copyrightwarning, etc still aren't working...? --Dirigible 15:45, 30 April 2007 (EDT)

All working now, I guess the reason for the delay was cache-related? LordBiro 04:16, 1 May 2007 (EDT)

Game updates

I propose linking to the game updates from the nav portion - maybe right above or below Community Portal? -Auron 02:51, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

disagreed. There is a are two nice links on Main Page. poke | talk 05:30, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

So we should remove the community portal as well? It's also linked to rather nicely from the main page. -Auron 06:03, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

No, there is a difference between a community portal and a simple game updates site. The community portal is more important for this wiki than a game update page imo. Also everyone who gets on the wiki, starts at the Main Page where a nice link is displayed in the upper right corner. There is no need for content-links in the navigation.. poke | talk 08:16, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I disagree, I frequently want to jump to game news, updates, or login announcements directly from an article - and not everyone starts at the main page - for one, my user page is the one I've bookmarked. I have no doubt that others link to the wiki from either their own bookmarks or from articles on other sites - either method may or may not go via the main page.

I would propose adding a "news" section, comparable to what's currently on the other wiki (no copyright issues so it can be copied if wanted). This would have the short-term effect of making some material redundant to the main page - but in the long-run I feel it would free up main page real-estate that could then be used for other purposes, while simultaneously improving site navigation/ease-of-use for users. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 19:20, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Proposed change

My proposed addition would be between the navigation and support section. This would have the short-term effect of making some material redundant to the main page - but in the long-run I feel it would free up main page real-estate that could then be used for other purposes, while simultaneously improving site navigation/ease-of-use for users. See my post above for reasons why I disagree with the argument that having them on the Main Page already is adequate.

news
* Login announcements 
* Guild Wars news 
* Game updates 

--- Barek (talk • contribs) - 19:46, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

I think this would be a good change. I personally never visit the main page, it's too cluttered to find anything. - anja 18:14, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't agree with login announcements, but game updates and gw news are a good idea as one wont see them automatically when playing the game. -- (gem / talk) 18:19, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Personally I like the login announcements as I have my password in the cmd line so they get skipped :) so nice to look at them once in a while. --Lemming 18:23, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I would rather have just a link to News as that contains all important news.. When I need older news I can manually browse to them.. poke | talk 18:24, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I thought about that, but the news article doesn't currently contain the Login screen announcements or the GuildWars.com News. To me, those are two very big oversights of the current news article. Maybe if the news article were updated/reformatted to contain those, it would work. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 18:34, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. Add all of those to the news article and place a link to that. -- (gem / talk) 18:35, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I disagree with placing these on the sidebar. What is the side bar for? It should host all those links that you click very often and those which you want to click while browing any page in the wiki. Personally, I click on Recent changes at least 5 times during one hour of wiki browsing and maybe twice each on main page and community portal. And I need to acess that from any page: Usually after finishing some other task to check what is going on (RC) or to quickly get to some other page via the link (main page & portal). Login announcments, guild wars news and game updates are neither of that. You might check them every other day, but never more than once during one wiki session. --Xeeron 19:47, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, I personally do check the update notes multiple times after larger updates. Having one link that links to a page with the recent stuff from login announcements, gw news, game updates, etc would be a great addition to many users. -- (gem / talk) 19:56, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

News restyled. :) poke | talk 19:59, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Very nice Poke. --Lemming 20:17, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I like the Poke version. could that be linked on the side bar? Coran Ironclaw 20:28, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

The "Poke version" xD - I think this would be good below the Community portal :) poke | talk 20:35, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I fully support the poke-efied news article, and adding it as a link below the community portal link in the sidebar.

To Xeeron, I check the various news links at least as often as the community portal, if not more often. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 20:43, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Support. -- (gem / talk) 20:51, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I guess I can live with pokes news, but I am burning to know: Why on earth do you look at news that often? I mean, they change like once every 4 days or less? --Xeeron 21:22, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I scan the news at least once everytime I login, just to see what's new. If updates take place, I'm frequently bouncing between the updates and the articles of what was updated. Depending on how busy of a news day, I also sometimes read an item, go into various articles, then back to news to see the next item (in all fairness, I do bounce around less at home where I use tabs in Firefox, vs work where we're required to use IE6 which has no tabs). This compared to the community portal which I see the subject of in RC my watchlist, and may only actually open it once a week or less - depending on the subject line. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 22:49, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm different people, different uses I guess. I only use the news pages a lot on big updates (so very rarely) and when these happen, I keep the update page open in one tab and check the subpages in new tabs. On the other hand I use RC, main page and community portal (for the links at the top) everytime I log into the wiki. --Xeeron 11:33, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a consensus then ;) poke | talk 20:53, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Seems so. -- ab.er.rant 01:50, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

After thinking about it more, I would propose a small alteration ... insert the link to News (or Guild Wars News, or whatever we call the link) above the Community Portal link. My reasoning is that users who only browse the site for information would likely only ever need the Main Page and News links; while users who actively contribute and edit articles could potentially use all five links that would be in that section. To me, it just makes sense from a usability standpoint to place the links that non-active contributors would potentially need next to each other in that section.

I don't feel strongly about this placement, so if others prefer it after the community portal link, I won't debate it further. I just wanted to make the suggestion. --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 01:56, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I've added the news link in below Main Page. It doesn't matter to me where it's added so I thought to just add it first and we can argue placement if needed. -- ab.er.rant 03:05, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Suggestion for a new link in the navigation bar

I would like to suggest a link be added to the navigation bar to Quick access links as it contains easy access to many commonly used areas of the wiki. -- Wynthyst 11:18, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

thumbs up, this is useful for regular visitors. --Xeeron 14:17, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

I support this, although I would prefer if that page were updated to use the style shown at Quick_access_links/compact, which has far less wasted space, which eliminates the need to scroll (requiring an unnecessary scroll doesn't equal quick access in my mind). --- Barek (talk • contribs) - 17:48, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

I can support that :D -- Wynthyst 18:16, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree the compact version would make a great addition to the side bar. Just one question though, should we add another link under Items for the Collector Weapons lists I have been working on, see here for links. We already have max stat weapons/items but this would make it easy to see all weapons/items based on campaign/area. --Kakarot 18:29, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

The campaign area of the Quick Access links page already has links to collectors by campaign. I would say add your links to those pages, as well as add a "if you wish to see non-max collector weapons go HERE" statement on the colletor weapons by profession pages.-- Wynthyst 00:39, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Which pages do you mean for the campaign part? The first link under items? See my talk page regarding the other link. --Kakarot 05:48, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

The blue/purple section where the links are broken down by campaign. -- Wynthyst 10:48, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

It feels PvE-ish. Maybe some links to PvP topics too? -- ab.er.rant 07:03, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

The design and amount of links can be dsicussed to no end (and I feel this is the wrong place) but I think the current version is mature enough to be in the navbar already. We can continue the design discussions in a more proper place, like Talk:Quick access links. By making it more visible in the nav, we will probably get more attention to the design discussion also. - anja 00:10, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

This is stalling again. I'm putting in the link first. -- ab.er.rant 02:19, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Most excellent Ab.er.rant :D Thank you VERY MUCH!-- Wynthyst 02:41, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Finally got the link, thanks :) --Kakarot 14:56, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

Admin noticeboard link

Would be useful? Lord of all tyria 15:30, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Definitely not. The sidebar should be helpful for visitors and a link to the admin noticeboard is probably not. But you can easily reach it via the link on Recent changes. poke | talk 15:52, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

How does recent changes help a visitor? Lord of all tyria 18:33, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Recent changes does not help a visitor; I said that a link to the Admin noticeboard would be not helpful at all for visitors but only for contributors. poke | talk 23:49, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

"The sidebar should be helpful for visitors". The sidebar contains recent changes. Thus, by your logic "Recent changes does not help a visitor", why is that there? --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Lord of all tyria .

I think it can be helpful for new users to see a link to where they can notify admins if they get harassed or bullied or where they can get help. Plus, it doesn't hurt. Most new users (and not just new to wikis in general) doesn't even know we have such a page. The link on recent changes is an unintuitive link at best. -- ab.er.rant 02:19, 3 January 2008 (UTC)