Talk:Main Page

From Combine OverWiki, the Half-Life Wiki

Contents 1 Templates 2 A couple of style suggestions 3 Main Page design 4 Community portal 5 Main page layout 6 Loader 7 Deleting Redirect Pages 8 Ads in articles

[edit] Templates

Can anyone work on the templates for the Main Page? That would be a grand help. Thanks.

-- Donut THX 1138 ^[Comm] 20:38, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Hey I was thinking about creating a page in german... exist's that yet? Gordon Freeman 15:55, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Removed the "Create New Page" whotsit. There's been a glut of useless new pages that we can't even delete until we get the current admin back online. Coming Second 16:16, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

We seem to be suffering from a number of technical problems recently, the most annoying of which is the "GNU FDL Free Doc License" bar appearing right in the middle of the longer articles. Also, I cannot seem to start new topics or comment on changes (which is why I'm querying this here and not in the forum). Is this a) just something I'm suffering from, b) a wider problem suffered by more wikis, c) a local problem and is it d) fixable? Coming Second 13:44, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Who deleted the "Ambiguously Canon" template? It doesn't seem to work anymore. 71.245.76.111 17:41, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

The "Ambiguously Canon" issue is no more on this wiki. See Gearbox Software#Canonicity of the Half-Life expansions. Klow 22:25, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] A couple of style suggestions

I don't want to butt in on a wiki that I'm not too likely to use for a little bit (won't be ordering the Orange Box for a couple more months), but I did come here to look up City 17 and thought of a couple of design tweaks (while using Monobook) that would be nice to see:

1. On some of the longer pages, the tiled background is a bit obnoxious. It'd be a neat trick if it used a fixed-position background, which would mean that the city would stay in place, but everything would scroll on top of it.
2. Speaking of the background image... it's 688k. That's a ridiculous size for a background image; pages load about 10 times slower than they should. I was just able to save it out as a high-quality web JPEG in CS3, and that dropped it from 688k to 288k. Massive improvement, with very little loss of quality in the image (I could probably go lower, since as it's the background image, most of it wouldn't be seen in the first place).

Sorry if this isn't the place to post this, but I just wanted to toss out some suggestions from a seasoned wiki user. :) EVula // talk // 16:00, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Follow-up: just realized all I had to do was upload a new version of Image:HalfLife2 City17 Street.jpg, and it would update the background image. I've done so, and I'll be damned if the site isn't much snappier.

However, as happy as I am that I could fix that particular problem myself, it does strike me as a bit odd that the background image can be replaced by pretty much anyone... kind of scary thought. Full protection is probably in order, but it doesn't look like the admins are around right now... EVula // talk // 16:55, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

They aren't, and it is scary. We desperately need an admin who checks in regularly and has a passing knowledge of web page editing. If you (or anyone else) fancies the job, talk to Donut. Coming Second 17:25, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd be willing to add it to my list of accounts, but I can't promise I'd be around all the time (though I'd respond ASAP to any messages left on my talk page). If I were granted a sysop bit, I'd consider it just a janitorial promotion, and we'd still need some more active admins (and I'd be happy to step down if requested to once we've got more "community-based" admins in position). EVula // talk // 17:36, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

...and now I'm an admin and bureaucrat here. Funny how things work out. :) EVula // talk // 21:39, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Main Page design

Hullo! I'm Kirkburn, a Wikia Gaming Helper, and I have a note to make regarding the Main Page. You may be interested in stealing some code/links from the Wikia Starter wiki which is the current new wiki base design. Keep up the great work! Kirkburn (talk) 13:16, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Community portal

Here's another note to mention I have created OverWiki:Community Portal - a page with lots of useful links for new (and old) editors. I would suggest linking it on the Main Page and on the MediaWiki:Sidebar. Kirkburn (talk) 13:25, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Main page layout

Hello! I've been working on an important update to the main page layout which you can see on User:Kirkburn/Dev. You can find out more about why it's so important on User talk:Kirkburn/Dev. Does anyone have any views or opinions on it? The colour scheme and content can be changed, if so wished. Kirkburn (talk) 16:05, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I've updated the design to more closely resemble the current main page - though it is a little more colourful (which can be toned down if so wished). Kirkburn (talk) 22:57, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

This update needs to go live soon - if there are no objections, I would like to put it live before the end of the week. Kirkburn (talk) 11:24, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

I've made more tweaks and put it live - it has everything from the original, plus a little bit more. Kirkburn (talk) 09:40, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Loader

Is there an article for the loader? (Yellow loading robot, seen once only in HL1, but a couple more times in the expansions?)121.215.0.248 01:43, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

That's a good point. No, there isn't (not as far as I know) and while there's not all that much to say about it, it deserves to be documented. You're welcome to start one, if you like. :) --MattyDienhoff 04:26, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

They're called loading robots in Opposing Force--Eateroftheflame 16:25, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting Redirect Pages

I think that the redirect pages should be deleted. For example, HL2 redirecting to Half-Life 2. I feel that there should be only one link on All Pages to a page, that way it isn't so cluttered

Well, they are like shortcuts, they are useful. However they just should never be used in texts. Klow 20:28, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Redirects do have an important purpose. Besides simple ones like HL2 > Half-Life 2, redirects often point readers in the right direction when they search for an obvious topic that isn't actually located at the obvious page title. The way articles are organized can get quite complicated depending on the topic, certain things could be titled any number of different ways and there are always unusual page titles that users couldn't be expected to search for. For example, a user might come here and search for 'Zombie' because they want to read about the zombies in the series, but the page titled 'Zombie' in this wiki is a redirect, leading to Zombie (disambiguation), which, in turn, points readers in the right direction. Without redirects like these people would be much less likely to find what they're searching for. --MattyDienhoff 05:16, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Ads in articles

Whoever is in charge of the site should really look into placing ads only around and at the end of articles as seeing them in the middle of it is extremely annoying --89.139.71.40 09:16, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately that's not our decision to make. Wikia management decide where the ads go, and they chose to place them where they are now, despite many objections. If you want to see less adverts you could register, as a registered user, you only see intrusive adverts like that on the main page, nowhere else. --MattyDienhoff ^«talk» 10:36, 9 August 2009 (UTC)