ARMS Institute:Discussion/Archive 1

__NEWSECTIONLINK__ Want to discuss some aspect of wiki policy, suggest a new idea for the site, or propose some other big changes? Click the Add Topic link above!

This should probably be in Quick Links
Thanks so much for making this. Do you have any way of putting this in the Quick Links sidebar? It would be useful to have easy access. Thanks. --XenonNSMB (talk)
 * Done! Gomtuu (talk) 22:26, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Main Page Redesign
I liked the idea of Nyargleblargle's redesign but thought it could use some tweaking, so I worked on my own copy. Any other feedback before we put it in place? Gomtuu (talk) 22:59, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

I think it would be nice if we separated the Quick Links into categories, so we have a fighters box, stages box, etc. I can help with the redesign later if you want. XenonNSMB (talk) 23:42, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Okay, here's a copy I made. It ain't perfect or complete yet because I'm on a phone but you get the idea. Lemme know what to fix or change. XenonNSMB (talk) 00:32, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Although putting images of fighters and stages on the main page adds visual interest, I'm not sure about the usefulness of including quick links to only three of each. I updated my copy to include all the fighters, stages, and ARMS (but with no images). What do you think? Gomtuu (talk) 02:48, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Having full lists on the main page makes navigation faster, but it could confuse new users. I think the main page should be very image heavy, to entice people to go read articles. A good example is Wikipedia's homepage - it includes small snippets of articles with photos. Having the main page just be a big blob of text is boring. But I do see your point about having less use if the main page only includes a couple article links. I suggest we randomize the stages and characters shown each time to keep things interesting, and link to a "Portal" page with the full lists of characters and stages.--XenonNSMB (talk) 03:03, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

That's a good point, I guess. Maybe we could have one featured fighter, one featured stage, and one featured ARM? That way, the picture for each could be a bit bigger. I don't know how to do randomized content, though. Do you need an extension for that? My only other comment would be that I think the blue background color you've chosen is too dark for the text, so either the background should be lighter or the text should be white. Gomtuu (talk) 03:45, 7 May 2017 (UTC)


 * We could try that. I changed it to include a full list of all the fighters and stages, but only use images for the first 3. We could just implement that, and I'll look and see if there's any way to randomize which images are used, to keep things fresh. Also I'll go change the blue background to be a bit lighter. Thanks for the feedback. I'll look into randomizing it, but for now I suggest we just put this into the main page. --XenonNSMB (talk) 03:49, 7 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Okay, I found this MediaWiki extension that chooses a random option from a list and shows it. What we could do is make 3 versions of the stages and characters boxes, make them templates, then use this extension to pick a random one. --XenonNSMB (talk) 13:57, 7 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Just seeing this now. I don't particularly like the idea of having individual boxes for stages and characters, it feels a little more in-depth than what a Main Page should be IMO. I'd be fine with having one or two featured articles, somewhat like Gomtuu's suggestion. Nyargleblargle (talk) 16:45, 7 May 2017 (UTC)


 * I was looking at Inkipedia and thought their image links for Characters, Gear, Modes, etc. worked pretty well. How about something like this? We could still randomize the buttons later, if we want. Gomtuu (talk) 17:36, 7 May 2017 (UTC)
 * I'd be cool with that. Nyargleblargle (talk) 17:45, 7 May 2017 (UTC)
 * That looks great. Only complaint is that the images don't fit evenly on screen, going off the page slightly. It would be cool if we included a "featured" box with a random fighter or stage. I might try making a mockup of that. But for now I say we implement the new page. --XenonNSMB (talk) 20:09, 7 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Okay, the new layout is in place! I made the images shrink on narrower screens, too. (You might have to refresh for that to work.) Thanks for all your help and feedback, both of you! Gomtuu (talk) 20:46, 7 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Hooray! We did it! By the way, I'm gonna move the Welcome/News section to a separate template page to make it easier to update the news headlines. --XenonNSMB (talk) 20:49, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Featured Articles proposal
I've made a simple mockup of the featured articles box. There are currently 3 featured articles that can be displayed. Over on my test wiki, I have a copy of our homepage that uses the Randomizer extension to randomly display one of the 3 featured boxes. What do you think? --XenonNSMB (talk) 22:53, 7 May 2017 (UTC)


 * I added a Featured Page box to the home page. Thanks for researching the RandomSelection extension and mocking this up! Gomtuu (talk) 23:37, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

Japanese Names
Should we have a category and notice box template for pages with unofficial English names that we've translated from Japanese? I think the category would include just about all of the stages, plus GelGel. Thoughts?
 * I don't think we need a category, but we might want to make a standardized note within the intro, e.g. GelGel (Japanese name). Nyargleblargle (talk) 01:24, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

News page
I noticed that the Template:News page contains the whole first table that used to be on the main page, with the ARMS Institute introduction in addition to the news itself. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me because the intro is unrelated to the news. Also, I thought it would be nice to have a real, non-template News page (not created yet) with an archive on it, and to just include that inside the News box on the main page (using an "onlyinclude" tag to limit what's included). I created a News page in my sandbox, then I modified the main page in my sandbox so it contains the ARMS Institute introduction and includes the news items from the News page. Any objections before I roll this out? Gomtuu (talk) 22:14, 9 May 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm 100% in favor of this. I'm not sure why the intro was included in the template in the first place. Nyargleblargle (talk) 01:24, 10 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Okay, done! Gomtuu (talk) 22:04, 10 May 2017 (UTC)