Talk:Main Page/Archive 2

Changed Main Page

Hi. Sorry to just change the main page, but I figured that given that we only have a small number of users, the best thing to do was give change a go, and see what you think. If you don't like the change, we'll change it back. If you've got other improvements or sugestions, we can do those. My reasons for changing the main page are a few:

1. I thought it was too large and cumbersome
2. We have "Featured articles" and "Daily Bible studies" which are good in theory, but I don't think work, because we don't have a large enough user-base to routinely change them
3. I like the idea of having a uniform lay-out for each page, and so why not make the main page the same - see my ideas under Help:Contents/Archive 1 in the Style section.

I'm interested in hearing other peoples' ideas. Thanks. --Graham grove 09:01, 28 July 2006 (PDT)

Wait before changing

Hi Graham,

I think we should do the other way round, i.e. make a test page and let it mature before we change the mainpage. While it is a good idea to change it, the new mainpage looks quite unimpressive and does not quite provide a reasonable links to all that wikichristian has inside. For example, the bible dictionaries, the Bible versions etc. I think we should have some pictures on the mainpage along with some templates that get changed frequently like - Todays featured passage. We can make a template called {{fp}} and have it changed daily. I also think that the new changes made to all the pages just add too many links such as overview etc. without letting the main article mature. I think Wikipedia's approach is quite good where they just link to articles by inline links and have a reasonable sized article on any given topic. For example, on Jesus, we do not have a big article but a lot of small ones. I think we should not bury our information with so many links!

--Prab 22:46, 28 July 2006 (PDT)

Hi Prab. I understand your views, and I guess it may be the majority opinion. But I disagree with it for quite a few reasons. To address each of your points:

1. The unimpressive nature of the page - Yes, I agree it looks unimpressive. But I don't think that is too important, particularly at the moment. Take a look at google's main page - www.google.com. That's pretty unimpressive, yet it controls 90% of the search engine market. In fact, I think the fact that it is very simple actually makes it more popular. I would prefer an unimpressive main page that is easy to navigate through and follows the style of the rest of the website.
2. It doesn't have links to all the Bible dictionaries or Bible versions - that is true. But, under the Bible section, it should be quite straighforward to find all of these.
3. Pictures - I agree some pictures are nice. Do you realise that the picture function is not working very well. Whenever I try to upload new pictures it doesn't work. Also, I can't resize pictures or use thumbnails.
4. Use of templates that get changed frequently - Firstly, we've tried that on numerous occassions and they just don't get updated. Featured articles have sat as the featured article for 6 months; and featured bible verses have done the same. Secondly, do we have a community of users who log-on to follow the featured verse? Not that I can see.
5. Wikipedias approach - this may work well for wikipedia, but if we copy it, then how are we providing anything that wikipedia does not? If the plan is to create a website similar to wikipedia then I think we are unlikely to be successful for a number of reasons. Firstly, wikipedia was the first, and will therefore always have a much larger user base and so, why would anyone come here to look. Secondly, there are already many other Christian wikis trying to semi-imitate wikipedia - if we use wikipedias approach we are just competing with them. Thirdly, go to wikipedia and look up "Jesus" - the article is huge. There is so much information I find it difficult to look for what I want. Now, take at look at our Jesus article. If you look at it, there is a very brief summary about Jesus, followed by Jesus (overview) which has a lot more detail and will hopefully grow to become larger like the wikipedia article; the Jesus contents page then can continue and have links to Bible Dictionary: Jesus as well as links to more specific topics. It then also has room for links for opinion articles - there aren't any many for Jesus yet, but say take a look at Justification and you'll see there are 3 separate opinion articles.

--Graham grove 23:16, 28 July 2006 (PDT)

I agree with Prab. We had a good discussion about the new topical layout over at Talk:Christian wikis but we were nowhere near a consensus. I think the main page layout should be more like Wikipedia, at least with the critical Category and statistics info toward the top. As I mentioned over on the Christian wikis Talk, we definitely need better topical-based guidelines before we just toss the old system out of the window! I think it would be good to set ourselves apart from WP, as well, but I think we would reap more benifits by planning it out together than jumping in headfirst. What do we do with the "Web Directory:" links, for example? Instead of having "Web Directory:" in front of every article, maybe have a nice sidebar template and category to single out those pages. Same technique applies to the topic pages.

--J. J. 18:33, 31 July 2006 (PDT)

Why are having the statistics on the front page important? --Graham grove 03:44, 1 August 2006 (PDT)

Stats are a minor issue that I thought I'd mention. They add some legitimacy to the project and let people know up front how much content is on the site. Otherwise, as I mentioned earlier, I'll try to make my own topic "development/test page" as well as work on some ideas for the Web Directory. --J. J. 07:04, 1 August 2006 (PDT)

I've created a modified general topic page at Talk:Christianity/Dev. There are several additional changes I'd like to make to it, but the formatting is basically the way I was envisioning things. UPDATE: I've made it so we can easily replace the existing topic templates (also, overview, etc.) with the new templates I've created (topic/Also, topic/Overview, etc.). See also Template:Topic (not polished yet); centralize discussion at Wikichristian talk:Topics. Give me your feedback! --J. J. 07:49, 3 August 2006 (PDT)

REDIRECT

I think we should redirect the main page to Christianity. I think that would be the appropriate main page for a website for Christianity. Other people's opinions? --Graham grove 04:31, 7 September 2006 (PDT)

I Think what would be better is hide the title on the main page, as other sites have done... Wikipedia, Wikible, Theopedia, MormonWiki, etc, and then put a banner at the top with the title (Christianity perhaps) and some other brief info. Redirecting looks tacky in my opinion. My 2 cents. --Tom 13:05, 7 September 2006 (PDT)

New Main Page

Quite a few people have commented on wanting a new main page recently. I've created a new one with Graham at Main Page: Future. Please edit it, leave your comments about it or start a new one, and we'll make a new Main Page that people are more happy with. --Muser 18:14, 4 November 2006 (EST)

Changed new page

Quite a few users have recently commented on their dislike of the Main Page. For a few weeks there has been a message asking for people to create new pages - there were no takers initially, so I created a new one. Since only a few people have worked on it, and no one has specifically commented on it, I've taken the liberty of making it our new main page. It can be changed back at any time or altered so that people are happy with it. --Graham grove 06:39, 5 November 2006 (EST)

new main page Talk:Main Page/Development

Will get back to working on this later. Wish I knew how to do this kind of thing better. Please, feel free to modify and work on a new page - I know a lot of people have been wanting one. The only two things I feel strongly about are

1. Please could we keep the contents page part, i.e. the part which links to God | Jesus Christ | Essence of Christianity etc.
2. Could we try to keep it simple, remembering that the links to statistics, help etc. can all be found over on the left navigation and toolbox panels

--Graham grove 21:56, 3 November 2006 (EST)

Featured Content

The current featured content (Old Testament (overview) has been up now for more than a week. Shouldn't we change it? -- P.B. Pilhet / Talk 20:40, 27 November 2006 (EST)

Christian Meta Wiki

You want to checkout the new Christian Meta Wiki. This wiki is for the purpose of collaboration between Christian wiki admins and editors, and hopefully to make the Christian wiki landscape all the better. http://meta.jesus-wiki.org/wiki/Main_Page --Tom 18:22, 11 December 2006 (EST)