MediaWiki talk:Sidebar

Naming cleanup

I propose the following changes to the portal box in the sidebar:

• Accessing Linux should not be a portal. It is more of a tutorial, and most people only need it once. It would be better to have it only linked from the main page.
• webOS Applications and Linux Applications renamed to just webOS and Linux. These portals are already more than just applications, and more things will probably be added to them.
• Hardware Information renamed to Hardware
• Research & Reference split. (the line's already wrapping, so it wouldn't take up more space)
• The page Portal:Misc renamed to Portal:Miscellaneous. If it can be spelled out in the sidebar, it definitely can be spelled out in the article title.
• The Palm SDK & Docs renamed to SDK
• Put Miscellaneous after Tools

This would be the result:

• webOS
• Linux
• Hardware
• Research
• Reference
• SDK
• Tools
• Miscellaneous
• Community

That looks much nicer, don't you agree? More concise and not as much line wrapping. Of course, the pages themselves will have to be renamed, too.

Tell me what you think. If you're an admin who can edit the sidebar, i already have the code ready for you in a comment here for easy copy and paste.
—X1011 05:05, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

On second thought, lets not rename the linux and webos portals. --Templarian 17:30, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Why? The names are inappropriate and too long. —X1011 21:35, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

They would be to generic. --Templarian 13:24, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I don't see why; we don't have any other portals with webOS or Linux in their names. —X1011 02:02, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

it does look nicer, but it's less informative. The consensus of the webos-internals ops is for the time being the answer is "no." recognizing that things are changing VERY FAST and we may revisit this again in the not-too-distant future. rboatright 00:14, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

less informative how? would it prevent someone from finding what they're looking for?

we can implement just some of the changes if there are specific parts you guys don't like.

also, where was this consensus reached? if it was in IRC, please post the log. i think in the future, consensus should be established on the wiki so that it is documented and everyone can be a part of it.

—X1011 00:30, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I think there's a clear distinction between webOS / Mojo apps and things that run in a terminal - linux apps.

That blurs a little with the advent of terminal, but only a little.

I think that your proposed sidebar mod reduces the amount of information available, and makes navigation more troublesome. We have the space, why not use it?

rboatright

i think you may be misunderstanding me; i'm not proposing to merge the webOS and Linux portals; just to rename them.

as for the space: firstly, we don't necessarily have it; the sidebar currently extends beyond the bottom of the browser window for me. second, just because we have space doesn't mean we should use it up; keeping it uncluttered makes navigation easier.

—X1011 05:20, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Combining portals

On the left side-bar of the page, can we remove "Research & Reference" and combine it with "Development Tools"? Otherwise, we have a page with barely any links (the former) and it makes the left side-bar more cluttered. Also, Research isn't even on the front page.

-hopspitfire

My view is that each logically separate category should have its own page. How would people know to find research in the tools page? Don't worry about lack of content for now; this wiki is still new.

We'll have to see about putting research on the main page. It will need an icon. Perhaps start a discussion on talk:Main Page.

—X1011 23:25, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Google group

The Google group should go on the community portal instead, since that's where irc is too. Or if you want it to be more prominent, on the main page, but at least not on the sidebar. We don't need to put everything on the sidebar and clutter it up. —X1011 03:41, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

In general you are correct, but the sidebar is where things go that are _important_ and the announcement list is important.

The sidebar does not extend too far at this point. Perhaps a set of smaller icons above the big boxes on the main page... Announcements, Projects, etc.

I still think we need a "Current page in the news" where we feature the current "hot" page if there is one. Right now that would be Terminal. Terminal is non-trivial to find. (other than by search.)

rboatright 02:51, 28 July 2009 (UTC)

Agreed. Terminal and Google Groups are things we want to draw attention to now. In the long run, they do not need to be as prominent. -- Rod