User talk:Bigred
test new server
- Looks like it's up, though I'm getting some certificate errors on my browser. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 07:37, 7 December 2016 (MST)
- Thanks Eiji-kun. Any people seeing a 404 are attempting to connect to the old server that is down. Either the DNS changes haven't reached them yet as they propagate across the web, or they should clear their browser cache and web history and try the site URL again. Many times when a server is moved, regular users will have the old IP address/DNS setting cached on their local machines from repeated visits. Bigred (talk) 23:38, 7 December 2016 (MST)
Frontend refresh
Actually, you guys are the experts on this one. The frontpage has admittedly been kinda stagnant...mostly because I personally don't have the design expertise to come up with anything better. I'll implement any sort of design or template you can give. Surgo (talk) 17:34, 7 December 2016 (MST)
- Surgo, here's the first initial frontpage design refresh if you want to take a stab at it.
- 2 column ( as we have now)
- Left column upper section - Introduction section (as we have now, moved to left column)
- Left column lower section - "Explore the Wiki" section, that has prominent links, and a sentence of description for 4 of our major wiki content subject, (Encyclopedia, Publications, Homebrew, SRDs). Feel free to model this section loosely off the left column of dandwiki.com's frontpage. These 4 subsections can have sub-links under the description if there isn't a single page to send readers to.
- Right column upper - Featured Articles (a variation of the Community Favorites we have now) This section displays a random article summary from a set of 10 that can appear, to give people a taste of all the wiki's major section. Each of these summaries should include a single image. The ten suggested topics are:
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Primeval_Dragons_(3.5e_Monster)
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Dungeonomicon_(3.5e_Sourcebook)
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Ranger,_Tome_(3.5e_Class)
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Canon:Dragonlance
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Canon:Forgotten_Realms
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Canon:Spelljammer
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Canon:TSR
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Publication:Dungeon_Masters_Guide_(1e)
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Publication:Unearthed_Arcana
- https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Publication:Player%27s_Handbook_(5e)
- Right column lower - Community News (as we have now, moved over to the lower right column)
I suggest removing the rounded caps from the section heading and going with white section title text on blue bars. I'd use the dark blue from the wiki's links. We'll make our theme colors the tan/creme with dark blue accent colors in keeping wth what we have already. Later, each of the sections will get a small horizontal image atop them and a tiling background - but we'll deal with that later. I'm a computer artist originally, so I can kick out images as we need them. Bigred (talk) 15:25, 9 December 2016 (MST)
- So I actually had this weird idea. As much as I despise Windows 8 and 10's setup, I could almost see it useful for being a wiki's frontpage. That is, you have whatever blurb on top, and then 4-6 random small windows/icons leading to various articles on the wiki (or favored articles on the wiki rather). I have no idea how viable that is.
- Also, since I see this coming up a lot and we are expecting new users, I was thinking of ways to make things more user friendly with formatting. I wasn't sure if it was better on the front page or in the editing pages on top, but I'm thinking a big red button (figuratively speaking) above saying "Don't understand the formatting, click here" and giving a simplified summary of how to work the wiki. Like "don't delete your title" and "remove the comment tags or your stuff won't show up". That's unrelated, but I figured I'd mention it just in case that is front page stuff. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 17:42, 7 December 2016 (MST)
- The above was edited, so I'm replying to the latter part of that. I had a question about the tiling backdrop; wouldn't that be distracting to the eyes and for any text placed upon it? Then again I can't really tell until I see it, but just noting this concern. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 01:46, 8 December 2016 (MST)
- Not to worry Eiji-kun, the tiling background is very subtle and designed to go behind the main content area of the wiki. So the light creme main area of the page where the articles are is unaffected. The background would only appear in the header, left navbar and footer areas, which are that darker tan. Bigred (talk) 01:57, 8 December 2016 (MST)
- Firstly, welcome Bigred! Looking forward to seeing what directions you take us in.
- Am I right in my understanding that you want to replace the Community Favorites entirely with these hand-curated Featured Articles? I'm a little leery of that – I've always been very proud of the community-driven process by which we pick our front-page articles. --DanielDraco (talk) 08:50, 10 December 2016 (MST)
Pre-existing Links
So, noticed today that links to the site get redirected to the main page, potentially because the "www" is no longer in the web address, not really sure. Not sure if this is intentional or not, but it basically means that any link to the wiki anywhere that's been up just gets redirected to the main page instead of the article it originally linked to. So, what's up with that? --Ganteka Future (talk) 00:11, 10 December 2016 (MST)
