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[mvBarracuda]

The current wiki front page (http://wiki.fifengine.net/index.php?title=Main_Page) feels far improved compared to older versions of it. Nevertheless there are always aspects that could get improved and I think that it's quite a bit cluttered at the moment :-/

Any ideas how we could declutter the front page? One idea would be to move artilcles that currently reside on the front page to a new category page and just link to this category at the front page. However I'm not sure what articles should be moved to categories and which ones are that important so they should be kept on the starting page itself.

Any proposals are appreciated.

[Lamoot]

I guess drawing some inspiration from front wiki pages of other projects would be of some use

http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Main_Page

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page

Not the best examples, but perhaps a start.

[Sleek]

I suggest we rearrange the front page to this:

- Overview ( what's FIFE )
  short description with link to full description.
- Getting FIFE
  how to download, config & run
- Development / coding
  setting up the IDE, compiling, API docs, coding standard, debugging etc
- Content creation (for game devs / mappers)
  Scripting, image / animation templates
- FAQ / Troubleshooting
- Contact Us
  You can talk to us in IRC(link to IRC howto) at #fife under idk.quakenet.blah. There is also a forum @ forums.fifengine.net. Also feel free to contact johndoe by email at johndoe@trashbin.org

I believe the above is short, concise and matches our need. The "Getting FIFE" section should be written in a tutorial style, as it can be used by other game devs (i.e. KoN )as a template. Also, I would very much prefer if idea listing, discussions and questions could happen on the forum instead.

I see the differences between those 3 media ( IRC, forum, wiki ) in terms of activity & lifespan of discussion.

IRC - quick update & response ( rapid activity ), short lifespan
Forum - medium activity, medium to long lifespan
Wiki - quick - slow activity, mainly serves as information store. long lifespan

[plcstpierre]

I redesigned the Main Page of the wiki in the talk section.

http://wiki.fifengine.net/index.php?title=Talk:Main_Page

Please take a look and send me some feedback .

Don't notice the dead link... I'll fix this later...

[jasoka]

The fact that there is less links is a really good thing, though the colors are a bit harsh to my eye. Adding a selected picture to the main page could add some value at least people would right away see what the engine is about.

[mvBarracuda]

Looks good to me plcstpierre :-) Your help is really appreciated.

I like jasoka's idea of having a thumbnailed screenshot at the main page as well. At the weekend I have hopefully some time on my hands to have a closer look at it and give you more detailed feedback than at the moment.

[plcstpierre]

Thanks for your feedback.   

[Sleek]

Any news on this one ?

[mvBarracuda]

Yep, indeed there is sleek :-) Thanks for bringing this up.

Plcstpierre created a draft for the new wiki frontpage already over a week ago:
http://wiki.fifengine.net/index.php?title=Talk:Main_Page

So we would like to hear your feedback concerning the draft. I'll take a look at it in detail tomorrow; the only proposal I have on my mind right away is to add a kind of screenshot box where you can see the latest image from the screenshot category.

Feedback please :-)

[Lamoot]

I agree with the screenshot box proposal.

In addition the "Welcome to the FIFE wiki" box could have one sentence of introduction of what fifewiki / FIFE is, before stating the reasons for creating the wiki. Also the colours would need some tweaking.

All in all it seems like a good front page. So good work to Plcstpierre

[mvBarracuda]

Any chance to add a screenshot box to it over the weekend plcstpierre?

[plcstpierre]

I'm looking for some vision/opinion here. I have a few options about the screenshot on the wiki main page.

1) One or multiple?
2) Selected or random?
3) 30% of the page (in a separated column) or the full page (after or before the links)??

Thanks for sharing your opinion

[mvBarracuda]

1) One or multiple?
2) Selected or random?
3) 30% of the page (in a separated column) or the full page (after or before the links)??

1. One should be sufficent. I guess can always manually update the screenshot box at the front page, should not be too much work.
2. I would prefer selected. Random screenshots might be great but I'm not sure if this would be possible with the mediawiki templates.
3. Thumbnail with link to fullscreen version (like it is currently already done for the screenshot section) in a separated column would be nice.

[Lamoot]

On the mock wiki front page, the screenshot is too big for my resolution of 1024x768. It goes partially over the game creation and developers' headquarters boxes. If I make the browser window even smaller, the problem gets worse, since the image goes over the whole box.

[Sadr]

On the mock wiki front page, the screenshot is too big for my resolution of 1024x768. It goes partially over the game creation and developers' headquarters boxes. If I make the browser window even smaller, the problem gets worse, since the image goes over the whole box.

Same. Using Opera 9.25