Talk:Main Page

=Discussion=
 * So yeah, I just remembered that I have this little "hidden" page. I generally used it to test new formats for the front page.  I should probably get to work on something new.  This looks a lot neater than the current setup, which was changed to fit whatever Wikia had going on... something about getting in the way of ads.  It looks perfectly fine in monobook, but I guess it looks terrible using the default style.  The current look of the page as it is here is outdated, but works for design purposes.--OtakuD50 06:57, January 13, 2010 (UTC)
 * Okay, so I went with something new here. I originally had "Media" sectioned off, but then went and gave it its own box.  Also, as you can see, I added possible new sections for the front page if ya'll are interested in keeping 'em.  Just wanted to throw the idea out there.--OtakuD50 05:10, January 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * That .hack//This Month thing is pretty cool. I like it. After browsing other wikis, maybe a Quote of the month? Since we're not active enough to change things daily or weekly, monthly seems like a good plan. Kulaguy 09:26, January 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * The |Final Fantasy Wiki as a picture of the month. It could add imagry to the front page beyond the logo and the featured artical(or the dreaded ads!) They also have a quote of the moment that doesn't need updated and is always fresh because it's randomized. One thing I love about their wiki is the | Dragon's Neck Colossem, an arena for dream fights. Members vote for who they think will win and the most votes take the cake. I don't think we have enough regulars for that, but still, something interactive and entertaining for our guests could up our notoriety. maybe a "wishlist" section where people vote for what they wish to be translated or made. Just an idea. A for the task at hand, I think the fetured artical should remain centered or at least change color. I like how it breaks from the sea of green, but it throws the balence off. The "Hello" section also needs more stuff going on, it's too dull. The right hand column seems too detached, possibly could be fixed by making the text in the "points of intrest" and "terminology" sections centered. Last of all, do we have a general theme? Most of the other wikis have some feel to the page giving them distinction, but all we have are pastels. I love the minimalistic look, but this is a little dull. --Falcon At 21:51, January 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * It isn't necessarily meant to be minimalistic, I'm merely working with what little knowledge of wikicode I do know and am willing to learn given what little free time I have (note: "free time" is subjective; one can argue that I am wasting "study time" and making it "free"). If anyone is willing to make, say, a background image or pattern, or suggest or create images to dress up the Main Page, well, speak up.  That's why this test page is here, so we can try out different things.  As for the "Hello" section, it's small right now because I'm working on the other special articles so that they have specific roles that we can guide visitors & potential contributors toward.  Well, that's part of it anyway.  The other part is that I don't know what else to add.  Lastly, what exactly do you have in mind when you talk about centering the POI and terminology sections?--OtakuD50 22:40, January 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * I mean the text inside. The collumns are too thin and make the page look heavy on the left side and empty on the right. The "hello"section's problem and the minimalistic problem can be treated as the same; the background could fix both. I'll try to see if I can be useful later today, but I don't know nothin bout codin no pages.--Falcon At 12:11, January 27, 2010 (UTC)
 * Ehh...? still needs some aesthetic work. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I've been working on a little something for the "Hello" section. It's basicly the top half of the |first page of 4koma, but with heavy editing. I'm making it with custom text (duh), .hack//wiki instead of 4koma (again, obvious) and in full color. May take awhile. Thanks to Kulaguy and his user page for the idea. When I'm done, I'll get it up here (hopefully with photobucket) and yall can see if it's a crap, or a turd, or maybe, possibly, approvable. --Falcon At 02:23, January 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * (see edit below(manga scan coloring)) a preview. for the record, Signing up hurt my fingers and I now have a migrane. what sould go in the speech bubbles?--Falcon At 02:36, January 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * You colored that? Looks pretty damn good, except for the bottom where the strokes are obvious. And you know, you could've used imageshack. They don't require you to sign up. It's what I do for temp images that I don't want to clutter up my photobucket. Also, I agree that the News section isn't needed, mostly because LINK is supposed to be the final thing, and we don't even keep track of .hack News. Hell, the Current Events page is still stuck in 2007. Kulaguy 06:22, January 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Okay, got rid of the News section. But if something important is announced, we could probably just include that as a sort of headline in the intro spiel.  Anyway, yes, it could use more aesthetic work, but I'd prefer some specifics.  We could always add more, but right now I want to know if it looks better with all the links in the right column.  Does it take care of the "centering" issue?  Right now I'm at my school, which has these widescreen monitors, and I noticed they looked really wrong in widescreen.  With this setup they don't look as awkward, I think, and it still looks okay on a regular monitor.  BTW, the pic looks nice, but a bit big (we could always shrink it of course).  Also, this is just me talking but I'd rather see Haseo and Tokio in there rather than Balmung and BlackRose, so we have at least one rep from the three eras.  BTW, no idea what I'm looking at in the bottom there... those still his fingers?  Freaky.--OtakuD50 22:01, January 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * yeah, the balence is even worse now, at least on my monitor. The main colors need to be in the center, not to say the right should be black and white, but mone neutral cool colors where the hot, bright colors are in the center. This way they arn't overther distracting, but are the center of the attention they attract. As for the pic, if you have any good pictures of the three of them for me to work my minimal talents on, get them to me. for now I'll keep on the current project. I'm currently finishing up Balmung, but I might find the time to make a main character colloge or something. And, yes, those are his fingers. Took me a while, too.--Falcon At 23:01, January 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * (see more recent edit below(dark banner)) how's this? not as original, but it has all the iconic characters. It would be great to have an original or at least unique image, like a colored scan with our name, but I, being that bastard who isn't anticipating link, can't find anything with all three characters that doesn't make link look like the prima dona of the wiki.--Falcon At 00:16, January 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * Okay, gonna level with you... I don't really see much of a balance issue, and I'm looking at it with different skins. The only time I feel it's really an issue is looking at it with a widescreen, though I also imagine the problem is that you've got a higher-resolution monitor than I do.  I've got a 1024 x 768, so if you've got a higher-res, I'd appreciate it if you took a screencap so I know what you're seeing.  As for the picture you've got, it looks awesome, but I think it could be a bit more compressed, like putting Aura in with the group, but behind them and slightly transparent, and the logo could be moved up front in the lower-left corner.  I may completely lack the ability to make something look that good, but I've got visions up the wazoo.--OtakuD50 06:10, January 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * Uhh...I don't know how to do that and wikipedia has failed me. Still, I don't think you get what I'm saying. There are many types of colors, yes? well the ones currently in the center and left are low saturation colors, hereby refered to as light colors(as in weight). The colors on the right are hight saturation colors, here by refered to as heavy colors. Think of balance in physical terms, such as on a lever. the fulcrum of said lever is the center of attention, the center of the screen. If you have all the heavy things on one side of the fulcrum, the balance will be off and lower the page's asthetic value. What needs to be done is to restore ballence to this lever by distributing weight across the whole with the most promanant of weight in the center. This practice is used in all creative imagry to invoke attraction, kinda like the human nature to prefer the symetrical (faces, tools, ect.(example: surround sound)It'll add that unconcious intrest that great pages all have. (another example: [google.com|google]) as for the image, i'll see what I can do. I humbly resubmit my plea for originality. --Falcon At 21:54, January 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * Alright, I get what you're saying, though I would've been fine without the full explanation of the analogy. As for the color issue, I'm having trouble deciding on an overall scheme.  I started writing a plea for help on the issue, but I scrapped it before submitting because I didn't feel like I was getting across what I wanted to say in exactly the manner I wanted.  That and the more I thought about my ideas, the more grandiose and impractical they sounded.  This is essentially what happened a couple years ago, which is how we ended up with the current setup.  I'll try playing around with colors again soon though.--OtakuD50 22:23, January 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * In that case, I'll reserve my opinion. Oh, yeah. Here you go:
 * http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx32/falcon_at/welcomecol-1.png
 * Played around with a few ideas: quotes, sugestions, improv. In the background I worked in a field, the serpant of lore and the iconic holy ground. It seems empty in some places, but also too busy. What do you think? (remember I can't read minds, if you don't respond, your opinion doesn't count) --Falcon At 22:46, January 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * Hm, I guess in this I'm a bit minimalist. I feel like the less is going on, the better the quality is.  I'd like it if you kept the dimensions of the image itself, but still kept the characters at their original size, so more of the image is "filled up" with the characters themselves and less with "empty space."  Not that the backgrounds are bad, it's just that the emptiness of the foreground is distracting.  The red and blue quotes just seem awkward to me... the blue one more so.  The red one I could live with, if it were maybe a bit more center.  The "Welcome to the .hack//WIKI" is redundant given the logo... and I'd rather keep the logo there since I love what you've done with it.  Lastly, I think I've finally figured out what was bothering me about Tsukasa.  Tokio, Kite, and Haseo have pretty vibrant primary colors for auras, while Tsukasa has what appears to be a very subdued indigo, not to mention being pushed behind everyone else.  I'd suggest either moving him to the right side so his hair kinda balances out with Haseo, or adding a fifth for balance.  Of course, if I were to make a suggestion my first choice would be Albireo for a novel rep, except there isn't a good colored full-body art of him outside of LINK.  Second would be Mai Minase for a RL rep.  Third would be to put it to a vote, but I get the feeling the users of this wiki would overwhelmingly support Tokuoka.  BTW, props for what you managed to create so far.  I consider the logo my personal masterpiece (next to my doctored photo of Gabi standing side by side with Stephen Colbert), and I've since completely lost the ability to even do that much.--OtakuD50 23:48, January 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * LOL!!! I love it! gives me ideas, but I ain't gonna touch it, don't worry! lol! Alright, I'll see what I can do. --Falcon At 00:50, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx32/falcon_at/InfectiousWelcome.png
 * I'm not slacking off, honest! but whilst doing various things, I got an idea, a very infectious idea indeed. It's just up for the vote. Maybe I should try to pretty it up first, but whatever.--Falcon At 01:40, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * Definitely a no on that... but I'm LOLing at Tsukasa and Mai having the same expression. BTW, pay no heed to the fact that I'm blatantly using a table to enclose the article space... I had to do it to show a background color without changing the CSS.  I assume that I could've changed the BG color using HTML though... I just now figured that out and will try it in a sec to see if it works.--OtakuD50 01:47, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, and Tokio and Shugo both have the same pose, which is ironic, as I don't like either of them.--Falcon At 14:24, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well now that's weird... it looks exactly the way I designed it in Monaco, but in Monobook the gray background doesn't show and there's that mysterious white background area... which I spent a few minutes figuring out to fix and did so successfully in Monaco, there's no bloody reason for it to unfix in Monobook...--OtakuD50 01:59, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * So now it's all orange? The old layout (one on the main screen currently) looked better than this, of course, it's glitching on my comp, too, so i may have no idea what I'm talking about.--Falcon At 14:24, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * I fixed the code, so now it works in Monobook! I'm so happy to learn that it was a mistake on my part and not Monobook; there were too many tables in the code, so I also managed to clean it up.  Not to mention, putting tables in tables caused a conflict with the background colors.  So now, no matter what skin you're using, you are now looking at the color scheme I envisioned just yesterday, lol.  The intention is to make the boxes look more like windows over a background.  That's why I call it the ALTIMIT OS scheme.  The four boxes on the right column are different colors only for comparison purposes.  Featured Article is the way it always looked like, Media is the green and white scheme, Points of Interest is the current scheme on the front page, and Terminology is the "ALTIMIT OS E-Mail" scheme.--OtakuD50 00:59, January 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * Lighter, freindlier, more hexagonal, less busy. just needs something on the right side.
 * http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx32/falcon_at/welcomepink.png
 * I know the change is drastic, so speak. please someone other than OtakuD50, respond. You have no right to flame otherwise. --Falcon At 14:43, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't like the fact that it's pink and that Aura is even more indiscernible.--OtakuD50 00:59, January 31, 2010 (UTC)

I would prefer something in color. Though the 4koma image is nicest (so far) from my opinion. The black and white was a good idea but at screen I'm seeing a strange gray. If we are going to include the main character of each series can we add Saya, Midori and BlackRose back into the mix. Carl too. Not sure about Nanase and Raid but if it works... What do we do about the remaining media? (The ones that haven't come out.) We could mimic FF and go for Grunties or Chim Chims. Outlaw630 14:57, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * the infection-like one is actually sefia(sp) tone. I wish I could add more, but the less popular the series, the harder it is to incorperate them. There just aren't any images at my desposal that shows there full profile with minimal atmospheric anomolies. In the future, we could just update, keep it fresh. I'll see what I can do about the mascot idea, though.--Falcon At 19:04, January 30, 2010 (UTC)

http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx32/falcon_at/welcome.png This took awile.--Falcon At 19:48, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * Nice work. Looks awesome.  Though... where exactly are you planning to put that huge image?  It'd be a nice banner if it weren't for the fact that it causes problems for the Monaco skin.  Even if we switch to purely Monobook, I'd rather not have it be an issue.--OtakuD50 00:59, January 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * like you said, it can be shrunk, I'm just tired. It's the seventh day so I'm resting. I don't know much, but I must be widescreen cause it fits pretty neatly on my screen. As for the color scheme, I think we sould swich to Monaco jade and work the color scheme to match it. If not, (or even if) the everyday typical stuff would be best in a cool color, like the greens and greys(but a lighter shade, the current makes it hard to read) and leave the warm colors, oranges, for items of aventitious intrest, such as features or announcements.--Falcon At 01:24, January 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * Like I said, just take some screencaps of what you're seeing. Basically, just hit the Print Screen/PrtScr button, open up Paint, paste, and save.  Saves a lot of trouble.
 * The three schemes.
 * The current main page in Monobook
 * The current main page in Monaco Jade
 * The test page in Monobook--OtakuD50 03:12, January 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * I have some trouble. Whenever I hit print screen, it goes to my printer. I have a widescreen moniter though, and the current main page looks alot better on it, but the new one looks wierd. Also, I have the requested "mascot" welcome.
 * http://i739.photobucket.com/albums/xx32/falcon_at/rundyhi.png --Falcon At 03:22, January 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * Y'know, that's not normal. That feature was probably added by your printer or another program.  But the screen capture should still be on your clipboard, so you should still be able to paste it (I suggest turning off your printer first).  If not, I dunno what to say.--OtakuD50 04:18, January 31, 2010 (UTC)
 * Nope, don't work. my comp told me to turn the printer on and nothing went to my clipboard. I tryed it on IE8 and on Firefox, but nothing. I'm using a vista if that means anything.--Falcon At 20:19, January 31, 2010 (UTC)

Forgive me. I'm going to take the 4koma image to see what it should look like. About the Grunties don't try too hard. The images can connect but natural is fine too. Outlaw630 10:34, January 31, 2010 (UTC)

Okay, after seeing it enough, I'm not too fond of what I did with ol' Azure and Haseo, but the important thing was to show an example of dressing it up. I really would prefer as much feedback as possible, guys. If I don't have any direction I start experimenting with all sorts of crap and end up going in circles. At any rate, I just got a good idea, but I want to hear at least one comment on this exact look before I start erasing stuff.--OtakuD50 10:25, February 3, 2010 (UTC)

I think seperate images work better with a darker background (as if they were one). Try a single. Also how did you do the edges? Outlaw630 11:53, February 3, 2010 (UTC)

I think it looks great, even more so when I'm not using IE. Haseo looks fine, but AFK probibly needs to be mirrored horizontally. It would be nice to have a original kite pic there, but then Tokio would need to be squeazed somewhere (dangit).--Falcon At 12:14, February 3, 2010 (UTC)

(@OtakuD50 concerning the edit of the header) How about less text and more imagry up top? to much text is a turn-off for the passerby.--Falcon At 21:14, February 3, 2010 (UTC)

We can use the Forum now
I moved my little sandbox over to Forum:Main_Page_Test. I think from now on we should use the Test Forum to discuss the pending changes to the main page. However, I'll keep our discussions here for references.--OtakuD50 23:33, February 3, 2010 (UTC)