Template talk:Main Page introduction/Archive 1
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
OK I am making some changes here, let's see if this makes this part of the main page a little bit more approachable, and lets people see the good stuff about the site right away without getting scared away too fast. --Karl Wick 02:27, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
Karl, change the bgcolor to black one at a time to see what is causing the height problems. I think the problem is having two table inside a third. I've shortened it a bit, even with the breakline. See my user page. --Hagindaz 19:51, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Well I was bold and changed it. The other problem lies on the main page itself. Compare the main page with my user page. There's a breakline on the main page itself right before the template. --Hagindaz 20:17, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] How to decide what is "Featured" content?
I agree with the idea that we need to have "featured" or "highlighted" textbooks. The problem I have is to try and come up with a reasonable and fair process to determine what books qualify for inclusion. Without playing favorites and being too arbitrary (or opening it up to become the willy-nilly free for all that it has become on the front page), I would recommend the Books of the Month as a likely source to add in here.
Of course there are some Books of the Month that I don't think are as high of calibur as some of the ones that havn't made it, but at least this is something to point to and suggest that if you want to get on this list, add your book title to the Books of the Month and vote to get them on.
I'm not quite pleased with how this looks asthetically, and the front page does need a general overhaul, as has been discussed on Wikibooks:Staff Lounge. A good start to reform the front page, however. Thanks, Karl. --Rob Horning 03:49, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
- This is a big step in the right direction! It seems as though discussion of improving the main page has been scattered around in several places: (1) the staff lounge, (2) the discussion page for the main page, and (3) discussion pages for templates, such as this one. Wouldn't it be most logical to centralize the discussion at Talk:Main_Page?--Bcrowell 21:49, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
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- My idea of what should be "featured" content is primarily books that will reflect well on the site and leave a good first impression. That means mainly books with a lot of (good) content, and particularly on subjects of a lot of interest to many people. BTW I love the front-page aesthetic example given below.
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- Please help identify the books that should not be overlooked, that you think should be included in the highlighted list! --Karl Wick 23:38, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
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- Im am more stickt here and suggest to only allow a "Book of the Month" to be mentioned on the main page. With only one more new book per month allowed to be mentioned we enshure that the list won't be overwelming again for quite some time. There are 14 BOTM currently and 8 groups in the list below - that should work out nicely. --Krischik T 08:05, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] criteria for front page inclusion?
my thought on this is that one of the more serious flaws with the current organization is that its like trying to have the whole library on just one wall. In any serious library, you have to walk around a little bit to find the stuff you are looking for. In my opinion, only books with half finished or fully finished content should be on the first page, and they should be thought of as examples of the categories contents, linking to the other materials in the same categories. If I was doing the main page, it would have 50 or 60 main categories, each with 5 or 10 subcategories, each with a list of 5 or 6 suggested topics of content, and each with only a single lines worth of completed or semi-completed texts to offer as examples. Additionally, the subcategories would be arranged according to level, such that the junior books would be listed first, intermediate books next, and advanced books next. This puts most of the actual content on linked to pages of categories and sub categories, and turns the main page into a navigational tool to get where you are going, rather than being as it is, an apparent attempt to have an entire library on a single wall.
The most significant criteria I think is the degree of completion. Having books linked to on the front page which are mostly incomplete is kind of like putting out dead ends for people to fall into.
The current organization bespeaks a small time operation, most people won't take the current front page seriously and will move on to some other information resource. I have posted a list of potential main categories on my talk page, which is incomplete, but based on the content that you have, and about an hour of sorting the main page as it currently exists. On my >>me<< page (userpage?) I have a similar list, because my (intended) Wikibook will be highly interdisciplinary. (The essence of my wikibook is a how to; How to Colonize most of our solar system in the next 50 years. This entails gathering information from almost every major category you could think of.)
Here and there around and about I have made the case for the need for Ontological organization. I have nothing against alphabetical order, and nothing against Dewey, but in the modern era, I and most people think in terms of BIG UMBRELLA>Middle Umbrella>small umbrella. Both of those other organizational systems were useful before computers and instantaneous linking. What is now much more important is an intuitive, user freindly >line of reasoning< which allows the user to quickly determine where to look for what they are looking for.
I think all of the Categories and all of the Subcategories should be listed on the main page. I think that the main page should exist as a navigational aid through the library; like a map of the library, not the wall upon which all of the shelves of the library are placed.
Prometheuspan 19:45, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] the below solution
Ah, that is so much more pleasant to navigate. I guess finding a good example and emulating it was a great tactic after all. As a total newbie, I can only offer my help with some amount of obvious supervision. If there is anything you can think of I'd be qualified to do in the process, let me know, I'd be happy to help. Prometheuspan 00:52, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Suggestion: A copy from w:fr:Modèle:Encyclopédie.
It will take some time as we need to copy all the templates used as well. But it looks very nice and friendly. I suggest we group by main bookshelves and only add the sub-bookshelves and the book of the month winners. Only adding book of the month winners will mean that we don't need a 2nd selection process.
- I love the overall look and feel of this below! And I totally agree that we should clean up the front page to give people meaningful links to real books that they can use, and not tons of dead links to books with next-to-no content. If anyone can help in this process it will be greatly appreciated! --Karl Wick 23:47, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Sandbox Copy
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| Printable Books Ada Programming (three volumes: 154p, 81p, 36p) – Consciousness studies (229p) – Cell biology (35p) – How to build a computer (52p) – Introduction to Paleoanthropology (126p) – Introduction to sociology (~240p) – Physics (Free High School Science Text) (396p) – Special Relativity (89p) – UK Constitution and Government (59p) – US History (158p) |
[edit] Template and ideas
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[edit] How it works
I have finished the Computing as an example. It works in three levels:
- Department (Computing)
- a group of bookshelves which belong to each other. Each department gets a box and an icon. For more Icons see commons:Nuvola
- Shelves (Computer and Video Games)
- all shelves in that department. they are seperated by – (a dash big as an 'n').
- BOTM (Ada Programming Book of the Month September 2005 )
- after — (a dash big as an 'm') the books of the month for that department. Again seperated by –.
I could imagine that a very few shelves to belong to two departments and i suggest to allow that.
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- It will help in the future to have cataloging such as you propose. The games bookshelf might be ready for this (?) - I would suggest cataloging alphabetically by the name of the game as well. RobinH 16:11, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] A two phase approach
At the moment we have about 20 books that have substantial content. Some of these are really interesting and represent many weeks or even months of effort. I think we should showcase these books, providing immediate access for readers, until we have about 40 of them and then go to something like the French model. RobinH 09:45, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
| Books that benefit from online access |
| Cookbook - Chinese - French - German - Spanish |
| Classic Textbooks | PDF (Edition) | Edit Draft Version |
|---|---|---|
| Cell biology | PDF (1.0) | Edit |
| Physics (Free High School Science Text) | Edit | |
| Demystifying depression | Edit | |
| US History | PDF (1.0) | Edit |
| UK Constitution and Government | PDF (1.0) | Edit |
| Special Relativity | PDF (1.0) | Edit |
| Introduction to Paleoanthropology | PDF (1.0) | Edit |
| Consciousness studies | PDF (1.0) | Edit |
| Introduction to sociology | Print version | Edit |
| Ada Programming | Edit | |
| How to build a computer | Edit | |
| French | Edit | |
| There are many other books under development, page down for more! | ||
| Books for children | PDF (Edition) | Edit Draft Version |
|---|---|---|
| Big Cats | PDF (1.0) | Edit |
| The Solar System | PDF (1.0) | Edit |
PDFs for Trigonometry and High School Extensions etc. would be needed. Unfortunately I am no artist so the colour scheme and layout could be improved. RobinH 10:40, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
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- It's good. The suggestion above is now out of date. I am happy with the new-look front page to Wikibooks and link to PDF listings. RobinH 10:07, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] "Frensh version" now online
I took the bold step and put the french version online. I hope you all like it. But there are still some places where I consider improvement.
- I am german - the likelyhood for spelling mistakes is high!
- I consider removing the stage icons and just leave the botm batches.
- Prehaps "Highlighted books" is not needed any more.
- If "Highlighted books" stay then it should have the same design as "Printable books" - so one or the other needs redesign.
- Redesign "Book of the Month" and everything that follows into little boxes with icons as well. For more Icons see commons:Nuvola.
