View source for Battlestar Wiki talk:Think Tank/Sidebar Redesign

== Search in sidebar ==
Concur. The way it's placed now, the search bar won't be found by anyone. --[[User:Catrope|Catrope]]<sup>([[User talk:Catrope|Talk to me]] or [[Special:Emailuser/Catrope|e-mail me]])</sup> 09:53, 21 February 2008 (CST)

== Seeking feedback ==

Now that I've begun restructuring the sidebar, please let me know what your thoughts and suggestions you have on it are. Thanks! -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 23:00, 26 February 2008 (CST)
:Gotta be the best Sidebar designs. Bravo. Forum URL not yet set, etc. [[User:Shane|Shane]] <sup>([[User_Talk:Shane|T]] - [[Special:Contributions/Shane|C]] - [[Special:Editcount/Shane|E]])</sup> 00:28, 27 February 2008 (CST)
::The top bar isn't set up yet on the Battlestar skin. It is set up on the other skins, however. -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 00:41, 27 February 2008 (CST)
:::It better not be purple. :P [[User:Shane|Shane]] <sup>([[User_Talk:Shane|T]] - [[Special:Contributions/Shane|C]] - [[Special:Editcount/Shane|E]])</sup> 01:10, 27 February 2008 (CST)
:I don't really see why [[MediaWiki:Sidebar/sysop]] doesn't have any links useful for sysops, nor the Projects section present on in [[MediaWiki:Sidebar/user]]. The namespace-specific sidebars (for the Portal, Quote and Talk namespaces) are nice. --[[User:Catrope|Catrope]]<sup>([[User talk:Catrope|Talk to me]] or [[Special:Emailuser/Catrope|e-mail me]])</sup> 03:51, 27 February 2008 (CST)
::I simply never got to those yet. ;-) -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 06:51, 27 February 2008 (CST)
:::I can't think of anything to put in a podcast namespace sidebar outside of Amazon affiliate links to get you podcast appropriate smokes and booze. (Actually, I guess links to the podcast project, the list of podcasts, and maybe the original scifi.com podcast location might be useful, if only to have them someplace other than the podcast header.) --[[User:Steelviper|Steelviper]] 07:07, 27 February 2008 (CST)
::::Well, I was thinking more along the lines of the podcast project, an overall list of podcasts (which we have) and the podcast portal, which has a breakdown of podcasts by season, with a synopsis of what is talked about in each. -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 08:02, 27 February 2008 (CST)
:::::On that note, we should also finally implement the podcast info boxes. -- [[User:Serenity|Serenity]] 10:05, 27 February 2008 (CST)
::::::I'll go do that. --[[User:Catrope|Catrope]]<sup>([[User talk:Catrope|Talk to me]] or [[Special:Emailuser/Catrope|e-mail me]])</sup> 12:32, 27 February 2008 (CST)

Looks fine to me. Less is always more, and keeping the links relevant is just as important. --[[User:Spencerian|Spencerian]] 10:30, 27 February 2008 (CST)

Since we already have links to other wikis in the toolbar, how about removing the language bar on the main page? Or moving it somewhere out of the way? It wasn't too bad at the top, but now it's smack in the middle of the page and kinda ugly. Having those links twice is unnecessary anyways. Remember we're on on "en.battlestarwiki" here. I think most people choose their language when clicking on "www.battlestarwiki.org" and not from here. -- [[User:Serenity|Serenity]] 13:33, 27 February 2008 (CST)

== Category specific functionality for sidebar ==

The writer of the extension just emailed me and offered to enhance the functionality of the sidebar extension for $25 USD. Basically, the extension would be able to add additional sidebars based off whatever the page's category is.  For instance, should you be in an article (like Bill Adama) that's in the characters category, you would be able to get a menu on the side that links to the characters portal. 

My question is this: Would one of you guys (Shane or Catrope) be able to add that functionality to [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SidebarEx this extension]? Or would it just be easier to pay the guy the reasonable sum of money to add that functionality? -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 11:13, 27 February 2008 (CST)

: Ok, update... I've talked to Jean-Lou and he's thinking along the same lines as I was with the article-specific sidebar "see also" functionality I discussed on {{oldlink|title=User talk:Catrope|oldid=150458|text=Catrope's talk page earlier today}}. So I'm going to go ahead and pay him to whip up the extension, so that we can focus on other things here. :) -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 11:42, 27 February 2008 (CST)
::Does this mean Jean-Lou is also gonna do the seealso thing, or am I still good to go on that? --[[User:Catrope|Catrope]]<sup>([[User talk:Catrope|Talk to me]] or [[Special:Emailuser/Catrope|e-mail me]])</sup> 12:33, 27 February 2008 (CST)
::: Jean-Lou is doing the see also extension. I figure it's worth it, since it frees us to do other things. :) -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 12:47, 27 February 2008 (CST)
:: Well, I like the category thing. As long as it's free updates if it breaks etc. $25 is not bad. [[User:Shane|Shane]] <sup>([[User_Talk:Shane|T]] - [[Special:Contributions/Shane|C]] - [[Special:Editcount/Shane|E]])</sup> 12:37, 27 February 2008 (CST)

Hmm, {{difflink|title=Battlestar Wiki:Podcast Transcripts|oldid=30334|diff=prev|text=this}} breaks the sidebar completely. --[[User:Catrope|Catrope]]<sup>([[User talk:Catrope|Talk to me]] or [[Special:Emailuser/Catrope|e-mail me]])</sup> 13:14, 27 February 2008 (CST)
: I've [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension_talk:SidebarEx#Diff_page_breakage reported it]. I'll see what Jean-Lou says. -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 13:24, 27 February 2008 (CST)
::Another big breakage {{difflink|title=Great Cylon Turkey Shoot|diff=150815|oldid=149338|text=here}}. --[[User:Catrope|Catrope]]<sup>([[User talk:Catrope|Talk to me]] or [[Special:Emailuser/Catrope|e-mail me]])</sup> 17:34, 1 March 2008 (CST)
:::I've filed a bug report with him [http://code.google.com/p/mediawiki/issues/detail?id=13 here]. -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 19:51, 1 March 2008 (CST)

== Article specific sidebars ==

Ok, Jean-Lou developed the extension for article-specific sidebars. It's deployed on [[Lee Adama]]'s article. Let me know what you guys think. -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 20:36, 27 February 2008 (CST)

By the way, I'm thinking that we can also use this extension to get rid of those ever-pervasive disambiguation headers on pages. -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 20:38, 27 February 2008 (CST)

:It looks good. Not attention-getting (could it have a yellow color?) but good. Placement is good, too, just below Search. I like it. We can't fully remove disambigs, but this could work for many. --[[User:Spencerian|Spencerian]] 21:09, 27 February 2008 (CST)

:: Yeah, it wouldn't remove the need for major disambigs (like [[Adama]] or [[Galactica]]), but I'm talking about the ones with the disambiguation lines on top. (Like [[Lee Adama]] for instance, or the lesser known articles with such disambigs.) -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 21:16, 27 February 2008 (CST)

:: Ok, the color's been changed. Let me know what you guys think. -- [[User:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|Joe Beaudoin]] <sup>[[User talk:Joe Beaudoin Jr.|So say we all]] - [[Battlestar Wiki:Site support|Donate]] - [[bsp:|Battlestar Pegasus]]</sup> 22:04, 27 February 2008 (CST)