Talk:Main Page/2018 Archive

Should "Get involved" links be moved to the menu?

In my opinion, the get involved section at the bottom of the main page would fit better on the general site menu. Not only would this make sense, it would also add more room for the "Discover" section. Also, I think the Wikimedia Foundation Family section needs more space. Any thoughts? Selfie City (talk) 01:13, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

While not against a reformulation of the page on principle, I think it's helpful to have a 'Get involved' tab on the main page. Despite always being there on every page you go on, the menu sidebar is somehow less prominent than anything on the main page, and we should strive to keep anything that encourages more editors to start editing. Whether its current position is as prominent as it could be, may be up for debate.

One thing that should be changed about the section, however, is the image still shows a world map that was apparently used for a 'Continents' collaboration; maybe it should now have a picture of Buenos Aires. --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 10:13, 5 January 2018 (UTC)

Bold text

If there any particular reason why every text element below the DotM banner carousel is showing up boldfaced? -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 05:17, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

It happens to me too since yesterday (ie. 12 h ago), but only when I'm logged in. When not logged in, it looks normal. ϒpsilon (talk) 05:23, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

Is nobody else having this problem? --ϒpsilon (talk) 20:14, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

I am, but have no solution to offer. Sorry, --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 20:32, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

Ryan sorted it out. Many thanks to him. --ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 13:28, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

Great! Thanks, Ryan! ϒpsilon (talk) 14:29, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

Showcasing Pyeongchang Olympics article on the Main Page

Swept in from the pub

Copying my comment here from Talk:Pyeongchang 2018 where nobody sees it: Compared to the articles of recent Olympic Games (both summer and winter), this one is IMHO (while not perfect, but) in a decent shape. Should we link to it from the Main Page in some way? --ϒpsilon (talk) 05:31, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

I think we should post it somewhere. Not sure where though. It would be a good idea to post it on Wikivoyage's Facebook and Twitter pages too. Topical articles are always more popular. In a few weeks, it will cease to have any relevance, so promote it while we can. Gizza ^(roam) 08:21, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

I agree with showcasing it on the Main Page, Facebook.... It would benefit from another review by an experienced editor. I just went through it a couple of times and found outdated info, formatting and language problems. Ground Zero (talk) 12:33, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

I'm supportive of this in the abstract, but opposed to doing so before problems of the type Ground Zero mentioned above are expunged. Given that these Olympics are happening in tandem with an edit-a-thon that's putting a lot more eyes on Wikivoyage than usual, I see a Main Page feature for PyeongChang as something that could either be a great boon for us (if we put forth an article that's high-quality) or a great embarrassment (if we slap it on the Main Page prematurely without copyediting and correcting the factual errors that may be present). I'd say the same goes for Facebook posts or tweets, though perhaps not quite to the same degree. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 14:43, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

Ready to be featured

First, thank you to Hobbitschuster for taking a look at the article. I've made some further edits, and I think it is now ready to be featured. If anyone disagrees, please identify specific problems or help out by fixing them let's not miss this opportunity by fussing about getting it perfect. The games have started, let's not delay. I don't know how to go about putting this on the main page, Facebook, Twitter, so I hope someone can handle that. (Do we suspend the current DOTM during games, and repost it after?) Ground Zero (talk) 14:40, 10 February 2018 (UTC)

Pyeongchang should absolutely not replace anything on the featured articles carousel. Those articles deserve their 30 days of exposure just like any other DotM/OtBP/FTT. I would much prefer to either have Pyeongchang as a temporary fourth banner on the carousel, or else find some other space on the Main Page for it (maybe where "Get involved" is now? The only people who've shown interest in CotM are regular contributors, and they know where to find the relevant page even if it's not linked to from the Main Page, and most of the other links in that corner are redundant to what's already on the left sidebar - "Policies", "Help", etc.) -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 16:00, 10 February 2018 (UTC)

If nothing else we could make it a "Discover" fact and delay one of the others. —Granger (talk · contribs) 16:20, 10 February 2018 (UTC)

I wasn't suggesting shortening the time of any of the others - they should get their 30 days. A temporary fourth banner sounds like a great solution. Ground Zero (talk) 18:54, 10 February 2018 (UTC)

A 4th banner sounds good, or a temporary infobox right above or below the carousel. Whatever is technically easiest to implement. ϒpsilon (talk) 19:55, 10 February 2018 (UTC)

Adding a fourth banner to the carousel would be very easy indeed and would probably be more aesthetically pleasing than an infobox. The only thing to do would be to make the banner. I'm sorry to say I'm probably not going to have enough free time to do that today or tomorrow. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 22:59, 10 February 2018 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ I don't know how to create another banner, so I've implemented Andre's suggestion of using the Collaboration of the Month space (I managed to keep the rest of "Get involved"). I think it works. If someone had a better solution, please go ahead and do it. Ground Zero (talk) 01:43, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

I think it looks great. Thank you, Ground Zero, for attending to this. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 02:27, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

Thanks Ground Zero. I think a precedent has been set for dealing with future high-profile, current event articles that we want to post on the Main Page quickly. Adding it above "Get Involved" is a good idea. Making a temporary fourth banner would also work. Gizza ^(roam) 03:38, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

Two thoughts... 1) Someone should fix the "Pyeongchang 2018 has concluded" in the box because it's looking silly at the moment. 2) I think the article should be expanded to include Paralympics. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 20:28, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

If you see something that needs fixing or you think can be improved, please plunge forward and fix or improve it. Thanks. Ground Zero (talk) 21:59, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

Collaboration of the month

I agree with Andre's comment above about CotM being really of interest to a small group of dedicated editors. While it may sound great to give this project high profile by having it on the Main Page, I don't think it is appropriate for our public face. First time readers aren't likely to participate in CotM, and if they do, they might get it wrong, and that would be frustrating for them and for other editors. The Get Involved links are good entry points for new editors, but I think that CotM is kind of insider stuff. If my positioning of the Pyeongchang 2018 feature is okay, then we have until Feb 25 to decide what to do with the space. Ground Zero (talk) 02:34, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

We could leave it until March 18, the last day of the Winter Paralympic Games, changing the words after the Olympics closing ceremony. AlasdairW (talk) 11:48, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

That would be good, but the article would have to be overhauled after 25 Feb to cover the Paralympics. I'm on the road, so I won't be in a position to do that. Ground Zero (talk) 12:16, 11 February 2018 (UTC)

It does not need to be so prominent but is another way to get people involved. Agree better to have a changing logo in the section based on events. --Traveler100 (talk) 11:01, 2 March 2018 (UTC)

Showcasing coming events

Discussion

Since people seen to like the idea of featuring the Pyeongchang2018 article during the games, I'm starting a list of other articles that we could feature on the Main Page for coming events. These articles should be improved so that we can put our best foot forward. Events should be major international events. Other ideas? Please add to the list. Ground Zero (talk) 12:26, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

I'm moving the list and the discussion to Wikivoyage_talk:Destination_of_the_month_candidates#Temporary_featuring_of_Valentine's_Day,_Olympics,_etc?, where a similar discussion has popped up. Ground Zero (talk) 21:23, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

The discussion is on-going at Wikivoyage_talk:Destination_of_the_month_candidates#List of temporarily featured events. Ground Zero (talk) 14:21, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

Error in "Travelling during Ramadan"

The paragraph about travelling during Ramadan currently says "15 May-14 June May 2018". I'm guessing that's supposed to be "15 May-14 June 2018". Could an admin please fix the error? —Granger (talk · contribs) 03:37, 31 May 2018 (UTC)

Done -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 03:41, 31 May 2018 (UTC)

Main page design

The main page for Wikivoyage is quite good and works pretty well. However, I have a few thoughts, concerns, and possible improvements about the main page in relation to its design (it was created all the way back in 2013).

First, it was stated above that the Wikivoyage homepage features do not all come out at the same size. Some parts of the page are only 2/3 the width they should be on some screens, but then come all the way across a different screen. If there's any way to solve this, that would be great.

Second, the map at the top of the page would look better with a lighter color for the ocean.

Third, the section at the bottom has a rather blue background that is rather dark. I think a lighter color (maybe even white) would look better.

Fourth, a useful addition to the front page could be a separate section for park areas that would be changed every so often like those are. It could have a similar design to the DotMs but just be a section of its own, and it would be a chance to give those visiting the site a picture of some really staggering scenery to impress them. I was thinking it would be something like this:

Yosemite

National Park

One of America's best known national parks, the centerpiece of Yosemite National Park is its beautiful Yosemite Valley.

I just think these would be some ways to make our home page look even better than it does now. Glad to hear any thoughts. Selfie City (talk) 23:51, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

Never mind, this would require a lot of nominating as well. Selfie City (talk) 23:45, 12 August 2018 (UTC)

Mobile

Swept in from the pub

Hey all. Our main page for mobile sucks.[1] Not sure what we can do about that?

Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 02:37, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

One thing that might be helpful is a feature called TemplateStyles. It's something the Readers Infrastructure team is working on at the foundation. It allows templates to have custom CSS styles without having to place them in MediaWiki:Common.css. This means that non-admins can update the CSS for templates used on the Main Page (and anywhere else) that can use more CSS rules and be responsive to any device - like mobile).

We have some help documentation if folks are interested in learning more. We have deployed to a few wikis and are looking for more communities to adopt and advocate. I'd be happy to help put English Wikivoyage on the list if there is community consensus (and folks interested in helping to implement). CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 16:22, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Let's get back to this idea, especially if User:Seddon (WMF) is going to run another reader-oriented banner for us. I had a look at some of the other Wikivoyage's mobile main pages, and here's a few that I think you should look at:

• https://fr.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Accueil (also Hebrew and Italian, which are very similar)
• https://de.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Hauptseite
• https://pt.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Página_principal
• https://zh.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/首页
• https://el.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Κύρια_Σελίδα – three columns might be hard to read, but two might be okay

If you're looking at this on a desktop device, then make your browser window skinny, to get a notion of what the smartphone layout would look like. Compare it to https://en.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Main_Page which has no images and no color.

Are any of these more (or less) appealing than the others? If we like one of these designs, then it might be easy to copy the style here. Alternatively, we could combine elements from different ones to make something better. WhatamIdoing (talk) 17:48, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

I'm glad this discussion is happening. I think I like the fr and zh versions the best. I might suggest combining most aspects of the fr version with zh formatting for featured articles. —Granger (talk · contribs) 18:04, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

Agree the start page of English Wikipedia on mobile needs some serious improvement. The other reason why the mobile version is not useful to use is that to get the map of a town with points of interest to show my current location is very difficult. As mobile surfing is the main use of the web today we really need to get this sorted. For me it is unclear how to edit the mobile version. Can someone provide some information on this so we can get an activity going? --Traveler100 (talk) 06:15, 14 May 2018 (UTC)

New Mobile Design - PLEASE BE KIND, THIS IS ONLY A PROTOTYPE CONCEPT

@Doc James, CKoerner (WMF), WhatamIdoing, Traveler100, DaGizza, Atsirlin:: Hey all. So in a show of just how serious I am about wanting to run some readership growth experiments here. I decided to go ahead and build a prototype main page for mobile. The following caveats come before I share this:

• Rome wasn't built in two days - which is about what I've spent working on this. It's rough and has many edges.
• This is a concept and not a product - I've not bothered with linking or anything like that for now and the images just view themselves for the moment
• Make sure you aren't accidently viewing this on the wikipedia app - It gets like..... really broken.

Link (VIEW ON MOBILE): https://test.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Seddon_(WMF)/testmobile

Seddon (WMF) (talk)

first impression is positive. Clear simple text and logo at top. Nice the way you have done the features. Think it would be a good idea to have the continents' world map and list underneath, and somewhere a link to tourist office.

Unfortunately the continents map doesn't world well on mobile but we can place some button links to the continents. Seddon (WMF) (talk) 13:02, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

The French mobile site does a resonable job. And as an aside how do I get a signature when using mobile UI?

I would have assumed the same way as desktop? With "~~~~" . Unfortunately image maps aren't responsive in either size or placement. Seddon (WMF) (talk) 15:44, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

I lie in terms of positioning. I've now included some buttons and the map. Seddon (WMF) (talk) 15:56, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

I think it looks like a big improvement over the current mobile main page. I agree with Traveler100 that a link to the tourist office would be nice. —Granger (talk · contribs) 16:09, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Agree it is definitely an improvement. Thanks for taking this on User:Seddon (WMF). A few thoughts. Our logo is make up of three colors. It would be cool to use one of each of those colors in each of the main headings.

Initial logo is a little big on the phone I am on. I am able to click on the world map and it works. It does not take up the whole width of the screen though and IMO it should. Happy to see it moved lower. Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 16:46, 16 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for your work Seddon. It looks much better and cleaner than the current mobile main page. As other have said, we could add a few more links like the Tourist Office, Discover and the temporary featured events. But it's more important to have a clean and user-friendly look than have every single thing on the page. Gizza ^(roam) 01:32, 18 May 2018 (UTC)

@Seddon (WMF), WhatamIdoing, Doc James, Traveler100, DaGizza: This discussion seems to have stalled. What do we need to do to get something like this implemented? —Granger (talk · contribs) 01:29, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

The underlying code is HERE. Does someone want to work on it more and than we can put it live? Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 01:35, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

@Seddon (WMF), WhatamIdoing, Doc James, Traveler100, DaGizza: I just copied the code to User:SelfieCity/homepage; the slideshow did not work after the copy but the rest came out fine. ---Selfie City (talk | contributions) 19:55, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

What about something along these lines, I was just playing around with the code: [2]. Made it on desktop, though, and it came out strange when I viewed it on mobile. Just an idea. ---Selfie City (talk | contributions) 20:25, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Putting this here in case it's helpful: mw:Mobile Gateway/Mobile homepage formatting. —Granger (talk · contribs) 03:58, 19 September 2018 (UTC)

User:SelfieCity this looks like it is coming along nicely. Were are we at? Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 03:22, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

@Doc James: Work has been ongoing, organized at wv:UX Expedition. If you have any comments/problems/etc. regarding the mobile main page, you can post it on the talk there. Feel free to ping me directly, as I have been doing most of it. ARR8 (talk | contribs) 03:42, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Perfect thanks User:ARR8. Will leave comments there. Travel Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 03:45, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Adding banners

Hi, I have decent amount of knowledge with Wikipedia but I'm new to Wikivoyage. It seems like we can't actually add a image from Wikimedia commons to Wikivoyage as a banner. How to add a banner to an article? Is there any specific file type which we should add?

—The preceding comment was added by IM3847 (talk • contribs)

Welcome! Have a look at Wikivoyage:Banner Expedition, especially the "Creating a banner" subsection of "How do I help?" If you're not clear on anything after that, post to Wikivoyage talk:Banner Expedition. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:12, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

It is possible, just add the file name to the pagename template (without prefix of File:). But please crop to 7:1 ratio first. Also these sort of questions are best ask at Wikivoyage:Travellers' pub. --Traveler100 (talk) 06:13, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

Gyeongju

This is nothing important, just noting that the image for Gyeongju is absolutely breathtaking, surpassing even the usual high standard for carousel images. Big props to the original photographer (User:Goytex from Commons) and for our own User:AndreCarrotflower for choosing it.--ThunderingTyphoons! (talk) 19:32, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

Yes, truly a good image. It should be added to our banner hall of fame, which hasn't been edited in a few years. --Comment by Selfie City (talk about my contributions) 22:39, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks for the kind words! I was actually going to suggest the same thing that User:SelfieCity did. -- AndreCarrotflower (talk) 22:48, 1 October 2018 (UTC)

Temporarily featured events 2019

Since we're going to continue this feature, I think it makes sense to move the discussion to a project page here: Wikivoyage:Featured events. Please join the discussion there. Ground Zero (talk) 13:58, 29 November 2018 (UTC)

Temporarily featured events on the Main Page

Swept in from the pub

I've started a discussion about this element of the Main Page to discuss whether to continue this feature, and of so, what events to include. Comments are welcome on the Main Page talk page. Ground Zero (talk) 05:40, 2 October 2018 (UTC)

Do the mapmasks at the front page work fine for you on tablets and phones in Desktop View?

Swept in from the pub

While I really like the fact that we have a world map on the front page in which we could click on any continent and we'll be forwarded to the releveant page, for some years now I have noticed that this feature doesn't seem to work correctly in many tablets and phones.

As the amount of Wikivoyage readers whom read the site from a mobile phone or tablets is probably getting (or going to get) much bigger than the amount of readers whom read the site from a desktop, this seems like a good time to look into addressing this concern, and hopefully finding a fix for the instances in which the mapmasks are useless.

To make matter worse, back when I made the Hebrew Wikivoyage front page (which is a tweaked version of the English Wikivoyage front page), I liked the mapmasks so much that I added another mapmask for regions in Israel and one for the most popular phrasebooks (with the little flags next to the links). I am afraid that most (if not all) the mobile/tablet users have not been able to click on any of those mapmask links.

Please help me check if the following mapmasks work correctly with your tablet/s and/or phone/s (and please indicate which type of browser/OS you used):

• Test # 1 : check if the English Wikivoyage frontpage world map mapmask works correctly - Please do the following test to see if you get a similar result - load it on your phone and/or tablet (make sure you are on Desktop View... as the Mobile View shows a screen with almost no graphics) and try clicking on Germany to see if you are forwarded to the Europe article. I myself just checked this with a 2018 Ipad and although the mapmask works fine (clicking on continents actually sends you to the article that covers the continent you choose), only half of the world map is shown ... it is cut in the middle of Europe and you can't see Asia or Australia.

• Test # 2 : check if the Hebrew Wikivoyage frontpage world map mapmask works correctly - Please do the following test to see if you get a similar result - load it on your phone and/or tablet (make sure you are on Desktop View) and try clicking on Africa to see if you are forwarded to the Africa article. I myself just checked this with a 2018 Ipad and although this time I can see the full map with all continents... clicking on Africa in both vertical and horizontal screen mode does nothing. In vertical mode though, if you click on the indian ocean the Africa article loads up.

• Test # 3 : check if the Hebrew Wikivoyage frontpage phrasebook mapmask works correctly - Please do the following test to see if you get a similar result - load it on your phone and/or tablet (make sure you are on Desktop View) and try clicking on the little flag of greece to see if you are forwarded to the Greek phrasebook article. I myself just checked this with a 2018 Ipad and absolutly nothing happens when you click the greek flag in both vertical and horizontal screen mode. Also clicking on other areas all around didn't forward me to any other article.

Did you have the same problems with your phone and/or tablet? are these problems even fixable? Are all mobile+tablet users expected to use the no graphic interface while mapmask is reserved only for the desktop users? Is Wikivoyage loaded automatically in Mobile View for all phone and desktop users?

If many or most mobile users are using the desktop view version of the Hebrew Wikivoyage (is there any way to know this?).... I think that I might try redesigning the front page so that at least the links to the phrasebooks would work on phones/tablets in Desktop view.

ויקיג'אנקי (talk) 20:31, 23 December 2018 (UTC)

I have the same problems and results on my phone with Android 9 with Firefox 64. I would say it's definitely a good idea to reimplement the phrasebook image in HTML, in any case. Doesn't seem like there's much of a reason to have it as an image, from what I can see. ARR8 (talk | contribs) 04:37, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

I'm guessing not many readers read our site using a mobile device on desktop view. Instead, I think we should improve the mobile version of our main page. The discussion on this seems to have stalled, unfortunately—if anyone has the technical knowledge to get the new design implemented, that would be wonderful. —Granger (talk · contribs) 06:56, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

I noticed that the Hebrew Wikibooks mobile front page is a bit more complex with colorful graphics. Maybe we could use it as a basis for our new mobile front page? Any expert/s interested in helping with that ? ויקיג'אנקי (talk) 09:55, 24 December 2018 (UTC)