Talk:Main Page

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Expanded main page up front

Suggestions have been recently (and in the past) made to make the Expanded Main Page the default welcome page. I've updated the expanded page with some of the more recent additions, and made a copy of the current main page at Categorized Main Page. Most of the reasons can be found here. Opinions and comments wanted, since this is the main page three votes will not really suffice. - Combuster 19:40, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

• Pro - I voiced my reasons in the linked thread already. -- Solar 09:36, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

• Yea - I find myself getting annoyed when I have to click through to the expanded page to find the information I'm looking for. The generic main page wasn't really useful at all. --Lithorien 10:48, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

• Agreed - The short view is good, but the referenced pages show too little of what the entire wiki has to offer. I vote for the expanded main page.--Creature 14:28, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

• Sure - Why not, there is no sense hiding anything. --Brynet-Inc 18:16, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

More info needed

The main reason I like the short form is that it's short. I'm just looking for an entrypoint to the wiki, and I don't need 3 screenfuls of info. On the other hand, the short page AFAIK is entirely formatted via a template. I have no idea how to even edit that template. So (at least the last time I thought about doing it) the short main page is basically uneditable to the uninitiated. Which is probably one reason why it is not rationally organized, and does not really represent what's in the wiki, currently. Especially the OS Theory block.
In some sense, it's a good thing to discourage tinkering at the topmost level of the wiki by novices. But it makes the main page severely out of date.
So the main question in my mind is -- is the expanded view any better? Is it still a template and not a normal page? And since it's so expanded, why not have a "Categories" section in it, that gives direct access to the Category system, and thus incorporates the functionality of the short view? Bewing 14:26, 28 April 2010 (UTC)