StrategyWiki:Community Issues/Intro Pages

Consensus was reached on this issue and it is being put into action 20:48, 19 June 2006 (PDT)~

In Favor of eliminating intro pages/merging them with the table of contents

 * For - The intro pages, while they look nice, serve no immediate benefit to the reader. They do not improve organization (as having multiple pages does) and they do not make it easier to find information.  Everything in a wiki designed for strategy guides should revolve around the easiest and most complete way of guiding the users of the wiki.  In that sense if a piece of the wiki would better benefit the user if it were changed, then it should be so, especially if it is no great burden to the editors (in this sense, it would take LESS work to make intro-less guides).  So I see no reason for intro pages to exist and I think the first page of a guide should have a brief intro of the game, and a set of as many other useful links as possible, organized as well as possible. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 13:14, 11 May 2006 (PDT)


 * For - Mason said it well. Having to click through intro screens is poor web design. You should scroll down to see more content, not have to navigate to another site which has the content you actually want to see. The first page of a guide should be like a portal, linking you to all the places you might want to visit, and providing some information to make that process easier.--BigCow 15:29, 11 May 2006 (PDT)


 * For - yeah, pretty but pointless. may become a little empty though... unless the game name and Table of Contents both link to the guide's main page. GarrettTalk 23:35, 11 May 2006 (PDT)
 * I've made a slight adjustment to in the form of . It looks a little shorter, but it's not too bad. I guess if there's anything else that should be included on every multi-page guide, you could add it in. I can't think of any other "default" links at the moment, though. --aniki21 03:38, 1 June 2006 (PDT)


 * For - I never actually saw the point in them, honestly. Cosmo 07:29, 12 May 2006 (PDT)


 * For - works good for the super smash bros melee page: Super Smash Bros. Melee. --blendmaster 13:26, 13 May 2006 (PDT)


 * For - Not only have you proved to me that these are redundant, but I have just realized that we may actually want to host more than one type of guide. (I'll start a new topic for this in a moment.) --echelon talk 22:49, 13 May 2006 (PDT)


 * For - It used to be utterly painful to scroll through countless pages of plain text guides only to get to the beginning of the walkthrough. I utterly hated the ones that also include all the character bios, bestiaries, and whatever else BEFORE the actual walkthrough (the appendices are where it's at). It seems, however, that this sort of practice is standard, and I tried my best including some game information there that I would not be able to include otherwise. Perhaps we can include some sort of Appendices tag for so that people could use that to store side quests and whatnot instead? --theEXIT talk 00:15, 17 May 2006 (CT)


 * For - I've played around with the layout of the front page on my Shenmue guide, and I've come round to the idea of combining the TOC and "cover" page. --aniki21 05:59, 31 May 2006 (PDT)


 * For - I like the idea of merging the title page with the TOC. Not only will it help with navigation (and less clicks), but will allow the reader to access any section of the guide right away. -- Ryan Schmidt   17:21, 31 May 2006  (CT)


 * For - Agreeing with you. Anything else is just stupid and unneeded. --Sekoku 09:18, 4 June 2006 (PDT)


 * For - As a new user, I'm already tired of going through that splash page whenever I follow the main game link on top of an article. --Veldig 14:27, 5 June 2006 (PDT)


 * For - It is and will really get annoying having to constantly enter through an intro page. A sidebar on the right with description and game cover information and contents on the left would be great. I don't want any introduction about game/company history, format it came in, etc. etc. just a uniform strategy guide. Pure and simple. -- Mrtaka79   16:37, 9 June 2006  (EDT)


 * For - I'm going to have to agree with everyone else above me in getting rid of the intro/splash page. The whole introduction can just go above with the infobox above the table of contents saving many needless clicking. More importantly when is this finally going to be decided? --Chrono Warrior 3 19:48, 19 June 2006 (PDT)

Opposed
Against: I like the flow that a "cover page" gives the multi-page guides. I can't think of any arguments that might convince all the For votes above that they're worth keeping, though. I just think it might end up cluttering the first page of the guides. If we're going to cut out the covers, what page should the guides start with? --aniki21 06:29, 30 May 2006 (PDT)
 * Lets take for example our "example" guide Z:OoT, at the moment the front page DOES look a little bland, but in the talk page we were discussion merging the rements of the cover page/TOC with the intro page for one page that briefly describes the game, has it's infobox on the right, and has the TOC running down the left. That way people click on Z:OoT and they get some small bits about the game, as well as some of it's infobox traits (both things that someone looking for a guide probably isn't TOO concerned about) as well as a TOC which I'm sure we can all agree is the MOST useful piece of navigation information a guide can have.  If someone is coming here for guides (that's who we WANT to come here), they want to find their game, then quickly find the section they need help in.  Having an intro page is a pretty addition, but it only makes someone pause for some amount of time before they get to the info they actually want.  I think a page should be mildly cluttered if it is very useful.  And of course organization is key in that kind of situation to make the clutter as mild as possible. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 11:47, 30 May 2006 (PDT)
 * I've rearranged my Shenmue frontpage, and I've kinda come round to the idea of combining the cover and table of contents. Changing my vote to For. -aniki21 05:55, 31 May 2006 (PDT)

Undecided

 * As of right now, I must say that I am wholly undecided on this issue. I am awaiting arguments from both sides. --echelon talk 12:16, 11 May 2006 (PDT)
 * My vote changed to for. --echelon talk 22:50, 13 May 2006 (PDT)


 * I used Template:Cover in NetHack because Zelda: Ocarina of Time is using it. It works somewhat well because clicking the image leads to the table of contents (TOC). I would like to just keep having separate covers and TOCs, but there are benefits to having one page as Super Smash Bros. Melee does, and if covers and TOCs do remain separate, we might want to add more links on the covers. --Kernigh 14:00, 13 May 2006 (PDT)

The original idea when we were deciding layout for guides was for intro pages to combine with the table of contents. However, whoever originally made the OoT guide liked splash pages and here we are now. If anyone is interested, an initial (but untouched since January or so? Sometime around then) version of the table of contents/intro page is on my userpage. Feel free to improve it. --Mr Saeba 10:28, 9 June 2006 (PDT)