Talk:Main Page/New Design

message: It looks cute, but I'm not sure what it is supposed to be. A skin? A Main Page? Both? Which features of the site are supposed to be permanent navigational elements, which are supposed to be editable? Do you want the sidebars to be editable? If so, what is shown in their place on pages other than the Main Page? 
The only actual content which we could transfer from this design to our current one is in the middle: the list of topics. I have explained in detail on Talk:Main Page why it is a bad idea to place so much emphasis on structure to gain readers.
As for the skin, this has to be implemented on the code level. There is no template system. The design in this mock-up is too confused about what it wants to be to be of much use in designing a new skin, though.
Forseti, you clearly have good design skills. I encourage you to come up with a page-independent skin mock-up, which should also be compatible with most browsers. Then we can talk about what it takes to implement that proposal. You may want to talk to User:Tarquin, who has also done some work in that area.—Eloquence 06:15, Feb 26, 2004 (UTC)
: It's a design of Main Page. The links on yellow field should be permanent and on blue line below - dependent on page status (protected pages disallow editing for example) but presented independently of skin. Preferably skins would change the colors and other trivia only as opposed to current skins that significantly change the link repertoire. So for now forget about skins (I mentioned them because I borrowed some ideas from Classic and Cologne) and assume it is layout design.
: Yes, different layouts could be done, but a) they should be skinnable too (so that one can change the colors if he can't stand them), b) they should be clearly targeted at 'casual readers', 'professional academics', 'serious writers' and so forth. But this isn't too important IMHO and could be eventually be done later, if really needed.
: Back to this design: Essentially yellow topmost part should be permanent navigational elements, all below - subject for edit. Frankly, I think that the sidebars on Main Page need some serious CMS system that would make all the edits on Main Page for users. Manual edits would be disallowed so as not to mess things in all that tables and markup. 
: As for 'what in place of sidebars on other pages?' question, I have two proposals: 1. instead of blue sidebar there could be present toolbar (this from Cologne Blue is especially exhaustive) and red toolbar could vanish - eighter allowing article text to spread in its place or making whitespace. 2. blue sidebar - as above, red one - See also and External Links sections (or other useful links to the article). In case of second proposal, edit form for articles should change - instead of one textarea there should be one for article proper and one for each section on red sidebar. Mix and mold this proposals to your liking.
: I agree that some things should be done at code level. Probably yellow part should be hardcoded. Also, I introduced 'Wikipedia News' section because I feel that 1. there is need for some gateway to the community on main page, 2. even  old design lacked a place that would outline the most important current community proceedings like announcements, polls, debates etc.
: Sidebars should be easy. They are intended to contain current  and similar tags. However current code would have to be modified somewhat: smaller pics and fonts should be presented. All else is HTML & CSS coding.
: Please, tell me what exactly this mock-up should be. While I've done WWW coding I'm not accustomed to this terminology. Do you want working sample webpage like those on Main Page/Temp but static? 
: I'll make some projects in spare time, but now I'm too busy.
: Forseti 08:35, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: love it.  Great use of curved edges, inverse space, color and spacing.  can we implement something like this?  +sj+ 06:40, 30 May 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Feedback 

message: I don't like the new look.
Due to the baby blue hue, I'm constantly clicking around in blank space because it looks like I've accidentally selected the entire body of the page.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.200.33.153 (talk) 22:58, 7 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  looks, but nothing new