Forum:New Homepage -- What do you think?

Hi everyone! We just launched a new homepage for Community Central -- take a look! Our goal was mostly to clean it up and make it more interesting and welcoming. But along with the facelift, we're introducing two other changes:

1) Founder &amp; Admin Central -- A space for wiki founders and admins to share advice and get help on matters that are specific to those roles. This is still in its early stages, so keep an eye out for more content there in the future.

2) Community Blogs -- Also in its early stages, this is a new categorization system for user blogs. We're starting off with four categories: Introductions, Wiki Advice, Opinions, and Wiki Promotions. Please consider this an experiment, and try to start using the categories to see if they help make things better for you (but there's no need to enforce it rigidly at this point). If the categories work out well, we can also use them to build that Featured Blog Posts category we've been talking about. I'd love your feedback.

Coming soon:

3) Community Guidelines. We hear you loud and clear that we need clearer policies and guidelines on Community Central, but we want to wait until some of these changes have shifted into place before we set them down in stone. In the meantime, basic common sense guidelines apply: treat each other with respect, block outright spam and vandalism, and try to start using the blog categories to help build content organization.

So what do you think of the new look?

Side bar looks good,Like the section summaries as well--Tama63 Talk Twitter 19:13, June 28, 2011 (UTC)

Shame on you Dopp for not signing your post. Anyway. Looks pretty good.--


 * I like it. It finally looks like a main page ;-). I like that the community created resources finally get some endorsement through the Community Blogs section. Not sure about the Admin Central Forum though. I'd say about 90% of the Community Central Forum threads are created and answered by various wiki admins already, so having two forums covering basically the same area might be confusing. Also, looking forward to the expansion and updates for the Help section — Sovq 19:34, June 28, 2011 (UTC)


 * "Shame on you Dopp for not signing your post." Eeeee!! Guilty as charged! Man, i've been hanging out in the blog posts too much lately. And yep, we know there's a lot of overlap between the plans for the two forums, but we think it will make sense soon enough. :) --Dopp http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 19:45, June 28, 2011 (UTC)


 * The width at Admin Central is odd, as it's fixed - and so doesn't fit a full screen. Would a percentage width be better here? --  Random Time  19:47, June 28, 2011 (UTC)


 * In Monobook, it looks the same on my screen as every other Monobook page. Usual widths, etc. — Spike  Toronto  12:37, June 29, 2011 (UTC)


 * Lemme guess, monobook? Hmm... --Dopp http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 19:49, June 28, 2011 (UTC)


 * Good point, most visitors use Wikia, so it probably wouldn't make that much difference. Just seemed a strange choice. --  Random Time  19:50, June 28, 2011 (UTC)


 * I like it. A little monochromatic. Maybe we can have a contest to design a background theme graphic. The new setup will drive more people to help pages hopefully. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 28 Jun 2011 5:38 PM Pacific

(reset indent) lol I made a similar design for Canning Wiki a few hours before the new main page was made, but is still good. =D -- 10:02, June 29, 2011 (UTC)


 * I agree with Fandyllic, a background would be nice now that more people are coming here.--

Admin Central:Forum
So what's the difference between Admin Central:Forum and Forum:Community Central Forum? -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 28 Jun 2011 5:35 PM Pacific
 * The difference is that Admin Central:Forum will only be for people asking "Dos any1 post h3r3?"
 * 09:32, June 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * Fandyllic, thanks for your question. We built Founder & Admin Central (and still are as you can see ;) as a place for founders and admins to go, share their knowledge, ask questions specifically to their roles. We'll also be sharing better practices, new features and lots more in Founder & Admin Central. Above all we created a space for you as users, this will be your scene! As Dopp said above there will be overlap for sure. But we believe as time moves on, these spaces will be more defined -- that is where you guys come in. So keep watching, help us direct new founder/admins to the space and have fun. We believe both of these spaces will complement each other. --Meighan http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 18:57, June 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * 09:32, June 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * Fandyllic, thanks for your question. We built Founder & Admin Central (and still are as you can see ;) as a place for founders and admins to go, share their knowledge, ask questions specifically to their roles. We'll also be sharing better practices, new features and lots more in Founder & Admin Central. Above all we created a space for you as users, this will be your scene! As Dopp said above there will be overlap for sure. But we believe as time moves on, these spaces will be more defined -- that is where you guys come in. So keep watching, help us direct new founder/admins to the space and have fun. We believe both of these spaces will complement each other. --Meighan http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 18:57, June 29, 2011 (UTC)


 * I've found that most questions on the forum are technical questions, with the only admin-related ones being "this wiki blocked me for no reason" or "help we have a vandal". Doesn't really seem necessary to me, although it's not hurting anything so I think it deserves a chance to prove itself.


 * The technical issues can usually be considered admin-only as well, since a large chunk of them can be solved with using admin-only tools - MediaWiki pages in particular. So far I'm skeptical about having two similar boards. The choice might confuse users who wish to ask a question and the 'regulars' will have to check two forums to see if there's anything they can help with. However, I agree that giving it some time won't hurt anything, I guess. — Sovq 19:51, June 29, 2011 (UTC)


 * I'd also say that it could be used to ask for advice from other admins as well, about admin issues. It looks like the current forum, but probably more leaning towards admins. --W H  (Talk) 05:35, June 30, 2011 (UTC)