User blog:RRabbit42/Tabbed pages comments

Right now we're testing a change to some of our pages: tabs. The idea is that it splits up the long pages into separate sections that you can quickly switch between by clicking on the tab. Same kind of thing you can do with a spreadsheet or with any of the new web browsers.

We've already used this method on a few pages like the Merchandise Portal. We just put a portal design on it instead of putting things in tabbed pages. The memorable quotes for "Summer Belongs to You!" had to be split off to a separate page because it was one-third the size of the entire page. And we have long since moved the episode galleries onto their own pages.

While it may seem simplier to keep everything on one page, that does cause the pages to get really long. That's the main reason for making this change. Typically, the more people have to scroll through a page, the more likely they are to lose interest. The consensus seems to be about two or three screenfuls is where this starts happening.

We did some tests and tabbed pages take about the same amount of time to load as a single long page. Where they start being quicker is if you want to get to the different sections. You don't have to scroll throught the page to find what you're looking for. You just click on the tab at the top of the page.

Aother advantage we found is that it is harder to vandalize a page. They can only get at one section at a time. They can't delete the entire page or replace large sections of it with their bad edits.

If this works out, we can use this on more kinds of pages: the songs, character pages, our voting pages, etc. We will adjust the tabs so that they look like menu at the top of the page, giving them a unified look. (Our regular menu coloration will return in a day or two.)

The following pages have been or shortly will be converted to the tabbed format:


 * Rollercoaster
 * Phineas and Ferb Summer Belongs to You!
 * Phineas and Ferb Musical Cliptastic Countdown
 * Wizard of Odd
 * The Chronicles of Meap
 * Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension
 * Monthly Quote Nominations

Please let us know what you think about the change. Whether you do or don't like it is important, but if you can also say why, that gives your opinion more weight. —RRabbit42 ( leave a message ) 20:08, January 16, 2011 (UTC)