User blog:Topher208/Upgrades to Main Page, etc.

Last night, RRabbit42 applied the changes to the main page, navigation menus, category pages, and portals that he and I have been working on over the past couple weeks.


 * Those changes include : Main_Page_Redesign_October_2010.jpg
 * Navigation menu features links to the most visited articles in a particular category that update automatically based on user traffic.
 * The Community menu features links to several new portals that replace many of the uses the old Monaco sidebar menus had such as creating new pages, and links to the forums, policies, chat channel, message board and even our affiliated wikis.
 * New portal boxes are now used for all portals and the main page that feature rounded corners and more modern design.
 * Major category pages now contain portal links to the most popular items in those categories.
 * Main Page
 * Main page is now much shorter and less overwhelming to look at, even though it still has 99% of the same information it did before thanks to the use of collapsible tables to show/hide content.
 * Main page updated with new portal boxes and rounded corners for a more modern design to complement the new Wikia skin.
 * Featured Pictures now uses a slideshow to show the pictures from the past several months instead of just this month's images.
 * The main page now features a news feed from Google News featuring the latest Phineas and Ferb headlines and a list of Cast and Crew birthdays.
 * Twitter and Facebook links are prominently featured next to the wiki logo in the welcome box.
 * Segments of the main page that get updated at least once a month now use templates to make them easier to manage.

We wanted to introduce a new slider device for the episode progression, but it is currently buggy in Internet Explorer. Since IE is about 50% of the traffic to the wiki, we've decided to hold off until it can be fixed. You may also see some minor tweaks to the main page such as column widths, etc., while we finalize it.

Let us know what you think about the new menus, main page, and portals in the comments below. If you've got any ideas to improve anything else, we're all ears. Especially RRabbit42.

(You know, because he's a rabbit.)

(If I have to explain it, it's not a joke. It's a sentence.)