MediaWiki talk:Sidebar

Ok, y'all - try to get everybody you know who's actually AROUND to participate in this discussion. Go tell people on their talk pages, ETC, thanks. We need to get what we want on the sidebar straight here - the links section is easy enough to mod, but the rest of it will take some major changes to do what i'm thinking. Really, I see two major sections - the 'navigation' section(s) (we may expand that into two sections, see below) and the 'rest' of it. Anyway, keep talk about the sidebar itself to the 'rest' section, and stuff about what exactly to link from the navigation in the 'navigation' section thanks.

Navigation
This section is site-specific, can't have other site's contributors add to this discussion. People from other wikis, ignore this section - your wiki will have its own discussion about it's navigation later on when it's big enough for it to particularly matter. This is kind of split up into two sections, see below. The main questions that don't fit in either section are:

Q: Should the two sections be separate 'modules' (the rounded-corner white blocks with grey-on-yellow-gradient-background) or should they be glomped into one module? Thoughts:
 * I was thinking that two modules would take up extra space, and with the length the SB is already approaching this is a bad thing. However, with two modules, things would be more differentiated between utility and content, between wiki-stuff and information. Really, no opinion here - need some other opnions.


 * I would prefer two modules, first one for typical user browsing (direct links to the main sections of the site), second one more utility-oriented. Personally I never use the user toolbox, I think it could be made smaller, maybe even moved to the top right of the top banner (like with the older skin). Navigation and Search modules would be first (not sure which order is better, currently search is not really useful with categories disabled by default). Tihocan 10:23, March 10, 2006 (EST)

Q: Should the links have individual icons, as the user section currently does? Thoughts:
 * It is a possibility, but it would make things more complicated to change, and add a massive amount of length to the SB (something like 6px above and below PER LINK). More opinions needed.
 * No. Tihocan 10:23, March 10, 2006 (EST)