Template talk:Featured

Revamp

This article is a featured article, and considered to be one of the most informative on this wiki.

In my mind, this template competes with a lot of our other boxes, like disambigs and noname boxes, for space. We're getting a bit cluttered up top, so I propose a revamp of the featured box to something a little more space friendly.--Rosicrucian^Talk 12:47, 6 May 2009 (EDT)

Still obnoxious. I prefer how Wookieepedia and Wikipedia does it: Just a star in the corner, and the "This is a featured article" crap in the talk page where it belongs.

A lot of our clutter problems could be solved by removing the vast majority of disambig templates. One does not go to Megatron (BW) looking for other Megatrons. They type in "Megatron" and go right to Megatron (disambiguation). Other Wikis seem to be able to realize this but we're dead set on our stupidity. —Interrobang 23:13, 6 May 2009 (EDT)

I peruse Megatrons through disambigs all the friggin' time. Please stop removing my functionality. --ItsWalky 00:27, 7 May 2009 (EDT)

I also think our disambig system is just fine. There are plenty of ways of perusing the wiki that don't involve typing stuff into the search box. --KilMichaelMcC 23:29, 6 May 2009 (EDT)

Do those "ways of perusing the wiki" necessitate ugly and cluttering templates at the top of articles? What makes the template at the top of Megatron (BW) necessary when the reader can find other Megatrons if he wishes to do so by simply typing the name into the search box? You are promoting redundancy that creates an unappealing page layout because of ill-defined "ways of perusing the wiki". —Interrobang 23:44, 6 May 2009 (EDT)

A) I don't generally consider said templates to be ugly and cluttering. B) "Other ways of perusing the wiki" means browsing through articles and categories and whatnot, and clicking various links you happen to come across, and finding stuff you weren't specifically looking for or even were aware existed. --KilMichaelMcC 00:14, 7 May 2009 (EDT)

Okay. How do those ways of perusing the wiki require the template on every page with a disambiguation parenthesis? Again, if you want to find out about other Megatrons, you type in "Megatron" in the search box. —Interrobang 00:26, 7 May 2009 (EDT)

It's not about requirements, it's about ease of use. Yes, you can type in "Megatron" to find out about other Megatrons, but clicking a link is quicker. Also, let's say you're a new and/or causal who comes here to look at ROTF stuff. You end up on Mudflap (ROTF). "Hey, there were other Transformers named Mudflap? Why, I didn't even know that! I wonder what they were like! *click*" So, not only is use made easier by the template, but so is the spread of TF knowledge. --KilMichaelMcC 00:35, 7 May 2009 (EDT)

I think the current Featured Article template is just fine. And you know, even if I didn't? I won't just unilaterally decide to start changing it without any discussion. --KilMichaelMcC 23:17, 6 May 2009 (EDT)

The thing about wikis is that people do stuff. If everybody likes it or is apathetic to it, nobody cares. If they don't like it, they are free to revert it and (attempt to) bring all concerned into a discussion. Which is what is happening here. —Interrobang 23:44, 6 May 2009 (EDT)

Personally, I don't even see why it's necessary to explain that a featured page is a featured page... Couldn't we put a little image somewhere at the top of the page? People would notice "Ohay, some pages have this little image, others don't! I wonder what's up with this image!" and clicking it would just lead to it's own page explaining that pages with said images are featured articles, and considered to be the most informative to the wiki. Because if you've learned once that something means "This is a featured page" any other instances where the text pops up will just be redundant. --Ascendron 23:59, 6 May 2009 (EDT)

I'm with Ascendron and Interrobang, personally. Hmm. Is there any way to have the Featured symbol show up right after or right before the title? (Unfortunately the factions symbols keep us from placing anything in the upper right of the page where most wikis place the Featured symbol, as that could get confusing.)

But as for the disambiguations, I prefer the way we do things. We have major potential character confusions that no other fiction verse I know of does, so we can't point at how other wikis handle things in that instance. But I do think we could maybe use a template that lets us make a space-saving combo box whenever more than one disambig is needed. --Jeysie 00:14, 7 May 2009 (EDT)

I can't really agree with that rationale. How does somebody get to Megatron (BW) while looking for Megatron (Animated)? If they somehow get to (BW) and not realize it's not what they're looking for, the template won't help matters much. —Interrobang 00:26, 7 May 2009 (EDT)

"Megatron" is not just the name of a character in Beast Wars and a character in Animated that happen to have the same name. "Megatron" in the Transformers universe has sort of a higher meaning. "Megatron" is generally the leader of the Decepticons in whatever continuity he is in, and he often has similar traits. There is a connection of some sort between all Megatrons in a way that is unlike a wikipedia article on "John Smith". I like all the disambigs. Names have heritages of themselves in Transformers. If I am on a Cliffjumper page, the link at the top telling me where I can find other Cliffjumpers is neat. - Starfield 00:57, 7 May 2009 (EDT)

WHAT STARFIELD SAID. --ItsWalky 00:58, 7 May 2009 (EDT)

Revamp Sandbox

To show how this would interact with our current boxes, a sample. The idea is that it can exist on the same line as these templates.--Rosicrucian^Talk 23:24, 6 May 2009 (EDT)

This article is a featured article, and considered to be one of the most informative on this wiki.

This article is about . For other uses of "Optimus Prime", see Optimus Prime (disambiguation)|The name or term "Optimus Prime" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Optimus Prime (disambiguation).}}

I'm not sure how this constitutes "less clutter". —Interrobang 23:44, 6 May 2009 (EDT)

Faction Symbol Hacking

Since most other wikis do just put a Featured Article symbol at the right of the page, but our Faction symbols are there... it occurred to me today, maybe we should just co-opt the factions template. Set up an extra "Featuredarticle" option that displays larger than the faction symbols and is set off a bit (maybe by custom CSS or just putting extra whitespace in a custom FA icon).
It's definitely hacky (since FA status isn't a faction, obviously), but it would do the trick without a lot of extra coding involved, especially since making a new template that essentially sits comfortably next to the Factions anyway might be problematic.
I guess we could even use a "FeaturedArticles" redirect to the factions template for those FA pages that aren't character articles, to maintain labelling clarity. --Jeysie 13:29, 16 June 2009 (EDT)

That's how it's done on Wookiepedia, where we originally got the factions template from. They have a featured article icon mixed in with their era icons. --abates 15:59, 16 June 2009 (EDT)

Tweaking...

This article is a featured article, and considered to be one of the most informative on this wiki.

Any serious objections? I hate the overhang on the current version - it's what really stops it stacking with disambigs and continuity notes. How it relates to those can be seen here: User:SanityOrMadness/Featured. - SanityOrMadness 13:10, 20 October 2009 (EDT)