Sidebar discussion

Basically a discussion about the sidebar and what pages are available on it, because it probably hasn't been updated for real in years. We should consider additions, reorganizations, and removals, and who knows, the admins may change it, maybe.

The length of the sidebar, if you open all Resources and Crucial Browsing tabs, is roughly as long as Anime.Dot Hack Sign, which is an average-sized page when shown in a 1920x1080 window with Wide Load on. I'd say that is a decent standard to aim for.

First off, I'd like to remove two pages from Tools — Un-typed Pages, because that seems like a really rare concern and the page is currently empty, and the Changelog, because that has only one entry and people can easily find the sticky in Wiki Talk.

Edited by Piterpicher on Jun 7th 2022 at 4:12:17 PM

Isolated Pages is actually a new addition.

I'd like to give Administrivia more visibility by bringing it to the top and potholing to a more clear name, like "Official Guidelines" or "Site Rules".

Agree to remove Un-typed Pages and Changelog for being useless (or redirect the latter to Timeline.TV Tropes).

I'd also question how useful Page Templates are to have own submenu in sidebar.

Sandbox.Sitemap has a list of all pages, any other Tools would be helpful on a quick dial?

I mostly agree. Those templates can be merged under Page Templates. None of the sitemap items catch my eye as something that needs to be listed right now. Also, the Media item should probably be removed as redundant with the header.

Edited by Piterpicher on Jun 7th 2022 at 12:42:54 PM

"Media" isn't a link, so the first item acts as such. Odd that others don't do that.

I probably should draft the complete bar, just not now.

If you all can come up with a list of changes, removals and additions I can easily update it.

I also wanted the mobile drop-down to mimic the sidebar and brought a lot of the links over.

Edited by kory on Nov 4th 2023 at 9:17:05 AM

Personally, I think if Betrayal Tropes remains on the sidebar, its opposite, Loyalty Tropes, should also be included. If there are any other opposites to the currently listed indices, I would suggest including them as well.

Also, I always found it odd that British Telly Tropes (which is redirect to British Media Tropes) is listed under other categories when other countries' programming is not and suggest removing it from the sidebar.

Thirdly, Applied Phlebotinum being listed amongst numerous indices is bizarre in my opinion and I would suggest its removal as well.

And lastly, live blogs are largely dead so I wouldn't shed a tear if that link was removed.

Edited by Acebrock on Nov 4th 2023 at 7:53:20 AM

I think the real reason live blogs are mostly dead is because the sorting system for it is hot garbage.

Given that live-blogs are dead we may just remove that part of the site or disable posting and let it be an archive. Idk if just fixing the sorting and even some other additions would suddenly spark a lot of interaction.

Edited by kory on Nov 4th 2023 at 10:16:00 AM

Another, more aspirational thought.

To increase their visibility, move Report Bug, Trope Repair Shop, and Image Pickin' from Resources to between Wishlist and Reviews.

Due to the visibility of the sidebar ad i was told I can’t add anymore links outside of the drop downs unless something is removed.