Template talk:Military browsebar

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These portals should be linked from a related portals section on the respective portals, not in a mock browsebar.--cj | talk 12:19, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

The format of linking seems like merely semantics here; we can consider this to be an alternative layout for the related portals rather than a true "browsebar", if you prefer. All things considered, formatting the links like this is rather neater, in my view, than the standard huge block of related portals (see, e.g. Portal:War), particularly given the strong interlinking among the ones listed. Kirill Lokshin 12:39, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Well perhaps we should just do away with the 'true browsebar', which is long since irrelevant, and use this format in place of related portals sections. Either way, maintaining a 'common look and feel' among portals is important. --cj | talk 12:58, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, I think we shouldn't go crazy over enforcing an identical layout on every portal; the subtle variations are part of what makes reading them so interesting (and the layout are so fundamentally different in many cases that the browsebars are the least of anyone's concerns). Personally, I think I've come up with a reasonably clever way to position both browsebars on a page without interrupting the flow of the main portal content too much; see Portal:Italian Wars. (Obviously, other portal maintainers may have different layout ideas to better fit with the design of other potals.) Kirill Lokshin 13:19, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

I would have thought that the variations amongst portals that are of interest to users is content, not construction. This isn't about crazy enforcement either; it's about good design. Navigability and usefulness of portals to users is integral to good design, and cannot be achieved without providing familiarity between portals. If there is a problem with established elements, the solution needs to be developed for all portals.--cj | talk 04:15, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, certainly the content is the primary interest; but I would say that varied visual design is interesting in and of itself. If all the portals looked like the same boilerplate but with different articles pasted in, that would be rather monotonous, no? While certain common elements are basically present everywhere, I don't think we ought to force a rigid layout, with regards to those elements or otherwise.

(On a practical level, there are a large variety of different designs used by portals at the moment—going through the FPs brings up at least a dozen—so trying to enforce a strict common layout at this stage isn't really going to work.) Kirill Lokshin 04:21, 23 April 2007 (UTC)