Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Keep It Simple

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Keep It Simple .

Contents

[edit] Ideas

Any ideas on how to make these labels known to all the Wikipedians who don't use userboxes? ℒibrarian2 18:39, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. It's a tricky problem. Unless and until there is some 'critical mass', nobody knows that racks/labels exist as an alternative, so the result is that people either a) have userboxes, or b) nothing.
It's just a random idea, but what if we could use userboxes to gain some momentum for KIS? For example, suppose we were to create a userbox that's actually a miniature rack, with enough space for 3-4 labels. People could then use these userbox/racks to compress 'boring' information into a small space, but could also use 'fun' userboxes that they find appealing and expressive. Thoughts? Jakew (talk) 21:35, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
That is a great idea! It might work. Please start on it if you can ℒibrarian2 12:25, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, here's a rough prototype. I'd need to make a few changes before it became usable, but would welcome comments:

This user has the following labels:

Jakew (talk) 17:58, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

 
I think it looks quite good. Perhaps a bit more color and something about "simple" labels ? What do you think? ℒibrarian2 21:03, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately we haven't got much space for the text, and if I add any more it will flow onto two lines (which will make the box have non-standard dimensions). But I've done a little tweaking, and we now have configurable colours.

This user has the following labels:

Jakew (talk) 21:58, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

 
It is good looking! What do you think about making, based on that model a userbox for Babel labels and a userbox for Wikiprojects participation. These I think that may be the two areas where users may be most interested in condensing many boxes into one. What do you think? ℒibrarian2 19:37, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
I think we can do both with one template:
This user has these language labels:
This user has these project labels:
Jakew (talk) 19:54, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
 
It looks plainly beautiful. I think that this is exactly it. Do you want to integrate those in a new section at the main page? I can then paste them with some info at the userboxes informative page (unless you feel for doing that) and we can try to spread the use of them.ℒibrarian2 20:05, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
Thanks! I've added documentation, and have moved the templates out of my user space (which, as an aside, I managed to get completely wrong - must be tired!). They're now {{User label box top}} and {{User label box bottom}}. Jakew (talk) 22:05, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Making it more complicated ;)

I've tried a different approach with an intent similar to yours. A Userbox can be replaced with an Icon, which is the dissociated sidebar of a Userbox, carrying the same category information, which is held in an Icon Corner on a home page such as mine. Whether in or out of the Userbox the Icon uses the 'imagemap' tag to link to a Club which is intended to be used as a convenient set of resources and a place of discussion for people taking an interest in the Userbox/Icon. If this interests anyone perhaps these formats can be made interconvertible with yours. Mike Serfas (talk) 00:36, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

It is a very interesting approach and one that can co-exist with the KIS labels, even to be interconvertible as you propose. Plus the "clubs" idea.
Your idea is fully compatible with the purpose of this project, to provide simpler layout alternatives. You will be very welcome to integrate the icon-Corner concept as one more viable alternative to escape from the clutter of multiple userboxes. I think that if no one opposes, Mike's idea can be integrated into the WP KIS main page as one more (very nice) option allowing users who want a simpler layout to choose between KIS labels racks or Icon corners or the integration of both. Please Mike, go ahead and integrate into the main page if you see it suitable. ℒibrarian2 19:47, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New ideas

I just want to thank you Jake for the wonderful idea and the very appealing design of the userbox for labels. Besides all the work he has done creating the labels and the racks since start, this idea of the box is just great.

I also want to thank Mike for his kind interest in approaching this project with such an interesting and appealing idea of the icon-corner, it is indeed a great idea for Keeping It Simple in an alternative but compatible way with the KIS labels and racks.

I believe that with these two great ideas the users who want simpler layouts can make some leaps forward. Thank you guys. ℒibrarian2 19:59, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

I thank you both for the encouragement. Making my templates look good in combination with yours may take some fiddling... I'll see what I can do. (At the moment Internet Explorer still cuts off the top border line of the labels...) Mike Serfas (talk) 06:13, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
The Icons are looking very nice ℒibrarian2 13:39, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hobbies?

Should Hobbies be under L: or Int:? I presume hobbies are generally more active than interests are, necessarily. I just realized I made Go, and put it under Int: -- probably because, for me, it's more of an interest (thing to think about) than hobby (thing to do). However, for most players of the game, it's likely the opposite.

Any thoughts? — gogobera (talk) 00:15, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

WP: B: Int: L: W: O:

Is it just me, or do the categories as they stand seem a bit off? I feel like L: is a much larger category than the rest: With a description including "Life", it's actually hard to think of any aspect that couldn't fall under L:.

I was wondering two things:

  • Could we nest categories? E.G. L:ED: for Life:Education:? This would include things like alma-mater's (or current schools), degrees, certifications, etc.
  • We remove L: since it's the only category that seems so overburdened, at the moment. Leave L:, but not for "Life, etc" but for "Location". Add ED: for education as mentioned above.

Hmmm. Ok, looking at how it's done over in Userbox-land, I see the rational for the current setup. The difference is that over here, we have some odd (some empty) sub-catagories. I guess there aren't enough boxes yet to warrant sub-pages, but would anyone object if I carried over the userbox hierarchy point-by-point? Ah, what the hell, I'll just go ahead and see if I can fix it up how I like it! :) Please, if anyone wants to, undo, and we can discuss. Or we can discuss even if you don't undo! OK, here goes nothin'. — gogobera (talk) 03:02, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

OK, I changed the order of some things, and added some blank headings as examples. Also, I plan on filling in some of these. Otherwise, they're mainly useful as suggestions and can be deleted if they're really bothering someone. Hopefully this will help the project: Instead of duplicating the work done with userboxes, we can inherit their hierarchy -- for free!