Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-36292647-20180808014823

Today I would like to get some feedback from the members of this community in regard to a project I have been working on. This is in no way a vote or anything and I am not petitioning for anything to be implemented, though, you can still use the support or oppose templates to leave a concise summary of your thoughts.

For a while now (as in the past few years) the total lack of conformity in article templates has irked me ever so slightly. They tend to be either very large, very colorful, and in your face or relatively simple, slick, and hard to notice.

On one hand we have the template which is very simple and very clean. It blends in well at the top of the page and doesn't stand out too much. While this is a good thing to some, it is a bad thing for others. The marked for review template is incredibly easy to look over, doesn't offer a lot of help, and doesn't serve very well as a notice.

On the other we have the template. This is the most blatantly offensive block of anger I have ever run across. It is huge, it is hard to miss, and it really really drags your eyes away from the content. The template itself is styled in such a way as to inspire the feeling of imminent danger with its red aesthetic and bold capital letters. It's a very in-your-face template and probably the most intimidating on the site.

For these reasons I have been working on putting together a one-size fits all template that not only blends in with the articles but also draws the eye to them first without being completely intrusive. They are almost completely text, they are minimally styled, and they contain only a few bold capital letters. As a notice they capture the eye, lay out the issue, and provide links to additional resources our current templates don't.

Best part? They are consistent. They look the same and function the same. This is important because whenever you see this type of template at the top of a page you will immediately know that it is a type of notice. Even better, the purpose of the notice is up-front and clear so you aren't left wondering what is going on.

While I can't give a working example of the templates due to the CSS they use not being site-wide, I can give you pictures of them that I have taken while using the CSS in my personal scope.

Let me know what you think of these in the comments. To see larger, clearer versions simply click the thumbnails to enlarge.



 