Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/Features and layout

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This page is an archive. Please do not edit the contents of this page. Direct any additional comments to the current talk page.

Contents 1 "News update" approach 2 archive of older issues 3 WP:WSP ? 4 Stable? 5 Two thoughts 6 Design Q 7 Introduction 8 Comment box 9 Footer 10 Signpost template 11 RSS Feed 12 Suggestion for referencing the Signpost 12.1 Reference to Signpost 13 Being bold with the Newsroom 14 Alternative single-page Signpost 15 Introduce subscription! 16 RSS feed will be up for the December 12th issue 17 Single-Page view 18 Nicer archive views 19 Adding 20 Signpost Archive 21 Nicer archive views revisited 22 Archives, revisited. 23 Spam List

"News update" approach

Hi, thank you for initiating this valuable project.

Regarding the formt, I think it might be easier to maintain the page if you

• date all the headlines,
• list them chronologically, and
• give each item some key words or categories - "technical," "dispute resolution," "policies and guidelines," etc.

That would way, you do not have to think hard about which story to keep/remove, etc. ja:Wikipedia:大使館(now retired) and ja:Wikipedia:ウィキメディアニュース are basically organized in that way (though not using any subpage because reports are shorter).

Tomos 08:15, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

In terms of the date, it's on the page itself below the logo, in the right-hand margin. The same date applies to all headlines, and the stories themselves are dated in the bylines, so chronology is less of an issue. Granted, the news items themselves happen at different times, but some happen over the course of days, so I'm not going to try and organize by which came first. Stories will be rotated by moving all of the current stories to an archive when a new issue is published. --Michael Snow 17:05, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

archive of older issues

It would be nice to have a direct link to older issues on the article-page. It is possible to use the history of course, but that's not very comfortable. --Adornix 12:57, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I've now organized the last issue into an archive at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Archives and linked it on the page. Sorry about the delay, my immediate priority was getting the new issue up, and the technical problems haven't been making this project terribly easy. --Michael Snow 20:08, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)

WP:WSP ?

I think the Signpost is eminently important. Can it get a Shortcut? I think WP:WSP or WP:WPSP or even WP:WISP (I prefer the first one) would be appropriate, since WP:SP is already taken. Is there a special rule/procedere for shortcuts or can I just make one? Anyone opposing? --^grm_wnr 21:03, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

How about WP:SIGN? nine thirty-five 22:50, 22 Feb 2005 (UTC)

If somebody wants to create a shortcut, that's fine. Either WP:WSP or WP:SIGN would be my choices, or both could be created. However, I would ask that no shortcut template be added to this page, as it would interfere with the visual presentation of the material. --Michael Snow 00:38, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I created WP:SIGN. Also, I previewed the shortcut template on the main SP page (Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost), and if you place it before the "Signpost" picture, it appears exactly to the right of it and looks good. Since you have objections, I won't add it, but you should have a look at it yourself. --^grm_wnr 10:00, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The template itself looks okay, but the image used for the title is no longer properly centered. There's also the issue of allowing too much stuff to clutter up the page and undo the beneficial effect of whitespace. It doesn't matter for most of the Wikipedia pages that use shortcuts because they're not as focused on visual layout.

I'm not objecting because it's an awful idea, but on balance I don't think it brings enough benefit to compensate for the negatives. And I'd rather not start down a road that eventually leads to accumulating lots of junk on the page. --Michael Snow 20:01, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

How about adding {{shortcut|[[WP:SIGN]]}} at the foot of the page, so the box is added opposite the "/Archive" link - if people don't know it exists, they won't use it. -- ALoan (Talk) 12:34, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Excellent solution, thank you. Balancing the archive link is a much more attractive layout, causes no serious problems, and adding to the bottom of the page is less of a concern than interfering with the whitespace at the top. --Michael Snow 17:36, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Stable?

I can create an rss feed for the signpost but i'd prefer to do it only when a stable layout has been achieved. I would be using this data...if the links were the only thing that changed it it would be quite easy --Alterego 22:57, Apr 3, 2005 (UTC)

Two thoughts

• Any chance of a next/previous page link on each subpage? That would make it easier to browse.
• Is there a good place where people who may not have time to write for the Signpost themselves can drop links about things that others may wish to write about? For example: [1].

— Matt Crypto 16:40, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I was thinking about the second point earlier today and while Michael Snow's talk page is a good place to go with suggestions, when he's on holiday it would make sense to have a more centralised place for suggestions to be made. I thought it might be worth having a page for that sort of thing at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Suggestions. Worldtraveller 16:59, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Good idea. I've snaffled that one.

On the first point, perhaps each article should have a template sidebar with that week's stories in it? -- ALoan (Talk) 17:13, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yes, that would work, too. — Matt Crypto 17:29, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Next/previous is a little awkward because I don't consider the stories to have any specific sequence, but putting all the stories into a template might be workable. A place for suggestions is good, and while I'm gone I think people working on The Signpost may find it useful to have a "Newsroom" page to coordinate things generally. For the time being, combining these two elements feels like it would keep things alive better. I'm planning to set up the newsroom with some more detailed information in the next day or so. --Michael Snow 17:44, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Silly me, suggestions can be a separate subpage with the contents included in the newsroom page via template markup. Done that way now. --Michael Snow 16:35, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

How about a thin line at the top of each article? Example:

Also this week: Yahoo! — Privacy — FA speed — Editing Encarta — German DVD — PixelAche festival — T.R.O.L.L.

+sj + 01:48, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

At the top? Or at the bottom, so when you're done reading one article you can move on to the next one? But definitely a good setup, worth rolling out for the next issue. --Michael Snow 05:11, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think the bottom would be better. Thryduulf 16:49, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Design Q

Would it be possible to alternate very light gray with white for the table rows, and to unify the header with a similar footer? +sj + 02:09, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I like the footer, but the gray background looks terrible in the classic skin. —Korath (Talk) 10:10, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

I think the suggested layout looks great - I put a link to the newsroom in the footer, I think it would be useful to encourage contributions and suggestions. Worldtraveller 10:20, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The layout looks good, but I don't see the need for the different coloured background, the difference isn't great enough to be immediately obvious but it is different enough to notice and this detracts from the content imho. Thryduulf 10:34, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Done the footer, although I used {{shortcut}} rather than Shortcut : WP:POST as proposed which unfortunately widens the section between the tramlines slightly. -- ALoan (Talk) 10:54, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think the color is a lot of extra markup for minimal reward. Depending on the contrast settings on the monitor I happen to be using, it may or may not even be visible, and even when visible it's probably a tossup whether you find it beneficial or distracting. I like the footer better with Sj's smaller shortcut links rather than the normal template; visual balance is more important than consistency with other shortcuts. Since already we don't place it at the top of the page, using the standard format isn't that important. I also like the newsroom link in the footer, but to reduce clutter I'm going to remove the link to the talk page, and just let people go there the normal way. I'll also add a link to talk from the newsroom. --Michael Snow 16:20, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Introduction

There should be an introduction that talks about what the signpost is. -- Tony Jin | (talk) 00:11, May 5, 2005 (UTC)

• That's probably a good idea, but I like the minimalist layout of the paper as it is. I think the best idea would be to add a link to a separate page, Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/About. I have gone ahead and done so. My "About" writeup was done really quickly, though, and is really bare-bones, so have at it. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 01:48, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

  I edited Blankfaze's description a bit. More feedback on the 'about' page would be great. Tony, what would you compare it to? What kind of description did you have in mind? +sj + 18:00, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Comment box

In a break from wikipedia convention how about placing the comment box below the article - in conformity with other community newspaper online publications? Lotsofissues 02:47, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Can you explain what you mean by this? +sj + 17:50, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Not wishing to second-guess Lotsofissues' intent, but perhaps he meant a space for comments below the article, rather than in the Talk: page? — Matt Crypto 18:02, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Yep, that's exactly what I meant. Lotsofissues 19:20, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

For a less controversial start, how about a "discuss this article" link at the bottom of each page, which lets you insert a note on the talk page? Other online publications don't have a notion of "Talk" pages to rely on. +sj + 19:55, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

I find a bottom link to the talk page redundant. Talk pages are intented to aid in planning and collaborating on changes in content. Bottom talk pages of community publicstions, for example UPenn's Independent have a bottom comment page for responses to the non-editable article. Lotsofissues 22:42, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Layout ideas for how this might work are welcome, and would help focus the discussion. I'm not sure that just a section break would do. Relying on the talk page distinction seems much less confusing, however. +sj + 17:27, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Relying on the talkpage sounds best, but it might get confused with discussion about the writing (rather than the content and opinions). BrokenSegue 19:41, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

A section break is distinct enough. With the exception of the press coverage article, there hasn't been much of a written response to the articles. I'm hoping a same page comment box would spur responses. Lotsofissues 01:55, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

Transcluding the talk page at the bottom of the article, with a "click here to add a comment" link could do it. Then the article never needs to get edited and the talk page still has the talk on it. —Ben Brockert (42) UE News 23:53, May 19, 2005 (UTC)

Footer

Can I ask that you please just use one template for this footer? When you archive an issue, you can subst: it into the pages, and then edit/re-use the template for the current issue. -- Netoholic @ 05:32, 2005 May 23 (UTC)

Actually, we try and set it up so that articles don't need to be edited again before being archived. We'll take a look and see if something is feasible, but it may not happen for this next issue. --Michael Snow 06:35, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

Then I might suggest avoiding the template completely. With so few pages in each issue, you could generate a footer and paste it into each page just before the issue is published. -- Netoholic @ 17:10, 2005 May 27 (UTC)

Well, but wouldn't subst: still work, we'd just have to be sure the template is complete for the current issue before adding it in, right? (or edit the footer manually in each article for any late changes) --Michael Snow 17:46, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

What is the problem with using a new template for each issue? Are we running out of template space? -- ALoan (Talk) 21:21, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

It's mostly a matter of keeping the template system neat and orderly by discouraging overproliferation, as far as I can tell. I can sympathize a little, since the Wikipedia namespace suffers from similar problems that make it nigh impossible to track down information when you want it. There's less reason to have a strong default favoring the preservation of a template or category than there is for encyclopedia articles. --Michael Snow 23:00, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

• Maybe they should all be subpages of the same template to avoid cluttering too much. Mgm|^(talk) 08:49, May 30, 2005 (UTC)

Signpost template

(discussion moved from line cutting logo section) —Teknic^Talk/Mail 14:33, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

I use the classic skin, so I can't see this either. But we currently have a header which reads (picking the same example):

[[Image:Signpost vertical.png|right]]

__NOTOC__

__NOEDITSECTION__

==Ban on images with restrictive licenses announced==

:<small>By [[User:Michael Snow|Michael Snow]], [[23 May]] [[2005]]</small>

Why not do all of this, and any <div> malarkey, in a template, like the article-to-article links are added with {{Signpost1-20}}? Something like {{Signpost header}}:

<div>[[Image:Signpost vertical.png|right]]</div>

__NOTOC__

__NOEDITSECTION__

=={{title}}==

:<small>By {{author}}, {{date}}</small></tt>

Unfortunately, I don't know how to do the <div> business, so I'll have to leave that to someone else... -- ALoan (Talk) 11:22, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

I created {{Signpost article}} a few weeks ago, it's mentioned on the Newsroom pages; I use it to create the header for articles I'm writing, don't know if anyone else does. It could easily be amended to include any divs or layout alterations necessary - feel free to mess about with it! Worldtraveller 12:05, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

RSS Feed

I put up an rss feed and html reader for the Signpost. It should be fairly resilient to layout changes, relying only on two points: 1) That the article urls on the front page are year-mo-da/Story Title, and 2) That the stories themselves occur between the first h2 tag and first div after it. I don't think those are likely to change, but if they do just drop me a line. link --Alterego 05:23, Jun 7, 2005 (UTC)

Copying this notice to the article template so it won't be forgotten. Thanks very much, Alterego! — Catherine\^talk 06:46, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Catherine. I have a feature related question maybe you could answer. The feed is working very well, and I currently have it set up to update any time someone makes an edit to the page. This could be classified as beneficial or annoying, depending on your point of view. I could just as easily base the hasSeen code on the title, which would only refeed an article if the title changed. What do you think? --Alterego 18:05, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)

Is that every time the article page (rather than the main Signpost page) is edited? Anyway, this seems reasonable to me, as we do make corrections and sometimes add information to stories as necessary. Unless the re-feed is too much of an annoyance from an end-user perspective. I think we've hardly ever changed the title on a story after publication; the changes only come when a new issue replaces the old one. --Michael Snow 19:58, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

For some reason the RSS feed doesn't seem to be working anymore. --Michael Snow 20:14, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It's working. This is going on a server in my bedroom and I am constantly working on better ways to grab content so it may go down for a little while occasionally (at least until I get bored and leave them alone =). I did go ahead and change the hasSeen code to the title, it was just overloading my feedreader. I hope that doesn't bother anyone. I suppose I could do both versions but i'd rather KISS it. There is the more traditional news outlet method of issuing a correction or update in the title if it is a non-trivial update (e.g, a page move from "Features removal admins" to "Correction: Features removal admins" or "Features removal admins (Update 1)" --Alterego 23:27, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)

Someone, who presumably will read this, and whose ip resolves to the country of India, is requesting the rss feed once per minute. I must ask you to stop...I only update it once per hour. Thanks. --Alterego 17:41, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC)

If you noticed the errors in the feed today, or at any time in the future, that is a built in 'feature'. It's actually a good thing because I am alerted that there is a problem...in this instance the problem is that Comcast's DNS servers are down, so while it can upload the feed, it can't download web pages...not quite sure how or if I will test for that. Anyway, if you see errors in the feed, that means i've seen them too so no worries --Alterego June 29, 2005 21:46 (UTC)

RSS feed is temporarily down. Nothing wrong with it per se but I messed up the server --Alterego 16:12, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Is RSS feed up? I'm trying to get it with mozilla thunderbird (October 19) and no, it's not working -- (drini's page|☎) 02:25, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Seems still down to me :( I'd recommend for our official servers to take over Alterego server - they should be more reliable.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 17:56, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Just noting up here as well that I'll have an RSS feed up within the week. Ral315 (talk) 04:54, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Suggestion for referencing the Signpost

I was thinking, when the Signpost covers Wikiprojects, policy debates and other interesting things in the Wikipedia namespace (and possibly also for talk namespace when it covers articles) we could use a little template to reference the article, both because Signpost stories are usually good brief summaries of the issues, and to increase circulation of the paper. I've made a very quick prototype at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/sandbox (see right) based on the interproject templates, for comments. Joe D (t) 28 June 2005 14:30 (UTC)

I don't mind if people want to do something like this, although I certainly don't have the time to advertise The Signpost everywhere that gets written about. The talk namespace might be a better location for such templates generally, not just when involving articles (and please don't template every new featured article just because it gets mentioned in the wrapup). But efforts to spread the word are welcome, since I think a lot of people find out about The Signpost via word-of-mouth. --Michael Snow 28 June 2005 19:27 (UTC)

There are too many things on Wikipedia that people only find out about via word-of-mouth...including major policy decisions. :( 209.92.136.131 28 June 2005 19:39 (UTC)

Well, that's part of the reason The Signpost exists, to try and deal with such problems. --Michael Snow 28 June 2005 19:41 (UTC)

If you use this, use it wisely. It has potential for fanning the flames of disputes. Pcb21| Pete 29 June 2005 07:41 (UTC)

If used, it really has to be only on talk pages. Seems like a lot of work; add to all those talk pages and remove at the end of the week. Is it really worth it? Filiocht | Talk June 29, 2005 07:52 (UTC)

I don't see why they would neccesarily have to be removed at the end of the week, AFAIK the pages are never deleted and many will remain useful for users unfamiliar with the topic. Joe D (t) 29 June 2005 16:24 (UTC)

Reference to Signpost

On a related note, I noticed the Signpost was not mentioned in a suitable classification in w:Community Portal, and the invitation in the introduction was easy to overlook when looking for news. I made a smaller version of the above template in w:Wikipedia_Signpost/ad and included it in what seemed an appropriate section of Community Portal. (SEWilco 29 June 2005 16:03 (UTC))

Being bold with the Newsroom

I've been bold and turned it into one main page, similar to the Wikipedia help desk, to help clarity (way too many people didn't know where to post suggestions, etc.) Tell me if you like it, hate it, want to kill me, think kittens are cute, etc. Ral315 (talk) 06:50, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

I don't like the coloured background, because it serves no organisational, functional or other (such as colour-coding) purpose whatsoever. Otherwise, the new layout is excellent, due to its organisation. I've been bold myself and removed the background. Ingoolemo ^talk 06:57, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

It had no purpose, but I thought it looked slightly better in color. Nevertheless, I like your edits, and yours is better, now that I look at it. Ral315 (talk) 07:45, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Alternative single-page Signpost

Format: It would be a great addition to have the weekly frontpage also provide a link to a single-page Signpost, with all articles stacked on it. For people like me who read (or browse) each article, having to open 6 to 10 of them one after another gets tedious. (preceding unsigned comment by 62.147.39.221 (talk • contribs) 19:48, 9 November 2005)

A good idea, and easy with transclusion. violet/riga (t) 22:12, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

I'm guessing you mean something like Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Tools/Single. [[Sam Korn]] 17:30, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

They do, though I only created it after they made these comments :) Ral315 (talk) 19:56, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Now all you need to do is to use <noinclude> to avoid all those images from cluttering up the right hand side... [[Sam Korn]] 20:17, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

I like it! :) — Catherine\^talk 04:12, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

I've added "noincludes" to the sidebar image and the footer in the current crop of articles, to make sure it works. I had to "subst:" the {{Signpost article}} used in Flcelloguy's articles, so that I could noinclude the sidebar image but keep the byline. I could add the noinclude to the sidebar image in the template itself, but that would mean it would have to be subst'd each time it was used, or the image wouldn't show up in the individual article!  :) What do you think? — Catherine\^talk 05:01, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

I like it as well! (Shouldn't this discussion be in the format or feedback sections, not the tip-line, by the way?) Flcelloguy ( A note? ) 23:01, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Introduce subscription!

Seriously, make hot new copies of Signpost come directly to the readers' user pages! I've prepared this little demo template, {{signpost-subscription}} to illustrate how this would look. Any user that would want to subscribe would simply put the bit of wikicode on their userpage, and the template would need to be updated when new issues are published. Plus, we can use [what links here to see the list of subscribers. Zocky 20:54, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Alternatively, you could put the Signpost on your watchlist, which I do.--Sean|Black 21:00, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Bah, too many pages on my watchlist for that to be useful. Zocky 21:05, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

I can understand that, which is why I do semi-regular "pruning" of my watchlist to get rid of things I don't need anymore. But hey, whatever you prefer.--Sean|Black 21:08, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Anyway, regardless of watchlist habits: It seems that many users like to keep things like the Picture of the day on their user page, and many people also have a link to the Signpost. I'd say there's reason to believe that this will be liked by many users and that it will be benefitial to the Signpost, by increasing the probability that users will see titles of potentially interesting articles on their or other users' user pages. Zocky 21:29, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

I like it, I've added it to my userpage. Why is it a "demo"? Jacoplane 21:35, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

The Signpost already has something like this; see Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Tools/Stories. I'll add your version to that page as well, though. Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?) 21:45, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Heh, I looked for it and didn't find it... Maybe it should be more obviously advertised. I think that it's better if we have just one, so that what links here is more meaningful. I also think that promoting the {{signpost-subscription}} tag may be a good idea, to further the newspaper metaphore. Zocky 22:32, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

I linked it in "From the editor" last week; I don't want to make it sound too ad-like by linking it in too many places, though. I've merged the two templates; no need to have yet another template for me to update each week :) Ral315 (talk) 23:05, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Maybe we should put a link to it in the template itself. Also, I liked my version more (well, not necesserally the colour scheme). I think the design of the template should match the Signpost page. Zocky 04:51, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

OK, I've changed the template to look like the other templates discussed above. It's fairly resistant to resizing problems, as long as you don't make your screen fonts really small. Zocky 17:55, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

I like it better, definitely, though I worry a bit about the size of the template on user pages at 800x600. Ral315 (talk) 01:14, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

I've added the template to my user page but one strange thing is that all these links are configured as external links. Shouldn't they be wiki links?? --Gurubrahma 18:04, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

I honestly haven't seen them as external links. Ral315 (talk) 03:36, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

RSS feed will be up for the December 12th issue

Just to note: I've been approved for an account on the Wikimedia Toolserver; I'll have an RSS feed up by the end of the week. The feed itself is written; I just have to get to bed now :) Ral315 (talk) 04:53, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kudos to you :) — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 03:38, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

How does the feed work? I need something like that for specific subsets of articles... +sj + 18:46, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

At this point, the feed is updated manually. I'm going to make it a bit more automated, but at this point I don't want to do it fully automated (too complicated, and prone to vandalism). Ral315 (talk) 22:13, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Single-Page view

Why was this taken off the front page? It's amazingly convenient, rather than opening 7 (and this is a small issue) tabs at once. IMO it wasn't cluttering anything either. Redwolf24 (talk) Attention Washingtonians! 07:31, 15 December 2005 (UTC).

The edit summary by User:Ral315 says, 'Removing single page view, it looks too cluttered otherwise.' It does look somewhat odd. Perhaps we could remove the tip line link, since the Newsroom link next to it has a link to the Tip Line in it. - Pureblade | ^☼ 09:18, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

I'll try to see what I can do. That's sort of why I was pushing for a new design a few months ago; this design doesn't allow for much apart from the stories. Ral315 (talk) 04:14, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Maybe move the archive up to the top right with About? --Michael Snow 06:48, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

I liked this view. And the idea of a new design... Ral, did you mock anything up?

Did so a few months ago...support for it was about 50-50. I'll link it later tonight. Ral315 (talk) 05:24, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Nicer archive views

I would like to see back/forward links to page through the archives -- "<  12 December 2005  >"

...along with archive views that look just like a proper signpost, with a table-of-contents and header. Perhaps each archive could additionally be a single-page view, with the TOC at the top. Right now it is not easy to search for/find something in the archives. +sj + 18:52, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

I might be able to do that; I've been trying to find a good way to do it. I'll work on it over the next week or two. Ral315 (talk) 05:23, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Adding

I want to add the signpost to my userpage but cannot find the code for it can I have it? - Mike Beckham 04:32, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Nevermind found it :) - Mike Beckham 04:34, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

FWIW, adding {{Signpost-subscription}} to your user page will acheive the result. -- Longhair 04:36, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks anyways apreciated! - Mike Beckham 04:40, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Signpost Archive

This project page should contain a link to an archive of past issues. I would add it, I just can't seem to find where this archive is. --Cyde Weys 08:07, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Look for an archive link here, bottom left, or Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Archives to link direct. -- Longhair 08:39, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Nicer archive views revisited

I was going to post here about duplicating the look of the main Signpost page on the Archive subpages such as this one for issue 2.8, but then I discovered that these pages are being used to contruct the Archives page by {{template inclusion}}. Is this really the best way of doing this? The current system seems weird to me, since I expect to be able to browse to the per-issue archive page, such as Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20, before going to the individual articles. I'd also like to be able to bookmark (or otherwise link to) individual back-issues. The only way to do this currently is to go to the first article in the desired issue and follow the < parent-article link at the top of the page back to the article list for that issue. That's just Not Good... So I propose we abandon the template-inclusion approach to the yearly archive pages and instead link to "proper" index pages for each issue modeled after the Signpost front page (note that the appearance of the yearly archive pages would remain essentially unchanged, apart from linking the issue numbers). If anyone is unclear about what I'm proposing, I can mock up an example. - dcljr (talk) 20:28, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I think the simplicity of assembling the yearly archive pages still has much to recommend it. However, I fully understand the point about navigating between individual issues in the archives. Perhaps the best way to go about this would be to add Previous Issue/Next Issue links to each of the individual index pages, but do this with "noinclude" tags so these links don't clutter the full archives? I'm not completely clear on what your proposal is, but that seems to me like the best solution at present. --Michael Snow 21:57, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Hmm. Actually, I'm not sure you do completely understand what I'm saying (my explanation above did seem rather complicated once I read back over it). What I'm suggesting actually doesn't require any more work beyond what people are already doing — just slightly different steps. Instead of putting the list of article links on pages like Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20, the archiver would simply place them directly on Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Archives like so:

'''The Wikipedia Signpost''' is published every Monday. Below are archived stories from 2006.

Archives for previous years: [[/2005/]]

See also a [[:Category:Wikipedia Signpost archives|category-based view]].

==January== ===[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-02|Volume 2, Issue 1]], [[2 January]] [[2006]]===

• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-02/Reporter plagiarizes Wikipedia|Wikipedia ... plagiarism]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-02/ArbCom update|Arbitrator elections set to begin in a week]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-02/News and notes|News and notes: Appeal ... controversy]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-02/ArbCom candidates|ArbCom candidates]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-02/Arbitration report|The Report On Lengthy Litigation]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-02/Features and admins|Features and admins]]

===[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-01-09|Volume 2, Issue 2]], [[9 January]] [[2006]]=== ...

===[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20|Volume 2, Issue 8]], [[20 February]] [[2006]]===

• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20/Jimbo interview|An interview with Jimbo Wales]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20/Arbitrator resigns|Arbitrator Mackensen resigns]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20/China revisited|Access issues in China revisited by media]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20/Wikimedia UK|Wikimedia chapter incorporated for the UK]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20/News and notes|News and Notes: ... milestones]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20/In the news|Wikipedia in the News]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20/Features and admins|Features and admins]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20/Technology report|Bugs, ... Operational News]]
• [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20/Arbitration report|The Report On Lengthy Litigation]]

[[Category:Wikipedia Signpost archives]]

Then the "current" (at the time) version of Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost would simply be copied (or moved) to Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-02-20 (or whatever subpage is appropriate) and probably altered slightly to indicate it's an archived version. Finally, the version at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost would be updated to the new issue. I don't think this actually adds significantly to the work involved in archiving the issues, but results in much nicer looking single-issue contents pages and a slightly improved (IMO) navigation system (I'm not actually talking about previous/next links between issues, although they could be added when the page is archived, if desired). - dcljr (talk) 23:33, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I didn't realize you were looking for a way to navigate directly to a given individual issue from the basic archive page. I thought you were suggesting a way to deal with what sj asked about above. --Michael Snow 01:02, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't particularly like the idea of moving/copying it, really. What I'd be more in favor of is a text at the top explaining that it's an archive, a table of all the stories, and the stories, included like the single-page view. This also makes it a lot more obvious that it's an archive. Ral315 (talk) 00:53, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Archives, revisited.

I'd like to put forth my idea for a new archive setup. We could still offer the text-based archives as we have them now, but this would be the preferred setup:

User:Ral315/Sandbox

If we do this, noinclude tags would need to be added to all Wikipedia Signpost images (something that could easily be done if we agree on this. What do you think? Ral315 (talk) 20:21, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

The only problem I see is the odd spacing of the vertical images along the right, although that would be taken care of per Ral315's suggestion. Perhaps we could add a link to the top/navigation at the bottom of each article? This seems to be a good step in the right direction. - Pureblade | ^Θ 20:52, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I was about to suggest "noinclude"ing the side images (is that done for the live version of the Signpost already? The side images don't appear in the single page view)

There also seems to be an erroneous date link in the header; and the TOC looks out of place, given the contents page is there at the top already.

In addition to an archive, that format may even be an easier way to read the "live" Signpost - I've never bothered with the single page view before, but this mock-up looks nicer, I think - the single page view would look better with a "contents" header like the archive mock-up and without the TOC... -- ALoan (Talk) 21:34, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Just to clarify, is this a suggestion to replace the current archive setup or linked from the issue titles? The current setup (with article titles) will be more useful when someone two years from now is quickly scanning to find out the month of the Great Userbox War, but Ral315's proposal is better for actually scanning a particular issue. I'm not that fussed either way, but will second the suggestion for a "Go to top"/"Go to next issue" navigation link for those people who can't get enough archives. - BanyanTree 21:46, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

To clarify a few points, this would be an alternative (and possibly the default). Also, the redlink on the proposal would link to the next week's issue (and on subsequent issues, there would be a similar link on the left side of the page.) Ral315 (talk) 10:29, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Spam List

What is the template that is used for the spam list (Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Tools/Spamlist)?

--Primate#101 06:23, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

It's actually not done through template; I take the plain text, modify it weekly as needed, and paste it to the users who request it. Ral315 (talk) 00:30, 19 April 2006 (UTC)