Fwurg

[Brend]

As the site gets more use, it appears that people are not really happy with the current menu bar. In this thread we will collect alternative layouts. Me and Elmer will use this information to think up a better menu bar for everyone.

Please post the menu bar you think most useful at the top of your post, with any comments below it. This will look like this (without the quote block!):

Intro, Guides, News, Forum, Wiki, Rules, Tools

I like the current menu bar. But I think the Intro page should be removed if you're logged in.

(Note: You're allowed to post multiple menus!)

[Elmer]

News, Forum, Wiki, Starred(Followed), Rules, Factions, Tools

I have no use for the 'beginners' menu's so I prefer to clean that space for more thread related stuff.

[Brend]

News, Forum, Starred, Wiki, Rules, Map, Tools

If possible, I would like a count of unread starred threads in the menu bar, as if they were private messages.

[Dragonmaster352]

Forum, followed, wiki, map, tax and trade tool, tools

[Stuiter]

News, Starred, Forum, Wiki, Tools

[Fedor]

News, Starred, Forum, Wiki, tools, tax and trade tool

an intro that is removed when you're logged in would also be good.

[Chriz]

Same as Fedor, I would say make the forum the logged in starting page.

[Elmer]

I believe we have the poll data, these are the results:

News, Forum, Wiki, Starred, Rules, Factions, Tools
News, Forum, Starred, Wiki, Rules, Map, Tools
Forum, followed, wiki, map, tax and trade tool, tools
News, Starred, Forum, Wiki, Tools
News, Starred, Forum, Wiki, tools, tax and trade tool
News, Starred, Forum, Wiki, tools, tax and trade tool


Forum: 6x
Starred: 6x
Wiki: 6x
Tools: 6x
News: 5x
Tax and trade tool: 3x
Rules: 2x
Map: 2x
Factions: 1x

So according to the poll, the menu bar will at least contain, but not necessarily in the written order:

News, Starred, Forum, Wiki, Tools, (Optional: Tax and trade tool.)

[Brend]

I observe that the overall trend is to have the current bar with 'noob' options removed (i.e. guides and intro), and the 'starred' option added.

Does anyone have comments or insights?

[Elmer]

I believe not everybody has a strong opinion on what the order of the buttons should be.

For my part: I prefer: News, Forum, Starred, Wiki, Tools

[Stuiter]

The intro and guides should stay for new people.
In the other thread there was talk about different menus for logged in and logged out.
Where logged-out should included the intro and guides.
I do not know what is possible with the menubar and how far it can be customized.
But the bar is long enough to have some space left for person links.

[Mercury]

I didn't get a chance to respond on this, so here are my choices:

Guides, Starred, Forum, Rules, IC, Map, Unread Posts (or News)

I think listing guides or at least something to help new players is important and should be consistent between logged in and not logged in - otherwise new players will get confused.

IC is better than wiki since the average user wants IC information from the wiki, not a list of templates, for example and expert users can reach the templates easily with an extra click. Can still call it wiki but it should just list to the IC page or something.

[Brend]

I agree that we don't want big differences between logged in and logged out, at least, not for new players.

What we currently call 'Wiki' might best be renamed 'World' I think, as 'IC' doesn't really capture the actual content imho. The link should indeed link to the IC namespace (which has already been improved by Mercury's indexing efforts!).

I'll look into this soon-ish.

[Elmer]

Apparently I am in the minority with the opinion that the current wiki page is fine. Well I can live with the change to 'world' so there is no problem here. but personnaly I just see no reason for the change.

[RemcoSwenker]

i have been thinking last week on what I use in the control bar and actually I don't use the: Intro, Guides & News pages.

So I would not be sad to see those go. But the other ones I hope they can stay as I find it very useful when I'm in a jedi thread to check if what I did is correct then the rules link is very very convenient.

for the order I'm used to this one now so I like it. but maybe putting the rules further forwards may be a good idea. But i leave that to the HMI and design people.

[Brend]

Due to popular demand, I did a quick fix to get the 'Followed' link in the menu.

The menu still needs revising, but at least everyong can reach the followed page quickly.