Talk: Community Portal

This is the talk page for the How I Met Your Mother Wiki Community Portal. Please discuss anything relating to the Community Portal here, but remember to sign each entry you make. If any discussions have become old or the topic for discussion has already been dealt with, you are welcome to delete them.

Community Portal Changes[]

So, I redesigned the Community Portal to be a bit more useful. Let me know what you think of the changes, and if you have any suggestions or recommendations as to how it could be improved, please mention them here. Blindhttp://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc316/StrongGaia/EarthKingdomEmblem.png Bandit 15:35, September 7, 2010 (UTC)

Achievements/Badges[]

What do you think about the recent addition of the Achievements system, which awards badges to users based on contributions? Please leave any thoughts or comments or possible improvements to the system here. Blindhttp://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc316/StrongGaia/EarthKingdomEmblem.png Bandit 13:49, August 19, 2010 (UTC)

The achievements system is great. I think every wikias should have it. Diogom 14:18, September 7, 2010 (UTC)

Imagebox[]

The imagebox template has just been created, and it is encouraged that this template is added to all current images and included on all future images. What are your thoughts on this addition? What changes or improvements would you like made to the imagebox? Or is it all unnecessary work? Talk about it here. Blindhttp://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc316/StrongGaia/EarthKingdomEmblem.png Bandit 11:54, September 8, 2010 (UTC)

Episode pages[]

What do we think about moving the plot summary to the top of the page? Frankly I think its the foremost thing a reader would want before knowing what episode number and who wrote it. The latter format is more suited for a wikipedia article than a subject-specific wiki. The information about episode number and writer is better suited for the info box. About the info box, is it really necessary to list the regular characters as cast in every box? This information is uniform for every episode and its therefore not important information about any specific episode. The continuity section seems like it would be better suited for the Trivia and notes section than as its own section. Finally—this is one I'm not sure of myself—the presence of empty sections. Should we have the header if we don't have anything in the section? While it looks awkward by itself, it also lets people know that we have that to be filled in. Frequently a stub section tag is used but it in phase, it could be excessive. Does anyone else have an opinion. — JediRogue 04:49, September 20, 2010 (UTC)

Personally, I think the episode page layout is fine how it is. The Plot Summary section is directly below the (short) top/header part, so people who do go to episode pages and look at the top for the plot summary can easily spot it. Even if a reader goes looking for the Plot Summary but doesn't find it at the top, once they find where it is, they should never be confused again, given the consistent layout of all the episode pages.

Now that you bring it up, removing the cast list from the infobox may be useful. If there are a lot of guest characters, that infobox can get pretty long very easily, so removing that section would help keep it short and tidy. Also you're right, because the cast remains the same for every episode it's not really necessary. I'll wait to see if anyone else has an opinion regarding that, and if it's a popular decision I can remove it from the character infobox.

I felt that since the Notes and Trivia was concerned with the events of that one episode, where as the Continuty was for how that episode interacted with other episodes, they deserved their own section. I mean, the Notes and Trivia dealt with that particular episode, and the Continuity dealt with multiple episodes (how the recurring elements in that episode were used again in other episodes, how recurring elements from other episodes were continued in that episode, how the actions of a certain character is a continuation of what they said/did in a previous episode, etc.). So, because of their differences, I felt they deserved their own section. I also think that if you were to put that continuity section inside the notes and trivia section, it'd become too large.

And with the blank episode sections, I agree that they don't look great when they're empty, but I think they're important in maintaining a consistent episode format throughout the wiki. If all the blank sections were removed, most people would just add their contributions at the end of the page, or under one of the sections that it wasn't supposed to go in (very few people would add in the section themselves, and even fewer would check all the other episode pages to make sure that header fit in consistently with the other pages). Plus, I think it'll encourage people to contribute. If they're reading through a page and notice the Memorable Quotes header has no quotes underneath it, they're more likely to add a quote in than they are if they didn't have that reminder. The aim is to have information under every one of those headings anyway, so given enough time, no sections will be empty and we won't have the problem we do now =P Blindhttp://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc316/StrongGaia/EarthKingdomEmblem.png Bandit 07:47, September 20, 2010 (UTC)

My problem with having the plot summary not as the very first thing on the page is that you have to scroll down to see it. As a fan of the show, the first thing I want to know about the episode is not when it aired or who wrote it, rather what it's it about. For example, if someone were to ask, what's "Robin 101"? The answer should be "the episode when Ted gives Barney a class on Robin". Sometimes, especially when doing a lot of edits to pages, I need to skim through the episodes to find out which one is the when where something happened. Generally speaking, the top of the page is the most important part. The first sentence should be very informative and not a bunch of stuff that also appears in the infobox. Also, I definitely think we can get rid of the cast. We can also easily put it back if someone is like, hey that should in there but I can't imagine someone having any objections.

The infobox can have links to the next and previous episodes (which can also stay at the bottom because its the kind of thing you want to use to move through a lot) in the info box as well as what total episode number it is instead of in the other notes section.— JediRogue 00:10, October 6, 2010 (UTC)

Nevermind the former. Its already there. lol— JediRogue 01:39, October 6, 2010 (UTC)

I talked about some of the stuff I would want to change in blog form: User blog:JediRogue/New templates and episode format and kinda talk about what all the edits I made today were about. Hope I can get some feedback. — JediRogue 00:12, October 8, 2010 (UTC)

Season Six Achievement Badges[]

A new track of badges have been added to the Achievements system. These badges are earned by contributed to the episode pages in the Season 6 category. These badges are currently titled:

Beginning Days - Bronze (10 points) for making 1 edit on a Season 6 page!
Occassional Glance - Bronze (10 points) for making 5 edits on Season 6 pages!
Casual Viewer - Bronze (10 points) for making 10 edits on Season 6 pages!
Amateur Observer - Silver (50 points) for making 25 edits on Season 6 pages!
Weekly Watcher - Silver (50 points) for making 50 edits on Season 6 pages!
Devoted Fan - Silver (50 points) for making 100 edits on Season 6 pages!
Sixth Sense - Gold (100 points) for making 250 edits on Season 6 pages!
Season Six Expert - Gold (100 points) for making 500 edits on Season 6 pages!

However, these badge titles can be renamed, and currently only the first two have an image to use, so we would love to hear your ideas! Think you have better titles for these badges? Have an idea for what we could use as images? Leave your suggestions below! Blindhttp://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc316/StrongGaia/EarthKingdomEmblem.png Bandit 09:48, September 22, 2010 (UTC)

Obssession[]

Seriously. Who else is obssessed with this show? I can't go a full day without watching so many episodes.. I have them all downloaded... I need help lol.