Talk:Main Page/Archive 2

New RSS Feeds

I added created new RSS feeds on Feed43.com for the main page's latest news and homebrew releases since the other ones seemed to be broken. These work fine.

For the Latest Homebrew I used:

     Global Search Pattern:
  <span class="mw-headline">Latest Homebrew Releases
  {%}
  <td class="MainPageBG"

     Item (repeatable) Search Pattern:
  <li> <b>{%}</b>: {%}</li>

and for the Latest News I used:

      Global Search Pattern:
  <span class="mw-headline">Latest News
  {%}
  <a name="Latest_Homebrew_Releases"

and the same item search pattern.

--Shadow1643

Thanks for the feed (Latest Homebrew). But would it be possible to show the entire line (especially the name and version of new application) as title of the feed? And the links are broken as well (e.g. http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/B579bc247b1aa7280937368f6eb5fbfe). Would be nice if those would point to either statically the WiiBrew:Homebrew Releases page or to the individual pages for each application. - to.rben 10:32, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

New page design

Please leave all comments on the new page design here. --Blooper (Talk) 03:09, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

I like this layout much better. It looks more organized. I also re-did the RSS feeds to match the new layout and added more functionality to them. --Shadow1643 18:06, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Could someone help reword the welcome section? It needs some work and I'm not very good at it. --Blooper (Talk) 20:48, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

Update banner

I have created a banner for the main page that warns against updating. Feel free to edit it to add relevant links and reword it. --Blooper (Talk) 20:50, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

The warning was removed from the main page. Although there's an HBC update, marcan's entry on hackmii.com states that "even with beta9, I don’t recommend that you update unless you need to. You can use Muzer’s or tona’s installer to install IOS51 and the new Wii Shop only, which will keep all the old vulnerable IOSes too." Is removing it a sign that Wiibrew no longer suggests that you don't update, or is it just impractical to leave the message there forever? I don't really have a preference, I just felt like it might warrant some discussion. AerialX 02:37, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

I don't think it should be removed yet, but instead updated to point to the IOS51/Wii Shop patch, which I have done. --Blooper (Talk) 04:19, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

The New Notice

I think you should reword the part that says "Almost everything they sell is freely and legally available here". That "almost everything" implies that there is something in that package that is unique, and may intrigue people to buy it for that content not included in the "almost everything". Now, I know that the content included in that package is a backup launcher/whatever you need to use it, and I know we dont endorse it, but we could probably word it in a way that implies that there are things in the package that isnt on this site, but that those things are illegal. Something like "Almost everything they sell is freely and legally available here, and the rest are illegal applications and content that goes against international copyright laws". Also, there should be a link to the blog post for further info. oops_ur_dead 23:27, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

A simpler way to phrase this could be by replacing "Almost everything" with "All legitimate applications and content". This gets the point across in just a few words, and casts anything added by the scammers into a more negative light by implying that it not only could be illegal, but also bad or malicious in some other way. Just my idea, hope it helps. :) --PunMaster 04:57, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Why do we have ads?

My Question is: Why do we have ads on resources box? --WiiCracker 16:48, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

All I see is a tiny "pinched" down empty box under the word "resources". I disabled my ad blocker to check, but it might not be actually off like it claims to be. Anyway, can you describe what you're seeing there? If they really are advertisements there then they shouldn't be called something else. If there are just a bunch of useful links to pages totally not selling stuff, then I don't think that really counts as advertising. -Flark 02:36, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

To quote Arikado, "The people hosting wiibrew and the forums are doing it for free despite getting more than one gigabyte of bandwidth everyday. The advertisements are there to make money, and the questionable ones are intendedly there. Be certain though, that it is being looked into for a solution." --Bg4545 02:58, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Simplify and Clarify

edit  

Welcome!

Preparing for Homebrew	Downloading Homebrew	Developing Homebrew
Follow this homebrew setup tutorial to install the Homebrew Channel on your Nintendo Wii.	Browse the Homebrew directory, or use the Homebrew Browser, which allows you to install directly from your Wii over Wi-Fi.	Start Developing Homebrew on the Nintendo Wii by downloading DevkitPro and following this tutorial to set it up.

I strongly feel that a more simple banner with three 'actions' from which to choose should either replace or compliment the current 'Welcome!' banner. These three 'actions' would be: "Set up your Wii for Homebrew", "Download Homebrew Apps" and "Contribute". --Pinecone 23:37, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I agree. The only issue I would have with those 'actions' is the use of the word "Contribute", as that generally refers to editing on wikis. I have added a box above we can use to mock up the new design. --Blooper (Talk) 03:17, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I've made a few changes to the box. I've chosen three 'action' words. Change the words if you have better ones, but they should remain "action" words as Pinecone suggests. --Tantric 03:34, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, that looks great. I've changed the headers into links, also, to make it even easier to quickly pick out relevant pages.

P.S: Where it says 'Welcome!', there is a lot of space that could be put to better use. Perhaps a brief explanation like: "Welcome to Wiibrew.org, official Wiki of the Homebrew scene for the Nintendo Wii" with relevant wikipedia links? --Pinecone 22:56, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I like what the text already says, no reason to make it more wordy. The only thing we could maybe do is left align the contents of that bar, and add something (eg: links) to the right hand side. See here for an example. It also would be nice to make the text Wiibrew in Welcome to Wiibrew a link, perhaps to WiiBrew:About? --Tantric 23:29, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually, you're probably referring to the text Wecome which is the header of this box. We could scrap that entirely, and make these 3 separate "Main page box" boxes. --Tantric 23:29, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't think we should do that because it will cause too much box clutter. Each box on the main page should be limited to a specific purpose. The three sections in the welcome box all fall under the purpose of directing people to different pages on the wiki depending what they want to do.

As a side note, let's keep this discussion properly indented, because it makes the discussion much easier to read. Respond with one more indent than the comment you are replying to. When it gets too indented, outdent your response and make a note of it. --Blooper (Talk) 01:37, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Done Since there has been no further discussion about this, I have implemented it on the Main Page. --Blooper (Talk) 19:38, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Linking the headers

I am opposed to linking of the headers for multiple reasons.

1. They are redundant with the links already in the content area of the box.
2. The links don't have any information about where they are linked to. A person that reads "Downloading homebrew" may think that it is a guide for newbies about how to download a file and not click it. The link in the content area has more context because of its use in a sentence.
3. Aesthetically, a blue link on a light blue background doesn't stand out as much as black on light blue. It's easier for the eye to just skip over the blue links completely.

Anyways, that's just my opinion. Feel free to object. --Blooper (Talk) 01:58, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree with you. Your reasoning makes sense to me. --Tantric 07:25, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

From a practical standpoint, I would disagree. I go onto wiibrew.org often with a strong purpose in mind. There should be clear links at the top of the pages without having to read through text to find inline linking. --Pinecone 16:37, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Pinecone: Yes, that is a valid point. We should try to make the "action" of the section stand out as much as possible. The text could be rewritten so the section's "action" is within the first few words and bolded, similar to how Wikipedia (and many pages here) put the name of the article in bold at the beginning first sentence. (Example from Wii: "The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo.") --Blooper (Talk) 21:36, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

OK - I've changed the wording. Thoughts? --Pinecone 22:01, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I've put my thoughts in by changing your wording some more. Your changes to the first line of the "Preparing" box made it way too much like the second line, so I've removed the first entirely. I understand your rationale for doing so, however, as the box is now named "Preparing for Homebrew", not "What is Homebrew?". Also, perhaps if someone's already on wiibrew they know what Homebrew is. But perhaps we could put the homebrew definition as the second line? Or something else, to make the 3 boxes symmetrical. --Tantric 18:09, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

On second thought, I've pared down the boxes to the essentials. --Tantric 18:40, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Welcome to Wiibrew Header

There's a big directory of links at the bottom, but not just some simple main links. What we could do is not link the headers, but add separate links just like Wikipedia does for an example - move the centred "Welcome to Wiibrew" to the left, and add a very limited number of main links to the right-hand side. --Tantric 16:52, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Changes to the "Welcome" box may or may not make this idea moot. --Tantric 18:40, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Wiibrew Warnings

Just a suggestion but I think that the red warning bar should be made into a general warning to people and have it link to a page with a list of things to look out for such as HomebreWare, system updates, etc. that is organized into its own category. Pinball wizard 03:14, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Moving banner to sitewide announcement?

I was thinking the banner would be better suited as a (possibly hideable/anonymous viewers only) sitewide announcement, similar to Wikiversity's "Why create a Wikiversity account?" line at the top of the page. If it was moved there, it should be worded along the lines of "Wiibrew strongly recommends that you do not update your Wii through Nintendo. (Learn more)". It would allow the removal of the obnoxious banner on the front page, which I originally created thinking it would only be a temporary thing. --Blooper (Talk) 03:58, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

It looks a bit out of place, don't you think? The danger of removing the banner now is that people may see it as an indication that updating is now safe --Pinecone 21:52, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Could we please add the red background + border again... especially now... as even i almost overlooked it.

Remember that we can dismiss the warning, so if you don't want to see it... there's no need.

Also, i might suggesting to clear the dismiss status when there is a new update from nintendo. Alexanderpas 03:11, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Google Adverts

I am against your inclusion of Google adverts. Now the sidebar and search option are full of "Wii Homebrew" advertisements! You CANNOT warn against paying for homebrew and then have google adverts on the site. These homebrew scams will keep popping up. Here is one that came up on the search page when I did a search today: http://downloadwiihomebrew.com

Surely you see the hypocrisy of adverts? 0bvious 10:15, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it can be helped. AFAIK, the advert money is used to help run the site. The scammers have also been engaged in various tactics to increase their visibility such as bombing search results and adverts as well as some rather less than subtle stealth marketing on various sites. I think we just have to trust that people will see the warning and not fall for the ads related to scams. Flark 20:20, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Redirect to language translated homepage ?

Hello !
I'm French and my Firefox is configured in French and if I log in Wiibrew, Im' redirected to subpage in French when available and the homepage displayed is in French and totally out of date :(.
As I'm totally not interested in a "french wiibrew out of date" is it possible to not be redirected to french pages ? I want the original, not the bad copy :)
And have no time nor motivation to translate to french !
Thank you :) OuahOuah 11:15, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Change the language in your preferences to English. --Blooper (Talk) 19:12, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Releases link in "homebrew" section

I noticed that the Releases link was removed from the "homebrew" section at the left side of every screen. It would be nice to see this link come back, because I use it quite frequently. Just my two cents.

Icefall5 02:37, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh ok, I'll add it back. I didn't think it was a commonly used link and removed it to save some space. Sorry for the inconvenience. --Blooper (Talk) 02:53, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

No problem, thank you very much! If you don't want it there I guess I could always just bookmark it, it's not a problem. I assumed it had been lost somehow in an update or something like that. Icefall5 03:00, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

What exactly constitutes as 'News'?

Since wplaat posted about his vote on his blog on the News section, it seems there has been some confusion as to what exactly constitutes as 'News'. Some clarification, please. --Pinecone 21:34, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree, this should be clarified. My opinion is something should only go in the news section if it impacts the Wiibrew community as a whole. --Tantric 23:29, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

I think it is safe to assume that as a general rule, the news section should not be anyone's personal soapbox. -Flark 21:07, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

"Latest homebrew releases" Section

This is a tiny bit of minutiae, but is it possible to make the "Latest homebrew releases" section match the height of the "Latest News" section? Oh, and shouldn't section titles follow "This Kind of Capitalization?" -- MetaFight 17:01, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Right now, the height of the two sections are determined by the amount of lines of text in the boxes. It's hard to keep the two sections the same height because the amount of text in both frequently change. One way to fix that is to put them both in to one big box and separate them like the Welcome and Navigation sections.

As for the capitalization, most things on this wiki follow Wikipedia's Manual of Style, which says that only the first word and proper nouns of pages and sections should be capitalized. It's a lot easier than having to deal with the rules of Title Case. Until we have a Manual of Style of our own that says otherwise, I think the guide of the largest wiki in the world should be followed here.

--Blooper (Talk) 23:33, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like good reasoning to me. -- MetaFight 23:46, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The news looks good now, but it's a bit strange the way the divider between the two isn't in the middle of the page.. - InfernoZeus 00:19, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that's on purpose, because the news could use more room than the releases. --Tantric 00:24, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I suggest, for the sake of clarity, that the "Archive - RSS feed" links be centered and vertically aligned to the bottom of their container. This would help reinforce that News and Release are two distinct sections. It would also look bitchin' rad. -- MetaFight

There you go, now you have some cute little icons. --Tantric 07:29, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I like cute icons. Thanks! -- MetaFight 07:59, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Are developer libraries (new and ported) fair game to post in this section?--Michael 13:38, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Absolutely! --Tantric 16:53, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Broken "Update Warning" Banner?

On my computer using firefox, the banner on the top of the screen that says "Wiibrew strongly recommends that you do not update your Wii through Nintendo." isn't highlighted and not in its little box that it used to had. Anyone else getting this problem or was it intentional?

Intentional. --Tantric 01:35, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

It's not a bug, it's a feature!

The message was moved from the Main Page to the site notice so it is visible on all pages. Because of its higher visibility in its new location (and a slight technical issue), the red box is excessive and has been removed. --Blooper (Talk) 02:44, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I disagree with "the red box is excessive". I think it's very easy to miss the small message at the top now... - InfernoZeus 06:17, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Try making the text bigger if possible. Versus22 _talk 21:28, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Done. I tried adding back the red box, but It just didn't look good. Hopefully an increased font size will be enough. --Blooper (Talk) 22:06, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

So instead of an unmissable banner on the start page of the wiki, we changed to and easily overlooked (especially if you ignore ads, like I do) line of text at the top of each page?...right as a major update comes out that borks homebrew? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikezila (talk • contribs) 01:52, 31 March 2009

Your parents did a wonderful job raising a respectful and appreciative child. -- MetaFight 02:55, 31 March 2009

I'm just saying that no matter how ugly it was, it was unmissable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikezila (talk • contribs) 17:52, 31 March 2009

New WiiBrew logo?

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/549/finished2.gif I say it is worth a look. I don't think it is really a new logo, but you get the idea.--retrotails 04:55, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

cool idea but it looks unpolished--FUNKAMATIC ~talk 05:56, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, I can make it better it was just a thought. It DID look better before it was an animated GIF. Now it looks a bit like random discolored static... I also wanted to make sure it was pretty small and had few frames or it would be too large to load and distracting. I also hate how the letters turned out as I had to smooth the edges of the current ones because I don't know the font.--retrotails 16:54, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Where is it?

"Agoaj has released a version of FCEUGX that support Console Classix." then where is it? (For that matter, what is it?) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Retrotails (talk • contribs) 17:02, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

I just removed that. It came without source, and FCEUGX is a GPL project. The author is free to re-release with the source. As to what it is, I have no idea! --Tantric 17:09, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Update: it's some illegal "purchase your games here" site. --Tantric 17:59, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

No it isn't, it a online rental service, they hold the real cartridges and loan out ROM dumps to user's on modified clients, then the user closes the client, it remove the lock on that copy of the game, and allow another user to loan the game out. The windows clients are modified versions of software relicensed so then can keep the DRM code a secret. LoganA 00:18, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps. Regardless, it's still commercial - which is against WiiBrew's policies. --Tantric 02:36, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

So you're trying to say that if all their copies of Mario are in use, they will tell me I can't play? I call bullshit.yossi 22:37, 27 April 2009 (UTC)