Forum:Excessive Sidebar Links

Forums - Excessive Sidebar Links

This page is waiting to be archived by an administrator. Please do not edit the contents of this page. The sidebar has really been bothering me lately. It's constantly being changed, and has ended up having too many links. Now, I get confused when looking for a specific link, because there are some many to sort through. I think we should remove some of the less important links, and make sure that in the future, only the most important links are added. The criteria for sidebar links, in my opinion, should be useful links that are commonly used by both visitors and committed members. The sidebar should not be used to advertise anything, things like that should be on the main page. The sidebar should be reserved for portals and special pages. Specifically, the links that should be removed are the social section (facebook & twitter), and the "contact brickipedia" link. The social links are important enough to be featured on the main page, but they're not high enough traffic to be a link on the sidebar. Also, it's not something a member would constantly have the need to be using. The contact brickipedia link is also of lesser importance, in my opinion. If there's a need to contact a brickipedian, the user could simply log onto chat at nearly any time, they could leave a message, or they could look for a link to that same page in a different area, such as the main page. The contact brickipedia page is basically just a list of admins, which is not something that should be visited so often. The only other suggestion I could think of is to reduce the forum links into one portal, which directs users to the appropriate forum. However, I don't really think that's necessary. - Drew1200 (talk) Support * I'd be ok with that (I already have them hidden globally, so it doesn't really effect me). But I can see why they'd be annoying. I wouldn't mind seeing a contact link on the main page though, I'm working on a navbar after this and could put something on there NovaHawk 04:02, 28 April 2014 (UTC) Support I aggree. How many people frequently click on the facebook or contact links? (Also, what about the first chat link, seeing as chat has it's own module?) UltrasonicNXT (talk) Hm. Per NXT. -Cligra Per NXT -LFY1547 21:28, 28 April 2014 (UTC) Oppose Strong oppose on removing the contact links. Unlike all of you, I end up getting a boatload of emails and messages through our Facebook and Twitter pages with people asking to remove images that aren't being used under fair use and whatnot, parents who are curious about our policies and "lifestyle" of the community, etc. I tended to get about 1 message a week (at least) with people saying they couldn't find a place to contact the staff on-site. Having a link in the sidebar, while you might not think it so, is important to our readers. "the user could simply log onto chat at nearly any time" - no, people won't waste their time doing that if they have an issue with our content. A more direct way to contact someone is what people, or at least civilised people, would want. Why keep the social links? It engages our visitors if they follow us on those networks. If they don't regularly check our site but follow us on Facebook or Twitter, we still are broadcasting to them, thus they have a more likely chance of visiting our site if they saw something they were interested in that was posted on our social media sites. In my opinion, it's not too long, sans the Online Users In Chat module, which is only visible to logged in users. --ToaMeiko (talk) 21:48, 28 April 2014 (UTC) Oppose - see no need/per Meiko. CJC95 (talk) 22:05, 28 April 2014 (UTC) Changed. I didn't know that the contact stuff actually got used. As far as the social links, I figured that most people these days were finding us through Facebook/Twitter so there wasn't a need to have it on every page so long as they have links on the main page. But, I can't see how they hurt- if you view the site regularly enough, it's easy enough to just hide any annoying items NovaHawk 06:50, 29 April 2014 (UTC) Comments I suppose we could remove the chat link. The chat module still displays, even if there's no one on chat, correct? If so, then it's definitely unneeded. @Meiko - I understand that they're very important links, which is why they should definitely be featured on the main page (currently at the top). However, looking at the social links, both pages have less than 1,000 followers. The links on the sidebar should be much higher traffic than something that just 1,000 people (at most) would have used. - Drew1200 (talk) Both the Facebook and the Twitter pages have more likes/followers than this site has had daily visitors since it launched. That isn't a very good counterargument. Something this site lacks is user engagement, correct? If you say no, you've obviously not been paying attention lately. If we want user engagement, social media is a good way to promote that. Removing the links does nothing to help us. --ToaMeiko (talk) 01:18, 29 April 2014 (UTC)