h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Don't know if it has been mentioned before, but what about creating a conversation forum for the Front Page?

If you did this, then i suppose it would be good for if/when Front Pages are kept for reference, and the conversations about it can stay with it.

Another use for Front Page Conversation forum is that once subscribed, then each day a new conversation would be made for sure with the name of the entry saying 'this entry has now been edited, talk about it here', and that thread could be put on the entry itself or something.

i'm just suggesting things as i think of them here.

spook

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'h2g2 Feedback - Editorial Feedback' to 'h2g2 Feedback - Feature Suggestions'.

Hi Spook

There is one very important technical reason why this cannot be done. Pages which have forums attached are A pages, the Front Page is not an A page.

The Front Page is designed to be a portal leading you to other places to discuss things. From a usability perspective, if you put a forum on a front page that renders the portal null and void - why click the links when there is a perfectly good place for chatting at the bottom of the page?

>>>that thread could be put on the entry itself or something

Well surely a simpler way of doing that (one that didn't need manual moving of threads) is to direct people to the entry itself so they can talk about it there?

well, yes you have me on that last point, but why not have the Front Page as an A page as well? there has been a suggestion for it to eb able to view previous Front Pages, and wouldn't that be easier if Front Pages became A entries too, however, with the A number info hidden while as the front page, but the conversations still at the bottom, and then when a new Front Page is created the A number is already there with the page so it has already been backed up.

spook

ps. i haven't really thought this through much i'm just querying thoughts.

>>>But why not have the Front Page as an A page as well?

Because it is not an A page. It is structured and built in a completely different way. If you ever come into the office we will show you what it looks like behind the scenes.

is that an invite to see the office?

i know there is a lot of special guideml and things so, if the Front Pages are really that ifferent, is it pretty unlikely that there will ever be a chance to see all the previous Front Pages on site?

spook

Well you can always ask us!

I asked Jim about this a couple of weeks ago and your suspicions are right. Because the Front Page is in a different format to the rest of the pages on the site, while we do have record of the old ones, there is actually no way for us to access in a readable format.

I'm going to try running an archive of Editors' Selections at A1051129. I've seen about three requests in the past month to see the section that I'm going to start saving daily.

RhoMuNuQ

With SEF's help, all the May frontpages to date are there.

RhoMuNuQ

Fantastic - practical solutions!

It was rather strange (like simulposting) that three of us in the group were thinking of the same issue at the same time. Rho and I had started approaching the problem from different directions so it made sense to pool our efforts when we found out we were doing the same sort of thing.

Agreed - a good pooling of resources there. Why not see what other people thnk about it in Ask h2g2? If it's popular (which I'm sure it will be) we might be able to promote this elsewhere.



(are you thinking of doing a new page each month?)

Yes, monthly ones were the plan. It makes a good title for people to find in search. Plus that seemed about the right amount of blobs given that some PictureLibrary pages can be very slow to load. April will be available shortly, we hope. The site crash/white-out earlier this afternoon slowed me down a bit though.

Thanks for the comments, Jimster.

It's going to take us some time to complete the archive as building it is a slow, manual process, but it will get done.

RhoMuNuQ

Unless I'm bored tomorrow and automate it...

spelugx -- please apply the following disclaimer smileys to the post