Soooo, Fandom will be launching a new desktop experience called FandomDesktop (after they did FandomMobile). It will have a new look and feel for desktop users. While I like some of the new features, I certainly hope we don't have to overhaul any styling/design that we've already done (it looks like the background and header will have to change, though). I'm going to keep posted on the updates for this.
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Hello, sorry for the late reply! I usually do the layout/formatting and some templates but have been very busy since transitioning to full-time work last month. I'm currently studying the changes and testing layout and formatting fixes for the new FandomDesktop skin that will be rolled out across all Fandom wikis in about 2 months or so. The new skin is still optional but it will be default soon, which means the current skin (Oasis) will be gone. They've made some design and code changes, so I'm looking into these. (^.^)
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First off, thank you all for dropping by here! =}
As @Zedjangoob has noted, there should be separate pages related to the animated series in the coming days as the wiki admins/contributors deal with the influx of new information.
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Hahaha no worries, you already do a lot for this wiki and I'm really happy to be part of it (it's kept me sane in an uncertain time)! I don't expect anything major; I think it'll just be tweaks to the coding and a redesign of the background.
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Quick update, guys! =}
You might have noticed that Fandom has started rolling out the new FandomDesktop look and feel, although it's still in "opt-in" basis. I opted in to
see how the site looks aaaaand... our background's gone, hehe! There are issues with formatting in some areas. But overall, everything looks nice and clean, especially the article pages! I've attached some screenshots here (ignore the weird "close" box hovering on the lower right - it's something that got stuck in my screen).
I'll just study the theme/formatting updates in my free time. We don't need to make aesthetic changes now while the update is still optional, anyway. We can do fixes after they roll out the changes permanently across all wikis (which I hope isn't soon, hahaha). Just wanted to let you know!
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Yeah I would agree, let's stay with the 1st one (what we have currently) and maybe we can take another look at the other options at a later time (perhaps we can do a mix of options later when there are more news going around the web). Thanks, guys!
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I apologize for the flood or replies/posts. I found a workaround using Google News results (one by search query, one by news topic). Check out the 2 news boxes at the top of this page.
1. The first box is generated from a Google News search query (keyword: Trese).
Links go straight to original source
I set description length to 0 characters because it just repeats the exact same words as the headline
It displays some news that is not about Trese, but mentions Trese within the news body (listing upcoming Netflix animes)
2. The second box is generated from a Google News search by topic (with Trese as the topic)
Links go to the Google News url then automatically redirect to the original source
Here you can see the description is the same as the headline
Items displayed are all related to Trese as the main topic
I'll test other free RSS widgets I can find.
(Edited by Irizhia)
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Well, I was trying to test using an RSS feed created with Google Alerts, but it's not pulling any news because it seems it can't find anything recent enough.
Do you have any other RSS feed links for Trese news that I can test with? I just need the direct link.
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Pahabol! I'm going to update the main page to show the current News section that we have while we test the other methods in the next few days. This at least shows any visitor that we are active and current, and then we can apply changes/improvements later. =}
Thanks again for all your efforts, everyone! I can't believe how far this wiki has come from the time I first started tinkering with it!!!
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Hey! So after doing a bit of digging, I found 3 methods used by several wikis for their main page news/updates.
1) Bloglisting + News Category — this is what we're currently testing. It mainly works for wikis that prefer to write their own news stories versus lifting directly from news articles. Most of them add links to the original sources at the end of the short write-up.
Pros:
Shows staff/contributor engagement in the community
Allows a distinct writing "tone" while still keeping a standard
Provides simple maintenance with some automated features
Accommodates longer content
Cons:
Requires opening full post for links to work
Restricted to blog posts
Needs creation of multiple posts (versus automated news feeds)
2) Embedded External News Feed — uses an external news aggregator such as Google News. Code is embedded into a news box template for display on the main page. I will test this method in the next few days (need to study for a bit how to implement the code).
Pros:
Very minimal maintenance
Practically fully automated
Leads reader straight to news source
Updates right away with the most recent news found
Cons:
Not much control on which news are displayed
Takes reader outside of wiki environment
3) Manually Maintained News Box — this method has the least automation and requires the most maintenance, but arguably provides the most control. It involves creating a simple template inserted into the main page; the contributor/editor updates the template every time they add news.
Pros:
We can add any news that we find relevant
Links are clickable
Can be styled with HTML/CSS
Cons:
Everything is manual, making it prone to errors
Limited to a few sentences per news item (although this can be a positive, too)
Limited to a set number of news items only (unless we use a scrollbox)
Editors must delete the oldest items to make room for new ones in order to keep a manageable amount of content (possible solution is to create a separate page to serve as repository for all past news items)
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Let me check on that this weekend (got a book editing deadline this week, hehe~). I'll take a look at wikis I can find that have news/blog post feeds. If you find any, please share the wiki link and I'll take a look!
Steps for creating a News post:
Create a blog post on your user blog.
Add it to the News category either by: (a) clicking the gear icon on the top right of the editor interface and assigning the category; or (b) using the "Add Category" button at the bottom of the blog post page after creating the post.
Once added to the News category, the blog post will appear on this blog listing page: https://trese.fandom.com/wiki/Blog:News_Blog. The blog listing page cannot be styled—it's a wiki-generated page that simply aggregates posts based on one or more categories that we define, like an RSS feed.
Note that blog listings do not update immediately upon creation of a new blog post. You can wait for the cache to clear (a couple of hours), or add ?action=purge to the URL of the listing page. Example: https://trese.fandom.com/wiki/Blog:News_Blog?action=purge
The embedded bloglist in the main page news section will pull from the News Blog and display the 3 latest news posts with their summaries (the number of posts displayed can be changed).
If you want to do some test posts, you can check the news section in the sandbox page to see if your post is displaying. Might need to do a hard refresh/ctrl+f5 or do the purge in step 4 above for changes to take effect.
Thanks! =}
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@Woofster oooooh it looks really nice! I'm going to see if I can nudge it to have a bit more space on the left margin and then I'll implement it on the main page.
I'll probably put it in its own template to keep the main page source code clean.
(Edited by Irizhia)
Hi guys, I made another sandbox template to serve as a mock-up for the main page layout updates before we roll them out. It's formatted with custom fonts using CSS (fonts applied to this template only). I set the image galleries for the books to square to see how it looks. I kind like how uniform the boxes are but the images do get cropped for them to be square. Layout still needs to be finished.
Sidebar is not included here; it needs to be implemented directly on the actual main page template. For now, I have the Trese FB page feed there. Will need to add the Discord box and other social links/buttons (FB group, etc.).
Please let me know which other SocMed accounts we should link to.
Thanks!!! =}
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I have tested the Facebook and Twitter feed plugins in my test template and confirmed that they work (although sometimes the Twitter display is delayed).
Also figured out how to make a basic News Box fed from blog posts. Anyone can make a news post on their user blogs, you just have categorize it as "News" and it will be aggregated in this News Blog bloglisting page to generate the feed, and then the news box can pull the posts from there. I also tested this in the template. Still have to study how to skin it later.
And no worries about the slider gallery, we can always retain it. =}
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I got admin access, thanks to Zedjangoob. I'll edit the main page later to make space for the sidebar where we can integrate social media boxes (unfortunately, I can only test the sidebar on the main page template so I won't do that until I've tested the Twitter and FB plugins separately). I'm studying how other wikis have done their main page templates... their source codes are sooo clean, I'm jealous. =}
Also this purple color scheme, thinking of switching to black or gray with reds for accents to match Trese theme colors.
What other ideas do you have for the main page content that we can test out?
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I noticed in other wikis that they are feeding their main page news from the blog. Planning to test and see if I can replicate it.
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No worries! Even I include a lot of details on my first pass at writing, you usually just want to get all your thoughts down. The editing and paring down comes afterwards (especially when I need to meet a set word count, haha). Sorry if it seems nitpicky; I'm on a book summary & editing project and my editor brain is still on. B-)
@Woofster @Fictional @Zedjangoob
Sorry for not getting to it sooner, guys, still juggling a few projects. I've started my content edits in Google Docs for Trese Case 1. I am using Google Docs so I can keep track of my changes and editing notes.
Feel free to take a look and share your comments before I edit the actual page.
Thanks for all your work! ;-)
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I vote we should. There's going to be more news as things build up, I'm sure. I think you could feed it from the Community Blog? @Zedjangoob mentioned he would be involved for the foreseeable future and was interested in maintaining the news box, unless that has changed. =)
I put down my ramblings and ideas here:
https://trese.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:Irizhia