Criticism Policy on sidebar?

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For more visibility?

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Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Zyn 04 Jul 2017 19:14

Thanks to Sly161 for bringing this up.

Currently, the Criticism Policy is linked on the topbar, under "Info Pages". Since it's pretty relevant to anyone who wants to comment on mainlist pages, should it also be in the "New Member Info" box on the left-hand sidebar? As per discussion below, the idea has been raised of having policies be in an additional section of their own, not in the New Member Info box.

Granted, we haven't had an epidemic of bad crit (thankfully), but I feel like having the crit policy in a more visible place would help raise awareness of it.

Last edited on 10 Sep 2017 04:35 by Zyn Show more

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Roget 04 Jul 2017 20:27

That seems like a good idea to me. Linking in the new member info would prevent the sidebar from being cluttered.

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Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Silberescher 04 Jul 2017 22:56

I'm going back and forth on this idea.

We should be careful about what we do with New Member Info, because it represents the foundation for learning about the site and thus should be kept trim and easy to digest, but giving feedback is one of the three basic ways that members interact with the site (besides reading others' work and writing their own), so having it front-and-center could be helpful.

However, it seems to me that users tend to learn feedback by watching each other and reading other guides, rather than from the policy, but as a result of internet-community natural selection we've managed to cultivate a userbase that catches on quickly. So including it in New Member Info could just be raising the perceived barrier to entering the site by a small but notable amount. I'm also wondering how many instances of bad criticism this would actually prevent.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Roget 05 Jul 2017 16:48

I think it would communicate how seriously we take critting and point users to an immediate resource. I don't see this really as a preventative thing, but a way to give new users more immediate access to guidelines for good critting. Learning just through the forums can be a rough and tumble business if you're unlucky enough to not see good examples right away.

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Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

ProcyonLotor 05 Jul 2017 16:34

I'm not particularly confident on the utility of this.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Zyn 10 Jul 2017 04:13

Could we have more staff weigh in on this?

One of my JS (tretter, I think? Someone can check me if I'm wrong) mentioned potentially having an "advanced" section of the sidebar underneath the new member info, and that section would have the Crit Policy. Not sure what else would be there, but it's a suggestion.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

MayD 10 Jul 2017 04:36

Yes, twas me.

I suggested having a collapsible list somewhere on the sidebar that had the Crit policy, Image Use Policy, Licensing Guide, and Rewrite guide.

The things that new users don't need to be familiar with, but people more familiar with the community would find useful.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Sly161 10 Jul 2017 05:01

I like this addition of an "advanced" section. If we do this, I'd also like to propose adding the Tag Guide to the "advanced" section. Having it be collapsable would make the sidebar less cluttered too.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

(account deleted) 10 Jul 2017 20:38

having an "advanced" section of the sidebar underneath the new member info, and that section would have the Crit Policy

I support this. New members need ease of access to prevent them from feeling immediately overwhelmed upon joining the site/getting used to the site, but this is useful information to have. I expect that putting things like this in tiers, with the most important stuff as the first tier and the rest offered afterward, would lead to only good things in terms of new members' understanding of the site. A common trend I see in the intro threads is "I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm happy to be here" which is nice on the latter end, but if we could do anything to negate the frequency at which I see the former (other than the unavoidable few people who just don't pay attention), it'd be useful. I think this would be a good start.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Zyn 19 Jul 2017 06:28

Giving this a nudge since it's been over a week.

I agree with tretter's suggestion of having

a collapsible list somewhere on the sidebar that had the Crit policy, Image Use Policy, Licensing Guide, and Rewrite guide.

since those are things that writers on the site should definitely be aware of, and knowledge of those guides/policies can also benefit active members of the community who can help keep an eye out for violations of those things.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Jacob Conwell 19 Jul 2017 16:44

I dig that idea. One stop shopping for all your guide/policies needs in a convenient location.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Modern_Erasmus 19 Jul 2017 17:14

Also a big fan of Tret's idea. Visibility and centralization of advanced guides in one fell swoop.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

AdminBright 19 Jul 2017 21:11

I like that plan.

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Admin, SCP Wiki

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

dankaar 20 Jul 2017 02:25

Dittoing those who like this idea. One of the few cases where having all your eggs in one basket is a good idea.

Last edited on 20 Jul 2017 02:25 by dankaar Show more

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Zyn 20 Jul 2017 03:26

Looks like general support. That said, is "Advanced" the best header for the new block? Maybe "Policies" or "Writing Policies"? Idk, but I feel like not being a jerk when giving comments and not stealing copyrighted pictures shouldn't be considered things that only "advanced" site members do?

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

MayD 20 Jul 2017 04:01

I'd suggest it be "Policies & Guidelines" but that may be too long so just "Policies" should be fine. I'm also gonna agree with Sly up thread and say that the Tag guide be added to the list as well. For ordering of the list, alphabetical would be best, imo.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Sly161 20 Jul 2017 04:02

That sounds good."Policies" or maybe even "Policies and Guidelines" may be the best label for it as it can encompass a lot of the guides we may put there. I can't come up with a better label; I thought of "Extra Information", but users may not even try to read that because of the word "Extra" ("It's not required so I don't need to read that!").

EDIT: Ninja'd kinda by tretter but still keeping it.

Last edited on 20 Jul 2017 04:04 by Sly161 Show more

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

ChaoSera 20 Jul 2017 07:25

Policies sounds good to me. "Advanced" could potentially scare off inexperienced users by suggesting it's info that they're not ready for yet.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

SoullessSingularity 21 Jul 2017 13:51

I feel like "advanced" is a setting on a search bar for a more nuanced filter which is entirely in a different direction than where we are going for. We may want to label it with Policies&Guidelines as suggested or Policies if it's too long.

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Living the dream, or dreaming the life?

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

DrMagnus 28 Jul 2017 17:45

I'm going to mock something up with this, per request of Zyn.

I'll post here with the results of my mock ups, with any variations I come up with.

EDIT: My homepage for helen has been updated with a basic mock up of the side bar, with the new sections.

http://helenbot.wikidot.com/

I'm aware that the side-bar stretches significantly far down. This isn't anything to do with the new section, and is just an artifact of template differences. This issue can be ignored.

EDIT2: I've had a couple people ask if I can re-arrange the sections.

Yes.

The problem is, I can only include the nav once on the entire wiki (to my knowledge) so I can't have two different versions. You can basically order them however you want.

Last edited on 28 Jul 2017 18:47 by DrMagnus Show more

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Zyn 13 Aug 2017 07:02

…so this has been sitting for essentially half a month. I like how the mockup looks, though I agree that the sections could be rearranged. Maybe even have the new policies block a different color so it stands out looks different/non-repetitive from the others?

ETA: made an edit, since I worded this badly. Sorry!

Last edited on 10 Sep 2017 20:16 by Zyn Show more

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

DrMagnus 14 Aug 2017 12:18

I can do whatever you guys want on this.

Pick a hex color (just google "hex color picker" and figure out which one) and lemme know what order.

I'll get it handled.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Zyn 14 Aug 2017 23:34

I was thinking a silvery-ish grey? #e7e5e8? Maybe a purple if the grey doesn't look good? I don't have much of an eye for it, so feel free to adjust as you wish. d:

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

DrMagnus 15 Aug 2017 12:31

Both have been implemented in helenbot's wiki.

Take a look if you'd like. The code can be transfered to the wiki at an admin's discretion, it should translate 1:1

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

MayD 15 Aug 2017 13:28

Looks good to me.

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

SoullessSingularity 15 Aug 2017 16:44

I'm going to ask Community Outreach to look at this and then have it implemented if they approve.

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Living the dream, or dreaming the life?

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Zyn 19 Aug 2017 19:16

Any word from Community Outreach?

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Sly161 09 Sep 2017 04:01

Hey, I suggested this a few months ago. Any updates on if we are gonna go through with it?

Re: Criticism Policy on sidebar?

Zyn 09 Sep 2017 19:01

As asked 20 days ago—any word from Community Outreach? It's been almost two months since this was initially brought up.

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