User talk:Rogue4ever/mainpage

From Lotro-Wiki.com

Euro sites

• Main site (in desperate need of tidying :p ) - http://www.lotro-europe.com/index.php
• Forums - http://community.codemasters.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=417
• Account info - https://cogaccounts.codemasters.com/

DancesInTrees 11:10, 12 April 2008 (PDT)

Thanks. It does make for a long box though doesn't it :/ I don't like us being missed out but I don't want to upset the symmetry of the page either.

DancesInTrees 07:57, 17 April 2008 (PDT)

No worries DancesInTrees, it is actually about where it was, maybe a tad longer but I was able to condence some of that section. I don't think it distrupts the flow too much and we do want to include everyone!

Images

I just uploaded a second version of the Eye icon. I noticed the eye was looking a little dark on the mainpage, and I'm pretty sure that original eye was from a screenshot of the movie or some other image off the 'net. This second version is brighter, and has the eye image taken from in-game when the eye takes over the mini-map. If you like this eye better, you/I can upload again with whatever file name we want to use, even replacing Eye-icon.png with this new version.

Also here's a second version of the Mailbox.png icon. It looked dark and muddy on my screen, so I tweaked to look better on my screen, see if looks better for you too.

Original Version

Updated Version

--Deyvid 06:21, 14 April 2008 (PDT)

I definately like the new eye and the new mailbox! I definately agree they needed to be lighter. Great Job! Do you think you have time to unify all the images? I like the size of the ring in contributor's corner myself. Also, as far as the naming structure, we could use <title of section>-icon.png... Rogue 11:30, 16 April 2008 (PDT)

Yeah, I right-clicked & saved all the ring images, and I'll play with them and see if I can make them all match the size of the Contributor's Corner ring (when it was at the 50px size on the page). I'll use that naming format also when I upload the resized versions. If you look at the Contributor's ring image itself, it's a large 200x200 image. Do you want me to retain that large size and then you use the [[Image:Feather-ring.png|50px]] in the coding, or do you want me to reduce the image down to really be the size that it appears on the page so you wouldn't need the 50px part in the Image: tag? --Deyvid 11:18, 17 April 2008 (PDT)

hmm... from my understanding about image manipulation more pixels equals better quality image so I say try to make them 100x100 (half the size of the thumb) and that should look decent. 200x200 might be considered excessive although if it looks better I say go for it. We can keep the |50px on the image tags. Rogue 23:03, 17 April 2008 (PDT)

I updated 2 of the images so far, Contributor's Corner and the Gameplay rings. Both are 100x100 now. The crafting icon is a little more tricky because the original was 85x85 (instead of 200x200 like the other two) and a little lesser in quality/clarity. I'll keep working on the crafting icon. As a temporary thing, I tried the existing crafting icon with a |55px instead of 50. See what you think about how it looks next to the new updated versions on my sandbox page.

Also updated the Social icon, brightened it up a little, and added the -icon to the filename.

Original Version

Updated Version

--Deyvid 10:10, 18 April 2008 (PDT)

Awesome job! Looks great! I went ahead and updated the page to reflect the updated images and renames.Rogue 10:18, 21 April 2008 (PDT)

Nice layout!

It looks a lot like Guild Wars Wiki. I like it!  :D I suggest either the Map Home icon or a smaller version of Image:Eriador.jpg for World. I'm rubbish at image editing though. --Glynnis 18:34, 29 April 2008 (PDT)

Crafting Icon

I added the Crafting-icon Image, it's 100x100 like the other ring images, and being used at 63px at the moment, to match the size of the Monster-play Icon (Eye of Sauron).

Looks great! Keep up the good work! Rogue 17:23, 27 May 2008 (PDT)

World Icon

If someone could doctor this image up specifically with a border that would be fantastic. Other edits too if you think it's needed! Rogue 18:16, 27 May 2008 (PDT)

Here's two updates to the World Icon image. The first was just adjusted for contrast, then the second is that same one with a border added to match the borders on the social and other bordered icons. They have temporary names, you or I can re-upload the chosen one with the World-icon.png name --Deyvid 17:44, 28 May 2008 (PDT)

Update: After testing it, I went ahead and uploaded the border version with the name World-icon.png, we'll just have to tinker with the sizing, since it's not a perfect square like the social and news icons, it might need to be slightly larger to look right. (At the moment, the Player-character icon is at 75px while the others are 63px.) --Deyvid 18:03, 28 May 2008 (PDT)

A few more edits and some thoughts

I've changed the images to use the icon icon extension as a way to remove image links.

I've also added an additional lotro.com link in the upper right corner of the page as it's the only link that completely spells out the full name of the game. I did that for two reasons 1) i think it was recommended by turbine 2) I also believe it helps the search engines to categorize the main page.

A few more recommendations:

• We need to remove the "my account" links to turbine and codemasters. I don't want to provide an opportunity for someone to phish account passwords. The link to lotro.com and lotro-europe.com and their forums should be enough
• Contributor's Corner could use a bit of tidying up.

I will give you guys a chance to discuss my suggestions here, i will probably make a few more changes this weekend based on your feedback.

One issue:

This new main page is about twice the amount of data to download meaning dial-up/mobile users will wait about 2x as long, for broadband users it is a few more seconds. If you happen to notice a huge difference and you consider it annoying now is the time to speak up as we can try to play some additional tricks with the images.

--Lotroadmin 00:51, 31 May 2008 (PDT)

I use a 56k dial-up connection to access the internet, and use Firefox with the FasterFox add-on. I timed the page loads for a few pages (main pages for each site) for comparisons.

Current Lotro-wiki Mainpage = 23.375s

Rogue's Main Page = 49.780s

Lotro.MMODB = 35.453s

lotro.allakhazam = 39.765s

lotro.com = 385.562s

mehq.net = 49.797s

official lotro forums = 123.630s

As a dial-up user, I'm used to some sites having long page loads, but so far lotro-wiki has a relatively quick load, even Rogue's Main Page. --Deyvid 08:49, 1 June 2008 (PDT)

I went ahead and removed the account links, I wouldn't want our site to jeopardize anyone's information! As far as the Contributor's Corner goes, I made a minor edit with text but I am not sure how to clean this up. Rogue 10:25, 1 June 2008 (PDT)

I made some minor adjustments to the Contributor's Corner section, using what was there but just condensing the phrases a little, and edited the small links (Recent Pages, Needed Pages, etc) so that they are centered in the box and all on one line - at least they are all on one line in my browser, with screen resolution of 1024x768. The overall result was that the section basically stayed the same, but was just condensed and reduced in height on-screen. --Deyvid 18:17, 1 June 2008 (PDT)