User talk:Jeff

This is Jeff's talk page. Please check Explain XKCD:Community portal to see if your comment would be more appropriate there.

Bugging you again....

Could you take a look at [1] and tell me if I'm thinking in about the same way as you are here? Also, I've brought up MediaWiki:Tagline and Explain XKCD:Community portal, as it'd be cool to have a tagline. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 10:46, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

With you 100% on the File Delete reasons. Thanks. I agree also about having a tagline. What do you think it should be? --Jeff (talk) 11:13, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

Nothing's coming to mind right now. Perhaps someone else will think of something. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 17:54, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Automatic Import

Moved to Explain XKCD:Community portal/Proposals#Automatic Import. (Header left to avoid breaking links.) --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 00:30, 4 August 2012 (EDT)

Main Image

The main image (top left) is not the best image ever. You really need to update it.

Maybe:

Just an idea, because that text looks weird, or at least please add a transparent background instead of white for the logo (and center the text). --Grep (talk) 21:39, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

I like it. What does everyone else think? (PS - don't forget to sign your entries on this page!) --Jeff (talk) 21:18, 1 August 2012 (EDT)

I could go with that. Had been kicking around some ideas, and if I had any artistic aptitude, it might have looked very much like that: the black-hat retort; alternately: the lowercase blue xkcd that RM uses (sans comic figure watermark) with a "Explain" in a hand-written typeface in some other color splashed across the top left part of those letters. And yes, definitely with transparency. Just thoughts... ultimately, whatever the consensus is... IronyChef (talk) 01:51, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Something like one of the following?

--Grep (talk) 12:40, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

I like that first one - File:wiki.png. And perhaps use that same text for the Tagline? --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 19:50, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Yeah, the first one captures what I was thinking. I thought I'd download it to tweak it a bit, and quickly proved to myself how unartistic I am. I was thinking the xkcd pretty much overwhelming the bottom (touching all three sides) and the explain (first typeface) in tight, maybe at a 5 degree angle over the x and k. Of course envisioning it is one thing, realizing it another (it may be totally unrealistic...) but I toss that out for further consideration. -- IronyChef (talk) 00:25, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

Hmmm, rereading Philosopher's comment, I think he and I may have been talking about two different images. Ooops. Anyway, was just chatting with a buddy who is more artistic than I am, and he created this mashup. He suggested: "Establish some vocabulary. First, xkcd needs to be bigger; it defies describing, and refuses to be pidgeon-holed into a box, so the xkcd needs to be so big that it doesn't fit entirely in-frame ... the Explain part has got to be casual, to represent the wiki and informal nature of contributing to it, and you gotta have it in close, because the contributors are going to get as close as they can to the truth. And keep it simple." (I broke with that, and tried to add the black hat; in doing so, I think I trashed transparency, tough) Anybody think that's worth taking a run with it? -- IronyChef (talk) 01:04, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

   y
   o
   u
   '
 w r
ei e
xkcd
piau
l um
a sb
i e
n

Displaying Comics

For the home page, I think the comic and explanation should be displayed instead of a link to the comic.

For reasons unknown to me, I decided to create Template:Comicbox and Template:Comicbox2. Looks nice, as long as you use the correct one for the comic.

Go to User:Grep/comicbox and User:Grep/comicbox2 for examples. --Grep (talk) 21:03, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Those're wonderful! And should probably be on the main page. If you wanted, we could probably incorporate them (and maybe a third?) into a single template with a "square/vertical or horizontal" switch. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 21:36, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Also, you used "comicbox" for the class. Is that a class that's defined somewhere? (And if so, where?) --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 21:36, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Good point. Removed. And merging them sounds wonderful. --Grep (talk) 21:47, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Maybe merging them into Template:comicbox? --Grep (talk) 21:49, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

I think classes are defined at MediaWiki:Common.css, so if you really wanted to define the class.... And Template:Comicbox would probably be best. Did you want to merge them or should I take a look at it? --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 22:25, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

ParserFunctions and any sort of non-XMLish markup is weird. I would rather you look at it. --Grep (talk) 22:42, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Okay, I've moved your templates to {{Comicbox square or vertical}} and {{Comicbox horizontal}} so I can work on {{Comicbox}} as the main one. It may take a while - I like to think of myself as a "master of all known wikimarkup," but I don't actually use those skills that often. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 23:08, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

Thanks. --Grep (talk) 23:42, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

I've made it at {{Comicbox}}. This actually leaves {{Comicbox square or vertical}} and {{Comicbox horizontal}} unused, though I credited you (and them) in a comment at the top of the template. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 00:21, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

I think that the explanation should be on the right because it just looks weird as is... --Grep (talk) 07:42, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Sure. But right now they both look like they're on the bottom? --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 20:02, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

Sans-serif typeface

I like these, too, but the roman typeface... how do folks feel about sticking with a sans-serif typeface throughout the site? IronyChef (talk) 00:13, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

We should be able to change that wiki-wide through MediaWiki:Common.css, I think. Unfortunately, I don't know enough CSS to do it. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 00:23, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

I believe sans serif is already the default wiki-wide. Those specific instances were deliberately coded to use a serif font. It's just a matter of removing font-family: 'Times New Roman'; from the template. --Waldir (talk) 17:01, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

Oh, I'd missed that. I removed it. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 22:14, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

Gadgets?

Can we enable MediaWikiWiki:Extension:Gadgets? I'd really like to bring over wikipedia:Wikipedia:Popups and wikipedia:Wikipedia:HotCat as gadgets. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 22:45, 2 August 2012 (EDT)

sounds good. I'll do it later this weekend when I get back to my computer to get to the FTP access. --Jeff (talk) 00:31, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

That'd be great! While you're at it, MediaWikiWiki:Extension:Inputbox is something we may want for the future, though we don't need it now. --Philosopher ^{Let us reason together.} 21:29, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

comic header

Jeff, further to your previous conversation on the comic header, I've significantly rewritten Yirba's template (thanks to Yirba for the hard work. His navigation bar was very useful) and I've created a new template of {{comic}}. An example of the comic in use can be seen at T-shirts. I started a discussion on the main page discussion board, but I thought if I pointed it out to you and you like it, it can start going in the rotation for new comics.

I actually now see that Grep did a template up with intent (I think) to use for the main page. Had I known that when I started, I would have probably based my template off of his, because it looks nice, but either way, mine is intended for the actual articles. TheHYPO (talk) 14:46, 3 August 2012 (EDT)

Again, may I link to my request for feedback? --SlashMe (talk) 15:52, 3 August 2012 (EDT)