June-July 2006

Layout

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how awful the layout has been. No offence, I mean, we are all used to the clean and neat layout of wikipedia but this is just so untidy. The blue color in the background doesn't match the foreground and the navigation menu is all messed up. I'm suggesting the same neat layout we had before. -- Funper 08:19, 7 July 2006 (CDT)

• I hope this is more acceptable. Of course, you can always change your choice of skin. ----Sphemusator 12:52, 7 July 2006 (CDT)

Pointing out a type that has been in place since the beginning..."Feburary 16, 2006"

Main Picture

I don't like the main picture depicting a harp. It does not give the impression of this site as a music score library, it should be more like sheet music, scores. Not harps. ;) -- 80.191.88.38 18:22, 30 June 2006 (CDT)

• When I was thinking about the kind of image that might be appropriate I considered using a sheet of music - but whose music, and which piece? I didn't want to suggest that the IMSLP was limited to a particular period, composer or genre. (BTW, it's a lyre rather than a harp). In the end I used the lyre as a classical western symbol for music.

Score counter

The score counter is increasing rather fast ;). Is an automated counter possible? -- Funper 19:56, 9 June 2006 (CDT)

That would need some coding skills that I don't think I have sadly :/ --Feldmahler 22:01, 12 June 2006 (CDT)

More User Friendly

There was a discussion in the forums about the usability of the front page. I'm going to mess around with it a bit. Discuss here if you have any problems with what I do. Horndude77 23:14, 24 June 2006 (CDT)

Oops I spoke too soon. I don't have permission to edit the front page. Here's what I was thinking of adding to the top (blatently stolen from wikipedia, but it looks nice):

• Maybe not the best, but something like this at the very top would help greatly. Horndude77 23:40, 24 June 2006 (CDT)

• I agree that the front page could be more 'welcoming'. I have submitted an image for the IMSLP logo, but unfortunately I don't have access to the stylesheets so cannot make the change myself, and I guess Feldmahler is rather busy about now.--Sphemusator 06:45, 25 June 2006 (CDT)

• Absolutely better than the pure text where you have to search the links to the browsepages!

I even think the front page and all other pages should not be protected, as wikis are open to the community. It should only be protected if there is too much vandalism that can not be repaired quickly enough.--Peter 14:42, 25 June 2006 (CDT)

• Hmm... point taken. I'll unprotect the main page. Though, sphemusator has sysop privileges too... so she should be able to do everything I can do to this wiki. You guys can ask her if you need some sysop stuff done, since my internet time is very limited (I had no access to the internet for the last 5 days). Nevertheless I'll try to be here as much as I can. Good thing I'll be back to normal in less than a month. Also, I agree very much that the front page needs some MAJOR reworking. --Feldmahler 23:09, 25 June 2006 (CDT)

• I think Peter has done a great job adding the "Welcome Mat" to the top of the Main Page. Unfortunately I don't speak PHP which seems to be a prerequisite for much of the WikiMedia architecture, but I have to ask, how difficult would it be to add a similar template to the Special:Articles one for images, to keep a live count of the number of scores on the front page? --Sphemusator 14:49, 29 June 2006 (CDT)

• Well... the main problem is that I'm not sure the main page can be a special page... unless maybe it is automatically redirected to a real special page? Making the special page is not an especially hard thing, but the main problem is that once there is a special page, it ceases to be world-changable (actually changing it would be a pain even for me), since it becomes a static (code-wise) PHP page. There is an alternative: to define a new macro like the one I used for the catalog numbers for the files on the work pages. The upside is that the main page is still world-changable, but... it will only be *semi-automatically* updated. The counter will only update when the main page is edited, or a special reparse-page command be given to the page (I think anyone can give this command via HTTP, though I need to check on that), because the parsed page is stored in cache and displayed whenever the main page is requested. Another way is to edit the skin pages so that the counter is displayed at the top of every wiki page (like the donation counter during the wikipedia fund drive). --Feldmahler 22:27, 29 June 2006 (CDT)

• I agree, the main page should not be a special page. My thinking was that since the code Peter added derives the number of articles from the Special:Statistics page, maybe the same principle could be applied to give a live count of scores if there was a way to derive the number of images. It's late. Maybe I should look at this when I am fresh and my cat is not trying to sit on the keys. --Sphemusator 21:40, 30 June 2006 (CDT)

• I just got back in town from a business trip. Nice job on the front page all. I think it's a lot more friendly to a newcomer with the box on top. I did a quick look around to see if there was a NUMBEROFIMAGES or similar variable, but I couldn't find any info. So if it's wanted it'll have to be created. Also this may be getting too complicated, but I'm not sure counting the images will be totally accurate. Perhaps in the future more actual images will be added here and skew the goal of the count too much. I don't really have a solution to this problem and it might not even matter, but just something to think about. Anyways, look good thanks! --Horndude77 23:32, 1 July 2006 (CDT)