Wiktionary:Grease pit/Main Page

The last time I (painfully) reduced my screen size to 800x600 and viewed it, it looked good, but right now it is atrocious. The imbalance is lessened on larger, more normal display sizes, but I don't currently have a 1024x768 display. Is it OK at least in that mode? Why don't fr.wiktionary.org and even en.wikipedia.org have the same imbalance issues? --Connel MacKenzie T C 15:46, 6 June 2006 (UTC) P.S., http://commons.wikimedia.org/ seems to have the same issue, but their imbalance manifests towards the bottom of the page, instead of the topish-middle. --Connel MacKenzie T C 15:50, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Usually that sort of thing is the product of CSS values which are px or other fixed scales rather than percentages. We need to strive to use only % values when we are making new sections, even though px values are oftentimes much easier. - TheDaveRoss 16:06, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't know when or where, but our main page has started looking shitty again. The second section, in particular, at one point was supposed to be equally balanced, left-right, 50%, 50%. It is almost understandable that that went away.

No, actually, it is not understandable at all. WTF. If you've got imbalanaced sections, add them as separate sections, width=100%, not screwing everything else up. The two 'most-similar looking blocks are "WOTD" and "About Wiktionary", so they should be side-by-side 50%/50%. The rest of the junk needs some shuffling around...e.g. "Browse Wiktionary" = 50% paired with "Selected entries" + "Things to do" = 50% ? Has anyone played with this extensively?

I guess the biggest question is, how did it change, without getting tested in 800x600 mode?

--Connel MacKenzie T C 15:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

The bug there is that everything changes depending on WOTD size. One day it's as thin as the Browse Wiktionary box, the other day it's as big as the Selected Entries thing. And ever since your addition of the audio link the WOTD width has been unbalanced. I don't feel like doing it, since I'm not entirely fond of the Main Page syntax. I could redesign it, but I doubt that'd be any better. You should ask Dangherous. — Vildricianus 18:25, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Interesting. I don't know how I could have changed the size when I didn't change the number of lines. But then, if I knew, I wouldn't be asking.  :-) Still, I don't see how my change could have had that effect. --Connel MacKenzie T C 19:43, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

The fact that WOTD is wider makes that the Selected Entries are longer. At least on 800x600, that is. — Vildricianus 19:51, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Testing some new tricks at User:Vildricianus/PageX/MP. Refresh cache first. — Vildricianus 11:37, 7 June 2006 (UTC) Main Page code is bad. WOTD implementation is not that good either. Spent too much time on it today, and I've got enough of it. — Vildricianus 13:22, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Trying anew with a different code at User:Vildricianus/Main page. Is this what you mean Connel? — Vildricianus 13:47, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Wow, yes. That's what I was saying. --Connel MacKenzie T C 14:23, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Ready. User:Vildricianus/Main page. The one thing still to be worked out is the audio thing. — Vildricianus 19:52, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Could perhaps go live. WOTD audio isn't going to be solved right now. — Vildricianus 11:30, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I like it a lot. Of course, that is just one person's opinion. Anybody else? Horrid? Beautiful? Orchid or Onion? --Connel MacKenzie T C 05:16, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

The only problem with the audio was the one day, where Dvorty refused to do a pronunciation in a language she doesn't speak. Who is populating the WOTDs these days, anyhow? I think having the audio, right there, for all to hear, is really a very, very good thing. So we should be able to shuffle things around. Any words that don't have audio at their designated time can be sent to the end of the line. Or is it not so simple? --Connel MacKenzie T C 05:16, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Put it in place now. Perhaps no one will notice. Note that whichever box we put next to WOTD, it will never fit well. The thing to do now is find some more links to add to Browse Wiktionary. It should become more of a mini-index to Wiktionary. — Vildricianus 19:14, 9 June 2006 (UTC)