[WikiEN-l] Linkage bloat

[Carcharoth]

On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 11:29 AM, Peter Jacobi <peter_jacobi at gmx.net> wrote:

> Perhaps the usefulness of portals and categories can be combined. For example, but unrealistic in the short term, clicking to a standard category link should open the portal page of the same name if it exists.

That is one of the best ideas I've seen for a while.

For a brief time, there were extended descriptions and even images at
the top of broad category pages. You can see this in early versions of
the Nature category:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Nature&oldid=32341398

You can see the portal browse bar up there as well.

I think most footer navigational templates should be a link to the
templates, rather than a transcluded set of links. Just as we link to
categories and portals and lists instead of transcluding them. But
that would take a huge culture shift and would (understandably) meet
great resistance from those that have built and maintain such
templates (a natural reaction if people see months or years of work
being made less visible, being a click away rather than directly
visible).

Carcharoth