Template talk:Encyclopedia

Since this page is a direct extension of the Main Page, it should probably be protected in much the same way the Main Page is protected-- primarily to deter any vandalism that might appear on our "first impression." --Alan del Beccio 21:04, 28 Dec 2005 (UTC)
 * I'd really rather not, although we'll probably have to protectit before long. --Vedek Dukat Talk 01:50, 31 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Spacing problems
I'm not an expert on wikitables and such, but while I think the additions just made are a good idea: they screwed up the spacing, and now there's huge blanks where need not be. Problems being the "Sciences" and "Trek Culture" parts, cause it seems the second column doesn't fit right, unlike Movies which does. - AJ Halliwell 23:50, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. Hopefully, someone with better formatting knowledge than you or I will come along and fix this. Adamwankenobi 23:57, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

The future of this list
I feel that many of the pages linked from this list are sub-standard. They are incomplete and incoherent lists, that try to enforce some sort of structure that isn't really there. The existing Portals and Categories are much better at organizing content, and they are more useful than this.

I propose that this list will link either to Categories or Portals, and that existing 'list pages' should either redirect to their categories, or at least mention the relevant categories (for example, at the moment, there is no way to get from Recreational activities to Category:Sports and Category:Recreation).

I know some people have their own versions of the Main Page in their user-space. Let's hear some ideas on how to make this list more useful!

-- Harry  talk 12:45, 27 November 2006 (UTC)


 * The whole "Portal"-idea was started to get rid of that "Encyclopedia" listing on the Main Page in the first place. :) See User:Cid Highwind/Main Page, where I first suggested the portals, its talk page, and some related discussion pages (some Forum entries and Portal talk:Main itself, I think). Generally, the idea is to not have a lengthy listing of individual topics on the main page at all (whether it's links to article pages or categories), but instead have some portal pages that, combined, encompass all or at least most of the topics that are of interest, and then go from there. -- Cid Highwind 13:06, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

In many cases, the various lists were assembled as precursors to the creation of specific categories in which to place the articles in the lists. Once a category has been created and the articles in a list are modified to be included in the new category, I don't know that the list is really necessary any more (in most cases). The advantage of the list page is that entries can be organized any way the editor wants, as opposed to a category, which is always alphabetical and without any other text except at the top. -- Renegade54 17:07, 27 November 2006 (UTC)