330947 - merge sidebar into main flow

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(developer.mozilla.org Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[fantasai]

For people who have narrow screens or who are placing DevMo content side-by-side with another window (which is a very convenient way to use a reference), the sidebar really, really, really gets in the way. On my system it takes up almost half the window when I split the screen between browser and other. The remaining quarter of my screen is not enough to wrap text comfortably, particularly when the page has a two-column layout! As the sidebar content is mostly irrelevant to the main content, can we incorporate its boxes into the main flow as like a footer or something?

Comment 1

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

I think it's fine as it is. You can always hide the sidebar, or use userContent.css (or Stylish) to tweak its appearance.

Comment 2

[Deb Richardson [:dria] (plz NEEDINFO)]

Beltzner and I have been idly discussing (for a while now) a possible refresh/reworking of the MDC skins.  The sidebar is almost entirely related to wiki editing, which, according to what stats we have, less than 1% of our audience  uses.

This being the case, it might make sense to move the wiki-editing features out of the way for a default skin, and have a second skin where they're more prominent that hard-core editors could use.  Or something.  The trick is that we need to ensure that people know the site is in an openly editable wiki, without harming the usability/readability of the content itself.  As I said, this is an issue we have been discussing, we're just not sure what we're going to do with it at this point.
   

Comment 3

[fantasai]

I think the editing features should be visible in the default skin as well;
we do want to encourage people to edit the wiki when they find something wrong,
after all. :) I just don't think that the wiki is best served by putting those
functions -- or anything, really -- in a sidebar. It wastes too much screen real estate.

Comment 4

[Deb Richardson [:dria] (plz NEEDINFO)]

I didn't mean to suggest we'd hide them completely, just move them.  The Hula and Beagle wikis both have their wiki functions in the footer, out of readers' way, but still visible/accessible.  Having those in the footer is a bit of a pain for people who spend a lot of time doing work in the wiki, however, so an alternative would have to be available.

Comment 5

[fantasai]

If you can keep the editing function footer thin, you can have the editor's skin fixed-position it so that it is always visible at the bottom of the window. That would be even more convenient than the sidebar, I think, and it would also avoid eating up so much horizontal space.

Comment 6

[Deb Richardson [:dria] (plz NEEDINFO)]

We'll be designing a new skin for the MDC wikis in the near future.  Existing skin will not be modified further.