Wikipedia:WikiProject Mesoamerica/About

The text in the 'Mainpage summary' section below (minus this explanatory note) appears in the "About" box on the Project Definition mainpage. Any edits to it will also be reflected there.

This subpage also contains annotations of the version history for the Project's structure and design, and the current queue of improvements/modifications under consideration and development. These annotations do not appear on the main page.

Any comments, requests, and proposed changes relating to Project structure and design should be directed to the corresponding talk page.

Mainpage summary
Purpose: WikiProject Mesoamerica (or WP:MESO for short) is intended to provide a common forum for Wikipedia editors interested in improving and maintaining articles related to Mesoamerica, with a primary (but not exclusive) focus upon the pre-Columbian history and achievements of Mesoamerican societies.

Activities for discussion on this forum include: identifying in-scope articles and topics, discussing ways to improve article standards and topical coverage, coordinating and prioritising improvement efforts, developing standards and guidelines designed to achieve consistency between related articles, documenting article coverage by topical areas, rating articles by appropriate standards, organising the articles by meaningful categories and links, and sundry other activities to be further refined.

Project structure: WP:MESO has three main pages: Each is composed of a number of subpages. These main pages contain relevant navigational links and views their subpages' contents. Taken together, they are intended to function somewhat similarly to a Portal, in that the mainpages provide a common access points for associated documentation, activities and discussions. All of the actual detailed work and documentation takes place on the Project's separate subpages, however the main aspects of this work can be viewed directly and all at once from the main pages. Note that what appears in a particular window or box here may be a summary of more extensive material, which can be seen in full using the links and 'edit' tags provided.
 * 1) Project Definition (background, description and resources),
 * 2) Project Activities (open tasks, to-do lists, collaborations and sub-projects),
 * 3) Project Catalogue (inventory and survey of articles, lists, templates, categories, and an assessment of their current status).

Project structure
This WikiProject consists of the following mainpages and subpages:

Two subpages appear transcluded on all three mainpages, in the left and right blue panels of the pages' top section or row. They are: Note that this top row on each of the mainpages can be 'hidden' from view via the show|hide toggle which appears at the right of the top yellow title bar.

The three mainpages and their respective subpages are:

Version history
(Annotation of versions and changes made to overall Project presentation and design, to be maintained here for ready reference. Newest version at the top of the list, format version[link to version(s)]–date–(implementor)).
 * V2.3–7 July 2006–(cjllw)
 * Added /Assessment panel to WP:MESO/A
 * V2.2–20 June 2006–(cjllw)
 * Added the article to-do current worklist subpages (WP:MESO/REQ,WP:MESO/EXP,WP:MESO/FIX,WP:MESO/IMP,WP:MESO/PREP) as separate subpages rather than combined; table of subproject/tasks created at WP:MESO/S.
 * V2.1–14 June 2006–(cjllw)
 * Some reordering of panels on the Activities mainpage, and incorporated the mooted "Detailed activity listing" subpg into the Strategy subpg. Some other formatting adjustments here and there.
 * V2.0–11 June 2006–(cjllw)
 * Revised version implemented which splits the main project page into three –Definition, Activities and Catalogue–, mainly because the all-on-a-page presentation was proving to be a bit cumbersome. Each main project page has a set of associated subpages. A top row of navigational and informational panels is reproduced on each main page (this row can be hidden from view via a show/hide toggle), while the subsequent panels display different subpages depending on the purpose.
 * V1.0–9 June 2006–(cjllw)
 * Initial version implemented to replace the standard inherited WikiProject template format. Features include: dispersal and organisation of content to subpages, transclusion of portions of these subpages on the main page to allow all-at-a-glance viewing, most formatting and layout code safely removed to a 'hidden' subpage away from prying fingers and to avoid cluttering the editing space, some instructional text. Some of the Activities and Catalogue boxes remain under construction, these are indicated.

Project structure to-do

 * finish construction of Catalogue righthand boxes
 * bottom-align 'details' links in main page boxes
 * find a way to get around the default status of "hide" if multiple collapsable navbars are used
 * parameters for colours (?)
 * parameters for fontsize(?)

Requested changes, notified problems and general discussion
Any comments, issues or requested changes to the overall layout and design of this WikiProject can be made on this subpage's talk page.