Sometimes it feels like the about pages/sidebars across the fediverse are underappreciated to the point of being underused, so I thought it might be nice to see what some most appreciate in those abouts/sidebars that are used.
For me personally? If it’s something kind of niche or obscure, or even something basic but kinda ambiguous, I dig a concise little description like “[blank] is a [genre/type] [band/game/tv show/etc.], [additional relevant info]”.
Although if it catches my interest enough I will just post and ask because how else might I figure out the secret arcana of the Deep Hobbies?
I’ve been experimenting with this for the communities I help with!
See sidebars for some examples:
- !canada@lemmy.ca - using dropdowns to organize unwieldy lists
- !medicine@mander.xyz - a long rules section was required
- !newToLemmy@lemmy.ca, !communityPromo@lemmy.ca, !sockPuppetSociety@lemmy.ca for some shorter sidebars
I agree with the concise description, and I try to have that as the first thing in the sidebar. After that, I’m playing with the following, depending on how relevant each is:
- A badge showing the total subscriber count, like this (click the badge for more info):
- I swap out the community name and play with the colors for each one
- Community rules, as concisely as possible
- Other helpful tips, little starter tips, etc.
I try to keep the sidebars clean and collapse as much info as I can. Here’s a guide to the markdown you can use.
If there’s something in one of the community sidebars that you want to replicate, let me know and I’ll share the direct source :)
