[MG] Clearing entry paths for new users

[Michael Allan]

> > ... Suppose a candidate could see the footprints of his immediate
> > voters, except they're flashed in rapid succession like the frames
> > in a film projector.  For candidate M, the frames would be:
> >
> >     J, K, L, J, K, L, J, K, L...
 
Thomas von der Elbe wrote:
> How rapid do you mean? So fast, that you see it always? Or so slow,
> that your picture is constantly changing? The latter could be quite
> disturbing, I guess. Sometimes you may want to look at your draft
> just as it is by itself.

Yes, I agree.  This kind of thing is better if it's controlled.  I was
thinking about it and I came up with this:

Anchor link (a) and segment links (d) take you to the bridge, exactly
as before.  The new controls are in (b) and (c).


                        (a)   ] [ +-----------+
                                  | user page |
                               +--+           +--------------------
  +-------------------------+  |
  |                         |   
  |                         |  3    (c)
  |                         |  v
  |   w i k i               |   
  |                         |  |
  |        l o g o          |  |
  |                         |  |
  |             i m a g e   |  |
  |                         |  |
  |                         |  |
  |                         |  |
  +-------------------------+  |
                               |
            Xb. Xa. | Vi. Vh.  |
  Vg. Vf. Ve. Vd. Vc. Vb. Va.  |
                           |   |
                          Yu.  |
                           |   |
                (b)       Ca.  |
                               |
                               |
                               |
                              ]|[   (d)
                               |
                               |
                               |
                               |
                              ]|[
                               |
                               |
                               |
                              ]|[
                               |
                               |


The navigation controls (b) float beneath the top-left logo image.
They are not attached to the page, but to the viewport.  See for
example the title bar here: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/ (scroll to see
it).

You are Yu.  Above you are your voters Va. to Vi, all ordered by the
number of votes they carry.  Below is your candidate Ca.  If the page
currently displays a footprint (d), then two of the mnemonics (Yu. and
another) are highlighted in green and magenta. *

Hover the mouse over a different mnemonic, and that footprint is
displayed instead.  Glide the mouse across the line of voters and the
footprints flicker across the page.  Turn the mouse wheel and the page
simultaneously scrolls, even while the controls stay steady beneath.

Click on a mnemonic and that footprint stays, permanently replacing
the previous one.  A fragment is appended to the URL in the address
bar, allowing the footprint to be bookmarked or posted to the list.

Click again on the same mnemonic and you are taken to that user's
draft.  The draft initially shows your own difference footprint. **

The segment counter (c) is also a display switch.  Click it and the
navigation controls (b) disappear.  Click again and the anchor link
(a) and footprint (d) disappear, leaving only the counter itself on
the page.  Click and the footprint reappears.  And so on.

What do you think?  I figure we need footprints vs. our voters and
candidates, but not the entire forest.  (My original idea went too
far.)  And this simplifies the controls considerably.

  * Xa. and Xb. are users from elsewhere in the tree or forest.
    Normally you only see one of them, and only if the footprint is
    vs. someone other than your voter or candidate.  But you may pin
    any number of users up there, and they'll always be displayed
    along with your voters.

 ** Click all the way to the root of the tree and there's a dummy node
    for the forest floor.  So you can navigate from tree to tree.
    (Unfortunately, you can't see a flicker show of root candidates
    unless you pin each of them above your voters.)

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
http://zelea.com/



Originally posted to the mailing list of the Metagovernment Project:
http://metagovernment.org/mailman/listinfo/start_metagovernment.org