Template talk:TopicTOC-Biology

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If this is a series sidebar instead of a TOC now it should probably be placed on more of the articles it links, as the TOC version was as far as I'm aware only appearing on the main biology page and a few other linked pages.

Also, should we update the physics, chemistry and other sciences TOCs to math this? Seems like the TOC structure was kind of a distinct thing, but I like the series bar. BlackholeWA (talk) 23:58, 16 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I thought we'd all decided at least 5 years ago now that sidebars/sideblocks/side-obstacles were basically inferior to end-of-article horizontal navboxes, for several reasons:

1) they are real roadhogs for screen space

2) they intrude on the reader who is just starting to get into the article on topic A, and they grab attention for topics B-Z

3) they interfere with image placement, so the image1 for section1 ends up lining up neatly with section2, yeah, great.

I shall feel entirely at liberty to remove the sidebar wherever it seems to be intrusive (yeah, usually). I suggest it be converted to a proper horizontal thingy asap. BTW "TopicTOC" - an ugly phrase, however did we end up with that committee-designed camel: but its clunkiness perfectly suits the hideous visual result: it's a monstrosity. Away with it. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:15, 24 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• I agree with the above commenters that these sidebars are intrusive and unnecessary. I can't really understand what their intended purpose is. It's really distracting in my opinion and doesn't provide any relevant information in most cases. I think most people reading about a particular topic in biology want to read about that topic -- not about what the "properties of life" generally. The links provided are way overly broad for most topics that are housed in the biology category. beanstash (talk) 13:27, 25 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I linked the sidebar to more articles and was thinking of expanding the physics and chemistry toc to match if people like it. When i expanded the biology toc i didn't know physics or chemistry even had them so i assumed the bio was just a very bare topic sidebar