95% of that page is that one list of all plugins, therefore that doesn't make much sense.
Right. That's exactly my point. I think there's an opportunity to improve the usability of that page. The other 5% of information on that page is also important, but half of it is buried all the way at the bottom of the page.
The main page into the plugin section is a huge page that lists every plugin available. I can understand why users might want to see a list of all plugins. However, is that need so great that it must be on the main page in the plugin section? Surely a less prominent location would be better.
This isn't just a usability issue. It's also inefficient. The raw HTML for that page is 1.15 MB. Without the table it's 50 KB. That's a difference of more than 95%. The
~~NOCACHE~~ macro is also present, so the user's browser won't cache it. Every time users come to this page that 1.15 MB is going to be generated and served over and over again. That's going to adversely impact people who surf the site using a mobile data connection that's metered. DokuWiki is very popular, and I'm sure the list of plugins will continue to grow which will only exacerbate this problem.
I propose two alternative solutions:
* Leave the search box and the tag cloud on the plugin page, but remove the table that shows all of the plugins. Then create a link that says "Click here to view a list of all available plugins." Have that link go to a page that shows the table of plugins and nothing else.
* Create a page called pluginsearch that contains the search box, tag cloud, and search results on a single page. Then have the main plugin page link to it, or have a form that submits to the pluginsearch page.
I prefer the second solution as the search results will not have the unrelated information about creating plugins, reporting bugs and wishes, and requesting plugins on the same page.