First, I generally think that these interactive diagrams should be promoted from comments into the articles themselves, unless they are somewhat experimental and would require frequent editing by someone other than the author or an editor.
Well, I only have access to articles I authored, and there the diagrams are indeed in the articles, as the main diagram for showing the setup. Some other members have included diagrams in their own articles, usually as a secondary diagram. Greg has used his power as an editor to add diagrams to some of the 'founding articles'.
Since I have no access to other people's articles, I always posted diagrams in the comments section for variants that I thought deserved one. I usually tried to stick to the 'theme' of the main diagram in those articles (coloring of the board, piece images). Any editor can copy the diagrams to the main article, as far as I am concerned. (In some cases I accompanied the diagram in the comment with an explanation on the features of the diagram script that I had to add to make it possible to do that variant; I would appreciate it if these comments could stay, or perhaps be moved to the comments on the Interactive diagram itself.)
Having the diagram in a comment does have an upside, though: when accessed from the index page I made, I always linked to the page you get when using the 'View' link to view the comment in isolation. Which means they immediately get the diagram in view. A link to the main article might have the diagram hidden somewhere at the bottom, after many other diagrams for showing setup and piece moves.
I don't think any of the diagrams needs any maintenance. They all link to the same JavaScript file, and most maintenance is done there.
Even if it would be a special index page, someone would have to maintain it, I suppose. I don't see how this could be automated. Any author could at any time decide to add a diagram to an article of his, and how would we know? If the index page formally is an article of mine, at least I can update it myself for diagrams I create. Editors can update it anyway.
BTW, I did some more thinking on the 'computer resources' section of the home pages. Wouldn't it be better to split the graphics stuff from that, to put it in a separate section?
Well, I only have access to articles I authored, and there the diagrams are indeed in the articles, as the main diagram for showing the setup. Some other members have included diagrams in their own articles, usually as a secondary diagram. Greg has used his power as an editor to add diagrams to some of the 'founding articles'.
Since I have no access to other people's articles, I always posted diagrams in the comments section for variants that I thought deserved one. I usually tried to stick to the 'theme' of the main diagram in those articles (coloring of the board, piece images). Any editor can copy the diagrams to the main article, as far as I am concerned. (In some cases I accompanied the diagram in the comment with an explanation on the features of the diagram script that I had to add to make it possible to do that variant; I would appreciate it if these comments could stay, or perhaps be moved to the comments on the Interactive diagram itself.)
Having the diagram in a comment does have an upside, though: when accessed from the index page I made, I always linked to the page you get when using the 'View' link to view the comment in isolation. Which means they immediately get the diagram in view. A link to the main article might have the diagram hidden somewhere at the bottom, after many other diagrams for showing setup and piece moves.
I don't think any of the diagrams needs any maintenance. They all link to the same JavaScript file, and most maintenance is done there.
Even if it would be a special index page, someone would have to maintain it, I suppose. I don't see how this could be automated. Any author could at any time decide to add a diagram to an article of his, and how would we know? If the index page formally is an article of mine, at least I can update it myself for diagrams I create. Editors can update it anyway.
BTW, I did some more thinking on the 'computer resources' section of the home pages. Wouldn't it be better to split the graphics stuff from that, to put it in a separate section?