User talk:Veyrdite

Some things

Hi there! I'm velociostrich, the one who used to do most of the wiki editing. I also used to be the art lead for a period of time, and did some other things. Anyway, I'm glad to see that someone is taking care of the wiki now, although I have a few suggestions:

• Use em dashes (—) in sentences instead of '--'; for example, like—this.
• Try very hard to avoid putting your name on any page. Don't use "I" or anything like that, either. I've noticed on other wikis that this tends to associate an individuals' identity with a given page, and seems to either slow or completely stall contribution by others. (You'll notice that I haven't put my name anywhere as far as I remember. The compiling page has been a shining example of contributions from a ton of people, probably partially thanks to this.)
• Please keep a separation between dull reference and guidance pages. I see you've started to work on rewriting the mapping page, and that's fine, but I think it would be better to leave one page as the big, ugly, exhaustive "here's everything to know about everything" page, and another page that's a "want to make a map? new to this stuff? here's what to do" type of a thing. (The writing style can vary between the two).
• Take advantage of subpages; we've enabled that in the wiki, and it makes organization a lot easier. So you could have like a main "Tutorials" page, with subpages like this:

  Tutorials
  Tutorials/Mapping
  Tutorials/Mapping/Your First Map
  Tutorials/Mapping/Your First Map/Step 1: Make a box
  ...
  Tutorials/Modeling
  

  This also keeps the list of pages less of a mess and makes page titles look neater. For pages that you're working on yourself, name them like "User:Veyrdite/Main_Page" (without any modification to the actual page title). This is pretty much standard operating procedure on some wikis like the Blender wiki, and for good reason (it just makes sense).

Also, I saw that you changed the main page to not use the CurrentVersion template. Now that you're an admin, you should be able to edit it. Please do that from now on, as that template affects many other pages as well (the pages that document getting the source code and downloading files manually use that template, for example, and it is important that it stays up to date for users who don't have the savvy to realize that the commands are wrong).

One last thing, I saw you removed my name from the Developers page. That's fine because I'm not active anymore (and do not plan on being active again for the foreseeable future), but I think myself and other past developers would appreciate if there were a "Past Developers" table, just as something to point to to say, "hey, I worked on that, see?" (There is something like that on the main Unvanquished credits page, but keeping something separate on the wiki would be easier and would allow past contributors who may have been missed but don't feel like talking to someone to add their names in there).

One more last thing, I changed the protection level of the main page back. You can still edit it, I just think it should stay protected. (Especially in the event that we somehow get hit hard by spam again, which we have been in the past).

—Velociostrich (talk) 09:19, 1 December 2013 (CST)

Greetings Velociostrich! Thanks for this reply, especially so fast.

• @dashes: Thankyou. I will be lazy in this reply however :P
• @personalisation: I'm trying to avoid this. Sandbox:Mapping is very WIP at the moment :)
• @subpages: Awesome -- I was not aware of this feature.
• @version template: Will fix. I spent all of yesterday helping the devs test builds with the open-source radeon driver, so my edits have appeared to taper off considerably.
• @developers page: It's going to be axed in favour of http://unvanquished.net/about. I will put in a credits page as a replacement.
• @frontpage lock: Apologies -- kharnov unlocked it and I assumed it would auto-expire:

 (Changed protection level for "Main Page" (‎[edit=sysop] (expires 07:26, 1 December 2013 (UTC)) ‎[move=sysop] (expires 07:26, 1 December 2013 (UTC)))) 

I'm planning to overhaul most of the wiki -- currently it gets in the way of most people, rather than helping them. People make a community, not the game nor the wiki. If those things are getting in the way of people: they leave for greener pastures.

I'm going to:

• Make the wiki more relevant by
  • Merging many pages & trimming a lot of outdated content.
  • Annihilating a lot of old abandoned systems. They might serve a better purpose in a future with a bigger community, but for now the forums + IRC are the methods people read. I might sound like a Gnome developer trying to kill variety and choice, but they really are no choices at the moment
  • Really pushing big user contributions onto the front page, especially tutorials, to encourage them.

• Make it easier to edit.
  • Currently there is not much in a way of a wiki taskforce -- previously it was mainly you, and now it's mainly me. I want editing this place to look attractive for other people to join in.
  • Neat guidelines and hints all on one page
  • Categories and lists to aid editors

• Focus on promoting contribution & community involvement for now, not a player encyclopaedia
  • Some useful short new-player-tips and guides, but more focus on encouraging the IRC, forums & contributing
  • I won't make a weapon/class/structure/etc encyclopaedia -- the game is always changing and it will take a lot of effort. Most of all: no one really ever uses these -- a single table with stats is normally enough. I take that back. Now mostly up to date.

• Integrate with the rest of the website better
  • Avoid some of the aforementioned duplication
  • Throw a bigger front-page focus on the blog & forums

Expect a variety of new pages to emerge from what lies in this wiki, but also the severing of many old ones into the abyss. It sounds savage, but some areas really need it for the wiki project to move on and be easier to maintain.

If you ever pass through again: judge if I have succeeded by looking at the wiki frontpage. For the time being: thank you for the comments and suggestions, I value them greatly. More of all types (even strongly negative) are highly encouraged and appreciated.

--Veyrdite (talk) 16:05, 1 December 2013 (CST)