Green Wiki Requests

[loramin]

Originally Posted by Jibartik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thoughts?

My main thought is the details matter a lot. The current "wiki system" divides everything up into 7 "eras". It's easy enough to add one or two new eras, but if we're talking about monthly patches that won't be nearly enough.

We could ditch the concept of eras and instead go by patch number or date or something ... but that'd be a massive overhaul to the wiki. I mean it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that most pages in the wiki would need updating if we went that route.

So the lazy/realistic part of me is heavily leaning towards trying to find an "era-based" solution, and maybe the wiki doesn't have to be perfectly "aligned" with the release schedule to be useful.

But on the other hand, if the system isn't useful, it doesn't matter how easy it is, it's a waste of time. So it all boils down to "can we make the existing era approach work or not? (please let's hope we can)" ... but I don't know the answer.

[Jibartik]

Maybe is it possible to add a field that users could type anything, and we can create the number of erra's we end up needing organically and then like in a few years when we got enough data decide how to turn them into erra's or whatever?

Meaning like, if we added a field that looked like this:

Implementation Date:_________
(Nerfed) Date:____________ Description:___________

Implementation date: Kunark Launch, or Original Launch, or Sept 19th 2000
Nerfed: Oct 2nd 2001

Not that we even know these dates, but I feel like if the fields were there and empty, it might encourage us to start looking for and filling them out?

All of this is made up from assumptions so I could be wrong about all of it too loramin I concede to your judgement 8)

If we did encourage looking for actual dates it might give us more granular data in the long run and provide a much better outlet for Nilbog and Rog to decide how to setup their patch scheduals? idk.

Edit: also sorry if this does not help with that 'please lets hope we can' request lololol sorry

[loramin]

IF the eras aren't enough (and I really think we need to make sure of this first), then yeah I think what you're describing, ie. some kind of "hybrid" between the two, is probably the best bet.

On a practical level, the era information is just a bunch of these templates spread out all over the wiki. As I said, switching to a completely different system would mean every page with one of those templates would now need a new template, and that's a scary amount of work to make happen.

But what if we could "build on the existing infrastructure? What if, as you suggest, all those template tags could take one more "argument" of a patch number or date (we need to figure out which is better, which depends on other questions like "how exactly do we want to store patches in the wiki?", since this thread has already made it clear the "/Timeline" page isn't good enough).

If we did it that way existing pages would keep working as they do, but then when someone motivated (like you) wants to make them more detailed, they could just edit the code and add the extra argument.

I'm not ready to commit to anything personally yet: this is big and important and I want to get it right, and to do that it would help to think through stuff like how we'll do the timeline/patches ... but I really think you've identified something we likely will have to address, and you've identified the best (ie. hybrid) approach to doing so.

[Lojik]

So this isn't really a green thing, maybe it's above what you can do as one person? But right now the level filter on NPCs in zone only sorts based on the first digit of the level (it will list level 10's with level 1's, then level 20's and 2's.) Maybe NPC levels of less than 10 could have a 0 or something first? Level 09? Does this annoy anyone else? Im programming illiterate so I wouldnt have the slightest idea how to do it.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by Lojik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So this isn't really a green thing, maybe it's above what you can do as one person? But right now the level filter on NPCs in zone only sorts based on the first digit of the level (it will list level 10's with level 1's, then level 20's and 2's.) Maybe NPC levels of less than 10 could have a 0 or something first? Level 09? Does this annoy anyone else? Im programming illiterate so I wouldnt have the slightest idea how to do it.

This is absolutely possible. The "09" fix would be super easy ... for wiki god Ravhin. I have this medical condition where my eyes roll to the back of my skull the moment I try to write PHP code, so I wouldn't be able to make it [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

If you can't talk Ravhin into it (I'm kinda hoping he's following this thread and therefore might see this), a client-side fix (ie. me changing how the sorting works) is hypothetically possible ... but it's more work because I have to figure out and then mess with 3rd-party sorting code to do so (I tried fixing something else with the sorting awhile back, and it was difficult enough that I gave up).

[Jibartik]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

IF the eras aren't enough (and I really think we need to make sure of this first), then yeah I think what you're describing, ie. some kind of "hybrid" between the two, is probably the best bet.

On a practical level, the era information is just a bunch of these templates spread out all over the wiki. As I said, switching to a completely different system would mean every page with one of those templates would now need a new template, and that's a scary amount of work to make happen.

But what if we could "build on the existing infrastructure? What if, as you suggest, all those template tags could take one more "argument" of a patch number or date (we need to figure out which is better, which depends on other questions like "how exactly do we want to store patches in the wiki?", since this thread has already made it clear the "/Timeline" page isn't good enough).

If we did it that way existing pages would keep working as they do, but then when someone motivated (like you) wants to make them more detailed, they could just edit the code and add the extra argument.

I'm not ready to commit to anything personally yet: this is big and important and I want to get it right, and to do that it would help to think through stuff like how we'll do the timeline/patches ... but I really think you've identified something we likely will have to address, and you've identified the best (ie. hybrid) approach to doing so.

I think I'm following you 8) Hopefully I can actually contribute to this, meaning though I am a procrastinator, I am more than happy to help!

I actually have a lot of content in my screenshots folder Id like to add to the wiki, I just haven't setup the account to do so out of pure laziness and procrastination.

I also have a ton of mob info that I keep to myself but am thinking about dumping onto the wiki that I think would be fun to share with people because I am getting less and less greedy but... I know the paths and spawnpoints of a lot of placeholders and NPCs [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Im just keeping some of that data to myself for a few months on green because I'm a greedy everquest player that worked hard to collect this data [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Daud]

Magelo (Green)

[loramin]

Originally Posted by Jibartik [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think I'm following you 8) Hopefully I can actually contribute to this, meaning though I am a procrastinator, I am more than happy to help!

I actually have a lot of content in my screenshots folder Id like to add to the wiki, I just haven't setup the account to do so out of pure laziness and procrastination.

I also have a ton of mob info that I keep to myself but am thinking about dumping onto the wiki that I think would be fun to share with people because I am getting less and less greedy but... I know the paths and spawnpoints of a lot of placeholders and NPCs [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Im just keeping some of that data to myself for a few months on green because I'm a greedy everquest player that worked hard to collect this data [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Heh, totally reasonable. It's like with the Treasure Hunting Guide: I never expect people to give up their super secret best spots or anything. But if everyone just shared what they are willing to contribute, the wiki would still have a ton more info.

Get an account, it's super easy!

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Originally Posted by Daud [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Magelo (Green)

Paging Ravhin!

If he's not able to solve that, the good news is I think that tool is (conveniently) stupid when it comes to names, so I think it already has the capacity for you to make a character named "Loramin (Green)" ... but obviously it'd be nice if it could actually handle Green properly.

[Chortles Snort|eS]

baleetE da WiKi on LunCh!

[Jibartik]

When I get an account, I am going to fill out so much lore for characters like this

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What did he DO?? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Spoiler, he is in a cult.