Wiki Overhaul

[Captain Untouchable]

Hello all!

I am going to starting work on a revamp/overhaul for our wiki. I'm aiming for the keep-it-simple approach: I'm trying to make it look as clean and simple as I can, make it as easy as possible to find the information that you're looking for... and as easy as possible to add in new stuff and keep it up to date, especially if you are a grumpy old wikiphobe like Charley.



I've started off with character pages. In the past we've had complicated infoboxes with different colours, with different fields that not everyone needs to fill in all of; we've had some people using scroll boxes all over the place, some using regular wiki headers, some using fancy stuff with flourishes - all of that stuff is really cool individually, but what most people expect from a wiki (like Wookieepedia for example) is something nice and simple where things match each other.

So far I've turned the Vittore Montegue and Inyos Aamoran pages into examples of the sort of thing I'm aiming for. I've tried to keep all of the fields in the infobox as generic and flexible as possible, so they'll work for all factions and all settings, and I've tried to strip it down to the bare minimum - for example, instead of four or five fields in the infobox for different kinds of relatives, I've added a description in the main body of the article to talk about / list your family instead.

The things I've added are to try and integrate the wiki a little better: that "Star Wars" icon at the top will be different for each setting, and I'm planning to make it so that clicking on that link will take you to a "home page" for each setting to make navigating around a little easier. I've also added a place to link back to your main / OOC account, and there's a spot to put your image claim, mostly for the sake of people (like me) who sit there squinting at the image wondering where the heck they recognise them from.

I have put together a guide in case anyone wants to try and adapt one or two of their existing pages to match the new style, to get a sense of how user friendly it is. Don't get too carried away though, and make sure you post in here if you have converted any pages - if I have to make any tweaks to the template/etc, all of those converted over pages will need tweaking as well!

Feedback is appreciated, especially if you feel like your character breaks the mould and needs infobox fields that aren't included. Tweaking things now is easy... tweaking things in several months time when dozens of pages converted across will be a pain in the butt.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I like the simplification of the character pages a lot, I'm just not looking forward to redoing mine.

[Captain Untouchable]

Maybe if you behave, the wiki fairy might help out with that a little.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Fingers crossed!

[Captain Untouchable]

Word of warning for any of you that are testing out this template.

When you come to translate across your thread list / timeline, make sure that you are using the "new" style of forum url - ie. the ones that include the thread title written in the url.

The old urls include an equals sign, and that makes some of the wiki code a little cranky.

[Emelie Shadowstar]

Been converting Em's page over today. It's been a little crazy but I think that's just the amount of content I have (I figure Sadie or Cleo will be soooo much easier).

I think the Table of Contents dealy is really nice and with having a nice set of like... consistent headers/subheaders helps facilitate it and all. I loved when it used to show up but it was always kinda random as to what it did. The fact that this one appeared all neat and tidy and included everything made my OCDness soooo happy :3

[Captain Untouchable]

I've done a little tweak to the new infobox so that it forces the table of contents to show up in the top left corner on everyone's page.

Ordinarily it only shows up if you have more than X subsections, but now it should be there for everyone.

Edit:

I'm working on making the timeline scroll box look a bit prettier. Make sure you are using the "Timeline" template there (not the "Scroll box" one). Right now they look the same, but the Timeline one is what I'll be tinkering with.

[Sleazy]

More stuff, idgets nice people! (damn it Sleazy, stop insulting people )

I have been mucking around with a new portal / main page, over yonder. Instead of having one home page that we try and cram all of the info onto, I'm trying to keep it simple on the initial landing page, and I'm giving each setting it's own little home page that goes into a bit more detail - I've already started on the Star Wars one (I know not all the factions are there, I'm workin' on it ). Hopefully that'll make things a little less cluttery, especially if you're browsing the wiki on a non-widescreen monitor.

I figure that if we return to the idea of focus characters and focus threads that's more likely to be something we publicise as a Front Page article, so I've switched to having one article from the Front Page, and one sorta... featured wiki page. If that featured news article happens to be a focus thread article we get the same thing, but we've also got a bit more freedom and flexibility so that we don't end up still showing articles from 2012.

Also, I am aware the little placeholder WOD icon looks god-awful... I am waiting on an opportunity to enlist Christin's help with that sort of stuff.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It looks really nice!

[Captain Untouchable]

Few update type things!

1) The new portal page is now the default home page. The old one still exists, it's just been moved to a different page name.

2) Sarah has been a HUGE help testing out the new bio template. I'm going to test it out with some MU and DC characters to make sure it works for non-Star Wars settings. Assuming nothing breaks horribly, I'll start converting stuff over, and working on the faction/location/etc type NuBoxes. In the meantime, feel free to start converting across your Star Wars characters if you feel inclined to do so!

3) If you use the new bio template, it will automatically put you in a category called "SW Characters". This means you only need to put yourself in faction categories. If you are converting your character over (but only if you are doing so) to the new format, please make sure you remove yourself from the old "Star Wars Roleplaying Characters" category. This means I can look in the old category and see which pages still need to be converted over - which makes my life a bajillion times easier.

[Atreyu]

Looking pretty - nice work Captain!

Just to throw another thing into the ring, is it possible for someone if they have time to fix the 'Group Datasheet' thingys on the group pages (such as those on the Greater Jedi Order and Jedi Enclave pages for example)? They've been borked for ages but I don't know how to fix them.

[Kid Flash]

Unfortunately it's not quite a case of "fixing" - the code that's used in those old infoboxes just doesn't work any more, because of addons being out of whack or things not copying across properly, or something along those lines. That's why I'm doing a complete overhaul from the ground up: it's easier to go through and do everything from scratch than to try and duct tape a solution with what's already there. I'm redoing absolutely everything, which includes those datasheets... it's just going to take a little while for me to systematically work my way through and be sure that everything has been done.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

http://theholo.net/wiki/index.php/SW_Timeline_2 Just making sure you've seen this page, Jace, our timeline overhaul from a while ago that I never finished. But it's got a good start there. Once I/we/someone/magic has added in everything from the old timeline I was going to rename it and get rid of the old one.