BrikWiki

[Quantumsurfer]

Yeah, I laughed a lot after I posted it too. Word filter=best.

Although...I wish it hadn't been...

[Quantumsurfer]

I'm kind of stuck with Teknology. I had thought about consolidating the entries onto one page because most of the entries are generic and short (with the exception of Capital Ships and the like because they're so big). That worked well for structures but I'm not sure it will work for Tek because the old tek entries have a crapload of pictures associated with the entry. So, you're getting examples but very little in the way of description. Which might be enough to justify its own page. But there are also alot of entries that are thematically very similar. So a browser would have to go back and forth to read about each thing.

That seems ok to do with Materials and Phenomena because those entries are thematically dissimilar. But Tek is highly generic, despite the fact that some of the pictures are really pretty cool and evocative. There isn't anything inherently BrikWars about a jeep. Its a jeep here, its a jeep there. The rules don't really talk about jeeps and the community doesn't have jeeps as part of its lore. They're part of armies, sure, and the image of the jeeps on the old brikwiki is really pretty but its not the same as defining brikwars specific things. So, like, we can talk about how brikwars influences the idea of a police station (by being a twisted version of one) or how brikwars affects tactics (favoring close combat and the like). But, I mean, we can make a blanket statement about how brikwars influences the idea of engines of war (they should be bigger, and carry more weapons) and be done with it.

It seems more interesting to focus on the Tek that is BrikWars inspired. Things like how specific factions or neutral arms dealers manufacture weapons and vehicles, where, why, and what kinds of advancements they've made. Or brik Science and the kinds of teknology it comes up with. Once we've got those sections, I'd want to minimize the rest but I'm not sure how. Am I making sense? I feel like I'm rambling and I'm deeply exhausted right now so I'll stop. Thoughts?

[Bragallot]

Alright, I made a page: http://brikwars.com/wiki/index.php?titl ... l_Conflict I basically took the Immortal War page as a template and just went from there.

It might still need some pictures to go with it, although I'm not sure. I put internal links to pretty much anything I could put an internal link to (even small characters) as that is probably the best way for the Wiki to grow. My approach now will be to look at pages you guys made, and create as many pages for the internal links that aren't covered yet which pertain to stuff I could reliably write a page on, starting with the most important ones (so I probably won't make pages for small side characters until the important stuff is done).

I'm wondering though, can I add these pages I create to some kind of category somehow? (so that they'll show up in some kind of index, like 'characters index' or 'player index' automatically?)

Importing images and liking words to things with similar names (like linking Assyrians to the 'Assyrian Star Empire page') also seemed easier, although it's probably I just haven't found the easy way of doing that on this Wiki yet.

[stubby]

All right, I put a couple hours in and there's all kinds of new stuff now.

6. Categories are now set up to auto-index: see Category:Inhabitants of the Universe for example.
7. Templates like Template:Player and Template:Character now include the code to automatically set page categories.
8. I figured out how to make battle tables sortable by column. See Natalya for a good example.
9. Lots and lots of redirects. ASE, Assyria, Assyrian, Assyrians etc. now all redirect automatically to Assyrian Star Empire like they're supposed to, for example. If you want to do redirects of your own, the code is pretty simple.

I set the front page to navigate to the category indexes, but in hindsight that was probably a mistake. It will probably be better to have standard pages for the categories that showcase some highlight entries, and then link to the exhaustive auto-generated category indexes from there.

If you want to know how any of these things were accomplished, just go to the respective pages, hit edit, and look at the code. Most of it is pretty clean I think.

[stubby]

can I add these pages I create to some kind of category somehow? (so that they'll show up in some kind of index, like 'characters index' or 'player index' automatically?)

I added a [[Category:History and Chronology]] tag at the top, congratulations. You're the first story in the category.

Later I'm sure we'll be breaking History and Chronology into sub-categories of Story Arcs and Reconstruktion entries and so forth.

[Quantumsurfer]

All super nice.

It will probably be better to have standard pages for the categories that showcase some highlight entries, and then link to the exhaustive auto-generated category indexes from there.

I think I agree with this. Maybe the community portal could be used to house the list of category indexes?

Later I'm sure we'll be breaking History and Chronology into sub-categories of Story Arcs and Reconstruktion entries and so forth.

That was my thought too. The years are a simple way to do it but most of them go empty or are filled with meaningless bs. Your Reconstruktion concept demands something a little less conventional. And since Story Arcs are basically the community's way of chronicling history now, it seems better to run at it that way. Maybe group stories in a range of years under a single heading (we can just use the ones we've already got). We could then consolidate the years themselves into a single Timeline page with bullet points, some of which link out to those story arcs and some to longer and more detailed pages like DSM, Yellow Castle, and Hospital 555.

[Bragallot]

Nice work.

Alright, I made a 'new' page for the Inquistadores: http://brikwars.com/wiki/index.php?titl ... l_Monarchy

I've partially taken the old entry, but also edited in some new stuff, like the storyline from the Commandos battles, though I try to avoid going in detail on the main page, we have the story category for that.

You'll notice that I link to a lot of stuff, including singular weapons, 'minor' characters... the idea (for me, at least) is to leave these as they are for a while until we get the important stuff (main factions etc.) done, after that it would be cool if weapons / vehicles had their own categories / pages perhaps with information on who uses them, when / where they have been employed etc. (so for instance if you were looking for battles where the AC or any other specific creation saw action, you could find them on their page).

[Ben-Jammin]

I've been wanting to upload a page for the Calvarian Empire and Adamarian Federation, but I can't log into the wiki without making a new account. Anyway to fix this?

[Bragallot]

Make a new account? I think we've all had to make a new account, regardless of whether we were part of the old Wiki or not.

[Quantumsurfer]

Nicely written, Brag, as always. I linked out OTC since that will probably always remain its own page. And I linked in psychic powers to Psioniks in Materials and Phenomena, which I'm working up the motivation to write soonish. Also, I linked in to the monarchy from Factions and Forces. Good thought on that BrikVerse redirect.

You'll notice that I link to a lot of stuff(...)

I agree. I think thematically different things should get their own pages, as long as there isn't anything else like it. Also leaves room for expansion of the concept like tech developments, mutations, and other new storyline elements.

[Quantumsurfer]

I don't remember making a new account. I *may* have back when I very first learned about it, forgot about it, and didn't do anything with it til recently. But I'm unsure because my login info is the same for here.

[Tzan]

Stubby just adds you to a Forum User Group.

UserControlPanel>UserGroups

You can see your current groups.

BrikThulhumanati
Human kultists who advance the agenda of BrikThulhu in their respective plastic-brick domains, with their powers of wikis and comment threads.
This is an open group, members can apply to join.

So PM stubby to join and advance the BrikThulhu agenda through wiki editing.

[stubby]

Stubby just adds you to a Forum User Group.

Added. Try logging in again.

Nicely written, Brag, as always. I linked out OTC since that will probably always remain its own page. And I linked in psychic powers to Psioniks in Materials and Phenomena, which I'm working up the motivation to write soonish. Also, I linked in to the monarchy from Factions and Forces. Good thought on that BrikVerse redirect.

I may go back in later and break all the big pages apart into more n00b-friendly chunks. I don't want to have to read a big wall of text anytime it's not completely necessary.

[Quantumsurfer]

I may go back in later and break all the big pages apart into more n00b-friendly chunks. I don't want to have to read a big wall of text anytime it's not completely necessary.

That's a really good idea. So long as there is still ease in navigation. Maybe a sidebar template that lists all the parts on each part page so users don't have to click out or go back and then click back in.

[stubby]

Click out and click back in? Someone reading a wiki without tabbed browsing? Preposterous!

Seriously though. Long pages are the definition of difficult navigation. If I have to scroll to find the information I'm looking for, it's 1990s web design.