BrikWiki

[Quantumsurfer]

I see. That makes sense. I'm still wrapping my head around wiki...ness. Before I knew about redirects, I did find it a pain in the ass to modify entries when their name changed or something similar.

So we create a page for each thing that contains either the redirect to a category page if its a somewhat generic (or rather, highly themed) entry or includes its own entry right on the page if its unique or contains the potential for massive expansion. Then we can subheader the category pages in order to create a page index. Am I getting that right?

[stubby]

I'm not sure how to parse what you just described, but this is my design priority:

Imagine that a 10-year-old wants to add a page to the wiki. Will he be able to do it?
If yes, then the design is sound.
If no, then we need to take a step back and simplify.

Because BrikWars depends on the excitement fans with the mental capacity of third-graders, the wiki will live or die according to whether or not numbskulls can successfully operate it. If we make the rules too complicated we'll just be making infinite work for ourselves, doomed to forever correcting all the entries where new people show up and do it wrong.

So - I'm trying to make stuff as automatic as possible with the templates and redirects and category settings. For example: The {{User}} template has [[Category:Users]] built right into it, so the wiki engine keeps any page with a {{User}} template indexed automatically without any extra work on our part.

[Quantumsurfer]

Solid.

[Quantumsurfer]

Ok, this is what I was getting at. It seems to match your design philosophy. I feel like a 10 year old could do it

Structures

So, each item now appears in the content box at the top of the page. Presumably, anyone adding to the list would just copy/paste an existing entry and replace the details. Doing so would automatically capture the subheader (====Name of Place====) and it would be indexed by the wiki in the content box.

Then, I've gone ahead and created pages for Airport and Armory as examples of this process. On them, I put: #REDIRECT [[Structure]]
(I had to link out from the structure page because I know of no other ways to create a page...they can be edited out if necessary since the redirect page now exists)

So, anyone who searches for Armory, for example, would go to the redirect page which would send them to the Structure page. There, they could click "Armories and Supply Depots" right at the top of the page and jump directly down to that part of Structures.

Another user who does not know what the wiki contains may be simply browsing. He would start with Places and Locations and see the Structures link at the bottom of the page. Clicking it would bring him to the Structures page with the content list at the top. If he were only interested in Moonbases, for example, he could click "Moon, Asteroidal, or Space Facilities" in the content box and jump straight down. If he wants to read them all, he can scroll.

What do you think? Before I put in a bunch more work and create the redirect pages (because I'm pretty lazy). (And I apologize for being over-elaborate...I wanted to make sure I was being clear enough since I muddied up my last post).

[Zupponn]

Stubby

I'm pretty sure you missed a few apearances there.

[stubby]

It's a wiki, I don't have to get it all right on the first try. It's iterative. If you see something missing, feel free to add it.

[stubby]

Ok, this is what I was getting at. It seems to match your design philosophy. I feel like a 10 year old could do it

Ha ha, you have a much higher opinion of ten-year-olds than I do! Based on the previous wiki, I'm thinking that this is the usual level of sophistication to expect:

http://brikwars.wikispaces.com/A-76+Heavy+Fighter
http://brikwars.wikispaces.com/awesome+faithful.
http://brikwars.wikispaces.com/B.+Itch
http://brikwars.wikispaces.com/Baalville

Even though I'm making fun of them a little bit, I thought these were completely valid and valuable entries. Red links and stub entries are a valuable part of a wiki ecosystem because they serve as points of entry to engender interest and encourage people to add more material over time.

[Quantumsurfer]

Ha ha, you have a much higher opinion of ten-year-olds than I do!

I must.

Alright, we'll revert to the list o' links. With each entry having its own stub article, there really isn't much reason to add redirects except to automate pluralization and misspellings.

I'll probably just leave what I've done and, in place of the redirects I created, I'll copy the text I've written over to their own pages. Then, later, if someone wants to restructure the long pages back into a list of links, they can. In the meantime, I'll muck about with added content and transfers.

[Bragallot]

http://brikwars.wikispaces.com/B.+Itch

Made my day

[pkbrennan]

Can I volunteer to work with Quantumsurfer on porting the old wiki over? I have *some* experience working within wikis - example, my infamous Vogon Love Poem over at Unpoetia: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/UnPo ... m?&cb=8532

[stubby]

I'll probably just leave what I've done and, in place of the redirects I created, I'll copy the text I've written over to their own pages. Then, later, if someone wants to restructure the long pages back into a list of links, they can. In the meantime, I'll muck about with added content and transfers.

Oh, I got interrupted and didn't get to finish what I was going to post. Stubs are great, and what you've done already is great, and the fact that the two styles aren't similar doesn't bother me at all. I expect the overall wiki style to evolve over time, especially during this initial shakedown period, and having multiple examples "in the wild" is a good way to get people moving and engaged if one way or the other appeals to them more and really figure out what works and what doesn't.

Can I volunteer to work with Quantumsurfer on porting the old wiki over? I have *some* experience working within wikis

Of course, anybody can do whatever they want, experienced or otherwise. Even if you fuck everything up completely, there's undo buttons built in to the page histories, so everybody feel free to go crazy.

[Quantumsurfer]

Oh, I got interrupted and didn't get to finish what I was going to post. Stubs are great, and what you've done already is great, and the fact that the two styles aren't similar doesn't bother me at all. I expect the overall wiki style to evolve over time, especially during this initial shakedown period, and having multiple examples "in the wild" is a good way to get people moving and engaged if one way or the other appeals to them more and really figure out what works and what doesn't.

This clears things up for me, thank you. I like the approach.

[pkbrennan]

If I start porting over the BrikWars Universe section, that a page has not yet been created for but is red marked on front page, hopefully we won't clash too much. We shall see. If something already exists on the first list it will appear blue not red.

[Quantumsurfer]

http://brikwars.com/wiki/index.php?title=BrikWars:Community_portal

But yeah, the BrikWars Universe page needs work.

[Quantumsurfer]

So I've slowly been working on Transparent Element. I've been adding in bits and pieces I remember from the forums concerning specific types such as Prussian Blue and Zupponn's unique refinement of GT. I have some ideas for the base elements themselves but I was wondering if there were any variant types I missed.