Community Portal

This is the primary discussion forum for the CS Wiki. Decisions made by the editors here on the Wiki will be posted here, as well as links to on-going discussions. Please be sure to use Signatures and Indentation appropriately in discussions - if you are unsure of proper style, please see our Welcome to Wiki Syntax guide.

Debate on Discussions

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:02, 27 June 2007 (EDT): When Wrye made the original page, he decided to include debates within this page. I prefer to keep them on a separate page, and simply have blurbs here about the decisions that have been made, to keep things concise. So I'm putting this debate here (since this was the style currently in use before we lost the Community Portal), please post your comments.

Signatures

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:02, 27 June 2007 (EDT): Before the Community Portal was lost, we had been having a debate about where signatures go in discussions. While the discussion had not been closed, no input had been made for a while. The voting, as I remember it, was 4-3 in favor of putting signatures at the end.

The primary argument for putting signatures at the front of posts was so that we know who is talking before we start reading.

The primary arugments for putting signatures at the end of posts was because this is how things are generally done in letters and the like, and because it definitively ends our post (so someone after us with sloppy signing won't be confused for part of our post).

Feel free to make any comments you like, as to whether we should consider this poll closed (in which case I will move my signatures), if you have anything more to add, or if you feel that either side was misrepresented.

Qazaaq 09:50, 27 June 2007 (EDT): I think we should close this discussion next monday. I don't think we'll see any more votes.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 20:03, 27 June 2007 (EDT): Sounds fine to me. By the way, please include a space between your post and the previous post.

Article vs Discussion Distinctions

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:12, 27 June 2007 (EDT): While this Wiki, by its nature, has a lot more discussion than most, including in the Article space, there is a general problem here that far too many things are signed, as if someone's personal writing that cannot be edited. This is not acceptable on a Wiki - everything is open for editing unless specifically a discussion or in someone's user space. We need some discussion on exactly what we want this Wiki to be like, and how we can fix things as they are.

Qazaaq 10:03, 27 June 2007 (EDT): I'm against signing anything but talk pages and discussion pages like this. Discussion should take place at the forums or the articles talk page. For questions about an article counts the same, talk page or the forums. If an article is in need of discussion put a link to a forum thread or the talk page at the bottom. Leaving your name will discourage others to edit the article and encourage discussion with only author instead of everyone on the Wiki. Signatures on existing pages should be removed.

General Cohesion Initiative

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:12, 27 June 2007 (EDT): Something I personally I feel is lacking here is cohesion amongst the articles. Too many articles are stand-alones, with few links to them and few links in them. Everything should be interlinked - you've all, I'm sure, had the experience of looking up something on Wikipedia and suddenly realizing that you've spent over an hour reading a dozen or more different articles which have increasingly little to do with whatever you looked up. That's how a Wiki should be - links everywhere, where you can move through the pages just by clicking and learn about everything. Navigation needs improvement here, as does the amount of linking we use.

I also recommend breaking up tutorials somewhat. Avoid large, scratch-to-finish tutorials, favoring shorter pages which focus on one specific thing, with links to the next step's page. This makes specific information much easier to find.

So in general, we need ideas about what this Wiki needs. Please post your ideas.

Qazaaq 10:06, 27 June 2007 (EDT): Before everything was lost, Wrye mentioned something about a breadcrumb trail like the UESP. I like it, but I'm not sure if it's that's going to solve the problem with the tutorials.

Community "Sheriff"

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:02, 27 June 2007 (EDT): I have been appointed the community's first "Sheriff". What this means is that I have access to a special "rollback" tool for reverting pages (useful for fighting spam/vandalization), and that I can lock and unlock pages (and edit locked pages). I have been chosen, as far as I can tell, because I was the one who bugged Bethesda about making one, though I also have some seniority around here. I'm told this is a "trial run" and that others may be promoted as well in the future.

Sheriff Action Requests

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:02, 27 June 2007 (EDT): This really should go in my Talk page or something, but since there was a section about this before, I'm putting it back. After things get settled, I expect to remove it.

First of all, a number of requests had been made, regarding the site design, the search engine, and the Toolbox. I cannot do any of these things, but I have passed these requests on to Bethesda directly (as I do not expect that they check here regularly).

Further, I'd asked for suggestions for changes to the Main Page, most notably the blurb in the top right, and the Featured Article that hasn't changed since the Wiki began.

Qazaaq 10:15, 27 June 2007 (EDT): I think 'the blurb' is looking quite good like this, there isn't much you can change. For the featured article I'd suggest A beginner's guide by dtom, it's an excellent guide and I'd be nice to see something different.

Terminology Discussion

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:02, 27 June 2007 (EDT): Wrye's lengthy article explaining the confusion of modding terminology has been lost. While I am sure that it will return, I just wanted to point out that this discussion is ongoing - see the thread on the ESF.

Trivial / Homeless / Uncertain Facts Page

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:02, 27 June 2007 (EDT): There had been some talk about creating a page for random, but useful information, or information that needed investigation. The idea would be that things could be put there, to be integrated into a relevant article at a later date. It would function as something of a "to-do list" for the Wiki, though with a relatively narrow scope.

Qazaaq 10:19, 27 June 2007 (EDT): It's a good idea to have a page for these things, it's better to have them here than only in someone's head. A link from the main page or the talk page is a good idea, those facts should be read by as much people as possible.

Scripting Section Hierarchy

Dragoon Wraith TALK 00:02, 27 June 2007 (EDT): Suggestions for improving the way the scripting section was laid out and put together should go here. I know there was some discussion of this, but I forget exactly what suggestions had been made or what was being discussed. I feel that improvements can certainly be made, so I want to encourage that discussion to restart.

Qazaaq 10:20, 27 June 2007 (EDT): Like I mentioned at the Discussion vs. Article section, I think the breadcrumbs sound like a good idea. To organize the scripting section is should work very well.

Haama 13:05, 27 June 2007 (EDT): At the very least I would like to see all of the subcategories found in Category: Scripting to be placed on the Main Page. However, I think the scripting heirarchy needs an overhaul. I would mainly like to see the scripting tutorials mixed in with the scripting category. I suggested something along the lines of: Basics (variable types, blocktypes, commands), Functions, Basic scripts (stuff like the MessageBox Tutorial to further show how to exploit a single command), Advanced script (a working Dynamic/Linked Lists tutorial), etc. There was more, but I'll need some time again to look over the subcategories.