wiki overhaul

[andy_5995]

Here's a discussion I thought I'd start after  tomreyn approached the subject in an email:

And then we have this separate wiki which already contains a lot of
information and which we should add more life to (or revive rather?),
namely docs.megaglest.org. We also9 need to clean it up, removing all
instructions for GAE and Glest (or at least move them out of the way -
but even if we just remove them they'll be conserved in the page edit
history still).

I made a ton of edits last year (my username on the wiki is LittleJohn) but I don't think I really even made a dent in what needs to be done.

I was a bit confused on converting the Glest references to MegaGlest. After doing some edits in that direction, and becoming more familiar with the wiki, I got the impression there was information about Glest that was intended to be kept in the wiki.

It seemed to be that a good starting point would be to edit the wiki home page, to which I don't have complete access. And even if I did have access, I'm still a bit confused as to what should be kept or renamed.

I also have some thoughts about removing a lot of pages from the wiki. Ideally, the wiki would be a complete reference, but since there are a lack of users editing and adding to it, I wonder if trying to be more focused wouldn't be a better idea.

For instance, most everything a player needs to know about the Megapack is at https://megaglest.org/techtree/ (btw, filux told me last year that info is out of date, and the docs from git are more current).

With regard to info to help people write scenarios and tech trees, it seems there should be xml source code examples on the wiki. I don't remember seeing any. I usually looked inside the xml files on my computer when I needed to reference how to write scenarios or modify techtrees. I found the LUA guide on the wiki quite helpful also.

I feel like I'm having a difficult time conveying my opinions here in a clear manner. I'll try sum up.

A prioritized list of what should be in the wiki

Figure out if any of that information is duplicated in the github repo. If it is, just link to it rather than having another wiki page that needs to be maintained

As a player, I'd like to see the Strategy Guides expanded upon. Building and production strategy for each faction. For instance, when the game starts, what order to build which buildings, suggestions about how many workers to build them, what's a good point to do upgrades, when's a good time to expand.

[titi]

I would appreciate any help with the wiki!
And yes please remove all Glest/GAE stuff.

[tomreyn]

So would I - very much.

Here's what I had replied on IRC:

These techtree docs need to be generated using a script which is in git - whenever data in the distribution is changed. we tend to forget this and so it's outdated. i guess both locations are probably  outdated.
What's more, this script produces broken unit images for me, it does not seem to work well with my hardware. i think it does work well on nvidia.
To be more precise: it's not the script that is broken there but the editor, producing images incorrectly (but that's all i know, could not even tell how it's incorrect).
Regarding xml source code on the wiki, there should already be some examples there, , not full files, but excerpts from xml files. but surely we could use more examples.
Regarding how to play: in the past, titi has disliked the idea of documenting "how to play" so much, because players should try + find out for themselves - it can be a fun experience.
In my perspective, too, the wiki should primarily be a resource for developers / modders (and game server hosts).

[Omega]

I added you as an admin on the wiki, allowing you to edit the main page.

Feel free to ask me any questions related to the wiki, its structure, templates, etc. I'm probably the most familiar with them, since I created most of them.

Also, on the topic of duplicate info, I firmly believe that it would be better to have info on the wiki instead of a github wiki. It's just plain easier to modify and mediawiki is vastly more powerful than Github's limited wikis.

You'd probably want to archive the GAE and vanilla glest info. Move their pages to something like "Old/<page name>" and then throw a link to that on an archive page. That way we have this historical data easily accessible. It's just very hard to navigate pages by their history alone, especially when pages have no links to them or get deleted.

[andy_5995]

I added you as an admin on the wiki, allowing you to edit the main page.

Feel free to ask me any questions related to the wiki, its structure, templates, etc. I'm probably the most familiar with them, since I created most of them.

Thanks, Kat. Only question so far is.. how do I add the template that indicates something like "This page is in serious need of updating."?

Are you on IRC or you just prefer me to use the forum if I have questions?

Also, on the topic of duplicate info, I firmly believe that it would be better to have info on the wiki instead of a github wiki. It's just plain easier to modify and mediawiki is vastly more powerful than Github's limited wikis.

You'd probably want to archive the GAE and vanilla glest info. Move their pages to something like "Old/<page name>" and then throw a link to that on an archive page. That way we have this historical data easily accessible. It's just very hard to navigate pages by their history alone, especially when pages have no links to them or get deleted.

Great! I was wondering about that. I'll be sure to archive as you suggest.

I suggest a (temporary) forum board for the wiki discussion. Here's what I see:

An individual page may require discussion.

Individual posts that contain links to 3 or 4 wiki pages. Users may browse these and decide to edit. It's one thing to say, "The wiki needs editing", but another to say... "Hey.. could you have a look-see at these 3 pages and edit them if you see anything wrong?"

With regard to discussing individual wiki pages, I know there's a discussion page for each wiki entry, but I think a bit more visibility is needed at this time.

[Omega]

Thanks, Kat. Only question so far is.. how do I add the template that indicates something like "This page is in serious need of updating."?

That's Template:Outdated. Documentation on the page has an example.

Are you on IRC or you just prefer me to use the forum if I have questions?

I'm afraid I'm not on the IRC. Can find me here (I usually eventually read everything that gets posted) or email me if you want to ensure I get it (kat.hoffert at gmail.com).

I suggest a (temporary) forum board for the wiki discussion. Here's what I see:

An individual page may require discussion.

Is there enough activity for that? I feel like it's easiest to just use one of the existing boards. We don't like to delete stuff, anyway (so the idea of a temporary board kinda runs afoul of that).

[andy_5995]

Is there enough activity for that? I feel like it's easiest to just use one of the existing boards. We don't like to delete stuff, anyway (so the idea of a temporary board kinda runs afoul of that).

Good point. Probably we can wait and determine later if that would help things along.