Wiki Renovation. WE WANT YOU!

[vallorn]

by now im assuming very few of you have ever used the wiki. after a happy few months of use after its release it seems to have died.

therefore i have decided that it needs a spruce up. i need people to give articles a quick skim over for spelling and grammar (to edit you have to have a wikispaces account and get it registered).

the more important thing though is to get articles full of things that are useful. Cauldron Recipes, Bridge and Door tips and that kind of thing are awesome for new players and older ones who forget.

all in all GET IN THERE FELLAS!

people that are extra helpful might get me buying em Kits and Royalty as a thank you...

(PS: the link to the wiki is on the front page)

[Sti_Jo_Lew]

I might help out if I have some free time.

[andy25100]

I might help out if I have some free time.

[697134002]

Forgot my wikispaces password, but Jagorrax's name in the Corinth article is misspelled.

[Eddietester1066]

I could take a stab at a couple of topics. Just waiting to approved for edits.

[random980]

I might help out if I have some free time.

[xidontcarex]

I might help out if I have some free time.

[vallorn]

thanks so much for all the offers guys

here hoping it turns out well!

[Lord_Mountbatten]

Offers?

"I might help out if I have some free time" is the most committal thing I've ever heard. /sarcasm

And no offence, but it's for spelling and grammar. I'd hate to have to sweep through myself after the supposed proof-readers fail to do so, but I can see it happening.

[Byroe]

I might help out if I have some free time.

[Dnlvickers5]

I am gonna add an address here for those to lazy to go the front page. (and good idea on reviving the wiki vall)
http://escapecraft.wikispaces.com/

[aflycon]

Just to reiterate:

In order to help here, you need to meet the following criteria:
a) Have at least decent grammar
b) Know how to spell things
c) Actually know what you're talking about

So, yeah.

[697134002]

What would qualify as decent grammar for the Wiki? And would not good vocabulary be welcomed as well? Not insofar as to confuse the reader, but enough to make it emanate a proverbial glow of competence.

[Lord_Mountbatten]

Something that looks presentable would do nicely. That also doesn't mean you should pull out all the stops and make your writing so flowery as to actually seriously use the phrase "emanate a proverbial glow of competence" somewhere.

Here is something all aspiring users of the English language in any way, shape or form, will benefit from learning: complex vocabulary and the usage of it does not equal intelligence, insight, maturity, or professionalism. Whilst using monosyllabic words is not inherently bad, it is very easy to tell the difference between a professional who knows his stuff, and a teenager thumbing through a thesaurus in order to prove how much more intelligent he is than his peers.

So don't rework the articles to look like The Eye of Argon please. If a word isn't correct change it to a word that works, not just change "he thought about it" to "that human who did indeed possess diametrically pointed chromosomes ruminated fixedly upon the esoteric subject with which he had been given the bounteous honour of conveying his deeper processes of pontification toward".

Because in the end, it generally just makes you look like a twat, and I shall be editing back anything in the wiki that gets changed to look like that, excepting of course justifiable context.

[697134002]

Hence why I said, and I quote:

Not insofar as to confuse the reader

Although I now realize most people don't know what insofar means or can't tell from context.

[Lord_Mountbatten]

Although I now realize most people don't know what insofar means or can't tell from context.

I could certainly tell, but following up "let's not confuse the reader" with "emanate a proverbial glow of competence" seems to suggest that some see "good" vocabulary as something that requires complexity. I would rather anyone reading this thread realises that flowering up the wiki is counter-productive.

[ziggylord]

i think ill have a go at improving the USSR page.. as it is about 3 lines :/ also if anyone wants there town/faction/ whatever please tell me as im at mums all week which means no minecraft D: and my girlfriend just got WoW so i doubt ill be seeing her much...

[Lord_Mountbatten]

On the other end of the spectrum of good English however... is this.

What are the faults here? Let us see.

i think ill have a go at improving the USSR page.. as it is about 3 lines :/ also if anyone wants there town/faction/ whatever please tell me as im at mums all week which means no minecraft D: and my girlfriend just got WoW so i doubt ill be seeing her much...

• No capitalisation of "I".
• No capitalisation of things like "Mum" or "Minecraft".
• No apostrophes signifying compounded words like "I'll".
• No apostrophes signifying the singular possessive, like "Mum's".
• No signifying of new sentences via full stops.
• No capitalisation of words at possible new sentences.
• Usage of "there" instead of the correct "their".

Another thing for aspiring users of the English language to learn is that there's a right time and a wrong time to jump on someone for the mistakes they make.

Wrong time: Informal discussion where it doesn't matter.
Right time: When the person you jumped on says they're going to write an article that's supposed to look presentable.

[Iron_Fang]

I might help out if I have some free time.

[Skunk_Giant]

I suppose I'll help out. I'll try to refrain from writing any... well, any fictional stuff (see the page on me to see what I mean). Now... to the editing-mobile!

[random980]

A few things.
1. Are we going to delete pages that are a copy/redirection of other pages?
2. Whats the rule with topics starting with 'The?' Are we going to call a topics "The Brad Excuse" or "Brad Excuse, The?" (We seem to have both)
3. What topics classify as being worthy of a wiki page? Pages like 'Co-ordinates' seem to be rather useless. Also what would classify an 'OK' to make a page about another user? We dont need a page about every person who has ever joined.

[vallorn]

A few things.
1. Are we going to delete pages that are a copy/redirection of other pages?
2. Whats the rule with topics starting with 'The?' Are we going to call a topics "The Brad Excuse" or "Brad Excuse, The?" (We seem to have both)
3. What topics classify as being worthy of a wiki page? Pages like 'Co-ordinates' seem to be rather useless. Also what would classify an 'OK' to make a page about another user? We dont need a page about every person who has ever joined.

1. only if you think its necessary
2. i think we should have them as "The X" not "X, The". the second one never made sense to me.
3. coordinates for things should be fleshed out into their full articles. in fact most coordinates probably need updating from the Flush changes.

[697134002]

A few things.
1. Are we going to delete pages that are a copy/redirection of other pages?
2. Whats the rule with topics starting with 'The?' Are we going to call a topics "The Brad Excuse" or "Brad Excuse, The?" (We seem to have both)
3. What topics classify as being worthy of a wiki page? Pages like 'Co-ordinates' seem to be rather useless. Also what would classify an 'OK' to make a page about another user? We dont need a page about every person who has ever joined.

1. only if you think its necessary
2. i think we should have them as "The X" not "X, The". the second one never made sense to me.
3. coordinates for things should be fleshed out into their full articles. in fact most coordinates probably need updating from the Flush changes.

"X, The" is useful because, in an alphabetical order, you can find the topic by looking around the first letter of X rather than T.

[aflycon]

Yes, the "X, The" method has always been used for de-cluttering the T section of anything, usually tables of contents or wikis like ours. It's also the standard when it comes to grammar, last time I checked. So I think we should use it as opposed to "The X".

[haxxorzd00d]

As the creator and primary caretaker of the wiki, I feel I should clear some stuff up.

Yes, we're using the 'X, The' method of sorting articles. Any pages titled 'The X' are only there because I haven't gotten around to renaming them yet.

There are plenty of redundant pages that never saw proper use, such as the 'co-ordinates' page, which was intended to be a database of location information (yes, that rhymes, deal with it) - as well as lots of subjects that could be merged into more substantial articles, such as the Craftbook/Falsebook topics.

It's true the wiki certainly needs tidying up, as it's been almost completely abandoned for months. I'll go through and rename/merge/delete some pages, and put up some templates for common topics (towns, landmarks) for editors to use.