Orbiterwiki maintenance

[Ripley]

...I was wondering if I could get a general consensus to at least de-link this from the addons category?...

Maybe move (NO deleting) them to a new "Obsolete/abandoned stuff" category, or something like that?

 

[Urwumpe]

Maybe move (NO deleting) them to a new "Obsolete/abandoned stuff" category, or something like that?

What if it is not? What if somebody resumes editing there? I can't decide what shall happen then. As such, I am against it.

But I could imagine having a stricter definition of what an add-on is, like "Has been released", "Is in development" or "Is a prosa concept of a future add-on".

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Maybe move (NO deleting) them to a new "Obsolete/abandoned stuff" category, or something like that?

Thats the issue. Without help from the sites admins there doesnt appear to be any way to create new categories. I can do a lot as is, but Im going to need a few new categories at some point. Just to close the issue, Im not into deleting anything either, its just that if you read the Manifest Destiny articles theyre not even vaguely close to a proper wiki writing style, just the authors pipedream for Orbiter (his contact info lists the M6 forums :lol. That being said, if the components pictured were ever meshed, it would be terrific to be able to use them as finished addons, they looked very nice :thumbup:

:thankyou: Dansteph! I didnt even dream of this deluge of info on your work. That will make it significantly easier to redo the pages in question.

 

[Urwumpe]

New categories are simple...

[[Category:Name]]

In the article, I recommend putting the category links at the end of the article, it doesn't matter where they are there for rendering them correctly, but they are less disturbing when you want to edit the article there.

Much better is using special templates for special categories, but this requires more planning.

You can create both categories and templates as normal user. Only moving and deleting articles requires admin permissions.

PS: Remember correct spelling. It is "add-on" not "addon", according to the dictionary.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

New categories are simple...

[[Category:Name]]

In the article, I recommend putting the category links at the end of the article, it doesn't matter where they are there for rendering them correctly, but they are less disturbing when you want to edit the article there.

Much better is using special templates for special categories, but this requires more planning.

You can create both categories and templates as normal user. Only moving and deleting articles requires admin permissions.

PS: Remember correct spelling. It is "add-on" not "addon", according to the dictionary.

Thank you. I didnt realize linking a category would automatically create it.

 

[Urwumpe]

Thank you. I didnt realize linking a category would automatically create it.

Yes, that is the behavior in a wiki. You also don't need to manually add links for every entry to the article that describes the category, this category description is for explaining what belongs into the category and which articles are related to it, maybe highlight important articles in the category...but not all.

 

[dansteph]

:thankyou: Dansteph! I didnt even dream of this deluge of info on your work. That will make it significantly easier to redo the pages in question.

You welcome, if you have any question don't hesitate to contact me in PM. I don't follow specially this thread.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Okay next little project for anyone interested: I would like some nice screenshots for a new Wideawake International page. Anything you like, especially using the graphics clients, just post it here and Ill give it a look. happy :camera:!

Other thought: can I get permission from Martins to edit the FAQ page which he appears to have written? I would like to update some of the outdated info pointing to M6 and clean up the page in a few small ways.

 

[martins]

The Free Compiler Setup page seems a bit out of date. It still refers to Orbiter 2006 (with separate SDK package) and doesn't mention the orbiter property sheets that come with Orbiter 2010, which should make setting up projects a lot less tedious.
Also, the "C++ language change" section should no longer apply.

I could start updating the page, but I am using VS Professional, so I may not be aware of some steps required for the Express edition. Since the page refers specifically to FREE compiler setup, maybe an addon developer who works with Express could do it?

Other thought: can I get permission from Martins to edit the FAQ page which he appears to have written? I would like to update some of the outdated info pointing to M6 and clean up the page in a few small ways.

Be my guest. I think this was simply transcribed at some point from the Orbiter FAQ page (which I really should update as well).

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Oh, nice.
Urwumpe and spambots now have company

What would really help Orbiterwiki, make it's maintenance more meaningful, and make it useful is a link on it from the forum's top.
Not an obscure one in the menu, but a big WIKI button.

Tex?
What do you think?

Actually, I would argue that the problem is the opposite, lots of newcomers finding the wiki first along with its (decreasing) mountains of outdated information, but not finding the forums and real help until much later. That was my problem anyways.

But anyways now that Urwumpe appears to be online (He was actually logged off for once!!! :lol, I was wondering if I could test the waters on the subject of editing the wikis main page? I sat down a couple days ago & organized a list of changes I would like to make to it in order to make it more effective/coherent, and I was wondering if I could obtain a copy of the page source (cant do one yet, because the subcategories arent available under that pages source view), edit it, and post for approval? Structural changes would be better if implemented early, since less pages will need to be moved to comply with those changes.

Other wiki things:

-Im planning on removing the one VSA link under "Community Links", as its page is broken/missing. I will keep a copy of that section archived in case it is still alive and has a non-broken link
-Other VSAs: If you have one and would like a mention, create a banner and a description and Ill link it for you. Even if your link is just the VSA thread on the forums, having a link to it cant hurt
-Is there any interest in creating a custom Orbiterwiki logo? I dont know whether we can add one, but it would be nice if we could (I assume the current one just gets put on any new wiki site)
-Any pictures that you feel would be useful for the wiki, just post them or their link here, and Ill try to use them for it. Im not incapable of taking them, but its nice to have more than one creative mind at work on these things.

Carrying on

---------- Post added 10-28-12 at 10:03 PM ---------- Previous post was 10-27-12 at 11:30 PM ----------

Ahem, cough, cough, sorry to bother, but I could use answers for the above...

 

[rstarkov]

The best way to update the main page is to set up a copy of the page under something like "Main Page/MyRedesign", edit it as much as you like, get it reviewed when ready, and then Urwumpe or myself can apply your changes to the real thing.

To set up such a page, you'd click on the protected page's "View Source" link and copy that to clipboard. Next you manually add "/MyRedesign" (or whatever you like) in the browser's URL bar. You'll get a blank page and a "Create" link. Just click that link and paste the source you copied. Save.

The Main page is a bit tricky in that it includes several other pages, but you can just apply the same trick to all of them. For example, OrbiterWikiilot_section: navigate to that page, copy the source, add "/MyRedesign", paste the source. Now to back to MainPage/MyRedesign, and find all references to Pilot_section (there are two). Append MyRedesign.

Etc.

To test that all this works, I've logged in as a Test user and set up this: http://www.orbiterwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page/Redesign - note the "Pilots" section has changed. You're welcome to just edit this "/Redesign" stuff I've already created, but you'll still need to apply the trick to the Developer, Contributors, etc sections in order to modify them.

Regarding the logo: the current one was custom-made in 2005 or so. If someone comes up with a nice replacement that others like, we can use that instead. Same goes for the skin, but it's harder to get people to agree that a new skin is nice...


P.S. I don't edit much on OrbiterWiki, but I look at every edit since that's the only reliable way of catching all spam. So if you edit my Talk Page there (http://www.orbiterwiki.org/wiki/User_talk:RaMan) I'll definitely see it. I'm certainly open to any requests that help make OrbiterWiki more useful, admin/server-side things in particular.

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

The best way to update the main page is to set up a copy of the page under something like "Main Page/MyRedesign", edit it as much as you like, get it reviewed when ready, and then Urwumpe or myself can apply your changes to the real thing.

To set up such a page, you'd click on the protected page's "View Source" link and copy that to clipboard. Next you manually add "/MyRedesign" (or whatever you like) in the browser's URL bar. You'll get a blank page and a "Create" link. Just click that link and paste the source you copied. Save.

The Main page is a bit tricky in that it includes several other pages, but you can just apply the same trick to all of them. For example, OrbiterWikiilot_section: navigate to that page, copy the source, add "/MyRedesign", paste the source. Now to back to MainPage/MyRedesign, and find all references to Pilot_section (there are two). Append MyRedesign.

Etc.

To test that all this works, I've logged in as a Test user and set up this: http://www.orbiterwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page/Redesign - note the "Pilots" section has changed. You're welcome to just edit this "/Redesign" stuff I've already created, but you'll still need to apply the trick to the Developer, Contributors, etc sections in order to modify them.

Regarding the logo: the current one was custom-made in 2005 or so. If someone comes up with a nice replacement that others like, we can use that instead. Same goes for the skin, but it's harder to get people to agree that a new skin is nice...


P.S. I don't edit much on OrbiterWiki, but I look at every edit since that's the only reliable way of catching all spam. So if you edit my Talk Page there (http://www.orbiterwiki.org/wiki/User_talk:RaMan) I'll definitely see it. I'm certainly open to any requests that help make OrbiterWiki more useful, admin/server-side things in particular.

:lol: yes, I didnt know we catered to Submariners now. I will work on that off-line as best I can, maybe a week or 2 till Im done. Apologies about the logo, but If someone can come up with a more... eye-catching design that might be nice. Thankyou for your help, and for all the work in keeping this wiki useful. Where does all of this bizarre spam come from?

If anyone is interested in creating a new Orbiterwiki logo, give it a shot & post here. I can also use any screenshots you can spare; Ill take anything, really...