Fixing up the Wiki Options

[Twilight Wandere...]

Since apparently this is the most important revenue for us right now I've gone and combed through the wiki and made notes about things that could be changed.

Granted this is still in Twi speak so some of this may need to be explained. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif) ;

Launched October 1st, 2010, so we're very new! Currently under construction. Thank you for your patience and your contributions to make this the BEST Harvest Moon and Rune Factory Wiki!
That's dumb. Fix it.

Serious main page fix. Adding news, featured articles, trivia, and featured images.

Move games over to side. Arrow thingie. Console listed games.

Current events. What do?

Staff. Links to a place, which is awesome, but that's a little outdated. Since it's connected to the main page it could be listed under that.

Help/References, think there's a table code thingie, i'll see if that's an actual thing. If so, needs to be added here so others don't have to go digging.

I'll add some more as I keep moving through, but that's it for right now.

[Jason]

- Removed the "we're new" thing. ;)
- Removed/Updated existing Staff. If you want to be added, post your answers.

[Twilight Wandere...]

First Name: Kat
Year Born: 1993
Location: Texas

Hobbies: Messin' around in GIMP, reading mythology, ship navigation

Favorite Harvest Moon Game: A Wonderful Life
Favorite Harvest Moon Spouse: Ignis
Favorite Harvest Moon Character: Ignis
Favorite Harvest Moon Animal: Siamese Cat (Romana's cat that you can't befriend.)
Favorite Harvest Moon Tool: Hammer
Favorite Harvest Moon Event: Familial scenes with Ignis

It took me a while to determine what you meant by answers. :|

Just out of curiosity, what IS the Current Events page for?

[Jason]

It took me a while to determine what you meant by answers. :|

Just out of curiosity, what IS the Current Events page for?

Thanks, I'll add it.

I can't remember, but I went to it and it says "reserved page" which meant that it was just a placeholder. It's been a while since I've edited the core wiki, I'll have to remove that when I get a chunk of time. ;)

[Gear]

The cheat sheet needs an update.
http://wwww.ranchstory.co.uk/site_cheatsheet.html
By update I mean a new coding for the fonts. ^^;
Bold text is actually made by three ''' in each end of the word. (Which explains why a lot of pages have incorrect bold font codes)

Image url is without the need for the tags. An url that ends with a .jpg works fine to add images.

Still trying to figure out the hyperlinks and italic font code.

[Jason]

Ah, that cheat sheet was for editing content on the old site, not the wiki. We've discontinued editing content for the old site and just redirect all the pages to the wiki. :P Disregard everything on this page haha.

What you're looking for is this reference page: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting

The cheat sheet needs an update.
http://wwww.ranchstory.co.uk/site_cheatsheet.html
By update I mean a new coding for the fonts. ^^;
Bold text is actually made by three ''' in each end of the word. (Which explains why a lot of pages have incorrect bold font codes)

Image url is without the need for the tags. An url that ends with a .jpg works fine to add images.

Still trying to figure out the hyperlinks and italic font code.

[Charmy]

Ah! I want to bring up the "tone" of the wiki.
I've noticed with a quick skim that both, Twi and Gear, of your content, has, like, "personality." I remember discussing with Crystal Talian ages ago that we would try to get rid of that as seen in the old website and go for what most wikis have, "impersonal and straighforward", or such. I don't remember if anyone else commented on this, but before you keep on posting as you do, I wanted your opinions. I myself like the impersonal tone like most wikis.

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

I think personal tone is fine, so long as it's informative and unbiased. Like, I remember on the regular site there used to be a few lines that said "I think this character is the best/worst" sorts of things and that doesn't fly. But informally commenting on them without saying it's awesome or not is totally fine.

[Twilight Wandere...]

I vote on what i've been doing, mostly because it's straight from the game profiles itself.

The side bar under the picture is for the formal tone. The giant stuff to the left that you're saying is personal is indeed "personal" as it's more in depth.

What Jerome said he's seen is unacceptable, but I believe what I've been doing is fine since, as stated, it's from the game, so theoretically it is indeed "factual"

If the rest of the wiki is in this impersonal tone that we're talking about i'd consider changing it to more fit the majority, but from what I understand it's just a thing that has been discussed, not implemented.

[Charmy]

Well, I know that me and Crystal took it on, but yeah, I don't know about anyone else. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif)
I know that if I go through to edit anyone else's stuff, I've always taken those kinds of comments out. From what I skimmed, yeah, you didn't make any biased remarks or anything silly. I still prefer the formal tone though. I don't know what the majority of what the wiki is in, I think it's more or less half and half. I think there should be a vote to make it final?

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

Well, if you'd like to have the board more formal that's fine. In this particular case that Twi's discussing however it sounds like it's direct from the game. Seems like something that should be preserved. Maybe put some quotes around it if it's a problem.

[Charmy]

There's a cute Eevee on the TV, what, is this a second Pokemon movie. TWO IN A ROW, WHUT. /*A*\
Ahhh, Eeve evolutions, they're so kawaii! >.<

Um, okay.
I think if it's direct from the manual, there should be a note underneath that sources it?
But I'd usually try to change that sort of information, make it formal and make it "our own Ranch Story" information". As you can't do direct information from the manual for all pages, but, I don't know what everyone would prefer. I know some people would like to be able to access the official information.

[Charmy]

Just going to bring up some things I bought up in the other topic again. ^^

Currently there are three templates for character information boxes.

-> The old one
-> The new one
-> The new one for no rivals - not a candidate.

Before we go through and go clean a lot of pages, seeing as there's so many character pages, I was wondering if you think we should make an changes to these boxes, or maybe clean them up (These "HM boxes" are also used for the Rune Factory characters). It would mean a lot of the boxes would have to be changed, but I'm willing to go through and change most of them like when I added redirects/disambiguation pages with Crystal.

Once these get fixed, I will edit the template page.

I made my own decision. :I
Check the template page for changes. There's now two character information boxes. If you have any objections, speak now, or forever hold your peace.

I'm still in the midst of working out how templates really work and whether or not I can manage myself making a tables template (Press "edit" and how complicated they can get). I do want to assure you though that once you get the hang of tables in the wiki format, it's not that difficult. I can see where your worries/reluctance come from though. ^^;
The least I can do is make some shortcut words for some of the coding, like colours for example, or make a small guide if you'd prefer.

[Peter]

I've started digging in the Wiki myself now. I'm still not 100% familiar on everything yet, but I'll figure it out.

I do know that Innocent Life needs a (Special Edition) section like the other games have, but I'm not allowed to edit that table apparently (not that I want to... that code looks absolutely horrendous).

I'm just about finished up with some of the games on my NP list, so I'm going to go out, buy a notebook, and start cracking into some of the HM/RF games that I haven't played/finished yet. This should not only help you all out with content, but help me with my stupid Backloggery. Once it is all written in a notebook, I'll post it all here and then assist with getting it into the respectful page.

Looks like every games has the following Pages: Contents, Intro, Features, Innovations, Characters (Are these ONLY new characters? Or characters that are in the game?), Trivia, At a Glance, and External links. Do you think it would be beneficial to have a section for the games that are Special Editions to have a section that identifies what is different to the old game?

-EDIT- Also added some trivia over in the Harvest Moon DS section.

[Gear]

I feel like I missed an entire conversation asking this but is safe to start adding images on the character boxes or should I wait for all them to be updated. I don't wanna have to reupload images in the future. (Well if possible, willing to do it anyway (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif) )

[Jason]

I should also remind everyone that I'm still open to reimbursing a few of the top-most content contributors for their HM game purchases...translators get brownie points.

Who doesn't love free HM/RF games?!

[Peter]

Aye same here. :) I've already put the offer out there for a few as well.

[Charmy]

I do know that Innocent Life needs a (Special Edition) section like the other games have, but I'm not allowed to edit that table apparently (not that I want to... that code looks absolutely horrendous).

Looks like every games has the following Pages: Contents, Intro, Features, Innovations, Characters (Are these ONLY new characters? Or characters that are in the game?), Trivia, At a Glance, and External links. Do you think it would be beneficial to have a section for the games that are Special Editions to have a section that identifies what is different to the old game?

I started to go ahead and add it, but I need to ask: Is the special edition simply a release for Playstation 2 with only a few changes?
Like, for example, the two Magical Melody games. Gamecube had a female character and rival marriages, while the Wii version doesn't. And that's it. Or like the two releases of Tides of Destiny, Wii/Playstation 3. Differences that small? Then the differences should be listed in "trivia" or it's own section or something. This may answer your later question.
Also, I wanted to fix up the game category pages sections before we go and change them all before they all start turning different again. I'll try to get to that as soon as possible - any comments guys?

I feel like I missed an entire conversation asking this but is safe to start adding images on the character boxes or should I wait for all them to be updated. I don't wanna have to reupload images in the future. (Well if possible, willing to do it anyway (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaexdee.gif) )

Adding images is perfectly fine - it will remain the same even if you change what information box it is. Don't worry. The code for images remains exactly the same, so go ahead.
While you're at it, just fix up any information boxes you come by so that they match those in the template page (Character Box & Character Box C).

[Peter]

I started to go ahead and add it, but I need to ask: Is the special edition simply a release for Playstation 2 with only a few changes?
Like, for example, the two Magical Melody games. Gamecube had a female character and rival marriages, while the Wii version doesn't. And that's it. Or like the two releases of Tides of Destiny, Wii/Playstation 3. Differences that small? Then the differences should be listed in "trivia" or it's own section or something. This may answer your later question.
Also, I wanted to fix up the game category pages sections before we go and change them all before they all start turning different again. I'll try to get to that as soon as possible - any comments guys?

I don't know. In that case, I ONLY have the SE, so I don't know what the original Innocent Life was like. If we are going to keep it as one page, then it should be identified in the stats/bio that the release dates are for the PSP, and we should identify that the PS2 had more released dates, and the media would be both UMD and DVD, since it came out on both. Then trivia can cover the SE changes.

I think we should be consistent though no matter what option we go with-- if we go with one page, then all of the versions that have a SE should be one page with trivia containing the differences.

Not sure what everyone else feels though.

[Charmy]

From out I can see, the differences are minor. The page would be similar to the Magical Melody page then. Today, I'll try to determine how game pages should look like and I'll delete the separate special edition page I made for Innocent Life.