Star Wars The Old Republic Wiki talk:Community portal

New background

I told you I would let you know if any design changes are coming, and this one is fairly minor, but I thought I'd keep my promise and let you know. I'm going to be adding a stafield background to replace the solid black. It won't be a hugely noticeable change, just a few stars peeking out around the edges. You can see the image here --Wynthyst 04:03, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

I like the image. It fits us; we're all a bunch of space-cases anyway. :D

Let me know if you need any help rolling out any changes. With the lifting of the NDA I'm going to start actually documenting the game, but I also want to go through some time and define all the tables and infoboxes wothin the project as present classes within the CSS. That way anyone can change, in its entirety, how they see the site when logged in. -- Heaven's Agent 04:10, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

License templates

I made the changes Heaven's Agent requested to the image license templates I started this week. You can see a preview of the templates currently in my sandbox. Feel free to look them over for any mistakes I missed or any other changes anyone wants to request. Additionally, I posted proposed code for MediaWiki:Licenses at the bottom of the sandbox. — Eyes File:User-Eyes-Sig.png 17:18, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

I have concerns that some of the parameters used don't correspond to what's already present on the project, which will result in incompatibilities once an existing template is redirected to its equivalent within your structure:

• The "usage" parameter should instead be "use"
• The "desc" parameter should instead be "description"

I'm also concerned that in order to omit a parameter in the display, one has to delete that parameter from the code entirely. It should be possible to simply leave a parameter blank and have it be omitted from the output. This is an especially useful consideration for those new to wiki editing, who may be learning how to do things by simply copying code from an existing article and changing it as needed. By leaving all possible parameters within the code, such newcomers are better able to understand the full extent of what a template can accomplish. This is how I got my start in wiki editing, and is extremely useful for those who are naturally self-taught learners. -- Heaven's Agent 17:45, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

I thought it might be an advantage to have an empty value hide a row when it isn't relevant while removing the parameter would select the default.

And I set this up so that users are much more likely to refer to the directly-linked documentation first rather than another image page they'd have to find the right template on, especially given most of them will put the template on there through the license dropdown. I know few users understand how the license dropdown works; I only learned it fairly recently myself. Remember, it's going to put the template there with no parameters at all; that's why I added the feature of each template linking to its documentation anyway. It seemed the best way to handle what the software makes awkward in the rare special case you need to modify those parameters.

So what you're talking about is some very rare one-off case where someone copies code from an existing image page with a few missing parameters, which is likely to be a rare event among what's already special cases. Too much overengineering is a bad thing; you stop getting things done. Don't forgot too about the benefits of being a wiki: new users aren't alone--there's usually some experienced users lurking about.

Anyway, I'll bot the changes to the parameter names while waiting for a response on this. (The other change just might be bottable too.) — Eyes File:User-Eyes-Sig.png 18:29, 19 November 2011 (UTC)

If I couldn't have copy/pasted and edited, I wouldn't have started wiki work in the first place. You say they can look at the documentation, but a new contributor doesn't necessarily know to look for this. Additionally, expecting users to ask for help is not realistic; human beings are prideful, and not everyone is willing to admit they can't figure something out on their own. I wouldn't have, and I believe the vast majority of wiki editors are this way; someone has to have a certain level of confidence in his or her writing ability in order to author articles for everyone to see and potentially critique. Having to humble oneself and ask for help, even before they can author an article, can run counter to this personality.

It's not a rare one-off case, nor is it a case of over-engineering. It should be a rather simple change that might help bolster our numbers. I understand this isn't how your mind works, but when creating something for use throughout the project it's important to consider how others might do things, and account for those differences in perspective and method. -- Heaven's Agent 18:44, 19 November 2011 (UTC)