Planetarion Forums

Banned · 31 Dec 2004, 15:53

Crossposted on AD.

It is my pleasure to make public the Planetarion Wiki.

What is a wiki?
A wiki is a system for organizing large amounts of information. A wiki allows almost every page to be edited by anyone using any webbrowser. The wiki software we use supports a simple syntax (wikicode) somewhat similar to vbcode for linking between pages and for general markup purposes.

What is PAWiki?
PAWiki is a wiki set up specifically for Planetarion. It is meant as a resource independant of PAteam, alliances, skill and social network. It is my hope that PAWiki will encompass material similar to that on Scouse' Caeneus page, the official manual and more. Perhaps in time it can hold strategy articles and newbie guides as well.

But there's almost nothing there!
The pages that have been filled out so far are mostly done by myself or some of the few people who have been let in a bit early to help out. This information is meant to be a seed from which the site can grow and flourish. You can help PAWiki by editing a page you find lacking or starting a new page.

Do I have to register?
Some actions require registering, but the most important one (editing a page) doesn't. Just be aware that your IP address will show up instead of your username if you aren't logged in when you edit a page.

Got IRC?
We (well, just me mostly these days) idle in #pawiki on netgamers. If you have any questions here would be a good place to ask them.

There's nothing about Round 13 there!
Better add something then!

What does this have to do with PD?
Many of the pages in the terminology category link to dead pages (by default these links show up as red rather than blue). For example, the arbiter page links to 'intel' which is an empty page. In addition the current pages cover only a bare minimum of terminology and game mechanics information. For example, the current stats are available, but combat is only described partially on the page about different ship types.

Please help fill out these articles so PAWiki can be a worthwhile resource

mist · 31 Dec 2004, 18:49

how do you sign up?
how do you add stuff to the terminology? i was gonig to write some pages on irc, but couldn't see a way to create a catagory :/

[edit] found the login thingy. still a little lost tho, and don't want to add stuff in the wrong place :/ [/edit]

-mist

wakey · 31 Dec 2004, 18:53

For signup theres a link in the top right corner i believe

To add something the easiest way i've found is

type http://www.clawofdarkness.com/pawiki/index.php/ into the browser
after the last /
Type the term you want to add and then hit edit

For example http://www.clawofdarkness.com/pawiki/index.php/l33t

Just remember to add
[[Category:Terminology]]
at the end of the article

JonnyBGood · 31 Dec 2004, 18:54

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Starting_a_new_page

Effectively you type in the address you want, click edit and start typing. Every possible wiki page already exists, it just hasn't been edited yet

mist · 31 Dec 2004, 19:14

ah, hitting edit on one of the existing pages makes it much clearer \o/

Banned · 31 Dec 2004, 19:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by mist

how do you sign up?
how do you add stuff to the terminology? i was gonig to write some pages on irc, but couldn't see a way to create a catagory :/

[edit] found the login thingy. still a little lost tho, and don't want to add stuff in the wrong place :/ [/edit]

-mist

Feel free to just add a page. Adding category is done by adding the [[Category:Terminology]] link at the bottom. If you're unsure what category a page should go in, add the page and use the talk page (or the IRC channel) to discuss where others think it should go.

Logging in/signing up is at the top right corner.

Edit: Beaten by Wakey.

mist · 31 Dec 2004, 20:02

i've put the [[Catagory:IRC]] link thingy at the bottom, but when i go to the irc catagory there's no listing like there is, for example, for the alliances catagory.

mist · 31 Dec 2004, 20:04

also, is there a way to put a # at the start of a link that doesn't cause problems?

i tried to create a section for #planetarion, but i think it sees it as a page jump point instead?

thanks muchly

Banned · 31 Dec 2004, 20:07

I've used hashpawiki for the #pawiki page. As for the Category, it looks to me that you created the page Category:IRC before linking to it, which creates problems. I'll have a look at it tomorrow. Generally though, use the [[Category:Foo]] link to create the category, then follow and fill in text at the top.

mist · 31 Dec 2004, 20:08

i created the catagory page once i'd gone there from the link i made on the IRC page, when i realised nothing was there. i was hoping that if i put the bit at the top, like the alliances page, it'd sort out the rest for me

Banned · 31 Dec 2004, 20:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by mist

i created the catagory page once i'd gone there from the link i made on the IRC page, when i realised nothing was there. i was hoping that if i put the bit at the top, like the alliances page, it'd sort out the rest for me

Odd, it should have done just that. Oh caught it, you misspelled Category ;p

I'd edit it but someone else is busy with the IRC page. Also, I saw you were editing the Planetarion's link to say [[Planetarion|Planetarion's]], the form you used first is the prefered form, so I've overridden your edit on that.

mist · 31 Dec 2004, 21:23

oh, ok. i thought having the 's outside the link made it look ugly.

how does the system deal with two people editing a page at the same time? as i might well have broken stuff you did :/

capitolisation of page names being important is kinda confusing when you're simply writing stuff. i'm not sure why the system doesn't lcase them all.

-mist

Banned · 31 Dec 2004, 21:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by mist

how does the system deal with two people editing a page at the same time? as i might well have broken stuff you did :/

It copes quite well, if the page is edited while one has it open, the wiki shows a warning and asks which of the changes you want to keep etc.

Edit: Also, it looks like 's isn't treated as plural s (ie not included in the link name). Dunno which is better in that case.

mist · 31 Dec 2004, 22:07

having poked it a little, this works really well. would be nice if it prompted for a catagory if you didn't put one in, to stop pages getting a little lost, but that's about the only gripe and it's a rather small one.

is it possible to put a list of catagories on the menu?
also, is it possible to do sub categories? all the various Alliences:Round XX and the Round XX categories seem a little ott somehow? i'd have quite like to be able to put stuff in sub catagories for the irc stuff as well, for instance keeping all the channels together.

that said, this seems like a hugely positive step. nice one jester.
has anyone asked pa about stealing parts of the current manual for it? seems kinda silly to

Banned · 31 Dec 2004, 22:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by mist

having poked it a little, this works really well. would be nice if it prompted for a catagory if you didn't put one in, to stop pages getting a little lost, but that's about the only gripe and it's a rather small one.

http://www.clawofdarkness.com/pawiki...al:Lonelypages

Dunno if that works entirely how I think it should work, but it's good enough for me.

See also:

http://www.clawofdarkness.com/pawiki...tegorizedpages

Quote:

is it possible to put a list of catagories on the menu?

http://www.clawofdarkness.com/pawiki...ial:Categories

It should be possible to add a link to that, but myself or Eol (who has elevated access) may have to do it. I'll look into it.

Quote:

also, is it possible to do sub categories? all the various Alliences:Round XX and the Round XX categories seem a little ott somehow?

Yes, it's possible. Eol and I had a long discussion about how to best organize the categories and we found out that having 'Alliances:Round XX' was the best way. The reason for this being that 'Round 12' can't really be a sub-category to Alliances.

Quote:

i'd have quite like to be able to put stuff in sub catagories for the irc stuff as well, for instance keeping all the channels together.

If you add [[Category:Foo]] to the text of Category:Bar, Bar becomes a subcategory of Foo

Quote:

that said, this seems like a hugely positive step. nice one jester.

Glad you liked it. Eol deserves credit for the the idea and a lot of the seed pages (especially alliance pages). He and I also spent a long time discussing the best way to categorize things. In the end we decided that we'd rather have good category pages than a good list of categories, which leads to stuff like the 'Alliances:Round Foo' categories, which on a list seem over the top, but by themselves are quite useful.

Quote:

has anyone asked pa about stealing parts of the current manual for it? seems kinda silly to

No, and for this reason I've avoided doing any outright copying. I've used the manual as a reference and inspiration many places, but made sure I've used my own formulations. I'm quite sure Eol has on the Terminology pages he's written as well.

mist · 31 Dec 2004, 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by banned

Yes, it's possible. Eol and I had a long discussion about how to best organize the categories and we found out that having 'Alliances:Round XX' was the best way. The reason for this being that 'Round 12' can't really be a sub-category to Alliances.

you can't do something like:

Code:

 Rounds          Alliances
   |                 |
   |                 |
Round X ---- Round X Alliances

so that it's accessable via two routes?
i don't think i quite follow what you mean

-mist

Banned · 1 Jan 2005, 00:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by mist

you can't do something like:

Code:

 Rounds          Alliances
   |                 |
   |                 |
Round X ---- Round X Alliances

so that it's accessable via two routes?
i don't think i quite follow what you mean

-mist

The problem here would be that the 'Alliances' category would be useless for actually displaying alliances. (Or you could make it include both alliances and the subcategories.)

mist · 1 Jan 2005, 00:23

rounds -> round X -> round X alliances -> alliance1, alliance 2 etc
alliances -> alliance 1, alliance 2, alliance 3 alliance 4 etc

where alliance 1 and 2 are from round X, but 3 and 4 arn't

round X alliances could be a section of a page, rather than a catagory, but you get the idea, i hope. didn't explain it too well before

-mist

Banned · 1 Jan 2005, 01:36

Ah, but what you describe now is still possible. It's probably the Right way of doing things as well.

Tactitus · 1 Jan 2005, 04:11

Looks like a positive step forward.

I have the R2-R6 ship stats if anyone wants to copy them in to the Wiki.

Banned · 2 Jan 2005, 06:36

Sticky = kiss of death.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tactitus

I have the R2-R6 ship stats if anyone wants to copy them in to the Wiki.

Thanks, I'll give it a go tomorrow.

I've also reorganized the todo page a bit so that people who have a good idea for something that should be added, but either don't know how or don't have the time or inclination to contribute directly can add it to the requests area and hope someone who does, will.

I'd also like to thank everyone who's contributed so far, and PAteam for gracefully allowing us to use material from the manual.