Solving This Mess - Brainstorm Ways to Fix It

Slimetoad wrote:

If anything what the wiki should have is that on the very first page there should be just the obligatory "welcome" stuff, and then have different links to lead you to basic information of the world, localizations, characters, etc..

What there is right now kinda follows on that, but then inmediately after starts giving you a lot of information. There's a good chance newcomers won't even bother to check that wall of text when it's shoved to their faces

This is quite true. The main page itself has a load of information, and while information is exactly what the wiki is for, such a daunting first page may scare people off.

It might be best to check out other wiki/wikia sites to get ideas. It's nice to be creative, but if you're not being understandable then it prevents people from wanting to go through the wiki.

I really like the command and conquer wikia because it's colorful, and I like the starwars wikia because they have easy navigation.

Most other wikis and wikias are more organized. Usually with an "Article of the week", categories such as "weapons" or "stuff" being on display near the top. Stuff like that.

Yeah, then again, we're not exactly a professional organization. Well, Karbo makes money off the manga's, but it's not like we can afford to pay people to maintain a website. We gotta work with what we've got, but we've gotta do it WELL.

we can also hack the whole thing <3

C'mon, lets not let this thread die here.

About the wiki: I actually like lots of stuuf to read, because, pardon the pun, I devour them. I can read over 100 pages of a book in a single day, so I enjoy having stuff to read. I doubt too many people share this, but you could put in a few pictures to go with the text. It would break it up and help show people what it looks like.

About new people: I know some websites send some info with the activation email, so maybe we could send them a link to the wiki, a link to the rules, and a like to the gidelines with it. That way they can't say they didn't know about it. Just a thought.

Doesn't AJ do that with every new person already? i mean it blunty tells them were to go and stuff.

Yep he does I still remember the one that he sent me.

Although from what I noticed, not a lot of newcomers actually follow his advice.

I joined after AJ, but he never did that to me as I can recall. Figured everything out myself XD. Still, we don't want to have to manually do it with every person - that's why we suggested linking them with "newsletter" I guess you could call it. I should go back and find what everyone's suggested thus far.

Now that things are dying down a lot, we can't just ignore the problem. We still have to work just as hard to try and fix the root of the problem the schism created in the first place otherwise it will just pop back up again. It's way too easy to be lazy on the internet.

Whatever is done, don't do it in secret and then just spring it on everyone at the last second.

That's how this whole mess started in the first place.

i totally agree with pendragon

This whole mess was festering beneath the surface long before the "letter" even started.

Archmage_Bael wrote:

I joined after AJ, but he never did that to me as I can recall. Figured everything out myself XD. Still, we don't want to have to manually do it with every person

Yeah, I believe I started sending them shortly after you joined. I distinctly recall sending peptic pineapple a welcome message on the 17/5/2009

It would probably be helpful to everyone for those who have proposed changes to the way the wiki is laid out to "mock out" their proposed layout, by either using an image or some sort of HTML editor to create a HTML file.

Good idea oldman.
I think soemthing that will ahve to be done is move most of the information from the front page to its own page. The front page needs to be as concise as possible, with links to the information rather than the information itself.

I'm not that good with HTML, so I'm afraid I couldn't show a snapshot of how it could be done... However, I can throw some suggestions... Actually, one suggestion:

The part from "The World of Felarya" to "Miscellaneous" in the main page could be put in another article, serving as an introduction to Felarya. It could be listed along with the rest of the General content, placing it in the first place.

That sounds interesting enough.

should there be a general table of contents on that same page, or is there already one floating about on the wiki?

Well, the main page has a general content index:

Quote :

General content:

* Felaryan fauna

* Felaryan carnivorous plants

* Felaryan plant life

* Category: Races

* Category: Characters

* Category: Locations

But after that, there's the whole "Introduction to Felarya" part that, in my opinion, should be in a different article, but of course, in the general content index and, now that I think of it, should be very clear, so people can access the introduction to the setting easily without saturating the main page.

As long as they connect to eachother in some way, I can see it working.

Mhh there is some great points here.
I can maybe imagine a quick introduction on the front page and then various links directing the reader to different sections.

You might even be able to break the menu down more, like lets say things pertaining to "civilization" and "nature" in civilization you can various things relating to it as such (like currency and rumors.), and in nature you can put physics, locations, and fauna.

You could also have a fun area in it with other misc info, call it "The Inn" or something where you have quotes and what not of all that other stuff.

Characters can be totally separate. That might make things a bit simpler, but this is off the top of my head.