Oolite Wikipedia - some issues

[Cholmondely]

Can't help but notice that the only effective method to whizz around the wikipedia is by using the search function.

If, for example, one tries to read about Tionisla, one finds a choice of the following:

Tionisla: basic information page which to my untutored eye seems relevant to Elite Dangerous rather than Oolite
Tionisla (Rough Guide): an entertaining description of the planet and graveyard.
Tionisla Chronicle Array: on the edifice - and its originating OXP
Tionisla Orbital Graveyard: on the fictional source and the 3 OXPs
Tionisla Reporter: On that OXP and its attendant mission
Tionisla Rising: on the fiction by Dylan Smith/Winston

If one then wanders about a bit further, one may even stumble upon Sector 1/Tionisla which escaped the indexing function. That is linked to the Galaxy 1 description page as well as a general description of the planet.

Criticque of Pure Thought

• The pages are not categorised in a way explaining what they are really about (see confusion over ED below)
• The pages are not linked to each other, making navigating between them rather tedious.
• The search box disappears once one has chosen one's choice, making the process of returning and selecting another choice tendentious & tedious - and militating against the process. If one just presses 'return' then one is delivered forthwith to the first choice adumbrated upon below (which is of questionable utility to a neophyte, unless they defect to ED instead).

Criticque of Applied Thought

Tionisla really needs some sort of 'gubernatorial health warning' that it is relevant to ED (and presumeably the various Frontiers - assuming any real distinction between them) rather than Elite & Oolite. It has no links to any of the other pages.

Tionisla (Rough Guide) Oolite lore. Links to Tionisla Orbital Graveyard only. There is also a line of links to local systems, viz: Neighbors (7.0 LY or less): Xeesle, Zaonce, Isinor, Bemaera, Zaalela, Qutiri; note that only Zaonce, Isinor and Qutiri link to the relevant pages (because they are the only ones mentioned in the 'Rough Guide'). No links for the others. If one does succumb to temptation and type any of their names into the search box, one is instead presented with a magnificent work of art festooned with brackets, parentheses and equals signs which require Cody's many millennia of post-graduate study in the realms of grammarie and cryptomancy to decipher.

Tionisla Chronicle Array: whilst informative, has no links to any of the other pages - even the Tionisla Reporter!

Tionisla Orbital Graveyard: Uses the acronym TOGY without explaining it (unlike the Rough Guide, above). No links to any of the other pages. Does not mention that TOGY is half-way between Tionisla and the Sun.

Tionisla Reporter: Again, no links elsewhere - even to the Tionisla Chronicle Array

Tionisla Rising: Again, no links - even to Tionisla - despite its being set in the Frontier version of the Ooniverse (there are no obvious references to either TOGY or the Reporter - but it was written in 1999 (5 years before Aegidian et al published Oolite). This probably counts as Frontier Lore (one assumes that ED has ignored it).

Sector 1/Tionisla: This ought to be the one that the search function directs one to. It is the proper introduction to the System - in terms of both lore and Oolite gameplay. It has links to the Rough Guide page and to TOGY as well as a dead link to the Tionisla Chronicle. None of the other pages link to it, needless to say.

Criticque of Judgement

To repeat, there are issues here which should be relatively easy to sort out. But they do require either frogmarching the individual page authors to set their respective houses in order (assuming that their souls have not transmigrated to the Abyss that is ED) - or else allowing a copy-editor to run riot. We seem to have four poorly connected sets of Tionisla pages lurking in the wikipedia: Oolite gameplay, Oolite OXPs/lore, Frontier/ED gameplay reference & Frontier lore.
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When I started faffing about with Oolite a couple of months ago, I found myself marooned in a Cloud of Unknowing. I was using the wiki quite extensively to try and work out what the dickens was going on and how everything fitted together. Not being a demented devotee of the silicon chip (I am blessed with an extensive library whose use I prefer), I confess to having found all this supremely mistifying. I can well imagine that various of our erst-while colleagues of the younger generation may well have found the ensuing confusion conducive to pursuing other interests instead.

I"d be happy to put in a little time to try and sort out some of this (adding in page-links and categorisations - rather than embarking on a radical rampage of deletion or alteration of all the text in sight) if there was some way I could get access to the wikipedia.

[Milo]

Send a PM to maik (if he doesn't notice this post first) and ask for a wiki account. Your editorial touch would be most welcome.

[maik]

Hi Cholmondely,

Welcome to the forum, and thank you for your insights! I created a user for you, if you allowed PMs to be sent to you, I could tell you the credentials

Kind regards,
-Maik

[Cholmondely]

Oh!

Is there any way of getting hands on a list of all of the wikipedia pages? How many of the jolly things are there?

[Milo]

You'll want the Special Pages link from the left side bar.

[Cholmondely]

Thank you, Sir Milo!


Right, I’ve started mucking about with the Wiki: (so far just the List of Oolite stories) to see if I could do it without causing everything to go belly up!


I’d rather appreciate some feedback before I start committing mayhem with the Wikipedia Page Titles, so I’m consulting here first!



Now. What I think makes sense would be to retitle the page headings as follows:

Tionisla -> Tionisla (Frontiers)
Tionisla (Oolite) -> Tionisla (Oolite Rough Guide)
Tionisla Chronicle Array -> Tionisla Chronicle Array (Oolite)
Tionisla Orbital Graveyard -> Tionisla Orbital Graveyard (Oolite)
Tionisla Reporter -> Tionisla Reporter (Oolite Mission)
Tionisla Rising -> Tionisla Rising (Frontiers fiction)
Sector 1/Tionisla -> Tionisla (Oolite)

I’d then progress poco-a-poco through the rest of Galaxy 1.

Questions: Is it really this simple? What about links to these pages from elsewhere? Is there anything else that I am unaware of? Can anyone tell me if there will be something in the other systems which will cause my masterplan to come badly unstuck?

[Milo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:How_to_move_a_page

Renaming a page moves its content to a new page, and the wiki replaces the content on the old page with a redirect link, so other pages that were linked to the old page can continue to use the old link. Someone who clicks an old link will automatically be rerouted to the new page.

[Cholmondely]

Thank you!

Other matters:

i) Chrysopelea MK-I and other ships are listed under 'orphaned' pages in the wiki special pages list.

But they are linked in on the Oolite ships page.

What does 'orphaned' really mean?

ii) I want to put a link on the Complete Ship List wiki page to the Category:Oolite ships page (in the text at the top of the table). I have so far 1 managed to delete a reference in the box at the bottom of the page (- without even touching the thing!), and 2 include the Complete Ship List page as a ship in the Category page. Neither was intended - all I did was muck about with the text at the top of the page. I don't understand how to do what I want to. I rather think that it might be best to natter with someone over a telephone.

[dybal]

Thank you!

Other matters:

i) Chrysopelea MK-I and other ships are listed under 'orphaned' pages in the wiki special pages list.

But they are linked in on the Oolite ships page.

What does 'orphaned' really mean?

It usually means there isn't anybody looking after the OXP: keeping it up to date with core game changes, squashing bugs, perhaps even improving it.

The ship OXPs are a challenge since many of them don't have the files used to create the ship's model and textures in them, they have just the final files used to display the ship, so it's not possible to easily change/tweak the ship's look.

[montana05]

It usually means there isn't anybody looking after the OXP: keeping it up to date with core game changes, squashing bugs, perhaps even improving it.

The ship OXPs are a challenge since many of them don't have the files used to create the ship's model and textures in them, they have just the final files used to display the ship, so it's not possible to easily change/tweak the ship's look.

Up to a certain point, I do agree, some ships could be kind of a challenge. However, you can convert .dat files back to .obj and use them in blender again to modify the model. Most textures could be changed with a modest graphic program, I am currently using Krita (opensource) and before Photoshop.

Chrysopelea MK-I just was recently uploaded and is still maintained by tsoj.

[phkb]

On a wiki, orphaned just means it’s not being linked to from any other wiki page.

[Cholmondely]

How do I create a new page in our wiki which is/will be linked to a new .oxp entry on the OXPList page?

I'm new to this. I have printed out/read several sections of the wiki-help on formatting and creating new pages, so I understand that there are many possible pitfalls. I have yet to manage the magnum opus on tabulation though!

1) Has anybody found a reasonably failsafe path through this minefield?

2) And are there any tips as to how best to get screen-shot photos to appear within wiki? I don't have my own e-mail address, which may preclude some of the options.

[montana05]

2) And are there any tips as to how best to get screen-shot photos to appear within wiki? I don't have my own e-mail address, which may preclude some of the options.

You need to upload the pictures to Wiki and link to them on your page, [[image:Firebird2.png|left|600px]] for example.

[dybal]

How do I create a new page in our wiki which is/will be linked to a new .oxp entry on the OXPList page?

Choose a title for the new page and search for it. If the search doesn't find a ṕage with that title, it offers you the chance of creating it.

[Cholmondely]

Gentlemen,

Thank You.