elanthipedia talk:Manual of Style

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Revision as of 16:55, 30 May 2008 by CARAAMON (talk | contribs)
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This page is for discussing the Manual of Style in general, or changes to non-specific article standards.

Page Change

Due to the previous MOS being so bare-bones, I decided to integrate the MOS/new with the old one, and to parcel out each specific type of article to have it's own subpage. This is a work in progress, so bare with me. -Caraamon Strugr-Makdasi 16:55, 30 May 2008 (CDT)

Style Page Format Discussions

Eh, I wrote not to edit until things had had time to be discussed, then promptled began editing. Well, at least I'm a dedicated hypocrite. -Caraamon Strugr-Makdasi 03:38, 20 April 2008 (CDT)

Article Content vs Length

I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts on when articles should be broken up. Obviously, when the file size of the original page starts pushing the upper limits (as in the case of the original Necromancer article) it's kinda a no-brainer. Beyond that, what criteria are used? Specifically, take a look at Prydaen Terminology and its associated talk page. Here we've got two conflicting viewpoints, both with very valid pros and cons. I see other areas of the wiki I'd like to fiddle with, but I'm hesitant to make organizational/structural changes without a general consensus. --Ogoh 01:53, 17 May 2008 (CDT)

I break down the page only when a section is large enough to stand on its own without destroying the flow of the original. I would never break down a long library book, for example. I would not break down the Command Compendium with thousands of one-sentence pages about each command, but I probably would break off entire sections of commands based on command type.--Symphaena 11:50, 17 May 2008 (CDT)

Conversation Transfer

It occurred to me that standardization seems to be a big issue all accoss subjects. Take a look at this and see what you think. --Caraamon Strugr-Makdasi 13:55, 19 April 2008 (CDT)

Yeah, excellent project, and a huge one to tackle... you've certainly bitten off a lot ;) Standardization is something that I feel strongly about, as uniformity of presentation makes the info a lot easier to use. We already have a vestigial Manual of Style page though. I'm going to move the new one to Elanthipedia:Manual of Style/new so it can be worked on it there.
I also did a little editing to remove the reference to "admin approved". Admins don't have any special rights above other users to determine what the style should be, I see our role more as facilitators and mediators should any disagreements or other conflicts arise among the community. Naturally, admins are usually users who have demonstrated a high degree of participation in the wiki, but that doesn't exclude other users from participating as fully in any area of content should they choose. I think it's important to maintain a community-focussed approach in a wiki so everyone feels welcome to contribute. To that end I'll also un-protect the page. Also this would be a natural to announce in the Projects page or on one of the Town Green sections. --Farman 14:12, 19 April 2008 (CDT)
Well that's odd, I specifically did a search for style and came up with nothing. Oh well. As for protected and such, you're right, I suppose. It just seems like if we don't set down a standard quickly, by the time the argueing has ended, it'll be even more disorganized... -Caraamon Strugr-Makdasi 15:02, 19 April 2008 (CDT)
I agree about standardizing articles. The way it's usually worked is that someone 'adopts' a certain area of the wiki and works out and lays down a standard. But given the nature of wiki's it's pretty much a given that it will get messed up along the way ;) A certain amount of sloppiness is inevitable since it's so massively collaborative.
About searching, I've also long noticed that the search tool doesn't seem to give very good results... Naeya, is this something that can be improved? --Farman 23:22, 19 April 2008 (CDT)
This whole project sounds very useful; it may be worth mentioning "titles" in this, but O well (speaking of which, I think the title template may need some cleanup, for better understanding too). Anyway, this all seems great.
As for Searching, I think we may be best to modify the actual wiki template a bit and utilize google searches instead of wiki searching, ignoring the categories won't hurt us that much, since the wiki search does not yet support "proper" category-based/limiting searches it seems. --Callek 12:41, 20 April 2008 (CDT)