So, I have been thinking long and hard about how we can take the Wiki forward - both in terms of organisation and clarity. There is no point having a wiki with 100s+ articles if they all have similar content and limited application.

My idea is this.

We have 4 sort of root-pages. One for Abilities, Effects, Behaviors and maybe Units. Then on each of these pages we list all the different type of object there can be. For example we already have a page for Effects at http://www.staredit.net/starcraft2/Effects#Effects_Listing. My idea is that we link, under each of these headings, tutorials that we have that make some (or any) use of that effect.

So, the Apply Behavior field could have a list of Ability and Weapon tutorials that all use the Apply Behavior effect.

The Damage effect would have a (rather exhaustive) list of all tutorials we have in which a spell, or a weapon or anything causes Damage.

Similarly for the Ability 'root page' - we could list them by category, and by description. For example: Spell Like Frostbolt (Diablo 2), or Spells like War Stomp (Warcraft 3), or Spells like Unholy Aura (Warcraft 3)...

This way, we have a 4 page (maybe 5) sort of contents page, listing all the main (most used?) objects found in the Data editor, and under each of those objects we have links to Tutorials which show these objects in use.

We could also separate our Tutorials into two categories (for Data editor mostly), as Beginner and Map-Maker. The Beginner tutorials should be lengthy, filled with pictures and completely spell out each step of the process. Whereas, a Map-Maker level tutorial should only list what the user needs to do to create something - and hopefully through creating an ability once, they can apply this knowledge in different circumstances.

My final piece of input for the development of the wiki would be some sort of Browser-Based IRC channel. Where map-makers, newbies, regulars etc can just hang out. This would not have to be entirely devoted to the Wiki, but devoted mostly to map-making and Starcraft 2 development & Discussion.

Please let me know what you think.

Ps. I have very little knowledge about how Wiki's operate and well, I know little about them - despite my heavy editing.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 16 2010, 2:53 pm by Cardinal. Reason: borked my url!

Me like.
I've added one of my tutorials to the Abilities wiki.
For the IRC, I unfortunately don't think it's going to happen.
For the Beginner/Map-maker, I'm not sure... I guess it'd become an auto-sort based on the title of the articles... a real newbie shouldn't look into anything else than Abilities/Effects, while a map-maker will search for very specific things.

I don't see why the irc thing wouldn't work. Since there are no chat channels for SC2 right now it could be pretty useful to have. Only thing that stands in its way is forum members being in there.

There it is.
IRCs have been attempted many times in the past... I guess people are just loving the ShoutBox too much...
What we'd need would be an INCORPORATED IRC, just like our ShoutBox is always present in the site.

After all, look at http://www.staredit.net/sc2mapnight/ ... it loads faster than shoutbox, shows more shouts, etc. but still isn't populated much. ;o

Stardepot has that happening right now with a java applet, although it is broken for me. (You need to login to see it)

The sc2mapnight chat can also be abused, though. Hold "Enter" when anyone types something and it will spam the chat with that message. We used to have an IRC at SEN, but people just stopped using it in favor of the Shoutbox and in-game chat. I'm pretty sure in-game chatrooms will return to SC2 in the near future, they just didn't implement it in the latest patch. That said, until they do I'm not sure if there's really a need for an IRC separate from the sc2mapnight chat.

Blizzard DID say they're going to add chatrooms in 1.2 patch, IIRC.

Orly?

Another suggestion for the Wiki.

As it grows; it is going to be less of a problem of creating more articles, as opposed to organising what we have compiled and keeping it in a useable fashion.

What I mean by this... over time, we'll generate random pages which are of little use, and over time, we'll generate simply awesome tutorials. To put this into an analogy, these awesome tutorials are solid granite foundation blocks - whereas, the random 2 line pages are pebbles and rocks. As we build our wiki page we cannot afford to have pebbles and weak rocks in our foundations - as this will endanger the overall stability of the structure.

To continue this (rather awesome analogy, i think?), if we are to build anything, we will need planners, architects, developers and managers... as well as builders, plumbers, electricians, carpenters etc... So, for those who are still reading - what I am suggesting is simple:

Once a week (or fortnightly) we devote one evening to browsing our wiki and improving it where improvements can be made, shaping pebbles and rocks into more solid blocks, and removing stuff that is of a low-standard. I suggest we sit down (by we, I mean anyone who is active in developing the wiki, or who wishes to be) and think what day is a good time for us to all be online. Then, at this alotted time, we discuss the direction we want to take the Wiki in. Highlight some key issues. And then tackle these issues and move the wiki forward.

The reason I suggest this is also simple. We do not want someone to randomly come across our Wiki and search for something and be rewarded with a stub/poorly written/inadequate article. They will be much less likely to use our Wiki again. Whereas, if someone comes across our wiki randomly, and reads the best tutorial they have ever read before - we have them, hook, line and sinker. So, the goal is to strive for 99% awesome (granite block) tutorials, and <1% pebbles and rocks.

Your thoughts on this are more than welcome.

I think this should just be done whenever a member feels like it. Periodic meetings would become a harsh, imo.
I'd instead suggest to do topics like this one: http://www.staredit.net/topic/12260/