Is the Wiki ready for a little more in the way of pro-active exposure?

I'm not sure we want it plastered everywhere to start, but maybe put a link to it in the Welcome To WarGear section of the Help page, and a few other places like that..?

I think Tom made it so that you can't join a tournament unless you have an avatar..  Maybe something like that would be in order to make edits to the Wiki?

It would be nice if Designers could be asked/required to "register" their boards on the Wiki.. 

Right now we have a single layer solid color board under Review that doesn't have a Description.  The board has a lot of potential for good game-play, but there are lot of things that could be done to improve it.  I'm just thinking that getting the Wiki up and more actively involved in that process might make a difference.  Putting references to the Designer Page on the Wiki from the top Designer page itself might be a good start.

>Is the Wiki ready for a little more in the way of pro-active exposure?

I think so. The front page says ready in time for the 4th anniversary.   When is that?

>I think Tom made it so that you can't join a tournament unless you have an avatar..  Maybe something like that would be in order to make edits to the Wiki?

+1 if this is not too hard for Tom

>It would be nice if Designers could be asked/required to "register" their boards on the Wiki.. 

Existing boards too? Or just new boards? I'm cautiously for this, but think we should have a concrete template or minimum requirements as to what this entails (for new boards).

> Right now we have a single layer solid color board under Review that doesn't have a Description.  The board has a lot of potential for good game-play, but there are lot of things that could be done to improve it.  I'm just thinking that getting the Wiki up and more actively involved in that process might make a difference.  Putting references to the Designer Page on the Wiki from the top Designer page itself might be a good start.

A review board member could just make an empty page (or better, a template) if the board doesn't have a page yet.   Whoever passes the board should also update the page with the board's final URL.

Ozyman wrote:

>It would be nice if Designers could be asked/required to "register" their boards on the Wiki.. 

Existing boards too? Or just new boards? I'm cautiously for this, but think we should have a concrete template or minimum requirements as to what this entails (for new boards).

 

 New boards.  As you say - reviewers can start the page easily enough - and I think asking the designer to do something as simple as copy/pasting the Description to the Wiki would be fine for now.. Even super basic familiarity with how to post to the wiki would be a great start.  If a board designer can't do it, we're in trouble..  I mean ..they manipulate and post functional images to this site..

i think we need to hash out what we want for review criteria before we make it more available. unfortunately i haven't had the time or energy lately to do more than try to keep up; but it seems there's a lot of effort into future desires (which is fine) than there is about basic immediate needs:
- clarifying/consitencizing (made that one up ) between help/wiki
- obvious path & ease of navigating thru "go to" info for noobs (and vets like me)
- procedure for making a board ready for review
- review process
- and that's where my ADD leaves me while it thinks about blue butterflies above mirkwood, hey a squirrel! it's almost squirrel season, i need some ammo.

oh and i was the one who put down 4th anniv. think it was oct 21-ish that ppl started signing up.

Good (start of a) list weathertop.

I started on the review guidelines:

http://www.wargear.net/wiki/doku.php?id=designer_workshop:review_board_criteria

Re: Requirements for editing permission..

Permission to edit the Wiki shouldn't necessarily be seen as a "right." Lack of editing permission in no way takes away from the WarGear gaming experience.  The forums are open to all.  Cleaning up a rogue post from someone that joins the site and puts up an add in the forums is one thing, but it would nice to have an extra layer of protection for the Wiki because there is the potential for a lot more damage to be done.

All the above said, access should be a free as possible, and I don't think it would take much to up the ante on protection.

The required avatar is one thing, but something like requiring a minimum of 5 or 10 completed public games seems very reasonable.  After all, the Wiki is a repository of WarGear "knowledge."  After 10 games a member is going to be much more invested in the site, and much more likely to have something to offer. That, and the prospect of losing an account brings additional weight to bear on the issue.

Tom mentioned something about some hierarchical permissions capabilities..  I don't think it's necessary now, but I can envision that the ability to lock pages may eventually become a necessity.

Re: New designers..

Even though the Wiki isn't "on the Radar" - there is no reason that members who submit boards for Review can't be pointed to the Wiki and asked to follow its currently stated guidelines.

weathertop wrote:

oh and i was the one who put down 4th anniv. think it was oct 21-ish that ppl started signing up.

Ya...but tom kept it quite until Nov 7 when he let the cat out of the bag to the ToS community.

Yertle wrote:

weathertop wrote:

oh and i was the one who put down 4th anniv. think it was oct 21-ish that ppl started signing up.

Ya...but tom kept it quite until Nov 7 when he let the cat out of the bag to the ToS community.

I still remember that day.  "What I did over the Summer" or something was the post.

I think it should go public soon, as I think we're reaching the limit of what four or five contributors can do. We've got a pretty good start worked out, and I think all that's left to be worked out is some policing/admin permissions and powers, locking pages especially.

Kjeld wrote:

I think it should go public soon, as I think we're reaching the limit of what four or five contributors can do. We've got a pretty good start worked out, and I think all that's left to be worked out is some policing/admin permissions and powers, locking pages especially.

+1 - I can't speak for the other three or four, because I'm pretty much following their lead and then making stuff up, but there are probably a number of members that are more knowledgeable about - and adept at the organization, editing and maintenance part of things (or at the very least can bring a different perspective to the mix) before it becomes a behemoth.  I was kind of hoping that 1 or 2 more from the forum would jump in and have a go but..

For now I have linked in the footer.

I think it's arguable that the Wiki should replace the Help section entirely - what does everyone think? Obviously to do that we'd need to copy across everything from there.

tom wrote:

For now I have linked in the footer.

I think it's arguable that the Wiki should replace the Help section entirely - what does everyone think? Obviously to do that we'd need to copy across everything from there.

Great. I like the idea of a slow start and the footer is as good a place as any.   I think there are a number of obvious places for links (to and from board's homes, etc.), but in part because there's no rush it probably wouldn't hurt for us to nominate/propose/debate locations for links.

As far as the help section is concerned, I'd say the Wiki is only about half-way there.  Of course, in the interim there's nothing wrong with redundancy.