Add a Guide section to the form.

(Mainly the wiki)
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Itseasytosee2me
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Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by Itseasytosee2me » #620396

For players to make stuff not suitable for the wiki, like an overview of poisons based on practicality, or combat tips or something. It would be cool as a way to share +wisdom+ amongst us forum using elites. People post guides on here all the time but there wedged into general chat too often.
- Sincerely itseasytosee
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Pandarsenic
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Re: Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by Pandarsenic » #620398

Particularly good ones can also be stolen for the Wiki if they are suitable for it, as well.
(2:53:35 AM) scaredofshadows: how about head of robutts
I once wrote a guide to fixing telecomms woohoo
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Jonathan Gupta
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Re: Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by Jonathan Gupta » #620457

I know too many tips, I would love to share them.
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Itseasytosee2me
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Re: Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by Itseasytosee2me » #620765

Now that we have established this is a good idea, who do I have to pay to get a guide section.
- Sincerely itseasytosee
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Rohen_Tahir
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Re: Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by Rohen_Tahir » #620867

Itseasytosee2me wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 12:28 am Now that we have established this is a good idea, who do I have to pay to get a guide section.
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RaveRadbury
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Re: Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by RaveRadbury » #620868

Currently players can submit any game related content to the General Chat board. Also, all forum users are given a user page (and subpages) on the wiki that they are free to post their own guides on. (We also have Talk pages)

What would be the advantages of a Guide board over the existing systems and how would you expect this board to be moderated? Would threads be restricted to only posts from the OP?
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Pandarsenic
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Re: Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by Pandarsenic » #620870

RaveRadbury wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 9:40 pm Currently players can submit any game related content to the General Chat board. Also, all forum users are given a user page (and subpages) on the wiki that they are free to post their own guides on. (We also have Talk pages)

What would be the advantages of a Guide board over the existing systems and how would you expect this board to be moderated? Would threads be restricted to only posts from the OP?
Advantages off the top of my head:
  • Easily searchable. Guides in the Wiki are nice but hard to get there in the first place, and there's no way to search their contents (e.g. looking up all mention of BZ or Nitrium-née-Nitryl. Furthermore, some are deprecated but without a clear sign of when or why, like https://tgstation13.org/wiki/Illicit_Ac ... g_a_window - you cannot, reasonably, break into or out of anywhere by hitting reinforced windows with an emergency oxygen tank, unless you intend to leave an autoclick macro running while you make dinner. Serious, in-depth guides to stuff in the General Chat forum are basically impossible to find; more likely, people will just ask on Discord about stuff.
  • Feedback in the forum itself. Having a forum thread that people can reply to is a much faster way to get information added to the guide itself than can reasonably happen with the Wiki unless you catch a bored admin.
  • Information vetting. As with the instant feedback, forums allow players to quickly use each other to test new ideas and information, catch when things become deprecated, etc.
  • Finding notable absences. This is similar to above, but I think a solid part of improving guides would be that people who aren't as familiar with the systems can drop in and be like "Hey I didn't really get this" or "But where do I GET the uranium for the somatoray" and so on. People can answer them in the thread and then the guide can add them in.
The biggest con is of course that none of these are guaranteed to be up to date, either; and, obviously, as I envision it, anyone can reply to anything.

My moderation expectation would be that the first post is, in its entirety, a serious guide meant to help people who are either new to the game or new to an aspect of it. Other posts might have continuations but the first post in every thread should be, up-front, an Actual Guide. Probably have a Metathread for Talking About Guides and the Guide Forum and stuff, too?
(2:53:35 AM) scaredofshadows: how about head of robutts
I once wrote a guide to fixing telecomms woohoo
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SpaceSmithers
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Re: Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by SpaceSmithers » #620913

Hello, I have some comments regarding your statements about the wiki.
Pandarsenic wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:52 pm Guides in the Wiki are nice but hard to get there in the first place, and there's no way to search their contents (e.g. looking up all mention of BZ or Nitrium-née-Nitryl.
There is a button on the front page labeled "Guides" that takes you to a list of every guide on the site. Table of Contents usually assists sorting through the pages, if the page has the appropriate layout. Or, if applicable, Ctrl+F accesses a browser's text-search function for the current page.
Pandarsenic wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:52 pm Furthermore, some are deprecated but without a clear sign of when or why, like https://tgstation13.org/wiki/Illicit_Ac ... g_a_window - you cannot, reasonably, break into or out of anywhere by hitting reinforced windows with an emergency oxygen tank.
This has been noted and added my Wiki To-do list, which is a stickied thread.
Pandarsenic wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 10:52 pm Having a forum thread that people can reply to is a much faster way to get information added to the guide itself than can reasonably happen with the Wiki unless you catch a bored admin.
Wiki editing does not require admin permissions (unless it is a protected and moderated page, like Space Law). In fact; if you can post on the forums, you can edit the wiki!
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A forum may have its perks, but don't neglect the centralization of the wiki. Hyperlinks, formatting, and organization are things that the wiki particularly excels at. Discussing, sharing, and debating are things that forums excel at. Talk pages on the wiki are severely inferior in comparison.

Please let me know if you have any comments or rebuttals.
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Pandarsenic
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Re: Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by Pandarsenic » #620942

I walked away and came back in the middle of that first point, let me try that again

Clicking through to guides is fine, but it's not always clear what the scope of a guide is initially (what is in Guide to Power vs. in Guide to the Supermatter, our only current engine, and is there anything important in the Guides to other engines). Mining in particular is hard to navigate right now, with some of its information being relegated to the chemistry page (chemical geyser info)

That part is not exactly solved by a forum, but unless I'm mistaken, the forum does allow searching for any posts in the guides section that mention, for example, reinforced glass or Hyper-Nobilium.

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For the wiki, honestly I remember guides not being able to be edited but I guess that was just a temporary thing from the wiki entirely being locked up by the upgrade process?

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Centralization & Discussion: I envision the guides being mirrored to the Wiki when people generally agree that it is ready to go (or the author jumps the gun and other players just brute force edit it into usability). If the original creator abandons it, people can either use the old thread for discussion and as a changelog or they can make their own new thread to pick up the torch, I figure. Also, the forum is a nice place for WIP guides, I think, though nothing makes General unsuitable for that part.
(2:53:35 AM) scaredofshadows: how about head of robutts
I once wrote a guide to fixing telecomms woohoo
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SpaceSmithers
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Re: Add a Guide section to the form.

Post by SpaceSmithers » #620954

I definitely agree with your statement about the scope of the guides and the mining page. It is through forums that this can easily be brought to light, and to provide user comments. With this, I especially and strongly agree that a collaborative effort can help put together guides on the wiki, whereas the current method of adding a user's ideas on top of another's can easily get very messy.
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