User talk:Timo

First Discussion

Hey, Timo: welcome to your very own Talk page. I really don't know how much wiki-experience you have, but from what I've seen, I'm assuming you're a quick learner. I'm going to talk to you as if you're a novice to wikis and not just to this one, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

These conversations are going to be divided between attempts to help you with your goals in wiki-editing and strategy for the Guide wiki (I'm going to try and bold any references to the wiki itself, to differentiate from the project you've created or actual text from the project). Please respond to anything you'd prefer here or start your own thread.

Editting: User & Talk pages

Each registered User automatically has two 'properties' in any wiki (they can build more later, if the wiki management allows it). The first is the User Page, which is owned by them. It can be used as a portal and introduction to other Users or as a reference for the User himself (direct links to others of concern, help pages, references and/or resources). On the two other wikis I'm on (Wikipedia and a Battletech one), I tend to go with the reference use.

Talk pages are the personal forums of Users. Users generally conduct discussions in two manners: the first starts off with the outsider contacting the User here and the User responding underneath. Just as in some older-school bulletin boards, the conversation would tree:

Ex: First Post

First response

First branch response

Second response

Second branch response

Third response

These are done by adding colons infront of the indented sections, using multiple colons for multiple indentions.

(I've gone back and made this change to the Questions for Timo discussion, as an example).

The second method usually has the User responding on the outsider's talk page. I find these conversations disjointed and usually don't pursue this.

Most posts start with first to last (top to bottom), but I've seen some Users go the opposite direction. Often, Users will archive old posts, to keep their Talk pages clean. If you're ever interested in that, let me know. Its rather simple.

One thing I've seen you've already discovered is the use of the signature with timestamp button. Those are welcomed in discussions, to indicate where one poster stops and another starts.--Dan 12:42, 11 March 2008 (PDT)

Editting: Cheat Sheet and other beginners' resources

Here's a list of resources I've lifted from Wikipedia and MediaWiki, the software behind Wikipedia and this site. The first one, the Reference Card, was critical to my initial understanding, but I really don't use it any longer. I hope they help.

Reference Card I've found it helpful to print this out
Cheatsheet
Magic Words

--Dan 12:42, 11 March 2008 (PDT)

Editting: History

A great resource to learning how to do something is the History tab. Judging from the edits you have made, I'd say you already know this. However, assuming you might not know this little trick, here it is. On the history tab, you'll see the most recent edits for that article. By clicking two radio buttons (the before and after), and then clicking the Compare selected versions button, you'll get a side-by-side comparison of what was changed, with the changes marked in red. If text on the left side is red, it was either deleted or moved. I will be using this extensively to analyze the changes you made to the DY series (Guide). Of course, I'm using it to recognize what changed in my understanding of the DY series, but its very useful from learning how others "do it". There are other methods that work equally well, but this is a good starting point. --Dan 12:42, 11 March 2008 (PDT)

Editting: Suggestion for formatting

In the A Word Or Two From The Author article, might I suggest using a colon (:) added in right before your responses? That would cause your statement to be indented, breaking it out from the questions.--Dan 12:42, 11 March 2008 (PDT)

Strategy/Editting: Additional change needed

(Note: In reality, on more established/populated wikis, comments about certain articles are made on the articles' talk pages -called Discussion- but I think they could be missed here, if we both didn't monitor the Recent Changes religiously.) You changed the displayed title for the DY series article on the Timo's Guide to Starfleet index page. For versatility's sake, I added brief index pages to the chapters' introductions (in this case, Before 2063 - The Playground (Guide)). So, the change you made didn't follow. Since this is a one-man wiki, its easy for me to remember to make both changes (and I've done so on the chapter intro to match the one you made).

However, for your Guide wiki. I don't know if you'll want that same feature (small index on the chapter intro). In very largely populated wikis, like Wikipedia, minor inconsistencies will probably be quickly discovered. On your wiki, once its up and running with its own life, neither you nor I will be following every small change others make, so some small detail like that could be missed. Its probably not important, but I thought I'd point out a pitfall of my design as I saw it. --Dan 12:42, 11 March 2008 (PDT)

Strategy: Your Current Material

I can see, based on the DY series article, you have indeed made quite a few changes to what I've already posted. (In my mind, you have the seventh printing or version, while I'm working off the sixth.) For your Guide, it might be easier to post the v.7 material directly, than boosting the wiki code from here at SFC. The reason I say this is because you won't have to get into the nitty-gritty of the differences between mine and your's -just cut and paste it- and won't have to deal with all the dead wikilinks (also wlinks) that will be built into my code. (We'll have templates tailor-built for Guide in which to post the data and text into.) Not really a concern until we have Guide actually up and running, but wanted you to consider that before you (mis-)realized the scope of the project, in regards to differences. When we get to that point, you can provide me with your latest version and we'll tackle it together.--Dan 12:42, 11 March 2008 (PDT)

Editting: Manual of Style

Take a look in the left side bar for the Manual of Style. Its a Help Contents section that I didn't feel was appropriately named for a one-person wiki. In it, I have data-blank templates for Guide articles, as well as code ready for copying (as well as instructions, to help remind me how and why I did things). Take a look and see what resources you can make use of. --Dan 12:42, 11 March 2008 (PDT)

Editting: Daedalus

Maybe I shouldn't have, but I did a little formatting on the Daedalus article. (You may have just been experiementing with starting an article, but maybe also practicing making it your own style for Guide.) I assume you don't necessarily want a horizontal line (provided in the edit buttons or made with for hyphens [----]), but would like to stick with an asterisk-like break. I've included both ideas, for your consideration. Take a look (including at the code) and let me know if this is what you were intending.

Why did you put so many spaces before the images? Maybe I can help you. --Dan 12:42, 11 March 2008 (PDT)