User talk:Boxy/Sandbox
Suggestion Page revamp
The plan
Have a page for each, individual suggestion.
The suggestions page becomes a category page listing all the suggestions still open for voting.
Once a suggestion has finished voting the category tag is removed, and another (peer reviewed, rejected, etc) is added.
What is needed
A Category:Current Suggestions.
A template, Template:NewSug, to help suggesters create a link on the above page, in the format 20070314 Zombie Rocket Launchers (format represents the date and suggestion name), that they can follow to place their suggestion on. The link will be removed after a day on top of the page, so that only the inclusion in the category remains until removed after voting finishes.
- Seems to work well, does the job requred 11:30, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
A template, Template:SugHead, to place on the new individual suggestion page, that explains how to go about formatting the page correctly, and the suggestions rules (sort of like the top of the current suggestions page) that includes the tag for Category:Current Suggestions so that they are automatically placed in the category.
- Will need cutting back. Now that the suggestion is on a page of it's own, there's no real need for the {{SuggestionNew}} template, a simple section of the page where the suggestion is explained, and a vote can be held will suffice 11:30, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
- I'd really like to make a template that puts it's actual code on the page, rather than just a template call, but don't know how to do it except by using the "subst:" function (which adds to complexity for users) 11:30, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
A template, Template:SuggestionVoting modeled on {{PolicyVoting}}, that formats the voting section of the page -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 09:47, 9 April 2007 (BST)
A rules template, Template:SugVoteRules, with the rules for voting to go at the bottom of Template:SuggestionVoting -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 14:08, 9 April 2007 (BST)
Will probably also need a Category:Withdrawn Suggestions, to put collect all the withdrawn suggestion pages if the author wants it removed to work on. They can then be deleted after some set period... 3 months? It would be easy to tell which ones in the category are that old, because they will all be arranged in cronological order (due to the date being in the pagename) -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 10:14, 9 April 2007 (BST)
I'm also thinking of making the current days suggestions section on the Category:Current Suggestions page into Template:Current Suggestions a template, so that the current days suggestions can be placed onto each individual suggestion page (via the template inclusion), making it easier to navigate directly to other current suggestions without having to go back to the suggestions category -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 13:41, 23 April 2007 (BST)
- Why not call the category as a template (eg {{Category:Current Suggestions}})? You are allowed to do that, all you have to do though is add the <noinclude> tags around whatever you don't want to show up and there you go. Or is that not what you are aiming for? Also I suggest going to Kevan now and asking him for a suggestions namespace so that we are able to exclude suggestions from searches (or search just through suggestions!). - JedazΣT MC ΞD GIS S! 12:51, 23 April 2007 (GMT)
- Oh yeah, that'd work! I did consider calling the category, but didn't get to the noinclude part. I like your way of skinning the cat. Solves the problem of newbies editing the whole category page, rather than just the section (which means editing the template) :) -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 13:56, 23 April 2007 (BST)
testing again
Test 14:03, 23 April 2007 (BST)
Todays Other Suggestions
Discussion
Does anyone know of a way to make a template automatically substitute the code in it to the page it's put on, rather than having to put in the "Subst:" to force it? (oh, and feel free to make suggestions on the workings of this below here too) -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 12:28, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
One thing I noticed about the suggestions page is that people tend to be ruder the more suggestions are on the page at once. It might be worth moving day-old suggestions onto Previous Days to keep them out of eyeshot. The trade-off is more cycling (although still less than there is now) versus a more friendly suggestions page. --Toejam 15:44, 2 April 2007 (BST) PS I noticed this effect whenever the suggestions weren't being cycled; it could have been that which was making people grumpier rather than the number of suggestions.
In response to your question Boxy, what you'll need to do is make a field called subst (or whatever you want to call it, but it's simpler if you call it subst). So the code for your template could be like this...
{{{{{subst}}}CURRENTYEAR}}{{{{{subst}}}CURRENTMONTH}}{{{{{subst}}}CURRENTDAY}} {{{suggname}}}
When you call your template it would be used as follows.
{{subst:NewSug|subst=subst:|suggname=The suggestions name}}
Of course you could always get away without using the named variables. Anyway you might want to look into the whole optional substitution thing so you can get a better understanding of what I'm suggesting. By the way I would suggest adding in dashes between the dates just to make it friendlier to look at. - JedazΣT MC ΞD GIS S! 03:26, 9 April 2007 (GMT)
- Heh, that's even worse... instead of having to put in one Subst: when you want to call the template, you've gotta do it twice! lol. Thanks for the link though, I was looking for that page ages ago... damned if I could find it -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 04:35, 9 April 2007 (BST)
- Weyhey, this is what I was looking for, I somehow managed to get the same effect, but this is much neater! Thanks. Any idea if I can get a template to include the signature of the person who puts it on a page, Jedaz? -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 07:04, 9 April 2007 (BST)
~~{{{a_value_which_won't_and_shouldn't_be_used_unless_you_want_to_stuff_up_the_template|}}}~~
A small suggestion here: Perhaps someone should ask Kevan to create a new namespace for suggestion pages. I mean, the suggestion system on this wiki is a horridly massive machine, and a project on its own, so it makes sense that it'd have its own namespace. On top of that, a separate namespace would make searching easier (ie, people looking for info would not find suggestions on stuff not in the game, and people looking for stuff already suggested would have less cruft to sift through). --Daranz.t.mod janitor.W(M)^∞. 14:26, 9 April 2007 (BST)
- That is assuming this gets accepted, it would probably be better to ask Kevan once this has gone through voting and been accepted by the community. Just my 2 cents. - JedazΣT MC ΞD GIS S! 13:30, 9 April 2007 (GMT)
- I think it would be a good idea regardless of this proposed change. But a lot of work moving all the existing pages over! -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 16:05, 9 April 2007 (BST)
Thanks for the changes to {{NewSug}}, Hagnat, although I'm trying the link as just bolded, rather than bolded and big -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 14:03, 11 April 2007 (BST)
congratulations boxy and everybody that helped you make this page possible. I tried making something like this last year, but limitations with the mediawiki in use didnt allowed it to come true. But now that this system seems to be functional, and we might see a new era of suggestions comming. --People's Commissar Hagnat [cloned] [mod] 13:51, 11 April 2007 (BST)
- well, i made some changes to it. I guess this make it easier to read the suggestion name, rather than focus on the user who made it. Anyway, there will be a small problem with this sistem, since one will have to follow every single suggestion to have a general idea of its contents. A better approach is the one used in the policy discussion page, where a user not only links to the new policy but also writes a few words about it. --People's Commissar Hagnat [cloned] [mod] 14:22, 11 April 2007 (BST)
- Yeah, you have a point. I thought of that earlier too, but it seemed to add another level of complication to the process. I'm hoping that the name that people give to their suggestions will be enough to give a bit of an idea. Will consider it though. I'll consider it tomorrow night. Hope you don't mind me toning down the size of the links, and taking out the dividers... just seems too much. The bolding and the "by/at" idea was a good improvement though -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 14:37, 11 April 2007 (BST)
- As a matter of fact, reading your thoughts on name prominence, I also considered just timestamping the link rather than having people sign them on the category page. I know some people have had their suggestions contributions "targeted" in the past, so... just an idea -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 14:40, 11 April 2007 (BST)
Damn Hagnat, I totally missed the change you made to {{NewSug}} last night, getting rid of the date in the link! Excellent work! Now why didn't I think of that ;) -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 10:40, 12 April 2007 (BST)
i am a little concerned about removing previous suggestions in this system. while that would follow the current behaviour in the suggestion page, that wouldnt make that much sense since suggestions were still open for voting. My suggestion is to host the link for suggestion page in the Current Suggestion category, and then move the link for a Peer Reviewed Suggestions category, or a Failed Suggestions category, and a Spammed Suggestions category. I think you got the idea, so ill stop writting now. --People's Commissar Hagnat [cloned] [mod] 14:16, 12 April 2007 (BST)
- No, the link is removed after a day (just like the whole suggestion is removed from the suggestions page, and put on the previous days suggestion page now). But with this system the link remains on the page, in the category list section (right down the bottom) until voting is finished even after it is edited off the page. Then all you have to do is replace the Category:Current Suggestions tag from the individual page, and replace it with Category:Peer Reviewed Suggestions (or whichever it qualifies for) when voting is finished. No need to go cutting and pasting suggestions, or links to archive pages. The categories become archives. That's the main point of the system, to cut down on the mundane chore of constantly cycling suggestions -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 16:28, 13 April 2007 (BST)
Test the category
On another note, I'd like to ask anyone who happens on this page to see if they can work out how to make a suggestion using Category:Current Suggestions. Actually make a page if you can (but make sure that it gets included in the category, so it can be cleaned up later) -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 16:05, 9 April 2007 (BST)
- Alright, a few things that I picked up strait away. The first is that you need some indentation or something on the NewSug template. As you can see if you don't then it formats suggestions onto the same line (a deliberate example). The second is to do with the sugHead template, the 3rd level headings are indented in, thus the wiki is displaying the code, also it's unclear as if {{Subst:SuggestionVoting}} is suppose to be on the page or not (well I know it's supose to be, but not to the newb). Anyway you can see the issues here. Also as a suggestion, make the suggestion be automaticaly categorised into current day suggestions once it's made. I hope that helps. - JedazΣT MC ΞD GIS S! 01:54, 10 April 2007 (GMT)
- All valid points. Will work on those (hope you don't mind me bolding part of your post, so I can check I've dealt with all issues later on). Perhaps it would be better to go with a template rather than raw text for placing the actual suggestion on the page... that way I can hide the {{Subst:SuggestionVoting}}, and add a header (which I was thinking of doing anyway -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 03:39, 10 April 2007 (BST)
- OK, fixed the first too (I think)... now, to make it obvious that {{Subst:SuggestionVoting}} has to be cut'n'pasted... how do you get those sorta text boxes to appear? Or are they just tables? -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 03:51, 10 April 2007 (BST)
- All valid points. Will work on those (hope you don't mind me bolding part of your post, so I can check I've dealt with all issues later on). Perhaps it would be better to go with a template rather than raw text for placing the actual suggestion on the page... that way I can hide the {{Subst:SuggestionVoting}}, and add a header (which I was thinking of doing anyway -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 03:39, 10 April 2007 (BST)
Next Project
Something to get to... later.
Thinking of putting a preview onto the suburb danger report pages, so that users know that their changes are as they expected, without having to go searching on the map. Something like a template to go in the noinclude area of the dangerreport page, containing something like the below -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 05:50, 11 April 2007 (BST)
{| style="border:solid 1px black; border-spacing:2px; font-size:90%; width:100px; height:100px" align=left |- | style="{{ User:{{PAGENAME}} }}" align=center width=10% height=10% | Preview |}
