UDWiki talk:Community Portal

UDWiki talk:Community Portal/archive

Community Portal Redesign

The community portal is about to undergo a redesign and hopefully a revitalization. If you've got any ideas, or would like to help out in the overhaul. Let it be known! --  RoosterDragon  17:46, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

What exactly was it before? It sounds sort of scary, like a Stargate or something. --Paddy Dignam 18:09, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Nowhere near as awesome as a Stargate unfortunately. The previous page was just a wealth of templates pertaining to various things. The CP also houses projects and some other stuff in its sub-pages. --  RoosterDragon  18:28, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Damn, a Stargate would have been sweet. Well, Gnome put some stuff on your talk page as a starting point. Why not move it over here? I've always thought it would be cool to do a spotlight (be it a mini-interview, IC and/or OOC personal statement, etc.) on a UD character/user. I don't know if that would go in the Stargate or not... Seriously, you should just call it The Community Stargate. Who wouldn't click on a link that said that? --Paddy Dignam 18:42, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm in, Rooster. This is still sorta my turf after Project CP so I want to help in anyway I can. D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) 00:41, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Progress

Some stuff that could work:

• Articles needing work - Meaning an entire list of articles, or ones of top priority
• Ongoing discussion - Things that wouldn't be on Wiki News but that require attention
• Community Projects - A full list of the active/ongoing ones, the rest archived
• Technical help - Technical wiki questions (not like "how do I sign?")
• General notices - Again, something that isn't announced on the main page but needs attention
• Other things the community would be interested in

Yarp. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 18:49, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Maybe a link should be added to recruitment to help newbies with joining groups? No abbreviations as CP, please; I feel like if I click on it, I will be getting a visit from the partyvan. CommPort would work much better. --ZsL 21:00, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Updated. Give it a look. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 21:28, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Certainly looks nice. I am unsure as to whether we need to list all active projects on the main page when we can have that list on UDWiki:Projects. Maybe a brief list of the major/newest ones at best. The entire projects section, past and present, needs some re-organization as part of this overhaul anyway.

Featured Article. I'm a fan of this idea and a week always seemed sensible to me, I think we oughta be able to scrap up 52 decent articles each year with some luck. If not, we can always syndicate occasionally. No harm in it. I was thinking a new page with a pool of articles which people could vote new articles into, and then maybe each week a small selection is made and voted on for FA for next week, while last week's winner of voting is put up. Losers return to the pool (unless a good reason as to their non-awesomeness is mentioned).

A similar scheme for "Articles needing Work" (which we need a better term for, I think) where somebody can just suggest any article that isn't going to become some crit 1 on A/SD later, and it can go into a pool of all the stuff to work on, and occasionally we can pull a few out from the pot from showing on the CP page and main if we want that section.

The "Discussions" example seems to be more a "article needing work" example, so that probably shouldn't be there, but I'd like to know what you had in mind for it. I like the idea of a bit for general interest/awesome articles like "The Game" and N00dles. Worth having. Same with technical help. Finally, if we have a general announcement header for big things (like say, a major infrastructure change or a project of a large scale), where should that go? --  RoosterDragon  23:15, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Updated. The descriptions for what each section should do are there (they won't stay though). The discussion section is there to mop up any places that are missed being announced elsewhere. Also, "Articles in need of assistance"? And should both the feature vote and AINOA be in the UDWiki namespace? --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 00:45, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

The discussion bit makes sense now, probably just a bad example originally. Still not a fan of AINOA as a name, but I really can't think of anything decent, so whatever works I guess. The various pages should probably become either sub-pages of the community portal, or their own UDWiki pages. I'm more in favour of sub-pages myself (UDWiki:Projects would be moved) --  RoosterDragon  17:20, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Things to do on the Wiki when you're dead I still think wins. A list of articles. Might even add some pages and info the wiki doesn't have. Like "In necronet scans what do the grey/black boxes around other necronets mean?" Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 19:03, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Probably easier to merge that list in where appropriate and then SD it. An explanation of scans should probably appear under the skills listing somewhere methinks. --  RoosterDragon  19:21, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry should have had a comma in the above sentence. "Necrotech Employment needs expanding. What do the grey boxes on necronet scans mean?"Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 19:36, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh! Well that would come under stuff needing work, no point having another page that basically has the same function. --  RoosterDragon  19:44, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Open tasks (OT)? Articles needing help (ANH)? Open jobs (OJ)? Pages needing work (PNW)? Articles needing work (ANW)? Pages in need of improvement (PINOI)? etc. I like the first one. Also, I'm thinking the Featured Article (FA), Open Tasks (OT) should be in the UDWiki namespace, no subpage, but what about Technical Help? Main namespace like Wiki Questions?--  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 20:49, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

So, UDWiki for the CP, Projects, FA and OT. Main for the various questions and help sections. Ok, that sounds better than sub-pages actually. As far as names go, I just think "Articles Needing Work" sounded a bit clunky and something more snappy was needed. "Open Tasks" is good, but maybe a bit vague. "Article Workhouse" or something. Either that or maybe you should just ignore me for being a pedantic fool. --  RoosterDragon  21:05, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Updated. I don't have a name for the bottom section, and there are only a few things in it. They could each do with a small description probably. It would also be cool if someone would make some sort of newspaper on wiki activities, or something. If they want. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 21:49, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Article Workhouse is a good name. Some wiki maintenance groups could be added to the portal like Project Wiki Patrol, Template Junkies, and Project Welcome. --ZsL 21:57, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I would love to work on some sort of newspaper, but I fear that with the size of the wiki, it would be simply restating the "Wiki News" in a wordier fashion. Linkthewindow  Talk  22:57, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Guys, a workhouse is where Oliver Twist and many another Dickens character did very hard, very unpleasant time. Workshop doesn't really fit either, but at least it's not a place where poor people go to die. --Paddy Dignam^{IS DEAD} 00:20, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Hmm... hehe. Fiddled with the colours a bit. What are we looking for, green? Blue? Does someone want to make a list of "articles needing work" or whateva? And a name and more content for the bottom section?--  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 00:53, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

That just makes me want to use "workhouse" even more! Why don't we call it the Article Sweatshop? --ZsL 01:06, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Yah no what. Let's totally do that. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 01:09, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh sure. Use Article Sweatshop but not Community Stargate. What a rip-off... Why not just use "Miscellaneous" for the bottom section? --Paddy Dignam^{IS DEAD} 03:32, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

"Article Incubation" mayhaps ? And we don't want to use Misc, that's just admitting failure! Maybe "General Interest" or "Interesting Articles". Also, there seems to be some odd behaviour when the edit links for each section show up, they're being mucked about by the small text for the project and FA sections. Probably best to magic word them away. I think the project text for Complete List & Archive should go next to the "Projects" title, it's a bit in the middle of nowhere. (Probably my wide screen doing that) --  RoosterDragon  12:32, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Incubation sounds terrible in my opinion. Despite this, I can't really think up anything better. I wanna take the time to suggest: SURELY Template:Dramalevel has a place here. D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) 13:11, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

I still think Article Sweatshop would be the best. It would almost have an acronym of ASS as well... Updated.--  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 17:09, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Ah hah! I know what this needs: a "Did you know?" section! --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 17:32, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Spadework Where research into game stuff is done? Search rates and the like? --Rosslessness^{Want a Location Image?} 17:35, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps we should have a mini-vote once we've got ourselves a nice pot of ideas so we can pick out the ones that we definitely want and stick that onto the actual page and then discuss the others some more, that way we can avoid creating too many flash-in-the-pan ideas but also actually get something built to replace that damned lolcat. --  RoosterDragon  18:44, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Gnome, you've only gone and put down all the options that everybody likes anyway, I was thinking more about stuff like "DYK" and "Spadework" which might be a good idea but might not. Just fricking transfer the sandbox over and we'll keep working on it. We can even make starts on FA and The Section That Cannot Be Named that way. Just leave the lists with some filler text. --  RoosterDragon  22:29, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Content

Current Look/Content

Maybe this will organize our thoughts:

Left Box: Bulletin Board

Bulletin Board

What's new Community Portal - The long forgotten portal is undergoing a massive remake. Come help out and offer suggestions on the talk page. A Tale of Undead Cities- An organization effort to clean up, improve and revamp the three city pages about Malton, Monroeville and Borehamwood. Help discuss ideas and add your own suggestions for improvements. User Hub - Recently implemented, the user hub allows you to search and contact users on the wiki more easily. Bookmark it, and come add your name. Projects Guide Page Cleanup - An organized cleanup of the guides page to consolidate and preserve useful information. NecroWatch - Aims to collect NecroNet information and update it on the wiki. Complete list - Archive Discussions See also General Discussion Spam abuse - Spam vote abuse discussion. Job Queue - Discussion on Suburb Dangermap History inclusion on the page. DangerMap System Update - A proposal to update the dangermap system.

Discussion 1

I think we're good here. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 22:19, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, but get rid of those [edit] boxes. They don't look pretty and make it look a tad broken. You can manually include a link to the editing page if that's what you want (stealth external link.) Linkthewindow  Talk  05:15, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually, ignore that. Gnome's included it on his prototype page. Linkthewindow  Talk  05:21, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Right Box: Articles

Articles

Featured Article Example page - A short description describing the awesomeness and feature qualityness of the page. Project page - Vote for featured articles Article Workhouse UD Cheats - Stub, please add something! Ghoul - Doesn't have an intro, not NPOV. Car - Doesn't follow wiki standards. Suggest an article

Discussion 2

What do we call the "articles needing work" section? --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 22:19, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

One vote for "Article Workhouse". --  RoosterDragon  22:29, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Why go halfway? One vote for "Article Sweatshop". --Paddy Dignam^{IS DEAD} 02:09, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Another vote for Article Workhouse. Linkthewindow  Talk  05:16, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't like either. If I have to be honest, "Things to do when you're dead" makes a lot more sense and is in genre. D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) 05:35, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Seconded (Things to do when you're dead). Would kinda be a long name for UDWiki:Things to do when you're dead. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 17:18, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Might be see as the evil "Survivor bias" given that wording. Maybe plain old "Things to do if you're bored" --  RoosterDragon  17:38, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps the section "Things to do if you're bored" or "Things to do when you're out of AP" (meh) could be added to the Main Page CommPort section as well, with the top few choices needing work placed there. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 17:55, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Everyone fine with UDWiki:Featured Articles for FA page and UDWiki:Featured Articles/Voting for voting? --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 23:58, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Seems good. --  RoosterDragon  00:10, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Still need a name for the "articles needing work" section. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 22:50, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

*Bump* This is all that's really needed, before something can finally be put up on the ComPort. Should I just default it Articles Needing Work for now?--  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 21:58, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Might as well, we need something to replace that lolcat after all. --  RoosterDragon  19:00, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Bottom Box: General Interest

General Interest

Things to see Amusing Locations in Malton N00dles comics Urban Dead Game Humorous Suggestions Mod Conspiracy Lexicon

Drama Levels No drama around? Are we still in the Urban Dead Wiki ? There is little drama. Slow mondays ? Situation normal. There is some drama, but no one is going to die. Misconbitration! Drama all around the wiki! Drama levels not seen since Wikigate! update Did You Know? ...that Malton has islands? ...that you aren't the first person to notice there's a lot of funny location names in Malton? ...that Summers Towers was the first documented Pinata? ...that The Valentine's Day Massacre was (possibly) the first documented PK massacre? ...that the Rooster was the first player to find Malton's Emergency Broadcast Network? ...that the vast majority of the last 50 survivors in Borehamwood were originally from Northwest Borehamwood? ...that there are six locations which appear multiple times within the same suburb? ...thats it's been more than three years since we last had a coup? ...that although the Dead were hugely successful, the living were a complete failure? ...that St. Daniel's Church is the only location which appears in multiple suburbs and multiple times within a suburb?

Discussion 3

It's lacking! --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 22:19, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Then by god we'll add to it! Just stick the section on and people will add more as they think of it! --  RoosterDragon  22:29, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Added! (right)? --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 22:37, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Maybe you should get Hag's permission (or just do it anyway) to change the colours of the Dramalevel so they fit in with the final theme of the CP. D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) 11:21, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

It's in the main namespace and is open to editing regardless. Hagnat 'released' control of it some time ago to boot. You might want to redesign it to take custom colours as variables since the colours might be important to some people. No need to ruin their pages. --  RoosterDragon  17:44, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I put the code down, so it's easy to fiddle. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 18:15, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Added a "Did You Know" section. Looks awkward with the lack of content. *ehem*--  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 21:10, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Any chance of fixing the two sections to be 50% each of the space, after you account for the DramaLevel? Looks skewed on my screen. Are you thinking of the DYK just being a few random points of interest that people could update occasionally? I don't know if there's mileage in anything more comprehensive, we'd run out of facts! If we go for a weekly FA, then I figure we could do weekly for the whole Portal. Update the Main Page section with "New Things This Week" and add some weekly DYKs and rotate the article needing help if we ever put that on the main page section. Decent? --  RoosterDragon  23:41, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

DYK would be a few random quips, right. But zombie related. Agree with a few DYK's, what's new and articles needing help on the main page. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 23:58, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

You could find a few wiki and UD related ones I'm sure, DYK for example that survivors once lost almost 10,000 active characters in the space of one hour? Or that Danversbank has two mobile phone masts? See. Easy. --  RoosterDragon  00:06, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

OH OH OH OH OH 'On this day in Urban Dead'. Cause theres so much content we could have for something historical happen every day :/ We could stick up a 'On this month in Urban Dead:' then some funky fact, like the march of the dead, or the Strike, or the introduction of ruined buildings. Just nostalgic stuff like that. D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) 00:19, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Would it be worth just folding this into a DYK? EG: "DYK this time last year something awesome happened?", I don't know if we have enough awesome events to get more than a couple a week. Somebody more old hat could quash me on that though. --  RoosterDragon  16:14, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Requests for Comment or a "General Discussion" page

What about a general page asking for comments on a particular topic, like Wikipedia's requests for comment. It will help take some of the load of Kevan's talk page in regards to discussions on game mechanics, and also perhaps be useful if a user wants comments on an action they are planning on taking. Someone's put up a "Discussion" header up above, but I still think this is needed as it's good to have a "dumping ground" for discussions that don't belong anywhere else.

Thoughts? Linkthewindow  Talk  10:42, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I like the idea of easing Kevan's spam load. Maybe we could push the FAQ page through the community portal a bit. D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) 11:23, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I added a Requests for comment under the Discussion section, in the Bulletin Board box. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 17:20, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Call it general discussion, we're not the IEEE. --  RoosterDragon  17:41, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Okay then. I'll get it set up later. Any rules needed beyond "post at the bottom?" Linkthewindow  Talk  10:54, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Sign. UDWiki:General Discussion --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 22:35, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Just been created. Give that new page some love! Linkthewindow  Talk  08:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

---

About the new layout

like the layout, hate the design. It simply dont fit with any other design we had in here. Sure, changes be happening around here that in the past months, but this design lacks everything... its simply dry and lifeless. Add some colors and peronality. make it merge with the rest of the game and the wiki. --People's Commissar Hagnat ^{[talk] [wcdz]} 04:12, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Haven't you left already? >=[ It's been the same as the game and the wiki for many years and no one used it. We are going for desperate measures here. D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) 11:39, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I just come in here to check the 'tard level and be glad i left. Anyway, another suggestion for this page is to move it and its edit history to an archive page, and re-create the page over the redirect that was created by the move. This way you reset the pageview counter, and can check if people are using this page or not. --People's Commissar Hagnat ^{[talk] [wcdz]} 00:55, 31 March 2009 (BST)

Or we can just record that the page had 118,864 hits at the time of writing this and calculate from that. --Midianian^{¦T¦DS¦SP¦} 07:27, 31 March 2009 (BST)

Ohhh hag you'll be back soon enough =] D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) 12:19, 31 March 2009 (BST)

It had 118,000 about when this started. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 23:59, 31 March 2009 (BST)

Alright!

Let's get this going again? Gnome, what still needs doing? I'll be happy to help you and Rooster get the ball rolling again. D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) OFFLINE 05:22, 10 April 2009 (BST)

For now, it looks like we'll need some featured articles and did you know entries. I would say we would be ready to start moving over non-controversial DYK's, and vote on FA's. Linkthewindow  Talk  05:45, 10 April 2009 (BST)

Thats what I thought... I think we have enough DYK's for now... How are we gonna judge which ones are bad without making people cry? D^ANCED^ANCER^EVOLUTION (TALK | CONTRIBS) OFFLINE 05:55, 10 April 2009 (BST)

People have had ample to time to comment on the shady ones, so I cycled ten into rotation that people didn't have problems with for now. We're not short on stock or anything. --  RoosterDragon  15:16, 10 April 2009 (BST)

What would we add to the Main Page CP template? DYKs? FA? I don't think it should be the exact same as with the Community Portal page. Oh, "Articles Needing Work" really needs a name. --  AHLGTG THE END IS NIGH! 17:09, 10 April 2009 (BST)

I dunno, I was sorta figuring it would be the portal page, just "In Brief". A selection of news and discussion, the current FA and maybe a couple of DYK's if there's space. --  RoosterDragon  17:18, 10 April 2009 (BST)