Difference between revisions of "GECK:Community Portal/Organization"

:::::Perhaps we need an umbrella page (portal?) specifically for 'Guide-like' articles?  Because, Solutions, FAQ, Tips, Practices, Tidbits, etc, all fall under the general category of Guide-like info.  So we could set up a 'Modding Guide' portal, which would be where people go to look for answers.  That page then redirects them to the subcats depending on whether they're looking for solutions to problems or tips on certain subjects, etc.

This deserves a much longer answer, but it's late and I still have a few things to do and sleep would probably be a good thing. In general, I agree, however I see the '''Guide''' as being a Portal only, linking to information in the wiki rather than ''repeating'' the information in the wiki. Moreover, the fear is that anything more than a Portal(s) would cause information to be placed in the '''Guide''' section, but not in the '''Reference''' section, as the CS wiki turned out.

However, the argument is mainly based off the idea that you have to go through a certain and simple set of steps in GECK to solve any problem (i.e., [[Object Window/Create Copy|making a copy of a base object]]). This falls apart for more complex situations like scripting (especially tricks) and if we want to include other mod making tools (using FO3Edit to make a copy).

<br>--[[User:Haama|Haama]] 07:23, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

:I'm not sure I understand your point of view.  It seems like what you're saying is that for any '''guide''' article that has info that's not in the '''reference''', you'd want that info in the '''reference''' section and have the guide link to that?  The '''guide''' would be nothing but links!

:Maybe there's a difference of opinion on how most people use the wiki.  From what I see, most people right now are following the tutorials.  These are '''guide''' articles with plenty of info not in the reference section, but they do include links to those sections.

:But these aren't the same people who maintain the wiki, such as us.  We're more likely to know how we want to go about something, so we tend to look directly at the reference pages for the info we need.  So it seems to me, that from your perspective (as one of the maintainers), you don't like the idea that there's information in the wiki that's not in the reference section for you to find.  (And keep in mind this is all speculation on my part :P).  

:Point is, most people are going to look for '''guide''' material.  They'll start with the tutorials, and then they're going to look for other similar articles.  Diving into the whole mess of '''reference''' pages can be daunting.  So what I'm thinking is that there should be a '''Guide''' portal.  This page starts off with the tutorials, followed by FAQ, followed by Modding Practices, followed by Solutions, followed by Tips and Tricks (links to these categories, with small descriptions meant to guide the user as to what they can find in each one)

:That to me is the logical progression of how a new user will advance through what they want to use the wiki for, with articles in each of these sections having multiple links to reference pages.

:As for structure, I think the snippets thing you set up yesterday is the way to go.  Snippets like that can go under Solutions, or FAQ (some current FAQs should prob be solutions, with FAQ page reserved for questions like (why no mods on PS3? etc), or tips and tricks, etc.  But, for example, with the object window copying snippet, that can be transcluded into the Object window page.

:I think having such a '''Guide''' portal, will make it a lot easier to direct users to new content, as all new content (save for things like FOSE functions), will in some way be linked to from the Guide portal (and even for FOSE, a guide could be set up for that to direct users on how to use it).

:Let me know what in the above seems like it's not accurate :P

:--[[User:Quetzilla|Quetzilla]] 20:54, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

:Looking at the main page, that should probably be the 'guide' portal.  Right now the links are under the section 'Further Reading', but they're way at the bottom and no descriptions are there.  If we could just get a few more boxes under the Tutorials paragraph on the left, with similar links to the relevant pages, I think that might be the best way to do it, as it puts the links to the most used info right where people will see them.  Furthermore, I don't think the all the links to the BGS tutorials need to be in that box.

:--[[User:Quetzilla|Quetzilla]] 21:06, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

::I've set up a test layout for what I think the main page could look like:

::[[User:Quetzilla/Test Main]]

::[[User:Quetzilla/Test Main2]] (better readability?)

::Personally, I think that represents a good shot at directing users to the content they're looking for, and visible right from the beginning.  Links follow naturally from tutorials through to advanced things like FO3Edit (in Mod Tools section).  Obviously we'd need someone to go in an make that edit, but if we get behind that (or a revised version) I think it would be very beneficial.  Then we can start putting things in the right categories and stop having headaches over how to organize things

::--[[User:Quetzilla|Quetzilla]] 21:28, 17 December 2008 (UTC)