The Campaign Builder's Guild

I realize this thread might answer a very similar question, but I wanted to put a more direct title up front and thus started a new thread.

I've been working with the Lexicon project on the wiki and I'm enjoying it immensely! It's also made me want to try and get something up there to better organize my work and make it available to any inquiring players (particularly my own). Looking at the settings already up there, I can't help but feel a little overwhelmed by the dizzying amount of work that goes into them, but it's something I'm fully willing to tinker with. And I'm not talking about writing articles for the setting and all that; I mean setting up the links and the pages and all the other stuff that, to me, looks fairly complicated.

I'm hoping to try and get some help on making this process a little bit easier for me as I ease my way into the wiki and get a full setting up there. That said, I'll need some help! Cue the experts!

Am I correct in assuming that I simply start a new page like I would in the Lexicon? For instance, could I start by making a new page using Luminous Crayon's tip in starting new Lexicon articles: "www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php?title=YOUR_PAGE_NAME_(Lexicon)&action=edit", but by removing the "(Lexicon)" portion?

I haven't jumped the gun yet if I'm wrong, so fear not :).

yes, or as i do, when i write a page i link to pages not yet created, then click the link to create the page. search through google "wiki page markup" or "how to edit a wiki page" and pages will come up all the ways to do stuff and what you need to do it (often copy and paste)

Thanks for the advice, Lath.

So, does a setting wiki sort of unfold from a single, original page? Once a page is filled with its desired subject, do you link to another page and start with another subject, similar to how the Lexicon works?

Quote from: The_Weave05I'm hoping to try and get some help on making this process a little bit easier for me as I ease my way into the wiki and get a full setting up there. That said, I'll need some help! Cue the experts!

Am I correct in assuming that I simply start a new page like I would in the Lexicon? For instance, could I start by making a new page using Luminous Crayon's tip in starting new Lexicon articles: "www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php?title=YOUR_PAGE_NAME_(Lexicon)&action=edit", but by removing the "(Lexicon)" portion?

I haven't jumped the gun yet if I'm wrong, so fear not :).

There's a tiny bit of extra steps involved with starting up a brand new wiki project (as opposed to a new page within an existing project, like Lexicon). It's not too hard, though, so don't be intimidated.

I've done this dance what, four or five times now? So, I'll be glad to walk you through my method (some of these are unnecessary, but useful tricks).

1.) Name your project. This is the name of your main page (by itself), it goes in parenthesis at the end of the name of all the other pages, and it gets added to the Wiki setting list (more on that momentarily). So, if your wiki project is named "Weave's Awesome Project", you want one page that's just named Weave's Awesome Project, no parenthesis, and then you want a bunch of pages named Maps (Weave's Awesome Project), etc.

2.) Add your project to the list. Specifically, Template:ListOfSettings. Edit this page and slip "Weave's Awesome Project" into the big list with all the rest, making sure not to put a space before or after the commas on either side of it (just look at the others for examples of the syntax and make it match, no big deal). This change makes your project an official part of Sparkletwist's brilliant autodisambiguation system (and if you skip this step, any links you create with the {{L}} template will not function.)

3.) (Optional) Make a template for your project. This is not necessary, but it is very useful, and with a little bit of experimentation you can really get it to make things look nice. (It's easiest if you find a template you like, swipe the code, and tweak it until it fits your needs.) I use two templates each for every page in Jade Stage, Jade Fate, and Modern Mythos (one header and one footer), and I set up one template for each Lexicon page (header only, so it's less complicated for Lexicon writers to have to keep up with). You can use colors and images to make it look nice (I use a simple table to center things), it's useful if you want to set up a navigation menu so that important pages of your wiki are accessible from anywhere within it, etc. There are also some things that need to be included in each wiki page, and if you stash them all in a template and put that template on each page (like we've done with Lexicon), that counts.

Here's the contents of Template:Lexicon_Banner, for you to look at. (By typing {{Lexicon_Banner}} at the top of each page, you're including this template and all it contains.)
[quote="width:100%;margin-top:1em;background-color:#ffaa88;border:2px solid #442200;color:#442200;font-size:110%"
|-
|
|align="right" width=500|[[Lexicon]]
|align="center" width=40| [[Image:Lexicon_Book_Icon.gif]]
|align="left" width=500|[[Scholars (Lexicon)|contributing scholars]] - [[:Category:Lexicon|index of articles]]
|
|}
{{Setting|Lexicon}}
__NOTOC__
__NOEDITSECTION__
[[Category:Lexicon]]
[/quote]{|[/b] through the |} midway down is a table; those marks enclose a table. I use that so everything looks nice. Pretty, but optional. The important stuff is what comes after the table.

{{Setting|Lexicon}} is a required component of the autodisambiguation code. This needs to be on every page, or the links won't work. So I put it in the banner template, and I never have to worry about it again.

[[Category:Lexicon]] adds any page that includes it to Category:Lexicon, creating our index. Since it's in the template, we don't have to do it manually on each page.

__NOTOC__ and __NOEDITSECTION__ are markers that change the style of the page. (Note, those are two underscores side by side, both before and after.) Experiment and see whether you like them or not; I put them in the Lexicon banner because I thought most Lexicon pages might be somewhat short, and these functions would make the whole thing look sleeker and less cluttered (note: this may not actually have been a good assumption for Lexicon; ya'll some wordy sonofarascals). __NOTOC__ stops the page from automatically generating a table of contents out of your section headings (sometimes you want it, sometimes you don't), and __NOEDITSECTION__ prevents the page from adding a small, section-specific edit button for each section heading (like on this page, for instance, all the little [edit] buttons on the right of the page. That shit is irritating and I should get rid of it.)

Another good one to know about is {{TOC_Right}}, which makes the table of contents float to the right and lets text wrap around it (also on my above-linked Heku example); I use {{TOC_Right}} on almost every wiki page I make.

......

Still with me? Good. God, that was a lot of text. If you want more, I've got one more link: Sparkletwist's Page Creation Information, which discusses page naming conventions, the workings of the autodisambiguator, and why the important parts are important.

If you have more questions, fire away. But I think that should probably be enough to get you started. Have fun!

Quote from: The_Weave05Am I correct in assuming that I simply start a new page like I would in the Lexicon? For instance, could I start by making a new page using Luminous Crayon's tip in starting new Lexicon articles: "www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php?title=YOUR_PAGE_NAME_(Lexicon)&action=edit", but by removing the "(Lexicon)" portion?

Oh, hey, specific answers for specific questions. Yes, you can do that. That always works, always. The bit between the "title=" and the "&" is the name of the page you're creating.

The only reason for the parenthesis is to help distinguish between everybody's various projects. Since we're technically all lumped together in one big wiki soup, the suffixes like (Lexicon) at the end of page names (and Sparkletwist's autodisambiguator and {{L}} template) help separate things, so that each project keeps to itself and we don't all bleed over onto each others' work.

If you're making a page with a relatively common name that somebody else might conceivably also want to use (like "Magic" or "Politics" or "Dragons" or something), then use the parenthetical suffix (so "Magic (Lexicon)" is different from "Magic (Jade Stage)" and "Magic (Weave's Awesome Project)", etc.) If you're making a page with a weird name that nobody else is going to be using, then you don't need the suffix, but there's no harm in having it anyway, so I just put it on every page because I think it's a good habit. (The exception, of course, is the main page for your wiki project. Which is just called "Weave's Awesome Project", or whatever. No suffix needed, because it IS the suffix for everything else.)

QuoteSo, does a setting wiki sort of unfold from a single, original page? Once a page is filled with its desired subject, do you link to another page and start with another subject, similar to how the Lexicon works?

need[/i] to do it that way, though. Since you know how to create a page with any pagename you like, even when there's not a link that takes you to the vacant spot, you could start off by creating pages you know you'll need, and then worry about how to link them all together later.

Thanks a billion, LC! This is very helpful.

I'm tinkering around with this right now, so I'm sure I'll have some more questions later, but right now I want to know how I can change the image in the template that would normally be a book (for Lexicon) to something else.

EDIT: Didn't notice you had linked Sparkletwist's setting creation page; I'll certainly check that out.

Quote from: The_Weave05Thanks a billion, LC! This is very helpful.

I'm tinkering around with this right now, so I'm sure I'll have some more questions later, but right now I want to know how I can change the image in the template that would normally be a book (for Lexicon) to something else.

Glad to help.

For your image switch, that's very easy. From any page on the wiki, there's a wiki-wide menu on the far left column. You want Upload file. That'll bring you to a page that will let you choose an image from your hard drive, and upload it to the wiki with any filename you choose.

Then, if you're looking at the Template:Lexicon_Banner, change "[[Image:Lexicon_Book_Icon.gif]]" so that it has the filename of your chosen image instead. Poof, done!

Next question: How do I become a user of the cbg wiki?

Just got a bare-bones basic page up for Shattered Spectrum, hopefully I'll learn more as I go.

Quote from: The_Weave05Next question: How do I become a user of the cbg wiki?

You mean, edit your user page so that it contains some content? You add content to it just like any other page, it's just User:The_Weave05.

If you want to know how to become a user of the wiki in a more general sense, I'd say you've already done that. :yumm:

Oh, well isn't that just dandy :). I thought there might be something I'd have to sign up for or whatnot.

Anyways, I've been plugging away at some stuff and even though it doesn't look like anything special yet, I'm certain I'll find ways to spruce it up as I go. Likewise, I've always got my trusty go-go-gadget LC-ANSWER-MY-QUESTION-PLEASE up my sleeve.

I do have another question: The word "Minotaur" unintentionally links someone else's entry for "Minotaur." Is there a way to specify that I wish for mine to link somewhere else?

Quote from: The_Weave05I do have another question: The word "Minotaur" unintentionally links someone else's entry for "Minotaur." Is there a way to specify that I wish for mine to link somewhere else?

As long as you have a setting template on each page you can use {{L|Minotaur}} to link to the minotaur page with your setting template on it. You can look at http://www.thecbg.org/wiki/index.php/Template:ME_header for an example of a setting template. To add one you've made to your page you just put {{NameOfTemplate}} at the top of the page. So for example the above linked template is put into Mare Eternus pages by putting a {{ME_header}} at the top.

Quote from: The_Weave05I do have another question: The word "Minotaur" unintentionally links someone else's entry for "Minotaur." Is there a way to specify that I wish for mine to link somewhere else?

The issue is over-general page names. The Minotaur pages actually exists. It's one of Lath's pages, so I guess it might be for Discworld, but I can't tell for sure from the text, so I don't want to move it anywhere yet.

Quote from: The_Weave05I do have another question: The word "Minotaur" unintentionally links someone else's entry for "Minotaur." Is there a way to specify that I wish for mine to link somewhere else?

In this situation, we need to set up an autodisambiguator, just like on every page with a name multiple people want to use (see also: Magic). It's not hard, so I'll give you instructions so you can do it yourself. (If you have trouble, I'll be glad to help out.)

First, go to the existing Minotaur page. It appears to be part of Lath's Discworld project, so we are going to move the page from "Minotaur" to "Minotaur (Discworld)". Since Lath has been using the {{L}} style links, he will experience no disruption; all his links will go to the same page even though that page has been moved. (Go to Minotaur, click "move" at the top, to the right of the "edit" button, and rock out.)

Now, go back to the Minotaur page again. Since we just moved it to Minotaur (Discworld), the Minotaur page is now an automatic redirect to Minotaur (Discworld), but that's not what we want. (If the page redirects you away, click at the top where it says "redirected from Minotaur", and it will let you go back and stay.) Now, replace the redirect contents of Minotaur with the single template {{AutoDisambiguator}}. That should be the only content on the page. Now, when anybody goes to the Minotaur page, the AutoDisambiguator template will automatically produce a list of Minotaur (Discworld), Minotaur (Shattered Spectrum), and any and all other pages that are Minotaur (Whatever), and ask you which one you want to go to. Unless, of course, you got there from a link from another page in the wiki that has the {{Setting}} template, because that makes it clear which Minotaur the link meant.

Now, create your minotaur page, only call it Minotaur (Shattered Spectrum). And you're done!

If you want to admire your handiwork, test to see that your links work, that Lath's links still do as well, and that the regular Minotaur page lists both your version and Lath's.