Usage relationship between the forum area and the wiki area

[Snargash Moonclaw]

I'm just starting out trying to make use of this site and it's resources (as well as the other two alliance sites - esp. PlotStorming) and I'm getting confused by the amount of new information - as in "how to," without any clear guides as to what needs to be done and how it all works together best. I started a new wiki page (Panisadore:Main_Page) but don't really understand the structure of what the wiki software produces to know what to do next. I see a lot of campaign settings listed here in the forum, but only find two listed in the wiki projects. Are most people simply posting material in the forum threads for review/critique but not compiling any of their setting in the wiki host? How do you get your setting listed in the projects on the wiki host? I'm not at all familiar with using online project structure/formats (such as building a wiki) and could use some general help here. I'm also wondering how the web hosting for CBG can best connect to the PlotStorming web hosting for creative writing related to my campaign project. I would like to smoothly inter-relate the two areas of effort with minimal redundancy. Any guidance here would be appreciated.

Have Fun, Play Well,
Amergin O'Kai

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Good questions Snargash.  You actually joined in the midst (and it's quite a loooooooooong midst) of a changeover to a new site format, and when the new version of the CBG goes live, there will be all kinds of neat hosting options for you.  

Most people right now are just posting their campaign info in various threads in the forums, as they are (patiently) waiting for me to finish work on the updated site.

My recommendation would be for the time being, go ahead and post in the forums - you will get lots of great response there - and wait until the new site options open up to do some of the other hosting options.

When the new version of the site goes live, there will be several tutorials for all the hosting options we have, so you shouldn't have any problems figuring it out.

Cheers, and welcome!
-Ish

[Snargash Moonclaw]

Thanks for the prompt reply. The whole realm of wiki usage is new to me - I'm an old Fido-net board user from the DOS days and have fallen well behind the curve as to what can be accomplished these days. It's apparent that the tools to smoothly integrate numerous information sources and outputs are available to do a lot of the things and organize information in ways I used to tear my hair out because they couldn't be done. Unfortunately, there's actually so many different ways to do these things that I'm often overwhelmed trying to sort thru them to find which will best suit my goals and play well with each other. (I'm still experimenting with a number of bookmark collating and website commenting/linkage add-ons to Firefox. . .) It seems there are tools do do things I haven't even thought of trying yet, but much of the reference to them presupposes that I'm already aware of the need they fulfill. The biggest problem I find is the potential to spend so much time (learning ways of) sorting and organizing information and output that I don't have time left to actually absorb/process that information or produce anything from it!

I set up a main page in the wiki - is it best to simply leave it fallow then until that host gets restructured, or will anything I add to it be ported through the changes if I post it there? I have a few files (pantheon, race write-ups, history material, etc.) in shape to tack onto that - tho the main page itself could use editing - I just cut and pasted an intro file that I've used to advertise the game locally. I'm also particularly interested in learning how to use FreeMind in conjunction with this (as well as just using it more effectively than I have so far).

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Anything you add will be ported over, so have no fears about wasting your time and losing information.