Where is all the action, lately?

[Eladris]

Stuff on the Wiki seems to get ignored by everybody except the other wiki users, and it seems that many of those (myself included) just look at the top few entries of the "Recent Changes" list.

I check the Recent Changes daily and ask questions when I'm confused about content on a page I assume is not a stub, but I agree.  It feels like new Wiki content is better off posted first on the forum and moved to join the bulk of a body of work after critique here.

I'd be interested in hearing about Wake's creative barriers, because I always thought Wake was damn cool.

Another thread worth starting, which I may do with my lunch hour today, provided I take one!

[LordVreeg]

LC,
(and all assembled)

I'nm still going through my busy season, so there is not much time for me to do more than drop a few notes here and there.  I've also taken on more idiotic responsibilities at work.  

There is, of course, the boy.  He's not quite six months old now. That eats time alive.

And I am still keeping up with my live groups.  Igbar played last night, mainly a logistical session, taking advantage of some political capital, apologizing to a church for breaking another toy healer, hitting on a married guildmistress of the Alternative School of Magicand avoiding assassination attempts.  And rolling up a new pc, as they lost another one.  Well attended, 6 players, so only missing one and a half players.  5 bottles of wine, including a 96 Dunn Cabernet, pulled pork and ribs dinner.

Also, My Igbarians have been made aware of the LC creative challenge, and I threw them some bribes as well.

[Kindling]

I am guilty of ignoring the wiki, and not using it, or looking at stuff people post there. For some reason, while wikipedia and similar sites can engross me for hours, when it comes to settings and worldbuilding, I prefer to absorb the information in the form of a forum thread.

[Superfluous Crow]

Although i have posted on the wiki myself, I must admit to not checking it regularly for a couple of reasons:
1) I see it as an addition to the forum and generally (wrongly) assume everything that comes to the wiki passes through the forum as well.
2) It's next to impossible to decipher what changes are major/in need of a review and what changes are fairly minor (yes, we have that minor change button-thing, but still)
3) There is a lot of stuff.
4) discussion pages seem slightly impersonal and you barely notice them. I only just recently noticed that Vreeg had commented on my campaign science page (thanks, by the way)

Don't take this the wrong way though; i think the wiki is a great addition and asset and will definitely post some of my updated stuff as soon as i feel it's ready. The above points were just to clarify the reasons i didn't use it extensively.

[Cheomesh]

I do, however, love talking about things I'm interested in.  Maybe I should create a random thread on something awesome.

If you're in a thread-making mood, I'd like to hear more about these dungeon tiles.

Sure, I'll post a thread up.

I've also been trying to movitave myself to practice more longsword material, but it's cold outside and my ceiling is low :|

M.

[Poseptune]

Myself, I've been busy. However that was only recent (last few months).

I believe I'm also burnt out and unable to focus. There is still stuff for my setting floating around in my head, I just can't make it come out and that's been the case for the last year or so. With work taking up much of my time and frustration about the inability to focus I had stopped visiting for a while. Only recently have I even been looking at the Tavern and opening a few threads (my last post of substance was on Oct 16.). I'm hoping as work starts to wind down I will start contributing to the community once again (though I highly doubt it will be in the form of new stuff on my part), not that I contributed much before either. :(

[Epic Meepo]

We need a Wiki Awareness Campaign of some kind.

Here's the problem I've seen regarding the Wiki; between the Recent Posts list and the Recent Changes page, you can only pick one as the place you visit first when you come here.

Before the Wiki, everyone wanting to read new setting info was directed to a single location. Now, visitors are being split into two categories: those that go right to the forums and those that go right to the Wiki. There's no longer a central clearing ground for new setting information.

Presumably, a parallel argument exists with the Tavern and the IRC chatroom.

Sometimes, I wonder if the CBG really is slower than normal. Are there really fewer settings being actively worked on at the moment; or are there more active settings than ever, just no one knows it because no one can see more than half of them in one location?

[Epic Meepo]

For some reason, while wikipedia and similar sites can engross me for hours, when it comes to settings and worldbuilding, I prefer to absorb the information in the form of a forum thread.

You know, I've noticed the same thing. I think it has something to do with the amount of information available.

On Wikipedia, I might start by reading about comets, but end up reading about flint-lock firearms, having traversed several dozen tangentially-related pages in the process. That's entertaining because its an entirely different process than reading a linear forum post.

On a setting wiki, I might start by reading one aspect of a setting, then move on to reading another aspect of the same setting, with no chance of passing through any tangential topics. That's still entertaining, but it's virtually the same process as reading a linear forum post. So why not just start with a linear forum post in the first place?

For a setting wiki to really capture the Wikipedia feel, it's going to need to be huge. And I don't mean 10 pages huge or Forgotten Realms sourcebook huge. I'm talking full-immersion huge. Thousands of pages. So huge I can start reading about the setting's races and end up reading about some (fully-detailed) diplomatic incident involving some (fully-detailed) philosopher who influenced the (fully-detailed) first dynasty of the (fully-detailed) kingdom that was responsible for the (fully-detailed) technology used by the setting's (fully-detailed) elves. All without exhausting even a small fraction of the information available on the setting at large.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

I find web design for organizing the reams of information that develop for a setting (especially for personal use). Much of this information tends to be non-linear, and it's nice to be able to just link to the appropriate pages.

Wiki is basically simple web design loosely collected along with other settings.

I tend not to post stuff on the forums much anymore. I guess I could, but really, stuff on the forums doesn't get that many reviews either.

I tend to only review wiki stuff, and only in spurts.

BTW, you can sign up to be emailed when people change your watched pages (just like watched threads), so you don't miss comments.

[Epic Meepo]

Hmm. My last post came across sounding much more anti-wiki than I had intended.

What I was attempting to do was merely to argue through hyperbole that a forum post and a wiki page are going to create similar experiences for the reader unless the wiki page is part of a vast collection of wiki pages.

I wasn't trying to argue the relative merits of either media.

[Ninja D!]

Lately I've been spending most of my creative time on GURPS and planning out the GURPS campaign I will be running over yonder.
[spoiler]If anyone is interested in playing that that campaign, or observing as a lurker to get an idea of how the system works, you're welcome to come.[/spoiler]

[SA]

I only look at the forums.  The last time I checked out the wiki was ags ago and I don't much care for it.  I doubt there's anything that'd increase my affection for it, as the forums provide a simple, orderly, intuitive interface that's easy to use and understand, and are more conducive to dialogue.

[beejazz]

Are we all just stewing over pet projects privately before posting about them here?

That one. My system's shaping up and nearing completion, at least in terms of general applications (character creation, skill system, magic system, combat system, etc.). I'm working on my least favorite part right now (weapons and armor... tedious, but necessary work). Soon I'll have the general stuff up and be asking for help on specifics (spell lists, race ability brainstorming, feats and what they should do).

I want to post something I've already got fairly complete this time around. Maybe even see about setting up playtests on the pbp section.

[beejazz]

For some reason, while wikipedia and similar sites can engross me for hours, when it comes to settings and worldbuilding, I prefer to absorb the information in the form of a forum thread.

You know, I've noticed the same thing. I think it has something to do with the amount of information available.

On Wikipedia, I might start by reading about comets, but end up reading about flint-lock firearms, having traversed several dozen tangentially-related pages in the process. That's entertaining because its an entirely different process than reading a linear forum post.

On a setting wiki, I might start by reading one aspect of a setting, then move on to reading another aspect of the same setting, with no chance of passing through any tangential topics. That's still entertaining, but it's virtually the same process as reading a linear forum post. So why not just start with a linear forum post in the first place?

For a setting wiki to really capture the Wikipedia feel, it's going to need to be huge. And I don't mean 10 pages huge or Forgotten Realms sourcebook huge. I'm talking full-immersion huge. Thousands of pages. So huge I can start reading about the setting's races and end up reading about some (fully-detailed) diplomatic incident involving some (fully-detailed) philosopher who influenced the (fully-detailed) first dynasty of the (fully-detailed) kingdom that was responsible for the (fully-detailed) technology used by the setting's (fully-detailed) elves. All without exhausting even a small fraction of the information available on the setting at large.

hmm... if there are links to related articles... why not have links to articles relating to similar topics in other settings? It might be fun to drift from one magic system to the next without worrying about the rest of the setting, if that's what you're in the mood to look at.

Just a thought. Not sure how it would be implemented.

Edit: Haven't been there in a while. Just went. I love the mythology resource.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

For some reason, while wikipedia and similar sites can engross me for hours, when it comes to settings and worldbuilding, I prefer to absorb the information in the form of a forum thread.

You know, I've noticed the same thing. I think it has something to do with the amount of information available.

On Wikipedia, I might start by reading about comets, but end up reading about flint-lock firearms, having traversed several dozen tangentially-related pages in the process. That's entertaining because its an entirely different process than reading a linear forum post.

On a setting wiki, I might start by reading one aspect of a setting, then move on to reading another aspect of the same setting, with no chance of passing through any tangential topics. That's still entertaining, but it's virtually the same process as reading a linear forum post. So why not just start with a linear forum post in the first place?

For a setting wiki to really capture the Wikipedia feel, it's going to need to be huge. And I don't mean 10 pages huge or Forgotten Realms sourcebook huge. I'm talking full-immersion huge. Thousands of pages. So huge I can start reading about the setting's races and end up reading about some (fully-detailed) diplomatic incident involving some (fully-detailed) philosopher who influenced the (fully-detailed) first dynasty of the (fully-detailed) kingdom that was responsible for the (fully-detailed) technology used by the setting's (fully-detailed) elves. All without exhausting even a small fraction of the information available on the setting at large.

hmm... if there are links to related articles... why not have links to articles relating to similar topics in other settings? It might be fun to drift from one magic system to the next without worrying about the rest of the setting, if that's what you're in the mood to look at.

Just a thought. Not sure how it would be implemented.

Edit: Haven't been there in a while. Just went. I love the mythology resource.

In a roundabout way, that is certainly possible.  For instance, several of the wiki users have set up their religions with a special "Religions" category, which will then direct them to other wiki users' religion.  We may need to go into more detail on the "page creation page" on how to really make things flow better there.

I think some of the comments here are very informative, especially about the wiki and forums dividing up the posts.  I've told brainface that I wouldn't spill too many plans on CBG2.0 in case certain things don't work out (and for a second reason that we have suspicions that someone from another similar site has stolen a few ideas we've spoken of here), but here's a thought and you guys tell me how useful you would find it.

Each person would have their own special "Campaign setting" page, which could link to all forum posts, have a wiki RSS update feed, etc.  Do you think that is something that would help the particular flow?