Wiki

[Poor_Knight]

OK - the Wiki feature is chappin' my hide.
I spent a lot of time on it yesterday  and decided to wipe everything I had done this morning. It wasn't performing as I wanted. I'll start up the research again after I get other features going. The wiki was supposed to be a later edition anyways and now I've wasted a day messing with it.

But now I am wondering, do you think a 'true wiki' is desired or simply the ability to add a page and edit the page and link them together? Thats what a wiki does but in its own special way. I can pretty much do that.

Wiki's are often editable by anyone. The campaign wiki will not be  - only the GM. I will likely allow for the GM to assign editing rights to players. So in essence its not open collaboration.

But is there something about a wiki that I am missing here?

[Odinseye]

ok I am just gonna throw this out there and see what you think. 

We will have the main section to describe our campaign and accept or deny members, we will have the blog section complete with gm notes and all that, then we will have individual boards as well for posts about the action of the campaign and where all the meat of it goes on, then there are the main boards to discuss basically everything.

What do we really need a wiki section for?  what kind of functionality does it provide that the rest of the options that you are adding in to the system lacks?  I am just not seeing it but I guess I am missing something.  Is it so that we can have a way to do graphics and maps or something? 

[Poor_Knight]

Here was my envision for the sections:

Description (Main tab) - a basic synopsis or prologue for the Campaign. What people will look at when they want to now what your game is and what its about.

Journal (Blog tab) - a re-capping of chunks of the game. If the game is a RL game, maybe the GM updates the blog after the weekly game. If its a PbP game, maybe the GM updates the blog periodically, say after certain mile stones of the adventure are met. Its sort of the re-telling of the Campaign. The GM notes are just reminders for the GM - such as "They didn't ID the magic sword yet." or "The fighter is still poisoned."

Message Board (Board tab) - foremost to facilitate PbP action of the game. This can also be used for between session discussions for a RL game. Even between session playing - such as submitting a characters shopping list that he wants to get done at next game - a time saver to do it during the week on the message board rather than face-to-face and using up actual playing time.

Documentation (Wiki tab) - the manual for your campaign world - your Campaign Source Book so-to-speak. A literal documentation of everything you want to document - Countries, Cities, NPCs, etc., etc.

I want to allow the ability to upload maps but I am not sure how I want to do it yet. Maybe another tab that is purely maps and images, or maybe directly into the Documentation area.

[Odinseye]

ok I got you now thanks for explaining that.  I was unsure of the why, but know I understand and it sounds really great. 

[Mythknight]

Documentation (Wiki tab) - the manual for your campaign world - your Campaign Source Book so-to-speak. A literal documentation of everything you want to document - Countries, Cities, NPCs, etc., etc.

I want to allow the ability to upload maps but I am not sure how I want to do it yet. Maybe another tab that is purely maps and images, or maybe directly into the Documentation area.

I think maps could be a subsection of the Wiki. Like after you describe a particular area have the map attached to that page.

As I posted in another section I would like the option of a chat room for each campaign. This would provide the ability to run "live" games online. You could copy the chat text and paste into your forums later for documentation. One thing I am loving about running online is the fact I can search what people said or did.

[Poor_Knight]

I think instead of a true wiki I will just create the ability to add pages dynamically - exactly how blogs (like Wordpress) do it - and technically how a message board works. Click "new Page, get the text editor - submit it to the database.

I'll have it create a index of your pages displayed in a side column so you don't have to link them (you can, but dont have to). I'll set up parent/child relationships to group related content. Maybe I'll even allow categories. This way you don't have to see a potentially huge index of links. Just an index of categories. If you are viewing a category it will display all the links in that category.

I'll set up image uploads for each page but I'd like to separate maps from other images so I can use maps as a public resource.

[Mythknight]

I have wondered since starting my game whether using maps from a source I purchased on my threads is illegal copyright. Since it is published material I am now "giving away", would it qualify as breaking the copyright agreement? If so would making them private in my personal campaign's limit this problem?

[Azerack]

I put lots of details into my homegrown games and the WIKI seems like a way to add info to the game that the players might already know and you don't have to add on the fly.

I was looking foward to a way that I could have searchable data for my campaign and if the characters thought of something to ask, I could put it there instead of in a thread people would have to sift through, or in a blog people would have to comb through.

I agree with Myth that the adding of Maps as a part of the Wiki would be nice, as well.

Wiki is just generally easier to search through than a Forum, IMHO. 

[Poor_Knight]

Well the faux-wiki as I am calling it should be fairly searchable. Its is a WIKI in many ways but not truly. One of the main features I think of when I think about WIKIs is using the wiki words to create links. I really do love the feature and a wiki is my first choice, but I have to find one that will fit into my framework.

If you don't know what wiki words are:
Wiki pages use Wiki names - often camelized such as HomePage, or AllAboutDragonsInSummer.  When you add a wiki word to a page it is automatically converted to a link to that page - even if it doesn't exit (which then the link often appears in red). Thats how wiki pages are created. There isn't a "Create New Page" option. If you click a red link the resulting page tells you this page doesn't exist and asks if you want to create it. Simply add content to the page and save it then you've created a new page fr that wiki word.

So - I would like to use a wiki - but I may have to resort to traditional Create Page functions and auto-populate a sidebar of all your pages (perhaps in categories) and with parent/child relations.

If fact, I am about to begin this part so if you know of wiki software that I can call to any page with an include that is permission based  let me know soon

[Poor_Knight]

Really close on the wiki - I'm actually liking how its turning out.
Hopefully ready for test tonight.

[Odinseye]

sweet that is good to hear, I will make sure and stick around so I can see what I can break, err help get fixed I mean, yeah yeah. 

[Azerack]

I'm sure I will have some time tonight to check it out..

Good work, PK. 

[fliprushman]

Can't wait to check it out.  But I won't be able to until Sunday.

[Poor_Knight]

OK I've activated the 'wiki'. I put wiki in quotes because its not a true wiki but it originally planned to be. Here is a quick break down on how to use it. I hope its not too complicated.

Each campaign created has a 'default' page created for the wiki, this page will be the page you arrive at when clicking the wiki tab. You can edit the content and title of this page but it cannot be deleted. Nor will be be able to be put into 'Draft' status.

You double click the content to edit the page.

Click the Create New Page button to create..um...a new page.

The wiki has a default category called Main which cannot be delete or edited.

When editing or creating a page, you'll see the available categories on the left. If you want to add the page to a different category, enter the new category name in the test box.

A page can only belong to one category.

If a category no longer has a page belonging to it, it is gone. Just create a new [age and recreate the category if you want it again.


--- Dev Notes---

You cannot delete the pages yet; the draft/publish filter doesn't work yet. Image upload will be coming for the wiki too.

[Poor_Knight]

You can see some of my messing around and what can be done:

http://mydndgame.com/?action=campaign-view&campaign=11&section=wiki

http://mydndgame.com/?action=campaign-view&campaign=12&section=wiki

Do you think the wiki needs a GM only section too? You will be able to set status a draft and no one can see the page, but do you think PC and GM infor should be on the same pge - like the blog?