After going through a significant amount of wikis and having to change every single Japanese name from Western order to Eastern order, I think it's time we had a howto:wiki guide. The idea was thrown around in various forum threads, but the howto could definitely serve in helping new members learn how to craft a wiki, as well as stopping vanity wikis, blatantly wrong edits, and spoilers.
Also, I would like to suggest a quota of wiki edits (say, 10 edits per day) for regular members. It may be helpful in softening any vandalism attempts in case a disgruntled user decides to shit himself in indignant fury, as well as curb editing from overzealous users that haven't lurked enough.
I suggested this awhile ago, but haven't had the time to put together a draft for it. Let's start by making a list of all the points we need to include. So far I know of:
-NO SPOILERS in the wiki, if they can be avoided. If spoilers are necessary to explain a meme or other such, make sure they are properly marked with spoiler tags.
-Wiki entries for characters should contain some appearance-related information to help the unfamiliar identify them.
-Character names should be written as the tags are: In proper Eastern order, unless the character is not Japanese or for some other reason uses Western order.
-Do not create wiki entries for favorites tags, for members, or any objects or companies untagged or unrelated.
-Wiki entries should not be unnecessarily long. Be sure that the entries are informational, but also as short and to the point as possible.
And on the subject of limiting wiki edits; I'm for it but I would prefer something a little less restricting than 10 per day. 10 per 4-hour period or similar would be better, and would probably still be enough to stave off vandals as they would get bored and hopefully go do something else.
-Do not create wiki entries for favorites tags, for members, or any objects or companies untagged or unrelated.
Wiki entries for user:/sub:/fav: searches no longer show up in the sidebar, so we shouldn't have to worry about people making entries for those things anymore.
-Wiki entries should not be unnecessarily long. Be sure that the entries are informational, but also as short and to the point as possible.
This is a major annoyance of mine. IMO the vast majority of wiki entries don't need to be any longer than one short (2-4 line) paragraph.
For characters, the only information needed is the copyright the character is from, a 1-2 sentence description of the character's appearance, and a list of any related tags. That's it. Any other information about the character's personality, plot-related character developments, random trivia, etc is irrelevant clutter. Just post a link to an outside site instead.
For copyrights, all we really need is a 1-2 sentence synopsis, a list of characters, and a list of any related tags or memes.
Well, I sort of disagree with you there - I think that a little bit of basic characteristic information on copyrights/characters is okay. It just shouldn't take up all the space.
I would say in most cases you can have one line, maybe two, about personality, at the very most. Throwing in a personality-describing word like "Tsundere" or "Violent" can help identify the character, but if you get into stuff like:
"At the start of the series, she is shown to be socially withdrawn, seemingly emotionless, and remote, with her only apparent relationship being with Gendo Ikari. As the series progresses, she and Shinji grow closer It is eventually revealed that Rei is a vessel for the soul of the Angel Lilith, and was created specifically by Gendo to be used as a tool for accomplishing Instrumentality Soulless clones of her are kept hidden in the deepest levels of Nerv headquarters to be used as the supposed "cores" of the Dummy Plugs and as replacement bodies for Rei if she should die.""
...
it is a problem.
Anyway I definitely think it's a good idea! The absolutely-no-spoilers, and the visual description of the character are two items that are essential.
Kayako said: Well, I sort of disagree with you there - I think that a little bit of basic characteristic information on copyrights/characters is okay. It just shouldn't take up all the space.
In my opinion, if it doesn't help you identify that character/copyright then it's most likely something you don't need to know for our purposes. Take the entry for Flandre Scarlet for example. It tells me everything about her except the one thing I need to know - namely, how to tell her apart from all the other touhous. All it really needs to say is that she's from Touhou, and she's the one with the multi-colored crystal things on her wings. Further information is best left to other fan sites.
evazion said: All it really needs to say is that she's from Touhou, and she's the one with the multi-colored crystal things on her wings. Further information is best left to other fan sites.
I agree. You could always add links to external sites for information like that.
If possible, a link to further information on a character or series should definitely be linked to in wiki pages as a general rule. For the benefit of curious people.
I'd love to, but I just exhausted myself adding TouhouWikia links in all of the character wikis that were lacking them. I also ended up having to write entries for obscure character who didn't have any.
It's break time for me, but if nobody else has done it before I get back, I'll draft it.
I wrote a first draft: howto:wiki. It probably needs an introduction. We might also want to come up with some guidelines for entries for artists and general tags.
Some suggestions for artist wikis: Include artist's Japanese name if applicable, url, any nicknames or alternate handles they may have, and any circles or groups they may be a part of.
We should probably add howto:wiki to help:home, otherwise it's going to get lost. Now that we have a wiki guide, do we still need the wiki spoiler section in help:home?
Looks fine by and large. But personally, I don't think even a plot synopsis is a good idea for copy: wikis. That's just an invitation to have people drone on, even with the warnings against it. There's really no purpose for it on Danbooru, no matter how short.
About all I'd ever put outside of related tags is what medium it is (manga, anime, visual novel, light novel, etc).
Hillside_Moose said: We should probably add howto:wiki to help:home, otherwise it's going to get lost.
Done.
Now that we have a wiki guide, do we still need the wiki spoiler section in help:home?
Yes. The more we can emphasize that in more places, the better.
Edit: Fixed a typo and added the warning about naming conventions. Originally put it in "what to do" then moved it into "characters", not sure where to stick it. Remember, we like to refer to it as "original order" rather than "eastern order" just to be clearer. Since not all Japanese-sounding names are in given_family order (e.g. subaru_nakajima).
How about something like "Be proper in describing a tag," "Don't mess around in making a wiki for tag," or anything similar? I once had to fix the "Lacus Clyne" wiki because the original editor wrote that Lacus "is a MARY SUE." Surely not a proper description.
Ah, that's another thing: "Wiki entries should be unbiased and free of personal opinions". I remember having to fix so many entries because the editors couldn't get it through their head that we don't care what they think of a series/character.
Well, ideally the guidelines we have for what they *can* add aren't leaving any openings for anything subjective. But I'll add a quick sentence to "What not to do".
Oh, and as usual, thanks to everyone who has been so proactive in getting this put together. Being able to rely on the core users to hash these things out in a reasonable fashion is a big help to me, and I'm sure albert as well.
Here are other good "Be proper in describing a tag" reasons. I had to fix those wikis because the original editors (who did the following) did not do so properly:
love train: "People all over the world/Join hands/Start a love train/love train"
Also, we can state that there are some exceptions to the "no wiki for tags with zero posts" rule such as tag groups, how-to's and helps, etc. Also, tarot arcana was created so as not to overwhelm the tarot wiki (this was discussed back in forum #24575).
