Forum:Content organization

Dejos brought up the issue of properly organizing the various items in the game (Weapons, Artifacts, Shield Mods, Class Mods, Health, etc.) into an Items category and having those things as subcategories of Items. Content organization is definitely an important issue for a wiki, so I'm starting this forum topic as a place for the wiki community to discuss this particular topic (Items) plus another organization topics that arise. So I invite everyone to give your input. For anyone who is familiar with categorizing pages, feel free to create the categories that are decided upon using. If you need any help from me, just say so. I'm quite busy these days, but I'll be glad to help when I can. JoePlay ( talk ) 21:10, October 15, 2009 (UTC)n

Agreed. The site needs some more uniformity and organization. I so far have done some minor work all over common pages, such as the character pages, to make them more uniform. Overall we need to categorize and sub categorize the wiki, make it easy for people to hop in and out when they need help. - XPhoenix777 05:13, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

I'm willing to help but I'm totally new to wiki editing so I until I pick it up I'm a little lost. Especially things like how to edit and organize the side menu. Any ideas on how we should go about ordering the flow of content? Items seems pretty straight forward. But we're going to need to start building a quest section, map areas (maps are still getting randomly generated right? so we can only discuss what sorts of things to expect not really give an actual map.) Also Some things like the monsters/aliens/generalmobs I think some things could be put into a main article for a species. For example the Skrags have the fire ones, the alphas, the pups, whatever. those probably don't need their own article just links to a main article about the species in general with sections for each subgroup. does that makes sense? Dejos 13:27, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

I have edited wikis before, but just gotta get back into the flow of things. If you look at the fallout 3 wiki or the WoW wiki, you can see how they do organization. As for maps, there is a general map, like main areas (so I assume) just the area in my game is different from the area in your game, aside from major points such as towns and quest related places. Now we need a quest section, probably in the walkthrough area. We also need to start stubbing small articles that need more work, as well as take off all the "?" areas where previous editors just assumed things. I am heading into gamestop this afternoon, I might just buy the strategy guide and we can base some stuff from that and then build on it from the gameplay. Thanks for your help Dejos, looking forward to getting this wiki in tip-top shape. Hit me up on my talk page if you have questions, but check out the wikia help on editing, a GREAT resource to start learning! And Dejos, take a sec to edit your page, so that others can get to know you and possible game with you! - XPhoenix777 14:18, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

I think there should not be a main category called "walkthrough" I think Quests should have their own section... ok here's how I see some of the breakdown, we can discuss and edit this as we go along. They should be sorted by importance/relevence

Main Categories: News Characters/Classes (there might be a better thing to call this) Quests Levels/Areas Guides Items Vehicles Community Resources

And then break things down into sub groups. Guides can have walkthroughs contained in it and such though because of the dynamic sandbox nature of the game I don't think a straight up "walkthrough" is that useful for the game. Alot about the quests is going to depend on how they are implemented in the game. But we should probably try to organize them by area or by quest givers. or something like that. We'll know more tomorrow I guess. Dejos 14:38, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

If you want to see some of the game, check this [link] out. This kid has many hours of gameplay to watch. It will help get intros to characters and such. As far as the main menu editing, I am not sure how to get to that. I think it is admin only, so we need to find an admin to do it or make one of us admin. I do like you ordering, maybe a couple tweaks, but that is a good setup! - XPhoenix777 14:47, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I asked Joe about it and then I guess we can go from there. I don't know how much relinking and such will need to be done but I think it makes sense to get the basic setup in place before tomorrow. Dejos 15:06, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

Cool, well get started on what you think needs work, do your research and I will be in and out all day working on this too! I am going now to see what Gamestop has for guides so I can start filling basic info in when we get pages built. - XPhoenix777 15:13, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

Great to see you guys getting the discussion off to a good start! About the sidebar menu, it is controlled by the MediaWiki:Monaco-sidebar file, and yes, you have to be an admin to edit it. Speaking of which, since the user that I made an admin has not edited here since Sept. 21, I would like to promote someone else to the position. Because Phoenix has wiki editing experience, and is a web designer, I just offered him an admin position. If he accepts, I'll make him a bureaucrat, which is an admin that can promote others to admin. A wiki such as Borderlands, that's about a brand new videogame, needs at least one active admin (preferably more), so the bureaucrat can add admins as needed.

To respond to Dejos's comment about not having a category named "walkthrough," that's fine, but I strongly recommend to have a page with the name Walkthrough, then you can link to individual quest walkthroughs if you want to break it into sections. The reason for this is because "walkthrough" is a very popular search term for video games, especially new ones. We want our search engine rank to be as high as possible in order to maximize the number of people that see the wiki, not to mention contribute to it. JoePlay ( talk ) 20:53, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

I can completely agree to that. I'm a bit of a classification nerd so putting things into neat and accurate groups is important to me but I completely understand what JoePlay said. and agree. Dejos 21:00, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

I forgot to mention the short tutorial for editing MediaWiki:Monaco-sidebar - find it here, along with other customization tips. JoePlay ( talk ) 21:46, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

Well, I am now an admin (bureaucrat) so I can make some needed changes. Dejos, if you are a classification nerd, then by all means edit the pages that need classification and assign them a category. I look forward to working with you and others! - XPhoenix777 23:37, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

Good job on the site so far. Just remember to preview things before posting or atleast view it before you leave. A simple double check makes things much much more cleaner and enjoyable to read. Some times I forget to myself. LegendStormcrow 00:10, October 20, 2009 (UTC)

Will do. You do the same Stormcrow! Looking forward to seeing your additions and fixes to the site. I have to admit though, I am new to being admin to this wiki, so there are many issues I am fixing and hope you can lend a hand in too. If you see any errors, by all means hit that edit button :) - XPhoenix777 00:19, October 20, 2009 (UTC)

As far as organization goes I thought that there should be a subcategory for each of the main weapon types. Pistols, assault rifles, sniper rifles, etc. This is only if we are going to attempt to do any kind of gun listing on this wiki. The pc version should make that easier with the jpg export feature, but it still is a lot of guns. Any suggestions concerning this? - Slyrat 13:14, October 20, 2009 (EST)

Slyrat, Great suggestion! You know your way around wikis? If so, start working on that portion! As you can tell this place is in disarray so any help would be awesome! if you start changing categories around it will be reflected in the main menu! - XPhoenix777 17:26, October 20, 2009 (UTC)

So the weapon sub-categories are pretty much in place for the existing guns in the wiki. I went more based on gun image than projectile type. Is there any way the menu on the left can show the sub-categories before showing individual pages? - Slyrat 14:34, October 20, 2009 (EST)

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I can do that, what are the categories of weapons? if you could type the exact name of each category here, I can edit them in. Thanks for doing that! - XPhoenix777 19:24, October 20, 2009 (UTC)

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Sub-categories for Weapons thus far: Category:Sniper Rifle | Category:Pistol | Category:Assault Rifles | Category:Grenade Launcher | Category:Shotgun | Category:Melee | Category:Sub-Machine gun | Category:Rocket Launcher | Category:Alien gun - Slyrat 12.30.1.2 19:48, October 20, 2009 (UTC)

Take a look at the menus now, look like what you wanted? - XPhoenix777 20:07, October 20, 2009 (UTC)