Lots (and lots) of Biki stuff. (Help Wanted)

Steveire

I've done some work on the Biki over the past few days. Here's a summary and some requests for help:

The Origins of Boardsies

I've made an update to the wiki [wiki]History[/wiki] page. It's mostly gleaned from this thread. Obviously i wasn't around back when this community was born, so if any feb98ers would proof-read it (and contribute ), that would be appreciated. I've only made an entry for the pre-history of boards, partly because I'm not sure how the rest of the history (ie, from 2000 on) should be divided (if at all). For the moment, i've divided it by the bulletin board software used.

Still to do:
Almost everything.


Naming conventions and categories
Currently, there is a biki page naming convention which contains the category of the page in the title. In-title categories include

• Users
• Gathering
• Boards

I have created several category pages in the Biki to organise it and make it neater and more navigable. The categories currently in the Biki are here. Categories can be linked to each other and can form a hierarchy. The diagram below should explain what i mean by this:
[wiki]Category:Boards[/wiki] << [wiki]Category:Music[/wiki] << [wiki]Bands/Musicians[/wiki].

• Users

A Moderator category has been added.

Still to do:
Rename user pages to remove "User:" text from titles and add them to users category. Add moderators with existing Biki pages to moderator category. Note that linking a page to multiple categories requires one line for each category.

[[Category:Users]]
[[Category:Moderators]]

Also, make administrator category, lock it, add admins to category, and relock admin pages. I can't do this because i'm not a Biki Administrator*cough*.

• Board entries

The category bar at the bottom of the page shows that Bands/Musicians belongs to the category Music, and that Music is a category of boards. There is already a category in the Biki for each forum category in boards.ie. To link a page to the relevant category, the code

[[Category:Music]]

(or Games or Rec etc.) should be inserted at the bottom of the entry. This puts a Category bar at the bottom of the entry, and automatically updates the Category page with a link to the page edited.

Still to do:
Almost all existing board entries (and most Biki entries) need category bars.

• Gathering Cards

Similar to the board entries, all entries relating to gathering cards should include the code

[[Category:Cloud: The Gathering]]

Still to do:
Almost all cards

• Culture

The Cloud: The Gathering category links back to the Culture category by heirarchy. Many pages could be linked back to the culture category.

Still to do:
Almost everything.

There's also some other categories i've not posted about here, cos this post is getting long.

Now for some interesting stuff:

• BoardsBASH

I've made a category in the Biki for the Boards equivalent of BASH.org called [wiki]Category:BoardsBASH[/wiki]. I'm sure you can figure out why it's there.
Resource:[wiki]IRC box maker[/wiki]
I don't know enough about programming to make a HTML page to do that, but if anyone wants to give it a shot, let me know how you get on. I think there may be a wiki WYSIWYG editor out there somewhere.

• Boards KnowledgeBase

This is where i steal an idea from seamus. I've made a category called [wiki]Category:Knowledge Base[/wiki] (It's the last one i swear) and a page called [wiki]KB Comp[/wiki]. Entries made in KB comp in the format suggested will show in a contents box as demonstrated in the KB Comp page. Other topics can be added to the Knowledge Base too, eg KB Windows, or anything else that you feel like <insert joke about ownership of Bases>. The beauty of the system is that a contents box is automatically created. Details on how to create a new Knowledge Base can be found on the [wiki]Category:Knowledge Base[/wiki] page.

Last point: The each category page should have a link back to the [wiki]Special:Categories[/wiki] page. This will only be necessary for categories which are not already sub-categories (because they already have the link in the category bar).

On a general note, the Biki is very case sensitive. If you have problems with pages you're writing, the first thing you should check is that all cases are correct.

That's it. Whaddaya think? The Biki is there, we might as well use it.

Can I have a fez now?

amp

Steveire for SMOD, CAT MOD, MOD MOD! CUHMON DE MODZ!

And that's just based on a quick scan of the vbb formatting. It's just lovely.

Gone West

jesus.
You edited/created around 100 biki pages in one day.
Hobbes will be either very pleased, or pretty angry.

**edit:
Yeah, I got a chance to read through most of the stuff. Pretty darn good. Id have to agree with gordon, steveire does deserve Admin privelages on the biki. He seems to be the #2 contributor, after Hobbes.

Gordon

Pleased I'd say. Maybe Steveire could get Bikimin priveleges?

Steveire

How very fitting.

FuzzyLogic wrote:

jesus.
You edited/created around 100 biki pages in one day.
Hobbes will be either very pleased, or pretty angry.

Hobbes can kiss my shiny metal axe...

New entry started on [wiki]Smilies[/wiki]. I don't know enough about <table> tags and the likes to make a proper effort on this.

Steveire

I'd really like some more feedback on all this, particularly from Hobbes. Are you "pleased" as Gordon suggested?
Hobbes is still moving new Biki user pages to USER:username. Perhaps there's some disagreement in the way the Biki should be organised, but I think categories ala wikipedia are a good idea. I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. A compromise of using USER:username conventions and category tags may be arrived at if deemed neccessary. I'm not going to add further category tags, because i don't want to be modifiying the Biki unneccessarily and in the face of other peoples work.

Does anyone think the KnowledgeBase could work?
Does anyone think BoardsBASH could work?

I've written a guide to using the Biki in the [wiki]SandBox[/wiki], as the [wiki]Guide[/wiki] page is locked to normal users. The information from the Guide page is integrated into my new guide. Any chance of editing the Guide page for me?

Also, the Biki [wiki]Main Page[/wiki] needs fixing, as most links no longer work. Recommended change below.

Here is a [[guide]] to using the Biki.

For those who have happened upon this site by accident, here's a short [[history]] of boards.ie, details of the [[structure]] of boards.ie, and an introduction to boards.ie [[culture]].

Hobbes

FuzzyLogic wrote:

jesus.
Hobbes will be either very pleased, or pretty angry.

I've been watching him the last few weeks. Its a wiki, I have no real control over it beyond keeping idiots out. Its the whole point of a wiki.

Only gripes on the editing is that it is "Boards: The Gathering" and not "Cloud: the Gathering". Also your duplicating a lot of pages. Better to rename/move or #REDIRECT so people don't go updating the wrong page.

example:

http://www.boards.ie/wiki/index.php/Board:Humanities (the original)

http://www.boards.ie/wiki/index.php/Humanities (yours)

Hobbes

Steveire wrote:

Hobbes is still moving new Biki user pages to USER:username. Perhaps there's some disagreement in the way the Biki should be organised,

There is a namespace page. A lot of stuff is already sorted under those namespaces.

http://www.boards.ie/wiki/index.php?title=Special%3AAllpages&from=&namespace=2

Keeping it neat. If you want to go start creating them under catergories knock yourself out but if I was you I'd make redirects as it is confusing enough for the users. Also do not make multiple redirects (eg, Hobbes redirects to User:Hobbes which redirects to Catergories:User:Hobbes).

Also, the Biki [wiki]Main Page[/wiki] needs fixing, as most links no longer work. Recommended change below.

I am not sure what you mean. All the links work (checked them again). Added your part and locked it again.

Hobbes

Hobbes wrote:

example:

http://www.boards.ie/wiki/index.php/Board:Humanities (the original)

http://www.boards.ie/wiki/index.php/Humanities (yours)

Modified this so it adds your contents, redirects to the correct document and keeps everything still working. If you can do that for all the other stuff I'd appreciate it. Also changed [wiki]Personal Issues[/wiki] as an example.

... Oh yea, the main page is locked to stop spammers. Only reason. There is a link you can follow in the discussion to suggest ideas/changes before implementing them. Feedback forum is good too but not everyone who reads the biki would always read here.

http://www.boards.ie/wiki/index.php/Talk:Main_Page_Discussion

Hobbes

btw I think KB Comp could probably be broken into questions per topic and have them linked to the catergories instead of all on one page. Would prefer them with a KB: namespace though.

magpie

You should maybe just scrap the whole wiki in favour of this boards.ie

Cloud

Welcome bureaucrat Steve!

mysql> update user_rights set ur_rights="bureaucrat" where ur_user=160;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)
Rows matched: 1 Changed: 1 Warnings: 0

amp

While I do not understand the mystic word my Lord speaks, I do feel it's power.

Hobbes

Where was Mr sql when I was adding all those catergories to the gathering stuff *sniffle* (pray I never have to do this again. ).

Grats Steveire, added you to [wiki]Biki Moderators[/wiki]

... Gathering all done. I'll let someone else do the rest. I'd say change the boards (in that remove the namespace or redirect) and leave the Users as is as you can already search for users on the namespace page.

Hobbes

Gah! After doing all that.. Appears Catergories is flakey.

If you use a redirect to get to a catergory it won't enumerate all the catergories under it.

Steveire

Hobbes wrote:

... Gathering all done. I'll let someone else do the rest. I'd say change the boards (in that remove the namespace or redirect) and leave the Users as is as you can already search for users on the namespace page.

I've just caught up. Thanks for all that feedback. I'll get started on the Boards pages. Didn't know about the User namespace page. I notice it's a special page. Does this mean we can't make a namespace for Boards, Gathering etc.?

Hobbes wrote:

If you use a redirect to get to a catergory it won't enumerate all the catergories under it.

Could you explain/give an example?
EDIT: I made a redirect in the [wiki]SandBox[/wiki] to a category, and it appears to have worked in the way i would expect it to. Also, seems you cannot have comments on a redirect page.

It appears a bureaucrat is a Bikimin. Must be something wronf threre though, cos Hobbes is no longer on the list at [wiki]Special:Listadmins[/wiki], and i'm not there either. Thanks though.
EDIT: I put my name into the "Make user into a sysop" page on the special pages list [wiki]Special:Specialpages[/wiki], and i am now a sysop. Also added Hobbes , modified the [wiki]Guide[/wiki], and returned the SandBox to its previous form.

I'll have another look at the KB stuff.

I lolled when i saw this cos i got my username idea from Daveirl, but decided to make it less obvious.

Hobbes

Steveire wrote:

Could you explain/give an example?

Go to main page.
Type Gathering and hit Go in the search.
You are now at the gathering page (via a redirect) but the catergories at the bottom are not generated (the actual cards).

Now click the link where the redirect came from (at the top) and then click the link back to the page and the catergories are now generated.

Must be something wronf threre though, cos Hobbes is no longer on the list at Special:Listadmins, and i'm not there either.

You are displaying fine there (as is myself + cloud).

Steveire

I've moved KB_Comp to KB:Comp. I'm actually a bit confused with the namespace thing:
Gathering card entries are directed from eg, Gathering:12-Clicked redirects to 12-Clicked, whereas Board namespaces work the opposite way:
Photoshoppage redirects to Board:Photoshoppage.

I'm all for uniformity on this.

Hobbes

They used to work to point to the namespaces but I reversed them for the gathering ones.

Mercury_Tilt

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