In order to forestall That Debate from arising again...

Wiki Work! by Aster Corbett on 2011-01-21 18:37:00 UTC Reply

Hey guys!

Lately, I have been on a big kick trying to tidy up the PPC wiki! Caddy-Shack, PoorCynic, KGarrett, Doctorlit, and others have done a lot of good work on the wiki as well, but there are many, many marked and unmarked stubs that still can use work! There are also a vast amount of agent and slain Sue stubs that I can't expand or detail any further because they aren't my agents or missions.

I'm just posting to promote awareness of the wiki, and if anybody here wants to put in a little time in, editing the wiki is easy and fun.

Find a stub or create a new page, and try and match it to an existing completed page for format and clarity purposes. Just, please don't make more stubs-- especially for your agents.

... So yeah! Boarders old and new, if you act know, the wiki will become prettier with your contributions!

Yaaaay!

On board! by Neshomeh on 2011-01-23 07:06:00 UTC Reply

And on a similar note, don't link to a page that doesn't exist if you're not going to create it. Like, immediately. (Or within a couple of days, I guess.) I've spent some of tonight de-redlinking, 'cause there are a lot of miscellaneous links to things that have no page and probably never will, since for the most part they are unimportant to the PPC population at large.

~Neshomeh
Good luck to you guys! by The 9th Blue Mage on 2011-01-22 01:52:00 UTC Reply

Writing more information on the pages will be able to help newbie understand more when they read them, and they won't be required to the original links just to understand what happened (unless they want to know the exact details of them).

Actually... by The 9th Blue Mage on 2011-01-24 04:22:00 UTC Reply

I meant that the pages could be useful if the links died and nobody managed to get a copy of the missions in question before that.

I'm just asking if you guys have some copies of the missions in question or another solution in case links to the PPC stuff become dead.
No. The wiki is not supposed to replace reading missions. (nm) by JulyFlame on 2011-01-23 19:52:00 UTC Reply

In order to forestall That Debate from arising again... by Vixenmage on 2011-01-23 20:06:00 UTC Reply

I would like to clarify. July, of all people, knows the usefulness of the Wiki. She was the one who started it, if I recall! But, like last time when someone brought up reading the tutorials as an alternative to reading the actual missions, there's no real True Answer. Both are important. I happen to agree with July that anyone who wants to write a PPC spin-off should probably be interested enough to read spin-offs, rather than just reading about them. I happen to also agree that tutorials are useful-- for me, reading the Original Series was enough to get me into the organization, and reading the spin-offs was enough to probably write one of my own ~~eventually~~.

But a lot of people learn different ways, and having someone explain How To Do It is quite helpful for many. For example, grammar. Some people are avid readers, but have trouble following the rules when they write, and a tab on the side with common grammatical issues is helpful to them.

BOTH ARE GOOD.

Reading the Wiki is no substitute for reading missions, and for myself, it's most useful for keeping all the useful links in one place and relatively organized. For some people, it is a staple that they could not imagine the PPC without.

No matter what you use it for, Aster is right! Organizational efforts should be, and are, applauded! Yay, Team Wiki!

Also... by Aster Corbett on 2011-01-23 22:23:00 UTC Reply

Reading and writing the wiki are no substitutes for reading and writing missions.

But it is an opportunity to put in backstory, analysis, and other PPC-related thoughts into PPC 'canon.'

Missions are about the badfic, not the agents. They may banter, but many agents have their own backstories and their own aspirations-- things that we don't really have time to see in the course of a mission text. This can all be said on the wiki; people can find it and learn more if they want to.

Many canons have badfic quirks -- the 10th Walker phenomenon on LotR for instance, or the presence of uncanon vampires and werewolves. These can be discussed, analyzed, and explored on the wiki in ways that would detract from a mission narrative.

Terms like urple, Flower, mini... these are all PPC-exclusive terms and should be detailed, and people add their own terms all the time. It's right that we keep track of it all.

Reading and writing the wiki is SUPPLEMENTAL material. Making sure it's complete is no different from making sure the manual that goes with a video game has all of the information in it. It's a wiki. A variation of wikipedia. An encyclopedia. It's got information in it, and is not just a great switchboard directory of missions and homepages.

I feel the Wiki contains important information to PPC canon and in this canon written by many people, it is only fair that there be a certain amount of unity. The wiki can provide that, if the articles are complete, up to standard, and are able to be read enjoyably.

Reading the wiki and exploring everything the PPC has done thus far has brought me a lot of fun. But it could be even better!

So yes-- go, Team Wiki! Go!

Agreed. by Neshomeh on 2011-01-23 22:54:00 UTC Reply

For all the stuff you specifically mentioned, heck yeah.

However, let's also remember that there are limits on what needs an article in our wiki, and that some things would do better with a link to somewhere else. Canons and canon things in particular. Some of them (LotR, Discworld) have special relevance to us and some (HP, Star Wars, Doctor Who) are just too big to be ignored, but most canons don't need more than one page with a general overview of their special characteristics. If something does warrant its own page, it should be addressed in terms of the PPC more than anything else. ("X and the PPC" is a good type of header to use.) I don't think it's a big problem at the moment, but since we're talking about what the wiki is for, I thought I'd bring it up. {= )

~Neshomeh