Forum:Newbie Questions
The First Question
Hi, my names Thomas Barclay (kaladorn on COTI and in the TML).
Laconic Bio: Started Deluxe Trav boxed set 1981, still gaming. GMed mostly, played some. Was a hardcore completist from the late 80s up until T20. Picked up MgT stuff. Still like MT rules though. Have run multiyear campaigns in CT/MT time frames and in ATUs. Once ran a 19 year D&D campaign. Software developer/analyst. Want to help support Trav tools that help all Trav players.
I wanted and want to do a wee bit of helping out with some small things - I started on a couple of polities filling out their member planets. I did so by grabbing an example which did not use the automatic population of the planet list, it used a bulleted list and, as the automation wasn't pulling the membership in these polities, I figured following the example that did show data made sense. (N00b mistake)
BackwoodsTraveller pointed out the {{ClusterWorlds2}}e should pull the list if the pages have the correct Category tagging. Except, in the cases in point I was muddling around, the automation couldn't because they weren't tagged and most of the worlds' pages were not yet defined.
Anyway, this brought up some questions and Tom Jones-Low kindly got me some starter links then told me to report here with questions and points of discussion.
So: 1. If MgT stuff is mostly off limits, but you have data in there that is (at least on attribution on a very sparse page) indicated to come from one of their sources, where's the boudnary? I'm guessing from what I've seen now, UWPs may be fair game, and a wee bit of the text for some entries. Is that fair to say?
2. If I have found (as I have with Tech-World in The Borderland subsector) a case where text that seems like it came from the an MgT supplement mentions 4,000 people (and 1 million bots) but the UWP pop digit is a 1, and I confirm this (I have looked it up: MgT Aslan and Trojan reach UWPs have a 1 in the pop digit and Aslan talks about the 4,000 people so their stuff is broke - I posted on their forum to let them know), and check the MgT Errata (none found) ... if it is inconsistent (appears to be broken in Aslan & Trojan Reach), and MgT hasn't issued an errata yet, what's the policy? Leave it broken? If so, how would I call attention to that on the world page? Some sort of 'alert box'?
3. Your style guide is useful, but, in reading it, I found it reminds me of the stuff that people who understand a thing well write (the nuts and bolts) with very little higher level linking text. Would you be open to either adding to the style guide or providing a related page to show 'best practice implementation examples' or 'how all these components can and should be used on a page'?
4. Also there are examples, but they totally resemble the output of code snippets vs. the *places you should be using those snippets* or any sort of fulsome examples (like say build an example of each sort of template as a fully populated dummy with all cases embodied) so that there is a tangible best case example. Would that not make some sense? I say because having stepped on a mine (pulled a bad representative example by random choice) and I think a single well done repository of fully fleshed examples could be a great guide to anyone new (plus a reminder to anyone who has been away from things for a bit).
5. I was looking particularly for an exemplar of the page for a polity which describes the polity and the planets in it. I see them show up linked into individual planet pages, but I did not see an example in the Style Guide of what bits go into one of those pages. (and again, pulling from another random page might not be representing the latest thinking/standards). Should there be a template?
6. Nothing I ran into explained how the automation used {{ClusterWorlds2}}e to pull in list contents based on a Category tag. Where is that? Shouldn't that be in the style guide or an accompanying obvious place? "What things are automated and where you want to use them, Billy!"
7. I see there is support for Eras. Traveller Map right now doesn't support GT (could, but Josh said no big drive to make it happen from anyone) and I think T20 also not supported (though I don't know enough to even know how divergent it was... I bought the rules, but Trav and D20 never sat right with me...). I think Thomas Jones-Low is a GT afficionado. Would it make sense to try to compile GT data and get it into the map, and then into the Wiki, or is the UWPs/Systems not work with the particulars of the GURPS Traveller limits? (I did a quick look, but not clear to me yet)
8. The explanation of the userbox in the style guide is kind of flippant but not very illustrative. Was this just an 'in case' expansion option? It doesn't look like anything was ever added to the list of userboxes though it seems like one might want them. (Again, kind of related to not having higher level guidance on how to glue the bits together on various page types which might hint where userboxes could be used usefully).
9. If I edit a page, is there any queue for review or how does that work? Or does it just stay as it edited until someone is concerned and they examine the list of edits?
10. What's your definition of a minor vs. major edit?
That's it for now. :)
Thanks for inviting folk in. I hope I can gradually work on small things to fill in bits here and there.
TomB
How many answers?
Regarding question 9 No. There is no formal review. But there are a bunch of people who watch changes and start a discussion if they don't think it fits for some reason. On top of which anyone can edit almost anything so your carefully crafted work can get undone/reworked/replaced at any time!
Regarding question 10 Personally I mark it as minor if its spelling fixes, fixing links. Anything else isn't.
Regarding question 7 This is one of the areas of contention. "How do you represent eras". Just a timeline doesn't work because 1140 in GT and 1140 in TNE are so very different. There isn't (as far as I have found) a consensus. On the other hand the histories of some things don't all appear in a "History" section e.g. Planetary Demographics; Planetary Atmospheres, etc.
Regarding Documentation notes You are correct. Documentation is not all it could be. You aren't the first to mention this. Any contributions you can make would be appreciated. Part of the problem is finding "Good" examples. What is "Perfect" doesn't always remain so. The world may change (e.g. new publications), the page may change (more edits), the templates may change (they aren't static either).
BackworldTraveller (talk) 03:31, 28 August 2020 (EDT)