The AC2 Wiki

[DrazharLn]

Anyone could mirror the SMAC academy stuff from CGN. All they need to do is go to each page, view source and copy.

There might be a template to grab, too, but it's not going to be terribly difficult.

[photalysis]

Hey, thought I'd leave a little input on the layout discussion.

Take a glance at this other wiki: http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Terraria_Wiki

Although the host has more bandwidth to spare and it's more media rich overall, the associated forum is made very visible with only a bold link and some whitespace. Proper layout and formatting isn't to be underestimated, and can be done with only rudimentary knowledge of markup!

The sidebar is also worth examining for some ideas. Social media icons draw attention to the sidebar and suggest a community, a similar effect could be achieved by placing a smaller banner or square icon in that location. The news section also suggests something more than a static web page - activity, in other words. The right combination of minor details can be very effective.

But, the heart of the issue, is this: The sidebar is very "default." I, and likely other browsers, are conditioned to ignore this section as it's mostly for wiki editors. Some multimedia isn't a bad idea, but simply changing some wording and formatting on the sidebar will alert the user that it's "different" from a fresh-out-of-the-box wiki, and that there's extra links there. I'm not all that wiki savvy, but I'm sure there's freely available themes somewhere that can be used as a quick way to spruce things up. I may make some minor adjustments to the front page if I think of a particular improvement that's within my ability.

Oh, and... This is personal preference, but I think a dark color scheme would be very fitting for the wiki. I say that about everything though, hehe.

[Buster's Uncle]

The forum has several dark themes - check the bottom of the right sidebar.

I wouldn't object at all to de-genericising the wiki sidebar, or whatever else.

Anyone could mirror the SMAC academy stuff from CGN. All they need to do is go to each page, view source and copy.

There might be a template to grab, too, but it's not going to be terribly difficult.

Of course.  But, well, it a matter of posting the pages I'm thinking of, which requires server access - unless there's some way to do that as part of the AC2 Wiki with regular access w/o entering stuff one line at a time and re-formatting.

-Mart said, though, a couple of months ago on this very subject, that there was a lot in need of updating...

[DrazharLn]

They're wiki pages, all that needs to be done is copy the wiki source from one wiki and paste it as a new page on our wiki.

No server access required.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay; that certainly makes things easier.

I didn't realize they were wiki pages.  -So you think the formatting will carry over, colors and all, at least with the template?  They're not on the same software, are they?

[DrazharLn]

It's the same software, mediawiki.

Might be a different version, but that doesn't matter.

Root page mirrored, as an example.

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/SMAC_Academy

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay; that certainly looks right. 

[thedarkestcolors]

Either I just don't get it (not unlikely, as I'm not much of a Wiki person), or the Wiki is awfully tedious to navigate..

I think what would help is:

• a table of content listing the bigger chunks. (e.g. to the SMAC Academy)
• breadcrumbs on top of each article ( so its easier to get back to a parent article )

started copying SAMC academy content from CGN..
2 Questions for that (as its easier to do it right away, rather then having to open each page again [yes I really don't get along with the navigation I can only find the academy by going to recent changes.. tedious ]:

what to do with the CGN links? keep or eliminate or change to some AC2 links?
I think there should be some kind of a footer stating that the Content originally appeared / was taken from CGN

[Buster's Uncle]

I strongly agree with all of that.

Credit CGN, and wiki needs some sort of master index and generally more user-friendly/intuitive navigation.  I've never had a good time looking for anything on there, either.

[thedarkestcolors]

Done copying the academy, I removed the styles.. (did that in an edit, so if you want the colors back just revert a step or 2)

For BreadCrumbs this looks like it would do the job:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:BreadCrumbs2

The Wiki landing page somehow resembles this currently 

[thedarkestcolors]

~~> There is just too much to look at and nothing is given any particular weight.

It would prob. help a lot to move the "Help out!" section under the "Resources", give more weight to both headings & to also add weight to each topic heading under Ressources (assuming that this is the main ToC? )

Also having a general ToC in the sidebar could help navigation (e.g. like the Datalinks)

..and to maybe go a bit easier on the border colors

[Buster's Uncle]

...I think we might want to prominently credit/link the source at CGN on the Academy index page, and make all other links to local (if mirrored) resources wherever we can.  It's good to bolster the rest of the community, but a little cutting our own throats to have external links we no longer need external - especially somewhere closed like CGN, which wouldn't benefit anyway...

I think I'll PM Petek and invite him in to point out/link resources unique to CFC - I'd do the SMACX person at Apolyton, but there hasn't been anyone in years...

[Buster's Uncle]

Sent.

I've no strong objection to someone fiddling 'round with things like border colors, dark...

[DrazharLn]

Navigation in wiki's works by categories and see also links, in its simplest form

Templates can help too.

@thedarkestcolours, brb, setting theme to kaleidoscope.

[thedarkestcolors]

ok, I shall lay hands on it. I guess its easy enough to revert any changes..