Couple Possibilities

So I wanted to share a couple thoughts I had about the wiki which I feel might help its creation.

(1) Make placeholder wiki pages for beyblades that are under construction or still need to be done. It acts as a To Do list so people can see what still needs to be done, you could have who is working on making the page if someone has claimed it, and possibly inspire others to help out when they see that something needs to be done. You could even have a little message on unfinished pages like "Help out make the BeyWiki! Check out the Beywiki Project Forum for more information."

(2) Split pages/beyblades down into parts, rather then working at entire pages at once. Basically take on the standard wikipage format of doing things piecemeal. Instead of trying to complete an entire page all in one go, break it down into smaller, easier to complete pieces. Like what if people simply wrote up the info for one part of the beyblade? Or just the overall summary? Or perhaps someone just puts up the pictures for the parts before the writeup is complete? Or if someone does want to complete all the parts they can still put up what they have done after they complete each part, rather then at the very end.

(3) Wiki page(s) for stadiums. There are lots of stadiums out there, and even though I'm not on the forum all the time I've seen a number of seemingly repetitive posts about stadiums. Why not have a wikipage for them? Have a picture and a little description. I know I would find it useful, as I don't know off hand what all the stadiums look like by name.
I agree, that website does need a little help.
(Dec. 07, 2010  2:00 PM)Ellume Wrote: So I wanted to share a couple thoughts I had about the wiki which I feel might help its creation.

(1) Make placeholder wiki pages for beyblades that are under construction or still need to be done. It acts as a To Do list so people can see what still needs to be done, you could have who is working on making the page if someone has claimed it, and possibly inspire others to help out when they see that something needs to be done. You could even have a little message on unfinished pages like "Help out make the BeyWiki! Check out the Beywiki Project Forum for more information."

(2) Split pages/beyblades down into parts, rather then working at entire pages at once. Basically take on the standard wikipage format of doing things piecemeal. Instead of trying to complete an entire page all in one go, break it down into smaller, easier to complete pieces. Like what if people simply wrote up the info for one part of the beyblade? Or just the overall summary? Or perhaps someone just puts up the pictures for the parts before the writeup is complete? Or if someone does want to complete all the parts they can still put up what they have done after they complete each part, rather then at the very end.

(3) Wiki page(s) for stadiums. There are lots of stadiums out there, and even though I'm not on the forum all the time I've seen a number of seemingly repetitive posts about stadiums. Why not have a wikipage for them? Have a picture and a little description. I know I would find it useful, as I don't know off hand what all the stadiums look like by name.

(1) There is a list written out already, and if you read the Parts list, the names in red have no page.

The people working on pages write up a draft and post it here first.

(2) I don't quite understand this, since the pages are generally written up so that each piece gets a section. I guess it somewhat makes sense, but I think people would prefer to have a full analysis of a bey in one page, rather than a bit by bit analysis.

An overall analysis isn't exactly essential, unless you mean it's worth in terms of customisability, which is just the general overview anyway.

(3) Getting the exact dimensions etc I believe is quite hard, in terms of making an article for them. You can find pictures of them very easily though.
For the stadiums thing this has already been discussed and to be honest for the stadiums that are terrible there's very little point unless they are used now such as the Hasbro ones. Another difficulty is that for the old good stadiums which are worth writing about. Most people who knew enough about them to write an article are gone or not on much. As for the new ones most people know that Attack is the only way to go and the hasbro ones are awful so why do an article on them. Just seems like a waste of time to me.
I've always wanted to get articles for the useful Stadiums written, but it just has never been a priority for me. For MFB, like megablader said, people know that the Attack Stadium is basically the only way to go, so that is enough for now. Someday though we'll get articles written for them.
(Dec. 07, 2010  2:23 PM)momiji manju Wrote: (1) There is a list written out already, and if you read the Parts list, the names in red have no page.

The people working on pages write up a draft and post it here first.
Yes, I'm aware that there is a list already. What I was saying is that taking the first step and making the wikipage for each beyblade even before the final draft is approved would be a nice visual list on the beywiki itself even if they are just the link. For example on the Metal Fight Beyblade category, if you made links to all the beyblade it would be very easy to tell what has and hasn't been done.

(Dec. 07, 2010  2:23 PM)momiji manju Wrote: (2) I don't quite understand this, since the pages are generally written up so that each piece gets a section. I guess it somewhat makes sense, but I think people would prefer to have a full analysis of a bey in one page, rather than a bit by bit analysis.

An overall analysis isn't exactly essential, unless you mean it's worth in terms of customisability, which is just the general overview anyway.
I guess I was unclear on this point. What I ment to say is not break each beyblade into separate wiki pages, but split up the work for each beyblade. Using the current system, instead of one person submitting a draft for an entire beyblade, a person could submit a draft for a particular part of the beyblade. Then the page could be made more like a standard wiki with the possibility of multiple authors. So I'm saying keep the same format your using for the beyblade pages, just break up the work done on it into smaller parts so the pages can be completed faster.

I would actually encourage a different system rather then submitting drafts on the forum, which can be rather slow and be the cause of confusion or wasted effort (people putting in a fair bit of work writing up a beyblade that someone else is also working on). And take an approach used by a lot of wikis of have everyone be able to "improve" a page, but have an administrator(s)/overseer(s) who governs changes, undo poor changes, and otherwise manage the pages so they become more professional over time. Yeah, the first thing someone throws down might not be great but at least it is something, and someone else can step in and make a change to fix or improve it. Everything is logged, everyone can look and see who changed what, and if there is a dispute then the admin can overrule in order to keep the direction in accord with their views of what is professional. This approach would accelerate the creation of the beywiki, and perhaps get more people involved as some people may write content, others post pictures, others correct grammar, others add links to other pages, etc. There are a lot of people that like to help out in different ways.
(Dec. 09, 2010  5:05 PM)Ellume Wrote: I guess I was unclear on this point. What I ment to say is not break each beyblade into separate wiki pages, but split up the work for each beyblade. Using the current system, instead of one person submitting a draft for an entire beyblade, a person could submit a draft for a particular part of the beyblade. Then the page could be made more like a standard wiki with the possibility of multiple authors. So I'm saying keep the same format your using for the beyblade pages, just break up the work done on it into smaller parts so the pages can be completed faster.

This already happens to an extent since with parts where they're already done they are just transfered over. Tbh I don't see any point in doing this. It probably won't save time cause it will complicate thing further.

I would actually encourage a different system rather then submitting drafts on the forum, which can be rather slow and be the cause of confusion or wasted effort (people putting in a fair bit of work writing up a beyblade that someone else is also working on). And take an approach used by a lot of wikis of have everyone be able to "improve" a page, but have an administrator(s)/overseer(s) who governs changes, undo poor changes, and otherwise manage the pages so they become more professional over time. Yeah, the first thing someone throws down might not be great but at least it is something, and someone else can step in and make a change to fix or improve it. Everything is logged, everyone can look and see who changed what, and if there is a dispute then the admin can overrule in order to keep the direction in accord with their views of what is professional. This approach would accelerate the creation of the beywiki, and perhaps get more people involved as some people may write content, others post pictures, others correct grammar, others add links to other pages, etc. There are a lot of people that like to help out in different ways.

The system your suggesting is pretty complicated and the one we have at the moment works fine. Maybe it's not fast but good articles take work and time. Also people already comment on people's articles and suggest better versions.
(Dec. 09, 2010  5:05 PM)Ellume Wrote: I would actually encourage a different system rather then submitting drafts on the forum, which can be rather slow and be the cause of confusion or wasted effort (people putting in a fair bit of work writing up a beyblade that someone else is also working on). And take an approach used by a lot of wikis of have everyone be able to "improve" a page, but have an administrator(s)/overseer(s) who governs changes, undo poor changes, and otherwise manage the pages so they become more professional over time. Yeah, the first thing someone throws down might not be great but at least it is something, and someone else can step in and make a change to fix or improve it. Everything is logged, everyone can look and see who changed what, and if there is a dispute then the admin can overrule in order to keep the direction in accord with their views of what is professional. This approach would accelerate the creation of the beywiki, and perhaps get more people involved as some people may write content, others post pictures, others correct grammar, others add links to other pages, etc. There are a lot of people that like to help out in different ways.

I know what you're saying here and to a certain extent I agree; more users should be able to edit and contribute in an easier way, but due to our relatively, yet undeniably "young" userbase here, this simply isn't a viable option right now.

I understand that having something there may be better than nothing, and I agree that that may be the case sometimes. However, with something such as Beyblade where specific examples need to be given and complex reliance on previous knowledge etc., this might be troublesome.

I do think that the Beywiki needs to be shaken up a little bit, since we are going through another period of stagnation. It's always the same people contributing, and yes, although standards are high here, there's nothing stopping the regular user from submitting a draft whenever they want.
(Dec. 09, 2010  5:05 PM)Ellume Wrote: I guess I was unclear on this point. What I ment to say is not break each beyblade into separate wiki pages, but split up the work for each beyblade. Using the current system, instead of one person submitting a draft for an entire beyblade, a person could submit a draft for a particular part of the beyblade. Then the page could be made more like a standard wiki with the possibility of multiple authors. So I'm saying keep the same format your using for the beyblade pages, just break up the work done on it into smaller parts so the pages can be completed faster.

I would actually encourage a different system rather then submitting drafts on the forum, which can be rather slow and be the cause of confusion or wasted effort (people putting in a fair bit of work writing up a beyblade that someone else is also working on). And take an approach used by a lot of wikis of have everyone be able to "improve" a page, but have an administrator(s)/overseer(s) who governs changes, undo poor changes, and otherwise manage the pages so they become more professional over time. Yeah, the first thing someone throws down might not be great but at least it is something, and someone else can step in and make a change to fix or improve it. Everything is logged, everyone can look and see who changed what, and if there is a dispute then the admin can overrule in order to keep the direction in accord with their views of what is professional. This approach would accelerate the creation of the beywiki, and perhaps get more people involved as some people may write content, others post pictures, others correct grammar, others add links to other pages, etc. There are a lot of people that like to help out in different ways.

We've never said that people can't write descriptions for specific parts.

This all sounds very nice, but the fact of the matter is that most members are either too young to write articles up to the standards we have set, or they simply do not have the knowledge. The reason we ask for drafts to be posted here first is so that we can gauge their quality and accuracy, and provide suggestions to make them better. We do this because we don't want to post articles that are bad or "good enough" on the wiki that contain false information, or that do not follow proper formatting.
This is a brilliant idea,but it's just that there are not enough people to write the drafts. Most people don't even have the right beys.