Talk:Questions for DDOGamer

Part 1: Life as a DDO Wiki Sysop (this section is for you specifically) ''(Note: I'm not sure if he meant this for me specifically, or from the point of view of the specific SysOps who answered this, but until he tells me otherwise, I suspect the latter - no point in doing this only only getting the POV from one guy!)


 * 1) How did you get involved with the wiki?
 * 2) What is your opinion regarding why do some people (like me) mainly read and use the wiki while other people (like you) feel led to contribute and change it?
 * 3) Have you participated in editing other wikis or other similar activities? If yes, how were the editing experiences different from editing DDOWiki?
 * 4) What motivated you to do so much work in this specific wiki?
 * 5) What rules or styles do you try to follow when adding to the wiki?

Part 2: General Info and History (this section is for whoever knows the answers)


 * 1) Who founded the wiki? Borror0?
 * 2) Was there one person who sort of drove things and provided a vision? Or did a bunch of people form up right away to provide crowd-sourced editorial control? Or something else?
 * 3) Who hosts the wiki? Doesn't that cost money?
 * 4) There are ads on the site. How does that work? Where does that money go?
 * 5) Is the site backed up and "safe"?
 * 6) Is there a general style guideline for wiki submissions?
 * 7) It seems like the look and feel of the wiki underwent a big change a couple of years ago. Did it or am I just imagining things? If yes, why?
 * 8) How do you as a group resolve differences? You can't all have the same philosophy about wiki work but also cannot spend eternity editing each other to comply with several competing individual philosophies. How does that work?

'''Part 3: Questions for everyone. Please ask as many of the other sysops to answer these as possible:'''


 * 1) What is your favorite piece of work you've done for the wiki, and why is it your favorite?
 * 2) How much time do you spend in the wiki versus time in the game?
 * 3) Would you consider appearing on DDOCast to talk about the wiki?

Answers from ShoeMaker
I can still remember How the wiki used to make me smile. And I knew if I had my chance That I could make those people &#32;/dance&#32; And, maybe, they'd be happy for a while.
 * Part 1: Life as a DDO Wiki Sysop
 * How did you get involved with the wiki?
 * A long, long time ago...

But February made me shiver With every ooze I saw quiver. Bad news from a sahuagin adept; I couldn't take one more step.

I can't remember if I cried When I saw the changing tide, But something touched me deep inside The day the wiki died.

So bye-bye, DDOwiki guy. navigated my browser to the site, But the site wouldn't load now matter how much I did try. And them gruff old dwarves were drinkin' stout and ale Singin', "this'll be the day that I die. "this'll be the day that I die."
 * What is your opinion regarding why do some people (like me) mainly read and use the wiki while other people (like you) feel led to contribute and change it?
 * Hrmmm... Let me think on this one.
 * Have you participated in editing other wikis or other similar activities? If yes, how were the editing experiences different from editing DDOWiki?
 * I've participated in editing many other wikis. DDOwiki is a much calmer and less dramatic place than some of the other places I've edited.
 * What motivated you to do so much work in this specific wiki?
 * I saw a need, and felt passionate about my ability to be able fill that need to some extent. Also, since I prefer to work mainly on templates and the way the wiki works and less on the actual pages, I'm gaining valuable experience in creating logic they may benefit me in the future.
 * What rules or styles do you try to follow when adding to the wiki?
 * Our current rule and style guidelines are currently under construction as we are starting to realize that the wiki that was never suppose to last this long is strong enough to endure most any controversy for the remainder of the lifetime of DDO itself.
 * Part 2: General Info and History (this section is for whoever knows the answers)
 * Who founded the wiki? Borror0?
 * I'm not entirely sure...
 * The list of candidates I would guess includes, , , , and ...
 * Was there one person who sort of drove things and provided a vision? Or did a bunch of people form up right away to provide crowd-sourced editorial control? Or something else?
 * I believe there was a small group at the start and it grew from there. Not certain... Yoko or Xevo would know more.
 * Who hosts the wiki? Doesn't that cost money?
 * hosts the wiki, and yes it costs money.
 * There are ads on the site. How does that work? Where does that money go?
 * The ads are what pay for the domain name registration and other hosting costs. (*cough* we pay ours DDO. :p)
 * Is the site backed up and "safe"?
 * It is! We actually had to restore the site from a backup last year due to an attack.
 * Is there a general style guideline for wiki submissions?
 * There isn't a "formal" guideline per-say (at least not that I'm aware of, and I would hope I would know). We really don't have issues with it very often.
 * It seems like the look and feel of the wiki underwent a big change a couple of years ago. Did it or am I just imagining things? If yes, why?
 * It did, and it's about to go through another!
 * That was the changing of the tide I was talking about in my little jingle above. There was a big disagreement and the wiki actually went down for a few months until  decided to take over the hosting and bring it back up.  However, in this process we lost our enwiki and a few other things we had set up... Took a few months for the wiki to recover from that, but I feel it is stronger now than it ever was.  I saw a record number of new contributors when Update 17 was released, so many infact I had a hard time keeping up with the patrolling of pages and had to set my own projects a side and focus on making sure that all of the new editors edits had some validity and were reasonably accurate.
 * How do you as a group resolve differences? You can't all have the same philosophy about wiki work but also cannot spend eternity editing each other to comply with several competing individual philosophies. How does that work?
 * It is about the information... Personally, if the information is correct, then I tend to leave it alone even if it's not exactly the way I would have done it or the way I like to see it. In extreme cases (which rarely happen), we take it to a discussion page and the two or three people that disagree state their case (sometimes the initial stating of cases is done on our  and although it hasn't been utilized, I am also happy to field case points in email.  Then, after some discussion and deliberation (and usually some mediation from outside parties), we try to reach some kind of agreement that works for everyone.  This doesn't "always" happen, and we have lost a few editors in the past I felt were valuable.
 * Part 3: Questions for everyone. Please ask as many of the other sysops to answer these as possible:
 * What is your favorite piece of work you've done for the wiki, and why is it your favorite?
 * My favorite pieces of work for the wiki are some of the more complicated templates I've created.
 * How much time do you spend in the wiki versus time in the game?
 * It varies... Sometimes I spend weeks on end editing the wiki and only pop in to get mail, and other times I play daily and only pop into the wiki to check my talk page for notices.
 * Would you consider appearing on DDOCast to talk about the wiki?
 * Possibly, if I had time to prepare my answers to the questions being asked.