User talk:Synapsid

Welcome! May I extend my warmest welcomes and offer you any help you may need? Thanks for your contributions, mate!


 * ...First, you may want to check out our FAQ page.
 * ...There's a wealth of wiki documentation on the Help page, perhaps some of it may be of use to you.
 * ...Before you upload your screenshots, which we really appreciate, please read our file naming policy.
 * ...With the wiki's most recent update from version 1.17 to 1.19, we now have a section of buttons on the bottom of every edit page that should streamline and make template usage SOOO much easier... For some details about this, please see the help page for these buttons.
 * ...There's a really good Introduction over on Wikipedia also, it should help you figure out what's going on if your new to wikis in general.
 * ...Don't forget to change your user preferences.
 * ...We pride ourselves on providing the best and most accurate information possible and are happy to reward our editors with extra privileges for making that happen. The first step in the promotion ladder turns off the CAPTCHA edit tests and you can check out the details  Here.

If you need help with something above and beyond what the links above can provide...
 * ...Someone is most always available! You can drop me a message on my user talk page (which I watch like a hawk), grab my other contact info on my user page, or ask one of the other system operators.

Again, welcome to the wiki - and I can't thank you enough on behalf of the community for your help in making us the best DDO site around Kobold_worker 07:19, December 12, 2012


 * Hi, I'm looking foreword to contributing here.

Synapsid (Contributions &bull; Message) 07:19, December 12, 2012 (EST)


 * Hello, and welcome again! We can always use more help with the wiki. If you have any questions, just ask! I see you already caught a mistake on the Monster Manual page, so keep up the good work.

Susalona (Contributions &bull; Message) 11:04, December 12, 2012 (EST)

Monster Categorization
Here is the categories for the Rust Monster (as of this date)

Root > DDO library > Monsters > Bestiary Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters by alignment > Neutral monsters > True Neutral monsters Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters by type > Aberration monsters > Rust Monster race monsters Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters by type > Aberration type monsters Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters without image

There was an edit to the Template:infobox-monster sometime in August 2012 which categorized monsters into 'X race monsters' and 'Y type monsters' instead of 'X race monsters' and 'Y monsters'. This appears to basically move monsters from a branch node to a new leaf node in the category tree.

However, it looks like the category tree was not completely adjusted to correspond to this template change. I found many missing categories resulting from this change in Special:WantedCategories.

This leads me to wonder if the category tree is correct as is, or if it needs to be adjusted some more, as for instance:

Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters by race > Aberration monsters > Rust Monster race monsters Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters by type > Aberration type monsters

or

Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters by race > Rust Monster race monsters Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters by type > Aberration type monsters

or even

Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters by race > Rust Monster race monsters Root > DDO library > Monsters > Monsters by type > Aberration type monsters > Rust Monster race monsters

The page User:Yoko5000/Category structure lays out the overall category structure, but does not go into so much detail for monsters.

Anyway, are there local guidelines (discussion or forum posts) for the structure of the category tree which are not showing up in my naive searches. (Category is a tough search target!) Should I be looking to MediaWiki or Wikipedia for guidelines on how categories should be organized here?

Synapsid (Contributions &bull; Message) 15:32, December 12, 2012 (EST)

Ha, its funny that you should ask about this just as I was working on re-categorizing things! I've been working on organizing and expanding the monster pages the last few months and of course noticed the problem you mentioned above. I have been filling in missing categories as I go, but I've been pretty slow about it.

As far as I'm aware, there are no guidelines specific to the monster pages. There was some discussion about this very question here a while back. Based on the discussion on that page, as well as my own observations, I had previously decided that the second scenario you listed above is the best one. The problem with nesting the race categories under the type categories is that monsters of the same race can be different types. See Black Wolf and Winter Wolf for examples. So, if the categories are nested, that can lead people to erroneously conclude that all monsters in "Category:Wolf race monsters" should also be "Category:Animal type monsters" (before I moved it "Category:Monsters by race" earlier today of course).

The only disadvantage I can find to removing the nesting of these categories is that when the command is used to list all pages in a particular "Category:XXXX type monsters", those pages will no longer be sorted by race. See Giant type for an example of how this command shows nested categories. However, I think losing that functionality is minor compared to reducing confusion about which monsters should fall under which type. Susalona (Contributions &bull; Message) 16:35, December 12, 2012 (EST)


 * Mediawiki for reference but as mention there are no firm guidelines. I prefer the keep it simple method unless its not possible. Monsters without/with image Category should be Hidden categories. Root > DDO library > Monsters > Bestiary should be rename to "Monsters A TO Z" it fits the DnD theme. Bladedge (Contributions &bull; Message) 18:22, December 12, 2012 (EST)


 * Thanks. I noticed that someone was editing categories by the time I finished my post. Funny the way that works out sometimes. Is there a projects page, or TODO list, or who's working on what page anywhere? Is there a way you publicize major or on-going work in progress? Synapsid (Contributions &bull; Message) 19:12, December 12, 2012 (EST)


 * A few have a ToDo list, few of us stay tend to stay in certain areas of the wiki like Susalona with monsters, Yoko5000 with new ddo features, Tech with templates, Bladedge with images, items, ddostore... I jump over the place like now Iam trying to catch the wiki update U14 items and back log of festivault pages. Occasionally I sponsor Kolbold Shiny Union to dig up old pages in the ddo wiki basement. Bladedge (Contributions &bull; Message) 19:28, December 12, 2012 (EST)


 * Yeah, pretty much everything on this site is a work in progress. Feel free to work on whatever you think needs it though. The monster pages alone still have tons of work that needs to be done and I certainly can't do it all myself . I just wasn't sure if you knew the race categories needed to be recategorized once you had created those other categories, so that's why I started on it. Susalona (Contributions &bull; Message) 11:06, December 13, 2012 (EST)