Homecoming Wiki talk:Article Guidelines

Wow, this is fantastic, much better than what I would have come up with! --TonyV 10:10, 26 August 2007 (EDT)

I have to credit StarGeek for doing most of the legwork, much of what I did was reshaping what he had done over on Help:References. :) -- Sekoia 11:28, 26 August 2007 (EDT)

Category

Would this be the appropriate place to put a Category section that briefly describes how to use categories?

For example, what is the difference between these two? (pulled from {{petcommands}})

1. [[Category:Slash Command Templates|{{PAGENAME}}]]
2. [[Category:Standardized Text Templates]]

I suspect when used on a template it actually makes the template show up in the category list... but I don't know. Help! refrains from using {{helpme}} --Konoko 17:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

1. [[Category:Slash Command Templates|{{PAGENAME}}]]
   • Ignores any prefix (Template:, Category:, ParagonWiki:, etc), using only the page name.
   • Template:petcommands shows up in Category:Slash Command Templates under "P" (petcommands is the page name.)
2. [[Category:Standardized Text Templates]]
   • Uses the whole article name, including prefixes.
   • Template:slashcommand shows up in Category:Slash Command Templates under "T" (Template is the first letter of the article).

-- Agge (talk) 18:04, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

User Pages

I'm assuming that it's verboten to fix up grammar and spelling on User pages. If this is the case, you might want to mention it. If not, you might want to mention that too. →Torin23 14:54, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Generally we don't make a practice of modifying anyone's User Page. On rare occasion we might help fix something like a broken link or an error that was introduced by a change made elsewhere (i.e. in a template that was being used on that User Page). In any case where content that isn't appropriate anywhere on Paragon Wiki is placed on a User Page, it's best to contact an admin and let us handle the situation. But for something like grammar or spelling errors, we leave User Pages alone. --Eabrace 18:06, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Changing the target of a redirected link.

Would it not be preferred, in the examples given, to choose example 3 in preference to examples 1 or 2 (presuming you're already going through the trouble of editing the link). Mrudat 06:41, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

reference links broken

The links all fail in the references section, probably due to last year's wiki move? Searching... no luck yet. Taosin 07:21, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Internet Wayback machine gets me some of some of these (lost?) references, not all, as it won't go to the second and later pages of long threads. The first ref dates back to Sep 2007. is there an archive anywhere of 5.25" disks? <grin> Taosin 07:38, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Ah yes. The old forums. The domain name for those forums expired around October 2010, at which time Tony archived their content to oldforums.paragonwiki.com (discussed here). You'll note, however, that clicking on that site currently brings up the message that the site is under maintenance. I want to say I remember a later conversation on the forums about retiring those old boards for good, but haven't been able to dig anything up in that regard. For the most accurate account, it would probably be best to poke Tony with a PM and see what he says. --Eabrace 20:31, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

I want to say I remember something about that conversation, too, but I can't recall specifically when it was. I also remember checking my link to the old forums around the same time as the recent security problems, and thought that they had been taken down to scrub them like the COH Faces site was. *shrug* -- Blondeshell 21:00, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

I can confirm that as of November 2011, Tony was planning to leave the old Paragon Wiki forums site down. -- Sekoia 17:39, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Undisclosed/NDA material

We need to add a section to these guidelines explaining our policy regarding content that has not yet been publicly acknowledged by the devs. I don't feel well enough versed in this arena to draft it up though. -- Sekoia 18:18, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

As you said on Rigel's talk page, this area is decidedly murky. For instance, when the CoH Website got accidental updates, we immediately had that info on the PWiki... even though it was clear that the info was not meant to be public yet. Somehow, people have been getting power names and Powerset names, and that has made others feel more comfortable giving additional information. Yet, in this case, there seems to be no information that can be tracked to a legitimate public source. To me, that is the dividing line between postable on the Wiki and not:

• Is the source of this information available to the CoH community at large?
• If yes, is it likely to be fixed and/or removed?
  • If no, then it is totally fine
  • If yes, then it depends on how 'public' it was... the official website being about as public as you can get.

Just my thoughts. —Thirty7 23:32, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

First answer's yes: any VIP with beta client will be bombarded with this information. Grinding Magi and probing for unannounced new powers is pretty much all anyone's doing on beta. Second question's a call for speculation.

Once information is in the open, suppressing it just begs for the Streisand effect. Heavy moderation on the official forums is already generating buzz in live server global chat; everyone's asking what the big secret is!

Better to present the information in a fair and forthcoming manner, no secrets, no hype. Nothing like a good boring encyclopedia article to cool things down. Sans Streisand effect, this time next week, there'll be something new for people to buzz about.

Of course, NDA situations could be different, but that's not an issue this time. Rigel Kent 00:34, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

First off, Rigel, the answer to that first question is NO! The source of the information is NOT available freely to the CoH public at large, but at this point, the resultatnt information and questions thereof is. That is a huge difference. Until the source can be tracked to a public release (accidental website updates included), it shouldn't be on the Wiki! The Wiki is not, nor should it be, a place to "air things out." —Thirty7 04:15, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

The answer is yes. To clarify, the source of the information is text links within the beta client. These links are available to all VIP subscribers who log in to the beta test. Click the link, the information appears. Icons, power descriptions, real numbers too. I have no special access to information that any other VIP can't get to. Rigel Kent 02:31, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Mod post removals.

Over the past few issues, I've been watching posts that pop up and get removed on the CoH beta forums by the mods. there are two that stick out in my mind.

• First, my own discovery of a bug in the tailor that allowed a player to use female model costume parts on male/huge, male/huge parts on each other and female models. When I posted it, I included an image of the female model using the male bare chest leather strap and nipple piercings and another which was a man in lacy white drag with a woman's head (irresponsibly file named as SoGae.png). These were removed within 24 hours as inappropriate for viewing, both on grounds of content (The female model was anatomically correct appearing and the nipple piercings looked ow... ), and file name being inappropriate.
• Second would be some recently shown images of power descriptions from power links provided by another player. They showed powers from upcoming unreleased and unannounced sets as well as unannounced unreleased AT that was being worked on. This post was visible for approximately an hour and a half before being removed entirely from the forum by the mods.

-Sayaki 17:45 8 April (PST)

If it has not been announced in open beta, on the website, on the forums, or at a physical meetup (Pummit, Con, etc), then it does not belong on the wiki. That has been our stance in the past, and I should hope that will continue to be our stance. When it comes to forthcoming content or powers or whatever, the wiki is for official information, and if it's not available from an official announcement, it isn't official information. I don't want to get in trouble by the devs/mods/whatever for hosting "misbegotten" information. ~ User:Aggelakis/Sig1 00:57, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I guess this is what I was trying to say, Agge, but it got misconstrued. The fact that Water Blast was fully documented on the Wiki here meant that when I found it, I assumed that there HAD been an official announcement of some kind, and that I had missed it, merely because we seem to be good at removing things that aren't supposed to be here. —Thirty7 04:15, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

If I could see the new power set during character creation on beta, this would be an easy case of saying the info is readily available and ready for documentation. I'm updating my beta client right now so that I can check, but I'm pretty sure it's not there. If there had been an official update on the CoH website announcing the new power set and describing all of the powers, it would be an easy matter of saying that the information on that web page was ready for inclusion in the wiki (but only the information that could be obtained from the official page). I haven't seen any official announcements. If a developer or community rep had posted to announce the new power set on the CoH forums or discussed the set in an interview, the information they had included in the post or interview would be ready for documenting on the wiki. As far as I'm aware, they haven't mentioned the set in a post or an interview.

I am forced to conclude that the information for the new power set is not ready for documentation. The information will eventually be publicly available via one or more of those official sources we've mentioned here. At that time, we can start adding the information to the wiki. Until then, it's best not to add it here.

It might be another matter if the power information had been visible at character creation and had been documented before the devs realized they'd made a mistake and removed it from the power selection, but that's not the case here. As Guy mentioned, the only way to obtain those power names right now is by pulling the client files apart and digging through them. That's definitely something that's frowned upon by NCsoft and discussing any little treasures found in such a manner that could not be found through normal gameplay is only inviting trouble. Placing that information on the wiki and making it readily accessible with a simple search leaves us open to souring the relationship the wiki has with the development staff. We've worked very hard over the years to foster the working relationship we have today, but that could disappear in a heartbeat if we started trolling the developers by documenting information they very specifically aren't ready to make public.

Granted, we're not perfect. I think we've most of us have inadvertently let something slip through the cracks at some point. (I know I certainly have.) But we should make every effort possible to prevent information that's not ready for public view from getting out into the wild.--Eabrace 05:19, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Sorcery power pool appears as a greyed-out power pool option for every character, when training up to a new level. The new ATEs can be created with enhancement converters. Water Blast, Psionic Melee, Symbiotic Armor, and Nature Affinity were discovered by guessing. All Healing enhancements are now Healing/Absorb enhancements. The Magisterium Trial requires Lore and Destiny unlocked to participate. Beta testers know all these features, but none of these features had patch notes. Where should the line be drawn, beyond which we no longer need to ask the devs' permission to post publicly known, easily verifiable game features lacking patch notes? Rigel Kent 02:31, 10 April 2012 (UTC)