ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

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And it was such a good idea...

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*Child of Feanor*

People could always try going over to the wiki. There's plenty of help in learning the format, and it becomes very easy after a time.

I don't believe that either the forum, or the wiki are made to be single, stand-alone and separate communities for the game, and it is wrong to look upon them as such. The forum is for discussion, and the wiki is to provide resources to all the community, through docs, spoilers or whatever, to which everyone can contribute.

I'd say that if you choose simply to ignore the spoiler archive there it's really your fault if you don't find the answers to any questions you may have. Asking them again here is rather a pointless excercise, and takes far more time in the long run than just bothering to learn wiki. It's also asking rather a lot of those who have bothered to contribute over on the wiki to be continuously regurgitating things over here, and even the constant provision of links to readily available, easily findable wiki docs becomes annoying.

However, a sticky here saying that the spoiler archive on the wiki exists, and to please look there first would not go amiss. (For that matter a link on the main forum page to the wiki would be nice). I just don't see the need to repeat the information.

I realise that there is probably some document or set of them that answer every possible question that could come up.

What I am calling for is a simple, centralized place where people can come and have their questions answered. I think that a stickied post would be in order, with links to the various posts that deal with that particular area.

Obviously, we'd have to link Lord Dimwit's Guide, that's just priceless...

Anyway, I know that this is based off of our unwavering sense of simplicity and laziness, but I think it's a good idea all around.

I'll set up a vote and let it run for a bit.

*Edit: Alright, set up a vote, and I'm letting it run for 15 days. If at the end of that time it is found that many would like this, I think that we should get started immediately.

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And it was such a good idea...

The concept is good. I like the idea of a FAQ, but think other solutions may be more ideal.

Honestly, I don't even know who maintains the Wiki. I've posted on there before in the Chatter sections, though, so it looks pretty easy to maintain by a relatively small group of people.

The best suggestion I can make is to implement a system in which the fora serve as discussion areas and the Wiki serve as a sort of knowledge base. I can visualize the Wiki being a site akin to Microsoft's (or some other major corporation's) Knowledge Base, and the forum being a site akin to, say, Expert's Exchange. The questions posed in a forum could then be commented on just as they are today, but with one serving as an "accepted answer" (where applicable). That answer could then be populated within the searchable knowledge base in a reader-friendly format.

Ambitious? Yes. Impossible? Not really. Practical? Well, that's up to you.

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"Consummate V's! I SAID CONSUMMATE! Sheesh! You wouldn't know majesty if it came up and bit you in the face!" - SB

MCKelly:YES

The wiki is maintained as a resource by all those involved with ToME who wish to contribute. The wiki is easy to maintain, and that's really the idea, I think.

The forum is great for discussion. It has an automatic post and reply structure, which is far simpler than trying to maintain verbose threads on the wiki, and this avoids the problem of editing clashes, and other simple mistakes which can mess up formatting.

However, what the forum can't do is keep a whole load of information in one place, and provide a concise reference that people can look to if they need to find specific (or even general) information. It simply isn't designed to do so. And that's why the wiki was made in the first place. You can have lists, tables, tables of contents, anchors, all kinds of naviagtional aids and a structure: you can do so many things to make information more findable than trying to look through a pages long FAQ on a monotonous forum thread.

Certainly if people want their questions answered, they post here. Or if they want to enlarge the discussion of a topic already covered they can post here. Or even if they just want to talk to people. However, to my mind, creating a thread specifically as "a centralized place where people can come and have their questions answered" is simply trying to condense the whole forum. "FAQ" is a very loose term, and can cover anything (in the area of spoilers) from to . If you try to merge all of that, you're effectively going to be duplicating the entire on the wiki into one forum thread.

By all means link to the wiki. A higher profile for it would be useful, since then newcomers would actually know of it's existence, and there would be an added incentive to bother going there to find information, rather than just creating yet another "what are the sentient weapons realms?" or "what can I wish for?".

If you want advice on any of those kind of things, or think there is something more to say on the topics, then by all means expand the discussion here. However, if it's been discussed before here there's simply no point in reguritating the old information...

--> look it up: search.php

And if you know that the information is readily available on the wiki (or even might be: it almost certainly is)...

--> go there: http://wiki.t-o-m-e.net

I think there should be a FAQ that contained links to the relevant wiki pages, like:

Q: What powers can sentient weapons have?

A: See <specific wiki page>

Q: I have found a staff of wishing. What should I wish for?

A: See <specific wiki page>

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Zothiqband -- still an Angband variant.

I highly like Nerdanel's suggestion because that makes the implementation of such a page much easier.
Also it will help people get used to the wiki who aren't yet. I'm sure I'm not the only one who found the wiki much harder to get information off than the forums until I was used to it.

If people are determined to go through with this, then that is the best option.

However, I point out that all the "FAQ" type questions that you're likely to create links to will probably have links directly off the main SpoilerArchive page...

Yes, such a page would clearly not be made to help wiki users but to help those who haven't found the wiki yet or don't go to it.
It's to save people having to say 'go see the wiki.'...the question is whether it'll help.

Nerdanel: YES!!!!!

That's freaking perfect!

We could do that, or we could really go out there and make up a Word document that contains all of the information. I could do that myself, and then maybe we could include that in the subsequent releases of ToME.

Yeah, I'm way out there.

But it looks like the majority favors creating a thread where this stuff is answered.

So, how do we do it? Personally, I favor Nerdanel's idea of just making a bunch of links. I think it would be very helpful.

And thanks for all your input.

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And it was such a good idea...

So... since this thread has been dead now for a little over a year... and I've been gone... anyone want to continue to pursue this? If you do, please, either post here, PM me or email me, and we can get to work on it.

I was thinking that with some of the simpler issues, we just have a simple Q&A section, with the larger, more varied info, we'd post up links to the relevant pages on the wiki or here.

Of course, if this has already been done or is in the middle of being taken care of, please, let me know so I can delete this post, or at least un-sticky this topic.

Thanks.

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And it was such a good idea...

If it were me I'd wait for version 3 to hit beta, and add questions to the FAQ as they come up.

Bucket Man

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And it was such a good idea...