- Make items/blocks have consolidated pages with all the different blocks in them, such as Coal, Copper, Iron, Ruby, etc.
- Make items/blocks have unique individual pages, such as Copper Seam, Copper Ore (item), Copper Bar (item), etc.
0 voters
So, lately I’ve been editing/formatting the wiki a lot, and I’ve even started making a template that can be included in each item page, so that there’s a network of links readily accessible. A page shouldn’t feel like a dead-end. I also started making a template for crafting information, instead of having to manually copy and paste it and change the names each time. Memorise some parameters and just fill it like a form.
The issue
However, one thing that I certainly can’t decide on by myself, since it has to do with how everyone interacts with the wiki, is how the wiki should be populated with items.
For example, in the Minecraft wiki, there’s a page for every item, such as Gold Ore, Gold Bar, Gold Block and so on.
However, Boundless has a lot of items and many of them are actually very identical to each other!
I threw this diagram quickly, so we can wrap our heads around this and quantify the amount of items and blocks, in this case mostly from minerals. Boundless item/block Chart - the idea is that this gives some perspective on how many pages and articles would be required if each item has its own individual page.
One item, One page. Pros&Contras
Pro:
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Having one page per item has the advantage that categorisation will be more complete and there will be less ambiguity.
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Each page won’t be as long, so there won’t be as much scrolling for example. Each page will always have links to related items, so finding what you want will use links more.
Contra:
- One page per item means… A lot of pages. As the game grows in content, this will mean that there is a very large amount of pages that have to be checked whenever something changes - the neutral point here is that a lot of this can be handled using more automated wiki templates, that can be used like dynamic forms you fill out and get updated, but note this is true for both of these systems.
Many items? One page. Pros&Contras
Pro:
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One page for several items, such as having a single page that has Copper Ore, Bar, Compact, Refined, Machined, means that if you type in copper ore or copper bar on the wiki search, you will always go to the consolidated Copper page. Type in copper hammer and you will be sent to the Copper Hammer section of the Hammer page.
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The above point also means that if you need to look at Refined Copper after looking at Copper Ore, you won’t have to load another page, you can just go to its’ section in the same page.
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If you’re reading about one hammer, you may want to compare them all in the same page, instead of going to their own individual pages each time, and back and forth.
Contra:
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Pages can become very long when they are consolidated like this.
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It can feel like there’s an information overload, because there’s a very dense amount of information in a single page, even if it’s all in its own section - the neutral point here is that we can create collapsible sections, so that a page with many items starts all closed up, but you can selectively open the sections you want to look at and compare.
Feedback
The thing is, for either of these, I can think of arguments in favour and against. I need your vote and your reasons why one is better over the other!
If we all think about this, we can make it so that the wiki is prepared now in the early days of the game, so that when it’s full-blown with content, most things will be ready and formatted!
I’ll edit the post if I can think of more arguments for either case - I’m not having a great day, so I’m not being able to think very well.
