Camera-wiki.org:Community discussions/Archive04

Topics from Community discussions that have gone more than one year without further comment have been moved here. Also see the Archive Index page for parts 1, 2, and 3.

Vox Edits [to help pages]

I have been going through some of the Editing Guidelines pages, rewriting a few explanations with the hope of making them clearer to wiki newbies. The goal is to encourage people who are not experienced with wiki markup to join us, by offering them more explanations and hand-holding as they begin. I am the guinea pig for this, because I'm mostly trying to clarify issues that I found a bit confusing myself at first. However I encourage all your more wiki-savvy editors to re-check my edits, to make sure I have not introduced errors. --Vox 22:47, 1 February 2011 (CST)

Suggestion [new page template]

I would like to suggest that a "create new page" link be added to the left in the "Navigation" column. It would make it much easier for new users to add a new camera that doesn't already have a page created. Plus, it speeds up the process for experienced users as well. Pages can be created without a link there, but newbies wouldn't know where to find this information or even if it's listed in the help section somewhere. HaarFager 14:46, 8 February 2011 (PST)

I think that's a good suggestion. I'm the guinea pig for "how do newbies perceive this site," and I think that would be much clearer. It could even be helpful for a page to open with a few standard elements pre-filled, such as a placeholder for one main image, links and notes sections at the foot, etc. Naturally the veterans would understand everything could be changed but it would keep beginner pages to a certain minimal standard of clarity and consistency.

That's an excellent suggestion about having some pre-filled areas already on the blank page form. That's the way we do it over on the Hot Wheels Wiki and it helps new users immensely. Yes, veterans would understand that a typical blank form page for a new camera article could be made blank quite easily if they're creating another kind of page, so having the standard blank page form be set for new camera articles would be the best basic form you coule go for. I'll try to work up one and post a link to it in this section. HaarFager 16:08, 8 February 2011 (PST)

I suggest something simple like this, pretty basic for a page, but a lot of pages don't have much information and this template can be expanded quite easily: New Camera Page TemplateHaarFager 16:32, 8 February 2011 (PST)

That's a great start. I'm not sure the block of specs needs to be at the beginning--maybe invite some comment from the other admins?

I figured that if it was kept at the beginning, people would be able to find it uniformly across every page. If it were left to the user and how much information they were adding about that particular camera, this information might wind up anywhere. I feel that's the kind of important information about the camera that people will be wanting to know about anyway. It's the same reason that the navigation bar at the top left of this page can be found in that same area on every page. There's a good reason why it's locked there. HaarFager 20:41, 8 February 2011 (PST)

Hey, Vox, you can sign your comments in a wiki discussion by appending four tildes (~~~~) to your comment. That will put in your name and a time stamp so we know who said what and when.
Steevithak 21:07, 8 February 2011 (PST)

After doing a little reading myself, I noticed there was an existing template referenced in the help area about creating new camera pages: Camera_wiki:_Standards_(cameras). Since I needed to try creating a new page anyway, I used that template as the basis for a new page on the Ansco Viking 6.3. I think this may be the first new camera page I've created so any feedback on the results is welcome. It's a bit minimal and doesn't have a manufacturing section because I just don't have enough info on the camera's history. Maybe somebody else can add that section and fill it in. I read the help section on adding category tags and tried to include the correct set of tags.
Steevithak 12:21, 9 February 2011 (PST)

Steve, I followed the link for the new page template and it looked pretty close to what is already found on here. Only it was more of a guideline than a template and new users might not comprehend the intracacies of wiki building. I'd like to know one thing about the page you created, which was very nice - by the way. Where did you find the coding for the infobox along the right side? I've only seen it on a couple pages here, and sadly, one of them I removed because I was trying to make the page more in line with most of the others I'd seen on here. It was a real mess, though. The infobox looks really good and goes a long way toward unifying the look of all the camera pages. Have you had a look at the template I created? I'm going to go over and amend it to reflect the infobox coding as well. As to your asking Vox to sign his posts - I spent 20 minutes going through the history of this topic because I thought I had accidentally deleted his signature on a comment above mine. I didn't think that it was just that it had never been there! Oh well, I'll live and learn! HaarFager 14:14, 9 February 2011 (PST)

The infobox is the camera template referenced in the new camera page standard I was talking about above. Here's a direct link to the template itself: Template:Camera. It has a few drawbacks. There should probably be separate template/boxes for each camera type so you don't end up with a lot of unused fields. Also there's no clear indication of what the possible contents are for some of the fields. For example on Camera Type, I can guess most of them but would be handy to have a definitive list.
Steevithak 15:01, 9 February 2011 (PST)

I noticed the confusion as well. That can probably be fixed in the template itself. HaarFager 16:33, 9 February 2011 (PST)