OpenBOR Wiki

[Fightn Words]

No, it was I who has been updating. I chose the line break method because it was simpler to do then to just paste
- if anyone wants to add/change anything (like the
 line breaks) please feel free. Just so you know, I came to the realization that updating this regularly off of the external copy is too much to for me  .

I would recommend you get Bloodbane to do it regularly, but aside from the fact that the Wiki is a better and easier format to work with (in my opinion) & it's easier to read, I'm not sure he'd want to. We could always ask I guess.

When I mentioned the size alert, it was in relation to the entire page, not the images- but since you can edit each sub section separately, this really isn't a problem after all.

Oh yeah- I hope I'm not the only one who adds content to this Wiki! We finally have a place where we can put all our information in a consolidated/collated format. Lets take advantage of it.

[Damon Caskey]

Good stuff FW, it's already helped me out. Like Mr. Q said, it's easy to forget about the original manual, and there is defiantly some "old gold" in there as far as reference to the basics goes.

Yesterday I replaced all the .gif images with .png counterparts. Saved 1-2K on the smaller images and about 10K on the bigger ones. I have plenty of of bandwidth/space and it's a small difference, but it adds up quick. The 10K saved on a single image adds up to 1MB of bandwidth after just 100 unique visits, so if I can save so much as one byte for free (no image loss), I'll take it. Plus, I just like to be consistent and use .png across the board.

Hopefully like you say, others will take notice of the wiki and begin to use/edit it. I'm well aware of my status in the BOR underground, and that probably affects how willing others are to use anything I host. Time will tell though.

DC

[Fightn Words]

I'm hoping the fact that so much information in one single place will help. Instead of telling people "Read this, check this, etc. etc." we can just say "check the Wiki." It really is a fantastic idea, so I hope more people add to it.

If you've got something thats an HTML source, you can always convert it to the Wiki format using this site:

http://diberri.dyndns.org/wikipedia/html2wiki/

Thats how I was able to convert the original Bor Manual so quickly & easily.
If your unsure how to use a Wiki, it's really not that difficult- you can always use the Editthis information pages as examples:

http://www.editthis.info/wiki/Main_Page

[Damon Caskey]

Sweet.

Now that the manual is in there, I think I have an idea on how to help make it more readable. The original manual, and even the current one wiki is kind of a Wall of Text that just happens to have a contents page.

I edited the ajspecial entry to show what I mean.

1. Basic description on it's own instead of being one of the "points", with a double space to the first point detail.
2. List points in place of the tilde.
3. Break tags, which with the list points automatically paragraphs the entries.
4. Anything that has an entry elsewhere interlinked.

What do you think?

DC

[Fightn Words]

I like it. I just realized something- you don't need a line break or to press enter if you use a bullet (*) instead! It starts It's own line.

Nice work DC.

[Damon Caskey]

Yeah, a * always starts a new line.

What I really like is that when you combine a bullet with a break
 it paragraphs kind of like a word document. I think it looks much cleaner and easier to read.

DC

[Damon Caskey]

Something else I think we should try and do is "futureproof" the manual as much as we can. As it is, the way many entries are written they will quickly go out of date, or just be outright wrong as the engine evolves.

A simple one would be autoland. It states that {int} will always be 0, 1, or 2, and then goes on to list what 0, 1, and 2 do. Well, if we ever update that feature, the first part of the entry is wrong. Why not simply list the available values and their results? Same thing, less text, and less to worry about updating.

In the case where an entry simply can't be made futureproof, it might be a good idea to date or version it. I.e. instead of "OpenBOR allows 5000 sprites", we should say "as of mm/dd/yyyy, (version 2.50) OpenBOR allows up to 5000 sprites".

Just some random thoughts of mine.

DC

[Fightn Words]

Good ideas. I'm all for fewer lines to read- easier to absorb/understand.

I've just turned all the tildes into asterisk's, and did some spell correction- so hopefully that will help. When I grabbed the Manual, Bloodbane did a massive update a day later (on the original external source), so it isn't quite up to date yet.

[Damon Caskey]

Nice!

As time goes on I'll start paragraphing and interlinking (and anyone else who wants to take on that task... I certainly won't stop you  ).

It's starting to shape up pretty good. Once the manual is ironed out, we can probably look at things like tutorial articles and such.

DC

[Fightn Words]

And the Wiki is now up to date! Formatting isn't complete, but it looks good. Thank you Damon for formatting & adding, thank you Bloodbane for maintaining the Manual.

[Damon Caskey]

OK, I got the "models.txt" section completely formatted. It can now serve as a layout template for the rest of the manual.

Any suggestions on content anyone? Or for that matter, just go ahead and add it yourself.

DC

[Fightn Words]

As a matter of fact I do.

Tutorials, in a major way are needed. We have allot of information in the form of tutorials on this site and in other places. If you've got some advice or something you think people could use don't be afraid to post it in the wiki.

One big list of all mods completed and unreleased, maybe linking to specific titles complete with information like pictures, name of modders who made them. Gemini2378 started the original http://www.editthis.info/Beats_of_Rage/
wiki, and he was adding this very content (thank you very much Gemini2378) . We do have some of that information here (like animated Gif's) under downloads- thank you SX.

Anything you think is pertinent to OpenBOR.

[Bloodbane]

 I've just read the WIKI section and it's nice. Good copy from manual in DCS.

 Hmmm... maybe I could update both but it would take more time. Usually I list the updates in a text file. When I edit the page, I find the place to edit or add and copy n paste the updates from that text. I could do the same with this one provided it has same format.

[Fightn Words]

Yeah, this is why I didn't think you'd want to do it, because thats twice you'd have to update it and the formatting is different between them. Thats why I didn't have the heart to really ask you, and why I wouldn't blame you for saying no.

[Damon Caskey]

Well, I don't mind admitting my ultimate goal is to fully supplant all the other manual copies out there, and I intend to do that by making OpenBOR wiki unquestionably the best manual and OpenBOR FAQ source. Once that happens the choice of which manual to update should be clear. I find the DC community version difficult to read, slow, and most annoyingly, it seems to go down about once a week. Besides, the community needs and has often mentioned it wanted an OpenBOR wiki, and some half hearted attempts have been made to get one that quickly got abandoned. Now we have one, and thanks to FW it's off to a solid start.

And as I mentioned before, there are no worries about this wiki going up in smoke; my webservice is not transient. On the rare occasion it does die I have good motivation to get it back up fast. It is part of my living and is tied to my family's business too. I've been running it before some of our youngest members were born and I'll be running it long after OpenBOR is forgotton.

DC