Fwurg

[Brend]

I would like to ask your advice on something. I feel that the current Veolian Commonwealth wiki page is too long. Though there is a lot of interesting information on it (to me at least), it appears to be a bit of a boring read.

I'm thinking of splitting the page into a few parts, but I would like your opinion on this so we're all on the same page.

Currently, I'm thinking of splitting the page into three parts:

1. The first would be the current faction page (Veolian Commonwealth), with the first three sections (with a severely reduced culture section), so people can have a quick look at the faction.
2. The second would be the culture page (Veolian Culture), where I can go into more detail with regard to the veolian culture. (I have a lot more on it, as can be seen in [ Sector 15 -10 ] Escort to the Slave Rebellion and Inter-species summit - Closing ball). I plan on including veolian law here is well, as I feel that law and culture are bound together very tightly with the veolians.
3. The third page would be more of a 'fact book' page (Veolian Commonwealth Summary), containing information on the demographic of the faction, a short summary of it's economic disposition, and information on current technological developments. This last page might be of interest to make into a more generic summary template that can be dropped into a page so we have some form of 'default overview' that allows players to get an idea of what their colleagues are doing?

I'm not really sure where the noble houses should go, they might stay on the main page in a smaller more flowing format, or each could get their own page, with some extra history...

Any opinions on this? Or should I just stop with creating content that isn't really read because it's too much/isn't featured through linking from the forum? (e.g. I would hazard that the Naukā-lon-dorne page has not seen many visitors...)

[Elmer]

To say at first: I have no objections against more content, but keep in mind that most people (including me) do not like long texts. I cannot speak for everybody, but I think when a player don't have the feeling a text on the wiki is directly important, they wont read it. (And if it is important and long, they still won't read it!)

The problem with your page is it is a lot of different small subjects, which make it altogether a lot of text. I recommend to use more white space between every major header. In that way the page does not appear any-more as a large wall of text which make it a lot easier to read.

[Mercury]

I would like your opinion on this so we're all on the same page.

I thought the whole point of this post was to NOT have everyone on the same page o_O

My pov: please make more wiki pages so it is all easier to find, then properly link them to one another. I'd add a navigation menu even, and I will make a different topic concerning that in a jiffy.

EDIT: topic made here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=648

[Brend]

To say at first: I have no objections against more content, but keep in mind that most people (including me) do not like long texts. I cannot speak for everybody, but I think when a player don't have the feeling a text on the wiki is directly important, they wont read it. (And if it is important and long, they still won't read it!)

But to me, guessing what other people find relevant is really difficult. For example, I read all new pages. This way when roleplaying I am aware of the intricacies and details of a faction's culture, history etc. This helps me put what they're saying into context, and allows me to play my faction with the required inter-cultural reactions.

Though I do agree that long texts aren't good; sometimes you just have a lot of information to share. (I have way more than currently on the wiki -- time and what I call content-balance are the main constraints for me.

The problem with your page is it is a lot of different small subjects, which make it altogether a lot of text. I recommend to use more white space between every major header. In that way the page does not appear any-more as a large wall of text which make it a lot easier to read.

I agree on both points. I have slightly increased the spacing of the headers (but only the lined headers); this seems to work well.

I think that Mercury's suggestions, together with splitting out the different subjects offers the best solution. I will work on this tomorrow.

[Mercury]

In my experience, detailed backgrounds are always a bit closer to the heart of the person who created it than to the person who interacts with it. And that's perfectly al right! But in the end, someone will read it and it will be worth the extra effort.

It took well over five years for many of the details I worked out for one of my big D&D campaigns to finally surface at all. By then characters had progressed from level 1 to level 25 and none of them had played in the campaign when I originally conceived these idea's.

So maybe people don't read it all right away - in the end I find it will usually come to the surface and because it was pre-established early, it'll be worth all the more since it will be consistent and people can go "Oh yeah! That's true!". And it will be consistent too, that's always worth a few extra steps ^_^

[Brend]

I'm going to wait for a bit with splitting my page while people review viewtopic.php?f=12&t=648.