[HoundDawg]

We need to nail down the namespaces and categories before it becomes a nightmare. Currently, the wiki has:

• Documentation (11 members)
  
• Game Servers (1 member)
  
• Operating Systems (1 member)
  
• Press Releases (15 members)
  
• Programs (6 members)
  
• Services (1 member)
  
• Templates (7 members)
  
• Walkthrough (2 members)

With a proposal to add:

• Voice Servers
  
• Admin Tools
  
• FAQ
  
• Links (not sure about this one)
  
• Networking - can cover rate settings (how many players at what maxrate setting can your home connection handle), or anything that discusses bandwidth
  
• Server Variables (broken down by game server via sub-categories)
  
• Templates (that way we can easily track the templates we have)

We need to get a good tree going so that it's organized in a way that admins would understand how it's organized (without having to go to some category post/wiki page about it).

I'm thinking that the "Press Releases" will eventually be moved to the website, so no need for a namespace for them.

What is "Programs"? For like software, addons, plugins, utilities? That's a little vague, and there's proposed "Admin Tools".

I was thinking of "HowTo" but unsure if this will clash with "Walkthrough". I'm thinking that "HowTo" guides people are more familiar with.

Server Variables, would we also add Launch Parameters? Where would Configs go? Documentation?

I was also thinking of the following:

• Game
  
• Developer
  
• Hardware
  
• League
  
• GSP
  
• Map

[ColdSun]

HowTo is typically a more commonly used keyword in searches than Walkthrough. Also, where do we draw the line between documentation and the before mentioned tutorials?

I do agree that "programs" and "admin tools" seems conflicting especially since a good deal of the programs listed would personally fall under admin tools.

As for links, I really don't think it needs its own section as we will be doing external links where outside references are needed. Let's also not forget that internal links are far more favored for users and web-crawlers.

[HoundDawg]

ColdSun, on 06 June 2009 - 06:01 PM, said:

As for links, I really don't think it needs its own section as we will be doing external links where outside references are needed. Let's also not forget that internal links are far more favored for users and web-crawlers.

Well, then we need to rename it Resources or something. We'll have pages about various websites out there (before actually sending the user out).

[mauirixxx]

I <3 discussion.

When I proposed most of that, I wasn't thinking of what terms were used more often (howto vs walkthrough), or if some names may conflict with others (programs vs admin tools).

I personally use howto as a search term much much more often then walkthrough, so I agree with that change. For the custom namespaces I had you add HD, just add another one in the same manner under the term HowTo (or How to, or How_to, or How-To???). It's a fairly trivial matter to move a page (especially since we only have 1 page in walkthroughs right now).

As far Admin Tools vs Programs, I let my own personal preference in naming get ahead of me Either naming convention works I guess, as they both mean the same thing, but Admin Tools does sound much more appropriate

Documentation, initially was to contain walkthroughs (how to's), faqs, and well anything that "documents" anything. Since we now know how to add custom namespaces, the "Documentation" category is not needed anymore.

As far as server variables go ...... while a comprehensive list with an actual explanation of what each one does is definitely needed in the admin community, we need to nail this one right. Maybe make another custom namespace called variables or maybe just cvars (or just cvar, so we could do pages like CVAR:hostname ... links would look like http://wiki.ua.com/CVAR:hostname - thoughts on this???). Then we could add categories to this custom namespace, the sub categories being named after their respective .... game server, or just game mod (for the mod specific cvars?) - more discussion will be needed on this ..... As far as launch parameters are concerned, I think they should be included in the walkthrough, either as a note at the bottom of the page, in the same section that deals with actually starting up the game server. Server configs also would fall into the walkthrough, any non standard configs (like map specific configs perhaps) would fall under the FAQ I assume.

Links, I don't think we need a dedicated links page either, maybe we should handle them wikipedia style - small link icon in the general text, and then a links section at the bottom of the article.

Also, the press releases category, while generally not linked to anything, would still be valuable content for the wiki I believe - but that's my opinion on it.

Hardware category - would kind of info would that category contain? Like general specs, or this cpu can handle X amount of TF2 servers with no lag, or this model of server from vendor Y handles this many UT3 servers better then this server from vendor Z does? Or ... what?

Thanks for the feedback, this helps a ton

[HoundDawg]

mauirixxx, on 07 June 2009 - 02:35 AM, said:

As far Admin Tools vs Programs, I let my own personal preference in naming get ahead of me Either naming convention works I guess, as they both mean the same thing, but Admin Tools does sound much more appropriate

Well, this can be one big namespace, as there are going to be a lot of the wiki with this information. For example, we're talking about the various software that admins can use. These include addons/plugins, external utilities, parsers, etc... For example, anti-cheats, player stats, other log parsers, game launchers, etc... Do we want to define more specific namespaces, or one with a split of categories?

Quote

Documentation, initially was to contain walkthroughs (how to's), faqs, and well anything that "documents" anything. Since we now know how to add custom namespaces, the "Documentation" category is not needed anymore.

So, we don't want a namespace that allows for... DOC:blah? I suppose everything is documentation, and can just be whatever? One thing to take into account is how the articles are breadcrumbed. I think for most people, they'd prefer to see the wiki split by game. But, this doesn't make sense for information pages that cover multiple games. I think we should do more wiki research into how other professional wikis do it.

Quote

As far as server variables go ...... while a comprehensive list with an actual explanation of what each one does is definitely needed in the admin community, we need to nail this one right. Maybe make another custom namespace called variables or maybe just cvars (or just cvar, so we could do pages like CVAR:hostname ... links would look like http://wiki.ua.com/CVAR:hostname - thoughts on this???). Then we could add categories to this custom namespace, the sub categories being named after their respective .... game server, or just game mod (for the mod specific cvars?) - more discussion will be needed on this ..... As far as launch parameters are concerned, I think they should be included in the walkthrough, either as a note at the bottom of the page, in the same section that deals with actually starting up the game server. Server configs also would fall into the walkthrough, any non standard configs (like map specific configs perhaps) would fall under the FAQ I assume.

Wow, this was a packed paragraph. The CVAR: is nice. I disagree in burying the launch parameters though. They should be referenced the same as CVARs. After all, the CVARs can be launch parameters as well. Anything that can be referenced, should. Not buried in some How To guide, or installation doc.

Quote

Links, I don't think we need a dedicated links page either, maybe we should handle them wikipedia style - small link icon in the general text, and then a links section at the bottom of the article.

Then, we need to define a namespace/categories for websites, communities, etc... that we link off to. We should also setup a rule of whether we create a page for every link, which the wiki pages feed into, or just direct. Kind of like a referenced page about that destination. This would make it easier to add additional information about that resource link to present to wiki readers that they may have missed going direct. On the flip side, it can be an annoying extra click for some people. Something to think about. But, I think "Link" is a bit vague though.

Quote

Also, the press releases category, while generally not linked to anything, would still be valuable content for the wiki I believe - but that's my opinion on it.

Hrmm, I suppose since these press releases aren't always statically visible on the originator's site, we'd start posting them in the wiki? For example, Valve, they send out press releases that aren't accessible on their website. I just checked, and they did a good job in February, but failed since then to update it. This would also allow us to post links from the news over to the wiki page of the press release. Is this what you were thinking?

Quote

Hardware category - would kind of info would that category contain? Like general specs, or this cpu can handle X amount of TF2 servers with no lag, or this model of server from vendor Y handles this many UT3 servers better then this server from vendor Z does? Or ... what?

This could be a wiki page on anything hardware related, including routers, switches, servers, etc...

[HoundDawg]

This thread is mostly discussion on categories. I'm going to start a new one on Namespaces.