A happy, belated New Year to you all. I hope everyone enjoyed their Sithmas and/or Life Day season. The season was quite busy for me, and it appears that people have kept busy on the Wiki. Yes, folks have been expanding on their Clan assets (pages that is), creating NPCs, creating locations, adding image uploads and helping to further flesh out our wicked tangle of old pages, outdated information, new information, new pages, and trivia/data to know and learn.

It’s not quite as bleak as that, really. The Wiki is just a living document, and of course that means it is made up of more than just the Clan Summits or the Dark Council- just as two big examples. It belongs to all of you.

Me? I just work here. In this report, I hope to talk about some recent changes, things of note that have been occuring on the Wiki, tips and tricks to know and love, ect ect. Of course, this will include the two things that everybody comes to my Wiki Tribune reports for: The Wikipedian of the Month and this month’s Featured Page.

So without additional fanfare, let’s get down to brass tacks with this report for January 2020. As we see our Star Wars calendar change from 37 ABY over to 38 ABY, I am sure we have plenty of changes we will see happening.

Wiki Projects

Greater Ease of Navigation On the Wiki: Some pages are going to be referencing/linking/integrated with others so that information is less spread out across the Wiki. The intention is for this project to hit the first completed Phase by Q2 of 2020. Watch this section for updates. [still ONGOING]

Project Timeline: (Lead: Ronovi) Wiki Team member is working on bringing the Dark Brotherhood’s timeline and event timeline pages up to date. Progress has been made thus far, and member continues to hunt for additional events which align with those already chronicled on the timeline which need to be added. [ONGOING]

Codex pages: Under Review. This went onto the backburner for a number of months, but this project will be getting picked back up. Some parts need to be checked with the appropriate Dark Council offices. <QUEUED>

Brotherhood Guidelines Category update: Going to give this a fresh review so we can evaluate what is needed here. <QUEUED>

Category Cleanup: Basically, we will have folks reviewing categories looking for doubled-up categories so we don’t have people in multiple units, or ships in multiple categories- ie Historical and the normal Fleet/ships category, ect. Staff also grabs this as we see it in the execution of our duties. [ONGOING]

Historical Review: Finding ships, members, possessions and things to bring them into line with the more modern Brotherhood and its systems. Yes, this still involves doing something with the Yuuzhan Vong on the Wiki. Remain posted. This is a lower priority task. [QUEUED]

Unused Asset Review: (Project Lead: TBA) This will involve our staff going through the Wiki to find images, pages, or other media that are stored on the Wiki that are going unused. A few unused files are not a huge burden upon the server, nor do they take up a great deal of space, but they do take up space. When you have nearly 200 unused images, the time comes to start cleaning house a bit before things get out of hand. As such, a delete tag will be placed upon the files in question, and if nothing is done with a particular file , that file is subject to be deleted on or after February 8th. If you have any old files that you want to ensure you have saved, I warn you to do so as soon as possible. The first phase has been completed, and files await manual review. <PROJECT STARTED>

Under Construction Review: (Project Lead: Andrelious) Pretty straight forward. Andrel is going to be going through the UNDER CONSTRUCTION category searching for abandoned pages. They will be tagged with the appropriate template, and upon the project’s completion, the Tribune will provide a link to a change log to show pages affected by this review. <ASSIGNED>

This Month’s Points to Consider On the Wiki

A few interesting issues have been cropping up recently .

One of these, which I have touched on with my Project Listing above with regard to unused files. I fully understand that in changing pages about that some image files may be set aside and forgotten. This is an issue that the Tribune and staff shoulder the majority of responsibility for ensuring that things remain orderly. Another issue that comes up with unused files is where duplicate files are uploaded.

This, as with forgetting about leftover files on the server, something that will just occur over time without any ill intent on anyone’s part. However, if you were not aware, you can actually go to the file in question on the Wiki, and upload a new version, saving the server space and allowing you to use the same filename so you don’t create any of those pesky redlinks created when things get ‘broken.’ If duplicate files are left on the servers, this can take up valuable space that can be used for other images, files, pages, or assets. And while James hasn’t been riding myself or my staff too badly, I do request that folks remember their due diligence. Insert something-something only you can prevent server lag….and forest fires…

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The other point to hit upon is categorizing, again in regard to images. See, one thing that has cropped up is that a number of members have been using categories in a number of ways that the Wiki does not know what to do with.

For example, a few members tried to create new categories with links in Wiki Markup in the following formats:

[[Categories: Images-Lightaber]]

Or

[[Categories: Characters]]

Or

[[Images-Weapons]]

Now, can you guess what the issue is above which confuses the Wiki? If you guessed that Categories =/= Category in Wiki Markup, you would be correct. Also, if you forget to add that Category: in before the category itself, the Wiki tries to create a Wiki link like it would for any other page. Just something to keep in mind as you work across the Wiki.

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The third thing to consider, and I will keep this one short, is an issue that I have noticed across members from Dark Council to the newest Apprentice. (So, just about anybody could have done this, don’t feel targeted)

Several members have tried to create a non-existant Category for an image. Some have tried to create something like [Category: Images-14185]]. Now, this is an issue that my staff or myself can deal with as we come across it. But if you want to see a list of the image categories to make your files easier for everybody to find, you can consult the Image Categories Category to discover what sub-categories already exist for images.

Featured Article

The first Featured Article of the Month for 2020 is none other than Kano Tor Pepoi. The article touched upon pertinent points in the character’s history, showing a progression from Clan Naga Sadow in past to Clan Vizsla now. A fair example of how you can make a quality page without stretching out for pages, I want to take a moment to present Kano Tor Pepoi one of this month’s Dark Side Scrolls for the work on his page!

Wikipedian of the Month

This January’s Wikipedian of the month was a close call. Both of the candidates had done a great deal to supplement or enhance wiki pages, but come report time, an individual must be chosen.

As such, this month’s Wikipedian of the Month is officially Essik Lyccane. His work across a number of pages for Clan Odan-Urr have earned him the second of the two Dark Scrolls for this month. I hope to see more great work from our community at large, and want to take a moment to congratulate Essik!

Final Words

The Wiki is a living document. And everybody at some point needs some consultation on how to work with the Wiki. Well, maybe except for James, but that dude is something else. For the rest of us mere mortals, we all need help sometimes.

As such, feel free to create: do interesting things, mess up, ask for help, and keep developing and growing both your content, and yourselves. Our Wiki helps us to further define our shared galaxy far, far away, touching on aspects that stretch beyond systems as crunchy as our character sheets, Possessions, or societies. As such, I hope that you all will take a little greater part in this big collaborative encyclopedia.

And with that said, I think that concludes this months Wiki Tribune Report. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays, and I look forward to seeing what you all accomplish this year, in the Wiki and beyond!

In the meantime I remain, as ever, Yours In Darkness,