• Wiki Suggestions
• Competition-related categories

Discussion moved from GeneralDiscussion/Unofficial competition!

FuriousOne: I wanted to suggest that maybe a Competitions category should be created, and a Competition Character Sheet template.. so that people can use that, and then the Competitions category will show at least links to all the characters, even for those people who forget/fail to add their sheets to this page.

MayLith: Hmm.... We should probably move this thought elsewhere. I like the idea, but I doubt that creating a separate category for each new competition would fly.

NeilStevens: I suggest this:

1. Create a new competition category.
2. Add the competition category to each competition

3. Give each competition a WikiName alias similiar to the category names

4. Have each character sheet reference the alias
5. Add a search for the alias to the competition page

MayLith:

1. Outwardly and just reading over it, your suggestion makes absolute sense, Neil. I like it.
2. Inwardly, I do not understand page aliases (yet). I know what an alias is (doh). I get the concept of a page alias, but not how to actually implement one. (In general, btw, this is all very frustrating to me, btw. I want to learn to CODE wikis, but my available time really doesn't allow much leeway :/ )

   1. Would you be able to explain it in little bitty words & an example, and/or point me at existing, similar help on them? (If not -- and I know you're busy, too -- I can live with it, I just hate not knowing how to fix things, darn it!)

   2. More to the point -- Would this process be easily useable by a general user who'd be equally clueless as I am currently? If not, how could we make it easily useable?

NeilStevens: An alias is just a page that only exists as a pointer to another page. Visit acronyms as an example. This alias would have a WikiName-style name. The competition aliases would all be in a similar format, probably all starting with Competition in the way that Category names all start with Category.

Users should have no trouble with this. Users would just have to mention the competition "category" somewhere on their character sheet, and then the sheet would appear on the competition's page automatically.

MayLith: Got it, mostly, I think! Quoting from you, above, & adding commentary, to be sure I'm not way the heck off in left field somewhere:

1. Create a new competition category.

   • Create CategoryCompetition

2. Add the competition category to each competition
   • Not sure what this means. It sounds like making the comp page itself a member of the character sheet category, which can't be right.

3. Give each competition a WikiName alias similiar to the category names

   • Create an alias page for a given competition, redirecting to CategoryCompetitionCharacterSheet. E.g.:

     • Create page CompetitionRandom1

     • On this page, put #REDIRECT CategoryCompetition

4. Have each character sheet reference the alias

   • E.g. each character sheet has on it "CompetitionRandom1"

5. Add a search for the alias to the competition page
   • Uhh.... can't remember the macro for this, but I know what you mean. Like those "ego searches" I see on some user pages.

Question, though: Typically, when I'm making a new page, I use the ["/newpagename"] foo on the existing page, save it, and then go back through the newly created link to actually add content to the new page. Won't adding a search on the comp page most likely end up listing many pages twice? (Obvious solution is to not *do* that on the comp page, just create your comp char's page directly off your homepage, but a) new users might not understand how to do that and b) new users might not have a homepage anyway.)

NeilStevens: Not quite right . In step 1, you're creating a competition category, not a competition character sheet category. After that, step 2 will make more sense to you I imagine, heh. Step 3 you have right, though I'd say CompetitionRandom1 or so. Step 4 is right, step 5 you can see by reading the source on one of the category pages.

MayLith: Ahhhh... my wiki-fu grows by leaps and bounds. (You know, counting steps is irritating w/ the repetitive "1." things when one is in edit mode...) And yes, step 2 makes sense now, & your naming convention for step 3 makes perfect sense, too: the word "Competition" should always lead.

I re-edited the above example stuff. If you don't mind, I'd like to try to do steps 1-3, just for the experience. (I won't move til I hear from you, though.)

NeilStevens: Go ahead and do it all if you like. Don't worry about messing anything up. I'll clean it up and drop you yet another helpful corrective message on your home page if something goes wrong, heh.

MayLith: LOL! You are bound and determined to make me ruin my laptop, aren't you. Dumb question, though: Is there any way to create a new page without first placing its name onto an existing page and editing the link? For example, the only way I know to create CompetitionRandom1 is to click on the link, put foo there, and then if necessary go backwards and erase the link. To me, that smacks of sloppiness, but I don't know how else to do it.

NeilStevens: You can either create a link and follow it, or just directly visit the url that the page would have. Only ways I know of.

Though I never tried a title search for a non-existant title.. that might work.

MassimilianoMarangio: You can also use FindPage. The last box leads you directly to a page or creates it if it is not present.

MayLith: ooooo... even more wiki-fu! Thanks, everyone.