What you can do to help
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| - | This page contains suggestions for what you can do to help with the Sagatafl design and documentation project. | + | This page contains suggestions for what you can do to help with the Sagatafl design and documentation project, sorted into rough "levels" or grades, based on the degree of effort involved. |
| - | + | The example contributions within each level/grade are not necessarily sorted by degree of effort, and much of the purpose of this article is to make it clear that there is a wide variety of ways in which people with different skills can contribute. | |
| - | + | ||
| - | + | Also note that as soon as you are given editing privileges (if they are given to you), you get to decide how quickly you advance through the ranks. No one will ever tell you that you've been promoted (except to the highest level, Co-Designer; but even that will be much more like a recognition of how it is, than a declaration about how it ought to be). Just don't breeze too quickly through the levels. Take your time, get familiar with the wiki, get a feel for the style of Sagatafl. | |
| - | + | ||
| - | + | It's impossible to say how quickly it is proper to advance. It depends a lot on your dedication, and how much spare time you have, and how fast you can work. Also, you don't have to try to advance to the highest rank; only o whatever rank you're comfortable with. | |
| - | + | ||
| - | + | Finally, much of the urge for caution has to do with editing the RPG content of the wiki. With everything else, such as working with clip art, or technical aspects such as CSS, you can be bolder, and advance uch more rapidly. You might end up thinking of yourself as having a Legendary level of involvement with all technical and proofreading and clip-art/visual aspects of the wiki, but being only involved with the RPG design aspets to a Medium degree. | |
| - | + | That's fine. ''Every'' contribution helps. | |
| - | + | ||
| - | + | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikignome | |
| - | + | == Trivial == | |
| + | === Test the wiki === | ||
| + | Does it work? | ||
| - | + | Is its server online? (Easy to test: If you get a 404 or similar error message, the answer is a "no"). If you get a timeout, the problem may be with your Inernet connection or with your computer, but it ''could'' also be the wiki. | |
| - | + | Does it work in your browser? Partially or not at all? | |
| + | |||
| + | Are there character set problems? | ||
| + | |||
| + | Are there readability problems? | ||
| + | |||
| + | If you read some of the textual content, is it nonsensical in general, as opposed to being nonsensical because it relies upon other texts that you have not read or that have not yet been written? | ||
| + | |||
| + | If you think there is a problem, write a post about it on the mailing list, or email it to someone you know to be an editor (e.g. The Designer, or loki), or if you have editing privileges, write about it on the Discussion page of the affected article. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Report vandalism === | ||
| + | Nobody who is given editing privileges is likely to ever commit deliberate vandalism, but computer operation errors can occur that cause half an article to be replaced with an X, or with nothing, and password guessing can happen. If you see some really strange edits, please email several known editors immediately (e.g. The Designer ''and'' loki) ''and'' post to the mailing list. Vandalism needs to be stopped quickly. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Note that accidental "vandalism" will not be sanctioned. Such things happen. Vandalism can always be reverted, with the possible exception that editors with very senior privilegs may be able to completely delete articles, and it is not known whether such deletions can be reverted. So if you do have editing privileges, don't worry. If you screw up and notice it, revert your own change immediately. If you screw up and don't notice it, someone else will. The worst that can happen is that you get contacted about a "consistent error" that you have committed, e.g. made the same kind of accidental large-scale content change on two or more occasions, and asked to try to avoid doing it again. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Minor == | ||
| + | === Speed-test the wiki === | ||
| + | One major benefit of having an RPG system as a hypertext is speed. You click, you get, you click, you get again. Article loading time should be less than 3 seconds (on any broadband connection, although wireless 3G broadband seems to have an inavoidable lag before requested data transfer begins), and preferably percieved to be 1 second or less, otherwise there may be a problem with the server or the software. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Also, the ideal is that one should be able to get from any article in the wiki to any other article, with very few clicks. At this degree of involvement there's not much you can do, other than to complain about problem articles or problem sets of articles, or problem categories. | ||
| + | |||
| + | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Correct minor errors === | ||
| + | Fix typos, grammar errors, missing words, duplicated duplicated words, and other such very small things that no one would dispute is in need of fixing (keeping in mind that a few errors may be deliberate examples). Generally at this level of involvement, any edits you make to the wiki should be very eligible for the Minor Edit classification. If you're not sure about a given edit, thgen don't make it, but if you are sure, do. Every little edit helps. | ||
| + | |||
| + | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_edit | ||
| + | Note this is English Wikipedia's definition of a minor edit. This project currently doesn't have a definition of its own, so Wikipedia's will suffice. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Please remember to explain your changes in the Summary box, beneath the Edit window. At this level of involvement, this can be very easy. Simply type "grammar", "typo", "comma" or whatever. You may even end up developping a shorthand, g for '''g'''rammar, t for '''t'''ypo, c for '''c'''ommas added, removed or moved, and so forth, that wil suffice for 95% (if not 99.9%) of all your edits. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Medium == | ||
| + | This is where it gets serious. Most likely you will start out thinking of yourself as a Minor contributor, and then gradually grow in confidence, and in understanding of the goals, principles and ideals of the Sagatafl project, until eventually you arrive at this level of involvement, possibly without being conscious about it. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Or maybe you're content to stay at Minor for years, or forever. That's good too. Every little contribution helps this project move forward. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Participate in discussions === | ||
| + | There are two places for Sagatafl discussion; One is the Discussion or Talk page of each article, but that works best for brief discussions with at most 4 or 5 posts per subject. The mailing list is much better, even for brief discussions, so use that. If you have anything to say, if there is anything that puzzles you, make a post, and reply to posts about issues that concern you (e.g. if you aren't interested in combat rules at all, feel free to ignore those posts; you don't even have to read it, but to at least skim all posts that have to do with the wiki or the project in general). | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Fix larger errors === | ||
| + | This is the same as correct minor errors above, except your changes shouldn't be classified as "minor edits". Error, grammar, clarity. If you're not sure about a change, don't make it. If a rule is anal-retentive in its pedanticity, then there's a reason for that. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Please describe your changes in the Summary box. If you want to make multiple changes to the same article, it may be best to make the in several cycles if your explanations cannot fit inside the Summary box. You may also want to make changes to specific sections of an article, instead of to the article as a whole. If you think it is warranted, make a post on the article's Discussion page where you explain the changes and your reasoning. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Report problem texts and rules === | ||
| + | Sometimes a rule may seem needlessly complicated, or poorly described, either vague to the point where it doesn't make sense, or open to interpretation in several ways. At this level of involvement you are definitely not qualified to improve such faults, nor would you presumably want to, but report the issue, preferably including quotes from the text (quote as much as you think you need to quote), and preferably to the mailing list. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Turn words into internal links === | ||
| + | This isn't really a wiki, after all. This is a hypertext: a series of documents connected with each other via a web of hyperlinks. The reason MediaWiki is used is because it can do a ''lot'' of useful things, including barring non-registered users from making edits, and even barring non-approved registered users from editing. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Much of the point of having Sagatafl as a hypertext is to be able t get from any article to any ''other'' article with a few few clicks and in a very few seconds. The more related two articles are, usually with regards to subject matter, the fewer clicks should be required. | ||
| + | |||
| + | This is one place you can help a lot, by turning words into internal links. | ||
| + | |||
| + | To do so, edit the page, or the relevant section of the page, select the word or words with the mouse, then click on the blue underlined Ab icon in the editing bar (as of this writing, it's the third icon from the left). That turns the word, or words, into an internal link. In each edit cycle, you can do this multiple times. | ||
| + | |||
| + | You can also turn words into internal links without clicking the edit button. Instead, place two square brackets at the start and at the end of the word or words, like this: | ||
| + | |||
| + | <pre> | ||
| + | [[What you can do to help]] | ||
| + | </pre> | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== Policy on internal links ==== | ||
| + | Don't worry about creating links for articles that don't exist yet. Each such links can be seen as a kind of "vote" for the creation of that article, so that one thing very advanced editors can do is to go and look at which non-existing articles have gotten the highest number of votes, and then create those. | ||
| + | |||
| + | A minor problem is creating internal links that don't quite hit an actual existing article, e.g. the article that defines and describes Enchantments will be called Enchantments, but an editor may see the non-pluralized word Enchantment and want to turn that into an internal hyperlink. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Feel free to do so. More senior editors can correct the minor problems this cause. Or you can turn the word or phrase into an internal hyperlink in a way that doesn't cause any problems. Skip down a few sub-sections to "Find and fix incorrect internal links" to see how that is done. | ||
| + | |||
| + | If a word occurs frequently in an article, don't turn each occurence into a hyperlink. Once per paragraph is too often. Generally, turn the first occurence of the word into a hyperlink, and then skip further occurences util you reach a point where the first occurence is likely to no longer be visible due to scrolling, keeping in mind that some people may eventually be accessing this wiki from small handheld devices with low screen resolutions. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Finally, words that are absolute core in Sagatafl, such as RD, or words that are core to a particular subsystem (such as Essence which is a core element in the magic system), should only be turned into internal hyperlinks once or twice per article: Once the first time the term appears (unless a slightly later occurence seems more appropriate), and possibly once more in the See Also section of the article. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The exception to this is in articles that deal closely with the subject. For instance, in any article dealing with the Roll Mechanic, it is appropriate to follow the normal principle, so that every few paragraphs, one occurence of RD is a hyperlink, and in the article on Essence traits, one occurence per every few pagrapraphs of the word Essence is a hyperlink. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The exception to ''that'' is that some articles contain a mini-glossary (and some that don't contain one ought to). If a word or term appears in the mini-glossary, it is because that word is term is intensely relevant to the content of that article, and in such cases only three occurence of the word should be made into an internal hyperlink: An early occurence (usually the very first), and when the word appears in the mini-glossary (because even though the mini-glossary defines the word, the reader may want to click through to the article about the word to read more about it), and in the See Also section. | ||
| + | |||
| + | If you think a word should be made into an internal hyperlink, you're probably right. Go ahead and do it. No kittens will die because of it. All the above is just advice. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Fix or improve internal links === | ||
| + | This is an extension of the previous sub-section, and can be thought of as a slightly higher level of involvement. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== Find and fix incorrect internal links ==== | ||
| + | Sometimes an internal link does not match up with an article, even though the article exists, because the internal link uses a slightly different wording. For instance the internal link may have been made from the word Enchantment, thus pointing to [[Enchantment]], which is red, because no such article exists. The real article is Enchantment'''s''' with an '''s''' at the end. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Someone turning words and phrases into internal links may not know that, may not know how to search for it, or may not have the time or inclination to check for it, which is perfectly all right. | ||
| + | |||
| + | One way to find many such cases of the same wrong internal links, is by going to [[Special:SpecialPages]] and looking at the list of [[Special:WantedPages]]. If you see a much wanted page, and you suspect or know that an article about that subject already exists, find that article (or if you can't, ask a more senior editor; if necessary The Designer himself), and then solve the problem. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Probably the easiest way to solve that kind of problem is to create the wanted article, then re-direct it to the correct article, e.g. create Enchantment and then turn that into a re-direct to [[Enchantments]] (Enchantments is also red, at the time this is written, but that's legitimate: That article hasn't been written yet). | ||
| + | |||
| + | If there are only a few problem links, it may be easier to use other solutions, such as turning each such link into a piped link, or appending some letters. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Imagine that the correct article name was Enchantment, and the incorrect internal link is Enchantment'''s'''. The solution then is to append an '''s''' at the end of the last word of the internal link, right after the last bracket, with no space in between, like this: | ||
| + | <pre> | ||
| + | [[Enchantment]]s | ||
| + | </pre> | ||
| + | |||
| + | The alternative, more sophisticated, which would be needed in the actual case, is to make a piped link. This consists of two phrases (either or both can be a single-word phrase separated by a pipe character, the <pre>|</pre> symbol, like this: | ||
| + | |||
| + | <pre> | ||
| + | [[Destination|ClickMe]] | ||
| + | </pre> | ||
| + | Where the first phrase is the destination article, and the second phrase is the one the reader sees as an internal hyperlink, and which he clicks on. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In the Enchantment case, the correct solution would be this: | ||
| + | <pre> | ||
| + | [[Enchantments|Enchantment]] | ||
| + | </pre> | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Add clip art === | ||
| + | This wiki will eventually contain a selection of clip art, all in a vector graphics format (meaning they can be scaled to any size, and rotated or mirrored), that can be used to liven up articles, and to create breaks between paragraphs. At this level of involvement, you can add clip art to article when you feel like it, following the general principles of being serious, going for a medieval atmosphere in general (although articles about non-medieval concepts can and should contain non-medieval clip art), and not putting too much clip art in any one article. 0-4 clip art thingies per article, tending towards 4 for very long articles and 0-1 for short ones, is suitable. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Major == | ||
| + | === Improve the English === | ||
| + | Several of the editors, including some very senior ones, have English as their second language. Most of us like to think that we operate at a fairly high level regardless, but if you are a native speaker and writer, and you spot areas that require improvement, then improve them. If you notice a particular editor that makes the same kind of error consistently, and if you're willing to play teacher briefly, contact that editor privately (email, or MSN or similar if you have such a contact option for him; whatever you prefer, since you're doing that person a favour) and try to teach him. Or if you notice that multiple editors make the same consistent kind of error, post about it on the mailing list (where you don't have to mention names). | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Add content category tags to articles === | ||
| + | Often, the best way to navigate this wiki, the best way to find articles on a particular subject, is to go via categories. For this reason, all articles need to belong to sub-categories, and these sub-categories need to belong to grater sub-categories, and so forth, in a tree structure, culminating in the Sagatafl wiki categori which is the ultimate category that everything belongs to (although very rarely directly; almost always it is via sub-categories). | ||
| + | |||
| + | The Sagatafl wiki category further contains a category simply called Sagatafl, to which all game-mechanics and other RPG content belongs (again, usually indirectly). That which does not belong in the Sagatafl category is articles about editor stuff, editor references, article policy, external links (e.g. to the mailing list, or attempts to generate income by asking for donations or via Amazon references or similar), and so forth. | ||
| + | |||
| + | This is because many who come to visit this wiki are only concerned with reading. They do not want to edit; they do not care about editing policies. So everyhing that interests them is in the Sagatafl category. | ||
| + | |||
| + | In the Sagatafl category itself is numerous sub-categories, which are all open for debate and re-arrangement. | ||
| + | |||
| + | One policy is that there should be some catch-all categories that people should know they can go to, when they are not sure where exactly to find something. For instance, there should be one category for Divine Powers, and another category for Royal Powers, a third for Bardic Powers, a fourth for Virgin Powers, and so forth, and also a combination category for Item Creation Powers (e.g. the Divine Power of Bless Item, the Royal Power of Royal Imbue, and so forth), but also a catch-all category for ''all'' Powers, so that people can go look there if they can't remembe what category, e.g., [[Liberator]] belongs to. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Same with Enchantments. Each Enchantment should be categorized into each Item Creation method that can make it (Artificer, Endower, Ring-Maker, Divine Bless Item), but also with a tag that places it in the catch-all category of Enchantments. Again, so that people can go there if they remember a name, but aren't sure which method categories it belongs to. | ||
| + | |||
| + | (Some might argue that people can use the search function, but the default search function that Mediawiki has is rather unimpressive. Even after that problem has been solved, it is still good that there are multiple paths to the same article.) | ||
| + | |||
| + | To place an article in a category, simply place the correct category tag in it. You can place it anywhere in the article, but it is ''much'' easier for everyone if all the category tags are at the very end of the article (if you see a category tag places anywhere else in an article, please move it). | ||
| + | |||
| + | <pre> | ||
| + | [[Category:XYZ|Categories]] | ||
| + | </pre> | ||
| + | (And actually, the <pre>|Categories</pre> ending is probably a mistake; it should perhaps be removed, but this hasn't been tested yet). | ||
| + | |||
| + | It's okay to place many category tags. As many as half a dozen content category tags can be perfectly good. Maybe even a few more, in some cases (spells, spell Realms, Enchantments). | ||
| + | |||
| + | At this level of involvemnet, you're almost an adult, so you should be able to find out which categories already exist, and add those as tags. Also see the following sub-section: | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== Create new categories ==== | ||
| + | As you perceeve the need for it, feel free to add (i.e. invent) new categories. You do this simply by adding a category tag for a category that does not yet exist. This causes the category to come into existence. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==== Improve newly created categories ==== | ||
| + | Ideally, when you create a new category, you should also do these two things: Add the tag for the new category to each existing article where it is appropriate (i.e. pertinent), and go to the category's page itself and edit it, to add a brief description of what the category is for (and isn't for), and add that category (i.e. the category's page) to a broader and more general category, so that there is an unbroken change all the way up to the Sagatafl wiki category. | ||
| + | |||
| + | However, not all editors do this all the time. A category may be created hastily, or the editor may be interrupted by a horrible and distracting phenomenon known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_life|the metagame world]] so that he cannot finish categorization. Tht's where you enter the picture, to clean up after such incomplete contributions. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Add editor category tags to articles === | ||
| + | This is another area where you can help, by adding tags to articles that define what is wrong with them, rather than what kind of material they contain. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Examples are tags denoting that the article is incomplete (at various levels of incompletion), or that the article needs a good looking-over by someone with a specific language expertise such as grammar, spelling or sentence construction (one tag for each kind of problem). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Other possibilities are tags to articles that are not linked to as often as you think they ought to be linked to (the MediaWiki software already keeps track of this, but it is usually good to have more than one path to the same destination), or to articles that are sorely in need of having many more words turned into internal links. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Classify clip art === | ||
| + | Some editors may upload clip art to the wiki, but fail to classify it, or not classify it as completely as you think it should be classified. That's one place you can help, by perusing the clip art collection and adding tags that you think should be there (and removing tags you think are incorrect), and of course creating new tags. | ||
| + | |||
| + | If you express an interest in offline work, e.g. on the mailing list, or by contacting a senior editor, other editors may also send you packages of clip art files (e.g. via email, DropBox or similar) that you can sift through and sort into category folders, and then return to those editors, who then uploads them so that youy can categorize them (if the other editor doesn't do that himself, initially following your folder classification system), or if you have that privilege, you can upload the clip art yourself, after you've classified it, and then add category tags, or first upload it and then add he tags, according to which procedure you find to suit you best. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Grand == | ||
| + | At this level of involvement, you really do need to be a subscriber to the mailing list. It is no longer optional. | ||
| + | === Find and upload clip art === | ||
| + | This project wants serious (non-cartoony) clip art, in vector file format (not bitmap; it has to be infinitely enlargeable/zoomable without any pixilation whatsoever), that is licensed for free use. Of particular interest is medieval or fantasy genre themed clip art, but also dice (RPG polyhedrons, and non-casino-style six-siders) and symbols of all kinds, and non-medieval clip art pertinent to situations that can occur in an RPG, such as stealthy infiltation, flying a spaceship, aiming a sniper rifle, or working in a chemical laboratory. | ||
| + | |||
| + | All clip art must be free and legal to use in htis project. Don't steal anything, and don't use/upload anything that you suspect migh be stolen or might not be legal to use, for whatever reason. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Also, no clip art featuring sexual activity. Nudity is acceptable if there's a point to it, e.g. depicting a pagan fertility ritual, but pointless nudity, especially pointless male nudity, is to be avoided. (Then again, that's really more of a question of what clip art to use, than what clip art to upload; if you're in doubt, you should probably just upload it). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Excessive gore or splatter is also not desirable. | ||
| + | ==== Priority clip art ==== | ||
| + | Of particular interest is gritty fantasy clip art, e.g. of the style found in the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Skulls, torches, with a distinct absence of Disney sensibilities. Colour clip art is much preferred, and not too large file sizes (except if you think the size is warranted). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Also of extreme interest is clip art depicting pagan religions, activities, mythologies and ideas. There's already a bunch of Christian and Moslem clip art that's been found (but not uploaded as of this time), and maybe one or two Jewish pieces, and some Eastern material, but very little that is clearly pagan, and that gives a decidedly misleading impression. | ||
| + | |||
| + | (Note that this sub-section will be changed, as old clip art needs are fulfilled and new ones discovered.) | ||
| + | === Wikify existing material === | ||
| + | This procedure consists of you being sent material (usually in MS Word 2003 format, possibly later file formats, although if you request it the files can be convereted to PDF format) by The Designer, and then turning that material into articles, in combination with old mailing list content (thus you need to do mailing list searches to be able to do this, searching the entire archive back to the beginning, unless someone else can do that for you, although in that case you're likely to alsog et some mailing list posts that aren't actually relevant to the subject, but just turned up as "false positives" in the search). | ||
| + | |||
| + | The process of wikifying existing material, e.g. rules that have already been created and documented, almost cannot avoid changes. You will find things that strike you as odd, or needlessly complicated. You will find holes, options or rules that you think should exist but don't. You will feel the urge to change things. | ||
| + | |||
| + | That's okay. Go ahead. Do it. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The main problem is if you remove content, that is if there are sections of the existing content that you do not wikify. Wikify almost everything, unless you've consultd with a more senior editor first, and he has given you the go-ahead to skip over some sections of the material, and agreed with your wish to either not wikify that at all, or else shorten it drastically. | ||
| + | |||
| + | As you grow more confident, arriving at a LEgendary level of involvement, you will be bolder in your changes, and will add more options, and re-word more of the text. That's okay too. Some of the key principls are flexibility (anticipating game-world events and player desires, by having many optns and rules for many different phemonena) and clarity (rules that are stated clearly, rather than being open for interpretation). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Really, even at a merely Grand level of involvement, if you wikify existing material in a robotic unthinking fashion, then you're doing it wrong. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The process ''ought'' to be "transformative", inherently. Even more so given that much of the existing material hasn't been updated for several years. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Wikifying existing material must always be interest-driven. It's ''never'' slave labour (even though some of the other suggestions-for-how-you-can-contribute in this article are a bit like that). If you volunteer for this, you may make suggestions of your own. Or you can ask for suggestions for material, in which case you will probably be sent a short list with 3-7 entries (maybe fewer, early on in the life of his wiki) of subjects that you can wikify, and you then get to choose one or two of them (initially), or else to say that you are not interested in those but would like to wikify some other kind of material at a later date. Saying no is enver punished. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Nor is saying yes, then changing your mind. Even if you've only wikifyed part of a document, that's still a major contribution. (If you do stop part-way through a wikification process, you'll do much help if you will briefly explain your thought on the process and what changes you've made, so that another editor can take over the work as seamlessly as possible). | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Enriching the content of existing articles === | ||
| + | This is about changing the actual content, so that the article (and the content) becomes better, especially in the sense of enriching it, adding more. At this level of involvement you're not really ready to simplify and shorten. Not yet. but if you feel like adding more options, or elaborating on existing options, then do that. If you think some option is priced wrongly, relative to similar options, change the price. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Be sure to document your changes, preferably on the mailing list (but sometimes you may feel it is more appropriate to doument it on the Talk/Discussion page of the individual article; if so, do that. The discussion can always be moved to the mailing list at a later date, if there are too many posts.), and if you change point costs, explain why (although usually it is enough to point to those other traits whose point cost you've used as comparison. It is only rarely necessary to justify point cost changes with the equivalent of a doctoral thesis). The same goes for tweaking stats, e.g. spell bonuses or spell statistics. Explain, at whatever briefness or length you think it required. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Another example is adding more Enchantments to a page dealing with a particular kind of Enchantments, or more Spells to a Spell Realm page (e.g. more Fire Magic spells). Perhaps you think that between two extreme options, one strong and one weak, there should be an intermediate option of medium strength. If so, create it. Don't sweat the stats. Others will change the stats if they feel like. Just adding the option, creating it, putting it in the article, is a huge step forward. | ||
| + | |||
| + | You may occasionally be asked to wikify some existing material. This will only be asked of you if the asker assumes that the probability of you saying yes is high, but nevertheless you will not be punished for saying no. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Legendary == | ||
| + | At this level, you really need to have a general idea of how Sagatafl works. A serious overview of it, so that you ae able to see "the big picture". | ||
| + | === Wikify existing material more boldly === | ||
| + | See the earlier section, on "wikifying existing material", especially the part above how to do it at the Legendary level of involvement (tl;dr: Be bolder). | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Write up new minor rules and options === | ||
| + | There aren't yet any rules for X, but there ought to be. If X is a fairly minor issue, this is where you can enter the picture. Once you've volunteered for this proejct, there will likely be some back-and-forth communication, between you and The Designer (or you and ''very'' senior editor), either via private email, or as direct realtime chat via MSN or IRC (notonig that IRC allows for multiple participants, and very easy logging), or possibly via a face-to-face meeting or a phone/Skype conversation (although note that The Designer doesn't do phones or Skype; especially not in English; he's not at all keen on English face-to-face either), or a public discussion on the mailing list. | ||
| + | |||
| + | You will also have a bunch of questions you want to ask (if you don't have questions, you probably aren't ready to contribute at this level yet), and this is where you can ask them (if you have more questions later, you can always contact The Designer, or another editor more sernior than yourself). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Once you've written the minor rules articles, others will go over them mercilessly. Don't take their feedback and edits negatively. They're much more likely to enrich and expand your material, than to shoot it down as useless and misguided. | ||
| + | |||
| + | As with wikification, this is very much a volunteer activity. Most likely, ther are some aspects of Sagatafl's game mechanics that interest you more than others. So work on them. Writing up new rules articles for subjects that are of little interest to you is a bad idea. Although trying it once or twice is something you can consider to be a challenge, a test you decide to take, in order to see if you are ready for the next higher level of involvement. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Improving the content of existing articles === | ||
| + | This is like "Enriching the content of existing articles" above, except once you operate at this level of involvement, you ''are'' old enough to know when it is appropriate to delete and simplify material. Much of the stuff is old, hasn't been updated for many years. If you can simplify drastically at only a very tiny sacrifice of flexibility and realism, it may be worthwhile. | ||
| + | |||
| + | You can also easily and confidently, at this level, copy out highly subject-specific content and move that into more specialized articles, so that the primary articles deal only with more general situations. (That can and should be done at lower levels of involvement, but now you can be a lot bolder about it.) | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Ultimate == | ||
| + | === Become a co-designer === | ||
| + | This requires an extreme degree of interest in the project, and quite an amount of dedication. And of course having progressed through most of the lower levels (although you may skip one or two of them) at a not-too-fast pace (dependent upon how closely you have followed Sagatafl's developent, prior to the launch of this wiki). An important requirement of being ??? '''(I'll probably delete this unfiished sentence; I can't remember what I wanted to write...)''' | ||
| + | |||
| + | All of the sub-sections under "Ultimate" are essentually about being a co-designer. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Write up new ''non''-minor rules and options === | ||
| + | This is like "Write up new ''non''-minor rules and options" above, except you are now knowledgeable and confident enough to creae new article on any subject that is of interest to you, e.g. spellcasting, or Powers, or animal and humanoid simulation, or modern firearms and how they interact with modern armor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Like with the previous and lower-level instance of this kind of contribution, this is an interest-driven activity that is very much voluntary. If you are mainly interested in medieval weapon combat, then work mainly (or exclusively) on those aspects of Sagatafl. Just be sure, especially at this ''highest'' level of adulthood and maturity, to take into account the ways in which other rules aspects can and will interact with your area, for instance the many ways in which Enchantmetns and temporary spell buffs can change combat. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Additional Ultimate level contributions === | ||
| + | === Additional Ultimate level contributions === | ||
| + | === Additional Ultimate level contributions === | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | == Old content below, needs to be moved up into the above levels == | ||
| + | Also add: | ||
| + | |||
| + | Rules guides, suggested orders of reading articles to learn Sagatafl. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Charater concept guides: Suggestions and advice for how to create character concepts that may be very general, or very specific, e.g. "if you want to create an illusionist, you may want high values in these attributes and sub-attributes, and look at these Advantages, and these skills are especially important for you. Keep in mind that due to the way illusions work in Sagatafl, you have to..." | ||
| + | |||
| + | Examples: Of any kind, magic item writeups, combat examples, character creation decision making examples, example characters. | ||
== Create illustrations and diagrams == | == Create illustrations and diagrams == | ||
| Line 57: | Line 307: | ||
== See also == | == See also == | ||
[[Article format guidelines]] | [[Article format guidelines]] | ||
| - | [[Category:Editor stuff | + | [[Category:Editor stuff]] |
| - | [[Category:Editor guidelines | + | [[Category:Editor guidelines]] |
Latest revision as of 11:37, 22 December 2010
This page contains suggestions for what you can do to help with the Sagatafl design and documentation project, sorted into rough "levels" or grades, based on the degree of effort involved.
The example contributions within each level/grade are not necessarily sorted by degree of effort, and much of the purpose of this article is to make it clear that there is a wide variety of ways in which people with different skills can contribute.
Also note that as soon as you are given editing privileges (if they are given to you), you get to decide how quickly you advance through the ranks. No one will ever tell you that you've been promoted (except to the highest level, Co-Designer; but even that will be much more like a recognition of how it is, than a declaration about how it ought to be). Just don't breeze too quickly through the levels. Take your time, get familiar with the wiki, get a feel for the style of Sagatafl.
It's impossible to say how quickly it is proper to advance. It depends a lot on your dedication, and how much spare time you have, and how fast you can work. Also, you don't have to try to advance to the highest rank; only o whatever rank you're comfortable with.
Finally, much of the urge for caution has to do with editing the RPG content of the wiki. With everything else, such as working with clip art, or technical aspects such as CSS, you can be bolder, and advance uch more rapidly. You might end up thinking of yourself as having a Legendary level of involvement with all technical and proofreading and clip-art/visual aspects of the wiki, but being only involved with the RPG design aspets to a Medium degree.
That's fine. Every contribution helps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikignome
Contents |
Trivial
Test the wiki
Does it work?
Is its server online? (Easy to test: If you get a 404 or similar error message, the answer is a "no"). If you get a timeout, the problem may be with your Inernet connection or with your computer, but it could also be the wiki.
Does it work in your browser? Partially or not at all?
Are there character set problems?
Are there readability problems?
If you read some of the textual content, is it nonsensical in general, as opposed to being nonsensical because it relies upon other texts that you have not read or that have not yet been written?
If you think there is a problem, write a post about it on the mailing list, or email it to someone you know to be an editor (e.g. The Designer, or loki), or if you have editing privileges, write about it on the Discussion page of the affected article.
Report vandalism
Nobody who is given editing privileges is likely to ever commit deliberate vandalism, but computer operation errors can occur that cause half an article to be replaced with an X, or with nothing, and password guessing can happen. If you see some really strange edits, please email several known editors immediately (e.g. The Designer and loki) and post to the mailing list. Vandalism needs to be stopped quickly.
Note that accidental "vandalism" will not be sanctioned. Such things happen. Vandalism can always be reverted, with the possible exception that editors with very senior privilegs may be able to completely delete articles, and it is not known whether such deletions can be reverted. So if you do have editing privileges, don't worry. If you screw up and notice it, revert your own change immediately. If you screw up and don't notice it, someone else will. The worst that can happen is that you get contacted about a "consistent error" that you have committed, e.g. made the same kind of accidental large-scale content change on two or more occasions, and asked to try to avoid doing it again.
Minor
Speed-test the wiki
One major benefit of having an RPG system as a hypertext is speed. You click, you get, you click, you get again. Article loading time should be less than 3 seconds (on any broadband connection, although wireless 3G broadband seems to have an inavoidable lag before requested data transfer begins), and preferably percieved to be 1 second or less, otherwise there may be a problem with the server or the software.
Also, the ideal is that one should be able to get from any article in the wiki to any other article, with very few clicks. At this degree of involvement there's not much you can do, other than to complain about problem articles or problem sets of articles, or problem categories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon
Correct minor errors
Fix typos, grammar errors, missing words, duplicated duplicated words, and other such very small things that no one would dispute is in need of fixing (keeping in mind that a few errors may be deliberate examples). Generally at this level of involvement, any edits you make to the wiki should be very eligible for the Minor Edit classification. If you're not sure about a given edit, thgen don't make it, but if you are sure, do. Every little edit helps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_edit Note this is English Wikipedia's definition of a minor edit. This project currently doesn't have a definition of its own, so Wikipedia's will suffice.
Please remember to explain your changes in the Summary box, beneath the Edit window. At this level of involvement, this can be very easy. Simply type "grammar", "typo", "comma" or whatever. You may even end up developping a shorthand, g for grammar, t for typo, c for commas added, removed or moved, and so forth, that wil suffice for 95% (if not 99.9%) of all your edits.
Medium
This is where it gets serious. Most likely you will start out thinking of yourself as a Minor contributor, and then gradually grow in confidence, and in understanding of the goals, principles and ideals of the Sagatafl project, until eventually you arrive at this level of involvement, possibly without being conscious about it.
Or maybe you're content to stay at Minor for years, or forever. That's good too. Every little contribution helps this project move forward.
Participate in discussions
There are two places for Sagatafl discussion; One is the Discussion or Talk page of each article, but that works best for brief discussions with at most 4 or 5 posts per subject. The mailing list is much better, even for brief discussions, so use that. If you have anything to say, if there is anything that puzzles you, make a post, and reply to posts about issues that concern you (e.g. if you aren't interested in combat rules at all, feel free to ignore those posts; you don't even have to read it, but to at least skim all posts that have to do with the wiki or the project in general).
Fix larger errors
This is the same as correct minor errors above, except your changes shouldn't be classified as "minor edits". Error, grammar, clarity. If you're not sure about a change, don't make it. If a rule is anal-retentive in its pedanticity, then there's a reason for that.
Please describe your changes in the Summary box. If you want to make multiple changes to the same article, it may be best to make the in several cycles if your explanations cannot fit inside the Summary box. You may also want to make changes to specific sections of an article, instead of to the article as a whole. If you think it is warranted, make a post on the article's Discussion page where you explain the changes and your reasoning.
Report problem texts and rules
Sometimes a rule may seem needlessly complicated, or poorly described, either vague to the point where it doesn't make sense, or open to interpretation in several ways. At this level of involvement you are definitely not qualified to improve such faults, nor would you presumably want to, but report the issue, preferably including quotes from the text (quote as much as you think you need to quote), and preferably to the mailing list.
Turn words into internal links
This isn't really a wiki, after all. This is a hypertext: a series of documents connected with each other via a web of hyperlinks. The reason MediaWiki is used is because it can do a lot of useful things, including barring non-registered users from making edits, and even barring non-approved registered users from editing.
Much of the point of having Sagatafl as a hypertext is to be able t get from any article to any other article with a few few clicks and in a very few seconds. The more related two articles are, usually with regards to subject matter, the fewer clicks should be required.
This is one place you can help a lot, by turning words into internal links.
To do so, edit the page, or the relevant section of the page, select the word or words with the mouse, then click on the blue underlined Ab icon in the editing bar (as of this writing, it's the third icon from the left). That turns the word, or words, into an internal link. In each edit cycle, you can do this multiple times.
You can also turn words into internal links without clicking the edit button. Instead, place two square brackets at the start and at the end of the word or words, like this:
[[What you can do to help]]
Policy on internal links
Don't worry about creating links for articles that don't exist yet. Each such links can be seen as a kind of "vote" for the creation of that article, so that one thing very advanced editors can do is to go and look at which non-existing articles have gotten the highest number of votes, and then create those.
A minor problem is creating internal links that don't quite hit an actual existing article, e.g. the article that defines and describes Enchantments will be called Enchantments, but an editor may see the non-pluralized word Enchantment and want to turn that into an internal hyperlink.
Feel free to do so. More senior editors can correct the minor problems this cause. Or you can turn the word or phrase into an internal hyperlink in a way that doesn't cause any problems. Skip down a few sub-sections to "Find and fix incorrect internal links" to see how that is done.
If a word occurs frequently in an article, don't turn each occurence into a hyperlink. Once per paragraph is too often. Generally, turn the first occurence of the word into a hyperlink, and then skip further occurences util you reach a point where the first occurence is likely to no longer be visible due to scrolling, keeping in mind that some people may eventually be accessing this wiki from small handheld devices with low screen resolutions.
Finally, words that are absolute core in Sagatafl, such as RD, or words that are core to a particular subsystem (such as Essence which is a core element in the magic system), should only be turned into internal hyperlinks once or twice per article: Once the first time the term appears (unless a slightly later occurence seems more appropriate), and possibly once more in the See Also section of the article.
The exception to this is in articles that deal closely with the subject. For instance, in any article dealing with the Roll Mechanic, it is appropriate to follow the normal principle, so that every few paragraphs, one occurence of RD is a hyperlink, and in the article on Essence traits, one occurence per every few pagrapraphs of the word Essence is a hyperlink.
The exception to that is that some articles contain a mini-glossary (and some that don't contain one ought to). If a word or term appears in the mini-glossary, it is because that word is term is intensely relevant to the content of that article, and in such cases only three occurence of the word should be made into an internal hyperlink: An early occurence (usually the very first), and when the word appears in the mini-glossary (because even though the mini-glossary defines the word, the reader may want to click through to the article about the word to read more about it), and in the See Also section.
If you think a word should be made into an internal hyperlink, you're probably right. Go ahead and do it. No kittens will die because of it. All the above is just advice.
Fix or improve internal links
This is an extension of the previous sub-section, and can be thought of as a slightly higher level of involvement.
Find and fix incorrect internal links
Sometimes an internal link does not match up with an article, even though the article exists, because the internal link uses a slightly different wording. For instance the internal link may have been made from the word Enchantment, thus pointing to Enchantment, which is red, because no such article exists. The real article is Enchantments with an s at the end.
Someone turning words and phrases into internal links may not know that, may not know how to search for it, or may not have the time or inclination to check for it, which is perfectly all right.
One way to find many such cases of the same wrong internal links, is by going to Special:SpecialPages and looking at the list of Special:WantedPages. If you see a much wanted page, and you suspect or know that an article about that subject already exists, find that article (or if you can't, ask a more senior editor; if necessary The Designer himself), and then solve the problem.
Probably the easiest way to solve that kind of problem is to create the wanted article, then re-direct it to the correct article, e.g. create Enchantment and then turn that into a re-direct to Enchantments (Enchantments is also red, at the time this is written, but that's legitimate: That article hasn't been written yet).
If there are only a few problem links, it may be easier to use other solutions, such as turning each such link into a piped link, or appending some letters.
Imagine that the correct article name was Enchantment, and the incorrect internal link is Enchantments. The solution then is to append an s at the end of the last word of the internal link, right after the last bracket, with no space in between, like this:
[[Enchantment]]sThe alternative, more sophisticated, which would be needed in the actual case, is to make a piped link. This consists of two phrases (either or both can be a single-word phrase separated by a pipe character, the
|symbol, like this:
[[Destination|ClickMe]]
Where the first phrase is the destination article, and the second phrase is the one the reader sees as an internal hyperlink, and which he clicks on.
In the Enchantment case, the correct solution would be this:
[[Enchantments|Enchantment]]
Add clip art
This wiki will eventually contain a selection of clip art, all in a vector graphics format (meaning they can be scaled to any size, and rotated or mirrored), that can be used to liven up articles, and to create breaks between paragraphs. At this level of involvement, you can add clip art to article when you feel like it, following the general principles of being serious, going for a medieval atmosphere in general (although articles about non-medieval concepts can and should contain non-medieval clip art), and not putting too much clip art in any one article. 0-4 clip art thingies per article, tending towards 4 for very long articles and 0-1 for short ones, is suitable.
Major
Improve the English
Several of the editors, including some very senior ones, have English as their second language. Most of us like to think that we operate at a fairly high level regardless, but if you are a native speaker and writer, and you spot areas that require improvement, then improve them. If you notice a particular editor that makes the same kind of error consistently, and if you're willing to play teacher briefly, contact that editor privately (email, or MSN or similar if you have such a contact option for him; whatever you prefer, since you're doing that person a favour) and try to teach him. Or if you notice that multiple editors make the same consistent kind of error, post about it on the mailing list (where you don't have to mention names).
Add content category tags to articles
Often, the best way to navigate this wiki, the best way to find articles on a particular subject, is to go via categories. For this reason, all articles need to belong to sub-categories, and these sub-categories need to belong to grater sub-categories, and so forth, in a tree structure, culminating in the Sagatafl wiki categori which is the ultimate category that everything belongs to (although very rarely directly; almost always it is via sub-categories).
The Sagatafl wiki category further contains a category simply called Sagatafl, to which all game-mechanics and other RPG content belongs (again, usually indirectly). That which does not belong in the Sagatafl category is articles about editor stuff, editor references, article policy, external links (e.g. to the mailing list, or attempts to generate income by asking for donations or via Amazon references or similar), and so forth.
This is because many who come to visit this wiki are only concerned with reading. They do not want to edit; they do not care about editing policies. So everyhing that interests them is in the Sagatafl category.
In the Sagatafl category itself is numerous sub-categories, which are all open for debate and re-arrangement.
One policy is that there should be some catch-all categories that people should know they can go to, when they are not sure where exactly to find something. For instance, there should be one category for Divine Powers, and another category for Royal Powers, a third for Bardic Powers, a fourth for Virgin Powers, and so forth, and also a combination category for Item Creation Powers (e.g. the Divine Power of Bless Item, the Royal Power of Royal Imbue, and so forth), but also a catch-all category for all Powers, so that people can go look there if they can't remembe what category, e.g., Liberator belongs to.
Same with Enchantments. Each Enchantment should be categorized into each Item Creation method that can make it (Artificer, Endower, Ring-Maker, Divine Bless Item), but also with a tag that places it in the catch-all category of Enchantments. Again, so that people can go there if they remember a name, but aren't sure which method categories it belongs to.
(Some might argue that people can use the search function, but the default search function that Mediawiki has is rather unimpressive. Even after that problem has been solved, it is still good that there are multiple paths to the same article.)
To place an article in a category, simply place the correct category tag in it. You can place it anywhere in the article, but it is much easier for everyone if all the category tags are at the very end of the article (if you see a category tag places anywhere else in an article, please move it).
[[Category:XYZ|Categories]](And actually, the
|Categoriesending is probably a mistake; it should perhaps be removed, but this hasn't been tested yet).
It's okay to place many category tags. As many as half a dozen content category tags can be perfectly good. Maybe even a few more, in some cases (spells, spell Realms, Enchantments).
At this level of involvemnet, you're almost an adult, so you should be able to find out which categories already exist, and add those as tags. Also see the following sub-section:
Create new categories
As you perceeve the need for it, feel free to add (i.e. invent) new categories. You do this simply by adding a category tag for a category that does not yet exist. This causes the category to come into existence.
Improve newly created categories
Ideally, when you create a new category, you should also do these two things: Add the tag for the new category to each existing article where it is appropriate (i.e. pertinent), and go to the category's page itself and edit it, to add a brief description of what the category is for (and isn't for), and add that category (i.e. the category's page) to a broader and more general category, so that there is an unbroken change all the way up to the Sagatafl wiki category.
However, not all editors do this all the time. A category may be created hastily, or the editor may be interrupted by a horrible and distracting phenomenon known as [metagame world] so that he cannot finish categorization. Tht's where you enter the picture, to clean up after such incomplete contributions.
Add editor category tags to articles
This is another area where you can help, by adding tags to articles that define what is wrong with them, rather than what kind of material they contain.
Examples are tags denoting that the article is incomplete (at various levels of incompletion), or that the article needs a good looking-over by someone with a specific language expertise such as grammar, spelling or sentence construction (one tag for each kind of problem).
Other possibilities are tags to articles that are not linked to as often as you think they ought to be linked to (the MediaWiki software already keeps track of this, but it is usually good to have more than one path to the same destination), or to articles that are sorely in need of having many more words turned into internal links.
Classify clip art
Some editors may upload clip art to the wiki, but fail to classify it, or not classify it as completely as you think it should be classified. That's one place you can help, by perusing the clip art collection and adding tags that you think should be there (and removing tags you think are incorrect), and of course creating new tags.
If you express an interest in offline work, e.g. on the mailing list, or by contacting a senior editor, other editors may also send you packages of clip art files (e.g. via email, DropBox or similar) that you can sift through and sort into category folders, and then return to those editors, who then uploads them so that youy can categorize them (if the other editor doesn't do that himself, initially following your folder classification system), or if you have that privilege, you can upload the clip art yourself, after you've classified it, and then add category tags, or first upload it and then add he tags, according to which procedure you find to suit you best.
Grand
At this level of involvement, you really do need to be a subscriber to the mailing list. It is no longer optional.
Find and upload clip art
This project wants serious (non-cartoony) clip art, in vector file format (not bitmap; it has to be infinitely enlargeable/zoomable without any pixilation whatsoever), that is licensed for free use. Of particular interest is medieval or fantasy genre themed clip art, but also dice (RPG polyhedrons, and non-casino-style six-siders) and symbols of all kinds, and non-medieval clip art pertinent to situations that can occur in an RPG, such as stealthy infiltation, flying a spaceship, aiming a sniper rifle, or working in a chemical laboratory.
All clip art must be free and legal to use in htis project. Don't steal anything, and don't use/upload anything that you suspect migh be stolen or might not be legal to use, for whatever reason.
Also, no clip art featuring sexual activity. Nudity is acceptable if there's a point to it, e.g. depicting a pagan fertility ritual, but pointless nudity, especially pointless male nudity, is to be avoided. (Then again, that's really more of a question of what clip art to use, than what clip art to upload; if you're in doubt, you should probably just upload it).
Excessive gore or splatter is also not desirable.
Priority clip art
Of particular interest is gritty fantasy clip art, e.g. of the style found in the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Skulls, torches, with a distinct absence of Disney sensibilities. Colour clip art is much preferred, and not too large file sizes (except if you think the size is warranted).
Also of extreme interest is clip art depicting pagan religions, activities, mythologies and ideas. There's already a bunch of Christian and Moslem clip art that's been found (but not uploaded as of this time), and maybe one or two Jewish pieces, and some Eastern material, but very little that is clearly pagan, and that gives a decidedly misleading impression.
(Note that this sub-section will be changed, as old clip art needs are fulfilled and new ones discovered.)
Wikify existing material
This procedure consists of you being sent material (usually in MS Word 2003 format, possibly later file formats, although if you request it the files can be convereted to PDF format) by The Designer, and then turning that material into articles, in combination with old mailing list content (thus you need to do mailing list searches to be able to do this, searching the entire archive back to the beginning, unless someone else can do that for you, although in that case you're likely to alsog et some mailing list posts that aren't actually relevant to the subject, but just turned up as "false positives" in the search).
The process of wikifying existing material, e.g. rules that have already been created and documented, almost cannot avoid changes. You will find things that strike you as odd, or needlessly complicated. You will find holes, options or rules that you think should exist but don't. You will feel the urge to change things.
That's okay. Go ahead. Do it.
The main problem is if you remove content, that is if there are sections of the existing content that you do not wikify. Wikify almost everything, unless you've consultd with a more senior editor first, and he has given you the go-ahead to skip over some sections of the material, and agreed with your wish to either not wikify that at all, or else shorten it drastically.
As you grow more confident, arriving at a LEgendary level of involvement, you will be bolder in your changes, and will add more options, and re-word more of the text. That's okay too. Some of the key principls are flexibility (anticipating game-world events and player desires, by having many optns and rules for many different phemonena) and clarity (rules that are stated clearly, rather than being open for interpretation).
Really, even at a merely Grand level of involvement, if you wikify existing material in a robotic unthinking fashion, then you're doing it wrong.
The process ought to be "transformative", inherently. Even more so given that much of the existing material hasn't been updated for several years.
Wikifying existing material must always be interest-driven. It's never slave labour (even though some of the other suggestions-for-how-you-can-contribute in this article are a bit like that). If you volunteer for this, you may make suggestions of your own. Or you can ask for suggestions for material, in which case you will probably be sent a short list with 3-7 entries (maybe fewer, early on in the life of his wiki) of subjects that you can wikify, and you then get to choose one or two of them (initially), or else to say that you are not interested in those but would like to wikify some other kind of material at a later date. Saying no is enver punished.
Nor is saying yes, then changing your mind. Even if you've only wikifyed part of a document, that's still a major contribution. (If you do stop part-way through a wikification process, you'll do much help if you will briefly explain your thought on the process and what changes you've made, so that another editor can take over the work as seamlessly as possible).
Enriching the content of existing articles
This is about changing the actual content, so that the article (and the content) becomes better, especially in the sense of enriching it, adding more. At this level of involvement you're not really ready to simplify and shorten. Not yet. but if you feel like adding more options, or elaborating on existing options, then do that. If you think some option is priced wrongly, relative to similar options, change the price.
Be sure to document your changes, preferably on the mailing list (but sometimes you may feel it is more appropriate to doument it on the Talk/Discussion page of the individual article; if so, do that. The discussion can always be moved to the mailing list at a later date, if there are too many posts.), and if you change point costs, explain why (although usually it is enough to point to those other traits whose point cost you've used as comparison. It is only rarely necessary to justify point cost changes with the equivalent of a doctoral thesis). The same goes for tweaking stats, e.g. spell bonuses or spell statistics. Explain, at whatever briefness or length you think it required.
Another example is adding more Enchantments to a page dealing with a particular kind of Enchantments, or more Spells to a Spell Realm page (e.g. more Fire Magic spells). Perhaps you think that between two extreme options, one strong and one weak, there should be an intermediate option of medium strength. If so, create it. Don't sweat the stats. Others will change the stats if they feel like. Just adding the option, creating it, putting it in the article, is a huge step forward.
You may occasionally be asked to wikify some existing material. This will only be asked of you if the asker assumes that the probability of you saying yes is high, but nevertheless you will not be punished for saying no.
Legendary
At this level, you really need to have a general idea of how Sagatafl works. A serious overview of it, so that you ae able to see "the big picture".
Wikify existing material more boldly
See the earlier section, on "wikifying existing material", especially the part above how to do it at the Legendary level of involvement (tl;dr: Be bolder).
Write up new minor rules and options
There aren't yet any rules for X, but there ought to be. If X is a fairly minor issue, this is where you can enter the picture. Once you've volunteered for this proejct, there will likely be some back-and-forth communication, between you and The Designer (or you and very senior editor), either via private email, or as direct realtime chat via MSN or IRC (notonig that IRC allows for multiple participants, and very easy logging), or possibly via a face-to-face meeting or a phone/Skype conversation (although note that The Designer doesn't do phones or Skype; especially not in English; he's not at all keen on English face-to-face either), or a public discussion on the mailing list.
You will also have a bunch of questions you want to ask (if you don't have questions, you probably aren't ready to contribute at this level yet), and this is where you can ask them (if you have more questions later, you can always contact The Designer, or another editor more sernior than yourself).
Once you've written the minor rules articles, others will go over them mercilessly. Don't take their feedback and edits negatively. They're much more likely to enrich and expand your material, than to shoot it down as useless and misguided.
As with wikification, this is very much a volunteer activity. Most likely, ther are some aspects of Sagatafl's game mechanics that interest you more than others. So work on them. Writing up new rules articles for subjects that are of little interest to you is a bad idea. Although trying it once or twice is something you can consider to be a challenge, a test you decide to take, in order to see if you are ready for the next higher level of involvement.
Improving the content of existing articles
This is like "Enriching the content of existing articles" above, except once you operate at this level of involvement, you are old enough to know when it is appropriate to delete and simplify material. Much of the stuff is old, hasn't been updated for many years. If you can simplify drastically at only a very tiny sacrifice of flexibility and realism, it may be worthwhile.
You can also easily and confidently, at this level, copy out highly subject-specific content and move that into more specialized articles, so that the primary articles deal only with more general situations. (That can and should be done at lower levels of involvement, but now you can be a lot bolder about it.)
Ultimate
Become a co-designer
This requires an extreme degree of interest in the project, and quite an amount of dedication. And of course having progressed through most of the lower levels (although you may skip one or two of them) at a not-too-fast pace (dependent upon how closely you have followed Sagatafl's developent, prior to the launch of this wiki). An important requirement of being ??? (I'll probably delete this unfiished sentence; I can't remember what I wanted to write...)
All of the sub-sections under "Ultimate" are essentually about being a co-designer.
Write up new non-minor rules and options
This is like "Write up new non-minor rules and options" above, except you are now knowledgeable and confident enough to creae new article on any subject that is of interest to you, e.g. spellcasting, or Powers, or animal and humanoid simulation, or modern firearms and how they interact with modern armor.
Like with the previous and lower-level instance of this kind of contribution, this is an interest-driven activity that is very much voluntary. If you are mainly interested in medieval weapon combat, then work mainly (or exclusively) on those aspects of Sagatafl. Just be sure, especially at this highest level of adulthood and maturity, to take into account the ways in which other rules aspects can and will interact with your area, for instance the many ways in which Enchantmetns and temporary spell buffs can change combat.
Additional Ultimate level contributions
Additional Ultimate level contributions
Additional Ultimate level contributions
Old content below, needs to be moved up into the above levels
Also add:
Rules guides, suggested orders of reading articles to learn Sagatafl.
Charater concept guides: Suggestions and advice for how to create character concepts that may be very general, or very specific, e.g. "if you want to create an illusionist, you may want high values in these attributes and sub-attributes, and look at these Advantages, and these skills are especially important for you. Keep in mind that due to the way illusions work in Sagatafl, you have to..."
Examples: Of any kind, magic item writeups, combat examples, character creation decision making examples, example characters.
Create illustrations and diagrams
I don't want this wiki to be full of fancy images, JPGs and GIFs of dragons and sorceresses and wizards. A few photos or drawings to make it clear that this wiki is about a tabletop RPG would be very welcome, as well as a few drawings illustrating the principles behind Sagatafl (that it is about playing a game rather than about sucking up to the big fat metagame entity sitting over there behind the GM's screen), but other than that the most welcome graphical additions are illustrations. Graphs that demonstrate things, e.g. how skill learning speed works (the effect of the Plateau Value, for instance, for different APT values), and diagrams that show the order in which things are done, such as combat, or checkbox diagrams, such as for Invention.
Table Aids, collections of procedures and tables for direct reference and use during the actual play session, are also very welcome, in PDF format preferably, but make sure to datestamp these (including the year) so taht GMs or players don't unwittingly bring outdated rules to the table.
Note that as an approved user, you cannot upload files yourself, you have to either be a semi-approved user, or else send the files to another user who is semi-approved or better and get him to upload the files. One way to "earn" semi-approved status is by creating a lot of really useful diagrams and illustrations, and flooding the Designer's email inbox with them.
Add external links
I really don't want a lot of external links in this wiki, other than to the (not yet created) Sagatafl wiki. Also be wary of links to other people's wikis where the content may change radically without warning, e.g. an external link to an article about a controversial subject in English Wikipedia. If you really want to add external links to wiki articles about controversial subject matter (e.g. biological differences between individuals, or the human sexes), make sure you add links to static article versions, so that you know what you're linking to and that the content you link to won't ever change.
Also avoid external links to articles written from a point view very alien to that of Sagatafl, e.g. the depressingly common meme that the GM is a god.
Apart from the above, if you think something would be really useful for a Sagatafl GM or a Sagatafl player, link to it.
Likewise, if you find an external link that is problematic, either delete it right away, or delete it and link to a better replacement ressource, or the issue is less critical, contact the Designer or some other higher and more experienced editor than yourself and point out the issue.
You are probably smarter than you assume
You are probably right.
If you think that a given word in a specific article should be turned into an internal link, it probably should.
If you think an article ought to have added one more category tag to it, it probably ought to.
If you think a particular sentence is needlessly complicated, then it either is needlessly complicated, or else it is worded in a very precise manner so as to minimize room for interpretation (or ideally remove it completely) so that players can sit down at the table knowing what to expect.
This hypertest is meant to be read, and it is meant to be nagivated
Both should be as efficient as possible. Hyperlinkify! Categorize! It's really hard to do actual damage this way, so go ahead. Every such little change you make increases the value of this hypertext.
(Note that as you speed up navigation, by hyperlinkifying and categorizing, you also speed up editing, and you make rules creation and rules improvement more efficient. It's a win-win situation.)
