Difference between revisions of "Talk:Main Page"

Revision as of 21:20, 25 September 2006

As you can tell, we're in the very early stages here! There is a template for dragons, thanks to Lydia -- see the Maximus page for an example of how to use it. I'll be duplicating it for the humans asap.

For the moment, feel free to add pages as you like -- make sure you put [[category:A-Z]] on every page, in addition to any other category.

I'm looking for an outside place we can upload images to -- you are welcome to link to anything in the Gallery section on temeraire.org in the meantime.

-- whitearrow 21:15, 14 September 2006 (PDT)

More Templates!

There are now templates for People, Dragons, and Dragon Species. Have a look at Category:Templates, and for usage, look at the source on Temeraire, William Laurence and Regal Copper.

Sekrit to Lydia -- the way to keep Category:Templates off the pages that use the templates is to put this code on the template page:

<noinclude> [[Category:Templates]] </noinclude>

--whitearrow 12:30, 15 September 2006 (PDT)

Conventions

I've started a page here for conventions for this wiki -- let's talk about any specifics over there.

--whitearrow 11:40, 19 September 2006 (PDT)

French names & such

I've moved Amitié to Amite -- let's bail on the accented characters for wiki purposes. It's only going to get worse with the Pecheurs and such, and either having to remember the alt-character or copying and pasting all the time is hereby deemed a pain :)

-whitearrow 19:08, 20 September 2006 (PDT)

Alphabetical listings of names

Aha! To have characters sort in the category pages by last names, enter the categories like so:

[[Category:A-Z|Laurence, William]]

(You have to include this for each relevant category in the article.)

The listing will still show up as "William Laurence" but it will appear under L instead of W.

(BTW to add signature and timestamp to your Talk posts, it's a 4 tildes (~). I use a dash first, so like so to produce my sig line below: -~~~~

"Life's a dance, you learn as you go" -- just like wikicode :)

-whitearrow 14:26, 22 September 2006 (PDT)

Questions to consider

One thing we need to sort out fairly quickly is the question of page references. I'd prefer to avoid them as much as possible -- for one thing, there are already at least three printed editions of the books out there, not to mention the numerous digital ones, and pagination is going to differ in each.

I'd rather paraphrase than use direct quotes, but if a direct quote is, on rare occasion, needed, we can use a chapter reference rather than page. It's less specific, but at least it will be accurate for all present and future editions.

For another thing, I'd rather take a "historical" approach, rather than a literary one... by that I mean treat this Wiki as if we're writing about real people, places and events, rather than literary characters. So instead of "character x died in ToJ" -- character x died in an engagement over the Channel with the French in early 1806" or whatever.

In that same vein, let's use past tense, both for consistency and to keep the "historical" feeling.

Comments? These aren't alterations that need to be made right away; we can edit things as we go.

-whitearrow

I'm an English major so I'm obviously the one taking the literary approach here. I've had it drilled into my head that quoting or paraphrasing without a citation is plagiarism so I'm kind of iffy on that. And as you can see from all the page references I made over the weekend, I'm a big fan. I just thought people would want to be able to go see for themselves, especially if there is more information contained therein that we're not saying.

I'm not adverse to chapter references if you'd rather though. Strangerface 13:53, 25 September 2006 (PDT)

I like the "historical" approach more because I find it more immediate, and that it immerses you in the world. But I still think we need to use past tense verbs -- basically, the conceit is we're writing about things that have already happened.

As much as possible, I'd prefer not to do references at all, and keep quotes to an absolute, utter minimum, when there's just no other way to say something, which I think will be rare. So I don't think there's anything wrong with physical descriptions, say, being paraphrased -- there are only so many ways to say someone is tall with dark hair :) and I don't think any reference is necessary for that kind of thing.

Otherwise, where do we draw the line? Do we need references for everything? That's kind of a nightmare, and if something like the Encyclopedia of Arda (LotR) can do without them, I think we can too. If an issue comes up about whether something is correct, I think the Talk pages are a perfect place to discuss, list references, and see where everybody is coming from. I understand the English-major tendency, and I share it to a large degree, but I think we want to keep this accurate -- but at the same time fun, and something people want to work on.

I think, when references are necessary, it will have to be chapters, unless there's some way to reconcile the page number problem in all the different editions, and I don't think there is.

-whitearrow

Dragons

I changed both the category and template for "Dragon Species" to "Dragon Breeds," which is more accurate. The template is template:DragonBreeds and category is Dragon Breeds.

-whitearrow