Difference between revisions of "User talk:Whitearrow"

Revision as of 12:00, 9 February 2007

Need me?

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Hey!

I saw that you've started this over on livejournal, and in your getting started that you might want a CSS/HTML editor and/or an artist. I've not edited Wiki sites before but I'm pretty fluent in buth CSS and HTML (anything I don't know, I'm willing to learn!), Photo-shop savvy and I'm looking for projects at the moment. And of course, I love Temeraire, so I'd be pretty excited to help out.

I'm off to poke around the place now and see how this thing works. It looks pretty nifty already!

Li

Hi, Li!

Glad to have you here!

I'd love to see something for the front page that looked a little nicer than what we have now, while communicating the same basic content.

If you'd like to play around with it, just start a page called front_test or something, and experiment to your heart's content!

A wiki you might want to look at is the Battlestar Galactica one, here: http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

Let me know if you have any questions!

-whitearrow

heeee!

I can try to make one article a week expanded. Just tell me an article to expand, and i'll happily research it a bunch and add to it. feel free to contact me at msleppy@gmail.com

Hi -- I don't really have a priority list or anything as far as expansion goes, so just pick an article that seems of interest to you! I appreciate the help!

- whitearrow

dragon categories

Hi there. I started out on the wiki with a plan of adding in more detail on the Chinese dragons from Throne of Jade. I started with sorting by nationality, so that you could browse by nationality rather than just by first letter. However, the category for Chinese Dragon Breeds was deleted without comment. So, what's up? It seemed to me that browsing by nationality adds to the information and functionality. --Jhkim 23:06, 28 January 2007 (PST)

Hi -- more detail on the Chinese dragons is definitely welcome! With respect to the categories, I'd like to keep the categories to a manageable number while we concentrate on getting articles written -- I've seen wikis with things categorized down to an inch of their life, and frankly, it becomes more confusing than helpful. The current category structure is something I drew out on paper, with the goal in mind of being useful but simple, and not so overspecific that we end up with tons of categories and subcategories that only have 3-5 articles each.

Secondarily, although we may eventually want to categorize the dragon breeds by some kind of geographical grouping, I'm not sure nationality is necessarily the best route to go. It has more than one meaning -- is it the nation the dragon is loyal to, or where that particular breed was first discovered or bred? If it's the second (which I think would be more useful) then "nationality" can be kind of misleading (it's been a bit problematic in some cases with "National Loyalty" in the dragon profile) and I think we need another name and way to make it clear.

So I think it's something that needs a bit more thought before we plow ahead, and it's not something we need to decide right away. Plus, once we decide to go ahead, someone needs to take the responsibility for putting all the dragons into their proper subcategories -- which is about 60 pages that will need updating. At the moment, I'd rather that kind of time be spent on writing new articles -- we have red links that need help all over the place. :)

I'm sorry I didn't explain more thoroughly, that was my bad, and I apologize! - whitearrow 09:39, 29 January 2007 (PST)

OK, I'll bring up the topic of categories on the general Talk page. I think that with breeds it is fairly clear that "Chinese dragon breeds" refers to breeds which came about in China rather than national loyalty. In general approach to wikis is to add in information and then refine it later, rather than holding off adding until a master plan is complete. However, if it's controversial then I'll certainly discuss it first. --Jhkim 15:54, 29 January 2007 (PST)

I totally agree with the approach of adding *information* -- but categorizing isn't really adding information, it's organizing it, and I think we'd be better serving the wiki to approach that in a methodical way. Saying that "Chinese dragon breeds" refers to breeds which originated in China makes sense -- but it might not for all other breeds (where do the ferals go, for example?) and if we're going to categorize, we have to do it for all the breeds, not just for one subgroup, or it doesn't make much sense to do it. - whitearrow 17:37, 29 January 2007 (PST)

Dragon Art

hi I'v been drawing dragons for a while and wondered if it would be helpful if I added pictures to each of the breeds? I have a Regal Copper finished shall I add it to the wikki? Garnet

Hi, yes, we'd love more fan art. Please upload as .jpgs. If you need to see how to add art to a page once its uploaded, take a look at the Temeraire page. I can tweak in the article if need be. - whitearrow 11:49, 29 January 2007 (PST)

Page to Remove

Hi, Just in case you don't spot it in some other way. There's a second page about Jeremy Rankin, called just Rankin that someone's posted that should probably be deleted. I don't have the ability to do it as far as I know. Do you? Or indeed do I and I need to learn how? :D --Andrew 08:05, 5 February 2007 (PST)

Hi, thanks -- deletion is restricted for the moment, just out of caution. That page definitely needed deletion, though, and I took care of it. Thank you for pointing it out. - whitearrow 08:32, 5 February 2007 (PST)

Restricting deletion is very sensible. I'm just glad that it's done. :D --Andrew 13:22, 5 February 2007 (PST)

A Fan

Hey just a normal fan here, if you want in my spare time i can make a few summeries of the books, i love reading and i can remember events pretty good, if you want me to just say the word and i will start working when im off.

Hi -- we're not really looking for summaries as such, but for contributions to specific articles. A good place to check is in the Getting Started article, which is linked from the front page. There's also lots of useful information in the Help section, if you decide you'd like to contribute. Thanks! -whitearrow 14:33, 6 February 2007 (PST)

Articles on historical matters (new!)

Hi there! I noticed your call for 'history buffs', and although I'm no expert, I love the books (and history in general) well enough to want to be involved. However, about some of the stubs regarding historical figures, events, and objects... is it reasonable to include historical facts such as Nelson's birth of date, even though it's not mentioned in the three books? In other words, when can history be assumed as canon? (Sorry if the question is silly.)

Also, would the TemeraireWiki like cover scans from the UK editions of the books, to complement the American versions?

viviena 02:15, 9 February 2007 (PST)

I know I'd love to see the UK covers on here too. I can't speak for everyone though. Regarding Nelson, there is a brief mention of him in Temeraire (Or His Majesty's Dragon) as he survives the Battle of Trafalgar. I think Lawrance also mentions meeting him at the Battle of The Nile. So I expect including his DoB is reasonable. More generally though, the matter is tricky. What about Pitt's death in Black Powder War? How close does that match the historical dates? Can we assume everything is business as usual unless told otherwise? --Andrew 03:57, 9 February 2007 (PST)