Category talk:Scenario Listings

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I think the majority of the articles in this category should actually be subcategories with each scenario on a further page/article in the categories. The template could still be used, but this approach would make things more flexible, easier to search and categorise, and be a better use of MediaWiki's features.

Having said that I know very little about the way scenarios are documented here so I defer to someone with more experience for now as to what should be done. Mintra 00:12, 11 October 2007 (CEST)

Oh all right, this discussion already exists at Talk:List_of_player-made_scenarios. Yet even though it was proposed in March it hasn't been implemented as described by User:Sleepie as far as I can tell. Someone enlighten me. Mintra 00:17, 11 October 2007 (CEST)

Well, the article handling in the "scenario database" (like we call it) is a bit special. First there is a separate namespace that is only for the single scenario articles which are template-based (Template:Scenario). Depending on the scenario details, a scenario is then added to the appropriate scenario categories via page-inclusion. At the moment this have to be done manually. I'm working on a special wiki bot, which will do the categorizing automatically, but due real-life things in the last months I have not made much progress till now. Besides this there is also another project started by Kander which aims to be a complete new web application for maintaining scenarios. As I haven't seen Kander around here for a while, I cannot say which status that project has. The current structure is the best compromise we have found, because it has the smallest maintenance costs. For an example if you want to add some notes to a scenario you only have to change one page (the one in the Scenario namespace). All appearances of the scenario on the category pages will be "updated" automatically due the page-inclusion mechanism. The Category:Scenario Listings is just a quick overview of all available categories. On a side note, the scenario database part of this wiki is maintained by the Scenarios Team, at least when it comes to major changes of the structure and article handling. But of course new ideas to improve it or to make it more convenient for the user base are always welcome, but should be discussed before implemented. I hope this clears it a bit up for you. Don't hesitate to ask if you have further questions. Sleepie 02:10, 11 October 2007 (CEST)

Ah, I see. My idea was simply to categorise the pages by putting category tags on the existing Scenario namespace pages, rather than including them in special "list" pages. Any descriptive text for the category could of course be included on that page. Just sounds like the obvious way to me - forgive me if I'm missing a benefit of the existing implementation. Mintra 09:45, 11 October 2007 (CEST)

Nothing to excuse for ;-) And you're right, the description for the Scenario Listings category page could be a bit longer - another entry on my todo list :-) Sleepie 10:13, 11 October 2007 (CEST)

Hate to say it but I think you're still missing the point (or maybe you just didn't comment on it :-). For example: define Category:Scenarios. Also Category:Temperate Scenarios, Category:1024x1024 Scenarios etc etc. Then, simply put each scenario article (e.g. Scenario:Echo) in that category using the appropriate tag at the bottom, rather than messing around with inclusions. Doing things in this bottom-up way and letting the software sort out the category display seems simple and effective to me. Your take on that? Mintra 12:59, 11 October 2007 (CEST)

Well, the problem with that solution is, that category pages will only contain simple links to the scenario pages and thats not what we want. By default the scenario pages like Scenario:Echo, shouldn't be direct accessed by the end user (at least that was our intension). Those pages only act as a kind of "template" for the scenario category pages. A scenario category page (e.g. 512x512) is not a category page like Category:Scenario Listings, it's something different. You get it now? Sleepie 14:09, 11 October 2007 (CEST)

Yes. Thanks, I can see where you're coming from in that you want all the information about each scenario in one of your "categories" available at a glance to users. The way I've been discussing is simply my personal preference (the way I'd do it if I'd gotten there first) but since you have a good reason to retain the old ways I'm happy to leave it at that. Mintra 18:42, 11 October 2007 (CEST)