SRD Wiki?

silvermane · Jul 12, 2005

So far I have been unable to find the SRD in Wiki format. This may be caused by two factors: wikis are by nature open-ended projects, whereas the SRD is set in stone, and secondly, somebody would have to keep watch over it once it is finished (or block all edits).

What chances do you think the project would have? Free wikis are available at www.wikicities.org, among others (ie. MediaWiki, which I think is a de facto standard in the field).

JimAde · Jul 12, 2005

It's almost too easy. Just copy and paste. If you want to have an expandable SRD (where people can add their original material) that might be worth doing, but with the amazing Sovelior/Sage SRD available it's hard to justify otherwise:

http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/index.htm?35/sovelior_sage.htm

Grab the ZIPped version to save the site some bandwidth.

IronWolf · Jul 12, 2005

JimAde said:
the amazing Sovelior/Sage SRD available it's hard to justify otherwise:

http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/index.htm?35/sovelior_sage.htm

Grab the ZIPped version to save the site some bandwidth.

It's hard to beat Sovelior and Sage. Great html version of the SRD.

silvermane · Jul 12, 2005

I agree that S&S is pretty, but it is not extendable. In fact, since it was done in some kind of WYSIWYG editor, it is pretty hard to edit unless you know that program's HTML coding style.

Simpler versions of SRD exist too, but they don't cut the mark either (too many HTML tags to throw around).

And I disagree that making a SRD Wiki is just "copy and paste". Even if you paste HTML code, there's going to be some rewriting due to the different way wikis handle tables, for example. Some simpler wikis may not accept HTML table tags at all. Wikipedia does, but the result is often ugly. Although I did find a program that converts HTML to Wikipedia-ready snippets, the results are far from spectacular, especially with [[links]].

kolvar · Jul 12, 2005

Why nobody does ist?
its a heck of work!!!!
to do it right, you have to plan out the interconnectivity of the entries, each spell its own entry (with making links to spell-type, classes, components etc.), each weapon its own entry each feat, skill ... you get the idea.
Otherwise, you can just use the rtf-files, convert them to html and put them on the internet (adding, maybe, some search feature).
And who say it isn't open ended? if you start with SRD, you can easyly expand on other open-gaming content.
It is not a project begun lightly and I think, you need at least 5 persons to start it, to make good progress (after you have put down the standards and interconnectivity) (as you probably guess, I have put some thought into this for my own site, with my own wiki, which has some features, that would be helpful, but the amount of work did not seem worth it for myself)

AND: when you come down to it, it is probably easyier to have the files on your computer and search for what you need.

silvermane · Jul 12, 2005

It's not terribly hard to do, just time-consuming (and I don't have the patience to do it). The amount of people working on a wiki has nothing to do with the speed of the project. In fact, the less the better, since they tend to argue over presentation issues and such.

As for internal links, if authoring an HTML version you can add thousands of 'em, so can you when editing a wiki. In fact, links in wiki are even easier to create because you just enclose them in double square brackets. No more remembering of file names and the dreaded case problems.

If you want to have an open-ended SRD, you must do something to prevent everyone to write whatever they want in this "book". Which means editing is restricted to a set of admins, which in turn means the whole wiki was useless in the first place. You can use an internet forum, a mailing list or other means to communicate.

IMarvinTPA · Jul 12, 2005

Somebody asked this question on the boards at www.d20srd.org in this thread
http://boards.d20srd.org/viewtopic.php?t=131
Boredflak, the guy who runs d20srd.org, said he would not do it but wouldn't mind seeing one.
So jivera did it at <strike> http://www.alkemio.org/d20wiki/</strike> Apparently, he turned it off.
It just started, so I don't think it is very deep yet.

IMarv

BTW, does anybody else have troubles with Preview Post in Firefox?

silvermane · Jul 12, 2005

http://www.alkemio.org/d20wiki/

Err, sorry... 404. The guy's blog does not mention the wiki either.

JimAde · Jul 13, 2005

IMarvinTPA said:
BTW, does anybody else have troubles with Preview Post in Firefox?

No. I use preview all the time. What kind of problems are you seeing?

Fenlock · Jul 14, 2005

Getting back to topic

I think a wiki version of the SRD would be a great idea. If i had more bandwith i would gladly host it, but what little i have is used for out weekly AE game's wiki

But if a place to set up a wiki could be found, i dont think format/layout would be a problem.

If it is restricted to SRD and only SRD material, it would take a few months to finish. After that a dump of the MySQL database could be provided for those who want to use the SRD for own purpose/modifications.

/Fenlock