Mongoose 3.0/3.5 Grand Archive - Any Interest?

Michelle Lyons said:

Seriously, I talked to my boss and my co-workers, and we're more than willing to do what's we can to make this a great experience. This is a unique project and we want to support it however we can. We're happy to actively engage with this project and make it the best possible, including throwing some resources in to copy and paste material over, build cross-links, and other mundane wiki tasks.

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Given all of that, I would say the bar has been raised to demonstrate a good reason not to use WetPaint.

Man-thing said:

I think some of the earlier B5 products had a d20 logo on them. The 2nd edition stuff did not.

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This is correct.

TheLe said:

I concur. If its named after Mongoose's character, then it should be for Mongoose products only.

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We have never used this character - we would be happy to donate him too to this project.

The Wetpaint sites look great. I'm not so sure about the features, though. Is easyedit (WYSIWYG) the only way to edit pages? I looked for a section on wiki markup on the Wetpaint site, but could not find anything.

Since we are talking about wikis, I assume people are somewhat familiar with wiki markup. Here is a link to a comparison of Wetpaint and Wikia (which uses MediaWiki):

http://www.wikimatrix.org/compare/Wetpaint+Wikia

Note that ability to export content from Wetpaint appears to be limited.

Hexdump said:

Is easyedit (WYSIWYG) the only way to edit pages?

Note that ability to export content from Wetpaint appears to be limited.

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Both of these are good points.

The first limits automation (if true).

The second point is a concern. While I don't want to blow the issue out of proportion, the project should be considering disaster recovery scenarios, and the wikidot export to ZIP file is one method; I don't see the (external) backup method with WetPaint.

TP.
--
Tom Parker
PCGen Architecture Lead

Hexdump said:

The Wetpaint sites look great. I'm not so sure about the features, though. Is easyedit (WYSIWYG) the only way to edit pages? I looked for a section on wiki markup on the Wetpaint site, but could not find anything.

Since we are talking about wikis, I assume people are somewhat familiar with wiki markup. Here is a link to a comparison of Wetpaint and Wikia (which uses MediaWiki):

http://www.wikimatrix.org/compare/Wetpaint+Wikia

Note that ability to export content from Wetpaint appears to be limited.

Click to expand...

EasyEdit is the only way to edit pages. It's a pretty robust WSYIWYG editor and can do a lot, and is friendly to contributors who aren't up to speed on wiki markup. Wetpaint sites export current versions of the pages as HTML to a ZIP file.

thpr said:

The first limits automation (if true).

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I'm not primarily concerned with automation as much as easy of use. In my experience, it's easier to link to a page using markup (e.g. "If you use [[Power Attack]]..") than to use a WYSIWYG editor.

As I understand it, Wetpaint does not allow linking to non-existing pages. On a regular wiki, a list on wanted pages is a great way to see what needs to be done. This means that you need to back to existing pages and add the links manually. This will mean a lot of work if the SRD or other content is to be added to the site.

IMO Incorporating the SRD is a good idea. This will hopefully result in a wiki version of Hypertext SRD, but with Mongoose and hopefully other OGL content. Note that several wikis with SRD (and some fan OGL content) exist, so SRD wiki markup is already available.

Of course, having PDF file downloads as well as wiki pages would be nice, but a fully linked gaming wiki is a thing of beauty. Hopefully such a community OGL wiki will include the SRD, published OGL material, and fan contributions.

I'm not involved with dandwiki.com or d20wiki.com, but those sites have been very useful. (Yes, I've copied OGL wiki markup to my own wiki ) I'm not saying that this project should join one of the existing wikis, but I'm sure they would approve of Mongoose releasing published material to the community.

One benefit of using MediaWiki markup (regardless of MediaWiki hosting service) is that it will be easy to exchange content with the existing OGL/SRD wikis.

Michelle Lyons said:

EasyEdit is the only way to edit pages. It's a pretty robust WSYIWYG editor and can do a lot, and is friendly to contributors who aren't up to speed on wiki markup. Wetpaint sites export current versions of the pages as HTML to a ZIP file.

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I apologize for going off topic but I have a question for Michelle.

Is there a good "visual wiki" such as DMs might use to collaborate on world design?

In other words, I want to be able to lay out a map composed of hexes, then allow DMs to click on a hex, edit its contents (both graphically as well as adding text description), as well as add new hexes around the edges of the map.

I assume as both a roleplayer and a wikimaster you can probably grok what I am looking for without me belaboring the point.

Any help? Maybe email me offline?

Wulf Ratbane said:

I apologize for going off topic but I have a question for Michelle.

Is there a good "visual wiki" such as DMs might use to collaborate on world design?

In other words, I want to be able to lay out a map composed of hexes, then allow DMs to click on a hex, edit its contents (both graphically as well as adding text description), as well as add new hexes around the edges of the map.

I assume as both a roleplayer and a wikimaster you can probably grok what I am looking for without me belaboring the point.

Any help? Maybe email me offline?

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Hmm. I must give this thought. I shall indeed contact you.

Hexdump said:

I'm not primarily concerned with automation as much as easy of use.

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I would think some development to jump-start the boring parts of extraction would be useful. I was planning to assist if I could, but it's up to Mark & team if they really desire that help.

TP.
--
Tom Parker
PCGen Architecture Lead