Proposal: Include Spreadsheets as an alternative to Wiki Sheets

ScorpiusRisk · Mar 29, 2010

The wiki is going away at some time in the future. Many people have expressed difficulty with the wiki.

This proposal is to give users an option between creating a character page on the wiki or creating a character with an approved spreadsheet.

Option 1 can be found Here

Option 2 can be found here

Please only vote in favor of one of the options, in order to keep consistency with the reviewers.

Dunamin · Mar 29, 2010

I have already offered my opinions and views earlier in this and this thread, and don't really have much new to add.

I think using spreadsheets is a nice alternative to the current wiki, and we need an alternative since the wiki is going away. Advantages include being much more fast & reliable server-wise, less work since it does essentially all the math and updates all relevant cells at the same time, and more transparent since you can see the exact formulas being used for all the math.

I vote YES to Option 1.

renau1g · Mar 29, 2010

I have already stated as well that I like the idea of Excel for some people although I certainly prefer the Wikipages myself, for aesthetics mostly. So is there a way to track changes through it? I missed that part of the discussion I think, i.e. looking back over previous versions to check the changes made?

ScorpiusRisk · Mar 29, 2010

Yes. If a person has it set for others to edit, as requested by the instructions you can view the revision history.

Kalidrev · Mar 29, 2010

I vote YES to option 1, and NO to option 2.

covaithe · Mar 30, 2010

I have to say, I wasn't thrilled with the revision history function. It was slow, hard to interpret, and didn't show a side-by-side comparison of the old vs. new version. And you can't compare non-adjacent versions.

I'm also not thrilled that in order to see the previous versions, the creator has to share it with you, whereupon it shows up in your google docs forever. Some of us actually use google docs for other things, and I'm really not looking forward to having another 200+ frequently-changing documents in there.

I see how this might be an improvement for people who find it hard to enter wiki code, but I see it as a step back for character reviewers.

I'm reluctant to say no before taking the time to really play with it, enter a character myself, and maybe review both a new character and a level-up done this way. But time is, as always, pretty tight, and if I had to make a not-perfectly-informed decision right now, I'd say no.

renau1g · Mar 30, 2010

Well until there's one more yes vote the proposal is still open. I'm also holding off, same concerns as you cov.

ScorpiusRisk · Mar 30, 2010

To address some of those concerns, at least partially, I have some work arounds. To be clear, they are work arounds. The spreadsheets are far from ideal, as I've admitted, I just think they're less worse than our other options.

You can view two revisions, you just need to open the document again in either in a new tab or window.

I also use google docs for non-enworld reasons as well. If you open a shared document, and decide you no longer want to see it, you can remove it. It does not have to stay there forever. When you want to see it again just go back to the link, and it will come back.

Google documents also allows you to sort things through folders. A third option would be to use a separate google account for your DM/Judge needs. This would be helpful if you wanted to keep and search through those, but didn't want to mix it up with the rest of your life.

Moon_Goddess · Mar 30, 2010

I know in this oligarchy anything have to say isn't important but I tried the spreadsheet and I did the wiki far easier to work with and to understand.

I'm a programmer who runs a computer repair show, so maybe my view on things is skewed but the spreedsheet is just not got the right feel to me...

Additionally the wiki is easier to customize, I've added a section for tokens on my sheet, most have mini stat blocks, many have wish lists, this kind of different stuff for different folks is, while not impossible, very difficult on the spreadsheet.

I really am not in favor of migrating my sheet to google docs.

Dunamin · Mar 30, 2010

ScorpiusRisk said:
A third option would be to use a separate google account for your DM/Judge needs. This would be helpful if you wanted to keep and search through those, but didn't want to mix it up with the rest of your life.

It might be a good idea with one formal Google docs account for judges, that all judges can log in to - just like we have a shared email account and shared EN World profile.

That way, the only documents in the account are pending L4W character submissions, and you can simply remove one after its been processed. I imagine this would also be an easier way of keeping track of submissions in general.