NSwiki

[Jeuna]

Someone pointed out to me that the NS forums now have a [wiki]code tag that links to NSWiki's front page (though the utility of this is dubious, but perhaps it is under construction). As administrator of WikiStates, a wiki dedicated to the same game, I cannot help but feel a little confused, especially because NSWiki goes to such great lengths to proclaim itself as unofficial and unendorsed by any authoritative body; inclusion in the forum's code seems to obliterate that quite handily. I'd just like to clarify if this was done with the consent of the NSWiki sysops, and if it was, why a choice between the two wikis was made, as such a move can only serve to drive a designed, by purpose or by accident, wedge between NationStates players and force them to reject or accept what appears for all the world an official ruling of endorsement.

[Reploid Productions]

I thought it would be handy since a lot of people use NSwiki and always forget the address. Unofficial as it is, it's still one of the most widely-used offsites relating to NS. And NS and NSwiki share one of our mods.

If it's enough of a problem though, I have no problems adding another quicklink tag or removing the current wiki one. =p

[Seraosha]

The wiki tag seems broken anyway. Say I put Max Barry in the wiki tag. I would assume it'd link directly to the Max Barry page like this: Max Barry. That seems the most ideal use for it, being able to simply and easily link a wiki article.

Instead the wiki syntax just links the wiki main page no matter what text you put. Like this: [wiki]Max Barry[/wiki]. There hardly seems a point in keeping any quicklink at all if that's all it does. It isn't that hard to type nswiki.net in the address bar.

[Hryvatia]

If it's enough of a problem though, I have no problems adding another quicklink tag or removing the current wiki one. =p

Although it's up to Jeuna, there are currently 388 users on WikiStates; representing a significant proportion of the NationStates roleplaying community. I'm sure most, if not all, would support this feature. I certainly would.

[Rosbaningrad]

If it's enough of a problem though, I have no problems adding another quicklink tag or removing the current wiki one. =p

Although it's up to Jeuna, there are currently 388 users on WikiStates; representing a significant proportion of the NationStates roleplaying community. I'm sure most, if not all, would support this feature. I certainly would.

Being a member of the WikiStates community, I would appreciate this as well.

[Quintessence of Dust]

If it has to be a choice between linking to both or neither, I'd prefer we linked to neither. NSwiki is poorly organized (perhaps because it is ~10 times larger); WikiStates discourages collaboration. Neither are perfect, and both are linked to from assorted stickies so players have no trouble finding them anyhow.

[Jeuna]

If it has to be a choice between linking to both or neither, I'd prefer we linked to neither. NSwiki is poorly organized (perhaps because it is ~10 times larger); WikiStates discourages collaboration. Neither are perfect, and both are linked to from assorted stickies so players have no trouble finding them anyhow.

I don't know how that rumour got started, but I would honestly prefer none rather than both as well.

[Reploid Productions]

Fair enough. There is a problem that the wiki tag only goes to the main page, so... People will just have to remember their links themselves!

[Dread Lady Nathicana]

I wasn't even aware there was a WikiStates, and I've been using NSWiki for ... years now. Is it a forum difference or something? II vs NS or just different groups or irc channels or some such?

[Quintessence of Dust]

I wasn't even aware there was a WikiStates, and I've been using NSWiki for ... years now. Is it a forum difference or something? II vs NS or just different groups or irc channels or some such?

As far as I recall, Wikistates was set up while NSwiki was on extended downtime. Then NSwiki returned. I think, as it turned out, Wikistates is mainly II, NSwiki mainly NS, sports, and the WA, but there's overlap between the two. I think what it comes down to is which people happened to find WS during NSwiki's server move, and which users bothered to return to NSwiki once it returned. Trying to be neutral, I would say WS has a smaller but more active userbase, with NSwiki catering for a larger number of users, many of whom edit infrequently.

[Goobergunchia]

I'd just like to clarify if this was done with the consent of the NSWiki sysops...

For what it's worth, this thread is the first I heard about it, although I haven't actually checked my talk page there in a while. Graduating from college is scary and sucks up way too much of my time.

Goobergunchia
NSwiki Administrator

[UNIverseVERSE]

Couldn't both be introduced - a [nswiki] tag and a [wikistates] tag or similar? Then users of both sites can be happy, and, while I haven't played with adding extra BBcode, it can hardly be much more of bother.

[Unibot]

I would like to see [nseconomy] tags, but that would start up the same sort of debate .... Sunset vs. NSeconomy vs. NStracker....

So, I'll leave that issue alone......

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

WikiStates may be a nice Web site (and so very tidy ), but it's hardly the only "alternate" wiki. There are literally dozens of them out there; most made for regions, some for alliances, some for alliances of regions, some for nations, some merely tacked on to players' webspaces. The fact that the forum admins chose to make a tag for the first, oldest, largest, most popular and most familiar NationStates wiki may have been inconsiderate to users of WS and all those mini-wikis out there, but it really is a dumb thing to bitch about.

[Praetonia]

There's a fairly obvious difference in scope between Wikistates and a wiki limited to a single alliance or "tacked onto a player's webspace". It has ~2,500 articles, which is only 10% of NSwiki. I think the real difference is not so great as that, because Wikistates has far less stub-spam and is kept in a better general state of maintenance, but it is undeniably lower profile generally. I think that tags could be justified, on the basis that for the II forum Wikistates is very significant, at the very least on par with NSwiki.

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

It's still a dumb thing to complain about, especially since all the tag did was link to the front page and thus had very little utility anyway.

What I'd like to see is interwiki links created between NSwiki and WikiStates, so the sites are more "connected." A WSer proposed it on NSwiki and we never heard from him again.

[Somewhereistonia]

It's still a dumb thing to complain about, especially since all the tag did was link to the front page and thus had very little utility anyway.

What I'd like to see is interwiki links created between NSwiki and WikiStates, so the sites are more "connected." A WSer proposed it on NSwiki and we never heard from him again.

I like that idea, a bit more connectivity would probably help both wiki groups anyway.

[Goobergunchia]

Maybe after finals are done, at least on my end. Two more days....

[Praetonia]

Not everything is a "complaint" or some kind of battle. Jeuna suggested what he regards as an improvement to the site, and I think he is correct.

As for inter-connectivity, I agree. Some people already soft link their article pages on Wikistates to material hosted on nswiki, and WS has no problem with this. When I tried the same with my article on NSwiki I was complained at by a sysop and had it repeatedly deleted until I just gave up, so they're not so keen.

[Kampfers]

As far as Wikistates vs NSWiki goes, I among others use Wikistates because it's smaller, cleaner, closer to the real wikipedia, and for the most part is limited to being an in-character wikipedia. There is very little on Wikistates about "raiding" and "defending" and a lot of the other topics that are on NSWiki. As far as interwiki-links go, I'm fine with that, but it doesn't really pertain to the topic of the thread, the [wiki][/wiki] tags

[Urgench]

In all honesty I've tried and failed to use WikiStates and found it frustratingly opaque and counter-intuitive. I simply can't find anything on it and what I have found has been incorrect or not useful. NSwiki may be less well organised but its actually much more user friendly and in my ( admittedly very inexpert ) opinion much more useful and accurate. Link tags to NSwiki make sense, unless someone convinces me otherwise I don't see the need for tags for WikiStates. Not that anyone should be in any way that moved by my opinion but you know... just thought I'd say.

[Dread Lady Nathicana]

You know the solution? Link your stuff in your sig, then there's no need for all the complaints. If the folks running the site want to link it to one thing or another, so be it. It isn't as though it limits anyone in where they post, or what they use, or how people can find their information if they take initiative themselves.

So yeah. A whole lot of fuss about nothing in the end. Never gonna please everyone anyways, and there are always going to be more channels, more websites, more groups, and more people clamoring to be 'That One Great Bit' that gets recognized.

Bah. Promote it yourselves.

[The Most Glorious Hack]

So yeah. A whole lot of fuss about nothing in the end.

Welcome to NationStates!

[Dread Lady Nathicana]

So yeah. A whole lot of fuss about nothing in the end.

Welcome to NationStates!

You'd think after 6 years I'd tire of it, neh? But noooooooooo ... and it is ALL YOUR FAULT!

>_>

Among others.

Besides. Sometimes a whole lot of fuss about nothing can be fun. When rp'd properly.

[Praetonia]

Clearly there will always be lots of sites that would benefit from tags. I don't see why this means they should be limited to only one site, though. Programming them requires very little time or effort, and there are a good number of sites that would benefit from them, such as WS and, as mentioned earlier, the more popular economy sites.

Dread lady Nathicana: As fascinating as it is, your off topic chit chat doesn't address the issue at hand.