In-game Factbooks (no longer in beta!)

[[violet]]

Hello F&NI! There is a new feature in testing at the moment I'd like to get your feedback on.

Essentially, it is putting Factbooks on your nation page. The aim is to give good Factbooks greater prominence; currently, I feel we have some amazing work in this forum that goes unseen by the majority of our community.

To test it out, append "/detail=factbook" to a nation page URL. On your own nation, this will invite you to create a new factbook entry, in one of various categories. Adding that to the URL of other nations will show you view their Factbook, if they have created one. Example: http://www.nationstates.net/nation=test ... l=factbook

In one sense, this feature is a little like a no-brainer, but we've felt that what was happening in this forum was already pretty great, so there was no need to mess with it. What I'm hopeful we'll get from this feature, when it's done, is the best of both words: a boost to the F&NI scene, with much greater awareness amongst the general playerbase, and still robust discussion here about factbooks (how to create them, what people have written, etc), without so many good factbooks scrolling off the forum front page and being lost.

Please let me know what you think!

Edit 13-June-2012: Removed "beta testing" from thread title.

[Neo Prutenia]

I love it! I just tried it out, it's a great addition.

[Hladgos]

I just did it, and as soon as I posted, the little FACTBOOK thing on the display where the economy and gov spending things are, dissapeared. Is it supposed to? Do I have to type in the /detail=factbook thing again?

[Urcea]

It's interesting, but for the sake of easy transition I'd like to suggest expansion of codes, such as implementing size and fixing the center codes.

[The UEG-Space Command]

I think I love you, add it please!

[Hladgos]

Figured it out. I just had to type the thing back in again.

[Amerikians]

I, think it's interesting to say the least though I don't promise using it; I do look forward to the implementation, hopefully they'll see use.

[Zwangzug]

I was really hoping the admins would give us room to write a line or two in quirky, NS style...

...Two years later I am still grateful in advance. This looks awesome. Let me see how it goes!

[Old Beringia]

This certainly would give Factbooks a greater prominence. But will there be an easier way to access ones own factbook? Like a link in the settings, nation page, or something.

[[violet]]

It's interesting, but for the sake of easy transition I'd like to suggest expansion of codes, such as implementing size and fixing the center codes.

Ah, not all the NSCodes were documented! They were there, but not listed beneath the edit box. Now they should be.

What do you mean by "fixing the center codes"? I have tried to follow the forum style, so you don't need to port factbooks, but let me know of things that don't match up.

[Yohannes]

Well, it seems that I cannot link to my roleplayed content in the forum, Violet. For example, I cannot do this: Global Economics Index.

[Urcea]

It's interesting, but for the sake of easy transition I'd like to suggest expansion of codes, such as implementing size and fixing the center codes.

Ah, not all the NSCodes were documented! They were there, but not listed beneath the edit box. Now they should be.

What do you mean by "fixing the center codes"? I have tried to follow the forum style, so you don't need to port factbooks, but let me know of things that don't match up.

Well I went for a preview, and my factbook was neither centered (it displayed those codes) and it also displayed the size tags.

[[violet]]

This certainly would give Factbooks a greater prominence. But will there be an easier way to access ones own factbook? Like a link in the settings, nation page, or something.

I've just tweaked the code so that once you write a Factbook entry, you thereafter see the "Factbook" link on your nation's front page (next to "Overview"), as well as other nations' front pages, if they have a Factbook. That way, if you're a beta tester, you won't need to keep manually adding "/detail=factbook" to your URL to navigate around.

This link still won't show up on your other sub-pages yet, though.

Because this feature is in testing and not announced site-wide yet, it's not that easy to find!

[Hladgos]

I think, over the weekend, instead of opening word and typing something up and eventually giving up, I'm going to take this factbook seriously. I'll work it peice by peice with the different feature things. That is going to help a lot, so I dont have to work the whole thing at once.

[[violet]]

Well, it seems that I cannot link to my roleplayed content in the forum, Violet. For example, I cannot do this: Global Economics Index.

Hmm, that works for me, using the [url] tag.

Anyone having trouble with code, please post an example for me to try.

Currently, forum links appear just like any other URL, but I'll be modifying the code so they don't get bundled with that little arrow icon.

[The Seven Realms]

So if I already have a factbook. Can I copy-paste the information there to my nation's page?

[The Republic of Lanos]

Well, it seems that I cannot link to my roleplayed content in the forum, Violet. For example, I cannot do this: Global Economics Index.

Hmm, that works for me, using the [url] tag.

Anyone having trouble with code, please post an example for me to try.

Currently, forum links appear just like any other URL, but I'll be modifying the code so they don't get bundled with that little arrow icon.

I cannot get off-site URLs to work even with proper [url] code.

Here's what I'm trying to get up:

Welcome to the Republic of Lanos.

Republic of Lanos
Lanos Armed Forces

[[violet]]

I think, over the weekend, instead of opening word and typing something up and eventually giving up, I'm going to take this factbook seriously. I'll work it peice by peice with the different feature things. That is going to help a lot, so I dont have to work the whole thing at once.

One thing I want to add, but haven't yet, is support for retaining a draft of what you're working on when your login times out. So no more work-work-work-work-submit-ohmygoditsgone.

[Sanctaria]

For some reason my Overview Subcategory doesn't appear in my list of subcategories.

[Socialist Unamedistan]

Seems cool but it looks like certain tags aren't working, the one I tried was the [img] tag. Other tags like bold work though. I haven't tried the [url] tag though.

[[violet]]

Here's what I'm trying to get up:

Welcome to the Republic of Lanos.

Republic of Lanos
Lanos Armed Forces

Stick that in a code tag for me, so I can see what you're doing.

When I paste this:

Code: Select all

[box]Welcome to the Republic of Lanos.

[url=http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=The_Republic_of_Lanos]Republic of Lanos[/url]
[url=http://www.nswiki.net/index.php?title=Republic_of_Lanos_Armed_Forces]Lanos Armed Forces[/url][/box]

... into a factbook, it works.

[Hladgos]

One thing I want to add, but haven't yet, is support for retaining a draft of what you're working on when your login times out. So no more work-work-work-work-submit-ohmygoditsgone.

Okay. I am a little stupid, but usually things are at least understandable if I zone out at them for a while. That just flew over my head. Speak to me as if you are talking to a VERY young child, please. Oh, and, sorry.

[The Republic of Lanos]

Wait, does preview only show your content without applying the BBcode? If that's true, then sorry for the complaint. I would like to see that work though in the future then.

[[violet]]

For some reason my Overview Subcategory doesn't appear in my list of subcategories.

Ah! That's because currently only up to 10 will display.

[Atomosea]

It should prove useful. I've wanted to make a factbook for a while now, in the hopes that it could get more people to respond to my roleplays, but I've never been able to get around to it. Maybe a blank spot on my nation page will be the motivation I need!