Connecting the Website and the Forums

[stevebowers]

I've considered attempting to update some of this older material, but in some cases I'd have to update multiple articles simultaneously. For example, the Restored Ambi Limis isn't the only polity in the Perseus Rift; there's 1513, the Celerin Volume, the Ulysses Network, the Hyperionites, The Blackbody Cluster, and Sweetlight. How can I write about the relationship between the Restored Ambi Limis and its neighbours when I'd have to write these neighbours from scratch as well?

Perhaps this is unrelated to how many contributors we have. But the pulpy sci-fi vibe that M. Alan Kazlev used to depict the setting is considered non-canon by the community, and yet no one seems interested in replacing the many articles that he used to push this perspective.

I also find that multiple articles have to be rewritten to keep the entire site up to date with new canon. You would not believe how many articles I've had to revise to conform with the new statistical thinking on Garden Worlds (it has taken weeks and is still ongoing). The Celerin Volume, the Ulysses Network, the Hyperionites, The Blackbody Cluster, 1513 and Sweetlight are all blank slates at the moment, open for re-interpretation.

I'd like to keep some of the pulpy elements, but also upgrade them to be more in line with our current thinking. Imagine that Alan and Anders were describing the OA universe to a baseline audience, emphasising those elements they might sympathise with; we need to try to upgrade that to a more realistic viewpoint.

[Drashner1]

So a bit of (hopefully) good news.

I was able to copy/paste the entire Topic list from the Content Management System into a spreadsheet in Google Sheets (the Google version of Excel for those who may be unfamiliar with it).

We have a bit over 300 Topics (343 initially, but some of those are not part of the EG or are early test items or the like and needn't concern us).

I need to play around with it a bit to see what elements we might throw out (ported over from the CMS, we don't need'em for this project) vs those we might keep. But ultimately this might be helpful in tracking down all the different Topics to review, setting priorities, and keeping track of who is working on what.

More later,

Todd

[Everything4404]

RE Topics: I think macrystis might turn into it's own topic due to what we're planning with it

[Drashner1]

RE Topics: I think macrystis might turn into it's own topic due to what we're planning with it

Currently we don't have any planets or systems in the setting designated as Topics. We also really haven't added any Topics to the setting (that I can think of) since the current structure was created.

I'm not sure what properties Macrystis has that would make it qualify as a Topic all by itself.

Can you and the others working in this explain why we should consider this?

For that matter, is this idea something you and others working on this have discussed or is it at present just your idea?

Todd

[Everything4404]

RE Topics: I think macrystis might turn into it's own topic due to what we're planning with it

Currently we don't have any planets or systems in the setting designated as Topics. We also really haven't added any Topics to the setting (that I can think of) since the current structure was created.

I'm not sure what properties Macrystis has that would make it qualify as a Topic all by itself.

Can you and the others working in this explain why we should consider this?

For that matter, is this idea something you and others working on this have discussed or is it at present just your idea?

Todd

It'sj ust my idea

It's definitely not a topic, but Macrystis would benefit from having the structure of a topic since it will have related pages, etc which may be a lot of articles. Unless you want an independent website / a whole new part of the website, like how the forums is separate from the EG, etc

[Drashner1]

It'sj ust my idea

It's definitely not a topic, but Macrystis would benefit from having the structure of a topic since it will have related pages, etc which may be a lot of articles. Unless you want an independent website / a whole new part of the website, like how the forums is separate from the EG, etc

The Content Management System allows you to link any Article to any Topic and also to 'relate' any Article or Topic to any other Article or Topic.

For example, if you look at the article on Djed, you will see the Articles it is related to followed by the Topics it appears in (meaning it appears in the list of related articles that displays after that Topic.

The bottom line being that we can easily accommodate what you describe inside the standard Article structure.

Todd

[Everything4404]

Oh.
Well, I just thought the topic system was a bit more fancy. Since you have these grey button links. But sure.

[Drashner1]

Oh.
Well, I just thought the topic system was a bit more fancy. Since you have these grey button links. But sure.

Topics are either about more general, well - topics - such as Galactography or History or major setting elements such as the Sephirotic Empires. Articles are about more specific subjects that fall under a Topic (conversion drive is under Technology).

As I understand it the Macrystis project is about a single world - which isn't really general or so wide ranging as to qualify as a topic all by itself.

We can certainly have lots of interlinked articles about Macrystis, but I don't really see it as a Topic though.

Todd