Forum:Chit-chatting watercooler

Forums: Index > Archived topics > Chit-chatting watercooler

  Hello! I decided to make this for various minor stuff, from in-game conversation; thank you for good job; curiosity report; minor discussion; anything. If you don't like this, feel free to delete this!

---

Current Events

BEHOLD.

https://31.media.tumblr.com/85bc3502823fb8bcb65b201d2996f047/tumblr_myezzhFjzJ1swaz8co1_500.png Nedemmons (talk) 13:00, December 26, 2013 (UTC)

Thanks again. Those accounts were very useful. The new Quarry mechanic is rather interesting.--Vae Victis (talk) 11:43, September 1, 2013 (UTC)

Should I add "Ask for help with a certain... obsession" choice (At SMEN 3) in "Ask the Interpreter of Dreams about death by water" ? Normally I'll just add it, but I read some restriction about SMEN content...

• Not quite sure on the wiki's stance on this either now... — Aximillio (talk)

• I am also uncertain... How about a compromise? Treating it like we would visible fate-locked actions, link the option to the origin card, add its option icon and its description but exclude its success and failure results. How's that sound? — ZDee (talk) 01:40, August 28, 2013 (UTC)

• What's the best or highest method for gathering Making Waves? "Parade him around town" give 3 CP, but anyone knows better one?

• Anyone know how does new social invitation through twitter works? It looks... um, wrong (Just see this and this... ), but I want to listen to your opinion.

• What do you think about [1] ? A ruin for data-salvaging? Or a great place to build easy-to read guide? Nedemmons (talk) 14:53, August 8, 2013 (UTC)

• I prefer the wikia system, tbh. It's a lot easier to maintain, perhaps due to categories? — Aximillio (talk)

I like EB@wikidot. We're heavier on spoilers and more technically-minded here. The theme of wikidot is cleaner, lighter and more guarded about spoilers. It's good to have at least two different archiving styles available to readers; they can easily read whichever wiki suits their individual preferences. It's always better to have multiple quality choices.

It seems simpler to edit here since you can do it without registration, and if you don't know how to edit, you can just leave a comment. We amass a lot of minor and major information through these stray contributors. Fallen Londoners aren't a rowdy crowd, so this system is a strength for the wiki. (For some other wikis, this system is a bleeding mess, and we should be grateful we don't rank among the unfortunate sods.)

If I wasn't so preoccupied with tinkering with EB@wikia, I would learn to edit at wikidot and help out there. I'm ambivalent about taking information from wikidot and putting it here. I'd like to know how the staff there feel about sharing before drilling their insides. Me? I don't mind at all if editors from wikidot take any of my wikia contributions (coded work, info, comments, whatever) and post it there.
- ZDee (talk) 01:40, August 28, 2013 (UTC)

Another reason why it's good to have two wikis is that wikidot are paying for their spot and, presumably, have more control over the content. Whereas here all we do is owned by Wikia and may be removed at any moment. It's not an issue now, but if FL adds more racy content and Wikia tightens its adult content policy it could cause some difficulties. I know of one adult-oriented wiki that's already feeling the heat. --Vae Victis (talk) 11:43, September 1, 2013 (UTC)

Wiki related

• Keep having to click options just to check something is annoying. Maybe we should use style like Template:Item Action or wikidot (That one won't work on wikia, though.)
  • This style has the advantage of both having good spoiler alerts and is easier to link to individual storylets, though. Also, there's *very* many articles to change.
• Exactly which writing style would be "proper?" I tend to use other articles for guideline, so I'm not sure about which style should be used, so I tend to stick to normal style.
• All these words are too crammed, but breaking line makes them too sparse. Hmm...

Thanks! For person who taught RGB trick! Nedemmons (talk)

In-game discussion

"two hansoms, a Constable and a hurled umbrella". I think I saw this trick two times in-game. (first by Great Game spy, other by me during.. spying in wilmot's end?..Not sure. ) Any Idea?

What previously useless cards got updated? I know that One's public card got upgrade, but do you know any others? No pre-Forgotten Q. changes, by the way. Nedemmons (talk) 07:50, July 26, 2013 (UTC)

They really should add option to see the CP directly. Even different window like fallenlondon.storynexus.com/su would be nicer than this. I tire of keep switching and checking profile page.

---

EBZ Notepad for all!

---

Is there some way to edit page like this without clogging WikiActivity and History? These make me feel guilty about editing my user page...

Edit your user page as much as you like. Wiki Activity isn't difficult to scan; readers can easily decide whether they want to read something. For some, this form of Wiki Activity might be even better since it offers multiple Show/Hide options: Special:RecentChanges

Keep having to click options just to check something is annoying. Maybe we should use style like Template:Item Action or wikidot (That one won't work on wikia, though.)

...It could work. I've thought about it at length...for as long as I've been an editor, actually. Not sure if it would look attractive or if the majority of readers would prefer it, though:

• The greatest virtue of our current setup (separating options from their origin storylets and cards) is the search utility; options have their own title pages for simple searching. If we place all the options on their storylet/card pages, we could redirect the old option pages to the storylet/card to keep them as active search links.
  • If we use Table of Contents for the storylet/card pages, an option page could redirect to a specific option in the list of content.

• Expand/Collapse code could be used on the option results (success/rare/failure). When a page loads, only the action icons, descriptions, Un/Locks and challenges would be visible. Readers can then choose to read a particular result when they click "Expand".

This is my first test page which contains a mix of plain storylet options, a social action and Fate-locked options:
Write Letters (wikia test)
The original:
Write Letters

This is my second test page which has the commonplace success/failure options loaded with Broad challenges and truncation:
Track down a Spirifer (wikia test)
The original:
Track down a Spirifer

The last page, a card with success/failure results fully loaded and options to collapse them:
A merry gentleman (wikia test)
The original:
A merry gentleman

If someone wanted to search for the option "Watch from the rooftops" of the storylet "Track down a Spirifer", we'd redirect the "Watch from the rooftops" page to its position in the table of contents: Track down a Spirifer (wikia test)#Watch from the rooftops

There's possibly a large down side to combining things this way: ?useskin=wikiamobile
Add that to the end of any web address. It's a wikia skin made to simulate a mobile user's experience, but it might not be 100% accurate. When I add it to the pages I made, I see that the Table of Contents and Expand/Collapse code is bugged (for me at least). I'm not sure how many people read this wiki in mobile mode, but I don't want to negatively affect their experience...(if that's how it even looks to them.)

If the majority of readers prefer the condensed TOC method, then I'm okay with recoding the pages that way. It doesn't particularly inconvenience me either way since I read this wiki on a desktop with an ad blocker and a fast connection, so it's really up to the other editors and readers to decide.

EDIT: Added a third example of a card with fully loaded results.—Preceding unsigned comment added by ZDee (talk • contribs)

I don't quite understand why this system is better than the one we have already. It seems like trying to fix something that isn't broken. Why bother?--Vae Victis (talk) 21:25, July 21, 2013 (UTC)

I wanted to see what it might look like. XD ...Can't say that it looks very good, though. Aesthetically, I think our current layout is better.

The readers who browse the wiki without adblockers would receive the most benefit from the condensed version since they wouldn't have to load so many convulsive ads from multiple page visits. There are videos, flashing lights and popups along with the plain ones, and they all load simultaneously on the same page. I know they're Wikia's major source of revenue, but they're rather ridiculous. On a regular Windows 7 laptop running the latest version of IE, they're enough to notably slow the CPU down (or at least that was my experience). It was strange since I could stream videos from other sites with ease but ads here drove the system bonkers; it was lagging so much I just stopped coming here (I was on vacation with the laptop). A page that might take 5 seconds to load on my regular adblocked desktop needed 1-3 minutes to load on the vanilla laptop. I hope other people have it easier.
- ZDee (talk) 02:02, July 22, 2013 (UTC)

I didn't experience these problems without adblock. There was a slowdown of a few seconds on each page and about half a minute of delay when I opened eight tabs at once, but it wasn't anything like describe. You're either ran into some very nasty ad or you have a Flash issue. BTW I discovered that mobile mode doesn't work with my IE.

And speaking of mobile mode: The old layout looks fine in mobile mode (excluding special pages like the main page, categories and so on) and the new layout offers no advantages. In fact, if you want to search for an action that gives you a certain reward out of a card with ten possible choices, the old system was better. This is because mobile mode automatically collapses all text into its header, making a collapsible system unnecessary. --Vae Victis (talk) 07:43, July 22, 2013 (UTC)

The laptop won't be touched by me again; I won't run further tests. It was an experience beyond frustration that I'm loathe to repeat. But, yeah, maybe it was just an ill-timed coupling of browser and Flash versions.

Mobile mode automatically collapses content under certain headers. I guess that's a good thing since it doesn't take much space on a small screen and you get your pick of viewable content. Of course, mobile mode also unnecessarily collapses a lot of stuff that we can't control, but Wikia's automatic conversion saves us the trouble of doing it ourselves.

I would rather not make major changes to the archival layout -- it'd be a tower of work! I'm glad I got to produce something semi-tangible from the thought experiments, but I don't want to work on them anymore... :P
- ZDee (talk) 01:21, July 23, 2013 (UTC)

Like Aximillio suggested in the "Write Letters" Comments, combining the shorter pages might be okay. If a storylet or a card only has 1 option, blending the storylet page with the option page could make for simpler viewing:
An audience with the Gracious Widow (wikia test)
The original:
An audience with the Gracious Widow

- ZDee (talk) 03:41, July 23, 2013 (UTC)

It makes sense for one-action storylets. However, there may still be some problems with new cards/storylets with hidden action (i.e. you see only one action, but it actually has several and should be put in a different format), article consistency and, last but not least, it'd be a lot of work. --Vae Victis (talk) 12:21, July 23, 2013 (UTC)