User talk:Dmilewski/Archive 1

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Deleted.

I deleted the page you wanted me to, it was not a problem. Also, I was just wondering if you would like to help me change all the D&D's to DnD's. You would become a sysop (admin) so you can move pages, but would you like to do this?

--Green Dragon 12:31, 13 March 2006 (MST)

Sure. Just give me foolproof directions, and I'll make good things happen.

Alright.

Alright I made you a sysop. To move a page, just press "Move Page" at the top and make it say DnD. See what links to that page (What links here -> in the toolbox) and make them link to the new name. This should do the trick... Also, respond to "User talk" on my page (it will them say "new message" to me :) ). Anyway, thanks.

--Green Dragon 12:44, 13 March 2006 (MST)

Thanks!

Thanks for helping so much with moving the pages, you did an incredible amount of work! On Wikipedia, people are awarded Barnstars when they do something that is really impressive. For all of the work you have done, I am awarding you the Working Man's Barnstar. Thanks again.

--Green Dragon 19:35, 13 March 2006 (MST)

Could you do something for me?

I was just wondering if it would be possible for you to put the OGL on D&D Wiki. A excellent place for this would be [1]... Would you mind doing this? You don't have to if it is too much work, please do not feel pressured.

--Green_Dragon 20:21, 14 March 2006 (MST)

Good God..

You're a machine! You must type really quickly...

--Sand-reckoner 23:50, 16 March 2006 (MST)

SRD

So, I was looking over the SRD and you probably want to lock them.... At the top of the page, just put in {{Admin_Locked_Page}}, and then lock it (press "protect" on the Tabs). Just a suggestion, tell me what you decide.

--Green Dragon 09:17, 17 March 2006 (MST)

Thanks.

Thanks for doing so much with the SRD (as soon as it is done another Barnstar is on its way...), also I put a link to the SRD on the main page, how does it look?

--Green Dragon 19:08, 21 March 2006 (MST)

SRD.

Is the SRD done?

--Green Dragon 12:26, 22 March 2006 (MST)

Oh.

I thought, because you were making the links on the Demolisher (3.5e Prestige Class) it was done (don't really look through all the SRD that much....). I see now however. Also, did you see how Blue_Dragon was getting all made about calling it a PERL script, not a Perl script... I thought it was funny. Anyway, their is a ton more work to do on D&D Wiki now, all the "Requirements" and everything....... fun.......

--Green Dragon 14:59, 22 March 2006 (MST)

Wow!

Wow! Good work with the SRD these last couple days, you did a lot. I was just wondering, could you tell me as soon as the you finish the SRD? I do not look at it that much, and I will probably not notice when it is done. Lastly, I have done the "links to the SRD" thing to the Sniper (3.5e Prestige Class), Knight, Tome (3.5e Class), and maybe another another. Thanks for the idea :). --Green Dragon 13:35, 1 April 2006 (MST)

Knowledge Arcana, WotC's community magazine

Oh, I see now that the SRD will take a while (it looks done, but...)

So, because you are a writer, and an admin of this site, I was wondering if you would like to write an article (I am a terrible writer) for this Knowledge Arcana, WotC's community magazine. The article would be about "Wiki's" and what might happen to D&D with them, the OGL and Wiki's, etc. You can read exactly what he wants here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=612913) or in the Talk:Dungeons and Dragons. He also posted this in the Dungeons and Dragons "discussion" with his contact information, so... Of course, if you do not want to do this that is fine (being busy with taxes, and the like), just tell me you don't want to write the article (so I can contact him and start working on it). Actually, could you contact me either way (if you decide to, or if you decide not too write the article)?

--Green Dragon 15:21, 2 April 2006 (MST)

About the "Knowledge Arcana" Article

Yes, thanks so much!

--Green Dragon 14:41, 4 April 2006 (MST)

About "trademarks"

Wow, thank you. Also, is it Okay that the site is "officially" called D&DWiki, or do I have to change that? Also, I really need to look through the OGL. Thanks for alerting me though. Also, how is the "Knowledge Arcana" article coming?

--Green Dragon 18:46, 9 April 2006 (MST)

Managing D&D Wiki for a Couple Days

I was hoping you could manage the site for a couple days (Friday then the Weekend). I am going Backpacking, and I want to make sure nothing happens to the site. I will be back Monday. I hope this will not be that big of a deal. Anyway, to know of everything that is going on, use the Recent changes and "Patrol" everything (You do not have to do yours, because you know what is going on with them). Anyway, thanks so much. Also, how is "Knowledge Arcane" article going (I will answer on Monday)?

--Green Dragon 20:22, 20 April 2006 (MST)

Barn Star!

Well, I gave you another Barn Star, thanks for adding the SRD. The problem with this is that it is in a akward place, but I hope it is not that big of a problem (it looks silly in other places). Thanks again for adding the SRD.

Also, thanks for watching over the site on the weekend, and I hope the article is coming along well.

--Green Dragon 11:51, 24 April 2006 (MST)

I made a thread about the SRD

So, on the Wizards Message Board I posted a thread about the SRD being done, the link is here. How does it look?

--Green Dragon 19:32, 25 April 2006 (MST)

About the [[Category:Balanced?]]

So, I just made a thing for people to help with unbalanced things on D&D Wiki (see here), if you know of any unbalanced things, add them (I am not really good at determining balance...). Anyway, I just wanted to tell you.

--Green Dragon 20:50, 25 April 2006 (MST)

Hello

Hello my name is Wolfen and I'm admid of the d20 Modern section and I hear that you are planing a MSRD section, well if there is any help you need feel free to ask. - Wolfen

Akk

I have no idea what perl is, so I don't think I'll be that much help.

Wondering about the MSRD

Hey, I told Wolfen Fenrison to ask you about helping with the MSRD, as I saw that he did :). Anyway, what have you guys decided? Are you going to add it? I mean, I do not really know how many people actually use the D20 Modern part, is it worth your time? Tell me what you think.

--Green Dragon 13:25, 29 April 2006 (MST)

MSRD Probably not going to get done...

Well, because no one really wants to lead the MSRD it most likely will not get done, also I am not trying to get you to do it by telling you what is happening with it, I mean, who really goes to the D20 Modern part of D&D Wiki? Almost no changes are made on the D20 Modern part... So, maybe in the future it will get done, but right now I'm not expecting it.

Glad you started doing things again, I haven't really seen you do much in a while (until today). Anyway, cheers.

--Green Dragon 17:08, 7 May 2006 (MDT)

What's the problem?

Hm.... What exactly is wrong? I can open those pages form my PC... Also, if this is a technical issue, I would recommend asking Blue Dragon about the problem, he is the techie on D&D Wiki.

Hope you can get it resolved,

--Green Dragon 12:05, 8 May 2006 (MDT)

Problem viewing pages fixed

Hey Dmilewski. I recently fixed the problems that you were experiencing. The problem was that those pages were larger than my default allocation for memory (8M) through PHP (it is a security feature). I upped it up to 40M for the Dandwiki settings, so if a page is producing an error similar to that, let me know, and I will up it again. The reason that the PHP script was using up more than 8M of RAM is partially because I use a Debian "Stable" release for this server, so I am not using the latest version of PHP, and partly because the diff engine in MediaWiki analyzed the differences between two different histories using the entire page as one large string. The two pages that you were not able to load where larger than 6M (MediaWiki uses about 2M), and so the PHP "security" feature was blocking the script from continuing to run. If there is another page that produces the same error, please let me know! Thanks, --Blue Dragon 15:13, 8 May 2006 (MDT)

About the Random Nation Generation Tables

Hey. Pz.Az.04Maus made the Random Nation Generation Tables (3.5e Variant Rule), and I was wondering if they could be merged with the Wikiworld. I mean, they are the same thing, right? The Wikiworld is about an entire setting, this would fit right in. Anyway, tell me if anything needs to be done to make them merge, especially since their is nothing on the Random Nation Generation Tables. It shouldn't be a problem I hope. --Green Dragon 13:59, 14 May 2006 (MDT)

Know

Just so you know, we're moving them to our databaase server, so any changes you made since last night, including this note to youre talk page and any other changes to the wiki whatsoever since early yesterday afternoon will be lost. Database errors may also be common till the move is complete. Elliott Cable ‹talk› ‹contribs› 11:39, 16 May 2006 (MDT)

Truly Know

Just so that you truly know, nothing is currently being moved to any new database server. There is a proposed integration into enterwiki, but Green-Dragon currently wants to think about it for awhile. The problem was not in the database, but in the connection between PHP and MySQL. I used to be on a stable Debian Sarge 3.1r0A setup, but I recently upgraded everything to the latest unstable version. I had troubles upgrade mysql-server and mysql-client because the 4.0 deb package was depricated, so I had to first remove it and then install mysql-server-5.0 and mysql-client-5.0. The uninstallation caused dependency conflicts with the newly installed PHP5, specifically with php5-mysql, so I had to uninstall that as well. I forgot to reinstall it, so the server has been trying to run all of the queries off of php4-mysql. I fixed this problem by replacing php4-mysql with php5-mysql. Sorry for all of the problems, and thank you for letting me know about it!

--Blue Dragon 17:38, 16 May 2006 (MDT)

Problem (hopefully) fixed

Okay, I repaired the myisam database file manually and it looks like everything should work. The problem was not just in PHP's connection to MySQL, but also in the actual transfer of the MySQL files from version 4.0 to 5.0. It broke the wdd_searchindex.MYI file, which was the search index for the site. Because modifying pages required changing the search index, this sometimes broke. Sorry for the problems, and hopefully they are fixed now.

--Blue Dragon 17:25, 17 May 2006 (MDT)

About the "OGL" Warning on the SRD

Hey... I was thinking, as I was adding some OGL Material to D&D Wiki, that we need a easy and good looking "Warning this page is OGL" header. So, I stole Wikipedia's template for copyrighted pictures, changed the words, and made it into the "Warning this page is OGL". Now the SRD problem arose, with all the pages being OGL liscensed, and all needing the new header. I asked Blue Dragon to make me a bot to change it all, and he did. Just giving you a heads up, and if you do not like how it looks, just edit Template:OGL License, and they should all be changed. --Green Dragon 00:54, 5 June 2006 (MDT)

You should put the new header on all the pages you just made.... Also, make sure you lock them, because you forgot a lot. However, it is not that big of a deal, I went through and locked all he ones you forgot to do. --Green Dragon 21:08, 5 June 2006 (MDT)

Something for everyone...

3 --Pz.Az.04Maus 13:52, 6 June 2006 (MDT)

About the OGL box

Hello. I have been thinking about it, and you might be right. My problem is that it is really important to have the "Warning" sign on there, making it so people do not consider this material published under the GNU Free Doc License. So, I think I have a solution, and you need to tell me what you think about it. My solution would be to make a smaller template at the top of the page, just one line, that says something like "This material is not published under the GNU Free Doc Licence, instead it is published under the Open Game License 1.0a, see the bottom of this page for more details." Then ,the bottom of the page would have the old license statement. The "Top" license statement would look something like this:

This material is published under the OGL 1.0a.

--Green Dragon 14:30, 6 June 2006 (MDT)

PLEASE DO NOT MOVE THE LISCENSE WARNGINGS TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGES, IT WILL JUST MAKE THE BOT NOT BE ABLE TO READ THEM, if you want them all changed to the above way. --Green Dragon 15:26, 6 June 2006 (MDT)

I got rid of them, anyway, you can see how it looks on the first items in the OGL category. Is it alright? --Green Dragon 16:24, 6 June 2006 (MDT)

So, you should change it. Go to Template:OGL Top and change it around. Also, should the bottom one still be on the page, or should the top one be the only one and say something like: Go here for more information, with the "here" being click-able and going to the other one (or a page that is all about the licenses)? --Green Dragon 17:21, 6 June 2006 (MDT)

Also, on all the items you add make sure to get rid of the "Category:OGL License", it is not needed anymore as the OGL License Footer automatically adds it to that category (actually, it adds it to category:OGL because category:OGL License is redundant). Looks better already (OGL top) --Green Dragon 17:33, 6 June 2006 (MDT)

It's not worth your time to change any to the new way, the bot that Blue Dragon made will do it all, don't over work yourself :) . Actually, I'm just waiting on you to say that this is how you want it to begin to run the bot. So, is it good? --Green Dragon 17:40, 6 June 2006 (MDT)

I will be going away soon

I will be leaving on a vacation (LONG VACATION, about 1 and and a half months) Tuesday for Germany, and I was wondering if you could watch over the site while I was gone. Their will be many things you will have to do, and it will take a while. I will be able to check this site a couple times while I am in Germany, but not that often. So, here is what you, if you agree, will have to

1. Check Recent Changes, check every edit that is not by you or Pz.Az.04Maus.
2. DO NOT IMPLEMEMT ANY NEW POLICIES/MAJOR CHANGES
3. Check for malicious edits, if you find one, ROLLBACK THAT EDIT.
4. Make sure that any new pages created have the "Back to" footer.
5. If the site goes down (Power outage where Blue Dragon and I keep the server) please email hgabert@xmission.com and tell them to reboot the server or check the server.

I will post more things here soon, that is as soon as I can think of the rest, but could you do this? --Green Dragon 11:44, 11 June 2006 (MDT)

Thanks so much. I will be able to check it a couple times, but not that much. Just watch out mainly for malicious edits or D&D Wiki not working. Thanks again. --Green Dragon 01:14, 12 June 2006 (MDT)

Well... Best of luck with keeping the site up, I will be going in the morning. Please remember to make sure things are Wikified and no malicious edits happen. Hope all goes well, and email hgabert@xmisison.com if the site goes down. Farewell. --Green Dragon 23:07, 12 June 2006 (MDT)

Hope the site is going well, and best of luck with keeping it well. Also, How is the site doing? What is new? Lots of malisious edits? Very few? Thanks for keeping up with the site, and you know what to do if the site goes down. Thanks so much. --Green Dragon 12:34, 21 June 2006 (MDT)

Hope the site is going well, and best of luck, I will be able to log in more where I am at now (Chemnitz) so I should be able to help around a bit. --Green Dragon 03:19, 24 June 2006 (MDT)

I will not be able to check the site for 2 weeks from now, so please remmember to keep up with what is going on, and best of luck. Thanks so much for doing this, and after these 2 weeks I will be able to resume control of the site (back home). Thanks, and remember to make sure things are wikified correctly. --Green Dragon 13:24, 11 July 2006 (MDT)

The site has been going well. There are very few malicious edits. We've picked up a few folks who are doing some nice organizing and writing work. We had an outage, which I haven't been able to follow up on. (I was camping for a weekend.) All in all, we've had a very nice level of activity.

Cool, hope camping was fun. I was able to get on a bit in Germany, but now I need to see what has been going on these past 2 weeks. Anyway, I'm back, thanks for looking after the site. --Green Dragon 10:15, 29 July 2006 (MDT)

Google Analytics...

Would it perhaps be an idea to create something that monitors everyone who Comes in? I've recently signed up for something called "Google Analytics," And the invitation code came in. Please Respond soon. Also, here's a link to Google Analytics, and I'll post what the message said in a moment (minus some things). Please Reply soon. --Pz.Az.04Maus 11:49, 21 June 2006 (MDT)

Quote:

Google Analytics™

Hello,

We are ready for you to create your Google Analytics account! Please follow the instructions below to redeem your invitation code.

Notice: If your site receives more than 5 million pageviews per month, you must have a linked AdWords account with at least one active campaign. Use Option 1 below to automatically link your AdWords account.

If your site receives more than 5 million pageviews per day, please contact us by replying to this message before signing up so that we can ensure proper capacity planning.

Option 1: If you have an AdWords account

Signing up for Analytics is easy to do through your AdWords account:

1. Log in to your AdWords account at adwords.google.com and click the Analytics tab

1. When prompted for your unique invitation code, enter the characters below:

@@@@-@@@@@-@@@@

That's it, you're done! Skip to the bottom of this message.

---

Option 2: If you don't have an AdWords account

To sign up without an AdWords account, you'll need to first make sure that you have a free Google Account before continuing with the sign-up process.

A Google Account is a single email address and password combination that allows you to log in to a variety of Google services, including Analytics, AdWords, Google Groups and your personalized Google home page.

1. To create your free Google Account, click the link below. Once you've provided your information, you'll need to respond to the verification email that we send you.

https://www.google.com/analytics/home/

1. Next, add Google Analytics to your Google Account. Click the link below to start the Google Analytics sign-up process, and enter your Google Account information in the login box provided.

https://www.google.com/analytics/home/

1. When prompted for your unique invitation code, enter the characters below:

@@@@-@@@@@-@@@@

Thanks for your interest in Google Analytics! For additional questions about goals, filters, tracking and more, please visit the Analytics Help Center. If you're unable to find an answer to your question on our site, feel free to reply to this email.

Once you've installed Google Analytics, we invite you to explore the content in our Conversion University for ideas on best practices and useful techniques.

Sincerely,

The Google Analytics Team

Hmm. I would table this until Greendragon gets back. If you really must follow this thread, pitch the idea to Bluedragon. Since we run our own servers, we may already be keeping our own logs, so I am not sure that we would get any payoff from this service. --Dmilewski 12:17, 21 June 2006 (MDT)

Alrights, I'll keep this in mind until the Dragons get back. --Pz.Az.04Maus 12:18, 21 June 2006 (MDT)

We already have an account... If you want to get on (you can only do this if Blue Dragon gave you the password for the auto patroller as they are the same) login as kasimir.g=AT=gmail.com and check it out. I hope this goes with what zou guzs are talking about. --Green Dragon 12:34, 21 June 2006 (MDT)

That's weird. I tried logging in (Blue Dragon sent the password) and it keeps on thinking I'm the wrong person. are you sure that login name is correct? It might be either me (because I always put on, "Remember me" whenever I get into my Google account), or the name you gave to me. --Pz.Az.04Maus 12:51, 21 June 2006 (MDT)

(I'm starting to think that this is ironic that we're using Dmilewski's page instead of someone elses, for some reason.)

I dont know what to say... make sure you are logged off your account, then log onto google analytics with kasimir.g@gmail.com, it should work (seeing that I just logged on from a random computer in Germany). Also, make sure you type the pasword right. Finnally, Dmilewski, do you want the log-in password? If so, email me at great.wyrm.green.dragon@gmail.com and will give you the password. --Green Dragon 03:17, 24 June 2006 (MDT)

Did it work? --Green Dragon 05:48, 28 June 2006 (MDT)

Not sure, didn't try it yet. Will do so in a moment (or 20 :3)... --Pz.Az.04Maus 02:10, 3 July 2006 (MDT)

Thats a long moment... Did it work? --Green Dragon 03:02, 9 July 2006 (MDT)

It will not work. There are many other accounts for websites on that username, so the password automatically switches. We do have all of the logs for D&D Wiki, seeing that this is running on a (nearly) dedicated server. I am really not sure what the purpose of having the logs or Googlen Analytics information available to the entire world. I would be fine letting just the admins have a username and password (username would probably be analytics@dandwiki.com), but it would be great if I understood why... (it is not really all that interesting and a relatively large security risk). Please respond! --Blue Dragon 10:04, 21 July 2006 (MDT)

I rather agree with BD on this point. I still don't know what we would actually get out of knowing this information. We are such a specialized site that we know who our audience is, and we know what audience we want. Given that, I think that all we would get is a useless level of detail.--Dmilewski 10:33, 21 July 2006 (MDT)

I'll be gone for 1-2 Weeks

Hello. I'm going away again for 1-2 weeks, terribly sorry. Anyway, I hope you can find the time to do what you did when I went to Germany, and I Hope you can actually help out D&D Wiki. I told Sledged and Oneiros (and of course Pz.Az.04Maus) that I will be going, so hopefully they can help out, but they might now be able to. Hope all goes well, and I will probally check up on D&D Wiki while I am gone. --Green Dragon 12:53, 3 August 2006 (MDT)

Sadly to say, I'm also having to leave for about 2 weeks (Damn me forgot to tell before the whole thing was done), so I'm sorry to say that you guys are going to have to do update/malicious user duty, and start scrubbing the floors with a toothbrush (^_^;;). --Pz.Az.04Maus 18:27, 13 August 2006 (MDT)

I'm back, just letting you know. Also, I hope D&D Wiki was fine while I was gone, I am checking up on it now. This might be to much to ask, but could you give me a heads up on what happened while I was gone on my user-talk? --Green Dragon 21:31, 16 August 2006 (MDT)

Missing a feat on the SRD

I was adding some NBoF Feats to the DnD Divine Feats list, and found out that their is no "Divine Might" on D&D Wiki's SRD. Could you please add it, or am I missing something/doing something wrong? I am pretty sure that "Divine Might" is SRD... --Green Dragon 11:59, 26 August 2006 (MDT)

Wow.... never mind, I am retarded. I searched D&D Wiki for "Divine Might (SRD Feat)" where I should have been searching for "Divine Might (SRD Divine Feat)". Sorry for this.... --Green Dragon 12:22, 26 August 2006 (MDT)

SRD Errata

I was browsing through the SRD, and I noticed some sections that have the errata applied to them (specifically alternate form). This gave me some ideas I've been kicking around in my head:

• I noticed that the lines that WotC deleted from the rules have strikethroughs instead of just being removed. How about in addition, making the added lines standout somehow; underline? slightly larger text? different color?
• Sometimes when browsing through the SRD/Core Rule Books, people spot things that don't look right. I know specifically that many SRD monsters have oddly allocated skill points/modifiers. We could have a page that has a running list of discrepancies, and the status of each ("fixed", "not a mistake", "fix & reported to WotC", etc...).
• Each page that has changes applied to it cites a reference to the correcting authority, or have a breakdown of how a stat or modifier was calculated.

Sound good, bad, or other? —Sledged 12:35, 29 August 2006 (MDT)

The whole idea of strike-throughs was so that readers could more-easily spot the polymorph errata. Highlighting the new text makes sense, and since I have to reapply these changes after the most recent set of creature edits, it should be fairly easy to do.

The version of the SRD that I am using already has most errata incorporated, so marking all the changes from the first version would be quite difficult for me.

I have fixed numerous small errors, but I have made little effort to document those changes. To more fully annotate the SRD is a huge task, and one that I am not up to. However, we do have a discussions page for each page, which is where I put my commentaries on any particular entry.

I think it best if we add a page for Report Errors or Problems in the SRD. We should carry on any further discussion on that page. --Dmilewski 13:27, 29 August 2006 (MDT)

DnD Equipment

Just curious, what exactly where you doing on DnD Equipment? Just basic formatting on all the equipment? I am only wondering because I did not go through every one of your edits, I just auto-patrolled them all, looking at only about 50. --Green Dragon 16:19, 9 September 2006 (MDT)

Thanks for giving me the heads up on what you are doing, at least I feel better about how I did not go through all your edits... Thanks for telling me. --Green Dragon 09:47, 10 September 2006 (MDT)

Consolidating SRD Special Abilities

How do you feel about cutting down on the number of pages in the SRD? On thing I noticed is that there are five general pages on special abilities; two lists (Special Abilities and Creature Special Abilities), and three pages about Su, Sp, and Ex abilities (Special Abilities Descriptor, About Special Abilities, and Psionic Special Abilities). I think we could consolidate them into just one list page and one Su, Sp, and Ex abilities page.

Additionally, many of the individual abilities have two pages (e.g. Ability Drain, Blindsense, Darkvision, Low-light Vision, etc...). These could be streamlined, as well.

Thoughts? —Sledged 16:21, 5 October 2006 (MDT)

I think it might help, when I browse the SRD many a time it is very hard to find what I am looking for, and I believe that merging certain pages may fix this problem. --Green Dragon 19:34, 5 October 2006 (MDT)

When breaking out the SRD, I found a conflict between useability and linkability. One serves the human readability while the other is easier to search for and link to as a definition.

Some sections do have two or more pages. Those often came from different sections of the SRD, as different sections had redundant info. I'll put these things on my to-do list and see what I can come up with. Maybe I can work out something more elegant. Would something like Spell Descriptions (SRD Rules) work better, where I have the full page text, but it also links to the definition based on that text?

I should also add that rearranging is getting harder and harder as I go. More and more stuff is linked together. --Dmilewski 20:44, 5 October 2006 (MDT)

Just be sure to make extensive use of the "What links here" link in the toolbox. It'll tell you every page that has a link to the page in question. —Sledged 20:34, 6 October 2006 (MDT)

Let me set a few expectations. The SRD has grown in complexity. It is over 3,000 pages in size. Structural changes are taking longer and longer to implement. Moving over to the new category system took almost two months. Redoing creatures took almost two months. Right now, I see a time crunching racing down at me. I have a baby coming in February, so I need to choose shorter, higher-payback projects in the SRD. If I can do simple things to help readabilty, I will. I'll scratch my head and work on ideas. I won't do any major restructuring right now, though. I need to wrap up many other tasks.

When I designed the SRD, I opted for small, searchable chunks over larger, browsable chunks. I sacrificed browsability to ehance searchability and categorizing. I opted for redundancy over making editorial decisions on the text. I opted for easier to remember pages to help user whens linking. My current challenge is "how do I maintain all the advantages of those systems while improving usability?" I think that I can have readability, searchability, and non-redundancy, in some combination, but never all three at once. I'll always need to compromise on something.--Dmilewski 14:51, 8 October 2006 (MDT)

I see your dilemma. Then would you mind if I took a crack at it? My approach would be to use Creature Special Abilities as a base, since these are the ones that mirror what's in the MM, and WotC's policy is that the MM is the primary source for special abilities. Using Special Abilities, which are the ones that reflect what's in the DMG, I'd modify Creature Special Abilities only adding rule information that isn't already there and that doesn't contradict what's there.

From there I'd find all the links that point to Special Abilities and its listed abilities, and link them to Creature Special Abilities and its listed abilities instead. From the looks of things, this part is not very difficult, but very tedious and time consuming.

After that, it would just be a matter of deleting Special Abilities and its abilities. —Sledged 16:34, 9 October 2006 (MDT)

Alright. Give it a try. I did some poking about and I think this may be a quicker task than I thought. Once done, if you and GreenDragon agree this works better, then we'll figure out what else makes sense to reassemble. --Dmilewski 21:25, 10 October 2006 (MDT)

So you do not want Sledged to actually implement it, you would rather he create a "dummy" to see if it is better, than have everyone decide if it is better, than implement it? Is this what you are thinking? I may have interpreted what you said earlier very wrong if this is not the case... --Green Dragon 22:38, 10 October 2006 (MDT)

LOL. No. I left that open to you. Pilot, resolve differences, determine which other areas to consolidate, then go. Once I have a model to follow that you all like better, I can pitch back in.

Just to be on the safe side, I think I'll go with the "dummy" pages idea. Then I'll implement when I get the go-ahead. —Sledged 14:35, 12 October 2006 (MDT)

Great. After that, we can work on "the front page problem". The whole structure really needs a good shakedown. The usability of the landing page is poorish.

Submitted for your approval; Special Abilities restructured.

As Green Dragon pointed out, the OGL header is not displayed on any of the pages. I've commented them for now, because I don't want them to show up in any of the category lists, and the header template has the OGL category assignment. Once I'm done and ready to change the SRD, I'll uncomment them along with the other category assignments. —Sledged 09:26, 17 October 2006 (MDT)

Wow. Nice. That page looks great. Now I *SEE* what you were aiming at. If that's your goal, have at it. The restructured page by itself is a huge improvement. Do that to the landing page. Oh, yeah. :) That's the kind of thing that I'd been hoping to do to the SRD when I got time. --Dmilewski 11:08, 17 October 2006 (MDT)

Okay, I've got the special abilities migrated. Some of the old special abilities pages had a good number of links to them, so they are still present, but are now redirects to the new pages.

Did you have any ideas for how you wanted the main SRD page restructured? —Sledged 12:35, 18 October 2006 (MDT)

No, not really. At least, nothing that I am happy with. This is why I never did anything about it. You can keep it together. You can break it into parts and arranged them like creature abilities. Whatever looks and works best, really. --Dmilewski 14:58, 18 October 2006 (MDT)

Baby in February

Best of luck with your baby in February, and I hope everything goes well. --Green Dragon 22:30, 8 October 2006 (MDT)

Yes, best of luck! Which one will this be for you? First? Second? Thirteenth? —Sledged 16:34, 9 October 2006 (MDT)

Thirteen? It would be like your living in Utah. --Green Dragon 23:32, 9 October 2006 (MDT)

Thanks. :) This is #1. --Dmilewski 21:10, 10 October 2006 (MDT)

That's what I thought because you were married recently (1 year ago?), right? --Green Dragon 22:35, 10 October 2006 (MDT)

Don't know how your wife feels about complete strangers coming up to her and putting their hands on her belly, but if it's anything like the way my wife felt (and after a while, I got tired of watching it occur), I'd recommend getting you getting her a taser. Too many women think that just because they've been pregnant themselves, they have the right to put their hands on any expectant mother's belly. A good taserin' might help to teach them differently.

And the idea of a pregnant woman tasering someone highly amuses me. —Sledged 14:35, 12 October 2006 (MDT)

Been married about 18 months now. :) She's been warned about random strangers walking up to her. The strange ritual has not yet started to occur, though. I'm sure that it will. --Dmilewski 14:49, 12 October 2006 (MDT)

Going away for 4 Days

Hello. I am going to be going away this weekend (Today to Sunday night). So, if you have some spare time it would be very appreciated if you could check Recent Changes and make sure things are correctly wikified and their are no spam edits. I hope you can help, and thanks in advance. --Green Dragon 11:43, 12 October 2006 (MDT)

Back. --Green Dragon 11:36, 15 October 2006 (MDT)

SRD Front Page

Discussion moved here.

What do you think about this SRD landing page prototype? —Sledged 16:07, 20 October 2006 (MDT)

I see what you are trying to do, and I like it. One's first impression is a mish-mash, but that clears up once you start reading. A clever use of visual cues should help a great deal. Lines/shadine/whatnot. --Dmilewski 05:55, 21 October 2006 (MDT)

I see it as only a little less confusing than the curent main page, wich is very confusing. You might want to look at http://www.d20srd.com for ideas. --Green Dragon 12:09, 21 October 2006 (MDT)

The more I look at it, the less I like it. I was trying to find a layout that didn't have too many similarities to d20srd.com, but after playing around with it, it seems like the only options are to fully integrate Psionics, Epic, and Divine rules, or keep them seperate. All or nothing. —Sledged 16:17, 22 October 2006 (MDT)

Let me rethink this a bit. The role of the landing page is to intuitively point the user to the (Link Package) that best suits his interest. The links need not be unique to each package. [Wikis do redundancy very well. It's a strength of the medium.] You can create all sorts of pages with links to all sorts of groupings with relatively low overhead. So I think the best thing to do is to create a set of high-level links that are easy for the user to identify, which then lead to more fully linked pages. [Character Creation] would collect to all things characters, while [Psionics] would collect all things psionic. With dynamic pages, some lists become very easy to create. For example, all the psionic creatures can easily be added to psionics. --Dmilewski 09:10, 23 October 2006 (MDT)

Therein lies the problem. If I have both [Character Creation] and [Psionics], under which do I put psionic classes? One, the other, or both?

I have a few styles put together on the prototype page. The first three are attempts to partially integrate the supplemental rules with the core rules. The fourth, has them completely separate (this one most resembles d20srd.com). And the last one has the supplemental rules fully integrated with the core rules. —Sledged 14:58, 23 October 2006 (MDT)

Honestly, I don't fully like any of the new prototypes. (FYI, I never liked any of mine, either. It's a tough nut, I tell you.) Of the choices, I prefer the fully integrated example, #5. If you put a space between the columns, that would help. As to where to put things, put them where it makes sense. If psionic classes can be in two locations, then put them in two locations. There's no reason to make a link exclusive. --Dmilewski 09:54, 24 October 2006 (MDT)

Discussion moved here.

DPL2 Warnings

I noticed there's a warning showing up in following pages: Psionic Creatures (SRD), SRD Infrastructure, SRD Alignment, SRD:Creatures, and SRD:Races. I looked up the DPL2 extension and apparently the 'suppresserrors' parameter has become obsolete (as of DLP2 0.6) due to the 'debug' parameter. So I removed 'suppresserrors=true' and added 'debug=1' instead. —Sledged 22:29, 20 October 2006 (MDT)

Going away for the Weekend

I am going to be going away this weekend to Southern Utah. So, if you have some spare time it would be very appreciated if you could check Recent Changes and make sure things are correctly wikified and their are no spam edits, etc. I hope you can help, and thanks in advance. --Green Dragon 12:41, 27 October 2006 (MDT)

Back, and I am very sorry about the sites down time (new Linux Kernels can be dangerous...). --Green Dragon 08:37, 30 October 2006 (MST)