GargWiki talk:Community Portal

Since someone suggested it earlier, I decided to go ahead and open up the community portal for general discussions/suggestions for the whole of GargWiki. Enjoy! --Moeen 17:33, 7 September 2007 (CDT)

Yay! Thank you Moeen. Now I have a place to make a suggestion: Does the side and border of the website have to be bright white? I like the dark blue of the rest of the site, it is easier on the eyes, but the white is hard on the eyes. Maybe it could be some other color, such as light blue? I know this is minor but little aesthetic things impact a website's overall viewing experience. -- Vaevictis Asmadi 23:06, 7 September 2007 (CDT)

You're welcome.  :-) As for the background, I think in order to change it you have to edit the default skin used by the wiki, which is not something I know how to do, but I'm sure it can be done. Speaking of knowing how to do things, the link to Help on the sidebar links to a page that doesn't even exist! It would be nice if you could actually get help from the help page. Maybe some of the people running this place can put something there? Surely there's a MediaWiki manual for this site? Also, we could put up some general guidelines for writing articles on the GargWiki in the help section or on a related page. --Moeen 12:20, 8 September 2007 (CDT)

Yes! A very good idea. And filling out the Help page would also be good. -- Vaevictis Asmadi 10:49, 9 September 2007 (CDT)

Italics

Got another question. I've gone through the wiki and italicized all capitalized references to Gargoyles the television show and Gargoyles the property. Should references to Gargoyles the comic book also be italicized? Right now the wiki is inconsistent, but I have seen Gargoyles: Bad Guys italicized. -- Vaevictis Asmadi 23:21, 7 September 2007 (CDT)

Just my opinion, but I do think the title of both the television series and the comic book series (as opposed to the titles of episodes/issues) should be consistently italicized - gdw

I've been using Wikipedia conventions (which I always fall back on in cases of confusion), which basically say television series, plays, films, comic book series, etc are all italicized. Episode titles are not italicized, but they are put in inverted commas "". On GargWiki we tend to use both italics and quotation marks for episode citations, but I think that's a special case. -- Supermorff 10:32, 8 September 2007 (CDT)

So I went through and changed all the ones I could find. But here's a question. We're italicizing the names of episodes and comic issues in this Wiki. Should we also italicize the parenthises? The current state seems slightly inconsistent. My personal preference is to leave the parenthises non-italicized, but my main interest is to standardize the formatting throughout the Wiki. What format should we set? We could do it like this: ("Monsters") or like this: ("Monsters"). -- Vaevictis Asmadi 14:29, 13 September 2007 (CDT)

Are we italicizing the episodes and comic issues? I'm not sure that's consistent on the wiki either. But my opinion of it is that it is the citation that is italicized, not the episode. So I prefer italicizing the parenthises too, but that's just my preference. -- Supermorff 17:19, 13 September 2007 (CDT)

Creating new pages

OK, I'm still a bit new to wiki-ing, so I'm not familiar with all the procedure. I'd like to add a new page for the Disney Adventures comic "A Study In Stone" (which would be counted in Apocrypha, of course, but I don't knw how to make a new page, or even if I can, not being a mod. Help? -- Demonskrye 14 September 2007

You absolutely can! Anyone can create a page, and you can do it in one of two ways.

The first way: if you edit a page to include a link to your required article (in this case by adding the text [[A Study In Stone]]) it will produce a red (broken) link. Note that, when you edit a page to make a link like this, you can just use the preview button and you don't even need a to save. Next, you click on the red link (as if it was a non-broken, regular link), and it will take you to that page's "edit page". From there you can edit the page as if it already existed, and when you save it'll be right there.

The second way: you type in the title you want in the search bar to the left of the screen and push "Go". It will tell you that "No page with this exact title exists". If you click on the red link on the words "this exact title", it will send you to the edit page of the page you want.

If you want to practice first, try creating your own user page by clicking on the link to User:Demonskrye. -- Supermorff 09:15, 14 September 2007 (CDT)

Much thanks! The article for A Study in Stone is now up and viewable in the Aprocrypha category. We can move it into one of the sub-categories, but until "Apocrypha Epsiodes" becomes something like "Apocrypha Storylines", I don't think there's an appropriate one for it. Also, I'd suggest that we put the info for making a new page into the now empty "Help" section.

A similar question. I've now done a couple of articles for the Disney Adventures comics, so I think we could use a "Disney Adevntures" subcategory in Category:Apocrypha. I checked over on MediaWiki, but I'm still confused about how a subcategory is made. -- Demonskrye 17 September 2007

Those pages look pretty good. Creating a category is just like creating a page, except that you need to include the "Category:" prefix (note the colon). So either add the category to a page and use the red link, or type "Category:Whatever" into the search bar and hit "go", then proceed as before. For a subcategory, you just need to categorize the category. -- Supermorff 16:33, 17 September 2007 (CDT)

Help

Since there's nothing in the help section, at some point I'll copy the help pages from MediaWiki here. In the meantime, you can find all the help you need here. --Moeen 12:03, 15 September 2007 (CDT)

Google rankings

On 19 September 2007 (about 7 pm GMT), a search for 'Gargoyles' on Google turns up GargWiki at number 92 (the Gargoyles page on Wikiquote is 93). 'Gargoyles+Disney' is even worse at 132, and even then the link is to Category:Apocrypha (there's another link to the Episode Guide at 145). 'Gargoyles+TV' has a link to Grimorum at 18, but GargWiki doesn't appear until 75 (Talk:Main Page).

Obviously, this is not a great situation to be in. Wikia has a few suggestions to improve the rankings here. Section 2 is particularly interesting. -- Supermorff 13:24, 19 September 2007 (CDT)

So perhaps our rankings would be better if the name of the main page was something like "GargWiki - The Disney's Gargoyles Wiki" rather than the way we have it now, which Google may not get? Demonskrye 19 September 2007

I don't feel that Google rankings are as important as other might think, and our priority should be to improve the content here as best we can. But regardless, whatever you do don't spam or vandalize other sites with links to GargWiki. It is precisely this kind of behavior (see here for a more specific example) that got us blocked from Wikipedia, and probably other sites as well. If that happens, we'll be down even lower than we are now with the rankings. So please keep that in mind. --Moeen 15:25, 19 September 2007 (CDT)

That's true. I didn't think of that. Yeah, I never meant to even imply that spamming other sites was in any way a good thing. Cos it's not. Seriously.

But changing the name of the Main Page might not be a bad idea, as long as we can do it without causing too much disruption. "GargWiki - The Gargoyles Wiki" is probably enough, or just "Gargoyles Wiki" as inour logo. But it might make the page look odd. I notice that the Main Pages on Wikipedia and Wikia sites don't have titles, as other pages do. Is there some way we could do that here? If not... maybe it's not worth it. I don't know. -- Supermorff 16:12, 19 September 2007 (CDT)

Community Portal upgrade

I'm thinking of moving this page to GargWiki talk:Community Portal, and turning GargWiki:Community Portal into an actual project page. I mean a proper "Welcome to the Community Portal, and here's what we got going on" sort of project page. We could have links to all the ongoing discussions throughout the wiki, which would be useful, and I'm also thinking of having a "Requested pages" section, where users can (basically) request a page. Thoughts? Comments? -- Supermorff 12:54, 8 November 2007 (CST)

Sounds like a good idea. This site really does need a page introducing new users or potential users to how things work around here. Plus we really need some guidelines, and given that there doesn't seem to exist any anywhere on this site, this would be good place to set some up.--Moeen 14:43, 11 November 2007 (CST)

GargWiki:Policy has some behavioural guidelines, if that's what you mean. Is that what you meant? But anyway, since this could be a complicated reorganisation I'll start writing up a draft of the new page before I start doing anything. -- Supermorff 10:28, 12 November 2007 (CST)

I've written up a page - not quite everything I had originally intended, but it's a good start and we can always expand it later. I'll make the switch-over now. -- Supermorff 09:12, 1 December 2007 (CST)

Done. -- Supermorff 09:20, 1 December 2007 (CST)

A history lesson

Does anyone here know how GargWiki came to be made? When was it started, and who by, and what prompted its creation? I'm just asking because it would be nice to get a little background (not necessarily a lot) to flesh out the page GargWiki:About. I know that it must have been created on or shortly before 26 July 2006, because that's the first edit I can find and it's also when User:Jeb, User:Greg Bishansky and User:Trio were made administrators. If anyone does know, feel free to answer either here or at GargWiki talk:About... or just add the information to the page. Thanks in advance. -- Supermorff 10:38, 12 November 2007 (CST)

Upgrading the Wiki

Looking into Matt's suggestion for an Appearances section, I've noticed that this wiki lacks some of the functionality of other wikis because it's out of date. In particular, the version of MediaWiki used here is 1.5.1, whereas the latest version is 1.11.0. Granted we usually don't use the full functionality of the wiki, but it's still useful to stay up to date. Not being a system admin, I can't update the wiki myself, but it would be nice if whoever is the system admin is would do so.

As far as using Wikipedia's referencing system, to install it follow the installation instructions here. It's only two steps, but requires accessing the system, something I can't do, but a system admin would be able to do.

P.S. Happy New Years to everyone! --Moeen 03:00, 1 January 2008 (CST)

I commented on this at Talk:Appearences Section, but I'll repeat myself here: you can search for admins by using Special:Listusers, but the ones that are most likely to be able to help you are Greg B, Matt, or Jeb.

Happy New Year to you too. -- Supermorff 15:34, 5 January 2008 (CST)

Sounds like you guys know more about the Wikipedia software than I do. You'll have to talk to Jeb or Greg B. -- Matt 15:36, 5 January 2008 (CST)

Alright, thanks. I'll inform Jeb and Greg B. on their talk pages and see it they can do something about it.--Moeen 15:44, 5 January 2008 (CST)

Speculation

Poking around the wiki, I think that there are a few too many places where personal speculation makes its way into the articles. Now there's speculation that I think is OK and speculation that I think doesn't belong here. Speculation that I think is OK is speculation that's based on established real world or Gargoyles universe fact. For example, since we know that gargoyle children generally receive physical characteristics from both parents, often favoring the appearance of the same gender parent and the coloration of the opposite gender parent, it would be fair to speculated that children of know gargoyle couples will probably resemble both of their parents, possibly even in that pattern. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Artus will definitely look like a lavender Broadway, but the suggestion that he might have some of Broadway's physical features and Angela's coloring would be OK. If we didn't know that Elisa was going to be dead by 2198, I would consider it fair to say that she probably would be, given that she would be 230 years old by that time, which is well beyond human life expectancy as we currently know it. Short of major scientific breakthroughs or magical intervention, it would be safe to say that Elisa would probably not be around in roughly two centuries. I think Greg Weisman speculation is also fair game. greg has suggested, but never outright confirmed, that Zafiro and the gargoyle beasts may both have vestigial limbs, Zafiro due to appearing to be four limbed and the beasts as an evolutionary leftover from their common ancestor with gargoyles. I feel no problem with putting that in as canon-in-training as a possibility rather than a certainty until we either have Greg say it's not so (leading to it being deleted) or see someone take x-rays a Zafiro and/or the beasts (leading to it becoming canon). What I'm not OK with is speculation that is based more on guesses or predictions of character's behavior. I took a section out of Zafiro's article that suggested that his hair coloration and facial features could be presumed to be fairly common among the Mayan clan. We don't have any way of knowing that. We apparently know from Greg as canon-in-training that Zafiro's snake-like body structure is very common, despite the fact that he is the only current member of the clan to have it. But for all we know, he could be the only gargoyle in the Mayan clan with white hair and a serpentine face. Similarly, I think there's too much assumption about future hatchlings and their knowledge of their biological parentage. It is OK to assume that Nashville will have a closer relationship with Brooklyn and Katana for a while at least because they will be the only adult gargoyles he spends the majority of his time with. But once Brooklyn and family return to Manhattan, who knows? He may become particularly close to Angela or Broadway or Lex as well. And we have no evidence that Brooklyn and Katana will teach him to put importance on biological parentage. Yes, when he starts asking questions, he'll probably either be aware that Brook and Katana are his biological parents. But if they place no importance on that, if they tell him "We are two of your parents and we love you, but you have other parents and other family out there and some day you will get to see them and they will be just as much your family", it won't matter so much to him that the rest of the clan isn't related to him by blood. Same deal with Angela. It's more tempting to assume that she'll put more emphasis on biology because she is so interested in her own parentage. But things could change. When Nashville arrives and she actually sees the rest of the clan start to parent him, she may start to feel differently about what communal parenting really means. I think it's highly likely that she might tell her kids that she's their biological mother before they necessarily ask (though it's still not something I would assume). But I just don't think we can assume how she'll be raising kids who have yet to be conceived.

Thoughts? -- Demonskrye 10:47, 7 January 2008 (CST)

Apocrypha

At the head of any CIT article is a banner making it clear that's all it is. Shouldn't we have something similar for Apocrypha. To be clear, I think it's 100% appropriate for there to be articles here on, say, Dr. Phobos or Judge Bates, but shouldn't we have a (red?) flag of some kind at the top? -- gdw

This problem has been raised at Talk:Angels in the Night. -- Supermorff 05:26, 4 February 2008 (CST)

I'm glad this has come up again since the recent appearances of many of these apocrypha pages has beenn irking me. I like the idea a lot of a red flag banner at the top of such pages. I want this site to be about all things Gargoyles, including the non-canon stuff, but I think there needs to be a well seen line between the canon and the not canon, and that line is nearly invisible on pages like Dr. Phobos and Judge Bates. Frankly, I don't even like the apocyrpha sections on pages like Brooklyn. -- Matt 08:59, 4 February 2008 (CST)

If you do this, I think you should only provide the banners for in-universe apocryphal articles, and not the out-of-universe articles (issues, episodes, the video-game, etc.). -- Supermorff 04:59, 7 February 2008 (CST)

Actually, Supermorff, I was thinking this was something you'd be better at then myself. I have no idea how to create a banner. And I think we would all trust your skills and judgement. I don't mean to seem like I'm assigning you this though, but if you want to do it at some point, that'd be cool. -- Matt 07:45, 7 February 2008 (CST)

To be honest, this is way down at the bottom of "things I plan to do". Way down. Since I'm not entirely settled on the idea anyway, I probably won't get round to it for a long while.

But making a banner isn't so hard. Have a look at the source code at Template:CIT article, then just change the details a bit. You don't need to know what it all does (I don't), but you can figure out enough to get by. The text is easy to change, but you can also change the background (as long as you know the hex code of the colour you want) and other things. Then it's just a matter of tweaking until it looks the way you want it to. -- Supermorff 12:04, 7 February 2008 (CST)

I've created a Template:Apocrypha article and implemented it on some TGC character pages. It's not quite a banner, but let me know what you think. -- Supermorff 06:49, 26 April 2008 (CDT)

I love it. Great job man! -- Matt 08:02, 26 April 2008 (CDT)

Joining GargWiki

Okay, we really need a mechanism set up by which new users can join GargWiki. If we're still concerned about spamming, then we should get a system that is completely disconnected: something like the Ask Greg comment room, but just for this... Or we could actually redirect users to the Ask Greg comment room. Get them to say 'I have registered as such-and-such, please allow me to edit GargWiki'. Or something. Would this be possible? -- Supermorff 07:13, 4 February 2008 (CST)