User blog:LaytonLoztew/Wiki Suggestions

A wiki visual redesign has been brought up a few times between some wiki users. I think some visual changes would help the wiki, as the current look doesn't sit well with most I've talked to about it. Alongside a visual redesign, I would also like to see the wiki re-evaluated content-wise. The following are some ideas to consider that I've written down over time from browsing the wiki and talking to others. Maybe some of these would be suitable for a vote like the unreleased fangames category. The main points for a visual redesign are color scheme and maybe some images.

I am not backing all of these ideas equally, but I think they are worth thinking about. I encourage you to read the first two sections if anything.

=Other Changes to consider=

Discoverability

 * 1) Improve fangame discoverability. The "Games" section on the main page is great, something like this but with more fangames would be nicer to browse than a category page.
 * 2) Show newer fangames on the main page? Ideally the most popular or well-received fangames would be shown on the main page, but the same games are always here and in the navbar.
 * 3) Even though the wiki is english, non-english users can use the wiki as well. Japanese names are provided in game titles when appropriate, maybe there could be some way to have game titles in other languages to make finding these games easier? No ideas from me on how to do this, preferribly non-english names would return results in the regular search.

Creators removing downloads

 * 1) I read Facto's comment on Coma, and I agree with the idea but not how it is currently handled. I think it would be best to separate these games so users browsing for downloads do not encounter them. These pages have a history that can be used to find the downloads, so it only keeps them from users who don't know how to search through that. Delete the page (or wipe the history if possible), create a new one marked only as "Preserved", and make it clear that no download is to be available on the page. The random fangame navbar option (Main Page/Navbar # 2) would keep readers from randoming to the page. It would be up to readers to find these downloads elsewhere, like in an off-site archive. I truly think the real problem users have with this isn't that the download isn't available, its that they expect a download to be there if it has a game page and the creator or others coming to the page to remove the downloads themselves is removing info that isn't clearly forbidden on the page (currently) in the first place. Creators probably won't know to contact the wiki mods to have these pages transitioned, so mods can just react to when these situations happen in the future.

Horror

 * 1) Indicate which games contain horror/jump scares (through category and/or disclaimer on page?).

Game Galleries

 * 1) Show screenshots more prominently on the game page. Include the galleries in main game pages?

Main Page/Navbar

 * 1) Twitter embed is broken.
 * 2) A proper random fangame navbar option (Random page in fangame category). Maybe for characters as well?

Walkthroughs

 * 1) Indicate which walkthroughs are incomplete, and which game versions they apply to. Keep track of these as we do for incomplete character pages.
 * 2) Keep walkthroughs for previous versions? (Possible to link to previous versions of the page in the page?)

Playthrough Times

 * 1) It would be useful to know how long a game is on its game page. Either ranges (like <1 hour, 1-3 hours, ...., and so on) or users submitting their own playtimes. It would be better for fangame creators to provide their own average playtimes to show on the wiki instead, or to have a small set of wiki users submit playtimes to display on the page. My concern is that having what is effectively a leaderboard on game pages is not in-line with wiki content, but it would be useful and relevant information.

Other Wikis

 * 1) Link more prominently to fangame's dedicated wikis on their game page.
 * 2) Dotflow wiki is full of spam, should it still be linked to from the main page.

Dev Pages

 * 1) Dev navboxes ordered chronologically (maybe including the year of release alongside game names?)

Most of these are changes that should be agreed upon before going around and editing the pages. Some could be suitable for a wiki poll. If anyone has any input on a visual redesign, any of these suggestions, or any additional suggestions, please go ahead and comment. I'm not asking for a response on every single point, but some consideration (especially Creators removing downloads and Discoverability). Thanks for reading.