Eterna Wiki ideas

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What are your ideas for the Eterna Wiki?

This was a topic at Eterna Town Hall #15, and some of the ideas that popped up were:
► Make it searchable.
► Add more links from Eterna Wiki to Wikipedia articles.
► Reorganize the Wiki.
► Hold a “wiki-thon” for mass shared editing.

There were more ideas that I missed, so what were they and what are YOUR ideas?

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IMO, there are two significant issues that need to be addressed:

  1. The wiki needs to be upgraded. We’re like, what, 8 years out of date? :stuck_out_tongue: This one is on me, of course
  2. We need a new taxonomy (Ie, reorganizing content, as you mentioned, but more specifically the high-level structure of the content it contains). We need to re-examine the types of content we want the wiki to hold, and how that content gets categorized. In particular, I’d take a look at Foldit’s wiki, though it would be great to find some other examples.

Years ago I actually circulated a survey wrt the wiki (at a time I considered doing some work on it), which had some interesting info… let me try to dig it up

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As promised
Eterna Wiki Feedback.pdf (264.1 KB)

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Now, as far as content and taxomony. First off we need to consider what we actually want on the wiki. Wikis can be used for lots of things, but what they’re ideally suited for is, in short, reference material, which:

  • Has extensive crossreferences (wikis are great at hyperlinks!)
  • Is largely objective (you have one page/article per topic, which acts as a single source of truth, disconnected from a single author - things like user pages and talk pages are the exception, not the rule, and never “force” attribution except in the edit history)
  • Benefits from updates from the community (wikis are easily editable, which means the community at large can update it quickly, but at the same time is not as well suited to content that is meant to be “official”)

I clarify this ahead of time, as you could imagine something like analysis being held in the wiki, however this is problematic since analysis is typically discussion based, and not well suited to a single absolute reference, and as such is likely better held on the forum. However, cataloging and synthesizing analysis is something well suited for a wiki.

I’m imagining a possible taxonomy could look something like:

  • Gameplay
    • Core Gameplay Overview
    • Interface Reference
    • Hotkeys [though this should really be in-game, and could be one in the same with a remappable hotkeys setting screen]
    • Guides
  • Scientific Reference [think a nicely sectioned/organized guide or wikibook that walks you through what RNA and RNA folding is, etc - see “The Science” sidebar on the Foldit wiki’s homepage]
  • Labs
    • Lab Process Reference
    • Experimental Methods
    • Introduction to Design for Labs
    • Guides
    • Collated Analysis [no idea how this would look or work in practice, but I think it’d be great to have]
  • Tools
    • Professional Utilities
    • Player-made Utilities
    • Resources [eg, linking to Eterna’s API docs]
    • Tool Creation Guides

Looking through the wiki, there’s definitely a bunch of stuff that’s irrelevant at this point, or just contain a single link to an external page, eg on the website

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Some stuff got cut off, reuploaded the pdf with everything there enow

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To help facilitate editing of the Wiki (whether individual editing or group wiki-thons), I have created a Help Wanted page on the Wiki. Please check it out and/or put it on your watchlist if you’re interested in editing the Wiki but don’t quite know where to start.

Currently, we have about 102 words/phrases that are referred to by other pages but that don’t currently have their own pages (or page redirects). I will be working on reducing the number of these “missing link” pages, starting with some of the more commonly used terms (especially ones used in the tutorials). But of course any help is appreciated. :slight_smile:

Regarding page updates, it would be great if we could update the Eternacon page with info and references from previous Eternacons - right now, the page only has content up to ~2018/2019.

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I worked on the Wiki with LFP6 earlier this year and got the landing page freshened up. For the next step, I proposed portals where pages could be gathered for quicker visitor navigation, similar to what LFP6 proposes above. I was in the process of finding pages to slot into each category when a new lab started and I haven’t revisited since. Part of my deliberations was whether to include pages that were quite out of date but covered an important topic and should be updated.

Here is my doc in case it helps. LFP6 comments on what he would like to do with the Eternacon page. Eterna Wiki Reorganization - Google Docs

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Good news - the Wiki has recently been updated! This should make it easier for players to contribute.

Along those lines, if anyone is considering participating in an ~August 2022 Eterna Wiki Hackathon, please sign up here: Wiki Hackathon signups - ~August 2022 (exact scheduling will be figured out later). No prior Wiki experience is necessary, and players with any level of Eterna experience can help.

Thanks!

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