Forum:Projects

Proposal
Is there any interest in introducing projects to the Vault?

A wiki project is basically a group of editors who work together to achieve a common goal. It is helpful for coordinating the efforts of multiple editors, giving newer editors the opportunity to work alongside more experienced ones and to tackle tasks which are simply too extensive to be done by a single person.

Regarding how it'd work, basically a project would have its own page in the "The Vault" namespace which would summarize what the project is about, what it does, who participates, progress etc. The talk page of that article could be used to discuss and coordinate the project. Each project would have a project leader (initially the project starter but that can be changed upon agreement in the project group later) who coordinates things and serves as the central contact point for the project participants and others (not in the "bossing people around" sense, more in the "help people and answer questions" sense). Each project would have its own banner (something similar to the article management boxes) which would be placed on the talk page of articles which fall within the scope of the project to make people aware of it.

That's just a rough outline of how it could work; details are for the community to work out, I've just outlined how it could work from my point of view so people can see what it's all about.

These projects could be used for some more extensive (and some less extensive) article improvements. For example, our FO3 place or character articles could do with making them more uniform and complete (e.g. every character should have a general description of who that character is - a lot of them don't have that, just a collection of tidbits), the unmarked quests could need some revision etc. Of course, this would be for all games we cover; I've simply chosen FO3 examples because those articles are what I'm most familiar with.

To go back to my initial question: Is there any community interest in this? I.e. would people be interested in participating? There's no use in setting it all up if I'm the only one in every project group afterwards :) Please give your feedback below. -- Porter21 (talk) 11:38, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Feedback
That'd be very good, especially for the Fallout 1 and 2 articles. An easily editable list of goals and a way to keep track (maybe a dynamically updated assignment field to put on your talk page/userpage?) would help with keeping the team together. As would be something along the lines of project 'ranks' and merit badges. http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/thumb/5/5c/Scribe.jpg/15px-Scribe.jpg Tagaziel (call!) 14:05, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Not sure about the dynamically updated assignment list on people's user pages (that might be a bit too involved for what you can do with templates), but I think a table on the project page with e.g. all pages which need to be edited as rows and the individual tasks as columns would work. For example:
 * {| class="va-table"

! location ! take zone images ! add general description ! revise notable loot
 * Sunken Sewer
 * Mirelurk Nesting Hole
 * }
 * Everybody could then enter in the cells what tasks he/she is working on and/or has completed. Badges shouldn't be a problem if helps motivate people :) -- Porter21 (talk) 10:23, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Mirelurk Nesting Hole
 * }
 * Everybody could then enter in the cells what tasks he/she is working on and/or has completed. Badges shouldn't be a problem if helps motivate people :) -- Porter21 (talk) 10:23, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
 * }
 * Everybody could then enter in the cells what tasks he/she is working on and/or has completed. Badges shouldn't be a problem if helps motivate people :) -- Porter21 (talk) 10:23, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
 * }
 * Everybody could then enter in the cells what tasks he/she is working on and/or has completed. Badges shouldn't be a problem if helps motivate people :) -- Porter21 (talk) 10:23, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Everybody could then enter in the cells what tasks he/she is working on and/or has completed. Badges shouldn't be a problem if helps motivate people :) -- Porter21 (talk) 10:23, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree that the articles should be more uniformed. I'd participate. :) ~ HAZMAT82 19:33, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

This seems like a great idea to get everything more organized and uniform, and the idea of a rank system that Tagaziel suggested could work out very well. Shadowrunner56 21:03, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Ooooh, projects in this case refer to slums. Makes perfect sense. Sure, this sounds fun. Lots of unmarked locations need work. I'll help. Nitty 22:40, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Ahh... I was wondering if the Vault would attempt any projects. Porter, I'll try and help where I can. Spoon 22:52, 12 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Good to see these projects. I had already asked Ausir if we could set up a section where basic points on editing were posted so people wouldn't screw up articles, and he agreed. I think to add to the project, we should create a page that is similar to the help page, but it posts easy to read pointers on what goes in and out or articles. This would be given to new users, unregistered users who try to edit articles (maybe on the edit page itself?), and other easy to find places. I have something along the lines of this already on my user page. This would definitely help keep new/poor editors in line, and help the projects themselves. --Clean Up 23:34, 12 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, a project should generally define the goals it's working towards. In case of projects which intend to improve a set of pages/make those pages more uniform, a format should be defined first. In my experience, the poor quality edits on a given page decrease in volume once that page has been adapted to a good format (it seems that way with the FO3 armor pages at least).


 * That said, I think what you're suggesting partially edges more into creating more policies and guidelines for the wiki in general (to ensure everybody is on the same page); of course you could always start a project for that :) The results of that project would still have to be ratified by the community before coming into effect, of course. -- Porter21 (talk) 09:43, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

I think that's a great idea! I'm trying to do the same on my inFamous wiki since that place is a mess. Anyway, I would love to help anyway I can. (as long as it's Fallout 3) SuSpence95 (Talk) 08:11, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Since there seems to be some interest, I've started on doing the groundwork. The Vault:Projects has an introduction to projects and instructions on how to start projects. I've also created the necessary templates except for the badges - these will come later (they're not that urgent, people need to have done some work for projects first before these are needed ;)). Which means everything is ready for projects to be started :) If I have forgotten anything, please let me know.

I'll probably start a few projects later today for some stuff I've had on my mind for a while. However, it'd be nice if I could hand the project leadership for some of them over to someone else to spread the responsibility out a bit :) That doesn't mean I'm going to leave whoever takes over "out in the cold", of course - I'm aware that this all new and that people will need admin assistance until people get used to it all. -- Porter21 (talk) 13:52, 13 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Everything's ready already?! Alright, let's see if I can't figure out this high-falootin' template speak... Nitty 14:02, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, I'm not the most patient person if you haven't noticed already :P -- Porter21 (talk) 14:20, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Porter, you did say you'd make a few just to get started, didn't you? Spoon 14:08, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeap, I will. Primarily so people have an example (whether it's a good or bad one remains to be seen ;)) of what to use them for and how to approach them. -- Porter21 (talk) 14:20, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Too late, Porter. Geomapper:The Fallout 3 Locations Project. Did I do it right? Nitty 14:21, 13 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Almost :) I've moved it to the proper title, there was a little bug with the createbox. -- Porter21 (talk) 14:26, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

Where can I help? SuSpence95 (Talk) 19:20, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

New projects is definitely a good idea. And if you don't mind, I'll add a link to Fallout Tactics characters project to Current projects section of this post. veryblackraven Talk 12:45, February 28, 2011 (UTC)
 * This is an old topic (last reply 1.5 years ago) :) My bot bumped up a number of these during its weekend run. -- Porter21 (talk) 12:48, February 28, 2011 (UTC)

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