A wiki for (Rome) Total War?

[rafiki]

Hi people!

Does anyone know if there exists a Wiki* devoted to (Rome) Total War out there somewhere?

I took part in setting one up for Victoria, and it seems to have been quite helpful for people playing the game, and I started thinking if it could be something worth doing for Rome Total War too?

So if it hasn't been done already, my questions to you are as follows:

- Is this a good idea?

- Are there enough people out there interested in taking part? In my experience, it takes people with knowledge of the game, time to spend and interest to do so to have a successful wiki

- It'll need hosting somewhere. I can help set it up (pretty straightforward, actually), but I don't think I have access to suitable hosts at the moment. It'll need a webserver and a MySQL-server to work.

Rafiki

*For those not familiar with what a wiki is, take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

[rafiki]

No takers? I'll consider it to be regarded as a bad idea, then

Rafiki

[Tamur]

hi Rafiki,

This would be nice, but I think the lack of interest is due to the time & energy needed to switch formats for a lot of us. We've been using the forums for exchange and collation of information on the game(s) for a long time, and it works reasonably well, so there's not a drive to change even though a wiki would be a much more flexible collaborative info source. Personally I think wiki's are absolutely marvelous to work with.

[Tricky Lady]

There seems to be some interest though: check this post

[khelvan]

As Tricky Lady notes, I expressed interest in this. However, my interest stems from the modding side, where that sort of collaboration is a wonderful way to spread information on how to modify the game quickly.

[Vlad Tzepes]

Sorry... could someone enlight me - what is a "wiki"?

[khelvan]

Ahem.

*For those not familiar with what a wiki is, take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

[metatron]

A wiki would be great, but for the other TW games too, not just Roma.

[Vlad Tzepes]

Ahem.

oups. sorry. it's just me.

[Lemur]

I think a wiki would be freaking awesome. The boards are nice, but nowhere near as organized and/or useful as a wiki. Witness the plague of dead links we have in the MTW Guide threads. And given the amazing under-documentation of the games, being able to refer new folk to an organized, hyperlinked reference site that's continually upgraded by users ...

[wipes drool from chin]

Color me exceptionally interested.

[Colovion]

I would be a very strong supporter of this idea. I just don't know how to set it up. There's loads of info here right now and the present would be the most effective time to start inputting information into a wiki.

[Lemur]

Someone would have to take charge of the html end, and setting it all up. Then there's the question of hosting. Would the members of the org be okay with sharing bandwidth?

But once you solve the setup and bandwidth issues, the articles would come flowing in like a mighty river. And Colovion is completely right -- now's the time to do it, while we're getting our thoughts together.

Ye gods, think of what a resource this would be for the modders ...

[khelvan]

I think we have the required skills for setting it up here (from what I have read), but we still need to find a host.

Regardless, I am bumping this because it could be an incredible resource for us, if we get it started.

[Lemur]

Here's a list of the free wiki engines. They're available in perl, php, java, MS Access, seemingly everything. And free. Free as in beer, folks.

I don't want to let this die -- what sorts of hosting options do we have? What do we need? Is anybody here a webmaster (there must be a few)? What sort of bandwidth would we need? Would CA consider hosting such a site?

[khelvan]

*BUMP*

Someone has to know of a good place to host it...

[JeromeGrasdyke]

Would CA consider hosting such a site?

I'll ask our esteemed webmaster; if this does happen, people at CA would certainly contribute, from time to time.

[Lemur]

Thank you, Jerome. I'm not going to get too excited just yet, but it would be absolutely fabulous if CA could make room in its heart (and web server) for a project like this.

[khelvan]

*BUMP*

Still looking for a web host.

[khelvan]

Great news!

This comes to us from kdub, who for some reason is unable to post here:

I'm a professional web designer and RTW addict and I can host the site, maintain it and even contribute :) One thing I can't do is post on the Colosseum board, so if you could relay my message, it would be awesome.

[khelvan]

*BUMP*

Hopefully kdub will soon have access to post here.

[Tamur]

Did anything ever happen here?

[Lemur]

Well, nobody from the Org voiced a yea or nay, a rep from CA said he'd ask their webmaster, and kdub says he can host it, although it's unclear where and on what terms.

What could happen right now is one of our more HTML-savvy folks could take a look at the wikki engines and see how hard it would be to configure. That could be done pre-host.

So who here wants a nice, juicy credit to their web design resume? Or am I going to have to go learn how to set up a wiki? Please don't make me do that.

[Tamur]

I know from experience, wiki's are generally very easy to set up. I had one up on a Linux box last year in about five minutes (seriously, it made Apache setup on a Windows machine look like rocket science). That said, pleasant-looking ones with all the options may be a different story

I'll check into freeware just to see what's out there, but I know for sure I haven't got the money for bandwidth.

[khelvan]

Don't worry, one is in the works. We should have something to show you guys in the near future. :)

[Lemur]

Khelvan, that's wonderful news. Please keep us posted!

[khelvan]

It is done. Up and ready for content to be added. So come, and make your contribution!

http://www.kanwei.com/romewiki/

Please thank Kdub, who is hosting it and set it up.