ORG, TWC, and the Official Forum - what would the ORG specialize in?

[rajpoot]

I and probably many of the Throne Roomers could help you out with the wiki. What needs doing?

TBH I don't know where to begin. We can do what the TWC wiki has done, like simply pick stuff from the game and add it to the wiki. But that would just be redundant, and I always felt that the Org had more intellectuals than TWC, so maybe along with standard information about various aspects of the game Org wiki can focus on the real historical information too....?

[TinCow]

There is a ton of useful info on the games in the various guides sections (always one of the Org's selling points). That information could be put into the wiki to give it original content that isn't so generic.

[Maltz]

How about changing Thanks to red or something more obvious and perhaps a passionate icon? Or move it to the right so people notice it it while clicking reply.

Another way to encourage people to give thanks is to have a "thanks received" and "thanks given" counter for each member. This way we are all "encouraged" to give thanks in order not to appear ungrateful and anti-social.

[drone]

Did someone say "wiki"? Always looking for fresh bodies to throw at that!

[Maltz]

Just a little opinion on wiki:
Wiki would be awesome when it contains information that people constantly look for. I have lost count of the times when I google unit names and get linked to that .ru site.

[drone]

I use the Org's MTW wiki constantly to reference stats and game options. My memory is not what it once was.

[Beskar]

Another way to encourage people to give thanks is to have a "thanks received" and "thanks given" counter for each member. This way we are all "encouraged" to give thanks in order not to appear ungrateful and anti-social.

That is a bad concept and the "Give Thanks" system was deliberately implemented with such a function turned off. The volunteers who help manage the Org do post on other forums and do have experiences with their operations. All of them stated when they idea came up that they didn't want a counter visible.

Why?
Because this is not a popularity contest and no one wanted such a function which facilitated that aspect. These usually breed resentment or "gamey tactics" to artificially inflate (and on some forums, deflate) scores of users which makes the whole practical implementation feel tacky and meaningless.

However, people do like recognition for their work, and sometimes people read a post or topic and go "I think that post is rather good." but they don't want to feel they are spamming up the thread with their reply. In return, people who made such post might feel that no one appreciated it.

Conclusion:
We decided to do as a halfway system. Allow people to "Give Thanks" to a contribution without intruding and allow that other user to feel appreciated for their contribution. There is no real "gain" or "point scoring" involved, it is simply warm felt gratitude and appreciation.

[Maltz]

Conclusion:
We decided to do as a halfway system. Allow people to "Give Thanks" to a contribution without intruding and allow that other user to feel appreciated for their contribution. There is no real "gain" or "point scoring" involved, it is simply warm felt gratitude and appreciation.

Actually I did not realize there is even a "thank" to click on - the current design is not very obvious for users.

I understand and respect the wish to keep the ORG mature and well-intended. This is why I am still posting and sharing things I find... but as a contributor, we naturally want our works read by as many as possible, and receive appreciations and constructive criticisms from readers.

If the contributors find that their work does not get many counts or thanks, and there is little hope for the situation to improve, they will naturally migrate. Some time ago I wondered whether I should post in the TWC this time, but then I realized there are still many good people in the ORG and I can simply go advertise things in other forums.

There is a saying "the clearest water has no fish". It is the most precious thing to stick with our judgment and principles, but we have to use simple languages in order to get our words spread around. A simple langauge for the forum is that we want to find some ways to keep the contributors. Sainty contributors who require no thanks or acknowledgement only come once every century.

[Peasant Phill]

TBH I don't know where to begin. We can do what the TWC wiki has done, like simply pick stuff from the game and add it to the wiki. But that would just be redundant, and I always felt that the Org had more intellectuals than TWC, so maybe along with standard information about various aspects of the game Org wiki can focus on the real historical information too....?

That's a great idea but a gigantic amount of work. You can't just ad one paragraph of historical info and be done with it.
The idea of a wiki+ (patent on the name pending), however, is a good idea. Some links and recommended books on particulr subjects may already go a long way. Still a huge amount of work.

There is a ton of useful info on the games in the various guides sections (always one of the Org's selling points). That information could be put into the wiki to give it original content that isn't so generic.

That's a fantastic idea. Most wikis of other games are used as an index for guides. Or wiki could work the same way.
It may also inspire people to write guides themselves.

[Visor]

IS the wiki about the TW games, or does it have other parts to it?

[drone]

Most of the pages are TW-game specific, but there are a few pages on Mafia and other forum games. Every member also has a user home page they can put stuff in or try things out on.

When Shogun2 came out, some of us started putting together pages for it, as well as Med2, so there are a lot of pages created and categorized, they just need to be fleshed out and updated to the latest expansion. I'm not going to sugar-coat it, it's a lot of work since there are so many different units, tech paths, etc. to fill in and comment on.

If there are any EBers interested, a reference/guide wiki for EB would be awesome.

[rajpoot]

That's a great idea but a gigantic amount of work. You can't just ad one paragraph of historical info and be done with it.
The idea of a wiki+ (patent on the name pending), however, is a good idea. Some links and recommended books on particulr subjects may already go a long way. Still a huge amount of work.

I agree it will be a lot of work, but the way I see it, most of what has to be put in is already available, ready-made. The unit information, faction information from the game can be just copied from TWC wiki and the strategy guides. What will take work will be adding the historical information.
What I had in mind was something like what they have at World of tanks wiki.
Check out these pages.
http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/T110E5
http://wiki.worldoftanks.com/BDR_G1B
Varied amount of historical information, added as available. Now this is just one idea off the top of my head......

Out of curiosity, when people say that traffic has reduced here, what exactly has it reduced to and what has it reduced from? I mean gaming forums normally do have a lull in activity between titles.