Glest Wiki - Full Glest documentation, modding, downloads, and more

[Omega]

The Glest Wiki is the number one source of Glest information, being the compilation of dozens of pages about Glest. From modding to factions, from maps to guides on modeling, the Wiki is the largest source of Glest information, and best of all, anyone can edit it. Notice a typo? Missing information? Want to expand the page, or even add pages for your mod? Everyone can do that, and creating an account is optional (though recommended).

https://docs.megaglest.org

It is recommended that you see the wiki Policies and Guidelines, as well as the Help pages for editing help.

The Wiki is the highest search engine ranked Glest fansite, and the number one result for searching Glest mods, so modders can be sure that they want their mod on the wiki for maximum publicity!

Here's a few helpful pages [for learning to edit the wiki]:
https://docs.megaglest.org/Glest:Policies
https://docs.megaglest.org/Glest:Style_guide
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Getting_started

As well, because this is the same software as Wikipedia (Mediawiki), most formatting for it works here as well, and Wikipedia has some very good guides and policies, many of which are used on our wiki, but not directly mentioned.

What a page must have:

• At least one internal link. If a page does not have an internal link, Mediawiki does not consider it a page (and thus, it will not appear when searching, nor on the page counter in the sidebar). Internal links are easy, as Glest, Tileset, Faction, Mod, Map, and many more very popular keywords have pages, and if there is no way to add an internal link of at least some kind, you are doing it wrong.
• It must be linked from another page, anywhere. Pages can be imagined as a web, starting with the main page, which links to most of the popular pages, which in turn will link to all the individual pages. If a page does not have anything linking to it, it is considered an Orphaned page, which also annoys Mediawiki. Factions/Techtrees can have pages linked from Mods/List, while maps have Maps/List, and tilesets have Tilesets/List. Even scenarios have a page at Scenarios/List.
• An introductory paragraph. This is something many older pages lack (and I add it as I find pages that lack it). This is the first paragraph in the article and is NEVER preceded by any type of header. This paragraph (or paragraphs) should summarize what the article is about, or the point of the page. Please do not start pages with a header. Even if the page would seem obvious by the title what its about, always start with an introductory paragraph. It doesn't have to be long. It can be one sentence, but it's gotta be there.

What a page should have:
^{These are not necessary when creating a page, especially if the page is a stub or there is insufficient data to expand the page, but you should try to get these anyway.}

• If the page is a faction, map, tileset, techtree, or unit, it should have the associated infobox at the very top of the page. This summarizes the page, and, like most templates, you will have to use code display to insert them, so you can't use the WYSIWYG editor (I strongly recommend that if you are experienced enough, to set the code version as the default by disabling the WYSIWYG editor in your preferences). They are all named accordingly, so the infobox for factions is found at Template:Faction. Likewise, maps is Template:Map, etc. The instructions for using these templates can be found on the associated page, along with examples. Even more examples can be found by looking at pages that are using the template (every template is used in at least one page). Please avoid making new templates for any of these categories (for example, I noticed GIS made a unit template, which, ironically, has not been used on any pages). Sure your unit might have more features, but those can be discussed in the actual article. The infoboxes are meant to summarize the faction/unit/whatever in a standard (meaning the same across all like pages) way.
• Avoid using external links in the body of the article unless necessary. Try and group the external links at the bottom of the article, under a new level 2 header "External Links". Whenever possible, link to an internal page. So if you mention GAE in your article, do not link to the sourceforge page of the GAE project, but link to the actual GAE page.
• Relatedly, try and have a "See Also" section at the bottom of the article (above external links) that links to associated pages (even if loosely). This gives the reader more pages to read when they finish reading one page, and is an easy place to add internal links (for the minimum one internal link rule previously mentioned). Even if the link was mentioned multiple times in the article already, post it again, because people tend to read other pages after they finish reading the current one, rather than while in the middle of it.
• The Glest Wiki is known as the "Glest Wiki". Wikia is just the host, who modifies the MediaWiki (note the absence of the trailing "a") software on which the Glest Wiki runs on. The MediaWiki software is the same software used to run Wikipedia, and thus the origins of the word Wiki (I could go into a long dialogue on what Wiki means, but just to sum it up, it means "fast"). This might sound a bit of a nitpick, but no more so than those folks at Lua.

The posts here are sorted by chronicle order, from the time which the wiki was poorly formatted to the current present version, so may not reflect the current state of the wiki. Be sure to check the dates before replying to posts. The most recent news will always be at the back. Feel free to make page requests, ask questions, or announce major changes/concepts.

[ElimiNator]

Yes, I agree the Glest Wikia is a mess. I had tried to fix it but it wouldn't let me edit the stuff that needed fixing.

[Trappin]

Admin rights:

Martino is the admin for the wikia and can grant users with higher level access privileges. If you want special admin access then go to wikia gaming central and talk to the administrators there or apply via email.

Self promotion:

Wikia blocks links known to be used by spammers and the 110mb.com servers are on the outbound link ban list. I inserted tinyurl links to bypass the wikia filters and it seemed to work just fine. Did you revert the tinyurl link to the old 110m address? If you did, then you broke it.... heh.

HTML:

Wikia uses its own code format.

Main Page:

There are a number of structural problems with the Glest wikia, one of them being that it was built at a time when wikia gaming used the monobook web code - during the last couple years wikia changed the primary server(?) code to Monoco code and the glest site was left in a twilight zone between the two types of portal coding. Another problem with those changes is in the wikimedia:CSS coding language.

[Omega]

I'll talk to martino and see what I can do.

[jda]

In other terms, I think I may go and try to fix up the main page. I tried to fix the image on the main page which is too large for the size of the article, but realized my HTML code wasn't working correctly... More oddities... Anyone know a good documentation on using HTML on wikias? I'm sure wikia's code is fine for internal links and the like, but for advanced formating, nothing beats HTML (noticed there was some there, so the style att MUST work, yet it wouldn't for me).

If what you are only talking about formating, I'd say CSS is the way to go:

Another problem with those changes is in the wikimedia:CSS coding language.

Now... on the Glest wikia in general, IMO, what should be done "first":
"GLEST WIKIA EDITING GUIDELINES" ARTICLE!!!!  
'Cause really... some structural problems are, as to Trappin's post info (THANKS!   ) "historical" but others are just "ninja-editing-messup"!
And you really are NOT gonna fix those historical problems with ninja-editing... So... let someone actually able fix the structural problems first (I vote for Trappin! ) then get a proper guidelines to guide them ninjas  and the wikia might actually get somewhere!

IMO the guidelines should contain such as What to do (e.g. Use the bloody Talk pages before doing an actual major edit and WAIT for the editing community's feedback!) and NOT to do (e.g. messing with the internal links structure without proper knowledge) as well as specifying layout models (for the wikia in general as for particular articles (e.g. the Maps and the Mods sections))... Ya know...

[Trappin]

Firstly, you can't vote for me cause I ain't available! heh @ jda

Someone with wikia coding knowledge needs to rework the main page - this includes proper formatting for the left and right sidebars and also space for artwork and search boxes. The artwork and sub-header textures and colors can be added later, what we need now is the correct placeholder formatting for the art and sidebars. The sidebar box art, color and texture can be changed to suit our needs.

The easiest thing to do would be to use the artwork Glest theme by Omega. Based on Diablos3 theme by Vaun using media by Josepzin from here and graft them onto the main (front) page - wikia allows for large banners and web-styled themes just like we see here. These things are done via use of wikia media-frames and blah blah blah.

The wikia information pages are in decent shape.

The glest wikia sub-pages need to be renamed/optimized - search engines do not like the current naming conventions.

I tried to copy the Starcraft main page style/formatting but it was never finished - and apparently no one cared until I actually began working on it - and at that time they became very keen on wikia work but soon thereafter lost interest in working on the wikia - effin' funny how that works! yes?

[Omega]

I care!


My opinion of 'priorities' is slightly different.

In my opinion, there's a few things I look for in an article:
-Proper understandable english
-Organization
-NPOV

I consider having tons of information USELESS if it is too messy to read.

@Concerning wiki code/html: Wikicode is good for many things, particularly headers (==My Header==, with more ='s for smaller headers) as well as internal links ([[my_link]]). HOWEVER, it doesn't allow for advanced styling, which should be done in HTML. I did notice some HTML on the main page using a div tag with a style attribute, which is my favorite styling method (well, second favorite, after individual CSS/HTML pages).

The wikia could also REALLY use a cleanup at the sidebar on the left, where the main navigation links are. I'm used to using THESE for navigation, NOT a bunch of links on the main page...

There's also some general bad web design techniques scattered throughout the wikia that not only make it more difficult to navigate, but can look bad and add a negative appeal to the wikia.

We want more people on the wiki? It needs better quality.

I am not an expert in wikia code, nor pretend to be, but I do have some degree of experience with it and have spent a good amount of time on other wikias and have admired their quality. In particular, one I found that was very good looking is the runescape wikia, where I've spent the most time.

[Trappin]

If the front page needs a complete refit - then do it. If the sub-page information is messy and cluttered - then fix it.

Wikia was designed for this purpose.

[jda]

Firstly, you can't vote for me cause I ain't available! heh @ jda

Well, tough, I'm still voting for ya...
Seriously... if you wanted to, of course.

The easiest thing to do would be to use the artwork Glest theme by Omega. Based on Diablos3 theme by Vaun using media by Josepzin from here and graft them onto the main (front) page - wikia allows for large banners and web-styled themes just like we see here. These things are done via use of wikia media-frames and blah blah blah.

That sounds good to me (for someone else to do ). I believe it will look good if its looks are similar to those of glest.org and glest.org/glest_board.  

The wikia information pages are in decent shape.

You mean those of the Wikia itself for editing wikias in general, not the Glest Wikia in particular, right? 

The glest wikia sub-pages need to be renamed/optimized - search engines do not like the current naming conventions.

As long as that doesn't break internal (re)links.  

I tried to copy the Starcraft main page style/formatting but it was never finished - and apparently no one cared until I actually began working on it - and at that time they became very keen on wikia work but soon thereafter lost interest in working on the wikia - effin' funny how that works! yes?

I plea myself guilty as charged.  
On my defense... I still plan on getting back to it, once I finish the Dwarves and there is some basic consensus and respect for the Glest Wikia, i.e. NO ninja-total-messup (I guess a little bit of ninjitsu can't really be completelly avoided in a public wiki...).

I care!

That makes... three of us?...

In my opinion, there's a few things I look for in an article:
-Proper understandable english
-Organization
-NPOV

I consider having tons of information USELESS if it is too messy to read.

100% agreed! 

@Concerning wiki code/html: Wikicode is good for many things, particularly headers (==My Header==, with more ='s for smaller headers) as well as internal links ([[my_link]]). HOWEVER, it doesn't allow for advanced styling, which should be done in HTML. I did notice some HTML on the main page using a div tag with a style attribute, which is my favorite styling method (well, second favorite, after individual CSS/HTML pages).

Again... breaking coherence is what bothers me. I mean, look at what you get when you go to the main page alone: There is this kind of frame with some custom colors (which BTW disregard the fact the links colors DON'T fit that color-theme) and everything around is just your regular wikia colors. Looks d*mn ugly to me.

The wikia could also REALLY use a cleanup at the sidebar on the left, where the main navigation links are. I'm used to using THESE for navigation, NOT a bunch of links on the main page...

You're welcome to by me (in case my opinion matters any) but do be aware of SEO impacts! The links in there are what will probably come under the "Glest Wikia" website "quick links" on your search engine and what you'll get when searching for such particular subjects. 

There's also some general bad web design techniques scattered throughout the wikia that not only make it more difficult to navigate, but can look bad and add a negative appeal to the wikia.

Like what I mentioned about colors above?

We want more people on the wiki? It needs better quality.

I think that works both ways... If we want more quality, we need mor quality people working on it too!

I am not an expert in wikia code, nor pretend to be, but I do have some degree of experience with it and have spent a good amount of time on other wikias and have admired their quality. In particular, one I found that was very good looking is the runescape wikia, where I've spent the most time.

I'm pretty sure you're one of the most qualified for the job, much more than I am no question about it!  

[Omega]

See the discussion article of the main page to see what I would like to do with it and give me your comments.

I've done some editing today, and am trying to catigorize articles too (apparently people never catigorized a single one here yet! That's a big uh-oh) one by one. So for now, its just me and the 'Random Article' link going through the 123 pages one by one.

I've also marked two pages for deletion, one a non-glest related article (spam) and the other a blank page that shouldn't exist. However, only admins can delete to my knowledge, so without active admins...

Talked to Martino, awaiting reply.

[ultifd]

Wow, I never even saw the "Spam" Page...I thought it was all fine with a cool number of pages  ...123 
When you mean wikified, what do you mean? 
And yes, the main page, is... 

[Trappin]

Looking forward to the new and improved glest wikia!

[jda]

I forgot my password and the wikia didn't send it to me as it said it did... so I can't even say anything in the Talk pages.
And I forgot what I wanted to say. Will try the password recovery again tomorrow and take another look at what Omega (Hofmic) said.

[Omega]

Ok, anyone know who created the wiki? I talked with martino and it wasn't him, and he doesn't seem to know either... Jda, good luck with password recovery (it should work well, assuming you use the same email).

To adapt text to the standards and facilities of a wiki.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wikify

[ultifd]

To adapt text to the standards and facilities of a wiki.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wikify

Yeah, already looked at that/saw that... I was kinda wondering if someone had a better... 

Ok, anyone know who created the wiki? I talked with martino and it wasn't him, and he doesn't seem to know either...

Maybe this person? Not sure...Only person in the admin category...I think 
https://docs.megaglest.org/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&target=Realflash
https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?action=profile;u=350
Maybe we could try to PM...realflash? 

Jda, good luck with password recovery (it should work well, assuming you use the same email).

Yes, good luck   
-----------------------
EDIT(REPOST):
wow, now we have...   
oh well
stupid people.

well now, we really need to figure out who created the wiki... 
https://docs.megaglest.org/Special:Contributions/71.82.92.183
this ip needs to be banned, although it won't really matter... 

[ultifd]

Sorry for double post...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright, maybe you should try to apply, Omega, or someone else. 
http://community.wikia.com/wiki/Adoption
Make sure you fit the requirements... 

You can get admin rights at wikia gaming central. Its that simple.

Alright, I did not find it there, but I guess this will maybe work too... 
http://glestmaps.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Glest_Map_Compendium_Wiki

[Omega]

There, I've done it. Judging from their speed based on other adoption requests, I guess I'll check for results tomorrow. If we can get adminship of it, I think we need at least a few admins to work together. I think that Titi and Ultifd as well as Trappin (if he gets the time) could do well for that position. Why so many? Because if anyone goes inactive, we don't face that same problem, not to mention there's over 100 pages (small for a wiki, big for glest) and I'm willing to take a bet that no less than half need to be cleaned up. We should also put a lock on the main page to prevent vandalism to it, and having multiple *trusted* admins allows us to still be able to edit it well.

Agreements?

[ultifd]

Yes, a day at least.
For me, my edits aren't the best, but they are OK...
Maybe, but after you...umm...I guess. 
Trappin, yes, if he has the time...
Titi, yeah, but he is already working a lot on other stuff...(MG, Dark Magic, Etc.) 
BTW, you forgot titi in your "edit" on the adoption page... 
https://docs.megaglest.org/User:Titus

There are a handful of people on the Glest Forums that are willing to all lend a hand to help fix this, including me, Trappin, and Ultifd. We would like to see the Wiki become a standard in our community, especially as Glest's download count grows (over 1 million since 2001's beta). It would be greatly appreciated if you could make one or all of us admins of the Wiki so that we could fix it up and improve it.

[Omega]

SUCCESS! We've been aproved, so I'll do some tidying up over time. For now, I'll make a few of those people admins so they can give a hand. Remember to use talk pages to discuss major changes. Also, please try to catigorize all pages. I made a small handful of catigories a while back when trying to edit, though you may have to make many of your own.

[ultifd]

Sweet, let's start... 
Hmm...2 weeks...we could have started editing 2 weeks ago...oh well. 
One more good thing again, huh?  ( I mean the approval.)

[Trappin]

This is where the rubber meets the road!

[ultifd]

This is where the rubber meets the road!

Somewhat true...yeah. 
Other things that have happened might fit that better, but yeah. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe now we can have the same "format" that the glestmaps wiki has? 

[Trappin]

Oh? maybe "fish or cut bait" fits better? Mhmm.

Whatcha editing today? I figured there would be a flurry of activity now that the last hurdles have been cleared. Have you decided on new artwork for the main page? that header image kinda sucks :/

Yeah...   ...

#  Unit XML
9 days ago by Unregistered contributor
# edit InstallGlest
11 days ago by Unregistered contributor
# edit Glest Advanced Engine
14 days ago by Zaggy1024
# edit Main Page
15 days ago by Charitwo
# edit Map editing
16 days ago by Thokul

[ultifd]

Maybe. 

I figured there would be a flurry of activity now that the last hurdles have been cleared.

Yeah, well,...we all wish.
Hopefully, like other wiki(a)s, when there are more users, then us future admins (or not...)  then we don't have to...worry?...so much.
Later, later, later for editing and this, just like the future of MG and GAE.  Whether it's good or not.
By the time (if) MegaGAE happens, the wiki(a)(s) will be better, I'm pretty sure. 
 

[Trappin]

Ah, so you won't actually do anything on the wiki ? No editing?