But if the pages only duplicate IFDB, there’s no point in them doing so!
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True.
For new game entries, we could design the new template and/or style guide in a way to emphasize the possibility of free-form text?
Have the minimal template which I described above, and add in an invitation to characterize the game’s interesting features and its contribution to the IF landscape in free text; so as not to duplicate IFDB info or overwhelm the volunteer with categories. I don’t know, maybe that would go in the direction of “best of both worlds” which I mentioned above.
Regarding the people pages, they aren’t and wouldn’t be IFDB duplicates anyway, because of tech credits, review and article credits, organizational credits, testing credits, interview links, post-mortem links and all that. (And free-form entries are already allowed for people even now, AFAIK. Each section is optional.)
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There’s a good extension called Page Forms that could make it easier too.
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Another factor to consider is that IFDB is actively being worked on and features are being added. For types of information about games that IFDB doesn’t cover (for example, notable features of a game), it might be worth considering whether to add a field for it to IFDB. I’m not saying that IFDB is necessarily the best fit for everything–just that it might make sense to decide that first, before making major changes to IFWiki.
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I searched IFWiki for pages on policy & purpose. This is what I found:
- IFWiki:Policy
- IFWiki:About
- FAQ (although this is a FAQ for IF in general, and not the wiki)
- Game reference (style guide)
- IFWiki:Title
- and a to-do list that was last updated in January 2009.
It took a bit of digging to make this (probably incomplete) list. The FAQ is linked on the front page, but again, it’s not a FAQ about the wiki.
I think it would help if IFWiki policy & purpose was more clearly defined on the wiki, and more prominently listed where it might encourage people to sign up and make edits. Some of the above discussion is fleshing out policy/purpose questions. Hopefully this grist makes it onto the wiki itself.
Side note: I couldn’t find any statements on the wiki whether or not game designers are permitted to update pages on their own games or bio pages. I know omission does not mean permission, but if designers are told explicitly they are free to add/update their own game pages, perhaps they’d be more inclined to help on that end of the spectrum.
– Jim
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I wonder whether the IFTF would adopt the IFWiki the way they did for the IFDB. It might inject a new lease of life into what for the owner of IFWiki is probably now a chore (I’m just guessing based on things like how long it’s been since the software was upgraded, so could be entirely wrong). The IFTF already “own” this forum and IFDB so would have an interest in sorting out the demarcation between the sites. I wouldn’t suggest this for CASA as it seems to be thriving by itself.
I wrote on the discussion page of IFWiki’s Works style guide about my proposed revamp of work (game) pages.
It’d be cool if people who are interested in working on IFWiki join the discussion there. I don’t know who can authorise this sort of style/policy change, or whether the creator of IFWiki is even interested any more, but if enough active-ish editors can agree on something, that’s a start.
TLDR:
- allow freeform text discussion
- keep some formal data, basically what’s in the inset info box and the genre/awards/comp icons, but the vast majority of this either is on IFDB already, or should be, so replace it with a link to the IFDB page
- nuke “How It Begins”, because it’s terrible
(Also, how do we change “What’s New” on the front page? It looks about five years old. Do you need special privileges to edit it, or am I just not looking in the right place?)
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That looks good.
I do think a small amount of formal data is useful – this is what the inset info box is for. I think this can be left as it is now, but with a link to the work’s IFDB page added at the bottom of the box. (While I’m dreaming, wouldn’t it be cool if the info could be automatically retrieved from IFDB?)
From a quick look, I think the IFDB URL uses the TUID. It would be trivial for the IFWiki template to expect a TUID, and to create the correct IFID URL based on that if present. If the TUID is absent then it could (as CASA maybe does) instead automatically create a link to the IFDB search page for the IFWiki page title. The IFDB URL system may have more intricacies than I realise but I’m sure they could be handled.
If we were to add the Page Forms extension – which creates a data entry interface not unlike the one on IFDB – then the data entry form could link to the IFDB search page for the particular game and encourage editors to look there and enter the game’s TUID.
Edit: There’s already a template (Template:Babel) that does something similar to this, but it’s based on the IFID and it seems that the idea is to add it manually to a game page when the IFID is known.
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What I meant was if the data in the box, like release date and authoring system, could be automatically queried from IFDB, maybe using an IFWiki template supplied with the TUID. But I suppose that data doesn’t change very often.
AFAIK, the main page is assembled from several templates, namely these: Category:Main Page templates - IFWiki, and the one on the top left is Template:Main Page News - IFWiki.
Sorry for misunderstanding. If IFDB has an API that would return that information then it could be displayed on the IFWiki page. The same would apply to anything else like the summary or number of stars. As long as the information were presented clearly as straight from IFDB it wouldn’t really be duplication.
The main content of that is from Template:State of the Scene 2016, which @bg created in 2016 and updated last year and recently this year.
They all look like they can be edited all right 
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I’ve edited those templates but the main page isn’t any different, what am I missing? (I moved some stuff from “What’s New” to “Still Going Strong” and added some new stuff to “What’s New”. BTW, I added Gruescript, and wanted to add an impressive similar system that somebody posted here about the same time, but I can’t find that one. EDIT: found it, it was Mikael Lindqvist’s system; I’ve messaged him to ask if he gave it a name!)
I had to open “Template:Feature article” after editing “Template: State of the Scene 2016” to get it to update the content, does someone with rights have to do the same for the main page?
EDIT: yeah, going to the (inferred) URL for editing the main page tells me I don’t have rights.
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I purged the Main Page and your edits show up now. The way that MediaWiki caches pages is one of its idiosyncrasies. To purge a page you add action=purge to the URL where you’d see action=edit if editing.
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On the main page, what about putting a blurb/intro paragraph front and center, that mentions the types of things you can find on IFWiki? And maybe also mention something about this:
And in the intro, maybe “interactive fiction” could be hyperlinked in case anyone is wondering what that means.
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Also, what about putting other things besides lists of “feature theme” games on the front page? Especially articles of the type that are unique to ifwiki, like the “Golden Banana” article.
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Go ahead and make those changes! I see you are an administrator so presumably you can edit the main page.
Incidentally, I don’t understand the word “unfeatured” in “Unfeatured article”. Is it some sort of in-joke? If you can edit the main page, would you be willing to get rid of that? It doesn’t make sense above a quotation and list of pages. Not that it would make sense anywhere else 
If I had to guess, I would say it was a jokey way to distinguish it from the “featured article” on the right. Which is actually a list of articles, but whatever. If it’s an in-joke, it’s one I’m not in on.
I also think the FAQ section could stand to be less wordy.
I am not sure of the best way to word all these things. I could try to come up with something, but if anyone else has ideas, that’s fine too.
I’m not actually sure how to arrange for featured articles to appear on the front page. DavidW set up the themes thing, I think.
I thought it might have been from the Uncyclopedia but checked and they don’t use it there either!
Maybe come up with a master plan, and describe it on the Main Page’s talk page in case anyone has ideas? I’m not steeped in IF (I wish I were and maybe in the future I will be!) but could comment on what’s technically feasible.
I had a look at that earlier today. It’s a rotating set of themes based on the date of the month. Make this part of your Masterplan (describe what changes you want to make) and I’ll help you implement it.
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