Preserved Topic: MAJOR ASYLUM UPDATE! (Page 1 of 2)

--> http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/ <--

Well, it's been about a year and a half now we've all been talking about how the Asylum needs an FAQ for all those questions that get asked over and over. So, now it's here! Presenting the "OzoneAsylum FaqWiki", scripted by our very own Tyberius Prime. I know TB was hoping I'd be a lot more help on this thing than I've been, once we got started he was pretty much left on the hot seat all by himself, and he's done a splendid job. A big vote of thanks also goes out to the Emperor, who worked with him to load this thing with over 200 pages of content so far!

How does it all work? It's a "wiki", based on the Hawaiian phrase "Wiki Wiki" which means "quick". How it works is simple, any asylum member can go in and add or modify the questions and answers presented, building an FAQ that is as deep as we want to make it. Every entry is logged, so if we get some abusers into the system we can make their lives miserable, but we really don't expect too many problems. Every entry also has a "voting" option associated with it, and entries with a high vote count will float towards the top, and entries with too many bad votes get pullled from the system, an adminstration system will allow us to pluck them out and re-write them, or retire them for good if that seems wise.

So! Go now, and play! You might want to start by adding an introduction of yourself at this link, http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=49 - or perhaps you just want to see what's been modified today, hmm? http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/quickchanges.php

Remember! This thing is *ours* to modify and maintain, so if you see something that is wrong or unclear, don't hesitate to pop in and fix it, (using your existing Asylum user/password). Voting is also important, even if you don't have anything to add! I expect this FAQ to turn into one of those truly awesome resources for the WWW, so do what you can to help!

The important thing for now is to have fun, learn stuff and help others. Go check it out now!

Your pal, -doc-

I hope everyone enjoys it - as well as answering questions it is a way to reclaim a bit of the Asylum history.

A big vote of thanks goes out to TP for making this happen (and be so quick on any changes!!).

I'd also like to thank Jeni, who supplied the UBB of that big list of links in the Photoshop forum, and Weadah who said it was fine to link dirctly into the links from his mini-tutorials.

If you want to test what you can do go here:
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=185

If you want to add a little bit more about yourself then add a sub topic here:
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=49

It is technically possible to turn this into a heap of meaningless rubbish but it is also possible to turn it into something very interesting and worthwhile indeed (and thanks to the good doctor for iving us enough rope) but it is up to your votes and edits so get busy.

We've only been able to sketch out the content in the broadest terms and it is up to you to flesh it out.

Still here??

Emps

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Emperor

FAQs: Emperor

Well, I just want to say thank you to the Doc, for giving us the rope needed and for helping me out whenever I needed it.
My second big thank you goes to Emperor, for filling all that content in. I could never have done that myself.

And now, Enjoy.

Tyberius Prime

Hmmm.. something extra to play with, cool

*Runs down the hall to play, hahaha*

Edit - It's very nice I have added some things to it (more to come ) but I just suggesting that you have a link to this FAQ up there with the "OZONE Asylum, home of the Mad Scientists" so people can find it (or was this going to get done and I'm just rushing things? )



[This message has been edited by Darkshadow (edited 05-19-2002).]

Each of the main forums should now have a thread in it about any relevant sections of the FAQ - if you think something is missing then you are probably right so add it.



___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

I'll be modifying our base templates tonight or tomorrow to add top-level links to the FAQ, and then once I rebuild all the files here it should be reflected on every page here. I do like the idea of trying to capture some of our history in this system, so many of our past controversies and disputes, won't it be great to laugh over them down the line? ;-) I'm looking forward to integrating this system more thoroughly throughout the entire Asylum, it's got big benefits, (or as was mentioned, postential big downsides!) Remember, it'll only work if you work with it.

Your pal, -doc-

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

Its worth mentioning that although we've had a fiddle with things to imporve the look and feel there will be things that need further tweaking. Suggestions are already coming in (good work there Dracusis) so if you see anything drop it in here (OK they aren't really bugs but if you want set up something for Tweaks or use the features suggestions):
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=71

Emps

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

InI: Do you mean being able to have the same node under different nodes or just being able to put the same information in different places?

Some of the issues can be addressed using the internal link code just put the ID in square brackets like a link to vp's page is [200] and this should help keep a lot of the FAQ information linked up. I've been monitoring changes and throwing in any internal links.

A FAQ on the FAQ?? This section does the job:
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=34

esp.:
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=35

So if there is anything that needs addressing then drop it in there. If you create a question then we'll try and add an answer.

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

also, we do have a
Feature Request list! Just drop suggestions there.

On the 'duplicate information' issue, I'd suggest we put a stub containing nothing but the link to the right place into all the other place where it is appropriate.

Very nicely done, TP. Big hand for Emps, too.
This is definatly a big addition to the Loonie Bin. This will be huge.

Thanks.

*claps* woooow! this is soo cool! It looks like you even integrated it with the forum's memberlist database. This will be very helpful if it's integrated well.

[edit]

one problem i see is that there are some links to forum posts. It's important that when posts are archived, the URLs from the FAQ remain intact. Is there anything that can be done about that?

[edit]

i just found a broken link to a post in the 3d faq section =) i'll see if i can fix it; in the meantime, some sort of solution needs to be found for this.

[This message has been edited by Slime (edited 05-19-2002).]

wow looks like a another great idea Doc,

nice job to everyone that helped with it,

This is a very cool thing, but I do have a few complaints First off, the code that runs this is great, and there is a TON of content, but the layout looks messy to me. First off I don't like all the table cells on the right side of the screen. They don't provide any useful information and they take up too much space. We don't need to be told which cell is a text field and which is the title, its pretty self-explanatory I think.

Also there is no link to the FAQ from the main page which means the people who really should be reading the FAQ (the visitors and/or newbies etc.) probably don't know about it yet. I'd like to suggest that there be a link up next to search

Slime: It may be possible to get something like a fixed link sorted but I'm not sure how easy that would be. It might be simpler when the Asylum moves to PHP/MySQL. At the moment I suspect it will rely on good old fashioned elbow grease. Some of the broken links are my fault as I did post quite a few posts in a short space of time so people should check them (I notice a few edits of the links already so keep looking).

SB: First off sorry about the FAQs about you - I couldn't help it On your points:

1. I think the Doc said (above) that he will be changin the templates in a day or so.

2. I quite like that look - I (rather pretentiously) said it reminded me of the Pompidou Centre with all the workings on the outside. However, if enough people throw their arms up in horror it can be changed.

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Wow, that sounds great! Maybe I'll go take a quick look at it now...

Cool, I can link to myself wif a Number! This thing rocks! Nice job TP.

I think we should make these numbers our offocial Cell Numbers.

Dacusis, Cell 229.

yay. very groovy. to the point of groovy ness where little ozones flow from cracks in the rocks... um.... izz way way way past nap time. LOOK OVER THERE! .... Loser. Wiki! Wiki! WIKID! WICKED!

. . .

I was thinking we could make each reply in iambic pentameter, anyone disagree?

-Jestah

Jestah: I don't think I could handle all the stress

Drac: Great idea!

Suho1004, Cell 270

Dracusis: Now that is a good idea - I wish I'd got a better number like TP or vp. Anyone know if we can use UBB in the info on the left?

Emps

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

YOU GUYS FUCKING ROCK,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:d

-=Luxo Jr.=-

Doin' wierdassed animations since 1986

Well I feel like an idiot. I saw where there was a "Vote For this" and "Vote Against This". I saw that there was 1 Vote Against This and wanted to see what was up so I wanted to see what this was and of course clicked on it. Well, this just added to the talley. Sorry! Didn't mean to do that

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

This whole Asylum FaqWiki Project is the greatest thing I've seen for a long time! I love visiting the Today's changes page every half an hour and see what the other people added... it's such a cool toy and I'm sure that it will become a huge database of information on everything web desing and Asylum related. Good work TP, Emps, Doc and everyone who contributes to it!

kuckus (cell #282)

I've been adding some minor stylistic changes these last few minutes, changing the <hr>'s, centering things properly, making all the widths the same at 95%, adding crude boxes around the "todays topics" and stuff like that. I'll try and spend some more time doing true, anal-retentive tweakings like this, but this was just a quick run through. Oh! The <textarea> widths are now set to 100%, I like that. Bitch at me if it looks like I broke anything!

Your pal, -doc-

Just a quick note to say that I've now added sections specific to each of the forums (I thought I'd post that here rather than update all the posts in all the forums - although feel free to add the correct link if you want). The main section is here:
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=289

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

That extra column on the right of the table, the one that does nothing and serves no purpose? Can anyone think of what it's there for, or should we eliminate it? It's starting to bug me. :/

Your pal, -doc-

just eliminate it, I never cared for it myself, but for some reason, didn't take it out... or I'll do it if it's still in when I get around to fix things up abit... (handle bugs & feature requests...)

so long,

Tyberius Prime

This might be a silly question, but how do you access the FAQ without going through this thread? I noticed it wasn't added to the top of the page. Any thoughts?

-Jestah
Cell 277

Jestah: From the Doc above:

quote:

---

I'll be modifying our base templates tonight or tomorrow to add top-level links to the FAQ, and then once I rebuild all the files here it should be reflected on every page here.

---

What I'm looking forward to is the ability to add shortcut links to the FAQ like [53]

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

At first glance, I notice that pspong.com is not in the sister sites, which led me to think of mebee a "Asylumite Pages" link that just has links to all pages listed as homepages by the asylumnites..

ok, cough if that actually made sense..

That's the first thing I noticed 'cause I haven't really had a change to look at it yet. Gimme 'till tonight to thurouly (Operation Timed Out: It stays misspelled) search and explore it and vomit my thoughts up on this here thread..

bbl (in what I'm sure has to be it's first use in Asylum history)

by the way, I accidently voted against the cover page... um.. sorry.. hehehe


Harmonizing new illusions...
ICQ: 67751342

[This message has been edited by Petskull (edited 05-20-2002).]

Hehe, I don't mind about SB's SB. That was my own durn fault.

Its already getting pretty messy over there though. Look at this thread for instance: http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=87 I think Its getting a lil too social. Also at the bottom look at all the edited bys. I love that so many people can contribute but I dunno, It just looks messy to me. I wish there was a better way to list the people that worked on a topic that doesn't take up as much space.

I just found something out. I made a test topic in the mad scientist forum, and noted it's url:
http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum15/HTML/000063.html

Then I archived the topic, and it's new url is:
http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Archives/Archive-000005/HTML/20020520-15-000063.html

So, I'm thinking, maybe there's a way to create a mechanism within the FAQ for linking to posts. The FAQ can replace the link, not with an actual link to the post, but a link to a php thingy to deal with it. Something like, if I type

[asylum15.63]

it will link to forum 15, thread #63. Except that it won't actually link there, it will link to a php thingy, which will check to see if there *exists* a thread 63 in forum 15. If there does, it will forward you there. But, if there does not, it could search the archives for any html file ending in "-15-000063.html". If it finds one, it will both (a) forward the user there, while (b) deleting the old link to itself and replacing it with a hard link to the archived topic.

OK, so it's a little screwy, and may be hard to implement. But it might make things easier; if we don't do something about it, I forsee many broken links which no one will have the ambition to fix.

It might be easier to implement it like this: every time a thread is archived, it can store information about the archival in some text file, saying something like "thread 63 in forum 15 has been archived to this url: ...", then the php script i mentioned could use that text file rather than searching the archives for the topic.

OK. Just some ideas.

PS: I will add PSPong in there once the PSPong site is up and running (or someone can add it now and we'll update it). If people want to add their web pgaes then the best place might be here where you can add a bio and anything else that you might want (within reason - if it isn't I'm sure it'll get voted out pdq):
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=49

The Doc and Dark have already done so and Dracusis has added a section on his sigs.

SB: There will be some FAQs which need some knocking into shape (I was rushing and tired when I did a lot of those so errors will have crept in). I think we are fairly agreed on that FAQ and the comments are only left in for the moment just to make sure we are all agreed. At some point someone can nip in there and tidy that up to make it easier on people.

Slime: All ideas that make this easier to keep things joined up are gratefully recieved.

[edit: Oh and if do accidentally vote against a post then vote for it and it cancels the vote against out - in the big picture anyway]
___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Argh....... now I see the link at the top of the page , thanks Doc!! makes it easier now to reach the big FAQ.

we should redesign the whole faq structure going closer to the one like the forums in here.

A little nit pick on the cpoyright on the bottom of every page...'-All content copyright by the person who wrote it, but faq.ozoneasylum.com can and will not verify ownership.-' Can and will not? That doesn't seem to make any snese...iut say that 'Oh yes...we can verify that we/they own all of this content...but we're not going to do it for you.' Which just makes it a negative of a positive which cancels both out and it makes no sense....

[edit]damn speeling[/edit]

Koan 63:
Those who Believe
Can
Those who Try
Do
Those who Love
Live

[This message has been edited by Skaarjj (edited 05-21-2002).]

it means they *can* not, and *will* not.

They're both incapable, and unwilling.


[This message has been edited by Dan (edited 05-21-2002).]

Grumble Said : "we should redesign the whole faq structure going closer to the one like the forums in here"

I like the way the FAQ is set up. Th forums are for discussions, the FQA's are for answers. I know that there are some discussions happening in the FAQ at the moment but most of them are based on feature's and such which require discussions.

Once most of this is worked out I don't think it will be a problem.

As for the "Linking to an asylum page that's been archived" problem. I've noticed that this happens here a lot as well. Maybe we could alter the Asylum board to write in a HTML re-direct when it archives anything to try and keep the links working all-round.

Although I can see another problem here as well. What if someone links a page in the FAQ then it gets removed from the Asylum after a certain period of time, ie - not archived?. I think the biggest problems at the moment are maintaining integrity between the two structures. Maybe we need to force the migration of the Asylum to a PHP solution sooner? Maybe there are other ways to work around this for the time being.

Speaking of the Asylum PHP borad. What's happening with that? Was it something the Doc was planning on doing all by himself? Did he want a hand with it? Is this whole idea dead?

If it is still happening I'd be more than willing to help out. I wanted to hepl out with the FAQ since it was first suggested (We were thinking a static HTML solution back then!) but I had no idea TP was doing this. Now I feel kinda lame for not knowing about it untill now.

Anyways... Just dumpin the contents of mah noodle.


[This message has been edited by Dracusis (edited 05-21-2002).]

Dracusis: All good points - one way to keep things joined up is to drop a note into a thread that is still active saying that it is being linked to from the FAQ and give the link to the FAQ. The person archiving things could then remember to update the link when they archive the thread. Hmmmm that sounds a little...

Some forums archive sooner than others and it might be a good idea if threads that are no longer active get archived if they are linked to from the FAQ (something all Psychotics and MSs can keep an eye on in their respective areas of interest!!). TP and I have also been promoted to MSs (thanks Doc) so we should be able to keep an eye on things and archive any old active threads if need be (as with renaming and moving FAQs I'll start a thread to alert people to the presence of active threads - that way everyone can do there bit to keep an eye on things - deal??).

[edit: OK its here:
http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=359
it should go some way to helping.]

By the way TP there are some people waiting in this thread who'd like to talk to you:
www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum15/HTML/000057.html

~pushes TP through the door and runs off to hide~

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor