User talk:Shido

Welcome to StrategyWiki!
Hello Shido! Welcome to StrategyWiki. Thank you for your contributions. If you have any questions, just contact a sysop through their talk page or post on the staff lounge, and they'd be happy to help. If you need help editing, check the editing article or the StrategyWiki Guide. If you have a question about the content on this wiki, you can check out our staff lounge page. If you want to ask questions or hang out in IRC, we're usually around. On the other hand, if you have ideas for StrategyWiki, bring them up on the community portal talk page. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes ; this will automatically produce your name and the date. Finally, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field as this helps to document all of your hard work. Feel free to delete this message from your talk page if you like, or keep it for reference. Happy editing! -- Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 10:45, 3 May 2007 (CDT)

SMI Image
Image:Super Monkey Island Crack.png would be my initial suggestion. My concern is that short acronyms like SMI (and words like crack) could easily apply to multiple games. The name technically follows policy, so you can just remove the rename template if you don't feel it's necessary. -- Prod (Talk) 01:24, 4 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Btw, the policies aren't really set in stone yet. But as you're dealing with the topic, I hope you'll voice your opinion at some point on certain revisions that are necessary (such as the acronym thing).  I always like to name my images as "Full Game Name, 1-2 Word Descriptor, # if in a series,.extension."  However for the full game name, I'd leave out the prefix "the" like for SMI.  Also "crack" doesn't seem like a descriptor.  Isn't that picture of like, what to click on to get down the cliff?  So "Super Monkey Island Cliff Climb.png" would be the way I'd personally go.  --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 04:27, 4 May 2007 (CDT)
 * For full game names, I would include “The” if it is part of the formal title, and in this case it is. The game’s article (The Secret of Monkey Island) includes it anyway, so I would stick it into the image titles for consistency. “Crack” is actually the name of the location in which the screenshot is taken, and it’s not called a “cliff” in the game.  Initially I named it “crack” because the screenshot shows where you're supposed to attach the rope in the so-called crack.  Since the screenshot also shows how to reach the oars, perhaps I could name it Image:Secret of Monkey Island oars?  Or will that conflict with the naming of the image sprites of the inventory? —Shido 04:41, 4 May 2007 (CDT)
 * First of all, naming consistency is most important; you should use what's already been used unless the existing names are poor quality. So, whatever you choose, make it stick.  Second, I would probably do Image:Secret of Monkey Island Ladder Placement since the picture is meant to show you the locations, not show that specific area.  It shouldn't be crack because the image isn't used to show you the area called crack, but to do something else.  See what I'm saying?  Actually... on second thought check this out: how about a third "parameter" so that the file name is Image:Game Name Location Purpose so that you could have multiple images from crack, but outlining something different.  This might not apply to SMI, but in games that require duplicate areas, or larger areas (multi-screen under the same name) this would probably be a better way to go.  --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:58, 4 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Thanks for your input. You're right, although any other screenshot of the crack would be redundant in my opinion.  I'm now thinking of naming it Image:The Secret of Monkey Island crack rope usage (“The” is part of the formal title), with “crack” as the location and “rope usage” as the purpose.  Now, what naming convention would you suggest for item icons in the inventory?  They obviously don’t have a location, so I’m thinking of something similar to Image:The Secret of Monkey Island rope icon, Image:The Secret of Monkey Island banana icon, etc.  (I looked at the item pages of a few games, and they don’t help me to identify a standard.) —Shido 18:20, 4 May 2007 (CDT)
 * As long as the game it belongs to is clear, and the rest of the info tells something about what it's for, the rest is up to you. -- Prod (Talk) 00:29, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Shido, I recommend using a Game Name, Category, Specific type of naming series for "list" type entries (items, enemies, etc.). For instance, Image:Super Metroid Items Morph Ball.png. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 02:25, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * What do you want it renamed as, I'll do for you this time :).--Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 14:12, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * (Notmyhandle) The problem with a title such as Image:The Secret of Monkey Island Items Banana.png is that in SMI, each item’s appearance in the inventory is different from its appearance in the “environment/world.” I guess “icon” would be a bad name to describe the inventory, because there is a possibility that somebody will take the world items as “icons.” Perhaps I’ll name the items like Image:The Secret of Monkey Island Items Banana inv .png just to distinguish what belongs to the inventory. —Shido 15:15, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Hey Rocky, it’d be nice to have Image:SMI crack.png renamed to Image:The Secret of Monkey Island crack rope usage.png. I think that satisfies the full game name, location, and purpose parameters.  Thanks in advance. :) —Shido 15:15, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Yeah sure, I'll do it now, thanks for the help (I would have guessed and got it completely wrong :P).--Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 16:26, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Shido you could just do Banana1.png and Banana2.png and then eventually make categories Category:SMI World Items and Category:SMI Inventory Items. Ya know?  --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 18:55, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Haha, looks like you’re not all that picky about image titles. I’ll do that. —Shido 20:25, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * (Rocky) Thanks for the rename. :) —Shido 20:25, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Well I'm really stumped when it comes to file name length. I can't decide whether they should be allowed to be huge or we should advocate for shortened ones.  However, I feel that the game name should never be abbreviated, while descriptors are ok for me.  --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 21:32, 5 May 2007 (CDT)
 * I think Abbreviations are OK as long as it's famous (e.g FF for final fantasy, PKMN for pokemon, LoZ for legend of zelda etc.), you probably will get away with your abbreviation because how many games will be abbreviated to TSOMI?--Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 01:58, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Wow I googled TSOMI and like every single reference is to the game. Well I dunno now.  I guess it really doesn't matter.  --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 04:21, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

(Undent) Per Rocky’s opinion, my personal preference and Notmyhandle’s neutrality, maybe we should rename Image:The Secret of Monkey Island crack rope usage.png to Image:TSoMI rope usage.png in order to throw away the excessively long image title? I think the lowercase o would help in reducing the chance of a future game taking this exact acronym. —Shido 07:03, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Done :),P.S I edited your comment cuz the link wasn't showing at all, hope it's what you want. --Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 07:48, 6 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Thanks again for the image rename. I’ll be starting to uploading several images of inventory items in a few days if nobody objects to using “TSoMI”. —Shido 16:35, 6 May 2007 (CDT) P.S. That external link was actually meant to be subtle. :P

Sorry about making this so bureaucratic >.<. -- Prod (Talk) 16:04, 11 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Not a problem. If you didn’t bring this up, somebody else probably would’ve.  It looks like TSoMI is a good abbreviation. —Shido 16:03, 12 May 2007 (CDT)

YouTube videos
We are not a YouTube portal, we host written walkthroughs for games. Sending readers to another site for walkthrough information is not how the site works. YouTube links, like images, are used to enhance a guide and make certain things easier to explain or understand. While a link here or there may prove helpful in the development of the guide, please don't create entire pages of nothing but. If you want to make a playlist of all the Deus Ex videos, one link on the guide would suffice, perhaps in an External links section on the main page. Thanks, — najzere T 19:27, 13 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Naj, I've been working with Shido on this topic via IRC. We're using his videos as a basis for a guide, since that's the material he's polished so far. -- 20:14, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * What material? It's all links to YouTube. You can use whatever you want as a basis for a guide, but that doesn't mean it belongs on the site. — najzere T 20:21, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, but the videos are for our readers. If we were able to embed them ourselves, Shido would. Since he created the videos, and didn't know where to start, I thought by placing the videos first he could better plan the layout of the guide pages. In a finalized version of the guide, the links would still be there. And yes, we are "video portal" if the videos are directly related to our guide. -- 20:31, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * "videos are for our readers". Videos are for watchers, not readers. If they were hosted on this wiki, at least it would be watched here. Why would you want to send someone elsewhere for this content? He doesn't need videos to plan the guide... the ToC is already made, and every other guide gets planned without the use of YouTube links. I like your example though: one external link to all the videos. Even if the guide had a fully written walkthrough, it's still putting up something directly competitive with our content. The main issue though, is that there is nothing else on the pages. Should we put links to GameFAQs guides on empty pages as well? — najzere T 20:49, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * As long as it's a WIP, it's fine, but it does eventually need to have text to accompany it. Videos are a good tool to show people one way of accomplishing a task, but the walkthrough text should explain some of the permutations of the system in question.  Assuming Shido plans on explanding the content on the page, let it go for now and see how it looks when he's finished.   Pro  cyon  20:55, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * @ Naj, no, because we try to assimilate written content. It's not possible to do that with multimedia, but that type of content is what this website is all about: providing users with a complete guide, with multiple perspectives, and something beyond mere text. We've chosen not to embed videos in the past because of the required code and associated storage space. As such, we link to these videos in order to provide our users with the examples that cannot be explained in text. Although animated gifs are our best alternative, it's a matter of what is most easily created. And video authors, who have spent enough time recording and cutting their videos, probably don't want to hassle with conversions to gifs anyways, as they are an obviously inferior example. The way we link externally to videos is the same way with we do with our partnership websites (i.e. bulbapedia): to provide users content that is outside of our scope or not hosted on our site, but that is still important to the game or illustrative of something that goes with our guide. Also note that this isn't advertising, as Shido has taken the time to link back to SW on all 60+ of his videos. -- 21:00, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * LOL we're not a partner of YouTube, and nothing in those videos is outside our scope. The debate is over, since Procyon has chimed in, so I'll just sit on my opinions of outsourcing our guides. — najzere T 21:05, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Just FYI, I see both of your points on this, and they are both, for the most part, valid. To Shido specifically, YouTube videos should be the exception to a guide where text just can't do a set of steps justice, and you have to see what to do in order to understand it.  They shouldn't compose the majority of the guide, but I am under the assumption that you plan on backfilling those pages with text.  Otherwise, Naj is right, as there is nothing currently on that page that makes SW anything more than a portal to YouTube.  If those pages were to remain that way, people would say to themselves, "what's the point of coming to SW when all I have to do is go directly to YouTube?"  So I am willing to wait and see what you plan to do with those pages.   Pro  cyon  21:21, 13 July 2009 (UTC)
 * @ Naj We don't need an agreement to use it for our benefit. If you search for StrategyWiki you'll find numerous, often unassociated references to our website. I think a lot of the videos that we use YouTube for also have direct links back to us (like Shidos).


 * In our current state, yeah it would be unwise to externally link to content that competes with us. Maybe we should re-think embedded videos at the next meeting. -- 21:30, 13 July 2009 (UTC)