User talk:The Retro Gamer/2014

Welcome to StrategyWiki!

Hello The Retro Gamer! 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 StrategyWiki Guide or ask a sysop, we're usually around. On the other hand, if you have ideas for StrategyWiki, bring them up on the forums. To keep up-to-date with the goings on of the wiki, consider adding the noticeboard to your watchlist.

Please remember to sign your name when leaving comments on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. Feel free to delete this message from your talk page if you like, or keep it for reference. Happy editing! — Wario^Talk 16:18, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

Notes about music

Try to keep the notes about the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack to just bullet points. It is a detail that is not explicitly defined in StrategyWiki's scope (what we can or can't have here), but since it is extra information (not necessary for the guide), please keep it as minimal as possible. It may be a better idea to just make a "Sounds" or "Soundtrack" page to explain where all of the music is played and re-used. Since that appears to be your interest, I would consider it akin to credits pages, which are also extra, but acceptable if minimal. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 16:20, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Break up walkthrough text into sections

Please try to find a way to break up the text for this diff. We do not want giant, hard to read blocks of text. Use sub-headers, like ===Checkpoint=== for large separations. A simple double space will help to separate the content into paragraph-sized chunks. Thanks! --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 16:23, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

We really appreciate your work. Thank you! --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:19, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Preload buttons

The preload buttons.

In order to keep pages on the wiki neat and uniform, we employ certain formatting and templates to help us accomplish this. When creating a new page, please use one of the preload buttons located above the edit text box (e.g. click on "Guide page" to add {{Header Nav}} to the top and {{Footer Nav}} to the bottom), which will insert the needed templates and formatting for you. These templates are very handy because they include the templates that are required for each page type. If you are unsure about how to use them, or what pages to use them on, please let me know. Thanks for keeping the wiki organized! — Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:20, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Donkey Kong Country/Getting Started

I moved Donkey Kong Country/Barrel Types to Donkey Kong Country/Getting Started. The barrel types page would be much too short and the getting started page should encompass all of the basics of the game, so it can all be combined in one place. When making a new page, make sure to use the "Guide page" preload button to fill in the header and footer nav (I see you missed the footer nav; I will put it in for you). Also, make sure to add a link to the Table of Contents for the guide, otherwise the page will be orphaned and no one will be able to find it. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:22, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Image categorization

When uploading images, please make sure to categorise them using the correct image categories and the guide-specific category, i.e. [[Category:Game Name images]]. Please see our image policy for more details. Thanks for helping to keep our images neat! Paco (talk) 04:53, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

In case of those DKC images: the Gamename should come first and every images need at last 2 categories. Paco (talk) 04:53, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

What Paco means is that in the case of an image like File:KongLetterKDonkeyKongCountrySNES.png, we also want a general category that describes the type of image it is, like Category:Sprites, or Category:Icons. I would use the sprites category for the letters since they are objects in the game. Also, please see our naming policy, here: StrategyWiki:Images. We prefer to use readable names that start with the game name. Some thing like "DKC Kong Lett K.png" or "Donkey Kong Country Letter K.png" would be better than "KongLetterKDonkeyKongCountrySNES.png". Thanks for your work, and for uploading the letter sprites. =) --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 05:25, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Now that I have your attention, it is possible for admins to move files (like you can move pages; there is a "Move" tab at the top right of every page). This renames them. So, what you can do is put this template:
{{rename|Your reason or suggested filename}}
on a page that you need help renaming, and an admin will come by and take care of the rest. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 15:52, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

It should be {{rename|File:DKC Letter N SNES.png|Old name is long and unreadable}} and not {{File:DKC Letter N SNES.png|Old name is long and unreadable}} in which you forgot to put in rename. Paco (talk) 12:03, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

You forgot to add in rename again. Here a example to how to do it right: The Rename-Tag is now properly added. Paco (talk) 12:17, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

Retro Gamer, it looks like the rename template is broken on the Dolphin skin. We have different skins you can use to view the site. I used to use Monobook, and I think Paco does, and Monobook makes things appear differently. Right now the rename template is invisible in Dolphin. In Monobook it puts a big red warning on the page to tell you what to do. I will try and fix that as soon as possible so this process makes more sense to you. Thanks for trying! --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:02, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

Partner boxes

The big boxes in the side are reserved for wikis we have active partnerships with. Until we have some kind of agreement with them about link exchange, please don't add it to the main pages. The wikipedia box is also only to be used on pages where we don't have much information of our own, or where we got a significant amount of information from them. -- Prod (talk) 22:30, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

It looks like DKW has links to us in some of their infoboxes, so if there is some kind of partnership set up that you're aware of, can you please add it to the above page? -- Prod (talk) 22:37, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

Doesn't our partnership with NIWA mean that we can have link boxes between other members of NIWA? The about section of the NIWA page says: "a community of wikis that will support and strengthen each other", so doesn't cross-linking fall under that? --The Retro Gamer 00:56, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

That's more of an open ended statement that we help each other out a bit. We have links to all the other wikis on the front page, cross promote each other over social media, and provide support to each other behind the scenes. How much interlinking we have with each other beyond that is decided by the specific wikis. -- Prod (talk) 02:34, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Concerning only interlinking to pages we have a partnership to, we have two templates: Template: Lylat Wiki and Template: Super Mario Wiki (Not includng the template I created, Template:Donkey Kong Wiki) that aren't in the StrategyWiki:Guide/Partnerships page.

Other NIWA wikis have templates link to us without a spot in our StrategyWiki:Guide/Partnerships page. Here is a list of what I could find:

Donkey Kong Wiki: [1]

Example Page: [2]

F-Zero Wiki: [3]

Example Page: [4]

Metroid Wiki: [5]

Example Page: [6]

Nookiepedia: [7]

Example Page: [8]

Super Mario Wiki: [9]

Example Page: [10]

I also added the Donkey Kong Wiki and Super Mario Wiki templates to the sandbox.

So what should be done about this? Should these wikis be added to our list of partnerships, or should they have these templates taken out? --The Retro Gamer 15:22, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Pretty sure those PL templates on F-Zero Wiki/Fire Emblem Wiki etc. were to be removed (I was hoping to organise a formal partnership between FZW, FEW and SW at some point, but never got around to it). If other wikis want to link here, that's up to them, and we can't interfere with that. If they contact us, then we can set up a partnership between our wikis. As for Lylat Wiki, a partnership was planned, but discussions over there just sort of died out. --Moydow ^{T · C} 17:49, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for clearing everything up, Moydow, but I still have one question. Can/Should these templates be used on articles: (I added the Donkey Kong and Mario templates to Donkey Kong articles to provide more information.) --The Retro Gamer 18:47, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

{{Donkey Kong Wiki}} {{Lylat Wiki}} {{Super Mario Wiki}}

Bottom line: What we really need is content, not links to other wikis. The cooperation aspect is nice, but what people are coming to StrategyWiki for is information on how to play/beat a game, not to be directed somewhere else (where they are even less likely to find what they were looking for in the first place.) Please focus your efforts on describing aspects of gameplay like controls, power-ups, and best of all, level walkthroughs. Thank you. Procyon 20:21, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

In short, no, do not use them. If those Wikis set up a relationship where they link to our main page in return for us linking to a similar article, then that's how it will work. For the most part, these boxes only exist while the main page is a work in progress or a permanent stub (e.g. a game without a lot of info known about it, but Wikipedia may have trivial info that we don't). These boxes are not a requirement for a featured guide, but can sometimes lead to supplementary info. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 00:48, 3 July 2014 (UTC)