[split] Ideas for what to work on in the wiki

[Mervi]

I hope to help contribute to the wiki's here as I go. I noticed there isn't much in the way of plot summaries, something I sorely needed waiting a year between each book. Is there any rule against detailed plot summaries on the wiki?

So I wanted to talk about this a bit. Anyone, please feel free to add your thoughts.

First of all, yay! Summaries would be pretty cool! I've avoided writing them, mostly because English isn't my first language so I'd be making lots of awkward mistakes. And second, because I'm scared about spoiling the books for anyone. 

The spoiler warning on the main page of the wiki currently implies that the encyclopaedia articles (anything under "characters", "animals", "places", "items" etc) could contain spoilers. I've been thinking about placing an additional warning (this would be a template) on the top of the pages about major characters, just to be on the safe side. On the other hand, that same main page warning states that book articles (basically anything under the top category "Books" (which I'm meaning to rename btw) should be safe to visit even before reading the book in question. This is because I've wanted to make sure that people visiting a book article for publishing/translation etc info do not get spoiled by accident.

So far, if I've written summaries, they've been pretty vague (the Liavek ones for example). It's easier to be short and vague about short stories, not so much about the novels perhaps.   

Previously, my idea of a summary has been sort of like "a short reminder of what the book is about", so for those who have read the books several years ago, could read the summary and go "oh, THIS is the one where we first meet Nighteyes, not the other one". But would people also want to read summaries beforehand? To decide whether or not read a book? Or for some other reasons?

I'm willing to amend the spoiler policy but I'd still be against chapter-by-chapter summaries, or mentioning major events (deaths/revelations etc) in the summaries. I _think_ it should be possible to circumvent around a character's death by mentioning something like "their lives are in danger" or if it's at the conclusion of the story, just to leave it out altogether. What do you folks think?

[Germ]

I understand your hesitance - the current pages are incredibly useful for looking at different covers and editions, which is very much of interest to new readers.

I think two things are needed: a vague, back of the book-esque summary for each book, useful for new readers. But I think a more detailed plot summary would be more useful for returning readers, maybe someone who hasn't read the books in a long time and want to catch up without rereading everything.

The Wikipedia page for Assassin's Apprentice is brimming with spoilers, but it was incredibly helpful for referencing events I didn't particularly care to re-read. Sadly, Wikipedia doesn't have this much detail for the whole series, and I feel that ThePlenty.net should be the #1 place for people to find their Hobb information.

Would it be possible to hide detailed summaries behind a button, similar to the spoiler tags here? Or perhaps do a secondary page for an indepth book digest?

It's difficult to juggle. The books have covered so much ground. Does Kelsingra always remain the mysterious city in the mountains, as first mentioned, or do we document what we learned about it over the course of several books?

[Mervi]

I think information on Kelsingra is a good example of stuff that is scattered so much in the books that it makes most sense to try to put it all in its own article rather than try to explain it all in books articles because that would require the reader to go through a lot of them.
That being said, I wouldn't worry TOO much about it - content in the wiki can always be moved/edited/copied etc ... once there is content! 
A short summary + a longer "hidden" one sounds like a really good idea to me! I'll see if I can find a way to make that happen with mediawiki.

[Mervi]

I'll be doing upgrades on the wiki script today. We've been stuck with v.25 for some time because the automatic system has continuously failed to upgrade from it - I will attempt a full manual upgrade today. The wiki might be down several times today, depending on how far along I manage to bring it - I'll update here to let you know when I've stopped hammering.

The rest of the site won't be affected.