I meant to post up a guide to the wiki, but my schedule changed and it kind of floated off my radar sorry to say.
For what it's worth, this is my most recent "draft" version of the guide I was writing. Not terribly pleasing to read but I think a lot of information is in here.
kouk’s RPOL Wiki Guide (Sept. 2013 [wow, so long ago])
EDIT: Seems I was a bit unclear at the time on whether I was going to post this as a wiki page itself or not.
Most things from RPOL code work, but not all. Currently it seems you can't add text color through the normal RPOL tags.
*This is what I've been able to determine and I may be making some incorrect assertions*
There are two parts to the RPOL Wiki: Links and Pages. Only GMs and Co-GMs can make Pages at this time. Anyone can make a Link – but if the Page it goes to has not been created, it is functionally useless.
A Link is like a Web address: www.MyUniquePage. com for example. You can pay a provider for the Web address rights, but there is not a complete and functioning Web site waiting for you when you get there.
Once created, by default all players can edit the contents of a Page, but they can't create a Page on their own. GMs have some kind of options to limit editing.
Note: Editing or Creating a Page REVEALS YOUR RPOL USERNAME. At present, your character name is completely unrelated to the Wiki.
Creating a Page is done like this:
Step 1: Create a valid
Link. (see below)
Step 2: Post (save) the changes.
Step 3: Follow the new Link, and it will take you to a "blank" Page. The Page is not truly created until some kind of text is entered however, and there always must be
at least one character of text in a Page.
Step 4: Anyone can now edit the Page, barring GMs changing editing permissions.
Valid Links:
To make a Link, simply type in the text: [[ NameOfLink ]] inside a Page while you are editing it.
When you post it (or preview even) it will show up as a blue Page Link. The Wiki understands the double brackets as "this is going to be a new Link now."
However, if the Page doesn't exist, the Link goes nowhere (it's a dead Link to an unusable Page), and a GM must come along and create it by following that currently-dead Link. If you post multiple identical “dead” Links that point to the same uncreated Page, a GM only needs to activate one and all of them become active.
Important: This Wiki is sensitive to blank spaces (the thing when you press the spacebar, that is between these words :) )
If you make a Link: [[ My Link ]], it is
not the same as [[My Link]], or [[MyLink ]], or [[ My Link]] etc. Those would all be Links to different (though likely nonexistent) Pages. Try to be consistent with how you name Pages in terms of spacing.
Changing Link Appearance:
Links can have an
optional second part that changes what the Link "looks like" to us humans reading the Page. This is like how Weblinks sometimes say "Click Here" and it takes you to a site -- the address is "behind" the custom words.
You change the appearance by adding to the Link a vertical bar | (Shift + the key above most main Enter/Return keys on the keyboard) after the name of the Page the Link refers to, and then typing some more into it. The Wiki recognizes the vertical bar (|) to mean "Stuff I write after this is what the Link will look like". It must still be within the double bracketing.
The text after the bar (|)
has no bearing on where the Link goes. It's purely cosmetic and isolated to that instance of the Link. If you don't include a bar and appearance text, the Link displays the same text as the Page Name.
The following examples ALL will point to the exact same Page for an NPC named "Bob Smith". Furthermore, they can all be on the same Page, or scattered throughout your Wiki, they will all
always point to the same Page no matter where the Link is.
[[ Bob Smith ]] displays
Bob Smith
[[ Bob Smith | Bob Smith ]] displays
Bob Smith
[[ Bob Smith | Bob ]] displays
Bob
[[ Bob Smith | The Annoying Guy from the Bar ]] displays
The Annoying Guy from the Bar
[[ Bob Smith | Susan ]] displays
Susan (still goes to Bob Smith's Page)
The position of the vertical bar (|) relative to the Page Name is important.
If the Page is named [[ Bob Smith ]] but you type in [[ Bob Smith| Bob ]] (note that the vertical bar is right up against the 'h') the Link will be a new "dead" Link and will prompt you for creation. Spaces are important.
Note that the Link's "appearance" can be changed at any time with no effect on the Link's functionality. You can add an appearance to a Link that was not originally created with one. You can also create new Links with special appearance all at the same time.
A completely new Dead Link written in as [[ Bob Smith | The Annoying Guy from the Bar ]] will still eventually point to [[ Bob Smith ]]
This is like one of those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, where it says "If you want to follow the blue car, turn to Page 74" and you go straight there. There were other ways to get to Page 74, but it doesn't matter because it's the same destination Page.
Here's a tricky bit: We can't "recycle" Pages by renaming them. We can change how the name
looks in a given Link, but not change the name of the actual
Page. At least not in a way I can tell.
This means the badly-named Pages are permanent (as opposed to the Link Appearance), so give some thought to what the Page's "real" name will be, because any Page they are used to create will be named the same. (Though you can make a new Page with a new name and copy everything from the first to recreate it).
Simply trying to change the name in the Link makes an entirely new Link to a new Page under that new name (and renders the Link to the existing Page gone, unless edited back to what it was originally).
Page Organization:
At the top of a wiki page it displays
Home // Games // Your_Game_Name
When you name and create a new Page, the new Page is always
Home // Games // Your_Game_Name // New_Page
Even if we were to create a Link inside a specific Page inside a Page inside a Page, the top bar of that new Page would look like
Home // Games // Your_Game_Name // New_Page
It would
not be
Home // Games // Your_Game_Name // New_Page // New_Inner_Page // Extra_New_Inner_Page
meaning they are actually all tied to the " Your_Game_Name " (home) Page.
Instead of the "Matryoshka doll" folder system we normally expect from a computer, this Wiki
always puts new Pages inside the "biggest" doll -- the game's home Page -- regardless of where we happen to write the Link. This means that when you
created the Pages, as opposed to putting a Link to them, they were put relative to the home Page. If you have multiple Links scattered about, but their Page reference is all the same [[ RealName ]], then wherever those Links are on the Wiki they will point to the one single Page.
Using Links and Creating Sub-Pages:
As I said, anyone can write a Link, but only GMs and Co-GMs can create a Page. There is no
true "Sub Page" -- all Pages are sub pages of the game's main (home) Page. They are exactly of equivalent hierarchy to each other, and all must be made by a GM or Co-GM.
You can however have "illusionary" sub-pages, which is what people are really after. This is accomplished by
strategically placing Links.
Example: I'm the game's GM, and I want a Page to house all the individual NPCs. I want each NPC to get their own unique Page.
I can do it like this:
1: On the game's main Page, type in a Link for the "NPC" Page. [[ NPCs ]] for example.
2: Post changes.
3: Follow the new Link, and enter text to create that new Page.
4: On the New Page, type in a Link for the individual NPC. [[ Egad Spengler ]] for example.
5: Follow that new Link, and enter text to create that new Page.
6+: RETURN TO THE PREVIOUS "NPCs" Page, and add additional Links the same way.
This way,
as far as us humans are concerned, there now are "sub Pages" of Home > NPCs > Egad Spengler et al. Technically they are all immediately subpages of the game's main Page, but that fact doesn't matter to us -- since we can only
see the Links in a certain order (the Wiki is aware of all Links that exist no matter what Page a human is viewing, but if we can't see to access a given Link, it effectively isn't there).
Deleting a Link/Page
To delete a given Link, simply delete the text in edit mode.
To delete a Page … at present you can't actually delete a Page, you just remove all Links to it, and it floats off into the abyss. Empty it as much as possible first though, to reduce any potential strain on the RPOL servers.
Good Practices:
You may want to make a text file with all the links so you can copy+paste them in.
This is personal preference, but I think it's a good idea to always include Links back the way the player came when they are navigating through the illusionary sub pages.
For example, at the bottom of Egad Spengler's Page, add the following text:
[[ NPCs | Back to NPCs ]] which is a Link to the NPCs Page, and displays
Back to NPCs. This preserves the illusion that it is a sub page and is easier for some readers than repeatedly clicking "back".
I also suggest including a hyperlink to the game's main Page (I am unable to determine the format for a normal Wiki Link to the main Page) with altered text:
<a href="http://Wiki.rpol.net/blahblah">Back to Home</ a>
Example Game Home Page Template (Quote this post and copy the below text and alter to suit):
Welcome to the game wiki!
[[ NPCs | List of NPCs ]]
[[ Quests | Current Quests ]]
[[ Treasure | Found Treasure ]]
[[ XP | XP Tracker ]]
[[ Journals | Player Journals ]]
[[ Towns and Cities ]]
Main RPOL Game Page
This message was last edited by the user at 00:49, Tue 01 Apr 2014.
