Lokai23's board-to-board with Grimm

Showing messages 1-22 of 22 messages. Board-to-board
posted 3125 days ago
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Hey, I think I am using that new tool, as long as it is the same one now in the Things To Do sidebar. I did get your message about all of that though and thank you for the clarification.

posted 3128 days ago
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Let me look into this a bit, and I will message you over Skype a little later.

posted 3138 days ago
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Yeah, I see some of those that I could probably do. I've done a bootable USB for Windows 7, so I'm sure I could do one on that for Windows 8 fairly easily. I ran across a question last night doing patrols that was about someone's hard drive showing errors and I was surprised to see there wasn't a guide here on reformatting a hard drive, at least not for Windows. Mind if I do one on that? There are a few others on that list I'm considering too, but I need to see how much information I don't know about them first.

posted 3138 days ago
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I've updated the new article request list. Please have a look at it, and let me know if you see anything that you're interested in or qualified to write on.

Please give me more than one choice, as we've got a few others working through those items too. I'll review and let you know what to get started on.

posted 3139 days ago
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Random stuff is good. Nice to see you exploring and checking out how things work. In patrolling, we check to make sure that a content is good. Thumbs up are usually reserved for particularly good edits, but not actual content, as in the case of a new question. That said, here are some answers for you:

  • When patrolling edits, why doesn't the system show the article the edit is relating to? You can actually see the article if you scroll down the page more. If it is a Q&A, you can view the parent page link by click the title over the edit field - just above where the user IP is displayed, where it reads 'Current Revision'. I usually open those links in a new tab so I don't lose my place in the PL checker.
  • Why are some of the edits just blank pages that have a username but show no content? These are new users. This is an extra manual check to make sure no unpleasant names make it past our filters.
  • Should I be marking pages as patrolled even if I don't make any actual changes or edits? Patrol works just like a police officer patrolling a neighborhood. You only correct things that are wrong. Anything that is not wrong requires no action other than clicking the approve button.
  • Would it be more beneficial in those cases, if I looked over a page or revision and found it to be pretty solid, to just give it a thumbs up? Generally speaking, I reserve thumbs up for those occasions where I have asked someone to improve a piece, and they have done such a good job that I don't need to go back in and make additional edits. That said, if you see something one of our team edited that is just perfect, then they could receive a thumbs up. Likewise if you see a new user making edits that are good, by all means, please give him or her a thumbs up, and let me know about it too.

Keep the questions coming, and the good work. Have a great day.

posted 3139 days ago
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Hey again, I decided to do some random stuff haha. How come with patrolling edits it doesn't show the article is it relating to? Also, are some of the edits just blank pages that say a username but show no content? Lastly, should I be marking pages as patrolling even if I don't make any actual changes or edits? Would it be more beneficial in those cases, if I looked over a page or revision and found it to be pretty solid, to just give it a thumbs up? That's it and thanks. I'm still trying to figure out all of the community based options.

posted 3143 days ago
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Yes, those were good times. Ah, to be young(er) again.

I usually come back to my articles a day or so later and sweep them for edits. Or I just write offline in Word, and then copy it to a text editor, so that I get the benefit of Word (which isn't always a benefit), and then read it out loud to see how things go.

Your article was good though, and just the sort of stuff we want to see in those sections. It's a helpful article, filled with good information, and most importantly, steps and tips (since we're a how-to). My edits were more directional than anything else, and I'm glad you could see their intent.

Maybe one of these days I'll spring for a few ESO copies, or something newer, and a few of us can take a few hours a week and write our own how-to article series on it. Something of a fun team oriented project, combining a leisure activity we all enjoy, with a work related activity we can later do. But that's down the road a bit yet. ;)

Have a great weekend. I'll be sending out some messages on Monday, and we'll be getting a little more focused. Thanks for your hard work!

posted 3143 days ago
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Thanks again for the tips and help with everything. I linked those all together where I could. Also, all of your edits looked pretty good and I see where you are coming from. That stuff is hard for me to notice while I'm writing it haha. I usually have to come back a day later or something once it seems less fresh.

UO? Ultimate Online? That brings back memories haha. That game was so ridiculous and free-form. So much chaos, which was sometimes great and sometimes terrible.

posted 3144 days ago
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Hello Sean,

I've made a few minor edits to your article on Buy, Install and Play Minecraft on PC, which you can see by clicking the link.

The main changes were to add a little more information to titles, so that a user scanning can get more information at a glance, which makes the articles more helpful. This also provides search engines with more information on what each section is about, which will increase the number of people your article reaches.

Another thing I did was to change some of the text a bit. You'll notice that some of the numbered steps have information that is not bolded after each step. This is because people tend to read shorter bolded information in favor of longer bolded sentences. So short but complete sentences are a great way to start a numbered list item. Then you can follow with the other information. In this case, everything after the first period . will not be bolded.

Finally, I changed the way some of the links were set up. You can view those changes as well, to see how I made them. To view items, just click the History button on the article, and then use the radio buttons on the left to select your last edit, and my last edit at the top. Then you can scroll down and click 'compare', which will show you the list of changes in red.

If you could, please edit the Minecraft article to link to your Steam article, using the article title in double brackets, as I did in the intro to your Minecraft title. Then link your Steam and Origin articles to one another the same way in your intro.

This gives users instant access to additional information they may want to learn more about, or perhaps weren't aware of. In the case of Origin, for example, I was a beta tester for UO back in the M59 days, so it was new information for me to learn that they had started competing with steam. Any time someone learns something new, their mind gives a little endorphin boost as a reward. For this reason, articles that teach new things are more rewarding than ordinary articles.

Thanks for your contributions, and have a great day!

posted 3144 days ago
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Well... the link below is an example of what I was talking about. It works like this.

  • Two brackets to start an internal link anchor [[
  • The title of the article, exactly as it appears in page (not the web link)
  • One bar to separate the article title| and the on page title,
  • The on page title. Be descriptive. Things like how to feed a bird are better than this link.
  • End with two closing brackets ]].



I'm also finishing up a list of articles we'd like to see, and will show you all how to use the tool to claim articles you want to write. That will be ready on Monday.

posted 3144 days ago
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Yep :) Brackets your descriptive anchor text will set it up for you. You can also insert links to articles you have not written yet, which will show up red. After your article is published, you can later click them, and write the article. As you get more familiar with the system, I'll go over the trending tools and other features of the system too, so that you can see what's hot and what's not.

posted 3145 days ago
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Sounds great! Also, if there are any game titles you're particularly familiar with, or games you like that you believe could use the 'how-to' you always wanted to see, let me know, and I'll see if there is a place for them.

Check out Play the Celtic Tribes Game for an example of an article another writer put up. It doesn't completely abide by our policies, but she moved it here so it could be on a wiki where other players could edit and add to it, so I haven't complained (too much) about it.

posted 3145 days ago
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I was thinking of doing one for Origin as well since that is also a fairly large platform, so you bet. Thanks for the information on videos. I'll see if I can get that working for the Steam one. It was just some video tutorials they had available for that as well.

posted 3145 days ago
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Are you interested in making an article like how to Install Steam, but for Origin?

Your Steam article is a great anchor piece, and adding Origin will give you two platform installation guides to link if you later write how-to articles about about their games.

I love to see this sort of content, as it is particularly helpful to new users, and adds value to existing articles when you link the how to install topics.

posted 3145 days ago
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Good Morning,

That's a great question, and the answer is part of a new how-to we're developing for improving articles. Here's a quick overview of the steps so you can get started now. Please let me know if anything doesn't work, or if you need more help.

  1. Open the article you would like to add a video to.
  2. Click the 'Edit' button on the section of the article where you would like the video to appear.
  3. Select the area where your video should appear (this can be done by clicking on the white space area where your video should be).
  4. Now look up to the right of your screen, under the green 'Write An Article' button.
  5. Under that button, scroll down to the menu titled 'Editing Tools'.
  6. Click the blue +expand option to the right of the menu title.
  7. Select 'Embed Video', which will take you to a window where you can enter search terms, and select from several video providers.
  8. If you prefer to enter your own video, simply paste the video link into the 'Video search terms' box, and then click 'Search'.
  9. Click the green 'Embed it' button, and your video will be added to the article.



Do note that we prefer articles to have an image at the top, and then at least a little text for those users who don't like videos as much. As a bonus, if you're able to make your own videos, I'd love to see a sample. Im always interested in people who can make Hollywood videos on a Bollywood budget. ;)

posted 3146 days ago
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Haha, yes you should. Although I haven't heard the best things about that one. Played the beta for it and kind of liked it, but it seemed slow and not too unique. Hasn't really been an exciting and different MMO in a while. Destiny was kind of supposed to be one, but that didn't turn out too well.

Anyways, I actually have a question. How do you embed videos into a post? I tried several of the tools in there and none of them seemed to be the right coding for it. I also tried a few blog style embed options for videos, but none of those worked either.

posted 3146 days ago
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If I could find my way out of the library, I might stick my nose in Elder Scrolls Online, and play it like a normal person. Of course, then I'd have to write some articles on it. What do you think about Howik the Paladin? :D

posted 3147 days ago
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Also, I like plenty of MMOs too usually, but I've been a bit burnt out on them for at least a few years now. I'll probably do some more Minecraft related articles since that game is unfathomably popular and a lot of people who play it are younger gamers who might need a guide to figure out a few things.

posted 3147 days ago
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Thank you very much. That is exactly what I referring to and I'll test that out to see if I can get everything looking smoother. I wasn't meaning to ask about any specific article at the moment, but I plan to do quite a few throughout the week and if you happen to see anything that is unusual, unpleasant or incorrect in them then please don't hesitate to let me know.

posted 3147 days ago
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Hi, no problem. I'm glad to be of help. I like what you've done so far (learning about Minecraft was fun, I'm more of an MMO guy myself). Generally we set the top image / meme to 630px in the editor (after you insert the image), and the main images in the article to 600px.

Note that these are width values. If your images are blurry, it is usually due to how the system resizes them. As a general rule, when I am adding new images, I resize them myself to 600px width. That way when they go into the system, they look as good as possible. If I am taking screenshots of my desktop, then I will temporarily reset my screen width from the enormous sizes I like to something more standard, so that my images don't look so bad when I reduce the sizes.

If you have a specific article you'd like me to look at, please let me know, and I will look at it and see what I can do, or if there are tips specific to that article we can use to make the images look better.

posted 3147 days ago
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Hey Grimm, Thanks for reaching out. I did have some questions about image formatting in regards to blurriness. I set them on auto sizing and all the images I set seem to be blurry, at least to me. I've messed with the px size a good deal and sometimes increasing that will sharpen the image, but lately I can't seem to get that to have any effect. Is there a specific size I should be using? Thank you.

posted 3147 days ago
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Hi Sean,
This is Grimm, and I'm and editor here at HOWikis.
I understand you have some image formatting questions, which I'd be happy to help you with.
I'll also be looking over your articles to see if there are any tips or pointers I can give you for getting the most out of our wiki system. If you have any other questions, or just need help with something, let me know. I'm here to help.
Have a great day!