MindCrack talk:Sandbox

Is there a way to query the existing data, or add the data so it can be queried, to return a list of MindCrack Members from the United States? I'd like to replace the list on Team America's page with something that can update on its own. Atharsea 03:25, 5 November 2012 (CET)

Properties, etc.

Can you add (or tell me how I would go about adding) a "Status" property to identify between active and inactive members? Also, can a row for "Teams" be added to the member infobox? Thanks! Atharsea 08:19, 22 November 2012 (CET)

Application of databased episodes to people visiting builds?

I noticed on the Recent Changes that you can apply video listings to describe build episodes...It looks really interesting. Could you explain how that works?

Also, can that be applied to people who visit the builds? For example, the PvP at the Lens have many perspectives. --Aejrogota (talk) 05:34, 2 August 2013 (CEST)

It's not quire ready to roll out - I was just trying out a "proof of concept", repurposing the Join team parameter that is used on members pages. I think the parameter should probably be something like "Build is". The intent is to identify videos of which a majority is working on a build and/or adding a significant element to a build. Since we already have the video lists it will be an easy way to add a list for people to rewatch the process of a build. What do you want to see for visited? The video system doesn't work well with multiple perspectives yet, & especially with a mix of single and multiple. For the PVP at the lens I'd suggest linking to MindCrack PVP at The Lens and something similar for instances on server tours, but maybe we could add a "Visited" parameter for build tours? The new parameters would only be added to applicable videos, using the same format as other parameters on the video - you can see where I put the test ones on Zisteau's video page. One thing we will have to be careful of is using a uniform nameing system for builds, the title of the build's page would probably be easiest. --Atharsea (talk) 06:38, 2 August 2013 (CEST)

Perhaps that was a bad example...I think a better one would be the times when people toured adlington's castle in Season 3. For example, Guude toured it officially one time, while Avidya and BTC stumbled onto it once. It may be extraneous but, if properly used, it could add an extra dimension of perspective–the perspectives of other server members.

I know it is a long way off, but I think I should offer this suggestion. A lot of the build articles are short. It may be better to set the video episodes for builds on a separate page and have something like the "[MindCracker]'s videos on the server" listing so the listing does not overwhelm the article. This would especially be big for something like the Lens where Zisteau has spent a considerable amount of episodes there. This page could then be sorted according to things like the PvP perspectives and other special events like the server tour you mentioned. Some consideration should probably be given to the time stamp for things like the server tour. --Aejrogota (talk) 07:50, 2 August 2013 (CEST)

I think that construction videos are relevant to the build, and make sense to be on the builds page. It doesn't make sense to have two shorter pages instead of one complete one. I could see it being separate on the arena, since that is a fairly well developed page. Build videos would be their own section, at the bottom of the page, so it wouldn't overwhelm content. If we do visitations to a build they could be on the same page, or possibly have one page of visitations for each member, with a section for each build. Unfortunatly we can't do time stamps - videos would use the same info we put into them on the members video pages. We'd have to split all the videos into seperate pieces. I think we'd need a lot more uses for the time stamp and a way to display video lists for group event using queries before the effort could be justified. --Atharsea (talk) 04:11, 3 August 2013 (CEST)

Yeah, you do have a point on all those counts.

No other questions really come to mind. I'm still excited to see the result, though; let me know when it is ready so I can help out. --Aejrogota (talk) 00:16, 4 August 2013 (CEST)

Create/Delete Properties?

Can I delete properties, and if so how is it done? There doesn't seem to be a way to do so from the properties page, but appear on there from simple misspellings (Serires is). Also, what is the correct way to add properties? I want to add 3 string properties:

1. Build is - This property will identify videos that are primarily of the construction of a specific build, allowing build pages to have a list of videos that contributed to their creation (see experiments with the Joined team property on the Sandbox page)
2. Activity is - This property will identify videos that are a perspective of group events, creating the potential for automatic lists for future events. It can also be used to identify tours of specific builds and skins that are used for UHC (see experiments with the Joined team property on the Sandbox page).
3. Kind is - This property will be used mainly for identifying images that are skins at present, but will likely have additional uses in the future. I want to streamline adding new skins to gallery on user pages by using a query instead, and a property is needed to prevent other images that have or may have the "Page is" property assigned to them from appearing.

--Atharsea (talk) 23:12, 4 August 2013 (CEST)

I may have to delete and rebuild the entire SMW database to get that deleted. I don't know any other way to do so. I might try this out when traffic is at its low point. Properties can be added anytime by having a page using that new property but it seems like once it's added it can't be removed. Once the page has that new property, you can go to the property's page to define its datatype. I think "build is" could be combined with "activity is" and use descriptions like "build arena", "build royal observatory", etc. for builds. What other uses do you want for "kind is"? It seems like an awkward name to use for skins.--Admin 05:20, 7 August 2013 (CEST)

I'd been debating whether or not to combine "build is" and "activity is", so I'll do that. Besides using "Kind is" to tag images (skin, possibly avatar, irl, etc.) is to identify livestreams in the video list, although I haven't given much thought as to how it might impact the layout. I need some sort of parameter to sort skins from other images that may get tagged with "Page is". None of the existing parameters seem appropriate, "Image type" would be ok but isn't very versatile. Maybe "Source"? If you have other ideas let me know. --Atharsea (talk) 20:48, 7 August 2013 (CEST)

I finally took the time to figure out how to rebuild the entire SMW database. I had to edit some files from the Maintenance extension to do this but now that it's done it will be easier to rebuild it in the future.--Admin 07:08, 6 January 2014 (CET)

Thanks for taking the time to do that! --Atharsea (talk) 07:41, 6 January 2014 (CET)