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The Wurmpedia

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How many of you have seen the phrase "read the wiki" typed into CA Chat? Everybody, of course!... And you have probably checked it yourself too recently. Why? Because with over 2,600 articles it's the go-to resource for anything Wurm Online.


 


We all like structured, informative and relevant information at our fingertips to help us to grow our skills and craft the new tool or decoration we have read so much about in the news. Looking through my own logs I see over 2,500 references to the Wurmpedia in the last 5 years alone, and that's only when I have been logged into CA!


 


As Tamorlane recently said in a City Hall forum thread: “Change is Comingâ€. The changes will include our Wurmpedia; the appearance, the content, and how it’s managed.


 


So today I would like to give you some insight into how we are structuring, developing and changing the Wurmpedia. The first noticeable change is the creation of a dedicated Wurmpedia Team. Our team is here to help keep the information relevant, informative, structured, and easy to use for old and new members of our community. Just how you like it!


 


It is important that everyone understands the reason for these changes. Firstly, I will explain why change is needed and then I will move on to explain how we plan to implement them, including the role and responsibilities of the Wurmpedia team.  


 


The Why


Wurm is growing! In the beginning when the Wurmpedia started to take off the team was too small to have anyone dedicated to it. An overseer was put in place to keep an eye on the editors and weed out the vandalism but the community was let loose to share their findings. As Enki once said, “back then Wurm was ‘intended as a sandbox of discovery’ and this is how the players chose to share their knowledgeâ€. Most of that knowledge was great for the community. However as time went on updates were released, changes were made, and the community started to grow. Some of the knowledge became lacking substance, mis-informed, and did not follow any specific or consistent structure. So now, we have a Wurmpedia that has some fantastic information, but there is still a lot of unverified content. That's why some people in will tell you not to use the Wurmpedia because “most of the information on there is incorrect anywayâ€.


 


We will change that by providing a strong, secure, and reliable source of knowledge for our community.


 


We currently have somewhere in the region of 1,400+ editor accounts. This is far too many for one person to manage. Even if over half of those accounts are inactive, that is still a very daunting task. The community has also grown substantially, probably somewhere in the region of 600% (my guess-timate from the MRTGs) and with any luck that growth pattern will continue... With that growth (regardless of where we are today) it is not feasible for one person to control the access rights, ensure the data is up-to-date (correct and structured), and to resolve any vandalism, revert wars, or posting issues.


 


You now know “Why", now to explain “Howâ€.


 


The How


So how do we go about structuring a beast such as the Wurmpedia? We build a team, invoke new rules and procedures, add globalised structure, and valued, dedicated commitment.


 


It is important to note that the team cannot be built only from players who 'just edit', nor can we build it from existing team members alone; we have to build a hybrid model. You may have noticed we started recruiting Wurmpedia Assistants who will be responsible for maintaining the structure, managing projects and overseeing the volunteer efforts of the approved editors.


 


I have already started some projects for the Wurmpedia Assistants to focus on. These projects will focus on areas of interest that have been (and will be) mentioned in the Wurmpedia Maintenance forum, along with some of my and the other staff's suggestions on where we feel serious maintenance is required. The team will be closely watching the release notes, public bug reports and jumping onto the test server to try to clear up some of the uncertainty and questionable content that exists in the Wurmpedia today. The end product of all of this will be a complete database of correct, relevant and structured information on the Wurmpedia we all know and love.


 


Next Steps


We plan to eventually have 3 levels of user on the Wurmpedia team;



  • Wurmpedia Manager (currently Marni)




  • Wurmpedia Assistants




  • Wurmpedia Editors



 


The primary role of the Wurmpedia Manager is to handle:


Development and management of the team projects for the Wurmpedia. They are also to handle recruitment, interviewing, appointing and promotion of the Wurmpedia team applicants and team members. The Wurmpedia manager also oversees the day to day operations and assessments of the scheduled tasks.


 


The primary role of the Wurmpedia Assistants is to:


http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/126363-wurmpedia-assistant-wa-applications/



  • Assist and execute projects relating to the Wurmpedia content and structure.




  • Monitor and review suggestions and updates posted to Wurmpedia section of the Forum.




  • Assist in the moderation of contributions made by the Wurmpedia Editors to the Wurmpedia.




  • Wurmpedia Assistants will also be the mentors to the Wurmpedia Editors, offering training and support in the day-to-day maintenance of the Wurmpedia.



 


The primary role of the Wurmpedia Editors is to:


http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/126364-wurmpedia-editor-we-applications/


 


The Wurmpedia Editor is a non-staff volunteer position. This position, however, is the team's eyes and ears to the community. Collecting information from the forums, chats, and test server. Helping review, test, and confirm the different page’s game information. They are the foundation of the Wurmpedia, having the most hands on position throughout the whole team, collecting, updating, and delivering the most up to date content to the Wurmpedia. They will help us to bring the Wurmpedia above and beyond the standards we all come to expect.


Please note that all Wurmpedia team roles are entirely voluntary.


 


What next?


 


All existing Wurmpedia accounts will be disabled soon, but not removed. This is to allow us to set up a new permission system, security measures, and adaptations for the Wurmpedia. Any players who have accounts in good standing in-game and on the official forums are welcome to apply to become one of our Wurmpedia Editors. For the time being, we are setting a soft limit on the number of editors that will give us time to teach and train those editors on our new globalised structure and templates for the Wurmpedia. Then shortly after, if everything goes as planned, we will open applications again to give more players the opportunity to join our awesome and dedicated team. More details on when the second round of applications will be available once the first Wurmpedia Editors have been properly introduced.


 


We will shortly be posting an application form for players to request a Wurmpedia Editor account and to join the editorial team, keep your eyes peeled!


 


In closing, I’d like to apologise for such a long post, but I wanted to make sure that we are as transparent with the Wurm community as we can be. I do understand that some may be concerned about having big changes made to our beloved Wurmpedia, but I can assure you that they are all for the greater good of the Wurmpedia and for the Wurm community!


 

Question: So current wiki accounts will be disabled, to get a wiki account/re-enable a current account the person would need to apply to become a Wurmpedia Editor?


Correct. Applying is the new way of saying "I'd like to edit the Wurmpedia". We will have tools, training and mentors available to the disposal of any editors.  The process is no different to how it was previously, however the Wurm team will be working closer to the editors than before.

 


TLDR:

1. We'll be soon resetting access for everyone, accounts will remain, just become inactive.

2. Anyone wishing to edit the Wurmpedia will apply directly through the WM as before, but completing an application form.

3. There will be guidelines and so forth provided by the Wurmpedia Assistants which should be followed to ensure the Wurmpedia meets the high standards we want to see going forward.

4. Editors will get additional tools and resources that were not previously available.


Edited by bwg
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Q&A


 


We've collected some Q&A from various pages around the Wurmpedia and have consolidated them here.


 


Player & Settlement Pages


 


So how is the personal side of the wiki going to be handled like village and player pages are they going to be a request only or eliminated all together and the ones there now taken down?


 


This was one of the biggest contenders we had for making this change.  Many of the people affected by the process would be those who have a Wurmpedia account for only updating player and settlement pages. We are looking into various alternative platforms to host these going forward as we feel anyone should be able to participate and not just those who apply for editor accounts. We will unfortunately not be focusing our efforts on updating these but their history and legacy will remain in their current format until such a platform is available.


 


Factual Information


 


Does this mean that the dev team will start releasing actual information about game mechanics, or will the information continue to be based on community guess-work?


 


Way back when I applied for the Wurmpedia Manager role this was brought up in conversation between myself and some of the senior staff.  Although there are no plans for this immediately there’s no reason why we can’t look to getting some of the more contested and critical questions answered, but these would probably be limited to game balancing issues only. The idea that Wurm Online is a sandbox of exploration and learning is something held strongly by everyone in the team, all of the way up to Rolf. This is why information such as the spell lists for new priests isn’t released to even us, or the exact mechanics behind the rarity of items or the ‘roll’.


 


It’s important to note that 90% of the Wurm Volunteer staff, even the Wurmpedia team, do not get any information ‘leaked’ or provided to them at the moment. The other 10% will be, of course, the developers and staff on payroll (i.e. Code Club), who of course write the code.


 


Would be great if we could actually get patch notes instead of now having a volunteer team test all this, seems like yet another band aid instead of a real fix


 


I agree! But at least we’re now getting more information that we used to. Yes, the notes are often vague and obtuse, but that is intentional.  As I’ve already said, Wurm is about exploration and learning and we staff get no more information than you do. Even if we query them with a developer or Rolf we tend to get an even more obtuse response!  We’re players, like you, and we’re expected to try out new things to see how we can use them.


 


If one Kingdom works out how a change can work to their benefit before another then they’re definitely doing something right…  join the Wurmpedia Editor team and help us to get the information out faster and more accurately!


 


Great, except test server is still extremely unfriendly to player testing (can't spawn most items, can't set skills / stats / priesthood / med paths properly, pvp is disabled aside from sparring which is buggy and useless, can't see health pool, stam pool, CR, creature stats, etc.)


 


The test server is buggy for a reason… it’s a test server. It’s not meant to be stable, otherwise I’d be a live server.  You can’t spawn items and make yourself a priest but I can definitely request anything that the Wurmpedia team will need to validate anything (within reason).  We’re already building up our Wurmpedia City to include as many real-to-Wurm situations as possible and the Editors we’ll be bringing on board will have full access to the city and it’s contents.


 


As time goes on there should be no reason why we can’t request new and more statistics to be added to the test server for our validation efforts.


 


The important thing to remember is that we will never want to keep this information secret from anyone or favour a specific Kingdom, so the more diverse team we have the more the information we uncover can spread.


 


So... Mechanics will be explained, Mathematics examined and Intended Functions revealed of all of Wurms wonders? Nah I dont see that happening, it will still be the community to discover what THEY THINK it is you ARE doing behind the scenes... now with increased censorship.


 


Explained or revealed? Probably not, unless the developers decide to make that available to us, but we will be examining and validating the mechanics of Wurm, the sandbox of discovery.


 


Where did you get the ‘censorship’ bit from?  No-one’s censoring anything.


 


If incorrect information will be removed, will correct information be supplied, where correct information is only obtainable through developers with knowledge of the code?


 


Incorrect information will most definitely be removed - we don’t want the Wurmpedia to have a reputation of being incorrect and inaccurate.  If we find ourselves removing anything that is majorly incorrect we will seek to get the correct information either by means of bribing the developers with ice cream or by testing (where we can) on the test and live servers.


 


…..correct information has been actively withheld by staff due to 'keeping the sense of discovery'. Not just talking about stuff like meditation questions/ answers but the nuances like influence of stat skills on casting, real differences on altar types when receiving gifts, why skill gains can be so far off for meditation and other skills which wikis pages have many 'should' , 'could' and 'maybe' variables listed.


 


As far as I know the only data being withheld from the Wurmpedia at the moment is the meditation answers which aren’t even available to us without having to search for a 3rd party website.  We don’t have anything on altars and prayer gifts and stuff like that either and anyone withholding that information is doing so without my knowledge.


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The time has come...


 


Some of you may have already noticed or heard on the grapevine the changes that have been made very recently in line with the above announcement.


 


Standard accounts are blocked from editing anything in the main namespace, however Player, User and Settlement pages are unaffected, feel free to continue to update and edit these as you wish. Should we receive any complaints of un-approved editing of another person's page or settlement it will be considered vandalism. Vandalism is an immediate ban from the Wurmpedia, so please always get confirmation before editing.


 


Anyone may apply for a Standard account.


 


Editor accounts are enabled case-by-case after I receive an application requesting the upgrade. 99% of the time the upgrade will be approved. If you're unsure as to whether you're in the 1% then you probably shouldn't bother applying.  B)  Editors may edit any page on the Wurmpedia that is not protected, such as the main page.


 


Anyone in the 99% may apply for an editor account, but we do expect editors to remain on the active user list....


 


We are looking to redefine the role of the Assistant, so we will not discuss that too much right now, but the idea is that they should be highly experienced Wikipedia/Wurmpedia editors with a vast knowledge of the game, comparable to a GM in the game-world. Once we have ironed this role out (again) we'll bump the application page.


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