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New wiki Theme?

Started by An_dz, September 13, 2011, 07:17:16 AM

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An_dz

I've added a logo for the wiki and I've tested some themes that will fit it better to be the default.
Here are the options: (Click on them to see a screen)
- Fivealive None
- Tikinewt None
- Tikinewt Shadows

My question is which one you prefer. I'll change it based on the answers here. I'll wait 10 replies.
You can vote to keep it or choose other. But I don't think you'll find a good one other than those.

vilvoh

Any screenshots to make an idea about how would it look like?

Escala Real...a blog about Simutrans in Spanish...

An_dz

All right vilvoh. Here they are, just click on them now.

Combuijs

If the screenshots are representative and comparable I would choose the first one. It's the only one that is readable for me. In the others the characters are far too small. If the screenshots are not comparable, then I suggest to adjust them in order to judge better.

The first one is a bit better than the current one, but not by much, to be honest.
Bob Marley: No woman, no cry

Programmer: No user, no bugs



vilvoh

Thanks An_dz! imho, the first one is more clean, but I miss some side borders for blocks and sections. Also, there's a lot of black in the header. The third one would be great but with less grey at the header.

Escala Real...a blog about Simutrans in Spanish...

An_dz

#5
Unfortunately those are the only good available themes.
In truth I prefer the old (version 5.4a) theme, but this theme is not available on the new version.

If I could find someone that created a good theme for tikiwiki, something like gta.wikia or wikipedia or the 5.4a theme I would try to add this on Simutrans wiki. I know a few about html and css and I could try to do a theme for the wiki, but it's far too complicated and boring.

EDIT:
That's what I could do to make the Fivealive look better:

prissi

Ilike fivealive (1st) best.

An_dz

I searched and found some themes, none were good. I found another site that I'm looking now.

I'm doing some changes on the fivealive theme. If you want to check just change the theme on the wiki. But you can also check the image:

changelog:
Smaller header black line
Now you can see some text that were black in the same line
Removed search bar
Left column now with background color
Header text on left column smaller

Give me some advices on what more I can do.

sdog

#8
There are two related problems i see with the desin:

Firstly the lines in the first two paragraphs (directly below "Welcome ..." are quite a bit too long for comfortable reading. Perhaps some sidebar or elements on the left can reduce the horizontal space for the text?

The other issue is the ragged right of the text, this is also very detrimental for reading (it also looks unprofesional) (I know, wikipedia is doing the same for some unknown reason.) It should be easily possible to set html align to "justified". Not sure if you can do it for the wiki style.
Edit: this page explains in detail why it is a bad idea to justify text on the web. (i consider the line about non-static displays because of refresh to be **** though)
The more important argument is, browsers don't auto-hyphenate! (i never really realized that. [google has some nifty piece of code to do it though.

On comparison, the previous version with the white right side bar looked better to me. I think the text and elements provide already enough seperation. The hard edge formed by the contrast between light blue and white is a bit more distracting. (there's no need to emphasize this seperation.)

Reduction of the black bar was also good. In the full sized version it looks quite better. On the small picture, giving an overview i'd perhaps try a compromise in height, perhaps it should be a bit wider than the other black lines at the top of the page and framing the picture. But i'm quite unsure if it would look better or worse in the full size version.

An_dz

#9
I'm enlarging the left bar and the space between it and the content. This will make the content text smaller.

You answered exactly what I was going to say about justify text. Photoshop also 'try' do it.

You mean the left bar, right? :)
I think with the bigger space between the left bar and the content will make it look better and then I can remove the background color.

Edit:
By the way, I can only edit the css.

Edit 2:
Here's the updated version:

changelog:
Removed background color of left bar
Smaller footer
Bigger space between left column and content

Edit 3:
I've edited the footer, now it's very small. For now I'll stop editing it. Unless more ideas are given.

@sdog
I didn't understood what your talking about the small picture sdog, can you explain more?

IgorEliezer

Thank you for making the wiki friendlier.  ;D

An_dz

:D Thanks. Any new ideas to change something, tell me.
I want to give credits for Opera Dragonfly, for helping me make the changes and see how they will look like. It's a great tool.

Also the theme is now set as default and I've managed a strange bug on Index pages for all languages. The left bar disappearing.
I've updated the English, Portuguese, French, Italian and Czech. Anyway Czech is not totally translated.

I need to find out two bugs:
Images galleries can't be accessed; and
Images with links and links with Special characters (those that should appear when you type ~051~) are not shown.

Frank

I want to apologize for the changes to the appearance of TikiWiki.

The German community is to have the opinion perform changes there.

sdog

#13
Frank, i've just read the german forum thread, there was a very ungrateful post. I should like to point out that there are quite a lot of people who noticed that wiki is up for a long time (7 years?). Keeping a wiki running, and useable, over such a long time is quite a remarkable feat.


I've recently read a bit in  dwarf fortress' wiki. There is a very useful feature, every wiki article has a history for the game version it applies to. This is a bit too much for simutrans. But it would perhaps be a good idea to have at the top of each article/wiki page a line in bold which version it applied to when it was written. Manually written there by the author.


If the wiki is really dying, i thin i understood that from the article, perhaps we need something else.

The problem with a wiki is, that the fact everyone can participate means, most people wait for someone else to do it. In the end there's only the poor lad who feels an obligation to keep it running.

Perhaps a secondary documentation project, where we give single 'contracts' to community members to write one article. Next step is translation of exactly that article? This way people are being asked to do it, wich gives a bit more pressure.
To lower the technical barrier, just get pure text files, than pack it in any CMS we like (just simple html? perhaps using json, very portable).

I don't think a wiki would be sensible for the future, as it only works with high participation, and requires constant maintenance (spammers, vandals). A static documentation, that will become outdated, but consistently so, might be better.




i've just learned it from the german forum, not sure if people here are informed:
http://www.simutrans-forum.de/forum/index.php?page=Thread&postID=101690#post101690

Quote
Der Grund für Ende 2015 ist der, das dann der Support von Tikiwiki Version 9.x LTS ausläuft.

Und warum sollte ich dann ein Update durchführen für eine Datenleiche die nur als historisches Archiv benutzt wird?

Es würde sogar reichen, wenn jemand die Versionsartikel der Veröffentlichten Versionen einträgt. Denn laut Wiki gibs seit Februar 2011 keine neue Version.

Und für die jeweils ca 15 Minuten werden sowohl fürs Programm wie für die Grafiksets irgendjemand wohl Zeit haben?
Die diversen anderen Hilfsprogramme ( Tilecutter, Shades usw. ) haben eigene Artikel, die auch gepflegt werden wollen.

Wikiartikel statt im Forum schreiben und im Forum nur verlinken. So hat mans im Wiki und brauchts nicht 2 mal schreiben.
Und die Artikel haben ein Veröffentlichungsdatum. Mann kann also den Wikiartikel mit der Entwicklung mitführen, wenn man das Datum der Veröffentlichung 1 oder 2 Jahre in die Zukunft legt. Bei Veröffentlichung setzt man dann einfach das Datum korrekt und ist fertig.

Wobei, wenn vieles was hier im Forum geschrieben wird im Wiki geschrieben würde und dann verlinkt, gäbe es hier wesentlich weniger Postings mit nahezu gleichem Inhalt.
Hab ich aber auch schon oft geschrieben, nur wurde/wirds halt nicht angenommen.
Es ist nämlich schlicht egal ob man dort oder hier schreibt. Nur dort im Wiki hat man wesentlich mehr Möglichkeiten der Formatierung/Ausgestaltung und Bebilderung. Zumal andere es verbessern können was bei fremden Forumspostings nicht so einfach geht.

try your own online translator...

... and a very brief synopsis:

Frank has to shut down the TikiWiki in less than two years, as support for the last final version of the wiki software will end then. He doesn't want to migrate the wiki, as there is zero participation, and it would be immense work.

Comment: The tone in the german forum is very agressive lately, and they don't seem to find any good solutions, since as soon as frank posts something people start to flame each other. There are roughly four positions: (A) noone is participating, you just discuss endlessly; (B) the structure is shite; (C) don't like you, i like flamewars though; (D) please don't fight, lets find a constructive solution.

I'd suggest not to rely too much on them with this matter, and don't listen on those who complain there. Constructive criticism comes plenty here, and all who matter there, have accounts here as well.

IgorEliezer

Quote from: sdog on February 22, 2014, 03:15:51 AMI'd suggest not to rely too much on them with this matter, and don't listen on those who complain there. Constructive criticism comes plenty here, and all who matter there, have accounts here as well.
Quoting For Truth.

Just a non-conclusive thought: I think that people who expect too much and do so little tend to end up getting frustrated, this is just a step away for toxic forum relationship between the makers and the userbase. You enjoy doing certain things, but the contact with some people is so toxic that it kills your love project. Better off sticking around with those who help and appreciate your effort if you want to receive good feedback and keep the project alive.

Sorry, I fail completely at German language. Frank or someone else who is knowledgeable about the issue: feel free to open a discussion here with details of the problem. I believe that we can help to find a solution.

Frank

Igor, my English is unfortunately too bad to here to discuss anything.

sdog should actually know, but what the heck

Dwachs

#16
Following some suggestions I cleaned up the left column in the wiki: Rearranging things, hide links to led to empty pages.

An_dz, what happened to the wiki theme you once worked on? The current theme has some serious issues. I am not capable of repairing these.

Quote
Frank has to shut down the TikiWiki in less than two years, as support for the last final version of the wiki software will end then. He doesn't want to migrate the wiki, as there is zero participation, and it would be immense work.
The support for the currently installed version will end in two years. From Frank's experience, updating the wiki software is an enormous task.
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and maggikraut.

Frank

#17
Quote from: Dwachs on February 22, 2014, 09:41:33 AM
....
The support for the currently installed version will end in two years. From Frank's experience, updating the wiki software is an enormous task.

This is not entirely correct. I see from the update if provided content for care (timeliness) does not change until then.

Quote from: Dwachs on February 22, 2014, 09:41:33 AM
Following some suggestions I cleaned up the left column in the wiki: Rearranging things, hide links to led to empty pages.
....

Because since the end of 2012 Update! no one has deemed it necessary to transfer the data!

Therefore, it is empty.

Disinterest just right down the line when the Germans.

And if there is no interest in mind, one can take the wiki also from the network and save the software maintenance.


sorry for the bad english

IgorEliezer

#18
Quote from: Frank on February 22, 2014, 10:58:48 AMsorry for the bad english
No need to feel sorry. We all know you do your best to write your posts. If something is not clear, we will politely ask. :)

And it is no problem either if someone else volunteers to write.




Quote from: sdog on February 22, 2014, 03:15:51 AMFrank has to shut down the TikiWiki in less than two years, as support for the last final version of the wiki software will end then. He doesn't want to migrate the wiki, as there is zero participation, and it would be immense work.
He doesn't want to migrate because he considers MediaWiki technically bad or just because of lack participation to import it? Just to make sure.

I've never had to import TikiWiki to MediaWiki. I've always worked with the latter (edit: I used TikiWiki only in the Simutrans Wiki). TikiWiki has very nice features indeed but the other platform has more acceptance amongst the layman public and indie and open-source developers.

I found a TikiWiki-to-MediaWiki converter: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:TikiWiki_Conversion, not sure if it would work, but no need to rush, probably there are other solutions. We have a year ahead yet.

Leartin

As far as the "flamewar" in the German forum is concerned:

Thing is, everyone wants the same and says so, everyone knows what it is about, just the opinion on what it means is quite different.
Some (me included) said from the start that they don't want to work on that (!) wiki, because of Frank and his personality, which others seemed to deem a cheap excuse not to do anything.
Others tried to do something, but not for long, because what they did was not wanted (cleaning up the main page, for example) following by quite a clear statement: Frank hosts it, Frank has the last word in any discussion, and everyone who works on the wiki has to subordinate (this was written by a supporter of Frank, not an 'enemy')

It's not like me, Ramagani (who snapped there, I admit, but it was not a nice tone before), Basti (who actually tried) or Reiter, who all clearly stated that they can't work under Frank, don't want to do anything at all or just like flamewars, but we won't do anything where we have to expect "this and this and this was wrong" instead "thanks for doing something, but..." Moreso, we are not (as someone put it) a spoiled facebook-generation which does not want to do anything and just consume, if that was true, I would play the game instead of pixeling, and Basti maintains another game board for several years now, successfully...

I don't want to split the community, it's just a matter of fact. If you all want Frank to further maintain the wiki in an "iron fist ruler" way, we'll not stop you and are glad you do. If somehow the wiki moves (prissi actually hinted he has still capacities) and someone else is the main maintainer, so ideas can be discussed, we'll be glad as well and join in, no question. And if nobody does anything, we might be encouraged to do a new wiki, as a last resort. Just so you all know it's not just a pesky bunch of kids that does not want to do anything, but a pesky bunch of kids that actually wants to do something ;)

Frank

#20
the choice for Tikiwiki was made in 2005 here in this forum (by Isaac)

I have tried only to get the plugged in work

But you can with Hajos PmWiki again new beginning. plain and simple as desired

But the fact is independent of the software used, that lives a wiki on the cooperation of the user.

There are discussions about everything except the content (the most important) is nothing worked.

french ( Mediawiki ) Transfer to Tikiwiki
spanish ( Mediawiki )
italian ( Mediawiki ) Transfer to Tikiwiki
wiki.simutrans.com

all links down?
What is there because of the current state of information? is Mediawiki

Image is a screnshot from Tikiwiki Editor v9


and Wikipedia Editor ( Mediawiki )


You decide yourself with what it is easier to work

Ters

It is a bit unfair to compare the markup for what looks like a table full of images, and more or less plain text. Tikiwiki has some nice syntax highlighting, but that is counterbalanced by a more verbose markup. Mediawiki has what I suppose is a WYSIWYG editor available now. I haven't tried it myself, but it seems that it's not as easy to use (correctly) as it's meant to. I have seen edits on Wikipedia that changes the text of a link to something else (like the new coach for a sports team), but leaves the link pointing to the same place.

Frank

#22
they want to test

a page can edit it, even without registration here

testing page Tikiwiki

i copy exists pages

Dwachs who has WYSIWYG editor enabled and therefore the formatting is broken.
And I do not know what settings he else has changed.

And that will happen when all sides are now processed!

An_dz

Quote from: Dwachs on February 22, 2014, 09:41:33 AM
An_dz, what happened to the wiki theme you once worked on? The current theme has some serious issues. I am not capable of repairing these.
I lost it after Frank made some updates to the wiki. And then I started to work for the portal.




If you're looking for an alternative we can go with Wikia. It's a little confusing on choosing translations, but maybe this can be addressed.

prissi

Hosting is not a problem; we host even the japanese site (which is a wiki) for years now. Rather what software to choose, which is ultimatively dictated by the content already in the wiki.

IgorEliezer

#25
Quote from: An_dz on February 25, 2014, 01:38:39 AMIf you're looking for an alternative we can go with Wikia. It's a little confusing on choosing translations, but maybe this can be addressed.
Wikia, Gamepedia, WikiSpaces and other wiki hostings dedicated to games and softwares mostly use the same Wikipedia markup style which is widely used and accepted. Even the Hajo's PmWiki uses sort of simplified version of it. I guess, we can't ignore this fact.

In my opinion, the biggest TikiWiki's letdown is its overly complicated markup. I've never posted complaining about it, I gracefully accepted it -- and I learned a bit of it, it didn't kill me -- since there were other people who also gracefully were hosting and maintaining it. However, it is still an issue if the other writers can't use or get along with the software. It's enough to defeat its purpose and we can't ignore this reason either.

If hosting is not a problem, we agree that Wikipedia markup style suits best and we find a mean to convert the texts, I see no reason not to install and use WikiMedia software in the community's severs. (EDIT: Also, OpenTTD uses WikiMedia too.)

Ters

Wikimedia is the organization. MediaWiki is the software. Having used MediaWiki personally, I don't remember ever having any problems upgrading. An automated script just fixes everything, even across major internal changes. I haven't been upgrading as much lately though, but that's just me. (I do however experience some incompatibilites between PHP/Apache and file, which cause MediaWiki, and other PHP scripts trying to determine the mime type of files, to segfault.)

Isaac Eiland-Hall

I apologize for my contribution to this problem. I chose, at the time, from what was available via Fantastico for cPanel, because at that time, I felt that Fantastico was good at updating installed software. I've come to rely less and less on it through the years; these days, frankly, I usually only install Wordpress anywhere (or Bootstrap, which is a framework, not software), and I tend to do those manually; especially since Wordpress is really good about updates.

The server can most definitely support tons and tons more projects - more than we need, of course. It could certainly host the downloads, were that desirable, although I assume the current setup is felt to be optimal, which is fine by me. I'm for what works.

I believe Mediawiki is the most widely used Wiki software; certainly it's not a bad choice. Perhaps a conversion to it would help the issue.

I don't want to step in on something I haven't been involved with, but if anyone feels I can be helpful somehow, please let me know.

Zeno

It's so sad to read about these sad battles involving all the wiki stuff...

If we can't keep the current wiki and we had to move, I'd also choose a MediaWiki, because of popularity of the software as well as its relative simplicity (tiki is far more complex, probably because it has a zillion more features). Also cause I'm more used to it, of course.

Actually, I'm currently running a couple of small MediaWiki instances (one of them in this server); as Ters says, also I don't remember a problem upgrading, although I never ran a big and/or complex installation.

Lmallet

We are switching wiki again? :)

Honestly, I don't think we should be talking about which wiki solution we should install without having a serious discussion about documentation.  I seem to constantly see comments about the documentation (so essentially I am talking about the wiki) being stale or non existent.  We are going to end up in the same boat in a few years again if we simply install a new wiki and not consider the content that ends up on it.

Currently we also have different wikis for different languages (they might be on the same instance, but the content is very different).  I think we should, instead, concentrate most of our resources on one language, and then have translators propagate the info to the other languages.  We are all working in silos right now, there has to be a better way to produce a pertinent documentation site, with the same info for all.

An_dz

Good point Lmallet. We should work in English and when that page is complete translate them. I have worked hard on the development section, i tried to create not only a reference point but also an easy to read and learn page: Smoke, Pedestrian, Bridge, Vehicles, Citycars & Goods. If we should focus on something is on the development section and the error dialogs.

Frank

I have invested in the past few years (since 2006) a lot of time and effort into this wiki, which is why I resent the constant nagging in the Software. Especially when there are people who have contributed all these years nothing to this wiki, but have their knowledge of precisely this wiki. 

I think it is necessary that people take responsibility for individual areas. The scope makes this easy needed.


see http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=5544.msg53830#msg53830 german

An_dz

Quote from: An_dz on February 25, 2014, 01:38:39 AM
Quote from: Dwachs on February 22, 2014, 09:41:33 AM
An_dz, what happened to the wiki theme you once worked on? The current theme has some serious issues. I am not capable of repairing these.
I lost it after Frank made some updates to the wiki. And then I started to work for the portal.
There you go Dwachs, a new theme for the wiki. Already available, just go check. It's inspired on Wikipedia and GitHub styles.

Dwachs

looks good. Somehow the logo is misplaced.
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and maggikraut.

An_dz

Where? ;D Fixed.

I made the changes logged in, the openID box was missing.