All posts by FortressMaximus

Results: 63% (70 votes) have voted to move "Appearances" to its own section.

From today, coding the template for the new section shall commence. Following that will be a period where both the old and new features are enabled so appearance data can be migrated from the infobox to the new template.

For things like "Mentioned only" or "Flashback", we can include it in parentheses next to the series/episode/chapter in the list.

Examples on other wikis:

Memory Alpha

Comes with show/hide functionality so the list of appearances initially looks short:

Kamen Rider Wiki

In a scroll-box so if it gets too tall the container is still a fixed height.

As more Gundam media gets produced, the rows in the Appearances group on an infobox will inevitably get bigger.

• This will take up more rows than other data.

• It's not even all the appearances; for media with multiple episodes and chapters we have a compromise where we only show the first and last appearance but nothing in-between.

• In order to conserve space, we either have to reduce the font size (making it illegible) or use abbreviations for series names that newcomers are unfamiliar with.

Therefore, I propose to move these lists into the main article text.

Move it to its own section

• Only a single row called "Debut" will be in the infobox

• A section titled "Appearances" ("Occurrences" on Song/Track articles) will be at or near the bottom of the article. It will list every media or installment of media in which an entity is seen, heard or referred to.

Keep it as is

• Every piece of media is mentioned in the infobox.

• Only first and last episodes/chapters in multi-installment works

Post is closed, the majority 89%, greater than three thirds. So we will start seeking them out.

I believe it is beneficial to the Gundam Wiki for us to be linked to by other Wikis in their main page footers, as that would get users to discover our website. In return we would do the same for our affiliate Wikis on our main page. Henceforth, I open this thread as a plebiscite.

Possible candidates for affiliation are Wikis about:

• Mecha anime

• Military anime

• Sunrise anime

Keep this thread civil and on-topic, people.

Could you please moderate, @Stygies VIII ?

Poll will run until 2021-04-24 UTC +0000 (Saturday)

We can only embed one with the DiscordIntegrator. Have you managed to negotiate?

@Ssupercat27 @Arkxangel Are either of you comfortable with the main page having a discord widget linked to your server?

It's been one week and we have more than a two-thirds majority so this poll is now frozen: https://archive.is/nDoah

Thus, the image policy will be revised.

While on the topic of uploading images @Stygies VIII have you worked with JavaScript or know a user who has? The current upload form stopped working properly; we got two Description fields, you have to fill in both for it to submit.

The original author wasn't me.

Certainly.

Like the limit on gallery sizes, other parameters in the new policy, such as the length of bans, aren't set in stone.

Looking at block logs, bans related to image policy lasted:

• 1 year when acted by me.

• 3 days to 6 months when enacted by Kuruni

From the feedback I've gathered, a lot of contributors seem to view lengthy bans as disproportionate retribution. With this revision, we'll treat some violations (such as spam) more serious than others (such as poor filenames).

I personally believe it should be proportional to the violation count. Banning only starts when the count is 6 but if a user violates faster than admins can patrol the images, it would be possible for them to have 7 violations, for example, before getting getting banned.

So 1 month × violation count/6 is my initial suggestion. Therefore, a ban would be 1 month long for someone who has the minimum count that warrants a ban.

@Unit Null Just put them in a regular gallery on correct tab/subsection if any. A page will have at most one main gallery section. If this exceeds the row limit, the first thing to do is to introduce tabs. If the row limit is still being exceeded or there's too many tabs, that's the point where it needs to be its own subpage with a remaining limited-size gallery as a "preview".

We can increase the limit, I chose 4 because that's the approximately the fewest number of rows that fits onto my monitor at 100% zoom all at once. What limit do you think is appropriate?

The References section is a bibliography, it should only contain text. Linking to scans of Mechanical Archives or Gunpla manuals (and then having them link back to the statement they cite for) is more useful than simply displaying them removed from their context.

Example of what not to do: One cannot easily tell which Japanese text in which scan corresponds to the English text on the article, if any do at all.

Example of what to do: The paragraph has a link to citation [7] and this citation has a link to an image of the exact page of a manual where the text originates from.

@Stygies VIII can you please moderate this thread?

Poll will finish on 17 December (1 week).

(Sections of the image policy that currently share similar concerns will be re-written, accordingly.)

Describing Images

It is important to describe the images that one uploads to the Wiki because:

• Images need to be trustworthy; we need to know that the images come from verifiable and official sources e.g. images of book scans should have an ISBN or magazine identifier, images from the web should have original URLs (that is, the URL of where an official source uses the image).

• Images are here to be used; images must be searchable on the Wiki in order for them to be used; we need to know what the images are of.

The current Image Policy mandates a good filename and a description consisting of the file information template and a licensing template (all of these can be achieved from the very beginning if a contributor uses Special:Upload).

e.g. with File:Bright Noa Tem Ray Amuro Ray MSGTO ch01 p23.jpg all the names of characters are in the filename to describe the image, the series' abbreviation, chapter number and page number are in the filename to tell us where it is from. A more comprehensive description and source are provided on the page itself and we use the Fair use template set to "comic".

But this has been proven difficult to police:

• The policy does not define a good filename clearly enough, we've just taken the bare minimum to be "not a randomly generated string of characters". The bare minimum for screenshots should be to indicate the episode in some way or form. Gundam TV series are around 50 episodes so just putting the series or an abbreviation of it is not specific enough.

• Contributors will not use Special:Upload. They will use the most convenient upload tool, likely Media Settings on the Visual Editor or Insert file on the Source Editor, and this does not force them to put licenses or descriptions

• Contributors will not add descriptions and licensing after uploading because it is inconvenient.

I propose a new way to make images descriptive easily more findable; categorization .

• Use names identical to the page names of entities featured in the image as categories; with the same example, we have Bright Noa (Origin), Tem Ray (Origin), and Amuro Ray (Origin) in the image's categories.

• Use names identical to the chapter or episode article; the image is from MSGTO ch01 so the category is Activation, Section I.

I will also propose more clearer definitions for "good filenames":

• Movie/Single-installment screenshots: All entities in the image, the movie's abbreviated title, the timestamp.

• Series screenshots: All entities in the image, the series' abbreviated title, the episode number, the timestamp.

• Manga scans: All entities in the image, the manga's abbreviated title, the chapter number the page number.

• Other book scans (including gunpla manual and magazines): All entities in the image, books title (optionally abbreviated) and the page number.

• Artwork: All entities in the image and an optional brief description of actions or events (including poses).

• Product shots: All entities in the image, optional brief description of actions or events (including poses), the kind of product (e.g. Gunpla, GFF).

Categorization will not be a complete alternative to good filenames and descriptions. An ideal file page has all of these; a good filename, description and the appropriate categories, but having at least one of these is acceptable and you won't be penalized. e.g. for a screenshot from a certain episode, at least needs to have either the series abbreviation and episode number (it's just a couple of keystrokes!) in the filename or add the name of the episode as a category; do at least one and there shall be no problem.

Violations

I have read the concerns of the community that @Kuruni and I have been too strict with the current Image Policy by just having a three strike rule.

Too all the admins, an image with a bad filename that has good resolution, description etc. shouldn't be deleted, it should simply be renamed. The new system for dealing with violations will have differing levels of acceptability.

Counts apply to the violators, actions apply to the image. All violations will be dealt with but not all violators will receive penalties.

Vandalism/Spam:

• Count: +6 (Instant ban)

• Action: Delete the image.

Fanart:

• Count: +1

• Action: Delete the image.

Low Resolution:

• Count: +1

• Action: Upload a new version to the same filename.

GIF:

• Count: + 1

• Action: Delete the image (file extension cannot be changed).

Bad Filename:

• Count: 0 if categorized, 1 if not

• Action: Rename the image.

No/Bad Categories:

• Count; 0 if good filename, 1 if not

• Action: Add appropriate categories, remove inappropriate categories.

Consequences of different count totals (resets every month)

• 0: Do nothing.

• 1 to 5: Warn the user but do not ban them.

• 6: Ban the user, and explain the details of the ban.

Examples:

• A user uploaded a spam image: Delete the image, then ban them. Finally, post a message on their wall explaining why.

• A user uploaded fanart: Delete the image. Post a warning on their message wall, and increase their violation count for the month.

• A user uploaded a low resolution image: Upload a higher resolution version if possible. Post a warning on their message wall, and increase their violation count for the month.

• A user uploaded a screenshot and didn't state the episode anywhere: Rename the image. Post a warning on their message wall, and increase their violation count for the month.

• A user uploaded a screenshot with a good filename but didn't add categories: Add the categories, do not give the user a warning or increase their violation count.

• A user uploaded a screenshot with a bad filename but added the episode title as a category: Rename the file, do not give the user a warning or increase their violation count.

I also suggest that admins use positive reinforcement, too. Encourage any users that already upload screenshots with episode numbers in their filenames to continue to do so.

Use of Images on the Wiki

Screenshots and Scans

These images depict events in Gundam media, what they should be used for is to accompany text describing the same events. These texts can be found in the Plot sections of articles for Episodes, Chapters and and single-installment works. These texts are also found the History/Chronology sections of articles for fictional entities (Characters, Mechanics, Factions, Locations, Technologies and Conflicts).

So, beyond the introductory paragraphs of infoboxes, screenshots/scans belong in sections titled "Plot", "History" or "Background" or "Chronology".

Please try to use no more than one "image region" per paragraph, this can be either a single individual image:

[[File:Character Series e01 02m20s.png]]

Or it can be a slideshow which only shows one image at once;

<gallery type="slideshow">
Character Series e02 10m02s.png
Character Series e02 10m17s.png
</gallery>

See this as an example

Gallery Sections

It is a problem that galleries get awfully large on this Wiki. But images are here to be used, so rather than restrict what kinds of images can be used, we can just put a cap on how big galleries can be. I propose 4 rows maximum on entity articles and 8 on media articles.

As for the images that do not get used, the first proposed solution is to have tabbed galleries:

<!-- Media Article Example -->
<tabber>
Key Visuals=
<gallery hideaddbutton="true">
key visual 01.png
key visual 02.png
key visual 03.png
</gallery>
Videos=
<gallery hideaddbutton="true">
PV 1
PV 2
OP 1
OP 2
OP 3
OP 4
</gallery>
</tabber>

<!-- Mechanics Article Example -->
<tabber>
Lineart=
<gallery hideaddbutton="true">
Machinegun.png
Bazooka.png
</gallery>
Gunpla=
<gallery hideaddbutton="true">
High Grade.png
Master Grade.png
Perfect Grade.png
</gallery>
Book Title=
<gallery hideaddbutton="true">
scan from some artbook p01.png
scan from some artbook p05.png
scan from some artbook p22.png
</gallery>
Game Title=
<gallery hideaddbutton="true">
Sprite from some game A.png
Sprite from some game B.png
Sprite from some game C.png
</gallery>
</tabber>

The second solution is to have gallery subpages with the gallery section being a preview for it. At the beginning of the gallery section, it should use the See also template to link to the gallery subpage and the beginning of the gallery subpage should link back.

==Gallery==
{{See also|/Gallery}}
<gallery hideaddbutton="true">
<!--maximum number of rows reached-->
</gallery>

A working example can be found here and here.

Reference Galleries

These are to be avoided at all costs. If you add a statement to an article and upload a scan from some book as a source, it should point to that scan and the scan should point back, otherwise readers will not be able to connect the dots. If the source for a statement comes from a scan, link to the scan using ref tags and put these tags at the end of the statement, do not display it in a gallery.

We are phasing it out so mecha that had to be disambiguated before now display normally with their official names e.g. MS-05 Zaku I/Origin displays more elegantly as MS-05 Zaku I.

Additionally:

• Parameters are being standardized to be lower camel case.

• There wasn't an actual Japanese parameter, it was hackingly added on to many pages using a br tag.

The kanji parameter is where the Japanese name should go, now, and it is displayed beneath the image of the infobox.

The label is changed to Other Names and this row should now be for additional names the mecha is known by such as WB102 for the RX-78-2 or Gundiver for the Gundam Marine Type.

@Von Tetra Searching on desktop appears to have been updated. Is this still an issue for you on the app?