User talk:Callahanp: Difference between revisions

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Cheers,
Cheers,
[[User:Gijs|Gijs]] ([[User talk:Gijs|talk]]) 08:19, 1 February 2017 (EST)
[[User:Gijs|Gijs]] ([[User talk:Gijs|talk]]) 08:19, 1 February 2017 (EST)
== Cleanup, subpages, lack of feedback etc. ==
Hi there, I saw your wiki mail. I am only sort of active in the community at the moment, more due to IRL reasons than my interest in FlightGear (though I am still actually hardly ever flying in FlightGear).
This got a bit longer than I first planned and to a large extent reflects my opinion, but I hope you will find it useful anyway.
{{tip|The main aim is to make it easy for the reader to navigate, read and comprehend the material.}}
Regarding templates, skim through [[Help:Templates]], look at templates similar to what you want to achieve and ''start small''.  The other help pages may be helpful too, but maybe more in general.
As for lack of feedback, I do not think you should see that as a bad sign.
=== Style ===
When it comes to style, there is a somewhat hidden away [[FlightGear wiki:Manual of Style|Manual of style]], but see my tip.
However in general finding, navigating, reading and comprehending is made easier by
* good first sections that summarizes articles well,
* good article, section and subsection titles,
* balanced article, section, subsection and paragraph lengths, and
* a decent navigation box on the right.
Illustrations will help as well (with good captions they may even aid finding the article).
The first section also serves the two purposes of giving an early indication to whether one has landed on the right page or not, and can also help the reader get a quick overview that will help him comprehend the article easier. It should however be at least somewhat concise, one or maybe a few short paragraphs.
The best thing with making articles easier to navigate, read and comprehend for the reader is that they will also most likely get better page rankings.
=== Subpages or not ===
Personally I most often use subpages to put drafts, to do lists etc. as subpages to my user page.
While the article series could be organized into subpages, consider if they need quite that long a title and if they can stand somewhat on their own.  You can perhaps instead group them in a category (probably as a subcategory to [http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php?title=Special%3ACategoryTree&target=Cockpit+building&mode=categories&namespaces= Category:Cockpit building]) and with a custom navbox template in each article (see [[:Category:Navigation templates]] for inspiration).  I think that a navbox on the top right will help navigation more than subpages.
=== Moving and deleting pages and other wiki maintenance ===
While one need to be at least an administrator to delete pages, anyone can move them (in essence rename them), unless they are protected.  It is not all that obvious at first, but if you are at a computer you can either see a ''Move'' or a ''More'' tab among the page tabs on top of a page.  From there on it should be explained in the form where you enter a new name for the page.
If you instead want a page deleted mark the page with the {{tl|delete}} template.  It may take a while till the page is deleted.
One important thing when moving a page is to consider the pages that might link to it.  In order to help a reader to find what he is looking for you might need to edit the pages linking to the page to be moved.  To see what pages that are affected, click the ''[[Special:WhatLinksHere/User talk:Callahanp|What links here]]'' link on the sidebar to the left.
You could optionally add the {{tl|WIP}} template to the top of the pages while you put most of your effort on them and they might change often.
=== Preview early and preview often ===
Finally, preview early and preview often and save when mostly done (preferably with a short and concise summary).
—[[User:Johan G|Johan G]] ([[User_talk:Johan_G|Talk]] | [[Special:Contributions/Johan_G|contribs]]) 16:17, 5 November 2017 (EST)

Revision as of 21:18, 5 November 2017

FGData download via BitTorrent

Hi, I've noticed you're the original author of Downloading fgdata using bittorrent. Your tracker offers a file named fgdata_new.bundle - is that an FGData checkout performed using the new repository on SourceForge? -- ElGaton (talk to me) 04:20, 26 April 2016 (EDT)

Thanks for your message - bandwidth is still "a problem" in the sense that the Git clone is still big and that the clone can not be interrupted and resumed later. The core developers have devised another way to perform the initial download, namely, downloading a .tar archive containing a bare Git checkout from SourceForge and updating it to fetch the latest changes. Regarding the "new" bundle, the file size looks compatible with the new size of FGData, but I need to check its contents before editing the page.
-- ElGaton (talk to me) 18:02, 27 April 2016 (EDT)
I've checked the bundle file - it is, indeed a new checkout performed using the new repository. Hope you don't mind if I move the contents of Downloading fgdata using bittorrent to a subsection of FlightGear Git: data developers#Obtaining the data?
-- ElGaton (talk to me) 18:48, 30 April 2016 (EDT)

File:C172P Panel - Flightgear.png

Hi,

just a question regarding the attribution of File:C172P Panel - Flightgear.png. It seems like you made this screenshot yourself, is that correct? If so, I'd like to correct the attribution so it corresponds to you being the author of the image. If not, could you please indicate the exact url where you've found it? Thanks!

Cheers, Gijs (talk) 08:19, 1 February 2017 (EST)

Cleanup, subpages, lack of feedback etc.

Hi there, I saw your wiki mail. I am only sort of active in the community at the moment, more due to IRL reasons than my interest in FlightGear (though I am still actually hardly ever flying in FlightGear).

This got a bit longer than I first planned and to a large extent reflects my opinion, but I hope you will find it useful anyway.

Tip  The main aim is to make it easy for the reader to navigate, read and comprehend the material.

Regarding templates, skim through Help:Templates, look at templates similar to what you want to achieve and start small. The other help pages may be helpful too, but maybe more in general.

As for lack of feedback, I do not think you should see that as a bad sign.

Style

When it comes to style, there is a somewhat hidden away Manual of style, but see my tip.

However in general finding, navigating, reading and comprehending is made easier by

  • good first sections that summarizes articles well,
  • good article, section and subsection titles,
  • balanced article, section, subsection and paragraph lengths, and
  • a decent navigation box on the right.

Illustrations will help as well (with good captions they may even aid finding the article).

The first section also serves the two purposes of giving an early indication to whether one has landed on the right page or not, and can also help the reader get a quick overview that will help him comprehend the article easier. It should however be at least somewhat concise, one or maybe a few short paragraphs.

The best thing with making articles easier to navigate, read and comprehend for the reader is that they will also most likely get better page rankings.

Subpages or not

Personally I most often use subpages to put drafts, to do lists etc. as subpages to my user page.

While the article series could be organized into subpages, consider if they need quite that long a title and if they can stand somewhat on their own. You can perhaps instead group them in a category (probably as a subcategory to Category:Cockpit building) and with a custom navbox template in each article (see Category:Navigation templates for inspiration). I think that a navbox on the top right will help navigation more than subpages.

Moving and deleting pages and other wiki maintenance

While one need to be at least an administrator to delete pages, anyone can move them (in essence rename them), unless they are protected. It is not all that obvious at first, but if you are at a computer you can either see a Move or a More tab among the page tabs on top of a page. From there on it should be explained in the form where you enter a new name for the page.

If you instead want a page deleted mark the page with the {{delete}} template. It may take a while till the page is deleted.

One important thing when moving a page is to consider the pages that might link to it. In order to help a reader to find what he is looking for you might need to edit the pages linking to the page to be moved. To see what pages that are affected, click the What links here link on the sidebar to the left.

You could optionally add the {{WIP}} template to the top of the pages while you put most of your effort on them and they might change often.

Preview early and preview often

Finally, preview early and preview often and save when mostly done (preferably with a short and concise summary).

Johan G (Talk | contribs) 16:17, 5 November 2017 (EST)