Talk:RuneScape Wiki

This site hasn't experienced a lot of vandalism, so I don't plan on protecting the Main Page yet. --Merovingian 17:43, 21 Sep 2005 (EDT)

Should we have a link to Category:Items or Items, and should it be under guides or should it be it's own category? Also, what do you think about adding skill icons like in the high scores? We can't use those icons though, because they look bad on a light background. Maybe we could take the larger icons and downsample them. --X1011 22:28, 9 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Tagline
Ayone have any ideas for a tagline? I personally like "Not Landscape, nor seascape - Runescape". Oddlyoko 22:18, 11 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Where exactly does this tagline appear? --X1011 03:30, 12 Nov 2005 (UTC)


 * Wikia:MediaWiki:Tagline shows the Wikia tagline. You should be able to see right away where it's located on the page. Oddlyoko 05:59, 12 Nov 2005 (UTC)

I don't think we need a tagline (at least not yet). --X1011 18:36, 12 Nov 2005 (UTC)


 * Kk. Just suggesting. ^_^ Oddlyoko 19:59, 12 Nov 2005 (UTC)


 * When you do want one, see Wikia:Help:Tagline. You need to edit both MediaWiki:Tagline and MediaWiki:Monobook.css. Angela (talk) 11:17, 14 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Logo
I found a picture in Jagex's official fansite-usable image zip folder that I thought might be useful for the Wiki logo: Image:Wikilogo.PNG Oddlyoko 23:59, 11 Nov 2005 (UTC)


 * The logo should be no larger than 135px wdith, 155px height. Angela (talk) 11:17, 14 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Main Page Format
As you can see, the main page has a new format -- and I hope everybody likes what I've done with it. I intend to make many changes to it and many other articles in time. Comments anybody? JodoKast 01:46, 12 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * There's too much text on the side. We should move most of it to the community protal and then we can make the layout better. --X1011 01:45, 13 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * I assume you mean on the Introduction side -- That side is meant to be just that, an introduction to this wiki. What do you think it should say instead? And what else do you think needs to be changed in the layout? JodoKast 02:20, 13 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * Note also that the Getting Started link under The Player was meant to be a starting point for new RuneScape players while the Start Here! link under The Game was meant to be a starting point for people new to the concept of a wiki. JodoKast 02:20, 13 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * I think the Main Page should be used mostly for navigation, with a short description and a link to a page with further info for people new to the wiki. I don't really care if that info would be in the community portal, or some kind of "getting started" article ("Start Here!" just doesn't sound like a good name). If you really want the introduction to be on the main page, the navigation should come first so you don't have to scroll down to see it all (I don't know what resolution you're using but it's all vertical on my screen). --X1011 02:39, 13 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * Personally, I think that the side by side panels on the main page is quite attractive and I'd hate to see the format change drastically. I wouldn't mind however if the 'introduction' was made much more brief with a linking article with more information etc, as you suggested -- as for the name of the article, I don't care, I chose 'Start Here!' because it's the only thing that came to me last night. Do you think it's possible to keep the same look but just shorten the intro up with the page still looking good? And by the way, my resolution is 1024x768 and it looks great on my screen. :-) JodoKast 02:50, 13 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * I also have 1024x768, and i fixed it so it displays good on my screen, but when someone with a lower resolution visits the site, it will look bad, and that's why i would prefer a more horizontal layout. I'm thinking we should put the short intro on top, then have the little boxes underneath, like doom wiki or wikipedia. --X1011 21:14, 13 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Official Runescape Portal
can be found here -->

Questions
Hey guys. I was a massive contributor to Wikibook's RuneScape article, but since it got transwikied to some stupid place, I'll help you guys out! So, I have some things I want to ask you guys.

1. Should RuneScape be changed to RuneScape?

2. Should abbreviations not be used (eg. 2H, Baxe, etc.)?

That's about all I can think of right now. Maybe we could do what Wikipedia's RuneScape article is doing, in that we:


 * Change most mentions of "you" to "players" and when possible and appropriate, be more specific such as "attacker," "wielder," etc.
 * Get more references for all the articles such as postings on the official RuneScape or some other site.
 * Correct runescape site references to use the new knowledgebase pages - existing links tend to redirect to the knowledgebase main page
 * Use consistency for all terms throughout the articles. Ex. RuneScape must look like this when mentioned. The proper term is "two handed sword" for any of the two handed swords.
 * Write out contractions, don't use abbreviations, change everything to the British spellings of words, fix grammar and spelling, etc.

I'm willing to do some of that. --Richard1990 13:11, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I got some more questions:

1. Should we change all the mentions of 'you' to 'player'?

2. Should it be easier to get to different pages? Like, to go from Quests to Skills or Weapons to Cities?

Eh? --24.109.206.88 02:39, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Ideally, you should have links everywhere really. I love the way that [] works, we should attempt to aim for the same

--Eucarya 10:03, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't think RuneScape needs to be italicized, there's kind of a trend to use italics for members-only things in lists. (like this)

"you" should be changed to "a player", or some similar form.

I don't think we should use British spellings unless the majority of visitors are British.

--X1011 17:29, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, I'm Canadian, and we have the same spelling as British (adding 'our' where 'or' is usually supposed to go, such as 'colour'). So the stuff I type will be similiar to Brits spelling. I still prefer that RuneScape look like RuneScape. --Richard1990

Bear In Mind, British spelling is used entrirely in the game... Think of the quest "One Small Favour" NOT "One Small favor" 213.107.224.22 18:59, 29 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I think I remember seeing in Wikipedia that you are supposed to use the same spelling as that of the subject material - if it's a British book, film, game, use British spelling. If it's not got a nationality, leave it as it was first written.


 * In this case, RuneScape is most definitely British. Vimescarrot 19:10, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

RuneScapeWiki:Votes for deletion
I have added many, many stubs that can be voted on deletion. Please vote and decide their fate.

The stubs up for deletion are mainly just tidbits of info that could be included in other places. --Richard1990 15:31, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Lost City
Should we refer to the Lost City or Zanaris. I see a problem where Lost City may refer to either the quest or the location. Any thoughts? --Eucarya 00:06, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

If you want to refer to the city, then I'd say you should refer to Zanaris, while if you want to refer to the quest, say Lost City. That should avoid confusion and stuff. --Richard1990 00:11, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

I ended up creating a disambiguation page for it, hopefully people will link to either Lost City Quest or Zanaris. Can see we might have the same problem with Karamja

Spells
I dislike that each magic spell has it's own page. There won't be enough information to not make them a stub, IMO. --Richard1990 20:41, 12 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree. We should probably just put all of the spells into another article (not Magic). Maybe create a "Spells" page and add them all in there. Oddlyoko 01:55, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Page Sizes
Wikipedia prefers page sizes to be 32 kilobytes. I noticed some (Runecrafting) are over 32kb. Should there be max size for pages? 35kb sounds to me I guess. --Richard1990 23:48, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

I guess I'm seeing the HTML sizes. Oopsy. --Richard1990 00:26, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

Interesting and useful script
I found this today on the wikipedia site, and I thought it'd be a great idea to add this in. My problem is whether we should make it permanent for all users (modifying the monobook.js page) or put up an announcement saying users can add it on to themselves only by adding a template to Special:Mypage/monobook.js. Thoughts? Oddlyoko 01:53, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I like it. I think we should give users an option to put it in, just to be safe. --Richard1990 02:15, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

K. For now I'll add an annoucement stating what to do. Meanwhile I'll be working on giving users an option to do it in the Special:Preferences page. Oddlyoko 02:26, 26 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Tougher than I thought. >_< Oddlyoko 02:40, 26 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I give up, someone else try. -_- Oddlyoko 02:47, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Rules
I was wondering,


 * 1) How many times should a page be linked to in one article? For example, if in woodcutting, firemaking is mentioned 30 times, should the woodcutting guide link to the firemaking guide every time it's mentioned, or only the first time it's mentioned? Or should it be linked to once every header?
 * 2) Uh... I forget.--Richard1990 21:14, 28 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Sparse links are better. You don't want to have something like, "Attack lets you attack more accurately, and attack also lets you attack with better weapons." There's way too many links to the same page in a small amount of text. That's something that should be avoided. Once per header, sure, if the links aren't very close to eachother (say, a link at the end of one header and the same one at the beginning of the next one). Also, avoid putting links in the header titles themselves, like " ==Example== ". Oddlyoko 21:51, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I assume it's against the rules to go copy walkthroughs from other sites and put them up here, right? --Couchpotato99 20:13, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, unless you are able to furnish explicit permission from the site's administrator. [[image:Green party hat.PNG|14px]] Hyenaste talk 20:19, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Item Pages
I have a suggestion for our item pages. Instead of having a "Gold bar" page and a "Mithril bar" page and a "Bronze bar" page, couldn't we make one "Bars" page, and have the pages "Gold bar", etc. redirect to that page? Then we could have a bars page, an ores page, a rune weapons page (like we already have), a runes page, etc, but still allow people to search for "Nature rune" and get redirected to "Runes#Nature rune" for example. This would give us better quality pages, but still individual item "pages", in a way. Fetttson 00:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Good idea. What would we do with, say, the Mining and Crafting templates, though? Oddlyoko 00:25, 31 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I believe that those templates are only used on the pages that I suggested we merge, aren't they? Fetttson 00:33, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

How old is this wiki?
Because if wikipedia has more information then this, then you're screwed. 58.178.49.8 12:47, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Started in April 2005, so a little over a year. We're not competing against Wikipedia, as they'll ALWAYS be better, but we would like to have many detailed pages, SIMILAR to Wikipedia. We need more contributors too. --Richard1990 12:43, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Ah. I suppose that makes sense. 58.178.58.226
 * Actually, Wikipedia standards prevent too much information about RuneScape to be included there. Articles from the series are constantly being put up for deletion. Hyenaste 13:36, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

policy on titles
Whats the policy here on page capitalization? For example, between Your Account or Your account, which should be the article and which the redirect? Hyenaste 12:02, 13 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Can't say for all pages, but i know for items it shouldn't be capitalized unless the item specifically is - and i don't think there are any items which are. Gold bar instead of Gold Bar, and probably the same for anything else which is actually something in RuneScape (locations, etc. - Blue Moon Inn should be capitalized, as it is in-game, but not...err...can't think of any examples for ones that shouldn't, but you get the idea.) Vimescarrot 16:18, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

policy on tense
And in the above vein, what is the policy on tense? Should it be third person singular or plural, or is second person okay here *shudders*? Hyenaste 12:04, 13 July 2006 (UTC)


 * "The player". Er, I think that's third person singular. And i only found this out by scrolling up a little bit, there's already been a discussion about this. Vimescarrot 16:20, 13 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Should it be "the player" or "you" during the quest walkthroughs? I don't know...anyone else? it's "you" at the moment. Vimescarrot 19:15, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, it should be third person singular, but how can you tell the reader what to do without speaking to the reader. And we shouldn't use the reader: it sounds pretentious. I'll have to look at the articles in question. Perhaps we could develop a new policy for those particular articles (or a new 'guide:' namespace i if that is feasible).Hyenaste 19:23, 13 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Compare Cook's Assistant. The 'incorrect' version sounds more active and involved, but the 'correct' version sounds detached and passive.Hyenaste 19:32, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

namespaces
What are the namespaces here (such as Template: or Category:)? Hyenaste 12:41, 15 July 2006 (UTC)


 * All of the standard ones (main, talk, user, help, template etc). The project namespace is RuneScape. There's also a forum namespace. Is that what you meant? Angela (talk) 17:38, 15 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, thanks! Hyenaste 17:54, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Grammar Cleanup & Vague References
I've noticed here and there some entries have some rather biased/vague references and that the grammar isn't all that it could be.

What I mean is that some articles/sections say things like "Believe me, mining is better than begging!"...I believe Wikipedia refers to this as using "Weasel words".

Also, I can't find a "disputed" tag to put on articles where the information might be contradictory.

Comments? Shadowdancer 21:54, 20 July 2006 (UTC)


 * If there isn't a disputed tag, you could copy one over from Wikipedia. Angela (talk) 06:57, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
 * How do I go about doing this, exactly? Shadowdancer 05:30, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I've made one at Template:Disputed. If you know where the Wikipedia templates are, you can copy them, but they are often overly-complicated (See Wikipedia:Template:Disputed for example), so writing them from scratch may often be easier. To make a template, you just create a new page at template:template name and then you can use it by adding to a page. See Wikia:Help:Templates. Angela (talk) 07:14, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah I just had a peek. It loosk to be a bit of a nightmare so I'll just settle for the one you've made, and maybe whip up a questionmark-like image to use with it or something.  Thanks for your help. Shadowdancer 17:05, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

four boxes
What is the purpose of the four boxes on the main page? They don't direct users towards our most useful or best articles. The just seem to list a few random articles related to the boxed subject. Hyenaste 00:06, 21 July 2006 (UTC)


 * The main page isn't protected, so feel free to improve it! Angela (talk) 06:57, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Categorization
A day or so ago, I was categorizing uncategorized images. The page was in real-time and would update every time I reloaded it. Now it's just a cache that I can't seem to update. Shadowdancer has noticed the issue too, so it's not just me. Can someone put the page back into a real-time page instead of just an outdated cache? Hyenaste 21:15, 21 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure why that's happening. I've reported it at 392. Angela (talk) 07:16, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

The Ads Have GOT To Go...
You see those ads from Google to the right? They are despicable.

They need to go. Shadowdancer 17:25, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I assume you mean just the "free runscape gold 100% garenteed"-type ads? Have a look at wikia's advertising and prohibited content pages. It looks like you have a valid point. Hyenaste 18:32, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Of course that's what I mean. They are promoting macroing, real life item trading and more.  The other ones are fine. Shadowdancer 19:51, 22 July 2006 (UTC)


 * We can't remove the ads completely because they're paying for the hosting of this wiki. However, if there are particular sites that you think should not be advertised, please list those here and I can look into having them blocked. Angela (talk) 12:21, 23 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Here is a montage of the ones I was able to capture: [[Image:Bad-ads.PNG|thumb|Ads which should not be shown here.]]

There's a few others as well, such as one advertising an "Autobot".

Basically, anything which contradicts the 15 rules of the game should not be allowed here! Shadowdancer 16:00, 23 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Is it actually against the rules to sell gold? I know it's encouraged in other games. If I remove those, the ads are going to be irrelevant ads about real-life gold. Wouldn't things relevant to runescape be better for most players? Angela (talk) 16:43, 23 July 2006 (UTC)


 * It's one of the most well-known ones, alongside autoing, for being banned. My friend was certainly banned for doing it. Vimescarrot 17:08, 23 July 2006 (UTC)


 * A listing of the game rules can be found here: http://kbase.runescape.com/lang/en/aff/runescape/viewcategory.ws?ref=main&cat_id=823 Shadowdancer 18:26, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Specifically rules 7 and 12, possibly 9. [[image:Green party hat.PNG|14px]] Hyenaste talk 20:01, 23 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the link. It may be better if Google would remove these ads completely rather than us needing to block them. If you click the "ads by google" link above the ads, you can give Google feedback on any that are problematic. I looked at a couple of sites listed on Image:Bad-ads.PNG and they seem to be telling people how to get gold, but not actually selling it, so perhaps those are ok since they don't actually violate the rules. I'm going to wait for some more feedback from people here - perhaps the admins could comment too? Angela (talk) 01:23, 24 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Angela, did you review the rules link I posted here? The ads are directly encouraging people to violate those rules by buying RuneScape gold, which is against the rule which says no real-life trading allowed.

I am currently writing to Google about having the ads rescinded; I encourage others to do the same. Shadowdancer 03:28, 24 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I have received the following response from Google AdSense: "Hello,

Thank you for your email regarding a Google AdWords ad.

I've forwarded this information to our AdWords team, who will remove the ad in question if it is in violation of any AdWords policies. We appreciate you taking the time to let us know about your concerns.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team" So in the next couple of days they should start disappearing. Shadowdancer 01:37, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

TOC
Has the table of contents on every page for everyone else disappeared as well? Hyenaste talk 06:42, 23 July 2006 (UTC)


 * No, I still see a TOC on this page. Angela (talk) 12:22, 23 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Oops, fixed it. All my checked preferences were removed, including "show toc". I didn't realize that was an option. [[image:Green party hat.PNG|16px]] Hyenaste talk 18:14, 23 July 2006 (UTC)