Strategy Index Discussion

[kasnavada]

This thread by dedas isn't here, I think it should.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...rt=&PHPSESSID=

[Edi]

The Strategy Index is about to get an overhaul in the near future.

Lazy Perfectionist has been inactive on the forums for some time and thus the Index has not been updated in a fair while. Valerius has taken an interest in it and asked me if we could do something and currently the plan is that he will recompile the Strategy Index using this thread as a basis and post a new thread with a link to this one. Once that is done, the thread will be unstickied and his thread will be stickied.

It might be worthwhile to retain this thread as the Strategy Index Discussion Thread much the same way the FAQ and Bug Shortlist are sticky threads and both have their own discussion threads. Helps keep things organized and uncluttered.

The precise timing of this coming overhaul has not been set, so it will happen in its own good time. For my part, I would just like to say that it is nice to see new people volunteering and stepping up to keep projects alive that have been suffering neglect due to the original person going temporarily MIA.

[Edi]

The sticky strategy index thread has been split into separate posts because the character limit per post is 10k characters and the index was nearly twice that, which meant it could not be edited. I have updated the link to this thread as well as some of the reference links to my own stuff, site searching threads and some other threads at the top of the list. The link to the HINNOM EATS EVERYTHING thread has also been updated, as well as those threads I noticed on the first few pages of the forum.

The editing restrictions on the forum also pose something of a major problem wrt maintaining the strategy index in its current form, since Valerius is not a mod and cannot edit his posts anymore after 30 minutes. So I and the other moderators must maintain the strategy index as a joint effort and also update the links to reflect the new forum format. I would REALLY appreciate it if one of the others took a larger role with the strategy index, as I have my work cut out for me just putting the bug shortlist back in shape.

Anyone who wishes to help with the strat index should use the search function to find the threads and then post an updated, formatted link in this thread so that we can simply replace it in the sticky thread. The number of links to go through is massive and finding them all is going to be fairly time-consuming if only one person is going to do it.

[Edi]

I'm going to use this evening to try and update the strategy index sticky, after which I will delete excess posts from it. I have a fair few threads known alredy, but due to the nature of the board's autolog-off, I'll be working on a text file for the time being. I will also fix the tags to use BB code, instead of HTML.

Please be patient. Restoring the Strategy index is currently the top priority for this forum, followed by the bug shortlist and modding wishes shortlist.

[Kristoffer O]

Ha!

Now I have used my power to thank!

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Kristoffer O

Ha!

Now I have used my power to thank!

Thanks for that! Now that I found the feature, I started going through various stickies (shortlists, server lists) and projects (llamaserver, conceptual balance, dom3database) and ticking the thank you -button. I think there also was a developer appreciation thread, I'll see if I can find that.

[Edi]

All Strategy Index links except one have been updated. The single link that has not been updated is marked as such and the reason is that it only had three letter words in the title, which means the search function won't find them because they are too short. If someone finds the "Any Man Advice" thread on the forum, kindly post the link here so it can be added.

I also added several new threads to the index that I found during my digging for the listed threads. Those are marked as new threads on August 12th.

You may now commence worshipping me.

[lch]

Originally Posted by Edi

If someone finds the "Any Man Advice" thread on the forum, kindly post the link here so it can be added.

I have searched for exactly that and instantly found it: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=34294
Remember, use quotes if you are searching for a specific phrase.

[Edi]

Originally Posted by lch

I have searched for exactly that and instantly found it: http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=34294
Remember, use quotes if you are searching for a specific phrase.

I did that with several threads, but it kept giving me flaky results or no results at all, so I lost interest in checking for things if I couldn't find them with some other keywords. That one was the only one I didn't eventually find. It took four and a half hours to find everything in any case.

Originally Posted by Kristoffer O

Edi, have you looked at the shortlist? It is in a sad state. I mentioned it briefly in the thread on forum discussion, but I'm not sure if Mindi has noticed. It would be good if the formating could be redone automatically, without you going through everything. I imagine I would not use it as it looks atm.

Yes, I have. Both the bug shortlist and the modding wishes shortlist are next up for rehabilitation. It looks like the forum conversion just converted straight HTML and didn't do a good job of it either. So it probably needs a manual edit to add the list and color tags. The color tags are easy, they can be done with a straight find and replace, but I need to look at the list item issues first.

I'll do the unresolved sections first and then fix the resolved sections at a more leisurely pace. I just gave the strategy index a more immediate priority because it is widely used by almost everyone in the community. The FAQ formatting is on the list of things to do once the shortlists are good.

[lch]

Originally Posted by Edi

It looks like the forum conversion just converted straight HTML and didn't do a good job of it either.

That might be because the old forum software just placed HTML in some cases, or similar unusual constructs. Quotes got replaced by a combination of two or three tags which carried the visual representation on screen, for example, instead one sensible tag like the forum does now, which is only replaced in the rendering step of the page.

That you convert all the broken links by hand, yeah, crazy, I wouldn't lift a finger unless it can be done in a unified way with all the links simultaneously. Hopefully searching for text with quotation marks helps you a bit.