The result of the debate was Support proposal.
AnilSerifoglu (talk) 22:09, 4 July 2024 (UTC)All right, it's time! The Discussions index is complete, and I've just been overthinking it since then. This is my full proposal to put a complete record of Discussions forum posts on wiki pages under the Forum namespace. Here I'll present what I hope to be a complete set of tables and templates that will structure this archive into a navigable set of pages that can be used by anyone to more easily find old posts. I've already described the archive and its purpose here, and its overall layout remains the same, so most of this proposal will just describe a few supporting pages, tables, and templates to go with it.
Background
I've made only small modifications since I originally brought up this project a few months ago. Namely I've…well, renamed the whole thing. To avoid confusing this index with the Discussions forum itself or the Wookieepedia:Discussions policy page, I'm now presenting this project under the Forum:Discussions index namespace. This more accurately describes the purpose of these pages akin to that of the top-level Forum:Index, and it also allows for a two-letter "DI" abbreviation consistent with the shortcuts to other forums, like the SH, the CT here, the NB, the TC, and even the retired KB.
Naturally there will then be a "Forum:Discussions index" page and a "Forum:Discussions index archive" page, the former of which will link a few pages that map out existing important posts on the forum, and the latter of which will link the archive pages themselves.
Forum:Discussions index
Like other forum pages, the Discussions index page should be semi-protected and move protected. This is what it'll look like, with the post tables truncated to save space.
There will be an archive navigation table template used at the bottom of this page and others, but I've omitted it here to save space.
Forum:Discussions index pages
The ThreadHub project gives a good idea of what the "hub" pages that I listed (beginning with "Forum:DI:") would contain, as well as why such pages make much more sense for listing threads than a bunch of other threads. Less crowded links, no sorting through buried replies, and just two or three clicks to get to whatever specific thread someone might need to find.
Note that these aren't forum pages in the classical sense, so people won't be discussing anything on them, rather simply adding any missing threads to the list. There are several other forum regulars who help out with current thread archiving initiatives, and they'd now be able to add to these pages directly without having to ask us moderators to edit old hub posts for them.
These pages can be semi-protected, but don't need to be move protected. It's quite likely that the film and television thread pages I listed will be combined, as might the threads for books, comics, and video games. The hubs for forum policy and help threads as well as for spoiler threads would also just be included on Forum:Discussions, so I'm confident that six pages suffice for indexing what are effectively the forum's "pinned" threads. I wanted to make sure that more won't immediately pop up by surprise, hence the clause stating that no additional pages like these be made without moderator approval.
Here's what the television thread hub would look like, with series alphabetized by title. The lists are obviously truncated for demonstration purposes here, but this is the general format for a hub page.
Forum:Discussions index archive
Here's the easy set of pages that I already largely explained in the original thread I made about this archive. The only major change would be modifying the {{Forumtop}} template to include the Discussions index links, unless that causes any unexpected formatting errors.
The use of "here" would be a hyperlink to the page containing the archive program that I wrote, so updating this archive won't stall if ever I'm not around.
Forum:Discussions index archive pages/subpages
What I presented to the Senate Hall previously is the bulk of this index. The above pages I've described are far fewer and smaller, and they only serve to aid the archive pages, like the example shown below.
Like most of the other pages I've mentioned, these ones would be semi-protected and move protected. We moderators have the ability to edit old posts ourselves, and we intend to use this archive to find long-lost threads, add them to the hub pages, and edit their titles for consistency if needed. Countless question posts are just titled "Question," for example, which isn't very useful in a list, so when we fix those, we can immediately reflect the change by updating the archive ourselves.
The post list would then occupy the rest of the page.
Summary
Put simply, there are six main components to this proposal.
- The concept of a Discussions index space on the wiki in the first place.
- One "Forum:Discussions index" page as the starting point to navigate to the forum itself.
- Five or six "Forum:DI:" pages listing out designated threads for major topics on the forum.
- One "Forum:Discussions index archive" page as the navigation list for the individual archive pages.
- All the "Forum:Discussions index archive [Year]/[Month range]" pages that I originally described—just over forty of them as shown on the big table. Also a fully-protected "Forum:Discussions index archive/code" page for the program that I use to build the archive lists.
- Various templates to structure these pages consistently and bring down their size just a bit: {{DItop}} and {{DItop-arc}} templates akin to {{Shtop}} and {{Shtop-arc}}, a {{DIbottom}} template for the archive page table, {{DItable}} for the main table of posts, and {{DItableheader}} to make that table sortable by post category.
Support
- I know it looks like a lot, but I wanted to give everyone the most complete picture of what this index would look like, with the assurance that this is pretty much a one-and-done vote. Thank you all for your input on the previous SH thread and general acceptance of the index as a concept. I'm excited at the hope of finally finishing this. Jedi Sarith LeKit (talk) 19:00, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
- It's been a long time coming indeed. OOM 224 (he/him/they) 19:55, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
- —spookywillowwtalk 19:59, 24 June 2024 (UTC)
AnilSerifoglu (talk) 15:46, 25 June 2024 (UTC)- ooooooooooooh yeah SorcererSupreme21 (talk) 21:04, 25 June 2024 (UTC)
- Bonzane10
13:05, 26 June 2024 (UTC) - ThrawnChiss7
Assembly Cupola 21:23, 29 June 2024 (UTC) - Sounds like a great idea, I'd love to help maintain the project and add new links if possible.Loki-Is-Cool 09:47, 30 June 2024 (UTC)
- Lewisr (talk) 00:59, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
- JediMasterMacaroni(Talk) 01:04, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
- NBDani (they/them)Yeager's Repairs 11:55, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
- Zed42 (talk) 13:03, 1 July 2024 (UTC)
Oppose
Discuss
Questions and recommendations are welcome about the format of these pages. Since none of the archive content itself would need to be fully protected, there's room to refine the wording and detailing after the fact. I've simply reached the point at which any such fixes would be easier made if the pages were already created. Jedi Sarith LeKit (talk) 19:00, 24 June 2024 (UTC)