Thread:TheRealPella/@comment-26090008-20150224033541/@comment-15636815-20150227060439

Here's something that occurred to me. When you start the bullets discussion, you might as well expand the scope to cover the format of everything on the contractor pages. There's often confusion or just plain disagreement on how those pages should look, and no two pages use the same formatting from top to bottom. Those are some of the most popular pages on the entire TSWiki. That, combined with the large number of them, means they all definitely need a consistent look so that users know what to expect.

A few things about the format are not open for discussion because the community already has a rule or an agreement about them. Most things are negotiable, though, and I'm pretty sure the format of the contract lists never has been discussed before--at least not with the entire community.

Format issues for the community to consider: To be clear, I'm proposing that  (all by itself, with no further coding) would generate this output (or whatever final format is chosen): • (Cost: )
 * build costs (The following features appear in some contract lists and not others.)
 * bullets: yes or no?
 * word "Cost": yes or no?
 * italics: yes or no?
 * format: Currently, cost generates the resource components separated by a comma and a non-breaking space. I used that format only because that's what was on most of the contract pages already. If the community decide that they want it to look different, I can change it quickly and easily. In fact, since the contract lists are the only use for the in-line cost, I could even make the template generate the entire format, which gives the usual benefits of easier editing and automatic consistency.
 * Feel free to view the source code of this post, lift anything you like in the above bullet point, and drop it into your Forum post. ;-)
 * gold icons accompanying gems icons: yes or no?
 * When displaying OR contracts, most or all of the contract lists show the gems icon in parentheses for any item that requires gems. Some pages also show the gold icon in parentheses  for the non-gems option. We need a consistent design.
 * Sometimes, the non-gems option is to deliver materials, which simply shows the relevant icon next to the amount, as always. People need to remember this when discussing this question. The gold icon (perhaps) provides a balanced appearance to the contracts that use it, but some contracts that use the gems icon won't get the balanced appearance either way.

If it were me, I probably would limit the post requesting feedback to the items listed above. You don't want to overwhelm people. Besides, as I said earlier, not everything is open for discussion unless we re-discuss existing policies. We've done some of that here recently, but the current crew of regulars is completely different from the crew of regular who created some of the things we changed. Therefore, there's no need to re-open a can of worms--especially since we already got the worms stuffed back in the can. LOL ... Even among things that could be discussed publicly, some things work better just using common sense or a bit of artistic license. The list below include items on the contractors' pages that (a)should be changed, and (b)I wouldn't mention in your bullets post. It's your deal, though, so the decision is yours. I'm just an advisor. :-)

Other format issues on these pages:
 * XP icons inside the table: yes or no?
 * Hint: The answer to this question is "no". It's your job to make that happen. *grin*
 * One of the things we discovered in the last year or so is that the icon inside a table consumes too much space in some very wide tables. Besides that, it's a bit distracting to see the same icon repeated dozens or hundreds of times in a long vertical line. They really aren't necessary, anyway, since regular users know that's the XP column, and new users can simply scroll back to the header row. For all these reasons, we decided to eliminate them in all tables sitewide, for consistency. Implementating that decision has been slow, for various reasons. This is an opportunity to implement the decision in a major portion of the site.
 * Since XP automatically formats the numbers we give it, it would be nice if we had a different template that would do the same thing without displaying the icon. We do. Use fd.
 * moving comments to footnotes
 * This is another item that really isn't open for discussion. The admins want to get extra data (of all kinds and in all places, with particular focus on eliminating "Notes" columns) out of the tables and into footnotes. See what I did thurr? ;-)
 * In addition, the admins want to minimize footnotes by moving extra data to article pages everywhere it is possible and practical. That situation probably doesn't exist on the contractor pages, but be alert for it. You're new here, and that gives you an advantage. Instead of seeing things as "the way they've always been", you're more likely to spot ways to improve things.
 * We've developed a consistent format for presenting footnotes with tables. At this point in the project, it's not important that you know how to produce the format; it's important only that you know we have one. When it comes time to start editing pages, I'll show you the format then.
 * Image Gallery - There is almost no consistency in this section between the different contractors' pages, even though some people have tried. We need some. The different sections differ in all of the following ways, and maybe more:
 * content displayed
 * chronological order: The standard is newest on top. Not all the pages conform.
 * types of images used
 * appearance of images used (inconsistent editing)
 * size of images used
 * wording accompanying images (most important aspect; least consistent aspect)
 * another item, regarding the internal formatting of the Wikitext, that I'm not going to reveal to you right now. I'm not trying to keep a secret or withhold information or anything like that. I'm saving it for later because I want you to keep the right kind of focus when you write your Forum post, and this item could distract you from that. Besides, even though we really need to do it in every table on the site, we really can't enforce it until we can point to the new Style Guide. Just consider this a reminder to ask me about "that internal formatting thing" before you start comprehensive editing.

This is probably not a exhaustive list of everything on those pages that need to be fixed. In all likelihood, you'll find something after you start editing that we hadn't considered before. You might have noticed already something that I didn't list here, and that's cool. That's actually the point: Fix what needs to be fixed.

undefined Congratulations! You are now a project leader! w00t undefined

...or not. If you want, you can just stick to "bullets or no bullets" and be done. I don't want you to think I'm pushing this on you, because I'm not. You asked me just last week where you could help, and tonight this idea occurred to me. It's a pretty important project, too, so you'd get tons of visibility, especially with the admins. That's not about fame and glory, of course, but then, that's not why you're here or why you want to help. The visibility simply gives your voice a little more weight later when others ask you for help. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Trust me, 18 months ago I didn't think I'd be writing a post like this. Things change.)

So there ya go. Should you accept this mission, don't think that being project leader means you're on your own. You're definitely not. We're all here to help, and we want you to succeed.