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DrDMatthews

Database?

I have a question...

 

Why doesn't STSF offer a Wikipedia database for the players? This would be a lot of help for all of us medical and engineering types. We could create lists of terms and equipment. I know a lot of groups have these. Just thought I'd ask. :)

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It's been discussed, actually. There are a lot of reasons why it never moved past discussion, but the biggest was probably that it's a lot of work to invest in something that might not get used after the initial "oh, cool" period.

 

Edit to add: By the way, this isn't to say we've decided against creating a forum wiki. It's still an idea that's floating around out there. This is just why we don't have one yet.

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This would be a monumental project, but with Wiki everyone could contribute! It would be a useful resource, but I do not know how much I would personally use it.

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I would use it alot....Only, (well unless they keep count. no one really) how many times I have used a hypo spanner in a wide variety of dept.

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Do bear in mind that any forum-wide wiki would not be a duplication of Memory Alpha as there's really no point reinventing the wheel. If you're just looking for general technobabble, MA's your site.

 

A forum-wide wiki, IF one were ever to come about, would most likely be similar to the databases that some ships already maintain. (Agincourt, Arcadia, Reaent, for example, and if I've missed someone I apologize.) These are ship-canon information rather than Trek-canon, keeping info on various NPCs, technology invented for the sim, major plotlines, etc. It would be more useful for questions like "did someone already make up an explanation for how a gravitron bomb works?" (she said, surfing Arcadia's wiki) than "what's a good engineering tool I could use to sound more tech-ish?"

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There is a "SIM" Wiki already. http://www.simenc.com/ This, of course covers more sims than just STSF's.

 

 

EDIT: Wow, just looked over that Wiki too. Seems there's a group that was short on ideas and they just borrowed some of our sim ideas, including a Manticore variant and a flat rip off of Aegis, including the use of one of the old proposed station designs for it's refit to "Sky Harbor". Oh well.

Edited by Kallah Ramson

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This would be a monumental project, but with Wiki everyone could contribute!

 

I like the Wiki idea, but the organized part of me is just plain cringing; if everyone could add something, isn't that akin to having way too many hands in the cookie jar?

 

EDIT: Wow, just looked over that Wiki too. Seems there's a group that was short on ideas and they just borrowed some of our sim ideas, including a Manticore variant and a flat rip off of Aegis, including the use of one of the old proposed station designs for it's refit to "Sky Harbor". Oh well.

 

*cough* unimaginative RPG hacks *cough* :-P

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Just from experience, at Excalweb, Tachyon and I have worked on an Excalwiki and I can tell you its a lot of work getting enough of a basis set up to go live with it. And some point, when I have more time to work on it, it may go live with an update of Excaliweb.

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EDIT: Wow, just looked over that Wiki too. Seems there's a group that was short on ideas and they just borrowed some of our sim ideas, including a Manticore variant and a flat rip off of Aegis, including the use of one of the old proposed station designs for it's refit to "Sky Harbor". Oh well.

 

Okay....which group? :)

 

Personally, I think it is a good idea. Memory Alpha is an amazing resource but it doesn't have roleplaying in mind. For example, it might tell you when a hypospray appeared but not specifically "when" it is appropriate to use one.

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Well, would one specific to roleplaying see any regular use either? It would certainly be a good resource for new players, but much of it I think would be very basic or irrelevant information (at least for an immediate need). For example, once you understand what a hypospray is/does, there is little need to review it again. Just about anyone who's watched the show and is a fan probably knows what that is anyway. Wouldn't this basically turn the Wiki database into essentially a "beginner's guide" for players? And would we need a full Wiki to do that?

 

It would be also great for adding realism to logs, but during the sim I don't think I would use it. It's much easier just to make up some technobabble to accomplish a given task rather than go to another browser window and search for something I may or may not find that fits the situation.

 

Those are my thoughts on it.

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Well there's a number of different wiki-softwares out there for use, and it's mostly dependent on what your needs are, for something like this, we wouldn't need MediaWiki (which is what Wiki itself runs on).

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Dox is right; once you know what a hypospray is ("a medical device used to inject liquids into the body." - MA) you really don't need to have more direction on how/when to use it. Likewise most of the terms Galen provides are readibly definable at MA. I really don't see the point of duplicating the work.

 

However, a resource for persons, places, and events in sim canon could be valuable and would have a certain amount of revisiting built in.

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You also have to remember that sim-canon will be different for each sim, and might even conflict with canon for other sims. This will reduce the effectiveness of such a forum-wide database even if it is easy to maintain.

Edited by V'Roy

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Again...MA, However it does require your attention, and digging for the info.

In other words...it requires a bit of work, The question how much it matters to each individual.

:)

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Let's face it, if you think it's too much work to search for something on Memory Alpha, you won't search for it on a ship or forum specific site either. And, chances are the specific site will not be maintained any better than MA is already.

 

I do maintain a ship-specific wiki <http://ussarcadia.game-host.org:8080>. The primary things I try to keep up to date are the plot summaries and the roster, which are (obviously) entirely sim-specific canon. Maintaining an encyclopedia, even if it's just of sim-canon, is time consuming. It would be easier with more user-contributions (hint, hint, Arc players), but I find that (with a few exceptions), I put in about 90% of the edits. If there's something that's new to the sim and important, I'll try to put it in, but I don't write articles about hyposprayers or navigational systems. Duplication of effort is pointless.

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However, a resource for persons, places, and events in sim canon could be valuable and would have a certain amount of revisiting built in.

 

Well...if it could be centralized, backed up, and have some kind of longevity I would agree. Otherwise things such as these tend to vanish. For example years ago I set up a complete encyclopedia for the USS Excalibur that detailed the races, planets, objects, characters, etc that it encountered. As I recall it was pretty huge, but as far as I can tell all of that information has been lost. It's a real shame when all that work ends up in the circular file, and I can see a potential for that happening with a project like this.

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