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        Arimaa >> Site Discussion >> ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
        
(Message started by: supersamu on Feb 24th, 2013, 2:52pm)
Title: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by supersamu on Feb 24th, 2013, 2:52pm
http://i.imgur.com/LGvZadq.jpg
In my opinion, we can work together and help improve many pages of the wiki! In advance I want to thank all Users that contributed high quality work to the wiki.  
Nevertheless, there are still some areas where the Wiki ( http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/Main_Page ) and the wikibook ( http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Arimaa ) can be improved.  
But first let me write why everyone in our community can help making the Wiki a better, more informative place.

- What you can do:

First of all, you should create a wiki account. For that, you can send a message to froody containing your e-mail address or send a mail to Omar asking for a wiki account:  http://arimaa.com/arimaa/contact/ .
Every insight about tactics or strategies are valuable. Just use your best judgment in making changes, adding and removing content, starting discussions when discussions are needed and thus make the wiki a better place.  
If you are a relatively new member, just correct some grammatical mistakes and spelling errors in some of the game reports. If you are an older member, but you donīt feel like writing about Arimaa strategy in detail, just try your best with a game report of some games of past World championships.  
It doesnīt matter if you start with an incomplete, poorly-written first draft of a topic, because that can evolve into a well-rounded, presentable report through the process of collaborative editing. Hence, the submission of rough drafts (but not too rough) is also encouraged. In general, if you think that you could add something of relevance, feel free to add it.

Donīt be afraid! Just write.

- Pages that need editing:

In my opinion, these pages of the wiki could use some editing:

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/Category:World_Championships
(In most of the earlier championships are no links to the specific games. I think links at least to the title games would be nice.  Also some tables about who played whom are not existing, at least not on the pages about the first 4 Championships.)

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/Beginner%27s_Guide_to_the_Arimaa_gameroom  
(I am already on it, but I canīt upload a picture)

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/Why_we_love_Arimaa
(suggestion by froody)

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/Bot_List  
(suggestion by froody)

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/2013_World_Championship
(Writing game summaries is arguably the most important but also the most time-consuming thing that should be done on the wiki)


- Long-term-projects:

Personally, I think we can write a lot more about strategical and tactical stuff not only in the wikibook, but also in the wiki.  
These are topics in the wiki, not in the wikibook that I think some pages about would be useful, but are not of immediate importance:

- camel hostages
- E+H-attacks
- elephant blockades
- EHH-Setups
- EMH-Setups
- etc.
(Note that some of these topics arenīt presented in the wikibook... yet  8) )
I know that there are some things written about most of these topics in the wikibook as well, but I think that a short summary on the subject in the wiki would be nice, maybe with a link to the respective section in the wikibook.

Feel free to comment on my post or comment on things that you think should be added to the wiki or wikibook, I will then add this as soon as I can.
I will update this first post regularly so that you can see what has already been done/has to be done without sifting through the (hopefully several) pages of replies.
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by froody on Feb 25th, 2013, 12:57am
+1. Good post. I hope we get more people involved. Sometimes it's good to be patient, but I thought now was a good time to push.

Also I like your idea about using google drive docs (or whatever they call it) to edit match reports. (It allows multiple editors in real-time). Has the Arimaa community used this much? What do people think?
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by Trick on Feb 25th, 2013, 7:06pm
Cool supersamu.   :)

I have one Appendix to write for the report I turned in today. Hopefully, I'll be able to put in some time in a couple of days.

Froody:

I've never used Google Drive Docs before, though I agree, it sounds like an interesting idea.  8)
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by supersamu on Feb 27th, 2013, 3:21pm
If you look at this page: http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/Special:RecentChanges , you can see that there were more than 50 Edits in the last 5 days!
Granted, most of them were minor ones like Layout improvements or continuity fixes and spelling errors fixed, but thatīs a Start!
Two tables were added at the 2004 and the 2005 world championship page, but there is some Information that still needs to be added. It is unclear who finished on what place. There are probably some games missing of the 2004 WC and the 2005 WC. Some of the registered players didnīt play a single game, like 99of9 in 2004.
A senior member of the community is probably the right person to correct me or edit the page respectively.
here are the links to the wiki pages:

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/2004_World_Championship
http://arimaa.com/arimaa/mwiki/index.php/2005_World_Championship

If I think of anything more, I will add this to my first Post in the Thread.
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by mattj256 on Apr 6th, 2013, 5:07pm
Hi all.  I discovered Arimaa last month and I've been sloooowly working my way (http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?limit=50&tagfilter=&title=Special%3AContributions&contribs=user&target=Mattj2&namespace=&tagfilter=&year=2013&month=3) through the Wikibook (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Arimaa), editing it and also teaching myself the strategy.  (As I'm an inexperienced player, my edits tend to be either correcting grammar, clarifying what's already there, or improving the layout.)

I completely redesigned the layout of the Wikibook's glossary page (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Arimaa/Glossary).  I'd appreciate any feedback.  (The previous version (http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Arimaa/Glossary&oldid=2053829) had lots of boldface in it, and the new version uses Wiki markup so that each glossary entry can be linked to individually.)

For what it's worth, it will make my life easier if you would leave any comments related to the glossary on the Wikibook's talk page (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Talk:Arimaa/Glossary), not here.  Thanks for letting me be a part of this great community!
Matthew
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by mattj256 on Apr 6th, 2013, 6:07pm
supersamu: Thanks for encouraging people in this noble endeavor!

May I suggest:
1. I don't see any "to do list" on the Wiki itself.  I think that would be a helpful addition.
2. There are no links to the Arimaa wiki from any of the other places where I would expect to see one.  I just added links at the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arimaa#External_links) and the Wikibook (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Arimaa/Resources).  Are there other links that should be added?
3. There seems to be a trend where information on the Wiki doesn't make it into the Wikibook, and information in the Wikibook doesn't make it into the Wikipedia page.  They shouldn't be carbon copies of each other, but it's reasonable to ask that this be an explicit priority on your "to-do" list.
4. If a new user tries to log in to the Wiki, the error message doesn't give any indication of how to create a new account.  Similarly, on the Wiki itself I think the "Create a new account" should be right at the top, in a place where it's a lot harder to overlook.
Matthew
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by mattj256 on May 8th, 2013, 2:40am
Hi all.  I think the "rules" section of the Wikipedia page is pretty hard to wade through so I decided to rewrite it from scratch.  (One of the advantages of being unemployed....)
I uploaded my version at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_Arimaa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_Arimaa)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mattj2/sandbox/Arimaa_rules_simple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mattj2/sandbox/Arimaa_rules_simple)

I'd appreciate your comments and feedback!

Also I created a new page called "Computer Arimaa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Arimaa)" that's more focused on AI and computer stuff, while shifting the focus on the main Wikipedia Arimaa page away from AI and chess.  So.  Any help would be appreciated...
Matthew
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by supersamu on May 8th, 2013, 8:09am
Wow! That looks cool. The rule page looks neat and well thought out. I wish I had as much motivation as you do. I started the thread myself, but honestly I didnīt do anything really useful yet.
I am a bit ashamed of myself, actually. Letīs see how it goes when I have my next Semester break.
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by mattj256 on May 8th, 2013, 11:02pm
Thanks!  Haha well I did say I was unemployed. :)
Don't worry, in a volunteer community like this everyone goes through phases of being more or less active.  I hope when you have more time you'll spend some of it on the Wiki!
Matthew
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by mattj256 on May 13th, 2013, 1:41am
Anyone have an .ogg file of someone saying the word "Arimaa" that is licensed such that I can add it to Wikipedia?  (Wikipedia only accepts .ogg format for sound files.)
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by omar on May 18th, 2013, 8:43am
I just uploaded a file called arimaa.ogg here:

http://arimaa.com/arimaa/sounds/
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by mattj256 on May 20th, 2013, 12:27am
Thanks Omar!!
File's address on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:En-us-Arimaa.ogg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:En-us-Arimaa.ogg)
I updated the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arimaa).  In the very beginning of the article, just before the cryptic pronunciation guide, there's a picture of a speaker that links to the sound file.

I made the sound file Creative Commons-Attribution.
I copy-pasted some legalese from a commercially-licensed Arimaa site which says that the Creative Commons license applies only to the file itself but not to the Arimaa game.  My made-up license text is here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:En-us-Arimaa.ogg).  I hope I did it right!
Matthew
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by browni3141 on May 21st, 2013, 2:50am

on 05/13/13 at 01:41:08, mattj256 wrote:
Anyone have an .ogg file of someone saying the word "Arimaa" that is licensed such that I can add it to Wikipedia?  (Wikipedia only accepts .ogg format for sound files.)


May I ask why it must be licensed? Is it a Wikipedia policy? I don't see anything about it on the site.
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by mattj256 on May 22nd, 2013, 1:50am

on 05/21/13 at 02:50:02, browni3141 wrote:
May I ask why it must be licensed? Is it a Wikipedia policy? I don't see anything about it on the site.
When you try to upload an image or a sound file they make their licensing really obvious but for the most part they hide it in the fine print where it's  easy to miss.  Apparently their content is dual-licensed with GFDL and "Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike."  

For more information: Reusing Wikipedia content. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reusing_Wikipedia_content)
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by mattj256 on May 31st, 2013, 12:07am
Hi all.  I've been working on my crusade project to write the Arimaa rules on Wikipedia in a way that is really simple and intuitive.

Omar pointed me to the football version of the rules (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/learn/FootballTheme.pdf), so I copied the words verbatim, fixed up the formatting and layout, and added some diagrams.  I'm not attached to the language; I just want it to be easy to understand and easy to skim.

Here's my current draft:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mattj2/sandbox/Arimaa_rules_football (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mattj2/sandbox/Arimaa_rules_football)
Thoughts?
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by Marty on May 31st, 2013, 7:40am
mattj256: i don't think themed rules are appropriate for an official wikipedia page on an abstract strategy board game. to me, both the rugby theme and the BGG wrestling theme seem off-putting or silly at best. useful analogies are useful, but at the same time talking about "players" when you mean "pieces" and "field" when you mean "board" is hardly making things any clearer.

also having team positions named after animals doesn't have a particularly good taste. you can't build much on top of the animal theme and keep the result natural.

headlining the paragraphs to break the great wall of text is good and should be done on the official wikipedia page.

it deserves special mention that you can push or pull piece in other directions than only in a straight line. this is often missed by new players when learning the rules and your push and pull diagrams reinforce this bad reading by showing movement in only one direction. you could also add arrows to make the movement more obvious
Title: Re: ArimaaWiki and the WikiBook - Help appreciated
Post by browni3141 on May 31st, 2013, 6:20pm
I agree with all that Marty has said. Also, animations would be great for demonstrating pushing, pulling, and freezing.


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