User talk:Ducksoup

RE:
I think it sounds like a great idea. I'm not the best at making templates myself (I just copy and paste the code then change accordingly) but I know there are several other members of the staff team who are. Some of these are Smurfynz and WildBrick142. LS11sVaultBoy (Talk) 15:44, May 20, 2015 (UTC)
 * Just go ahead and dig into it. LS11sVaultBoy (Talk) 20:46, May 20, 2015 (UTC)


 * Re: Infoboxes


 * Hi Andrew. As Tom says, there are a few of us active in template/infobox design here. Reading our Noticeboard, you'll note that in between the politics there has been a bit of discussion recently around templates and infoboxes. Some mention has been made of Mobile compatibility but generally that mention has been along the lines of "who cares". Up till now we would rather have a great user experience in one format (full browser) and a poor experience in another (mobile) rather than a mediocre experience over both by "dumbing down" the templates to work in both.


 * Like Tom, I would be keen to improve that, but not at the expense of our active readers. I would see us working with the Wikia engineers in a sandboxed environment within GTA Wikia to update templates and have duplicate "test" pages before rolling changes out to the live pages. smurfy (coms) 21:12, May 20, 2015 (UTC)


 * Hi Smurfy!


 * That's understandable. I think the new markup - even in its beta form - is far past "mediocre", but I imagine that was a quick word choice.


 * Either way: OK, I think that sounds fair. I think there should be some assurances that (should the engineers put work into the "test" community) you'd merge the changes into the main wikia, but that's a minor hurdle to clear. Is that reasonable?


 * Yes, although the mediocre comment was based on the current code and our own capability/enthusiasm levels to try to make it work well in both, not necessarily its actual capabilities, nor does it reflect the new markup capability to potentially make it easier to achieve good results in both views. Absolutely the aim would be to migrate successful test templates into 'production' as soon as they are proved to be working well in both. smurfy (coms) 22:19, May 20, 2015 (UTC)


 * Fantastic. I'll coordinate to make it happen. You're a champ for helping us out with this project - thank you so much. I'll... do something nice for you one day. Not sure what. I'll come up with something. I'm creative.


 * Thanks again! Ducksoup (talk) 23:29, May 21, 2015 (UTC)
 * Cool, I have some ideas for co-ordination and "project management". I did notice Adam jumped in last night (my time) but quickly reverted whatever he tried on a "production" template. I'm just a bit busy with real life work but should have something implemented in the next 24 hours. smurfy (coms) 00:50, May 22, 2015 (UTC)
 * See the Project page for a 1st draft of the plan. smurfy (coms) 12:43, May 22, 2015 (UTC)
 * Hey Smurfy! OK, so the $10,000 question (am I dating myself by using that phrase? I hope not.) is: where can we be involved? It looks like you've planned this out for yourselves, which is fantastic - we just want to get our hands dirty with you. Do you have an active test wikia?
 * (Bump so you see this) Ducksoup (talk) 21:17, May 29, 2015 (UTC)
 * It was seen, just busy in RL and elsewhere on the wiki. This weekend should be able to make a start on trying it out on a few simple infoboxes before digging into some of our more complex (lots of if/then code to allow multi-uses for a single template) templates. smurfy (coms) 22:41, May 29, 2015 (UTC)
 * Oh, don't worry, I don't want to pressure you or anything. Can our Wikia folks get hands-on, too? Here is an example of a wikia we've converted to the "new" backend markup. It looks nearly identical to the "original". The only difference is that the syntax we use (which end users only see if they go looking for it) is much more easily digestible by mobile devices. Ducksoup (talk) 18:46, June 3, 2015 (UTC)
 * Bump for this because it's been a few weeks! My promise remains: we won't do anything weird or gross with your infoboxes. We just want to change the backend syntax so their information can be ported better to mobiles and other devices. Ducksoup (talk) 22:54, June 17, 2015 (UTC)

I'm liking how the example looks. From what I've read, the design will be nearly the same as it is now (2px white borders, a tag ("VEHICLE", "MISSION", etc.) at the top and the color scheme) just the coding will be different, yes?

Anyway, feel free to start any test templates - I would recommend trying out Template:Infobox vehicles and Template:Infobox mission first because they're the most common templates here. If you need help or have questions, don't hesitate to ask.

(I am the person who did the current infobox design.)   11:08, June 18, 2015 (UTC)

This was as far as I got after deciding I was over-thinking the "project" and treating it like my job, which completely diminished my enthusiasm for the task :).  Happy for your team to dive in and make a start. smurfy (coms)  11:20, June 18, 2015 (UTC)

RE: Push Buttons
I'd be interested in it. I don't know about the other admins but I assume they would. LS11sVaultBoy (Talk) 21:18, June 30, 2015 (UTC)

Facebook Page
Hey Ducksoup. I have a question. I remember a while back, got knows how long ago, but I think a member of the Wikia staff made an official Facebook page for the wiki, here,  and I was wondering if you had a way of finding out who it was and then giving me access to edit it. It has over 3,000 likes but has not been used for a year. We use it on our main page in the Facebook page template (pretty cool I may add) and we would really like to be able to use it. Any help you can give would be great.

Also, how are those push buttons coming along? LS11sVaultBoy (Talk) 21:59, July 16, 2015 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I'm still interested in the push buttons. Also, what do you mean by you have "reached out to the Facebook group"? LS11sVaultBoy (Talk) 23:14, August 3, 2015 (UTC)

RE:
Sure. LS11sVaultBoy (Talk) 11:51, August 12, 2015 (UTC)