I'm going to do something I don't normally do, something I would fire anyone else for doing, but this anti-data mining rumor really needs to die.
This is the log from the private MWorld staff chat during the time it happened (2012):
http://pastebin.com/0ERCemRC
I've edited this to remove irrelevant content only.
In public chat, much later (2014):
http://pastebin.com/3cWFeSLQ
This has no editing though I probably should.......
Now please, can we end this terrible "Nexon hates data mining omg" crap?? Especially when most of the claims don't even align with the original technicalities?? Additionally, I have carefully worded the content policy to
not outright ban such sources, simply that they can't be used as claims of authenticity and you have to be able to defend your additions somehow. I don't care where it comes from as long as it's true and it can hold up in court, so to speak.
With regard to server content it's no secret I had the herewithin contentious synthesis information deleted and that it was for more reasons than authenticity. I chose complete erasure despite its appearance as conspiracy (yet illogically, I would argue) in the [what I consider] valiant name of protection, which Rydian already threw away posting it here anyway. I didn't have it deleted because "the wiki doesn't want that information", I had it deleted because it was obviously sourced from the contents of a scandal the day after it occurred. It was, politically, terrible timing. There was also no guarantee the
G9-based data had been tested to be up to date with the current or even NA server, which I admittedly confirmed with Rydian later privately.
For the image policy, I see a lot of "obviously you can't do...." kind of comments and I want to assure you that, over years of serving what amounts to primarily fashionogi content, we know what does and doesn't work for pictures. We've picked out all of those little "obviously"s and made them into a policy for those people who don't consider your obviouslies so obvious. (Yes, they exist, and no their opinion is not different "because they're stupid".) I know the policy is long and I can tell none of you read it so allow me to reiterate: having bad images is fine, but they need to and will eventually be replaced by good images. If you revert it to your bad image then there may be issues but otherwise nothing happens. Nise, particularly, may warn you if your image is bad, but if they're just bad colours, as many complain of wrt the policy, she won't remove them because they're sufficient placeholders. If they're temporary issues like settings or quality she may remove them. Allowing any and every image just because it's understandable is something that degrades the quality of a wiki, and additionally forces moderators to replace your bad images during QA instead of other users replacing them and then you, again, complain that "only moderators are allowed to post images! it's just a staff wanking fest over there!!"
IRC: we cannot talk about Mabi all the time, it's boring; however, the reason it's still called #mabinogi is because we all have Mabi knowledge in common. Unfortunately, staff is not required to come to IRC and there aren't as many wiki editors as I'd like there to be. However, KimoKeine (Blargel) and I (Kadalyn) are always connected if you need to ping us for staff concerns (just say our names in chat or PM one of us (there are instructions on the forum)). We may not always be active or available, though, especially me (though I try to always set myself to away if I'm not there). The only other wiki editor that frequents there is Info (Infodude###) and if he's there he should be available. There are a couple things you need to know when coming to IRC: you are entirely discouraged from asking if you can ask a question, please just leave the question there (you can repeat it if there was a lot of irrelevant convo with not reply, too); you have to actually stick around until someone that knows the answer is at their terminal (a lot of people leave right after saying hi wth??); some people are jerks and they get away with it a lot more on the IRC than they do on the wiki but with people like Roflorz here I'm sure you're used to it; for those of us that know how to wiki we are more than happy to help you wiki but we will prefer to teach you how to make the change yourself than do it for you, please be willing to learn! don't just come in telling us "wiki is wrong, fix it" because you will only get "you fix it" back. Our resident trollish gatekeepers will let you through as long as you carry the requisite humility (and that advice is far more wide reaching than just MW).
Lastly, if you have comments, complaints, concerns, ideas, need help, or whatever you are always welcome to come directly to me, too. I would much rather be complained at than to have people have a bad experience and never come back and tell everyone MWW is horrible for whatever reason. I want to hear these things from all of you, not just one or two people that finally bring me generalizations as liaison. As much as I'd like to fetch all of your complaints from the wide reaches of the internet, no one has time for that.
Politics aside, I believe Snowie's intention here was for contributors to post more or less
specific projects that they want to undertake but don't necessarily have time to do, at least alone. If you want a beginner guide, what would it contain? What do you need to be able to write it? Do you have ideas for it and just aren't fluent enough to write it yourself?? Say these things. Data is wrong? What data? Or what
kind of data? Is there a way to know? Do you have a neat categorization idea to keep expiring data in check?? Don't just say something needs to be done and offer nothing for its success. This is a community effort and no one's paid for this (no, the ads do not make enough to pay for the server and domains). If there is no community then there's no wiki. If there's no constructivism then there's no construction, either.