Suggestion of Encyclopedia improvement

[IBBoard]

Just a crazy idea I came up with, so I'd like to know other people's opinions.

At the moment we can list the source of any and all definitions. You can also find all definitions for a specific category/topic (e.g. just Warhammer definitions or just Characters/Names). What I was thinking of doing was extending the Source in to a selection box (with a text box to allow for the options not in the list, so that they can be added as a suggested new source) and then let you do a reverse definition lookup - find all definitions that come from a specific source.

What do people think? Is it worth it? Or is it some crazy scheme that shouldn't be given any more thought?

[Simguinus]

Search by source would certainly throw up some interesting results.

I wonder if it'd be possible to work a 'reverse dictionary' sort of search: where you enter a defintion and see if you can match it to a word. Might be a touch complicated, but good for when you know what it is, but not what it's called....

I think we should definitely consider adding Dark Future as a category...*rubs hands in glee and gathers collection of DF novels together in preperation*

[IBBoard]

I think 'reverse definition' would have to use the current search feature - just use a couple of key-words that seem most distinctive in the definition you have and hope that the definition writer used the same words.

I'll add a Dark Future later - don't want you to overload youself with definition writing, though. You do have to eat and sleep

I'll see what I can do on the source lookup. I know how I'd implement it, but the implementation would require changes to the interface (so that it gives you a list to select from) and a very long list of books for you to select from. I might need your help with making sure I've got all of the titles!

Anyway, whatever I do it'll take a while to code. Final Year Exams are coming up at the end of May/beginning of June, but I'll fit in some coding in my spare time.

Now to watch Matrix Reloaded

[Simguinus]

Pah! Sleep is for the weak!

On the titles front: there are many sites hidden out there which dedicate themselves to authors, and listing their complete cannon. Although some of the more obscure stuff does slip through the net. Exodite's WD listing site also helps.

Oh, I've just encountered something which would make a really good category - Events and Incidents. I went to put in a Definition for the Window Tax Riots of 2495, and found a suitable category missing....I've stuck it under Miscellany for the mo, but that's definitely something to think about.

[IBBoard]

*merges posts together*

Ah yeah, that would be a useful category. Can't think what I put the Horus Heresy under at the moment!

As for Exodite's WD site, I've tripped over that recently while looking for info on books like 'Ere We Go. I didn't look much, but it looks like it might be promisingly useful.

[Simguinus]

If nothing else, it lists every WD published and what was in it, and frequently the author. It helped get me the source for Kryptmann - everything else I just remembered.

[IBBoard]

Dark Future and the Events and Incidents have now been added. I've moved the Horus Heresy over to an Event and Incident, but I can't think of any other existing definitions that should go in there.

[Simguinus]

What do you have soul binding classed under atm? Could be construed as an event. There'll be plenty coming. I've got a list of significant Warhammer Battles (battle of Middenheim, battle of Grootscher Marshes, Siege of Altdorf, La Maisontaal, that kind of thing). The Scattering (when the powers of Chaos hid the Primarchs from the Emperor), the Siege of Terra, Drachenfel's Poison Feast....ooh I could go on, but it would spoil the surprises

[IBBoard]

Yeah, that's currently a miscellany. I'll move it later when I add your new definitions in. Any other word-related posts can go in the other thread, I'll try to keep this one for development and feature additions

[IBBoard]

All of the book reference stuff is now working (on my development machine!)

Basically, additions are:

• Sources will be linked to definitions pages about the source (be it book,or story in anthology)
• Definition pages will (eventually) have a brief description (potentially the cover blurb stolen from Amazon) and (if I can find them or have them and can scan them) a picture of the cover
• Definition pages for anthologies will list all of the sub-stories
• Definition pages for the sub-stories will link back to the main anthology
• Definition pages will contain details of all definitions from the book (and its sub-stories if it's an anthology)

That means that there's even more inter-linkage and if you find one definition from a source then you can find others from the same source very easily

All of the coding for that (except the database alterations, which were already done) were done tonight in about four hours.

Now all I need to do is work out the easiest and most user-friendly way of letting people select sources when they contribute! After that it's the long and arduous job of converting all of the existing definitions over to the new indexed source system, and inputting every single book and story that GW ever wrote!

[IBBoard]

Okay, we have progress! It might not be immensly easy to use, but it's the only way to do it really and I can't think of much better for the huge amount of sources we'll have!

Basically, I'm going to try to enter details of every source book/story in to the database, and the form will include an alphabetical list of all of the books/stories. I'll go through the list of books in the back of my copy of the Eisenhorn trilogy, and add any others I can find (plus the titles of source books, codexes etc). Once that's done, I'll post the list here and Simguinus and others can suggest titles I've missed. If there ends up being more, they can just be mentioned in the description and I'll add them as and when necessary.

As I said, a big huge select list isn't an optimal way of selecting a set of source books, but I can't think of many better ways :\

[IBBoard]

I've just finished adding 118 of the 122 book titles from the back of the Eisenhorn trilogy. Compilations like "Gotrek and Felix Omnibus 1/2" and "The Konrad Saga" that also have separate copies of the books aren't being listed, but everything else is. Now to check Black Library for more updates, and then add the other books (armies books etc) that we've referenced already!

[edit] Okay, all of the novels are now in! Work begins on the other books...

[edit2] (11pm) A few extra novels are now in (some older ones that GW don't list on their site) and so are three of the novella-anthologies that came with White Dwarf, and all of the stories in the four anthologies and the three novella-anthologies are in as well. Just the various rule books to go, and then adding detail and putting the code to use this stuff live!

[IBBoard]

The new code is now uploaded and running! I've still got lots of data to add (converting old references to new references, adding novels/magazines/supplements as and when I know them) but the start of it is certainly there

I'll make an official announcement when it's all done, but as an example check out the Yevgeny Yefimovich definition. It lists the sources and links to them, including Red Thirst (which I'm assuming was the Silver Nails copy that Simguinus read, since it was the other Genevieve novel he cited). The Red Thirst page then lists all references from the story (currently just the one) and links to the main Silver Nails page. That page then lists all definitions from Silver Nails and its sub-sources, including The Fish from The Ibby the Fish Factor!

Now if that isn't complete referencing, I don't know what is

[Simguinus]

Actually I have both Silver Nails (bound as The Vampire Genevieve) and Red Thirst. But, it was easier to cite Silver Nails by Jack Yeovil than Red Thirst by Jack Yeovil (part of the Red Thirst anthology ed. David Pringle).

[IBBoard]

Over the past couple of days I've been adding some more features - mainly on the Admin side.

BBCode-style tags will soon be available in definitions, and myself and any other staff members will be able to add/approve/edit definitions without having to do it directly in the database!

Simguinus has a few definitions pending that came in today, so I'll be using those for the first test Hopefully all should go well and Encyclopedia updating will be a lot easier!