Doom Wiki:Central Processing/2017

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Navboxes wrap-up
In recent months several aspects of navboxes for map pages were discussed: This new topic aims to tie up these topics and any loose ends.
 * 1) Font sizes of header, map names, and numbered 'other' maps on desktop and mobile
 * 2) Grouping classic Doom II-megawad maps by sky-based episodes
 * 3) Organizing 'other' maps for modern episodic Doom II-megawad maps

I've written a new script to generate various types of navboxes that takes the outcome (if any) of the above topics, and further brainstorming on IRC, into account. Its results are sandboxed here. They use the CSS class dw-navvariable and family that Quasar recently created as per topic #1.

The main differences to current navbox styles are: Some layout details are still controlled in style divs but can be moved to the CSS files once sufficient consensus has been reached. So, does anyone object to the structuring and styling of all these types of navboxes? And if so, what would you suggest to change?
 * 1) The header (" levels") is in normal font, not 'larger' (see C, E, J).
 * 2) Names for Doom(1)-style episodes have remained in normal font (see E).
 * 3) The active list of named maps is in 'smaller' font on desktop but 'normal' on mobile (all).
 * 4) The classic Doom II-type area of other, numbered maps uses a different background than the active list (see G, H, I).
 * 5) For modern episodic Doom II series (see J):
 * 6) the episode names aren't linked to another template;
 * 7) the active episode name uses normal font and the other ones are 'smaller';
 * 8) the episodes have separator bars (Quasar's suggestion);
 * 9) the maps in the other episodes are included as 'smaller' numbers for quick navigation as per topic #3.

A new idea: for Doom(1)/Heretic multi-episode navboxes, a single line of small map numbers could be added to the non-active episodes to allow quick navigation, just like for Doom II style boxes (item 5.4). I.e. "E1M 1 2 3 ... 9" or "E1 M1 M2 M3 ... M9". Would that meet with approval or opposition?

Once that's settled, I will regenerate all existing Doom/Doom II/Heretic navboxes using these styles. Per topic #2 the existing 01-10 / 11-20 boxes can also be regenerated as 01-11 / 12-20 boxes unless the megawad explicitly specifies another grouping. (The existing navbotBot.php script can then apply the renamed boxes to the 20 pertaining map pages.) Are there objections to that?

Finally, two nitty-gritty details: A final observation: the generated navboxes can of course be manually adjusted afterwards, like the Obituary one. --Xymph (talk) 13:46, 21 December 2016 (CST)
 * 1) In the header of existing navboxes sometimes the word "levels" is used (A-D, G) and sometimes "maps" (E-F, H-J); and the same inconsistency happens in reference to Secret map(s)/level(s).  I propose to use "levels" - okay?
 * 2) On map pages the navbox can be placed above or below the  template, which affects their relative alignment and whether or not the slot description line wraps next to the navbox in narrow(er) windows.  What would be the preferred template order?


 * Some opinions:


 * For Ult. Doom and Heretic, I'd be in favor of just listing the other episode maps as M1, M2, M3, etc. The E1 part is kinda redundant with the episode name being just above.
 * Map vs level? I'd be more in favor of "map" because it's shorter and I think more generally used than "level" in the Doom community. Though it seems this wiki has chosen level and level editor, but then again it's not entirely consistent since we have things like Category:PWADs with maps and Category:Map views. No strong opinion either way but the map slots themselves are clearly called MAPxy or ExMy; not LEVELxy or ExLy.
 * Template order: I think Hell Keep looks better than Foray, so I'd say above.
 * Other points: no real idea right now. --Gez (talk) 16:52, 21 December 2016 (CST)


 * Listing other episode maps, agreed: see E1-E3 in the current sandbox.
 * Sometimes the longer "levels" helps to beef up the box a bit (e.g. Galaxia), and level is indeed a reason why I proposed to use that, but usually a long wad name makes the shorter "maps" preferable, so I'm fine with that too. Of the existing navboxes, the vast majority already uses "Secret maps" (although Doom II is one of the exceptions).
 * Placing navbox above, agreed as well.


 * In the past two weeks Quasar and I worked on and off to tune the navbox styling of wikicode/HTML in tandem with CSS to look good and consistent on desktop and mobile. The current sandbox has the result, which will be final (and deployed to all existing Doom/Heretic navboxes in due course) unless additional suggestions are made over the next few days. --Xymph (talk) 12:27, 9 January 2017 (CST)

Map screenshots gallery dimensions
I presume everyone agrees that the default dimensioning of map screenshot galleries is somewhat underwhelming: the thumbnails are post-stamp size, and the borders too large and uneven. Larger thumbnails (with even borders around them) would make them more useful and the page more visually attractive. For my next scripting endeavor I intend to update all existing galleries with new dimensions (and also clean up formatting issues, if any). Empty ones too, to assist future contributors of more screenshots.

How much larger? I sandboxed a few possibilities. I propose to use option 1.3, and set 1.3.1 as default in the skeleton. Any objections or alternative suggestions? --Xymph (talk) 11:46, 30 January 2017 (CST)
 * Suggestion: using packed galleries; or at the very least noline. See this. Currently we have too much of our real estate pixels (real pixstate?) taken by entirely useless white noise such as borders and trims. By getting rid of these, we can have less poststampy screenshots without increasing the visual size of the page. --Gez (talk) 12:07, 30 January 2017 (CST)