Revision as of 02:25, 26 September 2022

Axe me a question.

(And find the reference.)

Welcome, but...

Hi and thanks for your contributions. However... I'm sorry to say they require a lot of... refinement. Some tips:

• Keep an eye on Recent Changes after your edits, articles you've worked on are bolded. If they are edited again soon by someone else, take a look at the differences and the edit summary to understand how your contribution could be improved (if the changes pertained to your edit and not something else).
• The FAQ and guidelines provide a lot of assistance about a wide array of topics. You don't have to learn them by heart :) but when attempting a new task it's useful to read up a bit on that topic beforehand.
  E.g. screenshots should always have a suitable license and preferably include a summary and use 4:3 aspect ratio without black bars.
• Check what's already available to avoid uploading duplicate screenshots. E.g. AV already had a credits screen making yours redundant, and you didn't load the Dehacked file when playing so your text screen shows the original Doom II text instead of AV's. Not mixing up map slots would also be helpful. :)
• Uploading a few screenshots is only half the work, linking them in the article(s) they are meant to illustrate is the other half. Otherwise they just linger in the list of files which is kind of pointless. If you intend to contribute more shots, plan ahead what you want to illustrate where and how. E.g. to systematically illustrate a series of maps, take a look at how Ducon is doing it – but mind, I'm not asking you to do the same, only showing possibilities.
• Wiki links should not have repeated text (that diff shows a lot more changes than just in your WADs list, but this remark pertains only to the list) unless you want the visible text to differ from the actual link. Yes, you probably followed the previous user's bad example. :)

I realize the above may be a bit much in one go, but I wanted to be clear and somewhat complete before I become too frustrated with fixing up your stuff. I hope I've haven't deterred you from contributing but instead pointed out ways to learn and improve. Every editor/contributor started the same way, making mistakes and learning how to prevent them (most of the time... ;) ). The overall goal is not only to improve the wiki's content and quality, but also enjoy what we're doing here. HTH and thanks for your patience. --Xymph (talk) 09:11, 25 June 2020 (CDT)

Screenshot license

Hi, for this image, did you capture it yourself and merely forgot to select the screenshot license while uploading, or perhaps obtain it from another source and are truly unsure about its copyright? If the former, please fix it; if the latter, what was the source? --Xymph (talk) 05:43, 24 January 2022 (CST)

I took the screenshot myself! But I wasn't sure about the correct license to use, since it's a picture of DOOM 2 but with a mod on top of it, didn't knew which one was the right one. - Endless01 5:49, 24 January 2022 (CST)

Okay, it's id's game being shown, which takes precedence over the mod. --Xymph (talk) 05:59, 24 January 2022 (CST)

made the Wadazine article

I just created the article The Doom Master Wadazine after seeing your User page earlier today. I never heard of your magazine before, but it's quite nice and definitely worthy of an article. I mention it here in case you want to revise it. --PhilthyPhilistine (talk) 14:53, 24 January 2022 (CST)

Thanks a lot! Awesome to see the Wadazine on the Doomwiki, finally! I did some small edits and added a bit more of info, and also added a logo. I'm not quite versed on how the format works, but I plan to update it once an skeleton is done and add more info, like issue list and content. Thanks again! - Endless01 5:25, 24 January 2022 (CST)

Image categories

Please be sure to only place images into subcats of Images. This is typically Images by content or Images by license subcategories. Currently your magazine covers have been put into Community but we'll need to find another more appropriate location. --Quasar (talk) 04:57, 5 February 2022 (CST)

My apologies. Could Fan media category be enough for the moment? - Endless01 (talk) 06:01, 5 February 2022 (CST)

Yeah I'll make a subcategory in there. --Quasar (talk) 09:18, 5 February 2022 (CST)

Update: now available as Wadazine cover art. --Quasar (talk) 00:25, 7 February 2022 (CST)

Also, please put categories (i.e. title screens) last. While technically not necessary (this maintenance category for maps is in the intro because then it is automagically removed when adding the info), categories are consistently at the end (almost) everywhere. It helps for some types of bot script processing, and they are also more easily overlooked when embedded in the middle of content. --Xymph (talk) 05:57, 6 February 2022 (CST)

I feel obligated to point out that you don't get that option if you're using the license drop-down on the image upload form. --Quasar (talk) 00:26, 7 February 2022 (CST)

Ah, of course. Didn't realize that as I always paste the entire contents including licensing section with my uploads. No problem then, Endless. --Xymph (talk) 02:44, 7 February 2022 (CST)

New WAD pages

When adding a new article that starts with the {{wad}} template, please do not enter an edit summary. The excerpt from the template getting listed in Recent Changes and New Pages is far more informative. Thanks. --Xymph (talk) 06:00, 6 February 2022 (CST)

Sorry about that. I actually thought I was being more helpful by making those little summaries of mine! Thank you for letting me know. -Endless01 (talk) 11:05, 6 February 2022 (CST)

Title screens

Hey, thanks for adding the pages for some of these new WADs, but one thing you should know, is that some of your uploads do not follow the correct aspect ratio modification procedure. I'll try to explain it to the best of my ability but essentially the way Doom was designed for monitors of the time, its 320x200 resolution was stretched to be 320x220 - these title screens then have to be doubled, so a 320x200 title screen should actually become a 640x480 title screen (and not a 640x440 one). It's important not to use any filters when scaling the image too, or it would end up looking blurry and wrong. For title screens that do not follow standard size conventions it's fine to upload them in their native resolution (unless they're tiny), whereas I see that some of the title screens that you added appear to be abnormally large, such as the Running Late 2 one - I imagine you got it from the thread and not from the WAD itself, where it's 320x200 and can thus safely scaled up to 640x480, saving us precious space for an image of exactly the same quality :) Keep up the good work and let me know if I need to better explain some of these details, I'm not highly knowledgeable on the subject but I too used to upload wrongly-scaled up title screens, so just looking out for more of them now. --Dynamo128 (talk) 07:01, 7 February 2022 (CST)

Thanks for letting me know! Some of the titlescreens, I took them on GZDoom using the 4:3 stretched aspect ratio, to avoid black bars, so that's why some look goofy big. But the majority of non-GZDoom WADs, I use Doom Retro to take the screenshots of the menu screen, and then I cut it with photo editing tools to an 4:3 aspect ratio. Sorry about that, I'll pay more attention the next time. Creating WAD pages has been quite the interesting experience :D - Endless01 (talk) 15:15, 7 February 2022 (CST)

To clarify for title screens, we don't use screenshots from any port, but a .png export of the titlepic lump (e.g. in SLADE) and then rescale that as described above. See my replacements just now. This avoids any colorization, weird dimensions, and other artifacts. For in-game screenshots, image quality, gamma setting and aspect ratio are also important, but whole series of shots in 16:9 ratio have been submitted and that alone doesn't normally disqualify them. --Xymph (talk) 16:34, 7 February 2022 (CST)

I haven't submitted much screenshots from GZDoom. When I do, I play with 4:3 stretched aspect ratio. Is that acceptable or should I just use 16:9 for regular in-game screenshots? The great majority of my in-game screenshots are taken with Doom Retro on true 4:3 aspect ratio, using High Detail (some of my early screenshots were with Low Detail) and 0.90 gamma. I hope those are good! - Endless01 (talk) 16:51, 7 February 2022 (CST)

The game shots are fine, the above mainly pertained to title screens. --Xymph (talk) 02:21, 8 February 2022 (CST)

Speedmapping series

Your contributions so far were meaningful to the wiki, and of good quality so you got to terms with that pesky wiki editing format rather quickly after all. :) But to be honest, I find covering individual WADs/maps in huge speedmapping series not so cool. The ASS series as a whole is notable, but installments/maps less so, in my uninformed opinion. Yes, I know everything "released" is notable, but there still are degrees.

My main objection is that there are still a lot of notable WADs (Cacowarded and otherwise) needing coverage, so spending time/energy on speedmapping series is poor prioritization. And secondly, consistent coverage is important to the wiki, but here it would lead to 61 (and counting) articles with (on average?) 12 maps, or 700 more maps. That just doesn't scale anymore in term of work volume (I dread the remainder of the DBP series too). You may think it's quick and easy with bot scripts, and that is true in comparison to manual edits, but it still takes me plenty of time & effort per WAD. I draw the line at speedmapping series, I cannot spend any more time on the wiki than I already do. So like The Joy of Mapping series the maps shouldn't be linked. --Xymph (talk) 03:54, 18 February 2022 (CST)

I was thinking of filling out all the installments, but considering that someone else must do the individual maps (in this case you), then I will try my efforts elsewhere. I don't want to extend the workload backlog. My apologies if I have inadvertently added to the work of other editors. I will try to concentrate on walkthroughs and wanted pages for the time being. - Endless01 (talk) 04:22, 18 February 2022 (CST)

Appreciated. And it's not just the map articles adding workload, but also how WAD/maps are linked from mappers. Standard wiki practice means that the Session links to idgames should be changed into the articles. And the maps too, if created. Let's just not go there, ever.

Editors aren't required to, but for editing plans with a big impact on the wiki it is better to propose them first in Central Processing. Then others can give feedback and thumbs up/down. --Xymph (talk) 05:16, 18 February 2022 (CST)

No spaces in filenames

It flew under my radar for a while, but the lack of spaces or dashes between WAD and lump names in your uploaded images hampers legibility and searchability. E.g. searching file space for Icedeath, BLT, Avind or Dante's Gate misses a whole bunch of gameplay shots; only those containing the same names in the summaries are found. Conversely, files where the name components are separated by a space or other non-word character do turn up, e.g. Surrounded. I'm not sure why you left out spaces, but to me it comes across as cutting corners or some other unfriendly word (and I don't intend to be unfriendly). I'll not go as far as to request all those files are renamed/moved (wouldn't oppose it, though) but please don't do this anymore. --Xymph (talk) 11:59, 15 March 2022 (CDT)

I was making it like that because it looked better for reading, IMO. So, if I understand correctly, instead of naming the files like "DoomMap01" it should be "Doom Map01" or "Doom-Map01"? I am sorry, I wasn't trying to screw with the system or anyone. - Endless01 (talk) 18:35, 15 March 2022 (CDT)

The human eye is aided by separatingwordsatwordboundaries, algorithms for searching words require them. This image looks like one for map Chord in slot GMAP29, and then I go... wait, that is not a normal slot?!? :-) So yes, those styles are better. --Xymph (talk) 03:38, 16 March 2022 (CDT)

Here we go again... Slots joined with names without a space result in the files not being searchable. Compare the incomplete results of a search for "hydro control" with the (far more) complete results for e.g. "tei tenga". Please be more careful. --Xymph (talk) 07:36, 13 June 2022 (CDT)

My bad, again. I realized right when I was finishing the last map that I missed the space on the map slots. Thanks for the reminder, will do better. - Endless01 (talk) 08:09, 13 June 2022 (CDT)

Tracking updates

Hi, what goes for MF38 would be nice here too: could you please batch updates and reduce Recent Changes clutter? It is not hard. :) Thanks. --Xymph (talk) 12:22, 27 June 2022 (CDT)

Port features in screenshots

It was pointed out to me that, for quite a while, you've been adding screenshots of maps that are designed either for vanilla or Boom compatibility with Crispy Doom features enabled which the mods were not expressly designed for. Some of these include flipped corpses or extra blood splatter sprites. I'd like to ask that you disable these features going forward for any screenshots for such mods, as this is in accordance with the site rules: "Screen shots should be taken in software rendered mode, with settings resembling vanilla Doom as closely as possible (unless the screen shot is for showing off a port specifically or belongs to an add-on that requires the use of such a source port)."

I greatly appreciate your effort in adding the images to begin with; however, it's a negligible amount of extra effort to ensure that the shots properly and accurately reflect Doom in its historical context going forward, which is really the entire point of having them for things like 1994 PWADs, whose authors could never have anticipated things like source ports existing. Hope this makes sense and is agreeable. --Quasar (talk) 09:31, 18 September 2022 (CDT)

CP mappers

When adding a new community project to a mapper page, could you do so consistently and completely for all participating mappers that have an article? That helps the wiki a lot more. Thanks. --Xymph (talk) 02:25, 26 September 2022 (CDT)