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)

It struck me just now that your recent title screen uploads are 300-400 KB, when they can be not (much) more than 100 KB. There is advice here you may find useful too. --Xymph (talk) 15:56, 13 December 2022 (CST)

For minimizing filesizes, I have pngout, pngcrush and deflopt loaded into SLADE 3, which I apply to images after I've resized them correctly. That may be a quick and helpful way of dealing with it. --Dynamo128 (talk) 05:27, 14 December 2022 (CST)

You should probably be aware that only works for the source file. You could pngcrush something down to a single byte if you want but when ImageMagick creates the thumbnails it will always blow it up to a standard 24-bit PNG with no tricks applied, and there is not any support in MediaWiki for altering that behavior. So for example a 640x480 thumb of a tiny crushed 800x600 pic may be larger than the original file in such a case, and the total size of all generated thumbnails will be greater than the original file. Kind of makes it not a very useful way of trying to save drive space. --Quasar (talk) 12:51, 14 December 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)

Unused image

Hi, you uploaded this image in June 2020 but didn't use it. Could you link it into a suitable article, or nominate it for deletion? Just doing a little maintenance on unused images. :) --Xymph (talk) 07:37, 21 November 2022 (CST)

Disk usage

In view of your screenshot plans it is relevant to know that the server is running low on disk space (2 GB left), and is also running out of options to reduce disk consumption outside the wiki images tree (which takes up 51 GB). We already reduced the history of daily database dumps kept on the server. There is currently no clear indication from Manc when this situation can be improved, but expanding storage on the old creaky server is unlikely. For general progress in wiki coverage of mods and other content, it is more important to be able to upload map views (IMHO) and other one-off images to illustrate existing and new articles, so it would be advisable to restrain or completely pause uploading mod screenshots. Thanks for understanding. --Xymph (talk) 07:28, 24 December 2022 (CST)

Well that's a bummer. Guess I'll stick to editing what I can find, fixing stuff and maybe creating WAD pages instead of adding screenshots, if that's fine. - Endless01 (talk) 10:45, 24 December 2022 (CST)

Yeah it is, but it's up to the server owner / sysadmins to resolve. Pages are fine indeed. --Xymph (talk) 11:58, 24 December 2022 (CST)

Greetings. Unless the disk space problem has suddenly been resolved, I would reiterate Xymph's request to cut down/refrain from uploading in-game screenshots, especially in such quantities as you have been doing lately and for rather obscure PWADs to boot. With all this new content coming out all the time, it would be a real shame (actually more of a catastrophe) if we run out of disk space before the server issue can be resolved and can no longer provide the basic necessities of titlepic and map views for a new articles. --Gregor (talk) 16:46, 21 June 2023 (CDT)

It has finally been resolved yesterday, as announced on a DWF thread. :) --Dynamo128 (talk) 16:50, 21 June 2023 (CDT)

Oh, that's great news! Sorry, i didn't see that post until now. Forget what i said. Let the file-sized optimized screenshot party begin! ;) --Gregor (talk) 17:10, 21 June 2023 (CDT)

And also here on the wiki. But didn't mention it in this topic because Endless was already in the Doomworld thread. --Xymph (talk) 00:50, 22 June 2023 (CDT)

Category:Community projects

Hello! Got a question - for a series of community projects (like 32 in 24) should I add this category to each edition or only to the series page (if it exists), or maybe both? --Nockson (talk) 12:55, 24 March 2023 (CDT)

Hi there, thanks for the help. It's better to go around around it specifically and check each individual page, since some of the 32 in 24 WADs were not open-door community projects, and were designed by the YEDS mapping team, rather than as a public event. - Endless01 (talk) 12:57, 24 March 2023 (CDT)

Tagged them all. I didn't find a single non-public project among them, most had in their DW description a phrase "Any mapper can contribute and learn", even the ones with YEDS at the titlepic. --Nockson (talk) 13:23, 24 March 2023 (CDT)

Wadazine Master Collection

Hello! I've just created articles for Wadazine Master Collection and WMCs 1-4. It would be great if you could add a few more details. I also want to ask - what happened to the WMC05? Is it on hiatus or maybe cancelled? --Nockson (talk) 13:38, 22 April 2023 (CDT)

Hi, thanks for the pages, pretty nice seeing them here. WMC05 is still WIP, albeit slowly. The mapset has the biggest scope so far of all the projects, so it is taking some time to bake. Endless01 (talk) 13:49, 24 April 2023 (CDT)

Additional map categories

Hey Endless! Since you have worked on a handful of category pages for maps (such as techbase map, etc), I was wondering what you thought of these two categories I had in mind:

• Puzzle map: this would refer to maps and mapsets where the central tenet is solving puzzles. There is a problem with this however, in that because what I just mentioned is quite a vague definition, even something like E3M4, with its switch puzzle near the end, could fall under this category. An even more prominent example would be MAP28 of Memento Mori which is famous mostly for having some of the hardest combat in the megawad, but quite a significant portion of the latter half of the map is dedicated to puzzle solving through opening door mechanisms. A lot of the Jim Flynn maps (i.e. Titan Manor) could also fall under puzzle maps. The problem is, most of these maps are ultimately combat focused more than they are puzzle focused, and I would find it disingenuous to consider E3M4 a puzzle map just because of that one element. On the other side of the spectrum you have WADs such as Cyberdreams, The Given, Phocas Island 2 and others where combat, if it exists at all, is shoved out of the way as a purely secondary aspect compared to puzzle solving and exploration. I am just not entirely sure where to draw the line here, especially when it comes to maps such as MAP31 of Reverie which offer plenty of combat but are still puzzle maps first and foremost, I'd say.
• Megamap: This is pretty self explanatory and I would say less controversial, although it has to be said that there is really not a set consensus for what constitutes a "megamap". Certain large maps from vanilla (like The Chasm are not considered megamaps by any stretch, and then there are obvious picks such as Jade Earth, The Warlock's Hearth, Foursite, and even maps from megawads such as CC1 MAP29 or CC3 MAP11. But there is some stuff in between I would say, like some of the maps from Eternal Doom, or something like Castle of Evil I think can also be considered a megamap. The term itself I've seen used on Doomworld so it's not something I came up with (as Doomwiki cannot be a source for itself). What do you reckon?

Cheers, and sorry for the maybe excessive information dump, just been meaning to brainstorm this for a while now. --Dynamo128 (talk) 05:16, 31 August 2023 (CDT)

Whoops, sorry for the late reply! Didn't notice the new discussion. I like your ideas! I feel like a puzzle map cat is definitely needed, particularly for maps that are almost entirely puzzle-themed, such as Moonlight or The Given. For a soft definition of what a puzzle constitutes in a Doom map, I'd say anything that requires the player to spend a majority of playtime solving some sort of in-level mechanic for advancement, such as a switch-hunt. The key word here being "majority of playtime" I.E.: the puzzle should be the focus of the map, not just a secondary accessory to the gameplay.

As for the megamap category, I agree with the picks, but I think it would be best if there was some sort of soft definition (again) for it; what constitutes a megamap? Could it be a linedef requirement? Or perhaps based on average duration to finish the map? For example, MAP29: Citadel at the Edge of Eternity (Community Chest) is a megamap whatever way you look at it. It's both huge in terms of numbers, and it also takes an absurd amount of time to finish, but then another case would be Castle of Evil, which isn't actually that big in terms of sectors or linedefs (historically it was huge for its time tho), but still takes a rather long time to finish for a blind playthrough. How would you interpret it? And actually, if there's new cats for these, I also think new article pages would be beneficial to better describe then, and I'd like to help with that too. :) - Endless01 (talk) 10:38, 6 September 2023 (CDT)

Yes, I would say that's a good definition for puzzle maps. Do you think, however, that Jim Flynn maps would fall under this category then? i.e. MAP31 of Eternal Doom.

Regarding the megamap category, I don't think there is one unifying characteristic... I would say a megamap can be considered such if it meets some criteria among several, but those criteria being present does not necessarily result in the map being considered one, either. I would say defining characteristics are stuff like: a somewhat long play time (from 30 minutes to 1 hour or above), a large number of enemies generally spread evenly throughout the map, a high linedefs/sector count... but a lot of it comes down to very meta concepts in the end that cannot be strictly tied to any direct technical specification, I think. Either way, if you are interested in writing main pages for them feel free to get started on that if you want! I'm sure we can iron out the details going forward. --Dynamo128 (talk) 03:39, 7 September 2023 (CDT)

For sure, Jim's maps are mostly puzzles and MAP31 is one of the biggest offenders heh. And yes, regarding the megamap criteria, I wasn't meaning to establish hard points to checkbox and see if they fit into the cat, but more like a lose guideline to what can be considered a megamap. Large duration, high enemy count, a lot of linedefs, etc., are all soft guidelines that can help discern between maps. I will try to see if I can get the new articles done in the following days :) - Endless01 (talk) 10:50, 7 September 2023 (CDT)

Mapper categories

Since you keep adding incomplete categories, I'd just as much prefer you didn't create them so that a script can do them in one go. Or resume monitoring recent changes to learn from corrections to your edits. Thanks. --Xymph (talk) 02:11, 15 September 2023 (CDT)

Ah! My apologies. I wasn't aware of the full process and thought I they didn't need more steps. Will take note. - Endless01 (talk) 09:50, 15 September 2023 (CDT)

Deletion of First Heretic WAD redirect

Hello! I've nominated First Heretic WAD redirect you created for deletion. Share your thoughts HERE. Please don't take this nomination personally! --Nockson (talk) 11:49, 6 November 2023 (CST)