Surely if we were all going to pitch in and make a community Quake Editing manual, the main priority is that it'd be easily collaboratively editable?

Beyond that, you'd want it to be easily viewable online on all devices, and also be available for download and offline viewing. I've just described a Wiki.

I think something like this would be incredibly useful and cool by the way. I'm a few years removed from doing anything Quakey, and I'd be much more encouraged to get back on the horse if there was a simple how-to covering a recommended way to get started nowadays. 

It would be a great achievement and a tremendous help if someone were to create a comprehensive knowledge base about Quake editing, wiki or otherwise.
I setup websites and wikis for a living, so, perhaps I can help out.

My biggest issue with a wiki is that they can go away without notice or redirects.
True. It should be illegal for companies to take over a website, and not create 301 redirects. The person who took over PlanetQuake, should be taken to jail.

If I ran the site, I would've had it run forever. 

You will have the same problem with your TreePad approach. Where would the definitive source live, and why would that be less likely to just vanish?

I can guarantee you that a wiki hosted on this server (or Quaddicted, if Spirit agrees) would not go away just like that. This server, which is run by me, has the benefit of regular, automatic backups. One could also easily mirror the content on another server if that eases your concerns.

Seriously, I pledge complete support for such a project, and I would do almost anything to convince you to go with a community wiki, including mirroring the content on another machine. 

I host Quaketastic and would be happy to host an editing wiki. Seriously, online is the way to go. Worrying about an offline mode seems like a lot to do over nothing. 

I have no problems with a Wiki in principal but what I was thinking of was something that ran parallel to one that was easily downloadable and viewed in a snapshot. Something that couldn't be desecrated, vandalized, lost or otherwise compromised. Wiki's by nature are very fluid and not always a good or reliable source of information. They are a good start and excellent for background information but can be subject to misinformation, misunderstanding or bias on a topic at times.

Colbert's "African elephant numbers have tripled in the last six months" comes to mind. 

I think there are ways to protect a Wiki against vandalism, right? I mean, in the end it's the same system that works here too. We usually get rid of, or civilize and integrate, such people eventually.

Downloadility is a point, and I think there must be some wiki software out there that offers this. Otherwise this should be easily doable in a script that runs weekly and just creates a ZIP snapshot of everything. Of course, searchability would still be a problem, but if it's organized properly, it might even work without search. 

Dude, come on. It's Quake editing. What about that is fluid or subject to change? :) 

I guess I have a fairly good record for keeping information available and accessible at Quaddicted.

Been trying hard to get people to use the wiki but no one really does. 

I agree that Quaddicted is the best place for such a wiki because I know that Spirit will go to great lengths to preserve the information in it. 

I was thinking along the lines of the recent additions by SleepwalkR and Tyr when I wrote that. Of course most stuff wouldn't change but if you look in the mapping\coding threads there are at times some new ways (or reminders of old ways) of doing things that pop up from time to time. I just think that it would be nice to have something that one could point to by chapter and verse that is all in the same format\container that is also easily accessible and not subject to (official) change without review but is still fairly easy to append and annotate (unofficially) as needed by the individual using it. Wiki's are nice but you can't really add personal notes to them that I'm aware of.

I only suggested using treepad because it has a free version that is easy to use and navigate and is similar to how most people already use documents, meaning a small learning curve. That it has a small footprint and doesn't add bloat is just icing. 

You mean Quaddicted? You know, the wiki that no one ever adds to?

Seriously, go over there and start adding stuff! :) I'm as guilty of this as everyone else. 

There's a Wiki? 

Promote it better!

I'll have a look. There's long periods where I'm 'working' but not really doing anything. 

To the top bar might help. There's only highlights? 

It doesn't help that the whole setup is quite messy. You have to log in on the forum to be able to add/edit articles. The navigation is awkward and the lack of an integrated search functions complicates things even more.

The Quake pages at Wikia have more content, and the site is more widely-known, so people are more inclined to go there for information. Surem we are the good people... but what use is that if no one else knows, right? I'm envious at the Doomwiki, quite something they've built up there. Their active contributors vs lazy twats ratio is considerably better than ours. 

What you see of Quaddicted when you visit the homepage is a wiki. Additional components are the forum (which handles user accounts) and the review system.

https://www.quaddicted.com/start?do=index shows you the Wiki index.

It is the "sitemap" link in the header which is terrible. I will change that to Wiki. And I guess then I can drop the "Articles" and "Interviews" from there too?


As for Wikia:

FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA FUCK WIKIA

There is a reason why sites like Doom Wiki and GTA wiki have left that shit. 

Tbh ijed does have a point, looking at the site you have no idea you can add or edit pages. And the word "wiki" basicly doesn't exist anywhere where it will be seen :)

I'm a total noob at wiki's even, never really edited one before so I don't have the faintest idea where to start :) 

Think of something you would to write about or categorise or improve or fix. Play around, break stuff.

See my end of year post for inspiration https://www.quaddicted.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=104

For formatting things are a bit messy, ask me in IRC or mail if you want to do something and cannot figure out how.

Many things are drafts because I am a obsessive perfectionist who rather never does a "release" than have it not be the final perfect setup. :/ 

and someone needs to go thorugh the mapping help thread and convert the info :-) 

 

A quake doc project would be great!
I would start with vanilla Quakes entities. I remember trying to figure things out from the old Forge site. Two lines of text for entities was horrible. Example maps would be good. Just think how deep info_notnull would get.

A history of Quake and why it's still relevant. IMO it's the starting point for 3d video game design.

quaketree thanks for bringing up the idea. 

I'd start collecting links to existing (and gone, check archive.org) guides first. I think keeping the resulting work under a license like the GFDL would allow to use parts from most editors' docs too (quark has nice docs, iirc).

eg http://web.archive.org/web/20080315174645/http://www.denken.com/dzone/q1mappersguide01.htm


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Someone is doing some really nice Quake model reworking at http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-mod-releases/works-progress/9573-authentic-model-improvement.html 

I'm strictly Vanilla, so, I hope our new documentation does not have vanilla mixed with non-vanilla. I think non-vanilla should have it's own separate area, perhaps called "Non-Vanilla"

I also have archives of tools from the 90s, that I suspect some of those tools can no longer be found because of the planetquake takeover.

Perhaps let's start small; start on one section first, such as "Vanilla -> Tools"

I also have an archive of skins(player skins), which appears to be bigger than the current archive of skins posted on this site or quaddicted site. About 500+ skins.

etc. etc. 

Which I have created here: http://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=60913 

they really capture the feel of the old quake while making nice improvements, if only the really high poly stuff did the same thing. I hope the guy realises he's going to have to update all the quoth models too ;)