UESPWiki:Archive/CP Tamriel Dictionary

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Tamriel Dictionary

Hello, I looked at the Tamriel Dictionary and find structure of these articles quite strange. After some investigations, I found out that it is directly imported the old site. It creates several problems

• It's not easy to link to something in the dictionary, here is an example : Tamriel:Dictionary_H#High_Elves
• It's not easy to keep track of changes
• It creates duplication (with the above example : Tamriel:Altmer)

There are certainly other problems, but it can be sum up like this : it needs to be wikified :). So each word should have his own article. This involves creating several articles, and merging existing ones (for example the definition of Moon Sugar is richer [[Lore:Dictionary_M#Moon_Sugar|in the dictionnary]] than in his article).

All in all, I think it would improve the quality of the wiki.

If you want to keep a track of the former structure, you can place the articles in the category "Tamriel_Dictionary" (and then it would be alphabetically sorted automatically in the category page). Shamaz 04:44, 21 November 2006 (EST)

I agree with some of you points, and a lot of what you've said applies to the entire Tamriel section. The problem is that a single dictionary page is going to be long, very long, and that giving each article it's own page is going to create a lot of new pages. Of course, there is also the problem of resources. We just don't have that many editors, and the number of them that have extensive knowledge in lore (which helps a lot in the Tamriel Section) is even smaller. With the huge Morrowind Redesign Project going on, a lot of time is being spent on that, as well as maintaining the Oblivion sections. Hopefully the Tamriel Section and the dictionary will get wikified eventually, but right now, I'm not sure there is much that's going to be done. --Ratwar 09:33, 21 November 2006 (EST)

I think the ultimate goal of the dictionary is to look like the [[Lore:Dictionary_A]] page. A short definition of the word with links to larger articles if needed. This also helps with disambiguation with some words having multiple definitions. This dictionary update is a work in progress and I think only a few pages have been changed so far.

As to linking to the dictionary I'm not sure what the best method would be: linking to the dictionary article or linking directly to the main article (as in you moon sugar example). Perhaps the template wizards can make a template which easily links to a definition in the dictionary, something like:

                  {{tamword|Moon Sugar}}
    Expands to => [[Lore:Dictionary_M#Moon Sugar|Moon Sugar]]

I couldn't find any other discussion on the dictionary pages, but I think Booyah_boy has been slowly doing the updates to it. -- DaveH 10:17, 21 November 2006 (EST)

That wouldn't be too difficult to set up. I'm going to have a lot of time to play with this Thanksgiving weekend, so I'll see if I can help some with this project. --Aristeo | Talk 14:21, 22 November 2006 (EST)

I've decided I really want to help with the whole Dictionary thing, and I'm pretty much new to wikis, but I have pretty big visions for it. My thinking is that it should (1)include 'everything' either unique to the Elder Scrolls world or having a special meaning in it, and (2) be inclusive to the best of the editors' abilities.

1) The entries don't have to be all that long- in fact, they will probably be short and concise, as they should only be a description of 'what' it is, nothing more. It's a dictionary, not an encyclopedia.

2) All of the references to other words inside definitions should point to another part of the dictionary as opposed to another part of the wiki. For some things this would be unavoidable, the things I've run into so far are skills, classes, and alchemical ingredients- having pages in multiple games, being solved somewhat like [[Lore:Dictionary_B#Barbarian|this]] or [[Lore:Dictionary_B#Block|this]]. Words with longer definitions or backgrounds, such as under Geography, Gods, or the Bestiary, entries would be linked in the entry title, like [[Lore:Dictionary_B#Bosmer|Bosmer]].

Any other input would be greatly appreciated (read: I'm assuming I'm either doing something completely wrong or missing something entirely. Please tell me). Nicho.Krown 00:57, 22 December 2006 (EST)

Well, only thing I disagree with is that there SHOULD be references to other parts of the wiki. So in the Bosmer entry, there'd also be referenes to Lore:Bosmer, Morrowind:Bosmer and Oblivion:Bosmer, so as to have all the info readily at hand. (Also avoids duplicating content.) Additionally, I'd see references to Lore:Valenwood and Lore:A Dance in Fire would be appropriate there, for example. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 15:22, 22 December 2006 (EST)