LCARS-based Trek wiki site concept - need critique!

[TerranRich]

No, I've decided not to use Flash. I'm not very skilled in Flash. It's all going to be PHP (regular web pages).

It's basically a Star Trek encyclopedia in an LCARS style layout. I know that there's already www.memory-alpha.org but I wanted to make my own, mainly for my personal web portfolio, but also in the hopes that it might become popular. I am also including fanon (fan canon) information, such as the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition found in novels, and documents like the Articles of the Federation, which has never been in an actual canon resource.

 

[JayTheTrekkie]

I'm looking forward to this site your making

 

[HRG Azselendor]

Me too, Actually, a LCARS interface for a wiki sounds pretty damned neat too me. I don't know if you'll use a wiki to drive the site, but damned neat idea.

 

[TerranRich]

I'll be using a Wiki engine, but it'll be my own custom-made wiki software. Nothing out there will allow me to use the LCARS interface in quite the way I wanted.

To see a preview, go here:

http://www.xylot.net/memalpha

For a sample starship listing (not functional), http://www.xylot.net/memalpha/ship.php

Most of the buttons play a sound and flash white when clicked. Try out the Search and Jump buttons to see what they do.

 

[kv1at3485]

Yikes. Table-based layout.

 

[TerranRich]

Why, would a DIV-based layout be any better? Is there an advantage?

I took a look at http://www.decloak.com/Dev/CSSTables/CSS_Tables_01.aspx and deided on tables.

 

[kv1at3485]

I suppose my opinion comes from a bit of personal experience. Back in the day, the pages on my simple website all used the same layout, and the first thing I grasped was using tables to do them all. Then I found that fiddling with the layout (expanding, making everything line up, crafting the necessary spacer images with every change) was a rather involving task, especially since every page had to be changed and then uploaded separately. The switch to CSS-layout made my life simpler.

(And it's perfectly possible to create pages with CSS-layouts that render as consistently as those using table-layouts. The issue is what parts of the spec you use. Use the parts that browsers support, and you can avoid hacks altogether. I mean, your page can't be that concerned with older browsers since it claims to use XHTML! Perhaps one of the things you should consider is using HTML 4.01 Strict instead?)

I look at your code and my head just spins. If I were to code something like that, leave it for two months, and come back and try to fiddle around with it, I'd get a headache. And if I should leave and dump the responsibility of maintaining it on some other poor bloke, well, may the Union help him!

And perhaps just one other suggestion concerning your 'alt' attributes: fill them in for your buttons. Ever annoyed when for some reason images don't load and you're left with buttons you didn't even know were there? Yeah, me too.

 

[JayTheTrekkie]

By the way, is this Lcars-based Trek wiki going to be in English?

 

[kv1at3485]

Oh, and another thing. You may wish to have the sounds disabled by default (and have a little button or something that toggles them on and off.)

Ever found yourself listening to music, you've turned up the volume so it sounds real good on your speakers or earphones, and suddenly jarring out-of-the-blue sound effects erupt from some website? (Gets worse when the site automatically plays music or droning 'background' sounds...)

 

[TerranRich]

JayTheTrekkie: Yes, it will be in English. It's the only language I know, and it's too complicated to allow for other languages, since all the code is custom.

kv1st3485: You make a good point. I forgot about the ALT attributes actually, so thanks for bringing it up. As for organization of code, everything is divided into included PHP files, so the code is very well organized. The output, however, is harder to understand, but if you saw the way I designed it, it makes it very easy for me to go back and edit it at a later date.

As for the sounds, that is a very good point and I will disable them by default. Maybe that could be a "perk" of registering: enabling sound effects for a better experience overall. Thanks!

 

[JayTheTrekkie]

TerranRich said:
JayTheTrekkie: Yes, it will be in English. It's the only language I know, and it's too complicated to allow for other languages, since all the code is custom.

Okie dokie

call me Jay by the way

 

[TerranRich]

Okay, Jay. Got it.

By the way, this site will end up being a sort-of canon/fanon mix. Fanon will only be used to fill in holes and to suplement data, for example, to explain what Tom Paris is doing now, 6 years after having returned to Earth. The only source for such information is the Voyager novel re-launch.

I personally would like the relaunch novels (ENT, VOY, DS9) to be incorporated into canon, because I doubt the creators will ever revisit those three series in the near future. Some explanation as to where Tuvok is assigned in 2384 (now) would be nice.

There are plenty of canon (Memory Alpha) and fanon (Memory Beta) sources out there...my site will stride to fill in the holes, provide explanations for certain things, and fix ambiguous information, like what the USS Prometheus's registry really is, and why it's NX-59650 on the hull (too early of a registry) and NX-74913 on all system displays inside the ship. For this example, my explanation will make sense and explain this discrepancy without harming existing canon or replacing any known information.

It's basically going to be as if it really were a Starfleet terminal accessing a Starfleet database, with 99% of the information from the Starfleet point-of-view. There will be some real-world-POV information, naturally, but that will be separate from the Starfleet-POV information and will be labelled as such.

Is this a crazy idea, or could it work? I'm doing it either way, just wanted some opinions on the methods.

 

[Bill Morris]

Not crazy. The Starfleet-POV info, labeled as such, will be good to have available. This could be the go-to source.

 

[krillmeed]

Great to see you here as well Bill or should i say LCARS24.
TerranRich, i was very impressed what you have done so far, i dare say also a little envious, i am also a big LCARS Fan. On my startrek forum, which of course is not as large as this one, but we like it, we have a LCARS Development Team (LDT) as well, which LCARS 24 is also a member of, so i know he is one of the best around. I know great LCARS graphics when i see them, which i just did on your Wiki.
As for the wiki, i know myself, this is a huuuuuge undertaking, earlier this year, due to the amount of data my members were posting about trek, we decided to build another forum using the Integramod, phpbb2 system and call it the Memory Alpha forum, where, data that had already been posted could be moved, and more added too. After a few months, there was so much, i realised that Cross referencing, would be a nightmare, and as for the phpbb2 search engine, useless when it comes to so much data. So to cut a long story short, i am in the process of moving it all to a Wiki like yours. As you said, when it comes to non cannon, i am also allowing it with reason. Most serious Trekkers, can, should we say make an "Educated guess" at some of the blanks in startrek, as most of the series will never be bought back, seems a pity to leave these holes so to speak. I am impressed by your commitment to it, and wish you well with your endevour. Just in case your interested, this is what i have done so far: http://lcarsmemoryalpha.com/index.html
Not as good as the original, and proberbly never will be, but this is just for myself and the members of my forum, we are proud of it, and the bottom line is, thats all that matters. Good luck, i will check out your progress from time to time, and maybe post a link to it in our "Trek Net" section, for others to see.

 

[JayTheTrekkie]

Oooooo

Looks good so far.