Memory Omega - New Trek Prose and Comics Wiki

[JD]

Yesterday, poster Bok2384 set up a new seperate Wiki devoted to just Trek books and Comics, and a myself and a couple other posters have volunteered our time to help add content. I thought it might be nice to set up a thread purely devoted to the site.
I don't know if I'll have time today, but I do plan on eventually working on adding some pages for some of the books. My issue right now is that I'm not really sure how to go about setting up the layout, when I've edited pages on Memory Beta, I usually just copied and pasted the basic layout from a preexisting page and just changed the appropriate text. I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate to just copy the layout from either Memory Alpha or Beta, or if we should try to set up a whole new layout.

 

[Jinn]

Aren't there automatically generated templates or something like that?

http://memory-omega.wikia.com/wiki/Template:Infobox_book
Found it. I'd suggest we start with this template and then add a sentence like "[Random Name] is a [random series] novel written by [random author] and published on [random date]" The first section would be the description from the book jacket, then the appendices and then external links and whatever these "All TNG novels" infoboxes are called. I left out the summary as i doubt that in this early stage of the wiki a lot of people are interested in that and then there'd be a lot of empty sections.

 

[JD]

Sounds good to me.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What can - indeed, what should - this site offer us that Memory Beta can't?

 

[Jinn]

You beat me by 24 seconds, JD

What can - indeed, what should - this site offer us that Memory Beta can't?

Clear citation.

 

[JD]

It'll also be just the books and comics, so it won't be mixing in stuff from the video games, CCGs, and RPGs.
I started a page for Avatar Book 1. I can't get to info box to come up right though.

 

[bok2384]

What can - indeed, what should - this site offer us that Memory Beta can't?

That's a very good question, Mr. Laser Beam. Certainly the minute details will be worked out in the days and months ahead as the community comes together. The word community is something that initially comes to mind in response to your question. Over the last couple of days, in conjunction with JD, ryan, I've been looking at the concerns that many people have had with regards to Memory Beta and seeing how they could be solved. This is something that some at Memory Beta weren't willing to do, with even the discussion degenerating into something unsavory.

As I was around on Memory Beta during the early days, it was the sense of community that got things done. True, that was in the early days of wikia itself and we weren't completely sure on what we were doing, but we were starting to build something rather special. Many of these early contributors frequent here: 8of5, Turtletrekker, Sci, to name but three. We didn't always agree, but all issues were discussed fairly and everyone's opinions were heard. It is this spirit and atmosphere that I hope to recreate with Memory Omega.

With regards to content, we would have a more narrower focus than Memory Beta. Rather than sifting through the multitude of extraneous information from computer games, RPG manuals and Star Trek Online, we would be focusing on the interconnected world of the novels and the comics. This clutter, along with a properly implemented format and sourcing code would make the wiki more easily digestible and serve as the guide that we hoped that Memory Beta would be back in the day.

 

[Jinn]

It'll also be just the books and comics, so it won't be mixing in stuff from the video games, CCGs, and RPGs.
I started a page for Avatar Book 1. I can't get to info box to come up right though.

Okay fixed it. You had way to many <nowiki>s in there.^^

 

[JD]

Thanks.

 

[ryan123450]

What can - indeed, what should - this site offer us that Memory Beta can't?

I'll echo what others have more eloquently said already. It will exclude tons and tons of stuff that I would guess many of us don't have any use for on Memory Beta from Star Trek Online specifically, and all games in general. There's already a Star Trek Online wiki. It seems much more useful to have a novels and comics only wiki since they've been so interrelated over the years, especially one which can have better citations. It's hard to find sources for info on Memory Beta when everything is jumbled together.

I'm sure Memory Beta will still be a useful resource, no matter how sucessful Memory Omega becomes, since it will end up having different info from different contributors. But I hope I can someday treat Memory Onega as my primary source for Treklit info.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I fully endorse this endeavour.

Perhaps it should feature spoiler-free (or as much as possible) "catch up" profiles of characters. It'd be helpful for newbies dropping into the novelverse, as well as for people like me who have terrible memories and could use a refresher.

 

[Skywalker]

Hallelujah!

 

[ryan123450]

I fully endorse this endeavour.

Perhaps it should feature spoiler-free (or as much as possible) "catch up" profiles of characters. It'd be helpful for newbies dropping into the novelverse, as well as for people like me who have terrible memories and could use a refresher.

When I gave my brother his first Star Trek book, the Destiny omnibus, I wrote up a one page "Previously on Star Trek" introduction to what relevant had happened in Treklit since the end of the various series. It would be great if each Pocket novel included something similar.

 

[ryan123450]

Sorry for the double post.

I added a page. I'm not very good at the formatting, so hopefully someone can make it better in the future, but I put something up at least. It's kinda random but I was already gonna read The Enemy of My Enemy, the Marvel comic, tonight as I continue to make my way threw the Complete Comics DVD. So I figured I'm make note of all the references in it and toss up a quick page. Every little bit helps!

 

[JD]

Shit,I just noticed I forgot to include a link to the home page in my first post.
Link

 

[Freman]

I'll check it out.

 

[Markonian]

There's enough Star Trek for everyone, so having more specialised wikis to focus on specific sources, in addition to the existing inclusive wikis, sounds like a good idea. We already have STOWiki as a successful groundbreaker.

Is MO allowed to copy prose content or does it have to start over?

 

[ryan123450]

That's what I've been wondering as well.

 

[bok2384]

Is MO allowed to copy prose content or does it have to start over?

I know that copying over from Memory Alpha is a no-no due to that wiki using different licensing rules than a standard wiki. With regards to copying from Memory Beta, I'll have to check up on the legalities. From my perspective, I view it as a courtesy not to copy other's work, but have no issue with copying over the work that I personally contributed.

 

[Christopher]

I'd kind of prefer it if the initial emphasis were on covering material that Memory Beta doesn't already have, to fill in the gaps in its coverage. Though I can certainly see the value of copying material where feasible to help establish a significant content base.

Either way, I hope you guys can establish a good relationship with the MB folks, and present yourselves as a more specialized complement like the ST Online wiki, rather than a competitor. The most important thing is to collectively provide the most comprehensive reference possible.