Critical Role wiki:Suggestions

This page serves as a talk page for suggestions for the wiki! If there's something you think would add to the experience, please feel free to drop it here! Remember to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~); see the talk page policy for more tips.

Here's both a suggestion and an example of how to add suggestions!

Right now, entering {{ep ref|ep=CxEE|cite=needed}} will put a page into the Articles needing citations/CxEE category page. I find this category page is really useful while an episode is Twitch-only/just after the VOD is posted on YouTube, for updating the citations, but once that initial work is done, it mostly just clutters the citation needed pages and makes them hard to navigate. Improvements would require an overhaul to {{ep ref}}, but I think it would be worth it. Thoughts on how to do this? -Untropicalisland (talk) 23:18, May 16, 2022 (UTC)

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Infobox changes![edit source]

Hello folks! I'm starting a discussion here because I've been making changes in Infoboxes as we get things started. The work is not really started, but I'd like to solicit out there if anyone feels quite strongly about anything that should be changed in the Infoboxes.

These Infobox changes are being made with the goal of making the flow of information in Infoboxes clearer. This means reorganizing the groups information is listed in, and sometimes adding new fields. Currently, some notable Infobox changes are to:

  • {{Infobox Episode}} — See comparison: Campaign / series / group now more prominently displayed under the title and above the image, combined VOD / Podcast / Transcript field that is now grouped with a field for Talks Machina (and 4-Sided Dive), combined episode chronology field, link to episode list at bottom
  • {{Infobox City}} / {{Infobox Location}} — See comparison, the location infobox will be similar: Mostly just reorganizing the groupings and changing the way the maps are displayed
  • {{Infobox Character}} — See example: This is not yet converted to the Lua template that the previous ones are using (but it will be eventually). Notice the regroupings: mechanical information is moved to the bottom with the addition of a new "Background" field. "Partner" and "Children" separations from "Family" are also new, but are already present in the live version, but I'm taking opportunity to point them out.

There's further plans to recolor the infoboxes based on some variables, such as having different colors for campaigns in {{Infobox Episode}} or different colors for PCs in {{Infobox Character}}, but this isn't the biggest priority at the moment.

The other Infoboxes will also be converted to Lua, but as far as I remember off the top of my head, they will largely stay the same structurally. If you have any significant suggestions about reorganizing any of the infoboxes or restructuring them, please let me know right here in this section. —CaptainOfTheTidesBreath (aye, captain!) 22:41, June 4, 2022 (UTC)

These changes look good! The only change I'd make is to {{Infobox Item}}, moving Attunement to the Properties section. —OccidentalAvian 3:56, June 5 2022 (UTC)
Good call! Shuffled it down to be the first item underneath the Properties section. —CaptainOfTheTidesBreath (aye, captain!) 04:25, June 5, 2022 (UTC)

To use this section as a sort of record: {{Infobox Item}} and {{Infobox Adventure}} have been converted in live content space! If you see anything funky going on with them, please let me know. I am aware that on mobile, some of the infoboxes are showing a very thin line between a section header (solid background) and a data entry (white background). This is a known issue that I haven't figured out how to solve yet, but since it is a very minor cosmetic issue, it is not high on the priority list. But it is known.

I want to ask specifically to look out on mobile. There's a neat feature on mobile where the first paragraph of the lead will be transposed above the infobox to help contextualize things for mobile readers quickly. There's been an issue with our current Infoboxes where this feature will mistake the second paragraph for the first, causing the article on mobile to be displayed out of order. I've done a hotfix for this (which is what's causing that small gap of whitespace at the top of all our articles right now), but converting the templates to Lua should fix this properly. I want to ask that if you see any articles about items that displaying out of order or that are NOT showing the first paragraph above the infobox on mobile to please let me know right here. —CaptainOfTheTidesBreath (aye, captain!) 03:02, June 6, 2022 (UTC)

{{Infobox Faction}} has joined the other two. Generally, the only major changes is the way images are handled. I've created the ability to display either one symbol or two symbols side-by-side (see Tal'Dorei Council) with the additional ability to display a general image like a group shot underneath (there's no live examples of this, but see the documentation). Other than that and some slight re-ordering, this Infobox is pretty identical. I worry about the image adjustments on this one, so if you see anything funky about that, especially image sizing, please let me know right here. —CaptainOfTheTidesBreath (aye, captain!) 21:23, June 7, 2022 (UTC)
{{Infobox City}} has been converted. This one has a lot of image management, so I also ask that you look out for those and notify me if it behaves weirdly. This infobox is, as stated above, mostly reorganization of the map display and regrouping of information to make it more intuitive to read. This does mean it's a little longer. But again: these changes allow the mobile website to reliably transpose the first paragraph of the lead above the infobox, allowing readers to get context faster when that length matters. It's also hoped that with better, shorter, more intuitive groupings, length becomes less of a hurdle because information is easier to find and more visually broken up. Personally, I wonder if we could nix the entire "Districts" label altogether in this one. —CaptainOfTheTidesBreath (aye, captain!) 02:46, June 14, 2022 (UTC)

New page button?[edit source]

I feel like this is a really dumb question, but I really can't find a button to make a new page. As you might've seen if you looked at the recent changes log, I made the page for Essek's house by making a red link on my user page and then deleted it once the page was made. Can anyone point to where the new page button is? I'm using the "Timeless" skin for the wiki. OccidentalAvian (talk) 02:43, June 8, 2022 (UTC)

Funny enough, I did not know there was a "Create new page" button on Fandom until this moment! On this platform, I just create new pages by typing in the article name I want into the search bar, run a search, then click "Create the page "BLAH BLAH" on this wiki!" at the top of search results. I'm not sure if there's an easier way. —CaptainOfTheTidesBreath (aye, captain!) 03:17, June 8, 2022 (UTC)
Makes sense, that's definitely way easier than doing what I did lol. Thanks!OccidentalAvian (talk) 03:31, June 8, 2022 (UTC)
I can look at extensions to see about one if you'd like! But yeah I just search on the thing I want and click the redlink it gives me (and did that on Fandom too, usually). - Untropicalisland (talk) 20:13, June 14, 2022 (UTC)

Proposal for creation of namespace Transcript[edit source]

As it says on the tin: proposing that a namespace "Transcript" be created to put all our transcript pages. Currently, transcripts are created in mainspace as subpages of the episode, i.e. Fire and Ruin/Transcript. This proposal would move all those transcripts, which are not really editor-generated "content" the way our other articles are, out of mainspace into a new non-content namespace.

For example, Fire and Ruin/Transcript would be moved to Transcript:Fire and Ruin and all links changed to point at the new name; that's it. Nothing about where we link to transcripts would be changed, and Transcripts itself remains in mainspace for ease of access. The transcript subpages would be moved to their new homes, all links updated, and everything else stays the same. This proposal affects only the way we organize transcripts in the wiki's namespace structure.

For a comparison of the differences between these two methods of organization, see this table:

Subpage
(Episode/Transcript)
Namespace
(Transcript:Episode)
Closer to parent article in wiki structure; link to parent article automatically included at top of page Distant from parent; link to parent not automatically included, would have to be manually inserted to facilitate navigation back to parent (best candidate is through {{Transcript-Nav}})
Title automatically autosuggested in search bar (due to being in mainspace); can be found in search bar using just episode title this way Not autosuggested unless "Transcript:" namespace prefix is included; cannot be automatically located in search bar using just episode title
Included in default search page Not included in default search page
Cannot search only in non-transcripts or only in transcripts using advanced search ("Horn of Fog" example) Can search only in non-transcripts or only in transcripts using advanced search; creates a local wiki transcript search
No clear space for transcripts without main articles, i.e. ExU Calamity Twitter spaces Clearer space for transcripts without main articles
Included in content page counts, Special:Random, Special:AllPages, Special:LongPages, in AWB / JWB, etc. as normal articles Can be excluded from these counts and tools or (depending on the tool) targeted exclusively as a namespace

A dedicated Transcript namespace would also open up for things like specific CSS styling for the Transcript namespace, like, if we all ever wanted to make transcripts look different from other articles in the future in this way. (I don't know. Maybe that'll be desired one day. This makes it possible to do.)

This proposal would affect around 405 pages (see Category:Transcripts). —CaptainOfTheTidesBreath (aye, captain!) 16:35, February 1, 2023 (UTC)

This sounds good to me, as long as we make sure it's easy to get from episodes to transcripts and vice versa. Transcripts are not editor-generated content in the same way and it makes sense to treat them separately. Will be nice to have search treated differently for transcripts vs articles too.ElSeiver (talk) 19:33, February 1, 2023 (UTC)
Agreed this sounds like a good move all around! OccidentalAvian (talk) 00:43, February 2, 2023 (UTC)
Hadn't weighed in here previously because I was waiting for any further comments, but sounds good to me as well! Untropicalisland (talk) 00:09, February 6, 2023 (UTC)

Infobox Episode and modules[edit source]

I've written up a proposal for how we could handle episode data in the episode infobox in a blog post. This would affect primarily editors and not readers. Feedback most welcome!! ElSeiver (talk) 20:42, February 23, 2023 (UTC)

Since this would change nothing about the output and streamline the input (only have to put in one value and it automatically generates the title, the series / category, the season, and the episode number), I do support implementing this. I'm very happy to help tweak it into the infobox, but it seems for the most part it's working well! I just made some tweaks for formatting and properly displaying the seasons.
I do have have a question about how it handles seasons. As pictured in the testcases, ExU Calamity's season is being interpreted as Exandria Unlimited: Calamity rather than simply Calamity as the current version does. Is there a way to reduce it down to just show, say, Prime (which Ep/Info does not currently recognize as a distinct season), Kymal, Calamity, etc. for ExU? It isn't strictly necessary, though it is a little redundant at least within the infobox to display Exandria Unlimited twice.
If this shortened format is re-implemented for seasons: do you have any ideas on how to handle piped linking for seasons, especially with that? It's super easy to handle if it isn't shortened, but if it is, ''[[Exandria Unlimited: Calamity|Calamity]]'' etc. is currently desired bc it is the only link to Calamity etc. in the infobox. There is also a possibility that "The Legend of Vox Machina: Season 1" or whatever the article is named exists in the future, and those would be sensible to link as ''[[The Legend of Vox Machina: Season 1|Season 1]]''.
But! These are tiny things, and I don't think would impede implementing such a thing. Again, I think it's a good idea to incorporate given it would streamline a lot of the infobox inputs. —CaptainOfTheTidesBreath (aye, captain!) 22:06, February 24, 2023 (UTC)
Thank you for the feedback! I have created a new seasonDisplay function in Module:Ep/Info that builds out the season information for the infobox, and added more fields to Module:Ep/Decoder about seasons that Ep/Info can pull from. I've added some new testcases; do the seasons display how you'd expect? Excited that this will improve data and checks about seasons more generally.
And also importantly, what is the desired behavior for an invalid episode code? I've added testcases for those too, both for validly and invalidly constructed non-existent episode codes. The current way is more permissive; the EpCode way will require Module:Ep/Array to always be up-to-date with at least skeleton entries. We could add fallback functions because a validly constructed code can still be parsed if e.g. it's an episode that hasn't come out yet, using functions like parseCode and epNum that don't rely on validation with Ep/Decoder or Ep/Array. ElSeiver (talk) 03:51, February 25, 2023 (UTC)
Project completed! ElSeiver (talk) 20:43, March 2, 2023 (UTC)