UESPWiki:Administrator Noticeboard/Archives/Skyrim Preparations

Skyrim Preparations
My work schedule of the last few months has finally returned to normal and I'm beginning to prepare for Skyrim's release in almost one month. From the site administration and technical side of things here is what I'm planning on working on:

:* Pre-Release Access -- While it was a long shot it doesn't look like any pre-release access to the game, editor, or files is possible.
:* Wiki Upgrade to v1.8 -- At least I'd like to upgrade sooner rather than later. I've already done some prep work and I may be able to get it done this weekend depending on how difficult/time consuming it turns out to be.
:* New Server Prep -- I'm talking with iWeb, our server provider, to ensure that if new servers are needed they can be brought up with the minimum of time and effort. The current servers should be more than enough for significant traffic increase but there are always surprises when you enter territory you haven't been in before.
:* Time Off -- I'm taking a week off of work surrounding Skyrim's release so that should anything happen to the servers I have my full time available to fix them as well as any content and game hacking I can do for the Wiki.
:* Game Content/Hacking -- If the CS is released on the 11th then I plan on immediately starting on our Skyrim map. If not I'm going to play around with the ESM/ESP format and the game console to see if the map files and information can be extracted that way. Even if it turns out not to be possible it will yield a good amount of useful information that can be added to the Wiki (console commands, file formats, etc...).
:* Site Contest -- If people would like to do some sort of site contest I can purchase copies of the game/collector's edition as prizes. This is just an idea in case someone likes it and could be one way to encourage new active editors for Skyrim.
:* Skyrim Copies for Active Editors -- I'd like to purchase copies of Skyrim for the current senior and active editors. I don't mind buying 20 or so copies of the game for people as it is the least I can do and the site is doing well enough financially to be able to do it easily. If you'd like a free copy just [mailto:uespnet@gmail.com e-mail] me what your preferred delivery method would be (digital via Steam or a hard copy via Amazon would be the two main choices). 

If there's anything else you'd like me to work on or look at in preparation for Skyrim just let me know. -- Daveh 22:28, 28 September 2011 (UTC)

: Would you mind if I take the map off your hands? If the new CS has a map export option, my existing Oblivion code should be able to handle artifact removal and water shading as well as the zoom levels. I should be able to get the tiles generated within a few hours of the CS making an appearance. If it doesn't have that option, then that's a different matter, of course.
: If we aren't getting an ESP in advance, the first priority is to extract lists of NPCs, quests, places, items etc so that NepheleBot and/or RoBoT can start creating stub pages with accurate names. Nephele and I have already done some prep work on this but it'll be good to get an extra pair of eyes on the files. rpeh  06:19, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

::Yes, I was thinking the same thing after I wrote this. We'll also need the game locations extract and put into the database which is more my area anyways. -- Daveh 11:56, 29 September 2011 (UTC)
:::Sorry to barge in, but not only would you purchase special/collector editions for site contests, on top of that you are willing to buy copies for active editors? Wow, that's... generous, to put it lightly. I suppose I fall into the active user category, so you would buy me a copy just like that? Did my work earn this? ~ Dwarfmp 14:40, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

::::Umm...a little clarification please. Would you be using the site's funds to purchase these things or your own? I'm sure the site is pretty well off with advertisements and such, and I'm sure that's listed somewhere on here... Also I have the same basic question as Dwarfmp. How would you classify active? I am on the site literally every day (at least 90% of my emails are page changes... /foreveralone) and I patrol regularly and such. But my actual editing is a bit low, spiking at random times. Some people are obviously well qualified, such as admins that have been actively around recently (rpeh, Neph, Krusty for example), but it just seems like there isn't a clear way to make the decisions. Other than you of course. You are the site...something. YOU ARE THE SITE!!!!! xD --           15:22, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

:::::I have a loose definition of "active" and ultimately it depends on how many people ask for a copy. If I get a few hundred requests I can't fulfill them all so will just look at the top 20 (or so). As for money, the site and "me" are currently the same thing currently. As long as the site expenses are matched or exceeded by the revenue (as it has been for a while) I don't have an issue spending a few thousand of that money on dedicated editors of the site. Its something I've be meaning to do for a while now. -- Daveh 15:51, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

    As patrollers, I am pretty sure you two would count. And, as you can see at , the site is pretty well off when it comes to money (although it hasn't been updated recently). elliot   15:52, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

:Thanks for the quick reply. It's nice to have a site creator actively involved in the workings, if not day to day activities. It would be nice if you updated the page elliot linked though. It's very interesting to see. Up to you though of course. :P --           16:21, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

::You/UESP are prepared to buy 20+ copies of the game... and they still won't give us a sneak peek at the game files??? What's it going to take! :) rpeh  17:34, 29 September 2011 (UTC)
:::I think it's great that you'd be willing to do that for us. I do wonder if I qualify though. Even though I'm a patroller, I've just been back to this site for a month now after a hiatus of a year. My latest contributions haven't been anything to write home about either. Ah well, I'll just send an email and hope for the best! An another note.           18:20, 29 September 2011 (UTC)
:::On another note, does it matter on which platform it gets ordered?           18:34, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

  I'm not addressing this to anybody in particular, but let's not turn Daveh's generous gesture into a "Well if (x) qualifies, I certainly do" contest. Please email Daveh and not discuss this particular aspect on here any more. There are a lot of people who've done a lot of work on the site, and we all did it with no expectation of any reward. That shouldn't change now. rpeh  19:22, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

:Speaking of rewards (Smooth conversation topic change!)... What do you have in mind for the Site Contest that you suggested? I'm not opposed to the idea per se, just confused as to what the contest could be. Besides some kind of raffle, I don't see a way for that to work. I'm probably just being uncreative in my thoughts I admit, but I can't think of any obvious answers besides a raffle. I also am having trouble imagining how it'll directly encourage new active editors besides by potentially increasing traffic from people interested in the contest. Have we ever had a site contest before? It'd be nice to see how that was handled as a comparison. --AKB   19:33, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Competition Suggestions
I've started working on some rules in one of my sandboxes. To be clear: this doesn't mean anything other than that I've started thinking about some rules. Anybody should feel free to edit the page as much as they want, as long as they remember that any competition (and we don't know there's going to be one) is supposed to be a) enjoyable and b) benefit UESP. We don't want to play people off against one another.

My suggestion is that people submit ten (or however many) diffs to a page; they're free to update these at any point up until the close date, and then Daveh picks the best x - however many prizes he wants to buy. By submitting diffs, we're discouraging the more-edits-is-good mentality, although we'll almost certainly need to offer advice on how to deal with edit conflicts.

I'm just making suggestions here. UESP is in a unique position in that it has both the available resources and somebody generous in charge of those resources. After the elbow-barging that took place above, let's remember how much work and camaraderie has gone into making this the case, and not start sniping at each other about how things should happen. rpeh  21:07, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

:I like it. It gives a reward for editing (Likely to motivate users to give it a try), it attracts editors towards the newly opened Skyrim namespace (Quite important if we want to get it set up on time), and it might attract more traffic from those interested in the contest. --AKB   14:26, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

::Of course, now that I think about it, editing is often a collaborative process. It may be unfair to reward someone for making an edit that a group of people helped them with. --AKB   14:43, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

:::It would worry me a bit if making a number of edits is the goal. Why not making an article? Whoever makes the best article gets a prize. While that's harder to do, and it may not attract as much people, I think it would make more sense and we would get something useful for the site to begin with. I can't imagine it would be a good thing to encourage people to make multiple edits when Skyrim comes out, because I can imagine hundreds of unpatrolled edits in an hour without the contest. ~ Dwarfmp 15:06, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

::::The problem with your suggestion is that there are a limited number of potential subjects for articles. Besides, currently administrators and patrollers have made the majority of article's in the Skyrim namespace. As elected editors on the wiki are ineligible with this suggestion, so are most of the potential entries. --AKB   15:09, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

:::::But all of the Skyrim articles are greatly underdeveloped, that's my point, there's a lot of information to be gathered and submitted about everything in Skyrim. Now that I think of it, it's a bit ironical that you would need Skyrim in order to get the free Skyrim copy. But I suppose the multiple edit suggestion doesn't necessarily concern the Skyrim namespace. ~ Dwarfmp 15:30, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

 I thought it was implied. "A user must have made substantial improvements to at least ten pages in the Skyrim namespace between the start and end dates of this competition. ". It doesn't make sense to just require you to have made ten substantial edits to the Skyrim namespace, with you being allowed to submit any edit afterwards. --AKB   15:33, 9 October 2011 (UTC)