Valve Developer Community:Tasks

Overview

The Valve Developer Community site relies on its members to grow and take care of its contents. The Wiki concept depends on this. What you’ll find on this page are a list of different tasks, large and small, that can be worked on to improve and expand the site. Even small tasks, when added together, can make a big difference in the quality of the community. When you’ve taken up a task for completion, mark it as in progress to let people know it is being worked on. When the task is complete, update the task as complete and leave it visible for a few days before removing it.

Tip:If you need help on a project, use the community portal to coordinate.

Maintenance

Categorization (Help:Categories)
Help put pages and files into their proper categories. Pages and files need to be put into categories in order to group them around similar subjects.
Special:UncategorizedPages, Special:UncategorizedFiles

New File Patrol (Help:Images)
Help ensure that new files adhere to VDC policy.
Special:NewFiles

New Page Patrol (Help:Page Creation)
Help review new pages for problems early and delete spam articles.
Special:NewPages

Double redirects (Help:Editing Toolbar#Redirect)
Help improve VDC navigation by removing roadblocks. Double redirects occur when one redirect points to another and a user ends up on an unintended page.
If moving pages, don't forget to fix double redirects as well.
Special:DoubleRedirects

Broken redirects (Help:Editing Toolbar#Redirect)
Help ensure users find the page they are looking for.
Special:BrokenRedirects

Cleanup (Help:Cleanup)
Help improve the quality of pages.
Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Cleanup

Wikify (Help:Linking)
Help connect pages to one another.
Special:LonelyPages

To Do
Help address tasks identified by other users.
Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Todo

Content for Deletion (Help:Deletion)
Help clear out unnecessary content.
Reasons for speedy deletion, Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Delete

Translate Pages
Help translate pages into other languages.
Category:To be translated

Priority

Creating Templates

The templates to be created are listed below.

Create {{Speedy delete}} to differentiate it from {{Delete}}. The latter should be used such that a discussion can be had before the content is removed whereas the former should be reserved for quickly removing content that violates VDC policies or doesn't require a discussion.

Improve Templates

The templates that needs to be improved are listed below.

Add more stuff and tools to {{Goldsrc sdktools}}. Add translations to it via the Template:Goldsrc sdktools/strings subpage.

Modify {{Delete}} such that when it links to Reasons for speedy deletion it will include a link to the page as part of each discussion.

Modify {{Translate}} such that it combines the functions of the other language templates ({{Translating}}, {{Finishtranslation}}, {{Machinetranslation}}, {{Updatetranslation}}).

Combine {{Screenshot}} with {{Morescreenshots}} (followed by marking {{Morescreenshots}} for deletion).

Add parameters to {{Stub}} to allow more granularity in what the stub is for (ie. a specific game, mapping, textures, programming, etc.) and for an appropriate sub-stub to be used.

Add add a unique category for each {{{reason}}} on {{Delete}}.

Need Documentation

The templates listed below need documentation, or having a proper documentation page + template.

{{Color}}

{{Capsule}}

{{Merge}}

{{Mergefrom}}

{{Mergeto}}

{{Merging}}

{{Screenshot}}

Deleting Templates

The templates listed below should be deleted. Please note that some templates must first be removed or replaced from the pages before they are deleted.

Tip:Click on the Page information to the left and check the Transcluded templates.

{{Npcnote-ru}}.

{{Userpage}}.

{{Ombox}}.

{{Point ent}} – Replaced by {{This is a}}.

{{Brush ent}} – Replaced by {{This is a}}.

{{Game name}} – Replaced by {{Software}}.

Ideas

Create a unified cleanup template that consolidates the functionality of all it’s related templates.

Merge {{Game announced}} and {{Game announced2}} into one whole template with optional settings to show/hide "You can also visit store through Steam or your browser for more information."

Create a page listing the bots available for tasking and what they are capable of.

Add Wikipedia:HotCat as a gadget to help with category editing.

Other

Easy

These jobs should only take you a little time for each one.

Add the back template or the subpage template to the top of pages that do not have any for easier navigation.

Add the short page template to pages that use a subpage display.

Add a res to Steam Resource Map. Aswell update ALL the outdated screenshot from the old Steam version to new one as of 2023.

Add more compiler errors from numerous sources to the Compile Error Listing.

Switch a firstperson tutorial to a thirdperson one.

Convert “ and ” (“ and ”) to " in code blocks.

Convert ’ (’) to ' in code blocks.

Convert em dashes — (—) to - in code blocks.

Document on an important console variable.

Make sure a page only links to a term the first time it’s mentioned unless important.

Read a new page and give feedback on the discussion page on how the content can be improved.

Possibly add a Related Topics section at the end.

Patrol edits to help alleviate possible vandalism and spam.

Correct short forms (e.g. Hl2 → Half-Life 2) and capitalization (e.g. half-life 2 → Half-Life 2). See the documentation at Template:This is a. Pages needing fixes are listed in Category:This is a template errors.

Medium

These projects will take a little longer.

Update language template usage. – Replaced by {{LanguageBar}}.

Update pages requiring cleanup.

Expand stubs.

Screen wanted files for upload candidates.

Review old pages.

Add a list of maps where a specific Half-Life Continuity can be found on their own page.

Create a documentation page for a template.

Create a mini-tutorial, for a simple problem users have.

Pick an entity in the list of entities for a game, and transcribe the entity help from inside Hammer.

• A lot of info on entities can be found by looking at the FGD’s.

• Test any and all entities before you describe them, for any potential bugs that may occur that the user should know about.

Make sure to include the basic description, keyvalues, flags, as well as all inputs and outputs. Example: env_fire.

Find an existing entity in the list of entities and fix the formatting. Here’s an entity article template with sample formatting.

Pick a page in the Hammer Editor documentation, and add links where they are missing.

• Look for the text “See the topic name section for more information”, and make it a link to the proper page. Capitalized words in Bold are also often link candidates (i.e. Entity Report or Object Properties).

• Some pages under Category:Hammer Toolbars need links.

• Add links to the Hammer Hotkey Reference page.

• Add any potential content that might only be unique to versions of hammer for specific games.

The Half-Life High Definition Content is like Mao Zedong. There’s about 93 different ways to write it. Add some redirects, like HD Pack.

Take an existing page that is too large and divide it into smaller, more manageable topics.

Need a tutorial on how to transfer an existing mod that’s under development from one machine to another and have the tutorial cover all of the gotchas.

Update “List of Soundscapes” pages to include any entries not on them already, and to include more detailed descriptions of soundscapes.

Update any game level creation page (example Portal 2 Level Design) and include any specific content for the games.

Mark (almost all) these pages on Category:Other games on Steam to delete all of them as it's has nothing to do with Valve games (content or assets for example), nor even using GoldSrc/Source/Source 2 engine whatsoever, aka completely off-topic. And these page barely have any content whatsoever anyway.

Replace all pages using {{Lang}} (This category) and {{Langsp}} (This category) with {{LanguageBar}}

Hard

Extended projects that may take you a while to do.

Review wanted page listing for new page candidates.

Review wanted template listing for new template candidates.

Review random pages for overhaul.

Review articles flagged for merge (also merge from and merge to).

Add more GoldSrc-related content, and document more Source 2 content (such as Resourcecompiler, a combination of CSG, VBSP and VVIS) if possible.

Update pictures with white backgrounds to match current VDC theme (as of June 2012). Also try to make some of them having transparent PNGs if possible.

See also

• Category:Stubs
• Category:TODO

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