User:Blixibon/Centralized community proposals
This is a set of semi-connected proposals stemming from the conversation in Valve Developer Community:Discussion#Central location to discuss formatting changes. Most of the proposals on this page cover discussion visibility and attempt to centralize the community. These are based mostly on how Wikipedia and other, smaller wikis handle the subject.
Note that I am not an expert on Wikipedia, MediaWiki, CSS, or community management, and there may be much better ways of achieving these ideas than what is laid out on this page.
Contents
"Proposals" discussion page
The idea for a single "proposals" discussion page was discussed in the aforementioned conversation. This would simply be a new discussion article in the Valve Developer Community namespace. I don't think there's much more to add here that wasn't already described.
I have considered a separate "Idea lab" page based on the Wikipedia village pump section of the same name so that simple ideas could be discussed before they're proposed, although I think that would risk complicating the process too much.
Ongoing discussion infobox
This is an infobox meant to help increase visibility for discussions.
This would be placed on prominent community or wiki-related pages (potentially the Main Page?) and draw attention to ongoing discussions in the VDC, specifically discussions which require or would benefit from a consensus. This idea stems from the theoretical "new discussions" section discussed in the aforementioned conversation, and it's based directly on Wikipedia's centralized discussion template as well as, to a lesser extent, the TF2 Wiki's central discussion template.
There is a mockup on the right side of this article which is derived from Template:Infobox. This should not be taken as a final representation of the idea. Any actual template can look or be designed completely differently depending on further discussion.
What would belong on this template?
Discussions which need attention from the community, which typically means discussions needing consensus. The mockup has two sections for discussion links, both of which are based on Wikipedia's separation between wiki and meta-wiki subjects:
- The upper section represents discussions which have a broad effect on the wiki and its existing articles. Talk pages on templates and within the VDC namespace would usually belong here, including discussions on the Valve Developer Community:Discussion or theoretical Valve Developer Community:Proposals pages (even though the pages themselves are already linked).
- Examples:
- A proposal to change how translations on the wiki are documented.
- A proposal to reformat a widespread entity template.
- Examples:
- The lower section represents discussions related to a specific article/subject, or a small set of articles. Any talk page not covered by the upper section would usually belong here.
- Examples:
- Discussions over splitting an article or merging articles.
- A debate over whether to turn a page into a redirect.
- Examples:
Questions/Uncertainties
- I'm not sure whether the template should list any discussion or only list discussions which need a consensus. For example, discussions which only ask questions aren't as relevant to the community, but they also might not get the attention they need if there's not a central place to put them. Maybe they could go in another section? That might make things needlessly complex, although I can't see them being grouped with discussions requiring consensus.
- User talk pages are typically directed towards more personal/editor-to-editor issues and I don't think they should be used with this template, although editor-to-editor issues are sometimes related to the wiki at large, and they do occasionally have wider effects which would benefit from community attention. Perhaps subjects with wider effects shouldn't be on user talk pages to begin with?
- Note that just because a subject is related to user pages doesn't mean it shouldn't be discussed. If there's a template or framework widely used on user pages which needs a consensus (e.g. changes to Wikichievements), it should still be mentioned here, even if it's less practical than subjects directly related to the wiki's documentation.
How would this template be maintained?
Regular users would be responsible for updating this, including users who created the discussions they're bringing attention to. Wikipedia's centralized discussion template uses a "core" template page for the table itself, which is then nested within a simpler template that is edited to specify the actual ongoing discussions. I could see a similar system being created for this template.
Discussions mentioned on this template should link to a specific topic section. The text representing each link should either match up with the talk page section's name or be a short summary of the subject, and it should ideally be short enough to fit on one line. Discussions which branch off of another ongoing discussion can be listed with indentations.
A discussion could be removed from this list if:
- A consensus on the topic is reached, or is no longer needed.
- The discussion hasn't been active in over a month. (this shouldn't be an outright requirement, just a reason a discussion can be removed)
- The discussion is closed for some other reason.
Wikipedia's template also instructs users to include the date in an HTML comment alongside each discussion link when a discussion is added. A similar guideline can probably be used in this case.
What if this template stops being used but remains on articles?
Ideally, users who start or participate in talk pages will be inherently interested in maintaining this because it brings attention to their topics. This may be different if there's a large gap in activity in which nobody begins or participates in discussions. If activity resumes and there were ongoing discussions left in stasis on the template, the previously ongoing discussions may provide a starting point for where to resume activity. However, if there's no existing ongoing discussions after a long period of inactivity, there is a higher risk of new users not knowing how to use the template. It's possible this can be avoided with careful and well-placed instructions.
Dashboard and/or different community portal
Wikipedia has a dashboard page which contains the centralized discussion template as well as links to various ongoing discussions. There is also a more general community portal which lists the main community-related pages, a bulletin board, areas users can help out with, and other miscellaneous links.
As far as I know, the VDC doesn't have a dashboard, but it does technically have a community portal. However, this portal is very small, and many of the resources it links are outdated or unrelated to the actual "editing" community. It also seems to only be linked in Help:Contents and Valve Developer Community:Tasks (the latter of which ironically suggests it should be used to "coordinate" on projects, although I think that's referring to mods).
Compared to Wikipedia, the VDC is very small in scope and I think its community is too loose and disjointed to maintain a regularly updated community page, nor do I think a separate "dashboard" page is necessary. Many of the resources a community portal could link now may also inevitably become outdated in the same way its current resources are. However, in theory, a community portal is supposed to be a gateway into the community, and considering there isn't really a gateway into the VDC community as it exists today (or how it will exist in the future), there could be changes made to make it fill in that role better in the long-term.
Should the elements of a community portal go on the Main Page instead?
I think it'd be best to keep the community portal on a separate page, but a prominent link could potentially still be added on the Main Page to make it more clear that it exists. Most people don't come to the VDC to participate in its community, but it's also difficult to find or even define the community in general. I've been using the VDC for 7+ years and I didn't even know about the existing community portal until I started doing research for these proposals.
If the "Current ongoing discussions" box ends up going on the Main Page, then perhaps the community portal could be one of its top-level links?
Potential new community portal mockup
I created a mockup resembling what I envision for a "better" community portal, although this is not meant to be a final representation of what an ideal community portal would look like:
The Valve Developer Community is hosted and administrated by Valve, but the wiki itself is almost entirely community-driven. Every page you see with an Edit tab, including this one, is likely written by someone in the community (though Valve staff are sometimes among them). If you want to do the same, go right ahead!
There are a number of other ways you can help out:
- Go to the Tasks page and see what needs work!
- Participate in ongoing discussions (see "Current ongoing discussions" box)
- Want to translate articles into another language? See Alternative Languages for more information!
- etc.
The Valve Developer Community has a vast number of resources available for modders, by modders:
The Valve Developer Community once served as a hub for promoting Source mods and users willing to/looking for help, although that side of the community has migrated to other platforms over the years.
If you are creating a custom mod or map pack, and the game involved doesn't have a Steam Workshop, you may be interested in publishing it on 
ModDB or 
GameBanana. Depending on the circumstances, you might even be able to publish your mod on Steam as its own application. Mods which are notable or have their own modding ecosystems continue to be documented on this wiki. You can see all of the mods documented on the VDC, past or present, in Category:Mods.
Help Desk
Ask for help (or answer questions)
Discussion
Discuss the wiki as a whole
Proposals
Discuss proposals to change the wiki
Administrators' noticeboard
Leave a message for the administrators
