Should the BRCS 3e wiki pages be editable?

[Vicente]

This thread is related to 4270, and it's posted to see if the Birthright community is interested on editing the BRCS 3e Pages or if it prefers to have them locked as they are right now.

[Sorontar]

I slightly editted the wording of the poll to make it clear we were talking about editting the wiki version of the BRCS, not the pdf.

Sorontar

[stv2brown1988]

I think they should be editable but I would like to see a pdf as an end result. Or even a word/text file. Right now I have a printout of the current pdf, and a printout of the Word files for the first two chapters, and printouts of some of the wiki pages, and printouts of some of the forum posts with variant rules. (It's all my fault for not having a laptop with wireless internet capability, I know that.)

Why did the editing/revision of the BCRS stop at the first two chapters anyway?

[Capricia]

Absolutely not.

the BRCS 3e is used as a standard to much of the BR community. If the "standard" can be edited and altered from moment to moment, then it can longer serve this purpose. It becomes a fluid collection of ideas, changing with the input of each edit. A rule or concept that was laid out at the beginning of the game has vanished and been replaced by another later on.

That's the equivalent of starting a class with a text book and then having to re-read it completely every night to see what may have changed as you go through the course.

Fan fiction is fine, house rules are fine. But in my opinion all the versions of the 3e BRCS need to be maintained as they are. The vast majority of people who took the poll on going to 4e seem to be sticking with 3e, at least for now. That means the 3e BRCS should probably be left for those of us who cannot or do not want to go 4e.

I like being able to check things on the wiki instead of reading through the entire pdf. If they differ, then that's lost. The BRCS will only be the PDF. An edited Wiki will be fan fiction and should have its title changed to reflect that.

[Vicente]

I think they should be editable but I would like to see a pdf as an end result. Or even a word/text file. Right now I have a printout of the current pdf, and a printout of the Word files for the first two chapters, and printouts of some of the wiki pages, and printouts of some of the forum posts with variant rules. (It's all my fault for not having a laptop with wireless internet capability, I know that.)

Why did the editing/revision of the BCRS stop at the first two chapters anyway?

In theory it should be possible to write a small script or program that takes the BRCS 3e wiki pages and print them into a bookmarked PDF (or to PS, and from PS to PDF), but I doubt we have that right now. It would be the only possibility to have the wiki pages and the PDF synchronized without a lot of human work (maybe someone else has another idea).

[kgauck]

In a sense the poll is already outdated since Willenberg suggested a locked version and a separate editable version.

So, as Sorontar mentioned in the other thread, he's put an example page up at [[Usurpation]] of a normal BRCS page so people can see how its formatted and so on.

It seems to me there is no reason not to have two versions, as long as they are clearly marked. So the official version, matching the wiki (plus some additional proofreading) will remain protected while the editable version will be open for refinements.

Also there is the 4e conversion.

That should satisfy everyone.

Keep in mind for the editable version, it will be easier to use if the formatting and naming is consistent. Review the naming policy and look over how the BRCS was named and formatted to get a sense of how to do it.

I also recommend not using the term BRCS in the editable version to avoid confusion.

[Vicente]

Then a moderator feel free to close the poll.

[Thelandrin]

Poll closed by request.

For the record, I most certainly do not think the BRCS should be edited, but if we want to have editable discussion pages etc., that's perfectly acceptable.

[Vicente]

As Kenneth said having both versions should satisfy both oppinions, so it's a good call for this one.

[Wilenburg]

I agree with thelandin, but being able to see it from both sides still makes me think that an editable version would make it be acceptable, as well as a version not to be editted so that it can satisfy everyone. I know it would be a lot of work for the wiki moderators to get it started but everyone will be happy at the end of the day with it, as well it should have the same treatment as the none editted version so people can refer to the baseline as to see what people were thinking.

[AndrewTall]

I agree with thelandin, but being able to see it from both sides still makes me think that an editable version would make it be acceptable, as well as a version not to be editted so that it can satisfy everyone. I know it would be a lot of work for the wiki moderators to get it started but everyone will be happy at the end of the day with it, as well it should have the same treatment as the none editted version so people can refer to the baseline as to see what people were thinking.

Well, all the moderator needs to do is read a post saying 'hey, I just made an alternate page to chapter 2, link it up mods' and link the page via an AlsoSee to the locked page - no problem.

If you want us to actually make the pages ready for editing, then it's more work so I'd personally rather wait until I know someone is actually going to do something with the page - having made a lot of index pages, etc ready for other people to chip in only to see them ignored :(.