Thread: Suggestion regarding "Official Entries"

I've noticed on occasion, when stopping in at the lorebook, that there are some items that require an edit...either due to inaccuracies/errors in text, missing links, or item stats that didn't get adjusted after being adjusted in game, but the current system makes that impossible for anybody but those running the lorebook.

I was thinking that it might be better if editing/creation of official content was allowed, but changes would only take place after being approved by the staff. This way the players could become additional "staff" allowing for a more rapid/accurate amount of content, while that content would only have to be approved by the Turbine staff (to prevent inaccurate/bogus entries), instead of having to make it all themselves.

Originally Posted by Digital_Utopia

I was thinking that it might be better if editing/creation of official content was allowed, but changes would only take place after being approved by the staff. This way the players could become additional "staff" allowing for a more rapid/accurate amount of content, while that content would only have to be approved by the Turbine staff (to prevent inaccurate/bogus entries), instead of having to make it all themselves.

This is a suggestion we've heard before. However...

The community shouldn't have to do any work to clean up official content other than reporting it to us. The onus is on us to ensure the content on the Lorebook is correct. We want the community to focus on having fun -- writing gameplay guides, blogging your adventures, making videos, etc. You should be able to come to the Lorebook, see that 'official' tag, and know the values there reflect what is in-game.

We know the speed of updates can be frustrating to our loyal Lorebook readers, and we are working hard to streamline the process. Just remember, Moria wasn't mined in a day.

Originally Posted by Duwis

We know the speed of updates can be frustrating to our loyal Lorebook readers, and we are working hard to streamline the process. Just remember, Moria wasn't mined in a day.

True, it took more than a day for Moria to be mined... however, there are ways to speed up the process... The in-game data obviously was generated months ago. I don't understand why the Lorebook ever gets off...

I know you are having the Lorebook 'build' the items similar to how the game does. This reduces the number of images and makes updating more streamlined. However, the Lorebook is obviously not using the same tables or even a copy of the tables that the game does.

This is what is frustrating for the players... The information is supposed to be 'Official', yet has less accuracy than a third party site copying the info from in-game manually.

I think the biggest hurdle you face with the Lorebook when updating it for new items, is the interface. You should have the latest, updated icons, item info, stats, and info on where the item comes from, but you are stuck 'manually' setting all that info up in the wiki-format.

Personally, I think the Lorebook needs to be reconsidered. I believe it needs to be redone with a different back-end that allows for more flexibility. I know that takes time to set up, but once it is set up, it will be leaps and bounds better than what it is today.

I think the wiki structure is limiting the features that could potentially be part of the site.

Check out what one code-master and two people updating can accomplish:
http://www.lotroalliance.com

Look at the types of features, the ease of use, and the game-like feel of the information.

I agree, because the Lorebook sure isn't really a wiki now. Sure, many Lorebook pages have wiki-like links in them, but real wikis aren't so locked up.

I'd rather see, now that the data has been pushed out, a lifting on the lockdown, so that the Lorebook actually becomes a wiki. Then, after each major update, just run out a list of what's changed and myriads of happy volunteers will jump on it and change the items. Or is that too much to ask for, that the update change list really publish all the changes in an update?

Originally Posted by Duwis

We want the community to focus on having fun -- writing gameplay guides, blogging your adventures, making videos, etc. You should be able to come to the Lorebook, see that 'official' tag, and know the values there reflect what is in-game.

Originally Posted by Banaticus

The Lorebook shouldn't be like Google's Knol site, it should be like the Wikipedia. Look at all the problems with the Knol site-- go search for Barack Obama. At this time there's 277 different results. Which ones are concise? Which ones give more detail? Which ones deal with his early life or his later life or what he's doing now or where he's traveled to or anything else on him? Nobody knows, unless they go read all 277 Barack Obama articles. Now go to Wikipedia. Take a look at a single comprehensive article on Barack Obama that summarizes his life in a concise manner and which is fairly short, but which links to other pages and sets of pages in an intuitive easy-to-navigate pyramidal interface that lets you delve into any situation in more detail (as much detail as you'd like), easily follow hyperlinked references to see other documents, and learn more about a word or term that you haven't seen before.

We shouldn't have to write long essays on all the stuff that the Lorebook doesn't cover, it should be in the Lorebook.

Am I saying that the devs should write all of this information? Of course not, we'd be happy to -- as you've seen, but creating an additional guides section is just going to get more and more chaotic and confusing. Official item stats? Great, we're all for them! But the prose of the Lorebook, being able to actually link everything in context, why in the world are you all still locking that up?

Take the Inn League pages. They're so confusing, so spaced out, so out of context and out of connection, that some regular person had to come along and write a guide to the Inn League... and it's impossible to fix them ourselves -- the Lorebook is so backed up with things that already need to change, I don't think the Lorebook is ever going to get a good Inn League section. Most of the Lorebook seems to be like that. It has great stats if you're trying to craft something. But quest overviews or actually learning things about the game? You might as well forget it now.

You have the ability to restrict trial account's access to the forums and the forums and the Lorebook (and apparently the game, with the Book 8 release) have integrated account access. You have the ability to track who makes which edits to the Lorebook in regular mode and from inside the game (whether you're actually integrated the Turbine account or whether you're just saving login information after they log into the forums from inside the game).

People inside the game can already see the nonofficial information -- announce that Turbine is maintaining the stats, the numbers, the actual official information, but let us edit the prose and actually make a good wiki out of the whole thing.