Research Realm:Guidelines

WIP, stuff just copied from discord convos for now

Overview

This description will update if we have some sort of style guide. For now, the guidelines so far are:

• Stay objective. No subjective sentences or opinions. Certain smaller jokes might be okay.
• Create new wiki pages for a topic when there is a decent amount of information on it. For example, we have a lot of information about Rock Raiders' prototypes, so they should only be described briefly on the "Rock Raiders" theme's page, but expanded on a dedicated "Rock Raiders prototypes" page (name pending)
• The structure of the Wiki should follow a hierarcy, similar to Bricklink. You should be able to navigate from a page about 1999 as a year down to a Rock Raiders part that was released in that year.

As an example, the Rock Raiders theme could branch like this:

• Rock Raiders (Theme)
  • Sets
    • Main sets (each set in the series is linked individually)
      • Hover Scout (one page per main set)
      • Rapid Rider
      • More sets...
    • Promotional sets (might not want separate pages for each set, eg. maybe just one for all Mini Heroes sets, one for Kabaya or for each theme's Kabaya sets)
  • Introduced parts (each part has its own page)
    • 71612cx1 Chrome Drill
    • 30298 Roll Cage
      • Observed mould numbers
      • Mould variations
      • Prototypes
      • Found in which sets? (lot of work, maybe not needed)
    • More parts...
  • Minifigures (may include other figure types and possibly non-physical characters)
    • Chief (one page per character)
    • Axle
    • More minifigs...
    • Rock Monster (non-minifig figure)
    • Game-only figures may not be linked to from the main page, only the games they're in
  • Media
    • Set comics
    • Books (one page for each)
    • Video games (treat games with different gameplay or developers as separate even if they have the same title)
  • History and development
    • Prototypes
    • Information on years of development etc
    • Cancelled sets
    • Changes over time?
  • Legacy
    • What remains of the theme today

Themes, sets

This is a draft I made for what a page of a theme would look like, in this case Rock Raiders. Rock Raiders is a huge theme as it covers just about every type of media that Lego produces, it's very close to our hearts, and we have a ton of information on just about every facet of the theme and game. This page could thus be sort of a blueprint on what's covered, how it's covered, and if the information is put into the article itself, or just briefly and then the rest is in a separate article (i.e. 2 sentences about prototypes, then linking to a main article about "Rock Raiders prototypes/development")

I think if there is anything else to say about the set, it's a good idea to give it a separate page. For Rock Raiders, you'd be interested in how they work in the PC game, for example, so that's more info needed. For some sets, perhaps there are prototypes of the set that would be nice to feature. Many sets though, won't have much to add to a separate page.

If there is nothing more to say on a set, definitely just link to Brickset (not Brickipedia I think - their articles can be pretty messy and Brickset has more verified info)

That said... have you guys seen the website [1] ? It is unfortunately very messy, but this is something I'd love to have that's missing from the broader internet. Just pictures the box of each set in high-resolution. It would make a ton of sense to have them available in a wiki rather than a separate website just for boxes, right? And that would warrant a Wiki page for sure I think (But all of that is not very high priority, it's something that I want to do eventually. Getting a complete archive would take a lot of time. Or, if someone would have access to the Lego Vault...)

Games

You guys are more into Rock Raiders and the PC games - so I think you should focus on expanding those pages in the meantime. Things like

• A main page for each game, with information on levels and things in the game
• Possibly subpages for the game's entities and levels. How much we want to divide it depends on the game – for RR we can easily have a page with details for each "thing" and level, but for other games that might not be the case. Entities that are also present in sets or books should be merged into those pages.
• How to run the game (A separate page, optimally)
• How to mod the game (A separate page, that then points to separate pages on modding specific parts)
• Betas, prototypes and cut content of the game perhaps, though that is widely covered my TCRF, except their LRR articles are currently lacking.

For now I think it's best to focus on work that is not on any Wiki, if that sums it up? Running LRR is a RRU guide, it needs a Wiki page that can be maintained, modding LRR is spread across many RRU guides, that needs a nice Wiki page/hierarchy of pages on how to mod specific aspects of the game. TCRF focuses on cut content, sure, but I'd for example want a Wiki page discussing how to perhaps implement/activate cut content (like the Spiders and scorpions) and not just being a list of things that were cut. Trying to relate it back to the game etc, and focus on what the TCRF does not do, but Lego nerds like us would want to know

Names

I think the best answer is whatever originated in Denmark? So not necessarily the UK, nor the US, but central Europe, it seems to have always been the first avenue when it comes to naming stuff. To me, the "official record" would be whatever it says in the Lego Vault, as most boxes there should have names on the sides, but I don't have access to that yet. If you're unsure, try to refer to boxes. Magazines frequently get things wrong (see "Sam Grant", and the misprint 4959 set etc) but Lego's official boxes are directly from the company themselves

"Things"

Emerald — Something I think should be decided early on is how we structure characters, objects, locations, etcetera. Whether we make different forms different articles (Axle (minifigure) is one article and Axle (Character) is another) or whether these should be different sections in the same article (with sub articles if there's a significant amount to talk about). I'm personally all for the latter, keeps things much more organized and easier to navigate; RRU Knowledge base goes for the former approach and it's just as clunky as I remember it being.

Klavvy — Definitely the latter, we make a page for an object I guess you could say? But also context changes things, so for example with a Loader Dozer:

• On the Rock Raiders PC game page, under vehicles (or under a page on vehicles in the game), it refers to what the Loader Dozer does in game
• However the page on the Loader Dozer is of the set, and with a section of how it behaves in the PC game, and the page on Rock Raiders vehicles links to this section directly

Images

If you're uploading PNG images use something like PNGGauntlet to compress it please! Stuff like still GIF and BMP should be converted to PNG.

Klavvy (Baraklava) — 01/16/2023 6:10 PM
Again, the Realm is a vision of mine that is a bit fuzzy, and you work on the parts of the Wiki that you want. For example I would be interested in cataloguing how many mould numbers there are for each part, and when they were produced, and... everyone else probably doesn't lol. As long as it's detailed nerd information, it goes!

Anything that has to do with physical Lego is just my brain wanting to catalogue everything about Lego as a company and producer xD I guess the crazy end goal is having concrete info and references about most parts going back to the 1950's, things like how their processes evolved, when they changed up their colours, things like that that I think other Wikis don't cover properly. I know it's not what most of the former RRU crowd has focused on though, but it's a passion of mine and I have a ton of production prototypes and mould tests, as well as a lot of insight in the process on how a part goes from concept to production... or information that not even Lego has catalogued because they didn't think anyone would be interested 

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Klavvy (Baraklava) — 01/16/2023 6:50 PM
(about what names to use) That's a good question that's hard to answer. 

And yes, definitely games too. It might be hard to explain, but I say it's a site for "Lego nerd information": Have you ever met someone obsessed or interested in something Lego-related beyond your understanding? Then whatever they've researched should probably be in our Wiki. Or, if you have some information/material that just doesn't fit any other sites, the Realm is the place for them

For example Sadie really likes investigating old Lego books and such, and some books never went into production, such as the book "Alien Stone". How on Earth would someone find their way to such a page if it existed on Brickipedia? In the Realm, it would hopefully be included in a timeline of unpublished works from Lego Publishing, or similar. 

And, as Sadie just mentioned: How many people are actually interested in modding the Canteen back into the game? Probably only a handful, but the Realm is for those handfuls, so documenting how to mod it back could be a good page! 😄

Both topics, while very different, have something in common: They go into very detailed information to an absurd degree - "Nerd information". Put that on Brickipedia and they'd go "That's not a commercial Lego set - removed for being irrelevant." There isn't really any other place for such information other than in the Discord chats and chat logs between us, as is currently the state.

I'm not sure if my vision of the Realm makes sense, maybe it only does to me! Hahaha 

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Emerald — 01/16/2023 7:28 PM
It really would be nice to start a consistent, well cited wiki 
Because every single existing project is lacking in some way, whether it's standards or being too hyperfocused on specific things and thus neglecting others 
At the same time those other projects are still valuable 
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it's common practice for wikis to adapt information from eachother, so it's not like we're starting from scratch
Guidelines for how pages are structured would be really nice because the multimedianess of lego has made most wikis very chaotic 
Whereas something like the halo wiki is also based on something multimedia centric but it's very clean and easy to navigate because of the editing guidelines.

I can already tell list of appearances sections on this wiki are gonna be really fun to look at

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Klavvy (Baraklava) — 01/16/2023 7:37 PM
It has to have pages first! x3
But your input is really good, I agree! Build upon what's there but look for solid references for the information
I think the best way to start is to fill out the Rock Raiders starting page

Everything is up for debate here and I really want the Realm to not be "my Wiki", but something we build together as Lego nerdzzzz

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Klavvy (Baraklava) — 01/16/2023 8:04 PM
We'll have to do some experimentation but we're not in a hurry - and it's not like it's gonna be wasted work, it's mostly a question of where to put what words! Writing the words is the hard part, figuring out a structure is more of a "feeling" thing that will just take time rather than work