User talk:Sealbudsman

Proposal for templates so we don't have to touch the (newer) snapshot pages quite so much, moving forward
Good afternoon KnightMiner, Goandgoo, Majr, Dinoguy1000, BDJP007301, BoxFigs (Feel free to flag anybody else in),

I want to talk nav boxes, snapshot pages, and more broadly some problems I see and templates I propose.

The snapshot pages create a lot of busy-work, I don't have to tell you. Here are some situations I was thinking of which definitely put us to work that I think we shouldn't have to do:


 * 1) Mojang releases 1.7.11.  We now have to go back* and update   on all the 1.8 snapshot pages.
 * 2) * *When I made the LatestMinorVersion template, I hadn't thought ahead to see that it wouldn't be generally applicable in the place I had put it.. For instance if after they release 1.8, they start putting out snapshots for 1.8.1, LatestMinorVersion wouldn't be the proper thing to put in .  What needs to go in   is literally the previously released version, not the latest minor version of the previous major release.
 * 3) Mojang hypothetically releases 1.8 as 1.8.2.  We now have to go to all snapshot pages, and change 1.8 to 1.8.2 not only three places in each nav box, but in the Fixes section where it says '.. before 1.8', and in the lead where it says '.. sixth snapshot for 1.8'.

I know a lot of you are willing to do that level of work, as you have clearly been doing what it takes to make the "older snapshot pages" project come to fruition, and I applaud that -- But I just wonder if there was interest in doing it a different way going forward, to eliminate some steps.

I've made some simple templates to address all that, so that things are more "set it and forget it":

User:Sealbudsman/Template:VersionByIndex
 * The idea with VersionByIndex is that it allows the page to read '1.8' until you find out it's actually 1.8.2, then you only need to change it in one place. And, if after that, you are expecting it to be 1.8.3 but they give you 1.8.4, again you just change it in that one place.  Same if you are expecting 1.8.5, and they reveal it was 1.9 all along: Change it in one place.

User:Sealbudsman/Template:VersionPrev User:Sealbudsman/Template:VersionNext
 * The idea behind VersionPrev and VersionNext is that they literally maintain lists of which version should point to which  and , and I believe such a thing would be very easy to maintain.

They would be applied like so, in a snapshot page (example nav box shown):

{ {version nav |edition=computer |image= |type=Snapshot |date=July 30, 2014 |snapshotfor= { {VersionByIndex|1.8|0}} |serverdl= [h ttps://s3.amazonaws.com/Minecraft.Download/versions/14w31a/minecraft_server.14w31a.jar Server] |prevparent= { {VersionPrev| { {VersionByIndex|1.8|0}}}} |prev=14w30c |next= |nextparent= { {VersionNext| { {VersionByIndex|1.8|0}}}} }}

14w31a is the forty-first snapshot released for { {VersionByIndex|1.8|0}}.

 From released versions before { {VersionByIndex|1.8|0}} 

I'd appreciate your thoughts, whether this is a welcome suggestion, one that needs refining, whether a more talented template-er could improve this, etc.
 * For instance can you use variables within a page, so you don't have to replicate  so many times?
 * Would this make the long pages like 1.8/Development Versions burdensome to the server by way of having too many templates? I heard that template overload is a thing.
 * Is there another way to do this?

– Sealbudsman (Aaron) (talk) – 17:50, 4 August 2014 (UTC)