XeNTaX

That would save work in the long run as you said. I think we still need to rename all pages from, for example, Afterlife 000 to 000 (Afterlife) as well as come up with a new set of categories for titles and extensions with considerations for more than just games (some sort of type category). Here's a list:

Platform (already exists, needs More Than One or Many): Windows, Linux, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, More Than One (see application page), etc.
Application Type (appears on application pages): Game, Word Processor, Spreadsheet, General Application, Database, etc.
Format Type (appears on format pages, already exists but needs expansion): Archive, Sound, Texture, Script, Table, Text, Configuration, Database, etc.

These lists supplement the existing categories:
Compression and Encryption
Research Completion
Program Support


Edit: Here's the pages I changed to demonstrate what I'm describing:
Title Page: James Bond 007: Nightfire
Disambiguous: http://wiki.xentax.com/index.php?title=007&redirect=no (note that the page is there but the redirect overrides it because there is only one--easy to update).
Extension Page: 007 (James Bond 007: Nightfire)


Extension categories affected (note how format is organized by extension rather than title):
Category:File Extensions
Category:Format Archive

Title categories affected (note how it is organized by title):
Category:Games
Category:More Than One Platform


The only thing that is missing is a link from 007 page to James Bond 007: Nightfire page.

I don't like the idea of page names along the lines of "000 (Afterlife)"; this style directly contradicts every format name style I've ever seen and feels counterintuitive.

If you looked closely at the example page I linked earlier, CAR, you'll note that it links both to the format description page (Carnivores CAR) as well as to the disambiguation pages for the games using that format (Carnivores, Carnivores 2, and Carnivores Ice Age). Game dabpages don't have links back to extension dabpages simply because I never figured out a good way to do it.

As for the multiple Platform consideration, the beauty of categories is that we can add as many as we like - if a given format is used on multiple platforms, we would simply add a category for each platform it's used on. A theoretical "Category:Used on Multiple Platforms" (or similar) is therefore redundant and would really only be useful for tracking purposes.

Compression and encryption is one area of the current categorization scheme that needs a particularly close look - where compression or encryption is used by a game, its format page should be categorized according to the type. So we would have categories for, for instance, generic Run Length Encoding, Huffman Deflate, and other common, widely-used algorithms and their variants, and some sort of "miscellaneous" category for formats using a unique algorithm. At the same time, compression and encryption need to be split into separate category trees, and description pages written for each algorithm which has been explored.

Dinoguy1000 wrote:I don't like the idea of page names along the lines of "000 (Afterlife)"; this style directly contradicts every format name style I've ever seen and feels counterintuitive.

That's what Wikipedia does:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAT

Same symbols, different meanings (common issue with file extensions). Why I think the parenthesis are better is because first, it puts the format out front where it is easy to follow in the categories (formats are organized by extension moreso than title) and second, it disguishes the title from the extension. For example, in the case of James Bond 007: Nightfire 007. It isn't obvious that 007 is an extension or still part of the title. It also looks cleaner so instead of doing [[James Bond 007: Nightfire 007|*.007]], we can do [[007 (James Bond 007: Nightfire)]] with no need to retitle the link (the formatting alone tells you exactly what it is talking about).

Dinoguy1000 wrote:If you looked closely at the example page I linked earlier, CAR, you'll note that it links both to the format description page (Carnivores CAR) as well as to the disambiguation pages for the games using that format (Carnivores, Carnivores 2, and Carnivores Ice Age). Game dabpages don't have links back to extension dabpages simply because I never figured out a good way to do it.

The problem with doing it that way is you have to create every single page for both, manually (Categories can tell you what formats belong where with a simple link on the disambigous page to the Category view). By heavier reliance on categories, it creates those pages for you. The fewer the disambigous pages, the better.

Dinoguy1000 wrote:Compression and encryption is one area of the current categorization scheme that needs a particularly close look - where compression or encryption is used by a game, its format page should be categorized according to the type. So we would have categories for, for instance, generic Run Length Encoding, Huffman Deflate, and other common, widely-used algorithms and their variants, and some sort of "miscellaneous" category for formats using a unique algorithm. At the same time, compression and encryption need to be split into separate category trees, and description pages written for each algorithm which has been explored.

I agree with this. Categories negate the need for lists. In this case, List Of Compressed Games that tends not to be updated very frequently.


Edit: I made some changes to the 007 (James Bond 007: Nightfire) page in order to add the link to the title page. I really think the Date Posted, Endianness, Format Type, Back to Index, and Edit this page information should be in a infobox like what appears on the right here: http://wiki.nfbsp.com/index.php/Busy_Server_Redial

At every visit in the wiki i get the following error message from MEdia-Wiki:

It seems to be down.
This sould be fixed because most informations are stored thereand for looking in GAFs the wiki is better than the forum with its endless post count.

I know.

We're waiting on Craptain for that. He has "kind of a one-track mind", so it could be a while yet.

I was fed up and did it myself.

http://wiki.xentax.com/index.php/Game_F ... at_Central

LOL. Looks like Craptain was (always wanted an excuse to use that smilie...)