Thread:Knj00/@comment-4830404-20120823140031

I'm really unhappy about our auto names page. We've tried several iterations and they're all kinda clunky and meh, although the scroll template that Marman recently added makes the page look a little better. But making users edit the templates is weird and there has to be a better way.

I'm thinking that I can do one of two things: try to convert the template to something like we use for Decorations where people can just edit in the names to that chunk, and then the template decides what to do, instead of making users edit the template.

Or 2) Write a javascript program and put it at the top of the page, and it basically does this:

(Dropdown menu with dragon names in alphabetical order) (Button that says "Add a name for this dragon")

When user clicks button, the dropdown menu and button toggle visibility, and is replaced by a new visible group of things:

(Editable text field) (Button that says "Add the name for [ selected dragon name ] dragon")

Below that, (Button that says "I changed my mind, I want to choose a different dragon")

User can click the "change mind" button to go straight back without adding a name. Or, user can type something in the text field and click "Add name for dragon" button". Either way once a button is clicked, stuff happens, and the visibility groups toggle again back to the dropdown menu with dragon names.

So if the "add dragon name" button is clicked, the following happens:

First the program checks if the name is a valid length, if not it just says that the name entered was too short/long. Then, whatever was inputted in the text field is filtered so that people can't enter javascript hacks as part of the input. Also non-alphabet characters are removed since as of yet they can't be in dragon names. This can easily be changed if the rules change.

After that, the program checks if the name already exists in the list, if not it adds it. Then it takes the name and capitalizes the first letter in the name while making others lowercase. After that, it alphabetizes the list.

Once this is done the program edits the section of the appropriate dragon and puts that new list of names there.

So with this program, people would not have to bother to edit the wiki page itself, it would conveniently check if the name is a repeat name, capitalize the name properly, and alphabetize automatically. They can just use the dropdown menu/buttons/text field at the top of the page. It would also eliminate accidental messups, like I don't know if you saw the page the other day but a user accidentally made an edit that turned the page illegible into a bunch of garble text XD

The DOWNSIDES of implementing this program:

1) Would people be offended about it? Like "Why can't you just let me edit the page myself, I am not dumb."

2) Some people cannot use javascript. They are rare, but it does happen, especially on mobile devices.  These people would be inconvenienced and would have to post in comments for names to be added.  In order to maintain the spirit of the wiki, we want to avoid as much as possible things that take away control from the users.

Any thoughts? 