Hello,

After regularly referring to the wiki for information and tips about individual elements, I have thought of some ideas for improvement. Currently, all elements in each category are placed on one page, but I feel that each element should be moved to its own page for a couple reasons. Wiki editors would be more motivated to add extra details about each element since they have an entire page to do so, in order to add length and completeness to the articles. Also, any mention of other elements could be hyperlinked to the corresponding element page, instead of the main category page.

Each element page would be titled by its slug (PHOT, FIRW, etc. except for walls and some tools), and an infobox may be shown for a quick reference of common properties, much like the properties box for real elements on Wikipedia. Sections on these pages could then be added to described their unique properties, such as the interaction with other particles, tutorials, or tool usage.

Since this idea would be such a large change to the wiki, I'd first like to ask the moderators and community for their opinion. Over the next week or so, I can make these edits to the wiki structure as well as organize existing and new content for each element page. This would clear up the common confusion seen in the forums by compiling all elements facts into one location. I'd love to make the Powder Toy wiki a better resource.

EDIT:

I should add that I only know English, but translation of new content would likely be easier with multiple element pages than with all elements on one page. It will be easier to track changes, for example.

@Box-Poorsoft (View Post)

Ah, sorry. I was going by this definition, thinking it was used more broadly.

@jacksonmj (View Post)

Using namespaces is a good idea. Should we group all elements into the "Element" namespace or separate them into further categories? (e.g. "Force_Creating", "Radioactive") I would opt for the former.

Given your section suggestions, how does this wiki structure look?

• Homepage, click on Gasses under the Elements section
  • List of all Gas elements, including a description of their overall common properties. This may possibly be an image rather than a list, with each of Simon's screenshots in a row, hyperlinked.
    • OXYG, for example
      • [Introduction] / [Properties Infobox]
      • Reactions
      • Tutorial
      • Examples (images or saves)

The exact sections will of course depend on the element, but it'd be nice for the sections to follow a predetermined scheme for usability and consitency.

I'm familiar with MediaWiki structure, but I've never made an infobox. It doesn't look too difficult from the MediaWiki manual, but I'll let someone know if I can't figure it out.

@Box-Poorsoft (View Post)

A good example might be the Hidden Manual for Photons. I see no problem with a lengthy tutorial at the bottom of the page for certain elements, as long as the quick reference information can be found near the top. (The reader can scroll on as long as he'd like, as long as he's receiving quality, factual information.) We should probably put all images in thumbnails floating to the right though.

In order to migrate the change, I say we start a new page for a single element and play with the sections a bit until we think they'll work for each element. I'll start with Hydrogen.

Then, once we have all the element pages in place, we can redesign the Element Category pages. Meanwhile, we can just add hyperlinks to the headers in the existing category pages.

EDIT:

Who is in charge of managing the MediaWiki installation? From what I've gathered, infoboxes are not built into the default installation, so in order to display the Element infobox, I think I'll need some help from an administrator. I've made Template:Infobox Element as a test whether the infobox is working correctly.

Here's an example of the working Element infobox hosted on my Wikipedia sandbox page, if you're wondering what it should look like.