The Module Library is changing!
We’re switching from the current module library to the new module library soon. This post is to explain the switchover plan and what you can expect from the new module library.
Plan for the switch
- 18 May: the wiki will become read-only and the new module library will become available
- 25 May: the new module library will become editable
- 1 June: the wiki will be archived as static pages
- In 6 months: the wiki archive will be removed
Differences between the old and new Module Libraries
The old module library has been hosted in our wiki since 2010, when it replaced the old, old module library which had been in a CMS. The old, old module library was inflexible and roundly disliked. We sought to remedy that by using a wiki for its replacement, which went too far in the opposite direction: A major drawback of the old module library has been that the formatting is merely advisory, which makes any procedural handling of the data in it infeasible. The new module library provides more structure. Common items like game titles, names of maintainers of modules, and lists of players are in uniform locations across pages, but the “readme” section remains freeform. We hope this strikes an appropriate balance.
Pages in the old module library are per game; pages in the new module library are per project. In the old module library, every module for a particular game appears on one page. This has historically led to confusion and contention when there are multiple competing modules for a game. The new module library has one page per project, so that competing modules for the same game may have their own pages.
Users in the old module library were listed by some name and maybe a link to their email address, if they had any contact information at all. This made it hard to contact module maintainers or people in the players lists. Users in the new module library are denoted by their forum avatar, forum username, and a link to their forum profile. This should make contacting users simpler and more reliable.
In the old module library, modules with frequent releases either had obnoxiously long release lists or removed older releases from their pages, neither of which are desirable. The new module library hides releases in each package which are older than the current one behind an accordion, which can be expanded if desired. This displays the current release prominently while keeping older releases available with an additional click.
The old module library, due to being a wiki, has no notion of page ownership. Because anyone with an account can edit pages in the old module library, we needed a moderation system, which Tim McCarron has diligently tended for 15 years. It’s been a lot of work, and we all owe Tim our thanks for his dedication to keeping module pages in order. Pages in the new module library have owners, which means that not just any rando who wanders in can edit them. Because only page owners can edit their pages and there is a fixed structure, it’s no longer necessary to vet page edits. Moderation in the new module library is modeled after moderation here in the forum: There is a Flag button which anyone logged in can use to report a problem.
More specific details about the new module library will follow in a few days. Thank you, everyone, for your patience while we make the switch.