Gearheads of War

Hey Gearheads, our friends at Figures.com are running a contest for one (1) Gears of War: Aspho Fields novel by Karen Traviss & one (1) Neca Gears of War- Marcus Fenix action figure.  All you have to do is enter your email on the following link: Gears Goodies Contest @ Figures.com  There's no need to fear about being spammed with emails because you won't.  Good luck, Gearheads!

Recently, we announced the Gearheads of War support site, The-Stranded.com/wiki.  

This is just a brief document to let those who missed the announcement know about the Wiki, what some of its possible uses are, and how to make the most of it.  Hopefully, this also helps those who are already familiar with the wiki.

The Wiki Itself

1.  To view or contribute to the Wiki, you need to create an account.  Account creation is simple and instantaneous.  At this point, accounts do not need to be approved, though that may become necessary in the future.  Make yours now while the process is simple and fast. :)   Also, account creation/membership, is not limited to Gearheads only.  We extend a special welcome to those from The Masters Few, and CombatFactory as well as any other friends of friends.  Ultimately, the membership is only to prevent spam and other undesirable stuff.

2.  For those of you who have not had experience with a Wiki, it is a very different animal than the Blog, or Forum.  Though everyone will make efforts to recognize each person's contributions, the wiki by definition is a tool for collaborative writing and reference.  Thus, the focus is more on producing clean, easy-to-understand, documents, and less on authorship.  Still, linking to the original source, or the name of the author is simple and desirable.  Secondly, the Wiki is a reference tool and not a discussion tool, so it makes "conversations" about documents very difficult. On the other hand, it is very easy to make a document, and then have others add directly to it: sentences, paragraphs, and even full sections, or pages.

Contributing Guides to the Wiki

1.  Post your work here at GearheadsofWar first.  This gives the author greater exposure right from the beginning.  It also allows for all of us to add our comments and ideas.  From there, the author can then re-post the guide over at the Wiki, but with possible additions or edits that may have been inspired in the discussion.  At that point, others can also add content to the wiki guide.  Links back to the original GearheadsofWar diary will take the reader back to the original work and discussion for quick reference.

2.  Editing and contributing.  Feel free to edit and contribute to ALL the documents, but give appropriate consideration to the author's work and intent.  Similarly, if your work is edited by others, try not to be easily offended, but rather be open to the fact that their edits are probably making the document better.

3.  Images can be uploaded to the Wiki database with just a few clicks.  Use the service liberally.  We have unlimited storage and bandwidth.  If they are personal images, please include your name at the beginning of your image label (please see the wiki front page for example and detailed instruction).  After the images have been uploaded, they can be easily linked, and displayed, in the wiki document.  For strategy guides, it is almost impossible to have "too many" pictures illustrating the strategy or tactic.  Included lots!

Sharing Videos through the Wiki

1.  For uploading videos, contact one of the administrators.  We will get you a temporary password and instructions for uploading.  It is easy, fast, and great for sharing HD versions of those videos that you would otherwise have to relegate to YouTube or Gametrailers.  Again, we have unlimited storage and bandwidth, so don't be shy. Share.

2.  Once the video has been uploaded, a download link can be added to Game Videos page so that people can just right-click and save that puppy to their hard drives.  At this point, there is no video streaming.

3. To generate a little more traffic over at the wiki (in hopes that more people will contribute to the resources), please link to the Gears Videos page, rather than just providing friends with the directly link to the file itself.  Thanks.

Explore the Wiki.  Get familiar with the pages already created.  Upload some of your favorite pictures or screenshots.  Have fun!

Gearheads,

The Announcement
A couple of weeks ago, mostly to create an educational opportunity for my sons, I got myself an Internet hosting account.  I feel quite pleased with my purchase because it actually comes with unlimited storage and bandwidth.  Yea! - I could host Penny Arcade on my account for crying out loud, and I wouldn't get billed a single cent extra for bandwidth abuse.  Anyway, before I can teach Johann and Timothy anything, I need to do some learning on my own.  So, I have registered a domain name and set up a little Wiki site, http://The-Stranded.com/wiki . As the name implies, it is a site for stuff that doesn't really fit, or can't be done here on the GearheadsofWar blog site.

The function of the wiki is different from that of the GHoW blog.  There is no chat or forum capability, so it isn't a place to discuss things as much as a place to provide some organized structure for hosting information, images, and eventually, hopefully, videos. A wiki is only as interesting as its skin, which I haven't customized yet, and more importantly, its content, which is almost non-existent right now. Therefore, I am hoping people will take advantage of the opportunity to do some media-intensive, collaborative writing and create some interesting documents/pages.   I for one, will be busy creating multiplayer strategy guides with labeled images, and I am hoping that you will jump in and add  paragraphs or sections to the guide as you see fit.

I have come up with a couple of uses for the wiki in addition to those already mentioned above.  For example, though we can always use the search functions here at Gearheadsofwar.com, it could be handy to have a page/pages (again, to be freely maintained by everyone) where we keep a list of all the diaries of a given type. Actually, one of the first documents I added to the wiki was a "Gearhead Game Reviews" page.   When you have finished posting a review Diary at GHoW,  you can stop by the wiki and add a link and caption about the diary to the "Gearhead Game Reviews" page. Another wiki page that I created was for the "Meet The Gearheads" document.  In the wiki, anyone can edit and add info, so people no longer have to wait for me, or another admin, to update the document. You can go in there, add/edit/delete your info as you see fit.  It would also be very easy to have pages for OT topics such as politics and religion, that don't really fit on GHoW.

Although most people are already on FaceBook, each one of us can set up our own page with as many images and goodies as we want. Uploading images is very simple, so I am hoping that it can also be a place where people store their favorite screenshots with captions or descriptions, and with links back to the GHoW Diaries in which the events may have been discussed.  Even if you want to just store your photos there, and then link to them in a dairy here, that is great.  At the very least, it can be your photobucket but without storage limitations.

Getting Started
I have just a couple of points of info to get you started over there.

First, for various reasons, I have chosen to keep this a semi-private wiki.  Therefore, you will need to create an account (just follow the "create account" link in the top right-hand corner).  For easy recognition, it would probably be best if you chose either your Gearheads name or your Gamertag for you User name. If you do not make an account, your access will be limited to the Main Page only.

Once you have created an account, check out these pages to help you get a feel for what is already available.  Remember, this is like an online encyclopedia (there isn't really a hierarchy in pages), so eventually, the most efficient way to find the page you are looking for will be the "Search" function, and the "Watch" function for easy tracking.  In the meantime, however, take a peek at the list of pages Special:AllPages already created.  Some highlights are: "Meet the Gearheads" and "Gearhead Game Reviews".

Also, be sure to check out the Navigation pages (listed in a box on the left-hand side).  I plan to have regular updates there highlighting the major changes and additions.  Since even that document is edit-able by everyone, anyone can add their own comments etc.  Of course, there is the "Recent Changes" page that lists in detail every activity that has occurred on the site, so you can always check there too.

Some basics instructions for how to create and edit pages, and upload images, are provided on the Main Page.

When creating pages, please be mindful of the page names that you choose, that they are unique and that they will be "search-able".  Similarly, when uploading images, if they are personal images, please start with your user name for the destination file name.  (e.g., RoBBins_Chest_Hair or RoBBins_Headshot_264b) .  For other images and page names, just look around the site and consider the names of the files already in use, then imitate the structure.

At this point, a single image must be less than 7MB.  Also, please consider that my children, and others may be viewing the site, so not all images may be appropriate for the wiki.

Finally, The-Stranded.com is designed to be a support site for Gearheadsofwar.com, but it is completely separate entity and I take all responsibility for its content, membership, and funding. So, if anything goes wrong, blame me.  On the other hand, for everything that is good, pat yourselves on the back, because YOU are the ones that make use of and build the site. As of right now, there are four administrators for the site: 3Suns, Blankman, Grymm, and Zoso Fan.  About the only additional privileges that Administrators have that users don't have is the ability to delete images, upload BIG media files, and block other users.

Hopefully, everyone will find it a useful resource.  Cheers!