Hey! It’s been ages! How have you been? What are you up to these days? What have we been up to? Well, we’ve been quite busy, as you’ll soon find out, and this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There’s a lot of stuff just itching to be finalized. What are those things? I guess you’ll just have to wait and see. Below, we’ll tell you two things about how we’ve managed to “hide” some extraneous content on the wiki, but kept it available for people to see if they want to. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves; first, here’s Pholon taking a long historical look on the state of things.
Galleries
by Pholon
I recently bought an Atlas of World History. I’ve always enjoyed the subject matter addressed by them, but when taking history classes in high school, the “Netherlands” fighting for freedom from the “Spanish” invaders, or the concept of the “British Empire” all seemed to represent something quite different from what lands belong to these countries today. I love how such an atlas puts the whole thing in perspective.
That’s what’s important about history; it isn’t just a recording of numbers and years, which country won which battle and who reigned for how long. To get a clear impression of what actually went on at the time, you need more than naked facts. Learning about the Vietnam War isn’t the same without seeing the photographs of a dismayed L Johnson or this horrific image. We want to try and take the same approach with our “historic” Liquipedia articles. Sure, we’ll be recording all the players, races, scores, and wins, but the representation of a given MLG isn’t done justice, isn’t complete, isn’t well-rounded, without images of MC’s Murloc suit, Huk’s Hallucinated Void Rays, or Leta’s backflip.
Therefore, we introduce the gallery section:
The Gallery for MLG Spring Championship
In the gallery, we try to record all secondary media, including interviews, photos, videos, and anything else we can get our hands on. If you miss out on a great photographer’s TL blog, or that hilarious interview everyone is getting their new meme from, LP is now your central hub for finding links to these sources.
All of this leads us to the second reason for this new project. We would like to cordially invite any content makers - be they interviewers, photographers, or otherwise - to come to Liquipedia and link their material there. We’d be absolutely happy to help promote your material and, should the link to your Flickr album be lost in the depths of the SC2 forum, it will still be around on the LP page of the tournament for all eternity, so that people in the future, looking through some SC2 history, can still find that extra content.
+maps
by salle
One of the key pillars of a wiki like Liquipedia is collaboration. We’re lucky enough to have that specific kind of collaboration that leads to an incremental evolution of ideas and practices. As an example of this, there was a lengthy discussion on our IRC channel about one prominent facet of the wiki - how we show details of group results. What group results had grown into was starting to get out of hand on some pages. Let me give you a short background of the problem.
We have mostly used a simple table that presented the different matchups within the group and the score between them, highlighting the winner with a green background. It mostly sits ignored below the group standing table, all collapsed to a single line with a [show]-link that screams for attention, but only rarely do some lost wanderers on the wiki actually click on it. This was the standard for quite some time, then came GSL groups, and someone wanted more information in the match list box, so it evolved into something that looks very much like the match summary. Then, the GSL groups were extended to best of threes and the lists tripled in length. This became problematic, as it could have to list up to eighteen games. Once you factor in the fact that we use two lines per game... you get the picture.
Top Left: Original look of the group list. Bottom Left: First iteration for GSL Group stages. Right: Second iteration for GSL Group stages
The discussion moved out of IRC (thanks to PhiLtheFisH) and many people gave input, new suggestions, feedback on those suggestions, and newer suggestions still. People got so involved that I’m not sure whether we actually arrived at a consensus on which version people liked most... but I made the template code, then mused on IRC that it would be cool if we could add a bit of javascript to make it even better. Reign, to his credit, said, "Let me take a stab at that". Over the next week we had a few back and forths, since changing the javascript on the site isn't something we do often (actually it’s the first time we’ve added code that’s been custom made for Liquipedia).
So now we have a table that looks almost identical to the original, except with one addition; when the [+maps] is clicked, it will expand to reveal all of the games within the match, as well as what maps they were played on.
Top Left: No change here. Bottom Left: There's a new link next to [hide]. Right: New goodness.
Now, all of the information about who won, on what map, and in what order is there for you to see if you want to see it and, even expanded, it doesn't take up as much vertical space. Moreover, it currently supports a group of six players and best of nine series. Additionally, I think it looks rather good, if I do say so myself.
The biggest thanks for this go to PhiLtheFisH, ChapatiyaqPTSM, AntiLegend, and Reign, and big thanks to everyone else who offered suggestions and criticisms.
If you're interested in seeing how to use the new match list template head on over to: Template:MatchList or our IRC channel.
Staff Changes
by Pholon
As Liquipedia keeps growing, so too must its staff. Today, we are happy to announce our two most recent additions:
PhiLtheFisH - Apart from boasting two gold coins, and sporting no fewer than two Liquichievments on his userpage, PhiL has been more than helpful in developing new ways of showing information on Liquipedia. Apart from being involved in the +maps project above, he has worked his hands at the Player Result Timelines that can be found on, for example, the achievement pages for Ret and MarineKing. We also suspect he’s got some more projects up his sleeve, so we’re looking forward to those in the future.
shz - Although the pronunciation of his name remains a mystery to us all, the beastly extent of his contributions speaks for itself. If we can’t stagger you with his Contributions page, rest assured that the sum of all the reviews he does is just as vast. When he manages to catch a break from updating all the Tournament pages, he also holds the unsteady hands of any newcomers to the wiki.
With such amazing track records, we are happy to welcome them to the higher ranks, and we expect them to continue to do really well. Feel free to include these two on your lists of “Who to ask about Liquipedia stuff,” and, “Who to scream at in complete panic when something goes horribly wrong.”
Secondly, we are saying goodbye to Aesop. He was active for the Liquipedia even before the first one saw the light of day. Then, promoted to Head of Liquipedia, he was our very own dear leader for about two-and-a-half years. Last March however, he fathered a healthy baby boy and, as you might imagine, has been quite occupied since. His decision to step down as Head of Liquipedia followed. We wish him and his family all the best and we look forward to Minisop’s first edit!
Replacing Aesop will be salle. You may have noticed his forum name taking on a sudden reddish hue of late and this is why. Salle has been a long time contributor, has done a lot of work on templates, coding, and policies, as well as chiming in behind the scenes. If we had a sorting hat, he’d be put in house Liquipedior. Congratulations on your new position salle, we’re all sure you’ll do well
Liquipedia In Numbers
by salle & pathy
In closing, we’d like to point out that we’ve actively started to try and use the Liquipedia stream. Look out for it in the future, as we’ll try to show more of what goes on behind the scenes LIVE.
Poll: Have you watched the Liquipedia stream yet?
No (1160)
68%
Yes (548)
32%
1708 total votes
Your vote: Have you watched the Liquipedia stream yet?
Depends on the tournaments. Some games are normally played first but not casted but sometimes editors can't get the results before other matches which are casted.
Depends on the tournaments. Some games are normally played first but not casted but sometimes editors can't get the results before other matches which are casted.
Ideally it should be the order the matches were played. It is easy to set up games in alt1 order before they've been played since you know which games will be played, but just because something is easy doesn't mean it's the best way to do it. So we might need to shift the procedure of how we've previously set up matches. Also like Otolia said above, sometimes the results aren't presented in the right chronological order (now I do believe binarybeast does have them chronologically on their site, but I do not know if they were released chronologically). And there were a great many groups played at DreamHack, making it quite hard to enforce one standard when there's so many contributors over that kind of time span. Hopefully this will get better in the future, it's certainly something I think we all are aiming for.
A lot of old things seem to be popping up again. Maybe it's been caused by BW's collapse causing the staff to all focus on SC2. Maybe some passionate people came along decided that they wanted to bring some good things back. Either way, it's nice to see these old/new things here.
On June 30 2012 08:36 RoninShogun wrote: Liquipedia is number 1! I encourage everyone to try and earn some coins while they are watching streams/browsing TL, it's very rewarding
Pardon my ignorance. How do you earn coins? I know they're for editing Liquipedia, but what exactly do you have to do?
On June 30 2012 08:29 AnachronisticAnarchy wrote: A lot of old things seem to be popping up again. Maybe it's been caused by BW's collapse causing the staff to all focus on SC2. Maybe some passionate people came along decided that they wanted to bring some good things back. Either way, it's nice to see these old/new things here.
Sadly most contributors from the original Liquipedia are not active on Liquipedia 2. The bulk of the contributors who are helping out now have been on the wiki less than a year. If we look at the statistics we see that LP2 has 10 times the number of registered contributors that LP1 has.
As to why we've not been doing a newspost in ages is more to do with how we've prioritized, hopefully it'll be more often and more regular in the future. Since people on the wiki have been so productive there's a lot of content to write about. ^^;;;
On June 30 2012 08:36 RoninShogun wrote: Liquipedia is number 1! I encourage everyone to try and earn some coins while they are watching streams/browsing TL, it's very rewarding
Pardon my ignorance. How do you earn coins? I know they're for editing Liquipedia, but what exactly do you have to do?
On June 30 2012 08:36 RoninShogun wrote: Liquipedia is number 1! I encourage everyone to try and earn some coins while they are watching streams/browsing TL, it's very rewarding
Pardon my ignorance. How do you earn coins? I know they're for editing Liquipedia, but what exactly do you have to do?
Log in, edit, contribute.
I have on occasion, but I'll make sure to do it more often. Those gold coins look really cool.
On June 30 2012 08:36 RoninShogun wrote: Liquipedia is number 1! I encourage everyone to try and earn some coins while they are watching streams/browsing TL, it's very rewarding
Pardon my ignorance. How do you earn coins? I know they're for editing Liquipedia, but what exactly do you have to do?
Log in, edit, contribute.
I have on occasion, but I'll make sure to do it more often. Those gold coins look really cool.
Also you have to choose "none" for the team you support to have the coins visible in all forums.
Liquipedia, Liquidpedos, whatever. You guys do an amazing job, I think I check the wiki daily. I really appreciate the effort. The feature I like the most: how at the top of whatever tournament (and whatever detail about the tournament) you're looking for information about, there's a link to the current season of that tournament. Simple, unintrusive and so very helpful and time-saving. Whoever came up with that deserves a handjob from DRG (400 apm, ya'll!). Thanks!
On June 30 2012 09:19 m0ck wrote: Liquipedia, Liquidpedos, whatever. You guys do an amazing job, I think I check the wiki daily. I really appreciate the effort. The feature I like the most: how at the top of whatever tournament (and whatever detail about the tournament) you're looking for information about, there's a link to the current season of that tournament. Simple, unintrusive and so very helpful and time-saving. Whoever came up with that deserves a handjob from DRG (400 apm, ya'll!). Thanks!
On June 30 2012 08:36 RoninShogun wrote: Liquipedia is number 1! I encourage everyone to try and earn some coins while they are watching streams/browsing TL, it's very rewarding
Pardon my ignorance. How do you earn coins? I know they're for editing Liquipedia, but what exactly do you have to do?
Log in, edit, contribute.
I have on occasion, but I'll make sure to do it more often. Those gold coins look really cool.
Try edit your profile and select none as your favorite programming team, maybe a bronze coin or two shows up in place of the team icon!
On June 30 2012 08:36 RoninShogun wrote: Liquipedia is number 1! I encourage everyone to try and earn some coins while they are watching streams/browsing TL, it's very rewarding
Pardon my ignorance. How do you earn coins? I know they're for editing Liquipedia, but what exactly do you have to do?
Log in, edit, contribute.
I have on occasion, but I'll make sure to do it more often. Those gold coins look really cool.
Also you have to choose "none" for the team you support to have the coins visible in all forums.
Thanks for all the hard work on the Liquipedia! I always know where to look first when I'm trying to learn a new map The new changes look pretty sweet too, I love the look of the new +maps.
Will the video section include all of those "behind the scenes" type videos that are not directly related to SC or eSports but show notable individuals outside the normal spots. Like the relay races, Naz vs. Huk, or even a database archive/link to notable scene videos like SoTG, ITG, etc. etc.
Liquipedia is one resource that EVERONE needs to know about. It updates super fast and has a clean neatly organized design. Big props to those contribute.
it's pretty much impossible to put into words how awesome liquipedia is. i remember ~7 yrs ago when the forum occasionally had posts suggesting the idea of a sc wiki but tl staff and members couldn't imagine how to put together something that huge. now it's fucking enormous and a really important piece of the community. neato.
But how does MLG Providence only has 1,255,535 page views in the tournaments with the most pageviews, yet in the most pageviews in a single day ranking, it has 1,391,094 on Final day and 1,228,142 the day before ?
I actually really like browsing LP. It's great when I want to put shit into perspective. It's SO handy! I started following the LoL pro scene a bit recently (because I've picked up the game; don't worry by the way I mostly watch SC2) and it's really hard to get an idea of which teams are the best because it's hard to find information.
So I really tip my e-hat to you guys, have a couple of e-drinks on me because your shit is fabulous.
On June 30 2012 16:17 endy wrote: Wow stats are huge !
But how does MLG Providence only has 1,255,535 page views in the tournaments with the most pageviews, yet in the most pageviews in a single day ranking, it has 1,391,094 on Final day and 1,228,142 the day before ?
The stats for days means all pages on the wiki, so not just the tournament page, thats why the date is in front, the tournament name is just to let you know what was going on on that day). The avarage number of pageviews per visit is also listed and gives you an idea why the MLG Providence (main page) has less views.
I love to check out tournament brackets and other tournament information on liquipedia. It is just such a better source than almost any other tournament site. But what impresses me even more is the way the development is handled. It is steady, calm and seems to focus on the right parts. Of course there will always be ways to improve, but so far I have to say that the liquidpedia staff is doing an awesome job.
Hey, long-time lurker, just wanted to poke my head in here and voice my appreciation for all the work that everyone puts into liquipedia. Y'all are great =).
Unless there's a pun I'm not getting.... I don't think there's a comma in 'Long time no see'
On topic: Liquipedia is great stuff. I bet even tournament casters use it to get updates on the brackets of the tourney they're casting right then and there
Very nice additions. I love liquipedia - its the best source of SC2 information on the web, and you guys continue to improve it. Thank you for all your hard work.
My next request -- a tournament bracket setup for 64-man and 128-man Double Elimination.
Love liquipedia! Thanks for the amazing work the "timeline/result-thingy" is really awesome. would be cool if you could make a "list" of all players who won major tournaments over the time if thats even visually possible.