Ron MilesWebsite Owner  Commander In Chief Posts:864  
| 7/10/2010 11:43 AM |
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I would just like to direct everyone's attention to the Wiki link in the site navigation. It has been there forever, but the wiki software I was using was problematic and I never put a lot of effort into adding content there. A few weeks ago I installed a new wiki module (Canam Wiki Pro by Canam Solutions) and Kerrick stepped up to take ownership of the new JamesAxler.com wiki project. He has filled it with a great deal of information, but of course there are plenty of gaps - particularly as relates to Outlanders, since he has not read those books yet. So, first of all I just wanted to publicly say: Bravo, Kerrick, very nice job! Second, I would like to encourage everyone to check it out. You can get there by just clicking Wiki in the site navigation in the upper left hand corner of the page. Finally, I would like to encourage anyone and everyone to contribute. This is particularly a call out to you die-hard Outlanders fans. Now is your chance to step up and be constructively proactive. If you have never worked with a wiki before, don't be afraid to wade right in. Kerrick was even thoughtful enough to create a wiki page on how to create and edit wiki pages - you can read it here or follow the link for it on the wiki home page. Now, one last little carrot: I have sitting on my desk right here a stack of brand new, shrinkwrapped Graphic Audio CD's. If you have never listened to the Graphic Audio productions, you are really missing out. They are nothing short of spectacular. For anyone who makes a worthwhile contribution to the wiki, while supplies last I will send you one of these CD's as a prize. That's a $19.99 value, and all it takes is a little constructive contribution on your part. What constitutes "worthwhile"? Well, obviously that is entirely subjective on my part. Going in and editing and existing page by changing one word probably won't qualify. Going in and creating a new page that covers the entire history of the Tuatha Dé Danann as they relate to the secret history of the Earth and their manipulation of mankind? Well, that there will probably land you a free audio book. So, get cracking, and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. Both Kerrick and I will be more than happy to assist you with any issues and/or questions you might have. I look forward to seeing what you all can contribute, I know there is a lot of knowledge and passion out there just waiting to be tapped. "Sadly then I knew the answer. All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew." - The Residents
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Kerrick Basic Member Posts:322 
| 7/10/2010 1:03 PM |
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Thanks Ron. This is a really great opportunity for me; I've done freelance writing before, but I've never gotten to do something like build the wiki on an official fansite. It's so cool to see it all up and running now!  To everyone else: Get in there and add some content! This is the official wiki, the one that codifies canon for the series. If it's not there, no one will know about it.  |
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The PhantomBasic Member Posts:219 
| 7/10/2010 2:32 PM |
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My question is: The wiki in general, and especially for Outlanders would contain a wealth of spoiler information. Would it be advisable to let people know that Spoiler info may be there?
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Ron MilesWebsite Owner Commander In Chief Posts:864
| 7/10/2010 3:05 PM |
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My feeling is that if you are reading book summaries and other similar information, it is just assumed that it is filled with spoilers.
Kerrick, what do you think?
"Sadly then I knew the answer. All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew." - The Residents
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Ron MilesWebsite Owner Commander In Chief Posts:864
| 7/10/2010 3:11 PM |
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I just went in and added the Outlanders Books page, in the same format you used for the Deathlands Books page. So there's a starting point...
"Sadly then I knew the answer. All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew." - The Residents
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KerrickBasic Member Posts:322
| 7/11/2010 8:48 PM |
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I agree - a wiki touted as containing all the information from the series would, by association, contain spoilers. I think when I first started doing the book summaries, I considered making a note about spoilers, but book summary = spoiler anyway, so I didn't bother. I just noticed... you mispelled my name in the title, Ron.  And thanks for the book list - I'd meant to do that and totally forgot about it. |
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Ron MilesWebsite Owner Commander In Chief Posts:864
| 7/11/2010 8:51 PM |
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I don't know what you mean. Your name is TOTALLY spelled right in the title. ;-)
"Sadly then I knew the answer. All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew." - The Residents
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KerrickBasic Member Posts:322
| 8/26/2010 10:45 PM |
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I just wanted to make a quick post. I've been fighting burnout for awhile now.  I got a couple new books written up (Red Holocaust and Circle Thrice), and added a ton of new content from those (lots of old characters, for instance). I've got three and a half more books that I've read but haven't summarized (one is half-written); I wanted to wait until I had them all done and do it in one huge update, but I figured it was better just to add what I had for now and do the rest later. I've got another fifteen or so coming soon (I went to visit my family a couple weeks ago and got to root through all my books that were packed up; I found a bunch I didn't know I had, and a lot I did  ). I don't know how much traffic the wiki's getting (if any), but if you like it, give me a shout out. I know I'm shamelessly begging for praise, but I need some motivation to keep working on this. I was hoping some other folks would step up and add some OL (or even DL) content, but all we've got are web bots replacing page content with spam links. |
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Ron MilesWebsite Owner Commander In Chief Posts:864
| 8/28/2010 7:13 PM |
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You are doing an excellent job, and I do hope you keep at it. Believe me, I know how burnout happens (I've been doing this gig for 13 years now, myself).
I've been busy with work stuff (how unusual!), but when I have a moment I will send you the google analytics to see how the site traffic looks.
BTW - I've been intercepting a steady trickle of those spammy updates to the DL pages. Are the OL ones going through without moderation?
"Sadly then I knew the answer. All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew." - The Residents
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KerrickBasic Member Posts:322
| 8/29/2010 12:36 AM |
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Oh, cool. I have Analytics set up for my other Wikidot site... it's really nice. I have all next week off from work, so I'll try to get those last three books done (though I'll be doing a little travelling too). AFAICT, there haven't been any changes to any OL pages since I set them up - it seems even the spambots are ignoring them. |
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Jax2Published Author  Veteran Member Posts:269 
| 8/29/2010 11:37 AM |
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Good job!
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Jax2Published Author Veteran Member Posts:269
| 8/29/2010 11:39 AM |
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Good job!
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KerrickBasic Member Posts:322
| 9/2/2010 10:21 PM |
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Wow, must've been a really good job if you said it twice!  But seriously... thanks. I needed that. I've added two more books - Baptism of Rage and Shadow World - along with several new characters and locations, and fixed a few mistakes I found in the other pages. I have just one more in my backlog (Desert Kings; I'm not looking forward to it, because I hate Pollotta's books). My box o' books still hasn't arrived. Gotta love the US Postal Service. |
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Wordsmith-repriseFreelance Editor Basic Member Posts:150
| 9/12/2010 9:49 AM |
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Kerrick, you've done a fab job with the DL/OL wiki. I appreciate all the effort you have put into this project. One thing I noticed in Dean's profile is that it mentions that he is 14 years old. I have been keeping close tabs on him, aging him slowly over the years from his being 9 to 13ish. So he's 13. This is important as he will have aged two years in his next DL appearance. Everyone else ages as well, and I want to keep Jak in his teens. Could you please make the change? Thank you.
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KerrickBasic Member Posts:322
| 9/12/2010 10:08 PM |
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Oh, he's 13? I was guessing - the books stopped keeping track of him when he was 12ish, and it's really hard to judge how much time has passed since most of the books take place in a vacuum, timewise. Just so you know, anyone can make changes to the wiki, as long as you're registered. I just happen to be the only one doing it right now. BTW... hey Jax, you'll be happy to know I bought/read an OL book (Iceblood, the earliest one I could find) at the local used bookstore. They used to have a pretty good stock, but someone came by and bought up most of them, along with most of the DL books. I'll get the summary up sooner or later, regardless. |
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KerrickBasic Member Posts:322
| 9/17/2010 11:27 AM |
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Edited: Double post. |
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Ron MilesWebsite Owner Commander In Chief Posts:864
| 9/17/2010 11:42 AM |
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Sorry about that, I thought I had approved the earlier post but apparently I left it sitting in the moderation queue for five days instead. My bad.
"Sadly then I knew the answer. All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew." - The Residents
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KerrickBasic Member Posts:322
| 9/24/2010 11:43 AM |
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Rejoice! I've added the first Outlanders book summary to the wiki! Iceblood is now listed. I've made a list of some characters, but only the ones appearing the book (Gyatso, Zakat, and Dorjieff) have any information; I'll fill in what I know about the Cerberus crew later.
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KerrickBasic Member Posts:322
| 9/30/2010 1:31 AM |
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Question for anyone who cares to answer:
I'm currently reading Parallax Red, which has a bit of info about Scenario Joshua and Overproject Excalibur (it's dedicated to genetics). Among the other projects attributed to Whisper, we've got Janus (enables the whitecoats to clone a new being with changed attributes), Calypso (something about resistance/immunity to disease - I don't recall exactly) and Enterprise Eternity (the vampires). These would logically fall under a program dedicated to genetic research...
But my question is: Since these appeared before Outlanders was written, should we retcon them to be under Excalibur, so as to attempt to enforce a little cohesion to the Totality Concept? It's not like they'll ever appear in the books again anyway...
Also, what about the weapons programs - Styx and Eurydice? Those would likely fall under something unrelated to Whisper (which, I'm thinking, was mostly centered around continuity of government).
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Cerberus ManBasic Member Posts:144
| 9/30/2010 10:26 AM |
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I think there is more detailed information about the weapons programs and genetic divisions in Armageddon Axis and Shadow Scourge. Operation Chronois is laid out in Tomb of Time and a couple of other books.
"It's better to have a blaster and not need it than to need it and--"
"Oh, spare me," Brigid said irritably.
(Kane and Brigid Baptiste from Armageddon Axis)
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