Gone, But Not Forgotten...

[Aphetoros]

A grave made long ago sits in the back of the cemetery, the headstone worn by weather. As you approach you notice that the grave has been forced open and redug multiple times, and right now remains empty still.

The headstone reads 'Astus'

I kid of course Aph. c:

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

<3

[Piroska]

My opinion on this would be to begin categorizing profiles with [[Categoryead]]. From there people could simply go under the dead category, search for their loved (or hated!) one and leave a little IC memorial in the 'Discussion' tab at the top.

If the policy is the same as when I used to frolic through the wiki, this should already be done. They were tagged as Deceased, I believe.

From there, each character's page could have a section that allows people to post reminders. Then again, you can alread do this: I do it on each of my characters' page in a section called As Seen By Other. It invites people to post IC comments about that specific character for funs.

Essentially, you could create a similar template for deceased characters and then plop that at the bottom of the page, encouraging people to leave comments.

[Aisha]

It is good.

That is all.

Release the hounds!

[Magus]

*Places cookies, coffee, gamer fuel of all kinds and ...pie out for the Wikifiers/web builders*

[Harmonic]

The only thing with a single topic... everyone is gonna want to post in it, and the hero's epitaph will be "Lost" in a sea of graves. Perhaps... if I may be so bold...

A subforum?

[Rigley]

The only thing with a single topic... everyone is gonna want to post in it, and the hero's epitaph will be "Lost" in a sea of graves. Perhaps... if I may be so bold...

A subforum?

Good point. Perhaps an offshoot in the IC forum?

[Psychyn]

^ Works for me. Post a character name in the thread title and voila, people can search for the death of their favourite hero/villain.

[ImagenAshyun]

It's not necro-ing if the last post is within the same month!

I'm still on board with this, especially since I intend to kill off a few characters in the near future. A possible IC subforum would work to our benefit here, as it'd work the same way as Resurrection threads and Personals.

[Piroska]

Just to follow up on the whole wiki-application thing, I (finally) fixed the Quote Template on the wiki. The syntax for the template is fairly easy:

{{quote|quote text|quote width in pixels|author or speaker}}

• quote identifies that it's the quote template. Do not edit this!
  
• quote text is your quote. Generally you'll want a single line of text, but you can enter multiple lines. Please use the HTML code for a line break (< br />, spaces added because I was afraid that the forums would strip the HTML) in order create spacing. You can place wikitext here if desired, but it should be kept to a minimum.
  
• quote width in pixels is the font size (in pixels) of the quotation marks flanking the quote. The default value is 20px; I'm partial to 30px because it creates nice, big, and chunky quotation marks.
  
• author or speaker is who said the quote. You can use wikitext in this, so if a character with a archived profile made the statement you can link to that character's profile on the wiki.

I've used this template on my character's profile in the As Seen by Others section. The code for that was:

{{quote|She ''is'' a mean-spirited, cantankerous, conniving, soulless woman! But she is mine and I love her! And if you say those things about her again I will turn your entrails into a necklace with your tongue as the centerpiece. *giggles*|30px|[[Tallaa|Tallaa Al'shar]]}}

For those with some knowledge of wikitext, you can probably see that I've provided a link to Tallaa's character sheet on the wiki (if he'd ever gotten the damned thing approved, that is).

It is important to note that only the first two segments (quote and quote text) are required for the template. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

Questions? Comments? Need further explanation? Reply here! More information can be found on the template's article and there are even a small handful of examples on the page as well. Delta has also used the template on her wiki profile if you want to see another example in action!

While this isn't an optimal solution, it is an option available to members and it would fairly well memorialize things on the wiki because, honestly, anything up there is pretty much there for-ev-er. Seriously. Nothing ever gets removed from a wiki unless it's perma-removed and even then I think that deletions can be reverted!


Edit: If we move forward with this, I should probably also create a template that places a banner across the top of the profile announcing that the character is dead. This should also automatically place it in whatever category will be used for dead characters; historically, this was Deceased and I'm partial to remaining with that since the wiki currently links to this category's page from a number of different locations.

[Piroska]

Just a quick update regarding the topic of this thread. Based on suggestions that I heard from a handful of people, I've created a Deceased template. By placing the code on a particular character profile, it'll do a handful of things:

• Add a banner indicating that the character in the profile is deceased;
  
• Provide a link to the article's discussion page, which can be used to discuss the character; and
  
• Add that character to the Deceased category.

The code is {{deceased}} and it should be placed at the very top of the article.

You can see the template at work on Go'ren Whiteclaw's profile. Kril has also applied the new Charbox template on that page in case anyone was interested in seeing it functioning on a page rather than rely on the example displayed on the template's article. I need to tweak that template a little bit since it currently does not allow for the image displayed in the template to be resized. Which is sadness.

Also, I noticed that recent updates to the wiki borked the Quote template again. I'll be fixing that shortly in case anyone wanted to apply that to a page as well.


Edit: Quote template corrected -- again. This time I've utilized HTML the appropriate character entity references, so future updates to the wiki should hopefully not break the template. Cross your fingers!

Editty-Edit: Consider the charbox template updated, too. Rather than include a new parameter for image width, I just made it so that the entire code needs to be written out. I'm lazy and tweaking the code to make it work the other way made my head hurt. I've updated every transcluded use of the template (I saw that a couple of profiles now sport the code, whee!) so that it will continue to work.

[Bovel]

Only skimmed through the topic and I have to stay, great idea Magus!

And now for throwing my two cents down the wishing well;
1. finding deceased chould be easy, so a link to the said category should be present under Server Lore perhaps?
2. a few things should be listed about each fallen;
- where they died
- when they died
- who or what killed them
- where they are buried/where the memorial to this person is

All the races have different rites of their dead and a hero graveyard would not make sense, especially not after what happened in Eastern Plaguelands with the death knights. Knowing when, where and who killed them is a good foundation to find out who of these heroes my character might have heard of and even pay tribute to, even though I never knew them.



PS. I love you Whale-food, been wanting Charboxes for like ever and ever now!!

[Piroska]

1. finding deceased chould be easy, so a link to the said category should be present under Server Lore perhaps?

I'm a little wary of doing anything related to Server Lore. In the past, anything tagged by server lore or listed on the Server Lore article was intended to be something that would affect the entire server as a whole. I will admit, however, that quite a bit of those articles need to be archived (tagged as being outdated? I could create a template for it) so it's a potential.

Currently, deceased characters have their category listed under the Character category. There's also a handful of links scattered throughout the site. I'm planning on removing the redirect from the Character article to Character category and then using that namespace to create an actual, real article. This way, I could list all sort of specific things there, including all of the subcategories and guides. I should probably create some sort of article for dead characters (then linked to the resurrection article, if there is one. If not, I should make it).

I'll give it some thought! I definitely do want to get around to the Server Lore article at some point -- the information there is frightfully antediluvian. I think it's from two restarts ago (it wasn't current when I joined two years ago).

2. a few things should be listed about each fallen;
- where they died
- when they died
- who or what killed them
- where they are buried/where the memorial to this person is

I'm considering a handful of things.

1. Rather than have a discussion page, create a subpage ({{PAGENAME}}/Dead or deceased or something!) where all of this discussion occurs. This would organize things a bit, but it may not be needed since character talk pages aren't currently utilized at all except when some staff members list that they've been leveled. I'm just letting that mull right now.
   
2. Some sort of deceased template that has this kind of information. Most likely in tabular form because we like that.
   
3. The quote template still exists, which can always be used to display IC comments on any page.

Keep in mind, too, that players are invited to updated their characters' histories as they roleplay them. It would make sense to create a third-level heading under History called Death or something similar and then place the prose-like description of the character's demise there.

PS. I love you Whale-food, been wanting Charboxes for like ever and ever now!!

I am... whale... food?

However, if there are any ideas that you have the wiki and would like to bounce around, toss it my way. I've got quite a bit of freetime lately and -- I cannot lie -- I've been spending some of it working on the wiki again. I enjoy the effort and it allows me to pretend that I'm doing some sort of coding or design-based work again. Whee!

[Krilari]

I think by whale food he means me.

But no, the charboxes are a creation of Piroska once more. I am but spreading the news a bit.

[Bovel]

I should probably create some sort of article for dead characters (then linked to the resurrection article, if there is one. If not, I should make it).

Well at least someone should, perhaps focusing on some guidelines about setting your character as deceased and future resurrection to avoid drama and confusion.

Might it be that a character marked as dead cannot be resurrected at all, until next restart or maybe just that they have to wait say a month before the character can come back.

I think it's from two restarts ago (it wasn't current when I joined two years ago).

You are correct on that, that server lore was in place when I first started here and did was retconned the following restart. But I still think that character worthy to be remembered after they have died is very much server lore, if even only as a subcategory.

1. Rather than have a discussion page, create a subpage...
   
2. Some sort of deceased template that has this kind of information. Most likely in tabular form because we like that.
   
3. The quote template still exists, which can always be used to display IC comments on any page.

Keep in mind, too, that players are invited to updated their characters' histories as they roleplay them. It would make sense to create a third-level heading under History called Death or something similar and then place the prose-like description of the character's demise there.

Having a template on each profile mentioning these details would be good and in lines with what I'm suggesting. I think deaths on CotH should be a usable as a foundation or at least spice to our characters and their RP. To utulize this info, it should be easy and accessible and not require too much pagehopping and reading discussion, some info should be clean and simple so that more than just us really nerdy types takes advantage of it.

For example having the Deceased Category also listing everyone by race. As an Orc-player I might be interested in what orcs portrayed recently have fallen, someone that could have been a rolemodel for the character.

I am... whale... food?

Might have missunderstood what you wrote, cause I was refering to Krill. Either way, you have a special neat and organized corner in my RP heart as well.

However, if there are any ideas that you have the wiki and would like to bounce around, toss it my way.

Actually I have one that dawned on my while reading in this thread; War Efforts. A lot of the characters portrayed have officially taken part in wars on either sides, is it possible to create some kind of network where these participations can be listed to easier connect with other conscripts?

[CappnRob]

I don't see why we can't put them in server lore, considering CotH has taken the stance against custom lore now, so only a few truly large events like the Draenei pilgrimage would really get mentioned in there. After all, are not our characters unique to the server, so their story, their lore, is server lore, no matter how small?