SeriousEngine.com:About
From SeriousEngine.com
Frequently Asked Questions
History
In the middle of the year 2000, a previously unheardof developer named Croteam released their first public test of Serious Sam and the Serious Engine. Serious Sam: The First Encounter was released to the masses garnering praise from all directions and even Gamespot's GOTY award. Following The First Encounter, Serious Sam: The Second Encounter was released in early 2002. The Serious Wiki was started in November of 2002 and officially opened in May of 2003, and aims to provide a single source for all Serious Engine information and documentation to assist mod makers and engine licensees in their use of the Serious Engine and its tools.
It has since transitioned into a new design and back-end wiki which is much more flexible and useful, and aims to provide the best tools and information in the world for Serious Engine 2, powering Serious Sam II.
What is SeriousEngine.com?
SeriousEngine.com is a site run off of MediaWiki and contributed to by anyone and everyone that has something to say.
Who can contribute?
Everyone! You don't even have to register to add or edit pages, all you have to do is use your mind and contribute! You can find more information about posting in our 20-minute Wiki primer.
Why are so many pages missing or unfinished?
The site is a constantly evolving collection of articles containing contributions from various different authors. If something is missing, add it in yourself!
What are all the red links?
Those are links that people have made to pages that don't yet exist on the system. When you type text [[like this]] in a page, Wiki creates a link. If the text in the double square brackets isn't the name of an existing page, the new link will lead to a form where the new page can be created. Once the page has been created, the text will become normal link.
Anyone can edit my text!?
It's definitely weird and a bit unsettling, but it all works out in the end. Two heads are better than one, and hundreds of heads are better than two. Er...something like that. Yea...
But can't idiots destroy articles?
Sure they can. But at the same time, the first person to notice vandalism can easily fix it. All changes are recorded and past revisions of pages are stored. All you have to do to restore an old copy of a page is open an old copy by clicking on the "history" tab at the top of the page and clicking the last working copy and then save that revision. IPs are publicly logged on the pages when they are edited, and if necessary they can be blocked from the site. Also, admins can lock the entire site or certain pages, making it read-only.
- see also Wiki Protection for info on how you can help
I don't know enough to contribute.
Anyone can help. If you've ever opened the Serious Editor, you're bound to know something. If you've only opened it once, you have the beginner's perspective -- if the articles aimed at beginners don't make sense to you, change them so they do!
Do I need to register?
In short, no. But it is preferred that you do register, and plus, registering allows all changes that you make to be credited to you! You can also setup your personal preferences for viewnig the site and editing pages by registering. You may notice that if you are not logged in that you are unable to edit some pages, and by registering these pages can be edited as well.
Who runs this site?
You do. There's a list of people working on the site on the Users page. The content of the site is decided by people who decide to contribute. The topics list on the main page is gradually being shaped by individual additions. If you want to add something that doesn't fall under one of the headings, add a new heading. The administers of the site are Jason "Rodzilla" Rodzik and Michael Harris.
What do admins do?
We do our best to contribute and improve the site as much as you do. The only things admins can do that you can't are:
- Rename pages (anyone can port content to a new page, but this function renames all the links throughout the site too)
- Delete pages (same again)
- Ban IPs
- Lock the entire site or individual pages (see Wiki Protection)
Can I be an admin?
Why do you need to be? You can already edit every page on the site, and the few functions administrators have access to that you can't are rarely used. Unless we're in desperate need of administrators, don't expect to become an admin. But don't worry about it, you can already edit everything on the site!
