Question about private updates

FemmeLegion

FemmeLegion

I am the nominal GM for "The Vale":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/424 because I'm the one with time and know-how to use the site. =)

I know it's possible now to create new pages that are GM-only, but I wanted to know: When you do such a thing, does that reset the "last updated X amount of time ago" on the campaign? I know it resets when a player adds hirself - I was rather confused for a moment trying to figure out what somebody had touched.

I care because I've been writing the narratives for each session, and this last one kicked my butt - I had to stop and come back to it repeatedly because it was so long (due entirely to my choice of writing style, I know, but it's "how I roll"). I was thinking that next time I would (because I can) set the write-up as GM Only until I was finished and could publish the whole thing at once, but if making a private change is going to reset the "last updated" clock the same as a public change, then I'll just keep doing what I did this time, which is perpetually end my updates with (More to come. Yes. Still.). As nuts as it drove me to see the campaign had been updated and not being able to figure out in what way, I don't want to inflict that on the others.

DarthKrzysztof

It looks like the update counter is reset whenever you create or modify _anything_ on the adventure log or wiki tab, whether it's public or GM-only. I keep my notes on a GM-only page, which I frequently save when I'm working on it, so I've seen this in action.

Stuff you do on the NPC tab, however, does not reset the update-o-meter.

I didn't realize that adding a player counts as an update either, until I gained one yesterday...

Charsen

Yeah, I do something similar... I like to check my formatting, to save my progress when I go to grab lunch, etc, so I end up saving often. I feel bad for hogging up the most recently updated field on the main page, but I would be horrified if I lost my work. Even saving it in MS Word or something isn't ideal because I want to make sure my textile is working as I write.

But that's why I think lots of people have an intro article at the top of their site that says what major stuff has been updated. That way if all you're doing is fixing a typo, no big deal - you'll have your major updates on that news article.

I do agree though that it would be awesome if we could say when to "announce (major) updates" to our fans and whatnot! Great idea. :)

geekevolved

Notepad is a better tool than Word. It doesn't carry formatting except that which you set. For us old-school coders, its the prime rib of programming tools. It would be perfect for typing stuff out ahead of time. Start>Run>Notepad.

Charsen

Yeah, I'm familiar with notepad. I use it a lot for coding as well. However, I prefer to render the textile formatting as I work, and to save it online since i use three computers to work on my story. One at home, at work, and at my friend's house. So, yeah. Unfortunately, gotta save it often this way.

Micah

The main point of the "last updated" value is to let infrequent visitors get an idea of which campaigns are active. Even if you're just making a small edit to a wiki page, it still means that you're taking the trouble to update your campaign. Still, it would be nice to be able to flag something as a major update so frequent visitors know when to check back.

Currently, it occurs on the following events:
* Add/remove player
* Edit wiki or adventure log

I think that's it. It should probably also happen when you add/remove an NPC, but I never hooked that up.

Others have asked for the ability to choose when the update occurs, but it's probably near the bottom of the todo list. It would be awesome to be able to do something like Facebook's updates of what your friends are up to, but that's a long ways off.

Thanks for the tips!