Portal Wiki:Discussion

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Bot account

[Sorry for my English] Hello everyone! I want to write bot with Pywikipediabot to edit russian articles. Should I have special rights to do this? --Daniil 10:33, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

What exactly do you want to write a bot for? — Wind 20:14, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Greetings

We must continue testing.
— minip 01:41, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

For the people who are still alive? Darkstar516 23:28, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

I thought all of us are alive... until we bring GLaDOS some neurotoxin DrAkcel ^{(T | C)} 03:59, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Canon Portal storyline

Trying to start off some articles for the characters I realized that the Portal timeline and storyline has been changed by Valve quite a few time. For instance last year they gave gameinformer this timeline which states Cave Johnson contracted mercury poisoning, while in-game he states he became ill after grinding up poisonous moon rocks. Also from what I recall his motivations for building GLaDOS were different during the Portal 2 announcement ARG. This is probably a result of Valve constantly changing the Portal 2 storyline as the game developed. In short I'm finding it difficult to build a storyline without it contradicting itself everywhere. I propose we take everything in Portal 2 as hard fact (obviously) and take everything else from reliable sources (the ARG, gameinformer article(?)) as long as it doesn't contradict with statements made in Portal 2. —Mussekateer·talk 15:57, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

There's no official story about the Cave Johnson bit, but there seems to be a consensus around the community that the story in gameinformer was a "cover story" for the public. Of course, that's all speculation. My recommendation is that if something in the game contradicts other information, then the game should take precedence as the official canonical version. I have the feeling that most of what was in the ARG is going to get cut. Even some things as recent as the second ARG, like Cave Johnson's portrait (Google image search Cave Johnson, you'll see what I mean) is different in-game. –Alex  2539 (t · c) 21:09, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

One thing to consider is that CJ might have thought Mercury was "moon rocks" because it was called Mercury. He wasn't exactly scientifically inclined so it's a possibility, even if it is a stretch. It makes sense to me that Mercury could be a good portal conductor too. -- Lagg 21:15, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Well mercury is liquid at room temperature, so it's hard to imagine it being confused with a rock of any sort. That's not really the point though. What matters is that there is a contradiction. Since the game says "moon rocks" we should too. It might be worth mentioning that previous material mentioned mercury poisoning but we can't possibly give a reason for the change without falling into supposition. Unless an official explanation is given, the games should take precedence as "fact", everything else is a note of interest. –Alex  2539 (t · c) 01:07, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Quotes

I was thinking we should add quotes to the Skin pages, Hat pages, Flag pages, etc. Most other articles have their own quotes, so why not these? --Nihilus0(contribs) 23:50, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Sure thing; the only reason they don't have quotes is we haven't found funny ones for them. If you find one, by all means put it — Wind 23:57, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Mod articles?

So I stumbled on the page for Portal: Project-Beta and I think this deserves addressing while the Wiki is still young. What is our policy on mods? Obviously we can't have an article for every mod under the sun, but some, like Portal: Prelude are obviously deserving. For those that are less obvious, what criteria should be met before an article is considered for them? My first instinct is to prefer those that are notable and available for download. There should also probably be a minimum level of quality. I should mention that I don't mean to say that Project-Beta is undeserving of an article, I don't know the mod well enough to judge. Instead, if it is deserving i would like to know why and what other mods should be included. –Alex  2539 (t · c) 20:06, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

This kind of debate doesn't really end >: Just write about the ones that are obviously notable (Portal Prelude, Blue Portals). — Wind 20:14, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Late, but I actually play through the mods and assess if they are note-worthy. They need to be complete (i.e in a feature-complete released state), and they must be notable. I judge notability via their Mod.db page. Obviously presence on Mod.db is not enough, it must have good feedback scores, a good download count, and a good rank; all of these statistics are available on Mod.db. i-ghost 12:35, 8 July 2011 (UTC)

1000 article milestone

*confetti* i-ghost 00:22, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

I made it all up — Wind 00:56, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Surprise! - DSnWiiRocks (talk) 10:06, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Un... Offical Portal Wiki

I thought. Can we be OFFICIAL PORTAL WIKI?

I've wrtitten to Gabe about this theme.

---

How do you think? Can we be? --CakeJohnson 11:23, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

e have asked previously but have received no answer — Wind 01:38, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Anything yet? I want to dethrone the OverWiki from it's Portal-related dominance. Sven 11:29, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Nope, I don't think they want an official wiki at this point — Wind 13:34, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

It's ironic that a Wiki not really dedicated to Portal would have much more information about Portal than one actually was dedicated to Portal. I mean, come on! "Move it, lads!" - DSnWiiRocks (talk) 10:05, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Honestly, I copy-and-pasted some article text from the Combine OverWiki to the appropriate articles in this Wiki to make it look more populated, and tried to make it more informative. I mean, the "Development" section of the Portal 2 article is empty until I regurgitated some information I picked up from reading The Final Hours of Portal 2! We can't be defeated! DSnWiiRocks (talk) 17:29, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Please go back and erase/rewrite these sections immediately. Our content license (CC unported) is more permissive than Combine Overwiki's license (CC unported sharealike), which means we can't copy text from them. We've had complaints in the past because of this, so let's not make this repeat :( — Wind 17:34, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Man, I'm such a noob! DSnWiiRocks (talk) 18:44, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

I edited it so it doesn't offend them. Man, that's exhausting. Here is my most sincere apologies. DSnWiiRocks (talk) 18:52, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Portal 2 co-op chamber descriptions

I'll be playing the co-op campaign pretty soon, and I saw the co-op chamber articles didn't exist. Should I go ahead and create them once I've played or someone else is doing that?

Oh, and by the way, I'll be playing it on the PS3, also on split screen, and I don't have a capture card nor a good enough PC to rip graphics/video, so that'll be a no-chance regarding videos, graphics and map names. Jerry ^{{ Talk }} 16:38, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

You can fill them in if you want to, but not the walkthrough section as this should follow the steps in the video — Wind 01:38, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

I've made a full playthrough on the Single-player campaign. See it here. I would be pleased if you guys give me the chance to do it. Probably even with Ldinos. DSnWiiRocks (talk) 17:18, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

"The Ball"

As "The Ball" from the Potato Sack seems to exist in the Portal universe (and has also been released on Valve) should there be an article? Half Life 2 has its own article, even if only just a small snippet linking to other articles. LordApocalyptica 00:35, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

A quick mention would be helpful, yes, similar to tf2:Monday Night Combat — Wind 01:38, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

What exactly defines "in the same universe?" All the games that have had official crossovers? Would that make the events in, say, Defense Grid, canon? Did the Space Core really land in Skyrim? Where do/should we draw the line? Sven 06:19, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

I would say a game has an official crossover if there is actually story involved that we know of and it is more than a cameo. For example, the Space Core in Skyrim is much more of a cameo appearance; as far as I know (haven't gotten Skyrim yet so cannot say) there is no story advancement with him. However in games where there is some sort of story (Freeman and Johnson rivalry) it might merit a mention. With The Ball we have an actual venture into Aperture Science and there is definitely GLaDOS. LordApocalyptica 16:16, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Calibration Course Page

Hello. I just wanted to say that I think that Calibration Course in co-op should have its own article. Can somebody create it and i will edit it. Also i think it should be included in Template:TestChambersNav. --Patko0770 19:31, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Oh, sorry, I found the Create page button. I no longer need a response. --Patko0770 19:38, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Added to nav~ The article title should be Portal 2 Co-op Calibration Course — Wind 19:47, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

I will also try to write a text walkthrough, but im not sure if it will be good, so feel free to edit it. --Patko0770 20:16, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Well usually I'd tell you to not do that because the walkthrough is supposed to follow the steps shown in the video, except there's no video right now and finding coop partners is proving to be hard :( Anyway, thanks for writing~ — Wind 21:48, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Text walkthrough can be made in split-screen. But it would look bad to take screenshots or record videos in split-screen, so I will just leave that to someone else. Anyway, i created a Shredder page, but its horribly empty because i dont have time to write something there now. Ill do it later, but can you add it to Mechanics template/navigation? --Patko0770 14:44, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Hey, a 2-column walkthrough for coop doesn't seem like a bad idea... Anyway, thanks, added to navigation. You should join IRC — Wind 19:22, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Minor/mentioned characters

In the comic Lab Rat, it mentions a character by the name of Henry. In Portal 2, we see numerous potato-related projects with the names of children, in addition to the names of the other test subjects in Lab Rat that Rattman moved out of the way to make way for Chell. I've seen that the OverWiki has made note of these characters, but should we? Would their mention help make the wiki "content complete"? Sven 00:02, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

I wouldn't be against listing them on the comic page perhaps (but it would need to be a collapsible box), but not on separate articles. Otherwise, things like this happen. — Wind 00:17, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

I wanted to avoid that sort of situation.. Thanks for the answer. Sven 00:56, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

New style for Portal 2 Co-op walkthrough

I have some new idea for the style of Portal 2 Co-op walkthrough
You may view it from my sand box
Please give some comment or suggestion. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Marcowong1011 (talk) • (contribs)

Very cool :3 Looks nice and easy to follow — Wind 11:54, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

Is there any active Chinese member here?

As the subject, I would like to know who is Chinese, especially those Hong Konger. — Marco Wong 22:06, 22 June 2012 (HKT)

We don't have a lot of members here, but most of us tend to be in IRC if you need someone. No other chinese editors though :( But thanks a lot for staying around and helping~ — Wind 03:12, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

I'm from Hong Kong! Ross Chan here. Don't judge me. :( - DSnWiiRocks (talk) 10:08, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

I name these file wrongly, can somebody help me rename them?

• File:GLaDOS dlc1 mp coop bridge catch introb03.wav
  • correct name: GLaDOS dlc1 mp coop bridge catch outrob03.wav
• File:GLaDOS dlc1 mp coop bridge catch introb04.wav
  • correct name: GLaDOS dlc1 mp coop bridge catch outrob04.wav

Thanks! — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Marcowong1011 (talk) • (contribs)

 Done — Wind 22:40, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Can my upcoming Portal feature film be ever featured on this Wiki?

It goes like this:

Portal: Imminent Crisis is a live-action full-length feature film starring me (UH! I know.) working around various sections of Aperture Science to defeat a mastermind (I know that sounds lame, but come on!).

Writing for the screenplay has already started and will end November 2013. Vlogs will be made when we hit a certain milestone (Links can be found here.

We already have a production company by our side to help finish this film. It will be released on YouTube for absolutely FREE, with our bowl of ramen being paid with ad revenue.

"So, what do you say? Y̶o̶u̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶r̶y̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶p̶u̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶b̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶b̶o̶d̶y̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶I̶ ̶s̶t̶o̶p̶ ̶u̶s̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶b̶l̶o̶w̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶l̶e̶t̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶g̶o̶.̶" You guys help get this on the Wiki (like write a review or plot summary), and I'll make sure the film is worth you guys' effort. (of course I'll do the most that I can. Tough schedule, man!) If this is official, I won't put this up.

Thanks a lot!

DSnWiiRocks (talk) 10:03, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

There's a few Portal fan films out there already (though they're short films, not feature-length) and they're not really featured here because it's community content and it's hazardous to decide what's notable and what's not. However, if a film gets featured by the Portal blog, then it's definitely worth making an article about — Wind 17:16, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Is it even worth get an article started at this point? When the film comes out, I'll be posting in the reddit (and other notable sites) to get some attention. Just askin'. DSnWiiRocks (talk) 17:22, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Probably not, though you can start one in your userspace — Wind 17:31, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Do you mean my user:<Username Here> page? Also, I agree. There isn't really solid progress on the film. It would be better I start up that page when it's a couple of months away from release. DSnWiiRocks (talk) 17:33, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

I mean somewhere like User:DSnWiiRocks/Imminent Crisis — Wind 17:35, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

I see, subpages. I'll move it out to "public" once it's out of beta, similarly to my "first translation attempt". Thanks. You'll probably see it turn blue soon. DSnWiiRocks (talk) 17:45, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

I'd like to know. Garyoak (talk) 11:59, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Buddy, it's March 16 and script is complete. We'll see if we can film in the summer. DSnWiiRocks (talk) 15:38, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

It's quiet here mate.

Portal, and its sequel is my favorite games over the years, and only games I actually completed.

It concerns me however, Valve has forgotten about Caroline (I insist), and Chell, and swept it under the rug.

The last patch for Portal 2 is nine months old, and no further dev will probably be made (Chell left, brother.)

So, what will be the future of this? Like how Wheatley puts it at the end of the game while in space:

"The end."

DSnWiiRocks (talk) 15:44, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

• Oh, I meant I'd like to know as in Where everybody went. Sorry.

The editor wasn't working for me. But I'm here. I am here. Garyoak (talk) 02:25, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

The IRC's still active (though usually non-portal-related). As long as the games aren't getting patches, it is normal for the rate of edits to go down over time since there is less to edit.

If you're looking for work, to do, the Portal Wiki:Captions project sure could use some love. — Wind 01:30, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Adding discussion on little details you might of missed

So I was playing Portal 2, when I noticed cool little things-these little details that we normally miss. I want to post these on this discussion, any I don't find, could you guys post them?

The first one I noticed is that one of the turrets, on the redemption line if I remember correctly, said things like "don't make lemonade" and "get mad". The most intriguing of them to me was when the turret said "the answer is below" and "her name is Caroline". I won't say why these are important due to spoilers, but it is kind of impressive as to how the turret learned those things.

Ill try to keep adding the ones I don't have time for now. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Char (talk) • (contribs)

In the future, please sign your posts with ~~~~ . Welcome to the Wiki! Anyway, we have made mention of those exact things already over on the Oracle Turret's very own page. I'm sure they're brought up a few more places, but that's the first and best place I can think of that references directly what you're talking about. ~Sven~ (talk) 04:53, 13 May 2016 (UTC)

Turret theory

I have a theory about turrets. You know how right after you kill them they say stuff like "I don't blame you" and "I don't hate you"? Well maybe the turrets are actually good but they are being forced to be evil. And maybe the reason they say nice things right before they deactivate is because they are dying and glados can't do anything bad to them while they are dead. This makes me feel bad for the turrets :( — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Water Fish 88 (talk) • (contribs)

:( ~Sven~ (talk) 22:31, 16 May 2016 (UTC)

NO! NOOO!!! THEY'RE EVIL! Wheatley44 (talk) 13:08, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Using namespaces (rather than subpages) to host other languages.

So far, subpages have been used to store other languages. This can clutter things like moving pages and random page. There have been attempts to fix this, but there kind of a hack and don't really work very well. So I am proposing that we add extra namespaces, like this.

define('NS_SPANISH', 1336);
define('NS_SPANISH_TALK', 1337);
$wgExtraNamespaces[NS_SPANISH] = 'Spanish';
$wgExtraNamespaces[NS_PRIVATE_TALK] = 'Spanish_talk';


This way, both problems are solved and it's more organized.

Nalexa-1124 (talk) 16:36, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

For reference, this user is referring to this documentation, and is referring to this patch when describing past fixes for the random page behavior. MogDog66u • t • c • s 16:48, 13 January 2017 (UTC)

While a scheme like the one you describe would make total sense if we were starting a wiki from scratch, it doesn't make that much sense when considered in context of this existing wiki. The benefits it provides are negligible compared to the costs of:

• Updating all the language-switching templates we have to work with it
• Updating all the non-templated things that rely on this naming scheme (links, categories, redirects, User:WindBOT/Filters)
• Making this wiki inconsistent with the Team Fortress Wiki in terms of editing experience. The Portal Wiki was essentially spun off from the Team Fortress Wiki; the two wikis share staff and a bunch of editors used to the suffix-based language system. Breaking that would make it harder for people to contribute to both
• Making this wiki's templates and User:WindBOT/Filters become unsyncable with the Team Fortress Wiki's version of them

— Wind 00:48, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

While I can understand that, subpages are a *huge* inconvenience. Nalexa-1124 (talk) 02:22, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Fanfiction?

Could we have some pages on notable portal fan-fictions like Blue Sky and Testing Maintenance? I feel like they'd be good to include... Wheatley44 (talk) 07:51, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

I wouldn't really want to open that can of worms... It sets a precedent that's hard to undo and it's hard to enforce a notability bar for fanfic. — Wind 07:58, 9 May 2017 (UTC)

 Agree Although I will say there are some decent ones out there, I think we can get enough of our content from official sources and mods. ~Sven~ (talk) 15:58, 10 May 2017 (UTC)

Emotes

Hey, we have emotes now. {{emote|p2emote}} where p2emote is the name of the steam emoticon. i-ghost 23:08, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Joining Gamepedia

Should we connect this wiki to Gamepedia? Nixinova (talk) 05:48, 24 August 2017 (UTC)

How do you shut off a bot?

I was just wondering how to shut off a bot on the wiki. ~~Sausagea1000~~ (User talk:Sausagea1000)