====== FAQ ======

===== What is The Lonely Galaxy =====

Like the tagline says, it's a playground to get lost in while daydreaming. Conworlding, worldbuilding for its own sake rather than to accompany other media like books or games, has been a hobby of mine since I was little. Kids make up elaborate imaginary worlds, and I just started documenting mine as I grew up.

This particular conworld emerged from a very stressful time in my life. I couldn't deal with the real world, so I made my own.

I am not and have no aspirations of becoming an artist or writer, I don't expect this stuff to be to most people's taste, or even be competent by any objective measure. 

===== How is this wiki organized? =====

This wiki is powered by DokuWiki. DokuWiki allows you to store pages in separate //namespaces//, which act like folders on a computer. Two pages with the same name can coexist as long as they are in different namespaces, and you can nest namespaces within other namespaces. 

The [[lore:]] namespace is for canonical information about the setting, its history, places, characters, etc. It's the sort of stuff you'd find on a fan wiki.

The [[megathread:]] namespace is an archive of the Lonely Galaxy megathread on the CBB forum up to the point that I started this wiki. Afterward, more substantive posts will be posted here first before being shared there. Unfortunately the pages are not in chronological order. The lions share of images can be found here, as I did most of my public sharing on the thread before moving here.

The [[stories:]] namespace contains attempts at fiction set in the Lonely Galaxy. This includes both stories set in the Lonely Galaxy as well as //in-universe// legends and stories that are known to the characters themselves. I often use in-universe stories to explore ideas that veer too far from the setting's canonical lore.

In addition to these manually created namespaces, some plugins I use create namespaces that may be useful. The [[tag:]] namespace has a page for each category tag. If you follow the links at the bottom of each page, you'll go to the corresponding page in the tag namespace. This is useful, for example, if you want to see everything I've written on Yih [[tag:animals]] or about different planets.

The [[blog:]] namespace is created by the blog plugin. I use the blog plugin to showcase ideas as they come to me. It largely replaces the megathread, though I still repost blog entries there.



===== What happened to the Mediawiki site? =====

If you visited the previous site and found it compelling enough to return, I'm grateful. I initially chose Mediawiki because it's //the// wiki. You've at least read a Wikipedia article, if not edited one. The most popular wiki farms like Fandom and Miraheze are based on Mediawiki, and many independent wikis like the Homestar Runner Wiki, Transformers Wiki, and the various wikis in the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance use Mediawiki. I figured it's everywhere for a reason.

It's the easiest on the eyes by far in terms of free and open source options. The default skin is clean and well put together. It's designed around the idea that you write first and organize later, with order emerging out of chaos as ideas develop. This mirrors how I worldbuild, and how I think in general.

However, it's a pain to manage. It requires a database, which has its own server and associated credentials. I used sqlite for the database, which is much easier to manage than the expected MariaDB, but if the site breaks I can't browse or convert content easily.

===== Why DokuWiki? =====

DokuWiki is much easier to admin. It does not use a database at all. Articles are stored as plaintext files which can be read, edited, and backed up even if the server dies. Mediawiki is designed to be completely open. There are no access controls beyond write-protecting pages. You can even edit other people's comments on talk pages! If you search for access control extensions on the Mediawiki wiki (say that five times fast) There are copious repeated warnings that Mediawiki was not designed to limit access, and you really shouldn't use such extensions.

As for why //I// want access control, I want to combine all my work on this project into one place. I have rough ideas, drafts of stories, and other such works in progress that I'm not ready to show off. I previously used an Obsidian vault for this, but I also want to be able to browse previous versions of a document, which Obsidian doesn't offer. DokuWiki has a version history. So I can put my rough drafts behind a private namespace and migrate content out to the public when I feel it's ready.

===== Why aren't you posting this stuff on FrathWiki anymore? =====

I haven't necessarily stopped posting there, I just don't want to step on other people's toes. Mediawiki (which Frath uses) does not allow easy namespace creation. Everyone's ideas have to share the same namespace. If your conworld has elves, and you want to write about //your// elves, you have to give the article a unique title that doesn't clash with everyone else's article on their version of elves. Yes I know Wikipedia has a similar problem, and uses disambiguation pages to solve it, but I think it's an inelegant solution when everyone's playing in their own sandbox.

Creating namespaces in DokuWiki is trivial, just name the article '':new_namespace:new_article'' and it's automatically created. A site like Frath that's all about people showing off their conworlds and conlangs would greatly benefit from having non overlapping namespaces. Everyone could have their own namespace, so your article on elves could be '':your_conworld:elves'', and another person's article on their elves could be '':their_conworld:elves''. 

But I'm new to Frath and didn't feel it was my place to try and upset any apple carts. I also have the skills to admin my own server, so I did just that.

===== Your site is ugly ======

Your mom is ugly. Also That's not a question. It's not //ugly// it's //dated//. There's a difference. The default DokuWiki template was created in 2012, and reflects the design sensibilities and technical needs of the time. Yes other, seemingly prettier templates exist, but they all of dusty little corners that don't work, such as black text on a black background. I would rather have a dated site I know won't break than a pretty site that has janky corners.

===== Why the domain "constructed.world"? =====

I originally intended this site to be an instance of nodeBB to serve as a place on the Fediverse for conlang and conworld discussion. But the conlanging community is so small that I didn't want to fragment it even further. The community is served well by the CBB, ZBB, FrathWiki, etc. I've already complained about Mediawiki, and I'd love the forums to move away from phpBB, but changing platforms would result in a massive loss of history. Also, The Lonely Galaxy is a //constructed world//, so the name fits.