Question Help Needed ASAP

I'm once again having to sort through a MASSIVE list of characters to find ones that fit my needs (adding to Gearheads). Some time ago, Valentine compiled a list from the Wiki of all known student and their years.

What I need is for one or more brave people with time to go through the wiki page AND then fill in the appropriate info (where it can be found) into the spreadsheet, in other words, I need a keeper of the spreadsheet.

This is going to be an involved task, so if someone can set up a google drive page to share this. I can't, since my g-drive has a ton of gen 2 and gen 1 stuff on it that must remain forever secret. Then put the link for anyone who volunteers, and then let the fun begin. Periodically back it up in case someone screws up; you might want to give edit permission to selected individuals based on e-mail, invite, or open to those with the link (although that's more dangerous).

Please? Every time I do this, I lose 4-5 HOURS of writing time, which is about 10-15 pages. I've done it way too often, so please, please, please help out. We have this in Gen 2, and if I need to, for example, find male members of the Gearheads who are jrs or seniors, it takes seconds. With Gen 1, it takes HOURS.

The spreadsheet has some auto-stats gathering columns on the far right; do NOT screw with those, please. It's mostly self-explanatory; look at the entry for Pejuta to see how it's laid out. contact me for more info, please. ]

Please, please, please, please! This will take a HUGE burden off us authors.

If someone coordinates this, then when I have to put in more students, I will put in an avatar (low-powered, underdog) with your name and we'll work out a low-level power set. At least I'll argue with the cabal to let me do that (and probably win - since it's a minor low-powered background character

Valentine's List: drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ZzOVhZ7xFmQUx...blk/view?usp=sharing

Earliest Version of Elrod's Spreadsheet, with all the code intact and stuff: drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ZzOVhZ7xFmbkF...UEE/view?usp=sharing

that's PART of the info. I have the following columns (that we use regularly)
Firstname
lastname
codename
class (year)
cottage
sexuality
gender (M, F, MtF, FtM, complex)
power 1
power 2
power 3
associations
notes
For powers and associations, there are defined categories IF known.

Example: Kayda's looks like:
First: Kayda
Last: Franks
Codename: Pejuta
Class: 2010
Cottage: P
Sexuality: Gay
Gender: MtF
Power 1: Av
Power 2: Ma
Power 3: Ga
Associations: Vi,Al,Na, Ww,Gh
Notes: Brandon Franks, soph in high school, manifested as pure Lokota. Family is well-off financially. Math whiz. Run out of town after beatings and rape. Uses tomahawk and knife plus magic. five-seven, 130 lbs, gorgeous Lakota. Soft green eyes. younger brother is Pounce.

Oh! Right. This one:

drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ZzOVhZ7xFmcDh...UzA/view?usp=sharing

Okay. That latest spreadsheet has everything, or at least something like everything. It's just that it's on the 4th sheet.

No. No it doesn't. I'm an idiot. Gonna give someone else a chance to be less stupid than me.

And while it would have been useful for Elrod to give us his Sheet, I guess cleaning it would take a bit of time, to remove all the stuff that's spoilers.

Thankfully, the number count coding is basic Excel formulas.

And we do have everyone, just no information other than year and cottage... Which is better than before? We need the rest of the info...

Okay. My Latest: PM or something your emails so I can add you to the editing list:

drive.google.com/file/d/0B_ZzOVhZ7xFmcHV...U1U/view?usp=sharing

So, um, just to be clear on everything. Malady, the last link you gave is the most complete version you have right now?

So the tasks are to expand the tables with the missing columns, and to make sure everything is filled out? I am willing to help, but I just want to be brought up to speed on things that seemed to be implied here and there. What coding do you use?

For powers and associations, there are defined categories IF known.

Should we attempt to infer (where there is enough info to go on at least) power categories on mutants that are not MID-labeled in the wiki?

For the notes column, anything specific we should focus on? From the Kayda entry I see a quick rundown of home situation, appearance, main personality traits and powers.

Also, Malady, are we certain the list is exhaustive, and is there a way to ensure that it is exhaustive? Is there a way to keep track of the last added character at what date, so that it becomes easier to update with new characters as the year kicks up? I'm thinking about keeping a timestamp or story-stamp somewhere.

Elrod, any preference on the format on power and associations? For Kayda you gave 2-letters acronyms which are difficult to read unless we have a legend at the ready. For the powers I can manage, but I'm at a lost for the associations. Full text would probably be too wordy, so if you could share the list of acronym for associations, I'd appreciate.

EDIT :
Just read Malady's posts again and a few things started to make more sense through all those links. Enough to ask questions at least. Is this table only for students? Should there also be a table for the staff? Do you need the links to the wiki pages as in the 4th spreadsheet?

GrimGrendel wrote: So, um, just to be clear on everything. Malady, the last link you gave is the most complete version you have right now?

Yes.

GrimGrendel wrote: So the tasks are to expand the tables with the missing columns, and to make sure everything is filled out? I am willing to help, but I just want to be brought up to speed on things that seemed to be implied here and there. What coding do you use?

From what I'm getting from what Elrod said, I think so.

GrimGrendel wrote:

For powers and associations, there are defined categories IF known.

Should we attempt to infer (where there is enough info to go on at least) power categories on mutants that are not MID-labeled in the wiki?

I don't think so, else it takes up available space to expand, if the Authors need characters with unknown power categories, but what they want to add could fit with what's unknown.

Like, if I needed a blaster, but I've found a person who can fly. I can still make them a Energizer PK Flyer, but I wouldn't know that I could if it seems like we know everything about them.

GrimGrendel wrote: For the notes column, anything specific we should focus on? From the Kayda entry I see a quick rundown of home situation, appearance, main personality traits and powers.

The notes have no format apparently. The ones I added, I just copied from the Wiki.

GrimGrendel wrote: Also, Malady, are we certain the list is exhaustive, and is there a way to ensure that it is exhaustive? Is there a way to keep track of the last added character at what date, so that it becomes easier to update with new characters as the year kicks up? I'm thinking about keeping a timestamp or story-stamp somewhere.

Well, We're sure that we've got everyone in the Wiki at time of initial creation. Any new people since then need to be added.

GrimGrendel wrote: Elrod, any preference on the format on power and associations? For Kayda you gave 2-letters acronyms which are difficult to read unless we have a legend at the ready. For the powers I can manage, but I'm at a lost for the associations. Full text would probably be too wordy, so if you could share the list of acronym for associations, I'd appreciate.

There's a legend in the Students sheet. The 4th sheet.

We dropped family wealth in gen 1; there were reasons to put it in Gen 2. Also, instead of 1-4 for classes, we put graduating year, which is more in line with the wiki.

If you give me edit priviledges, I'll drop the modified format in the drive after I copy the data columns from this one into the new one. Danzilla has a lot of the missing columns filled in, so when I find what he did again, I'll put that data in my template and then put that in the gdrive.

Usually, groups are easy. Gh - gearheads. Wc = wondercute. Bs = Bad Seeds. A couple aren't quite so intuitive - Fs for Future Superheroes (Capes).

Alright. Just need your email...

***

I'm surprised how few confirmed genders we have. And I might be mixing them up...

***

I'm gonna go to sleep soon. As GrimGrendel's got a Gmail account, he/she's also got a Google Drive. Ping them about it. They can grab my copy into their drive and host the sheet.

I got it on my drive now : docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SPNcnnVa...Vjc/edit?usp=sharing
PM me your emails

Downloading mine and then reuploading to yours might better preserve coding and things, if any has been lost. Perhaps move the Students sheet as the first sheet? Click-hold and drag.

Won't it make for the same result whether I see it through google drive or whether I upload it again? The sorting seems to work okay, except from the "Gen 1 Character list" tab, which got sorted by cottage from a missclick without me being able to revert what I did

EDIT :
There are redundancies between the tables "Students" "Everyone" and "Students and Alumni", along with "Gen 1 Character List". We are only modifying Students for now right?

Which reminds me; shouldn't we have a Chew-Toy Y/N flag on those spreadsheets? For Elrod...

Astrodragon wrote: Which reminds me; shouldn't we have a Chew-Toy Y/N flag on those spreadsheets? For Elrod...

Wouldn't they all be yes?

GrimGrendel wrote: Just read Malady's posts again and a few things started to make more sense through all those links. Enough to ask questions at least. Is this table only for students? Should there also be a table for the staff? Do you need the links to the wiki pages as in the 4th spreadsheet?

Well, if you get Students and Staff, then the numbers of people should match between Wiki and Spreadsheet for each Cottage, as right now, they don't, because we cut out the staff.

But you'd need to make a new sheet for that.

GrimGrendel wrote: Won't it make for the same result whether I see it through google drive or whether I upload it again?

Maybe, I dunno. I just talked about it in case the coding's screwed up anywhere.

GrimGrendel wrote: The sorting seems to work okay, except from the "Gen 1 Character list" tab, which got sorted by cottage from a missclick without me being able to revert what I did

Okay, if that's still there, let me see what I can do...

GrimGrendel wrote: There are redundancies between the tables "Students" "Everyone" and "Students and Alumni", along with "Gen 1 Character List".

Redundancies should be had 'cause they're subsets of each other.

GrimGrendel wrote: We are only modifying Students for now right?

Yeah, I think so. Unless Elrod wants us to start cataloging staff and others as well...

Okay, I'm not gonna gender anyone unless... Actually, how many TGs should we have? 'Cause due to the vagaries of what we don't know about characters...

I assume most of the homophobic bullies are clear in their gendering... But like, with Diamondback, we totally would have assumed she was F? ... before her backstory made her into at least MtF, and possibly C...

Malady wrote: Okay, I'm not gonna gender anyone unless... Actually, how many TGs should we have? 'Cause due to the vagaries of what we don't know about characters...

I assume most of the homophobic bullies are clear in their gendering... But like, with Diamondback, we totally would have assumed she was F? ... before her backstory made her into at least MtF, and possibly C...

Please use the gender referenced in story if it's mentioned... just default to M/F if it's all that's been shown. We frequently sort the spreadsheets, we do have (fer instance for Gen 2), by most all of these criteria to find characters to fit a scene (lobby of a female dorm) or to populate a class (advanced laser pistol construction) and being able to sort by as many fields as possible keeps us from spending too many hours skimming the listings to see if someone was missed. With the relevant matching EACH name to our memory of what we know about them.

We'll flip to the wiki to look at the information there if further elaboration is needed. this just helps us sort by the demographics we're needing at the time. So things like MtF instead of F are nice... but just having F there helps a whole lot more. Not to say use F instead of MtF if it's known... just that the base F is more useful in more instances.

I classified Ayla as M and Het, although that was one I wasn't entirely sure how to classify. Could be C?

I'm happy to help with the crawl and checks/updates.

I'd probably list Ayla as a C. Unless they want to go the whole I for intersexed. Then again, that leads to H for hermaphrodite, S for shifters like Pounce, and god only knows with the mermaid whose name escapes me. I can see a whole alphabet happining.

I've been on travel, and now I got a moment to catch up.
First, the spreadsheet that was listed is a very good start. Danzilla took that and started adding additional info. I've since gotten him a modification of HIS spreadsheet that includes pick lists for some columns (M, F, MtF, FtM, C - and so forth and eliminates superfluous columns that we had in Gen 2 but don't need here). So the best thing is to work with him on this, as my vacation travel is not over, I'll be in and out, and I've got to write a couple more chapters of There's No Place Like Poe.

The supposition that we'd separate staff & faculty from students is a good one. Also, if you want to do alums, separate them or put them way at the bottom of the list; we seldom look at alums, but it could happen.

I've already used the spreadsheet that was started to help with NPLP, so this is VERY valuable.

@Danzilla - So... Link to the sheet, please? So we can either request editing privileges or something? 'Cause for Google Drive, if you try and edit without privileges, the owner gets an email telling you who to allow...

I guess Elrod's on mobile, or something else that makes it tricky to link to his version or something?

So, is the Authors' Spreadsheet complete?

Can't be, else Elrod wouldn't be asking us to help Danzilla. So, just gotta wait for him to see this and respond...

Alrighty... I've set-up a drive to host the Communities efforts.

drive.google.com/open?id=0B1Pkyj4HqOfPSEtJQ25MWDhUY1k

Anyone can view these files... if you want access to edit them please request it.

The first file, "gen 1 character spreadsheet.xslx" is the one Elrod would like filled in.

The second file, "Gen 1 Students - from DanZilla" was an earlier attempt I started but haven't been able to continue... it has the first couple hundred students briefly filled in. It pretty much started from the same files others have used but it was cleaned-up to eliminate duplicates as much as possible.

Please let us know if you have any questions. I think I've got this set-up right but if you notice anything off please let me know.

Quick note: as I went along sometimes the ONLY thing known about a character was their gender... so I used that as a way to keep track of what lines I had completed or not... others may have their own ways of doing this but some method for that really helps.

Malady wrote: So, is the Authors' Spreadsheet complete?

Can't be, else Elrod wouldn't be asking us to help Danzilla. So, just gotta wait for him to see this and respond...

I'm not sure what you mean by Author's Spreadsheet.

But then, you gotta take into consideration that I've been on the road for 25 hours in the last two days and my brain is semi-numb. Yes, we're home safely, thanks for asking Add to that the wifi hardware on my laptop died - HARD. boot-level system diagnostics can't even find the hardware! So I had to go out to my local Fry's and get a nano-sized 802.11n dongle, and now I'm back in business.

elrodw wrote: But then, you gotta take into consideration that I've been on the road for 25 hours in the last two days and my brain is semi-numb. Yes, we're home safely, thanks for asking Add to that the wifi hardware on my laptop died - HARD. boot-level system diagnostics can't even find the hardware! So I had to go out to my local Fry's and get a nano-sized 802.11n dongle, and now I'm back in business.

... Your health and stuff is more important than updating us on your health, and also more important than the stories... But good to hear you're safe, and that you have internet.

Get to bed, it sounds like you really need that sleep!

...

elrodw wrote: I'm not sure what you mean by Author's Spreadsheet.

Umm... The spreadsheet you want us to help you make for Gen1? "The Authors' Spreadsheet", 'cause you guys are the Authors and apparently you're planning on using it? ... Although, given that it appears to possibly be that it'll be public fandom-wide, perhaps the Authors' Spreadsheet isn't the best name for it...

*********************

DanZilla wrote: Alrighty... I've set-up a drive to host the Communities efforts.

drive.google.com/open?id=0B1Pkyj4HqOfPSEtJQ25MWDhUY1k

... The first file, "gen 1 character spreadsheet.xslx" is the one Elrod would like filled in.

... Quick note: as I went along sometimes the ONLY thing known about a character was their gender... so I used that as a way to keep track of what lines I had completed or not... others may have their own ways of doing this but some method for that really helps.

Sometimes we don't even have Gender. Now transplanting data from GrimGrendel's Spreadsheet into the DanZilla version, unless it appears as if they match... Which currently appears to be...

GrimGrendel's Sheet: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SPNcnnVa...NuUa191tWakKVjc/edit

Actually, I have LOTS of author spreadsheets, especially for Gen 2. Cottage room assignments, classes for our mains and secondary chars, technologies of Gen 2, plot timelines, sequence of cut-scenes that have to be written and incorporated in earlier stories to set up the 4-year Big Bad Plot To End All Plots (BWAH HAH HAH HAH!)

And it won't be an Author's spreadsheet, as it's done by the community with volunteer help. We will use it a lot, I can promise you. And we will probably have a secret copy somewhere in our stuff with additional columns for secret plots-in-work stuff, just like we do in Gen 2.

DanZilla wrote: Quick note: as I went along sometimes the ONLY thing known about a character was their gender... so I used that as a way to keep track of what lines I had completed or not... others may have their own ways of doing this but some method for that really helps.

I personally use the Note tab to keep track of the characters I did.

Comparing quickly the two tables, I see that Danzilla's has 791 lines, while Malady's has 667 lines. @Danzilla, does your sheet contain more than just the students? Like the staff and off-campus characters?

I'm also not sure what would be the best way to integrate both sheets together. Going over each entry one by one might actually be slower than searching the wiki, since at the first discrepancy you would need to search the wiki anyway to confirm one way or another. And we can't really do a mass copy paste unless we hunt down the 130 or so extra characters between the two sheets. Any ideas? Because I'm thinking using brute force and patience might be simpler here.

GrimGrendel wrote:

DanZilla wrote: Quick note: as I went along sometimes the ONLY thing known about a character was their gender... so I used that as a way to keep track of what lines I had completed or not... others may have their own ways of doing this but some method for that really helps.

I personally use the Note tab to keep track of the characters I did.

Comparing quickly the two tables, I see that Danzilla's has 791 lines, while Malady's has 667 lines. @Danzilla, does your sheet contain more than just the students? Like the staff and off-campus characters?

I'm also not sure what would be the best way to integrate both sheets together. Going over each entry one by one might actually be slower than searching the wiki, since at the first discrepancy you would need to search the wiki anyway to confirm one way or another. And we can't really do a mass copy paste unless we hunt down the 130 or so extra characters between the two sheets. Any ideas? Because I'm thinking using brute force and patience might be simpler here.

the sheet I built contains both past and current students... that should be where you're getting the inflated numbers from... whenever I used the sheet I would filter by the years I wanted to eliminate the extras.

GrimGrendel wrote: Comparing quickly the two tables, I see that Danzilla's has 791 lines, while Malady's has 667 lines. @Danzilla, does your sheet contain more than just the students? Like the staff and off-campus characters?

There appear to be some dupes like:

Alberta 'Alexis' Waldner = Fireball & Tisiphone

And possibly some Alumni in both Sheets, but different ones in each, like I dunno if Alumni!Cagliostro is in Grim's sheet, but he sure is in DanZilla's...

Okay. I'm actually gonna go to sleep now. See you in hopefully 8+ hours.

Tisiphone changed to her new code name after Ayla screwed her bit, so it's correct that she has two code names.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Tisiphone changed to her new code name after Ayla screwed her bit, so it's correct that she has two code names.

Yes, but everyone who's caught up should know Tisiphone's history? ... Maybe make a separate category just for her? "Changed Codenames" or something? Just need to separate it from the main table for it to remain unchanged during sorting operations, I think?

Malady wrote:

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Tisiphone changed to her new code name after Ayla screwed her bit, so it's correct that she has two code names.

Yes, but everyone who's caught up should know Tisiphone's history?

There's always going to be someone reading for whom it's all new. I wouldn't be surprised to find that many readers enjoy starting from the chronological beginning after stumbling on to something they like. (That's not always a bad idea, having myself recently read/reread "Legacy of Friendship" after "Ashes and Steel")

Malady wrote: ... Maybe make a separate category just for her? "Changed Codenames" or something? Just need to separate it from the main table for it to remain unchanged during sorting operations, I think?

Or - and this is coming from a RDBMS geek - add a start/end pair of fields. A sorted list of name/code name/ID start/ID end would pull up ordered records for Alexis as either Fireball or Tisiphone. There are a couple of other uses for readers and authors. IIRC, Miss Champion and Flower Child have made use of more than one code name over the years. There's been mention that the student MIDs are expected to require more serious/professional updates on graduation. That may also apply to code names?

It doesn't have to become a set of spoilers. For example, it's not known for certain that Jadis Diabliku started using "Frost" until 2016-06. Did she release "She-Beast"? Maybe/maybe not, but to match published stories it most likely started by 2005-09.

Malady wrote: Maybe make a separate category just for her? "Changed Codenames" or something? Just need to separate it from the main table for it to remain unchanged during sorting operations, I think?

This, or maybe just place such in the notes section for now. Then again that might lead some characters to have increasingly verbose notes such as Carson.

One thing on notes - in gen 2, we used that as a capsule summary. If we are looking for details, we go to the wiki page or a character sheet (in gen 2, lots of character sheets exist - or if necessary, we make a new one). So I wouldn't expect the notes to be other than a very brief summary, and possibly contain a link to the wiki page. Danzilla did this for us in gen 2 - linking to the character sheets, so it's possible to link to the wiki pages.

Perhaps a column after notes titled : "Last updated", which people can add the date when they update or check the record?

Which also gives a field for editors to know which ones to check later on.

Okay, some students are in neither list: DanZilla's nor GrimGrendel's .

Like Neon Rose , who I just added as a Student. Hmm... What counts as a Student and what doesn't? Does Hartford count?? ... What about Coronet ? ... And Coronet's in DZ's...

Currently, I'm working on making Danzilla's list have all the info of GG's...

For clarification, Jadis stopped using 'She-Beast' when she graduated from Whateley. Hey, it's not like she really liked that code-name anyway. It's that she no longer answers to 'Diabolik' as her family name, but has taken Frost as her last name.

I would make 2 separate sheets - students, and alum. Students cover any who are in school during the story years, alum are anyone who graduated prior to 2007. Then if we need, we can move students over to alum as they graduate.

Let's not over-complicate this, please. It's an aid to authors, not a comprehensive wiki-replacement. That's why I suggested including a link to the wiki page for a character - if one exists.

Malady wrote: Currently, I'm working on making Danzilla's list have all the info of GG's...

So we are moving completely to Danzilla's list?

I think it'll be bette to have the wiki link as its own column.

GrimGrendel wrote:

Malady wrote: Currently, I'm working on making Danzilla's list have all the info of GG's...

So we are moving completely to Danzilla's list?

I think it'll be bette to have the wiki link as its own column.

I guess. Your Spreadsheet has tons of links in the Gen1 Characters Sheet.

Malady wrote: Your Spreadsheet has tons of links in the Gen1 Characters Sheet.

Sure. We can use the codename as the default wiki link tab. But what about the handful of students that don't have codenames? Just have a link to their page titled "----" in the codename column?

GrimGrendel wrote:

Malady wrote: Your Spreadsheet has tons of links in the Gen1 Characters Sheet.

Sure. We can use the codename as the default wiki link tab. But what about the handful of students that don't have codenames? Just have a link to their page titled "----" in the codename column?

Well, links are colored blue... Well, in your sheet they are, in DZ's, they're underlined... Anyway, make the word match the Link, 'cause like it matches, and you don't need to do anything after that 'cause a link is obvious?

Maybe I should figure out how to make links in DZ's sheet blue...

I would suggest if the code name is unknown leave it blank or put a question mark in it if you want to signal that you can't find it.

There's a wiki category for "Unknown Codename".

If there's a mention of a codename to be found, it'll likely be in the Wiki, codenames rarely stay hidden past 2 stories having a character, unless they're really new.

One thing I have noticed about google docs though, if you add a hyperlink to a cell, you can't add anything else.

So for the notes, once you add a group using a hyperlink, no other notes.

I merged everything from Malady's spreadsheet onto Danzilla's sheet . Please use Danzilla's from now on.

I crossed checked every row while relying only on codenames and haven't looked at the first/last name columns, so I can't guarantee that all the names associated with the codenames are correct. I'm trusting Danzilla that the names were well mapped out beforehand. Also, I added missing rows between the sheets without checking if the name was a student or not. So there are still a few alumni in the spreadsheet.

There's a couple of situations where it's just a first name with nothing else.

Delete or leave?


Also, co-incidentally, I found a mistake in the wiki while checking the spreadsheet lol

Thanks for finishing the Merge, GrimGrendel!

***

annachie wrote: There's a couple of situations where it's just a first name with nothing else.

Delete or leave?

Leave, they're valid students. We just don't know as much about them as some others.

annachie wrote: Also, co-incidentally, I found a mistake in the wiki while checking the spreadsheet lol

That makes sense.

annachie wrote: There's a couple of situations where it's just a first name with nothing else.

Delete or leave?


Also, co-incidentally, I found a mistake in the wiki while checking the spreadsheet lol

There are a significant number of characters only known by a first name. Occasionally authors just name dropped in "crowd scenes."

Go ahead and fix the Wiki.

Valentine wrote:

annachie wrote: Also, co-incidentally, I found a mistake in the wiki while checking the spreadsheet lol

Go ahead and fix the Wiki.

Oh, the fix didn't happen yet... I was wondering why I didn't see any new edits on Recent Activity...

Please do fix the wiki, Annachie. Or at least post the error you found so somebody else can fix it.

I did.

It was simply a character being refered to as a he when there was no gender given in the story. So I changed it to he(?)

Although now I wonder if the change took lol

Well, all changes are listed on crystalhall.wikia.com/wiki/Special:RecentChanges

I can't see anything, unless you edited Coronet the same time I did or something, and got overridden by my edit or something.

I think... I wonder how its different from Recent Activities.. I guess it leaves off the Minors and some other things... Sir Lee, should we remove Recent Activities altogether, or do you find it useful?

You mean the "Latest Activity" part of the main page? I guess it's useful for the less technically-involved users, so they have a general idea that the wiki is being updated, which parts and by whom. I'm not sure, but I think it may be a bit wider in scope than the "special:Recent Changes" page, too. I think it is good to have it upfront so visitors know that this is not an abandoned wiki.

I make an habit of checking the "special:Recent Changes" regularly, to see if anybody needs a hand -- or, in rare cases, a cluebat. It goes further back, allows filtering and offers more detail, as well as some special-purpose links. But the main page gives a quick bird's view look of the site, which is enough 90% of the time, so I use it a lot too.

In the spreadsheet, there is a Ts = TK superman option, and a Pk = psychokinetic option. In the wiki, most students in that category are listed as PK supermen. For the most part, I list them as Pk in the sheet, but I was wondering if there is really a difference between the two options.

GrimGrendel wrote: In the spreadsheet, there is a Ts = TK superman option, and a Pk = psychokinetic option. In the wiki, most students in that category are listed as PK supermen. For the most part, I list them as Pk in the sheet, but I was wondering if there is really a difference between the two options.

When we were creating the sheet we tended to default to common things we were using at the time and some things are a little more grey, in use, than we may use elsewhere because of that... We generally have much better write-ups for a lot of the characters we put into the Gen2 spreadsheet which made that Greyness matter less to us since we could look them up and get a better idea of the powerscope of a character.

If additional groups or powers are needed, to make up for somehting not matching the options we already have in place, you CAN add them, just make sure it's consistently used and noted where appropriate. Just please try to match as much as possible to what's already there.

Now... I'm not the expert on power definitions but I cribbed the following from some conversations we had and thought it might help explain some of the differences... note, this is cut and pasted together and wasn't written for public consumption but in response to some questions and discussions on how the two powers operated in comparison and contrast to each other. It certainly won't answer all the questions but I present it here to give you an idea of why some are regarded as one while others may be listed as the other.


They're both projected energy users with mental discipline as their control mechanism

PK works at the level of your aura
What makes PK so strong is the fact that it IS a shell that covers you and extends under when you are lifting, its the shell that does it all, so until the shell breaks, there's no impact on the body and that includes lifting leverage, etc
PK is a shell, which can be extended around objects you hold… when you hold something small enough that your shell can expand around it, as long as it is under your shell's weight limit, you can lift it with no fatigue, no leverage needed, etc
PK is superman.


TK can do 'most' of what PK can, but its not an innate field… TK is projected, it CAN be projected close to the body in the manner of armor or a shell or it can be a shield on the arm, a force wall in front
TK requires mental action although it can be instinctive to do some things… like shield when you know something is swinging at you, but unless you will your TK field on all the time, its not a defense
TK is green lantern

Thanks.

Pk = Psychokinetic
Te = telekinesis
Ts = TK superman

That explains the difference between telekinesis and PK. I was only wondering why telekinesis had both regular green lantern telekinesis (Te in the sheet) and the Ts option. I guess that means the Ts is redundant with both Te and Pk.

First, let me say that you guys (gals, whatever honorific you want - I'm feeling generous today ) are nothing short of AMAZING. The spreadsheet is EXACTLY what we need, and it will help SO MUCH. I can't say thank you enough.

Second, I downloaded it and looked through it - there are a couple of things that need fixing, and I straightened them up in my downloaded copy. The whole groups/teams/factions section is out of sync with the 'associations' column for characters. Examples: C.O.R.E., Power Rangers, Dragons, Tigers - all spelled out, and no entries on the summary column. I did a few minutes fix (I have a history paper to work on, but I slept like crap and am too tired to work on it now) - on my downloaded copy. It SHOULD be a simple cut-and-paste from the Association column and from the groups/teams/cliques summary columns into the on-line spreadsheet.

In fact, there were minor tweaks to all the 'summary statistics' columns, so they could be replaced.

Anyway, as I don't have edit access (and frankly, I don't want it, lest I spend all my time twiddling with the sheet), I can send the excel sheet to someone to copy the appropriate columns into the on-line master (if someone gives me an e-mail addy).

I'm working my way down the Gender column and then working on everything else. ... The summary, I guess you mean "Notes". Oh, yeah, the Kayda entry is a summary...

Well, for the group stuff, if they're more than just a member then I'll note it, but if they're just known as a member, then I'm just adding their group to the Group section.

After I was done, I was gonna do a Find+Replace to turn all the spelled-outs into contractions...

Gonna PM you my email...

Okay, most everyone that has a fixed cottage gender has their gender noted. MtFs and others, like Ribbon have not... Shine did not GenderBend. Oh. He's male then...

Anyway, leaving off the Poesies, 'cause we dunno all the Gender / SexBends.

Cottages should be accurate?

Link back to Sheet for simplicity: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kIFvzw1u...ah9co4hbA1zCI73lvGF0

Malady wrote: I'm working my way down the Gender column and then working on everything else. ... The summary, I guess you mean "Notes". Oh, yeah, the Kayda entry is a summary...

For the majors, we all pretty much know (e.g Phase, Fey, Chaka, Kayda, Lanie). It's mostly for the lesser-known chars that getting a quick note/summary will help reduce the need to go back and forth

elrodw wrote: The whole groups/teams/factions section is out of sync with the 'associations' column for characters.

Now in synch. Every label used in 'associations' matches something in the legend, and all the cliques with characters in them in the legend should have all of its members labeled as such. There are a few entries in the legend that have no character entries, and there are still a couple of the more obscure cliques missing from it, but we'll get to it.

Elrod, Malady and I finished going through the spreadsheet. Unless there are other things you'd like, what we have right now is pretty much done.