Handbook of the Union Universe:About
From Handbook of the Union Universe
Welcome to the Handbook of the Union Universe. While browsing, why not enrich this site by adding your own characters.
Contents |
What is the Handbook of the Union Universe?
At the most basic level, the Handbook is meant to be a repository for character descriptions, open to all roleplayed characters making their home on City of Heroes/Villains' Union Server. We all recognize that the space provided for in-game character biographies is tiny and will not ever do most character concepts justice. While there already exist other websites that do a similar thing, only very few extend beyond the reach of a single Supergroup or Coalition, and those that do in turn tend to encompass the entire game.
The Handbook of the Union Universe aims at the middle ground. Many players are monogamous with regards to servers they play on, or at least stay within a limited selection of servers. But in pickup groups or at Pocket D, they will likely interact with a larger demographic than just their native Coalition. A server-wide character directory simply seems the most practical solution for most people.
The Handbook of the Union Universe is set up as a Wiki, meaning everyone can technically add or edit content everywhere, as it may be needed. This gives everyone a lot of freedom and the option to help other users as much as they can or want to.
This Wiki uses the MediaWiki software also found in use at Wikipedia. Everyone loves Wikipedia, but it needs to be noted that to get the most out of the setup, it's useful if you acquaint yourself with Wiki Markup, a type of shorthand that allows you to format and edit your text. Note that the Wiki recognizes and reads both HTML and CSS but where possible, Wiki Markup is preferred. Extensive help files can be found at the WikiMedia Meta-Wiki.
What the Handbook of the Union Universe is not
The Handbook is not an in-character source of information. It is an out-of-character database providing in-character details that may or may not be available in-character. In your articles, we advised that you specify any information that is available in-character and how.
There are some limitations to the Wiki setup. While the style allows its users a lot of freedom, it also requires certain responsibilities. Everyone is able to edit almost every page. This is meant to allow people to correct errors (be they factual, typos or incorrectly implemented code) in pages they view, but if you do so you'll still need to treat another's creation respectfully.
Moreover, the Handbook is not entirely a simple sandbox. The general idea behind the way it's set up at least encourages people to use similar formats on their character pages, both for the layout and the style of description. A somewhat uniform appearance is not meant to stifle creativity, but only to make these pages and their contents more accessible. We do encourage people to append short stories and other pieces lyrical and prosaic, but for the basic entry, following the basic formula and trying to keep an at least somewhat objective perspective is highly encouraged.
General Warning
Not all characters inhabiting the City of Heroes necessarily have a nice four-colour persona, and most characters inhabiting the City of Villains definitely do not. Good people are not safe from sticky fates. Therefore, it is entirely possible that Handbook Articles contain material that is not child-safe. This may include use of gratuitous obscene language, descriptions of sexual acts or extreme violence and also political, religious or social concepts that some people may find offensive.
Please note that this is not a complete list but rather a general summary. Also, people are not required to flag or tag pages that contain such material with mature content warnings, though some authors may do so voluntarily. The people behind the scenes feel that it's not their place to censor content for a particular audience when the very idea behind the Wiki setup is community-oriented.
Talk Pages
An often-overlooked feature of the Wiki setup that deserves special mention, especially in light of the last two points, are the Talk pages that exist for every single Wiki article. If you have questions about an article or are even offended by it in some capacity, the Talk page of that article should be your first stop.
While not entirely equipped for long ongoing conversations due to the usual delay between comments, posting to a Talk page is a good way to communicate. Be it with the author if an article to let them know that there might be something amiss with their article or be it with other readers who agree or disagree with your point.
It goes without saying that this should however always happen in a civil manner.
History
The Handbook idea is the brainchild of Love Spider aka Deathspider who originally fielded the idea on the US Virtue forums on April 2nd 2007. He was aware of other character sites out there, but thought it would be nice to have a 'more standardized, easily digestible' version thereof. As the title of his suggestion (and this website) shows, he's been a fan of books like the Official Handbook of Marvel Universe, and as it turned out, he wasn't alone in his appreciation of these and similar books.
Several of the forums regulars immediately jumped on the idea and started to post suggestions and ideas for the format for such a compendium. The Wiki format quickly showed itself to be the best solution as it allowed great flexibility and easy accessibility to its users. A mere two days after the idea was posted and started to be discussed, Kadekawa surprised everyone with a fully functioning Wiki that was all but ready to go.
Four months later, the Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe reached Europe and the idea was most welcomed by the roleplayers on the Union server. With the help of the brilliant and most generous Kadekawa, Pious and Zortel were able to launch the Handbook of the Union Universe; a very similar Wiki that aims to match the American's quality, if not quantity.
-- Pious with thanks to Eisregen 23:52, 08 August 2007 (GMT)
