User:Talvin

Talvin's Clan Law

Do Not Irritate The Loremaster, For Your Name Rhymes With Awful Things, And They Write The Remembrance.

Profile

Call me Talvin, more people know me by that than my real name anyhow.

I have been playing casually off and on, both tabletop (that's been a while) and computer games since the early 90s, and I have a significant collection of the novels, some in print from back when, though nowadays I mostly get Kindle. My most interesting achievement is losing a Highlander to a Gauss headshot (after I kept saying "There can be only one!") during a free-for-all game in college. And I have a degree in English and Education for all that's worth.

I have been enjoying this Wiki for a few years and decided it was time I stepped up to pay my dues.

Discord

If you want to chat on Discord, send a friend request to my username here with #3561 tacked on the end. (Obfuscating that a bit so bots can't just grab it.)

Task List

• Every week, look at the Orphans and deal with new stuff as appropriate.
• For those Orphans already classified: pick a category and try to knock it down some. Find homes for stuff. Some of these are just not going to happen. Accept it gracefully.
• Media Companies is going to be slow but sure. Figure out how to fit that into the Wiki as a whole, too.
• Word of Blake Navy is a long-term project.
• Category:Sources needing updates (0)
• Shadowrun: Need to replace the Wikipedia text with something that better reflects how it related to BTW. Maybe do a workup page here in my userspace, get some feedback.
• I have hit my three month mark, and while I cannot reasonably expect to review all my work, I should block out some time over the next week or so to look at the pages I have created with fresh eyes and see if I could improve something.

Editing Philosophy

I want to create as few new articles as I can get away with, while working to improve the linking of existing articles. BTW has many pages that are orphans or only linked in their own little bubble, and I firmly believe that wikis work best when there are plenty of crossroads and side-alleys to wander down looking at interesting things. Well-organized category pages can help, but past a certain point they are not of much use to the average user due to the scale.

Alot of hard work has been done over the years, and before I add to the 35,000+ pages on here, I want to see about bringing some of that hard work forward so others can find it, use it, and improve it.

Creating Connections

I want to expand on this a bit: I feel my best role in the Wiki as a whole is finding connections. With over 35,000 pages as of this writing, the BattleTech Wiki has a lot of information, but sometimes important bits are widely separated and need to be brought together. An example from the day I write this: I found Nagayan Mountain Castle Brian in the "Orphaned Pages", sitting unused. The Helm Memory Core! One of the early "big events" of BattleTech Canon! I found that that page cited a source that did not appear on the Helm page, nor the Helm Memory Core page, and neither page indicated that it was actually a Castle Brian! (Not sure if Castle Brian was established canon when the novel was written.) So, with a side-trip to the research desk to ensure it really did say "Castle Brian" in the source, I was able to add an important link to a key piece of lore in the Wiki. Not all or even most of what I do is a Big Score like that, but sometimes I come across some neglected little bit that makes me stop and go "Ooooooooh." Then I bring it out for everyone else to see: for readers to enjoy, and for other editors to incorporate into new and/or expanded articles.

It's not the only thing I do, but it is where my strength lies: not in making new articles, or rewriting old ones extensively, but in making the Wiki more Wikified, if you will.

Just Keeping Score

This is for my own amusement more than anything. As I say above, I want to create as few new articles (as distinct from pages, which may be talk pages or redirects or something like project pages) as possible. I also exclude one that started out to be an article and got moved to a Project Page. To remind myself of that, I will keep an updated score of how many articles I still have out there.

As of 9 April 2022:

1. Book Publishers
2. Emil
3. New Avalon Press
4. Sendai Massacre (properly speaking someone else created an empty page, but I wrote the first draft and plugged it in, so I am counting it.)
5. Camo Specs Online: This was made out of desperation to home a single-item category in the Orphanage. I know almost nothing about the subject matter, I do not maintain the page, and I can't help you with it. Lots of folks with more passion and interest for Minis on the Wiki and Discord. :)
6. Capellan Operations Command: Another made out of desperation to get stuff out of the orphanage. Others, I hope, have more to add.
7. Alexandre Marsden: An interesting little footnote in Clan History, I am hoping more comes in the final Founding of the Clans book.
8. Archiel Tranns: Just as Alexandre Marsden, above.
9. Burger: Look. Somebody had to do it. And I volunteered.
10. Siege of Hesperus II (2853): #10! I put a lot of work into this one, the bits and pieces were scattered about.
11. Warchest Point System Quick and easy, and much-wanted.
12. Commonwealth Historical Press: I do believe I am starting to find a niche, here.
13. Klathandu Federation: Another "I made this out of desperation to fix a problem in the Orphanage" article. Not a subject matter expert by any stretch.
14. Restoration War: Half-credit for this, I feel. I had to split it out of another article, and I am going to be working up the canonical stuff.
15. Vishu Folkner: One of Sarna's Most Wanted, a one-line wonder character that had 18 redlinks due to the position he held. Easy to make.
16. Orbital Operations Group (Wolf's Dragoons): at the time I made this, it was the second-most-wanted page on Sarna.
17. Wolf's Dragoons BattleGroup: this comes under the heading of "Making the Best of a Bad Situation". I do wonder if the editors meant for it to be Home Guard and didn't change everything over. But then, they fought and many died on Crossing, so maybe not.

Projects

Notes and Rules

Category:Military Commands: Go through and look for empty Notes sections and empty-or-functionally-empty Rules sections. Axe.

This is going to take a while. Just pick one when you need something mindless and knock it off the list.

1. Category:Aerospace Fighter classes
2. Category:DropShip classes

Others to possibly check for empty notes sections: BattleTechWiki:Spacecraft Portal, Support Vehicles, Individual Spacecraft, WarShips (hey, one of my fave topics). This is based purely on the existing templates.

Update Needed

Well, I have gotten the Orphans down to size and either homed or categorized, I have done triage on cleanup, refimprove, and stub, and I have created a few articles. Time for a new direction (while still keeping an eye on other projects.) I will compare my list of novels and sourcebooks to the stuff in Category:Sources needing updates, pick a book I have, and work through all the stuff that wants updates from that until I have done all I can--ideally removing that work from that category. It's a bit overfull, after all.

Let's have a go at Field Manual: Updates. It's a little outside my usual fare, but it shouldn't require the degree of back-and-forth of Operation Klondike.

1. 1st Long Road Legion
2. Edwin Amis
3. First Circuit
4. Hussars (Free Rasalhague Republic)
5. Jeffrey Calderon
6. Jocelyn Vong
7. Marco Hall
8. McCarron's Armored Cavalry
9. Nathaniel Hasek
10. Oriente Ducal Guard
11. Periphery Guard
12. Royal Black Watch Regiment

Project Orphanage

Project Orphanage
I started this on or around February 4, 2022. On March 3, 2022, it went public. Not bad for my first month here.

Word of Blake Navy

User:Talvin/Word of Blake Navy is something I tinker with when I want a break from the other stuff. Space battles need more love and attention.

Media Companies

I started this with New Avalon Press. Thinking about it: authors, fluff-writers for the sourcebooks and supplements, and the hardcore loreseekers might benefit from a list of the in-universe media producers: the film studios, news organizations, and publishing houses. Categories just won't work for this: you need some idea of what they make. I also keep running across relevant orphans, so I am going to adopt them. Smaller outfits with just one or two little publications will stay on a list page, anything that is shown to be prominent can be spun off into its own article. Again, parking it here while I flesh it out. User:Talvin/Media Companies

Stuff on the Back Burner

Other Projects I am considering or have set aside for now.

Pages That Amuse or Interest Me

• Four Horsemen of Errai - The first big "gem" that I dug out of the Orphanage, that I recall. I hope they expand on this in canon someday.
• Jeffery Foxworth Love the reference.
• Schedar Enlightenment and Liberation Force (SELF). I mean, if they got forced to join a Clan, they would be...SELF-Absorbed!
• Callandra Witch There's a story here, and I hope they continue developing it.
• Dagen's Daggers Looks like they were just fluff from a Technical Readout, but this is the sort of thing that could make a whole Scenario Pack or Novella. Both? Both is good!
• Precentor Who Lost His Name Huh! I read the novel, of course, but I didn't know about this little followup. Interesting....
• "Pilot! Can you identify the DropShip?"

"Wait a minute!"

"Pilot! Identify that DropShip!"

"I said WAYTAMINIT!"

• Bob. It's a planet. It used to have a different name. Check it out.
• Tai Dai Cult Somebody actually went there.
• Hobb V. Ess

Saving this from Project Orphanage

Had to pull this off when the project went public, so saving it here:
I am the very model of a Modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the Khans of Falcon, and I quote the fights historical,
From Dieudonné to Galedon, in order categorical

--with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan Talvin (talk)

Awards

Oh, this place has awards. Neat. I'll probably update my little red ribbon every Friday for now. It's a fun way to keep score.

Awards Board