Forum:SH:URGENT: StarWars.com September 2011 Revamping

I just wanted to let everyone know that as of a few hours ago, StarWars.com is no longer what it once was. It's still there, but a new Oasis-esque skin is now in use throughout the site. While it looks very cool (and Wookieepedia even receives recognition on every encyclopedia entry!), this presents a very big problem to all of our previous formatting for the site.

SW, DB, Hyperspace, and probably several more of our templates are now obsolete&mdash;none of the old links (save for starwars.com itself) work. Many, many, many articles across the site are going to require updating not just formatting-wise, but for the new "Encyclopedia" entries (the Databank's successor).

It would be great if some of the highly tech-savvy members of our community could come up with new ways to cite the new Encyclopedia and various online articles on SW.com, but we still need to preserve the old templates somehow. Archive.org will probably do it, but I'd like to see others' opinions about how in general to tackle this complete revamping of the official site.  CC7567  (talk) 04:36, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * It's part of their overall plan to take us over. :(  JangFett  (Talk) 04:41, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * It'd be one thing if they offered us all jobs as official archivists (at the very least, official titles as official Lucasfilm staff), but I highly doubt it. This move makes me very wary.  It may have been done so that they can use text from us without permission (as we'll be unofficially official), but knowing Lucasfilm...  We're gonna all end up with stomach ulcers by the time TCW is over and done with. :|  Trak Nar  Ramble on 04:47, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * We should probably switch the templates over to archive.org, and add a new one for the Encyclopedia pages. And let me just say, I have a really bad feeling about the Wookieepedia links. Like the feeling a zebra has when a lion looks at him across the plain. Or the feeling the Polish had in 1938. -- Darth Culator  (Talk) 04:50, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * How about we modify SW to only point to archive.org (like what happened with WizardsCite) and then move it to a new template page altogether, like SWArchive or something? (And correct everything to SWArchive using one of our bots?) That way, we can use SWArchive for (nonexistent) pre-2011 articles and SW beginning now for the site's new layout.  CC7567  (talk) 05:05, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * That idea makes perfect sense. And I'm all for the bot.  Though, how long could we keep using archive.org?  Perhaps we should consider a more permanent off-site archive in the future.  Trak Nar  Ramble on 05:07, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * Modifications have been made to SW, DB, and Hyperspace, the only templates affected. (Strangely enough, the blogs weren't taken down, so SWBlogs can be left alone.) All that's left to do now would be:
 * move SW to SWArchives and correct all the template usage via bots;
 * create a new SW template for post-today usage after that; and
 * create Encyclopedia or something for the new Encyclopedia. I need to get offline, but I encourage tech-savvy users to implement the above.  CC7567  (talk) 06:31, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * It may also be time to revisit this in some form. jSarek 08:17, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * Hmm, I'm not sure that we need to go that far. I'm not even completely sure how that would help. From what I gathered, it sounds like that discussion was for placing whole sections of books on the Wook. I think that if some tech-savvys can take care of the templates, we'll be good to go. Cal Jedi Infinite Empire.svg (Personal Comm Channel) 13:36, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * This is far worse than I feared. All the WTS entries have gone and those were often the only official source about these characters and other entries. Also, what will happen to The Clone Wars Episode Guides now? How will we be able to get new information from the new episodes when SW.com isn't keen at all to post any information about them? --Sompeetalay 15:17, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * Update regarding the templates: SWE is up and running for the Encyclopedia, while we're waiting for SWArchive to be implemented site-wide before creating a new SW template.  CC7567  (talk) 17:48, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * It would be really good for a bot such as KillerRoboLeia3000 to update all the links to the old Databank. Good to know things will be taken care of in due time. Hanzo Hasashi 18:21, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * As mentioned above, I believe that we were simply going to keep the original Databank entries as they are now (since they're still valid resources, even if they're currently inaccessible) and simply add the Encyclopedia entries as new sources to articles. I'm hammering out a CT proposal right now for all of this.  CC7567  (talk) 18:28, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * Will all of them eventually get updated archived links? Hanzo Hasashi 18:33, September 14, 2011 (UTC)
 * The Databank entries, or the Encyclopedia entries? If you're referring to the Databank, links to archive.org's records of each page have been listed as part of the change to DB. Not all of the DB entries were archived, however, so some may still be lost. If you're looking for archive links beyond archive.org, I'm not sure if there are any good ones that we can implement site-wide.  CC7567  (talk) 18:38, September 14, 2011 (UTC)