View source for Template talk:Locations

== Simplifying ==

If you're intending to always have the same image and caption, it seems like it shouldn't be part of the template in that way. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it seems you should replace
<pre>
{{#if: {{{image|}}} | [[Image:{{{image}}}|220px| ]]<br>{{{caption}}} |
 Image not available.<br />Please [[Special:Upload | add]] one. }}
</pre>
with
<pre>
[[Image:Loc.jpg]]<br>
Where the loction was used:|
</pre>
Is this what you're trying to do?--[[User:Brucker|Brucker]] 13:54, 21 November 2006 (CST)

: You are totally correct. This is my first try with templates and I am just glad that I got something thats functional......but its clumsy.  I just did the best I could do and figured that it works for now and i can fix it up a little once its implemented.  But first I wanted to make sure that I got a positive reaction to adding it to the pages.  The index part could also use some improvement because I dont want to update every page when a new location is added........so that would be my number one area for improvement.  The reason its the way it is at the moment is because i reverse engineered it from the videos template but now I am getting a better idea of how they work.--[[User:Modelmotion|modelmotion]] 14:04, 21 November 2006 (CST)

::Well, that's the thing with a these wikis, the site as a whole is a work in progress, isn't it. I like what you're doing here. --[[User:Brucker|Brucker]] 14:46, 21 November 2006 (CST)

::: Okay, I've got the template smaller and more standardized. From now on, when a new location is added to the list, instead of adding it to every location page, just add it to the template. This will also cut down on issues with errors. PLease do make sure you're careful with your spelling on page titles, at the very least. --[[User:Brucker|Brucker]] 13:50, 27 November 2006 (CST)

:::I think you're missing what I'm saying; you don't have to add the locations to every location page anymore, just to the template, and it cascades down to all the location pages. All you have to do is edit in all the appearances of the location. (In fact, I think it's possible to not need to put in the "name" parameter if you have the right code for taking the page title, but I don't know what it is.--[[User:Brucker|Brucker]] 14:38, 27 November 2006 (CST)

== Revamp ==

I'm trying to overhaul this template, but I've hit a couple of roadblocks...
#I can't seem to shrink the bar on top
#Some of these locations defy categorization
#There's just a '''lot''' of them at this point.  There not all included because we don't have articles on the parking garage where Bree's dad got shot, the cafe where he met Bree, etc.
#Anyone out there with template or table skills, it'd be great if you pitched in.

Is it just me... or would we be better of nixing this in favor of just having a [[:Category:Locations]]?

{| class="infobox" align="bottom" style="background:#eee; border:#535353 1px solid;margin-left:2em;margin-bottom:2em;width: 50em; text-align: center; font-size: 90%; background: #eee;" cellspacing="2"
|+  '''&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Location: {{{name}}}'''
|-
| style="background: #1E5DAA; font-size: 110%; color: white; letter-spacing: .1em;" align="center" |'''LOCATIONS'''
|- valign=top
! style="width:8em" | Appearances
|-
|
{{{appearances}}}
|- valign=top
! style="width:8em" | Location Index
|-
|
'''Homes''' | [[Bree's bedroom]] | [[Daniel's bedroom]] | [[Gemma's flat]] | [[Jonas's house]]

'''Outdoors''' | [[The swimming hole]] | [[The park]] | [[Site of the ceremony | The Ceremony]] | [[Thanksgiving hike]]

'''Motels''' | [[The motel|The first motel]] | [[The second motel]] | The third motel

'''Other locations''' | [[Lucy's apartment]] | [[The office park]] | [[The chain-link fence]] | [[The road trip]] | [[The movie theater]] | [[The warehouse]]
|}


I'm going to completely agree with this. We really need to revamp the location pages, and while attempting to do so, the template just plain gets in the way.--[[User:Killthesmiley|Killthesmiley]] 12:30, 3 February 2007 (CST)

:For the Bree's Religion template, Brucker had suggested "orphaning it" (that is, not including it in any page) until we were done revamping the religion pages and the template itself.  That would be a good idea here too.  However, if we do that, we should make sure all the pages are categorized so we don't lose them... they have really awkward names so it's hard to search for them.  [[User:OwenIsCool|OwenIsCool]] 13:30, 3 February 2007 (CST)

::I shrunk the bar, the problem was the <nowiki><br></nowiki> tags.  They were making it so the bar was three lines.  But yeah, location pages, i dunno.  It makes sense to me to have pages on important locations like Daniel's house, Bree's house, etc... but "The Third Motel"? or "The Thanksgiving Hike"?.  I don't see the point in having a page for every single place they ever go to.  Maybe we should have some criteria of when a place gets a location page?--[[User:JayHenry|JayHenry]] 14:29, 3 February 2007 (CST)

:::I love that Locations box. Much better than the current one. --[[User:SilverBULLETx3|SilverBULLETx3]] 11:46, 5 May 2007 (CDT)

== Some thoughts on locations ==

Okay, if we're going to do locations, they need to be consistent.  We either need a page for all locations, or need a specifically defined criteria of what gets a location page.  Here are all the locations thus far in the series.  In roughly chronological order.

{| border="1" style="text-align:left; valign=top"
|+ Location lists
| All locations || Condensed
|-
|
# Bree's house
# Daniel's house
# First hike
# Swimming hole
# Daniel's car - or, on-the-way to the swimming hole?
# The "[[In The Park]]" Park
# The "[[Learning To Drive]]" loading dock, fence row and streets
# The streets stalking Lucy, the hill where they do exercises, the medical complex.
# [[Site of the ceremony|Topanga State Park]]
# Lucy's apartment
# Gemma's flat
# The chain-link fence/Daniel's friend's house
# [[On The Run]] locations
# First motel
# The grocery store from [[Breakfast In Bed]]
# Jonas's house
# Second motel
# Movie theater
# Thanksgiving hike
# The place where Gemma was on the run herself in [[Scared To Go Home]]
# The park in [[Jonas?]]
# Side of the highway in [[Homeless]]
# The park in [[Homeless]] -- possibly the same park?
# The abandoned building
# The streets in [[Warwalking]]
# The parking garage/alley from [[Your Decision]]
# The "[[Undisclosed Location]]"
# The EPOGEN warehouse
# Jonas's SUV/roadtrip locations
# The cafe/parking garage where Bree's dad got shot
# The beach
# Pins & Pints
# Into the mountains after the Cowboy
# Third motel
# Cowboy's ranch
# Random rest area where Jonas explores the van
# The airport where Tachyon arrives
# The Order's HQ
# The snowy mountains on the way to the cabin
# Jonas's cabin/surrounding area
|valign="top"|
# Bree's house
# Daniel's house
# Hiking sites
# Swimming hole
# Daniel's car
# General LA area
# Parks
# Random sites in LA
# Topanga State Park
# Lucy's apartment
# Gemma's flat
# Daniel's friend's house
# Motels
# Jonas's house
# Movie theater
# The "Undisclosed Location"
# The EPOGEN warehouse
# Jonas's SUV
# Bree's dad's murder scene
# The beaches
# Pins & Pints
# Cowboy's ranch
# The Order's HQ
# Jonas's cabin
# Alex's house
|}
<br clear="all"/>

A lot of those are pretty trivial locations.  We could condense by using Daniel's Car and Jonas's SUV as a catch-all for a lot of those on-the-road type locations, Random Parks could be a catch-all.   I dunno, what do people think?  How do we manage this sprawling category? --[[User:JayHenry|JayHenry]] 13:15, 1 March 2007 (CST)

:Let's see, did you miss a few? There are bunch that people seem to forget... Ooh, you missed a big one, actually. There's also the issue of what qualifies as a location. In various road trip videos, they show several locations; even in [[Learning To Drive]], there are essentially three sub-locations in the video. Also, do we count locations that only show up in OpAphid/Tachyon videos or not? What about unseen but important locations, like Bree's summer camp? Anyway, I'm glad I could help clarify all of this. ; ) {{User:Brucker/sig}} 13:43, 1 March 2007 (CST)

::"The airport where Tachyon arrives" is the big one i missed?  I would argue that this is the most trivial of all the locations so far, as not so much as a line of dialogue is spoken at the airport.  But anyways, you see our problem. --[[User:JayHenry|JayHenry]] 14:48, 1 March 2007 (CST)

:::No, you missed Topange State Park. While it only appears in a single video, the location is a '''''very''''' important one. Which highlights an important issue about how "vital" a location is. One might think that a measure of importance is how many times a location shows up in the videos, but TSP and Lucy's apartment show up each in only one video, and I would consider both of them more important than Daniel's friend's house, which shows up in two or three (could be the "undisclosed location, of course). {{User:Brucker/sig}} 14:58, 1 March 2007 (CST)

:::Oh yeah, you're right that's a big one.  I tried condensing the list using "Daniel's car" and "Jonas's SUV" as locations, as well as "Streets of LA," "random sites in LA," "motels," "parks," and "hiking sites."  It's more manageable. --[[User:JayHenry|JayHenry]] 15:13, 1 March 2007 (CST)

I like the shorter list.  In the longer list a lot of those places are almost impossible to name.  You should probably consider a standardized place on video pages for listing all the locations.  Possibly in the video template, possibly as a note, or possibly some new cool thing that nobody's even thought of yet.

{{User:Phuncknasty/sig}} 23:52, 2 March 2007 (CST)

:Wow, we really do have a LOT of locations, don't we?  A few points/concerns/suggestions/questions about the two lists:
:#How is Hiking Sites different from Topanga State park?  I thought both "hiking" and "swimming" videos were in TSP.  Does Hiking sites here mean the Thanksgiving hike?  I don't see that site mentioned in the condensed list.
:#Merge "Daniel's car", "Streets of LA" and "Random sites in LA" to something like "General Los Angeles Area" or something like that.  It seems they ditched the car  while still being in LA though.
:#I'd separate the "In The Park" park from the other parks and put those in General LA Area or something.  I just think this park is the most important by far, and clearly stands out from the others.
:#I'd leave out the Undisclosed Location... I mean we really have ''very'' little to say about it.  I'm tempted to leave out the movie theater too, or include it in General LA Area.  It doesn't seem like anything interesting came out of the movie theater, despite all the speculation.
:#As of [[Beach Bum]] we have two beaches.  Unless it's the same beach.  So, change to "beaches"?
:#We shouldn't feel obligated to find someplace to include every single location.  I never thought these pages were very useful, except for the places that are of real interest (eg, Bree's room, Daniel's room, the park, TSP) because of the behind the scences info available, or the fanfic crossover or what have you.  It might be best to go ultra-simple and dedicate our efforts to our top 10 locations or something along those lines.
:[[User:OwenIsCool|OwenIsCool]] 19:43, 8 March 2007 (CST)

== Location Color vs Blog color ==

[[User:JayHenry|JayHenry]] changed the color of the template from Steelblue to Light SteelBlue, marking his edit as a "fix". Apparently, he thought that I meant to make it the same as the blog template. However, When I remade the template, I intentionally make it steelblue to make it similar but different, so that that they will have a unique look and identity. Anyone disagree? -[[User:Misty|misty]] 00:51, 15 May 2007 (CDT)

: I marked it "fix" because there were a number of formatting errors in the template and that was the main thing I changed.  Any color is fine with me. --[[User:JayHenry|JayHenry]] 00:54, 15 May 2007 (CDT)

==Merge with KateModern Locations Template==
Per the discussion on the KateModern Locations template page, I merged the two templates together. Everything will work the same, but there's a new optional field KM that, if set to "yes", will change the color scheme and categorization to the standard KateModern one. - [[User:Shiori|Shiori]] 10:43, 31 December 2007 (CST)