This is an ongoing debate in my head. There are:
- Clarifications to the basis main text, maintained as footnotes. From time to time, an paragraph is included or reworded if the rules in English omitted or mistranslated something.
- Clarifications about interactions included in C1 as footnotes, but in C2 promoted to a new section in the main text especially in major expansions.
- Long clarifications in C1 promoted to full section in the CAR, and kept the same way in WICA.
- Clarifications about ruleset changes or mistranslations affecting certain publishers, so they are not required for all languages.
So the issue is how to combine it all. We need a way to convey all the information in a way that is simple to read for the newbie (we do not scare him/her away with an information overload) but can satisfy the expert player that wants to check all the info structured in one place.
Another problem I'd like to address is assigning unique identifiers (with an addressable link) to clarifications, so you can reference them in discussions. This IDs would also allow you to cross reference the CAR v7.4, or even existing clarifications on other sources (CarcC, CarcF, BGG...) Footnotes can be easily referenced, but what about clarifications embedded into the main text?
Pondering all this, I did some tests about moving the clarifications to the main text as aside boxes. They were okay on desktop but it was making pages very long on mobile. Most of WICA users are using a mobile so it was not very recommendable.
* Base Game - Test with additional sections:
https://wikicarpedia.com/index.php/Base_Game_-_Test_Inline* The Abbot - Test with additional sections:
https://wikicarpedia.com/index.php/The_Abbot_-_Test* The Messages - Test with additional sections:
https://wikicarpedia.com/index.php/New_Messages_-_TestI revisit the topic from time to time to see if I get new ideas coming back with fresh eyes.
On the other hand, the mobile view uses a drawer panel to display footnotes, so it is not so bad after all to keep footnotes. The only issue: images in footnotes are not preloaded until you scroll down to the very end of the page. I couldn't find a way to avoid this so far.
And then we have the final issue: printing to PDF. How to combine all this with a compact view when printing/saving a page to PDF. Combining a flexible layout for desktop and mobile along with a compact layout with precise positioning may require a massive rework translators may not be very happy about.
So here I am at a crossroads... Trying to square the circle when not busy with any new content for WICA