Topic Link Detection question

[jflevesque]

Hey guys,

Been using Realm Works now for a while and stumbled upon a behavior that bugs me and I was wondering if it was the expected behavior or possibly bug/feature request.

So, let's say you have a Monster article named Dragon and you also have a class article named Dragon Knight. If you have Auto-Accept on the Dragon article, when you type in text within the Dragon Knight article, the Dragon will be automatically linked to the Dragon article.

Shouldn't the current topic list of names take precedence on other topics?

Linked a snippet where the link is 'wrong' and also linked the topic names configuration.

 

[Bidmaron]

The desirable behavior would probably be no link at all in the dragon knight topic, right?

 

[jflevesque]

Well, it depends. Since the Dragon Knight does have a Dragon as a patron, I would expect that Dragon alone would be detected, but all mentions of "Dragon Knight" would not.

So I'm guessing the algorithm would be:
- Detect all words that match my current names
- For all matches, set Ignore Link
- Detect all other topic names

Would this make sense?

 

[Bidmaron]

Yes. I am shocked I haven't run into this. Or at least cannot remember it

 

[jflevesque]

Should I report this as an issue to LWD?

 

[Bidmaron]

I'd recommend it, although I'm not sure if they would consider it a bug or a feature request.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

So, let's say you have a Monster article named Dragon and you also have a class article named Dragon Knight. If you have Auto-Accept on the Dragon article, when you type in text within the Dragon Knight article, the Dragon will be automatically linked to the Dragon article.

Shouldn't the current topic list of names take precedence on other topics?

What is the purpose a snippet text linking to topic it is in? What would you expect to happen when you are in the Dragon Knight article and click the link to take you to the "Dragon Knight" article?

I am sorry I am totally confused on why an article would link to itself????

 

[Parody]

The idea (I believe) is for Realm Works to see that the text matches a name associated with the current Topic/Article and not link anything.

 

[kbs666]

The idea (I believe) is for Realm Works to see that the text matches a name associated with the current Topic/Article and not link anything.

Linkers are rarely that smart. In this case it hits a token it knows about creates a link like it was told to do and moves on. If the user doesn't want every instance of Dragon to be linked to the Dagon article he shouldn't have it set to auto accept.

 

[Silveras]

When saving a topic, Realm Works does not suggest linking to the same Topic (at least I have not seen it do so.. but I have not specifically tested this with the newest build). If it is doing so for "Auto Accept", that's probably a bug.

Otherwise, as kbs666 mentioned, the purpose of auto-accept is to have RW automatically link without confirming those links. If a Topic Tiitle is a single common word, it can have undesirable side-effects when set to Auto-Accept, for which reason it should be used with that in mind.

 

[rob]

Enabling auto-accept on a single word is typically going to yield more trouble than benefit. Especially within RPGs, a single word will quite often find itself used in numerous different combinations with other words. The example here with Dragon and Dragon Knight is but a simple instance of that. Without any real thought, I can come up with likely topic/article names such as "Dragon Slayer", "Order of the Dragon", "Red Dragon", "Dragon Disciple", "Flaming Dragon Inn", etc.

If any of these other names are used in a realm, having the word "dragon" auto-accept is going to cause headaches. Even if we added special handling to avoid auto-accepting "dragon" in a topic who name is a superset (like "dragon knight"), that only solves the problem within those specific topics. Throughout the rest of the realm, problems will ensue. Anywhere that the "Order of the Dragon" is mentioned, such as an NPC that's a member or a scene where the organization is encountered, will end up automatically matching "dragon". So there is really very little point in adding custom handling for the specific situation presented by the OP, as the problem will persist throughout the rest of the realm.

The only way to ensure that "dragon" doesn't get auto-accepted when within another larger term is to configure every other term as auto-accept. So that means "Dragon Knight", "Dragon Slayer", "Order of the Dragon", "Red Dragon", "Dragon Disciple", "Flaming Dragon Inn", and anything else must ALL be configured as auto-accept. If that's done, everything will behave well, since Realm Works does give preference to the longest matching term it can identify.

But setting up everything to be auto-accept is going to be annoying and probably introduce new complications of its own. You'll also need to setup auto-accept on all the plural forms, of course. And it likely ends up just being more trouble than it's worth.

Which is why I started out this post with the assertion that enabling auto-accept on a single word is typically going to yield more trouble than benefit. For multi-word terms, or even obscure one-word terms that aren't going to be used in conjunction with anything else, auto-accept can greatly simplify and speed up operations. But single words that are used commonly in conjunction with others are just not viable candidates for auto-accept.

Hope this helps!

 

[jflevesque]

Hey everyone,

Thank you for all your responses. I am not sure why, but I had the assumption that having multiple topics that can be matched cause the link detection mechanism to open the conflict windows if multiple matches could be found, even though some would be in auto-accept mode.

I think I'll just have to review how I was using the Auto-Accept feature to prevent such issues.