Shield Article: Quick Question

[The Devil's Advocate]

I'm writing a shield article. It is an over view of all the types of shields and shield components of which I am aware. It occured to me to ask: what sorts of detail would you, as people who would potentially read such an article want to see in it?

~The Devil's Advocate

[yokusa]

Okay, what audience are you trying to speak to? Is the article directed at newbies, experienced people, or everyone in general? If it's aimed at newbies as opposed to experienced people, it may well change the content.

[The Devil's Advocate]

This is, as stated, a GENERAL article. An over view. It is intended to be aimed at a broad audience. That's not the question. The question is what do YOU, personally, as someone who is going to be reading it want in the way of detail.

I'm not asking for advice on how to write it. I'm asking for what you want to see in the context of this article. This isn't a question that can be properly answered with stylistic counter questions. Please answer or don't muddy the issue.

~The Devil's Advocate

[yokusa]

Which is why I had the word "content". Anyway, it doesn't matter. An overview could be four hundred pages long if it were directed toward a very accomplished psion or psionics researcher. It could be a page long overview if you were delivering it to a newbie. Even if it is general information, it's still going to have some guidelines as to who you want to understand it.

For example: I could ask you to tell in your article how psi is built on an atomic level in order to create a specific shield shape, but still fit in everything about shields, still being an overview. We both know that none of us can describe this, but I could ask you to. IF you could, then it would probably still have everything about shields in it, thereby still being an overview on shields, but instead being directed at the "Einstein of Psionics".

I wasn't trying to tell you how to write it, but I was trying to get some guidelines as to what you will or will not write in your article. After all, it's still your article and we're obviously not writing it for you, so the content is still up to you. Before I go throwing stuff at you that I would include in my shielding article, I should like to get an idea of what content is and isn't appropriate for this particular article that you are writing. That's why I was asking.

[innerfire]

This might be a little more complex but what I'd like detail-wise is either as you're going through everything or as an after section go into information about how the structure, programming, visualization and such work in such a way that one could get more than learning some already accepted types, and instead understand the workings enough to maybe tinker with more original designs.

[The Devil's Advocate]

It is a basic overview. As I originally said. I'm not doing 3 or 4 pages on anything. That is, by definition, more in depth than an OVERVIEW goes. On the atomic level would not be the purview of an overview. That would be an in depth research paper as we do not have a great deal of scientific information on the molecular level of psionics; therefore, it is not part of an OVERVIEW. Overviews of entire sections of a field are not usually written to PhDs. And given that there are NO PhDs in applied psionics that kind of article would be rather pointless. You are over thinking the question. It means EXACTLY what it says it means:

What information do you want to see covered in OVERVIEW (ie general summary)?

It's that simple a question. Look at Innerfire's response. Simple to the point. As it stands you are still telling me how to write the article and ask the question it's already simple. Do you, or do you NOT have anything you'd like to see in an OVERVIEW (ie general summary)?

~The Devil's Advocate, rather frustrated.

[wolfdancer]

BTW for any who may have misread the above response, I believe most of that was directed at Yokusa, not innerfire.

Now for my input: I was thinking about typing basically what innerfire said. I would like informations on what the shield does and what visualizations you use to accomplish that purpose.

[The Devil's Advocate]

It was mostly intended at Yokuso. Innerfire's is the style of answer I'm after (specific things he'd like to see.) Thank you for the clarification, Wolf.

~The Devil's Advocate

[lunin]

I think different situational suggestions would be interesting as well, with practical applications of shields that may vary based on some general scenarios. Different types of shields are always interesting, but to me, when it comes down to it, the type isn't as important as the desired effect/effectiveness and how realistic it is to keep up as opposed to other possibly more simple solutions.

[yokusa]

In Webster's Third New International Dictionary (C) 1981 by Merriam-Webster Inc. the definition of overview is this: "a survey or inspection of a certain subject or idea". Sounds to me like it could go as in-depth or as general as you want it. And anyway, if you're explaining the types of shields and their components, that probably goes into programming, which could indeed be three to four pages long, when also considering the other content as well.

Anyway, I'm not going to pursue it further.


When I read a shield article, I always like it when the author gives the definition of a shield so that everyone knows what your subject is. I also love it when the author emphasizes the importance of a shield and why one would want to be able to use a shield at any time. In any shield article explaining the types of shields, I like to see the different tasks you can perform with different types of shields. Also I think it would be good to explain what you need to put in your shields (in terms of programming) so that there is a clear difference between the shield you programmed and the average deflection shield. Perhaps if you're feeling up to it, giving different ideas of shields people might want to try and master so they can use it whenever.
Even though this is talked less about, I'll just mention that tendrils might be good to talk about with shields. Programming a shield with tendrils might want to be talked about.

[The Devil's Advocate]

It is also defined as "A summary or review" in the American Heritage dictionary (2000) while Princton's online has it as "a general summary of a subject"(2003). My copy of Mirriam-webster has gone AWOL or I'd compare same-reference.

Clarification: By 'tendrils' do you mean thread constructs? If so, yes I plan on discussing thread shields.

And thank you for the information.

~The Devil's Advocate

[yokusa]

I often use tendrils as sort of an assertive extension of the shield to actually grab incoming constructs, programs, pings, etc. or if I'm sending something, I use them as a psionic highway for my sending. Sometimes, it's better than directly connecting because it's actually coming from the shield, so nothing can sneak in when sending or receiving.

If that didn't answer your question, it's because I'm not too familiar with the term thread constructs. Maybe I should be, but I'd probably recognize it if you were to explain it to me.

~Yokusa, thinking back for a thread construct reference

[The Devil's Advocate]

Thread shielding is a woven shield. It gives a great many more options for 'layering' things into a single construct, and installing multiple purposes into a single construct. I've covered my methods in a couple of other threads so I won't repeat myself here. None of the ones I have done 'reach out' to anything. and the name is more a comment on the construction than the function.

~The Devil's Advocate

[wolfdancer]

Deleted: Edited: Reposted:

There is an article on thread construction by Cullen. For some reason it was not coming up for me today, but should be back up again soon if you would like to read up on it ( zhkyrl.brinkster.net/psionline/p_threadcon.html ). You might also find reading psionline.proboards22.com/index.cgi?board=programming&action=display&thread=1092713532 useful. It is from quite a while ago and is on a forum that is not to be used, but may be read. Just a little bit of what I help is useful resources for clarification.

[yokusa]

Cool thanks DA and wolf. Yeah I've been keeping up with the other threads and will comment on it in there.