User talk:Jack Phoenix/Archive 10

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Do you really need to contact me? It is preferrable to use the ShoutWiki forum for general questions, discussion and feedback to encourage participation and to gather a wider audience.

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You can also contact ShoutWiki staff privately via email at troppusmoc.ikiwtuohs.


Feel free to leave me a message.
Archived talk: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10


rar[edit source]

Dude how's it going!? Long time no talk haha. Phil.e. (talk) 17:36, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

ZOMG, it's Phil.e.! Like Obi-Wan Kenobi would say, "now that's a name I've not heard in a long time".
Things have certainly changed a bit since we last spoke, but it's mostly good. :) Do you still use IRC? It'd be nice to talk to you in real time (although IRC's not exactly a real-time communication method, but it's close enough) — see my user page for my IRC (and other) contact details.
But enough about me — I'd be curious to know where you've spent the last couple years! --Jack Phoenix ShoutWiki Staff (contact) 20:12, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
Glad to hear mostly good! I've not gone on IRC much in a while, but I'll get XChat again so it'll feel just like the old days. When would you be free to chat? I'm busy for what's this afternoon for me(EST), but I'll be free 10pm EST or tomorrow. I actually renewed my nick on Freenode over summer, though it probably expired again since lol. Phil.e. (talk) 17:06, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
I'm online 24/7 (yay for bouncers!), but whether I'm available is a different matter — it varies on a day-to-day basis depending on things like issues needing my urgent attention, matters to resolve and positioning of the stars. ;-) Try pinging/messaging me to see if I'll reply; if not, I'm probably not around at the moment.
Time zones confuse me most of the time, but thankfully there are search engines out there which can be used to discover all sorts of fun time zone conversion websites. 10PM EST translates to 5AM local time, which means that I should be asleep at that hour. I hope we can talk on IRC soon, despite time zones and other fun little things! --Jack Phoenix ShoutWiki Staff (contact) 17:22, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
Ah I miss learning about stuff like that, after wikia my usual internet hangout was 4chan, which is rarely a good source of knowledge lol. I feel you, in that case I'll give it a few tries on #mediawiki or pm (since I doubt our old cabal channels are still around lol) tomorrow; I'm sure we'll catch each other at some point ;) Phil.e. (talk) 18:44, 1 November 2013 (UTC)


  • Hey, merry Christmas! Been meaning to get on IRC one of these days, so til then hope your holiday's going great and all is well! Phil.e. (talk) 04:11, 26 December 2013 (UTC)
    • Merry Christmas to you too! My Christmas was very fun, thanks for asking, and I hope yours was too! :-)
      What's more, we've been working on some pretty nifty stuff for ShoutWiki — if you haven't read it already, you'll definitely want to take a look at our most recent blog post! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 18:00, 26 December 2013 (UTC)

Nityanica-lite[edit source]

On Nityanica-lite project constantly lapping vandals. Ask as project administrator, to prevent the creation of accounts. Thanks in advance. --Кайзер Вильгельм (talk) 13:51, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

Restricting the creation of accounts won't do any good, I'm afraid, because accounts are shared between all ShoutWiki wikis, so the problem users in question could just go to a different wiki and create an account there. I've however enabled the AbuseFilter extension on s:w:nityanica-lite, so you or another admin can write custom rules to prevent certain kinds of actions from taking place. The MediaWiki.org page about AbuseFilter's rules' format might be of use, too.
Please let me or another ShoutWiki staff member know if the vandalism persists or should you need any help with AbuseFilter and writing rules for it. --Jack Phoenix ShoutWiki Staff (contact) 17:56, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

Top-level forums need prominent exposure[edit source]

Hi again. I think the forums here need prominent exposure in order to get more people participating.

Wikia's hub wiki gives their top-level forums prominent exposure. The forums are openly linked from the top of every page on Wikia's Community Central hub wiki. The forums link is not in a sub-level menu farther down the page.

I suggest putting a forum link right after "Create a wiki" in the sidebar. People like community, but usually only if it is prominent and popular. --Timeshifter (talk) 01:28, 7 November 2013 (UTC)

Hi, I've added a link in the getting help section. Best regards,--Cook879 ShoutWiki Staff talk 23:20, 7 November 2013 (UTC)
Thanks, I hope that it helps. I note that some people who have chosen Vector in preferences (like me) may not see the forum link if they have closed that help subsection. It seems that the closing is remembered on subsequent pages that are launched. I don't know how many people are using Vector though while viewing the hub wiki. --Timeshifter (talk) 03:58, 8 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks[edit source]

Hello, I just wanted to thank you for responding to my topic and helping me with my Wiki site. I also appreciate the compliment about Sega Sonic Wiki's look. ^_^ I'll be adding my Wiki to the description page.

BessDreamer (talk) 15:12, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Awesome! Let's hope that'll help people to find the wiki. :-) --Jack Phoenix ShoutWiki Staff (contact) 18:11, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Old search JS was broken. Removed it from MediaWiki:Common.js on the Cannabis wiki[edit source]

I am commenting here since I am not sure you will see my message here:

Please see MediaWiki:Common.js on the Cannabis wiki, and its history.

It seems the old JS was no longer working right for me too. It not only automatically opened search results in a new tab. It also opened them in the same tab. So it was creating 2 search result pages. It shouldn't have been doing that. I added a note about this problem at the top of the source page here:

So I removed the old JS from MediaWiki:Common.js on the Cannabis wiki. Instead I added JS that provides an option to open search results in a new tab. It works via Ctrl-click (PC) and Command-click (Mac). It is working fine for me. I haven't had any problems with the popup blocker in the browser I use (Firefox).

I copied the current JS from working gadget JS from the Wikimedia Commons. See:

--Timeshifter (talk) 12:12, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

Indeed, the old JS was triggering the popup browser for me most of the time instead of submitting the search query and opening up the results in a new window.
The current JS looks good and it appears to be certainly more flexible than the old one, because now the user is able to choose where they want to open up the search results — in the same tab or in a new window.
It's a shame that many JS snippets (both on Wikimedia sites and off-Wikimedia ones) go unmaintained, and nothing seems to have become of the grand plans to have a centralized gadget repository...
--Jack Phoenix ShoutWiki Staff (contact) 18:11, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

create wiki[edit source]

  • Shoutwiki administrators,

We are from Worldpedia. Thank you for providing this platform for us to create a platform for traditional Chinese users to contribute. Our aim is to create an online encyclopedia for all Traditional Chinese users, and therefore we want to create more different language versions of Worldpedia in order to benefit every single person on Earth. However, a person could only apply for five websites at most, and this restricted the development of Worldpedia. We hope that you could kindly change the restrictions, and provide a precious opportunity for Worldpedia to develop in the future. Thank you again for providing an opportunity for us.

Yours faithfully,--Msnhinet8 (talk) 09:00, 8 December 2013 (UTC)

Hi Msnhinet8, I'm happy to hear that you like ShoutWiki! :-) While the five wikis per user limit isn't going away, we encourage you to contact us privately so that we can sort out issues like these on a case-by-case basis. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 22:03, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

Updating Semantic MediaWiki[edit source]

Hi Jack,
Is it possible please to update the Semantic MediaWiki release up to the 1.8.0.5 version on all my semantic wikis (as well as the others Semantic SW wikis) as there were some identified bugs on previous releases (currently, we use 1.8.0.1 on SW). I posted a bug on bugzilla long ago (bug #220) yet no answer was given (I know you are quite busy this time and this was not a priority). One of the identified bugs is a count in statistics of semantic namespace pages. Thank you for your answer. Cheers! --LIMAFOX76 (talk) 11:14, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

Hi LIMAFOX76, and apologies for the delay in responding to that bug report! The 1.22 upgrade, and especially the very mysterious post-upgrade bug with user preferences that was happening only on production sites, not on our devboxes, certainly kept us busy.
That being said, Semantic MediaWiki isn't exactly our favorite extension to upgrade due to its complicated dependencies and whatnot. Also, there's the upstream bug #58182, although from what I gather, it seems to apply only to SMW 1.9.x series.
I'll talk to Lewis about upgrading Semantic MediaWiki before the holidays. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 22:03, 10 December 2013 (UTC)
Hi Jack,
do you have any idea about updating Semantic MediaWiki, since now a brand new version has been released (1.9.1.1)? Thank you for your answer. --LIMAFOX76 (talk) 15:27, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Special Wikis[edit source]

Hello, how to appers my wiki in the "and in other languages" section. What are the requirements ? Thanks and I wait your answer (sorry for my bad english) --Cruz (talk) 22:02, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

There aren't any hard requirements, but generally speaking all of the wikis listed on the "No such wiki" page have over 200 content articles and their administrators have put effort into the wikis. If you'll give me a link, I can take a look at your wiki and add it to the "No such wiki" page. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 15:46, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
Kinder Wiki has +600 content articles. This is our wiki. --Cruz (talk) 16:48, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
I've added the Kinder Wiki to the message. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:33, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

API Error[edit source]

Hi! We want make a bot for copy articles for other old wiki (out of ShoutWiki) but we can't do it. When we do an action (movement) in API, this thing don't give any result, just say "boot (false)". What is the problem here? --Cruz (talk) 19:57, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

This is the login script:
 
 <?php
 require_once('Snoopy.class.php');
 
 $snoopy = new Snoopy;

 $request_vars = array('action' => 'login', 'lgname' => 'USERNAME', 
        'lgpassword' => 'PASS', 'format' => 'php');
        if(!$snoopy->submit("http://kinder.shoutwiki.com/w/api.php", $request_vars))
                die("Snoopy error: {$snoopy->error}");
                $snoopy->setcookies(); 
                $array_ = unserialize($snoopy->results);
                var_dump($array_);
                
 
        $request_vars = array('action' => 'login', 'lgname' => 'USERNAME', 
        'lgpassword' => 'PASS','lgtoken'=>$array_['login']['token'].'', 'format' => 'php');
        if(!$snoopy->submit("http://kinder.shoutwiki.com/w/api.php", $request_vars))
                die("Snoopy error: {$snoopy->error}");
                $snoopy->setcookies();
                $array_ = unserialize($snoopy->results);
                var_dump($array_);
 
 
                                $snoopy->setcookies();
 ?>

With any other wiki using mediawiki it works, but using the shoutwiki API the request return a "bool(false)" result. Regards. --Dodo (talk) 20:06, 16 December 2013 (UTC)

  1. What version of MediaWiki were the other sites using?
  2. What version of the Snoopy HTTP library were you using?
I briefly tested this script with various different sites running MediaWiki, both ShoutWiki and non-ShoutWiki ones, and it worked only once (this was on a non-ShoutWiki wiki). Generally speaking you'll most likely want to use pywikibot, written in Python, as it's well-maintained and there's an active community to help you out. You might also want to check out the "API:Client code" page on MediaWiki.org for other possibilities. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:33, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

InstantCommons[edit source]

Thank you :) --Cruz (talk) 00:50, 20 December 2013 (UTC)

You're welcome! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 01:47, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

kinder (english)[edit source]

http://en.kinder-en.shoutwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Special:ListUsers&group=bureaucrat I am working as sysop in en.kinder-en Please we need linking to commons directly --Penarc (talk) 01:15, 21 December 2013 (UTC)

I've enabled InstantCommons for s:w:en.kinder-en. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 01:47, 24 December 2013 (UTC)

Better CAPTCHA tests[edit source]

This is interesting:

I notice a lot of spam pages created on the Hub wiki when I check recent changes. I don't know how much of it is due to automated account creation. Or how many spammers are not native English speakers. So I thought you might be interested in the type of challenge-response used for Wikiapiary signup.

To protect the wiki against automated account creation, we kindly ask you to answer the question that appears below (more info):
Please provide the seventh character from the sequence e797244e:

The character asked for changes. Sometimes the second character, or fourth, etc.. A non-native English speaker could use Google translation. But at least it would slow down spammers. Only the dedicated spammers would remain. Honest signups would not mind having to use Google translation since they would only have to do it once. --Timeshifter (talk) 23:28, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

This is the QuestyCaptcha extension (which is bundled with the ConfirmEdit extension), and while it indeed is quite effective and useful, it unfortunately does not scale at the moment. By not scaling I refer to the fact that the extension doesn't have a management special page — adding or removing questions and/or answers requires editing the wiki's settings file.
Thank you for the suggestion nevertheless. :-) We're always looking into new anti-spam measures and enhancing the pre-existing ones and rest assured that we will continue to work on anti-spam measures and monitor the overall spam situation — and, as always, play whack-a-spambot. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 03:33, 11 January 2014 (UTC)
Lol. I was thinking that such a tool needed multiple questions that changed every time a registration was attempted. That way bots couldn't be easily programmed to defeat it. Especially if completely new questions were added from time to time. A pool of fifty to a hundred questions would be nice. Multiple pools, each having fifty questions, could be switched in and out of use. That would leave only the dedicated manual spammers over time, and most of them would get irritated. A good thing. :) --Timeshifter (talk) 22:57, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Unblock me[edit source]

I'm the founder runet.shoutwiki.com, gave administrator rights acquaintance party (Pyhet), but he blocked me. I can not remove it, I beg you to do so as attacks still continue. Золотой Парень (talk) 18:04, 15 January 2014 (UTC)

Since you're the wiki's founder, you should be able to give yourself the admin rights back via s:w:runet:Special:UserRights. Once you've done that, you can also change other users' rights via that same special page.
Please let me know if you're not able to do this. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 23:18, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
User is blocked

Your user name or IP-address has been blocked.
Block succeeded administrator Pyhet. The reason given is "vandalism".
Start of block: 13:21, December 3, 2013
Expiry of block: unlimited
The purpose of the lock: Золотой Парень
Золотой Парень (talk) 09:42, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

Hmm, strange, I remembered that you could be able to use that special page even when blocked.
In any case, I've removed your block now. Do let me (or another staff member) know if you need any further assistance with the situation. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 10:49, 18 January 2014 (UTC)
No longer necessary. Thanks for the help! Золотой Парень (talk) 05:01, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
If possible, remove the wiki. Vandal broke all the easier to create a new. Золотой Парень (talk) 07:01, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
Hi, I have deleted your wiki. If you make a new wiki, please be careful who you give admin rights to. Make sure they are actually helpful users who will improve your wiki, rather than destroy it. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ ShoutWiki Staff 14:45, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
In short, remove the wiki again, but for all, protection from creation to avoid trolling. Vandal cracks passwords of all participants, making the attack through a script and remove tired, and I can not, because all rights are removed from the administration and all its members will be blocked.

Also erase and protect from creating Dearth of Golden Boy - trolling the same on the main wiki, on my own, Russian language.
PS: protection of creation - is meant ban creating subdomain with the same name plus the name of the wiki ban with the same name.
Sorry, but I will leave your project.
Золотой Парень (talk) 12:01, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Starter for Polish wikis[edit source]

Hi! I'm on ShoutWiki recently, cash but I know very well on MediaWiki. Now the main question. Can you create a starter for the Polish Wiki? Currently it is not, and would come in handy. And if you create, whether you could take me there to appoint an admin? Gorden 20:51, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi Gorden, thank you for your interest in improving ShoutWiki! :-) I've created the Polish starter wiki at pl.starter.shoutwiki.com and made you an administrator there. The wiki is completely empty, as I figured it'd be easier for you to manually copy-paste the few pages from the English starter wiki (there's the main page, some staff user and user talk pages, four templates, three categories and the default logo image). Let me know when you're done with the translation so that we can enable the Polish starter in our wiki creation wizard as an option for all Polish-language wikis — I'm sure the starter package is especially helpful for newer wiki founders!
Finally, if you're up for a challenge, there are some ShoutWiki skins and extensions which have either an incomplete Polish localization or no localization at all. For example, our upcoming Aurora skin, which will be launched really soon, has 7 internationalization messages which require translation. Or the ProblemReports feature, which has a Polish localization but is missing just three translations. These features can be translated via our Interface Messages Wiki — translating requires admin rights, which I'm more than happy to give you if you're interested in this task.
Thank you for improving the ShoutWiki experience for our Polish users! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 12:03, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
Thanks :-) Gorden 13:32, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
Starter was completed. You can enable the Polish starter in wiki creation wizard. What to Messages Wiki, there I can be an admin and translate :) Gorden 15:17, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
Done — the Polish starter should now be active and available as an option for all users who are creating a new Polish wiki.
I've given you administrator rights on the Interface Messages Wiki, so you're able to translate over there, too! Documentation is likely to be somewhat outdated, so you might want to go through Special:AllMessages to look for untranslated messages in the meanwhile. If you encounter a confusing message or you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!
Finally, thank you for your hard work! :-) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 15:24, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
:-). And if you can, can you appoint me an admin on Polish hub ShoutWiki? This is my last question. Gorden 15:44, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
Done — please take good care of it!
If and when you're up for a real task, the local help pages need a lot of love; it would be absolutely fabulous to make these help pages available for all Polish wikis! This kind of functionality is available for English, Finnish, French and Dutch wikis, as our help pages are available in those language, but the Polish translations are very much incomplete — perhaps you'll be the one to complete them? ;-) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 15:55, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
Sure! Gorden 15:57, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Can you do it for the French starter, as it doesn't exist yet?[edit source]

Hi Jack,
is it possible to create a French Starter wiki as well please? Thank you very much.--LIMAFOX76 (talk) 15:14, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Et voilà ! I've given you administrator rights over there as well, so you can get started right away. Thanks for making ShoutWiki even more awesome! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 15:24, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
Thank you very much Jack ;-)--LIMAFOX76 (talk) 15:26, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
Avec plaisir ! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 15:55, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Delete Sonicpedia[edit source]

Hi Jack,
can you delete Sonicpedia and allow me create one wiki? Thanks, — Gorden 14:45, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

I wrote this question, because in the wizard creation wiki writes me that I created 5 wiki, and I founded only 4 wiki. Is this a mistake on the side of ShoutWiki, or from you? — Gorden 17:21, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
Do you want Sonicpedia deleted just so that you can create another wiki? In my opinion, Sonicpedia looks like a wiki with a lot of potential — Sonic the Hedgehog is popular all around the globe! — so I'd suggest reconsidering whether you really want it deleted.
In any case, there's no mistake in our records — you've started five wikis, which are s:w:pl.gorden, s:w:pl.sonic, s:w:pl.gorden-school, s:w:pl.tardis and s:w:pl.sf. While I don't want to discourage you, starting just one wiki — let alone five — can be a daunting task. Creating a new wiki is easy as pie with our wiki creation wizard, but what the wizard can't create for you is the community — the people behind the wiki who make it awesome. Yes, you can work on a wiki all by yourself, but it's generally speaking a lot faster (and more fun, too!) to write with other people than just on your own.
I suggest that you consider what wikis you really want to focus on and start building these. If you really want to create a new wiki, please get in touch with me again. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:48, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
I forgot about s:w:pl.gorden, sorry. What to Sonicpedia, I changed my mind — I don't want it removed. To be honest, I wanted to create one, and only one wiki. It is a "Dziwopedia". Wiki should be Polish. The skin has to be dark monobook. The prefix "pl." is not to be. Import content from starter wiki — yes. License wiki is a "public domain". This is my last wiki that I want to create. Thanks, — Gorden 18:27, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
s:w:dziwopedia exists now, please take good care of it! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 22:42, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

申請wiki[edit source]

  • 嗨!我可以請你幫我申請一個維基嗎?因為我已經申請超過五個維基了，所以我現在無法申請新維基，可以請您幫我申請一個新維基嗎?你可以去google翻譯一下。--Msnhinet8 (talk) 03:55, 24 January 2014 (UTC)
Please write in English, I don't understand Chinese. Sorry. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 22:42, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

Comments on Aurora Skin[edit source]

Hello Jack Phoenix, thank you for replying to my topic and letting me know of the new site Skin called Aurora. ^_^ I also wanted to thank you for providing me a link to the Skins since it helped me find a way to make my wiki site return to its previous Skin. At first, I was concerned of seeing the Aurora skin on my wiki site since I initially believed it was going to be permanent and there would be no option to change it. I felt it was very sudden since I'm use to a site administrator announcing a feature or skin and the consumer having the option to choose it rather than it automatically be implemented into their personal page.


What I like about the Aurora skin is the blue gradient color on the ShoutWiki logo and the beautiful blue butterfly. I also like the gradient icons matching the link's title like Speak bubble for Discussion and an image of tools for the Page tools. The addition of the timer on the upper right corner of the screen is a nice idea. I like how the text of a person's username is bolder and the human icon with a diamond next to it.


One of the things I personally dislike is the main content area(like the Main Page) looks too condensed like in a box. It causes the advertisements to be placed at odd locations and too distracting from the site's content. While I think the two-toned gray gradient background is very attractive, the color is a little too dark. Most sites usually have black text and a dark gray background would make it extra hard to see, especially for people who do not have perfect eyesight. I personally like the white background or a softer color so the website would look more inviting.


BessDreamer (talk) 03:59, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi BessDreamer and thank you for your detailed feedback! I'm glad you found our help pages useful! We're constantly updating our help pages in order to make them even better and even more useful.
While the actual deployment was, as deployments generally are, rather quick, rest assured that the design itself wasn't thrown together overnight. ;-) We've been working on it for a while and we'll continue making improvements based on feedback. Some of the upcoming changes in version 2.0.1 of Aurora include:
  • labels for the top menus (navigation/tools)
  • smaller default logo image
  • smaller search area on devices where space is more limited (e.g. smartphones, especially somewhat older models, lower-end tablets, etc.)
It does look as if the content's in a box, but then again, the same can be said for the other skins, too — the effect's probably just a bit more visible in Aurora due to the usage of a darker color scheme.
As for the background, you should be able to make that white with div#content { color: #FFF; } in your personal aurora.css or on your wiki's MediaWiki:Aurora.css page.
Again, thank you for taking the time to write down your detailed thoughts on the skin and please keep the feedback coming — it's essential to us! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 20:14, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

Aurora skin messages[edit source]

Hi, I've translated skin messages into Russian on my GraviTac wiki. In case you need them for global translation. -- Krabb (talk) 16:25, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi Krabb, thank you for your contribution! I've copied the messages over to our Interface Messages Wiki, so the translations are automatically shown for Russian wikis and users who use Russian as their interface language.
If you're interested in translating more features to Russian, I can give you translator rights on the Interface Messages Wiki so you can translate directly there and the changes will immediately show up for all Russian ShoutWiki wikis and users. :) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 20:14, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
Sorry, but I don't have enough time for that. I haven't even finished all that I had planned for GraviTac. -- Krabb (talk) 17:41, 31 January 2014 (UTC)
Alright, no worries and thanks for the Aurora translations! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 19:31, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

Missing Module[edit source]

Hello! After testing back and forth I think my "Seikai" wiki is missing some wikimedia module(s) because the code works fine elsewhere. Use the following test code with Template:SandboxA 

{{SandboxA|string=something}}

It gives out 

Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "#".

It's either the math or parser module or?

On a side note, within a template the engine recognizes vertical lines inside the image link tags as part of template code e.g. it ignores the link tag and refers to for example the outer #if: 

{{#if: {{a}}|[[image:a.gif|x{{b}}px]]|}}

does not work 

{{#if: {{a}}|[[image:a.gif<noinclude>|</noinclude>x{{b}}px]]|}}

does work

Almael (talk) 00:30, 2 February 2014 (UTC)

Your wiki was missing the Loops extension, which provides the #while parser function (among others). I've installed it so your template should now work (although I have to say I'm not quite sure how it's supposed to work, but I tested the extension with some of the examples on its MediaWiki.org description page and they seemed to work). --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 20:20, 5 February 2014 (UTC)
Thank you very much. Yeah, the given while code is a bit weird. I'm not sure about reappearing string part after the counter/length check. As to the template it's just a simplified test where I narrowed down the error. The full version is too complicated, and I still need to work out some weirdness I can't figure out yet why. Practically, the code works fine it's just the special cases that don't. I'm down to testing every single piece now. Might take a while. Almael (talk) 22:44, 5 February 2014 (UTC)
Uhm, using the updated test template but the generated image linking don't work. I get non-existing image links instead of an image. I'm sure I uploaded them. Anyway, the filename don't appear on the page but do when you mouse over them. I'm using TestPageA, Templates SandboxA, and Transl Ath. Almael (talk) 22:51, 5 February 2014 (UTC)
Nevermind. It's some parameter weirdness. Although, the parameter is supposed to be nil if nothing is set {{{c|}}} it's dealt as if the expression itself is the content if I don't set it. And I did set a default just in case anyway, too, but didn't work. This is happens for the template (Transl Ath) being called by the initial template. Almael (talk) 05:32, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

New Skin[edit source]

Hello :D. Can you add the skin Oasis to ShoutWiki? thanks :) --DeviantSalens (talk) 22:28, 8 February 2014 (UTC)

Short answer, no. We can't. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ ShoutWiki Staff 23:36, 8 February 2014 (UTC)
Why? --DeviantSalens (talk) 01:57, 9 February 2014 (UTC)
This skin is quite unpopular among ShoutWiki users because imposed by Wikia Staff and non practical at all (it's a long story), and was one of the reasons (among many others) why many former Wikia users (including myself) decided to move their wikis on SW. --LIMAFOX76 (talk) 15:20, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
None of the staff like the skin and the demand for it is very very small. Also, it's the signature skin of Wikia and we don't want people to confuse us with them. Also, there's the fact that the skin is hideous, hard to find anything on, gives some people headaches and is confusing to editors. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ ShoutWiki Staff 21:05, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
Yeah, many people moved here because of it. Not to mention the editor is buggy when switching between visual and source e.g. for certain types of table. You can as well rewrite the whole thing. To be fair the good thing are the displayed choices of existing categories and templates so noobs can finish articles somewhat better. Almael (talk) 23:57, 10 February 2014 (UTC)

Time for German pageview ShoutWiki![edit source]

Hi Jack,
I noticed that the German hub ShoutWiki doesn't exist, and most of the messages isn't German. Recently I learned German at level 2. If you want, I can start to translate these messages and translate the German hub. But you must create this hub.

One more thing. I need admin permissions here because the help pages here are protected — so I can not create interwiki to Polish help pages. If you give it to me, I will try to create all interwiki (to Sunday I have a lot of time). — Gorden 09:55, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Hallo Gorden, das ist sehr gut!
I've created the German Hub at de.shoutwiki.com and given you administrator and bureaucrat permissions there. Let me know if you need any help with setting up the wiki or getting started in translating pages!
As for administrator rights on this wiki, you don't need those to edit help pages — there's a specific "help page editor" group, to which I've added you, so you're able to edit all help pages as usual.
Finally, thank you for taking on all this hard work — we appreciate it very much and expect to see new German users soon! ;-) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 19:12, 13 February 2014 (UTC)
Danke, Jack ;-) — Gorden 10:40, 14 February 2014 (UTC)
Hi Jack, I think it should be good to add "de:" inside all ShoutWiki hub interwiki links. Thanks. --LIMAFOX76 (talk) 16:15, 14 February 2014 (UTC)
Hi LIMAFOX76, I believe I added all the necessary interlanguage links after creating the wiki. If an interlanguage link is missing on some wiki, please let me know ASAP so it can be added. :-) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 23:26, 16 February 2014 (UTC)
Thank you Jack. I think you can put an interlink to the german hub's main page as I'm not admin on the English hub and therefore cannot edit the main page. ;-) --LIMAFOX76 (talk) 14:02, 19 February 2014 (UTC)
Ah, how could I forget about the main page?! It's fixed now — thanks for the reminder! :-) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:25, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Things[edit source]

thanks :) --DeviantSalens (talk) 15:04, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

  • Done, done and done. For social tools, only the basic tools (i.e. the SocialProfile extension) are enabled; if you want more features, such as Comments or the Vote extension, just let me know and I'll be happy to enable them for your wiki!
    And thank you for starting the Spanish ShoutWiki Hub — it's always cool to see our main site getting translated into more languages! :-) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:25, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Other Things[edit source]

Can you...

  • Disable social tools for now
  • Change the skin to monobook

on this wiki? thanks :) --DeviantSalens (talk) 18:09, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Done. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 20:49, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

e-mail[edit source]

  • My friend registered worldpedia write e-mail, but still no way to edit later, I ask how can I do?--Msnhinet8 (talk) 11:46, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
  • My wiki is this:世界大典--Msnhinet8 (talk) 12:11, 23 February 2014 (UTC)
Have you asked the user in question to check their spam folder? Sometimes our e-mails accidentally end up in the recipient's spam/junk folder and thus aren't seen.
However, if the confirmation code isn't there, you can ask the user to visit Special:ConfirmEmail in order to have another confirmation code sent to their e-mail.
If despite all these steps the user is still unable to edit, please let us know and we'll do our best to resolve the issue as soon as possible! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:08, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
  • My friend cannot receive an email verification after signing up the shoutwiki. Can you please help to solve the problem?--Msnhinet8 (talk) 04:51, 25 February 2014 (UTC)
  • He an account is a :User:Wasami007。--Msnhinet8 (talk) 06:27, 25 February 2014 (UTC)
Hi Msnhinet8, has they tried what Jack said - if it's still not working, can you get them to try another email address - they can change it through Special:Preferences. Best regards, --Cook879 ShoutWiki Staff talk 14:39, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

forum on polish hub ShoutWiki[edit source]

Hi Jack,
can you enable forum (such as here) on the Polish hub ShoutWiki?

Thanks, — Gorden 17:13, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

Done. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:04, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Forum links missing on Aurora, Nimbus and other skins[edit source]

I happened to not be logged in one time while at the Shoutwiki Hub, and noticed that there is no link to the forums from the Aurora skin. Nimbus also does not have a forum link. I need to check more skins again. I forget which ones do not have forum links.

Also, Aurora has a right sidebar that makes scanning the topics in Forum:Community help difficult to do. This is because the text for forum topic titles has to wrap to 2 lines in many cases. It does in my monitor. Other skins remove the right sidebar in forum space. So the forum topics are each on one line, even in 17-inch monitors like the one I use most of the time.

Forums are easy to use. I think most people avoid Bugzilla, problem reports, and anything that requires more logins, and learning different editing formats. The good thing about the forums is that people can make suggestions there to their heart's content, and do so with their existing knowledge of Mediawiki editing.

At the Commons there are various places people can complain, make suggestions, and point out problems. Most people refuse to go to Bugzilla. So there are various editors that pass on the info to Bugzilla and other places and people that can actually do something about problems. A hierarchy of action.

Of course, the staff and developers at Bugzilla and elsewhere ignore the vast majority of suggestions and ideas. They have their own priorities. But at least the stuff gets passed on up the chain, and developers and gadget makers get some ideas. I haven't looked at Wikimedia bugzilla in a while, and so I don't know about the latest changes in that Bugzilla software, and whether it is any easier to use. I edited the Wikipedia Bugzilla how-to page a little bit in the past to make things easier for people trying to figure out Bugzilla.

Anyway, I suggest adding forum links to all skins. I don't think it is a good idea to use a non-standard skin like Aurora on the central Hub wiki. I know some people are invested in that skin at the moment, but most wiki editors have a hard enough time remembering where everything is within Monobook and Vector. --Timeshifter (talk) 16:43, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

I was referring to Wikimedia Bugzilla higher up when talking about suggestions and ideas being ignored. --Timeshifter (talk) 08:02, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
Hi Timeshifter,
Aurora has a forum link under the navigation menu. I've added one for Nimbus through MediaWiki:Nimbus-sidebar.
The skin has had a few changes recently, so hopefully this is no longer an issue - certainly doesn't appear to be on my computer.
We are looking into improving the forum experience this year, as we do recognize the flaws there are with Bugzilla, and because it also means the community can provide solutions, saving staff time for more behind the scenes stuff.
As for Aurora being our central skin, its important to remember with wikis that most of the users will be readers not editors. Sure, changes take time to get used to, but you get used to it. And, of course, editors always have the option to use another skin through Special:Preferences.
Best regards,
--Cook879 ShoutWiki Staff talk 14:54, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
Thanks for adding the forum link to Nimbus. I must have missed the forum link in Aurora.
I think a lot of readers come with Wikipedia experience. Wikipedia is consistently among the top ten websites by number of monthly hits. And Wikipedia uses Vector.
I don't think most readers will necessarily get used to Aurora. That takes time, and many readers just stop and go. They come in from Google, skim a few pages, and move on.
People seem to like that the Cannabis Wiki uses Vector. I read various comments of people preferring Shoutwiki's Cannabis Wiki to Wikia's Cannabis Wiki. For one thing people commented that Shoutwiki felt more like a wiki. The more Wikia got away from feeling like a wiki, the more some people seemed to dislike it. Of course, opinions vary, and it would take analysis of statistics. I just think that Shoutwiki would expand faster if the central wiki was Vector. The many individual wikis get to choose any skin.
But in any case could the right sidebar be removed in the index pages for forum space in Aurora? It would make scanning the titles much easier. It would be nice if there were an asterisk at the beginning of each title on the index pages, too. I get lost when scanning the titles sometimes. Due to the word-wrapping here and there.
I hate how Yahoo Mail has a right sidebar on its inbox page. I think that is one reason why Google Mail is much more popular. Gmail does not have a right sidebar on its inbox page. Email titles are longer, and easier to scan. Gmail has a right sidebar on message pages. But that is not a problem. --Timeshifter (talk) 02:50, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
Unless I'm looking at the wrong page, the right sidebar doesn't seem to be interfering with the index pages - when it gets to the point of lots of word wrapping, the sidebar has vanished already - can you upload a screenshot? As for the bullet points, it's a wiki so feel free to edit it ;) --Cook879 ShoutWiki Staff talk 13:28, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Forum index titles word-wrapping due to right sidebar in Aurora[edit source]

Here are some screenshots:
File:Aurora skin. Community Help forum index.jpg
File:Vector skin. Community Help forum index.jpg
The laddering is more noticeable as the text size goes up. I also noticed that the sidebars increased in width as the text size went up. So the laddering is increased further by that.
I don't know how to add bullet points to the results produced by this template: [[Template:Forumlist]]. But there are many things I don't know about MediaWiki coding. I don't know if that template is the place to add the bullet points. --Timeshifter (talk) 16:48, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
[[Template:Forumlist]] is not used anymore. See currently used forum templates:
Category:Forum templates --Timeshifter (talk) 13:29, 17 March 2014 (UTC)


To add bullet you have to put a * before the text you want to put behind the bullet. Thanks in advance .--Libros (talk) 13:39, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Implementing forums on my wiki[edit source]

Hi Jack!

I've got a tip from Timeshifter a few days back to ask you directly about this, since I've got no luck using the local forum where I asked about this nearly two months by now. Since I currently don't have any knowledge about this topic, I'll be satisfied with the default choice used by ShoutWiki. Any information and/or experience on possible alternatives will be appreciated too. You can find the wiki here. Thanks in advance. --MYself (talk) 16:07, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

We have no alternatives yet so I enabled the default on your site. Best regards, --Cook879 ShoutWiki Staff talk 14:56, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
Oh, thank you very much Cook879! I didn't expected to get a reply from you here :^)
So I assume that what I need to do now is to merely copy-paste the ShoutWiki forum page source available at Forum:Index along with the subpages and templates to my wiki at s:w:tep:Forum:Index and put a link to the side panel? Am I correct? --MYself (talk) 20:09, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
That's the best start, yeah.--Cook879 ShoutWiki Staff talk 22:26, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Questions[edit source]

Hello. I have a questions, please answer me:

  • If I create a wiki I can:
  1. Request more user groups (assistant for example that can delete pages and files).
  2. A feature that make that rollbackers can revert and verify pages.
  3. The feature RevisionDelete in administrators.

Thank you. --190.33.67.43 19:31, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

  1. Yes, we can add new user groups for your wiki should you need them
  2. Yes, it's possible to give rollbackers the patrol-related user rights (I assume that's what you mean by verifying); rollbackers can already revert pages with one click, that's what the rollback user right does ;-)
  3. Yes, we can enable RevisionDelete if you need it. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 02:49, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
You don't have autopatrolled for rollbackers or revision delete? Wow. Llwy-ar-lawr (talk) 22:50, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
Rollback is "just what it says on the tin"; rollback and nothing else. We're not the only site doing this either; for example, according to wikipedia:Special:ListGroupRights, English Wikipedia's rollbackers have only the rollback user right. Patrolling isn't enabled by default on ShoutWiki, so the autopatrolled user right will be rather pointless in most situations. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 19:19, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Some questions of my own[edit source]

In light of the fact that you seem to be the most recently active staff member, I have some wiki-creation questions of my own, as someone who has only just created an account on SW, and being someone who has been around Wikia far more (I promise I won't make them the same as the ones above this section).

To start, I created an account mainly because I was contemplating creating a wiki on the Grisaia series of Visual Novels, since there seems to not be one on any network. Anyway, my questions are as follows:

  1. When a wiki is created here, what is provided at the start in terms of templates (for example, since this is a game, is there a way to start off with basic character templates that I can then expand upon, or would I have to do those from scratch)?
  2. Assuming it is needed (yet hoping it's not) how rare is it for a request for a local checkuser to be accepted?
  3. Is there anything on SW in terms of a global image policy as far as what can be in the images? As I said, I am mainly a Wikia user, and I know that they have very strict NSFW content rules. I was wondering if SW had anything similar, especially since the series in question is known to have that sort of thing.

At the moment, this is all I can think of. If I come up with any other questions, I'll add them here. Thank you for your time. Schiffy (瀬藤健二) (Talk Contribs)

Starter content — if you choose to import it — will be fetched from our starter wiki (or the appropriate language variant for non-English languages, provided that there's a starter wiki in the given language). If you look at the list of pages in the Template: namespace on the starter wiki, you'll see that right now only the templates required by the main page design (and the handy meta-template Template:!) are provided.
Fear not, for we have a very handy guide on how to build your own infobox (and there's also a similar tutorial on navigation boxes, or "navboxes", as they're commonly called). If you ever get stuck, there's the community forum and you're always free to ask us, the staff, for assistance!
There's no set policy on local CheckUsers or such; these kind of special cases will be dealt on a case-by-case basis. As a general rule, there should be someone from the staff online on the #ShoutWiki IRC channel on irc.freenode.net most of the time whom you can ask for a CheckUser.
The most important global policies we have are the terms of use and privacy policy, which apply to all ShoutWiki-hosted sites. We don't have rules like "no naked female breasts" or such, but as always, use your best judgement and ensure that you're not violating any local laws. It also might be worth of writing a site-specific content disclaimer if you expect there to be a significant amount of content suitable for a more mature audience. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 19:19, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Help[edit source]

Hi, this is already so ask another member of staff. But how I see that you are the most active shout wiki staff member, I decide to ask you, I am a new user and I ask advice from wiki shout. And with another question, I for example am 24 years old and wonder why children under 13 can not access a shout wiki, perhaps beyond any child under 13 who can not be edited because it is a vandal, but under 13 who are adorable and I think they should be able to enter. Thanks in advance and by the way, I really like the look of the wiki wikis :) shout soon begin to edit in other projects.--Libros (talk) 10:55, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Have you checked out our help pages? They should be able to answer most of your questions, and if there's something that the help pages don't tell, feel free to ask me or another ShoutWiki staff member.
As for the age requirement, that's due to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA); basically nothing we can do about it. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 12:20, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

First of all, there is a version of the central shout wiki in Spanish?Thanks in advance --Libros (talk) 17:01, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes, the Spanish version is available at es.shoutwiki.com, but it's quite new, so it doesn't have much content yet. Any and all help is welcome over there. :-) You might want to talk to DeviantSalens, who's an administrator on that wiki. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:34, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

File[edit source]

Hi, Jack, I wonder why you file some comments, thanks in advance.--Libros (talk) 18:12, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. Could you please clarify? También se puede escribir en español, si lo prefiere. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 02:08, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

Monaco[edit source]

  • Can you add Avatar, Tabs, Blogs, and other things/options on monaco like this?.
  • How can i add an header on a wiki using monaco (background strip and header like the image) on my wiki?

Thanks :) --DeviantSalens (talk) 21:22, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Hi, I will give my opinion on this subject: I wish it could be avatar, blogs and so on wikia there will shout wiki but also could have :) Thanks in advance--Libros (talk) 18:52, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Social tools are an optional feature, and they're available on request. Send us a request from your wiki and we'll enable the requested features, but remember to be specific — there are plenty of social tools (see the social tools page on MediaWiki.org for details) and the SocialProfile extension only includes basic functionality — boards, profiles, user levels, gifts and awards; blogging, social user boxes, social polls, quizzes and picture games are all separate extensions).
As for the Monaco CSS, since you want to model your wiki after this CSS, you'll want to take a look at it. Do note that some elements have been renamed and as a result of that, CSS imported from Wikia might require some small tweaks — if you need help with doing that, let me or another staff member know and we'll help you out. In any case, I think this is something like what you want:
div#page {
	position: static;
}

div#background_strip {
	background: url(URL TO THE BACKGROUND IMAGE GOES HERE) no-repeat;
	/* remember to set the height: property accordingly for this element, too! */
	margin-left: 250px;
}

div#wiki_logo {
	margin-left: -250px;
}
--Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 02:08, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

A couple of technical questions[edit source]

Do you know if it's possible to get something like this to work on a ShoutWiki site? Also, another thing I noticed does not seem to work is {{subst:#time}} (with the right parameters) Schiffy (瀬藤健二) (Talk Contribs) 00:49, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes, the Widgets extension is enabled on some ShoutWiki sites, but I'd say that in most cases, you'll probably want to use our native YouTube extension instead. It's preinstalled on all wikis and should "just work". :)
As for the substitution thing:
  1. What do you type?
  2. What is the expected output?
  3. What is the actual output?
  4. Have you tested this on an off-ShoutWiki wiki? Does it work there? (If yes, please post a link to said wiki.)
--Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:24, 27 March 2014 (UTC)
Okay, I didn't know about the youtube tags, so that solves one issue. As for the #time function, I tried adding {{subst:#time: H:i, n/j/Y}} into the signature section of my preferences, and it did not replace it with the time when signing with the tildes, but it does change if the page is then saved again (as seen here. Schiffy (瀬藤健二) (Talk Contribs) 22:11, 31 March 2014 (UTC)

Hello, maybe you can help: If you can work on shout wiki, how do yo.En a single wiki, created it, you can edit a wiki, wiki shout and work, but not only in a single wiki. Thanks in advance.--Libros (talk) 09:01, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:24, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Wiki administrators[edit source]

Hi, this wiki's administrators? If so, I can be an administrator for this wiki? (shout wiki hub of this wiki) Thanks in advance.--Libros (talk) 09:23, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

ShoutWiki Hub's administrators are chosen by ShoutWiki staff on an as-needed basis. Right now we feel that the wiki is operating smoothly and that there's no need for additional admins, but it's good to hear that you're willing to help out. :) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:24, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

A member Issarrra.[edit source]

How is it that the staff can be Issarra having 0 issues?--Libros (talk) 16:32, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

Isarra doesn't edit much as she focuses on more technical things as well as design and usability issues. ShoutWiki's current default skin, Aurora, for example, is her doing. :-) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 14:20, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Blocking IP's[edit source]

Hi Jack! This time was going to ask a blocking IP's to a user: Turns out, that wiki hub shout in Spanish, I'm administrator and there is a vandal, called Minimum, and that user makes vandalism and I have had to block. Honestly, later appeared an IP that put me "Comedy" on my talk page and then I saw that minimum, made a wiki, with the name of an IP, which began with the same number and for a moment I thought the IP was minimum and block, but then I request the release and saw that the IP was different and ask whether they are of other property or if it is the same person with dynamic IP with the same starting number, but the same property . Please make the answer compobación and telling the result, I have to know what I have to do, if I block or not. Thanks in advance.--Libros (talk) 07:19, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

Blocking IP addresses can be tricky in the case of dynamic IPs. If there are multiple IP addresses disrupting the wiki, you might want to consider placing a range block. This MediaWiki.org help page (también en español) has more details about what range blocks are, what you should consider before placing one and how to minimize collateral damage. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 14:20, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

Steward[edit source]

Hi Jack! This time was going to ask for steward.Que are exactly the stewards? Thanks in advance--Libros (talk) 15:47, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi Libros, Stewards are generally founders of wikis, and some people from those founders can trust. As you may already know, Stewards of the ShoutWiki hub are the ShoutWiki Staff. I don't think they'll grant steward's rights for you, even for me. Cheers. --LIMAFOX76 (talk) 17:57, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

Semantic Stargate Wiki[edit source]

Hi Jack,
Just to say that you can unlock editing for Semantic Stargate Wiki, as I have a backup for all the edits I made and I can update them quickly. Don't worry about that. Thank you very much. --LIMAFOX76 (talk) 20:33, 18 April 2014 (UTC)

Jack had very little to do with the whole thing, tech team perhaps would of been the best people to contact... --Lewis Cawte (talk) ShoutWiki Staff 20:04, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

Error when creating a new wiki page[edit source]

Hi, Jack,

I tried to create a new wiki page (http://usp.shoutwiki.com/) last week, when it was almost done, I experienced a server error message, and then I tried to refresh the page the wiki page was only partially created. I can access the domain name but it does not even have a standard main page. Would you please help me to recover this, or simply delete everything and let me create it again from scratch. Thanks.

Gamebm (talk) 14:20, 21 April 2014 (UTC)gamebm

Hello, I recently entered the wiki mentioned and honestly, I created the standard home page, it is because of the design you chose when you created the wiki.Si you can enter and view content, but the problem is the design. I do not know if you may, but I think what happens is that you were wrong with the design.Thanks in advance --Libros (talk) 15:58, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi, Libros. I am not sure you were discussing the problem I had with usp@shoutwiki. Though I am not 100% sure, my intuition told me that something went wrong: I would guess that Shoutwiki usually gives you a default main page no matter style you are using, with all barebone pages, templates and features created which are partially missing in my case, since the "style" defines the presentation but not the content. For instance, when I simply copy the main page from another site, I got the following error message: Template:MainTemplate. Gamebm (talk) 21:15, 21 April 2014 (UTC)

Have you checked ? Because if you say it's just your intuition, means it is not 100 % verdad.Te recommend checking if the wiki was actually defective . If there is any defect in reality ( first you have to check ) , you have to copy a link to the page or the wiki with the defect and report to staff.Y in the message, put the link to the product / the wiki the defecto.En this case , the style , I do not think so cause annoyance to users who contribute or cuntribuiran in the future in this wiki .--Libros (talk) 15:36, 22 April 2014 (UTC)


Err, again I did not understand very well what you were saying, but as I mentioned above, I did check, of course. Now I added a link to a new page which is simply a copy of the main page of a corrected generated site. The link is here: (http://usp.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Problematic_page). To me, it is obviously not a "defect", and when I said intuition, it was indeed IMHO, I could easily be wrong Gamebm (talk) 19:15, 22 April 2014 (UTC)
Hi Gamebm, I'm sorry to hear that you've had issues with the wiki creation wizard! On step 3 ("Advanced options") of the wiki creation process, there is a checkbox labeled "Import content from starter wiki", provided that your wiki's content language is one of the languages listed on starter wiki. If this checkbox is checked (as it is by default), then the contents of the appropriate starter wiki will be imported into your brand new wiki. Right now each starter wiki basically has the default main page, the templates the default main page needs and some staff user: pages.
If, for one reason or another, you choose not to import content from the starter wiki, then a very bare-bones Main Page will be created, based on the contents of MediaWiki:Createwiki-newmainpage.
You mentioned that you experienced a "server error message". Would you happen to remember what the message said, or any parts of the message in question? If the wiki creation wizard has issues, we'd like to investigate them and resolve them as soon as possible! (For what it's worth, importing of starter content is one of the last things to happen during the creation of a wiki; the only things done after that are the posting of the welcome message, MediaWiki:Createwiki-founder-talk-page-message, onto the founder's talk page on behalf of ShoutWiki staff, and the creation of a wiki description page (such as Revenge, for example) on this wiki for non-private wikis.) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 19:27, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

I mean you did not understand very well? Congratulations for comprobarlo.El was no link to a copy of the wiki and corrected? And I'm glad that there is a defect.--Libros (talk) 15:32, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi, Jack. Thanks for the reply. I cannot remember the error message, but I got the impression that at least some templates were not created properly. What I do remember at this point was that I did use most of default options and, everything was normal until I press the "button" to "create the wiki" which delays a bit when all the files are created on the server (as I understand). I think some templates went wrong since now when I tried to copy the content of a default main page (from another shoutwiki page) (http://usp.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Problematic_page), I got the error message Template:MainTemplate . This is because, as I understand, the page invokes in the first place a template MainTemplate which is not installed/created properly. Would you please check it out. Many thanks and best regards. --Gamebm (talk) 13:53, 24 April 2014 (UTC)


Hello, if the templates are not created correctly , you can put the information put in the templates without the template: For example : Birth of Books: December 21 (yes, my birthday is on December 21) , I know I do not mind , but I got a ejemplo.Las templates that went wrong , I recommend you put the information you give them exactly how you said in the paragraph template anterior.La MainTemplate , if not installed / created , you can do what I said above , templates , have to create your own , from my point of view and if not created , it must be an error of what you put to create the template , it is an infobox , or any userbox , etc. In the userbox , at least the language , are easy, for me it vastante.Por are true, this message is for Jack and especially for Gamebm , and for both usuarios.Ah and finally, I wonder if we can close this issue, it doing this too long in my opinion, there fijaros as text .--Libros (talk) 18:33, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi Gamebm,
I'm not sure whether you failed to import the content, or that there was a server error (though if so, we haven't had any similar reports from other users). Either way, I added the Template:MainTemplate from the starter wiki. If you find any other templates you need that are missing, either let me know or get them from the starter wiki yourself, found at s:w:starter.
--Cook879 ShoutWiki Staff talk 23:51, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi Jack,Cook and Gamebm

MY opinion is that surely this is a server problem, because usually, not usually suceder.Thanks to add the template and solve the "problem".--Libros (talk) 15:13, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Hi Cook,
Thanks a lot for the help! Pardon me for my ignorance, but how do I manually add Templates? Now I got the following error message: Template:HeaderTemplate and Template:SectionTemplate. Still need two more :) --Gamebm (talk) 18:16, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
Hi Jack , Cook and Gamebm,If you are 2 errors, one before and now that Cook I fix you, because in my opinion is something a little more ::serious than we thought (my opinion).Surely, if you need 2 more.
But now that I say, I think that could have happened (again, is nothing more than my opinion): That when you created the wiki in the end ::inadvertently locked the building and also, I think the wiki is so "defective" .
Or another opinion (yes, I have 2), is that while creabas the wiki, something went wrong.Thanks in advance--Libros (talk) 07:25, 26 April 2014 (UTC)


Hello again everyone, I will say this time will be for users because each user will have a separate paragraph:

Gamebm: I recommend you do what I told you before: Try to put the contents of the template without plantilla.Quizás not want to do it, but I especially recommend you.

Cook: Thanks for fixing the previous "problem" with the plantilla.Y luck with the other problems that have Gamebm.--Libros (talk) 07:33, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

appearance[edit source]

Hello, I wonder if wiki shout, could have a look how to wikia: With avatar, blog and walls.Thanks in advance--Libros (talk) 15:53, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Most of the features you mentioned are available as social tools; the SocialProfile extension adds user boards (user-to-user messaging system, which also allows private messages), avatars, social profiles, gifts, awards and a social activity feed. Blogging features are provided by a separate extension called BlogPage.
If you want these features enabled for your wiki, please contact us via Special:Contact on your wiki. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 19:27, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Save comments of talk page.[edit source]

Hola, this time, was happening to ask you, how you file the commentaries. Because I have seen that you have 9 files of filed commentaries, and I ask you how you file them. I, only I have 2 commentaries and I will not file them, but equally, I ask for help you with it. And other one who wanted to ask you, is every all the time the commentaries are filed) All the commentaries it has to have, to file them? Thanks in advance.--Libros (talk) 07:13, 27 April 2014 (UTC)

Help with a problem with IP's[edit source]

Hello, I say to you, that a user, that I have blocked in a wiki, has violated his blockade, changing his IP, he said that he was programming it in a message that put me and block it, but I want to insure that it will not return to happen: That you can do? Because it is a case gravisimo, it is not possible to solve with blockade for ranges, turns out to be, that the user, has in his computer, a program to change IP, something you ocurré? Certainly, the IP threatened me, and was blocked and then, I violate his block.Thanks in advance--Libros (talk) 16:17, 29 April 2014 (UTC)

We'll keep an eye on the situation at the Spanish ShoutWiki Hub. We have the tools to stop these kind of repeat offenders. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:19, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Theme of adoptions[edit source]

Hello, you know all the editions it is necessary to have as minimum, in a wiki, to be able to adopt it? Jack , thanks in advance--Libros (talk) 15:32, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Ah and, please, it answers also my other messages.--Libros (talk) 15:36, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Take a look at ShoutWiki Hub:Wiki Adoptions#User criteria. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:19, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

CheckUser[edit source]

Hello, Jack Phoenix:

I want the CheckUser flag in my wiki (es.kids.shoutwiki.com) because I want to trying the flag. Please add the flag in my account.

Thanks and regards. --Blue Talk 01:15, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

Hi Blue, CheckUser is a special user right generally not given to non-ShoutWiki staff users, as it allows access to confidential information. If you want to try it out, you might want to consider installing MediaWiki on your own computer, as most public wikis (including test wikis, such as test.wikipedia.org, etc.) will not grant this user right lightly. The extension's info page on MediaWiki.org contains some screenshots and basic info that may or may not be useful to you. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 11:18, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

Founder?[edit source]

Who founded ShoutWiki? --Golden Sweetie Belle (talk) 00:14, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

You'll want to take a look at our about page, which answers that and many other similar meta questions. :) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 00:27, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Rollback[edit source]

Hello, I can have the rollback flag? Dragneel (talk) 01:14, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

Hi Dragneel, I've given you the rights. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 19:49, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

Adding new topic in forums[edit source]

How can the form width be increased for adding a new topic title? I don't see anything here:

I think it is too short, and sometimes I find it difficult to create a topic title that makes sense with so few words. Plus I use a larger font size in my browser. --Timeshifter (talk) 13:21, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

form#createbox input[name="title"] { width: 70%; } looks good to me (but you might need to tweak the percentage, depending on various factors, such as the screen resolution, skin, etc.). --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 14:26, 7 June 2014 (UTC)
Thanks. I see that it works here:
User:Timeshifter/common.css
I would like to increase the size for everybody. Could it be added here?:
MediaWiki:Common.css
Or maybe better, is there some way to do it inside this template?:
Template:Forumpage
Then the solution would be more easily portable. And I could explain it at mw:Extension:DPLforum, and its talk page. --Timeshifter (talk) 15:30, 7 June 2014 (UTC)
CSS itself is quite portable, isn't it? Users can add CSS via their personal skinname.css pages as well as via their global.css page, admins can change site-wide CSS via the various MediaWiki: pages...
In any case, you'll likely want to bump up <inputbox>'s width on Template:Forumheader. The width attribute is directly used as the <input>'s size attribute; it's the number of characters that's supposed to fit in the box at once. Mozilla Developer Network's useful documentation page has more on the matter. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 16:32, 8 June 2014 (UTC)
I think you meant Template:Forumpage instead of Template:Forumheader. But Template:Forumpage does not use <inputbox>, at least not directly. It uses <forum>.
See: Category:Forum templates. I copied the forum templates awhile back from a forum set up outside Shoutwiki. I copied them from here. I don't really understand them well. They just seemed to be working OK. :)
I am thinking that <forum> is created by mw:Extension:DPLforum. DPLforum originally came from Wikia. Wikia must have hard-coded the form width inside the extension, and not created a parameter to adjust the form width. Could you do that? I see that you have been fixing some "b0rkage" here:
mediawiki / extensions/DPLforum
I do not see any parameters for input form width adjustment here:
mw:Extension:DPLforum#Parameters
--Timeshifter (talk) 16:12, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
Hi Timeshifter,
Pretty sure Template:Forumheader and the inputbox stuff is what you want.
Best regards,
--Cook879 ShoutWiki Staff talk 22:31, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
I do not understand. Template:Forumheader is part of Template:Forumpage. All that Template:Forumheader seems to do is add a linkbar at the top of forum threads. The linkbar links to Forum:Index and the specific forum such as Forum:Community help.
For example; in one of the threads I started:
Forum:Includeonly category not showing up after weeks
At the top is
{{Forumheader|Community help}}
It produces this:

Forums: Index → Community help

That is all it seems to be doing. Template:Forumheader does not contain the input form found in this template: Template:Forumpage. --Timeshifter (talk) 00:59, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
What you see is not always what you get! That's the gotcha here.
Template:Forumpage calls Template:Forumheader with the isforum parameter given. When that parameter is given, Template:Forumheader outputs, among other things, the "View recent changes for all topics in all forums" link and the InputBox for adding a new topic. When the template is directly viewed, the isforum parameter isn't given and hence it displays only the header. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 20:36, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

(unindent). Thanks. My mind must have went blank. :)

I either did not look at the wikitext of Template:Forumheader, or I looked at it, and just did not notice <inputbox>

As you said mw:Extension:InputBox says that the width parameter is in characters. --Timeshifter (talk) 06:16, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Administrator[edit source]

Hello. I would like to have the admin flag to do maintenance. Can you give me the flag, please? Dragneel (talk) 22:37, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

Hi Dragneel, thank you for your interest but I don't think that it's necessary to add more admins to Hub at the moment. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 20:36, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Cannot view pages in my wiki[edit source]

Today I realized that in my wiki I can not view a lot of pages because I see just a blank page, for example:

etc.

Instead, other pages are available, for example:

etc.

Could you please solve this problem? Thanks.--CassiodoroVicinetti (talk) 17:35, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

Hi CassiodoroVicinetti, thank you for the report! This was an issue related to our recent MediaWiki 1.23 upgrade with pages that were using the <math> — we've fixed it now. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 20:36, 12 June 2014 (UTC)
Thank you very much!--CassiodoroVicinetti (talk) 21:00, 12 June 2014 (UTC)

A cuestion[edit source]

Hello Jack, who is the function of a rollback? Thanks in advance--Libros (talk) 07:54, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Users in the rollback group have a [rollback] link on certain pages (Special:RecentChanges, Special:Watchlist, Special:Contributions), which allows them to quickly revert edits. You can find an automatically generated, up-to-date list of user groups and their respective rights at Special:ListGroupRights. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 20:46, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks you!--Libros (talk) 11:37, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Deletion[edit source]

Can I get more details on why my page has been deleted? Nothing there was created "accidentally", which was stated as a reason for deletion.

Thanks for your answer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by EfrontRDC (talk • contribs) .
Please sign your posts with ~~~~!

I've explained the basic concept on your talk page, but allow me to elaborate: for example, a page about Lenovo's latest ThinkPad laptop would definitely be more than welcome on the Laptops Wiki, at laptops.shoutwiki.com, but it would equally well be deleted from this wiki, ShoutWiki Hub at www.shoutwiki.com, since it would be out of the project scope of this wiki.
ShoutWiki Hub hosts meta pages, such as ShoutWiki staff or Help:Contents, and wiki description pages (such as Laptops); ShoutWiki Hub does not and will never host specific content (such as laptop specifications, for example). For such specific knowledge, there's either a better place on ShoutWiki, or if there isn't, you're free to create one!
In fact, the wiki creation wizard (Special:CreateWiki) is likely to be the thing that interests you. It allows you to create a new ShoutWiki wiki quickly; for example, if you wanted to start a wiki about dogs at dogs.shoutwiki.com, you could create it via the wiki creation wizard (provided that it doesn't already exist, that is!). If the wiki creation process seems confusing, take a look at our relevant help page.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or if you would like to have the pages and/or files restored on a different wiki; I'm more than happy to move them to the wiki where they belong to! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 16:11, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

custom domain setup[edit source]

techinfodepot.info is no longer setup properly for techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com

--DarkShadow (talk) 04:52, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Is this still an issue? As far as I can see, it's working as expected. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 00:33, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

Sorry for the late response, yes it was resolved. --DarkShadow (talk) 13:50, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

Trouble with templates[edit source]

I am having trouble getting some templates from Wikipedia into my wiki, you can see it here. I have actually created some simple templates myself, if you are wondering why those template pages are already created, but I would not mind if you delete them. Listed below are the templates I need to get on the wiki (from Wikipedia)!

Template:Infobox sports team

Template:Basketball kit home and away

Template:Infobox basketball biography

Template:Infobox football club

Template:Infobox basketball club

Template:Infobox national football team

Template:Infobox national basketball team

Template:Infobox sport

Please let me know how long it should take to get these done, and how it is done if I can personally do this in the future for other templates. They are ordered in priority, so please try to get the top items first. Thank you.

MousilianDictator (talk) 16:05, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Never mind, figured out another way again! MousilianDictator (talk)
Glad to hear you managed to sort this out! :-)
Long story short, you usually don't want to import templates from Wikipedia as they're horribly complicated. We have some handy help pages — Help:Infoboxes and Help:Navboxes — which cover the creation of information and navigation boxes. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 00:33, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

move[edit source]

  • Hi,how can I move shoutwiki?--Msnhinet8 (talk) 08:58, 10 July 2014 (UTC)
For information on moving to ShoutWiki, see ShoutWiki Hub:Importing wikis to ShoutWiki.
For information on moving from ShoutWiki, contact us with the details. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:05, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Help with a Wiki[edit source]

I'm thinking in the creation of a wiki-project in these days. I was wondering if you could help me in the MediaWiki and Monaco-port installation. That wiki is external to ShoutWiki (I'll be pay the servers) [URL: WIKINAME.com]. Can you help me with that new project? You're a MediaWiki veteran, and I don't know much about installing MediaWiki. Thank you! --DeviantSerpent 00:53, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

You can have your own URL when using ShoutWiki; see set up custom domain for details and do let us know if you have any further questions. For example, TechInfoDepot.info and Encyclopedia-Magnetica.com are both ShoutWiki wikis with their own, custom URLs.
The Monaco skin is already available on ShoutWiki, and creating a new wiki on ShoutWiki is as easy as 1-2-3! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:05, 15 July 2014 (UTC)

Rename wiki[edit source]

I would like to rename my wiki, Boekenencyclopedie.shoutwiki.com, to 24wiki.shoutwiki.com. I saw on the forum that's possible, so can you do that for me, pls? Kind regards; Gustaafff (talk) 14:15, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

My Dutch is very rusty, but it seems that your wiki is a Dutch wiki about the 24 television series — cool! Did you know that we have Finnish and French wikis about Jack Bauer's adventures, too? ;-)
Renaming a wiki is certainly possible, but might I suggest the name nl.24.shoutwiki.com instead? It's a tad bit shorter, yet descriptive, as it contains the ISO 639-1 language code for Dutch (for example, our Dutch central wiki is at nl.shoutwiki.com), although we eventually might be moving away from this convention. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:24, 21 July 2014 (UTC)
Yes! Please, sounds like fun. Thank you! Gustaafff (talk) 10:57, 24 July 2014 (UTC)
It seems that Cook879 was a lot faster than I was and he renamed the wiki from boekenencyclopedie to 24wiki, as per your initial request. Is this OK or would you prefer the nl.24 subdomain instead? --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 00:35, 28 July 2014 (UTC)
Is the subdomain free? Gustaafff (talk) 08:05, 28 July 2014 (UTC)
Yep, the URL nl.24.shoutwiki.com is still available if you want it.
You can check for the availability of a particular domain either via our wiki creation tool or simply trying to visit the URL in question; if the URL redirects to the No such wiki page on this wiki, then it's available. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 11:19, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

slow[edit source]

  • Hello, why new user's e-mail confirmation he was received so slow?--Msnhinet8 (talk) 02:34, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
It likely depends on the e-mail service provider and whatever filtering they have in place. I believe this isn't a widespread issue as I haven't heard of other recent occurrings of such an issue, and ShoutWiki users are quick to report any and all e-mail issues.
It's possible to have the confirmation code resent by visiting Special:ConfirmEmail. Luckily e-mail address confirmation is a one-time operation, so once you've done it, there's generally speaking no need to ever do it again. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 00:35, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

Hello..[edit source]

Hello there, How are you? :)

Thank you very much. --DeviantSalens 04:01, 6 August 2014 (UTC)

Thumbnail size default setting[edit source]

In my wiki I'd like to change the thumbnail size default setting to 250px. Could you please change setting $wgDefaultUserOptions['thumbsize'] to value 4 (250px). Thanks in advance.--CassiodoroVicinetti (talk) 09:26, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Done! --Lewis Cawte (talk) ShoutWiki Staff 19:43, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
Thank you. I'd like also to have this extension: CategoryTests. Could you install it in my wiki?--CassiodoroVicinetti (talk) 09:25, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Jack[edit source]

Thanks for deletion Spamming I love this wiki. (90.176.104.70 16:09, 24 September 2014 (UTC))

I think Stargate Wiki. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 90.176.104.70 (talk • contribs) . Please sign your posts with --~~~~!

You're welcome! Keeping our wikis spam-free is one of the many tasks we do on a daily basis. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:04, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

My wiki[edit source]

I have a Wiki at http://bjaodn.shoutwiki.com, but I can't access it now. Why is it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by DonovanW1996 (talk • contribs) . Please sign your posts with --~~~~!

Is this still an issue? --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:04, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you[edit source]

Thanks for the thorough help! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ahmed3lbannan (talk • contribs) . Please sign your posts with --~~~~!

No worries, and let me know if you need any further help — JavaScript can sometimes be rather tricky, and especially so in MediaWiki. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 17:04, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

create very wikis[edit source]

  • Hi,How day you are open create very wikis?--Msnhinet8 (talk) 13:24, 21 October 2014 (UTC)
Sorry, what do you mean? You can create one wiki per day, up to five wikis in total. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:37, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

close wiki[edit source]

Are you sure about this? The wiki has quite a lot of pages and some recent activity in the recent changes... --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:37, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Withdrawal permissions for the three wiki and thus the possibility of creating yet three wikis[edit source]

Hi Jack,
headline speaks for itself. This wikis is:

But, if this is to failure, that's cool, I understand.
Thanks, — Gorden 13:56, 1 November 2014 (UTC)

One more thing; can you add prefix "Portal:" on s:w:pedia? — Gorden
Starting a successful wiki is tough, and sometimes people just won't find your wiki; don't let it let you down. I'm sure there are plenty of Polish-speaking Sonic or Doctor Who fans out there. :) That being said, I've deleted the requested wikis for the time being.
I've added the Portal namespace to s:w:pedia. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:37, 4 November 2014 (UTC)
Thanks a lot :) — Gorden

Need bot to change part of various search URLs on many pages[edit source]

I don't know who to ask about this. I see Pinky listed as a bot guru on the Customer Support Team page. But Pinky's talk page and user contributions do not show activity from him since 2011:

I would like to change part of various search URLs used on many pages on the Cannabis Wiki:

I have been doing it manually on many pages. For example; see this diff:

I want to change 3Acannabis.wikia.com to 3A{{servername}}

It must have 3A in front or it will effect many non-search links. Upper or lower case does not matter. Here is the wikitext for part of a particular search URL:

http://www.google.com/search?&num=30&filter=0&q=site%3A{{servername}}

Here is what it looks like after conversion by the MediaWiki software:

It pulls up the cannabis subdomain too when placed anywhere on the Cannabis Wiki. --Timeshifter (talk) 12:44, 7 November 2014 (UTC)

You're right, Pinky's probably not the best person to contact about this right now.
It's unfortunately been more than a fair while since I've used pywikibot, but I've pinged Cook879 and Lcawte about this — maybe they'll be able to help you out! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 07:48, 14 November 2014 (UTC)
Thanks! I wish I could do it myself to save time of others. Willing to learn. --Timeshifter (talk) 17:11, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Request for extension CategoryTests[edit source]

I'd like to have this extension: CategoryTests. Could you install it in my wiki?--CassiodoroVicinetti (talk) 18:39, 11 November 2014 (UTC)

Ack, sorry, I thought I did this already! It's now enabled on your wiki; please let us know (via the usual channels) if you have any issues with it or need help. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 07:48, 14 November 2014 (UTC)
It works. Thank you very much!--CassiodoroVicinetti (talk) 12:46, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Would you rename me?[edit source]

Hi Jack Phoenix,
would you rename me "鯉色マッリ"(Carp-Marisa) to "カルサヴァ"(Kalsava) in both ShoutWiki and my wiki? Because present name may cause some trouble between me and user of the site. --Carp-Marisa（鯉色マッリ） - talk 04:00, 21 November 2014 (UTC)

Unfortunately renaming users is not possible at the moment, so you'll have to create a new account and then contact us to have user rights transferred over to the new account. Sorry about this! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 18:06, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Default thumb size for whole wiki[edit source]

Hi. Can you, Jack, or someone else, change the default image thumbnail size to 180px on the Cannabis Wiki? That is what it was until recently.

It seems to have jumped to 300px, and is messing up many pages.

It is at 300px whether logged in or not. I just checked. So the default thumb size has been changed to 300px in both overall wiki settings, and in all the default settings in preferences for users. --Timeshifter (talk) 17:56, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

I've fixed this for the Cannabis Wiki.
We upgraded to MediaWiki 1.24.0 earlier today and one of the many changes the new version introduced was a change to the default thumb size ($wgDefaultUserOptions['thumbsize'] was changed from 2 to 5, i.e. from 180px to 300px); the $wgDefaultUserOptions variable applies to all users who haven't overridden the preference via their local or global preference, but are using the site defaults.
As always, let me or another staff member know if you find any other oddities or outright bugs caused by the recent upgrade! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 18:06, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
Thanks! It is back to 180px defaults for the overall cannabis wiki whether logged in or not. My user preference on the Cannabis Wiki is also back to 180px.
On the Shoutwiki Hub my user preference still says 300px. Even when I reset all my Shoutwiki Hub user preferences back to defaults with the reset everything link. --Timeshifter (talk) 22:50, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Cannabis Wiki is inaccessible[edit source]

Neither works:

Both redirect to here:

It says: "Expecting to find your wiki? ShoutWiki does not currently support HTTPS and so you've ended up here. Try visiting using HTTP before you email us!" --Timeshifter (talk) 22:41, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

I have no problem accessing this Hub wiki. And I can access the Cannabis Wiki on another computer (Linux) if I am not logged in.
But on my regular computer I end up on the same staff.shoutwiki page whether I am logged in or not. Even when no Shoutwiki cookies are found in my Firefox browser. Just now I tried to access the Cannabis Wiki while not logged in, and when no Shoutwiki cookies were found. Same end result. I noticed though that the Shoutwiki cookies that showed up during the attempt somehow identified me by my user name even though I had not logged in. So there must be some Zombie cookies left that don't die when the normal cookies are deleted by me directly, or my many Firefox addons. --Timeshifter (talk) 07:19, 27 December 2014 (UTC)
Please start emailing support for questions such as these. They've got links for "common" issues such as this. --Lewis Cawte (talk) ShoutWiki Staff 10:20, 27 December 2014 (UTC)
OK. I sent in the info via Special:Contact and got the link for the support ticket in the email reply. --Timeshifter (talk) 16:16, 27 December 2014 (UTC)
Problem has been solved via the reply I got from Special:Contact. For others reading this with the same problem, see this link:
http://classically.me/blogs/how-clear-hsts-settings-major-browsers
Clearing all history (all boxes checked) was enough to solve the problem for me. Whatever was corrupted is gone. --Timeshifter (talk) 18:35, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

About starter wiki[edit source]

How can I config a "Starter Wiki" for spanish communities? Thank you :) --DeviantSalens ShoutWiki Staff 18:52, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

I've created the empty wiki; now you need to create the content (based on the English version; it's just the Main Page and some other pages, mostly templates) and once you're done with that, just ask me, Lcawte or Cook879 to add 'es' to the $wgCreateWikiStarterLanguages array in hubSettings.php. Happy translating! --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 21:10, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

Admin Rights on my own wiki[edit source]

Hi, I recently set up a wiki for a personal project and wanted to customize the monaco skin. Unfortunately, the steps required me to be an admin. I created that wiki: how am I not its admin? How do I become its admin? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by ArianrhodRPN (talk • contribs) 04:30, 21 February 2015‎. Please sign your posts with --~~~~!

Hi ArianrhodRPN. Are you sure you're logged in? If so, can I have a link to your site? (contact us through Special:Contact if you don't want to post it publicly.)
Best regards,
--Cook879 ShoutWiki Staff talk 14:59, 22 February 2015 (UTC)


Administrator[edit source]

Hi, my name is Chad. If I can help the community out, I would love to be an admin. I have experience on MediaWiki platforms and sites, such as Wikia. My main goals of being an admin here would be to manage the Help pages, creating a communications system between users and Staff that is more beneficial, and assisting the Customer Service team. Let me know if I can assist you guys in any way! AwesomeOrange89 (talk)

Hi Chad, help is always more than welcome! :-) While we're not actively looking for new administrators, there are plenty of areas which no doubt could do with improvements, help pages being one of them. The main help index page still contains a few redlinks, so if you're able to share your knowledge on using HTML on a ShoutWiki site or what Inputboxes are and how to use them, that'd be splendid!
Editing help pages requires you to be a member of the help page editors (sharedhelp) group; I'll be happy to add you to that group once you've demonstrated your writing skills by writing a few help pages (you can use user subpages to publish them).
If you speak a foreign language (or multiple!), there's even more for you to do! Many ShoutWiki features and skins are "world-ready", but not yet available in (most) foreign languages simply because no-one's translated them yet. Our Interface Messages Wiki has some documentation on translating some features and you can also preview many of our custom skins there. In addition to that, some of the features and skins we've developed can be translated via translatewiki.net (TWN), but be aware that translations from TWN won't be pulled to ShoutWiki right away, whereas translating via Interface Messages Wiki allows the changes to show up right away on all ShoutWiki sites.
But even if languages aren't your strong suit, fear not, for there's always much to do on ShoutWiki. Tracking down software bugs, glitches, issues and things to do and reporting them is essential so that we can improve both MediaWiki and ShoutWiki.
Let people know why you chose ShoutWiki and why they should choose us, too! MediaWiki is relatively easy to use, very scalable and secure and well-tested (since it powers one of the world's most popular websites), but hosting your own MediaWiki instance isn't exactly for the faint-hearted — paying for the domain name, keeping MW updated, choosing what extensions you want & need and making sure that they're secure enough to be used on a public site, patrolling the wiki for spam and other bad-faith changes, seeking help whenever you need it...these are often complicated things that you need to take into account when hosting your own site. With ShoutWiki, we keep you safe, secure and up-to-date, so you can focus on the essential — the content!
Finally, the single most important thing: find a wiki that you like — or failing that, create one — and start contributing! Wikis are as great as people make them. We have over 12526 wikis about various different topics, so I'm sure you'll find a few sites that you want to start editing. :-) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 01:22, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for the response Jack. I'm going to starting making Help Pages ASAP. Sadly, I only speak Spanish and very little of that. I do work with translatewiki.net, but mainly use their default translations. That's a great system you have with Bugzilla. Over at Wikia we have a IRC channel (#cvn-wikia), that VSTF members & users a like use to track all edits on all wikis, real time. Do you guys have one of those? I'd be more than happy to help with vandalism removal. Thanks again. AwesomeOrange89 (talk)

vandalism[edit source]

  • Sup jack, about a weMk ago someone vandalized my wiki. Your staff was vary helpful but at a result there are a bunch of spam pages left and a number of articles have been moved around so that clicking "revert" doesn't restore them. Anything you can do about that? Busey.pngoddguyBusey.png 13:54, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
    • In regards to the functionality of the revert button. No. In regards to cleaning up the vandalism, take a closer look at what myself and Cook879 have been doing. It's rather time intensive. --Lewis Cawte (talk) ShoutWiki Staff 13:57, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
  • Thanks, I remembered I can actually do that myself and fixed everything, now all that's left is to delete the spam pages. But I need something else now. Is it possible to make registering new accounts not auto-approved?
Also, you might want to take a look at this. It's a StackOverflow thread by someone with the exact same problem. There are a few solutions in it that, if you can implement here, might make dealing with vandalism easier in the future. Busey.pngoddguyBusey.png 19:32, 23 February 2015 (UTC)
I've cleaned up what was left of the mess at the Bad Webcomics Wiki; do let me know if I messed up something or accidentally deleted something that I shouldn't have!
Requirements for the implicit "autoconfirmed" group can be set on a per-site basis. These requirements consist of an account's age and edit count; on many Wikimedia sites (Wikipedia, Wiktionary, etc.) the age requirement is four days but the edit requirements vary. If and when both the age and edit count requirement are set (i.e. an account would need to be 4 days old and have 10 edits to get the autoconfirmed status), users need to pass both requirements (so an account that would be one week old without any edits wouldn't pass the requirements and therefore wouldn't be autoconfirmed).
You can contact us with the desired autoconfirm requirements and we'll set them for the Bad Webcomics Wiki.
As for the StackOverflow thread, most of the solutions presented there are more or less like "mowing your lawn with a tank" — yes, it works and you get the desired results, but...
The SQL queries presented there do not make use of the archive table, so once you delete something with such queries, it's gone forever! There are already people who believe that the current form of page(/file/whatever) deletion in MediaWiki is "too" permanent, since deleted revisions and other data are "hidden" from the average users; these people believe in what's called "pure wiki deletion", which is essentially page blanking instead of actual deletion.
Whatever the case might be, spam & vandalism cleanup tools shouldn't be as destructive as those SQL queries, because we are all just human beings and thus we make mistakes; so far MediaWiki generally speaking makes it pretty easy to undo your mistakes, and we don't want to add something which could easily be used to nuke an entire wiki('s contents). All that being said, we're constantly working on new, cool stuff, and power user tools are definitely something that we're very interested in enhancing and improving. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 01:22, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
  • Thanks for all the help! Busey.pngoddguyBusey.png 20:25, 11 March 2015 (UTC)


  • When you were cleaning up the vandalism you changed it so no one but staff could edit the wiki. Can you change it back now please? Busey.pngoddguyBusey.png 10:47, 22 March 2015 (UTC)
    • I've removed the additional edit restrictions. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 11:04, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Vandalism in Nityanica-Lite[edit source]

Yesterday Nityanica-Lite was vandalised by hackers who cracked this site, changed logo and deleted too many pages. Site need in your help.195.16.111.166 12:54, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

We'll be in touch with you via the ticket you opened. --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 01:22, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Deletion requests and permission for creation[edit source]

Hello. I would really like to create a Sanrio wiki. I have already created five wikis and I was not aware, so I want certain wikis to be deleted. I know that five wikis is an awful lot, and I think one can only commit themselves to a limited number of wikis. If it is possible, please may you delete the following wikis: Glitch Pokémon Movesets Wiki, Japanese glitch Pokémon Wiki (these were created when a site I mod known as Glitch City Laboratories was offline. It is no longer and it has its own wiki so I don't feel the need for these) and Sanrio Timenet Wiki (because I can include what is on there in a Sanrio wiki). I would like to keep [[Chalien Wiki]] even though the project was left dormant.

Additionally, as you were able to do this for someone else in the past, can you check what my other wiki was?

Thanks in advance :) and I'm sorry for the trouble. By the way, I think that ShoutWiki is the best wiki farm. Torchickens (talk) 15:47, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

In addition to the four other wikis you've created, you've also created the Steel Diver Wiki.
Building a wiki and a community is hard work, and it takes a lot of patience, devotion and time. That's pretty much the reason why there are certain limits to wiki creation. That being said, I've deleted the three wikis you requested. Do let me know if wiki creation still isn't working for you — it's had some issues with situations like this in the past.
We're glad to hear that you like ShoutWiki! As always, suggestions and feedback are always more than welcome — after all, how else would we be able to know what to improve and how? ;-) --Jack PhoenixShoutWiki Staff (Contact) 20:30, 12 April 2015 (UTC)
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