User talk:Jack Phoenix/Archive 4

Vector skin

When will the Vector be released? and will it be similiar to Wikipedia's? --Silver Knight (talk) 16:24, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

When we upgrade to MediaWiki 1.16, in other words, soon. It won't be just similar, it'll be the same skin (but things like the "new editor" on Wikipedia etc. are separate extensions; see Extension:UsabilityInitiative on MediaWiki.org for more information). --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 19:53, 6 January 2011 (UTC)

Problems

On my new wiki, pages have stopped loading. Whenever I try to load any page, I get a blank white page. I use the Monaco skin, and as far as I know, no other shoutwiki sites are experiencing this problem. Could you please help?

Lord Skorpix

This has been happening intermittently to me too. --Hockeyben (talk) 01:43, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Allow me to step in. Shoutwiki is currently undergoing imports which will slow the servers, once the imports are done the speed will increase. Yes it can be annoying having it work one second and not the next....but would you prefer to have your wiki buried in ads on wikia? ESCYOS - YOUR GOD! ^{talk | contribs} 23:23, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Actually, the speed has been much better today.--Hockeyben (talk) 00:39, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

Skins

When Shoutwiki is upgraded to Mediawiki 1.16, will the Simple, Nostalgia, MySkin, Classic, and Chick skins be available?--Hockeyben (talk) 00:39, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

No. If you have a strong case for enabling one of these skins on your wiki, please contact us via Special:Contact. --Skizzerz 19:44, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

To elaborate a bit more on what Skizzerz wrote: these skins are legacy skins that still — unfortunately! — ship with MediaWiki. For example, the Nostalgia skin has been designed to look like how Wikipedia did in its first year (2001). These skins are outdated and hardly maintained; if an obvious bug is found and it's easy to fix, it'll get fixed but these skins aren't actively being developed.

The skins you mentioned are all over 6 years old, although the same goes for Cologne Blue and Monobook, too. The difference between Monobook, Modern and Vector and these legacy skins is that the former three are being actively developed and Monobook and Vector are the two most popular skins on Wikimedia projects. Unfortunately as users on the English Wikipedia and some other Wikimedia Foundation wikis still use these legacy skins, us MediaWiki developers haven't been able to kill them off. I hope this clears it up a bit. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 18:08, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

en.

Could you please remove the en. on my URL for Autopedia? --Silver Knight (talk) 10:06, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

It doesn't look like it is there anymore. I see the wiki at http://auto.shoutwiki.com/wiki/. AjraddatzTalkContribs 16:06, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

That's weird. Howcome its there and then gone? --Silver Knight (talk) 02:08, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

The wiki can be accessed using either subdomain. It has been like that for some time. I've passed your request onto the technical team Silver Knight. — Lynton ^{talk • email} 02:13, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

This has been fixed by Misza. Note that it is currently possible to access the site via both subdomains; I am working on a solution that will redirect the en.auto subdomain to auto. --Skizzerz 19:42, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks guys. --Silver Knight (talk) 01:06, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Your userpage

I noticed on your userpage that three of your "interesting wikis" are mine. YAY! ESCYOS - YOUR GOD! ^{talk | contribs} 03:13, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

You seem to have a good taste when it comes to TV series, then. ;-) --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 18:08, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

A rather odd request in regards to global countervandalism

Hello Jack, I have what may seem like a rather odd request in regards to the countervandalism at the global level.

I think that it would be a good idea if ShoutWiki were to use the global block extension to do all global blocks, rather than phalanx. Likewise, it might be good to scrap phalanx altogether and use the separate systems.

Now, I realise that phalanx was designed to make this stuff easier; to have it all on one page, essentially. However, what it lacks is transparency, and as a result, accountability. It is impossible for regular users to see which users and IPs are globally blocked, and why. This then turns global countervandalism into some secret thing done in a basement somewhere with the door to the room closed and locked. Nobody can see inside to point out blatant abuse, etc. Thanks, AjraddatzTalkContribs 06:05, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

Read the page carefully. GlobalBlocking extension allows "to block a single IP address"; IIRC it still doesn't do username blocks. That is already enough of a reason not to switch Phalanx to GlobalBlocking.

However, I do want to emphasize that we, the staff, take things like this seriously. Unlike some people, we don't block people ShoutWiki-wide for fun. We block them if they're automated spambots or are trying to disrupt several wikis with clear malicious intent. As our terms of use state, we provide the hosting for wikis for free (unless they're buying premium features, such as new skins or ad removal; premium features haven't been released yet though); I don't think that it's unreasonable that we have the final say over whether a given user or IP is allowed to access the site.

The point about there not being a way to check if a given user or IP is blocked is valid, though. Would an API module with some throttling be okay? Of course it'd be nice to allow unthrottled access, but it kinda defeats the point of keeping the blocked IPs, phrases and regexes private. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 18:08, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

An API module would solve the problem, I think, by allowing access when it is needed but essencially preventing recreational use. I thought that global blocking allowed for the blocking of usernames as well, but regardless, I think that your idea is all that is needed. Thanks! AjraddatzTalkContribs 19:27, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

This is actually more complicated than I expected it to be (I thought that I can just copypaste relevant code from different files and slap it under a class that extends ApiBase — well, I was wrong on that). I've opened a bug so that this won't be totally forgotten, see bug #135. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:15, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Special cached pages not processing?

Hi, Jack. On my wiki, the special pages that should be showing cached reports (like Special:WantedPages) aren't showing anything. Is this due to backlog/job queue? Some of the red links are more than a week old yet they don't show. And the job queue reports as just 5.

On an unrelated note, do you have something like database dumps, or any export must be done through Special:Export? Scarbrow^talk 01:25, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

These special pages can be updated via Special:RefreshSpecial on your wiki (you must be a bureaucrat to access it).

As for the database dumps, we don't have those available yet, but we're planning to make them available this year. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:15, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, Jack, that worked like a wonder. In fact, I didn't expected it to run so quick (but then, my wiki is still very small). However, shouldn't those pages update from time to time, or is it always up to each wiki's bureaucrats to manually refresh them? Or maybe it was just my case because my wiki is/was very new, still very small, and private? Scarbrow^talk 23:45, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Hi, Jack. I wonder, did you notice my previous note? Scarbrow^talk 18:31, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

That is one of the reasons I love ShoutWiki. You don't have to wait for the staff to do the update as they take ages! ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 19:04, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Heya Scarbrow, I'm sorry for not noticing your message sooner! Guess I oughta wear my glasses more often...

Currently it's up to individual wikis' bureaucrats to update the cached special pages via Special:RefreshSpecial. We realize that this is far from an ideal solution — we hope that we can find a way to fix this issue. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:22, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Speed

Shoutwiki has been MUCH faster over the last few days. Have the techs been working on this?--Hockeyben (talk) 01:36, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

The techs have been looking into the site speed issues. The issues aren't fully solved, so the guys are still working on them. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:15, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

deletion wiki

• 維基百科，because and same wikipedia.--Msnhinet8 (talk) 03:47, 12 January 2011 (UTC)
• thanks.--Msnhinet8 (talk) 03:47, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the report, I've deleted the wiki in question. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:15, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Bot

Could you please activate the BOT Knightrez on Autopedia? And what do BOTs do?--Silver Knight (talk) 05:18, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Umm... you have to download the scripts yourself. I currently use both Auto-Wiki Browser and Pywikipediabot. Once you download these, you can then give yourself the bot flag as you are a steward. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 07:19, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, but I'm not a BOT pro. Where do I download the scripts? --Silver Knight (talk) 14:04, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

MediaWiki.org's page on pywikipediabot has some info about pywikipediabot. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:15, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Is there a way you could activate it? Or do I have to download something? --Silver Knight (talk) 15:35, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

No, you have to download the programs. Another, slightly easier, thing to use for a beginner is AutoWikiBrowser. This can't do some things that Pywikipediabot does and vice versa though. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 17:53, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

I still can't download it! :( --Silver Knight (talk) 00:44, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Ok then, come on the ShoutWiki IRC channel sometime and I'm sure that users will be happy to help. IRC channel link. On Freenode, there are channels for Pywikipediabot (#pywikipedia) and AutoWikiBrowser (#autowikibrowser). People there can help too. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 10:41, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, but I'll see if Red marquis because someone asked me for IRC and I refused. --Silver Knight (talk) 11:12, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Wiki edits

Is there anywhere we can view the largest wikis on the site, i kind of want to see where the Stargate Wiki is? thanks ESCYOS - YOUR GOD! ^{talk | contribs} 05:54, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

I asked about it some time ago, there are not. :( But I think 939 articles means 7-10 position. Misiek (talk) 08:56, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Because something is not yet there doesn't mean that it couldn't be in the future. ;-) Sounds like an interesting extension idea, although I can see why it'd be a bit complicated (need to switch between databases to retrieve article count and COUNT(*) is a relatively expensive query; or then use MediaWiki's API). Feel free to file a feature request on our Bugzilla. :-) --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:15, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

But I asked 2 days ago :P Misiek (talk) 14:16, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Filing a bug means that at least there are some sort of records about what should be done and why. Needless to say that we have a lot of things to do on a typical day and no matter how much we dislike it, forgetting about a talk page message (unless you're being constantly pinged about it, which can also be annoying) is way too easy. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:10, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Importing Wikicars

We are going to import wikicars manually. So the software Misza was going to write is no longer needed. Here is the discussion on Red marquis talk page.--Hockeyben (talk) 15:23, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Well, I can't say that I'm exactly thrilled about it. Of course we'd love to have the content from Wikicars, but importing it manually is pretty much asking for trouble in my opinion. The tools that the tech team has are more server-friendly and reliable. I would seriously suggest that you talk with Misza about this before starting to do anything drastic. Thanks. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:10, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Ny maually, you mean copying and pasting from one site to the other right? Thats what I did, to not let wiki know I was leaving until it was too late and I only had ~250 pages and that was incredibly annoying to do. ESCYOS - YOUR GOD! ^{talk | contribs} 13:39, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Talk with Misza? There's two messages I left there that he hasn't replied. How do I know if he's inactive or he's simply shunning me? --Silver Knight (talk) 14:55, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

One of the reasons we,re going to import manually, is because lots of new spam pages have been created at wikicars, and it would take a long time to sort through them. And we have already uploaded about 5000 wikicars images manually.Hockeyben (talk) 14:54, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Just letting you know that we're 3/4 done manually importing.Hockeyben - Talk 16:30, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

suggestion

Hey, I know you probably get stuff like this a lot and probably can't do this right now, but: If you got some features like a simplified recent changes (like MyHome/Wiki activity on wikia) more users would come here. Many wikia users prefer the simple MyHome look over RecentChanges, so implementing something of that sort would help get more users. Just a suggestion, sorry if I sound like I'm bossing you around or anything. :) 74.32.231.99 15:42, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

No. MyHome is pointless and one of Wikia's most useless features. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 18:24, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

MyHome isn't pointless, it's a simpler version of Recent Changes that many users who are unfamiliar with Recent Changes use. I don't really use it, but many users do, if you noticed the people freaking out with Oasis when they thought MyHome was gone. Putting MyHome in here COULD potentially attract users. Jax-Kenobi 22:19, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

The thing I liked about my home, was the ability to quickly jump between my user page,talk page,and contributions page, and my edit count.Hockeyben (talk) 22:23, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

MyHome sux. I don't like it because it's Wikia-sh --Silver Knight (talk) 02:36, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

In my personal opinion, MyHome is like an oversimplified version of the enhanced recent changes, which is a simplified version of the standard recent changes page. The reason why people would be "freaking out" due to the lack of MyHome is because they've gotten used to it, but let's face it: MyHome doesn't exist on non-Wikia wikis and yet there are many successful wikis without MyHome out there.

The key is helping; write sufficient help, i.e. explain what things like (+583) in the recent changes page mean. We have a set of good help pages over here, which will be globally available on every wiki once we finish the SharedHelp feature (see bug #18 and bug #62). In the meantime, you can encourage users to join and help them out (as always!) after they've joined. Even I learned to use the recent changes page relatively quickly when I was new into wikis, and no-one told me how to read it. :-) --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:10, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

He's right. recent changes is VERY easy to pick up. I learned by myself within half an hour. Just follow the lines. Simples. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 17:32, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I guess your right... Sorry I asked. :/ 74.32.231.99 21:23, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

There's nothing to apologize, anonymous user. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 19:25, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Partial solution

don't react so badly to new ideas

Hey guys stop it. One thing I CANNOT stand is how established editors crush new ideas, usually because of their own biased, narrow experiences with a particular feature. Just because YOU don't like it, doesn't mean other editors do not find it useful and it has the potential to help draw editors to shoutwiki. In otherwords: if you don't like a feature, don't kill the adaption of the feature, just because you personally don't like it. Shoutwiki could make this an optional feature, which would not hurt your wikis one bit, and may draw more people to shoutwiki.

I understand that we are all afraid that shoutwiki will become like Wikia, constantly churning out mandatory "improvements" which no one wants. This is a valid concern, but I see no indication of this whatsoever.

Instead of the several unhelpful personal opinions above (most but not all), (in that they do nothing but state a set opinion but do not go into technical details why this is not an option) here is a viable solution anon, which I have been working on:

Partial solution

Coding:

{{special:Newimages/3}}

{{special:recentchanges/5}}

• 

  Print-screen3.png NunoEddie
  12:51, 10 September 2023
  1,656 × 192; 354 KB
  

• 

  Print-screen2.png NunoEddie
  12:50, 10 September 2023
  1,580 × 149; 336 KB
  

• 

  Print-screen1.png NunoEddie
  12:49, 10 September 2023
  765 × 692; 743 KB
  

List of abbreviations:

N

This edit created a new page (also see list of new pages)

m

This is a minor edit

b

This edit was performed by a bot

(±123)

The page size changed by this number of bytes

8 November 2024

• Block log 20:51 Abuse filter talk contribs blocked UVA talk contribs with an expiration time of indefinite (account creation disabled, cannot edit own talk page) ‎(Automatically blocked by abuse filter. Description of matched rule: User countitis) Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit
• diffhist
  User talk:SuperStreetKombat‎ 20:47 0‎ ‎UVA talk contribs‎ Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit
• Block log 18:42 Abuse filter talk contribs blocked 135.181.125.113 talk with an expiration time of 1 month (account creation disabled) ‎(Automatically blocked by abuse filter. Description of matched rule: Registrations)
• Block log 15:44 Abuse filter talk contribs blocked LucaDaluz7 talk contribs with an expiration time of indefinite (account creation disabled, cannot edit own talk page) ‎(Automatically blocked by abuse filter. Description of matched rule: Particular links)
• User creation log 15:44 User account LucaDaluz7 talk contribs was created ‎

On MediaWiki:Common.css:

body.page-User_Anno1404 .mw-plusminus-pos  {display:none} /* plus minus of each edit */
body.page-User_Anno1404 .mw-rollback-link  {display:none} /* rollback link */
body.page-User_Anno1404 .mw-plusminus-null  {display:none} /* null edit */
body.page-User_Anno1404 .mw-usertoollinks {display:none} /* (Talk | contribs | block) */

Replace User_Anno1404 with your page.

Replace all:

1. non-word characters (*#$%/:-=.) and
2. spaces

with a _

Resulting example

Before :

# (diff | hist) . . ! Chronological History of Events‎; 16:47 . . (+2) . . NT92 (Talk | contribs | block) (→The Willamette Incident: ) [rollback]

After :

# (diff | hist) . . ! Chronological History of Events‎; 16:47 . . . . NT92 (→The Willamette Incident: )

If anyone else knows how to remove the other fields like (diff | hist) please let me know!

More information

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:New_images

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Recentchanges

Apology and admonishment

Sorry if I offended any of you, it was not my intention. Many of you I consider friends, I respect highly (Jack), or both. I write this simply because I know you are all open minded and may reconsider and hesitate whether to crush an editors good idea next time.

Just because you personally don't like something wikia did (blogging on wikis for example) doesn't mean it is not a good idea for the wiki as a whole, especially if it is optional. {{subst:User:Anno1404/signature}} 17:31, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Create

Could you create NFL, NBA, College Football,College Basketball,American Football wikis for me? As I am not willing to give out my email address. Thanks--Hockeyben (talk) 04:26, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

No. The reason why a valid e-mail address is required is so that we have a way of contacting you; for example, if you forget your password and request to have it reset, we need to be able to know that the person requesting it really is you and not an imposter. Besides, nowadays it's easy to create a free e-mail address; GMail, Hotmail, etc. are all free and relatively easy to use. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:10, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Social tools

Hello, could you please give Autopedia social tools. Just like Wikisimpsons? --Silver Knight (talk) 10:44, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Let me know the desired user level names and required amount of points and I'll pass your request on to Misza. I don't think that the default, army-related ranks are that good for Autopedia. :-) --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:10, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I've got an idea. Instead of military ranks, it'll be cars. For example: A recruit would be a Ford Focus while General-of-the-army would be Bugatti Veyron Super Sport (fastest road car in the world) I'd would like to have all ranks on the wiki. And this:

• Signing up 1,500
• Adding your first avatar 100
• Leaving a comment 15
• Editing a page in the main namespace 50
• Adding a friend/foe 30
• Giving a gift 35
• Receiving a gift 25
• Taking a poll 25
• Have the most points for a week 100
• Have the most points for a month 1000

--Silver Knight (talk) 15:02, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm no car expert, even though I can drive one. ;-) And that's precisely the reason why I need all the rank names (i.e. the levels between Ford Focus and Bugatti Veyron Super Sport). Wikisimpsons, for example, has 9 user levels, but your wiki can have more or less (even though there's no actual limit, I'd advise you to be reasonable — something like 15 or 20 is the maximum in my opinion).

Comments extension is a separate extension, but if you want it enabled for your wiki, it's doable. The "taking a poll" refers to social polls, which are a bit under development currently (see bug #22) but that feature should be ready for 1.16. Let me know if you want it, too. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 19:25, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Here's the ranks:

• 0 Ford Focus
• 1,200 Chevrolet Silverado
• 1,750 Dodge Challenger
• 2,500 MINI Cooper
• 5,000 Lotus Elise
• 10,000 Dodge Viper
• 15,000 Aston Martin DB4
• 20,000 Ferrari 250
• 35,000 Rolls-Royce Ghost
• 50,000 Nissan GT-R
• 75,000 Lamborghini Gallardo
• 100,000 Pagani Zonda F
• 150,000 Jaguar XJ220
• 250,000 Ferrari Enzo
• 350,000 McLaren F1
• 500,000 Koenigsegg CCX
• 650,000 Saleen S7 Twin Turbo
• 800,000 SSC Ultimate Aero
• 1,000,000+ Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

--Silver Knight (talk) 00:40, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll ping our tech team about this. :-) --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:04, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

When will you activate it? I can't wait :) --Silver Knight (talk) 09:43, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

• Has been activated. Happy editing. :) --Jedimca0^(talk) 18:05, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, but I don't know how this works. --Silver Knight (talk) 01:16, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Help

This page is messes up like the Mercury Grand Marquis http://en.auto.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Porsche_Boxster --Silver Knight (talk) 03:56, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Fixed. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 19:25, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. :-) --Silver Knight (talk) 00:30, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

Same problem here. --Silver Knight (talk) 10:55, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Yet another unclosed tag, which I've now closed. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:04, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Releasing monaco skin

When will shoutwiki release the monaco skin coding? Thank you for your time again. {{subst:User:Anno1404/signature}} 17:35, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

See ShoutWiki Hub:Open source. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 19:25, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

5 wiki limit

Why can I not create more than 5 wikis? I wanted to create College Basketball and American Football wikis. Can the limit be increased, or could you make the wikis for me? (I have now put in an email address) Hockeyben (talk) 01:47, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

The limit of 5 wikis per user was thought to be a reasonable one; it's hard to focus actively on more than 5 wikis (I can tell by experience!), and we don't want there to be many unused wikis that are basically empty. Fewer wikis and more content on them is what we prefer over lots of empty wikis. :-) That being said, I can create the wikis for you. I need to know the data I'm going to enter to the CreateWiki form: wiki subdomain, language, whether to include language code in the URL or not, wiki type, category, skin and license. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:04, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm currently away. And I'm editing from my mobile device. When I get back, I'll tell you the wiki details. I was an administrator on these wikia wikis.Hockeyben (talk) 15:23, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Here's the info to put in:

• wiki name American Football Wiki
• subdomain americanfootball
• language English
• language code No
• wiki type Public
• category Sports
• Skin Monaco
• License CC-BY-SA

• wiki name College Basketball Wiki
• subdomain collegebasketball
• language English
• language code No
• wiki type Public
• category Sports
• Skin Monaco
• License CC-BY-SA

Could you also give me admin/bureaucrat rights on these wikis? Thanks--Hockeyben (talk) 23:59, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Done and done; enjoy and happy editing! --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:41, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Logo

Could you please shrink the logo for Autopedia a little bit so that the T and A on The Automobile Encyclopedia can be seen. --Silver Knight (talk) 12:17, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm afraid I'm not that good with graphics, sorry. :-( You may want to ask supergeeky1 or another graphics wizard for help with that. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:04, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Wiki Creation

Hi,

I'm trying to create a private wiki, but whenever I try to do so an error pops up saying "Action limited to users in group 'emailconfirmed'. I confirmed it, just in case, but it's still not working. Is there a way around this? Styracosaurus Rider (talk) 22:42, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

My staff tools are telling me that you have an e-mail address set in your preferences but it's not confirmed. You should be able to request a new e-mail confirmation code by going to Special:ConfirmEmail and pressing the button. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:04, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Great!

Er, how do you make sure only certain users can view and edit private wikis? Styracosaurus Rider (talk) 22:20, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Actually, half-done. But I need a test for registered users, can you visit it and see if you can view/edit pages? Here's the link to that wiki. Styracosaurus Rider (talk) 00:54, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Wiki can be viewed by you, invited users and staff members (somebody need to control wikis). Jack is a staff member. But I'm not and I can't see pages, so everything is ok. Misiek (talk) 05:10, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

HabboWiki

Hey I'm crat Imdill3 over at HabboWiki (habbo.wikia.com) and our HabboWiki community is interested in a transfer from Wikia to a new hub. I heard you guys have a similar Monaco skin that is available. Anyways to the point: we would like to transfer with ShoutWiki, with Monaco as a default. We currently have little traffic due to Wikia's Oasis update but, with a huge potential. We also have an answers site running (Habbo.answers.wikia.com), if that would also be an option to transfer, if not merge it with the site it's self). Thank you for your time, I hope to work with you guys in the near future. --Imdill3 (talk) 08:07, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

You can create a wiki with our CreateWiki tool. Once you've done that, you need to file a bug on Bugzilla (bug tracker), requesting for the wiki to be imported. Take a look at ShoutWiki Hub:Importing wikis to ShoutWiki for more details.

I'm afraid that we can't really offer answers wikis, because Wikia is keeping essential parts of the answers codebase to themselves, which effectively prevents third parties (such as us) from duplicating the functionality.

Feel free to ask for help on our IRC channel, #ShoutWiki on irc.shoutwiki.com. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:04, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Okay, Thank you for your help! I'll get the URL set up and get to work. --Imdill3 (talk) 05:34, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Template

Help please!! Could you fix this page's template along with this template? --Silver Knight (talk) 11:22, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm guessing that it's somehow related to the Flagicon template, which looks like something imported from Wikipedia. Needless to say that Wikipedia's templates are usually complicated. I took a look at it, but it wasn't something I could fix right away. I'll look into it later on. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 14:04, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Yeah but the Infobox F1 teams is not the same as the Scuderia Ferrari page. Could you please fix it? --Silver Knight (talk) 13:39, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Fixed. The issue was actually way simpler than I thought; a pipe character was missing, adding it back fixed the template. :-) --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:41, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Private and School Wikis

Hello Jack Phoenix, I recently sent a email to shoutwiki a few days ago, it was opened as a support ticket, but I haven't received a response, so I'll ask here.

I notice you offer a "private" and a "school" wiki, what are the differences between the two? I ask because I'm thinking about making a discussion wiki for my fellow college students, effectively a online school council/debate team for the college, however I don't know which type of wiki would cater for its needs.

• I think the main importance would be that: it has Forum and Blog namespaces (a good example would be the Simpsons wiki); it can't be viewed without registering (except some pages such as a Home Page/How to create an account); it has a independent login system (ie no shared logins with public wikis); before accounts are created they need verification by a sysop/bureaucrat; some accounts can be blocked from viewing the wiki.

Thanks, Jordan (George (talk) 15:53, 16 January 2011 (UTC))

Hi Jordan, and sorry about the delayed reply. I must say that I prefer these kind of questions to be asked publically, as opposed to using Special:Contact, so that others can see the question and the reply. :-)

Anyway, the wiki types page has some information about the differences between the three wiki types; you may want to check that out unless you already have.

I'm quite sure that we can work out something for your wiki; an independent login system might not be doable (at least easily). --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:41, 18 January 2011 (UTC)

Server feedback

As I said earlier, the server speed overall is much faster, but it is very slow when I try to save a page, taking an average of 30 seconds. Everything else is fine, I'm just trying to give you feedback on how the server is.

---

Help page for importing Wikia wiki?

Hi. I have a bugzilla thread about importing the Cannabis Wiki:

• http://bugzilla.shoutwiki.com/show_bug.cgi?id=99

I check this talk page now and then, and read something recently that said it might be necessary to create the wiki before the bugzilla import request can be acted on. Is this correct?

The sidebar links to Special:CreateWiki, but that starts the wiki creation without a link to help. I suggest linking to a wiki-creation help page from the sidebar.

I looked around a bit for a help page and didn't see one directly linked from the sidebar. I dove into the help pages and found this:

• Help:Creating a new wiki

It needs info on whether the wiki should be created first before asking the Shoutwiki staff to import the Wikia wiki. --Timeshifter (talk) 11:21, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

It certainly makes things a bit easier if the import target wiki exists, yes. As for the suggestion about linking to the help page, that's a good one, thanks! I'll see if there's a way to add the link into CreateWiki. Do note that Help:Creating a new wiki is a generic help page about using Special:CreateWiki, our wiki creation wizard. Information about importing a pre-existing wiki from another host can be found at ShoutWiki Hub:Importing wikis to ShoutWiki. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:22, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I think I had read that import how-to page (or a copy of the info somewhere) before starting the bugzilla thread. I need to bookmark the how-to page, or bookmark it better. Maybe it can be linked from CreateWiki too. Can a link to it be added from Help:Creating a new wiki? I could do it but it is a protected page. Nevermind, someone already did it after reading my talk page request. --Timeshifter (talk) 16:42, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Poll

Hello. Id there a way to reduce the poll width? See this page at Wikisimpsons. We're trying to keep the poll the same width as the infobox. TheHomer (talk) 17:23, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

The div with class="poll" has width: 400px; by default. You'll want to override that, either on a per-poll basis for for all polls. Something like .poll { width: inherit !important; } should work, I think. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:22, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Thank You

I would just like to thank you and the rest of the staff for providing us with a wondrous place for us to host our wikis, a place soooo much better than wikia. ESCYOS - YOUR GOD! ^{talk | contribs} 04:00, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome! Awesomeness is what we're aiming for, and we're glad to hear that you like the service! --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 13:22, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Nested sidebar site navigation

Are there any wikis on ShoutWiki with nested sidebar site navigation?

I found a wiki elsewhere using MediaWiki version 1.16.1 that has nested sidebar site navigation. Please see:

• http://ac.wikkii.net/wiki/Special:Version

It is using this extension:

• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:CSS_MenuSidebar

Is that wiki using the vector skin?

Will we be able to customize the Vector skin when it is implemented at ShoutWiki? --Timeshifter (talk) 18:24, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't think that there are any wikis on ShoutWiki with that, but from off-ShoutWiki wikis, Halopedia comes to mind.

The extension you mentioned was requested previously; see User talk:Jack Phoenix/Archive 3#Some extensions.

The wiki you linked to is using the Vector skin; you can see var skin="vector" in the HTML source code of that wiki's pages.

Obviously you will be able to customize the Vector skin; I think that your question was rather silly, actually. ;-) --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 22:02, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the HTML source method of finding out if a skin is Vector. I have seen "Vector" listed on some Special:Version pages, but the Vector extension seemed to add further functionality. So I assumed Vector was embedded at a deeper level depending on the MediaWiki version.

As for customization I am a noob at CSS, and understand some of the CSS basics. I understand nothing about JS. I have been wanting to get back nested sidebar site navigation on the Cannabis Wiki since it was removed by the new Oasis/Wikia skin. Wikia has been very picky about what CSS and JS customization they allow since the Oasis/Wikia skin.

I have some possibilities for other hosting that I am checking out. I also have an offer of some technical help too. --Timeshifter (talk) 22:21, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

There is some discussion of nested sidebar site navigation via CSS and JS in this section of a forum thread. --Timeshifter (talk) 16:31, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Page

Whats wrong with this page?http://icehockey.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Ice_hockey_portal --Hockeyben - Talk 01:42, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

I would guess that the page isn't working because the subpages referred to do not exist. This is why it is not a good idea to copy content from Wikipedia. Note also that you cannot use Wikipedia content without properly attributing it. — Lynton ^{talk • email} 02:58, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Help

Same problem again. --Silver Knight (talk) 05:48, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

• Fixed, the problem there was two unclosed <div> tags on the page. They need to be closed with a </div> or they'll make the page act weird. --Jedimca0^(talk) 18:26, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Same problem again --Silver Knight (talk) 09:51, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

• Again, unclosed <div> tags, these are actually very easy to fix... see here --Jedimca0^(talk) 13:20, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Another one here too. :( --Silver Knight (talk) 13:18, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

• It's because one of the templates you use has an unclosed <div> tag, adding </div> at the correct places fixes it. --Jedimca0^(talk) 13:23, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Re:HabboWiki

Hey Jack, I sent in a bug request last night. I'm not sure if you have anything to do with this but, just thought I'd give you an update. By the way, in preferences I read that Monaco can be purchased for a wiki's use. Do you know the location (page) of this purchase? --Imdill3 (talk) 15:28, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

• Hello, thanks for sending a bug report to Shoutwiki! But it is not required that you notify staff that you have sent one, it will be taken care of as soon as possible.

Eglinton 00:11, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Hello, thanks for leaving a message! I was pretty much updating Jack on a project I initially started with him! --Imdill3 (talk) 21:15, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Hi there Imdill3. :-) There's currently no page to purchase premium features (mainly because they haven't been yet released!), but feel free to contact us (either via Special:Contact or by e-mailing troppusmoc.ikiwtuohs) regarding them. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 21:56, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Chat box redux

RE: User_talk:Jack_Phoenix/Archive_3#Chat_box

Hello, I have problems getting onto bugzilla. So I never created a ticket....

I really just need someone who has access to the ftp files to get excited about this idea :/

I see http://monaco.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Monaco_Wiki has shoutwiki, and it is so terrible in comparison to http://deadrisingwiki.chatango.com/

:/ I will ask someone else to add a ticket. I fear that if I do figure out how to log back in to bugzilla, this ticket will languish. {{subst:User:Anno1404/signature}} 13:01, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

What problems were/are you experiencing with Bugzilla? It should work normally. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 21:56, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Change this Colours

Is there any way to change the gaming theme color?
PD:Sorry if I do not understand, I use translator --Carlos.nintendo (talk) 17:01, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Hi Carlos, do you mean how to customize the Gaming theme or how to change the theme of a wiki to Gaming? If it's the latter, you can contact us to have it changed. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 21:56, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

If the second option, because I chose a blue, and I Want now White --Carlos.nintendo (talk) 21:59, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

What wiki? Once I know that, I can ask our tech guys to change it for you. :) --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 17:06, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

AWB

How do I enable Autowikibrowser ? Hockeyben - Talk 02:14, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

You have to download something first. I will be designing a help page on AWB soon so if you wait until then, you will have a step-by-step list of how to do it. ☆The Solar Dragon☆ 06:26, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Yep — Help:AutoWikiBrowser is there now. Thanks for your hard work, Solar Dragon! --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 17:06, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Import problems

Hi Jack. I tried manually importing content from NBA Wikia, College Basketball Wikia, and NFL Wikia, but i got the following error message in red text: Import failed: XML import parse failure at line 1, col 1 (byte 0; "�����HIM�����z�V"): Not well-formed (invalid token). The dumps were all under the 2.1 MB import limit. Is there something I am doing wrong? --Hockeyben - Talk 17:52, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

The dumps are gzipped (note the .xml.gz file extension); you need to unzip them first to get the .xml file that Special:Import accepts. Unlike the importDump.php maintenance script used by our technical staff, Special:Import accepts only .xml files. --Jack Phoenix _(contact) 18:07, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

How do I unzip the files? Thanks--Hockeyben - Talk 18:15, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Nevermind, i figured it out --Hockeyben - Talk 18:20, 2 February 2011 (UTC)