User talk:Argadi

Welcome
Hi there! Welcome to the lab! --mnenyver 02:12, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. I've been making anonymous changes for a while, I thought I'd attach a name to them. Argadi 04:51, 15 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Ah, and primarily on the most important page in the Wiki (IMNSHO)! Much Grass! — Zarchne 10:39, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * It's just an excuse to re-read the old strips. But now I need to work on remembering which names go with which faces. Argadi 11:18, 17 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, yeah, whatever; so you say; nevertheless. — Zarchne 14:08, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm glad you appreciate my work, and I'm glad you think the chronology pages are important. Argadi 23:37, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Rollback
I set your rollback bit, more or less for the heck of it. Mnenyver could always unset it... ⚙Zarchne 18:53, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

"Berta" and "Tina"
Now that the dust is beginning to settle from the "Mad" dust-up, I think it would be best simply to redirect these two names to Eotain and Shurdlu, rather than treat them as valid articles. After all, there's nothing in canon to suggest that the names are valid within the story itself. What say you? -- that old bearded guy 02:57, 7 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure what is best. I left them separate because I didn't want to redirect without an explanation, and I didn't want to put the old names in the new article. I wouldn't object to a simple redirect. Argadi 10:56, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks!
Thank you for doing all of those default sorts and category fixes. I was the last editor on some of those articles and I need to get better about remembering to set those up properly. --mnenyver 19:57, 11 July 2008 (UTC)


 * You are quite welcome. It's a partial payment for the fixes others have made to the pages I've edited. Argadi 20:20, 11 July 2008 (UTC)


 * However, categorizing The Works cards under the title on the card, even if the page is a redirect, was intentional. ⚙Zarchne 21:22, 12 July 2008 (UTC)


 * (Slow connection this week, so I can't do much.)
 * Is Dr Beetle the only one where I made that change? I think it would be good to have Dr Beetle in works index, but not good if the actual Beetle article doesn't say category: The Works. Argadi 00:08, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

And I see thanks are in order again for the difficult, and largely unheralded, work of fixing the categories for geography - by splitting it up into cities and towns, natural features, and so on. --Quadibloc 00:43, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Also, thanks for following up behind me, and adding basic things like links that I sometimes leave out. I do appreciate the help - even in cases such as the one just now, where I adjusted two of the three example links you gave for fonts. One was for von Pinn - she was speaking quietly, so she wasn't using her usual font. The other, for the madness place, was correct, but since the fonts are hard to distinguish on the online pages, while I was at it I replaced your example by one that used the font at a larger size. --Quadibloc 00:19, 8 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm glad you appreciate it, and thanks for improving the links. There's a lot to keep track of in the comics and the wiki (too much to keep in mind all at once) and we need to keep building on each other. Argadi 00:28, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Main page
The discussion links on the main page were going to Sun, Tues, and Thurs when I checked them just now. I commented them out for now. Are the templates easily fixed? --mnenyver 03:30, 29 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Sorry about that. When I added the time zone adjustment I didn't add it for all calls to #time.  Thanks for reporting the problem. I set reminders for me to check correctness between 0 UTC and 4 UTC for a few nights and a week from when you noticed the problem, but I think the problem is fixed. Argadi 08:03, 29 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you so much! Let's hope that works. *crosses fingers* --mnenyver 13:46, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

"It's a major award!"
In rekognishun ov all hyu verk, hy present to hyu dis major avard. hehe --mnenyver 22:18, 5 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the recognition of my work and superor speling. Argadi 00:00, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

ThankyouthankyouTHANKYOU for responding so fast! I really want feedback so I don't screw up this beloved wiki. BTW, how did I do on the Master Payne page?


 * I want to thank you for your hard work as well. I see that you've been busily cleaning up after minor mistakes I've been making and will need to learn to avoid, such as creating /Mad pages without putting them in the Mad category, ensuring that my page on Madeleines uses the same spelling as the comic, adding links to the relevant pages for characters or items I mention without using the square brackets at least once. This - along with your work on the GG chronology - is work of the "unsung hero" category, and thus deserves great praise. --Quadibloc 17:01, 17 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the praise, but I can't let it be forgotten that you have fixed/improved many haphazard changes I've made. (And a hint:  When I want to improve the wiki but I don't have time for a significant project, I use the special pages, for example the uncategorized pages report shows me when category:Mad (or something else) is missing, or just use Special:Random and try to add more links to/from the page I land on.)  Argadi 17:41, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Existence
How do I know you exist? Ordinary 09:44, 6 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I think I edit, therefore I edit saying "I am". Argadi 10:09, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Image:Mode_2.png
I uploaded Image:Mode_2.png for comparison in the article The madness place, but I'm not sure whether it really depicts phase 2 or phase 3. The font is more normal, but she looks pretty angry... Any ideas? Ordinary 09:24, 7 November 2008 (UTC)


 * (Sorry for the delay in answering, this message was buried in my mailbox when I was out of commission.) I don't really have an opinion on this, it could go either way.  The comics are drawn from someone who wasn't actually there when Agatha was mad, so it's just a guess of what she looked like anyway.  Argadi 20:02, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Page-By-Page forum links
I noticed the template is creating links in Special:Wantedpages. Can this be changed? --mnenyver 20:52, 3 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It's because they look for a link for the forums. I don't know of any way to change it.  (If you entered comments on every page the problem went away.  More realistically:  a robot could create the empty pages.) Argadi 23:28, 3 December 2008 (UTC)


 * On red links: Maybe the link could be removed for now? We could point people at the Page-by-Page forum index instead.
 * --mnenyver 02:30, 4 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Is there a rush to get rid of the links? They've been around for months.  I'd rather not just have a link to the forum index, as the new entries wouldn't have standard names and wouldn't connect back to the chronology.


 * I'd like to investigate what exactly causes the want links to appear, and see if there's a way around it. If the "want" entry is caused by the create link and not the "if exists", one possibility is to only add "create" links for volume VIII (that page and the main page), or only add "create" links for the past month or so (there must be a way to do date subtraction). That would limit the number of forum links on the want page.  Argadi 02:58, 4 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Any of those solutions sound doable. I just hadn't looked at the list of wanted pages in a long time, which is why I brought it up now. It's just that having a red link for every single entry in Chronology is making that tool a little difficult to use. --mnenyver 06:04, 4 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I haven't worried about the entries. I've always figured that if there aren't two links to something then it isn't really wanted.   The stuff you ignored is part of my test to see what updates Special:Wantedpages.  Now we need to wait for that page to update (it's one of the pages that gets updated occasionally by the Wiki rather then being constantly up to date). Argadi 09:48, 4 December 2008 (UTC) (Update: wanted user pages apparently don't appear on the list.  Updated the links, need to wait for the Friday update. Argadi 10:45, 4 December 2008 (UTC))


 * Thanks for looking into fixing this. It helps me a lot. :) --mnenyver 19:16, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Chronology
Also, I'm kinda thinking we're going to need page-by-page articles (for many individual pages, not necessarily all). I'm not sure how to tie this in with Chronology or how having those pages would help or hurt that section of the wiki. I'd like to work with you on a template for those pages and figure out how that should be organized in relation to Chronology.

--mnenyver 20:52, 3 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I'd be glad to help. It would be nice to have a way to make a link to the pages from the main chronology pages:  either an optional parameter in the current template, or a new template to make a standard link.  In either case it would be nice if the file names used s generated name like the forum pages.


 * If there are many pages we probably want to make a special sub-category for them.


 * Could you give an example of one such page, the proposed topic to be covered in the page, and why the material is better displayed in the page context than in some other article we already have? That would help me understand the motivation for the pages. Argadi 23:28, 3 December 2008 (UTC)


 * And yes, I think I'll make a few mockups to convey what it is I'm wanting to do. I have a feeling you'll like it.
 * --mnenyver 02:30, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Um..?
I went through a few sections in VI, adding 'story' descriptions in the field indicated, but when I saved everything, the formatting went weird - not like the other pages. Did I misunderstand that field? -- Corgi 18:58, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure what Story was meant for (probably things like Revenge of the Weasel Queen), but the field you meant to fill in is "Action". Argadi 20:15, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * [droops] It's never gonna get done at this rate. Is there a model-after somewhere? -- Corgi 20:57, 11 May 2009 (UTC)


 * [soldiered on] Done-ish??? Corgi 01:43, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Template Maintenance
If you're up to it, in addition to picking a color for the sketch links, could you add a "news" template too? If you want something more challenging, I'm not sure what's wrong with Otwit, but it should be replaced anyway with one to match the others' syntax. ("OT_tweet"? in retrospect, maybe should have called "GG_link", "GG_comic"... that's how it goes.)  Then there's the LJs... ⚙Zarchne 22:27, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Pardon my density, but I don't quite grasp how the 'Template:GG page desc' set of templates actually works. Would you mind providing a demonstration, please? -- Corgi 22:48, 23 March 2009 (UTC)


 * OK, here's a top level overview. I have no idea what your background is, so let me know which areas you would like more details on.
 * There are at least five aspects of the templates:
 * There is a Wikia/Wiki table syntax designed for "easy" table generation. Wikia translates that into the corresponding HTML for the tables.  See Wikia:Help:Tables for an overview.
 * Wikia doesn't redefine everything in HTML tables. In particular you can specify attributes which wikia passes on when it creates the HTML tags.  (Things like style="background:#FFFFCC;".)
 * On top of the Wikia/HTML syntax, we have defined a particular layout for the tables we use for page descriptions. (Suggestions for improving the layout always accepted.)  To get the layout consistent, there is a large amount of "boilerplate" that needs to be placed in every page description.
 * Wikia templates allow repetitive text to be defined once and used many places (with substitutions). The 'Template:GG page desc' (like Wikipedia infobox templates, and many other templates) takes parameters (page id, page number, characters, etc.) and puts them in the correct place in the standard code.  This means a) typos are much less likely, and b) if we want to change the style we can tweak it in one place and all of the places in the wiki that use the template get changed.  When you say "names used = foo, bar", every use of  gets replaced with "foo, bar".
 * In addition to simple substitutions, Wikia also allows "programming". You can compare strings (including string used for substitutions) and make decisions.  For example, 'template:GG_Page-by-Page_Forum_Link' checks to see whether the forum page exists and uses either a "join" or "create" text and link.  Take a look at 'Template:Recent discussions' for some real ugly code to figure out the dates of the last seven comics—real ugly, but it only needed to be developed once.
 * That's the overview. Let me know which of the pieces you want more details on.  Argadi 00:43, 24 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Finally tripping over this again - I get the purpose, but not how to use that one/that set of templates. I mean, I use the one to set up the infobox and where do I fill in the data?  I guess I should just sandbox this for my answers, really... better way to learn. -- Corgi 23:41, 14 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Another way to learn is through the "What links here" link (on the left side, under "Random Page"). For a template that link will show you which pages use the template, and you can examine the pages to see how they are used.  Argadi 00:59, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Removing page number from infoboxes
Why are we doing this again? I thought having the dead-tree cross-reference was potentially more useful -- Corgi 20:05, 9 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Because the online page numbers don't match the xylophthanatic ones? ⚙Zarchne 20:23, 9 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I just checked one of the pages I changed today, Von Pinn. The page number I removed was the page number from the on-line version, so it didn't match the dead tree version.  Almost all of the page numbers cited in this wiki aren't dead tree page numbers.


 * I could have put in both versions -- I could have used "Volume II, page 34 in the printed version, page 30 in the online version" (that's a bit too wordy), or I could have used the string from the chronology "Vol.II p. 34(030)" (but that would confuse people).


 * If there was consensus of the significant editors that every link to a comic should include page numbers of both on-line and printed versions (and an agreement on how to format the information) I would strive to follow the standard. But my personal opinion is that most editors wouldn't do that, and it wouldn't be much use.  It would also be a pain to change all the references when 1) printed volumes come out (like volume 8 soon) or 2) when printed page numbers change (like volume 6 soon) -- especially because I don't know of any way to search for all the references.


 * It would be very useful if someone could come up with an automatic way to display both page numbers for a link. It wouldn't be that intellectually challenging to build a complicated template and call it from GG_link, but it would be tedious to get all of the cases in the template. Argadi 20:54, 9 March 2009 (UTC)


 * If you want to automatically add print and/or on-line page numbers to each wiki link, I have the start of the code to do it in my sandbox. All that needs to be done is put the expressions I made into templates, then build another template that knows how to convert the page ID ranges into page numbers.  (There are probably only about a hundred ranges to worry about so far, and only half a dozen changes when the publish a new volume (or republish as with volume six.) Argadi 09:56, 10 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Ah so. Good explanations, if vexing in the cause therefore (the mismatches, I mean). -- Corgi 22:43, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome
Hi Argadi,
 * Thanks for the welcome. Rej Maddog 06:28, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

'Wanted page' link
I found something in the list called 'Argadi/nosuch' but I can't figure out how to resolve it correctly without messing up your code. Might you take a look at it, please? -- Corgi 23:31, 14 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I removed it. It was part of research on getting rid of the page-by-page links on the wanted page.  (All I learned was I didn't know how to clean up the links.)  Argadi 00:59, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Cast List VI
[looks at correction] Meh. I would have thought I'd tried that... there's a couple more visible brackets on one of the other cast pages, for prisoner names. I'll go clean those up now. So, I did it OK, otherwise? -- Corgi 17:44, 28 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I didn't do a review yet, I just happen to catch that one problem. I won't do a review soon, but it's on my list. I'm going to wait until the chronology for volume VI gets finished and then look for inconsistencies between the pages.  (I'd have plenty of time for all my projects, if the clocks didn't keep stealing the time.)  Argadi 18:24, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Wish: A drop down list for categories
Right now in order to add a page to a category, you have to know in advance what the category is called. And in my fumbled brain case, how it is spelled. You have to do that for each category you want to add. Then if you have a special sort order you have to input that once for each category.

So can add a category have a drop down list or send me to a page with check boxes for each category and input fields that allow me to do gang punch (and judy) the shared parameters?

Wiki's should allow changes wiki wiki. Rej Maddog 00:17, 2 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Ummm... the edit box will do autocomplete, at least in IE7, if you input [[Category: and the first letter of what you think it is. In fact, all the pages will autocomplete or even give you reasonable guesses most of the time. You could also have the [[Special:Categories|Categories page]] up in another tab or window. -- Corgi 00:25, 2 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I'll thing about this. My first thoughts are 1) a drop-down with the categories would be awkwardly long, and 2) Corgi's idea of a separate window seems good.  The autocomplete is nice when it works, but it seems to be slower on longer pages (often too slow).  I try to avoid typing anything, I like using cut-and-paste.  Argadi 00:37, 2 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes a drop down could get that way. There are ways around that.


 * I think the really useful thing would be a page of categories. Check boxes for for selecting a set of them . And a field to suggest the sort order for all selected categories at once. Rej Maddog 19:07, 3 May 2009 (UTC)


 * We've got some category cruft going on, too. We need a cleaner tree. -- Corgi 06:36, 2 May 2009 (UTC)


 * +1 . Categories of categories? Well definitely a limited list of prefered categories. Plus a meta-page for category help and suggestions. Without guidance the wiki can turn into grey goo. All the ideas are there but how do you find them? Rej Maddog 19:07, 3 May 2009 (UTC)


 * For instance: Images > Character Portraits, Geographical Images, Device Images, etc. Characters > Villains, Characters from Mechanicsburg, etc.  The Tree page is easy to access, it's listed under Special Pages which itself is in the left sidebar.  I'm not sure what you mean about a meta-page - each category has a decription, so unless you're talking about a single page with all the Categories linked, in indented form, with... their... descriptions... oh dang.  I guess I could do that as a Meta item. *sigh*  But you're going to have to help keep it maintained!


 * Argadi, is there some kind of template-fu that could do automatic adds to that kind of page? -- Corgi 19:22, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

View Source vs. Edit Page
They both seem to do the same thing. I feel uncomfortable w/o the edit page designation. The implication of view source is that you won't be able to edit. So if you need to get rid of one, I'd prefer you remind me I can edit. I know if I'm editing I can see the source. Rej Maddog 10:49, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

That was fast. Rej Maddog 11:22, 15 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I have no idea what you are talking about—I didn't see it and didn't fix it. You might have been seeing a Wikia glitch, or a Wikia update that caused problems and was backed up.  Argadi 14:38, 15 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I am still learning how the wikia works. My current model is: It's haunted by slow ghosts/deamons.
 * AFAICT the wikia has some criteria for putting up one designation or the other. Sometime even though it says "View source" it will actually allow you to update the page anyway. Supposedly the difference is that you see "Edit Page" when you are allowed to change things and "View Source" when you are not. The page you get in either case seems to be the same with the same buttons. I can edit the source either way and get the preview of the edit. I can also press the save page button. It does not "look" disabled when I am "Viewing source". I haven't figured out whether I am prevented from actually updating the page. Very confusing. But not particularly important. At some point I'll have enough clues to figure it out.


 * Hmmm, maybe if someone else is editing a page you will get "view source" until the page is released. Then it goes back to "edit page". Which would explain the surprises, I was complaining about. Ah well, this is science. Need more data points. Rej Maddog 22:40, 17 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I just tried an experiment with multiple browsers (one signed-in, one not) and both were able to edit the same page (and I also tried the same section) without problem. This has been possible for a while—I've occasionally received error messages because I tried to save a page after someone else modified it.  I've also never noticed "View Source" on pages I was supposed to be able to edit.


 * Maybe you ticked off one of the deamons. Think about your recent forum edits—did any of them express opinions that would be offensive to a deamon?  Argadi 00:33, 18 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for looking into this. If I did tick off deamons it apparently wasn't permanent. As I said more data before more theories. It is in my nature to notice small differences and wonder what they mean. If this happens again, I'll notice. If it doesn't then there really is NO problem. Again thanks for your curiosity and interest. Cheers -- Rej Maddog 03:28, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Signatures
When I make a post how do I get the fancy signature and ooooh. Just looked at the top of the page. Thanos007 15:11, 21 May 2009 (UTC) LOL. Thanks!


 * This is the at least the second time this week I solved a problem without doing anything. Maybe I should do less more often.  Oh, wait, I'm already doing that… Argadi 18:30, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Expensive pages
Category:Pages with too many expensive parser function calls -- Did you notice this? Could we perhaps break down these pages into more manageable bites or come up with another solution? --m 20:10, 24 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It's caused because of the way we handle the "Create" or "Join" message for forums links. I've looked at tweaking the code, but didn't see a solution.  I think getting rid of it requires removing the template code we have and using a different approach.  Argadi 10:05, 25 May 2009 (UTC)


 * That might not be the only reason... At any rate, thank you for looking into it. :) --m 17:34, 25 May 2009 (UTC)


 * It appears that the problem category will be empty soon (unless my change gets reverted). The category still lists five pages, but the individual pages no longer claim to be a member of the category.


 * Do you think it would be useful (independent of that category) to split the pages? The pages are large, but I think it useful to be able to search at least a volume at a time.  (At one point there was resistance to splitting the into volume pages from one really long page.)  Argadi 17:59, 25 May 2009 (UTC)


 * As long as the pages aren't causing trouble, I can't see a particular reason for splitting them up. --m 20:05, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

Hallo!
Hy'm new to de wikja, zo Hy'm still tryink to figure it all out. Tenks for de velkome! -- JaegerMaedchen


 * I'm glad to have you around, but it was actually Axisor that welcomed you. Argadi 10:05, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

What causes the Contents box to appear?
This page has one. Your user page does not. The same is true for me. But my Madlab has one, yet my weekly page does not.

Hiding contents leaves you a box that allows showing the contents. That doesn't explain why it is there or not there in the first place.

Looking at the editable code doesn't provide a clue.

What's the secret?

Rej Maddog 01:49, 30 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I don't know. It might be the number of sections on the page.
 * I believe there is a way for control where the contents box appears, which probably also forces the box on pages where it doesn't normally appear. Argadi 09:05, 30 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Magic Word: -- Corgi 16:52, 30 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks Corgi, that worked. Also the Manual of Style explains that the wiki adds a TOC when the page has five or more sections. Mystery solved. --Rej Maddog 01:10, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

A problem with my signature
I have been playing around with my signature page. After a lot of work debugging it I still have one problem. Getting it to "take". I have tried logging out and back in. I have put the same content on both Rej_Maddog/sig and .../Sig yet when I sign my posts with tilda's I still get the old signature format.

I am stumped. Any clues or secret knowledge? Rej Maddog 20:28, 31 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I've never tried to use a custom signature. Did you click the "custom signature" box in your preferences?  Argadi 20:41, 31 May 2009 (UTC)


 * You might want to ask Mnenyver and Jim, who is User:Gaarmyvet. They both have customs, and Jim's is like what you're trying. -- Corgi 20:48, 31 May 2009 (UTC)


 * As Argadi said, make sure you have the box checked for custom signature, then include the following in the box: . I should probably put instructions somewhere for this. — m (talk) 21:10, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * All righty. That was the missing piece of information. It's easy once you know the trick. Cheers -- Rej ¿ ¤¤ ? 00:57, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Re: Kaja
I love you. XD — m (talk) 14:03, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Gender ratio bias
If you look closely at the data in List_of_countries_by_sex_ratio you will see that the ratio at birth is close to 1.0. The ratio's later on can differ greatly and in some cases reach 2.0 males/females. This implies a causality for the difference related to the increased mortality of females to males which was my point. -- Rej ¿ ¤¤ ? 21:26, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Wikia strangeness
Somewhere around Monday evening the wiki started to be unresponsive. To get a page to load I needed to opening in a hidden tab. I.E. it would load while I wasn't looking at it. But if I tried to switch tabs while it was loading I got a blank page. The flavicon was the wikia w instead of the girlgenius golden gear.

This didn't happen all the time but happened pretty reliably if the loading page was long.

Later the same day after it logged me out, trying to log in again simply hung after the password was entered. So I left it alone for a while. Now it is slightly past midnite Tue am DST and the login is at least working. I am still getting the hide or die page link trouble. No idea what's up. Any guesses? -- Rej ¿ ¤¤ ? 04:25, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I also noticed a few pages that didn't load the first time but loaded when I retried. Probably a general Wikia problem—if we keep seeing it we should ask them (or look for an announcement board). Argadi 09:54, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * It seems to have stopped, but Mnenyver and I were talking last night; we both got so disgusted trying to just load pages to look at them (forget editing/replying) that we gave up around... hm, 22:00 Pacific, maybe. It'd be nice if a courtesy message were sent out telling us what happened, but that's asking too much. -- Corgi 18:01, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Ur hum. And apologies. I was doing template experimentation in the Template: namespace. Now that I've started to read the Wikipedia manual on transculsion I see that what I did put a lot of pages on the task list. Probably slowing down the wiki server. I promise you I learn from my mistakes as well as find them. Now that I know how to make problems I can avoid them. Thanks all for your patience. -- Rej ¿ ¤¤  ? 22:49, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't think it's you. It's probably just that ad issue. — m (talk) 00:29, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Page by page preload
User:Rej Maddog/tc Indexes most of my template experiment.

User:Rej Maddog/Log journalizes my progress.

your help on the PbP Preload template is requested. I look forward to your questions and comments.

I have got it working s.t. it could be used for new page by page forums. Feel free to copy and tweak it.

If you want to see it safely in action look at User:Rej Maddog/Sandbox and press the link or create box. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 21:25, 4 August 2009 (UTC)


 * It would be very handy to have your preload code moved into the standard page-by-page forum template. (I'll make the edit if you don't feel comfortable.)  Argadi 08:56, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you
for catching that Russian spammer. :) — m (talk) 17:33, 11 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Glad to help. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.  (Needed a quick break from work.) Argadi 19:21, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Just curious
What was wrong with my em-dash that you changed a little while ago? -- Corgi 09:46, 12 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I think the &amp;em; form is probably safer, it should work with all browsers while inserting the dash directly depends on the character sets supported by the browser (also, it hard to tell the difference between the long and short dash when editing in a fixed-width font). But I do use the handy insert guide at the bottom of the editing page to enter a long dash rather than using &amp;em;.


 * But, to answer your question, that wasn't my edit. It was Renidar's edit. Argadi 10:05, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Page-by-Page/Preload
Preloads are peculiar. Everything on them gets transcluded. Even the no-include stuff. I removed your addition. Though on thinking about it a link to the forum might be a good addition. The text that goes along with it needs to make sense on the actual pages it will appear.

Documenting the page is done for now on the talk side of the page.

I am still experimenting with final form. I am at the point where I need to put the pages in the right name spaces. Slowly unraveling name decencies on my experiment space. The live point won't happen until I modify the Page-by-Page forum create box. That won't happen until I get the helper templates moved and checked out. I want to be as gentle on template space as I can be to avoid long work queue's slowing the wiki. Well as much as I can anyway. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 17:05, 21 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Sorry about that. I suggest you put something in the comments to explain how the template is used and point to the talk page.  We don't want someone to thing the template isn't used.  Argadi 17:30, 21 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Umm. The wikia suggestion is to name preload pages as aCategory/Preload. The suffix /Preload is supposed to be the clue to the pages use. When I can I will put something explanitory somewhere. Once I figure out where somewhere is.
 * I have started to add other /Preload pages one for each info box template. Then ones for generic main pages, mad pages and a main page associated forum. The last is a work in progress. For the rationale see the recent mad page discussion in the watercooler and the help name spaces. --Rej

We seem to have attracted a spambot
The Hello Everyone! page has reappeared. Exactly the same text as last time. Beyond deleting the page contents, you may have to lock down the page name as well. Good luck. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 10:01, November 4, 2009 (UTC)


 * I didn't realize blocking the name was possible. I did it. (Not sure it will help much as they can use another name, but we'll see.)  Argadi 10:17, November 4, 2009 (UTC)
 * It definitely helps. If they use another name then we know its more than just a 'bot. --Rej 10:29, November 4, 2009 (UTC)
 * Wrote email to Wikia asking for help with cross wikia spam. They are doing some robotic cleanup on Freeciv and we now have the same posts. --Rej 02:14, November 17, 2009 (UTC)

w00t
Dear Argadi,

I have a new picture as Bangladesh Dupree from San Diego Comicon 2009, and would love to see it on my Wiki. I managed to make a text edit earlier (I removed my livejournal link) but images are not my forté. May I email you the photo from hotmail? Thank you very much for any assistance.

Regards,

~Savannah

(I sent her a private e-mail when I saw this message, but by the time she read the message the problem had already been sorted out. Argadi 02:21, November 17, 2009 (UTC))

Thanks
Thank you ever so for the advice Argadi. Most appreciated. :D --Synalon Etuul 00:09, December 14, 2009 (UTC)

What determines the contents of WikiStickies?
A pad of stickies appear on my home page (and presumably yours). They ask for help with various wiki pages. Pictures, information and so on. They also ask for the creation of redlinked pages.

This leads to the fun part. They are asking for the recreation of some spam titles because the deleted spam pages are now red links. This does not seem good. Confusion at best. Down right insidious at worst. Only titles that have been deleted twice are showing up on the stickies.

Anyway this is a heads up. Any thoughts? --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 06:05, December 14, 2009 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I have no idea. I'd actually never been to that page before, it took me a while to find it.


 * I'll try to remember to protect spam page titles the first time I delete them from now on. Argadi 10:23, December 14, 2009 (UTC)

My preload experiments and the name "Sandbox"
Hi Argadi,

I have gotten to the next phase of experimentation with preloading pages and linking main pages to their mad and forum counterparts. In doing so I needed a canonical name for experimental pages. "Sandbox" is what I chose. In theory, I can do my experiments by previewing the pages and never saving them. In practice sometimes they will get saved. The favor I need to ask is that if you see the titles: Please just delete them without prejudice so they can be created afresh in new experiments. Thanks for your help. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 03:29, December 16, 2009 (UTC)
 * Sandbox
 * Sandbox/Mad
 * Forum:Sandbox
 * Forum:Sandbox/Forum


 * No problem, glad to help. Argadi 10:54, December 16, 2009 (UTC)

Look at the block log
AFAICT the last time you used it you blocked Wikia rather than your intended spammer. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 22:12, December 23, 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks for catching that slip. Argadi 23:17, December 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * You are welcome.
 * I noticed you unblocked wikia, however it still has not welcomed a new user since December 23rd. So I am wondering if the unblock was effective? I looked at the user creation log. Users without talk or personal pages are not unusual. Maybe welcomes only happen after the first edited page.


 * I believe it is the first edit. I've seen several account creations since wikia started the automated "hello" without a response from Wikia.  (What really confuses me about those incidents is why someone would create an account if they don't plan to edit.)  Argadi 11:47, December 30, 2009 (UTC)
 * In that case why didn't 70.19.169.146 get welcomed? That was me editing here last time before I logged in. Anyway we may just need to keep our awareness up. Cheers --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 23:50, December 30, 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, that is suspicious. Just to be sure I tried to unblock again and got "Error: Block ID not found. It may have been unblocked already.".  As you said, we need to keep watching.  Argadi 00:18, December 31, 2009 (UTC)


 * By the way, Wikia just mentioned me when I logged out and tested the wildcard protection. Argadi 12:08, December 31, 2009 (UTC)


 * Yep, I think your other experiments woke wikia up. I am wondering if the most recent entry in the block log goes unnoticed until...? I have no other explanation for why it is working now but not for my anonymous edit. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ?  17:54, January 2, 2010 (UTC)

Less spam, more sleep
Several of the Russian spams start off with Mailing Lists ...(Рассылки рекламы), then the rest of the title is a variant of previous title wording. I am sure specifying the full title limits the match to the titles exact wording. If you were willing to invest the time to learn a little about regular expressions you could probably block the lot of them with something like 'Рассылки рекламы.*' or maybe just 'Рассылки рекламы'. I cannot be sure on what the wikia accepts as expressions because I have no way to experiment. As they say in the x-files "The truth is out there."
 * Ahh, found this help The Flex 3 Regular Expression Explorer from Ryan Swanson. -Rej

This is an English wiki. We can probably be strict with Russian speakers and ban broad ranges of titles. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 02:24, December 30, 2009 (UTC)


 * When I last checked I couldn't find any way to block anything but an exact title. The spam is mildly annoying, but hardly a flood.  Feel free to ask Wikia or the spam team if there is a wild card block mechanism, but right now I have limited free time and won't be investigating.


 * If we can use wildcard blocking for subjects, something like "*ы*|*л*|*к*|*и*" (block anything containing any one of those four characters) would probably do a good job on the Russian spam. Argadi 11:43, December 30, 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, that sounds right. You would want to append '.*' The dot matches any one character. The asterisk matches 0 or more occurrences of the previous character. The combination will match any number of anything. I didn't know till I checked. The  explorer helped a lot. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ?  23:46, December 30, 2009 (UTC)


 * There are many different forms for regular expression (although ".*" as you describe it is common). Why do you think the Flex 3 syntax is used by Wikia? I haven't found anything about using any form of wild cards for page protection in Wikia (and I just read Help:Page_protection again since you seem so sure wild cards will work). Argadi 00:06, December 31, 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't remember seeing wikia regex doc either. So I am guessing. But guess and test is a good procedure. I figure if wikia uses regex and hasn't documented it then they are assuming everyone knows it. Which is not correct but points to their regex being a common one. The explorers definition seems like a good place to start. One good test would be to ask a wikia guru. Another might be to browse one of their block lists to learn by example.


 * Try something. If it doesn't work try something else. is my usual procedure. Edison made a light bulb only after making 1001 dark bulbs. Of course dark bulbs are safe. My technique fails if the try or the test break something irreparably. Fortunately this is a wiki so a failure is usually no worse than dropping Othar out a window. :) --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 10:22, December 31, 2009 (UTC)


 * I tried. As documented, protection works for a page. Neither "*" or ".*" are treated as wild cards in the protection log. Argadi 10:39, December 31, 2009 (UTC)


 * Partial progress counts. So do negative results. Now we need to find out why you got them. Time to talk to the guru's e.g. User talk:Uberfuzzy. Done. I left a note on his GG user page and called it to his attn via email. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 18:18, January 2, 2010 (UTC)

Internal Chronology
Hi Argadi,

I added a Cleanup tag to the Internal Chronology. I am curious as to how you settled on the month of February for Day 0 and October for the proposal/banishment. I get a totally different reading from this from the clues Phil dropped and from some dramatic reasoning. See stuff on Talk:Internal Chronology

leap day
Hi Argadi,

A while back I modified the gg link templates to filter time through the #time: function. It cleverly knows that leap day falls on March 1 this year. So neither the page link nor your leap year link worked. I finally got around the problem by using subst: to get the raw link into the discussion page then hand modified the pointer to 20100229. That worked. I commented out your correction.

Now I wonder if we will have to change it back when the Foglio's find out the consequences of their actions. It may louse up their forward and back links to the page. Anyway until they do the any gg link to that page using the template will not work as intended.

Cheers --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 16:50, March 1, 2010 (UTC)

Anonymous sigs
Hi Argadi! Thanks for the welcome, and nice to "meet" you. Since I've finally created a handle, I was wondering if I should, or if I even can, go back to sign the entry I had posted anonymously. The one contribution I've made so far was on Higgs' fan theory page, the one at the bottom about hats and "smart guys" and so on. Danka! -- Madame Six Shooter 17:48, June 26, 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, feel free to update history, just don't break history. With a wiki the goal is making the final result reasonable. Adding sigs (like you did here) and fixing typos after the fact is great, changing opinions after the fact will make you look bad. For example, if on Monday someone writes:


 * Higgs is a robot from Mars, as anyone can see. -- Sir Render 19:99 Monday


 * and on Tuesday it gets changed to:


 * Higgs is a Heterodyne construct, as anyone can see. -- Sir Render 19:99 Monday


 * then Sir Render will look bad because everyone can see the history and many saw the original. But if the edited version is:


 * Higgs is a robot from Mars Heterodyne construct (edited on Tuesday, I don't know what I was thinking yesterday), as anyone can see. -- Sir Render 19:99 Monday


 * then Sir Render doesn't look so bad. (And, of course, no sigs in the main articles.)


 * By the way, it wasn't really me who welcomed you. Wikia has a bot that goes around welcoming new members when they make an edit, and it uses the name of the last registered user to make an edit. (But I am glad to have you as a new contributor.) Argadi 19:30, June 26, 2010 (UTC)

Help
Monday's comic has caused a wiki quake. Forum:Naming main articles for female characters

Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 18:04, June 28, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the help.
Thanks for moving the misplaced comments. My accuracy seems to be way down this week. Anyway, thanks for your help --Rej 09:10, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm glad to help, I've had many of my errors fixed. Argadi 10:31, July 14, 2010 (UTC)

Anon User Edit My User Page
Whoever it was left a few insulting remarks, unsigned.

Any way this can be prevented?

yours, Bosda Di'Chi


 * I believe we could ban unregistered edits, but we generally receive good help from unregistered users (and that's how I and others got started). I'd rather not make that step, so all we can do is be vigilant and clean up quickly—many vandals are hit-and-run, and others won't stay if their damage won't stick around. Argadi 18:46, July 14, 2010 (UTC)

I will go with your advice--Bosda Di&#39;Chi 21:16, July 14, 2010 (UTC)

My apologies. (Insert exasperated sigh here.)
I thought that I was in my own sandbox when I edited the help page. Billy Catringer 15:09, August 5, 2010 (UTC)

Spam
As the ip address of our culprit keeps changing I've protected the index page minimally for a month. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 00:54, August 19, 2010 (UTC)

The good(?) Doctor Mittelmind
Hi, people have picked up on Moloch's referring to Snaug's boss as Mittelmind but they seemed to have missed an earlier reference giving his title of Doctor. You are the one who has brought up the issue of respect for people and their names, so I am surprised to find you perpetuating the title less last name. Things ought to be put on the right track before there is too much fix-up work left to do. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 19:55, September 11, 2010 (UTC)


 * Could you provide a reference so I can review it? Calling someone a doctor can be a gesture of respect, and doesn't imply that the person is entitled to the title of Doctor. While I want to give him his full name and title, I'd rather not over-reach. Argadi 21:30, September 11, 2010 (UTC)
 * is where Fräulein Snaug first refers to him by name and title.
 * Talk:Castle Heterodyne inmates has the reference too. I didn't find it until after I wrote you. At first it wasn't completely clear she was talking about her boss, now it is. --Rej¿ ¤¤ ? 04:18, September 12, 2010 (UTC)
 * Aaaarg! I just noticed the references use different spellings. Now vere gonna hev trubble. --Rej 04:22, September 12, 2010 (UTC)

Chronology backlog
Why not invite some trusted, eager, editors to help out? Pick one or two you like and ask if they would lend a hand? See how it goes. Iron out the bumps. Then recruit even more help.

I notice there is almost a one year backlog. So some thought should be given to what is not working yet? Does the work need to be simpler? Would a template for each entry help?

First goal should be to get the current pages updated as they come out. Then have someone work backward towards last year. Have someone work forward. Give an award to the one who crosses the midpoint first. :) We can't do this all by ourselves. With the Hugo win we should be getting a new crop of energetic folk. If there is something specific they are asked to do they might even get in the habit of helping. --Rej 04:39, September 12, 2010 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I'm to busy to do much, and cheerleading others to do the work is not my style. Even in its current state I find it useful for locating pages. Feel free to encourage others to work on it. (There are disadvantages to keeping it totally current. Lagging by a week or two gives better context for what is important and often fills in more names and useful information.) Argadi 21:49, September 12, 2010 (UTC)