Wowpedia talk:Village pump

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CSS / JS revamp

Few things have been fixed/added throughout the site, such as the possibility to show/hide tables (see {{Navigation Box}}), or the preferences page. Hope you like them! --User:Adys/Sig 01:11, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

In addition to the extensive CSS work (feedback and suggestions please!), I have altered a few Main Page links slightly, with Reputation and Warcraft Universe now appearing. The latter needs a fair bit of link work, whilst one page it links, Quotes of World of Warcraft, is weird to say the least. It repeats a massive amount of info from flirts and jokes. One other quick thing - how should tables be changed? Atm they appear as:

I am a default table without any styles applied to me.

... and should probably be altered to fit better with the colour scheme. A darker background perhaps? For comparison pre (large code block) tags use #2c2c2c, whereas darktable (nav tables) uses #202020. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 01:59, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I'm tempted to remove the default bg colour from tables entirely, since it doesn't actually help (and messes with certain other elements, such as categories). User:Kirkburn/Sig3 03:48, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

More tweaks made! I have yet to do anything with table bgs yet, asi want to see what stuff breaks with the change. The only stuff I have come across so far is some info tables on zones, e.g. Elwynn Forest, which need converting to new-style tables anyway. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 18:27, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

nav boxes, like stuff derrived from {{Navigation Box}}, don't actually use darktable... they need converted over. User:Tekkub/Sig 03:34, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

As a very minor nugget of info: CSS 2.1 has a color shortcut, where you type #rgb and it's expanded to #rrggbb - that means something like #fc2 will expand to #ffcc22, not #f0c020. So maybe when picking widely used colors, stick to that convention, (meaning change both to #222222). Of course, it's safe to assume most people reading this wiki aren't on ancient 8-bit color displays. But it doesn't hurt to be "accessible" to some degree. Further reading: [1] --Piumosso-Uldum 04:20, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

You might want to remove the "google ads" line from above the "Wiki Spotlight" box in the nav column on the left. - User:ClydeJr/Sig 19:53, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I have mentioned it to those who can change it. I hate that sidebar anyway, in my own CSS it has no borders or backgrounds. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 20:05, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Another quick change - tables now have no background by default, so you may find tables that need a background defined. The only one's I came across in testing were on zone pages (e.g. Westfall), but those tables need redoing anyway. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 17:07, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

I need a styling opinion on class boxes. Some classes shouldn't have an issue with background coloring. Paladin, mage, rogue, and priest are exceptions, due to their light class color. For the paladin I feel like I got a good color. Further, someone might want to set up alternating background colors for some lists (I'll do my best on the paladin ones. See Paladin and comment on the color choice. Modify at will in mediawiki:common.css. Use your favorite color picker, but the one I found with little searching, which is good enough for me, is ColorPicker 3.1.

I've also changed essentially all the templates that call {{listboxformat}} so that they're properly classed. Some of the times I invented a new class in the middle of it, so not all similar boxes have the same classing scheme throughout. That's pretty easy to fix, and will come out in the wash I suspect. It is my opinion that many similar templates should be classed similarly (in the relevant way) so that even if their class isn't described in the CSS at the moment, in the future you will be able to describe them all in one swoop, and they'll all match in their own way. It could take a lot of work to manage that now, but for future reference.... Schmidt 16:42, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Great work! User:Kirkburn/Sig3 18:07, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I came home and my brother's computer was on NFL.com. He's a Dallas fan, so it was open to the box scores for their preseason game. I found it interesting that their rookie kicker Nick Folk made a 52-yard FG and Grammatica missed a 51-yarder. In any case, I noticed that when you mouseover a stat row on Martin Grammatica's page the entire row takes a different class. I know that it can't be that hard to manage with coding. (onmouseover="this.className='over'" onmouseout="this.className=''") I looked at the source and it's pretty basic, but I was wondering if we could manage to set something up somehow where we could have built-in coding...somehow...yeah. I don't know how it could be pulled off other than the obvious (which would be to code that in for each row), but I wonder if you crazy bot-writing people could jerry-rig something in that regard. Further, is this something that anyone would be interested in implementing for generalized styling? If so, and if no other coding would help, I suppose we could write a template that would allow a row to be formatted with one class normally, and if it was moused over, it would take an alternate class. The main class and the mouseover classes should be user-selectable with the call to the template. Or possibly (not sure about this), maybe we could define some such as: .paladin {...} .paladin:hover {...}, eh? Anyone know? Schmidt 23:42, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

And I've added warlock and mage colors to the CSS. See user:D. F. Schmidt/Sandbox for a test version of the nav table. I'll work on more class colors as I find the time and energy. Comments on color formatting are welcome, as well as whether or not these colors (even if otherwise adopted) should be found in the classnav table. Schmidt 06:44, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Ok. I added all the class colors with the obvious exception of Death Knight. Take a look at my sandbox as above. The class colors could use some tweaking, and I don't mind it one bit. I tried to keep all the colors used within the realm of the class color. Obviously rogues and priests are especially tricky on that part. For priests I just made them silverish; rogues are even more tricky than that because yellow doesn't translate well into darker colors. In any case, I would like it if class pages and especially tables that are associated with a given class use these colors (not these specific colors, but class coloring as such), but I don't think I can enforce that to any extent greater than just an expression of wish. Schmidt 13:41, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I don't think class coloring to that extent really flows well with the coloring of the wiki. If you hadn't noticed, the wiki is a dark grey background with very dark hues of the other colors. Especially, using bright pink for the paladins won't work. Maybe for accent, but not for the entire table. I think the second dispel example on your sandbox might be best. --Pcj (T•C) 13:07, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

As if I hadn't noticed that. I was, after all, designing the colors according to a foreground of white text. I did a pretty good job of selecting colors, I think. I could have done a little better obviously, or--better yet--someone else could have suggested a color or two in response, and even better still, someone else could have come up with a better color right off. In any case, well... whatever. Schmidt 07:26, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Agreed, the last dispel table looks ok, the others are a bit excessive on color. --GRYPHON^tc 15:07, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Alright, so I guess we can just have one such definition for class box elements, meaning no alternate colors for alternating lines. That works, and it makes it better really, since if the alt colors as they are now are the main colors, it'll match the dark overall scheme better. Alright, when I get to it, I'll change it if no one else has yet. I do agree, but I wanted to check it out anyways. Schmidt 07:17, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Priest alternate row color was badly defined anyway. --Pcj (T•C) 21:27, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

I challenge you and anyone else to present a suggestion that someone might have made as to what color these elements should take. (I never said they were the best colors, but the best I could do with my limited design experience.) After all, what is a wiki for, anyways? Schmidt 08:44, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

By badly defined I mean it was an invalid number being passed in the CSS entry. You seem to have left off a digit. --Pcj (T•C) 12:04, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

So we have JS... the big question... when are we getting Wowhead-provided hover tooltips for {{loot}}? User:Tekkub/Sig 07:34, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm looking for people to help me test my implementation of WoWWiki-powered hover tooltips for that. If you're interested, let me know. Thanks! --Pcj (T•C) 21:27, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

To do this, edit your Special:Mypage/wowwiki.js and add this code:

document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.wowwiki.com/index.php?title=User:Pcj/itemtooltip.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s"></scr'+'ipt>');

And you will see tooltips on calls to {{loot}}. Beware that once you move the cursor over, there will be a small wait time before the tooltip shows up. After checking it out for a while, you can decide for yourself whether or not you like it. Schmidt 14:40, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Watch out for "</script>" inside scripts -- if you don't break it up, most browsers will try to terminate the script there. If you break up the tag as "</scr"+"ipt>", though, it works fine. User:DarkRyder/Sig 20:26, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Real namespaces

Content moved to WoWWiki:Namespaces and WoWWiki talk:Namespaces. --User:Sky2042/Sig 07:27, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

The Revolution will not be outlined as a bullet list

Does anyone else here feel that Microsoft Powerpoint will be the downfall of human civilization? I mean no offense to any editor in particular, and I don't want to single out specific articles, and I realize that this is a senseless nitpick and others will disagree. But, I've always felt that the English language is a beautiful and unique snowflake. So, when I read bullet lists of sentence fragments, it wounds my inner child. In general, I'm wondering if anyone else has felt this way, and is it worthwhile to expand and draw more attention to WoWWiki's manual of style. Thoughts? Flames? --Piumosso-Uldum 00:12, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

What lists are you referring to? I like angle brackets myself.--SWM2448 00:17, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh, it's just a general style thing. I was trying to avoid putting a specific article on the spot, so I'll take a good example and bastardize it. Consider if the article on Illidan Stormrage began like this:

Illidan Stormrage:

• Known as the Betrayer
• Current Lord of Outland
• Rules the Black Temple

...instead of what is actually there...

Illidan Stormrage, known as the Betrayer, is the current the Lord of Outland, ruling from the Black Temple.

Which style is better? --Piumosso-Uldum 00:32, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

The latter, by miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles :) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 00:35, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Your inner child is a whiner, can a smack him upside the head a few times? I will agree that there's some really nasty crap that goes up on the wiki (tables that use <br> for aligning rows anyone?)... but in my view the first priority of the wiki is to make accurate information available to everyone. Making said info pretty and grammarly correctish is lower priority. Not that that's an excuse to not be using the good englishes if you already know its. User:Tekkub/Sig 02:10, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, my other idea was to enforce iambic pentameter for all articles, but I'm keeping that on hold. That would be redic... err RIDICulous. --Piumosso-Uldum 05:36, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Iambic pentameter for the win!

Unfortunately it will soon become

too repetitious than we all can stand.

So, I suggest some rhyme and, just for kicks,

some four line stanzas alternating rhythm.

So, after pentameter switch to tri.

--DuTempete talk|contr 18:02, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I think I have a new hero --Ilublawn 19:23, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Back on topic... Although painful to realize, WoWWiki is not a literature wiki and some people don't want to ply the antediluvian courses of glittering prose to find information about a subject. Hence, bullet items. My counter argument... would you rather see a Template:Tlink for [Corruption] in this form:

A warlock might consider the Corruption (spell) most apropos rather than the clumsy weapon  [Corruption], when engaging in the dark path that leads to the Quest:Corruption which ironically would only make sense if said warlock was also a blacksmith.

Although it may read nicely, lingering on a disambig isn't really efficient or necessary. --Fandyllic (talk · contr) 11:09 AM PDT 23 Aug 2007

Art is hardly antediluvian. That said, the disambiguation page would not be doing its job very well if it was worded like your example there. Indeed, you wouldn't want a simple page looking like that, or be so wordy. The example of Illidan is proper. The prose version is not too wordy or confusing in the least. The bulleted version is simply, awkward and clunky and less useful. I think. Maybe I can't put my finger on it. Schmidt 13:37, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Site stats update

Recent site stats

I have good news, and very good news. First the good news:

Check out the graph of the site (entry) stats on the right. This should be a good guide of what is popular on the wiki at the moment, and where we need to improve - for example, people spend very little time on the profession and faction page, but our instance, mobs and actual faction pages are huge. The "popular links" box on the sidebar could possibly be changed if anyone has any good ideas, or perhaps a new section for the main page is in order?

One cool idea is to have small banners across these pages (as they are where most people come into the wiki), to point people to useful stuff like welcoming things, useful links, and, of course, other Wikia Gaming wikis (yes).

Now the very good news: check out our latest Alexa stats - [2]! We're doing great ... YOU'RE doing great :) The community is what makes the website, and we have a great one here! There's lots more updates and extensions coming to the wiki to make it even better, and some other "little" announcements to be made.

So anyway, I just want to take a moment to thank absolutely everyone who contributes to the site. Don't forget we have an IRC channel, open to contributers and, indeed, everyone else. Here's to the future, and to Blizzcon ;) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 00:26, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, pages like profession and faction are going to get used, for the most part, as navigation aides. Yes, profession has a lot of info on it, but just glancing over it it's all info useful to new players. Seasoned players are only going to go there for specific little bites of info ("what level do I need to train up Artisan?") or as a stepping stone to the page they're really after. Faction, IMO, could drop most of the page content. It's all just links to each facton, which are all covered in the footer navbox. Give a good summary of what a faction is and that navbox and we're all good to go. User:Tekkub/Sig 02:52, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Gem and Enchants by Slot are two of the pages I find the most useful and I'm always giving them out as links to other people. Possibly keep/include those in the "Popular" links? Tyka 07:50, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Zone sub-categories

Just thought I'd mention that I've been starting to make more sub-categories for various zones. For example, I've started for several zones a mob category that aims to be a list of all mobs in the zone, serving the duel purpose of reducing the size and scope of the enormous Mobs category, as well as providing a concise and easily updated list of the killable inhabitants of the zone. I plan on later creating an NPC category for each zone, as well as a Subzone category. Quest subcategories should already be underway for many zones.

If there's a good reason why I should try and reduce the size of the zone categories by dividing the articles into more appropriate areas, speak now or forever hold your peace. --Mikaka 06:21, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Don't name them like you've been naming them (see WW:BR). Instead of Cat:Mobs:Zone, have them at "Category:<Zone> mobs", eg, Category:Eastern Plaguelands mobs. Please. NPCs would be "Category:<Zone> NPCs", and subzones would be "Category:<Zone> subzones".
As for catting those cats, they should have the categories "Category:<Zone>" and "Category:<type>". I know this isn't how it is currently set up for most categories, but it is, I feel, as it should be. --User:Sky2042/Sig 07:31, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

K. I'm renaming the categories I've already done. I'll be spamming recent changes for a while, but it shouldn't take long. --Mikaka 06:21, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Starting talk pages

How do you start off a talk page properly? Asharath 12:47, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Just start making comments on it. --Pcj (T•C) 12:52, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

You may want to see our talk page guidelines (WW:TALK) and talk page help (Help:Talk page), but, as pcj says, just start a new section and type! User:Kirkburn/Sig3 16:55, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Main Page revamp

Given the proxmity of Blizzcon (yay!), and the need to get the Main Page fixed up for it, I have been working on this redesign for a while - User:Kirkburn/Dev3. Feedback would be appreciated, but it does need to get uploaded soon, so as to allow us to add Blizzcon news more easily! User:Kirkburn/Sig3 19:16, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Only Problem I have with anything is that under the Guide's Portal section you have everything under there as

-Instance guides -Travel guide -Newbie guide

I feel it would look cleaner if it was just

-Instance -Travel -Newbie

Seeing as it's stated above it that they are guides

but other than that it looks great.--Yelmurc 23:32, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

The sections leave an uneven gap at the bottom. The screenshot part is nice. What is Willy doing there?--SWM2448 23:53, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

More to the point, why does Willy link to the MeoWWiki page?

My suggestion for "fixing" the column gap is to make the About/Help box not span columns. I'd say move the Featured Screenshot up underneath Featured Article in the second column and make About and Help separate boxes in the left-hand column. Also, I'd put the BlizzCon News box above the Featured Article for the time being. User:DarkRyder/Sig 00:38, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Leave Willy alone.

The page looks really good, no real problems. I would suggest Blizzcon News go in the Top Left corner for its duration perhaps, and move the main categories to the right. This way more users can see it while it is often updated, and the categories aren't gonna change anyway. --Raze 00:50, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

On my browser, the featured article (fairly dense text) looks cramped to the right while the article lists (sparse text) looks visually unbalanced. Widening the right side might fix the gaps at the bottom mentioned a few posts earlier. Have you thought about making the content of each box a transcluded page for easier editing? --Piumosso-Uldum 05:05, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Ta for the feedback - no time to do stuff tonight (packing, buying stuff!), but will try and look at it tomorrow. Keep it coming! User:Kirkburn/Sig3 22:07, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Sorry the page is horrible. Your Dev2 page is less annoying.

The links to other languages pushes the selected article box and such down to far

Featured Screenshot might as well not be there as its so far down the page, why not combine it with Featured Article, or place it in that column?

Columns are no longer even

News, which should change more often is still less important than featured artcile?

Why are your changes to main page in village pump and others are not?

if you want the other language wikias there, replace the "patch xxx is out" with that instead. If the patch is important make it the Featured Article.

User:Sharlin/Sig 10:33, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

You complain if I do post stuff here, you complain if I don't. *sigh* This is a big change, hence me wanting to ask people for feedback here first. I post about smaller changes on the Main Page's talk page. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 19:16, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Anyhoo, more changes made given the feedback. The FA and FS boxes are being pushed down for now, to make way for temporary Blizzcon stuff. As for what to do with them in the end, I'm not sure. I've been discussing about what was going on with the ad stuff with Wikia - complicated, but basically atm it will be a targeted ad that only rarely appears. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 19:28, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

No, What I am mostly complaining about is the fact, Why do you bother to ask anyone? Honestly you do exactly what you set out to do regardless of opinion. User:Sharlin/Sig 22:22, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Because it gives us a target to aim at! :) Actually, feedback is a precious thing. He may do what he intends, but I really doubt he totally ignores opinions he gets.

> The links to other languages pushes the selected article box and such down to far

Perhaps Kirkburn already got to that? On my browser (without pictures on), the language links take up 2 small font lines, and even with a seriously small browser window, the featured article box is barely offscreen. Maybe it's just me, but I'm imagining that even with pictures on, a full-screen browser wouldn't have any problem. ... hard to say, my browser settings have been considered idiosyncratic before. Often. --06:22, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Kirk, you had an unclosed quote in the table. At this point...

<!--

BEGIN LEFT COLUMN

-->
| valign="top" style="width:50%; |<!--

...there's a missing quote on the style param. If I add it in, the two sides balance out, and then the page looks awesome. --Piu ^(?!) 00:22, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

OK, I figured out it was only making the columns uneven on Safari. Firefox handles it OK and makes both columns 50%, which might be why you didn't notice it. --Piu ^(?!) 00:29, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Editing a pages name

The quest: Cenarius' Legacy has a gap before the first letter of the name I'd like to get rid of the gap but not sure how to fix it. Feel free to reply to my talk page and just delete this. Thanks --Yelmurc 00:46, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

The article needs to be moved to rename it (from Quest: Cenarius' Legacy to Quest:Cenarius' Legacy), though renaming an article has to be done cautiously. --Raze 00:53, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Druid Abilities, not broken out by level.

OK. This page appears to not follow the conventions used for other classes. All other classes break it down by level in order. Druid abilities are simply listed with how many ranks they have, giving no indication WHEN they become available.

Any problem with changing it to match other ability pages?

Oh, how do we find all tables?

--User:Sharlin/Sig 10:24, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

See WW:BOLD. Making pages uniform is always welcome (especially as long as you keep all the content). I don't know what you're looking for in "find all tables". --Pcj (T•C) 13:26, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

I guess what I am looking for is a simpler way to make nice looking tables than all of the steps we have to go through now. Are there programs to convert word documents into WIKI commands? Perhaps HTLM to WIKI that we can use at this site. User:Sharlin/Sig 16:12, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

MS Word generates nasty, bloated HTML, so please don't use that. Making tables in WoWWiki isn't that hard. I can give a quick tutorial here:

• {| is that same as <table>
  • {| cellspacing="3px" style="border:1px solid #333333;" is the same as <table cellspacing="3px" style="border:1px solid #333333;>
• |- is the same as <tr>
  • |- bgcolor="#666666" is the same as <tr bgcolor="#666666">
• || is the same as <td>
  • | align="center" colspan="2" | is the same as <td align="center" colspan="2">
• |} is that same as </table>

With this basic knowledge you can make pretty fancy tables.

So in example:

{|border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"

|-bgcolor="#666666"

|align="center" width="60px"|'''Status'''

|align="center" width="80px"|'''[[Realm|<font color="white">Server</font>]]'''

|align="center" width="60px"|'''[[Faction|<font color="white">Faction</font>]]'''

|align="left" width="80px"|'''Name'''

|align="center" width="40px"|'''Gender'''

|align="center" width="80px"|'''[[Race|<font color="white">Race</font>]]'''

|align="center" width="70px"|'''[[Class|<font color="white">Class</font>]]'''

|align="center" width="40px"|'''[[Level|<font color="white">Level</font>]]'''

|-bgcolor="#040418" valign="top"

|align="center"|active

|align="center"|[[Server:Dalaran US|Dalaran US]]

|align="center"|<imagelink>Alliance_15.gif|Alliance</imagelink>

|align="left"|[http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/#character-sheet.xml?r=Dalaran&n=Gnomity Gnomity]

|align="center"|M

|align="center"|[[Gnome]]<br><imagelink>IconSmall_Gnome_Male.gif|Gnome</imagelink>

|align="center"|[[Warrior]]<br><imagelink>IconSmall_Warrior.gif|Warrior</imagelink>

|align="center"|19

|}

Yields:

Status	Server	Faction	Name	Gender	Race	Class	Level
active	Dalaran US	<imagelink>Alliance_15.gif|Alliance</imagelink>	Gnomity	M	Gnome <imagelink>IconSmall_Gnome_Male.gif|Gnome</imagelink>	Warrior <imagelink>IconSmall_Warrior.gif|Warrior</imagelink>	19

Granted, if you don't want create a table from scratch you might want to just hunt down someone else's table and copy/edit it. --Fandyllic (talk · contr) 4:57 PM PDT 23 Aug 2007

Top of Page command

Is there a command to send a user to the top of a long page? "As in, I'm in the middle of this stinking page and I don't want to scroll back to the top to see the table of contents again". You know, for us lazy people. --User:Mucke/sig 18:44, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Press Home key. --GRYPHON^tc 20:14, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Or ctrl + Home, or click/drag the scrollbar. --DuTempete talk|contr 22:18, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, what I was looking for is a Wiki command I could put on my pages that they would allow people to click and it would return them to the top of the page. --User:Mucke/sig 00:04, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Try #top: [[#top]] --Piu ^(?!) 01:58, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks!! --User:Mucke/sig 06:07, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Search plugin

I'm just letting people know that I created a new search plugin for the WoWWiki, which is at my searchplugins.net profile page. The one this site advertises, that I tried installing, never did work. It just gives me an error. The search box on the left side of the WoWWiki skin uses Google, which I don't like, because you can never view a page with one click. If I know there's a page titled warrior, I don't want to see this. I want to see the warrior page. Hence, I made the search plugin use the Go button functionality at Special:Search. Finally, this search plugin brings up the Main Page if you don't type in anything, making its behaviour exactly the same as the search plugin that Wikipedia advertises to your browser. Feedback is welcome, but not necessary. Русские мертвецы 22:32, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

There's now a second search plugin at the above link; the one I was referring to is titled WoWWiki (English) Go, while the new WoWWiki (English) MW Search emulates the search button rather than the go button. Русские мертвецы 23:17, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Looks really good, I'll see if we can get it included as default plugin. --User:Adys/Sig 14:57, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

OpenSearch is already requested to be fixed on WW:SR --GRYPHON^tc 15:33, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

To follow up (and I knew this yesterday, but was hesitant to mention it since at the time the conversation was only with myself), my brother informs me that the search plugin at WoWWiki:Searching#Browser Searches works fine if you manage to find this page and install it manually. The problem is really that the OpenSearch plugin being advertised by the server (the one that appears as Add "WoWWiki (English)" in Firefox) does not install correctly. At this point I'm moreso convinced there should just be a notice on the Main Page or on the search box on the left that the site's browser search plugin must be installed manually—had I known this, I wouldn't have created what I'm thinking is a duplicate plugin. Русские мертвецы 19:12, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Mass page influx from foxbot

I chanced across a page I had edited previously, to find the contents pretty much wiped out and overwritten by foxbot, as per request of pcj. I know not who pcj is, nor what authority he may have.

I do have two issues with these additions:

• they have been performed without regard to existing content
• assuming the above is permissible, they were not marked as needing human audit.

I have no objection to foxbot being used to create new pages where none existed before, but where it wipes out previous content, it should ask for audit. --Eirik Ratcatcher 23:08, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I have to correct the above. Many of the pages recently modified by foxbot (back to July 16th, perhaps earlier) did get audited. Not nearly all, though.

But also, I have to retract my "no objection".

In the defense of the bots, there's the twin wonder powers of "quantity has a quality of its own", and "nobody cared enough to make a page until now, so what's the big deal?". The former, I can't argue against. Really, I can't.

But for the latter, I feel that without any notice that the page was merely scraped from other sources, there is going to be the general assumption that "that's all there really is to know about this item", suppressing further additions, or further research. A "well, wowhead said it, so it must be true" attitude.

I hope I'm just crying wolf. --Eirik Ratcatcher 06:10, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't like how so many gray items were requested to foxbot to be made. Is there any real reason to make pages for all of the poor quality items?
 ∙ Zurr  Talk ∙ Contr 06:59, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Most of it has been to the effect of removing items from Special:Wantedpages, others needed their tooltips updated. --Pcj (T•C) 14:29, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Anyone can request a foxbot update, no 'authority' needed. Some of your reverts look like it was just a layout prefrence on your part where you didn't like the components infobox. --GRYPHON^tc 15:38, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Anyone can, but when the page already exists, there had better be an audit done. See  [Lucky Rocket Cluster],  [Cured Medium Hide]. Yes, some of my reverts are layout preference as you say. Just as Foxbot had evidently been called on those same pages because they didn't use the tooltip template. More, though include other information, such as schematic location, categories, etc. I has assumed there was some authority to it given that I'd been informed foxbot was specifically for new pages. --Eirik Ratcatcher 16:48, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Foxbot is a quick way to populate an article with Armory provided data, pcj may have felt the resulting overwrites were more appealing, which I have done myself for some item articles with Foxbot sometimes sending Foxbox to the sandbox if an article just needs a tooltip update, just as anyone could have done manually editing the article. I would assume that since Foxbot's edits are invoked by a person, that the article in question is something that user feels could use Foxbot's article content which suggests that the edit is monitored by the person making the request. --GRYPHON^tc 17:30, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Please examine the edit history for  [Lucky Rocket Cluster]. While many of the requested articles show signs of monitoring, this is by no means universal. --Eirik Ratcatcher 23:46, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

 [Lucky Rocket Cluster] looks like crap. All you did was undo everything the bot did except the tooltip. Pages should get they existing data moved back in, but don't undo the styling changes... the bot is trying to update to the boilerplate. Maybe the bot needs to leave notes for people that request pages after the page is updated so they can test it... or better yet the bot should just be online all teh time so users don't queue up stuff and forget it. I for one only request a page AS I AM EDITING IT to get a nice automatic update. Anyway, guess I get to go fix the nasty page, lucky me. User:Tekkub/Sig 00:16, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

There's no real "needs a human audit" requirement/tag; you may be thinking of the FixMe tags that Foxbot adds to pages when armory information is insufficient to display specific text. Consider pages added by Foxbot as pages added by the people who requested the page to be added - there's no specific "authority" needed to add an item page, so the bot edits are really no different. I do believe people should look at what the bot is doing to the pages they requested; there's also a tiponly mode, in which Foxbot only updates the transcludable part of the page. Edits are not marked as patrolled, though - which may just be the call for human review that you're looking for.

As for pcj, User:pcj would be your first bet to look at (or hop on IRC and ask people :) )

Whether or not we want to include the poor items is a separate issue altogether - personally, I'm leaning on the side of only including notable items on the wiki, but that's more up to the individual contributors / wiki-wide policy ("are we also an items database?"). -- Starlightblunder 00:48, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

How to de-redirect?

There were 2 quest pages, Quest:Gyro... What? and Quest:Gyro... What. Someone merged them into the latter, and the former is a redirect. However, the former is the correct title for the quest. I am unsure which has the more relevant history, so I'm not sure whether a copy-and-paste to switch the contents, or a page move is the better answer. Any assistance? --Eirik Ratcatcher 23:42, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Quest:Gyro... What has the better history. You should delete the Quest:Gyro... What? and move it to that name. IMO --SWM2448 23:46, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Gems vs Minerals

Off updating engineered items, I got side tracked by the  [Talasite] page. It seems that when the decision was made to shift Template:Gems to Template:Minerals, few of the links were updated. The old template was a sidebar, and so at the top of the page. There is now a new Gems template, which IMO has useful information, but is much better sitting at the bottom of the page. Both templates have some value, different information, but some overlap. Opinions on whether to:

• use both templates (ala  [Talasite] as of this writing),
• just the minerals template (ala  [Blood Garnet])
• just use the gems template (like  [Earthstorm Diamond])

Please note that many minerals ( [Jade], for instance) that are not Gem stones need to have their links updated. I may get around to it, but... --Eirik Ratcatcher 17:27, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Okay to have both. The Template:Tlink template is misleading as it only lists gems. The Template:Tlink sidebar is getting kind of huge. --Fandyllic (talk · contr) 1:07 PM PDT 3 Aug 2007

I would suspect that the gems template is to show what items can be inserted into sockets. Maybe it should be called "Socket Gems" or some such, but for simplicity keep it as template:gems. But also, there are pearls (I think) that can be inserted into sockets, and enchanting-crafted items also. I don't know how you would want to finagle that. I'll give it a shot right now, and I'll consider my upcoming change revertible if anyone wants it back the way it was. Schmidt 05:40, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Pearls are considered gemstones in the real world, why would it be any different in WoW? I think both templates are fine and shold be used in context (BC minerals will get both templates, pre-BC ones will get {{minerals}} only) Perhaps minerals need some of that auto-collapse majick? Only show the relevant section? User:Tekkub/Sig 05:52, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Doable, with Wikipedia:NavFrame. If you need to see it in action, have a look at Template:Mage. With NavFrame, it is also possible to force it to un-collapse in the specific section, which isn't done at {{Mage}}. --User:Sky2042/Sig 05:55, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Ok, so maybe I misunderstood. Based on what template:gems always was, it would be obvious to me that it's specifically for those gems that are to be cut or those that are ready as is to go into a socket. Not stuff like Mana Emerald (which is also something of a "gem") or Moss Agate which is only a reagent, not a gem to be cut and socketed. It simply doesn't make sense to fit older gems in such a template which from inception was specifically for socket gems. imo, nothing found in http://www.wowhead.com/?items=3.7 should be in such a list. On the other hand, the BC gems should be included with the older ones (perhaps) because many of them if not all are used as reagents in crafted items.[3] Schmidt 06:26, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

My only beef with this issue is that the profession is called Jewelcrafting and not gemcrafting. It would be easier if we could distinguish cuttable gems as "jewels" like it seemed to be when this whole idea started. Calling a Moss Agate "only a reagent" is unnecessarily confusing because all but the most alien items in WoW are generally analogous to real world items. Imagine how your fiancee would feel if you got her an engagement ring with big reagent or reagent necklace. This is the only reason why it would be nice to have the Template:Tlink template be renamed to something a bit more specific. Keeping it gems is mostly for the lazy. --Fandyllic (talk · contr) 11:49 PM PDT 24 Aug 2007

In the auction house, all what you call gems or jewels are listed as Gems. In a parallel vein, ammo bags that carry bullets not arrows are also grouped up under Quiver. Non-weapon offhand items fall under Armor. I'm not one to look for the reagent-only gems (rarely to never need them), but they are listed (in wowhead) as simple gems. I'm not positive, but my best guess would be that they appear in Trade Goods at the auctioneer. In any case, still, consider the scope of template:gems, and that of template:minerals. And there is no reference in WoW itself to them being "jewels" specifically other than the fact that they're cut by Jewelcrafters. Then again, ores are smelted by miners. Go figure. Incidentally, you wouldn't give your fiancee a "gem ring" or "jewel ring" either, for your engagement. Schmidt 08:28, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Uh, what if he doesn't like diamonds? Even then, diamonds are another gemstone in the end. When I worked in Jewelry we had distinct display cases... "Bridal Diamonds", "Fashion Diamonds" (everything not bridal/wedding bands that had diamonds), "Fine gemstones", "Cubic Zirconia", "10KT Gold", "14KT Gold", and "Sterling Silver". So yes, for someone who doesn't like diamonds, like my husband, one WOULD buy them a gemstone ring, unless they went for a stoneless ring like the gold and silver. I'm somewhat partial to rubies, garnets and deep green emeralds (created obviously, real deep green ones are hideously expensive).

The whole point here was to make a distinction between cut items that fit in sockets and raw crafting materials. WoW never makes reference to "Jewels", but the word has the same meaning as "Gemstone"... so it didn't make much sense fo "Gem " to be raw and "jewel" to be processed... as was the previous nomenclature here on the wiki. Yes, "Mineral" vs "gem" can be debated as well, but it makes more sense than "Gem" vs "Jewel" did. Personally I like "Simple gem", it's much less confusing, and it is the naming Blizzy uses on the AH. And for those that asked, "Simple" gems are listed under the "Gem" category, not the "Trade Goods" one.

Oh yea, also, I hate the word "Jewelcrafters"... the real-world analogue is "Jeweler" or "Gem Cutter" (which are two distinctly different things) :P User:Tekkub/Sig 09:30, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

And back to the left. I just updated {{gems}} to the navbox design. Seems fair that it should be moved to, say, {{socketgems}}, and both templates used when appropriate. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 10:32, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Live from Blizzcon

As I get computer access, I'll be flooding information to User:Kaydeethree/BlizzCon. Any admins, feel free to post whatever. Having a press pass is awesome. --User:Kaydeethree/Sig 19:02, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Nice info User:CrazyJack/Sig 15:04, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Template:Tlink et al.

So, Wrath of the Lich King is here, and no-doubt we're gonna get a great many pages appearing in the next few days. So i threw together a quick mini-logo to put into templates, Any Opinions?

From User:Kaso/Wotlk

There was some discussion on IRC about how the Template:Tlink template is over/miss used, and perhaps because of that we do not need a Template:Tlink nor infact a Template:Tlink. Anyone wish to discuss that? I have different sizes if the minilogo, if smaller/larger is wanted.

--Kaso 21:31, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I think it's normally abbreviated to Wrath. I just made this one from yours, I think this might be better. Kanaru discussion 01:16, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Blood Elves

Death KnightsFile:Wrath-Logo-Small.PNG

Yes thats pretty nice actually i was worried mine was a little too large, the Wrath one does seem to better sized. I wonder if anyone else has opinions on this? --Kaso 20:03, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Just like "the burning crusade" is cut down to BC.

i think "wrath of the lich king" might just be cut down to WK, or WLK

i'm not sure the big banners are needed, though for continents it'll definitely be a good idea. User:CrazyJack/Sig 15:08, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Looks like I used a different image than for Template:Tlink . Nothing personal, but I like the "Wrath" one, since it is a bit sharper as far as readability and a bit smaller. --Fandyllic (talk · contr) 5:34 PM PDT 6 Aug 2007

Two weeks later... I like "Wrath" better myself. It's sharper, a tad smaller, and more logical than "WotLK". With Burning Crusade "BC worked well, it was easy to say, but you try saying, or typing "WotLK".... it just doesn't roll off the tongue... User:Tekkub/Sig 05:54, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Preview of new default skin options!

Check out the preview page for ideas on what the new default skin may become, and leave your feedback on the talk page!

--Rustak 23:46, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

The yellow is too bright IMO. Can you tweak it to match a bit closer to the bottom of the W logo? User:Tekkub/Sig 09:05, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

What he said, absolutely. Maybe even some "used" look like the logo itself. Apart from that I think it's fine, but why does it have to be changed at all?  Flotsam (talk con)  16:19, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

I guess the thought here is that some of the gadgets and features of the new design will encourage editing, and returning readership? As far as I can tell, it's not going to make things any easier on those of us who are already editing, but it sure is more Wikia-fied. --DuTempete talk|contr 17:26, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Respond on WoWWiki talk:Default Skin Preview, please! Thanks :) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 21:27, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh god no,, don't add half a page of that wikia stuff, we complained before the move that that was 1 thing nobody wanted to see. We like the colors the way they are :P and huge panels really distract from the normal content. User:CrazyJack/Sig 07:42, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Owie my eyes! What's wrong with the nice gentle grey background? Having them available as possible choices, ok, but eye-meltingly loud colors bad. --Azaram 04:46, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

PNG problem

Ever since the main page redesign, .png files will not display for me! User:Lessthan1337/Sig 02:38, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Are you using Internet Explorer? --Pcj (T•C) 02:54, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

There was javascript implemented a while ago to help make png's transparent in IE6, that should be the only thing affecting png, not the main page redesign. --GRYPHON^tc 14:54, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, I've been away. Yes, I am using IE6. Is there something I need to en-/dis-able? User:Lessthan1337/Sig 23:08, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean. *All* PNGs won't display? User:Kirkburn/Sig3 23:50, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, let me be more specific. As a page loads (no the image, the whole page) I can see the image. But as soon as it finishes loading, all the images become transparent. I can click on them still, but they arent there. It's not a broken image either. If I click the image, and it takes me to the Image: page, it is STILL transparent. User:Lessthan1337/Sig 02:53, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I am having exactly the same problem as is stated above by Lessthan 1337 02:53, 8 August 2007 (UTC). This is on a system with Win XP and IE6. Any help would be appreciated. --Cuznvini 23:12, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Some questions: Is this only on the main page? Is this only .png images? do you have javascript enabled or disabled on IE? Please can you give a link to an image that is affected. Thanks -- sannse (talk) 12:10, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

From what I can see, all PNG images using transparent colors disappear immediately after the page finishes loading. Specific examples include the WoWWiki logo, Blinky the Beholder, and the "Wiki Spotlight" icon, regardless of what spotlight is displayed. The images both look fine and remain on the page in Opera, but in Internet Explorer 6.0 (and presumably below), the images disappear after the page finishes loading and the image for Blinky is not transparent at all. (In fact, before it disappears, it comes up as Blinky on a light grey-colored background.) ~ Doc Lithius (U)(T)(C) 13:12, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I can see the problem on IE6. I tried to disable javascript, but still saw the problem (possibly I didn't get all controls for that, I'm not familiar with IE). Kirkburn, maybe you could comment out the section of js relating to image transparencies and see if that's the problem? From what I see this is affecting all png files on all pages. -- sannse (talk) 11:32, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if this has anything to do with this problem, but every page on WoWWiki that I display has a error message in IE6:

Line: 52

Char: 1

Error: 'wgBreakFrames' is undefined

Code: 0

Cuznvini 05:03, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

That's to do with the upgrade, and should go away once monobook is up to date. It took me far longer than it should have, but it's definitely the fix on transparencies in the local js file. I've removed this from common.js now, thinking it's better to see ugly backgrounds rather than no image at all! But one of the admins here can revert me if you feel different of course :) -- sannse (talk) 12:18, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

I've got good news and I've got bad news...

The Good News: The graphics aren't hiding on me anymore!

The Bad News: Blinky still doesn't have a transparent background in Internet Explorer 6. XD

Just figured you might wanna know! :3 ~ Doc Lithius (U)(T)(C) 11:16, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I'm afraid I don't know how to fix that, or even if it's possible to do so smoothly... I just removed the fix that didn't work :-/ I hate to give this as advice, but can you upgrade or switch browser? IE6 just isn't designed to see transparencies in .png -- sannse (talk) 07:59, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Hey guys, me again. All .pngs work for me now and I didn't do anything. Thanks for your help and good luck to all others who still have problems. User:Lessthan1337/Sig 23:29, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

To Sannse -- I'm gonna put this as politely as I can. *inhale noise* ...no. But transparent PNGs really aren't my thing anyway, so don't worry too much about it. I sure won't if I ever actually have something to upload in PNG format that has a solid background! (Yes, I have a program that can make it transparent. Don't worry.) ;3 ~ Doc Lithius (U)(T)(C) 23:28, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Speedy deletion backlog

Can someone look into Category:Articles for speedy deletion? It's currently sitting at 193 pages, 5 categories and 2 images. Русские мертвецы 06:09, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

When tagging an article for speedy delete, I think it would help the admins, and thus the backlog if:

1. A reason is provided
2. The reason is signed
3. Existing content is left in place (just add the tag, don't touch anything else)

If you just tag the article, then it's the admin that has to figure this all out. And thus the current backlog. --Piu ^(?!) 19:01, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Makes sense, for the most part. Although I'm suprised to think that signing something in the mainspace is encouraged, I do see how a lack of information can make it very difficult to follow through. Русские мертвецы 19:37, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, the sd tag doesn't count as actual article content, which is where a sig is discouraged.--Piu ^(?!) 19:55, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Also: I see a lot of articles in the speedy delete category that should just be redirects. According to our Deletion Policy WW:DEL, this is preferred if it makes sense. --Piu ^(?!) 20:01, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

While the term is "speedy" delete, don't feel that this means that it needs be deleted quickly. The article is tagged, there is no reason to worry about it further. I must say that entering a reason why on some articles that contain some content helps so that admins don't have to find out why it is speedy delete. --GRYPHON^tc 23:58, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm with you there, Gryphon. I used to do your job. :) It helps a ton when there's a reason. If it's not a legitimate reason, then the speedy deleter can decide that, and set up a proper vote--or tell whoever wanted it speedily deleted to do so. Anyways, the idea behind the "speedy deletion" tag is that there's no due process that takes days to go through. No voting, or anything. Like Gryphon said, it's not so named because it's going to go away quicker than you can say "speedy delete". Schmidt 00:21, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

That's good to know. As you may have guessed, the reason I saw the size of the category was because I had something in there. I was surprised to see how many pages were awaiting deletion, but if "speedy deletion" is more or less just "uncontroversial deletion" that has potentially zero waiting time, that's fine with me. Not that it would matter if it wasn't fine with me ;) Русские мертвецы 01:00, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Template

Was checking on WoWWiki:Templates and noticed that it was a bunch of red links to Template:T that seems to have been deleted recently. Which template will be used instead? And will a bot update all the pages to this new template?

--Ragowit {talk · contr · qt eu} 11:43, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Restored. Dont know why it was deleted, I'll ask. --User:Adys/Sig 12:00, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, it appears I deleted it while deleting other things. I must not have noticed being redirected to it or something on accident. --GRYPHON^tc 00:33, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Encyclopedia of Life

These are some of the demonstration pages they have I figure I'd post it so maybe some people could use or expand some of the idea's they are using http://www.eol.org/demonstration.html

--Yelmurc 03:17, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Err... what did you have in mind? --Ragestorm (talk · contr) 03:19, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

I was thinking maybe having Tabs inside the page maybe one for media the other for maps orlore information. Have a characters general information and allow people to expand it in some way depending on how much detail they want.--Yelmurc 03:26, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki Upgrade Imminent

We're going to do a MediaWiki upgrade to 1.10 in nine hours at 0300 UTC Tuesday. There will probably be an hour or so of downtime. Faulkner 18:56, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Just to add to this, I can see Faulkner from where I'm sitting :) He just showed me that we have pretty much quintupled (5x) the number of unique IPs visits to the site over BlizzCon! User:Kirkburn/Sig3 21:25, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Sweet. And uhoh. :O --User:Sky2042/Sig 23:35, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

They make very nice sandwiches over here. =) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 00:34, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki 1.10 upgrade even more imminent!

Yes, it got delayed. It will start in just over an hour, and may take several hours, though it shouldn't have to. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 04:17, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

The upgrade to mw1.10.1 itself only took about 20-30 minutes but after upgrading we noticed much more database activity and a variety of thumbnail images being purged out of the cache at a high rate. Sometimes with MW upgrades we've seen unexpected new behaviors that have to be worked out. This may or may not be the case here, but we do believe this could cause some slowdown issues, so we've been tracing it for the last couple of hours. If there are any slowness issues as we hit peak hours tomorrow, be assured we'll be tracing what's going on and trying to resolve as soon as possible. Johnq 09:38, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Ok, upgrade complete. We followed the thumbnail purging and cache issues thru the night and everything appears to be ok. Site response seems to be normal both objectively (from our monitoring graphs) and subjectively (reports from our team loading pages from various countries). With this upgrade there are also a number of new extensions in the code base which we have currently disabled. We'll be enabling them over time to see the effect (since some of them have the potential to slow things down). Johnq 20:31, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Username changes?

Is there a possible way to have my username changed as some other wikis (including wikipedia) have been known to do? Ideally I'd like to be able to change it to reflect my character but I have seen no pages regarding this and have uncovered nothing with search. Thanks in advance.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 19:38, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Sorry I don't think you can. Sometimes people just make up a stupid name as a spur of the moment thing and somewhat regret it later, but I live with it.--SWM2448 20:00, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

If not that's fine, I was just wondering if there is some place to make admin requests and such since I'm pretty sure it's in the media wiki software. Just wanted to make sure before I consider creating the new account. --Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 20:33, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

It may become easier once we merge more stuff with Wikia, but atm it's not really possible :( User:Kirkburn/Sig3 20:35, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Citations/references and elinks

Elinks, the bane of my existance... ugh... So, a question. Since the majority of cites we're going to have are going to be elinks, how exactly do we want to handle this? Should we put them inside the "External links" section as a sub-section or in their own section? If their own, before or after elinks? I've tweaked Death Knight (hero class) a tad, do we want to do this somewhat differently? User:Tekkub/Sig 20:08, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Common practice on other wiki's is notes section followed by elinks section which looks good to me. --GRYPHON^tc 20:11, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Database error

I noticed when I check the Shaman page when not logged in (I usually don't log in unless necessary), there is a database error. Is there anything that can be done, short of logging in? --Slxception 14:18, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Got the same issue here: BC_healing_equipment_(plate), only when not logged in Timb0h 09:57, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

500,000,000!

500,000,000 page views, almost 900,000 edits, nearly 40,000 articles. Nice! --User:Adys/Sig 16:57, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Woot!--SWM2448 17:19, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

WoWWiki needs its own Firefox search plugin!

Plskthx? *puppyeyes* --DuTempete talk|contr 17:16, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

There's a google-wiki-firefox one floating around somewhere that you can get, found at WoWWiki:Searching#Firefox. Unfortunately, there hasn't been one for the default search. Happy? :) --User:Sky2042/Sig 18:03, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Eeeew. No, I'm not. I'll never use a google search. Default, please! --DuTempete talk|contr 22:43, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I am mistaken, I think. Click on the external link and see if one of those there will help. I'm guessing the ones not labeled "google search" are pertinent to your quest for a searchbox. ;) --User:Sky2042/Sig 22:45, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Awesome! I didn't know that existed, so thanks, Sky. For other peeps, the first download is for the default search, the second appends your text to the wiki's URL, taking you straight to a page (dunno if I like that one better than the default or not, yet), and the 3rd is the Google search. --DuTempete talk|contr 00:47, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

In Firefox, at Special:Search you can rightclick on the search box space and select "Add a Keyword for this Search..." and it'll let you set one up. Personally I agree. I hate the Google search. I don't know how it can be added back along with the Google search. If I did know how, it would be there. If that doesn't do it for you, consider this Firefox addon Add to Search Bar. It allows you to select an icon; I don't know if you can if you do it any other way. I simply haven't bothered to look. Schmidt 05:21, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I've posted a method for replacing the Google search box with the MediaWiki one at WoWWiki:Searching#Restoring the MediaWiki Search Box. User:DarkRyder/Sig 13:13, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Counters Disabled

Hey Folks,

I just disabled the counters to see if we can alleviate some of the "mysql error" pages folks have been seeing. We'll let this run a few days and see how it goes. Faulkner 20:06, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

NOOOOO!!! I can't see how popular my user page is now! --Imandir 00:55, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Link to Quest Coordinates

How about an add on for newbies to be able to look up information about the Quests and find the coordinates that automatically takes you there . Also what about a second link to find where the Quest must be turned in. Matriarch Melandbobbie 22:13, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Are you suggesting a new feature on the wiki, or an actual World of Warcraft AddOn? It's unclear from your message which you are suggesting. Русские мертвецы 22:21, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

You might want to look at the Cartographer addon over at http://www.wowace.com. I think there's some modules that might have what you're looking for. - User:ClydeJr/Sig 18:24, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Math extension?

Any chance for the math equation extension to be added someday? No big hurry, it's just that theorycraft geeks like myself would like equations on pages like [Improved Frostbolt] to look pretty. I have a hard time myself viewing an equation in text-only form and trying to figure out if I made a mistake. Again, no biggie, there aren't many pages but random talents/abilities that use math, but it would be nice to have. I know one issue is that the .png files it generates by default are black with a white background, which would look bad on our dark background color. --Piu ^(?!) 23:11, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

It's on the todo list at WW:SR, but it sounds like it could possibly break the wiki. :) --User:Sky2042/Sig 23:13, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Cool, I didn't know that page was there. I could see how it would increase server load. A fallback thought I had was to manually upload .png files with rendered equations. That might present a different problem (image spam) so I will tread lightly. --Piu ^(?!) 23:33, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

PNGs of formulas is totally OK. Just make sure you use a background plate (not transparent) since the text needs to be viewable in any WoWWiki skin (#ffffff as well as #333333 backgrounds). One could possibly argue that text in images isn't friendly to blind people with screen readers, but since this is a game that actually requires working vision to play, I think we're fine. --Mikk (T) 21:19, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I was gonna use the LaTeX source as a mouseover, since that's what you'd get if it was made with the math extension. That makes it easy to change over if the extension ever goes live. --Piu ^(?!) 23:36, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

DPS equation for [Frostbolt]. X is points in [Empowered Frostbolt], Y is points in [Improved Frostbolt]. d is spell damage. B is base damage for the spell.

--Piu ^(?!) 00:56, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Wowwiki's official drink -- The Mana Juice!

File:MANA.jpg

MMMMM! Tasty Mana Juice!!1

What is better than a glass of cool, tasty Mana Juice while grinding? I suggest, no, I demand that we declare the Mana Juice as Wowwiki's official drink! -- Voluspå

I find it odd how much you remind me of someone else ... User:Kirkburn/Sig3 22:07, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I am only myself -- no one else. If you want to know who I am you should visit the Norwegian Wowwiki or talk to someone at Wownorge.net . Voluspå

lol --User:Adys/Sig 02:54, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Main Page revamp continued

Hello again :)

I've been doing some more work on User:Kirkburn/Dev3 to bring it up to standard. It features:

• Featured Article and Featured Media boxes (I have correspondingly added stuff for the latter to the WW:FA page.
• Separate ad box (I need to sort out with Wikia about the code for that, it can be hidden when not in use).
• Combined about and help box.

If I was on my home PC, I would start doing daily image templates (Sleepy Willy and Media), but it's a bit difficult atm. Thoughts? User:Kirkburn/Sig3 03:46, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Offline wiki editing?

Is there software to edit wiki pages offline? The site can be slow sometimes, and I'm sure my heavy use of the preview feature doesn't help. --Gonzie 12:08, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Notepad. --Pcj (T•C) 12:52, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

If you mean an actual program or setting that will let you make edits and preview them without being online, then uploading them when done, unfortunately no there isn't. That's been one of the issues with MediaWiki software since its inception that a lot of people have taken issue with. [4] An endeavor of that magnitude would probably (and unlikely) have to come through a media wiki version release. The only other possibility would be if someone were to create a program to do it, but I highly doubt someone would put forth the effort given the restrictions on return put in place by the liscence. The best you can do is make your edits in a word processor program and save them so you don't lose the work if you get kicked offline, but no editing features would likely be available. --Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 13:44, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys, I'll stick with Notepad :) --User:Gonzie/Sig

Query API / MediaWiki API?

Is there a way to access the Query API or MediaWiki API on WoWWiki? I'm rebuilding the ArmoryProfileBot to reduce its impact on the wiki and having access to a bot API would sure be nice. Using the "raw" action works for getting wiki source, but it would be nice to bypass the parser for metadata as well (specifically, "what links here" in my case). I was under the impression that the Query API is built into all MediaWiki installations by default, but I didn't find it in any of the usual places. User:DarkRyder/Sig 17:03, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I assume that's a "no", then? Any chance of getting one or the other enabled? User:DarkRyder/Sig 05:54, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like something for WW:SR :) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 07:30, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Unconfirmed quest information.

I've come across a few pages that contain information taken from quests relating to the article subject.

Pools of Aggonar, Arazzius the Cruel, Ivar Patch, Archmage Arugal

As far as I can tell, none of the quests have been confirmed to have officially taken place. But I didn't want to just delete the information, because it could still add relevant information to the article. At the same time, I'm not quite sure how to edit the paragraphs to make them more acceptable by the wiki's standards. -- Austin P 20:20, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

All four examples (well, three, as the Aggonar/Arazzius one is cut-n-paste) are written in "storytelling mode", don't add much substance to the article, and in the Aggonar bit even directly contradicts the Horde version of the quest. Personally, I'd just chop the lot of it. User:DarkRyder/Sig 20:56, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, they all need to be chopped off. Additionally, the Pools of Aggonar and Arazzius the Cruel pages are horrible innaccurate, as they claim Arazzius is an agent of Illidan, when he is very much a Legion commander. Mentioning the quests is of course needed, but it's bad form to assume that the actions described therein have occured. --Mikaka 06:28, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Big red button

A quick warning for anyone checking their preferences - DO NOT use the quartzslate skin on WoWWiki. It isn't ready, and you'll break your ability to view the site. If you do accidently choose it, you'll need to go to http://www.wowwiki.com/Main_Page?useskin=wowwiki&save=true ... that is, assuming you can read this ;) So, again, even though the big red button looks oh so inviting, don't push it. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 21:06, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Template my template

Truly bizarre things happening to the pages for me today. I read the page "normal", templates such as Lootbox and Questlong appear broken. I preview the page (no changes), and the preview has the normal (correct) appearance. --Eirik Ratcatcher 00:42, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I've seen that happen when MediaWiki doesn't realize a template has changed. Try doing a purge on the affected pages, e.g.: http://www.wowwiki.com/index.php?action=purge&title=Affected_Page User:DarkRyder/Sig 12:56, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

JavaScript errors after 1.10 upgrade

Since the recent upgrade to MediaWiki 1.10, I've been getting a couple of persistent JavaScript errors when viewing the wiki (using Firefox 2.0.0.6). I'm not able to determine that the first is causing any problems, but it's easy to fix:

wgBreakFrames is not defined in wikibits.js on line 51

This can be fixed by changing that line from if (wgBreakFrames) { to if (typeof wgBreakFrames != "undefined") { (or, of course, by figuring out why it isn't being set false, if it's supposed to be).

The other error is actually breaking the execution of user JS on edit pages which, among other things, makes it impossible to preview changes to one's user JS:

tooltipAccessKeyRegexp has no properties in wikibits.js on like 519

It isn't getting defined on non-edit pages, either, but it doesn't seem to be causing problems there...

User:DarkRyder/Sig 16:04, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Ok, looking into it. Not too unexpected that there will be some hiccups after an upgrade like this. Please keep us informed of anything else. Thanks. Johnq 19:28, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Hip Hop WOW

Template:Wcpumpmove

Playxpert

The following is an article taken from the Main Page:

Template:Img PLAYXPERT is a next-generation in-game community management toolset developed for PC-based and MMO games. Built around a completely unique in-game overlay technology, PLAYXPERT brings the tools that gamers use into the games they play. In conjunction with Wikia, PLAYXPERT is proud to announce the WoWWiki Widget - an in-game widget allowing users to access, read, and contribute to the most popular wiki about World of Warcraft. Users can search, read, and submit new content into WoWWiki without leaving the game. Screenshots - Image:Playxpert1.jpg and Image:Playxpert2.jpg WoWWiki Widget overview - [5] Visit PLAYXPERT.com for more details! Related news stories - profy - Mashable - GamesIndustry.biz - Gaming Today

From some background - PLAYXPERT recently approached Wikia with news of their overlay technology to allow people to browse WoWWiki whilst staying in-game. We think it's cool, and want to let you know about it. PLAYXPERT are also planning on creating similar widgets for other Wikia wikis, but you can test out the beta client and WoWWiki widget right now by signing up on their site! (edit: Windows only, it seems) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 20:42, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

That's the best thing ever! I an installing this bugger right now! ...or as soon as I get it, anyways. XD I mean, alt-tabbing out wasn't that much of a hassle, but having it right there in-game is just fabulous, considering I've yet to find a "Notepad" AddOn for World of Warcraft. ~ Doc Lithius (U)(T)(C) 21:13, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Is this a widget (a mini-app on Mac OS X) or a gadget (a mini-app on Windows Vista)? It looks like a gadget (no mention of Mac, at least). From the download of the Beta, this appears to be a Windows-only solution. I couldn't find any system requirements on their site. Please list if such things are Windows-only please. --Fandyllic (talk · contr) 5:02 PM PDT 17 Aug 2007

My apologies, I haven't been able to test it out myself yet - I'm on Linux atm :D ... as for being called a widget, I think that's just a general term being used for this program. In other news, another article mentioning this here - [6] User:Kirkburn/Sig3 00:16, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Going to look through the other guides but having bad luck with this so far. Basically it just lagged my machine to a near standstill. --User:Mucke/sig 00:50, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

New boilerplate: pet ability

I was looking at warlock pet abilities (of course), and noticed the horrid lack of a standard format. I searched, and to my dismay, found no boilerplate! *gasp* So, what should a warlock do, but create her own?

Check out User:DuTempete/sandbox2, and please make any comments or suggestions you would like. I ripped the infobox template from ALiEN's Template:Infobox ability, and almost all of the content from Help:Ability articles, then adjusted for pet specific content. --DuTempete talk|contr 05:23, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

This would be awesome. For both hunter as well as warlock pets, I assume? In the infobox, as far as I know, all warlock pet abilities use mana, and hunter pet abilities use focus. Maybe also a place to indicate whether it's an active or passive ability. (Not sure if any minion abilities are passive, but many hunter pets' are.) -- Harveydrone ( talk | work ) 20:19, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

How about I just add "Passive" as an option for cooldown? Or do any of the Hunter pets' passive abilities have cooldowns? --DuTempete talk|contr 01:03, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

I've completed a few warlock pet articles with this format. Check out [Blood Pact], or [Consume Shadows] for examples. --DuTempete talk|contr 01:03, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

New to Making Wikis

I am new to making Wikis. I tried to read all the advice they give, but a lot doesn't make sense to someone who is new, imo. Can someone help me make Fanfiction pages? -- Daenen 01:18, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

To start your own fanfiction, type http://www.wowwiki.com/User:Daenen/(some name) into your browser, hit the edit button, and you're off!. Anything else you'd like to know? --User:Sky2042/Sig 01:23, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, how do I do things like paragraphs, pictures, lines, titles, etc. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Daenen (talk · contr).

Paragraphs: just hit a double enter, like the forums. Pictures require that you upload the picture and then use the format [[Image:(imagename).(filetype)|thumb|(decription)]]. Lines? Titles are easy. Just use == (heading name) == for one, and then for sub sections use three equals or more. for another new section, use 2 equals on each side again. Anything else? --User:Sky2042/Sig 01:34, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Uploading Pictures? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Daenen (talk · contr).

Click the link silly. --User:Sky2042/Sig 01:38, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

How do you make a link? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Daenen (talk · contr).

Use [[(linked item)]]. And please, sign your posts with '~~~~' please. --User:Sky2042/Sig 01:41, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Its a bit confusing. I will try, and come back --((User:Daenen)) How do I do the little mini screen on the right side that says name, race, gender, picture, etc? --Daenen

Try copy and pasting, and then changing the ones you want changed. :) --User:Sky2042/Sig 01:51, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

How do you Bold/Underline and do I have to mark something as fanfiction, and how? -- Daenen

If you want to mark as fanfic (which you have to, indeed), place {{fanfic}} at the top of your page. Bolding requires either using <b> and </b>, or putting ''' around the relevant items. Underlining is <u> and </u>. --User:Sky2042/Sig 02:11, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Now I am having a problem. ((http://www.wowwiki.com/User:Daenen/Daenen)). How do I fix it? Daenen 02:21, 19 August 2007 (UTC)Daenen

I fixed it, now you need an image. :) --User:Sky2042/Sig 02:30, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

This may be bad advice but I'm gonna give it anyway. I'm new to all this stuff too. What I have done is looked at other peoples work and then copied the code I liked. Then from there I added or took away based on what I saw on even more people's pages. From there I had figured out enough to change them in ways that were my own (not that no one else has done it, just that I didn't see it before I did it). I think as long as you aren't stealing other people's content and merely formatting you are ok. Also I have found its best to search for the guides as to naming pages and categorizing pages before you make them. This will help you avoid needing to rename or delete pages. --User:Mucke/sig 07:09, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Looking at existing stuff is VERY GOOD ADVICE. The fastest way I've found to leran how to do things is look at something that already works. Also, you're asking very basic editing questions here... try reading that Editing help link right net the submit buttons when you edit. User:Tekkub/Sig 09:25, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Category:Fan fiction holds the kind of articles you would want to be looking at, and what you seem to want to do. There's lots of it, so have fun! --DuTempete talk|contr 11:54, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Are tables of Content Automatic? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Daenen (talk · contr).

Yes, the ToCs are automatic, and will show when you have 3 or more sub-headings. Ways to manipulate the ToC are found at Help:Editing. --DuTempete talk|contr 14:13, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Is this Daenen page for a Warcraft RPG character? I wonder if we should make a template for RPG player characters (maybe Template:Tlink or something), like Template:Tlink for WoW player characters? --Fandyllic (talk · contr) 12 PM PDT 24 Aug 2007

Am I squatting?

I was reading up on Wikisquatting and I honestly want to make sure what I am doing with my character page doesn't qualify. I am leaning towards no but I want to make sure before I go further, I don't want to waste my time. So, here is my main character page Mucke, please have a look and tell me what you think, either here or on the discussion page is fine by me. -- User:Mucke/sig 22:24, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

The idea of this page is so people don't have to go to individual users to ask things :) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 18:24, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikisquatting means hijacking a wiki (or part of it) for another purpose. While the average WoWWikian may not have much interest in your character over anyone else's, it is neither of no use nor is it unrelated to WoW. You even follow the character article policy almost to the letter. I would caution you, though, that having your character in a public namespace rather than under your user page implicitly invites others to contribute. (As I've just done, so that it does follow policy to the letter. ) User:DarkRyder/Sig 18:03, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the responses, and the help in making my page more up-to-code. I've been having a lot of fun playing with the Wiki and wanted to make sure I hadn't gone too far. Well, I'll keep playing and if you ever notice anything questionable just holler at me or fix it or whatever. --User:Mucke/sig 06:48, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

I need HELP

Can anybody tell me what i do if i forgot my password ?do i make another account ?(like this one)or contact someone to say my account name and e-mail?pls help me (Andy91 23:49, 22 August 2007 (UTC))

You should be able to email yourself the password via the button on the login screen (it will be sent to whichever email account you chose for the old account). User:Kirkburn/Sig3 00:03, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Character pages

can someone help me make a page for my char, i read the page on how to create one but i dont understand what adress bar to put the imformation in -- Dunnsworth 06:47, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Speedy delete

PLEASE people, give reasons why you are marking an article as speedydelete. Some are vague and seem to be only personal opinion as to why they are being deleted and not by policy or by obvious article error. --GRYPHON^tc 15:42, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Also, please don't wipe articles when adding delete tags! User:Kirkburn/Sig3 21:08, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Corrupted Blood Article

Moved from WoWWiki talk:Main Page Dev.

I'm a little curious, in regards to the link about the Corrupted Blood epidemic story from the BBC - it happened almost two years ago, why did it take this long for the BBC to pick up this story? For that matter, why does this story look like a re-hash of what other articles have said since they fixed it? (Funny enough, I got the game about two weeks before the epidemic started...) This is not new news (well, it might be to anyone who got WoW after September-October of 2005, but still...) --Joshmaul 04:53, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

If you visit Corrupted_Blood#External_links, you will notice there are 2 stories from the BBC. The first was written 2 years ago around the time of the event, whereas the second (the one you appear to be referring to) was written recently. So, the BBC did not take long, you just only read the recent article which appears to talk about how Corrupted Blood may give clues to modeling the spread of diseases via simulation.

The real question is why any serious medical researcher would use the Corrupted Blood phenomenon as any kind of guide for disease spread modeling. I was there and people were intentionally trying to spread the disease just to see people die. While one's view of humanity may be dim, I doubt that kind of thing would happen in the RL.--Fandyllic (talk · contr) 5:50 PM PDT 23 Aug 2007

There's another article floating out there in the tubes about the mentalities, and how that is exactly what the model would represent. Some would choose to try and aid, some would flee the death zone, and some would spread it, among others. --User:Sky2042/Sig 06:23, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

wiki template q

• BC_Priest_DPS_Equipment/Row

I'd like to have the paremeters "red=1", "yellow=2" result in showing 1 or 2 sockets of that color.. i could make a red1, red2, red3 parameter but that seems an ugly way of doing it. Surely it'd be possible to have a template show 1, 2 or 3 sockets with 1 statement? discussed at Talk:BC_Priest_DPS_Equipment User:CrazyJack/Sig 08:02, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Easier if a LoopFunctions extension were installed, you'd have to hard code it for right now. --Pcj (T•C) 16:08, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Feared as much. Isn't it possible to do a if/else though?

e.g. if red=1 display a red socket. else if red=2 display 2 red sockets. else if red=3 display 3 red sockets.

And the same for the other colors. User:CrazyJack/Sig 06:51, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Wouldn't a {{#switch}} work for these purposes? --User:Sky2042/Sig 06:28, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Shalll need to experiment with that .User:CrazyJack/Sig 14:19, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Quest Disambig pages

Currently User:Laurlybot makes quest dismbig pages that look like this Quest:Diplomatic_Measures basically very simple and not much more info then the quest name and level. There have been a few people that have commented that maybe adding some more info would help people find the quests they are looking for. I have come up with this User:Laurly/Sandbox1 now when i showed some others this idea they said it was to much info. What I'm looking for is a consensus of opinion.

Do we need more info on quest disambig pages?

If Yes. How much more info do we need on quest dismabig pages?

Having the bot redo all the quest dismabig pages isn't a problem its just a question of how we want them to look the bot could probably recreate them all in a few hours. Laurly 13:33, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

 [20] Creature of the Void (Orgrimmar) w/in the disambig template is perfect. Any more is a waste, any less is unhelpful. Having the parenthetical disamig is essential,though, as otherwise you have to mouse over the links to figure out which one to choose. That is, at best, a pain in the ass.

If you'll look at Quest:Tome of the Cabal, you'll also see what I've done to a disambig that had sequential quests in it.--DuTempete talk|contr 13:56, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

As usual.. got a bunch of opinions, most not held in common with the rest of the world. Take them for what they're worth :).

1. Regardless of how they're organized, I'm against having a bunch of links that all look identical to each other until you mouse over them. (/agree DuTempete). If the links on the disambiguation page have the additional number, or zone, or faction, or whatever, it would be useful.
2. Three or more, a disambig page is useful (to me) (Quest:Seeking_Strahad).
3. If they're similar (like Gnome Engineering), something like the preface summary would be kind to the reader. This is probably not easily botted. Ah, well. There's still the old fashioned method...
4. If not similar (like The Missing Diplomat, Tome of the Cabal), a summary doesn't make sense, but a quest chain link may. ... It does for these examples, but there are probably examples that are not chains.
5. The first quest can also often serve as a disambig page for the chain. The Missing DiplomatThe Defias Brotherhood The user is going to type in the name of the quest, after all, not 'The Missing Diplomat (2)' or like that. And one (smaller) function of the Quest Chain page is disambiguation. This avoids creating names like "your ambiguous quest (1)" to provide space for a "your ambiguous quest" disambiguation page.
   • edit: haven't filled out The Missing Diplomat yet... bad example. --Eirik Ratcatcher 23:23, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
   • ... I'd even be tempted to redirect Quest:Tome of the Cabal to a quest chain page, and sort out both chains there. (The 'things you do' are the same, so a unified quest chain page would make sense to me. And the 'summary' section of the quest chain page could hold both trees of quests, providing the necessary disambiguation.)
6. If there's 1 horde, 1 alliance quest of the same name, and with nearly identical text etc, users are better off if there's only one page, that illustrates both quests. What Are These Things? Otherwise, you're creating 3 pages (disambig, horde, alliance), and any information particular to completing the quest has to go in at least 2 places, which is evil for updating. Easier to search for, what's not to like? This is almost certainly the exception, though, and I can't imagine it'd be an easy option for a bot to choose correctly.

As I said, just my opinions. Everybody has one. :) --Eirik Ratcatcher 00:22, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, one of the other things I mentioned to Laurly is that I don't think a disambiguation page is necessary for just two quests. If there are only two, you can easily redirect straight to the only other possible option. --DuTempete talk|contr 02:53, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Plenty of reasons for not having disambig pages ... I listed a few myself. Would want to see how searches for the quest come out, first, before doing away with the disambig page for "just 2". --Eirik Ratcatcher 23:23, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm of the (shared?) opinion that a disambig isn't needed if there's only two pages which deal with the relevant item, regardless of location (quest:, item, etc). My 2. --User:Sky2042/Sig 06:30, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

To be clear, you mean a separate disambig page, not in-page disambiguation, yes? ;) --Eirik Ratcatcher 18:00, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah... yeah. Yeah? --User:Sky2042/Sig 18:18, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Equipment

I've encountered a bunch of "equipment" pages, BC_Priest_DPS_Equipment, BC healing equipment (cloth), Healing_equipment, BC_Hunter_Equipment, Tanking equipment (Druid), Tanking equipment (Paladin), Damage shield, Defense equipment, Resistance equipment, Rogue equipment, and undoubtly a bunch more. Most of them are added into Category:Equipment. But that's not very "browse friendly".

Most pages look completely different from each other, use different templates or simply none at all. Some are pretty hard to find.

Initially i figured BC_Priest_DPS_Equipment could be improved with templates and then moved to BC_Cloth_DPS_Equipment or such, but why stop there?

Now, my idea is that we could probably rebuild this from the root up, and begin filling from there from a base template. In the end it'd be better organised, easier to find, and contain more information, easy to access. the usual wiki stuff.

Problem being, it's a huge undertaking. I'm sure there would be a person or 2 saying "its a wiki - go and start and if we dont like it we'll just revert it". This project is sort of relevant to a "lot" of pages, and i for one don't think simply starting on this is the way to go. Perhaps it's best to stuff this into Talk:Equipment and have a more focused discussion about this.

the way it could be done

User:CrazyJack/Sandbox/Equipment User:CrazyJack/Sig 09:55, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Comments

Something like that either way. And ofcourse the bottom question, once the templates are set up, how much could a bot fill into the tables? User:CrazyJack/Sig 08:08, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

In my pokings at the hunter one, I'm finding it's a bitch to get all the stats in. If I could just put in the basic item list, and a bot come along and fill in all the stats and the source, I'd be ever so happy. That would make it super easy to maintain a list (we just add the items, the bot auto-fills each on a daily or whatever basis), and the style could be kept consistant across them all.

*edit* Also, I really don't like the subpage design here, it looks ugly. A nice consistant naming pattern "BC <whatever> equipment" or maybe "<Whatever> equipment guide" would be better. I like to look at the pages as a guide to the equipment progression, and we have to take into account that come Wrath all new pages will be made. User:Tekkub/Sig 09:33, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Hierarchical inside the pages they'd still need splitting according to such a manner though, regardless of the actual page name. agree? User:CrazyJack/Sig 11:58, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to add that some casters prefer spelldamage over crit, and others prefer crit, based on class. Perhaps there should be two separate pages for spell damage and spell crit. Perhaps a similar situation with melee, including hit rating, crit rating, and attack power. Even if you don't have separate pages, separate tables would be helpful. Probably, though, all defense gear would go on one page, but again have separate tables for straight defense, parry, block rating, block value, and dodge. Just a few thoughts, in case some of you hadn't considered the differences. Schmidt 18:20, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

See now, that's where I think everything "desirable" should just be grouped up by iLevel, list out all the relevant stats, and let the player pick. It's hard enough maintaining one page... but double the tables? Screw that. User:Tekkub/Sig 19:39, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

I can't remember where I saw it in Wikipedia, but they had a table (wikipedia:Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients is one such) that would allow sorting based on which header you chose. Perhaps we can do the same here, with obvious results. But yeah, it seems to boil down to searching wowhead.com in such a mannner: spell damage > 120 and spell hit rating > 0 for pally. Then again, the resultant table doesn't allow sorting by the various stats. (Obviously the example leaves only a small number of items, easily compared, but other searches would yield more daunting results such as a search with the same criteria but for mage. Schmidt 20:48, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Depends what a bot can do really. i'm not too knowledgeable about that bit. i'd say we should be able to select a main stat to sort the tables by.. but it'd have to be a highlyl specialized bot. you can add dmg, crit, hit into the table np. but there'll always be a single stat to sort by. User:CrazyJack/Sig 09:13, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Looks very interesting "class="wikitable sortable", doesn't immediately work out of the box it seems, but its got potential.

edit: probably doesnt work with template rows, rather than actual fixed tables. Going to be messy to implement extensive tables then. User:CrazyJack/Sig 07:14, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

BC Cloth DPS Equipment. First table converted, and 1 on talkpage. looks quite nice imo, compared to the older version :) User:CrazyJack/Sig 13:38, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Updated example for bigger project template User:CrazyJack/Sig 09:56, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Warhammer Beta Giveaway for WowWiki editors

Wikia has gotten access to 10 Warhammer Online Beta Keys,so to give them away we've decided to do an edit challenge. The challenge starts today and ends September 4th, 2007. Go Here to get more details and sign up!

-- angies 18:04, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Boo hiiss, etc.. no europeans as usual. User:CrazyJack/Sig 11:39, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I can't exactly disagree with you there ... maybe when they launch in the EU we'll get more love from EAMythic :) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 11:44, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Is the 50 edit thing for edits just on the Warhammer wiki or do edits on wowwiki count? - User:ClydeJr/Sig 16:51, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Darktable

As you may have noticed I have been spending an inordinate amount of time converting over templates and tables to darktable for two reasons:

1. Consistency and ease of use (see Category:Navigation Templates for examples)
2. Skin switching (I am currently browsing the site on monobook)

However, I have limited time and there's one area that is reasonably simple to fix that needs work - zone and instance pages. They all need to be converted to the Azuremyst Isle design - specifically the tables. Any help is appeciated, and please point out any other areas that need work! User:Kirkburn/Sig3 08:14, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I will help out. The boilerplate you're using looks good. --Fandyllic (talk · contr) 7:51 AM PDT 28 Aug 2007

Do we really need a section for "Characteristics"... it seems like a table header would be fine, that info is appropriate for an opening section. User:Tekkub/Sig 05:45, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I and Jiyambi were working on Teldrassil prior to my short break. As Tekkub said, Characteristics is "eh". We thought maybe an {{infobox zone}} to replace the characteristics box wouldn't be a bad idea, to fill up the whitespace on the right hand side. Just a thought, however. --User:Sky2042/Sig 06:19, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I approve User:Tekkub/Sig 21:21, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Atm all I'm doing is going through fixing the tables (i.e. removing all hardcoded formatting) and removing {{tocright}} (yes, it needs to be removed from a LOT of pages) ... if people want get a good template for other design points, don't wait for me :) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 06:39, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Wait, what's wrong with {{tocright}}? --Pcj (T•C) 18:13, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Inconsistent design, and can mess with the page design. Since most articles have infoboxes now, it is especially silly. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 10:54, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

template:tocright was intended for rather rare usage, but just common enough to warrant a template rather than coding it that way on several different pages. It does have an ill effect on page layout, too, in too many cases. Schmidt 13:46, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

External images

Hi All, Wikia are changing the way we deal with external images. They will be off by default, meaning an image from another site can't be embedded in pages here. We will make exceptions for agreed sites, such as those that have given specific permission for linking in this way. Images from other wikis hosted by Wikia will also be allowed. If you think there are images on this wiki that will be affected, then we can give you a list of pages to clear up. I think everyone uploads here anyway, and uploaded images are unaffected.

Please see Wikia:Help:Externally hosted images for more info on this, and more on why we feel external images need to be restricted in this way. Thanks -- sannse (talk) 14:20, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Sounds ok, most images are uploaded here for displaying anyway. User:CrazyJack/Sig 15:08, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

There are a few here that aren't uploaded, off the top of my head of which is Sentinel spell. --User:Sky2042/Sig 16:32, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I replaced it with Image:Spell_Nature_Sentinal.png. - User:ClydeJr/Sig 16:58, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Is Sentinal the right spelling? =/ Is it important enough to move it? Schmidt 13:49, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

That's how Blizzard named/misspelled it. If you go look at the icons for the Moonglow spell on Thottbot and Alla, the icon is misspelled the same way. - User:ClydeJr/Sig 15:10, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

It's surprising how many of the icon names have poor spelling, sometimes really poor... but then, no-one's ever supposed to see them, so I guess they don't receive a lot of QA. ^.^ User:DarkRyder/Sig 16:43, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Thought Bubble Icon

I seem to recall the thought bubble icon was available. In-game, this is used as a prompt for a chain of dialog. For instance, when some NPC wants to "tell you his story". I can't seem to find, it, though. Was I hallucinating? -- Eirik Ratcatcher 17:52, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

This? --GRYPHON^tc 18:09, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

...no, that's speech bubble. :P --Pcj (T•C) 18:12, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

....doesn't mean it isn't what he might be talking about. --GRYPHON^tc 18:16, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Auto-categorizing subzones

Hey, I was hoping I could get a few people to help out with some work I've recently started on. I've been putting

<includeonly>{{#ifeq:{{PAGENAME}}|Zone Name||[[Category:Zone Name subzones]]}}</includeonly>

into the subzone navigation templates, to automatically categorize the subzone correctly. However, the subzones then need to be gone through manually and have the old categories (the Category:Zone:Zone Name and Category:Subzones) removed. I've already done Category:Hillsbrad Foothills subzones and Category:Tirisfal Glades subzones, but there are plenty of other zones to be done. If you're looking for something to do, that'd be helpful. -- Mikaka 04:42, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Server ?

Whats up with the server, its Slowwwwwww as heck, and giving error cant open page errors.. a lot "Safari can’t open the page “http://www.wowwiki.com/index.php?title=WoWWiki_talk:Village_pump&action=submit” because it could not connect to the server “www.wowwiki.com”."User:CrazyJack/Sig 08:21, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Seems fine again now. User:CrazyJack/Sig 09:57, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

PC Gamer UK and the inability to spell

So, I'm sitting here with my latest PCG (a better magazine than the US version) and the image accompanying the article on WotLK is a disgrace:

• It's a rip of the RPG map. So, wrong (e.g. Crystalsong Forest).
• Zal'Drak
• Aziol-Nerab
• Gandrak
• Uldaar

Notice a theme? They misread every u as an a and here's why: Image:Northrend.JPG. Next time they should get someone who plays WoW to do the work... (and suggest they look around the rest of the wiki whilst copying from it ;) User:Kirkburn/Sig3 13:01, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and it gets better. They accompany a caption about Lake Wintergrasp with ... Daggercap Bay. Furbolg info with ... Warsong Hold. Dragonblight info with ... the Howling Fjord. 'Insane' 'Tuskar' info with ... a random shot of broken stuff on the Borean Tundra coast. Also "between the sides of the canyon hover dozens of burning airships; the intention being that when strapped together they'll form the basis of an instanced dungeon" ... never heard that before. User:Kirkburn/Sig3 13:11, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

And you mock us. Hah! Schmidt 13:53, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Vanilla, BC, TBC, WLK, WOTLK.. etc

ok,

• BC is generally accepted as a short form for the burning crusade. TBC is a known alternative but not used much.
• WK, WLK, WOTLK, are options for the wrath of the lich king. WK or WLK being the more functional ones.

What is a known / well used short for pre-tbc wow however?

And, is there any point, other than for old time's sake in keeping pre-tbc specific articles ( such as healing gear or resistance gear which is obviously far inferior to tbc items) related to that time period in the wiki, if they don't serve any clear common use. ? User:CrazyJack/Sig 14:18, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

village pump forums an option?

Would it in some way be possible to set up a wikiforum instead of using a single page for the village/warcraft pump?

These 2 pages flood so fast, it's hard to track any ongoing discussions, or who is replying to who. etc. a forum might be nice, if we dont have one already User:CrazyJack/Sig 14:22, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

That idea is being worked on in WW:SR. --Pcj (T•C) 14:59, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

kinky. how far are we on javascript popups for floating item tooltips? User:CrazyJack/Sig 15:06, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Done, as far as I'm concerned. See the bottom of #CSS / JS revamp and let me know if you have any problems. --Pcj (T•C) 17:04, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Test Teamspeak online

I have made a TeamSpeak server that i invite you all to (ab)use : [teamspeak://ts.wowwiki.bxd.dk:8769] - Any TS bashers and VT fanbois begone, it is this or nothing at all ;). Should the test be successful (meaning my bandwidth can handle y'all) it will stay online, and i might increse the sound quality (Currently using the Speex 12.3 Kbit codec)  D ♠ T ♣ C ♦  20:40, 30 August 2007 (UTC)