Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 5

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de:Links to be deleted?

There are many dead "de:Links" in the wiki, e.g. in Hogfather: "de:Buch:Schweinsgalopp". Is there any hope or intention to fill them with life (again?), or are they deadwood, to be deleted if you are already working on an article and stumble on one of them?--EinFritz (talk) 08:47, 16 October 2013 (GMT)

Leave them for now. --Osiris (talk) 11:52, 16 October 2013 (GMT)

I'm still wondering why they can't be linked; theirs still work. --Old Dickens (talk) 22:25, 16 October 2013 (GMT)

I fixed them: see below. --Old Dickens (talk) 22:05, 30 November 2013 (GMT)

Security breach?

There was just a strange edit by an unregistered user ‎at 10.203.74.26 in Talk:Nightingale Valley. How did that get in here? --Old Dickens (talk) 04:08, 10 November 2013 (GMT)

Fallout from upgrade

• Was the "{Edit]" button supposed to move from the right to hard against the section title? It's not visually appealing.
• The Edit Summary box is also funny.

That was me, I opened permissions and was testing to see if i'd opened them too far. Which I had. All registered users should be able to create and edit pages now. --Osiris (talk) 04:35, 10 November 2013 (GMT)

Whew! Thought they'd found a new tactic, there. --Old Dickens (talk) 04:55, 10 November 2013 (GMT)

feedback from user

I've had a really interesting conversation with a first-time casual user of the wiki who came here (my reccomendation) to research background information for fanfic writing. The feedback runs:-

• I looked at the Discworld wiki, and tried to use it to help Cheery buy her dress. I was not even able to find the Category: Ankh Morpork Businesses for a long time. Neither "Ankh-Morpork" nor "Locations" mention it.

And I had the AM businesses page up at one point earlier tonight when was I writing you but lost it and couldn't find it again when I knew the page existed! I tried to put "businesses" into search and went nowhere, even trying it several ways. I finally went clicking down the directory until I ran into "Stuff." It's frustrated me and made my little fic, "Cheery's First Date" not nearly as fun to write. It's not a very good fic, but I'm not sure I want to write another one unless I can get the site details straight. I can tell from reading that you've been a faithful contributor to the wiki since it began, AG/PROV, so I hope this isn't annoying. Or at least can decide to gloss over what I don't know. I have no idea where Frout's is. But neither does Pterry, it appears, so it's okay.

I mean, I suspect the Categories "evolved organically" with the Wiki, as they contain a few inconsistencies of various sorts. but if a new user finds it frustratingly hard to navigate, is this typical experience for all visitors? should we look at categories and indexing and see if it can be made simpler? (Lots of work...) over to you...AgProv (talk) 22:33, 21 November 2013 (GMT)

I never thought of anyone starting from Categories, but apparently...

"Categories" has its own section on Main Page so it doesn't seem too hard to find, although it seems to me that "Portals" could use reworking, and Categories might be added as a Portal. "Tours" and both the "Reading suggestions" might be deleted to make room, Biography isn't a portal, just a page. Articles like Disambiguation Pages could be created to group related categories and ease searches. Any other portals? --Old Dickens (talk) 23:48, 21 November 2013 (GMT)

See what you think of the "Categories" portal on the Main Page. --Old Dickens (talk) 01:20, 22 November 2013 (GMT)

List of Pratchett characters

Then, I'd like opinions on the major overhaul of the List of Pratchett characters. Apart from the mistakes and odd nomenclature that can be corrected, I'm not keen on the whole layout, mainly because it removes much of the alphabetical ordering and requires that you know which section to look in. --Old Dickens (talk) 01:46, 22 November 2013 (GMT)

I like it! I got to thinking about the feedback received on site accessibility, and it's probably important for us to realise that not every casual caller will find it user-friendly. The short-cuts and ways in that we know and use might well be not so obvious to newcomers, or to people wanting to visit for purposes of research and fact-finding - which, after all, is what a Wiki is for. Every possible gateway portal should be viewed as a legitimate doorway, and I guess it's down to us to oil the hinges and put "Push" or "pull" on the correct sides. (Why do I feel a need to burst into opera here...) And signage on the walls...

Thanks! AgProv (talk) 12:19, 22 November 2013 (GMT)

Are you referring to the List of Prstchett characters, here? (Time for another archive, too...)--Old Dickens (talk) 20:31, 22 November 2013 (GMT)

SNAFU?

Oh gods! "Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki:" is the specified namespace, but the Mended Drum is in "Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:". What to do? --Old Dickens (talk) 04:43, 23 November 2013 (GMT)

de: links!

Hah! I fixed the de interwiki links (me, coding and operational ignoramus)!
Well, I say fixed, but there's a catch. They work, but to move to the sidebar where they belong they have to be on a line after another category. I wasted a lot of time separating them from the body of the article with colons when cutting and pasting them up would have been as easy. Who knew? This obviously wasn't the case in the old version; I wonder if there's another fix in the program somewhere? --Old Dickens (talk) 16:22, 24 November 2013 (GMT)

Found it. The trick here is just that the page has to be saved again (not even edited, but opened and saved at least). --Old Dickens (talk) 18:41, 24 November 2013 (GMT)

• I'm removing the few Cesky language links as I find them. I don't see any evidence that the Czech wiki still exists. --Old Dickens (talk) 00:56, 27 November 2013 (GMT)

SPAM ALERT! User: Netterku, possible spammer

Please check out User:Netterku, as I suspect he may be a spammer who has got through the net. Inept, as it's in Indonesian, which I speak as fluently as Vimes speaks Dwarfish (in fact, Vimes is native fluent compared to me). But interesting, in that the spamming sems to be arranged differently and not to the old well-known pattern. If we agree, and the user has not responded to my yellow card warning, shall we block? AgProv 25 Nov 2013

Let's hope their program hasn't learned the Qwestyons, but I guess a new list can be installed if necessary. --Old Dickens (talk) 22:45, 25 November 2013 (GMT)

just dealt with a second spammer who got in. But at least it's a trickle rather than a tsunami... AgProv, writing as..Vorpga (talk) 21:39, 26 November 2013 (GMT)

Change of address?

Funny...disc.osiris-web.com is no longer in service, but the wiki is available direct from lspace.org. I guess if you can read this you're not bothered, but old bookmarks may not work. --Old Dickens (talk) 19:33, 27 December 2013 (GMT)

I cleaned up when I moved my DNS management to Amazon Route 53. I'll go ahead and reenable it. --Osiris (talk) 19:39, 27 December 2013 (GMT)

Turns out it was a bad import. I've fixed the issue. It may take a few hours to propagate. --Osiris (talk) 19:56, 27 December 2013 (GMT)

Browsing

PopularPages is always amusing, whether it's "why so many?" or "why so few?"
Duke Harold is currently the least popular entry, despite AgProv's best effort, but there's little rhyme or reason. --Old Dickens (talk) 01:45, 8 January 2014 (GMT)

Upgrade complaints

• Was the "{Edit]" button supposed to move from the right to hard against the section title? It's not visually appealing.
• The Edit Summary box is also funny.

--Old Dickens (talk) 05:38, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

I hadn't noticed since I don't normally use the LSpace skin. Looks like I'll have to make some style adjustments. --Osiris (talk) 00:06, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Those should be fixed now. I haven't been able to test in all browsers though. --Osiris (talk) 04:44, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Yep, fixed those...unfortunately I tried to change skins to have a look and all I got was a blank page. Since all I get is a blank page, I can't change it back either. Any suggestions? User:Old Dickens (in Mr Spuddy-Face disguise as --Aavatar (talk) 22:38, 20 January 2014 (UTC)).

Clear your browsers cache and cookies. --Osiris (talk) 12:34, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Need to update the UserMerge extension too. --Osiris (talk) 18:08, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

No, that didn't help (I had the same problem in three browsers anyway). Aren't the preferences stored at your end? - Old Dickens, aka --Aavatar (talk) 23:17, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

I have to go into the database to change another user's skin. You've now reverted to the default skin. --Osiris (talk) 04:01, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Whew! Thanks; best to be comfortable in your own skin... --Old Dickens (talk) 12:51, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Return of SPAM

Here's the first piece of spam in a long time , from User:Bencongslebor, and MERGE doesn't work. The page goes blank.

The plugin which enables that hasn't been upgraded to support the new version of MediaWiki. As soon as it's updated I'll apply the update to this wiki. --Osiris (talk) 14:26, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Spoke too soon, the author has updated the plugin. I'll try and get it installed this week. --Osiris (talk) 14:27, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Not yet. --Old Dickens (talk) 22:00, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

There are a lot of them signing up but not leaving any droppings just now...odd. --Old Dickens (talk) 21:43, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

They're not passing the email validation test. I need to find some time to perform another upgrade of the wiki software. A security update came out a couple weeks ago but I haven't had time to implement it yet. --Osiris (talk) 21:54, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

Traditionally, though, these people don't even speak English, suggesting that their program has learned the answers to the Qwestions. Did you install the whole list? Should we write more? --Old Dickens (talk) 03:31, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Clicks fingers meaningfully, notes "merge" currently not functional, awaits moment to pounce and rend. AgProv (talk) 21:00, 19 July 2014 (UTC) Also notes tvtropes formatting does not work here...AgProv (talk) 21:01, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Base upgrade complete. Still need to identify and fix issues with the default skin and extensions. --Osiris (talk) 21:08, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

Extensions Updated --Osiris (talk) 02:36, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Just updated the list of questions. --Osiris (talk) 18:16, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Another SEARCH oddity

Surely Vortis, the jeweller, appears more than once here, and certainly in Here'n'now, but a search doesn't produce any result. --Old Dickens (talk) 01:33, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

A degree of confusion with aquiline villain Vorbis? AgProv (talk) 20:04, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Ah. The apparent non-existence of "Vortis" is another problem. --Old Dickens (talk) 23:55, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

Nothing I can do about the search issue right now. It's a built in part of the application and I dont have the time to modify it. Also, we apparently need a new set of questions for the spam filter. --Osiris (talk) 01:30, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Ay ay, cap'n. --Old Dickens (talk) 02:27, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Blocking

Apparently we can use the Block function again? (...not that it ever did much good.) --Old Dickens (talk) 23:30, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

Well, I prefer to use Merge and Delete, but I need to find out why that wasnt presented as an option. --Osiris (talk) 02:19, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

Outage Notice

"Amazon has started warning customers of its EC2 cloud computing platform that it's going to start rebooting their instances en masse over the next few days.

Not all EC2 instance types will need rebooting; the fast storage (HS1) and large memory (R3) virtual machines are unaffected. But the reboots will nonetheless be widespread, with all regions and all availability zones affected. Rebooting is due to start this evening and finish next Tuesday.

Amazon hasn't explained why the bulk reboot is needed, but a source speaking to ITNews has said that it's due to an embargoed flaw in the Xen hypervisor. That bug, XSA-108, is due to be publicly disclosed on October 1, by which time Amazon's reboot should be complete."

This will force the wiki down at some point but I haven't received notice yet of the exact time. ---Osiris (talk)

"due to an embargoed flaw in the Xen hypervisor" - I'm pretty sure that means the servers are being taken over by alien forces. Anyway, we'll be here when its all over. --Zdm (talk) 21:06, 26 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for clearing that up. --Old Dickens (talk) 00:55, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

New Premises

Aaaaaand, we're back (if you know where to look)! Don't try to use the L-Space skin, however. There be Dragons. --Aavatar (talk) 01:28, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

The Dragons have been slain! --Osiris (talk) 02:23, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

The skin is back, but other things seem strange in this universe. There are new red links and things seem to be in different namespaces (initial impression; I haven't figured anything out yet). I see hours of engrossing activity re-writing the main page alone.
And we still have the damned "&amp". --Old Dickens (talk) 03:06, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

Trying to fix the new broken links to the portals on the main page quickly got too deep for me. I can search and look at the Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki:Characters page, it's at [1], and the links work, but it can't be edited and it turns into a red link when used.
Mended Drum archives 1 and 2 seem to be gone. I have these myself from the great move, but how to reinstate them safely? The Discworld & Pratchett Wiki namespace obviously exists but it's not in the list of searchable namespaces; most of the Discworld & Terry Pratchett namespace seems to be missing. I need a Wizard. --Old Dickens (talk) 00:23, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Dont worry, there was a typo in the namespace configuration. See if it's fixed now. --Osiris (talk) 03:41, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Easy-peasy; oh, boy! Happy Guy Fawkes night! --Old Dickens (talk) 22:41, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

Next problem...

Oops. Now images don't work, in templates or separately, not even thumbnails in the gallery. --Old Dickens (talk) 02:52, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

Don't worry they're all still there. I'll try and fix those links tonight. --Osiris (talk) 15:40, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

What. me worry? --Old Dickens (talk) 17:08, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

Images loaded. Sorry, my household is the home of the plague right now so this took a while to get to. --Osiris (talk) 01:35, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

The mills of the god grind slowly, but exceeding fine. You da man! --Old Dickens (talk) 02:00, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

...but, AgProv's syntax looks ok in Talk:Mayor of Quirm, but it doesn't work. I tried it and the image works by itself, but not with the "thumb" instructions. --Old Dickens (talk) 04:50, 20 November 2014 (UTC) I tried a bunch: some files work, some with exactly the same format (File.jpg) don't. Size and date don't seem to matter. ??? --Old Dickens (talk) 16:16, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

Spam control

We seem to be back to the common IP address and the Delete button for vermin is gone. Can we only delete the droppings? --Old Dickens (talk) 17:41, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

Hosting Funding

I'm considering adding some simple ads from google to help defray the hosting costs. I honestly don't expect much return but a little bit helps. I'd like to hear the communities thoughts though. --Osiris (talk) 23:16, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

I don't know how much money we're talking about, here. I guess two million hits on the front page alone could sell some ads, but how much that's worth or what's needed? The idea depresses me after all these years: I'd rather chip in myself if it could be done by contributions, but I couldn't come up with a lot. --Old Dickens (talk) 00:40, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

doesnt matter anyway, adsense said we dont meet content guidelines

Content Guidelines?! Gods, I wonder who does. Meanwhile, as I type, I get this Security Alert: Revocation information for the security certificate for this site is not available. Do you want to proceed?...erm... --Old Dickens (talk) 22:47, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

There is no security certificate for this site. That only applies to https sites and this site is strictly http. --Osiris (talk) 14:27, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

Just a thought, but maybe something like easy fundraising would help raise some money to cover hosting costs - it wouldn't even need people to donate directly. According to their website to be eligible 'You simply need to be based in the UK, have unselfish goals and good intentions'. Personally, having found this wiki so helpful I too would feel happy about making a donation, but sadly I doubt it could be much. Still, a small button at the side accepting donations might well help raise a bit of funding.--Verity (talk) 01:13, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

While we might fit in under "religious groups", there's the problem that we've never been based in the UK. It doesn't look promising. --Old Dickens (talk) 02:56, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Oh. Didn't know. Perhaps theres something similar for whichever country this is based in. --Verity (talk) 11:07, 28 December 2014 (UTC)