Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum

 This is a location to discuss non-content matters (what do we do with content disputes, vandalism, etc, what do we want to do with this wiki, and so on).

This is the page for current discussions.

Archives

• Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 1
• Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 2
• Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 3
• Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 4
• Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 5
• Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 6
• Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 7

Well, that hurts

Changing the backend of architecture had a hiccup and I had to restore from my previous backup. We've all new changes since the 23rd :( --Osiris (talk) 18:12, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

Back up again faster than expected; now about the previous problem... Is there yet hope of recovering the Discworld & Terry Pratchett namespace (or the missing images)? I have the Mended Drum archives, but I don't know what's to be done with the rest of the missing pieces. Old Dickens (talk) 21:48, 9 July 2021 (UTC)

I restored the Mended Drum archives. What other pages are you looking for? --Osiris (talk) 18:57, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

The portals on the Main Page, mainly (the About page doesn't even have the link now); there may be more I haven't seen yet. --Old Dickens (talk) 19:56, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

I think everything is back. At least all of the ones I can find in the database are restored. Can you give me an example page with a missing image? I'll tackle those next. --Osiris (talk) 21:12, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

Yay! (I wonder how you did that.) Missing image in Chidder, e,g. --Old Dickens (talk) 22:55, 10 July 2021 (UTC) The File List suggests that all images between Aug, 2006 and the Long Drive may be missing. --Old Dickens (talk)

Sent you an email --Osiris (talk) 05:20, 11 July 2021 (UTC)

New staff

After a long period of inadequate supervision, the wiki is pleased to announce the appointment of new administrators:
Jagra as Head Librarian and
Rabbi Moishe Rosenbaum as Spiritual Adviser . Old Dickens (talk) 00:42, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
And belatedly, having opened his email:
Guybrush representing the underside of the Disc.

Much appreciated! I'll huddle up with Pastor Oats. Thanks, Old Dickens and Osiris! Moishe Rosenbaum (talk) 01:08, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Thanks very much; and a position that no ones going to try to assassinate me over. Ook. Jagra (talk) 22:20, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

Well, you know what they say about "running on Fourecksian time"... Thanks folks. Nice to be on the team. - Guybrush (talk) 03:43, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

Discussion of respect for peripheral creations

(moved from Talk:Jocasta Wiggs.)
Gee I hate The Watch! Does it deserve references here beyond its own page acknowledging its existence? It has almost nothing to do with the works of Terry Pratchett. --Old Dickens (talk) 00:47, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

I mean, it's a related work and people are going to want to know more about it; I don't like the idea of trying to put everything relevant on that one page. And if someone wants to know more about the character in the show, who gets a lot more screen time than the book version, this felt like the right place for a little paragraph. But if the consensus is it's not wanted here, fair enough and I'll stop adding info about it. I'll note it's not universally hated, though, despite its faults. -- Guybrush (talk) 03:59, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

OK, two opinions. Is anyone invoking Terry's name entitled to advertising here? Where's the limit? --Old Dickens (talk) 05:01, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

I haven't seen the show, and I don't intend to - not after I saw what the young (my age!) Ms. Pratchett had to say about it on twitter a long while ago. But, that said... it's not a pirated fanfic, it's a legit derivative work that, as Guybrush says, people may come to this site for info about. As long as anything about it is clearly marked as from the show, or "non canonical", or something like that - as long as we're not representing The Watch as an actual Terry Pratchett creation - I'm okay with it getting coverage. Though my heart agrees with Old Dickens. And someone please correct me if I'm wrong about anything here. Moishe Rosenbaum (talk) 05:24, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

Terry's name appears in the titles, Rob is still credited as a producer and the Narrativia logo appears at the end, which for me is qualification enough; and no other adaptation has been different enough to require additional information like this (except maybe the TV version of Good Omens). But it's true that the important difference between The Watch and other adaptations is that the official Pratchett team are clearly unhappy with the result, and that they didn't have the equivalent of the veto power Terry had on all projects while he was alive. I also understand why people don't like it, even if I did (if with plenty of reservations). I want to document it somewhere - not least for fans who want to know more about it without watching it - but to avoid contention, perhaps we should just confine it to the specific article. I can find somewhere else for the greater detail. (As it happens, I have a whole separate wiki I've been working on, on which I've already set up interwiki to L-Space.) -- Guybrush (talk) 12:11, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

You may be right. I started here arguing against content restrictions since we don't take up any weight or shelf space.
What, then, might be reasonable limits to inclusion or linking in the wiki? So far, I and contemporaries have treated spam pretty ruthlessly because it was obvious. What credit do we give a book/story/movie/tvseries/game/... that has only a nominal connection to Terry Pratchett? We already treat Discworld Noir as if it were canon, so it's muddy. --Old Dickens (talk) 18:33, 4 February 2022 (UTC)

This discussion is getting big enough that we should shift it to the Drum, since it's no longer just about The Watch, but what our policy is on inclusion of stuff in general. My two cents though is that anything officially licensed should definitely be included, and that unambiguously includes both The Watch and Discworld Noir, even though neither was written by Terry himself. -- Guybrush (talk) 00:39, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

We used to have a page for administrative discussion, but Osiris never liked the idea. -- Old Dickens (talk) 04:18, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

Down time

And...we're back. They blowed that cable up real good. --Old Dickens (talk) 16:27, 25 February 2022 (UTC)

Railroad company doing maintenance didn't check for existing lines and dragged it's feet taking responsibility and allowing access for repairs. 1100 Tuesday to 0200 Friday complete outage. Then I had to update the DNS back to normal and wait for propagation. --Osiris (talk) 16:59, 25 February 2022 (UTC)