MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

MediaWiki talk:Community Portal/Archive25

2010-11-04T04:21:19Z

195.2.240.68: /* thanks for the postAcitiaddy */ new section

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==A worthy cause if I've ever seen one==
Not explicitly Wiki-related, but I thought it'd be a good idea to bring [http://kotaku.com/5059337/stan-bush-wants-the-touch-in-guitar-hero-rock-band this little campaign] to the community's attention. Spread the word! -- [[User:Cyberlink420|Cyberlink420]] 17:43, 6 October 2008 (EDT)

== Firefox Search Plugin ==
Given that there's several established MediaWiki search plugins for many prominent wikis, how hard would it be for us to have one, and have it properly registered so that Firefox users browsing the site just get the option in their drop-down to add it in?--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 22:33, 6 October 2008 (EDT)
:...nobody's invented an all-in-one Search plugin for FF net, you have to install them all separately? ...o.O
:FWIW, any Opera users out there can add:

<pre>http://www.tfwiki.net/wiki/Special:Search?search=%s&go=Go</pre>to their Search panel. I've had it there even back on Wikia; just needed to swap to TFWiki.net when the time came.
(Then again, I suppose any Opera users out there have figured this out already...) --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 07:11, 7 October 2008 (EDT)
:::I found [http://blog.bemoko.com/2008/05/16/step-by-step-create-a-firefox-search-plugin-for-your-mediawiki/ these instructions] after doing a search out of curiosity. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 07:19, 7 October 2008 (EDT)
:::Actually, I feel silly now. I just noticed that I ''already'' had the option to "Add Transformers Wiki (English)"--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 10:00, 7 October 2008 (EDT)
::::*pats sympathetically* Still, considering how simple those instructions seemed to be, maybe creating a search plugin still isn't a bad idea. And/or an "add TF Wiki search to your browser" instruction blurb. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 19:17, 7 October 2008 (EDT)

== Search box tweaks ==
Not sure if this is related to the above, but is there any way of filtering redirect pages from the suggested results in the search box? It's just that if you type say, "Professor" into the search, the list of suggestions underneath gets clogged up with variations on [[Professor Gō]], pushing genuine results such as [[Professor Purnel]] off the bottom of the list. I appreciate that it's a problem with this particular example containing a non-standard roman character, but having [[Professor Go]], <nowiki>[[Professor Goh]]</nowiki> and [[Professor Gou]] all appearing as "valid" suggestions seems misleading. --[[User:Emvee|Emvee]] 07:58, 7 October 2008 (EDT)
:You'd have to change it on the PHP side. I was looking through the code the other day, and it made my eyes cross. :(
:From a coding standpoint though-- yeah. You'd tell it not to return matches that were redirects. (I've sorta been poking at my own implementation of the searchbox... I liked Wikia's functionality.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 08:04, 7 October 2008 (EDT)

== Making finding images for articles easier. ==
Currently we have [[Category:Articles in need of images]], which is nice but a bit unwieldy and I suspect not many people check it. However, [[Template:Picsneeded]] does have an optional field that allows you to specify ''which'' pics are needed, to help speed up the process. Still, that assumes you're actually looking directly at the page.So what I was thinking is would it be possible to have a page on this wiki, possibly in the "Special" namespace, that is a list populated by the picsneeded template ''including'' the optional field? Such that someone might see:
* [[Gorlam Prime]] - Spotlight: Nightbeat pics of its transitional state.
* [[Gort]] - Toy
* [[Gōryū]] - Toy; fictional appearances...and then they'd say "Oh, I have those!" and upload them.Thoughts?--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 13:43, 11 October 2008 (EDT)

== Potentially Useful Extensions ==
So lately I've had occasion to install a Mediawiki on my own server, and I've been poring over the Extensions to see what might be cool/useful. In the process, I've also found a few extensions so far that this wiki might find helpful.
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:LinkedImage LinkedImage] - Creates proper linked images as opposed to the imagemap hack. Dunno if we actually use linked images outside of the Main Page, but I figured I'd mention it.
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ForcePreview ForcePreview] - Does just what it says; forces users that don't have the "forcepreviewexempt" right to have to preview before saving. No guarantee it'll make anyone *read* the preview before saving, but it might help with the "Preview Bastard" problems.
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MultiBoilerplate MultiBoilerplate] - This is the extension that really made me go, "Hell, yes!", however. It essentially lets you define a bunch of "layouts" of code in the Template namespace, then sticks them in a menu that shows up above the edit box while creating new pages so you can prefill them with "skeleton layout" code.
:You could, for instance, create a Template:Comicpage that had the wikicode for the Comicstory template call code, the standard section headers, and the Featuredcharacters template call code, and then whenever you were creating a new comic page you could load that layout code into the edit box with a click and start filling the content in. It'd be awesome for things like image pages, too, with all the different copyrights... any type of article that has (or should have) a standard structure, really.
--[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 19:20, 11 October 2008 (EDT)
:Just curious, but have you investigated any of the anti-spam extensions? Banning by IP address is always going to be a game of whack-a-mole, because there's an endless number of open proxies and compromised PCs out there.
:MultiBoilerplate looks really cool. I think it's a great idea! --[[User:Abates|abates]] 06:34, 12 October 2008 (EDT)

== Monacobook CSS patch ==
I'm requesting an admin/sysop port the code found at MediaWiki_talk:Monacobook.css over to MediaWiki:Monacobook.css. It has two Monacobook-specific CSS patches designed to prevent an image-overlap problem that can render text nonselectable with Firefox 3's new zoom mode. I have tested this code on IE, Opera and Safari (PC,) and it has null effect on other browsers. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 15:04, 12 October 2008 (EDT)

== Transformers Primer ==
I'm proposeing the creation of a transformers Primer. A short-ish article (no more than 3 pages) that's a complete overview of what Transformers "is" and its history.Skipping around the wiki at random the one thing that strikes me is how ''unfriendly'' it is to relative newcomers. We're very good at identifying a character as "from the Cybertron cartoon portion of the Unicron Trilogy continuity family," but that's essentially gibberish to someone who's only seen 2-3 years of the current cartoon... the two things they might recognize (cybertron, the name of a planet, and Unicron the name of an evil god,) don't mean what you'd expect in that context.A primer, giving someone a general idea of the parameters- the length width and breadth of TF, and its major divisions... aimed at the '''non-editor''', would be helpful, I think. Anyone else have thoughts on the matter? -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 22:29, 30 September 2008 (EDT)
:That would be a challenging article to write. I too would like to make a suggestion. The MST3K web site www.mst3kinfo.com has a "calendar" of sorts as a kind of "on this date in history" and describes births, deaths, events related to the terrible movies they make fun of. Would the addition of a "On this date..." type of feature either on the homepage or somewhere be worthwhile? Such as, "On Sept. 27, 1985, the G1 episode Traitor aired." or similar.--[[User:SuzyP|SuzyP]] 22:40, 30 September 2008 (EDT)
::I've been intermittently linking dates and years to pages... but the consensus seems to have been "Not enough happened/aired/was released to justify those 366 articles." (Which is pretty silly.)
::''This day in history'' seems pretty separate from a Primer though... what connection do you see? -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 22:47, 30 September 2008 (EDT)
:::There isn't really a connection. I should have started a different section on this. My bad. What I was originally envisioning wasn't necessarily 366 articles, but maybe some kind of widget that popped the trivia up each day on the home page. I have no clue how to do such a thing, but I think it would be a neat feature. And by suggesting it I'd be willing to help compile the trivia. I was thinking airdates, publication dates, voice actor birthdays, etc.--[[User:SuzyP|SuzyP]] 22:55, 30 September 2008 (EDT)
::::It's relatively easy, actually. You create 366 pages, and they're transcluded onto the home page depending on the day. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 23:06, 30 September 2008 (EDT)
:::::Nifty. I'd be willing to help put it together, but only if the community was behind it. Sounds like the idea was floated before and it wasn't popular.--[[User:SuzyP|SuzyP]] 23:14, 30 September 2008 (EDT)
::::::Hmm. If they're all going to be just short messages, is there no way to condense it into one template, kind of like what was done with the fake disambig on the Main Page? --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 23:18, 30 September 2008 (EDT)

:::::I was thinking it could be something simple like that. I just did a quick search here for "September" and found lots of entries with notable dates.--[[User:SuzyP|SuzyP]] 23:23, 30 September 2008 (EDT)
:::::::::::::It really ''ought'' to be 366 pages though. Hiding the guts of the pages in a template discourages people from adding them. You use a template to transclude the appropriate page on the appropriate day is all. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 04:59, 1 October 2008 (EDT)
::::::::I dunno. Aside from being kind of bleh at the thought of 366 itty-bitty pages, I'd find scanning ''one'' page for the right date and adding the info to that section (since you'd pre-make the template with 366 lines, they wouldn't need to add code or anything) quicker and easier than having to sift through ''366'' pages to find the right one to edit, but maybe that's just the way I tend to think. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 07:03, 1 October 2008 (EDT)

::::::To whoever did it, thanks. I like it.--[[User:SuzyP|SuzyP]] 19:51, 1 October 2008 (EDT)

Back to the original discussion... I think I'll take a whack at it sometime. I end up doing a lot of "briefly summarizing for the uninitiated" in the guidebooks I write, so this shouldn't be too hard. Just give me a couple days... --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 18:17, 1 October 2008 (EDT)
:I'd like to see a "So you're writing about transformers..." sort of primer. The sort of thing someone doing an article about the new movie coudl read to come out with a real picture of what TF ''is'' instead of relying on 25 year old memories of what the cartoon was like. I offer the following things I think distinguish TF;
* TF never 'went away.' It remained on shelves, with product and promotions tied to the comic through the original line's cancellation, and the G2 line followed right on the heels of Action Masters. BW came less than a year after G2 ended, etc. TF has never 'stopped' fore more than 12 months, and those were ''strategic'' stops before relaunching.
* G1 is still 'going'. Stories are ''still'' being added to the original cartoon and comic timelines (or branches threof) in Japan and the US respectively. And that's even without getting into Dreamwave or IDW's NEW Generation 1 'universes'. (And probably something about hwo the BW stories were set in G1?) The 'original timeline' (both cartoon ''and'' comic regardless of which you consider the original, and ignoring some ambiguity about whether or not BW ''counts'' as either of them in specific) has not gone more than... 2 years ''at most'' without new story material set in it since 1984.
* TF doesn't have 'one cast' like most evergreen franchises do. Optimus Prime isn't even IN half of the G1-continuity-family episodes (JG1 + BW + JBW + BM...) You can-- and do-- get stories about ''very'' marginal characters (Sparkabots for example,) that are every bit as 'central' to the story as the ones featuring the main cartoon cast. Characters grow and change-- Thunderwing and Bludgeon got PROMOTED to leadership of the Decepticons-- these guys are <u>Pretenders</u>, the second-most-loathed toy gimmick in TF's history. The shift to BW is the classic example here... the universe is wide, and no one take or characters is 'right' as opposed to others. (Except BM and Kiss Players. They are wrong.)
* "It All Counts." Every TF story ever told co-exists with everything else. The cartoon, comics, etc. The idea of a multiverse. Bits of continuity, characters and backstory, from coloring books comic books and what-have-you are all ''equally valid'' in Transformers... not just in theory, but '''in practice'''. Pretty much ''everything'' surrounding The Cube in the 2007 movie came into the franchise ''after'' the original cartoon ended-- some late Marvel Comics stuff, but really more BW/BM. Heck-- the simple fact the ''main villain'' of a 200m motion picture doesn't come from the original cartoon-- ''or'' a recent cartoon-- but instead made ''one'' prior appearance in some (relatively obscure) Canadian comics in 2003. (This and the previous point both deal with 'lack of centricity' in fiction I think...)
* Hasbro/Takara owns ''everything''. Did you know that Hasbro is the ''sole'' copyright holder of TF:Legends? iBooks has no claim on the text-- or even cover art. (This again feeds back into the idea that new TF stories indiscriminately mine ''anything'' that came before.)
* TF's 'story' is ongoing. The current backstory still being explored with The One, the Multiverse and The 13 Prototypes and The fallen was added in ''2003''. Prior to that you got Sparks, the Vok and Protoforms int he mid 90's. Primus in the late 80's comics. Unicron from the 1986 movie (not in the 'iconic' era of the TV show at all.) Just-- the top-level TF 'story' is ongoing and has never stopped. The very fact The Fallen is rearing his ugly flaming head in the new movie is testament to this-- he's part of a meta-story that's been going in a steady line for 25 years. Now he's stepping out of the Dreamwave U and into the Movie U-- because his storyline is still going on. (I'm not saying this well... but there's a sort of... ''inconsequence'' that comes with the Gundam or Final Fantasy reboots... every year matters to itself only, and when it's over has no lasting impact on what comes after. TF might have similar 1-year or 3-year stories that begin and end... but there's a parallel overarching story that's been going since '''1986''' that weaves freely between the cartoons, comics and movies. Fun Pub is telling stories right now that, via a series of baton handoffs, form a continuous chain back '''11 years''', jumping continuities between BW, BM, RiD, TFU, Arm/En and ''heavily'' featuring into the Cybertron ''cartoon''... and are now revising the original Marvel Comic!)
:There's some overlap here with "Myths and urban legends about transformers..." but it's really more "exploding preconceptions about Transformers," and I'd like to see that included in a primer... somehow.
:Everything I'm rambling about here really does boil down to some variant of "Truk Not Monkey..." I have '''rage''' that I can't quite articulate about...
: You know how every mainstream media article about comics for the last 20+ years has been "Bif, Pow! Comics aren't just for kids any more!" The same clueless Adam-West-era-Batman POV repeated ''ad infinitum'' because popular consciousness '''never clued in''' that that era has been over for 30+ years, not even when Maus won a Pulitzer? (Obama reiterated it 2 days ago...) I want a primer that can ''spare'' TF some of that, that '''violently beats''' the G1-centric mindset out of anyone who reads it and gives them some glimpse of--
: Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Star Trek... Transformers. TF '''is''' the 4th largest shared fictional universe in existence. (Star Wars is smaller in terms of #'s of stories told, if not # of characters.) There are... what 600 episodes, and like 700 comics- and dozens upon dozens of text stories, radio plays, mini-comics, animated DVD's and novels? This universe is ''unimaginably vast'', and unlike Gundam (which has a similar episode count if you add all the universes together) These things are all '''actually''' interrelated, with characters actually ''jumping'' from one universe to another.
:TF is '''ginormous''' and weird and wonderful. And if you can say without any braggadocio that TF is among the 5 largest fictional universes ever created (bigger than Star Wars's <u>expanded universe</u>!) I think that should be the face we present and be unapologetic about saying- "TF isn't like He-Man or any other ''dozens'' of retro-stalgia fandom... it is a '''top tier''' fandom, and if you want to find other examples and "big" as we are, you have to go back 40, 50, ''80'' years-- and even then we're in the top 5."
:Ah! I think what it boils down to is... TF is ''different''. And if you come at TF with the preconception that "TF is like X..." you're already doing it ''wrong'', and that perspective needs adjusting so you don't come off like an idiotic print media reporter claiming he represents an expert viewpoint on comics... then troting out "Bif, Pow! comics aren't just for kids anymore!"
:(That's what I feel like a TF Primer should accomplish. Or at least ''one'' of the things.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 18:51, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
::The media can't be trusted to get things right on things that ''actually fucking matter''. You're basically spitting at the tsunami. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 19:15, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
:::Then it's propaganda aimed at our own constituency. Let Transfans actually see their fandom for what is it in perspective- the largest shared fictional universe created since 1984. TF is not "like" He-man fandom, the two are not... comparable. They exist on completely different scales. It's like comparing Invader Zim to Star Wars.
:::Complaining that the media is uninformed without giving them a legitimate possibility ''to be'' informed strikes me as a pointless argument. If we get good information in there's at least a ''chance'' of getting an accurate picture out ''some'' of the time. No chance at all without it. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 20:46, 27 October 2008 (EDT)

== CAPTCHA ==
Considering the recent wave of spambots, I'm curious. Do we still have the CAPTCHA that was on Wikia for anonymous edits? Because if we don't, perhaps setting one up again might stop those spammy edits of the CGI and Gobotron pages... --[[User:Detour|Detour]] 22:26, 17 October 2008 (EDT)
: We do not appear to have the "you added a new external link" spambot-for-anons that Wikia had. I'd probably put it on our feature-request list. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 00:09, 18 October 2008 (EDT)
:: While I think such a thing might not be a bad idea in general (along with my other extension suggestions, nudge), in this particular case it seems the spammer is human, so I'm not sure how much it'll help. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 01:15, 18 October 2008 (EDT)

== State of the Wiki ==
So we've been at the new location over a month now, going on nearly two. This definitely would be our first taste of the "real world" conditions and stresses the server will go through. Granted it's been a period without new episodes of Animated, nor with any major movie news. Still, it's at least a way to see whether our projections were correct.So the admins can answer this probably better than anyone, are things working out like we'd hoped? Are we using the bandwidth we expected? More? Less? Are the ad numbers hitting the targets we need?And if not, what can the community do to pitch in?--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 00:36, 26 October 2008 (EDT)
:Apparently, all our hosting so far has been free, as Bookworm said he hasn't figgered out how much we owe him, and that he doesn't plan on charging us back-time once he figures that out. So while I can't give you any concrete answers on what our money in/out situation is, since it's all "in," we certainly can't complain! My educated guess says, though, that we're solid. --[[User:ItsWalky|ItsWalky]] 01:42, 26 October 2008 (EDT)

== Bizarre thing with my webspace and this wiki ==
This is really weird, to say the least. I was idly looking through the stat logs for my own server today, and I noticed that one of my subdomains for some reason shows at least one referral from seemingly every article I've ever edited here. I don't particularly care, exactly, since it's a "files to link to" subdomain rather than one of my real websites, but it's given me a definite "buh?" reaction. Any idea why on Earth this would happen? --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 00:47, 26 October 2008 (EDT)
:Are you running any custom CSS? Does said CSS reference your domain?--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 00:51, 26 October 2008 (EDT)
::*facepalms and chuckles* Oops! Yes, and I'd totally forgotten I did that... OK, I feel silly now. :> Thanks for setting me straight... --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 01:02, 26 October 2008 (EDT)
:::No problem. It just made sense when you said that it seemed to be every page you'd visited personally that it was likely the referrals were coming ''from'' you somehow.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 01:04, 26 October 2008 (EDT)

== Comic/cartoon infobox and the tiny ass back/forwards arrows ==
I brought this up a couple of times over the past few months, but apparently nothing was done. Can somebody, somewhere ''please'' change the current comic/cartoon infobox template (and whatever other new infobox templates that have been copied off this) so that the last issue and next issue arrows are much larger and much more prominent? As it stands, right now they are tiny, difficult to click on and not very helpful to either long-time users or the many fans we are serving by creating this wiki. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 02:59, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
: This has actually been nagging me for a while. Hell, I'd replace with arrows with "PREV" and "NEXT" myself. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 03:22, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
:It requires someone with permissions to edit the css files, I think. I notice too that the top navigation cell of that template has a background colour on the old Wiki but not the new one, but they have the same code. Odd. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 06:34, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
::Actually, I stand corrected - I've made the arrows bigger and fixed the background colour by editing the template. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 07:04, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
:::There was CSS changes created to address this in a clean fashion-- but they were never adopted by the group. (We were knee-deep in moving preparations at the time.)
:::Jeysie asked me if i still had them recently, but when I finally went back to check ont hem today-- I foudn they were no longer working. Apparently Abates removed the needed classes in his last round of editing the template. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 14:38, 27 October 2008 (EDT)
::::I replaced 'em with style tags. Feel free to change them back of course. :) --[[User:Abates|abates]] 14:57, 27 October 2008 (EDT)

== Our friendly neighborhood spambot ==
so... this spammer thing whatzit that keeps hitting us... is there anything we can do about it? It uses a different IP address every time, and its inserts seem to be completely random characters, not even an actual or consistent web site address. If it's an ad bot, it's the worst ad bot ever. At the risk of sounding paranoid... it almost seems like it exists soley to attack/disrupt the wiki. -- [[User:Repowers|Repowers]] 15:59, 29 October 2008 (EDT)
:I'm puzzled by this. I haven't clicked any of the links so they're valid links (to malware/spyware/adware) or if it's all fakey stuff to bug us... But what really leaves me clueless is the fact that all those IP addresses are valid addresses from valid internet providers from all over the world... I have no idea what's going on. --[[User:Detour|Detour]] 16:13, 29 October 2008 (EDT)
::Most likely virus-ridden Windows machines which the spammers are using as zombies to do their dirty work. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 16:58, 29 October 2008 (EDT)
:::I recall someone asking if we could set up a Captcha or Recaptcha system for unregistered-user edits. Would it help? If so, who could implement it?--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 21:11, 29 October 2008 (EDT)
::::There are many anti-bot extensions that can be installed. I personally suggest [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TorBlock TorBlock], [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SimpleAntiSpam SimpleAntiSpam], [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SpamBlacklist SpamBlacklist], [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:AntiBot AntiBot] (if you want bots, you can add an exception to the default bot script), [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ForcePreview ForcePreview] and [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ConfirmEdit ConfirmEdit]. They have been effective on WikiFur and I suspect they would be here as well. [[User:GreenReaper|GreenReaper]] 00:57, 3 November 2008 (EST)
:::::Okay, then the remaining questions are who can implement these changes and when.--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 12:29, 4 November 2008 (EST)
::::::I can do that-- although not tonight, I'm pretty busy. But looking over these extensions, they do all seem like good ideas. --[[User:Suki Brits|Suki Brits]] 17:13, 5 November 2008 (EST)
:::::::*puts in a vote for [[Transformers Wiki talk:Community Portal#Potentially_Useful_Extensions|these possible extensions]] as well* --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 17:38, 5 November 2008 (EST)

:I VANT TO KILL -- [[User:Repowers|Repowers]] 22:27, 23 November 2008 (EST)
::No kidding. I had to block five of these bots in just the last hour or so. Suki, can we possibly get the appropriate safeguards installed by, say Thanksgiving?--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 22:30, 23 November 2008 (EST)
:::They've really been hitting hard lately. What's the word on those safeguards? --[[User:Detour|Detour]] 05:17, 26 November 2008 (EST)

== Increasing performance? ==
TFWiki is great. However, it could be greater. One area that I think would be worth focussing on is performance. It doesn't need to take half a second or more to generate a simple page, and five seconds to deliver it (more for a user who hasn't visited the site before - try simulating this with Ctrl+Shift+R using Firefox). Performance improvements would aid all users, but especially those who have slower connections and/or who live far from the server.The [http://community.livejournal.com/wikifur/ things we've done] for our new [http://wikifur.com/ WikiFur] server ([http://ru.wikifur.com/ example site]) - and specifically the things mentioned in [http://community.livejournal.com/wikifur/70308.html this post] - may be of use. Some (e.g. installing APC and Squid/Varnish) would require root-level server access, but are not overly complex, while others (enabling HTTP compression using .htaccess when serving CSS/JS/PHP, minifiying CSS/JS) merely require the ability to edit files on the server.HTTP compression alone would make a huge difference (examples: [http://www.port80software.com/tools/compresscheck.asp?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftfwiki.net%2Fwiki%2FMain_Page&Submit1=Check+Compression main page] - [http://www.port80software.com/tools/compresscheck.asp?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftfwiki.net%2Fwiki%2FOptimus_Prime_%2528G1%2529 Optimus Prime (G1)] - [http://www.port80software.com/tools/compresscheck.asp?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftfwiki.net%2Fwiki%2FMisconceptions_and_urban_legends_about_Transformers Misconceptions and urban legends]), though I urge you to take the time to follow the other steps for maximum performance. Properly implemented, they would greatly reduce the impact of TFWiki on the server from both a CPU and bandwidth standpoint, as well as encourage contributions by making TFWiki more responsive. [[User:GreenReaper|GreenReaper]] 02:01, 3 November 2008 (EST)
:Another thing that might be useful is making a robots.txt file. I noticed that the site doesn't currently have one, whereas the wikia site did, so the search engine spiders may be indexing all sorts of pages that they don't need to (edit pages, etc) which would create unnecessary work for the server.
:Incidentally I've noticed that the site seems to become somewhat unresponsive at the same time every night (must be about half-past midnight in one of the US time zones) - or is that just me? --[[User:Abates|abates]] 18:20, 4 November 2008 (EST)
::Just a further note on this, as the problem doesn't seem to be going away - I've noticed that shortpacked.com and blanklabelcomics.com both become unresponsive at the same time, so I assume it's a BLC server problem in general. I don't see anything on BLC's forums about the issue. Is it lingering problems from the weather, or a DOS attack or..? --[[User:Abates|abates]] 03:05, 21 November 2008 (EST)
:::I've noticed the same thing. I just spent nearly 20 minutes trying to read the newest Shortpacked! comic. -- [[User:Semysane|Semysane]] 03:18, 21 November 2008 (EST)
::::The BLC web-gurus are looking at it, as I've been told. It's apparently a maintenance issue, but they believe it doesn't need to be run every night. --04:51, 21 November 2008 (EST)
:::::Slightly annoying for me, as given I live IN THE FUTURE (another timezone), I tend to have free time to edit just as the server goes down. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 03:17, 24 November 2008 (EST)
:::::Is there any update on the investigation into this? AFAIK it's still happening. It happens right in the middle of the evening for my time which sucks for trying to edit, not to mention it can't be helping our google ranking if Googlebot finds the site non-responsive for 1/2 an hour every night. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 18:29, 7 December 2008 (EST)

== thanks for the postAcitiaddy ==

Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!

MediaWiki talk:Community Portal/Damage Control Central

2010-10-29T04:29:49Z

195.2.240.68: /* rambojones */ new section

'''What happened'''<br />
TFWiki.net's database was [[Transformers Wiki:Bookworm Crash|accidentally deleted in an attempt to upgrade the wiki-software]]. And due to a different software failure, the only existing backup was from June 2008. So one day we all logged in and saw that every article was nine months out of date. Our response was to raid [http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:tfwiki.net/wiki/ Google's cache] for more recent versions. The vast majority of articles have now been restored from there, but the Google-caching process has been an imperfect solution: Many articles are now up-to-date but badly-formatted, with garbled lines of code in plain view.

'''What needs to be done'''<br />
The ugliness needs to be fixed, and some articles still need to be restored from Google's cache. Some of the work can be automated, but much will have to be done by hand. See the "[[#Restoration|Restoration]]" section below for resources and advice.

'''Information outside of the wiki'''<br />
Immediately after the crash, discussion sprung up on these Allspark threads, and they have been a continuing source of information (especially as the wiki has been experiencing a lot of downtime lately):
* [http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=56439 "TFWiki Problems, Any idea what's going on?"]
* [http://www.allspark.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=51208&st=400&p=1155749&#entry1155749 "Major Wiki Work, A thread for additions to Transformers wikis."]

{|style="margin:0 auto;padding:0 auto;min-width:50%" align="center" id="toc"
!align="center" bgcolor=#6699CC|'''<font color="white">Damage Control Central Archives</font>'''
|- align="center"
|| [[Transformers Wiki talk:Community Portal/Damage Control Central/Archive1|Archive 1]] | [[Transformers Wiki talk:Community Portal/Damage Control Central/Archive2|Archive 2]] | [[Transformers Wiki talk:Community Portal/Damage Control Central/Archive3|Archive 3]]
|}<br /><br /><br /><br />

__TOC__

==Restoration==
Basically, if you see an article that looks messed-up, feel free to fix it.
===Useful Resources===
====Files====
If an article is still in its June 2008 state, there is probably a newer version that it should be restored to. Here are places to look:
* [http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:tfwiki.net/wiki/ The Google cache.] Add the name of the page you're looking for to the URL. (Don't click on the links in these pages; those will send you back here.)
As time goes on, the Google cache becomes less relevant because it overwrites itself with the current state of the articles. So several editors downloaded swaths of articles from the cache immediately after the crash:
* Suki Brits's unprocessed cache files: [http://www.scoutshonour.com/files/tfwikicache.tar.gz compressed archive] or [http://www.scoutshonour.com/tfwikicache/ individual downloads]
* G1MarvelBlaster's unprocessed cache files: [http://www.aldenbates.com/g1marvelblaster.zip compressed archive] or [http://www.fileqube.com/shfolder/180305DXXRbmdM individual downloads] (many articles beginning with "O" and "P" that are missing from Suki's cache)
* Lonegamer's unprocessed cache files: [http://miscfile.alienharmony.com/transformers/lonegamers-cache.zip compressed archive] (lots of articles about Japanese stuff)
* Lonegamer's unprocessed cache files part 2: [http://miscfile.alienharmony.com/transformers/lonegamers-cache-2.rar compressed archive] (lots more articles about Japanese stuff)
All of those files were converted by Google from wikicode to HTML. Since the wiki software doesn't understand most HTML, we have used some programs to try to convert the files back. Here are the results:
* Processed pages: [http://tfwiki.net/finished.zip compressed archive]
And here's a program to open all of these archives:
* [http://www.7-zip.org/ 7-Zip]

====HTML-to-wikicode processors====
Here are the programs we've been using to convert the files back to wiki-format:
* [http://emopanda.com/motormouth/rewiki_text2.php Derik's online HTML-to-wikicode processor, v2.5] (recommended)
* [http://emopanda.com/motormouth/rewiki_text2.php Derik's online HTML-to-wikicode processor, v3i] (only for specific tasks; see "[[#Too big to wikify?|Too big to wikifiy?]]" below)
* [http://www.aldenbates.com/htmltowiki Abates' online HTML-to-wikicode processor]
* [http://www.aldenbates.com/gallerizer Gallerizer] - converts <table class="gallery">s back into <gallery>s

===Fixing ugly pages===
The simplest thing to do when you see a page with broken code all over it is to call it out. Put the [[Template:Bookworm|Bookworm template]] at the top of the page, adding a severity-number and preferably a description of what's wrong. This will put the page in [[:Category:Recovery|a category]] so everyone can see that it needs to be fixed.

If you'd like to help repair the damage, you'll find that most of the problems with HTML failing to convert back to wikicode have to do with [[:Category:Templates|templates]]. Oftentimes a dozen lines of HTML can be replaced with a single "<nowiki>{{stub}}</nowiki>" or "<nowiki>{{picsneeded}}</nowiki>". Some templates are more complicated, however. Those are explained in the [[#Template Code You Might Need|next section]].

The other big problem is [[Wikipedia:Help:Footnotes|references]]. These need to be re-created by hand via putting empty <nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki> tags in the proper places in the article, then picking out the actual reference from under the Footnotes/References section and sticking them in the Ref tags, then replacing the leftover messed-up code with the <nowiki><references/></nowiki> element. You may want to check against the unprocessed cache page to make sure it's all correct.

====Template Code You Might Need====
=====Breaking Lists Into Columns=====
<pre><nowiki>{{columnlist|(number of items per column)|
(list of items)}}</nowiki></pre>

=====Comic Issues=====
Items between "coverdate" and "continuity" should be customized to match the issue's actual credits and wikilinked to the person's name.
<pre><nowiki>{{Comicstory|
|seriesissue=(wikilinked comic series the issue is part of)
|prev=(previous issue)
|next=(next issue)
|seriesissue2=(wikilinked second comic series the issue is also part of, if applicable)
|prev2=(previous issue in the second series, if applicable)
|next2=(next issue in the second series, if applicable)
|title=(title of the issue, if applicable)
|image=(cover image)
|caption=(caption for the cover image)
|publisher=(wikilink to the publisher)
|date=(month, day, and year the issue was released)
|coverdate=(month and year on the issue itself)
|writer=
|penciler=
|inker=
|colorist=
|letterer=
|editor=
|continuity=(wikilink to the continuity the issue takes place in)
}}</nowiki></pre>

=====Episodes=====
Items between "production company" and "animation studio" should be customized to match the episode's actual opening credits and wikilinked to the person's name.
<pre><nowiki>{{episode|
|series=(series the episode is in (codes: g1, headmasters, masterforce, victory,
zone, g2, beast wars ii, beast wars neo, beast machines, rid, armada, energon,
cybertron, animated))
|ep=(the episode number)
|prev=(previous episode)
|next=(next episode)
|series2=(second series the episode is in, if applicable (codes: g1, headmasters,
masterforce, victory, zone, g2, beast wars ii, beast wars neo,
beast machines, rid, armada, energon, cybertron, animated))
|ep2=(the second series episode number, if applicable)
|prev2=(previous episode in the second series, if applicable)
|next2=(next episode in the second series, if applicable)
|title=(title of the episode)
|japanese=(title in Japanese for Japanese-origin episodes, if applicable)
|romaji=(romanization of Japanese title)
|translation=(translation of Japanese title)
|image=(some representative image)
|caption=(caption for the image)
|production code=(episode's production code, if known)
|production company=(wikilink to the company that produced the episode)
|writer=
|director=
|animation studio=(wikilink to the studio that animated the episode)
|airdate=(the date the episode aired)
|continuity=(wikilink to the continuity the episode takes place in)
}}</nowiki></pre>

=====Featured Characters=====
First column is "Autobots", second is "Decepticons", third is "Humans", fourth is "Others", fifth is "Misc." These headers can be changed if needed by using |h1=(new header)|c1= in place of the c1=. Code sections with no characters in them can be deleted.
<pre><nowiki>{{featuredcharacters
|c1=

|c2=

|c3=

|c4=

|c5=

}}</nowiki></pre>

====="For Further Information"=====
Used whenever an article has had some of its sections separated into separate articles.<br>
'''<tt><nowiki>{{see|(title of separated section page)}}</nowiki></tt>'''

=====Image Galleries=====
Used to format lots of images into a swanky-looking table.
<pre><nowiki><gallery>
Image:(filename)|(caption)
</gallery></nowiki></pre>

====="See Main Article"=====
Whenever an article has had some of its sections separated into separate articles, this should be placed at the top of the separate articles to link them back to the page they were split from.<br>
'''<tt><nowiki>{{main|(title of main article)}}</nowiki></tt>'''

=====Specifying How an Article Should Be Sorted in Categories=====
For instance, if the article is named "Simon Furman", but you want it sorted as "Furman, Simon" in all categories.<br>
'''<tt><nowiki>{{DEFAULTSORT:(altered title)}}</nowiki></tt>'''

=====Speedy Delete=====
Slap this on any page that can definitely be deleted. Needless to say, don't stick this on a page unless you're absolutely certain it can be deleted!<br>
'''<tt><nowiki>{{speedy|(reason for delete)}}</nowiki></tt>'''

=====Stubs=====
*General: '''<tt><nowiki>{{stub}}</nowiki></tt>'''
*Character pages: '''<tt><nowiki>{{charstub}}</nowiki></tt>'''
**Character pages that need fiction: '''<tt><nowiki>{{charstubfiction}}</nowiki></tt>'''
**Character pages that need toys: '''<tt><nowiki>{{charstubtoys}}</nowiki></tt>'''
*Comic issues: '''<tt><nowiki>{{issuestub}}</nowiki></tt>'''
*Episodes: '''<tt><nowiki>{{epstub}}</nowiki></tt>'''

=====Year Page Navigation=====
Puts a nice navigation box on the top of year pages.<br>
'''<tt><nowiki>{{yearofthe|(year)}}</nowiki></tt>'''

==Google Cache Pages==
===Saved===
*Main
*Template
*Help
*Transformers Wiki
*[http://miscfile.alienharmony.com/transformers/alltalkpages.txt Talk] 0000-0499, 8600-8921

====Exceptions====
{{collist|4|
*<s>[[Akari Hibino]]</s> - 100% -[[User:Derik|Derik]]
*[[All Fall Down (disambiguation)]]
*[[Charlie Bodin]]
*[[Cheyne]]
*[[Crown]]
*[[Cybertron Redux]]
*[[Deep Sea Discovery! Vector Prime]]
*[[Dirt Boss (disambiguation)]]
*[[Do Over]]
*[[El Greco]]
*Empire7
*[[End of the Road (Titan)]]
*Enter, Lio Convoy Typhoon
*[[Esther Scott]]
*[[Frederic Doss]]
*[[Fushigi Yamada]]
*[[Geonosis]]
*<s>[[Gods? Devils? The Pretenders]]</s>
*<s>[[Gutcruncher (G1)]]</s>
*Hasbro Q&A March 2009 question submissions
*<s>[[High Beam]]</s> - 100% -[[User:Derik|Derik]]
*Hochu Otsuka
*[[Insecticon Attack!]]
*Kazuhiko Gōdo
*<s>[[Kingbolt]]</s> - 100%
*<s>[[Linkage Part 13]]</s> - 100%
*<s>[[List of computers]]</s> - 100%
*[[Lloyd Goldfine]]
*<s>[[Matrix Quest (disambiguation)]]</s> - 100% -[[User:Derik|Derik]]
*[[Matrix Quest (Titan)]]
*[[May 26]]
*[[Maya Klayn]]
*[[Mini-Vehicle]]
*[[Mirage (disambiguation)]]
*Miroslaw Neinert
*[[Nightscream (Energon)]]
*<s>[[Nokia-bot]]</s>
*<s>[[Null ray]]</s>
*[[Odette Yustman]]
*<s>[[Optimus Primal/toys|Optimus Primal toys]]</s>
*<s>[[Optimus Prime (Animated)]]</s> - 100% -[[User:Abates|abates]]
*[[Quick Bow]]
*[[Robot Masters (cartoon)]]
*<s>[[Robot Masters (pack-in comic)]]</s>
*<s>[[Scoop (G1)]]</s> - 100% -[[User:Derik|Derik]]
*[[Scoop (SG)|Scoop (Shattered Glass)]]
*Seven
*[[Showdown (disambiguation)]]
*[[Slaves of the Insecticons]]
*[[Tracy|Staff Sergeant Tracy]]
*Stag Swamp
*Stalker (G.I. Joe)
*<s>[[Studio 4˚C]]</s>
*[[Tentakil (disambiguation)]]
*<s>[[Terrorcon (disambiguation)]]</s> - 100% -[[User:Derik|Derik]]
*[[The Big Book of Coloring Fun]]
*[[The New Battle Begins!]]
*[[The Smashing Pumpkins]]
*<s>[[The Treacherous Attack of the Decepticons]]</s>
*<s>[[The Victory Warriors Enter!!]]</s> - 30% (stub) -[[User:Derik|Derik]]
*<s>[[Thundercracker (SG)|Thundercracker (Shattered Glass)]]</s> - 100% -[[User:Derik|Derik]]
*[[Tight Shot]]
*<s>[[Tlaloc]]</s> - 100% -[[User:Derik|Derik]]
*<s>[[Tsutomu Kashiwakura]]</s> - 100% -[[User:Derik|Derik]]
*[[Vector]]
}}

===Not Saved===
*[http://miscfile.alienharmony.com/transformers/alltalkpages.txt Talk] 0500-8599
*Template talk
*Help talk
*Transformers Wiki talk (non-Community Portal pages)

==Macron issues==
Currently, the Wiki is containing two pages of every article with a macron in its title. One with the macron properly over the letter, and one with the two characters separate. (I.e., the regular version has ō as G%C5%8 in the url. The fucked up version has it as o%CC%84.) I don't know how to handle this issue, since clicking on the title with the characters separate just takes you to the page with the characters together. [http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Go%CC%84ryu%CC%84&diff=prev&oldid=201806 Their individual diffs can be accessed, though.] Perhaps somebody with a old browser that doesn't support the macron sign can fix it? [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 06:25, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
:I don't think an older browser will make any difference - the redirect is occurring at the server end. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 07:35, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
::Okay, that's annoying. I guess somebody with the ability will have to dig through the Wiki's drive to delete them. Scout, I guess? [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 08:22, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
:::Hmm, I wonder what would happen if you tried moving one of the affected pages (not that I'm suggesting anyone try this, at least until we have backups working).
:::My gut instinct is to say we should leave it as a problem until we're back up and running at 100%, since it doesn't seem to be stopping anything from working. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 16:00, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
::::I don't have a problem with prioritization; I just put this up so I wouldn't forget about it later. The one and only problem arising from them (other than taking up space) is that they show up in categories. [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 16:03, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
:Having loaded up a test install of MediaWiki 1.12.0, I managed to duplicate the macron problem we're having here. After trying some ideas, I was unable to find a way to rename or delete the problem article through the software itself, so it appears that the only way to delete them is to delete the problem records directly in the database. I didn't encounter any problems from doing that on the test install, but it'd be good to consult with the MediaWiki developers, perhaps, to confirm that it won't cause any problems. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 05:17, 9 April 2009 (EDT)
::Did you try moving the "real" pages away to something like "Macron 1", deleting the redirect from the real page and then trying the "broken" one? - [[User:SanityOrMadness|SanityOrMadness]] 11:32, 12 April 2009 (EDT)
:::Yep. When you do that, trying the broken one just takes you to the corrected URL, which says it's been deleted. Most of my experiments revolved around using a greasemonkey script to allow me to fiddle with the form data I was submitting when moving, but none of it worked - MediaWiki would always correct the article name before doing the move. (sorry for not replying to this earlier - I didn't see your reply!) --[[User:Abates|abates]] 07:38, 18 April 2009 (EDT)
::::Is it possible to delete individual history logs? It's possible to access diffs, like [http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Professor_Go%CC%84&diff=prev&oldid=204130 here]. [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 21:25, 18 April 2009 (EDT)
:::::MediaWiki doesn't provide any way through the interface to delete stuff that way, no. I'm wondering if one of the command-line scripts included would be able to fix the problem (my web host doesn't have shell access, so I don't think I can run them on my test server) --[[User:Abates|abates]] 23:09, 18 April 2009 (EDT)

== Updating the page counter ==

Not critical I understand, but when we initially did the migration the counter could be corrected by a script an admin could run if I recall.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User Talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 12:15, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

== References ==

While there's obviously no way to fully automate these, I do wonder if there's some way to automatically make them more readable.

Like being able to turn:

<tt><nowiki><sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference">[[#cite_note-0|[1]]]</sup></nowiki></tt>

into:

<tt><nowiki><ref>1</ref></nowiki></tt>

Or turn:

<tt><nowiki><sup id="cite_ref-lorenzoiesb_16-1" class="reference">[[#cite_note-lorenzoiesb-16|[17]]]</sup></nowiki></tt>

into:

<tt><nowiki><ref name="lorenzoiesb">17</ref></nowiki></tt>

Then at the bottom, turn:

<tt><nowiki><li id="cite_note-0">[[#cite_ref-0|↑]] The movie had some content cuts to meet the standards of some <strike>oppressive regimes</strike> quaint "developing world" rating boards.</nowiki></tt>

into:

<tt><nowiki>0 The movie had some content cuts to meet the standards of some <strike>oppressive regimes</strike> quaint "developing world" rating boards.</nowiki></tt>

And:

<tt><nowiki><li id="cite_note-tfwtour-12">↑ <sup>[[#cite_ref-tfwtour_12-0|13.0]]</sup> <sup>[[#cite_ref-tfwtour_12-1|13.1]]</sup> <sup>[[#cite_ref-tfwtour_12-2|13.2]]</sup> <sup>[[#cite_ref-tfwtour_12-3|13.3]]</sup> [http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=139273 BotCon 2007 Hasbro tour report.]</nowiki></tt>

into:

<tt><nowiki>tfwtour 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 [http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=139273 BotCon 2007 Hasbro tour report.]</nowiki></tt>

And:

<tt><nowiki><li id="cite_note-murphylatino-3">[[#cite_ref-murphylatino_3-0|↑]] [http://www.latinoreview.com/news.php?id=1502 Latino Review interview with producer Don Murphy.]</nowiki></tt>

into:

<tt><nowiki>murphylatino [http://www.latinoreview.com/news.php?id=1502 Latino Review interview with producer Don Murphy.]</nowiki></tt>

Or just ''something'' like this to turn the mess into as much usable (or at least readable) code as possible.

I don't know if this sort of processing is even ''possible'', but if it is, it would definitely make it easier to clean up pages that have more than just a few references. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 17:42, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
:Oh, you could automate them. Same way my tool automates categories. It's just a fair amount of work. (...I suppose I should take a whack at it at SOME point.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 20:24, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
::I honestly think it might be worth it... it took me literally a number of ''hours'' to untangle the references on the 2K7 movie page, and we have a fair number of similarly reference-heavy pages. (The Japanese Generation 1 Cartoon Timeline, for instance, is sitting in my bookmarks until I have the courage to tackle untangling ~60 references on a giant list. XP) Anything that can make the process even slightly easier would be well-appreciated if it's doable. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 20:32, 25 March 2009 (EDT)

== Nautilator ==

We have <nowiki>[[Nautilator]], [[Nautilator (G1)]] and [[Nautilator (Energon)]]</nowiki>
* Nautilator and Nautilator (G1) are the same guy.
* Nautilator (G1) disambigs to Nautilator (Energon) and vice versa.
* Nautilator is the only one of the three which has a cache version saved for it.
* Neither Nautilator (G1) nor Nautilator (Energon) come up in web searches.

It looks to me as if Nautilator (Energon) was deleted sometime between June and the Crash and Nautilator (G1) was moved to Nautilator. Anyone know the history there? --[[User:Abates|abates]] 21:47, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

:The Energon guy no longer exists, basically. The toy that was going to become ''Energon'' Nautilator eventually found release as a new version of the G1 guy through the fan club. So the Energon guy got absorbed back into the G1 guy's page. I think only Archerbot keeps a separate page, since he's got his own name. Maybe? I'm not sure, actually, but that's how I understand all this. -- [[User:Repowers|Repowers]] 22:17, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
::I was the guy who merged them. Archerbot wasn't an exception. [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 22:31, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

::Oh! [[Piranhacon|These guys]]! So that's why those pages didn't get updated from the cache results. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 23:16, 24 March 2009 (EDT)

== Misplaced Pages ==

We have [[Super-God Masterforce (franchise)]] and [[Super-God Masterforce]], the latter of which has more information than the former. Which one do I keep? --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 04:18, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
:The latter one was resurrected with the rollback, by the looks. All the extra info is redundant with what's on [[Super-God Masterforce (cartoon)]] anyway. I suggest setting it as a redirect to the franchise page. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 04:54, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
::That's what I figured, but I thought I'd check. OK, this issue is settled. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 04:59, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
:::We've got a whole bunch of redundant pages now, ranging from [[Kup (G1)|Kup]]/[[Kup (G1)]] to [[Detour (episode)|Detour (Cybertron episode)/Detour (episode)]]. Good fun! --[[User:Abates|abates]] 06:11, 25 March 2009 (EDT)

[[Transcendent Technomorph|Transtech]] and [[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]] are both about the canceled franchise. Shouldn't one of them be about the club comic alternate dimension? Where did that info go? --[[User:Crockalley|Crockalley]] 18:50, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
:Looks like Transtech got uploaded at TransTech by accident. Both pages were in the cache zip, so I've restored them to their proper places. Thanks for pointing that out! --[[User:Abates|abates]] 04:37, 28 March 2009 (EDT)

==Pages in Google cache but not in tfwikicache.tar.gz==
So I noticed that [[Omnibot (G1)|Omnibot]] was suspiciously outdated, and it turns out it wasn't included in tfwikicache.tar.gz for some reason, even though it's in the Google cache, dated Mar. 9. I didn't see "Omnibot" under any of the "Lost Pages" or "Sweep" lists, so I wanted to bring it to people's attention that this phenomenon exists. I've updated [[Omnibot (G1)|Omnibot]] completely, but I have no idea how many other pages out there might be like this, with Google's clock still ticking on them. - [[User:Jackpot|Jackpot]] 04:41, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
:That's because Omnibot, as well as various other "O" and "P" pages, are in G1MarvelBlaster's cache pile as linked under "[[Transformers Wiki talk:Community Portal/Damage Control Central#Useful Resources|Useful Resources]]" (and as mentioned several times on this page previously :>). --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 04:47, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
::If no one does those by the time I finish going through all the totally slagged pages, I guess I'll be doing them. :) --[[User:Abates|abates]] 04:51, 25 March 2009 (EDT)

::Ah, thank you. I knew there was something strange regarding the O's and P's, but I couldn't find the relevant conversation. There's.... a lot to keep up with. - [[User:Jackpot|Jackpot]] 04:56, 25 March 2009 (EDT)

==Talk-page cache?==
Have the talk-pages been downloaded from the Google cache en masse and put into a .zip somewhere the way the articles have? According to [[#Saved|the stats above]], only a handful have been "saved," whatever that means. - [[User:Jackpot|Jackpot]] 14:02, 25 March 2009 (EDT)
:And when I try to go to any of the pages in the link marked "Saved", they don't work. Google cache just doesn't seem to think they exist at all. Yet I've seen people restore Talk pages. How is this done? - [[User:Jackpot|Jackpot]] 01:14, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
::I was only able to do it when the <nowiki>{{bookworm}}</nowiki> template provided an automatic link to the page's Google cache. Now it doesn't. If I wanted to restore my Talk page, I wouldn't know how to do it.
::Edit: Gah, forgot to nowiki-tag the template name.--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 03:09, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
:::It's <tt><nowiki>http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:tfwiki.net/wiki/(article title with underscores/encodings as needed)</nowiki></tt>
:::So your user talkpage would be http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:tfwiki.net/wiki/User_talk:Apcog for instance.
::::Much obliged. Jackpot too, I'm sure.
:::::Doesn't always work. Can't seem to find mine. --[[User:Lonegamer78|Lonegamer78]] 05:07, 28 March 2009 (EDT)

::::Indeed, I thank you as well. For some reason I couldn't get it to work earlier, but your cache-link is apparently better somehow. The only problem is that the cache is overwriting itself now. For instance, I was trying to get [http://74.125.93.104/search?q=cache:tfwiki.net/wiki/Talk:Sideways Talk:Sideways,] but that's been overwritten with the March 24 version. I thought that someone had claimed to have downloaded all the Talk pages right after the crash. Am I imagining things? - [[User:Jackpot|Jackpot]] 13:52, 28 March 2009 (EDT)

==Attacktix Template==
I went and restored the [[Template:Attacktix]] off the Wikia copy. I know copying from there is frowned upon, but I compared it to the Google's cache of our version and made the appropriate changes. I also figured templates were a bit of a different animal as opposed to normal articles. It looks like it's ready to be used. Not knowing what our template code looked like however, I can't be certain it's exactly what it was. Are there any problems?--[[User:Tigerpaw28|Tigerpaw28]] 02:57, 26 March 2009 (EDT)
:As the original template creator, I can verify it is very much as it was when last I saw it.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User Talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 03:07, 26 March 2009 (EDT)
::We shouldn't have issues copying over templates from Wikia. All of it is ''our'' work. [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 04:05, 26 March 2009 (EDT)

I've gone through all the pages in the Attacktix category, and added or restored the template for any article that had the template or had the stats laid out for the template. However, since I don't know anything about Attacktix, I couldn't fix any factual errors. I also did not touch the ID numbers for series two, as a consensus on how to format them has yet to be reached. --[[User:Tigerpaw28|Tigerpaw28]] 23:40, 7 April 2009 (EDT)

==Midnote template==
Maybe I'm just not looking well enough, but do we still have the midnote template? If so, where is it? If not, can someone restore it, because the regular note really makes some pages look ugly? [[User:Geewunling|Geewunling]] 03:53, 26 March 2009 (EDT)

== Missing images ==

Despite running image import TWICE, the wiki is apparently still 'missing' some images that will have to be re-uploaded by hand. (However we should actually ''have'' them all.)

When you run into missing images, please post them here so someone can tidy them;

<s>Edgeofextinction-someonefight.jpg found on [[On the Edge of Extinction!]]<br>
Megatron_generic_marvel_uk_265.jpg found on [[Once upon a Time...|Once Upon a Time...]]<br>
Onslaughtmodelsheetshood.jpg found on [[Onslaught (G1)|Onslaught]]<br>
OptimusPrimalvsMegatron.jpg found on [[Optimus Primal vs Megatron!]]<br>
Safeguardriseofsafeguard.jpg found on [[First (and Second) in Flight|Rise of Safeguard]]</s><br>
--[[User:Tigerpaw28|Tigerpaw28]] 14:10, 26 March 2009 (EDT)

<s>Image:ClubCon Raindance GrandSlam.JPG _ [[Raindance]]/[[Grand Slam (G1)|Grand Slam]]<br>
Image:RobotTimeMachineSixModes.jpg _ [[Autobot (G2)]]<br>
Image:Madman comic Soundwave ejects tapes.jpg _ [[Decepticon Mini-Cassette]]<br>
Image:Breakdown.jpg _ [[Breakdown (G1)]]</s>
--[[User:Geewunling|Geewunling]] 10:01, 27 March 2009 (EDT)

<s>[[:Image:SpotlightGrimlock cover2.jpg]]</s> --[[User:MistaTee|MistaTee]] 13:58, 29 March 2009 (EDT)

<s>[[:Image:GunmodeMegsMasterpieceConvoy.jpg]]</s> missing from [[Megatron (G1)/toys|Megatron (G1) toys]] --[[User:Abates|abates]] 04:42, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

:Checked through everything listed and uploaded the Megatron image, so we're caught up on these for the moment.--[[User:Tigerpaw28|Tigerpaw28]] 00:43, 2 April 2009 (EDT)

<s>[[:Image:Victory_ep4_sandhide.jpg]] missing from [[Leozack]]</s> --[[User:Abates|abates]] 21:14, 4 April 2009 (EDT)

<s>[[:Image:DivebombMovie-Card.jpg]] missing from [[Divebomb (Movie)]]</s> --[[User:Abates|abates]] 23:51, 7 April 2009 (EDT)
:Hmm, tried finding the address from the cache and got http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/4/4b/DivebombMovie-Card.jpg. But there's no file at that URL. Is the file gone? --[[User:Tigerpaw28|Tigerpaw28]] 13:31, 8 April 2009 (EDT)

<s>[[:Image:TFA Headmaster unit facial expression changed.jpg]] missing from [[A Bridge Too Close, Part II]]</s> (I was tempted to steal it back from *mumble*, but the copy there looks blurry anyway) --[[User:Abates|abates]] 22:37, 1 May 2009 (EDT)
:I resnapped it from my DVD. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 23:41, 1 May 2009 (EDT)

===What to do if you find a image is missing===
#Find a cached version of the page with the image on it (at this stage, it's decreasingly likely Google will have a pre-crash version of the page, so you may be best going for the saved versions linked from the [[#Files]] section of this page).
#Find the image thumbnail which should be present there, and choose to "view image" or "copy image location" (in Firefox, terminology may vary in other browsers, and in IE, you may have to click "Properties" and copy the address from there).
#The URL will be something like <nowiki>http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/</nowiki><font face="monospace" color="red"><u>thumb/</u></font><nowiki>b/b9/Ravageboxart.jpg</nowiki><font face="monospace" color="red"><u>/350px-Ravageboxart.jpg</u></font>. Delete the sections marked in red and go to the altered link (Which should be in the form <nowiki>http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/b/b9/Ravageboxart.jpg</nowiki>. The exact bits after /images2/ will vary, of course) to check that it works.
#Copy that link and go to [[Special:Upload]]. Choose to upload from a URL, and paste that link in the lower "source filename" box. Preferably fill out where it came from/etc at this point, ''but if you don't know'', put '''<nowiki>{{bookworm|5|Needs description and copyright tag}}</nowiki>''' in the lower box and submit it (you may get a "page (but not file) exists"-type message. If so, ignore it and save the file anyway).
- [[User:SanityOrMadness|SanityOrMadness]] 15:37, 27 March 2009 (EDT)

:I think, if the image had descriptive text before, it'll show up again when the image is reuploaded. I had that happen with Image:Tww1_oracle_tank.jpg and Image:Movie_OptimusPrime_MicroIR.jpg. However, it did not happen with the image I crossed off my list above. I'm guessing that one never had a description. It might also be dependent on whether you get to the upload page by clicking on the toolbox link or by clicking the link for the missing image. I've been doing the latter.--[[User:Tigerpaw28|Tigerpaw28]] 01:30, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
::What's happened is that some of the PAGES exist, but the database has lost the FILES that are associated with them (The files are still on the server, but MediaWiki is blind to their existence). That leads to the "page (but not file) exists"-type message, and the description which existed before (which may *not* be sufficient, given the rollbacks) will be there when you go to the Image:page. - [[User:SanityOrMadness|SanityOrMadness]] 14:40, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
:I wonder if there's an easy way to search for missing images. Also, when we move servers, are we going to be able to take ''all'' of the files with us and not just the ones that the MediaWiki database knows about? --[[User:Abates|abates]] 16:55, 28 March 2009 (EDT)

<s>I can't find the source for the Rise of Safeguard one. :\ And I can't find the thumbnail for Image:Stunticons-collectallfive.jpg either.</s> Nevermind. Found them manually. [[User:Geewunling|Geewunling]] 07:23, 28 March 2009 (EDT)

== Category link backs ==

I think I removed all the wikia links from the category pages. We could probably remove that bit from the main page now. There is a possibility I may have missed a few, but I did go through systematically.

I had no idea we had that many category pages. Wow. --[[User:Bluestreak7|Bluestreak7]] 12:02, 26 March 2009 (EDT)

== Making things less tedious ==

Because reformatting <gallery>s is tedious, I've made a tool to do it for us.

*[http://www.aldenbates.com/gallerizer Gallerizer]

Copy and paste the gallery code into the form, hit the submit button, copy the reformatted text back out. Will do multiple galleries, though I don't think we have many pages with more than one. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 20:34, 26 March 2009 (EDT)

===Comic template converter===
I've created a tool to convert the HTML on comic pages to <nowiki>{{comicstory}} and {{comicnav}}</nowiki> templates.

*[http://www.aldenbates.com/htmltocomic Comicnav conversion tool]

I'm pretty sure I managed to get all of the many many parameters the comicstory template can take, but please check to make sure that they match what's on the original page, and, as always, if it fails to convert something, leave a link to it on my talk page. :)

Interrobang, do you want one for the episode template? --[[User:Abates|abates]] 23:11, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
:Wow. That's awesome! - [[User:Starfield|Starfield]] 11:05, 29 March 2009 (EDT)
::Be careful when using it. I lost a non-standard credit of "Finished Pencils". It was just dropped. - [[User:Starfield|Starfield]] 11:26, 30 March 2009 (EDT)
:::When writing the converter, I was working off the current (ie June 2008) version of the comicstory template, however a number of credit types were added since June 2008, so those won't be supported. This is why I mentioned about checking to make sure the credits match what's on the page. :) --[[User:Abates|abates]] 14:58, 30 March 2009 (EDT)

== Totally scrambled pages ==

All right, I've fixed all of the pages that failed to convert at all and ended up as HTML mess. At least, all of the ones I could find. If anyone spots any more, feel free to drop a note on my talk page! --[[User:Abates|abates]] 06:56, 27 March 2009 (EDT)

== Infobox template for books? ==

Do we have one for books like do we with comics? I can use the comic ones fine, but I can't figure out how to get the ISBN to show up in the info box and, indeed, how to the get the ISBN function that you can click to search for the book on Amazon and such retailers. Thanks. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 14:57, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
:The ISBN one confused me at first, but it appears if you just write an ISBN, MediaWiki recognises it and turns it into a link: ISBN 1-84023-527-6 --[[User:Abates|abates]] 18:22, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
::We used to have a book infobox, but it must have been new enough that it didn't get saved. We need one, though, I find that trying to cram book page info into the comicstory one is just too awkward. (*would rebuild it herself, except that those infoboxes kind of fall into wikivoodoo territory code-wise*) --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 21:32, 28 March 2009 (EDT)

== Redirects ==

Has a bot been set up to find and remove all the Wikia linkbacks? Because by doing a [http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Special:Search&ns0=1&redirs=0&searchx=1&search=wikia&limit=500&offset=0 search for the word Wikia], I've noticed that a lot of them are on redirect pages, and that accessing the redirect page doesn't show that link until you're on the Edit page... --[[User:Detour|Detour]] 20:39, 27 March 2009 (EDT)

== Moved/deleted pages ==

We got a lot of pages back which we had in June 2008 which we didn't before the crash. I did a diff on the current list of pages and the one we were saving caches from and have 43 pages left to check. So far, these pages are ones I'm not sure what happened to in the intervening 8 months:

{{collist|3|
# <s>[[Overlord (rank)|Autobot Overlord]]</s>
# [[Clamp]]
# <s>[[Dinocons]]</s>
# <s>"Gone Forever"</s>
# <s>[[Holly Kaneko]]</s>
# <s>[[Matrix Buster]]</s>
# [[Monorail transport]]
# <s>[[Seattle-Tacoma area]]</s>
# <s>[[Steamer]]</s>
# <s>[[Taitem Kusunoki]]</s>
# [[Transformers books]]
# <s>"Transformers in 3D issue 2"</s>
}}

Dinocons, I'd have assumed was deleted, but our cache copy of [[Dinobot (disambiguation)]] links to it. Holly Kaneko and Taitem Kusunoki are copies of [[Harii Kaneko]] and [[Taiten Kusunoki]] respectively. Someone with a better grasp of Japanese may know where they belong. Matrix buster and Seattle-Tacoma area may have been merged with [[Big Cannon]] and [[Seattle]]. Steamer, I have no idea what happened to, as "Steamer (G1)" redirects to [[Chuffer]]... --[[User:Abates|abates]] 00:50, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
:Yep, I'd moved "Seattle-Tacoma area" to "Seattle" when I realized there were more specific references to that one city in the canon. - [[User:Jackpot|Jackpot]] 01:19, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
:Dinocons is definitely an unrecovered page, possibly one of G1MarvelBlaster's cache recoveries... It's the Shattered Glass Dinobots who ally themselves with Decepticons in that continuity. --[[User:Detour|Detour]] 01:21, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
::Those would be at [[Dinobot (SG)|Dinobot (Shattered Glass)]] though! G1MarvelBlaster's pages all start with O and P. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 01:42, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
:::Well, no. The "Dinobots" that ended up in Decepticon hands following Dungeons & Dinobots got renamed Dinocons once Do Over started. (literally. The first line of Do Over is "Good morning, Dinocons!".) --[[User:Detour|Detour]] 07:00, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
"Transformers in 3D issue 2" was moved to [[Transformers in 3-D issue 2]], following the title on the cover. [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 13:04, 28 March 2009 (EDT)

==Double redirects==
The restoration process has resulted in [http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Special:DoubleRedirects&limit=500&offset=0 quite a lot of double redirects,] and we probably haven't seen the end of it. I've got other projects I want to use my time on right now, but I figured I'd point this out so that anyone interested could tackle it and keep an eye on it in the future. - [[User:Jackpot|Jackpot]] 14:59, 28 March 2009 (EDT)

== IDW Gen1 issues completed ==

These have all been fixed. Still outstanding (as far as I know) are Hearts of Steel, Beast Wars and Movie continuity. Oh, and reprint series. --[[User:MistaTee|MistaTee]] 11:18, 30 March 2009 (EDT)
:Update: HOS and movie issues are done.--[[User:MistaTee|MistaTee]] 16:46, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

== Current status of the wiki ==

So, at the moment how are we? I have read all of this page but I'm still not sure what exactly is left to do at the moment (IE how many pages have we lost, how close are we to being back to normal, what is the extent of the damage to pages etc etc) P.S. how much space does the wiki take up (I'd prefer to have images and articles seperately) because I thought that maybe toghether we could all back up the wiki on our computers (as in we each get a little bit of it). P.P.S. I'll probably be registering soon, any ideas on a good name? [[Special:Contributions/81.108.237.26|81.108.237.26]] 11:25, 30 March 2009 (EDT)
:So far as I can tell, the lost pages, at least in the main article space, has been minimal. It's hard to tell, but if I had to make a guess, I'd say we had maybe 1/4 to 1/5th of the articles left to fix.
:The Help and Transformers Wiki article spaces, we have caches of, but I don't think they've been updated.
:There still seem to be a few pictures missing, but not many. Maybe 1 or 2%. Actually ''finding'' which ones are missing is the trick. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 04:08, 2 April 2009 (EDT)

== Big Sweep 2.0 ==

Deceptitran's ''first'' big sweep is done. The Wikia links are (mostly) excised.

Prep now begins for a second sweep-- Scout has dome some prep-stuff that'll let me target Deceptitraan better, as well as giving it a more complete page list-- yay!

===What's Broken===
What's broken? What templates are still mangled HTML you want [[User:Deceptitran]] to try and fix? Provide a page link showing the broken code, and say what template you want it to turn into, and I'll take a poke at the coding, yes? -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 19:00, 30 March 2009 (EDT)

Generally replace '''<nowiki>&#39;</nowiki>''' with '''<nowiki>'</nowiki>''' and '''<nowiki>&amp;</nowiki>''' with '''<nowiki>&</nowiki>'''. Templates follow in their own sections... - [[User:SanityOrMadness|SanityOrMadness]] 19:41, 30 March 2009 (EDT)

:There are a handful of pages where this might be inadvisable... I'm thinking of cueing the substitution only if it finds <tt>&lt;table</tt> or <tt>&lt;div</tt> on the page as a safety catch. <small>—The preceding unsigned comment was added by [[User:Derik|DEEERRRIIKKKKK!!!]] ([[User talk:Derik|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Derik|contribs]]).</small>

::Makes sense to an extent - but the 39s seem to be everywhere.
::[I'm also not sure I caught all the stub-templates below, FTR] - [[User:SanityOrMadness|SanityOrMadness]] 21:55, 31 March 2009 (EDT)

:::Seems to be that <nowiki>&#39;</nowiki> occurs mostly in captions on images, if that helps. I believe that all of the ongoing, canceledtoy, bigquote, charstubfiction, charstubtoys and charstub templates have been dealt with. From searching it looks like there are still around 200 picsneeded and 370 stub tags to get fixed. Deceptitran's work in converting the escaped HTML will at least make them look normal in the meantime though. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 04:26, 5 April 2009 (EDT)

====<nowiki>{{charstubfiction}}</nowiki>====
Rendered as the following on [[Soundwave (G1)]]:

<center>
<table cellspacing="0" style="width:80%;">

<tr>
<td style="padding:0 1em 0 1em;text-align:right;"><div class="tti_messageboxdiv" style="width:100%;padding:.5em; background-color:#efefff; border:solid 1px #9f9fff;text-align:center;margin:auto;">[[Image:Rad-sm.gif|left|93px|No, really. HE WANTS TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE TRANSFORMERS.]]
<span style="font-size:125%;font-weight:900;">I want to tell you about the Transformers!</span><hr />
''This character article is a [[:Category:Character stubs missing fiction|stub]] and is missing information on their '''fictional appearances'''. You can help '''Transformers Wiki''' by [http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Soundwave_%28G1%29&action=edit expanding it].''

</div>
</td></tr></table>
</center>

Also places in <nowiki>[[Category:Character stubs missing fiction]]</nowiki>, which the import script adds to the list of categories at the bottom, and which should be removed.

====<nowiki>{{ongoing}}</nowiki>====
Rendered as the following on [[Soundwave (G1)]]:

<table cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">

<tr bgcolor="#ececec">
<td><span style="font-size:10px;line-height:1;">This section covers fiction that is '''ongoing'''. It will be added to as the story progresses. If it isn't current, you can help by <span class="plainlinks">[http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Soundwave_%28G1%29&action=edit updating it]</span>.</span>
</td></tr></table>

====<nowiki>{{picsneeded}}</nowiki>====
[[Arcee (G1)]] has:

<center>
<table cellspacing="0" style="">

<tr>
<td style="padding:0 1em 0 1em;text-align:right;"><div class="tti_messageboxdiv" style="width:100%;padding:.5em; background-color:#efefff; border:solid 1px #9f9fff;text-align:center;margin:auto;">[[Image:PicsNeeded.gif|left|80px|They're actually both looking for characterization.]]
<span style="font-size:125%;font-weight:900;">Let's see what you can see...</span><hr />
This article is in need of images.

</div><small>'''Specifics:''' some toys</small>
</td></tr></table>
</center>

<nowiki>[[Category:Articles in need of images]]</nowiki> to remove

====<nowiki>{{canceledtoy}}</nowiki> (FIX'D)====
<strike>Another [[Arcee (G1)]]:

<center>
<table cellspacing="0" style="">

<tr>
<td style="padding:0 1em 0 1em;text-align:right;"><div class="tti_messageboxdiv" style="width:100%;padding:.5em; background-color:#efefff; border:solid 1px #9f9fff;text-align:center;margin:auto;">[[Image:Unicron-canceled.png|left|100px|Your bargaining posture is highly dubious.]]
'''Proceed on your way to oblivion.'''<br />''This item has been canceled, with no current plans for release.''

</div>
</td></tr></table>
</center>

<nowiki>[[Category:Unreleased toys]]</nowiki> to remove</strike>

====<nowiki>{{quote}}</nowiki>/<nowiki>{{bigquote}}</nowiki>====
From [[Dinobot (G1)]]:

<table align="center" style="border-collapse:collapse; border-style:none; background-color:transparent;" class="cquote">
<tr>
<td width="20" valign="top" style="color:#B2B7F2;font-size:35px;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;text-align:left;padding:9px 10px 0 10px;"> “
</td><td valign="top" style="padding:4px 10px 5px 10px;font-family: 'lucida console', arial, sans-serif;"> Crash and Burn!
</td><td width="20" valign="bottom" style="color:#B2B7F2;font-size:35px;font-family:'Times New Roman',serif;font-weight:bold;text-align:right;padding:10px 10px 0px 10px;"> ”
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3" style="padding-top: 0"> <p style="font-size:smaller;line-height:1em;text-align: right"><cite style="font-style:normal;">—Dinobot unit motto, [[Maximum Dinobots]]</cite>

</td></tr></table>

====<nowiki>{{charstub}}</nowiki>====
From [[Dinobot (G1)]]:

<center>
<table cellspacing="0" style="width:90%;">

<tr>
<td style="padding:0 1em 0 1em;text-align:right;"><div class="tti_messageboxdiv" style="width:100%;padding:.5em; background-color:#efefff; border:solid 1px #9f9fff;text-align:center;margin:auto;">[[Image:AniMegsHeadStub.jpg|left|100px|You will be whole again. I promise.]]
<span style="font-size:125%;font-weight:900;">I cannot remain in this unacceptable operational status!</span><hr />
''This character article is a [[:Category:Character stubs|stub]] and is missing information. You can help '''Transformers Wiki''' by [http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Dinobot_%28G1%29&action=edit expanding it].''

</div>
</td></tr></table>
</center>

Places in <nowiki>[[Category:Character stubs]]</nowiki>

====<nowiki>{{stub}}</nowiki>====
Example: [[Brasnya]]

<center>
<table cellspacing="0" style="width:90%;">

<tr>
<td style="padding:0 1em 0 1em;text-align:right;"><div class="tti_messageboxdiv" style="width:100%;padding:.5em; background-color:#efefff; border:solid 1px #9f9fff;text-align:center;margin:auto;">[[Image:Kup_piece.gif|left|125px|Kup piece.gif]]
<span style="font-size:125%;font-weight:900;">You left a piece out!</span><hr />
''This article is a [[:Category:Stub|stub]] and is missing information. You can help '''Transformers Wiki''' by <span class="plainlinks">[http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Brasnya&action=edit expanding it]</span>.''

</div>
</td></tr></table>
</center>

Places in <nowiki>[[Category:Stub]]</nowiki>
====Wikipedia links?====
Can Deceptitran do anything with Wikipedia links? Perhaps not, since there is a lot of variation. - [[User:Starfield|Starfield]] 23:01, 30 March 2009 (EDT)
<br/><br/>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbusters_%28US_game_show%29" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Blockbusters_(US_game_show)">quiz show</a>
<br/><br/>
<nowiki>[[wikipedia:Blockbusters_(US_game_show)|quiz show]]</nowiki>

:At this point, should we fix those tags as we come across them, or just wait for the bot to do the work of repairing them? [[User:Magnusblitz|Magnusblitz]] 00:05, 31 March 2009 (EDT)
::IMO, I would think it'd be more productive to do other things instead of something that Deceptitran will eventually do anyway. Of course, that's looking at it purely from an efficiency standpoint.--[[User:Tigerpaw28|Tigerpaw28]] 01:04, 31 March 2009 (EDT)
:::Deceptitran doesn't appear to have done particularly well with the remaining Wikipedia links - all it's done is convert the &lt;/&gt;s to < and >s. Since <nowiki><a></nowiki> tags don't render - to do a working link, it MUST be rendered in wikicode - that's not much of an improvement. - [[User:SanityOrMadness|SanityOrMadness]] 09:05, 5 April 2009 (EDT)

===Go-boxes===
Can someone take a look at them? Currently, [[:Image:GB-Sunstreaker.jpg]] needs to be re-uploaded and [[:Image:GB-WolfangPred.jpg|Image:GB-WolfangPred.jpg]] leads to Wolfang (BWTS) which doesn't exist (Correct one would be [[Wolfang (Predacon)]]. [[User:Geewunling|Geewunling]] 04:59, 1 April 2009 (EDT)
:Both fixed! --[[User:Abates|abates]] 23:33, 1 April 2009 (EDT)

===Sweep status===
Sweet #2 has ended-- it does less than I'd hoped (the regex's were consistently being annoying greedy) but all the <nowiki>{{canceledtoy}}</nowiki>s are fixed (which i figure is important because they represent a permenant article fixture) and all the garbage HTML has been converted to ''real'' HTML-- which means pages will at least start ''looking'' right, even if they're not properly templated under the skin. I'm currently running a sweep to get rid of our remaining Wikia spam (~4000 instances hiding in redirects) after which I'll tackle setting up a sweep for some of the other templates. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 21:35, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
:I think something the next sweep may have to do is fix ''all'' the remaining links - even if it entails, as you suggested before, ripping them apart and putting them back together as something like a bare <nowiki><a href="LINK">Text</a></nowiki> so that the converter can do them properly. There's still a few, and they're one of the only HTML tags that don't render (presumably as an anti-spam thing). - [[User:SanityOrMadness|SanityOrMadness]] 23:21, 5 April 2009 (EDT)

== Article lock down so anons can't edit them ==

Since the crash, articles that were set so only registered members could edit them have once again become free-for-all. For example, [[Revenge of the Fallen (film)]] and our Main Page both appear to be editable by anybody (I don't see a warning about only registered users being able to make edits for those pages). Perhaps a staff member can change the settings for such articles to save us some headaches in the future? Honestly, I'm surprised if it hasn't been done yet. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 03:41, 2 April 2009 (EDT)
:Sorted. I'm sure there are others which ought to be protected which have been overlooked. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 04:11, 2 April 2009 (EDT)
::Thanks. Can somebody lock down [[All Hail Megatron]] as well? I'd rather not have anon apologists for that series muck about with our discrepancy list. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 15:13, 3 April 2009 (EDT)

== MIA? ==

[[Super Ginrai Gets Blown Away in the Desert!?]] and [[The Autobot Warrior, Sixknight?!]] don't appear to be among the cache files we saved. MSN has both cached, although the versions are from late January and are pretty much the same as what we have... --[[User:Abates|abates]] 07:48, 4 April 2009 (EDT)
:Odd, thought I saved it in my cache. That, or Jeysie hasn't updated the additional cache I sent her... --[[User:Lonegamer78|Lonegamer78]] 05:58, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
::The zip I have of your cache files has Masterforce episode 1, 13, 17, 18, 28 and 42 in it. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 06:01, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
:::Crap, I forgot I hadn't uploaded that already. Uploaded and linked from the Files section above. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 07:10, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
::::Ahh! Excellent! I should check the other shows and see if there are any other episodes which didn't get updated. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 08:04, 5 April 2009 (EDT)
:OK, having checked all of the cartoon episodes (or at least the ones [[User:Interrobang|Interrobang]] hasn't got to yet), ''all'' of them have been updated from cache. The only issues I could see were (a) some of the [[Beast Wars II (cartoon)|Beast Wars II]] episodes are missing bits of HTML, causing the body of the page to render as part of the episode box (e.g. [[Enter Lio Junior]]), and (b) one or two of the Headmasters/Masterforce/Victory episodes have the episodenav template instead of the episode template, and are therefore lacking the Japanese/Romaji titles. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 22:21, 5 April 2009 (EDT)

== Quotes ==
{{note|This discussion has been moved to [[Transformers Wiki talk:Community Portal#Quotes]].}}

== Clone Pilot? ==

I dunno if this should be discussed in an earlier section, but... I fixed up [[Clone Pilot]] well before the crash, but for some reason, all our saved caches are the same as the old piece of crap we have right now. Did Google just never save it between the cleanup and the crash, or what? More importantly, can it still be repaired somehow? There was a lot of work put into it. --[[User:Apoc|Apoc]] 21:25, 8 April 2009 (EDT)
:It looks like Google didn't update their cache until a couple of days the crash. :( I can't find the page at all on yahoo or msn. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 22:50, 10 April 2009 (EDT)
::I think we should all start saving major edits onto text files in case of database crashes, google screw ups and the regular server outages we've been having lately. That's what I do. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 06:12, 12 April 2009 (EDT)

== Damage: Controlled? ==

Have we handled most of the issues concerning the crash? It has been a month at at casual glance (and even some closer glances), we appear to be back on target. Is it now necessary to have a link to this page from our main page? Discussion appears to have stagnated from what I can tell and the most recent conversation is about quotes, which is not crash-related. (As the user who initially brought up the quotes question, I thought at the time the change was crash related. Now I think it should be delegated to Comm. Portal.)

So should we consider "Mission Accomplished" of all major battles fighting and now just cleanup of insurgent pages? Keep the pages, obviously, but get the link off the main page. The community has done a good job bringing the wiki back (yeah!) and I'd like to especially thank [[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]], [[User:abates|abates]], [[User:Derik|Derik]], and [[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]] for what to me was above and beyond work.

Thoughts? --[[User:Bluestreak7|Bluestreak7]] 19:40, 14 April 2009 (EDT)
:I am still finding the occasional borked/codelicious template. Yes, we've gotten the worst of it, but we should still keep an eye out. Does anyone know if there's anything we're still outright missing? I know Monzo was in the process of manually uploading some images.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User Talk:Rosicrucian|<sup>Talk</sup>]] 19:48, 14 April 2009 (EDT)

::Most of the work to be done now is in restoring descriptions to images, I think, and restoring any missing images as we find them. I think it's safe to remove it from the main page - it's still linked via the Community portal. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 21:18, 14 April 2009 (EDT)
:::Agreed-- We've still got a lot of templates that've extended to HTML... but they at least no longer ''look'' broken for the most part... I think we can stop advising people they're stepping into a disaster zone. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 21:53, 14 April 2009 (EDT)

:The "Quotes" discussion has now been moved. Also, a hearty second on the gratitude to everyone who pitched in on the restoration. It's looking damn good. - [[User:Jackpot|Jackpot]] 03:33, 16 April 2009 (EDT)

Probably not entirely related damage control-wise, but I kinda miss the ability to "View (newer <# of edits>) (older <# of edits>)" in the Recent Changes page. It only goes up to the last 500 changes. --[[User:Lonegamer78|Lonegamer78]] 04:27, 25 April 2009 (EDT)

== Episode articles missing Japanese title info ==

'''Headmasters:''' <strike>[[Head Formation of Friendship]]</strike>

'''Masterforce:''' <strike>[[Super Warriors - The Godmaster Brothers]]</strike>, <strike>[[The Autobot Warrior, Sixknight?!]]</strike>,
<strike>[[Overlord - Terror of the Chōkon Tornado]]</strike>

'''Victory:''' <strike>[[Big City - Underground Terror]]</strike>, <strike>[[Attack the Shuttle Base!!]]</strike>, <strike>[[Rescue Jean!!]]</strike>, <strike>[[Battle Up of Wrath!!]]</strike>

Those episodes are all using the episodenav template and therefore are missing the Japanese title information. Also <strike>[[Savage (episode)]]</strike> from ''Cybertron'' is missing the romaji transliteration. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 08:03, 15 April 2009 (EDT)

:And done. --[[User:Lonegamer78|Lonegamer78]] 01:24, 16 April 2009 (EDT)
::Excellent! Thanks! --[[User:Abates|abates]] 01:37, 16 April 2009 (EDT)

Some more from Masterforce which got upgraded but don't have the romaji translation filled in:
*<strike>[[A Fierce Battle!! The Autobots Are in Trouble]]</strike>
*<strike>[[A Strange Friendship: Cancer and Minerva]]</strike>
--[[User:Abates|abates]] 06:38, 17 April 2009 (EDT)
:Doink! --[[User:Lonegamer78|Lonegamer78]] 07:41, 17 April 2009 (EDT)
::Hooray! --[[User:Abates|abates]] 07:53, 17 April 2009 (EDT)

== GFDL ==

Something I've been wondering for a while now... after the loss of all the page history between the move and the crash, are we in breach of the [[Project:Text of the GNU Free Documentation License|GDFL]], which everything originally submitted to this wiki is licensed under? - [[User:SanityOrMadness|SanityOrMadness]] 18:23, 17 April 2009 (EDT)

:Yes, unfortunately. Though whether anyone actually cares is another matter. [[User:GreenReaper|GreenReaper]] 16:08, 27 April 2009 (EDT)
:Howso? The attribution part? I think our import memos all say 'importing recovered...' etc, which at least ''acknowledges'' that there are undocumented contributions at work there-- it's not like we're trying to pass them off as the sole work of the person doing the import.
:GFDL is a difficult concept on mass-collaboration projects like this. If we'd done a 'present page state only' export from Wikia instead of a complete history we'd be in exactly the same position. I ''think'' that intent plays a part here... loving some author attribution is definitely non-ideal under GFDL... but I don't think it's actually ''in violation'' as long as we're open about it and it represents a ''breach'' of the normal way things are done rather than a matter of routine. -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 06:12, 28 April 2009 (EDT)
::We're talking about a legal license here. Sections 4B and 4J are quite clear. You must list at least five of the principal authors, unless they release you from that requirement, and you must preserve the history. The only people who could call you on this are the copyright holders, however.
::On that note, now that [[metawikipedia:Licensing update/Result|Wikipedia's moving to CC]], have you given thought to doing the same? Might save a lot of bother down the line. [[User:GreenReaper|GreenReaper]] 22:37, 21 May 2009 (EDT)

== Restoring Help/Transformers Wiki pages ==

Do the following articles (not currently present) need to be restored?:

*[[Help:Ignore all standards]]
*[[Help:Timelines is not a continuity family]]
*Transformers Wiki:Power User
*Transformers Wiki:Semantic linking initiative
*Transformers Wiki:To-do (It's served its purpose?)
*Transformers Wiki:WikiProject Movie characters (The cache is from January, so I don't know how out-of-date it is)

Also we now have [[Help:Disambiguation]] and "Transformers Wiki:Disambiguation". I think the former is the redundant one, since there's no cache for it. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 04:24, 28 April 2009 (EDT)

Power User at least not. That one was deleted for being an unused short page of information regarding an editing trick that was far better explained on [[Help:Editing]]. [[User:Geewunling|Geewunling]] 05:56, 28 April 2009 (EDT)
:P.S. it seems to me the TW:D is the redundant one, given how many pages link to it (vs. the H:D) and because of its talk page. [[User:Geewunling|Geewunling]] 06:06, 28 April 2009 (EDT)
::I think only the first two need restoring. Do we have caches for them? -[[User:Derik|Derik]] 06:14, 28 April 2009 (EDT)
:::Yep, I have caches for all of those from the zip file Scout provides. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 06:30, 28 April 2009 (EDT)

== rambojones ==

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