MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

MediaWiki talk:Community Portal/Archive32

2010-08-10T17:47:00Z

218.6.2.230: /* make money easy */ new section

{{archive_nav}}

== Downtime ==
[[Image:Server_upness.png|thumb|250px]]
Since early December 2008, I've been passively gathering "upness" data on the site. I set up my server to request a page on TFWiki.net every 5 minutes (or so,) and then record whether or not the page was properly served.I present the results at right, sorted by hour (server time, which is EST.)TFWiki.net's maximum downtime seems to occur between midnight and 1 AM EST, likely as a result of scheduled maintenance.'''Caveats:''' The method I'm using to measure this is norably imperfect. The traffic-scale on the blue bars has been exaggerated to bring out detail.'''Other notes:''' And now you know why [[Bulkhead (Animated)]] is one of the most popular pages on the wiki. it's my test page, and 2/3 of the hits recorded for it are actually my script. (Whups! I'm pretty sure there's a way to keep the wiki from counting that...) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 19:09, 9 February 2009 (EST)
:That matches up fairly well with my own observations, where the wiki always seems to be down roughly between 1:30 and 2:30AM-ish EST, creeping towards 3AM sometimes. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 19:21, 9 February 2009 (EST)
::From what I've noticed it seems to correspond with trouble with Shortpacked's site as well. Are we on the same server as them, or could this be hostwide?--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|Talk]] 22:28, 9 February 2009 (EST)
:::They're both on Blank Label servers, ISTR. The main Blank Label site seems to have problems around the same time. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 02:24, 11 February 2009 (EST)

:Seems to be regular downtime starting around about 2:10am (or about 8:10pm NZ time, [[Transformers Wiki talk:Community Portal/Archive25#Increasing_performance.3F|which I complained about before]]). --[[User:Abates|abates]] 19:25, 9 February 2009 (EST)
::I also noticed this. It seemed concentrated on the first half of the hour. (It was also a lot less frustrating knowing that it was likely to ease in relative short order.) But, damnit... this shouldn't need to happen ''every day''. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 02:40, 11 February 2009 (EST)

[[Image:Server upness weekday.png|thumb|180px]]
[[Image:Server upness monthday.png|thumb|]]

Sorting the sane data by weekday and day of the month... the downtime doesn't seem to favor any particular day. (There are regular dips in the month visualization... but most of those dates have only 2 days worth of data. I think they're statistical anomalies.)So I plan to pay attention to how the wiki "feels" between Server-midnight and server-1AM, which is when we've got the most recorded errors. (There's some holes in the data, so there ''could'' be other dead zones, but anecdotal evidence supports this assesment as correct.)If this confirms that the downtime/server-bog does seem to be occurring every night, I suggest we reguest our webhost schedule it ''not'' to run every day. If we can get by with once a week, I suggest Friday or Saturday. (Google Analytics tells me Friday and Saturday are, very slightly, our lowest-traffic point for the week.)

[[Image:Ga traffic 09-08 01-09.png|thumb|250px]]

Google Anayltics also tells me we've grown. It's hard to see on the daily graph graph (so I won't show it,) but where our daily unique visitors used to ''peak'' below 4000 on heavy days, it's now ''troughing'' just below 4000 on slow days and peaking in the 6000's. Encouraging! (Monthly breakdown is pictured, it's clearer. The graph starts in September when we installed GA.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 22:19, 9 February 2009 (EST)More than half of all inbound traffic is directed here by links. (Since, since Wikia's traffic volume means it dominates search, isn't that big a surprise.) What thrills me? '''More of our readers use Firefox than user Internet Explorer'''.Traffic coming from search engines continues to grow at abotut he same rate our overall traffic does. (That's neither good, nor bad, it just is.) Of note-- people coming from search engines tend to be 'lower value.' (They bounce away quicker, they view fewer pages, etc.) Kinda troubling... we get a ''vast'' majority of those via google. Yes Google has a majority of search, but not ''that'' vast a majority. We're underperforming in non-Google search engines. (Not sure what to do about that. Arguably we're just overperforming in Google... since we have GA installed it can better judge we have ''real'' traffic taking place here and has lifted our "duplicate content" penalty. Yahoo lacks that advantage and might just be slower to come around.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 22:19, 9 February 2009 (EST)

== Card-Carrying Fans? ==
Not sure of the appropriate section to place this; it can be moved if necessary.There's going to be official [http://www.transformers-card.com/pre2/index.html Transformers-themed Visa credit cards] available in Japan soon through Pocket Card Co., Ltd. The site's front page isn't up yet, and probably won't be until the ordering period for the cards starts at 11 a.m. Feb. 16, Japan time.The project is apparently the brainchild of Index Create, who also run the [http://www.ganbo-store.com Ganbo Store]. The cards have no initiation fees or annual fees, though the card company still has to examine your financial record and approve your application, per usual. I have no idea which bank backs the cards, what their interest rate is, etc. Those details will probably be available next Monday.You can choose between two designs: a red Autobot card featuring a Prime in the foreground and a Megatron close-up in the background, and a purple Decepticon card with the characters switched. Both are by veteran Japanese TF illustrator [[Hidetsugu Yoshioka]].Several other bonus items are being offered in conjunction with the card:

'''1. A free Micron/Mini-Con''' 
Customers who order the Autobot card will get a recolor of the Mini-Con [[Thunderwing (Classics)|Thunderwing]] as Sling (Slingshot), while Destron card orderers will get a recolor of the Mini-Con [[Divebomb (Classics)|Divebomb]] as Volter (Vortex).

'''2. Original Quo Card''' 
Those receiving a credit card will also get a Quo Card (prepaid cash card) worth 500 yen. The Quo Card design will match whichever card the customer ordered.

'''3. Transformers Basecamp site''' 
Card owners will have exclusive access to Transformers Basecamp, a site overseen by Takara. What you can do there isn't clear yet (again, nothing more until Feb. 16, at least), but from the look of the preview page, at the very least, you can take popular TFs and guide them around Japan in battle campaigns, raising their levels enough to earn them positions on their teams. If the [http://ameblo.jp/ganbo-store/entry-10199744261.html Ganbo blog post] is to be believed, then you could have Prime as a scout, Megatron as a supply officer, and Starscream as Decepticon leader, if you like. You can communicate with other card members during missions, and completing missions earns you rankings as well as character levels. Top rankers will get free TF pins as "medals", which will also be added to their Basecamp profiles.

'''4. Exclusive Gentei! Gentei! Strafe offer''' 
Card members will have exclusive rights to purchase a recolor of Universe Cyclonus as Technobot Strafe via the Transformers Basecamp site.It's unclear whether any single customer will be allowed to receive both types of credit card and thus both types of free Micron and Quo Card, but I suspect that won't be likely.--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 11:23, 10 February 2009 (EST)
:Nobody has any right to complain about convention exclusives ever again. Also, I'm glad the Microns are pre-existing characters. This means I have little to no desire to try and obtain them. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 12:17, 10 February 2009 (EST)
::That's fucking brutal. Wow. [[User:Hooper X|-hx]] 16:58, 10 February 2009 (EST)
:::You just know some fans will get the card(s) just long enough to get the Microns, then cancel. Their credit rating would be [[Ruined forever]]. --[[User:Thylacine 2000|Thylacine 2000]] 18:05, 10 February 2009 (EST)
::::Got busy all day yesterday after my previous post. I see the info on the exclusive toys has been integrated into their respective articles and some of the order period dates have been added. Is there anywhere it's appropriate to write up the cards themselves?--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 10:29, 11 February 2009 (EST)
:::::Why not make a new page about this contest promotion: something merging the credit cards and the online campaign, with appropriate links to the toy pages? We have a page for [[Music Label]], and this new thing is already bigger than that. --[[User:Thylacine 2000|Thylacine 2000]] 10:37, 11 February 2009 (EST)
::::::What would be the title? Transformers credit cards? They're the only element of the campaign that's essentially independent of the rest. All the others hinge on one getting one of those cards.--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 12:08, 11 February 2009 (EST)
:::::::How about "Transformers Basecamp"? --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 13:13, 11 February 2009 (EST)
::::::::That sounds like the safest bet. All the special offers are via the members-only website.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|Talk]] 13:17, 11 February 2009 (EST)
:::::::::Well, the cards themselves aren't. You can get one without ever participating in the Basecamp site or even accepting any of the exclusives, if you like. (I know, fat chance anyone ordering one of the cards is going to go that route, but in principle, it's possible.)--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 15:37, 12 February 2009 (EST)

== Canonical URL specification ==
I see Google and Yahoo are now supporting a method of specifying a page's canonical URL
[http://ysearchblog.com/2009/02/12/fighting-duplication-adding-more-arrows-to-your-quiver/]
[http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html]I'm not familiar with customising MediaWiki, but is it something we could apply here? --[[User:Abates|abates]] 00:28, 13 February 2009 (EST)
:Hrm. I'm not certain it's something we really need to worry about... AFAIK, all of our real content maps straight to the <code>[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/(title)]]</code> type of URL. Generally the only things that use the <code>[[http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=(title)]]</code> prefix are special pages and "action pages" that wouldn't be desirable to index anyway.
:Essentially... those links are ways to specify multiple URLs as being equivalent, but AFAIK we only have one real URL per actual article page to begin with, so we have no "multiple URLs that point to the same thing" to worry about. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 01:02, 13 February 2009 (EST)
::I thinkt he gogole/yahoo webspiders might actually run into duplicates while spidering mediawiki... but because each page has a distinct title (and the duplicate pages have the same title, showing their "proper" name,) the search engines don't habe a problem sorting out duplication on MW.
::(It's a real problem, but I don't think it's one that afflicts mediaWiki, since unlike many other sites, every article on a mediawiki install has a distinct <title>.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 01:45, 13 February 2009 (EST)
:::Yeah, so do you want this content, when a search engine retrieves it, to link to [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers_Wiki:Community_Portal]] or to [[http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Transformers_Wiki_talk:Community_Portal&printable=yes]] ? And of you think they won't spider that, have a look in the sidebar. --[[User:M.mendel|◄mendel►]] 23:29, 15 February 2009 (EST)
::::Hrm, does MW 1.3 do this ? -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 23:41, 15 February 2009 (EST)
:::::Wikia's 1.13 has the canonical links on the ?printable page; Wikipedia itself has not, so it's not made its way into the software yet. --[[User:M.mendel|◄mendel►]] 11:51, 16 February 2009 (EST)

== Unable to edit ==
just a question, how come i cant edit? i dont spam or anything and i do include links to any infomation i find thats official(just check the revenge film article on the other wiki acount) could anyone who replies send it to my talk page thanks. [[User talk:Behellmorph|Behellmorph]] 13:03, 13 February 2009 (EST)

== Category proposal ==
After making a couple of trivia entries for characters with names derived from Greek/Latin words, I was wondering whether something like 'Category:Greco-Latin names' would be worth doing. There are a number of contenders, both when there is a 'true' meaning (Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Fortress Maximus, Omega Supreme, etc.) and when a Latinate form is given to the name (Menasor, Bruticus, Abominus). I would happily do the legwork on this (tagging + trivia notes), if people think it's worth doing. - [[User:Tribimat|Tribimat]] 05:09, 14 February 2009 (EST)
:Where does "Rodimus Prime" fall?
:I don't think that there's much... ''use'' in a category like this. Why would you ever want to see them all listed together-- to go from Optimus Prime to Menasor?
:A ''page'' on the phenomena listing everyone? I could see that though. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 06:20, 14 February 2009 (EST)
::Rodimus Prime would be classed as a derivative of Optimus Prime, so not directly Latin. How about, then, a category for names that come pretty much directly from Greek and Latin (not a big group), plus a page that covers these + the various coinages that are meant to sound like Latin? The only reason I proposed a bigger category is that it might be interesting to see the types of character that are given these names, but it would probably be too wide to be meaningful (I'm still trying to decide whether 'Devastator' would count). I do think the secondary naming convention (beside nicknames, puns and portmanteaux) is interesting, not least because it's one of the few pre-Budiansky things that stuck. I'll have a go at the page later today. - [[User:Tribimat|Tribimat]] 06:52, 14 February 2009 (EST)
:::In my case, it's a matter that I think a category should ideally encompass the content of the entire article, not just the title. But I think a page on Name Etymology might be fun to read. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 07:22, 14 February 2009 (EST)
:::It's hard to say-- English is a romance language. Is Devastator "latin derived," or just a mash-up of the English "Devastate" and the suffix "or" for ''one who does''? I'm not sold on a category... but if you want to temp it in I sure hold it against you. I'd be more interested in an article on Transformers with names derived from dead languages though. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 07:30, 14 February 2009 (EST)
::::English is Germanic, not Romance, and that isn't really relevant to what you're trying to say. The classification of the language doesn't have much to do with specific vocabulary. On the topic, I think the number of categories we have now is excessive (even if most of them are necessary). I don't see a need to add to that with a category that's on the level of "Transformers with blue eyes". The topic is mildly interesting. That doesn't mean it needs a category. [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 01:19, 16 February 2009 (EST)
:::::On the other hand, "Transformers with non-standard eye colors" would be kind of fun - there's only a handful that don't have red or blue eyes, y'know. [[User:Hooper X|-hx]] 09:30, 16 February 2009 (EST)
::::::I dunno, this sounds a lot like the Head-For-A-Hand club, which I eventually just stuck on my user page. Fun but not really necessary within the scope of this wiki. Besides, Optimus Prime's eyes have been yellow, red *and* blue to my knowledge at least. --[[User:Emvee|Emvee]] 03:56, 17 February 2009 (EST)
:::::::Okay, forget the category idea. I'm expanding the proposed page's remit to cover all naming conventions, so it'll take longer to put together but will hopefully be more interesting when it's done. - [[User:Tribimat|Tribimat]] 18:42, 17 February 2009 (EST)

== Upgrading the Wiki software ==
Wikia recently updated the software on the Other Wiki, and it broke [[Template:Episodenav]]. If/when we update MediaWiki here, we should keep an eye on it to make sure the same thing doesn't happen here (I'm sure someone will be, but I wanted to give a heads up). --[[User:Abates|abates]] 17:08, 19 February 2009 (EST)
:Epnav ''was'' broken when we first moved over here. (We were 1 version more up to date than wikia @ the time, and the new version was less 'tolerant' or something we were doing.) I think it was broken for almost 10 days while we picked through code php-side to try and figure out what flag to fix to make the problem go away. (In the end we just re-coded the undocumented nested interdependent episodenav templates. That sucked, and anchor-linking ''still'' doesn't work right for some reason I haven't figured out.)
:Did Wikia ever fix the problem? I mean-- I pity them. I ''wrote'' the episodenav template and I was pulling out my hair trying to fix it. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 03:00, 7 March 2009 (EST)
::n/m, I found it. I even contributed [http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Transformers_Wiki_talk:Community_Portal#We_got_a_problem my own words of encouragement]. I'm sure you'll agree that I was ''nothing but courteous'' to our former hosts. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 03:33, 7 March 2009 (EST)
:::Bwahaha! Oh well, if it's not going to be a problem when we get the software upgraded, then great! --[[User:Abates|abates]] 03:46, 7 March 2009 (EST)
::::well I'm not ''sure'' until ti happens, but it sounds like they just ran into the same problem we had-- a stricter recursion... thing. (Wikipedia itself has pages that still feature ugly red errors because some of their obscure seldom-used templates don't comply with this--- mostly talk pages. It was not a smooth transition.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 03:50, 7 March 2009 (EST)

==Watermakring original photos==
[[Image:TFWiki-watermark.psd|TFWIKI.NET watermark image]]

Okay, I started this with the [[Category:Victory toy images|Breastforce toy images]] I took today... a TFWIKI.NET "watermark" based on our mainpage banner to be applied to any original photographs we take for this wiki. It's a PSD with a transparency, plus two invisible "marker" pixels, one in each lower corner, so's Photoshop can align it nicely if you push it into a corner (and have the "snap to edges" option on, which I do). 
The way I figure it, we're going to have a large amount of original pictures up on this site as time goes on. I'll be taking a LOT of pictures of toys we don't have images of (and replacing images I don't like, such as the shoddy older Has/Tak stock photos with inaccurate pre-release toys, or ''Generations'' scans, or just shitty pics) over the next however-long, plus re-uploading a lot of my older ones with the watermark (also a good excuse to put them in the proper categories). I figure that if we're properly naming the damn files, they'll show up on image web-searches more... and having the site address right there in the image helps our visibility. Plus, helps us just look a titch more professional. 
So yeah. This is for ''pictures '''we''' take only''. It's not to be slapped on every screen capture or comic book scan or Has/Tak stock photo that we upload; that's just goddamn obnoxious. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 07:12, 21 February 2009 (EST)
:*scratches head* but aren't watermarks ''always'' obnoxious? -08:09, 21 February 2009 (EST)
::On tformers, sure. A small, unobtrusive watermark in the corner of an image? Not remotely. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 08:15, 21 February 2009 (EST)
:::Yeah, only Tformers has the balls to put a huge watermark directly over a Hasbro copyrighted image. We can be better than that. We ''should'' be better than that.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|Talk]] 09:15, 21 February 2009 (EST)

== Costumes ==
OK guys yesterday I came across [http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=50514&p=888126#p888126 this] post on seibertron.com and after newsing it it got me thinking. A few posted in it and some posts provided some interesting information, information that would warrant one or maybe two more articles. Like "Transformers costumes" for a category concerning stuff like that and "Hasbro Live promotional appearance" for the actual events, sure they would be short as of now but there seems to be some information out there that would warrant these being covered, after all we do have very short articles. What do you guys think? [[User:Dead Metal|Dead Metal]] 04:18, 22 February 2009 (EST)

== New User Welcome message template ==
I think I've brought this up before, but I believe it's time for us to emulate other major wikis and have a welcome message template that staffers can copy-paste into the talk pages of new users that summarises what we expect of them and how this wiki works. Not having one wastes the time of people like me who have to type out what we expect from new users, particularly in the case of image uploads*.*No offense, but frankly, this should have been the job of our staffers to harass new users, not our powerless regular editors. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 21:58, 27 February 2009 (EST)

==Picture protection==
So, uh, if we're not going to report the repeat vandalism to the ISP, could we at least set it up so that new users can't upload images? [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 16:58, 4 March 2009 (EST)

== Partner section on character pages? ==
I think it would be nice to have a common location on a character page for links to partners (combiner parners, Nebulons, Mini-Cons). As it is, you have to search the body of the intro text, sometimes you have to go all the way to the toy section. If there is more than one combiner partner, the name of the combined form would probably be sufficient. In the case of the Unicron Trilogy, if a character can combine with multiple others, maybe a short note would work (combines with Powerlinx Gold). If we do make a standardized section, maybe we could throw their subgroups in there while we are at it.I don't know how practical that would be given the number of partners a character could have in multiple toys/fictions, but I do know I spend time searching for links to their partners, so this is kind of a wish list. - [[User:Starfield|Starfield]] 11:22, 7 March 2009 (EST)
:In general principal, at least, I strongly agree. Sometimes we totally forget to mention binary bond guys, etc. Definitely something worth looking into. -- [[User:Repowers|Repowers]] 11:28, 7 March 2009 (EST)
:: Don't we do this already? Hot Shot's page links to both Jolt and Mirage, and if you're a combiner part, it links to the group either in the italicized continuity note up top, in the opening paragraph, or both. --[[User:ItsWalky|ItsWalky]] 11:30, 7 March 2009 (EST)
:::Alright, if I don't see it in the opening paragraph, I'll put it there. It doesn't seem that common for it not to be there. - [[User:Starfield|Starfield]] 11:39, 7 March 2009 (EST)

== make money easy ==

great experience, dude! thanks for this great

Articles wow... it's very wonderful report.

MediaWiki talk:Community Portal/Archive32

2010-08-05T15:17:11Z

218.6.2.230: /* registry cleaner */ new section

{{archive_nav}}

== Downtime ==
[[Image:Server_upness.png|thumb|250px]]
Since early December 2008, I've been passively gathering "upness" data on the site. I set up my server to request a page on TFWiki.net every 5 minutes (or so,) and then record whether or not the page was properly served.I present the results at right, sorted by hour (server time, which is EST.)TFWiki.net's maximum downtime seems to occur between midnight and 1 AM EST, likely as a result of scheduled maintenance.'''Caveats:''' The method I'm using to measure this is norably imperfect. The traffic-scale on the blue bars has been exaggerated to bring out detail.'''Other notes:''' And now you know why [[Bulkhead (Animated)]] is one of the most popular pages on the wiki. it's my test page, and 2/3 of the hits recorded for it are actually my script. (Whups! I'm pretty sure there's a way to keep the wiki from counting that...) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 19:09, 9 February 2009 (EST)
:That matches up fairly well with my own observations, where the wiki always seems to be down roughly between 1:30 and 2:30AM-ish EST, creeping towards 3AM sometimes. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 19:21, 9 February 2009 (EST)
::From what I've noticed it seems to correspond with trouble with Shortpacked's site as well. Are we on the same server as them, or could this be hostwide?--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|Talk]] 22:28, 9 February 2009 (EST)
:::They're both on Blank Label servers, ISTR. The main Blank Label site seems to have problems around the same time. --[[User:Abates|abates]] 02:24, 11 February 2009 (EST)

:Seems to be regular downtime starting around about 2:10am (or about 8:10pm NZ time, [[Transformers Wiki talk:Community Portal/Archive25#Increasing_performance.3F|which I complained about before]]). --[[User:Abates|abates]] 19:25, 9 February 2009 (EST)
::I also noticed this. It seemed concentrated on the first half of the hour. (It was also a lot less frustrating knowing that it was likely to ease in relative short order.) But, damnit... this shouldn't need to happen ''every day''. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 02:40, 11 February 2009 (EST)

[[Image:Server upness weekday.png|thumb|180px]]
[[Image:Server upness monthday.png|thumb|]]

Sorting the sane data by weekday and day of the month... the downtime doesn't seem to favor any particular day. (There are regular dips in the month visualization... but most of those dates have only 2 days worth of data. I think they're statistical anomalies.)So I plan to pay attention to how the wiki "feels" between Server-midnight and server-1AM, which is when we've got the most recorded errors. (There's some holes in the data, so there ''could'' be other dead zones, but anecdotal evidence supports this assesment as correct.)If this confirms that the downtime/server-bog does seem to be occurring every night, I suggest we reguest our webhost schedule it ''not'' to run every day. If we can get by with once a week, I suggest Friday or Saturday. (Google Analytics tells me Friday and Saturday are, very slightly, our lowest-traffic point for the week.)

[[Image:Ga traffic 09-08 01-09.png|thumb|250px]]

Google Anayltics also tells me we've grown. It's hard to see on the daily graph graph (so I won't show it,) but where our daily unique visitors used to ''peak'' below 4000 on heavy days, it's now ''troughing'' just below 4000 on slow days and peaking in the 6000's. Encouraging! (Monthly breakdown is pictured, it's clearer. The graph starts in September when we installed GA.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 22:19, 9 February 2009 (EST)More than half of all inbound traffic is directed here by links. (Since, since Wikia's traffic volume means it dominates search, isn't that big a surprise.) What thrills me? '''More of our readers use Firefox than user Internet Explorer'''.Traffic coming from search engines continues to grow at abotut he same rate our overall traffic does. (That's neither good, nor bad, it just is.) Of note-- people coming from search engines tend to be 'lower value.' (They bounce away quicker, they view fewer pages, etc.) Kinda troubling... we get a ''vast'' majority of those via google. Yes Google has a majority of search, but not ''that'' vast a majority. We're underperforming in non-Google search engines. (Not sure what to do about that. Arguably we're just overperforming in Google... since we have GA installed it can better judge we have ''real'' traffic taking place here and has lifted our "duplicate content" penalty. Yahoo lacks that advantage and might just be slower to come around.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 22:19, 9 February 2009 (EST)

== Card-Carrying Fans? ==
Not sure of the appropriate section to place this; it can be moved if necessary.There's going to be official [http://www.transformers-card.com/pre2/index.html Transformers-themed Visa credit cards] available in Japan soon through Pocket Card Co., Ltd. The site's front page isn't up yet, and probably won't be until the ordering period for the cards starts at 11 a.m. Feb. 16, Japan time.The project is apparently the brainchild of Index Create, who also run the [http://www.ganbo-store.com Ganbo Store]. The cards have no initiation fees or annual fees, though the card company still has to examine your financial record and approve your application, per usual. I have no idea which bank backs the cards, what their interest rate is, etc. Those details will probably be available next Monday.You can choose between two designs: a red Autobot card featuring a Prime in the foreground and a Megatron close-up in the background, and a purple Decepticon card with the characters switched. Both are by veteran Japanese TF illustrator [[Hidetsugu Yoshioka]].Several other bonus items are being offered in conjunction with the card:

'''1. A free Micron/Mini-Con''' 
Customers who order the Autobot card will get a recolor of the Mini-Con [[Thunderwing (Classics)|Thunderwing]] as Sling (Slingshot), while Destron card orderers will get a recolor of the Mini-Con [[Divebomb (Classics)|Divebomb]] as Volter (Vortex).

'''2. Original Quo Card''' 
Those receiving a credit card will also get a Quo Card (prepaid cash card) worth 500 yen. The Quo Card design will match whichever card the customer ordered.

'''3. Transformers Basecamp site''' 
Card owners will have exclusive access to Transformers Basecamp, a site overseen by Takara. What you can do there isn't clear yet (again, nothing more until Feb. 16, at least), but from the look of the preview page, at the very least, you can take popular TFs and guide them around Japan in battle campaigns, raising their levels enough to earn them positions on their teams. If the [http://ameblo.jp/ganbo-store/entry-10199744261.html Ganbo blog post] is to be believed, then you could have Prime as a scout, Megatron as a supply officer, and Starscream as Decepticon leader, if you like. You can communicate with other card members during missions, and completing missions earns you rankings as well as character levels. Top rankers will get free TF pins as "medals", which will also be added to their Basecamp profiles.

'''4. Exclusive Gentei! Gentei! Strafe offer''' 
Card members will have exclusive rights to purchase a recolor of Universe Cyclonus as Technobot Strafe via the Transformers Basecamp site.It's unclear whether any single customer will be allowed to receive both types of credit card and thus both types of free Micron and Quo Card, but I suspect that won't be likely.--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 11:23, 10 February 2009 (EST)
:Nobody has any right to complain about convention exclusives ever again. Also, I'm glad the Microns are pre-existing characters. This means I have little to no desire to try and obtain them. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 12:17, 10 February 2009 (EST)
::That's fucking brutal. Wow. [[User:Hooper X|-hx]] 16:58, 10 February 2009 (EST)
:::You just know some fans will get the card(s) just long enough to get the Microns, then cancel. Their credit rating would be [[Ruined forever]]. --[[User:Thylacine 2000|Thylacine 2000]] 18:05, 10 February 2009 (EST)
::::Got busy all day yesterday after my previous post. I see the info on the exclusive toys has been integrated into their respective articles and some of the order period dates have been added. Is there anywhere it's appropriate to write up the cards themselves?--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 10:29, 11 February 2009 (EST)
:::::Why not make a new page about this contest promotion: something merging the credit cards and the online campaign, with appropriate links to the toy pages? We have a page for [[Music Label]], and this new thing is already bigger than that. --[[User:Thylacine 2000|Thylacine 2000]] 10:37, 11 February 2009 (EST)
::::::What would be the title? Transformers credit cards? They're the only element of the campaign that's essentially independent of the rest. All the others hinge on one getting one of those cards.--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 12:08, 11 February 2009 (EST)
:::::::How about "Transformers Basecamp"? --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 13:13, 11 February 2009 (EST)
::::::::That sounds like the safest bet. All the special offers are via the members-only website.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|Talk]] 13:17, 11 February 2009 (EST)
:::::::::Well, the cards themselves aren't. You can get one without ever participating in the Basecamp site or even accepting any of the exclusives, if you like. (I know, fat chance anyone ordering one of the cards is going to go that route, but in principle, it's possible.)--[[User:Apcog|Apcog]] 15:37, 12 February 2009 (EST)

== Canonical URL specification ==
I see Google and Yahoo are now supporting a method of specifying a page's canonical URL
[http://ysearchblog.com/2009/02/12/fighting-duplication-adding-more-arrows-to-your-quiver/]
[http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html]I'm not familiar with customising MediaWiki, but is it something we could apply here? --[[User:Abates|abates]] 00:28, 13 February 2009 (EST)
:Hrm. I'm not certain it's something we really need to worry about... AFAIK, all of our real content maps straight to the <code>[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/(title)]]</code> type of URL. Generally the only things that use the <code>[[http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=(title)]]</code> prefix are special pages and "action pages" that wouldn't be desirable to index anyway.
:Essentially... those links are ways to specify multiple URLs as being equivalent, but AFAIK we only have one real URL per actual article page to begin with, so we have no "multiple URLs that point to the same thing" to worry about. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 01:02, 13 February 2009 (EST)
::I thinkt he gogole/yahoo webspiders might actually run into duplicates while spidering mediawiki... but because each page has a distinct title (and the duplicate pages have the same title, showing their "proper" name,) the search engines don't habe a problem sorting out duplication on MW.
::(It's a real problem, but I don't think it's one that afflicts mediaWiki, since unlike many other sites, every article on a mediawiki install has a distinct <title>.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 01:45, 13 February 2009 (EST)
:::Yeah, so do you want this content, when a search engine retrieves it, to link to [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers_Wiki:Community_Portal]] or to [[http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Transformers_Wiki_talk:Community_Portal&printable=yes]] ? And of you think they won't spider that, have a look in the sidebar. --[[User:M.mendel|◄mendel►]] 23:29, 15 February 2009 (EST)
::::Hrm, does MW 1.3 do this ? -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 23:41, 15 February 2009 (EST)
:::::Wikia's 1.13 has the canonical links on the ?printable page; Wikipedia itself has not, so it's not made its way into the software yet. --[[User:M.mendel|◄mendel►]] 11:51, 16 February 2009 (EST)

== Unable to edit ==
just a question, how come i cant edit? i dont spam or anything and i do include links to any infomation i find thats official(just check the revenge film article on the other wiki acount) could anyone who replies send it to my talk page thanks. [[User talk:Behellmorph|Behellmorph]] 13:03, 13 February 2009 (EST)

== Category proposal ==
After making a couple of trivia entries for characters with names derived from Greek/Latin words, I was wondering whether something like 'Category:Greco-Latin names' would be worth doing. There are a number of contenders, both when there is a 'true' meaning (Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Fortress Maximus, Omega Supreme, etc.) and when a Latinate form is given to the name (Menasor, Bruticus, Abominus). I would happily do the legwork on this (tagging + trivia notes), if people think it's worth doing. - [[User:Tribimat|Tribimat]] 05:09, 14 February 2009 (EST)
:Where does "Rodimus Prime" fall?
:I don't think that there's much... ''use'' in a category like this. Why would you ever want to see them all listed together-- to go from Optimus Prime to Menasor?
:A ''page'' on the phenomena listing everyone? I could see that though. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 06:20, 14 February 2009 (EST)
::Rodimus Prime would be classed as a derivative of Optimus Prime, so not directly Latin. How about, then, a category for names that come pretty much directly from Greek and Latin (not a big group), plus a page that covers these + the various coinages that are meant to sound like Latin? The only reason I proposed a bigger category is that it might be interesting to see the types of character that are given these names, but it would probably be too wide to be meaningful (I'm still trying to decide whether 'Devastator' would count). I do think the secondary naming convention (beside nicknames, puns and portmanteaux) is interesting, not least because it's one of the few pre-Budiansky things that stuck. I'll have a go at the page later today. - [[User:Tribimat|Tribimat]] 06:52, 14 February 2009 (EST)
:::In my case, it's a matter that I think a category should ideally encompass the content of the entire article, not just the title. But I think a page on Name Etymology might be fun to read. --[[User:Jeysie|Jeysie]] 07:22, 14 February 2009 (EST)
:::It's hard to say-- English is a romance language. Is Devastator "latin derived," or just a mash-up of the English "Devastate" and the suffix "or" for ''one who does''? I'm not sold on a category... but if you want to temp it in I sure hold it against you. I'd be more interested in an article on Transformers with names derived from dead languages though. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 07:30, 14 February 2009 (EST)
::::English is Germanic, not Romance, and that isn't really relevant to what you're trying to say. The classification of the language doesn't have much to do with specific vocabulary. On the topic, I think the number of categories we have now is excessive (even if most of them are necessary). I don't see a need to add to that with a category that's on the level of "Transformers with blue eyes". The topic is mildly interesting. That doesn't mean it needs a category. [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 01:19, 16 February 2009 (EST)
:::::On the other hand, "Transformers with non-standard eye colors" would be kind of fun - there's only a handful that don't have red or blue eyes, y'know. [[User:Hooper X|-hx]] 09:30, 16 February 2009 (EST)
::::::I dunno, this sounds a lot like the Head-For-A-Hand club, which I eventually just stuck on my user page. Fun but not really necessary within the scope of this wiki. Besides, Optimus Prime's eyes have been yellow, red *and* blue to my knowledge at least. --[[User:Emvee|Emvee]] 03:56, 17 February 2009 (EST)
:::::::Okay, forget the category idea. I'm expanding the proposed page's remit to cover all naming conventions, so it'll take longer to put together but will hopefully be more interesting when it's done. - [[User:Tribimat|Tribimat]] 18:42, 17 February 2009 (EST)

== Upgrading the Wiki software ==
Wikia recently updated the software on the Other Wiki, and it broke [[Template:Episodenav]]. If/when we update MediaWiki here, we should keep an eye on it to make sure the same thing doesn't happen here (I'm sure someone will be, but I wanted to give a heads up). --[[User:Abates|abates]] 17:08, 19 February 2009 (EST)
:Epnav ''was'' broken when we first moved over here. (We were 1 version more up to date than wikia @ the time, and the new version was less 'tolerant' or something we were doing.) I think it was broken for almost 10 days while we picked through code php-side to try and figure out what flag to fix to make the problem go away. (In the end we just re-coded the undocumented nested interdependent episodenav templates. That sucked, and anchor-linking ''still'' doesn't work right for some reason I haven't figured out.)
:Did Wikia ever fix the problem? I mean-- I pity them. I ''wrote'' the episodenav template and I was pulling out my hair trying to fix it. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 03:00, 7 March 2009 (EST)
::n/m, I found it. I even contributed [http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Transformers_Wiki_talk:Community_Portal#We_got_a_problem my own words of encouragement]. I'm sure you'll agree that I was ''nothing but courteous'' to our former hosts. -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 03:33, 7 March 2009 (EST)
:::Bwahaha! Oh well, if it's not going to be a problem when we get the software upgraded, then great! --[[User:Abates|abates]] 03:46, 7 March 2009 (EST)
::::well I'm not ''sure'' until ti happens, but it sounds like they just ran into the same problem we had-- a stricter recursion... thing. (Wikipedia itself has pages that still feature ugly red errors because some of their obscure seldom-used templates don't comply with this--- mostly talk pages. It was not a smooth transition.) -[[User:Derik|Derik]][[User talk:Derik|Talk]] 03:50, 7 March 2009 (EST)

==Watermakring original photos==
[[Image:TFWiki-watermark.psd|TFWIKI.NET watermark image]]

Okay, I started this with the [[Category:Victory toy images|Breastforce toy images]] I took today... a TFWIKI.NET "watermark" based on our mainpage banner to be applied to any original photographs we take for this wiki. It's a PSD with a transparency, plus two invisible "marker" pixels, one in each lower corner, so's Photoshop can align it nicely if you push it into a corner (and have the "snap to edges" option on, which I do). 
The way I figure it, we're going to have a large amount of original pictures up on this site as time goes on. I'll be taking a LOT of pictures of toys we don't have images of (and replacing images I don't like, such as the shoddy older Has/Tak stock photos with inaccurate pre-release toys, or ''Generations'' scans, or just shitty pics) over the next however-long, plus re-uploading a lot of my older ones with the watermark (also a good excuse to put them in the proper categories). I figure that if we're properly naming the damn files, they'll show up on image web-searches more... and having the site address right there in the image helps our visibility. Plus, helps us just look a titch more professional. 
So yeah. This is for ''pictures '''we''' take only''. It's not to be slapped on every screen capture or comic book scan or Has/Tak stock photo that we upload; that's just goddamn obnoxious. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 07:12, 21 February 2009 (EST)
:*scratches head* but aren't watermarks ''always'' obnoxious? -08:09, 21 February 2009 (EST)
::On tformers, sure. A small, unobtrusive watermark in the corner of an image? Not remotely. --[[User:M Sipher|M Sipher]] 08:15, 21 February 2009 (EST)
:::Yeah, only Tformers has the balls to put a huge watermark directly over a Hasbro copyrighted image. We can be better than that. We ''should'' be better than that.--[[User:Rosicrucian|Rosicrucian]][[User talk:Rosicrucian|Talk]] 09:15, 21 February 2009 (EST)

== Costumes ==
OK guys yesterday I came across [http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=50514&p=888126#p888126 this] post on seibertron.com and after newsing it it got me thinking. A few posted in it and some posts provided some interesting information, information that would warrant one or maybe two more articles. Like "Transformers costumes" for a category concerning stuff like that and "Hasbro Live promotional appearance" for the actual events, sure they would be short as of now but there seems to be some information out there that would warrant these being covered, after all we do have very short articles. What do you guys think? [[User:Dead Metal|Dead Metal]] 04:18, 22 February 2009 (EST)

== New User Welcome message template ==
I think I've brought this up before, but I believe it's time for us to emulate other major wikis and have a welcome message template that staffers can copy-paste into the talk pages of new users that summarises what we expect of them and how this wiki works. Not having one wastes the time of people like me who have to type out what we expect from new users, particularly in the case of image uploads*.*No offense, but frankly, this should have been the job of our staffers to harass new users, not our powerless regular editors. --[[User:FFN|FFN]] 21:58, 27 February 2009 (EST)

==Picture protection==
So, uh, if we're not going to report the repeat vandalism to the ISP, could we at least set it up so that new users can't upload images? [[User:Interrobang|—Interrobang]] 16:58, 4 March 2009 (EST)

== Partner section on character pages? ==
I think it would be nice to have a common location on a character page for links to partners (combiner parners, Nebulons, Mini-Cons). As it is, you have to search the body of the intro text, sometimes you have to go all the way to the toy section. If there is more than one combiner partner, the name of the combined form would probably be sufficient. In the case of the Unicron Trilogy, if a character can combine with multiple others, maybe a short note would work (combines with Powerlinx Gold). If we do make a standardized section, maybe we could throw their subgroups in there while we are at it.I don't know how practical that would be given the number of partners a character could have in multiple toys/fictions, but I do know I spend time searching for links to their partners, so this is kind of a wish list. - [[User:Starfield|Starfield]] 11:22, 7 March 2009 (EST)
:In general principal, at least, I strongly agree. Sometimes we totally forget to mention binary bond guys, etc. Definitely something worth looking into. -- [[User:Repowers|Repowers]] 11:28, 7 March 2009 (EST)
:: Don't we do this already? Hot Shot's page links to both Jolt and Mirage, and if you're a combiner part, it links to the group either in the italicized continuity note up top, in the opening paragraph, or both. --[[User:ItsWalky|ItsWalky]] 11:30, 7 March 2009 (EST)
:::Alright, if I don't see it in the opening paragraph, I'll put it there. It doesn't seem that common for it not to be there. - [[User:Starfield|Starfield]] 11:39, 7 March 2009 (EST)

== registry cleaner ==

Great article, thank you very much!