User talk:Derik
Archive
My complete user talk history (including archived years) is viewable at: User talk:Derik/Archive.
2006 (Archived)
2007 (Archived)
- User:Rotty demands I be banned because i voted for a different wikia in a poll for a weekly feature.
- Don't post spoielrs from novels
- User:Crockalley calls my userpic 'the cutest catboy he's ever seen.'
- Screed at people in a series of edit memos is impolite.
- Autotrooper divisions
- Derik should remember that is it not other users jobs to fix his opinionated edits.
- Descriptive filenames are better.
2008 (Archived)
- Don't put templates in categories
- Mosaics are not canon
- Undermining the Wikia adblock.
- Archive is incomplete due to the Bookworm Crash.
2009
Post restoration Wikia link clean up
I recall you telling us last year about something you did that would remove all 250,000-odd links that wikia inserted into every page and every revision of every page. Would you be able to do the same again after we've restored our articles? --FFN 07:00, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
- I made alterations to the import script, so they never even got to our database. They're in now, they need to be edited out one by one.
- ...I'll look at maybe setting up an edit script. 27,000+ individual edits in history. JOY. :p
- Oh, for God's Sake :( So it needs to be done manually? --FFN 07:30, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
- After I saw this (there's really no way to get them out the history?), I looked to see if AutoWikiBrowser could be used to start zapping the Wikia links - no dice, apparently http://tfwiki.net/w2/api.php is out-of-line with http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php and it needs to be the same. - SanityOrMadness 10:59, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
- Oh, for God's Sake :( So it needs to be done manually? --FFN 07:30, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
Uhhh... I don't have a webcomic. And my name's not Tim.
- Don't think too hard about it. I've been calling one of our admins Doug for a year and he never bothered to correct me. (His name is Alan... I think.) -Derik 14:42, 23 March 2009 (EDT)
The Franchise Navigation Templates
I figure that as long as I'm going through everything, I might as well update all the templates to the new look, right?
Question, though: Did I assume right that the plain links above the navigation templates are supposed to be links to the continuity families? (Like, it says "Generation 1" above the Generation 1 template, and "Live action film series" above the 2K7 and ROTF ones.) That stumped me a little when I got to the Headmasters template. --Jeysie 04:34, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
- They are inconsistent.
- The nav above the 2007 movie (pre-crash) should be "ready," in terms of HTML. IIRC The CSS for the new design was recovered. -Derik 06:01, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
- Well, I already updated the 2K7, ROTF, and G1 navs based on the cache files that used those templates. I just figured that I might as well update the other franchise headers to use the same format while I was at it (I hate pink, what can I say?) but was stumped over how to translate that one bit of the new template. That line in the G1 and movie templates ends up being readable as a continuity family link, so I was wondering if you meant it that way, so I know how to adapt it to other franchises. --Jeysie 06:43, 24 March 2009 (EDT)
A FYI
http://www.emopanda.com/cleanupbot/ - linked from Category:Cleanup by month - needs to be updated to fix our cleanup count, rather than The Other Place's. [Plus, I suspect it may overwrite the category on the page, so please make sure it leaves it in Category:Wiki cleanup. Although I half more than half a mind to just move the subcats from C:CbM to C:WC and save a redundant layer...] - SanityOrMadness 15:58, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
- I don't think it actually updates their account either, it hadn't worked since the Monaco upgrade.
- Hrm... you did just give me an idea though!
And a question: Is it safe to put {{speedy}} on the twelve month templates at the start of Category:Real-world_events_by_day? They don't APPEAR to be used, but I'd like to double-check that Template:Cal-date doesn't use them in any way first. - SanityOrMadness 16:55, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
- Nope! They're used for navigation! Clicking on a month in the date nav brings you to the 12-month calendar, because July redirect to Calendar. But clicking the "NEXT-MONTH" button takes you to Template:August, which is just the month of August, unlike August, which is the full 366 day calendar.
- The idea being... if you click next-month, you're looking for a near-ish date. And if you click on the month itself, you're looking to navigate within the full year. Separating the two display options out with templates actually does (or at least should) make quickly navigating dates much easier, more "natural" to how people are likely to search dates. -Derik 17:42, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
- Well, could you do something to stop them appearing on Special:Unusedtemplates, if they're actually necessary, then?
- It seems a hellava bodge to be using a template as, in effect, a page - can't you just change the links from (e.g.) [[July]] to [[Calendar|July]] and put the "Templates" in the namespace where they belong? - SanityOrMadness 19:10, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
- I'll look into it. Part of the reason it's set up like this is simply-- this is the way ti was set up before the crash. -Derik 19:16, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
- Admittedly I was thinking before the crash that if the Month links on the day pages are getting redirected to the calendar, they should, well, just actually link directly to the calendar. And the months should be actual pages, yes.
- In fact, is it possible to have noinclude on a regular page? Because then we could have each of the months be a proper regular page with all of the day pages transcluded into it in noinclude tags, then have that page be transcluded where it needs to be in order to show just the calendar part.
- (Um. When we have time to actually work on this sort of thing, I mean.) --Jeysie 20:32, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
- This thing you describe is possible... I will think about it, it'd require some re-jiggering, and at least 320 edits. (Every day's page would have to have its code changed.)
- Tell you what though-- I do know a way to get the month templates off the Unused templates page! -Derik 14:01, 28 March 2009 (EDT)
- I'll look into it. Part of the reason it's set up like this is simply-- this is the way ti was set up before the crash. -Derik 19:16, 27 March 2009 (EDT)
Hey
Since you worked pretty hard on figuring out Staff Sergeant Tracy's name , help me with this :) --FFN 15:33, 7 April 2009 (EDT)
Bot request
I have a Deceptitran request. Could links to "Revelation (comic issue)" please move to "Revelation (War and Peace)" and "Revelation (Dreamwave issue)" to "Revelation (The Dark Ages)"? Thanks! - Starfield 21:23, 13 April 2009 (EDT)
Requested by: - Starfield 21:23, 13 April 2009 (EDT)
Status: Incomplete
I have a Deceptitran request. Could links to "Revelation (comic issue)" please move to "Revelation (War and Peace)" and "Revelation (Dreamwave issue)" to "Revelation (The Dark Ages)"? Thanks! - Starfield 21:23, 13 April 2009 (EDT)
Requested by: - Starfield 21:23, 13 April 2009 (EDT)
Status: Incomplete
I have a Deceptitran request. Could links to "Revelation (comic issue)" please move to "Revelation (War and Peace)" and "Revelation (Dreamwave issue)" to "Revelation (The Dark Ages)"? Thanks! - Starfield 21:23, 13 April 2009 (EDT)
The LongArm of the bot...
http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Cybertron_Elite_Guard&diff=271888&oldid=267284
Huh? Even besides the fact that it seems to have been decided that the TransWarped credit was an aberration and the page has been reverted to small-a mode... wouldn't it have made more sense to change the link to Shockwave (Animated) in the first place? - SanityOrMadness 23:11, 15 April 2009 (EDT)
- The bot is automated to detect moves and change links accordingly. Since somebody moved Longarm Prime to LongArm Prime (despite the fact that it was a redirect), the bot acted accordingly. —Interrobang 23:43, 15 April 2009 (EDT)
- No, I add them manually. (I have it scrap the move log for recent moves and choose which ones to add to the queue.)
- I just assumed someone knew what they were doign when they moved LongArm. Not correct? -Derik 23:56, 15 April 2009 (EDT)
In search of a less stupid cleanup tag.
A quandary. I'd like to make the cleanup tag template automatically datestamp if you neglect to specify one, via currentmonthname and currentyear variables, so it ends up in the proper category. However... if I subst those in the template itself, it will be forever April 2009. If I leave them variables, the date the tag was applied will not be preserved. Thoughts?--RosicrucianTalk 19:05, 21 April 2009 (EDT)
- This thing you say... I do not believe it is possible. The problem is that Template:Currentday will always be updated when the page re-caches. You need the page editor to either enter ~~~~~ or a subst: command for this sort of "expansion" to happen.
- The only solution I've ever thought of would be to have an off-site 'bot monitor pages in a category "Pages with undated..." and make edits to those pages, adding the dates to the templates. The results wouldn't be perfect, but they'd be more-or-less right.
- But that seems like a LOT of work for the result. -Derik 01:56, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- I think I may have found the trick:
- A less versatile method for multilevel substitution is with a pair of includeonly tags: they can be used to prevent substitution on the page itself, while not having any effect when transcluding the page. Substitution is prevented by having the template call inside these tags. Substitution is also prevented by having one or both tags anywhere in the template call except inside a parameter definition. Thus the tag(s) can be before, inside, or after "subst:", or inside or after the template name. The positions of the two tags only influence the rendering of the template page itself. If the closing tag is put immediately after the opening tag the full wikitext is rendered, e.g.
- {{<includeonly></includeonly>subst:tc}} is shown as {{subst:tc}}
- wikipedia:Help:Substitution#Includeonly
- A less versatile method for multilevel substitution is with a pair of includeonly tags: they can be used to prevent substitution on the page itself, while not having any effect when transcluding the page. Substitution is prevented by having the template call inside these tags. Substitution is also prevented by having one or both tags anywhere in the template call except inside a parameter definition. Thus the tag(s) can be before, inside, or after "subst:", or inside or after the template name. The positions of the two tags only influence the rendering of the template page itself. If the closing tag is put immediately after the opening tag the full wikitext is rendered, e.g.
- Plausible?--RosicrucianTalk 02:21, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- I've read this documentation before, and it makes my head hurt.
- How does that help us? -Derik 02:27, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- On further examination, it doesn't unless the template containing those includeonly tags is also substituted. Which leaves us no closer. Drat. I shall delve deeper into the nature of transclusion and substitution and pray I don't inadvertently become a cultist of Azathoth.--RosicrucianTalk 02:30, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- The problem is you want to substitute on the page itself-- you want a 'flattened' date. So that means the editor needs to put in the "subst:." (Or more simply, a ~~~~~,) it can't be optionally assigned by the template if non-present, because that would require the template reaching 'up' into the page it's included on to make changes to the base text. -Derik 02:39, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- On further examination, it doesn't unless the template containing those includeonly tags is also substituted. Which leaves us no closer. Drat. I shall delve deeper into the nature of transclusion and substitution and pray I don't inadvertently become a cultist of Azathoth.--RosicrucianTalk 02:30, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- I think I may have found the trick:
We could, I suppose, create something to the effect of {{lazycleanuptag}} which forces substitution and only outputs {{cleanup|{{subst:currentmonthname}} {{subst:currentyear}}|}} ...but that seems like going 'round Robin Hood's barn to get there.--RosicrucianTalk 02:35, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- And of course misses the point entirely of plunking a date tag in when people forget to do so, the original point of this exercise. It is for the most part admitting defeat.--RosicrucianTalk 02:36, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- See, I didn't think that was how that worked. See if you can make that work, with exactly that substitution. If it does we at least have a starting point. -Derik 02:43, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- It does work. In that if I use the includeonly trick on the subst bits in that, and also subst the shell template itself, said template would then leave in the article text {{cleanup|April 2009}}, being a multi-level substitution as described in the mediawiki help. But, as I said above, it only works if the template using the includeonly trick is also substituted. The date variables get rendered flat, and the lazy cleanup template also gets reduced to standard wiki text, but any templates it calls aren't substituted, and thus still render as genuine transclusions.--RosicrucianTalk 02:50, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- The problem with that approach being that forced substitution is pretty much nonexistent, beyond a simple nag message.--RosicrucianTalk 02:56, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- It does work. In that if I use the includeonly trick on the subst bits in that, and also subst the shell template itself, said template would then leave in the article text {{cleanup|April 2009}}, being a multi-level substitution as described in the mediawiki help. But, as I said above, it only works if the template using the includeonly trick is also substituted. The date variables get rendered flat, and the lazy cleanup template also gets reduced to standard wiki text, but any templates it calls aren't substituted, and thus still render as genuine transclusions.--RosicrucianTalk 02:50, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
- See, I didn't think that was how that worked. See if you can make that work, with exactly that substitution. If it does we at least have a starting point. -Derik 02:43, 22 April 2009 (EDT)
Bot request for image tagging
I've noticed that all of the images that haven't had their descriptions restored have the text "Importing image file" instead. Can we have Deceptitran replace all instances of that phrase in the image namespace with "{{bookworm|5}}"? I think that'll make that part of the recovery process go much quicker. - Jackpot 18:09, 24 April 2009 (EDT)
- Link me an example file! -Derik 20:00, 24 April 2009 (EDT)
- Perfect example. Oh, and I was thinking about it, and it's probably best to replace the phrase with "{{bookworm|5|Description and copyright info}}" just to make sure it's clear. - Jackpot 20:25, 24 April 2009 (EDT)
BW Neo Models
So, I'm looking for future projects, and BW II / BW Neo seem like likely candidates. A while back, while we were debating, you posted scans of Deadend http://www.emopanda.com/tmp/deadend_model.jpg that showed several angles. Do you still have access to that book, and would you be willing/able to make some high quality scans? Also, does the book cover the secondary characters like Survive, Bazooka, Bump, Hydra, Sharp Edge. Randy and Sharp Edge? --Jimsorenson 01:05, 2 May 2009 (EDT)
- Beast Wars II Guidebook
- Big Convoy (full++)
- Longstickupass (full)
- Break (full)
- Stampy (full)
- Chorada (full)
- Heinrad (full)
- Mach Kick (full)
- Lockbuster (full)
- Randy (full-ish)
- Bump (full)
- Sharpedge (full)
- Survive (full)
- True One (fron + transformation)
- High Council (single shot)
- Magmatron (front and magamasaur only, toy control art for other modes)
- Guildart (full)
- Saberback (full)
- Dead End (full)
- Sling (full)
- Archadis (robot front/back only, toy control art for beast mode)
- Hydra (single shot of robot mode only)
- Hardheaded old fart (full)
- Crazybolt (single shot of robot mode only)
- Bazooka (control art for all modes, no character models)
- Vector Sigma (concept sketch)
- Yukikaze (3 views)
- Fuzzy seal things from episode 3 (front on both characters)
- Yukikaze Shuttle (multiple angles)
- Concept art of CR-chambers
- Hideos Spider Monster from episode 9 (partial model set)
- Star Upper (robot + beast, same model seen on his article now-- I colored it for that.)
- NAVI unit (3 angles + claw detail)
- Killerpunch (illo of his arm shooting only-- no proper models)
- Beast Wars II Movie Guidebook
- Lio Convoy (full)
- Apache (full)
- Tasmania Kid (full)
- Bighorn (full)
- Scuba/Ikard (full)
- Diver (full)
- Insectrons (Full set, but partially obscured. I have their colroed character models in another book to recover detail from...)
- Tripledacus (front only + head detail)
- Jointrons (low resolution, front and beast only)
- Artemis (several angles)
- Moon (rabbit only)
- Galbatron (full+)
- Megastrom (full)
- Starscream (full)
- BBB (full)
- Dirge (full)
- Thrust (full)
- Autorollers x4 (front, back, + 1 isometric vehicle view)
- Beast Wars Neo Big Encyclopaedia (despite the name, it is small-format)
- Majin Zarak (monster/aircraft)
- Lio Convoy (full)
- Apache (full)
- Tasmania Kid (full)
- Bighorn (full)
- Diver (full)
- Scuba/Ikard (full)
- Taco Tank (full-- with that name you'd think it belonged to the Jointrons...)
- LioJr.Skywarp/Santon/Magnaboss (full)
- Galbatron (full)
- Gigastrom (full)
- Hellscream (full)
- MaxB (full)
- Dirgegun (full)
- Thrustol (full)
- Optimus Primal (full)
- Majin Zarak (full)
That's what I have for BW-era character models...
Major stuff missing: Killerpunch, all the Seacons (I have the colored models though-- you can see them on their pages on the wiki.) Some 'sets' are less-than-complete, but might be filled out if you were able to pull lineart back out of the color models. (I have several guidebooks that include colored models-- usually partially obscured by text but potentially useful.)
I am looking for:
- BWII Manga v 2
- Car Robots encyclopedia (whatever its name is-- there was a mini-guidebook published for car that included a bunch of character models. I didn't buy it when I had the chance, which I've eternally regretted.)
...that's probably a more complete answer than you expected. -Derik 03:40, 2 May 2009 (EDT)
The Beast Wars II Super Encyclopedia has colored models for all the pre-angolmois guys, including the missing Seacons. (front angles in both modes only)
The Beast Wars Neo Guidebook of Fuckwin has colored models of everyone. Front angles only again.
Both of these would require some work-- even assuming it's possible to extract lineart from them, they're partially obscured by text and boxes. -Derik 03:56, 2 May 2009 (EDT)
- ... aaaaand that is why you kick SO much ass! It looks like between the art I've already got and these guide books, there is VERY little that's missing. Thankfully, I've got Killerpunch (one of the few ancillary characters from Neo I do have). It looks like, assuming you're willing to make some scans / bring some books to Botcon for me to scan, you fill in pretty much all the gaps that I've got. Generally, I CAN extract lineart from color models when necessary, but it isn't my first choice. Looks like I'd be interested in:
- Lockbuster (full)
- Randy (full-ish)
- Bump (full)
- Sharpedge (full)
- Survive (full)
- Hydra (single shot of robot mode only)
- True One (fron + transformation)
- Vector Sigma (concept sketch)
- Fuzzy seal things from episode 3 (front on both characters)
- Concept art of CR-chambers
- Hideos Spider Monster from episode 9 (partial model set)
- Star Upper (robot + beast, same model seen on his article now-- I colored it for that.)
- Gigastrom (full)
- Optimus Primal (full)
- Majin Zarak (full)
- Plus, from Beast Wars II Super Encyclopedia, colored Seacons. From Beast Wars Neo Guidebook of Fuckwin, colored Hydra and Bazooka. That would give full model sets for nearly everyone. Poor Hydra (he's so lonely) and Bazooka may be the only ones who wind up with just fronts. Ironic, since they'll be more work than the others.
- Do you have my email address? Cheers! --Jimsorenson 10:38, 2 May 2009 (EDT)
- Actually, I could use better shots of Guiledart's dinosaur mode too. --Jimsorenson 11:24, 3 May 2009 (EDT)
- Ads tot he list.
- Do you need these toot-sweet, or can it take a few days? (Just determines how much cleanup work I do.) -Derik 15:24, 3 May 2009 (EDT)
- Ideally I'd get it before Botcon. Thanks for the help. --Jimsorenson 17:21, 3 May 2009 (EDT)
- Actually, I could use better shots of Guiledart's dinosaur mode too. --Jimsorenson 11:24, 3 May 2009 (EDT)
The New Merge Template
...*dies laughing* Is all. --Jeysie 22:20, 11 May 2009 (EDT)
Template:Source
Trying to get it to match our new copyright tags, and have been mostly successful. Two problems. Trying to flatten out the if statements has met with less than perfect results, and the H2 tag there has forced me to use a bit of a kludge to prevent the TOC from being rendered IN the template. Hoping to get it in the same nice canary yellow and orange color scheme the original box you made for original sources used. Could you have a gander at it?--RosicrucianTalk 17:28, 12 May 2009 (EDT)
Revenge of the Fallen books.
I can't say as I really think this is one.--RosicrucianTalk 02:40, 19 May 2009 (EDT)
mfghrthr54tjtyj6t7kj67k5
Seriously, stop bunging a Merge with Spotlight: Sixshot template on random pages, along with the other drunken stuff you've been doing tonight like the "Quatuar" page. - SanityOrMadness 22:24, 27 May 2009 (EDT)
- I'm practicing for my drunken rampage during Botcon. -Derik 22:36, 27 May 2009 (EDT)
Earthforce/US timeline
- Note: this is not speculation, the UK Letters page confirm the US timeline is a result o the Timestorm.
Which issue? - SanityOrMadness 20:18, 28 May 2009 (EDT)
- I lost my notes on the UK Letters Page when my laptop was stolen-- ask Jim Sorrenson, he's researched the letters pages more recently than I. They say it at least twice. -Derik 20:40, 28 May 2009 (EDT)
Bot work
Task: Scour the Wiki for all the myriard variant spellings of "Toys"R"Us", change them all to Toys"R"Us (no reversed "R", no spaces, standard quotation marks), make the first mention a Wiki link. Leave the Toys"R"Us page itself alone, especially the introductory paragraph.--Nevermore 16:41, 10 June 2009 (EDT)
Can your bot handle creating links as well as changing them? I was thinking it'd be nice to go through and link up all dates that aren't linked already. Would promote the date pages and make it easier to catch everything that belongs on each date page. --Jeysie 17:54, 12 June 2009 (EDT)
- There is a concern that blindly linking to anything that looks like a date will cause more trouble than it solves. What if the text is part of a text link? For example, in disambigs, it's quite common to say in [[Transformers (2007)|the 2007 movie]] portion of the...
- There is no simple way to prevent it from making a mess of those. :( -Derik 22:58, 13 June 2009 (EDT)
- Not the years, the months and days. Like "January 1", "May 15", "August 8", etc. I guess those could show up in links too, but I think it'd be a much rarer occurrance. --Jeysie 23:08, 13 June 2009 (EDT)
- ...potentially. I'll look into it if Scout ever fixes the pagelisting utility I use to generate a master list. -Derik 01:06, 14 June 2009 (EDT)
Bot Request
I was trying to manually swap out Beest with Beast but the wiki delays have got me down. Any chance you can bot it? --Jimsorenson 14:10, 7 July 2009 (EDT)
- Sure. When did the spelling change though? I thought Dreamwave's spelling ruled. -Derik 17:13, 7 July 2009 (EDT)
- Actually, we may well have gotten them all. Spelling change was by (small) consensus, based on Metrodome and The Ark using the traditional spelling.--Jimsorenson 17:23, 7 July 2009 (EDT)
- Yeah, I'm not really sure why we moved it either. We have a name that doesn't require a parenthetical, which was used in English-language media. It can rightly be considered the English name of the planet. I don't know what moving it to a name that needs a parenthetical gains us.--RosicrucianTalk 17:24, 7 July 2009 (EDT)
- Avoiding a disambiguation parenthetical shouldn't be a reason for deciding the name of an article-- it leads to stupidity like "All Spark."
- But yeah... I get Jim's point of "two English-language sources for Beast," but they're both out-fiction sources that're just aping the Japanese name. (Quality of sources vs. quantity, I guess.) I prefer Dreamwave's spelling both because it has primacy and because it's less dumb (I'm not fond of Japan's dead-literal names) without really being a 'renaming.' The fact it removes the need for disambiguation is a plus, but not an active factor.
- And it's worth pointing out that "Beast (G1)" isn't a very good parenthetical for the Dinobot combiner when Beest has appeared in Dreamwave's Transformers Generation 1 comics.
- I don't actually care enough to contribute to that debate, but feel cree to carbon-copy my comments if they seem helpful. -Derik 20:16, 7 July 2009 (EDT)
- Yeah, I'm not really sure why we moved it either. We have a name that doesn't require a parenthetical, which was used in English-language media. It can rightly be considered the English name of the planet. I don't know what moving it to a name that needs a parenthetical gains us.--RosicrucianTalk 17:24, 7 July 2009 (EDT)
- Actually, we may well have gotten them all. Spelling change was by (small) consensus, based on Metrodome and The Ark using the traditional spelling.--Jimsorenson 17:23, 7 July 2009 (EDT)
The Void
Seriously, how do you undo that transparency? - Jackpot 01:42, 19 July 2009 (EDT)
- Opacity:.5; -Derik 16:49, 19 July 2009 (EDT)
- I have no idea where that setting is or how you're changing it without it registering in the History, but I do appreciate that you've changed it back. Thank you. (As the one who came up with the gag of the page in the first place, I'm a little defensive of it.) - Jackpot 22:12, 21 July 2009 (EDT)
- It's not on the page-- it's in the sitewide CSS. I have a rapid-development CSS file loaded off my web-space as an include in TFWiki's common.css file. The ideas is that since only admins can edit common.css and since I do a fair amount of our template work... I have a file that can be easily edited, so you can make 50-60 changes while testing/developing template code.
- In theory you could do this by yourself and then tell people to edit their personal .css file so they could see the changes... but in practice the result is that only 5 people would ever bother, even for major proposed changes-- and twice that number would look at a proposed template and say "it looks messed up" because they were lacking the .css for 'em.
- (When Rosh and Jessye were developing styles for Monacobook and the main page, we just threw their code into the temp file so everyone could see it and respond easily.)
- If something's really wild and out there, it can be tested using Kired Tools, and is only visible to users who've installed the tools... but KT came later-- and anyway for 90% of stuff the rapid-development file is better-suited.
- The idea is that eventually CSS changes, once they're completely solid, will migrate to the central common.css file. In practice... some of this code has been there for more than a year-- but I don't think I've gone more than 3 days without making some sort of edit to the file-- either for a new template or to accommodate a minor template tweak someone else wanted. The "button" code for example (used for the previous/next buttons) has been tweaked slightly with every new template that uses it. (Eventually I'll probably gut it and we'll get a generalized version made which can migrate to common.css.)
- Oh-- and to answer your question re: the void specifically... you can set styles for specific pages. The Void was an extreme example. A much simpler one: our main page doesn't display the redundant "Main Page" title which was competing with the acctual site title (TFWiki.net) in the visual hierarchy.
- So yeah... that's basically it. If you require quick CSS changes or a test you can bug me. I, in turn, have to be careful and play nice with the demi-godlike power entrusted in me, or I have it taken away. (I've been warned a couple times about the limits of what I should and shouldn't do.) Net-net, everyone benefits and TFWiki.net has some of the nicer-looking templates out there.
- ...this is long. I hope it answers your questions. The seedy underbelly of TFWiki.net developers, with off-site archives and changes that don't show up in history! -Derik 13:20, 22 July 2009 (EDT)
- I have no idea where that setting is or how you're changing it without it registering in the History, but I do appreciate that you've changed it back. Thank you. (As the one who came up with the gag of the page in the first place, I'm a little defensive of it.) - Jackpot 22:12, 21 July 2009 (EDT)
Bot Oddities
I've noticed during the SG switch that sometimes, while fixing one link, the bot will at the same time revert a previously changed link back for some reason. Check out this diff, for instance. --Jeysie 22:32, 6 August 2009 (EDT)
- The two edits were made to the same page 4 seconds apart. Probably one was made by the 1-a-minute crontab script and the other was made by the speed-editor (which runs in-browser) and they tripped over one another's feet. (I'll turn off the 1-a-minute editor. The in-browser speed editor should force all the edits to execute in sequence instead of parallel.)
- You say 'sometimes,' have you seen it anywhere else? Normally that would only happen once in a blue moon. -Derik 22:45, 6 August 2009 (EDT)
- Well, sometimes right now, at least, due to the huge volume of link changes we're running. If you go to the Recent Changes page and show the bot edits, and skim down through it, you can see various instances on a number of pages where the size difference is (0) instead of a negative multiple of 13, meaning it fixed one link but reverted another. (Or there's 2 edits, but the size diff is only -13, etc.)
- Here's just one page as an example, you can see the instances where the size doesn't change, and they seem to match up to the quirky reverts. --Jeysie 22:56, 6 August 2009 (EDT)
- ...great, I'm running up against caching lag then. -Derik 23:28, 6 August 2009 (EDT)
- I think when I'm done I'll just re-up all the moved pages "Move all the links again." Only this time instead of 1,400 links, it'll find maybe 30 loose ones.
- Ultimately if I re-architectured the 'bot to do all the pending relinks on a given page instead of making multiple edits the problem would go away. I looked at making such a change this afternoon, but the code changes involved were too complicated. :p -Derik 23:31, 6 August 2009 (EDT)
Faction Icons
Derik, per Template_talk:Factions, trying to swap out the Armada Unicron symbol for the Blendtron Unicron symbol ... how would I do that? --Jimsorenson 11:43, 11 August 2009 (EDT)
- That's done on template:factions/icons.--RosicrucianTalk 11:46, 11 August 2009 (EDT)
- I can't figure out how, just from that link. --Jimsorenson 12:26, 11 August 2009 (EDT)
- Mazenoise got it. Once the cache refreshes, the pages should reflect this.--RosicrucianTalk 12:28, 11 August 2009 (EDT)
- Thanks. (Sorry for your real estate, Derik.) --Jimsorenson 13:54, 11 August 2009 (EDT)
- Eh, no problem. I point out that Kired Tools adds as 'purge' button @ the top of an article after the 'watch' button, which enables you to force a page to re-cache with a single click. (Quite useful when making changes to templates... you don't have to wait for them to re-cache to see how the result looks.) -Derik 16:05, 11 August 2009 (EDT)
- Thanks. (Sorry for your real estate, Derik.) --Jimsorenson 13:54, 11 August 2009 (EDT)
- Mazenoise got it. Once the cache refreshes, the pages should reflect this.--RosicrucianTalk 12:28, 11 August 2009 (EDT)
- I can't figure out how, just from that link. --Jimsorenson 12:26, 11 August 2009 (EDT)
Template numeracy
Just curious, is there a simple way to perform operations on a numeric template variable?
That is, if the template has a variable x, can the template be made to spit out x+1 and x-1? And, taking it a stage further, can it be made to spit these out as a fixed number of digits (that is, if x=5, can it be made to spit out x+1 as 06 and x-1 as 04 without any further intervention?) - SanityOrMadness 17:29, 6 September 2009 (EDT)
{{#pad: {{#expr: 1 + 2}} |4|0}} <!-- Pad to 4 characters using "0" the result of the expression
- Relevant link with more info. (This and other useful links can be found in the last section of my userpage. You want anything called "functions." )-Derik 17:44, 6 September 2009 (EDT)
- Thanks, I managed to figure out the rest from that :) [It was just to have autogenerated back/forward links on the Marvel cover templates, given that I didn't want to edit 97 pages by hand again and I hadn't been able to figure it out originally. There's still a slight question of styling, but meh, it'll do now] - SanityOrMadness 22:13, 6 September 2009 (EDT)
Sun Raid
I posted the audio of Sun Raid on my Yahoo Video page. It was among the requests. Credit to Retro Robot Radio and positive feedback would be appreciated. [1] 69.14.142.90 17:32, 7 September 2009 (EDT
