MediaWiki talk:Community Portal

I have often found myself simply reading this website for entertainment because it just appeals to my sense of humor that much. I have often found myself wanting to somehow upvote or like a caption because it was just that good. Is there a way to do this? If not, can there be? Tourny 20:59, 5 January 2013 (EST)

I don't think that'd ever happen, because at the end of the day, this a Transformers wiki, not a 'post your Transformers jokes here' website. The jokes aren't and never should be the main focus, they're just a fun side effect. If anything, such a system would kind of legitimise the people who show up and do just want to use this place as a place to post their 'hilarious' Transformers jokes without contributing anything useful, and god knows we don't want that... Jalaguy 04:52, 6 January 2013 (EST)

A most welcome way of doing it would be to point out the captions you like by posting to your facebook or twitter or what have you, especially with a link to the TFWiki page in question. --abates 05:18, 6 January 2013 (EST)

Aligned character page main images

Since we've finally beun to treat the Aligned characters like we do characters of other continuities by disambiguating them by franchise, does anyone else feel that a bunch of characters with (WFC) disambigs having their Prime designs as their main image feels a little off? I mean, Thundercracker (Armada) uses his Armada design as his main image despite his Cybertron depiction being his most prominent one. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the WFC designs be the main images for those characters who bear the (WFC) disambig and such? Especially since our policy says, "the main image [of a character's page] should be their original 'real world' form". --Sabrblade 00:34, 7 January 2013 (EST)

Not sure why it's there for Thundercracker, but characters like Sideways (RID) and The Fallen use their later body designs for their mainpics. It's the most prominent way they've appeared, same as Sideways and Fallen. --Detour 00:40, 7 January 2013 (EST)

The only reason Sideways has his Armada body at the top of the page is that there is no art of the RID body. His packaging image was a photo of his toy and he hasn't appeared in that body anywhere in fiction. The Fallen has his movie body because, well, it was our most popular page for a year or two, because of the movies, and so he was a special case. Regardless, a part of me is pretty okay with the Aligned guys having their Prime bodies at the top, ignoring all standards. That feels a lot different to me than the disambiguation parenthetical, which is there for organization, not for looks or presentation like the main image is. But my feelings are not super strong. --ItsWalky 01:31, 7 January 2013 (EST)

I think we should stick with the Prime images. I'm basically okay with the disambig change at this point after not being on board at first, but I think keeping their Prime main images will help mitigate the potential confusion or blurring of the lines that Aligned seems to always foster. - Chris McFeely 05:09, 7 January 2013 (EST)

I think for the time being, Prime images make the most sense. Going into the future, I think additional different-looking cartoons in the Aligned continuity would be a decent argument for returning to WFC bodies, because at that point they're simply one of many looks, instead of the less prominent of two. -LV 11:49, 7 January 2013 (EST)

Continuing spam

With the spam continuing, even with captchas and email activation turned on, are we to assume that it's some actual poor bastards sitting there copypasting nonsense about handbags into pages? Would a possible solution be trivia-style verification questions? Something most TF fans would know, or could otherwise find out easily, but that a bored spammer would lack the initiative to find out? Like 'who is the Combaticon leader?' or 'what faction does Hound belong to?' and so on. Jalaguy 14:57, 8 January 2013 (EST)

Are Captchas and email activation turned on? I'm not sure how they could be. These are obviously bots, and last I heard we'd only turned on the requirement to register before you can edit.--Rosicrucian ^Talk 15:05, 8 January 2013 (EST)

Yeah, log out and check the account creation page, there's a reCAPTCHA thingmabob on there now. Sipher mentioned activation emails being turned on in the spam discusson further up the page, but looking at the sign-up page again, email isn't required, so I guess it can't be... Jalaguy 15:14, 8 January 2013 (EST)

There are several simple steps that would improve matters immediately and immensely - TitleBlacklist to block the likes of [[Talk:Something/]] and [[Talk:/Something]], preventing users from creating User: pages with their first edit by requiring the Autoconfirmed permission to do so, adding a $wgSpamRegex to LocalSettings.php to prevent pages from being saved if they contain obvious trigger words like "viagra", "cialis", "online casino", "ugg boots" and so forth. They just aren't being used. - SanityOrMadness 19:20, 8 January 2013 (EST)

reCaptcha is a piece of poop, security-wise. I'm also reluctant to add more extensions at the moment, due to performance issues, BUT. Find something simple and lightweight to REPLACE reCaptcha, and we can talk. --McFly 05:38, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

$wgSpamRegex isn't an extension, it's a line of code you can add various banned words to (i.e., if "viagra" is in the list and someone tries to save a page that includes it, the page wouldn't save and they'd get a error message telling them why it wouldn't save. - SanityOrMadness 07:29, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

You know what WASN'T on? wgEmailConfirmToEdit. That may make a LOT more sense, as I'd wager that spambots aren't actually including legit emails. Email authentication is NOT the same thing. --McFly 16:50, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

I still don't think reCaptcha is helping, as noticed, and it doesn't have anything like, say, a lockout policy, so I've bit the bullet and added a modified version of the SpamBlacklist extension, adding in RBL support and some basic language filters in one go. It's reasonably light on DB traffic, too. Will it slow the flood? That remains to be seen, but they're still getting around it right now. I also think I've resolved the IP blocking issue, so we might (might!) be okay now. Turns out that adding a load balancer in front of the Squid caches hurts Mediawiki's IP detection logic. --McFly 20:21, 16 January 2013 (EST)

Alternate suggestion: could the system be modded to block an editor from creating an article until one of their edits is marked as patrolled (and thus approved as legitimate)?KrytenKoro 00:53, 24 March 2013 (EDT)

We are moving very very soon.

That means at some point within the next few hours to few days the wiki will go to Read Only mode while McFly moves stuff around. Then we won't be hemorrhaging cash and things will run smoothly and we'll all have boners, even the ladies. --ItsWalky 17:12, 9 January 2013 (EST)

I've got one right now! - Chris McFeely 17:23, 9 January 2013 (EST)

Okay, so, uh, what the hell happened? -- spyder ^{Use this!} 00:43, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

We have moved. Some things are still being tweaked. --abates 00:46, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Well, I knew we moved, just I thought nothing would look different. Oh, well. -- spyder ^{Use this!} 00:52, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

New Mediawiki software version. Some things got a little mixed up in the move, and newer versions decided to put the hammer down on bad practices. Other things are just... being refactored from a distinct lack of notes. --McFly 01:43, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Most of what's left is going to be us rejiggering some templates to more efficient code, and documenting the snot out of things so McFly doesn't name his first ulcer after us.--Rosicrucian ^Talk 02:02, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

http://science.education.nih.gov/home2.nsf/Educational+ResourcesResource+FormatsOnline+Resources+High+School/928BAB9A176A71B585256CCD00634489 :p - SanityOrMadness 07:25, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Pedantry aside, I CAN name my migraines after you. Stress exacerbates THOSE. --McFly 20:05, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Which migraine's stronger then? Madness or little Sanity? :p - SanityOrMadness 10:36, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Stuffs what have gone wrong(er)

User CSS files aren't being called post-move. Basically, the stuff here was previously all set true, now it's set false. [Is MediaWiki:Common.css even working?] - SanityOrMadness 07:25, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Compared old LocalSettings.php to new, wgUseSiteJs/wgUseSiteCss were NOT set over there. If you're not just making blanket assumptions, please point my not-MediaWiki-understanding ass to the right place. Remember, I built the house, but others (Scout? Derik?) actually laid out the rooms and installed the appliances. My understanding of Mediawiki extends out to "Ooh, shiny mediawiki package in apt repositories..." Anything else is a Wild. Ass. Guess. --McFly 20:05, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

I'm not an expert (And I can't see the Wiki's LocalSettings.php myself to be sure!), but I have played around with MediaWiki a fair bit, so I'm beyond the "oh, shiny" stage and I know where to look at in http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Contents .

For instance, I don't know what $wgAutoConfirmAge and $wgAutoConfirmCount are currrently set to. If the createpage and upload have been set, but those two variables are not set, a fairly minimal barrier would be two days & four edits before you can create pages and upload files - certainly, very few spambots will hang around for two whole days before editing!

$wgAutoConfirmAge = 86400 * 2; # Two days times 86400 seconds/day
$wgAutoConfirmCount = 4;

If they HAVEN'T been set, you can add them with:

# Only users with accounts in autoconfirmed group
# (registered accounts at least as old as $wgAutoConfirmAge and having at least as many edits as $wgAutoConfirmCount)
# can create pages:
$wgGroupPermissions['*'            ]['createpage'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user'         ]['createpage'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['autoconfirmed']['createpage'] = true;

# Only users with accounts in autoconfirmed group
# (registered accounts at least as old as $wgAutoConfirmAge and having at least as many edits as $wgAutoConfirmCount)
# can upload files:
$wgGroupPermissions['*'            ]['upload'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user'         ]['upload'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['autoconfirmed']['upload'] = true;

-SanityOrMadness 10:36, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Broken templates

{{cal-date}} is broken, but I'm not template savvy enough to fix it. Anyone want to have a go? --abates 07:17, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Ja, I will fix it. -Derik 00:15, 17 January 2013 (EST)

$%^&* I'm getting closer to fixing it. -Derik 15:02, 17 January 2013 (EST)

*cries piteously* -Derik 15:43, 17 January 2013 (EST)

I've just had a go and I think that's sorted it! Not sure if there are any other broken templates lurking out there... --abates 05:58, 20 January 2013 (EST)

Storylink

Are the storylinks looking odd for anyone else? They appear as full size text without the surrounding box from before for me. --Khajidha 12:29, 20 January 2013 (EST)

Yeah, storylinks, note boxes, disambig boxes, organisation templates (eg. listing comics issues) and episode/issue/etc. infoboxes are all not displaying correctly. I assume that the folks who know what they're doing with this kind of stuff are working on getting them fixed.. Jalaguy 12:42, 20 January 2013 (EST)

I think that's done it - or at least it's displaying normally for me now. Well done to all involved, much appreciated. --Emvee 17:04, 22 January 2013 (EST)

Still Confused About All This

I just got registered so that I can always find this site.

When I search for Transformers Wiki, all I get is Teletraan 1 and I don't like that site as well. Heck, their information on BotShots is woefully unsatisfactory.

Did this site used to be that site or the other way around? Much of the information in articles looks copied from one site or the other.

Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask these questions. I was looking for an e-mail address or something and couldn't find it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Haven13 (talk • contribs).

No worries! We were originally at Wikia, but split with them in September 2008 and went independent. Wikia are still operating the old version, but it doesn't get updated in a lot of areas.

Where is it you're searching for Transformers Wiki? We come up first on Google when I search on there. --abates 18:16, 23 January 2013 (EST)

Ooh! Ooh! Let me guess! BING. (Who are blocked for hammering our wee servers.) --McFly 23:52, 23 January 2013 (EST)

Well, I just searched for "transformers wiki" on bing.com and we were the first result. Followed by the wikia site, wikipedia's main Transformers page, and wikipedia's Transformers (film) page. --Khajidha 07:01, 24 January 2013 (EST)

Key things missing from toy sections on character pages

There are a couple of things most toy sections don't have that would probably be useful:

a link to the page about the toyline - some articles have it, but they don't seem to be the majority.
for characters who've been more than one faction in fiction, knowing what faction their toy was sold as would be useful, especially if the toyline's page isn't split into Autobots and Decepticons.

Just a couple of ideas. --Flicky1991 16:45, 2 February 2013 (EST)

More than once I have thought a link to the toyline would be handy. - Starfield 21:31, 2 February 2013 (EST)

New Theme

So, according to Hasbro, basically the entire new theme of the Transformers brand is now Beast Hunters. So why not change the wiki theme from Animated to Beast Hunters? Just a suggestion,if people don't like it, whatever. -- spyder ^{Use this!} 12:15, 10 February 2013 (EST)

That's a good idea. Even if not Beast Hunters specifically, a Prime-related theme would make more sense than Animated now, considering it's been a couple of years. --Flicky1991 12:43, 10 February 2013 (EST)

Trivia/notes sections

While I have nothing against a "trivia" or "notes" section (we are not Wikipedia, after all), it is my opinion that such a section should really only contain general notes about the article's subject that are either really trivial, or too general to fit into any specific paragraph. In particular, a noteworthy two-line bit regarding a specific toy in an article about a character with multiple toys might better fit into the specific toy's entry. For example, if the toy had a prototype that was very different from the final toy, the toy's entry isn't very long and the info about the prototype doesn't fill the page either, it could better be added to the toy's entry (since it's actual information about the toy, and its design process), rather than treating it as marginal trivia that is ostracized from the main portion of the article. Likewise, informative notes about fictional appearances of a character and after-the-fact retcons that affect the general perception of said character are better added as notes to the specific fiction writeup, rather than shoving it into the "notes" ghetto. So simply put: Short notes that are directly related to a specific part of the article might better be placed in that very part, rather than in an inflated catch-all "notes" section. Thoughts?--Nevermore 15:45, 16 February 2013 (EST)

Proposal to rename an article.

Hi, I'm proposing that the article "Brick Springhorn" be renamed to "Brick Springstern". Because of an error in the original comic, the character was given both names at various points during the story. A radio announcer called him "Springstern" and an editorial caption said he was "Springhorn". Usually, I'd agree with calling him "Springhorn". We can rationalise the mistake by saying the announcer was mistaken or drunk or something, and of course "Springhorn" is just a damn funny name. Except...

In the recent IDW reprint (which I was re-reading today), they have corrected the error, and he's now called "Springstern" throughout the comic. (Similar to how the IDW reprints corrected the Sherman Dam / Boulder Dam mistake).

Given that "Springstern" is now his name throughout the most recent printing, I'd suggest that most readers trying to look up the character will type "Springstern" into the search box. I know the redirect is in place, but I feel that maybe it should now be the other way round, with 'Horn' redirecing to a main article located at 'Stern'.

Advice and opinion welcome! --Ryan Frost 17:55, 14 March 2013 (EDT)

This is terrible news, because you're probably right, and I hate it. --ItsWalky 18:01, 14 March 2013 (EDT)

Database dump

Hello! In my region I have a bit of an internet connection issue so I'm using WikiTaxi for offline wikia browsing. Since tfwiki is based on wikimedia system I was wondering if a database dump of current pages could possibly be generated for download? I see that it currently doesn't exist on your special: statistics page. I'd rather avoid any mirroring software as it would no doubt cause issues with the site so I hope someone can help with this.

Thank you in advance,

NocteDraconis

I can't help personally, but it might be worth also posting this over in the TFWiki discussion thread on the Allspark board, it's frequented by several of the sysops/technical-know-how guys from here. Jalaguy 09:05, 27 March 2013 (EDT)

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction :)Though, I do hope someone will take notice of the question here as well. NocteDraconis 15:12, 27 March 2013 (EDIT)

Proposing New Continuity Term for Multipath Books

Hi, I've been working on the first six Find Your Fate Junior books since I joined about a month ago, and just finished a summary for Dinobots Strike Back. While I'm still revising it, I just began editing relevant info into character pages, and starting with Starscream's, I found I needed a new term to explain how paths within the same book relate to each other without using the word "book". I didn't see anything that applies to this in the Continuities page, so I began referring to each individual book as its own "micro-continuity nexus". I think this is necessary to clarify that each book has its own tangle of paths which don't carry over to other books in the series, even though the books in that particular series are numbered by Ballantine.

For example, when moving from that first book onto Starscream's actions in Battle Drive, I'd begin the first paragraph with: "In the next adjacent micro-continuity nexus, Starscream and Blitzwing were on a strafing-run to torch farmland, when..." since "later" isn't true with no possible book-to-book continuity, but I need to indicate that the summaries are moving on to the next book beyond just the storylinks in that section of the character page.

Please let me know if there's a better, established term I should be using for this phenomenon. Perhaps some term applied to video games with alternate endings? I don't know jack about TFVGs, and haven't studied those pages yet. I intend to add all relevant content from Dinobots Strike Back to the character pages soon, while it's still fresh in my mind, so please let me know if I'm at risk of muddying them up with a nonsensical term. Bumblevivisector 23:49, 4 May 2013 (EDT)

A couple years ago I was trying to figure out how to describe video games with multiple playable characters, different endings, etc. and was leaning towards considering each individual path a splinter timeline. But that's just me and nobody else ever looked at what I came up with. So. -hx 12:51, 14 May 2013 (EDT)

Yeah, I've gotten the impression that no one will say anything about others' sandboxes, but might once something's actually implemented and becomes a potential problem. I agree that "splinter" is as good a term as "path", and I see now that even the splinter page could use some work; seems like Earthforce should be mentioned as the first possible splinter, setting the precedent for the other Marvel examples listed, but that was likely a touchy subject for tending to veer into endless speculation.

Your example looked like a workable outline, but I don't know enough about different TF games to visualize in detail how it'd apply. Have there been any two TF games with continuity that retroactively makes one possible outcome the "real" ending? (non-TF ex: Mortal Kombat II stating Johnny Cage beat Goro) "Nexus" just seems like the best word for a clump of splinters that all have equal weight, continuity-wise (one game, one book).Bumblevivisector 19:11, 14 May 2013 (EDT)

How much of the splinter timeline article is from sources? Is that term actually used? If so, I think it would be best to keep with it. --Khajidha 20:22, 14 May 2013 (EDT)

Oh, I just meant that the article looked like it could use a few more examples of splinters, assuming the word was most relevant as a descriptive fan term. If it's only documenting uses of "splinter" from official sources, then forget it. As long as no one's objecting to terms I'm using in FYF books and character page subsections, I'll just keep using them until I'm done documenting the first 6 books and worry about the wiki's broader terminology later.

Since they're classified as "multipath adventures", I'll usually just say "path" or "outcome" to indicate that they're all viable options with the same canonical weight, since "splinter" could imply either a timeline-shifting cataclysm, or that the splinter is inferior to a "main" timeline that far more fans are familiar with, a principle which would just inject fan-judgement into these particular books. Bumblevivisector 21:16, 14 May 2013 (EDT)

Holy grails and Want list need to be more visible.

Judging by just how long Jake/Stingray has been on the want list, these two things need to be more visible. Many people visiting the wiki probably don't even visit the home page let alone scroll down far enough to read those two little boxes. Would it be possible to do something like the Go! boxes for them? RavenG 02:40, 14 May 2013 (EDT)

So nobody else thinks something like this would be good?RavenG 08:58, 2 June 2013 (EDT)

I think the problem is more likely that no one has the items in question than that they need to be more visible. Most of those things are very obscure. --abates 18:37, 2 June 2013 (EDT)

All the more reason it should be more visible. The more people that know to look for this stuff, the more chances there are of actually finding it.RavenG 01:51, 5 June 2013 (EDT)

Seen this?

More info than you ever thought you'd need about the Ziploc TFTM iron-on promotion. This all should be wiki'd up by someone. Possibly me. 09:51, 17 May 2013 (EDT) (look at that 100 million dollar growth in the first year - that's like Angry Birds levels of success.)

Left-hand menu

FOC and Prime - the Game have been and gone by now, so we can probably take them off there. It's probably a bit early to put Transformers 4 on. Maybe we could put links to the MTMTE and RID comics? Is Transformers: Legends high-profile enough that a link on the menu would be useful? --abates 22:31, 21 May 2013 (EDT)

Anyone else have an opinion? --abates 21:34, 27 May 2013 (EDT)

I'd be down with MTMTE and RID on the sidebar, considering the level of popularity IDW's stuff is currently enjoying in the fandom. Legends is probably high-profile enough, but our article for it is still sporting a stub template, and I'd reckon that most people looking for information on the game will end up at the specialised Wikia rather than here. Once we get closer to 2014, I'd suggest we might subsequently want Thrilling 30 (once we have a page up) and Transformers 4 on there. Jalaguy 04:54, 28 May 2013 (EDT)

Spam filter acting up

Japanese Wikipedia is being blocked by our spam filter. Can it be whitelisted? Mimi 20:42, 3 June 2013 (EDT)

The spam filter is blocking all external links at the moment. I've given it a poke, but because of the caching we do, it may take a few hours before it comes right. --abates 21:15, 3 June 2013 (EDT)

MediaWiki talk:Community Portal

Contents

Batchtaster?

Captions