User talk:MarkDilley

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Mark Dilley wins another victory in the fight against unnecessary complexity

I guess I was expecting dozens of people to each insert their pet peeve into the WikiIndex talk:Blocking Policy#draft blocking policy proposal, making it balloon up into a huge monster of complexity.

I am pleasantly surprised that you made it shorter. Also, it makes me happy that you deleted my negative language about "warning" and replaced it with a more positive alternative. --DavidCary 01:44, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

As pretend assistant to the sheriff's deputy, I do hereby tag this here section for banishment [duplication] to the less popular talk page of a certain uuuh "Fandom Poover", have I got that right? Something like that [rpeh (because rpeh undeleted this section after Lumenos deleted it)]. This is in keeping with Section 1 - C of "WikiIndex Policies and Guidelines" under section "Enforcement against editors". As always, your input on matters of policy would be much appreciated and any objections or modification to this here constructive information tag, would be as well. If you modify or endorse this informative tag, please place your user name after this message and strike out any names appearing there at the time of your edit. Thank you for reading this informative tag and considering ways we may work together to resolve sensitive issues such as these. (Lumenos) (Updated Lumenos 08:07, 11 September 2009 (EDT))[Updated Lumenos 04:39, 12 September 2009 (EDT)]

The policies you have made up are not site policy; they are written solely by you, and have no consensus. Phantom Hoover 13:19, 10 September 2009 (EDT)

What policy have I made up? Lumenos 17:57, 11 September 2009 (EDT)

It is more a matter of whether the administration or other editors mind (or prefer) that I relocate a section that appears to have no useful information in it. Lumenos 17:57, 11 September 2009 (EDT)

Is there a policy against doing so? Lumenos 17:57, 11 September 2009 (EDT)

That is all I have to say. Phantom Hoover 10:12, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

If you could write the rules, what would they say? Lumenos 12:48, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

Sysops should have to pass basic tests of mental age, and protection should only be used in the most dire of vandal attacks. Phantom Hoover 13:15, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

<rolls eyes> Another genius suggestion. I sure am glad rpeh undeleted your comment here so we can explore this further. Could you describe this test in more detail? Lumenos 13:25, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

There will be standard tests available; Trent might know. Phantom Hoover 13:32, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

You are serious? So do you think we should employ those tests here? Will they share them? Lumenos 14:02, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

I would recommend a little java appellate with a virtual square peg and two virtual wholes: one round, one square. Admins can't log on with out placing the peg in the appropriate whole. Tmtoulouse 14:05, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

Epic win. Phantom Hoover 14:15, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

Doh! This is nothing but HOBGOBLINTRIES! (That having been said.) Honor to speak with you, Sir. Lumenos 14:11, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

...if that's your REAL name. Lumenos 15:56, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

"Archive" most of this page to subpage

Mark if you don't object I plan to move everything on this page, posted before "143 Conservaèdia", to a subpage. It supposedly helps with compatibility and I think it makes it easier to read. I don't know how to make neat archive icons, I would just put a link at the top of the page. I'll wait four days for you to object. (This is to save you time in responding.) Lumenos 19:43, 8 September 2009 (EDT) [Updated comment in bold.]

Please let me know if you don't appreciate me doing things like this. Lumenos 12:29, 8 September 2009 (EDT)

Lumenos has a good idea for once. Archive the first sixty or so sections to a User talk:MarkDilley/Archive1 page please? Huw Powell 04:37, 4 October 2009 (EDT)

I found the code to make neat archives and went ahead and archived the page. I hope I did good. I can't imagine why you wouldn't want it archived but perhaps I am being presumptuous. Lumenos 05:41, 23 June 2010 (EDT)

Archive 1 contains two categories that were added with comments. They have nothing else in them and I thought they looked maybe unintentional so I archived them with everything else. They are in this section: User_talk:MarkDilley/Archive1#Category_Sorting -- Lumenos 05:41, 23 June 2010 (EDT)

RationalWikiWiki

Hi Mark. do you think you could comment on this talk page: Talk:RationalWikiWiki. thanks.--Bob M 03:49, 10 September 2009 (EDT)

Bob - will get to it tomorrow night or this weekend. Best, MarkDilley

Could you also address this "article": "Huw Powell"? I am not a wiki, I am a free man! Huw Powell 19:58, 10 September 2009 (EDT)

It is the convention of this wiki to put people with real names into the main namespace - and pseudonym accounts to stay in the user namespace. I have deleted the page as you requested. ~~ MarkDilley

I did not realize that convention existed here. It seems odd to me to have editors of the wiki come up on "random page", but then again, I don't know what thought went into the convention. Anyway, thank you for doing what I asked. I am editing my comment above to remove the "red link". Do you think it would make sense for me to get renamed as a pseudonym I often use on wikis, "human", so as to fit your convention? Huw Powell 16:52, 11 September 2009 (EDT)

Articles for users with with real names

This is inspired by comments by Huw Powell in the RationalWikiWiki section above:

I don't think that it is such a bad idea to index real-world people who run wikis. However, a lot of user pages do seem to be written in a very random fashion and I wonder how much usefulness someone will get from visiting a page that is not an encyclopedic entry about the person.

If WikiIndex wishes to continue with this (possibly very useful) convention, perhaps there should be some sort of templates that can add value to articles about users. For example, it might be nice to have a template that gives a list of wikis that the user administers and/or writes on. Or it might be useful for users to list the (WikiIndex) categories they are most interested in. There are already some infoboxes that allow people to tell others about the languages they speak, but these are not universally used.

I think that if you improved the 'people' articles it could also be worth going to the wiki articles and then adding a list of active WikiIndex users. That way, if anyone had a problem with an article about a wiki, they could quickly go and find expert help. David Shepheard 12:27, 12 September 2009 (EDT)

What David says makes sense to me. Huw Powell 04:38, 4 October 2009 (EDT)

7

Yes, you are right[1] :-) - it was a typo. Greetings, Wolf | talk 03:16, 16 September 2009 (EDT)

Philsworld

The creator of the article Philsworld recently blanked it as the wiki is no longer active. I have changed it back, but substituted the Template:Tl template for the Template:Tl template. I presume that this is generally how we would prefer to indicate wikis which have reached the end of their lifespan. --MarvelZuvembie 17:10, 22 September 2009 (EDT)

Please help develop explicit rules

Following the recent incidents surrounding the RationalWiki article, I have come to the conclusion that we need a set of really explicit policies and guidelines. I don't like this, but it's necessary. I have started work on Wikiindex:Policies_and_Guidelines and I would appreciate your input.

What I don't (yet) have is method. Not sure what should go on the talk page and what shouldn't. Felix Pleşoianu | talk 04:08, 4 October 2009 (EDT)

Proposed "policy" should go in sections on the page. Discussion, with the same section names, should be on the talk page. What gets accepted/agreed on at the talk page, becomes the eventual main page. I invite you to RationalWiki where we wrote, and then rewrote, our site policies in such a fashion. Come to my talk page (user:human) if you want me to show you around. I'm not telling you what to do, just offering an example that worked for us. Huw Powell 04:42, 4 October 2009 (EDT)

Spam blacklist fail

Hi Mark. For some reason, My spam blacklist doesn't seem to be working. The last time I tested it several days ago, it worked fine. Today it doesn't seem to work. I'm trying to use it to prevent the fraudulent essay spammers from adding links to their sites. --MarvelZuvembie 17:40, 8 October 2009 (EDT)

Never mind. I missed that the offending words had to be a part of a link, not just any regular expression. It's working fine. I just was too lazy in my typing. :-P --MarvelZuvembie 21:18, 16 October 2009 (EDT)

Welcome thanks!

Thank you Mark :) Sj 19:34, 14 October 2009 (EDT)

New status?

Question about New status at Category talk:New. --EarthFurst 19:48, 24 October 2009 (EDT)

Doppelgänger-Account

Someone created a new account User:MarkDiIley which could mixed-up with your user account. I blocked him. :-) --Wolf | talk 11:11, 8 November 2009 (EST)

The next one: User:MarkDiIIey - one combination left ;-) Greetings, Wolf | talk 03:33, 10 November 2009 (EST)

The last one of this kind: User:MarkDilIey. --Wolf | talk 07:14, 14 November 2009 (EST)

Oh, look! I have one, too! :P User:MarveIZuvembie. --MarvelZuvembie 13:46, 7 December 2009 (EST)

Broken Interwikis?

Hi Mark,

I've been gone a while, but in visiting today I noticed that the foreign language interwiki links in the "includeonly" section of Template:Tl are appearing as red links within the article (see English Wikipedia, for example) instead of as interwiki links in the lefthand column. Perhaps a change to MediaWiki's configuration has caused this? Just thought you should know.

--MarvelZuvembie 15:25, 1 March 2010 (EST)

Sysop

Hi! I request sysop status here. Thank you! Erwin 08:55, 29 March 2010 (EDT)

But why? Of...Erwin 11:49, 30 March 2010 (EDT)

See the confirmation from founder of site, give me now sysop status...--Erwin 15:54, 1 April 2010 (EDT)

Hi Erwin. For completing your sysop's button collection, take a tour around our wiki collection. And I'm sure, some of them will highly appreciate hour help. I guess for this wiki the answer is just no. (Maybe my English is too bad: I cannot discover any confirmation in John's answer.) Best regards --Wolf | talk 16:20, 1 April 2010 (EDT)

WoWWiki and PathfinderWiki both leave Wikia!

I've started a topic on the Wikia talk page, but hope you could give some input into how to proceed. David Shepheard 03:40, 5 November 2010 (PDT)

I am so sorry

I heard that you got impersonated on youtube. I am so sorry. WIll you block him? The preceding unsigned comment posted by Doon Harrow 00:26, 8 November 2010 - please remember to sign your comments with four tilde. ~~~~

wikiindex page about Recent Changes Camp?

Should there be a WikiIndex page about Recent Changes Camp? --EarthFurst 01:43, 14 November 2010 (PST)

Oops. There is one (at "RecentChangesCamp"). Move it to "Recent Changes Camp"? --EarthFurst 01:49, 14 November 2010 (PST)

will redirect the non-CamelCased one. Thanks! ~~ MarkDilley

Spam bots

Hi Mark,

Has there been discussion in wiki circles about the best way to stop spambots like Literacyguru before they change hundreds of articles? I'm sure there's some sort of rollback script, but I don't have the familiarity with bots that I do with other aspects of MediaWiki, so I'm rolling back the vandalism one article at a time. Still, if "editors" that edit multiple articles in an inhumanly short time frame could be flagged, that might be helpful.

--MarvelZuvembie 12:12, 16 December 2010 (PST)

Upon further research, the recent spam probably wasn't done by a bot. The edits weren't that quick. Also, it adapted to making a mistake—putting the spam inside of a comment field. Still, some kind of multiple rollback tool would be nice. --MarvelZuvembie 13:50, 16 December 2010 (PST)

I will ask person upgrading the site if there is a mass rollback on a unleashed spammer. Thanks for catching it, please don't hesitate to grab me on IRC or email to help. My best, MarkDilley

ACC Bible Quizzing Wiki

My only wish is for the article that I created about the ACC Bible Quizzing Wiki to be deleted.Joel amos 17:53, 3 February 2011 (PST)

Wikiversity

You look like one of the "people in charge". :)

As a bureaucrat on a Wikia wiki who does most of the editing, I do not envy you.

WikiIndex is much needed, but it would be nice if it were on a fast wiki farm such as Wikia or Wikkii. But then I am not sure if they would allow all this info about their competition. But the wiki index looks like it is struggling. It is very slow, and is using an old version of MediaWiki software. Putting this on an ad-supported wiki farm would ensure its longterm survival, and more up-to-date software and hardware.

Maybe this could be transferred to Wikiversity? You would think that Wikimedia would support wikis in general. I left a request for comment at the Wikiversity forum:

• http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Colloquium#Wiki_Index._Request_for_comments --Timeshifter 19:29, 26 April 2011 (PDT)

Universal Edit Button

Hi Mark, there seems to be a problem. Thus it is offline. I would be very sad to learn that it is gone entirely. :( Cheers --[[kgh]] 02:09, 8 June 2011 (PDT)

I am relieved to hear that it was just a struggle. I just had a look at it: It is happily back there it belongs and running. :) Cool. Cheers --[[kgh]] 14:24, 9 June 2011 (PDT)

RegioWikis in Europe

Hi. I just discovered this map. I'm trying to archive all them at WikiTeam, but an article at WikiIndex for them would be nice too. Add it to the TODO list, please. Regards. emijrp 01:44, 12 June 2011 (PDT)

New parameter into Template:Wiki for backups

Hi Mark. Can we add a new parameter into Template:Wiki to link to backups? wiki_backup for url and wiki_backup_date for date. If you are OK I can do it. Regards. --emijrp 03:11, 29 June 2011 (PDT)

You've got mail

User_talk:Varnent

Now you have more.  :)

SMW

Hi Mark, your welcome. I mostly made minor changes since Yaron already did most of the work setting it up. Cheers --[[kgh]] 04:51, 30 July 2011 (PDT)

Enable captcha

The solution to this spam attack is to enable captcha for all anonymous edits, not just if they're posting external links. Do it. Elassint, 07 30 2011

Looking it up on MediaWiki, it appears as though one of the five ConfirmEdit triggers would require use of a CAPTCHA on any edit. If I read it correctly, it appears as though the CAPTCHA is only required once, so, although annoying, this might solve the vandalbot problem. [2]

I do suspect it is a bot as I am seeing similar edits on other wikis from the same IPs. --MarvelZuvembie 18:39, 6 September 2011 (PDT)

Wikicareer.de = spam?

Question at Talk:Wikicareer.de. --EarthFurst 15:48, 10 December 2011 (PST)

Thanks

Thanks for the new bot and sysop privileges. emijrp 03:19, 16 December 2011 (PST)

delete nominations

Hi Mark, noticed you seem to have some concerns over some of my delete nominations - some of which frankly confuse me. This edit is one - this 'article' is clearly someone who is trying to use WikiIndex to actually HOST their wiki (rather than create an 'entry' here on WikiIndex with a link to an off-site wiki). TeraS checked out all my deletion 'nominations' relating to this particular article and user, and agreed with me - in that it was just spam. (And I'm sure you'll agree that spam doesn't just have to be trying to sell medications for erectile disfunction!!) ;p And just because some 'spam' which was created here in the early days of WI, and didn't get picked up on, surely needs to be treated with the same emphasis as spam created say yesterday! IMVHO, of course. :)

And this comment here - kinda would have been nice to include me in the discussion too, don't you think? :/ Anyway, my explanation for my recent 'deletionisms' - I'm sure you need no reminding that a (good) wiki works best when articles (along with all the other 'stuff') on a wiki site have lots of wikilinks. Having been on here a little while now, I became aware that many articles/talk page discussions/project pages/help pages, etc, are seriously devoid of wikilinks (and yes, I'm aware that in its infancy, these 'links' may not have actually been available). So, in trying to improve the 'wikilinks' issue, my first port of call (after attending directly to obvious articles) was to look in Special:SpecialPages at the Uncategorized templates - and either (a) link them to an appropriate template category (or one of its sub-cats), or (b) nominate them for deletion. Of those that I nominate for deletion, 99% of the time, I clicked on the Special:WhatLinksHere, and any that did have links, I let be. But those which had no links in the WhatLinksHere, after having checked their edit history, those that seemed to be 'test' edits had the {{delete}} tag, along with some hidden text to explain my rationale, which was then copied to the edit summary (and many of these were created by well-known spammer, wiki-irritant and banned member Jonah Musto.) OK, I admit to not checking every single template I nominated, simply because some appeared to follow a certain pattern - but then, I am only 'nominating' them for deletion - the Admin should also verify them too!

At the end of the day - I'm only here to try and help WikiIndex become a 'better' place - one of those methods is creating wikilinks; and the other is spam-hunting and trimming out niff-naff unused 'stuff' (templates, cats, etc). In doing so, these deletion nominations have all been in 'good faith' - so if I have nominated an item incorrectly, I apologise. But it would be nice to let me know if you think I'm doing anything fundamentally 'wrong'! I respect of my efforts of improving wikilinking - I suppose a good question to pose might be - "of those 5000+ wikis listed here, how many of those actual wiki owners are aware that their site is listed here on WikiIndex?" (I personally know that two of my UK nominations don't!). Anyway, best regards --Hoof Hearted 01:57, 6 January 2012 (PST)

Message from Escyos

EDIT: This was a new topic. --Wolf | talk 05:02, 10 January 2012 (PST)
thank you for the welcome....although I suspect it was to clear up redlinks in recent changes.... Escyos 20:10, 8 January 2012 (PST)

SopaStrike

About SopaStrike. Posted my thoughts to Community Portal/News AND Talk:Community Portal/News (since anon IP was the one that linked to Talk:Community Portal/News. Which page is the correct one to post SopaStrike thoughts to? Perhaps Community Portal/News should have headers instead of non-TOC subsections (where there is semicolon at start of line) so people can click on edit link of the section they want to edit? --EarthFurst 10:07, 16 January 2012 (PST)

wikiFactor 20

"is it correct that the wikiFactor would go to 20 when the twentieth most popular page reaches 20,000?"

You are indeed correct! All the best, -- Carl McBride (talk) 09:36, 1 February 2012 (PST)

Do we have the RenameUser extension?

I forgot to ask about this earlier. Elassint, 05 24 2012

WikiHorde page flagged for deletion

Thanks for starting WikiIndex page about WikiHorde. Delete tag was added to that article. I never visited wikihorde.org (and archive.org Wayback Machine doesn't seem to have any archive of wikihorde) ... so I have no first-hand experience with the site in terms of page whether WikiIndex should keep the page (I assume it should be kept). --EarthFurst 10:17, 12 June 2012 (PDT)

It was not a wiki, rather it was a WikiIdea. I am just going to redirect it to the wiki that inspired the idea for now. Sound like a good idea? Best, MarkDilley

Fine line between Dormant and Active

Where do you think is the fine line between dormant and just a slow but active wiki? How do you judge this site or this site? I want to know your thoughts on this. Elassint^Admin 17 June 2012

You are correct, there is a fine line. WikiIndex is more about how one things things should be listed than hard fast rules. I think the case could be made that the one edited just a few times a year could be dormant - I could also see the case that it would be active. What do you think? Best, MarkDilley

Universal Edit Button on mainpage

Ping from Universal Edit Button on mainpage talk. --Ciencia Al Poder 12:43, 20 June 2012 (PDT)

Wiki ideas?

Just saw that new category and don't think it should have a place here. That may be ideas, but they are also guidelines. Guidelines should go in the project namespace, and WikiIndex is a wiki directory, not an encyclopedia about wikis, or am I wrong? --Bachsau 00:08, 29 June 2012 (PDT)

From the front page - There are 13,842 pages about wikis, wiki people and wiki ideas.

-- What are "wiki people"? *lol* You mean people like you, whose personal website can be edited by everyone else? --Bachsau 23:16, 29 June 2012 (PDT)

From the edit page - This is not a free wiki hosting site, this is an index of wikis, wiki people and wiki ideas. Contributions outside of that scope will be treated as test edits and be removed.

Category:WikiIdea was started in January 2012, although the idea has been around since 2006, the beginning. ~~ MarkDilley

And what exactly IS a "WikiIdea"? --Bachsau 23:16, 29 June 2012 (PDT)

WTF is going on with the server? --Bachsau 00:16, 29 June 2012 (PDT)

Don't know, been watching it get worse, then get better. ~~ MarkDilley

Who's the admin here? The real admin, who operates the sever or webspace. --Bachsau 23:16, 29 June 2012 (PDT)

Thanks! :D

Thank you for the welcome! The Pirates of the Caribbean Online Wiki is the only informational wiki on the topic. There is also the Pirates of the Caribbean Online Players, a fan wiki where players can create articles about their pirate(player), guild, etc... Then you have the Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki, the informational wiki about the whole franchise. If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask, I'll be glad to help out in any way that I can. ~Jzfredskins^Talk

I'm sorry for the double post, but I have a question. On the Pirates of the Caribbean Online Wiki page, for the "Main Topic", is "Information" the appropriate category? Thanks again. ~Jzfredskins^Talk

My I invite you...

...to this discussion? It's about spammers once more...
For instance, the suggestion from Jack Phoenix seemed interesting to me, but I think you are the only one with contacts to the system administrators...
Best --Wolf | talk 07:13, 30 September 2012 (PDT)

Moving pages

Hi Mark - I had to make a few deletions and recreations following the recent changes to WikiIndex:InterWiki and its talk page. This was because by simply copying content from one page name to another slightly different by using the 'cut/copy/paste' will remove the edit history from the original pagename - and a full edit history is part of the terms of attribution for our CC-BY-SA license. On MediaWiki, if you need to 'move' an existing page to another page which already exists as a redirect (back to the one you want to change) - you really need to delete said target redirect page first - this will then allow the correct use of the 'move' function, and more importantly, preserve all edit history. Hope you don't mind me correcting this.

Oh, and are you able to fix the redirect for the InterWiki link in the Special:ListGroupRights so that it redirects to WikiIndex:InterWiki. I don't think sysops can do that. Best regards, Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 02:07, 16 October 2012 (PDT)

Downtime

Hi Mark, I don't know if you are/were aware of a period of time when the site was down. On 1st November, from approx 12:30 (UTC), an error message was displayed:

Sorry! This site is experiencing technical difficulties.
(Can't contact the database server: Too many connections (localhost))

We were down for about an hour. Where we being flooded by a DoS attack or similar, or was it just routine server maintenance? Best regards, Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 06:44, 1 November 2012 (PDT)

InterwikiMap

Hi Mark. Thank you (and all the other contributors to WikiIndex) for your hard work to maintain and administer this site, without which the highest aspirations for the 20,000-wiki InterwikiMap would not be possible, because there is (to my knowledge) no other wiki directory of the same comprehensiveness as this. I am hoping that within the next week or two, I can submit a version of the extension to the Git repository for code review. Some important requests for comment are here and here. I will soon be creating a list of proposed canonical interwiki prefixes, and will keep you posted on that and invite the comments of the Wikiindex community. My desire is that we adequately discuss the first edition of the list so that when it is published, we will have reached agreement on 99%+ of it and not have to revise prefixes too much later (although of course we'll need to add and remove prefixes from the list as new wikis are born and old wikis die).

Please note that there are two parts to this process of data accumulation and distribution: the sending and receiving parts. Step 1 is to get the wikis to reveal more of their data via mw:API:Meta modules. Then it will be possible to harvest that data using bots, and push it to WikiIndex pages, which are already organized using templates and therefore would be bot-friendly, if you want to go the bot route. Step 2 is to harvest all of WikiIndex's data and push it into a database table (or, to the extent that SMW is in use, it's already in a database that can be conveniently queried). Step 3 is to allow wikis to pull that data from the central repository, which could be hosted at WikiIndex, or Meta-Inclu, or wherever else is most convenient and can handle the traffic (viz., 20,000 wikis hitting it perhaps daily; that shouldn't be too big a deal, since it's only about, perhaps, a kilobyte of text about each wiki being transferred; so that adds up to 20,000 kilobytes/request multipled by 20,000 wikis/day, which equals 400,000,000 kilobytes/request-day, or 400 megabytes/request-day; that's not so bad). Actually, I may be lowballing it a bit, though, depending on how many fields of data there are going to be.

Step 4 is for each wiki to filter that data according to its criteria. The question is, will there be a demand for such filtering, or will wikis just want to load all 20,000 prefixes into the interwiki tables? If the latter, then maybe we don't need to distribute all that site data, in which case, the data transfer load can be significantly cut down to something more manageable. In other words, we can reduce it from a kilobyte of text per wiki to maybe one-quarter that. I think, though, that at a minimum they will want to filter based on wiki status (e.g. Dead, Spammed, etc.)

I think as a minimum, though, we should have, as an API-accessible field on each wiki using InterwikiMap, a URL for some sort of general information page. Maybe there should be two URLs — one for the wiki's about page (so we get their view) and one for Wikiindex's page (so we get the Wikiindex community's view). Wikiindex, of course, can link to even more articles (e.g. in some cases, Wikipedia articles) giving more views about the wikis in question. But I think it's important that users browsing through the interwiki list have a quick way to get info about the various wikis they see on it.

There's a question of what to use for the wiki's about page. Currently, that data hasn't yet been accumulated. Template:Wiki has a wikinode parameter, but no about page parameter. Should we conclude that the wikinode idea is moribund, or should we keep pushing for its adoption? In the meantime, should we begin accumulating URLs for "about" pages? Perhaps in some cases, the about page would be the wikinode, but usually not. Leucosticte (talk) 19:36, 20 November 2012 (PST)

New User Bot Account

Mark, can you please give User:LeucosticteBot the appropriate Bot account status? Best, Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 07:34, 25 November 2012 (PST)

Maybe it's time to promote HH to crat? Or at least lieutenant. Anyway, I spammed up your RecentChanges with bot edits, but you can hide them from view by retroactively marking them as bot edits with this SQL command to update the recentchanges table:

UPDATE recentchanges
SET rc_bot=1
WHERE rc_user_text='LeucosticteBot';

This assumes that you don't have any table prefixes. Leucosticte (talk) 02:54, 26 November 2012 (PST)

Extensions

Please install mw:Extension:SyntaxHighlight GeSHi so that pages like WikiIndex:ChangeWikiaEngine.php will render properly. I also recommend installing mw:Extension:Cite, e,g, in case anyone wants to copy and paste text concerning a wiki that has references in it. Thanks. Leucosticte (talk) 02:34, 26 November 2012 (PST)

Need to put LeucosticteBot into the bot group

I can't do this, can you change their user rights group to this Mark? Thankies! TeraS (talk) 03:31, 26 November 2012 (PST)

InputBox implementing search bar for Template:Wiki

Please see the discussion here. I think this type of search bar would be pretty cool to put on the wiki pages. See another example at http://en.rationalwikiwikiwiki.org/wiki/WikiIndex . Do you have any interest in implementing this on WikiIndex? It would require installing the (hacked) User:Leucosticte/InputBox.classes.php and User:Leucosticte/InputBox.hooks.php, which replace those two files that come with mw:Extension:InputBox. The width of the bar and so on can be adjusted by the parameters at mw:Manual:Inputbox#Parameters. Thanks, Leucosticte (talk) 00:11, 2 December 2012 (PST)

If I understand correctly that the search box searches the wiki, that is wonderful! - Please place it on the upgrade page that Sean has been working on. Also, place anything on that page that you think would make WikiIndex better. Best, MarkDilley

Thanks for saying hello!

I see you said hi to me on my talk page, thought I'd return the favor.

If you're wondering, I help Tera on the SuccuWiki as an administrator, and I can also be found on the MediaWiki Users Forum, where I try to give out advice to people with their MediaWiki installations.

I'm personally something of an "amateur hobbyist" when it comes to MediaWiki (I got interested mainly for the intellectual challenge initially), but I try to share what I know with other MediaWiki users because I like helping people when and if I can with computer problems.

Again, thanks for saying hello, and I don't know what I'll be able to contribute here, but I did notice there is an occasional spam problem here, so if I see anything, I'll try to at least flag it for deletion so you guys can deal with it better.

In fact, if you need another admin to deal with spam or vandals, I'd be happy to help out.

Arcane (talk) 10:15, 21 January 2013 (PST)Arcane

There seems to be an error with the page creation form

I tried to create a page for this wiki using the "Add a Wiki!" form, and I encountered an error. The website has no "Wikinode", so I left the field with a "No" (as is the default setting), but the forum did not seem to acknowledge this and insisted I entered wikinode information despite the wiki in question not having a wikinode.

(click on the enclosed screenshot to see a visual display of the error)

File:FormError.jpg

I'm not sure what is wrong, though I suspect there may be a problem with the form not acknowledging the word "No" as a legitimate statement (which it should).

I am not sure how the form was set up, so I thought it best I forward this matter to you since I am not sure how to rectify the error at present. Arcane (talk) 18:43, 21 January 2013 (PST)Arcane

I finally got it to work, but I had to remove the "No" from the WikiNode line to do so.

I suggest this line on the help tab for the Wikinode part of the form "URL to the WikiNode of your wiki. If your wiki does not have a node, please type 'No'." should be rewritten to say "URL to the WikiNode of your wiki. If your wiki does not have a node, please leave it blank", since that seems to have cleared up the error. Arcane (talk) 09:14, 22 January 2013 (PST)Arcane

I've fixed it before, now you can edit it without any error. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 23:18, 13 April 2013 (PDT)

Many thanks!!! ~~ MarkDilley

Thank

thank you, With a little help reviewing here.- --Csuarezllosa (talk) 21:24, 21 February 2013 (PST)

Just made a fav icon for Wiki Index

Hoof Hearted asked me if I wouldn't mind making a probable fav icon for Wiki Index, and since I thought it was a good idea myself I ginned up a possible candidate for that and am leaving it for your inspection and hopeful approval.

Hope this looks halfway decent: (sized around 16x12 px)

Arcane (talk) 14:55, 15 March 2013 (PDT)Arcane

I am pleased with this. I think running it by Ray King would be good too. Best, MarkDilley

Account oddities

Hi Mark - there seems to be some oddities with accounts going on. I tried to update Baidu Baike, but got blocked by the Spam protection filter. I checked both our blacklists – the MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist has a couple of entries for 'baidu.com' (but I left that unchanged). In the My spam blacklist, I found one entry for 'baidu.com' – which I removed. However, I still can't update the Baidu Baike article. Something's really confusing me though – a new user – User:Zhuyifei1999 a few hours earlier had sucessfully edited the same article (complete with the addition of baidu.com url). So how is it that a new (probably not even autoconfirmed user) can over-ride the two spam blacklists, yet a sysop such as I can not?

Another thing which is making me curious - when I (regularly) check Special:WhosOnline – I see the list flooded with users who have been blocked (months ago). These seem to be permanently 'logged-in' to WikiIndex despite being blocked. Special:WhosOnline does not show anon or IP editors, so how is it these supposedly banned users are still able to log in?

Any clues or ideas for these two issues? Best, --Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 09:05, 30 March 2013 (PDT)

Looks like we both were able to edit the page - so you figured out the work around? As for whose online - seems that blocking only works on editing - blocked accounts can still be logged in - that is my guess and it seems automated. Really impressive work around here Sean!! I would ask you to consider a lighter touch sometimes with new folks edits.

Maybe there was a delay in a cache somewhere after I edited the My spam blacklist - because just after I sent you this orginal message, it worked for me. It doesn't answer the issue of why a sysop was blocked by the spam blacklists, but an ordinary user can bypass it???

sounds like the cache delay is the issue. don't know why a sysop was blocked but a regular account can edit. maybe privileges are messed up in the backend somewhere? ~~ MarkDilley

Online issues - I really think we need to also delete said accounts of spammers. Like you say, blocking them just prevents them from editing, but they can still flood us by being online. If we both block them, and then also delete them, this will sort out this issue. But only a crat can delete accounts. We really ought to install mw:Extension:CheckUser as a matter of urgency, so we can range-block IPs.

How can I as a 'crat delete the account? I think mw:Extension:CheckUser on the Upgrade list for consideration. ~~ MarkDilley

Anyone in particular of where I've been heavy handed??? :-( Best, --Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 06:02, 31 March 2013 (PDT)

I notice something that I used to do. Someone newly comes here and does some edits on the wiki and we are right behind them, changing, or redirecting or something. When I talked to John Stanton after a month of starting WikiIndex he let me know that didn't feel good, like he wasn't doing something right. I learned that the most important thing here was people participating, less important was getting the page, or the edit right. Something to think about is all :-) You are wonderful here and I am super excited about that! Best, MarkDilley

Inactive and dead wikis

What's the difference between them? --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 19:01, 30 March 2013 (PDT)

Hah! :-) you have found one of the many inconsistencies here. Inactive is a template change that pulls most of of the categories - so the dead wiki isn't in lists. dead is just easier for folks who don't know about the inactive template - which is most people :-) Thoughts? Best, MarkDilley

Merge them? --YiFei | talk 13:32, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

I think that would be great and I would like them to all go to the Inactive template if I had any say in the work :-) Best, MarkDilley

Can you enable InstantCommons?

The logo of wikimedia chapters is at the wikimedia commons. So it's better to enable InstantCommons so that we can use some images without uploading.--Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 05:49, 6 April 2013 (PDT)

The logo you linked to isn't the Chapters logo! And I'm not at all sure we need the mw:InstantCommons extension here on WikiIndex -- probably less than 1% of our logos are Wikimedia logos. InstantCommons is best used on Wikimedia Foundation wikis, or other non WMF wikis which link heavily to the free images held at Wikimedia Commons. WikiIndex has no need or requirement to link to free images -- we actually have a requirement to often link to copyrighted images (albeit under a 'Fair Use' claim). The two existing methods of image display here on WikiIndex seem to work perfectly satisfactorilly -- those being upload and wikilink, or hotlink. Best. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 09:45, 6 April 2013 (PDT)

I am unsure of necessity - but I am intrigued by the idea. Please add to Upgrades and include an example of how it is used. Best, MarkDilley

You're Welcome

Thanks for the warm welcome, Mark. Johnny Pez (talk) 04:07, 10 April 2013 (PDT)

WikiOhana

What's the point of this edit? Why you change WikiIndex to WikiOhana? --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 17:31, 13 April 2013 (PDT)

Trying to remember the edit, I think that I changed it because WikiIndex is linked right above it. ~~ MarkDilley

Sysops and crats discussion

Are you able to give your opinion on this reply from me in this section. Thanks Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 03:09, 22 April 2013 (PDT)

Thanks for looking into that. I'm glad you got Jack onboard. I also noticed you sneaked another one under the radar - you made me a crat too - wasn't expecting that ://// I also think that TeraS should be made a crat too (she has a good handle on her own SuccuWiki). And I noticed that whilst Proxima Centauri was removed from being a Sysop a while back, she's still listed as an interwiki editor - should PC be removed from that list - she still makes contentious edits here (her last I had to revert)?! If you agree, maybe I can try out my new toys!!! Best --Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 11:15, 30 April 2013 (PDT)

Please do both ~~ MarkDilley

Meaning of the keys

What does the keys mean? --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 04:17, 23 April 2013 (PDT)

Category:Archived

Are we wanting Category:Archived to be an official new sub-category of Category:Wiki Status? If so, it needs including into the {{WikiStatus}}, and the relevant Semantic Data form will need updating too, and also probably as a sub-cat of Category:Dead. I actually think this is a good creation :PPPP

great idea and direction - will mull that over and try to make some edits, although I am still pretty scared if the SMW stuff :-) ~~ MarkDilley

I fixed both - the SMW stuff is fairly easy - see Property:Wiki status. Please review my updates :P Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 12:09, 30 April 2013 (PDT)

Saw it! looked very easy, much appreciation for showing the path on that and so much other work! Best, MarkDilley

BTW, is your e-mail address the same as from a while back? I need to have an off-wiki confidential chat :/ --Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 11:04, 30 April 2013 (PDT)

yes, [email protected]

OK, I'll try to e-mail you this Thursday - I'm awaiting some personal news :-((( Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • _Admin • talk2HH 12:09, 30 April 2013 (PDT)

MediaWiki:Sitenotice

Originally posted on User_talk:Hoof_Hearted#MediaWiki:Sitenotice:

Would you mind add another <br> after all the code of MediaWiki:Sitenotice? It looks really weird in the skins modern and vector. --YiFei | talk 21:27, 30 April 2013 (PDT)

--YiFei | talk 12:04, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

We just got the Gadgets extension installed, mind if I import some gadgets?

I wanted to go by Wikipedia (and some of the other Wikimedia Foundation wikis and import a few of the gadgets they have, like WikiEd and HotCat, as well as the UTC clock gadget for those who like that option, as well as few others if you or anyone else has one they'd be interested in.

Is that alright?

Arcane (talk) 19:39, 20 June 2013 (UTC)Arcane

I don't see immediate issues with it, I am worried about thinking about WikiIndex as Wikipedia :-) ~~ MarkDilley

I installed some basic gadgets for now, didn't want to go too crazy. I added a gadget to display a UTC clock for those who prefer that, a gadget for a purge tab/page refresh option, wikiED (since we don't have the WikiEditor extension, I added this for those who want something similar). I also added an enhanced CharInsert option (you can see the difference when editing pages, as it's enabled by default, makes the custom character insert page a nice looking dropdown menu with easy to select options) and a "Sandbox" page option for those who want to do test edits (also enabled by default), and navigation popups, which allows users to see snippets of pages when hovering over links, as well as providing some extra editing options.

If you want me to change or remove anything, I'd be happy to. The gadgets that are enabled by default can be easily modified to be optional, and all of these gadgets can be enabled or disabled in the user preferences.

Arcane (talk) 21:23, 20 June 2013 (UTC) Arcane

I look forward to how they help this place grow! Can you add info about these to the CommunityPortal? Best, MarkDilley

And Mediawiki:Sitenotice would be good. --YiFei | talk 02:38, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Added the info to the Sitenotice, wasn't sure where to put the information on the community portal. Arcane (talk) 08:01, 21 June 2013 (UTC) Arcane

I've been testing a few more gadgets and site scripts to enhance WikiIndex on my test wiki, and I was wondering if I could import. AjaxRC and ajaxpreview. The first will make the recent changes page refresh every 30 seconds, so anyone who doesn't want to have to keep refreshing the recent changes page manually can just leave a tab open for it so they can monitor the recent changes with less hassle. This script can either be added to the MediaWiki:Common.js or as a user enabled gadget, was wondering what you would prefer. The second is a gadget that adds arrows to the "Show preview" buttons on the edit screen so the page will show the changes without having to totally reload the page. And, unlike the WikiEditor side by side tabbed preview feature, this version will accurately show any category changes (I disabled the side by side tabbed preview option on my own wiki because it works so well). My personal wiki runs MW 1.21, but these scripts have been tested successfully on MW 1.19+. Arcane (talk) 04:36, 29 July 2013 (UTC)Arcane

 Support as two gadgets. --YiFei | talk 04:48, 29 July 2013 (UTC)

Go for it! ~~ MarkDilley

Unfortunally your AjaxRC doesn't work in some skins. Example: Modern, which I use. --YiFei | talk 02:36, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

I've only seen it work in skins like Vector or skins that use similar schema. I'll add a note to the Gadget description. Arcane (talk) 02:41, 31 July 2013 (UTC)Arcane

Category names

Two questions:

1. Shall we use plural form or single form?
2. Shall we use CamelCase, Upper Case or Lower case?

Seems that Commons use plural form and Lower case. --YiFei | talk 05:41, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

What's the deadline of TicsEns

I would love to delete it. --YiFei | talk 08:19, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Why don't you give it a deadline and see if you can stretch your patience about it a little longer.  :-) Best, MarkDilley

I would give a week -- due on 25 June 2013‎. But User:TicsEns is already on Google, and I don't want anyone think our wiki is not in English. BTW, I doubt User:TicsEns will reply. --YiFei | talk 08:34, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Already deleted most of it. Shall I delete the user page too? --YiFei | talk 04:21, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

I think deleting the account page makes sense too. Many thanks for giving it a little space. Best, MarkDilley

still a wiki?

Is the backend of Bérardier a Drupal wiki? Best, MarkDilley

hi! MarkDilley, Yes .Bérardier is a Drupal wiki .It's shown at the bottom of its webpage ; --Brahfous (talk) 15:51, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Editsection inline

How about having editsection inline as a site js or a gadget like most wikimedia projects?(The edit button mentioned below would not work if we have that) --YiFei | talk 06:25, 24 June 2013 (UTC) PS. The edit button of the news section of WikiIndex:Community portal is now fully cool, but I do prefer to have a __NOEDITSECTION__.

trying it... ~~ MarkDilley

Template:ArchivedWiki

Why does that template exist? --YiFei | talk 07:35, 28 June 2013 (UTC)

Can't understand your edit

What's the meaning of your edit (Special:Permalink/171119)? It doesn't make any sense to me. --YiFei | talk 08:18, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

It was a test to see if this image would show up on the sidebar. Best, MarkDilley

Received my email?

--YiFei | talk 05:12, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

Wordsmith

There's way too many message you can wordsmith/reword on. A list is available at Special:AllMessages. (Sean seems really good at rewording, he reworded several of my pages.) --YiFei | talk 06:13, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

I know, I have wordsmithed most of them on other wiki - I just see what comes through on RecentChanges. :-) ~~ MarkDilley

To complete translating and linking arabic equivalent

Thank you for making changes to the lateral panel of WikiIndex.

All is in Arabic except for ‘page information’ .

Can you change this button to صفحة معلوماتي.

The equivalent of Sandbox(mw-head) in Arabic is ملعب تجربة .

How to link these buttons directly to pages translated into Arabic and not to those in English , especially إضافة ويكي (Add a Wiki).

I noticed the “other languages “ link at the bottom of the page but not everyone may notice it.

Gratefulnesses.Brahfous (talk) 14:07, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

logo hunting

If you look closly at the source, you can find something like this:

				<!-- logo -->
					<div id="p-logo" role="banner"><a style="background-image: url(/images/e/ea/Logo.gif);" href="/wiki/Main page"  title="whatever"></a></div>
				<!-- /logo -->

and /images/e/ea/Logo.gif is the logo's URL. --YiFei | talk 09:33, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Hi YiFei, not sure what this is referencing, please explain. :-) ~~ MarkDilley

I think I see now, that is just me not having time, or being lazy. Quite familiar with digging around to find logos and such :-) Best, MarkDilley

Plainlinks shortcut

Gadget CharInsert used? --YiFei | talk 09:32, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

Is this something that I could have disabled in my preferences? ~~ MarkDilley

I guess it's Gadget CharInsert. --YiFei | talk 15:29, 3 August 2013 (UTC)

Admin rights

Proposal I'd like to request admin rights on this wiki. I've seen your name around several places on here and you're evidently a bureaucrat as well. I have rights on several wikis, including admin status on several Wikimedia projects and Freedom Defined. If you think I'd be an acceptable admin, I'd appreciate the opportunity to have the tools. Koavf (talk) 07:56, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Canonical interwiki prefixes, II

Hi Mark, I can write an extension to help distribute a list of canonical interwiki prefixes. The way it will work is that there will be a parser extension tag or parser function hook, e.g.:

<interwiki_prefix prefix="nathaniawiki" url="http://nathania.org/wiki/$1" apiurl="http://nathania.org/w/api.php"/>

or:

{{#interwiki_prefix:nathaniawiki|http://nathania.org/wiki/$1|http://nathania.org/w/api.php}}

That will allow there to be a parameter to Template:Wiki, Template:MultilingualMain and similar templates for interwiki prefixes. So, someone will edit, e.g., the Nathania page to add, modify or remove the interwiki prefix line pertaining to that wiki. E.g.:

{{Wiki
...
|interwiki_prefix = nathaniawiki
|interwiki_URL    = http://nathania.org/wiki/$1
|interwiki_apiurl = http://nathania.org/w/api.php
...
}}

When the user saves the page, the extension will update the interwiki table. The API will allow other websites to query to get either the entire table or the most recent updates to it. That way, other wikis can keep their own interwiki tables in sync with WikiIndex's.

Does this all make sense? Really, it would be sort of like mw:Extension:InterWikiLinkManager/Example except that the interwiki links would be managed from all of the different wiki pages rather than from one central page. In the event of conflicts, i.e. two wiki pages with the same interwiki prefix, the one added first would get priority.

As with any extension, this will involve some troubleshooting and at least several versions to get all the bugs out and make the extension do everything we want it to do. So, ideally I would have access to FTP, phpMyAdmin and the shell. Alternatively, I would at least need someone with such access to make requested upgrades to the extension code in a timely manner. If that's not possible, then this probably isn't practicable. What do you think? Leucosticte (talk) 01:40, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

Received my emails?

Sent some recently. --YiFei | talk 09:50, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

E-mail

Not working I tried to e-mail you from your contact info at your personal site but both addresses had delivery failures. Do you want to contact me? Koavf (talk) 03:40, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

@Koavf: It should have gmail dot com as the domain name. See MediaWiki:Abusefilter-blocked-display. If still fail, try using lowercase. --YiFei | talk 08:15, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

RedditWiki

Userfied here MarkDilley/RedditWiki I deleted then undeleted and moved this page. Reddit allows subreddits, each of which can have its own wiki which is heavily modded/skinned MediaWiki, as I recall. I'm now sure what you want to do about this: are you planning on having articles on thousands of subreddit wikis? Or maybe just one article talking about how wikis work on reddit? (The latter seems feasible and useful, the former completely insane). I was quick to delete but when I realized that you had done it, I thought, "Oh, he's probably doing something here that's smarter than I realize..." Koavf (talk) 08:16, 23 November 2013 (UTC)