Welcome
Message from my userpage
Welcome Justin!
We have a tradition of either redirecting this page to your namespace in the main article space, or leaving it. Two examples, my login is my name, so it shows in recent changes, and redirects to the main namespace or this example. This is a discussion in process, let me know what you think! Nice to have you here. Best, MarkDilley (oh, btw, I am a Hoosier by birth, Indianapolis also, although I moved to SE MI early on)
Your thoughts on upgrade and logo
Hi Justin, can you check out, contribute if you want - WikiIndex:Admin_Notes#October_2010_Upgrade_Thoughts - best, MarkDilley
message re: upgrade path & moves
Hello, please check out WikiIndex:NewLogoDecision and WikiIndex:Spring 2011 Upgrade Path. Also, I am moving some of your move edits back to the main namespace - a couple of them are WikiIdeas and I think fit with what WikiIndex was envisioned. Not a steadfast rule, please discuss if you would like. Best, MarkDilley
Congratulations
For your new admin access :) --YiFei | talk 10:43, 12 October 2013 (UTC)
Template:Wikivoyage, edit summaries and HotCat
Hi - I was just wondering the reason for this edit? I'm aware that removing spaces either side of hyphens/dashes is an American method, and is often found in Wikipedia - but it doesn;t reflect international English (and also makes it difficult, if not impossible for machine translators to correctly translate). I trust you are aware we don't have to follow the Wikipedia Manual of Style here on WikiIndex - we want to reach out to an international audience!
Can I also ask that you try to remember completing the edit summary before saving edits, please. Edit summaries are important for those who track the wiki activity via the Recent changes.
I also noticed you are using something called HotCat - is that a new extension installed somewhere? Can you link me to it so I can look at it please? Best regards Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • Admin • talk2HH 02:50, 24 October 2013 (UTC)
- Dashes As I understand it, spaced ndashes/non-spaced mdashes is standard English. If you want a spaced ndash, that's up to you of course. I don't know anything about difficult with machine reading, but I believe you. As far as HotCat goes, it's from Wikimedia Commons. If you want it, see: User:Koavf/monobook.js. You can copy/paste it if you want. Koavf (talk) 03:36, 24 October 2013 (UTC)
Deleting Spam
Could you clear the deletion field ("Other/additional reason") before you delete a spam please?.....you are moving the spam from the main page to the logs where it will remain....forever!... (Original author of this message: Comets) (We don't have the ability to delete logs :() --YiFei | talk 11:37, 29 October 2013 (UTC)
WikiIndex:AbuseFilters
Could you take care of them later? --YiFei | talk 14:27, 25 November 2013 (UTC)
- Ping? --YiFei | talk 08:42, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
- I'm here It's an open tab in my browser. I've already made one small change and I'm still reading. Thanks, though... Koavf (talk) 10:21, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
I think Special:AbuseFilter/12 should be improved to match the ugg spamming with some other keywords such as "boots?" "store" "size" etc. --YiFei | talk 18:32, 30 November 2013 (UTC)
- Thugz For some reason, this brand is aggressively spammed here and at two other wikis where I am an admin. It's preposterous. Koavf (talk) 18:39, 30 November 2013 (UTC)
- Works :) See Special:AbuseLog --YiFei | talk 09:36, 3 December 2013 (UTC)
Notability of users
"Are we going to make a page about every wiki user or just someone who has some notability...?" Category:Wiki People says "this is a list of people who consider themselves to be part of the wiki community and their associations to various Wiki sites". I would say that PeterKa probably considers himself part of the wiki community. Shall we change that page to say "this is a list of notable people . . ."?
Either way, another question is, are we going to actually make use of Template:Delete and invite discussion, or just have sysops delete pages summarily? Pages deleted in that manner can be undeleted, but then we have the classic problem that non-sysops are unable to view the page and therefore cannot give very well-informed input about whether undeletion would be a good idea. If we are going to use the template, then sysops will need to periodically close those discussions; that didn't happen with the last round of deletion proposals. They sat there for weeks, so I closed them myself as "keep" or "no consensus" since there was in fact no consensus to delete (hardly anyone saw fit to weigh in on those talk pages). Leucosticte (talk) 17:19, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
- Deletion That's a fair question: it's hard to figure out what the community wants when it's too small but it's also hard to foster community if there are rogue admins. Do you want me to undelete? If so, I can move it to your userspace. I don't think that we want to make millions of profiles on wiki users—that sounds nonsensical. Koavf (talk) 17:23, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
- You can userfy it if you want. Since the norm on this wiki is that userspace can be edited by people other than the user, it's not that much different from mainspace. However, those userspace pages would need to be dropped from any mainspace categories, which I guess is part of the point.
- I don't see how it's nonsensical to host content on non-notable stuff. If we were to limit ourselves to covering notable wikis, wiki people, and wiki ideas, then our purpose would already be served by Wikipedia. The lower you set the notability standard, the more people are attracted to the wiki to write articles about non-notable stuff, and you end up with a larger community to keep these articles at a reasonably high standard of quality (in terms of criteria such as these or these). People google some obscure wiki, wiki person, or wiki idea, and find WikiIndex at the top of the search results and end up editing the article and perhaps exploring the rest of WikiIndex.
- I've never been persuaded by deletionist arguments such as that having too many articles causes categories to get clogged up with cruft. In that situation, we simply create more subcategories so that no category gets too big. E.g. if "Wikis created in 2014" gets too big, then we narrow it down to "Wikis created in May 2014". Also, although RecentChanges does get clogged up with edits to cruft articles when there aren't high notability standards, the alternative might be that (1) RecentChanges gets clogged up with deletion debates and/or (2) people get disgruntled over the outcome of debates over notability and leave the wiki, resulting in fewer people watching RecentChanges.
- That's why I tend toward radical inclusionism. Well, that and the fact that I like to write about cruft. In the immortal words of Encyclopedia Dramatica, "Wikipedia deletes thousands of articles a day that they consider 'cruft'. People who use Wikipedia like to write a lot of 'cruft', from mentioning tours that musicians have gone on through to various characters in cartoon shows, computer games or tabletop roleplaying games, it is what Wikipedia does. Furthermore, it is what Wikipedia does best! But at the same time, Wikipedia hates that that is what they do best! They want to instead be known for making legitimate, real, articles, however they can never do this right and end up with totally inaccurate articles where they can't even get the dates right." Leucosticte (talk) 17:40, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
- Notability I'm not suggesting that WikiIndex needs a notability requirement like Wikipedia but that there has to be some limit on the content that can be included here. Including every wiki is a somewhat difficult but not an impossible goal–there are tens of thousands. Including a profile of everyone who has used a wiki is impossible and meaningless. Are we going to have articles on everyone who has read Wikipedia...? Koavf (talk) 04:58, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
- That's why I tend toward radical inclusionism. Well, that and the fact that I like to write about cruft. In the immortal words of Encyclopedia Dramatica, "Wikipedia deletes thousands of articles a day that they consider 'cruft'. People who use Wikipedia like to write a lot of 'cruft', from mentioning tours that musicians have gone on through to various characters in cartoon shows, computer games or tabletop roleplaying games, it is what Wikipedia does. Furthermore, it is what Wikipedia does best! But at the same time, Wikipedia hates that that is what they do best! They want to instead be known for making legitimate, real, articles, however they can never do this right and end up with totally inaccurate articles where they can't even get the dates right." Leucosticte (talk) 17:40, 17 May 2014 (UTC)
I think we could end up chasing our tails if we try to establish where we draw our line regarding notability. I suggest another test of weather we include people might be 'interesting' – do they have an interesting story or back story which others might like to read about?
However, I don't agree with summary deletions (apart from the obvious spam). If someone has taken the effort to create an article, we should at least give them the courtesy of discussing the merits or de-merits of said article; and therefore we should use Template:Delete as a matter of routine. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • Admin / 'Crat • talk2HH 20:50, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
- "Interesting" is pretty subjective. But I'm not sure what other criterion we could use. Leucosticte (talk) 21:38, 18 May 2014 (UTC)
- Interest Actually, I think that "interesting" is a completely appropriate criterion. No one wants to come here to read about the millions of wiki editors and readers who have ever existed or spam accounts. But they would be interested in controversial, ground-breaking, or otherwise fascinating biographies. This isn't to say that PeterKa isn't interesting in some way but how is he? Koavf (talk) 02:42, 19 May 2014 (UTC)
You are famous
There was a series of questions about you on tonights' University Challenge on BBC2. Don't know if you can get the BBC iPlayer in the US. Best, Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • Admin / 'Crat • talk2HH 21:35, 21 July 2014 (UTC)
- Template:Ping Thanks! Someone beat you to the punch on en.wp but it's much appreciated! I haven't watched the clip yet but I hope he got it right. It was only yesterday that I was talking to a philosophy professor about editing Wikipedia on Orwell, actually. Koavf (talk) 05:42, 22 July 2014 (UTC)
Category: LETS
I saw You added categories. So, please add another: LETS for entries like http://www.tauschwiki.de/. Its the internationally known abbreviation of "Local Exchange and Trading Systems".--Manorainjan (talk) 18:58, 29 July 2014 (UTC)
- Categories I'd be happy to add categories but this link is down. Is there an article on this here at WikiIndex? Koavf (talk) 15:09, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
- Tauschwiki --Manorainjan (talk) 21:43, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
If there is just one wiki on that subject matter, then we don't usually create a category. How about Category:Finance, Category:Commerce, Category:Banking, Category:Trading? Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • Admin / 'Crat • talk2HH 22:13, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
- Agreed Using a more broad and general category is probably a good idea, only breaking it up into more specific ones if it would really be helpful for navigation. Koavf (talk) 23:19, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
- OK, I added Category:Business. --Manorainjan (talk) 00:51, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
Category:Wiki Status
I was wondering how to find the entries which do not have any category. I saw that there are explicit markers like [Category:UnknownStatus] and [Category:YourWikiStatus] which essentially means the same. But this markers need to be set first. What if no marker is set at all, if in the template You find '|status = ' or not even this line? How to find such entries? --Manorainjan (talk) 21:50, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
- The most prolific way is when articles are tagged with template:Add (I think that dumps them into Category:Wikis to add) – as these were generally how they were listed when the wiki was in its infancy. Another way is in Category:Stubs. HTH Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • Admin / 'Crat • talk2HH 22:17, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
- So You believe! I testet this with Worldcyclopedia and no cat was added.--Manorainjan (talk) 00:41, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
- See also Special:UncategorizedPages This lists pages with no categories. Note that once a page has one category, it is removed from here, even if it could and should have more categories. Koavf (talk) 23:20, 30 July 2014 (UTC)
- I knew that. What I'm looking for is template-related and most likely not yet existing.--Manorainjan (talk) 16:39, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
Category:Wiki License
What about a category 'unknown'? (actually in each of the chapters of the template). Simply that word so one always knows, what to enter when one does not know. --Manorainjan (talk) 16:42, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
- Excellent idea There could be one that's a maintenance category for no license mentioned and another for no license listed by the site. Koavf (talk) 03:17, 4 August 2014 (UTC)
- Bad idea – we already have an 'unknown' wiki licence category – Category:Wiki YourWiki'sLicense, which is the default from the boilerplate. If a licence is identified on the wiki, it will already be one of the existing sub-categories. We need to be careful, because wiki licences are a Semantic Property, which basically means we can't just make up categories on a whim. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • Admin / 'Crat • talk2HH 21:48, 5 August 2014 (UTC)
Category:Adult content & Category:Adult
I think the Category:Adult is surplus. --Manorainjan (talk) 19:17, 3 August 2014 (UTC)
- Thanks Mark for deletion and for indirectly showing me the Cat-Trick with '['[:cat:xyz']'] on the talk pages. I was looking for that ;-)
You are welcome, thanks for doing some WikiGnoming - and I thought it was pretty direct ;-) ~~ MarkDilley
Category:Game
No such Category. How can that be? Manorainjan (talk) 18:04, 4 August 2014 (UTC)
- Naming conventions Generally, categories are pluralized, so Category:Games and Category:Video Games. Koavf (talk) 06:22, 5 August 2014 (UTC)
Computer // Computers
moved to -> http://wikiindex.org/WikiIndex_talk:Community_portal#Computer_.2F.2F_Computers Manorainjan (talk) 22:03, 5 August 2014 (UTC)
Policy discussions
Hi. There seems to be a lot of fresh policy discussions cropping up on your talk page, my talk page, Mark's talk page, and no doubt a few others. Can we please ensure these are discussed in more appropriate places. Either Category talk:Active administrators of this wiki if it just concerns issues which only sysops can deal with, or WikiIndex talk:Community portal for all other wiki-wide discussions. I'll add this same message on other appropriate users talk pages. Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • Admin / 'Crat • talk2HH 21:11, 5 August 2014 (UTC)
- Support MarkDilley
- Support Manorainjan (talk) 15:31, 6 August 2014 (UTC)
Please be nice Wiki
Why didn't You use the template to create this page?Manorainjan (talk) 08:12, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
- No reason I was just in a hurry is all. I wanted to note that the wiki existed before I forgot to include it but didn't have the patience to figure out its logo's URI. Thanks! Koavf (talk) 15:18, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
- Yeah, whilst in an ideal world, we'd always use the template -- it's perfectly ok to just dump the url of a new wiki article. just make sure to include the Add template. (typing on my fone, pain in the rear to add wikilinks!). Sean, aka Hoof Hearted • Admin / 'Crat • talk2HH 16:19, 11 August 2014 (UTC)
Founder
Could you expand the above article like you did with Leader, please? :) Sweetie Belle (talk) 15:01, 24 August 2014 (UTC)
Should we have alternative infoboxes besides Template:Wiki?
Discussion here. --MarvelZuvembie (talk) 19:51, 27 August 2014 (UTC)
LogoLinking
Do You have an opinion on that? Please place Your vote on this. Manorainjan (talk) 15:29, 30 August 2014 (UTC)
MeatballWiki
You once edited it as Locked. Do You know any details about that? I changed it to Dormant/ReadOnly, because the EditMode was OpenEdit and Locked is an EditMode basically but no status of any catagory. Manorainjan (talk) 00:55, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
- Locking I actually recently e-mailed SunirShah about this and he said that there was a spam problem that he couldn't resolve, so he just locked the site to stop it. Koavf (talk) 01:22, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
I also emailed him and did not get any answer. I pointed out that the Join-functionality described on the homepage does not work. He really should place a big not on the homepage to explain the situation. That should not be so difficult.
From my opinion, Locked belongs to the EditMode. Maybe not historically but logically. Dormant means, nothing happens there. And that is the case. that is the status. Manorainjan (talk) 02:20, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
- Status Some wikis are dormant simply because no one cares, some are dormant because they are locked from editing. That's a meaningful distinction to me. Koavf (talk) 02:24, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
Sure it is. But it is called Status and not Reason4Status. Just Like NeedsLove which is not a status but an opinion, it does not belong in Status. Specifics can always be edited into the description. Otherwise we would blow up the Category:Status with numerous special stati. I could invent meaningful new stati by the minute. There is always a reason and it always makes a difference. Shall I? Manorainjan (talk)
- Reasons Statuses exist just as helpful guides. If you can think of more categories that would be useful, that's fine. If a community stops editing because it peters out, that's one thing--someone else can come along and begin editing. If a community stops editing because of a technical restriction, that's quite another. Koavf (talk) 03:51, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
Consensus To edit one article in the BRD style is one thing, to ignore discussion of community another: Category talk:Wiki Status. If You think there should be 'Locked' as Status, why don't You bring it in the discussion? I had proposed "Halted" long ago. So, let us continue there. Manorainjan (talk) 10:53, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
- Consensus I didn't create Category:Locked. Koavf (talk) 15:51, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
Yes, You did not create that page. But You assigned it {{WikiStatus}} and made it member of Category:Wiki Status which has the same effect as creating a new WikiStatus. You added another Status to WikiStatus. Manorainjan (talk) 19:28, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
- Status It already was a status of a sort: it just wasn't categorized as one. As long as it exists, it should be categorized properly for navigation. Koavf (talk) 19:36, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
2010 this category was created without asking anybody or even trying to introduce it to the community or giving it a definition and only for the purpose to mark a very limited set of 8 wikis of the WikiMedia foundation. This was already a mistake. It was ignoring the requirements of well functioning database and ignoring the community of this wiki. You did not correct this mistake, You engraved it. The definition which You created aligned the use on MeatballWiki and ignored the original use for which it was created. So You created more confusion and contradiction. And now You are doing Your very best to defend that rather than trying to understand that it should be coordinated with the rest of us. You also made no attempt at all to introduce Your change to the community. On 17 October 2013 You assigned the not defined status Locked and did not care that it was no member of WikiStatus. In August we had this discussion Category talk:Wiki Status which You took part in shortly about another aspect. You know pretty well that it was not finalised. You also did not contribute in a fashion to finalize it, did not make a suggestion that could have helped to solve the puzzle. You saw my Invitation2Invitations which is pointing to this unfinished discussion and actively went on to ignore this discussion for doing YOUR own thing in spite of it. If I would do such things and mess up WikiStatus matters just according to my discretion I think I would get blocked again. Your mission statement "I like the idea of fostering community between wikis and the larger movement for free and open culture..." is not reflected in Your edits here. Or should that be translated as: "I like the idea but will not actively contribute to it." ?
- Okay You need to calm down. I was busy in August and didn't get around to those discussions except (as you pointed out) briefly as an aside. This site is an informal repository of wikis: sometimes, a strict definition is not possible or useful or necessary. If you want one here, fine. I respect that you're trying to bring more structure here but you're frankly being rude to me and it's not going to accomplish anything positive. Take a minute and think about how you want to act toward me: I haven't done anything disrespectful to you. Koavf (talk) 21:08, 9 October 2014 (UTC)