User talk:Echelon

BlueCloud Template Code
I've been working on setting up a private site for a Community/Newsletter I've been working on and have been looking for a good skin that would look nice for it. Then i remembered your BlueCloud Template. Could i get the a copy of the Code and the Files ETC? I wont use the same coloration as SW and such because i wouldn't want to steal your Image. :) WillSWC 20:06, 4 January 2007 (CST)
 * Any thoughts on this? WillSWC 22:28, 6 March 2007 (CST)
 * Will, I don't want to sound completely arrogant about this, but BlueCloud is one of the key things that really distinguishes StrategyWiki and sets it apart from all other MediaWiki projects. Most MediaWiki sites use Monobook or a simple extension of it, and while there's nothing wrong in that, BlueCloud is a stark and vivid contrast to that theme. The reason for the unique BlueCloud theme was so that viewers and new contributors would feel an initial sense of awe towards our project--a unique and worthwhile project--not something established on a whim with little or no effort involved. When new visitors see that we're not just implementing Monobook, they know we put effort into our project. Not just the content, but the image as well. If we simply give away the layout of StrategyWiki, in a sense that uniqueness disappears. If I give it to you, I'll have to give it to everyone. And not everyone will take the time to recolor the theme--they'll just use it as is. Then BlueCloud will just be known as "just a skin"--emphasis on the word just. While I can't stop you or anyone else from copying BlueCloud, nor would I have the energy or the patience to fight someone on the issue, I hope people will respect our image enough not to simply copy it. Do you understand my angle? Sorry if this disappoints you. Even on Wikipedia, while the content is free, the distinguishing traits (name and logo) are protected. In a closing note, I'll be open to the comments of others should they be of a differing opinion, though it will be hard to convince me to change my opinion on this.  ech elon  02:58, 7 March 2007 (CST)
 * (I really don't want to see two dozen other wikis using BlueCloud... blech... then I'd want to change our layout again. And if they wanted to copy that, again and again ad absurdum.  ech elon  03:02, 7 March 2007 (CST) )
 * If you want to use one of the old DSmeet skins (or even the current one), feel free.  ech elon  03:02, 7 March 2007 (CST)
 * I'd do more then just recolor the skin of course. But i love the idea of a sidebar but I of course understand why you wouldnt want to let anyone have a copy. WillSWC 03:19, 7 March 2007 (CST)

Random test pages
Isn't it about time you deleted all these random test pages of yours? :-P --DrBob (Talk) 06:23, 12 February 2007 (CST)


 * Whoops, I forgot about all that cruft. I've gotten rid of them now. :P  ech elon  10:33, 12 February 2007 (CST)

Link Colors
Hey, I know this is somewhat of a weird (and random) question, but could you tell me what the color of the interwiki links is (or the hexadecimal code if there is no HTML color defined for it)? Thanks. --Ryan SchmidtTalk - Contribs 19:16, 12 February 2007 (CST)
 * I believe the color is the same as internal links, or #520. Hope this helps.  ech elon  14:20, 13 February 2007 (CST)
 * Actually, it might be #4987b4, according to Firefox's Webdeveloper plugin.  ech elon  14:22, 13 February 2007 (CST)

Google ads and IGE
Greetings Echolon, and thank you for your reply at http://strategywiki.org/wiki/StrategyWiki_talk:Community_Portal/16#Thoughts_on_Google_Adsense.3F . there you ask, if we do have a balacklist. Hm, would a blacklist be supported anyway? respectively, what other options do we have to filter out unwanted ads (like i.e. bad word filter, company names)?--Kajolus 04:34, 14 February 2007 (CST)
 * Our only filtering option is for URLs, unfortunately. There's really no way to filter based on words or names. If we had a list of IGE's domains, I'd block them.  ech elon  22:35, 14 February 2007 (CST)
 * thank you! :) should I simply post the URL's here, or do you prefer if I send you an email ("send this user an email")? btw, am currently toying around with "McAfee site advisor". neat tool imho, as you can see the "Online affiliations" for the web site you currently visit. like power4game.com links to thsale.com i.e. --Kajolus 10:28, 16 February 2007 (CST)
 * Posting the urls here is fine--it might be good information to share with others. Thanks!  ech elon  00:31, 18 February 2007 (CST)
 * Right so... finally found a bit spare time to do some work. http://editthis.info/mmo_ad_blockers/Main_Page - this is a wiki, setup to provide input for admins, in case they want to ban those sites. as every wiki, work is in progress. next step is, to manually check the links. --Kajolus 04:54, 5 March 2007 (CST)

Potential significant change, could use input and later assistance.
I started a discussion on making a pretty substantial change to infobox and I thought I'd let you know about the discussion in case you were interested or wanted to help with the change if it was supported. link. Oh, and if you know someone who would want to help out/discuss this who's talk page I didn't leave it on, if you could let them know, that'd be useful, thanks. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 09:01, 16 February 2007 (CST)
 * I'll check it out, thanks.  ech elon  00:32, 18 February 2007 (CST)

Monobook suggestions
See my comments in two discussions on the community portal talk. . About the toolbox and adsense announcment (the toolbox would be great if you could do that). -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 01:50, 19 February 2007 (CST)

Adminship criteria and policy
Could you tell me what the criteria is for becoming a SysOp and what the policy is for requesting it (or nominating others)? Thanks. --Ryan SchmidtTalk - Contribs 15:29, 27 February 2007 (CST)
 * Sorry for the intrusion, but I started a broader discussion on this here. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 17:03, 27 February 2007 (CST)

CharInsert
I was wondering if you could add the charinsert extension so that I can add something like this although most likely not as extensive to the edit window. It would be quite useful for doing redirects, and I'm sure we can add the AGN to that as well. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 17:09, 27 February 2007 (CST)
 * Would definately be useful, though it might be better to set up as commons does. Though they both have benefits. -- Prod (Talk) 17:27, 27 February 2007 (CST)
 * I like the commons one, but we don't need all those char sets. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 18:03, 27 February 2007 (CST)
 * There's no Japanese, yet there's Welsh! Haha! Anyway, I'll set this up when I get home.  ech elon  16:21, 28 February 2007 (CST)
 * Many thanks. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 20:53, 28 February 2007 (CST)
 * Done! :)  ech elon  22:30, 28 February 2007 (CST)
 * So how do we use it? And what characters were you looking for anyways?  Normal ascii chars?  --Notmyhandle 22:37, 28 February 2007 (CST)
 * I think you edit the MediaWiki: namespace, specifically the MediaWiki:Edittools template. This would require an admin to do.  ech elon  22:43, 28 February 2007 (CST)
 * I thought you just said you did it... what did you mean by "Done!"? --Notmyhandle 22:52, 28 February 2007 (CST)
 * I mean done by the fact that the parser is installed. I have *no* idea what everyone wants to use for the toolbox itself--that's up to a community consensus. We can actually make it whatever the heck we want, not just copy MediaWiki. In fact, I assumed that we wanted to put something custom there. Perhaps we should make some demos and then put them up for vote?  ech elon  23:14, 28 February 2007 (CST)
 * I've added all the stuff to MediaWiki:Edittools. I tried with the commons version, but we need some css or js (too lazy to search right now).  I changed it to the wp version, though you'll notice there's the big #ifeq: parser thing there.  I think it would be best to mix and match the two versions (if someone figures out where those styles are coming from, just preview the original posting).  Keep the most important ones always visible, and put the rest into a dropdown.  The bottom section also needs cleaning up since it's really long now.  -- Prod (Talk) 00:50, 1 March 2007 (CST)
 * Awww only admins can edit? ='( --Notmyhandle 00:59, 1 March 2007 (CST)

Hosting

 * Note: I moved the conversation into Community Issues.  ech elon  16:52, 28 February 2007 (CST)

Requests for adminship/Ryan Schmidt
Wanna give this a look? Thanks. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 09:15, 6 March 2007 (CST)
 * I've just made him a sysop, although I've got no idea if I left my message in the right place on the page. --DrBob (Talk) 11:47, 6 March 2007 (CST)

abxy
I tried to create an account but there were errors and strange things. Now when I try to sign in, it says the account hasn't been e-mail validated yet, but I haven't received an e-mail. Is this some problem on my end (such as myself being impatient) or did something go wrong? Haven't visited abxy before so I thought it'd be an interesting thing to check out as I'm a part of strategywiki, so let me know, thanks. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 17:52, 8 March 2007 (CST)
 * Same thing for me too. I have never got an email yet. How long does that usually take? --Ryan SchmidtTalk - Contribs 21:26, 8 March 2007 (CST)
 * There's currently a problem with our email system (instead of using the mail function of php, we use a more complicated means that should probably be rethought). I've asked Dan about the problem, but he claims our mail daemon is online. Either way, we're working on a new and improved software package entirely for sometime around this Summer. I'll manually email you the verification key.  ech elon  21:27, 8 March 2007 (CST)
 * May I recommend not requiring e-mail validation until it is working? If I didn't know better means of contacting you (and probably <1% of those signing up do) I would have just never visited abxy again to be honest. -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 09:56, 9 March 2007 (CST)
 * Note: didn't receive an e-mail. :) -- Mason11987 (Talk - Contributions) 12:00, 9 March 2007 (CST)

The site has been down the last couple days... I was wondering if there is something inherently wrong with the site such that it keeps crashing.. or is this intentional by one of the staff? Rhonlore 11:50, 19 April 2007 (CDT)

Interwiki with wikia
Greetings, would you be the person to ask regarding interwiki links? I originally posted on Staff_lounge but was met with utter silence. So I can't even tell if it's being:
 * 1) Rejected due to certain sound reason (in which case I'd appreciate knowing the reason)
 * 2) Pending due to technical issues
 * 3) On hold waiting for further clarification for justification
 * 4) Negelected due to lack of interest
 * 5) Other

Right now it does not work correctly. Main Page is supposed to go to http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page and wikia:c:AliceSoft is supposed to go to http://www.wikia.com/wiki/c:AliceSoft (which then gets redirected by wikia). -Afker 18:05, 12 March 2007 (CDT)

thttpd
You mentioned thttpd not starting up with the server. I'm not sure what you're talking about since it has always worked for me, but in the event it doesn't start for some odd reason, there's a much easier way to start it up; better than the way I instructed you to do last time.

/etc/init.d/sw_static start|stop # For StrategyWiki /etc/init.d/abxy_static start|stop # For ABXY --Dan 10:30, 5 April 2007 (CDT)


 * Excellent! Greatly appreciated, Dan! :)  ech elon  18:37, 6 April 2007 (CDT)

Email address validation
Hi, as you'll see at Staff_lounge I'm having trouble receiving my the confirmation email. Can you help? Pelago 12:35, 18 April 2007 (CDT)


 * Hey, I'll dive into the database when I get home tonight. It should just take a little change of a boolean value or something. Have you tried looking at Special:Preferences though? There should be an option to resend the email from that panel...  ech elon  16:33, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Hi, I've tried several times in Special:Preferences to resend the confirmation and the website says that it has been sent but I never seem to receive it. Thanks for looking into it. Pelago 16:56, 20 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Dove into the database. You should be set now. :)  ech elon  01:01, 22 April 2007 (CDT)
 * Many thanks! Pelago 16:37, 22 April 2007 (CDT)

Waited for you.
Hi Ech. I was signed on from 10:30pm til now (@ 12:20am). I guess you couldn't make it online. Just get in touch with me whenever you can. I hope everything is well. Procyon (Talk) 23:20, 18 April 2007 (CDT)


 * Oh, I think it worked out! Thanks for waiting though. I didn't even make it home until past midnight last night... (This final project is crazy!!!!!!!!11 [exclamation point * 100000] ) Maybe I can tell you about it tonight.  ech elon  16:35, 19 April 2007 (CDT)

Re: Installation request...

 * I believe the client software is already installed, but even if I do install the server, what good will it do with Zend Optimizer running? It pretty much caches all your scripts, and as far as I know you can't flush the cache without restarting Apache (or calling some ambiguous Zend Optimizer functions.)--Dan 20:02, 19 April 2007 (CDT)
 * No Dan, this doesn't have to do with Zend Optimizer at all. PostgreSQL is simply required for my final db project. :P  ech elon  02:42, 22 April 2007 (CDT)

Howzit?
Hey Ech. Haven't seen you online in a long time. Was wondering how you're doing. Have a great time in Florida. Hit me up whenever you get back. Cya. Procyon (Talk) 11:14, 4 May 2007 (CDT)


 * I'm back and finally free to get back to building our gaming organization! It feels incredibly liberating. Drop me a line whenever you're around. :)  ech elon  20:13, 13 May 2007 (CDT)

Friendly reminder
This is just a friendly reminder to get PAGESINCATEGORY on StrategyWiki. It would give an accurate reading of the amount of completed guides. --Ryan SchmidtTalk - Contribs 20:19, 13 May 2007 (CDT)


 * Kickass! Great timing Ryan! I'm on it. :)  ech elon  20:21, 13 May 2007 (CDT)

You should also get Check User to help sysops and b'crats identify users... --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 20:35, 13 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Viewable here, would definitely need some sort of disclaimer or something to avoid legal suits, though (and only use it in extreme circumstances, like I want to really find out if Bbddtt is using the same IP as Cedricong). --Ryan SchmidtTalk - Contribs 20:42, 13 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Got pagesincat, but Check User caused problems last night that I didn't quite catch until a little while ago. (Thanks Scott!) I'm not sure we can fix it, either.  ech elon  18:56, 14 May 2007 (CDT)
 * Hmm, that is unfortunate. Have you tried contacting the people that wrote the extension to see if they might know a solution? (the two people are Tim Starling and Aaron Schluz). But don't go out of your way to get it to work, as it is something that is nice to have just in case, but will hopefully not get a lot of use. --Ryan SchmidtTalk - Contribs 19:15, 14 May 2007 (CDT)
 * I'm going to give it a go with some serious debugging before I drop them a line. It might be a broken dependency (perhaps an incorrect version of some file) or a missing/incomplete/improperly specified directive.  ech elon  23:30, 14 May 2007 (CDT)

Email Validation
Hi, can you please help me, I'd like to get my email validated but it's not coming through, I've tried all the steps here but no E-Mail is coming through, can you please help? Thanks in advance --Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 14:44, 17 May 2007 (CDT)
 * You're set! :)  ech elon  22:46, 17 May 2007 (CDT)

Thanks so Much Rocky (Talk - Contributions) 01:35 18 May 2007 (CDT)
 * No problem! ;)  ech elon  05:51, 18 May 2007 (CDT)

Database Error
Hi, I keep getting a database error when I search for All Game Nav in the search with only templates and redirects selected then go to the next page, do you know why this is happening?--Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 16:16, 31 May 2007 (CDT)
 * If you see this again, get the screenshot for me with the URL. Try to get the headers too! That'd be a great help. Thanks! :)  ech elon  16:16, 3 June 2007 (CDT)

Errors in code on SW
Using FF's Web Developer add on, like a hundred JS errors get found on every page. Maybe you should check it out, most are actually related to CSS being parsed. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 14:36, 2 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Kinda the same here, except my only problem is that it fails to parse the value for property 'filter'. (I'm guessing I'm using a later version of Firefox than NMH, though). --SkizzerzTalk - Contribs 23:14, 2 June 2007 (CDT)
 * I don't have the developer but I keep on getting errrors that say "MySQL returned error "1194: Table 'stratw_searchindex' is marked as crashed and should be repaired (localhost)".--Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 02:32, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * The stylesheets are pulled from media.strategywiki.org, which is currently in a coma (check any page's infobox to see a broken image). That would explain why the CSS it's supposed to feed is missing. The local MediaWiki: equivalents will have some of the styles, but not all of them. GarrettTalk 06:21, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * why does my rock still work? look here --Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 07:14, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Probably cause it's cached on your computer. If you ctrl+f5 it will disappear. -- Prod (Talk) 09:23, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Whee, javascript is defunct as well. --SkizzerzTalk - Contribs 09:28, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Thanks Prod, now I've lost Bluecloud :'(, oh well at least I can use strategywiki, Please note do not press Ctrl+F5 or you'll lose bluecloud--Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 09:41, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Rocky, you lose ALL CSS and most JS functionality (like the arrows in enhanced rc don't work) when you reset your cache (please, Please, PLEASE fix it Ech or Dan or DB). --SkizzerzTalk - Contribs 10:01, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * I'd send DB an e-mail, If I knew where the stupid button was !!!!  --Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 10:16, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Actually DrBob doesn't have access either. Needs to be either Dan or Echelon. -- Prod (Talk) 10:20, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Oh, and all the "important" buttons (toolbox and stuff) can be found right at the bottom of the page. -- Prod (Talk) 11:41, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * What happened to BlueCloud? I have access to the site (Clearly), but what happened to BlueCloud? Lunar Knight (Talk to me + Contribs) 11:51, 3 June 2007 (CDT)

For everyone that has never experienced this, it's quite normal. Whenever there's some sort of problem, can't really say exactly (I'd guess bandwidth usage/SQL problems), the site reverts to the most basic layout. Anyways, it's always temporary and you should either get used to it or not use SW for a day or so. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 15:04, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * Apparently I can't read. The 'filter' property isn't used by StrategyWiki, but by the Google AdSense ads. --SkizzerzTalk - Contribs 15:36, 3 June 2007 (CDT)

Okay, this is a lot to talk about at once. Let me try to sort this out: I hope that clarifies things. I think we're mostly back to normal. Sorry about the small glitch. :P  ech elon  16:15, 3 June 2007 (CDT)
 * The javascript notices are from Google--Ryan is correct about that. All of our scripts should be standards compliant.
 * The server was having some problems last night around 9 PM, and I had some difficulty figuring out where it was coming from. I shut down MySQL, reset the server, etc. I couldn't seem to cap off whatever was causing the server to go haywire because it would just continue to misbehave the moment I got it back online. When it did finally come back online, I had problems with thttpd--the daemon that hosts media.strategywiki.org (and hence all of our images, javascripts, and stylesheets). I think Dan must've taken care of that this morning or something.
 * I have no idea what is causing the MySQL "table is crashed" errors. Could you get a screenshot of this, Rocky with the URL and POST that caused it? (Use livehttp headers or something.) That would help diagnose this much better.

Error
URL = http://strategywiki.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=20&offset=20&ns10=1&redirs=1&searchx=1&search=all+game+nav


 * An easy way to get this is to type in templates and click go, it's getting quite annoying now.--Rocky http://media.strategywiki.org/images/thumb/7/78/Rally-X_Rock.png/25px-Rally-X_Rock.png (Talk - Contributions) 13:28, 11 June 2007 (CDT)
 * This has been fixed by Dan I believe. -- Prod (Talk) 23:10, 5 July 2007 (CDT)

Favorite Color
What is your favorite color? I'm trying to build a Magic: The Gathering set for StrategyWiki, and I need to know what color you should be (while I'm at it, any preference for Power/Toughness, abilities, flavor text, and cost?). You can see one of the cards here. Thanks! --SkizzerzTalk - Contribs 16:14, 11 June 2007 (CDT)

Game navigation
We had a discussion on the main page before I took it down, and there are still discussions taking place. My apologies for not specifying that was happening earlier. The new system nav will be down until we can get proper community consensus on it, as it's causing problems for me and other people. See DrBob's talk page.--Dan 11:21, 2 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Ah, gotcha! Thanks Dan. :)  ech elon  13:40, 2 July 2007 (CDT)

Getting in touch
This is me getting in touch ASAP. --DrBob (Talk) 03:43, 15 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Same. You didn't really specify where we should get in touch. IRC? Your talk page? E-mail? I'll try here :P. -- 10:29, 15 July 2007 (CDT)
 * The most important thing is to make sure that Echelon has your email, and that hopefully you are available at some point next Saturday the 21st, specifically around 11am EST. Procyon (Talk) 13:14, 15 July 2007 (CDT)
 * Awesome. echelontalk 16:21, 15 July 2007 (CDT)
 * I won't be around at 4pm GMT (11am EST, methinks), but I should be from 7pm GMT (2pm EST??). --DrBob (Talk) 17:14, 15 July 2007 (CDT)