User talk:Notmyhandle

Archive	Date Archived
Archive ^#1	January 26th, 2007
Archive ^#2	April 13, 2007
Archive ^#3	June 29, 2007
Archive ^#4	September 27, 2007
Archive ^#5	January 12, 2008
Archive ^#6	April 16, 2008
Archive ^#7	November 2, 2008
Archive ^#8	April 4, 2009
Archive ^#9	October 14, 2009
Archive ^#10	June 6, 2012
Archive ^#11	June 22, 2012
Archive ^#12	August 17, 2012
Archive ^#13	February 12, 2013
Archive ^#14	May 8, 2014

Pokemon RS&E - Sprites

Hi NMH. Whilst i was going around adding PRS&E sprites into a category (Category:Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire images), i have found several files with incorrect names. As i am replacing the files currently, please could you delete these files to avoid any confusion?? Thanks, --Danneal12 (talk) 09:43, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

As i tried to upload new files, they identified that they were similar file names and so told me to add {{rename|new name}} to each file instead. Therefore, could you just change the file names instead of deleting them - thanks!! --Danneal12 (talk) 09:43, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Concerning Lego

If that's the way Wikipedia handles it, I will never object. I defer to Wikipedia whenever I am unsure myself. Interestingly, there's a discussion about that topic on the talk page for Lego, but their wp:Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Trademarks is consistent in that it recommends Time, Kiss, and Asus over TIME, KISS, and ASUS. As such, LEGO should be Lego. I guess if anyone ever objects to it on this site, we'll have to refer them to that page. Or officially adopt it into our own guide, and site them as the source for the decision. Pro cyon 02:25, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

My view is that is Wikipedia's encyclopedia style and we can be more gamer/corporate specific. I feel we should match the actual game name as closely as possible (within technical limitations). -- Prod (talk) 04:30, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Sticking with sentence case/Wikipedia is better IMO since we can justify our position with that rationale. Sticking with corporate typesetting also has its rationale though... both are arbitrary. Bleh. Also, maybe some day someone will code a bot to import all of the intros from Wikipedia and auto-stub all of the thousands of games we are missing. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 05:33, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Prod (talk · contribs): The only problem with that rationale, is that you always see "Super Mario Bros." written in capital letters on the box, and on the title screen, but we don't name the guide "SUPER MARIO BROS." even though that would match the type setting. Admittedly, the Lego issue is a bit different, but ultimately if the proper redirects are in place, it should be somewhat arbitrary, as long as it's consistent across the entire site. Pro cyon 14:04, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

My preference would be we go by the trademarked name. Or the name they use when talking about the game (like in the manual or on the website). -- Prod (talk) 14:14, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

Prod (talk · contribs), the only downside to that is some games have multiple typeset spellings. Check out Picross e. I used sentence case here because the game is named "picross e" in the box art, and on its website it is "PICROSS e". Which would you choose? --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 15:26, 15 April 2014 (UTC)

My Activity

Sorry I haven't been active as much. I recently became promoted to bureaucrat/admin on Maple Wikia. I'll see if I can be more active.

Also, I'm guessing Prod hasn't recovered the quest data for me that was lost in that rollback yet. --PirateIzzy (talk) 05:53, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

In-line image overkill

Hey NMH. I'm getting really concerned about the frequency of the use of in-line images in the LOZ guide. For example, in The Legend of Zelda/Underworld/Quest 1/Dungeon 5, why does every instance of an item or monster name necessitate an in-line image? For one thing, the first instance of the word Dodongo doesn't even refer to an actual encounter with them. The second instance is the actual encounter, so why does the first instance need the image? Then there's all the Gibdos and Keys. The page has become so busy, that it's actually harder to read than it used to be. Images distract the eyes from text. In-line images should really be used sparingly, as a way to direct readers to point of particular interest. On that page, the Whistle is really the only absolutely necessary in-line image. Then maybe the Digdogger, map, compass, heart container, and triforce. Everything else is kind of surplus, and makes it look more like a "My first book" for little kids who can't fully read yet. Can we scale it back, even just a little? Pro cyon 01:28, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Procyon (talk · contribs): Yeah I was thinking about that threshold while I was making the edits. I think that initial references to the object makes sense, but if a section refers to the object multiple times, then those additional references don't need it. However, on Dungeon 5 there is no repetition. If a section is more clear then it should be revised. For example, I changed the unordered list to ordered. I added a small reference in step 3 that clarifies that the bomb is used to bypass the future dodongos. However, I need an expert to identify which step it bypasses them in. My vision of all completed guides is to have heavily referenced in-line images like these so that it reads like a madlib book. The thresholds to choose, to refine our aesthetics, are: image size (which determines clarity of the image and line spacing), frequency (how many in a given amount of space), and limits (are bosses out of the question?). The main benefit to these in-line image templates are not only visual guides - e.g. they can be read by scanning the images rather than having to read any text at all, but the cross-page linking that allows for quick reference to the appendices. Text-majority writings are only for technical details. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 01:47, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

One interesting way we could organize guides for sections of games that have grid-based maps (where we have a map that can be used to reference specific rooms), is we could have table-based pages with a row for each room, or a header for each room. I'm thinking of columns like: |room (xy coordinates)|details|exits to|items found|enemies found. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 01:50, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I guess what I'm trying to argue for is "less is more". I think the way we handled A Link to the Past was really good. For example, if a player visited The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past/Skull Woods and was only interested in figuring out where the Fire Rod is, they could visually scan the page until they found the Fire Rod, and read the surrounding text. Images are used sparingly, so when they're used, they really stand out. You're also right about the size of the images. The enhanced version of the sprites were enlarged for visual appeal on the items page. They make poor in-line image substitutes. To do it correctly, unaltered and original sized (1:1) sprites should be used (like in A Link to the Past) instead of trying to shrink down enlarged images. They would be 16 pixels high and fit within the text really well. That would also be a lot less taxing on the server. Pro cyon 02:17, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Procyon (talk · contribs): I can agree with both points. If you would be so kind to upload the originals, I will implement them. Please see my modifications to the in-line image guidelines, here. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 05:46, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

I constrained the images to 16px height. Take another look at The Legend of Zelda/Underworld/Quest 1/Dungeon 5. The visual disruption to the text is much less now. Does your opinion still stand? I feel like the general rule of thumb should follow Wikipedia's rules for using links. That is, if the topic is re-mentioned in the same paragraph, don't re-link, but multiple links can occur on the page. I do not know what Wikipedia's guidelines for lists is, though. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 05:56, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

IMO, it still feels a bit busy. In addition to A Link to the Past, I realized that Castlevania II hit the ratio of in-line images to text really well also. That's what I wish LOZ was shooting for. As far as uploading new images, there's two approaches we can take. One would be to leave the enhanced images, and upload unscaled images just for in-line images. The other would be to replace the enhanced images, and upscale them just for the items page. Any preference? Pro cyon 00:14, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

My view is that images overall should be used sparingly. We use all copyrighted game images under fair use, meaning each copyrighted image is there for a reason. If we're having in-line copyrighted images, they should be there to highlight something very specific. -- Prod (talk) 01:04, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Enhanced images are not helpful imo. Sprite rippers, artists, and walkthrough people want sprites, not some alternate version. The style is cool, but should not be used to replace the original sprites people are used to seeing. I don't have a way to understand the threshold you guys want to implement. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 01:43, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

OK, I'll work on replacing the item sprites. But the threshold should be very straightforward. Items should only be in-lined whenever/wherever they are actually found. Important items are definites, items found once in every dungeon are probablies (maps, compass, heart container, triforce), other common items are iffy in my book (keys, bombs, rupees). Personally, I think a good guideline for Monsters is that they should only have an in-line image once per page. Pro cyon 03:13, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

I have modified the help page, and am implementing a more reserved approach. I think that if it is in a different section, that the "count" should be reset so that a new reference can be used. Also, a bit related, it looks like we are missing a Blue Gohma boss sprite, if you can dig one out for us that would be great. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:45, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Skin-dependent layouts

I had been wondering why you were revising the layouts of my Crystalis edits until I realized StrategyWiki has more than out layout skin. The problem is that we are working at cross-purposes because we use different skins. It appears to me you are editing with the Monobook or Vector skin in mind whereas I tend to use Dolphin. My layouts look good in Dolphin and Whale but not in Monobook, whereas your layouts are the other way around. Perhaps we can discuss if there's a layout style that can work well with most of the four skins. —WhosAsking (talk) 08:01, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

WhosAsking (talk · contribs) (putting this here so you get a notification): I edit with Monobook because 1) it will exist if Dolphin is ever replaced (Dolphin is the second, custom default skin we have used), 2) monobook is high-rez/wide-screen friendly, 3) I test my edits to make sure layouts are scalable, so low rez/phones can view them decently. What page would you like to analyze together? --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 16:47, 14 May 2014 (UTC)

Crazy Taxi Talk Page

Thanks, I didn't realize I had put in the Controls discussion. I actually went to the main game discussion page and wondered where it went! =) I went ahead and moved it to main game page. The old talk page is here if you'd like to delete it. TurboButtons (talk) 04:55, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

Purchasing Chrono Trigger

Hey NMH, didn't realize CT for Android was a thing. Would you like us to purchase it for you? We can either try to do that or just reimburse you for it. Let me know. Pro cyon 04:10, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

@Procyon (talk · contribs): I would really appreciate that! My goal at the moment is to get the Ocarina of Time images renamed and the Volgarr the Viking guide fleshed out (and I want to 100% the game). After that, or at the same time, I would be down to play CT on my tablet. Is there a gifting method through play store/gmail accounts? Or would you prefer to paypal me the $9.99? Btw, would you prefer to discuss this via email or Facebook? --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 05:24, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

Either email or FB is fine with me. Paypal probably makes the most sense. And plus, as of last Monday, I work for them so I should probably encourage its use ;) Pro cyon 23:06, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

Dolphin skin

BTW, I left a comment on WhosAsking's page about the large Crystalis maps. I realize you and Paco prefer the older skins, but since the majority of our traffic views the site with the default dolphin skin, we should prioritize how the guides look in Dolphin. Ideally, we should make them look good in all skins whenever possible, but when we're forced to choose between one over the other, we should give preferential treatment to the default skin. Pro cyon 23:06, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

@Procyon (talk · contribs): congrats on the new job! Just for you, I've switched over to Dolphin. Ugh, I feel like this artificial constraint is really bad for game info. We want high-rez everything! Two ideas I have, which I won't get support for, would be to make Monobook the default skin, but make the main page a hardcoded page themed like Dolphin, so if anyone comes here they're like oh it's pretty, but when they go to a content page where space matters, there's nothing getting in their way. The other would be to revise dolphin so we aren't constrained to 60% of the screen. On my screens I have like 4 inches of total width in blue space (~700 pixels) wasted. I really dislike how we now have to go back through every guide we've ever created and optimize it to fit an artificially worse standard. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 23:27, 21 May 2014 (UTC)

@Procyon (talk · contribs): also, since there are no horizontal rules included under H2s, can we manually add them? Or is that CSS we can modify in Dolphin? I hate how Dolphin even changes the appearance of the content. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 00:02, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

Hey NMH, I really appreciate your honesty about the skin. I actually share some of your concerns about the visible space, but there were a lot of technical and practical reasons for the choices that were made. We went around and around about it, and I think you had an opportunity to weigh in on the beta site. In the end, the pros (technical benefits, mobile compatibility) really outweighed the cons (guide width) and we pulled the trigger. I'm not sure what you mean about horizontal rules, could you please clarify? It is unfortunate that we have to verify multiple skins, but the alternative was to remove the ability to change them. We can call a meeting about it (man, we haven't had one of those in a long time) if you feel strongly about it. Pro cyon 02:54, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

@Procyon (talk · contribs): "Horizontal rule" is the full name for the HTML <hr> tag. It appears that the dolphin CSS no longer shows a HR underneath the div accompanying H2 tags (or, in wikimarkup, ==This type of header==). I think we should definitely re-implement it as the horizontal rule really offsets the section beneath it by drawing a visible line. Without it, it makes pages look like they go on forever in one continuous stream. The HR tag breaks up the whitespace very precisely. Also, the reason we do not use HR tags on pages is because the level 1 headers had that built in HR line, so we just told people to reserve the full-width black lines for level 1 headers and to not go crazy with drawing tons of lines across pages. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 06:12, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

@Procyon (talk · contribs): here's an issue. Take a look at Crystalis/Leaf. Some of the maps are full width. This looks great! However, on a mobile device, the width of the screen will force them to zoom in and out to see it, or click on the image. Is this an issue to you? If not, then great, we can make full-width images a commonly used visual. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 23:45, 22 May 2014 (UTC)

@Procyon (talk · contribs), Prod (talk · contribs): I went in and inspected the HTML/CSS for H2's on both Dolphin and Monobook. Monobook's H2 has this property that Dolphin's does not: "border-bottom: 1px solid #aaa;". Can we please add that to Dolphin? It really changes how pages look by visually separating them into blocks of grouped content. I often scan by looking at the lines themselves, not any of the words on the page. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 00:29, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

@Procyon (talk · contribs), Prod (talk · contribs): I made a change to MediaWiki:Dolphin.css so you can see the difference on pages now. Let me know if you approve. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 23:40, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

Aigina no Yogen

Hey NMH, sorry to do this to you, but I already wrote a guide for Aigina no Yogen. Just didn't link it properly to the name of the game in the NES completion list. I apologize for that. Pro cyon 01:41, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

P.S. We had to sort out a problem with Google Wallet, but we're through it now, so I should be able to reimburse you shortly.

TMNT arcade vs TMNT II guides

Hi NMH. I know you put a ton of effort into the TMNT II guide for the NES. I didn't realize that and a new user started working on the arcade guide. After realizing that you had already done the guide for the NES version, I figured I'd get in touch with you and see how strongly you felt for or against merging the content. To me, what it comes down to is the arcade version is the original, and the NES version is a port with two additional stages. Seems like a good case for combination, but if it seems like it would be more trouble than it's worth, I guess we can keep them separate. What are your thoughts? Pro cyon 00:54, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

OK, I did a little research, and I found a case for the argument of leaving them separate. The arcade game as ported to several systems (Atari, Commodore, DOS, etc.), but the NES is the only port which contains the extra and extended levels, which makes it sort of a one-off. So not only is that information invalid for the arcade version, it's also invalid for every other port based on the arcade version. In my mind, that's enough justification to keep the NES version distinct from the original guide. Let me know how you feel about it. Pro cyon 01:18, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

That sounds to me like the games are 80% the same, so we'd end up duplicating a lot of content. How different are the common portions, apart from naming? -- Prod (talk) 01:22, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Of the content that is shared between both versions, there are fewer enemies present per section of each scene, but some stages were extended to have more sections than the arcade. Pro cyon

The reason I separated them to begin with is that I had thought that the maps and sprites were too different. The hitboxes and art, and the strategies tend to be all different. But, comparing this video (Arcade) to this one (NES), they are similar enough to combine guides like SMB2/SMA/Doki Doki. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 01:50, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Although I would love for each version of the game to have its own guide, because technical differences make for very specific timing or hit-box related strategies, we rarely ever get that technical. It would be better to combine and get the majority of readers to use our guide. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 02:01, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

P.S. This is a good video source as well. Funny story, I'm FB friends with the guy who makes those, and he's a fan of SW. Pro cyon 02:13, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Anyway, if we do combine them, I recommend the strategy that I mentioned on the talk page of the arcade guide: name the pages of the walkthrough after their environments, and simply map the stage numbers to the environment according to which version of the game you're talking about in the ToC or the Walkthrough. Then you don't deal with the headache of "this is Stage 5 on the NES, although it's really Stage 4" or "this is Stage 3 on the NES which is different from Stage 3 on the arcade," etc. Pro cyon 02:28, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

I did something similar for Gradius which has an extra stage only contained in the PC-Engine version if you want to take a look at an example. Pro cyon 02:30, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

I put a "NES exclusive" note for stage 4. The guides have been merged. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:32, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

OK, I took a crack at organizing the ToC. Have a look at it, maybe you can come up with something less messy than I did, but honestly, that's the way the stages break down. You can see part of the problem is that Scene 2 of the arcade encompasses all of Scene 2 of the NES, as well as the second half of Scene 3, but not the first. Scene 3 of the arcade maps to scenes 4 and 5 of the NES. It's not pretty. Pro cyon 00:13, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Yeah, that's fine. Procyon. I made it look nicer. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 00:35, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

This doesn't work with the AutoToC. I would suggest you put the levels as the first game names them, and then use the Walthrough page for the re-release as a lookup table so people can figure out where they should go. Maybe even on the main page. -- Prod (talk) 14:59, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Crap, I completely forgot about the AutoToC. Prod, the levels don't really have names beyond the Scene labels that I listed in the table. The names of the stages are merely descriptive titles to explain the environment. I suppose we'll have to yank the table out of the ToC, put it in the Walkthrough, and then carefully label the links on the Footer Nav. I'll try to clean all of this up. Pro cyon 16:26, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Then I'd suggest sticking to the scene labels as the titles, since that's the most "official" description they have. Since the games do have a notable amount of difference, I'd suggest also splitting up the main page into two (like SM64 vs SM64DS). -- Prod (talk) 20:31, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

What is AutoToC? --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 20:41, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

@NMH: Ouch... if NMH doesn't know what the AutoToC is, I guess we didn't do a very good job highlighting it :( That's not your fault NMH, I'm glad that you asked the question because it means we may need to do more work to illustrate its function. If you're on a guide page, you should notice three distinct "sections" below the search bar on the left. The first is Navigation (which defaults to open). The second is Tools (which should default to closed). And the third is the AutoToC, which for guides, should be a collapsible hierarchical representation of that guide's Table of Contents. It parses the ToC wiki (ignoring the columns) and generates links on the left so that you shouldn't have to rely on the actual Table of Contents navs to get around. You should just be able to click the links on the left to find what you're looking for. When not on a guide, it shows the major system Categories instead. By adding the table to the TMNT(a) guide, I broke the AutoToC because it doesn't know how to parse the links out of the table, so I need to remove it.

@Prod: Here's the thing, outside of the graphics, there really isn't a notable amount of difference between the two versions. All there is, is the addition of two stages, one of which was injected in between two stages that are considered the same "scene" in the arcade. This notion of "scenes" in the game is totally arbitrary. In the end, they are still the same discrete stages, in the same exact order, and there just happens to be two additional stages present in the NES version. Breaking the guides back up would a) undo all the hard work that NMH did, and b) still result in 8 out of 10 stages having nearly identical write-ups. So I don't think that would solve the problem. Pro cyon 00:12, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

I mean to just split up the main pages, not the whole guide. Do title screens from both games say "Stage 1", or do they say completely different things? -- Prod (talk) 01:27, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

They agree on the names of the first two scenes. After that, it gets messy. In the arcade, the third part of the second scene takes place after the newly introduced stage for the third scene of the NES game. So the stages map together like this:

Arcade: 1--2--*-----*--3--4-----5
NES:    1--2--*--3--*--4--5--6--7

Note that the *s represent extra parts of the previously names scene. The arcade considers the street, the sewers, and the parking lot all of scene 2. The NES game splits off the parking lot and puts it after an exclusive stage for scene 3. Additionally, I don't think many users will be as familiar with the names of the scenes as they are with the basic environment descriptions. I wouldn't know that "Let's get to that secret factory!" referred to the highway and skateboarding segments. Pro cyon 02:28, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Ahhh yeah, I have noticed that left nav bar ToC copy. AutoToc, eh? I think I've used it twice. Not super useful, but good for new people who aren't familiar with how to view the table of contents by clicking the show button. Speaking of AutoToC, how do we edit it? The System Categories need the 8th gen consoles listed (PS4/Xbox One). Should we add Ouya to SW? --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 18:08, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Back on topic - Proc/Prod: here's my solution:

Make sure every section of each page that identifies a new "stage" explains its presence in either version and also has an initial screenshot of that section to identify it (possibly from both versions if they look a little different). I think this should be mandatory no matter how we do the ToC, as it is just very helpful clarification-type information.
In the ToC, either split it up so we have duplicate links; e.g. 2 columns, one for Arcade listing and one for NES. That way AutoToC works and it replicates Proc's table. I will implement the ToC change now so you can see how it will look. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 18:08, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

My new comic

Wow, I'm really happy you want a link!

I host my comic here. The tentative name is Saving Throw. It It's just getting started. In a few days, I'm going to post a new page on my account. I use Bitmap, Vector Magic, and Gimp to draw it. People have suggested Adobe Illustrator's great, too, so I may check it out one day.

I still nurture the Mega Man Zero walkthrough. Used to do the LOZ Oracle games, too. I used a VirtualGBA emulator to create screenshots for a while, but you probably noticed I suddenly dropped off the radar. This is because I had a hard drive burn out and a lot of academic work to deal with. But this was the first wiki I seriously got involved with and I am very happy to come back any time I can and see how well it has matured! --|Superpowered Mario (talk) 23:52, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

Uploading Files

I'm unsure of how to change the destination filename for the four letter images. My best guess of how to do it was removing the images from all the pages it has been inserted in, but I wanted to ask you before I tried anything else. Also, would DKC Letter (letter) SNES work for a better destination filename? Thanks, The Retro Gamer (talk) 12:37, 13 June 2014 (UTC)

Even after I went to Template:Rename, I'm still not quite clear on the template:
{{rename|Your reason or suggested filename}}
What goes before and after the | ? More specifically, what goes in the space where rename is? --The Retro Gamer (talk) 12:02, 14 June 2014 (UTC)

Never mind, thanks for your help. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by The Retro Gamer (talk • contribs) .

Template:Rename

What's broken with the rename template? -- Prod (talk) 02:10, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Prod: the banner will not appear on pages marked with {{rename}} in Dolphin. Also, the sidebar tags developed for Blue Cloud do not appear on the left hand column, nor anywhere, so essentially it was invisible. I made it visible. I was trying to teach The Retro Gamer (talk · contribs) how to use it, but after much confusion I realized that he wasn't understanding how simple it was because the template doesn't show anything on the page. When it is unhidden, you can tell that it is working because it says your suggestion in the middle of the text (which IMO should be reduced to one or two sentences like {{delete}}'s banner. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 18:01, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

It was hidden, it's not _supposed_ to show up since it's more a maintenance thing, rather than a content issue. -- Prod (talk) 20:36, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Rename requests are easy to handle and are taken care of immediately. I can understand hiding the content for, say, {{cleanup}} because that tag can sit around for years. I think {{rename}} is better unhidden for those trying to request renames (they can see that people will see the request). The banner doesn't matter to admins since we look at diffs/wikimarkup directly while patrolling and we don't mark pages with {{rename}} because we can just move it ourselves immediately (or discuss elsewhere first). --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 22:59, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Personal Style

I just had a question about Animal Crossing, what should I write about Personal Style Section? If you have the game, if don't have sorry for asking and wasting your time, and I should figure something to write about later. --RodKimble (talk) 04:51, 21 June 2014 (UTC)

@RodKimble: I have Animal Crossing for GameCube, but I don't remember any "personal style" in the game. Can you describe the topic? What are you referring to? --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 04:56, 21 June 2014 (UTC)

Common change?

Hey NMH. I saw your change in Common.js. Purely out of intellectual curiosity, and not out of concern, I was wondering what you changed and why? Also, just FYI, I responded to your post on my talk page from earlier. Thanks! Pro cyon 20:30, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

@Procyon: I thought my edit summary was clear. I changed the maximum number of controllers that control selector can have set on a given page. It was 5, I changed it to 10 so we won't have to change it for a long time. Chrono Trigger is now up to 6 controllers (maybe 7 if Android/iOS controls differ but for now I assume they are the same). In order for Chrono Trigger's guide to be formatted correctly for all available control schemes, I had to expand the javascript function's limitation. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 20:34, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

Ah, the Controls template, I completely failed to make the connection between the word "controls" in the script and the controller stuff. I thought it was something else completely, now it makes complete sense. I will reply to the other stuff on my talk page, but fyi, not only did I not get a notification, but I don't see anything on your talk page that looks like a response to my reply... Did it perhaps not save? Am I missing it completely? Thanks. Pro cyon 01:14, 28 August 2014 (UTC)

@Procyon: " I don't see anything on your talk page that looks like a response to my reply" - you don't see "@Procyon:"? Can you see this? Lol. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 15:36, 28 August 2014 (UTC)

I can't confirm my email address

Hi, I've tried multiple times to have a confirmation email sent to the address I have associated with my account, but it never comes. Could you take a look at that? Thanks. --GastonRabbit (talk) 06:55, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and emailed Prod (talk · contribs) about the issue. Pro cyon 12:42, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for reporting the issue. I will try and test it by creating one or two new email accounts. Please check your spam folder. If you can let us know what company hosts your email that could help identify the problem (e.g. hotmail, gmail, etc.). If you do not want to share that info, I totally understand. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 14:32, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

I have an idea what is causing this. I'll look into it over the next few days. -- Prod (talk) 00:55, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Can you test now? -- Prod (talk) 15:47, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

I suddenly got some Mails which informed me of some changes (which apparently took some times ago) on some Pages which are on my Watch-List. Surely this is your work? o_0 Paco (talk) 16:11, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Paco, there is a setting in your preferences to disable watch-list notifications (a new feature of recent MediaWiki versions). --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 16:47, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Yea, all emails were held up for a few days. Looks like they were just queued instead of lost. Thanks for confirming it's working again! -- Prod (talk) 20:13, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Need thoughts on new proposed Paper Mario/Recipes page

Hi NMH, I'm trying to figure out whether I should continue on working on an attempted revamp of Paper Mario/Recipes with a new table in one of my test pages despite not playing the game. I was hesitant to continue because it might be too bulky for my standards.

The page if revamped should remove all the item info and should be moved to the Items section (HP, PP, special effects). As for the recipes info, before revamping, it consisted of two sections of recipes that use 1 ingredient and recipes that use 2 ingredients (I haven't taken account to the "Mystery?" item because I'm not sure how to integrate it...perhaps "Mystery? (by chance)"). My new table will merge those two sections into one and will be made sortable, but will also add items that can be used as ingredients, something that the current page lacks. Item images will be added later when it's done. Any thoughts? --RAP (talk) 00:50, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

Sorry to chime in, but I wanted to ask a question that may give this discussion a little more clarity. The question is, aside from lacking a unified presentation, what is it about the current recipes page that you feel needs improving upon? For one thing, I understand your desire to move the item effects to an proper item page, but on the other hand, perhaps a reader is only aware of an item by the generation of it through recipes. Why make the reader navigate to another page to find out the item's purpose when it's already present on the same page they are looking at? Some redundancy of information is permissible, and even desirable if it makes information about the game easier to consume. Pro cyon 01:00, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

I noticed that Paper Mario/Items doesn't list any items made from recipes...it seems odd because I thought going to the "Items" page will list down all the items that are consumable, and that includes all the recipe-created items; and "Recipes" page just shows how to make an item (and would link the crafted item into the "Items" page for info). Would it be preferable if Paper Mario/Items and Paper Mario/Recipes be merged together? --RAP (talk) 01:11, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

I would be concerned that merging the pages might make the issue too confusing for people who were specifically seeking recipes. However, I do agree with you that without listing consumable items, the Items page is incomplete. And I suspect it's not just consumables that's missing from that page, although I don't know for sure. I think the purpose of a recipe item should appear on both the items page and the recipes page, with a link to the recipe page in place of such an item's "location". Again, it just seems annoying to have to look up a recipe on one page, and then navigate to another to find its purpose. If I had a list of ingredients in such quantities that I could only make one out of a selection of items, I'd want to know what my options are in order to decide which recipe to follow. Pro cyon 01:20, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

Hmm...if say both the Items and Recipes page be merged, there will be a custom ToC that has sections for items, and crafted items (and perhaps one section for ingredient items). For the items, it will be a table similar to Bomb_Jack/Getting_Started#Enemies, but with the sub-tables inside the "Description" entry have the ability to show or hide table.

That way users who just want to know the items' abilities have the option of seeing the recipes. Users who just want recipes, the friction of trying to find specific info will be reduced with the use of custom ToCs (both crafted items and ingredient items, the latter if implemented)...and it will differ from just scrolling up and down (or using the Find function) to find the info users wanted. It's a tricky problem to figure out (but a pretty fun one), what do you think Procyon (talk · contribs)? --RAP (talk) 01:53, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

A combined page would be sufficient if retitled as "Items and recipes". I do not think the recipes table should contain any info regarding effects. The name of the item in the recipes name columns should link to the item description on /Items or, if merged, elsewhere on the page. Likewise, on the items table, a column for "recipes involved in" may be helpful, with a quick link to each recipe. I do not like your sandbox idea as it takes up way too much space (e.g. it would be the kind of solution initially proposed by someone jotting down notes). The current recipes table looks great; just needs revisions to "tighten it" or "cut out the fat" as you like to say. In this case, it's not so much about "cutting", but putting elsewhere.

Decisions: merge pages? No. Recipes has too much content to have another huge table added. Items will also grow significantly when completed. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 05:07, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

Vandalism

Hello.
I should let you know that I reverted vandalism (3X) with this edit.
Two by 138.237.171.44 & One by 71.164.165.54
—Eric, aka:71.20.250.51 17:33, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, Eric. You don't need to notify us about reverts to vandalism. Just make it clear in your edit summary. I haven't been around much for the past week (really busy, out of town, sick, and spending free time on Diablo 3). Eventually one or more of us will get around to patrolling all of the edits. I went through the diffs related to your message to me, patrolled them, and banned the IPs. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:42, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. After I reverted, I realized that I couldn't do anything about it (block the IPs or whatever), so that's why I decided to let you know about it. Sorry about bothering you, I should have realized that my edit summary was enough of a notification. — Btw, would it be possible to use an anti-vandal bot such as Wikipedia's 'ClueBot'? Presumably, it is free-licence open source, but I'm not sure. (Here is the ClueBot source, but I couldn't find the source for the current New! Improved! ClueBot NG). —Eric, aka:71.20.250.51 18:36, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Possible, yes. Will it happen? Not any time soon. Prod and Procyon are the only ones around who are capable of doing it and neither have the time nor is it necessary. We can handle the vandals by hand like we've done for the past 7 years. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 07:46, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Just a little hello

Hey, NMH! Nice to talk to you again. How's the MS section of this site doing since I left? I know I did some edits here and there, but I've mostly been on the wikia updating that.

If you need info from there, chances are I've updated it on the wikia, and you can have someone update it from the wikia. --PirateIzzy (talk) 04:51, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

I plan to pop in from time to time and do some edits, mostly to quests and mobs if necessary. Also, I was thinking of just grouping theme dungeons in with their continents, instead of keeping a separate section for them in the availability templates and the towns template. --PirateIzzy (talk) 21:09, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

hello

just wanted to say hi. --Wildoaza2 (talk) 17:04, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

what game should i work on ? --Wildoaza2 (talk) 17:12, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

this dood needs to chill out he dont like me. --Wildoaza2 (talk) 17:22, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

Watch Dogs

Hello.

I wanted to start working on that guide but I couldn't find it. I did the main page and the contents but I don't know what to do next. I'm so out of the loop it's hard to find my way back. So hopefully you can bring it up to speed so I can continue working on it. Oh just in case you do forget, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thanks. Johnnyauau2000 (talk) 05:08, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Golden Axe

Hi. Not very familiar with wiki, so I don't know if this is the correct way to add a comment to your page. Please delete if I did this wrong.

Regarding: "Sega Genesis version note: Ax Battler's overall weapon reach is shorter than in the Arcade version and now he has the same weapon reach as Tyris. However, his weapon attacks are still better than Tyris because they are slightly quicker to hit."

It's actually the other way around. The Genesis version increased Ax Battler's overall weapon reach. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.169.18.80 (talk • contribs) .

Yeah, I tracked down your addition to Golden Axe/Versions and noticed it was for the other game. Unrelated, please sign your posts on discussion pages with ~~~~ to date/sign. Thanks, --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 19:49, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

Change to FFV\Wind shrine

You made two changes to the wind shrine page, first removing the scope parameters for col widths and second adding back in the Boss template from the FFVI guide. The scope parameter does seem to do something since without it the column widths are still determined by the table contents and the tables don't line up from section to section. Also the location description does not wrap text and since these can be rather lengthy it will be a problem for an inset table. My first pass at creating the tables did not include the scope but I noticed it did not achieve the desired effect, and the example in wp::help:Table#Setting column widths uses this parameter. The scope parameter is not needed if the table does not use headers, but otherwise (as in this case) they are.

On the boss template, I removed it from the Wind shrine page for a few reasons. First, the same template was not being used in the other walkthrough pages which cover around six other bosses. In fact, there seemed to be very little consistency between coverage of the bosses in the different pages. I wanted similar layouts for all bosses and since the template was not being used anywhere else I thought it would be better to remove it from the one place it was being used. Second, the template being used was for a different game and it would be a bad idea to make changes to it since it would have unknown effects in the other guide. I would not be opposed to evetually creating a new FFV\Boss template, perhaps based on the FFVI\Boss template, but it seemed better to hold off on that until I updated coverage of some of the other bosses to see what information should be displayed. I don't know about the bosses in FFVI but in FFV there are usually alternative forms, co-bosses or minions that need to be accounted for. In other words I'm still getting requirements so it's not time to code yet. Third, I found in my own notes for FFXII that it's very helpful to have separate pre-battle and in-battle sections, and the existing template does not make this separation. Right now I'm using five sections: Boss (possibly a list), Scan (optional since you can't scan the first boss, and possibly repeated if there are minions etc.), Reward, Recommended party level, Preparation and Tactics. That layout is still just a sketch though. This does not allow for detailed information, such as Bat.Pwr. etc., but it should be enough for the walk though if the details are given on the Basses page (which does not exist yet).

Anyway, I'm going to undo the edit but didn't want to without an explanation. --Zuke (talk) 13:27, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for taking a crack at this guide. We really appreciate it. If you want the location to wrap, just make that particular column fixed width. The Item name column should not wrap, so having a small width is bad for items like 'Phoenix Down'. The scope parameter is still not necessary. Keeping the tables the same width sounds like an ok thing to do, since the headers are all the same. However, your method does not keep the tables the same width. The easiest way to do that is to add the width parameter to {{prettytable}} by adding |style=width:400px; or whatever width you want it to be standard to. I added these fixed-width parameters to actually do what you said you wanted them to look like. Given that the contents are variable in size, it makes more sense to let it auto-fill the width. This saves wasted space in most cases (e.g. the first table is nice and compact). The final table is only slightly wider than your version, and everything is on one line which makes it easy to read. The need to customize these dimensions really depends on the dimensions of the section that the table is in and what sort of white space you have to deal with. As images are inserted (a requirement for our best guides), these available dimensions will change (meaning, the tables may be altered to fit the new properties of its surroundings). It is best to leave it as simple as possible, as these customizations will just have to be adjusted later, for no real benefit.

I do not like the 'In' column label as it is ambiguous. 'Container' is a better word. We don't care about the column width being a little padded in order to better serve readability (basically, I looked at 'Found', 'In', 'Location' and I had to study it for a minute before it made sense; I mean, why not put all of the notes in the Location column and add a few more words?).

Aha, thank you for noticing that the current template was for FFVI, I missed that. I created a new template to begin work: {{FFV/Boss}}. The boss template should be used. It's not a matter of it not suiting your needs. It is something we use on all of our completed guides. Your responsibility is to expand the template itself, rather than replacing it with something that is less effective ore regressive. Also, boss pages have been voted out as the core area to host the boss information. Instead, we set it up like an index and put all of the boss info in the walkthrough page itself. See Chrono Trigger/Bosses for an example. This method eliminates redundancy. Consistency across the guide hasn't been established yet because the guide was never completed in the first place. It is still in its infancy. You are the primary content filler at the moment. My role in this is to use the 'architectural' standards of StrategyWiki in order to maximize efficiency, eliminate redundant work, and have your pattern of work straightened out prior to your contributions in order to minimize the amount of time you have to waste in order to be aware of the best practices available. In addition, this minimizes the amount of oversight I have to give your edits. The less criticism I, and other admins here, have for you, the less we will bother you or modify your work. You can think of the wind temple as the first attempt to use the boss template. It is a good place to start asking 'What am I missing?' and 'What else should I add to the template to make it more effective'? As I re-implemented the template with your edits, the two contributions have been fused into something greater. That's what we do here. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 17:39, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

I'll take a whack a customizing the FFV template for FFV. There are over 30 parameters/statistics for monsters in the game, not counting tactical advice, so that's why I thought putting all the info in the walkthrough would be too bulky. Maybe some kind of collapsible format could be used so the casuals can get the basics quickly but the wonks who want to see all the gory details (like me) can still get them. I'll also take a look a the Chrono Trigger guide as a style example. In general, the Chrono Trigger Boss template looks good but the font seems much bigger than the regular text font, at least on my machine. Actually The Chrono Trigger bosses do have detailed information outside the walkthrough, it's just in the Enemies page combined with the non-boss enemies. I had in mind something similar but splitting the enemies into two pages based on random vs. set battles. There are around 350 monsters in FFV so it seems like a good idea to split them up somehow. In any case my priority right now is to get a more or less complete walk-through, leaving most of the details to be filled in later.

The current version of the treasure tables seems to do what I want so I'll try pasting it into the other pages.--Zuke (talk) 00:50, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Note that the boss inclusion in the Chrono Trigger/Enemies page is for beastiary listing purposes only, so the info on them there is pretty minimal. All of the boss names should link to the walkthrough pages, if they don't right now I'll make sure it's on the todo. Enemy pages can get really crazy. We are really proud of our Dragon Warrior III/Enemies page, which was a huge collaboration and probably one of the most edited pages on the site (in combination with the monster template). It combines data and sprites from three different versions of the game. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 02:47, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Also, the official todo list is on the discussion page of every guide's main page. I just added the template, and a basic entry to start it off. If you have any long term design ideas, this is the place to share it: Talk:Final Fantasy V. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 02:54, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Fixing pages

Hey Notmyhandle, I just wanted to say thanks for fixing my mess ups on this Wikipedia. I will try my best to look back and at my work and make sure that nothings wrong with them. And you and everyone else has been so nice on here glad I met everyone. :) -- RodKimble (talk) 00:26, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I saw your response to RK, and I just wanted to chime in to say that you are, as always, very highly appreciated here. Your tireless approach to cleaning up the site elevates all of our work to some of the highest quality on the internet, and for that, I personally thank you. Pro cyon 02:19, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Redirects: help me understand

Hi NMH. I always see you and NamcoRules get redirect happy whenever there is some sort of Japanese title, but I never fully understood the logic behind it. I get it for the case of likely mispellings, that makes sense to me. But capitalization never did; I believe our search feature is case-insensitive, so what benefit does it have? For that matter, what about a redirect like 64 Ōzumo 2‎? Are you concerned that someone will actually search for a game using the Ō character? I wouldn't even know how to type that in without copying and pasting it from somewhere else. So please share the thought process with me. Thanks very much. Pro cyon 23:49, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

There are usually 2-3 redirects that are mandatory, e.g. ones that are incorrect names used on other sites to make sure the chosen name is the superior one. But then we usually come up with the alternate caps variations in case people type those into the URL. "People" as in editors here on StrategyWiki, not lost readers using the search function (which, by the way, I think I've only used a handful of times, ever). We usually justify it by thinking "Hey, this word could have a macron, or be misspelled with a macron, so if we spell it this way it's incorrect, so let's redirect it." Yeah, it's pretty neurotic, but at the same time what we are trying to do is redirect all' possible spellings. I wish we had a redirect bot or plugin that would mass create redirects for us to hasten the process. Although it would certainly add to the inflation of our DB. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 00:23, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, on the one hand, I worry about the effect of all those redirects, and on the other hand, they are so small, I can't imagine they actually hurt us in any way. I would be far more in favor of them if they actually contributed to our SEO, but I kind of doubt that Google crawls the redirect pages at all. So... in the end, I can't rightfully say that they either hurt us or help us. Or rather, I could think of lots of little reasons how they do both, but none are significant enough to make me want to change course. Thanks for the explanation. Pro cyon 01:24, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Also, besides the batches of redirects, I always make redirects for red links I see when patrolling. If one person makes the error (by fat fingering, misspelling, etc.), I'm sure another will down the road. --Notmyhandle (talk • contribs) 01:40, 10 March 2015 (UTC)