Talk:Community Central/Archive 4


 * See Archive 1 for discussion between October 2004 and April 2005.

Protecting the Main Page
Someone, identified by IP only, suggested, "I recommend that the front page should be locked from anyone editing it " on the main page. I removed that comment and am putting it here on the discussion page for further consideration. --CocoaZen 17:42, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * It is probably getting to the point where we should be protecting the front page. It seems to be one of the most vandalized pages.  Also, as the entry point for most users, we should do what we can to keep it clean.  Looking at the edit history, it is rare that a non-admin has contributed other than to vandalize or revert vandalism.  -- JamesTeterenko 18:54, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Protection goes against the wikiway, though... Then again, petty vandalism on the main page could detract newbies (still, being able to edit the first page you see is an encouragement). 19:28, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Templating it and then protecting it (but not protecting the templates) seems to have halted significant vandalism at Creatures Wiki. -- 21:52, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Protection of the main page of new Wikicities is one of the most annoying mistakes that keeps happening over and over again despite there being no need for it and no history of vandalism in the vast majority of cases. The Central Wikicity should be setting an example by not protecting this, despite some vandalism. The vandalism is not yet major, and is reverted quickly enough. The template solution is ok once we get to the stage where the vandalism is so bad that we'd prefer new users' first experience of Wikicities is an uneditable page rather than a damaged one, but I don't think we're at that stage yet. Protecting this would just give out all the wrong signals about how wikis should work. People requesting new wikis should be aware of the dangers of vandalism, not shielded from it by protecting this page. Angela (talk) 23:54, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Best place on the net to send folks for an intro to all that is Wiki?
Should it not be "http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiki"? Regardless how much that one page may come to breaking with its True Wiki Nature as a result of such an onerous burden being place upon it, should it not be The Spot for such? -:)Ozzyslovechild 04:39, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * I generally send people to Wiki. -- JamesTeterenko 05:17, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * So do I. The Wikipedia articles tells people what a wiki actually is, rather than just what the word means. However, I'd prefer to keep internal links on the main page, which is why I linked to wiki, not wiki. I have just added a link to Wikipedia from that though. Angela (talk) 13:54, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Searching box
it is confusing to users in scum.wikicities to use the search function - because above the search box it is written "Wikicities" - and the users think that will search wikicities, not scum.wikicities. it is very misleading to the unknowing user, and it should be changed to read WikiSCUM.

i realize the wikicities "button" links to wikicities, but that is much less important to the scum.wikicities users than seeing where to do a scum.wikicities seach - in fact, it is very confusing users. Kingturtle 19:29, 30 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * You can replace the Google logo by uploading a file called "Search_logo.png". Angela (talk) 05:38, 10 Jul 2005 (UTC)

Creating a new page.
For some reason, creating a new page here doesn't work the same way it does on wikipedia.

On wikipedia, you can create a new page by "searching" for a page of the name you want, and when it is not found, it gives you the option of creating that page.

Here, it only lets you search, not create a new page. Does anyone know how to create a new page here?

PsiSeveredHead 22:34, 2 Jul 2005 (UTC)


 * Try editing your user page and place there a link to your new page. Or use Sandbox. Other way is to point your browser to http://wikicities.com/wiki/Sample_article_title . --DCLXVI 22:44, 2 Jul 2005 (UTC)


 * It isn't a default in MediaWiki, but you can change this to allow creation from the search box. See Help:Searching for instructions. Angela (talk) 05:38, 10 Jul 2005 (UTC)

Need your help for a workers' portal
Hi,

I wish to set up a workers' rights and struggles devoted portal in italian. My idea is to make it in a similar way to Wikicities. Is it the Wikimedia customization running Wikicities available for download? What are the mods applied to MediaWiki software? Using the Wikicities' Wikimedia customization is there a way to have an automated creation of wiki field, related subdomain and mailing list?

Thanks. magius


 * Already discussed on Skype. For anyone else interested in doing this, the relevant links are mediawiki.org to download the software, wikidev.net for instructions on making a wiki farm, and wikimedia.org/conf for Wikimedia's config files which should be similar to the Wikicities ones. Angela (talk) 00:03, 26 Jul 2005 (UTC)

Elevator pitch
Many people arrive at this page and have no idea what it is all about. I suggest that the first line somebody reads here is a short description of what it is all about. Like "It's geocities for wikis" or something along this lines. Comments? Gödel 13:41, 22 Jul 2005 (UTC)


 * It is so not geocities. If there's a good intro, that could be included, but we're about communities, not random personal websites. Angela (talk) 00:17, 26 Jul 2005 (UTC)

Language and CSS
If the user interface langauge is set to a language other than English, the monobook stylesheet returns a blank, which causes BabelBox to not display properly.&mdash;Danielwang 00:50, 4 Aug 2005 (UTC)

Electoral Reform -Logo
Please could someone help me make the image on this page the logo for the Electoral Reform City? I don't know how to create a PNG image.

Thanks,

John Cross 14:38, 18 Sep 2005 (UTC)

...Pirateopedia?
o.0 The logo has changed on every page...
 * I noticed that too. If you clear your cache (or switch browsers to one that doesn't have the real wiki cached), your whole wiki is replaced by this Pirateopedia.--Lowland Boxman 16:38, 19 Sep 2005 (EDT)
 * Sorry - this was a caching problem that occured when three new servers were installed this week. Please see Community portal for details. Angela (talk) 00:27, 25 Sep 2005 (UTC)

Wikicities first birthday this month
http://www.wikicities.com/index.php?title=Wikicities&oldid=1

Many happy returns! Robin Patterson 02:42, 5 Oct 2005 (UTC)


 * Singing, "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.  Happy birthday, dear Wikiciiities.  Happy birthday to you."  (I sing so much better in the wiki.)  --RJ 02:50, 18 Oct 2005 (UTC)


 * I didn't notice this comment until now. I'd say the birthday is really November 2 since that's when the first real wiki (answers) was made. The old search wiki that existed before that was just the remnants of an older project. Feel free to celebrate the bithday at First birthday. :) Angela (talk) 23:33, 2 Nov 2005 (UTC)


 * What an appropriate day to re-evaluate the Wikicities life cycle! Happy Birthday!  --CocoaZen 03:16, 3 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Language Name
Tagalog or Filipino? If it should say Tagalog as a recent change made it, then it should be re-alphabetized. --RJ 02:50, 18 Oct 2005 (UTC)

The Save button is repeating Preview again
I've spent 20 minutes improving Angela's lifecycle and can't get it to save. Robin Patterson 10:00, 3 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Now it has worked. Maybe my threat to expose it here chased the bug away. Robin Patterson 10:02, 3 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Oh good, I thought I was going crazy! Getting this same issue on w:c:wot. nae'blis (talk) 20:44, 3 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Yes, this was quite common for me on Wikipedia. Be VERY careful though! When this happens while section-editing it will replace the whole page with the section you were editing when it finaly does save! Because of this disastrous side-effect whenever it doesn't save the first time I re-open the section I was editing and paste it in. It seems to happen after using the preview button a large number of times, but it isn't MediaWiki 1.4-specific; it still happens on Wikipedia (which last I heard is running 1.6 alpha) so unfortunately a solution seems unlikely. Garrett 23:05, 3 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Active wikicities / Implied inactive wikicities
Hi, I've just noticed on the front page that only the top 20 wikicities are described as active. This seems a very small proportion (around 3%?). Didn't it use to be the top 70 or something? 70 is around ten percent, (a more reasonable proportion?) and wouldn't seem to take up too much space, and surely helps give better impression of more active wikis and helps more wikis by directing more visitors / potential visitors to them? The wiki I've been working on most days over nearly all of the last year may not have conquered the world, but I certainly wouldn't consider it inactive, even by (even slight) implication. Philralph 11:05, 4 Nov 2005 (UTC)


 * Do we really want to imply that 97% of wikicities are in some way inactive or not active enough? The listing of the top 20 doesn't cover any society type / slightly more serious type (not sure best way of saying this) categories and so may contribute to the whole of wikicities just attracting mainly sci fi, computing and gaming type people - so is it as balanced as it could be? Isn't there a way of being a bit more generous here? and at relatively little cost? e.g. as well as the top 20 - title most active wikis, include also the next 50 most active wikis? (surely wouldn't take up too much space, either here or on a fairly up-front other page). (Thought I saw somewhere something more about new wikis but can't refind it) As well as helping new wikis wouldn't it be good if there was a more obvious way of helping those at risk as first enthusiasm of founder wanes - using gardening analogy - not just helping newly germinated seedlings, but also caring for those 'growing on' on some sort of 'nursery' page? Going back to the orginal point - is it encouraging enough (bio)diversity if some sort of law of the jungle just celebrates the top 3 (Massive oaks/redwoods/whatever) and doesn't care enough for the other 97 (trees in the forest)? Philralph 16:19, 4 Nov 2005 (UTC)

I'm drafting some ideas for a page to explore / do some of the stuff I'm hinting at here. Anyone interested in collaborating, if any of this intelligible enough yet, that'd be great. Cause this page getting long, more via my user talk page Philralph 11:27, 5 Nov 2005 (UTC) which now also links to actual Proposal for a Civil Society Quarter page

Main page should give more prominence to the directions for starting a wikicity or miniwiki
Then maybe we would have fewer creations that needed template:placement - Robin Patterson 00:10, 9 Nov 2005 (UTC)

How to edit the navigation
I want to edit the navigation at the left side in N. How to do that? (I have sysop rights.) -- Your friendly sysop Lord of Destiny. Contact me: talk and webpage. 16:10, 20 Nov 2005 (UTC)
 * Hi. Could you clarify which part of the navigation you'd like to edit? :)
 * It seems you already figured out how to change links around and replace the Wikicities image, so there's probably not much else you can do to change it other than playing around with MediaWiki:Monobook.css (without developer help, at least).
 * Your interwiki doesn't seem to be working either -- weird. 21:10, 20 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Language pages?
Hi,

I was wondering what it takes to get the extra language domains enabled for a given Wikicity? Couldn't/Shouldn't this be enabled by default? I was trying to start one (English) for the phpBB Wikicity, but using the language codes in links on its main page didn't work (I copied the same code as used in another Wikicity whose language codes did work). Thanks in advance... 59.40.223.15 04:05, 11 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Images from Commons?
Is there a way to be able to use images from wikimedia commons? Thered be so many cool things you could do if you could use those Bond 01:44, 16 Dec 2005 (UTC)
 * No automatic way (yet). See Help talk:Images. Robin Patterson

Wrong URL
The URL you entered points to a Wikicity that does not exist! Please correct or delete! -


 * It should have been http://pomorze.wikicities.com. Angela (talk) 01:24, 7 Jan 2006 (UTC)

create new article link
On Wikipedia and the star wars wikicity and most other wikis, when you type in the name of the page that doesnt exist yet it takes you to a link "You can create an article with this title" where you can easily start a new page. Could someone please add this feature to the Lord of the Rings wiki. I would like to start some new articles and its frustrating having to type the article name in manually into the adress bar or needing an existing redlink to do it. I think that this explains how to do it on meta, but you need sysop rights, and I think the founder of the lotr wiki is not there anymore - they have only 2 contributions - Gimli 14:21, 15 Jan 2006 (UTC)


 * Fixed. This feature can be added by editing MediaWiki:Nogomatch, but you're right that it requires an admin. Angela (talk) 03:51, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

How Do You Put Up Logos?
Hello, I am KFan II, and I am an admin on Nuipedia and Wikitroid, and I have a logo for both. How do you put a logo onto a wiki so it appears in the top-left corner, like with the Wookieepedia? KFan II 18:27, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Just upload an image called Wiki.png on each of those wikis. See Help:Improving your Wikicity. Angela (talk) 03:48, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I uploaded a new logo to Nuipedia, but its too big. Is there anyway you can make an image smaller on Abode Photoshop? KFan II 16:56, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I don't know anything about photoshop. Is there a help file with it that tells you how to do this?

Hi,i am having trouble putting up my logo. i uploaded my logo to Wiki.png and it isnt working please help me i need steps to do it      11:01pm 18, Feburary 2006 Metlover21(UTC) P.S it keeps telling me that my file is corrupt when im doing everything right:O


 * Try saving it again if it is corrupted. Was it originally saved as a png file? Angela (talk) 09:08, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

No it wasnt but now i know how to save it thanks Metlover21 23:36, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

HELP ME!!!
I've been looking around how to do stuff but i can't find any reasonable answers. If somebody can be helpful please try to answer my questions
 * 1) I Need help putting up my logo for my Wikicity
 * 2) Somebody tell me how can i expand my wikicity and have more articles
 * 3) How can adjust my logo to the right size and what program do i use to make it
 * 4) And finally for the first question how do i upload a Logo to Wiki.png

I am already a member so you can probabbly write your message on my profile Thank You Metlover21 8:24pm, Saturday, February 18, 2006


 * Which wiki are you trying to upload a logo to? The inlivingcolor that you started already has a logo.
 * Have you read promotion? This might give you some ideas.
 * Any image editing software that can handle png files should work.
 * Just go to Special:Upload on your wiki (not on this one) and upload it.
 * Angela (talk) 09:08, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

I Understand what i have to do now and thank you for the advice, But that logo is temporary so im planning on taking it out. I Would like my New logo to appear on the top right corner Ok :D Metlover21 11:14am February 20, 2006


 * If you upload a file called wiki.png on the right wiki, it will appear in the top left corner automatically. Is this what you meant or did you actually want it to appear on the right? Angela (talk) 04:49, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

New Search, New Problems
Hi. I now no longer see an option to add a "Create Article with this search string" option when a search is unsuccessful on the Yu-Gi-Ph Wikicity. I've tried adding the $1 as a Search strong encapsulated in a link, but that's just coming up as regular text.

Has the search string been changed, or is the option fundamentally unavailable now? This feature is very crucial to the operation of the Wiki, in how items can be constructed from a search query.--TwoTailedFox 18:52, 19 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Okay, there's now a new message: MediaWiki:Wikiasearchnoresultsarticle (you'll need to create it if you want to change it). This is the "no results" text when the user searches for something that could be a valid article.  The default is  You searched for: $1.\n\n:Sorry, there were no results for your search on this Wikicity. , but you could change it to something else. Zwitter


 * Thanks very much!--TwoTailedFox 12:56, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

Fresh Issue
Hiya, Me again... using the Infobox, is there a way to have the 'page already exists' message to include an automatic redirect to the article that was searched? Or at least provide a link to the article?--TwoTailedFox 23:07, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

What is in the name?
Why is it called Wikicities, is it named after [www.geocities.com Geocites] or some other similarly named webpage host?144.139.87.61 Febuary 2006


 * Essentially - it would more correctly be "Wikicommunities", but that was too long. :-) -- 19:04, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Happy Birthday?
Isn't celebrating Wookiepedia's birthday stealing the spotlight from the RC wiki? --LordTBT 17:48, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes. I think it is.  Mindspillage's editing comment indicates so too.  Wookiepedia already had it's month in the Featured Wikicity slot.  We haven't had birthday sections like this before on the Central Wikicity.  It might be more appropriate to have it in the news section.  I guess for the one day I'm willing to leave it -- other opinions?
 * LordTBT - On a related topic, thanks for the other feature clean-ups you've been doing!
 * --CocoaZen 23:30, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Editing Errors?
Isn't the blatant grammar error in the featured RC wiki a shame for the start page? I tried to edit the source file (Featured Wikicity/RC/Blurb) but the startpage still shows the faulty version. It is currently have about 150 articles, and is still growing. Ouch! Could someone please fix this? It's a shame for WikiCities. Gwyndon 14:39, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Sometimes pages don't update when you update templates transcluded in them, and you still see the cached copy. To update it, you can either make an edit to the page (which forces it to update), or you can purge the cache by loading the page with "&action=purge" at the end of the URL. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 15:42, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Ads by Google
How do you get the adds on the side using MediaWiki? 86.41.156.164 19:54, 23 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I think you just have to edit the default (probably monobook) skin files in your skin folder.... assuming you have that level of access of course. Splarka 03:17, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I have that level of access. What do I need to change? Where should I put the code for the adds in the file? Thanks, 83.71.82.52 04:38, 24 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Try viewing the source of this page. Or you can ask User_talk:Angela. Splarka 08:17, 24 March 2006 (UTC)


 * The best source of information about running your own MediaWiki installation is Wikimedia Meta. A search there gave me this page.  Or, do a Google search with suitable search terms.  this search looks promising.  If that one doesn't give you what you want, a few changes of search terms should do it.  Or, ask the MediaWiki developers.  The contact info is included with the FAQs on meta -- sannse (talk) 09:19, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

The page link worked great. Thank you very much! 83.71.82.52 09:34, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

New name
Oh wow, new name. How long will Wikicities redirect to Wikia, in terms of individual Cities? Also, is there slang for singular projects now? Kias? ;-P --  user:zanimum


 * The redirection will be permanent, to make sure there are no dead links. And single projects are Wikia!  It's like "bonsai", the singular and the plural are the same (although kias is cute :) -- sannse (talk) 08:34, 29 March 2006 (UTC)


 * (It's also highly copyrighted...) Okay, that's cool about the permanent redirect, at most I was expecting a year for individual pages. --  Zanimum 17:04, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Adding code snippets to a Wikia page?
Is it possible to add one of the dozens of code snippets to a Wikia page? I am thinking of things like Flickr 'badges' or javascript snippets that allow polls or websearch or the like? Even advertising networks like Google's AdSense use this method - it is becoming very widespread across the internet. I would like to be able to use these applications in my wiki.


 * That sort of thing is definitely something we'd like to include on Wikia. If you have any specific requests for your wiki, then let us know and we will look into getting them set up.  -- sannse (talk) 12:06, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Can you stop evchk in Wikia?
Someone established as a tool to disseminate untrue information about someone. I think Wikia cannot allow any wikia is established for attacking other users. Please remove evchk as soon as possible. --Martinoei 10:28, 17 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Here are some references of how Martin Oei behaves in English Wikipedia:


 * In Wikipedia:Votes_for_deletion/Martin_Oei, Martin Oei claims himself as important as Albert Cheng. However Mozzerati asked Huaiwei for details and discovered that no involvement in the incident was mentioned in Chinese Wikipedia. Then Mozzerati was accused of racial discrimation as he supported deleting the page about Martin Oei in English Wikipedia.


 * After the English page was deleted, Martin Oei hated all English users and forbidded them from intervening the editorial policy of Chinese Wikipedia in Chinese Wikipedia talk page.


 * The Chinese Wikipedia page of Martin Oei is kept, just because the page is written by him and a sysop (who is his good friend) together, not only him. The contents of recent page are contributed by these two people only, since all contents from other users were deleted.


 * Xiaojeng gave a neutral point about deletion of negative contents in Village pump, whereas most of those contents are just search results from Google. However, accused of "misleading" by Martin Oei again.


 * Martin Oei always claim that all information sources from Google are defamatory, and only his mouth can tell the truth. Obviously it is against the rule of Wikipedia that holds all-round comments from different sides of people. Martin Oei tries to hurt anyone who holds negative comments on him, by disclosuring their IP, real names and working places together with defamatory descriptions in his two weblogs (in Chinese) http://www.martinoeihome.net/blog http://www.martinoeihome.net/angryyouth (please don't access through Wikia, IP will be logged and abuse accusation will be sent according to domain register information), or by legal threats. Not to mention him anywhere can protect ourself only, but we try to help other people not to be hurted, e.g. Prof. Raymond Wong Yuk Man whose official website, donation and net citizens, are taken over by him suddenly in the end of March without any notice. Can you kindly tell us that how can we do? --15:01, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Many Questions...
I have a few questions:


 * Is it possible to change the name of your wikia?
 * How do you remove the contents box from the Main Page?


 * Yes, it's possible to change the name (the project namespace and the title), it's more difficult to change the actual URL though (the whatever.wikia.com bit). The name change has to be done by the technical staff, it's not something you can do yourself.


 * You should be able to just edit the main page to make it as you like. If you are having problems with that, let me know which Wikia you are working on and what you want to do, and I'll come and help. -- sannse (talk) 06:55, 19 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Okay... Well then... Uhhh... Where do I request a name change then?


 * Either using the contact form at Special:Contact, or here, on on the community portal, or on a staff talk page (there is a list of staff at Wikia, Inc. -- Probably the contact form is the best of those options -- sannse (talk) 10:20, 21 April 2006 (UTC)


 * To remove the contents box from the main page, put "_NOTOC_" somewhere on the page. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 14:36, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

How do I get to my wiki?
How do I know what the URL is? I know the little one word name is "whine." TimC 02:06, 21 April 2006 (UTC)


 * If it's accepted it will be at http://whine.wikia.com There is rather a backlog of requests at the moment though, because there have been problems with creating new wikis since the upgrade. There is a new system almost ready that will allow more of us to create wikis.  That should help clear the problem and make creation much faster.  You should get a mail about whether your suggestion has been accepted as soon as possible.  Then the url will be active.  Sorry about this -- sannse (talk) 10:27, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

Vandals
Recently a string of sick vandals have been trashing my Wiki. I've cleaned up from their last attack, but I need to know how I can stop them from attacking again.

egao.wikia.com
The discussion have been moved to http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Babel Talk:Zh-hant/首頁. The whole discussion would be in Traditional Chinese.--Hant 16:02, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

top 20
Just noticed the psychology wikia, which has ~4700 pages. should this be listed in the top 20 by article count, or isnt this considered part of that because its in the society gardens? Gimli 06:09, 2 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I think it's just rather out of date - a lot of growth in some Wika and not in others. I've got a couple of more up-to-date lists, but I'll try and get a definitive one and update this today. -- sannse (talk) 08:12, 2 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Maybe it should be listed as those with more than say 500 articles? rather than a "top list" which is harder to keep up to date Gimli 08:38, 2 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Good point - although we do have limited space and the number of Wikia with over x articles is just going to keep growing... maybe it needs a set time to renew it - say on the first of the month.  I didn't manage to get the stats yesterday, I'll try and hassle Jason for them today ;) -- sannse (talk) 07:34, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

I've updated this. There are about 60 with over 500 articles (English language only) so if we switched to that format it would have to be a higher number. For now, I'll try and check this about once a month and see if it needs any changes. Hopefully Jason will be able to change the way the stats are displayed to make this easier to do. -- sannse (talk) 20:12, 4 May 2006 (UTC)


 * thanks for updating it. Maybe the 60 list could go on its own page? List of wikias by number of articles? - not exact numbers, but "over 500", "over 1000" etc Gimli 16:01, 8 May 2006 (UTC)