User:The thing/Community portal

Welcome Wikicitizens! Please use this Wikicities community portal to ask for help, or to make cross-project announcements. Older discussion is in the archive.

New servers
As many of you noticed earlier, uncyclopedia.org (hosted on the same servers as all Wikicities sites) was mentioned on Slashdot this morning. The traffic caused by this link brought the servers to a halt. I got 3 new servers online to handle the heavy traffic, but there were some problems (including logo mix-ups, where many sites ended up displaying the "pirateopedia" logo instead of their correct logo) with the configuration when I first got them online (and for a few hours after). Everything should be working correctly now, though the site is running on the slow side.

Thank you all for your patience during this time. Jason 00:11, 20 Sep 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the hard work, Jason. I saw the Slashdot story and figured that was the cause. I noticed I was displaying Memory Alpha's background texture and favicon for a time.


 * Anyhow, there seems to be a weird problem when editing pages... I constantly get the "this is just a preview, the page has not been changed" message. I can hit "Submit" as many times as I want, and it keeps sending me to that page, without actually updating the page.


 * The rare time the change takes, it often doesn't actually kick in (even on Recent Changes) for several minutes. I created a new template and then started altering some pages to use it, but Recent Changes is showing that many of the pages got changed before the templates were created. Which is just weird.


 * Don't know what the problem could be, but thought I'd let you know. IanWatson 12:00, 20 Sep 2005 (EDT)


 * I'll go along with what Ian said. I'm going to put a guess that some of the pages were corrupted? when the crash happened, because on one particular page, no matter what I do to the page, the change never occurs on the actual page.  It does appear to have worked on the edit and preview page, but when I save the page it doesn't finish the work, even though it might have registered as actually having been changed on the date.  It's strange.  --diaskeaus 20:45, 20 Sep 2005 (PDT)


 * The Computing Knowledgebase Wikicity keep's displaying the wrong favicon, too, even after a re-upload. It reads 'MA' in the Firefox tab (Whereas IE shows nothing). Looks like a very weird problem. --TwoTailedFox 10:25, 23 Sep 2005 (UTC)
 * Update: Clearing the Browser Cache appears to work. --TwoTailedFox 10:27, 23 Sep 2005 (UTC)
 * Could the whole Pirateopedia logo have come from Talk Like a Pirate Day? Someone reminded me of that afterward. -- Riffsyphon1024 00:38, 25 Sep 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, in part. Uncyclopedia used that logo because of "Talk Like a Pirate Day".  Then, when it got too many hits because of the SlashDot artcle, there was a problem that caused it to show up on other wikis too.  --CocoaZen 00:43, 25 Sep 2005 (UTC)

MediaWiki 1.5
When will Wikicities move to 1.5? Please don't answer "when it's released", I'd prefer a date, even if approximate. - Sikon 07:30, 25 Sep 2005 (UTC)


 * We had been waiting for 1.5 to become stable, since there have been a lot of bugs with it. However, now Wikipedia is running on 1.6 Alpha, it seems there is little interest in putting out a stable 1.5 release, so we're going to install this regardless of whether it moves out of beta. Jason still needs to make shared messages work in 1.5, but once that's complete, we will be upgrading. This is expected to happen next week. Angela (talk) 18:00, 28 Sep 2005 (UTC)
 * According to the SourceForge page, 1.5 became stable on October 5. - Sikon [ Talk ] 12:46, 6 Oct 2005 (UTC)
 * Did this happen? From what I can tell, it looks like the Unofficial Konfabulator Wiki is still running 1.4... --Slthytove 20:37, 18 Oct 2005 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately not. I'll leave Jason to predict when it will happen. Angela (talk) 11:23, 6 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Icon Not Uploading Correctly
I made a new logo/icon for my wiki, I save it as Wiki.png and I upload it. It asks if I want to save or re-upload, I click on save and the logo does not change.--Drizzt 19:43, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)


 * This has probably fixed itself for you already, but what you'll need to do is click on the filename link on the image page (or if you're seeing the actual icon inline then right-click and choose View Image or similar) and then hit Ctrl+F5 (or equivalent). Nothing's wrong, and visitors will see the new icon, it's just that your browser is still storing the old one. This happens with any other same-filename image, you need to hard-refresh it to see the update. Anyway, hope that helps. :) Garrett 14:55, 5 Oct 2005 (UTC)


 * Refreshing, as Garrett suggests, may help, but there is a problem with some systems and the way the logo and favicon work. Clearing the cache may also fix the problem.  So, you might want to report a problem to User:Jasonr or post about it on Talk:Technical support.  --CocoaZen 04:00, 6 Oct 2005 (UTC)

Potentially Inappropriate Ads

 * moved to Talk:Advertising

Wikicurrency

 * moved to Proposed wikis/Wikicurrency

Navigation Link...Somewhat Working?
Alrighty, as you can see on the OberinWiki main page, it clearly says "Current Events" on the navigation bar. Now, click random age (or move to another page) and it switches to "RTQ Reports". How can I get this to stop (I want RTQ Reports to be vieweable on the main page, as well as the others).--Drizzt 23:15, 7 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Monterrey wikicity
First of all, thanks for [http://monterrey.wikicities.com/wiki/Portada Wiki Monterrey. Second of all, just wanted to tell everyone in charge (Angela and Jason, sorry my e-mail isn't working) that I'll be EXTREMELY busy for the next days and I won't have much time to work on the wiki. I know it takes time for a busy to get in shape so please don't label it inactive or something. Oh, and something else, could someone change the interface language to Spanish, I forgot to ask that on the request. Thanks to all of you. I love Wikicities.--Tico 04:47, 25 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Wikilink
Hello, I'm new in wikicities but not in wikipedia. I would like to know how can I make a link between communities in wikicities and link between wikicities and wikipedia. Thank you for your help. Roscoe x 18:02, 2 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * Hello, Roscoe x. From a wikicity to the English WP, just prefix "wikipedia:", eg 2005. Between wikicities, use the Interwiki link shown for each wikicity on its Wikicity Central page, eg genealogy: or cities: or the slightly more complex newer ones such as what you can see at Visual Basic. Now for the official answer see Help:Interwiki link. Robin Patterson 09:51, 5 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Link Color in Monobook.css
Hello, I have a custom skin at OberinWiki and I would like to know how to change the link color and link mouse-over color. Any help would be great! Thanks--Drizzt 05:00, 4 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Blogging here at Wikicities??
I'm not sure whether you want to encourage personal blogging here at the main Wikicities domain, but if not, how about we start one especially for personal blogging? You can see a proof-of-concept at User:Brettz9/blog or go directly to http://brettz9.blogspot.com to see the possible advantage of blogging via wiki.

Notice the use of calendars, templates, and categories as well as transclusion in a templatable (blogspot.com) site, which unlike Wikicities at the moment at least offers users the ability to share any ad revenues if they are signed up with AdSense, and which can accept iframes to transclude not only one's Wikicities blog, but also, if desired, a Wikicities "related changes" page which effectively shows all recent edits to the subentries of the blog. Non-wiki blogs from what I have seen do not have the ability to show recent edits, even to old blog entries, much less to show them in the same window as the entries, so this provides a unique mechanism (albeit not RSS, though Feedster could conceivably be made to do this--e.g, create XML for a search of Wikicities, the user name, and perhaps "blog" or whatever one has in the URL?) for showing updates to one's blog.)...Thoughts?? Brettz9 18:07, 8 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure how the ad revenue issue would work, but it's an interesting idea. As for the iframes it's probably possible to use an XML feed of at least Special:Recentchanges to strip off the unnecessary menus etc. so that it will load quicker.
 * Well, if you transclude it into blogspot.com, they have an arrangement with Google to share the profits of the ads with you. However, it would be cool if Wikicities could itself make such an arrangement (since it has some agreement apparently already--see below for more on this topic). As far as the XML, yeah, some blogging sites probably do allow you to include RSS feeds within (though not necessarily also allowing iframes for the blog too). Again, that would be very cool to see XML feeds allowable in wiki pages. It'd be nice to see Firefox and Mediawiki merge to see more innovation on the technical side (and wiki linking/note-taking on the client side). Brettz9 15:23, 11 Dec 2005 (UTC)
 * I also wonder if this could maybe be an evolution of the inidividual wikis' mailing lists. Right now they're underused because they're essentially an email discussion group, but people feel a lot more easygoing about stumbling through a quick blog post, it's as informal as a forum. Transclusion could play a big part here; for example I could write a personal blog entry about highly anticipated Xbox 360 games and tag it with a handful of categories; due to several cities' "home" blogs sharing those same categories my post would automatically appear in, say, the Gameinfo and Halo blogs. However entries posted by those wikis' administrators directly to their "home" blogs about, pffft, the completion of the 50th game guide and the first screenshots of Halo 3 would take precedence over my probably only vaguely related personal mumblings.
 * For those who want the blog to appear within their email it would be possible, if they had Thunderbird, to subscribe to the RSS feed just as an email. But this would require the ever-so-essential feature that has, in my humble opinion, been lacking at Mediawiki pages--RSS for page histories (and watchlists). As far as transclusion, I think I discovered earlier that one can transclude with the Template code at Wikicities not only templates but also individual pages (but it only works for those in the specific subdomain--e.g., I can't transclude a "world citizen" wiki pages here at the main Wikicities). It would be smoother (as you suggest for XML feeds) to have any wiki page or section be transcludable in this fashion, I think. Brettz9 15:23, 11 Dec 2005 (UTC)
 * Hm. The more I think about this, the more I like it... if the mechanics of it can work. Hopefully not too much PHP-level customisation will be necessary. Garrett 03:01, 9 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Sharing (and in the process hopefully enlarging) the Pie
Just would like to expand on the idea for ad revenue sharing here at Wikicities mentioned above. This could be done by sharing the revenue with administrators and/or contributors. Of course, it would be more difficult to determine an equation to share it equitably with contributors, but as they are the bread-and-butter of wikis (in many ways they can be more important than administrators even), encouraging their contributions in some manner would I think be worthwhile--not only to the contributors themselves, but also potentially to the number of and quality of the contributors and contributions for Wikicities. I think this could be done by adding a rating mechanism to contributors and/or individual edits. The number of edits would be simpler, and perhaps could factor in in some manner, but it would not be adequate or just as a sole means of sharing any ad revenues. Or, in a less egalitarian, but also simpler manner, the administrator could be required to restribute a percentage of the ad revenues with contributors of his/her choice (this could be replaced or assisted by a community voting poll which is easy enough to do just by using the wiki pages for collecting user votes as some Wikimedia pages already do).

In this same vein, I think it would be ideal to at least provide "donate" links (for those who accepted to have them in their preferences) on their individual user/talk page, and even potentially as links on the recent changes, page histories, watchlists, etc., so that people who wanted to encourage the efforts of fellow Wikicitizens (or Wikipedians, etc.), could conveniently do so. Granted, most people thus far at Wiki sites are thankfully the kind to happily to provide the information for its own sake and/or the sake of their fellow readers, but, for most people (especially wikiholics), a little monetary encouragement if not compensation could make it easier for their family relationships to have something monetary to show for their time! These donate links could easily be done by giving an option in the user preferences to make a Paypal link, for instance, using their email address for the determination of the address. Brettz9 15:56, 11 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Campaigns at Wikicities to promote a cause
I've started a category here linking to those pages dealing with the addition of templates to one's user page to demonstrate support for a particular campaign. Since Wikicities does not insist on NPOV, it seems to me that such an idea (as with the blogging idea above) could be in conformity with the aims of Wikicities of building real communities here. Best wishes... Brettz9 16:10, 11 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia request
My apologies for posting this here, but as I am in China, I am not able to post to Wikipedia here (and Wikipedia is now not accepting proxy edits). Could someone please pass this on to the powers-that-be to express the voice of the voiceless here to find a solution for us in the most populous country on earth? With a little introduction people really dig the idea. Simple access to information is a real need of the mass of human beings toward advancing their own social, spiritual, and technical advancement. Incidentally, does the "distributed" model of wiki mentioned as being raised by Ward Cunningham have the potential to solve this problem of access being closed due to (excessive?) filtering?`


 * What do you mean when you say Wikipedia isn't accepting proxy edits? Are you using TOR or something else? On which language version? Can you read but not edit, or neither? If you can read the site, have you seen Wikipedia:Advice to Tor users in China? Angela 20:44, 11 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * I think I researched this before, but I couldn't get the program I downloaded (for the Mac) to work (I don't think there were instructions for any configuration file that I could find). The file you referred me to (thank you sincerely, by the way, for trying to help) is not exactly the most user-friendly explanation, not platform-specific, step-by-step, etc. I am new to proxies (I don't think it is common knowledge to everyone, anyhow, though I appreciate that at least something is out there to help people out here.)

Cross-City Watchlist?
For those of us who are active in multiple cities, which I'm guessing is most of us since the userlist is uniform site-wide, what would it take to create a Watchlist that would bring up our watched pages throughout the site instead of having to go through one at a time? Or is this already possible and I'm just missing it? Chadlupkes 00:59, 23 Dec 2005 (UTC)


 * Whilst we're still on MediaWiki 1.4, the only way to do this is with third-party tools, like bloglines, where you can add the newpages or recentchanges feeds for any wiki you're interested in. Angela (talk) 02:38, 23 Dec 2005 (UTC)

In-line linking to Wikipedia?
I would like to propose a mark-up mechanism to bring in Wikipedia content in-line. I noticed that quoting Wikipedia content is a real need in the community. Users seem to require reliable facts to back up a discussion or an expressed opinion. However, there are currently only two ways of bringing the mighty Wikipedia content into your articles, and both are unsatisfactory. You can copy verbatim, but it will be quickly outdated. And you can link, but by that you send your reader packing, possibly never to return. Here is an example from the Music Wikicity: the general idea is to discuss and review music, so the city is set up to contain articles on albums, songs and artists etc. The point is the expression of opinion, but there is also a need to bring in some background info. All of this is available on Wikipedia, it's accurate and often complete, so writing a backgrounder on the Beatles for Wikicities is at best unnecessary. We could make this, and any other, Wikicity a good deal more powerful if we could tap into existing resources, if we could show fact and opinion on the same page, i.e. if we could include the Wikipedia articles in-line. Thoughts? Lorezsky (talk) 19:35, 30 Dec 2005 (UTC)

Good progress evident on Alexa stats
See http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=www.wikicities.com for a ranking and usage graph. I hope Angela and co can now pay the rent. Robin Patterson 01:01, 9 Jan 2006 (UTC)

Are interwiki links working?
I have been trying to create interwiki links from the opensolaris wikicity to the central wikicity. Even the example given in Help:Interwiki link ( Free content ) does not seem to be working. I'm probably doing something wrong, but can't figure what. --Venky 17:29, 12 Jan 2006 (UTC)


 * "Free content" wasn't a great example it seems, that page doesn't exist on central. I'm not sure about other links, but if you can add here exactly what you tried (or link to a version on your city that shows) I'll have a look -- sannse (talk) 12:01, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

DynamicPageList
Are the DynamicPageList enabled on wikicities? I would like to use them on the New Zealand Wiki . Brian New Zealand 05:21, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Customizing sidebar: Mouse-over text
I found out how to customize the sidebar and add new items to it by using the instructions at. The built-in menu items on the sidebar - such as 'Community portal' - display a text when you hover the mouse over it. Is it possible to obtain the same behaviour for a new item? HR_Olesen 22:38, 25 January 2006 (UTC)hro

Restricting use of Images to context
To illustrate an article on the Sustainable Communtiy Action wiki, I've asked a source for permission to use images - a photo of an event organiser, and event logo. After a phone call when I did my best to explain copyleft type implications, I've had an email to say I can use the images, and full permission is given "for them to be copied and used elsewhere in context of Downshifting and Sustainable Living." (The article is about National Downshifting Week). Does this restriction to a particular context mean there is no way I can use them? Or is there some appropriate copyright tag, e.g. the Template:CopyrightedFreeUseProvidedThat ? Philralph 11:20, 1 February 2006 (UTC)


 * This condition really puts it in the "non-free" category. Which can't be used.  But you may be able to use it as fair use.  One of the conditions that usually applies to fair use images is that they are used specifically in context, which would apply well to this image.  Tagging it fair use, with an explanation in text to say that you have permission for down-stream in-context use, may cover things well -- sannse (talk) 13:07, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Hi, Sannse, Thanks for this Philralph 10:39, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Adding new Classes to tables
I have looked though the help, however I cannot seem to find out how to define a new class for a table. e.g. (| class="NewClass". Can anyone shed light on this? Dcorrin 22:55, 8 February 2006 (UTC)


 * There is an example at Tables. Basically, you have the right code for adding the class, you just need to define it in your wikicity's CSS.  You'll find that at MediaWiki:Monobook.css on your city -- sannse (talk) 12:17, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

Shared Templates
Shared templates don't appear to be working on the Mythology Wiki. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug? --Morningstar2651 19:21, 14 February 2006 (UTC)


 * This does seem to be a bug or a configuration problem. I've asked Jason about it and will get back to you -- sannse (talk) 12:35, 15 February 2006 (UTC)


 * This should be working now, thanks to Jason. Shout if it goes wrong again -- sannse (talk) 10:23, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

Deletion policy
Is there a policy for deleting Wikis at wikicities? I've stumbled upon several wikis that have never been really active so you better delete them before Wikicities gets crowded of empty wikis.

http://hypertext.wikicities.com


 * Inactive wikicities are sometimes closed or merged. Or they might be adopted by some kind soul.  There is more on this at Closed Wikicities -- sannse (talk) 11:53, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

New Wikicity Help
I've just created a new Wikicity, but no one besides me seems to be able to edit it. I don't know what's wrong, but I need to fix it.--Lord Zack 20:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Hi Lord Zack, I need some more information. Is this a Wikicity that Angela set up for you?  Or do you mean your own wiki outside of Wikicities?  Could you give me the title of the city and the URL?  Thanks -- sannse (talk) 21:00, 16 February 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm guessing you mean the Xanth wiki. I can edit it without problems. What errors are people getting when they say they can't edit there? Can they edit other wikis ok? Angela (talk) 11:39, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Favicon?
Can we replace the central 'city favicon with one more inline with the new logo? I've made some possible examples (to the right, actual size and 4x zoom). Splarka 08:34, 18 February 2006 (UTC)


 * I like the first one. Can you save it as an .ico file? Angela (talk) 10:54, 18 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Apparently so. I uploaded it as favicon.ico to test and it seems to work fine (revert if you didn't want to engage it or if you dislike it ^_^). Also: you might have to clear your cache to get it to show, as it is cached as a redirect (to /images/6/64/Favicon.ico). Splarka 11:30, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Edit Categories?
Yesterday I started the wochenendwiki that should provide tips and ideas how to spend one's weekend. Unfortunatelly I experience a problem with categories: I create new categories and put articles in them, but the links to them are red. When clicking one of the links, the editbox is shown, but the text I wanted for the category allready is in the box. An example is the following side about a castle: I would be happy for any help --Silberchen 17:52, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
 * It looks like all these links are blue. Have you tried refreshing the page where they look red? Adding articles to a category does not turn the category blue. However, putting any text in the box, or adding a higher-up category to the category page, as you did there, will turn it blue. Mindspillage 20:07, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Now the links are blue - but on other pages they are not. The target pages existed, the categories had test and they were in higher-up categories, but nontheless the links are red. Even when I load the page with another browser. But after a while it seems as if the links turn blue, and the page, not the edit-box is displayd. So I think it's just a short-time-problem, one I can live with. --Silberchen 08:57, 24 February 2006 (UTC)