User talk:Monchoman45/Archive 1

Got questions for me? Feel free to ask!

Bot flag
Hi, I have put you the bot flag so you won't flood recent changes. Please let me notice when you are finished. 02:53, January 26, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks
Hey Thanks Monchoman45 for the info glad to know about it how long do you figure it will be till my blog stuff is visable again on my Blog Page? Niko Banks Talk, 07:50, Janauary 27, 2011, (UTC)

P.S Your avatar is so cool and scarey what is it sappose to me? LOL there I go asking quizzes again.

Signature
The template that I want to put there is my signature. I wanted to be able to add my signature faster. Now, I saw your tutorial and I managed to configure my signature on another wiki but I can not configure time. I put three tildes but it doesn't replace Predated.
 * Odd, ~ has always worked for my signature, there's another way to do it?  Random Time  11:44, January 30, 2011 (UTC)


 * For some reason, my sig enjoys deleting . Occasionally, when you copy it, it'll copy without the parameter. It's really kind of annoying, actually, because there's really no reason for it. I've fixed it for you, and it should work now. However, it's also being put on pages without the  parser, so you'll have to add that to the signature in your preferences (use   as a parameter). Then it should timestamp properly.
 * Randomtime - ~ is your name and timestamp, is a just your name,  is just a timestamp. My sig has custom timestamping built in, so using ~ would cause it to timestamp twice.
 * I know why that is happening. You need to make few modifications to source code:
 * Predated must be replaced with
 * This must go to preferences:
 * "Custom signature" in preferences must be checked
 *   AW10    Talk   Contribs   E-Mail    17:07,1/30/2011


 * That's what it does - the only reason why the predated is there is because some of my signatures don't have timestamps on them.
 * Actually, that's a good point, other people using it won't have signatures without timestamps, so it won't matter.

Messages
The blog pages work now :) But now there is another issue but this time its messages when I narmally get onto a wiki and I get a message from another with I see it on the wiki I'm narmally on but now for some reason when I go on one wiki and there is a message for me from another wiki it dosen't show on the wiki I'm on at the momment for exsample I am on Redwall Wiki and I get a message from a friend on GTA Wiki the message would show on Redwall Wiki but now if I am on Redwall Wiki and there is a message on GTA Wiki it won't show till I go onto GTA Wiki do you think its a glitch or is it something to do with one of my settings on My Preferences page? Niko Banks Talk, 01:15, Febauary 02, 2011, (UTC)

P.S Sorry if I am bothering you with so many issues I am still getting use to the new Wikia Skin.

If it is The preferences thing what do you think I might of changed I don't really know that much and do you think using the Restore all default settings would work or should I change the preferences my self and which section? Niko Banks Talk, 01:32, Febauary 02, 2011, (UTC)

What happens if I use tge Restore all default settings will that fix the problem? Niko Banks Talk, 01:48, Febauary 02, 2011, (UTC)

That is ok.
Thanks for the help and thats ok you helped me alot today thanks buddy I do hope to chat to you soon and do have a nice day :) Niko Banks Talk, 02:00, Febauary 02, 2011, (UTC)

P.S What would happen if I do use the default settings.

P.S.S I'm just trying something so reply to this message I think I have fixed my problem.

Hey Monchoman45 thanks for helping me if you ever want to chat just leave me a message and you are like so awsome thanks for all the help you are such a good friend :) Niko Banks Talk, 04:22, Febauary 02, 2011, (UTC)

I fixed my user page check it out and tell me what you think I hope it makes you laugh or not I'll try again.Niko Banks Talk, 06:36, Febauary 03, 2011, (UTC)

Godisme's Signature
So I finally decided to make a nice looking sig for myself and I have it partially working. I wanted to use your code to include the date and time in a box but it is not working for me. I was wondering if perhaps you could review my code to see where I am going wrong?

God Pray  

I have tested this on another wiki and changed my preferences accordingly to get the time to show. The problem is that the time shows up then but my signature is then just code. I get this, 06:12,2/16/2011. Help would be appreciated. -- 06:21, February 16, 2011 (UTC)

Never mind, I got it work. Question though, do you know how to change the displayed time? Your code displays server time but do you know how to change it to local time?--God Pray   07:16,2/16/2011
 * Local time would make the point of adding a timestamp to your signature slightly redundant, as the timestamp serves to remind others what time you typed the message (not just as a quick reminder to your local time  Random Time  07:19, February 16, 2011 (UTC)
 * Not if it could be made to be relative like the default time stamp of normal signatures. In the wikia default signature, the timestamp is relative to one's preferences. This is what I am asking.--<span style="border: 2px solid indigo; border-top-left-radius:1ex; border-bottom-left-radius:1ex; -moz-border-radius-topleft:1ex; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft:3ex;"><span style="padding-left:2px; color:white; background-color:purple; border-top-left-radius:1ex; border-bottom-left-radius:1ex; -moz-border-radius-topleft:1ex; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft:4ex;">God <span style="border: 2px solid indigo; border-top-right-radius:1ex; border-bottom-right-radius:1ex; -moz-border-radius-topright:1ex; -moz-border-radius-bottomright:3ex;"><span style="padding-right:2px; color:purple; background-color:white; border-top-right-radius:1ex; border-bottom-right-radius:1ex; -moz-border-radius-topright:1ex; -moz-border-radius-bottomright:4ex;">Pray  <span style="border: 1px solid indigo; color:white; -moz-border-radius:1ex; border-radius:1ex; border-top-left-radius:1ex; border-bottom-left-radius:1ex; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft:1ex; -moz-border-radius-topleft:1ex; background-color:purple; color:#FFF"> 07:29,2/16/2011 07:29, February 16, 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't think it is  Random <font color="Orange">Time  07:31, February 16, 2011 (UTC)


 * Signature timestamps are always UTC, unless you use a custom timestamp. Fandyllic, for example, timestamps his signature with PST. You can change the time zone on that sig by going into your preferences and adding  to the   parser, where # is the offset you want. I can't remember if you can just add it in, or if you need to use a pipe before it, but I think you need the pipe. Also, it appears as the code with the   because template sigs aren't substituting correctly for some reason - which reminds me, I emailed Wikia about that so I should check my email.

Forum: Null edit Reply
What do u mean by null edit? :o

~ ANR0328  ~ 03:12, February 25, 2011 (UTC)
 * The slang 'null edit' is defined as editing and saving a page without making a change to it. This forces the page to cache with the intended changes (usually changes made to templates that haven't 'displayed' changes on the pages they are used on). Wikia adds these pages to the job queue and once processed, will display the information desired. Null editing is a way to have your changes show up faster. Rappy 03:25, February 25, 2011 (UTC)


 * @Rappy, Yeah I did that. It didn't work. --Anr0328 03:45, February 25, 2011 (UTC)


 * Okay after doing it a bunch of times it worked. : )  --Anr0328 03:48, February 25, 2011 (UTC)

Parser Question
Hi, I have just a random question. What's the difference between and  ? Sorry if I am just barging in... just wanted to know LOL! I do that sometimes. :|

ANR0328 15:09, February 25, 2011 (UTC)


 * will hide itself if no parameter is specified. You can also make it, which will give   if no parameter is specified.


 * Hey thanks!
 * You know so much about this stuff... I know some html but I'm trying to use wikitext more. : )



Oops
Sorta accidently edited your sig. Have fixed it now. Sorry.


 * No problem, it happens. I save pages by accident all the time.

Wikia Skin Glitches
Hello Monchoman, I have been wondering when will the Wikia Staff fix all the glitches of the Wikia New Skin ﻿alot of people are starting to get fed up with it myself included cause the darn thing logs me out so to say, what I am saying is When will they fix all the fricking Wikia Skin Glitches ? Niko Banks Talk, 06:00, February 28, 2011, (UTC)

P.S Awnser me as soon as possible.

Hey... I was doing a search and saw you were posting about removing the right sidebar (or modifying it).

Side Bar Question
Did you guys ever find out if we are allowed to modify the rightside bar?

Thanks RighteousRage 23:39, March 8, 2011 (UTC)


 * You're allowed to modify it, but you can't remove anything from it, or enable anyone to remove anything from it.

Stuck at writing java
Hello Monchoman, I want to ask you if maybe you can help me to change js code(see forum, Common.js of my wiki). I tried to learn it a little bit but still too hard. :S


 * Whoops, I clearly forgot about that. I've been looking at it, and I don't think it'll be too hard. Just need to get the listener on the right class. Should have it done before the end of the day.


 * Got it. Find the part of code that begins with "// Find the NavHead", and replace it with this:

<pre style="margin-left:24px;"> // Find the NavHead and attach the toggle link (Must be this complicated because Moz's firstChild handling is borked) for(var j=0; j < NavFrame.childNodes.length; j++) { if (hasClass(NavFrame.childNodes[j], "NavHead")) { NavFrame.childNodes[j].setAttribute('href', 'javascript:toggleNavigationBar(' + indexNavigationBar + ');'); }           }
 * That should do it. If you have any problems with that, feel free to ask.


 * I replaced it and reloaded cache, but I don't feel it working(sandbox). Did I make a mistake? Please see (Common.js, view changes).

Site Feedback
Hi Monchoman!

Just wanted to follow up and clarify some bits from the comments you left over here... I think I got everything... yes?
 * the auto suggest on the search bar will suggest pages that have been deleted, due to a caching error. ...a caching problem doesn't seem like something that would take too long to fix.
 * Not true, I've learned! Everything cache-related around here is very complex and hard to adjust.
 * The headline bar for the "leave a message" page flips between being above the edit window and being below it.
 * Do you mean on talk pages? I only see it below the window. Are you still seeing it above sometimes? Any place consistent that you can link me to?
 * And the global variable wgAction doesn't return the correct value on wikis you've founded ...Uberfuzzy wasn't sure what I was talking about.
 * I know Uber's updated you since then on this one. It's been reported to engineering.
 * special pages have talk links
 * Happy to announce this was fixed last week.
 * CreateWiki page can't make answers wikis
 * It's not supposed to be able to. Answer wikis are separate, and their account creation button was disabled for awhile because of some major reevaluation work, but it's back up now.
 * related pages headers are still present on blog pages on community
 * Not finding this. Can you point me to an example?

The staff at Wikia is small compared to the breadth of its wikis, so we prioritize bug fixes based on what affects people the most.

Personally, while I'm a big advocate for improving user interfaces (I was a front-end developer for 7 years), I also believe perfection is overrated. Requiring it of people makes them get stuck, and stops them from moving forward. So the trick is to find the right balance of solving significant problems and making significant progress. You're being a good community advocate when you follow up on the bugs that affect yourself and other users the most. Thanks!

--Dopp http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 00:59, March 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * I definitely agree, perfection is too much to ask, but sometimes bugs remain for long periods of time with no apparent progress made on them. But you're definitely right, a lot has been fixed now. And I was also unaware that caching is so complicated - I assumed it was just dumping a DB into a file or fileset, or a similar process.
 * As for the rest:


 * Yes, the headline bar jumps around on talk pages. However, it only jumps around when you click "leave a message" instead of edit. I'm not sure, but I think that DaNASCAT passed that on to the techies. If not, you should be able to replicate it by going to a bunch of random people's talk pages and clicking leave a message. You're bound to see it on one of them. Oh, and I should probably mention, when I say jump around, what I mean is sometimes it's on top of the edit window, and sometimes it's on the bottom of the edit window - it doesn't actively move itself around the screen while you're on the page.
 * Fuzzy did say that he submitted the variable thing to the tech people. We were both really confused by that one, because apparently the PHP pays a lot of attention to the query, and the variable comes directly from the query - but pages display fine. You could say it's conFUZZling :D
 * Special pages have indeed been fixed.
 * Angela mentioned in a forum that answers wikis are being reviewed because Wikia's not quite sure what to do with them yet, since technically speaking they're still using Monaco; hence creation of answers wikis were removed from Special:CreateWiki. I don't remember if it was her or Sannse, but one of them gave us a temporary workaround for that.
 * Check any of the staff blogs (for example, your latest one) - before the comments and after the blog content you'll see the read more headings.
 * Also, if any of that blog comment came off as obnoxious, sorry - I was cranky that day.
 * Thanks for your help with this, you're shaping up to be a great community team member!
 * Since you replied here, Dopp, I will too...
 * "Do you mean on talk pages? I only see it below the window. Are you still seeing it above sometimes? Any place consistent that you can link me to?"


 * It should only be above. The reasoning for this is that it is confusing between a 'normal' edits' summary box. With it above the edit section, there was no confusion and still allowed you to place a summary for the edit. Not only that, but it's done with javascript rather than adhering it to the skin with correct placement. Those with JS disabled won't see the movement. (Which touches on my point below about consistency)


 * "The auto suggest on the search bar will suggest pages that have been deleted, due to a caching error."


 * It's been reported for months now and still shows pages that have been deleted for about as long. It doesn't sound like a caching error because most caching errors clear themselves up within a few days. But... Chris is aware of the issue and I am hoping they get to the bottom of it.
 * Wikia has pitched a fit since October about a 'consistent look for all users', but has been constantly changing/moving/doing things without announcing them. This is difficult for everyday users to even get used to things so that they become consistent. At first, most users can't tell if it's a bug, an annoying fit of A/B testing, or Wikia's idea to 'spice up the life of an everyday user by giving them something totally different from the day before.' Just like Monchoman stated, this isn't meant to be rude... it's just another users outlook. Rappy 02:53, March 17, 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, guys, this is is helpful info.

I found the bug report saying that the subject/header box should consistently be on top, and will work to push that forward. (btw, moncho, i just checked a bunch of Talk pages and only ever saw it on the bottom -- which is clearly a bad place for a "header" and should be fixed, but "wrong placing" is a slightly different bug report than "inconsistent placing". the next time you run into an instance of it appearing on top, can you send me the link?)'

I'll also bring up the caching and wgAction, but can't make any promises on my ability to give them higher priority -- they seem much deeper in the system.

Now.. about the "read more" links on blog pages... call me "new girl," but why is that a bug?

--Dopp http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 16:54, March 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * I never actually saw the talk page thing, but other people saw it. There's a section about it at the bottom of Forum:MediaWiki upgrade problems and oddities. As for the read more on blogs, a while back Sannse decided to treat blog pages on community as content pages. All content pages have read more headings, thus they were automatically added to blogs. But if you look on other wikis, blog posts don't have read more headings - they weren't designed for blogs. Sannse and Sarah (Manley) were pondering how best to deal with that, and it seems to have fallen off by the wayside.
 * Thanks for the link. From where i'm standing, the related content on blog posts looks like a "bug not worth fixing". Even if it wasn't the intention, it's actually adding a little bit of value (a quick link to keep reading if you're in blog-reading mode), and it's not causing any problems. This is where i think the line around perfectionism is meaningful -- time spent on something like this is a distraction from things that actually matter. I'm still learning the dev philosophies around here, though, so i'm curious: do you disagree? --Dopp http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 17:39, March 17, 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the link. From where i'm standing, the related content on blog posts looks like a "bug not worth fixing". Even if it wasn't the intention, it's actually adding a little bit of value (a quick link to keep reading if you're in blog-reading mode), and it's not causing any problems. This is where i think the line around perfectionism is meaningful -- time spent on something like this is a distraction from things that actually matter. I'm still learning the dev philosophies around here, though, so i'm curious: do you disagree? --Dopp http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 17:39, March 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually, when you put it that way, it makes sense - there are definitely more important things to do. Principally speaking, I agree with you. However, it's also worth noting that there was a disconnect between users and staff on this which is empirical of some of the problems users have with the way things are run: Sannse mentioned that they were going to fix it, so we expected a change, but it never came. Of course, small stuff like that is bound to fall through the cracks, since staff and users do completely different things. But when it's bigger stuff that falls through the cracks, users go insane. Now, when you say dev philosophies, do you mean the Wikia dev philosophy and the user philosophy, or are there multiple Wikia dev philosophies flying around behind the scenes?
 * By dev philosophies, I mean the general culture of how things are prioritized and handled here, acknowledging that it's an ongoing negotiation between the community team, the users, and engineering. Thank you very much for all these insights. I'll do my best to incorporate them in my work moving forward. :) --Dopp http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png (help forum | blog) 18:21, March 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * No problem. feel free to ask users about stuff like this, it's as helpful to us as it is to you. Most of us don't really get what you guys do in your magic tower. Or office, whichever term you prefer (:

(reset indent) Here's the issue with the header bar being at the bottom. Do a 'normal' edit on any page on Wikia. The bottom bar says summary and is treated as the edit summary. Now, go to a user page and click Leave message. That summary bar is now a Subject/header bar and does not act as a summary at all. In fact, when using Leave message, it is impossible to leave a summary as the summary ends up being "→ (header) New section". This is usually not desirable for the average user that wants to drop a quick line on a page but use a quirky summary to alert people in RC about it. It's two totally different edit fields that have two totally different functionalities masquerading as the same edit field. Rappy 21:17, March 17, 2011 (UTC)

Yep. I got that. See above. ("...which is clearly a bad place for a "header" and should be fixed.") Thanks for pointing out that the intended location is at top, tho. That helped me track the bug ticket down this morning. --Dopp http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb32675/wikia/images/e/e9/WikiaStaff.png <small style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; ">(help forum | blog) 22:00, March 17, 2011 (UTC)

Flexible Width Question
Hello, you seem to be an expert on removing width limitations and global .js/.css implementations. I was wondering how you could maximize the use of space (limiting white space) here, in between the rail bar to the right and the questinfo template box. vegeance 17:17, March 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * Add this to your Wikia.css:

<pre style="margin-left:24px"> .WikiaMainContent {width:890px !important;} .Toolbar {width:1210px !important;}
 * That should do it. Let me know if it causes any problems.

"Read more" headings
Hello there. it wanted to remove the "Read more" headings on Combine OverWiki with your code, but that doesn't work. Could you help me find why? Cheers. Klow 20:53, March 20, 2011 (UTC)
 * WFM. You probably didn't clear your cache. Try holding shift when clicking the refresh button or hitting Ctrl-F5. Rappy 21:46, March 20, 2011 (UTC)
 * I did it several times already... :/ Klow 22:47, March 20, 2011 (UTC)
 * The code is indeed working. Try logging out, view a page with them on, then log back in and refresh the page. If that doesn't work, it should clear up by tomorrow. It's a caching issue. If you're using FF, Ctrl-F5 will purge your cache. Some others require shift+clicking the reload/refresh icon. Rappy 22:52, March 20, 2011 (UTC)
 * Is it possible that there's a conflict between Common.css and Wikia.css?... Klow 10:04, March 21, 2011 (UTC)
 * That would only be a problem if you've got Common.css enabled for Oasis, and you'd have to have  in it, so it's probably something else. It might be the server you're accessing from, because I'm also not seeing any read more headings.