Talk:Technical Team

Previous problems
A summary of earlier postings on this page:
 * The interwiki map does not seem to work yet. Fixed (was 53)
 * The GFDL text at the bottom of the page seems to have suddenly disapeared (is back now)
 * Section edit removes other sections. MediaWiki bug 1181 and 275. If you have "Show preview on first edit" selected in your preferences, disabling it will help.
 * WikiMac (Italian) has taken over all Wikicity redirections. $wgServer="http://it.mac.wikicities.com"; had been added to localsettings.php. It's commented out now.
 * Database errors (REPLACE INTO `searchindex` (si_page,si_title,si_text) VALUES..) (INSERT INTO `objectcache` (keyname,value,exptime) VALUES... from within function "MediaWikiBagOStuff:_doquery"). Refreshing the page usualy fixes it.
 * dememoryalpha with DB issues again (Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket). Fixed (was 91).
 * abi wiki is offline. Fixed (was 93). The underscore in the URL caused problems when we upgraded the servers. It should work ok from now on though.
 * Cookie problems at MA (There seems to be a problem with your login session). Similar problem when editing a page and couldn't exit the preview screen. Fixed. See 100
 * Statistics: Webalizer and wikistats nto working. These can't be guaranteed to be up at all times.
 * Can't upload files (Could not copy file "/tmp/phpNhyPRZ"). Fixed (see 36). Please report again if this happens on any new wikis.
 * Uncyclopedia User DB seems to have got lost. Temporary during the server move and has now been fixed.
 * Recent Changes Related to... seem to have formatting problems. Fixed (see 137).
 * When's 1.5 coming? Soon!
 * College Basketball Wiki global error. (failed to open stream: Too many open files). Was a temporary problem.
 * reference links acting like external links? Compare and . Fixed. See w:c:academia:Template talk:Ref for explanation.
 * Logo: Can I change the size of a picture? I have a picture I want for my logo that is way to big. Use image software or ask someone to do it for you on IRC.
 * I uploaded a picture at wiki.jpg but the logo didn't change. Fixed - It just needed to be saved as "Wiki.png"
 * Uncyclopedia got DB prob's (A database query syntax error has occurred... SELECT cur_text FROM ``.cur). Temporary problem, now fixed.
 * User blocked by SORBS DNSBL. If the user is not using an open proxy, ask Jason to whitelist it.
 * Bug Tracker link has been hijacked. bugs.wikia.com now links to a site called TV ClubHouse. Fixed. Was a DNS issue (the same server hosts TV ClubHouse).
 * Category problems. Tags not displaying properly. Was because one category tag wasn't closed correctly. Now fixed.

CSS Problems
When viewing my wiki with IE 6.0 the tabs at the top of the page (edit, descussion, info etc) list vertically instead of in a tabbed fashion. Has anyone else come across this? Know a fix?


 * Does this happen on other mediawiki sites, like Wikipedia, or just here? Angela (talk) 02:13, 8 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Dis/Advantages of separate wikis
I've moved this from the technical support page. It's interesting, but I don't think this was the right place for it. Angela (talk) 01:19, 8 Nov 2005 (UTC)

Largely advantages of separate projects
 * No pagename conflicts.

Differences that can be advantages or disadvantages Separate per project are:
 * recent changes
 * status such as sysop
 * watchlist

Largely disadvantages of separate projects
 * Not possible across projects:
 * existence detection of a linked page
 * related changes
 * what links here
 * use of categories
 * message alert
 * user contributions are separate
 * searching ditto

With the new e-mail notification feature, the disadvantages of having separate watchlists, and not getting a "You have new messages" alert when viewing pages on another project, are more or less solved.


 * Ok. See also .--Pat 10:12, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Problem
I'm getting an odd effect. First word of first line of articles seems to be hanging up on top left corner of lead images. I've seen it on Wikipedia and Memory Alpha. --trekphiler, 17/11/05

Wanted Pages
The Wanted Pages special page doesn't seem to work anymore on WikiCities -- I've tried a few others (aside from just ours at Music). Just thought I'd let folks know! - Rev. Syung Myung Me 17:53, 14 Jan 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your message. Angela wrote here about the problem with some of the special pages. --DCLXVI 18:01, 14 Jan 2006 (UTC)


 * I just tried and failed to start an RSS feed from here. My RSS reader said, "No feeds were found. Please verify that the website publishes an RSS feed." My RSS feeds from older wikicities seem to be working. --JWSchmidt 18:44, 14 Jan 2006 (UTC)

Wikistats
Wikistats for the individual Wikicities hasn't been updated since November 14th. Isn't this supposed to be updated weekly? --Imp 13:36, 17 Jan 2006 (UTC)

strange table of contents
At the fiction wikicity, each table of contents has a strange link under it called "[undefined]". --JWSchmidt 23:34, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

also at academia wikicity, althist and protoscience --JWSchmidt 04:32, 18 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Please try the solution for this posted at Talk:MediaWiki_1.5. Zwitter
 * Thanks! --JWSchmidt 22:51, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

Admin right taken away in Calgary wiki?
I seem to have lost my admin rights in the Calgary: wiki. Actually, there appear to be no admins right now. What's up? -- JamesTeterenko 06:00, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
 * There was a problem with user groups during the upgrade. User rights on calgary should be correct now. Zwitter
 * Great, it works now. -- JamesTeterenko 16:48, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Minor "problema"
Hum... my preferences are set to "English - en", and, de facto all the links of the interface are in plain ol' good English, but the 'alt text' (i.e. the text which pop up when I let the mouse over the link) is in Spanish (History -> "Versiones anteriores de esta página [alt-h]".) Is it just my problem, or does some people experience the same bug ?

Note : after a test, it does the same thing for all the languages. Valmoer Van De Guard 16:56, 26 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Everything has got back to normal. Strange. Valmoer Van De Guard 12:21, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Cross-wiki user problems
This is more of a misfeature than a bug, and it comes in 2 parts:


 * Asking any wiki for a list of "Users" will give a complete set of all wiki users on wikicities

and yet


 * Cross-wiki logins are quite awkward and difficult -- having logged in on one doesn't log you in on another, and you can't sign using the tildes on a wiki that's not your own.

Conclusion: Users between wikicities should either be properly unified, or properly separated.

Steve and Jock, petdiabetes.wikicities.com but can't use four tildes here.


 * This isn't true. If you're logged in on one wiki, you'll be logged in on any other wiki you visit (except for Memory Alpha and Uncyclopedia).  I'm not sure what you mean with ~ - it'll work fine, although it might link to a user page that doesn't exist (this will be improved at some point). Zwitter 10:47, 2 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Also, I suggest you use Special:Activeusers (see w:c:petdiabetes:Special:Activeusers) rather than Special:Listusers since that one will show just the people that have edited a specific wiki rather than everyone. Angela (talk) 13:48, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Search problems
I've been getting this error whenever I try to search.

'''Fatal error: Call to undefined function curl_init in /home/wikia/wikia-search/wikia_engine.php on line 882 '''

Also I don't know why but when I hit save page on a page it takes me to the preview page even when I didn't hit preview normally I have to hit save page two or three times to get it to stop taking me to the preview page. Whispering 03:27, 4 April 2006 (UTC)


 * This is fixed now (actually several days ago, but I didn't know it was listed on this page). Zwitter

Wrong timezone PDT
I know you are busy with preparing MediaWiki 1.6. This may be a side-effect: box2 and box5 offer the wrong timezone, PDT instead of UTC. box1 and box6 are alright. It really looks awkward if there are several timezones within one discussion. 08:44, 8 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Another test 01:45, 8 April 2006 (PDT)


 * This should be fixed now. Zwitter

Very similar to the problem above: There are different timestamps on differnt boxes for "recent changes" which differ in 8 hours. box3 gives the correct timestamp. 00:44, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

To see a better "prove of concept", there is a version view from the Memory Alpha Sandbox. 07:45, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Fatal error
There is a fatal error from time to time in memory alpha, seems to be connected with my prefered language. This is hard to reenact, I had to hit "random article" a few times. After reloading such a "fatal" article a couple of times, I sometimes lose (parts of) my stylesheet. Any idea? 07:45, 10 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Are you still seeing thie problem? Zwitter

Désencyclopédie problems
I imagine this relates to the upgrade mentioned above, but we are seeing messages of: Fatal error: Call to undefined method LanguageFr::initEncoding in  /home/wikia/wiki15/includes/Setup.php on line 189

Also I have been spontaneouly logged out and attributed an IP address 84.40.25.240, which is incorrect. desencyclopedie:Special:Recentchanges and friends are also reporting changes out of order (in fact until just a few moments ago I thought it was missing them). For instance, try to step through the last few changes of desencyclopedie:Discussion Utilisateur:carlb. I imagine this relates to timezone problems. --Confusius 02:20, 10 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I am also being logged out continuously, with "my" ISP showing 84.40.25.240. I thought I was being remotely hacked, but apparently (hopefully?) something else is going on. 24.62.206.114 18:35, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
 * We noticed a similar problem yesterday on Wookieepedia: when a registered user was blocked for vandalism, some other users were briefly blocked from editing because the software thought their IP was 84.40.25.240, and identified it as the IP that user had last used. (The blockage only lasted a minute or so, though.) Apparently, that IP is a wikia cache server.  Later, anonymous vandalism turned up with that IP, and the admins blocked it to similar effect, and had to unblock it.  &mdash;Silly Dan (talk) 02:52, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

The 'fatal error' problems I believe are related to (now disabled) APC cache, and should be fixed (same with wrong IP problems, below). Zwitter

similar automatic logging out
This looks similar to above. On Sustainable Community Action get repeatedly logged off after have logged on with effect of appearing to be user 84.40.25.240 or other, on recent changes, plus time stamp several hours behind. Ta Philralph 10:02, 10 April 2006 (UTC) (plus I see this is happening here also, trying again Philralph 10:02, 10 April 2006 (UTC))
 * I have got the same everywhere on Wikia. Szoferka 10:14, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
 * It's the same for me on the Inheritance Wiki - repeatedly getting logged out and showing the IP 84.40.25.240. 71.56.85.16 13:54, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

The IP attribution problem should be fixed now (not being a techy type, I don't know why it happened, just passing on the "fixed" mesage ;) Please let us know if you see it again. Thanks -- sannse (talk) 17:20, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I am still being logged out automatically. My average "log in" time is less than a minute, whether I'm editing in one of the Wikias or here on the main Wikia. 24.62.206.114 18:26, 10 April 2006 (UTC)(Note: I cannot even stay logged in long enough to sign this post! Tried twice!)
 * I'm logged out automatically too, just the 84.40.25.240 has gone. Please do something. 81.190.60.166 18:41, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Definitely widespread. I have the same problem. I suspect it's due to the power outage yesterday. Might've messed up the database.--GH 23:59, 10 April 2006 (UTC) (NOTE: The signature was done manually.)

The wrong timezones, random logouts/previews and edits from 84.40.25.xxx should be fixed now. Please let me know (preferably by email, since I don't check this page regularly) if any of these problems are still occuring. Zwitter

User prefixes in polish
Everywhere in polish, prefix substitute to User has changed from Wikipedysta to Użytkownik and now all user pages and user discusion are linked to non-existenting pages. Redirects and manual corrections are bad solution. Can you changed it back to Wikipedysta and discussion to Dyskusja Wikipedysty? Szoferka 20:12, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I have changed blinks manualy. Please don't introduce what I have asking here.:) Szoferka 22:00, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Fatal Error in Request Page
I got the following error when I requested for a new Wikia:

Fatal error: Call to a member function toString on a non-object in /home/wikia/wiki16svn/includes/UserMailer.php on line 123

--Nino Gonzales 04:00, 12 April 2006 (UTC)


 * This has been fixed. The request form shows up properly again -- sannse (talk) 15:34, 12 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Actually the request form shows up fine. The error happens when you submit a request. I tried it again and still the same error. --Nino Gonzales 07:58, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
 * It's working now. Thanks! --Nino Gonzales 06:54, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Combining Duplicate User IDs
Kim has requested that her IDs be combined. (Kimbayne is the same as KimBayne.) The request was made on my talk page. Is this now possible? --CocoaZen 03:49, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

bugzilla, uncyclopedia interwiki links
I can't access bugzilla: http://bugs.wikia.com gives error 403 and http://bugs.wikia.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=291 is 404. The interwiki link 291 still points to the old location, so is toast too.

I'm also having problems with inter-language links in the various Uncyclopediae. I can use inter-language links to link from en: fr: pl: to any of the other-language wikis (except zh:) but for some reason I can't use them to link from the es: or ru: (or most other) uncyclopedia 'sista' projects. Perhaps the interwiki tables need an update? --carlb 00:15, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Bugzilla is back as http://bugs.wikia.com/show_bug.cgi?id=300 but any associated interwiki link table entries remain outdated and broken (404). Support for interlanguage Uncyclopedia links also remains partial, can get from en: fr: pl: ru: he: to anything except zh: ar: no: but that's it. --carlb 14:15, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

"Not a valid wiki" and "notreal" errors
Our wiki (Ciudad Paragon) is completely new, but these first two days I get a lot of errors; "Not a valid wiki" when trying to save an article, redirections to notreal.wikia.com when trying to simply access the wiki, "There was a problem with sessions" all over...usually I can just resend or update the page and it works after a couple tries. I'm guessing it's normal with new wikis, or the recent problems have something to do. I just wanted to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong. Thanks in advance. --Senda 14:35, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Seems to be fixed some days ago :) --Senda 14:29, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Database dumps are all empty
All the Wikia database dump files at http://www.wikia.com/dbdumps/dbdumps.html show size of 0.0, and get Error 404 if you try to link to them. radius 10:17, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Still broken. None of these have worked since the MediaWiki 1.7α upgrade. :( --carlb 14:10, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

SVG text rendering
SVG server-side rendering is a great feature and thanks for it. However elements seem not to be displayed. Take a look at, it is a graph with x and y axis labels, and watch the raw SVG in your browser (I successfully tried Safari and Mozilla). At the server-side rendering, you won't see text, but with browser-side rendering, you probably will.

I also tested a simple hello world SVG:. I took it from http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Bild:SVG-Hello_World.svg where it successfully is rendered on MediaWiki 1.7alpha (r13760).

Anything we can do to make text elements work? Thanks, --Dealerofsalvation 03:44, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Gradient fill is also broken. See lapin rose, a bit of Wikipédia-inspired silliness about the pink bunny "don't get your fingers caught in the doors" warning stickers on the Paris subway. The windows of the subway train were drawn in désencyclopédie as Inkscape .svg polygons with gradient fill. They look good on the lapin du métro parisien article, where the .svg drawing of the doors/windows is merely a direct copy of the one in lapin rose. They don't look so good on the désencyclopédien original of this drawing. The bunny itself looks fine, but the gradient fills are gone so the train has no windows. --carlb 14:04, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

"Popular pages" counters don't update
In our wiki, Special:Popularpages shows old counters that haven't been updated since August 2005 or so. Is there anything we can do to fix it? Are the page view counters permanently disabled? --Spankart 17:08, 27 April 2006 (UTC)


 * We have the same problem on http://www.evolutionaryspirituality.wikia.com/index.php?title=Special:Popularpages&limit=100&offset=0
 * I'm wanting to use the "popular pages" link on a new "starting points" page, but don't want to refer people to a non-functioning page.
 * Tomatlee 17:31, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Systemwide, or selective, Failures/Glitches??
Several Wikias seem "down" at this point. Is there a system-wide problem? Just a few "not there" are:

http://familyguy.wikia.com http://filmguide.wikia.com http://voterice.wikia.com http://constitution.wikia.com (in all four languages) http://filmstudies.wikia.com

I'm getting this message, and the pages will not load: "Error, Setup.php must be included from the file scope, after DefaultSettings.php"

Also, is there a place here or on the main page where one can post a "Status" box for Wikia, when your server or software acts up and causes technical problems? - Nhprman 19:00, 18 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I also notice that Harry Potter and White Wolf, two very popular Wikia, are also down, with the same error messages. I'm sure others have noticed this. Nhprman 19:07, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Problems seem fixed, but I'm still curious what went wrong. Nhprman 03:18, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Interlangs
This might be the same bug discussed above at : on the Main Page of the English Mathematics wiki, the interlanguage link to the German math wiki, WikiMath, is not recognized as an interlanguage link and instead is being displayed as a broken link in the text of the page, whereas that to the Spanish math wiki, Portada , is being interpreted correctly. Why? - dcljr 04:09, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Interwiki linking problems
I can't figure out why interwiki links sometimes don't work. E.g. the following all work:
 * worldcitizen:WikiNode
 * ecovillage:Courses
 * ecovillage:Gaia Education - Certification
 * ecovillage:Main_Page
 * ecovillage (ecovillage home page)
 * permaculture (permaculture home page)

But the following links to the permaculture don't work. It seems that I can only link to the homepage (using the c: prefix) and I don't know why.
 * permaculture:Permanent_Publications
 * permaculture:Main page

btw, I get the same results when I use exactly the same links (cut and pasted) at the Scratchpad Wki Labs.

Any help appreciated! Thanks --Singkong2005 12:31, 25 May 2006 (UTC) - worked it out - see below. --Singkong2005 23:43, 27 May 2006 (UTC)


 * c:permaculture:Permanent_Publications
 * c:permaculture:Main page ??? --

Yes, it works with the "c:", but not without. Other wikia work without the "c:". The difference seems to be that permaculture is not on the Interwiki map - I don't know why many are not on there. See my comments, Easier way, at Talk:Interwiki map. --Singkong2005 23:43, 27 May 2006 (UTC)