Wikiality talk:Admin Board

This page is meant for Admins to discuss Policy and other issues.

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Individual page skinning
Over at Uncyclopedia I have noticed that they seem to have the ability to add custom logos for individual pages, such as on their Zork page. Through some detective work, I was able to discern that Sparkla was the one that made this possible (I think). What I would really, really, really like to do is to make our Conservapedia look as much as possible like the real conservapedia Main Page, linking internally to our wiki and with appropriate parody of course. Also, it could be nice to make pages like the meBay page or the IMDme page have their own logos. --MC Esteban™ 03:50, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Contest Idea?
In the rush of Pottermania, I thought we might try doing a Fark style Photoshop contest in an effort to help attain his fantasy of attending Hogwarts. I'm going to work on the voting part and "rules", but wanted to see how you all felt about maybe putting some of the winners up on the Main Page next weekend to coincide with the release of the final Harry Potter book. --thisniss 06:29, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
 * New and different types of contests are great...but I have found that photoshopper-type contests might be harder than just text-based ones. Whatever we do, we have to promote the hell out of it, and place some "ringers" to get it going.  The one I tried for 4th of July flopped miserably, but that may have been because I started it late, and didn't promote it beyond the current events page.
 * When you have it figured out, drop a note here and I'll try to whip one up to help get it started (or help keep it going).--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 07:02, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
 * This might not be exactly what you're after, but it's a q&d: Image:JohnHermioneEdwards1.jpg--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 08:02, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
 * hmmmm. Well, I was initially thinking that we would have them all use Stephen.  You know, since one of Stephen's "fantasies" on his Fantasy Board is to "Attend Hogwarts," I thought it would be funny if people could submit a PS of Stephen as anyone connected to "Hogwarts" (thus helping him live out his fantasy).  But yours is really funny, so maybe it would be better to just have a Harry Potter themed PS contest?  I definitely agree that these are somewhat more difficult than the text-based games, but I also think they can be a lot more interesting/fun/exciting/whatever if they take off.
 * The one for the 4th didn't have time to develop, and demanded a lot more since it asked people to use one specific image in a very particular way. That was way advanced, and not very many people could even do it, let alone on short notice.  Plus, there was little "reward" for the effort.  Here, we're tying one huge global pop cultural phenomenon to Harry Potter, which is intrinsically rewarding, and also offering the "MeTube"/TaDa slot - i.e., exposure/bragging rights - to the "winners."  I still think it could fly, but if no one wants to, no big deal. --thisniss 12:09, 16 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Like I said, the p/s contest for the 4th was not promoted sufficiently or early enough, which is often the cause of ideas not taking off (aside from the old stand-by: lack of follow-through). As far as the assertion that "rewards" are needed, you may be miunderestimating people a bit.  Most Real Americans feel any association with Stephen is reward enough. Something to do with the "act of faith" idea, you know.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 15:22, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Yup, of course. :) By "reward" I only meant "maybe we can build excitement by making this more like a 'special event'." I didn't mean to suggest anything negative about anything, I was just adding to what you said about the last PS contest.  I had planned to announce this contest at other places where I know people might be interested (other Heroes, and some potter fans who are good with the shops) and I was just thinking about ways to make the contest more inviting, inspiring, whatever for folks who are not already part of our community. Not trying to misunderestimate or cut-down - in fact the opposite was my intention. I believe even Real Americans like to feel appreciated, which was all I meant by "rewards": that praising people for good work adds enjoyment and the sense that their work is worth doing.  I know the sense that people appreciated and were invested in my work was a huge part of what initially drew me here.


 * "Fun" was really my only intent in this idea (besides thinking it might generate some traffic and maybe get some new people involved, fire up the troops, etc.). But I really, really don't want to stress anyone out -- especially me!! If you think it is too much work or that no one will participate, I totally get that.  If you want to go ahead with it, I'll put up the contest page tomorrow morning. If you want to do it, I would also like to know whether you think it should be open to any Potter-related image, or Stephen only.  While I initially thought all-Stephen (along these lines), your JohnHermioneEdwards cracks me up. I could go either way, as long as we keep the "Stephen's Hogwarts Fantasy" theme as the reason for the season.  But again, I would be just as happy to nix the whole idea if it's too much trouble.  Or we could just save it for the next Harry Potter book release.  lol --thisniss 03:07, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Like I said in my first reply: we have to promote the contests/games carefully (I based that on the 4th of July experience). We don't have a lot of "data" to judge what works and what doesn't, but we do know if we don't promote anything with enough lead time, it won't do as good as when we do promote ahead of time.  And that's regardless of any "reward".--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 03:24, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

New Image Feature
Just an FYI: Looks like the wikis have a new feature for images. You can click on the image and "tag" what's in it. I'm guessing this is supposed to help image searches.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 17:59, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

And, apparently, there is a new search feature too. Perhaps they are related.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 18:14, 12 July 2007 (UTC)


 * The tag images thing seems to be a quick way to make image maps. We also have a new images widgit that is a flickr search that lets us upload images directly from flickr.  That's pretty cool.  I'm not sure if that's the search feature you're talking about, but it's one of the new upgrade features that I was looking forward to the most. --thisniss 06:29, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Poll Director
Admin Pro-Lick will be conducting the Daily Poll, so if you have any suggestions for future questions, be sure to post them on the Daily Poll talk page.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 02:44, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
 * 4 Cheers (margin of error: ±1) for Pollster Pro-Lick!!--thisniss 04:30, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Huzzah for our official Pollsmoker! ;)  --MC Esteban™ 17:17, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Using Forums for Featured Articles Discussions?
I'm wondering what you all feel about the possibility of using our new Forums for discussions related to Featured Articles (maybe moving Sound Advice there, policy/procedure discussions, etc?). Maybe the Forum format would feel more "natural" for those kinds of discussions, especially for newcomers, and that might generate more/better kinds of feedback? If nothing else, it would be easier to track (separate posts/threads versus keeping everything on one page - plus you can link a "recent changes" for forum-related activity only, etc.), and it would mean less archiving for us to do. I know Esteban and Watch have done a ton of work to get people more involved and make this stuff fly, so there may be plans in the works that I don't know about, too. Just musing...--thisniss 20:45, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I think most everyone has contributed to keeping everyone involved. I cannot speak for Esteban, but whatever plans I have been working on are either on this board or in email (for secret admin stuff).
 * As far as the forums go, we'll have to give it a chance like everything else. Keep what works and change (or toss) what doesn't.  We just have to keep each other posted as to any changes.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 23:04, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I can always make blog.wikiality.com and forums.wikiality.com for use of such purposes. --Dauno 03:17, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
 * What is blog.wikiality.com and forums.wikiality.com? I have never heard of these...--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 03:20, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Forums could be kinda cool, but is it really worth the effort to implement? I think it might just add another level of complexity that we might not need at this point. Examples of these things in action would be appreciated. --MC Esteban™ 17:17, 11 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Sorry for not replying earlier on this - I was just brainstorming potential ways to maybe get more people involved in conversations. It seems like most wikis (the  pedia, uncyc, wikia central, etc.) use the same "peer review" structure as our "Sound Advice."  Clearly, there is nothing wrong with the tried-and-true.  I suspect you are right, and it is not worth the effort to implement. The option is there if we ever want to consider it, but for now it is probably more trouble than it is worth, for all the reasons you guys have pointed out. --thisniss 03:07, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

iTruth (lower case page titles)
Will there eventually be a way to get titles (such as for ITunes) to start with a lower case letter? That is, if the wikipedophiliacs are not too busy on skins.--Pro-Lick 01:23, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't think it has anything to do with skins, I fear it has to do with computers being forced to adhere to an old-liberal-wife's belief in starting everything with a capital letter.


 * But I believe there should be (is?) a way to define that (and any) default.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 02:24, 6 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Right now I think we might be stuck with it, because it's a metawiki default. The only Meta project that seems to have written around it yet is wiktionary.  There is a way to fake the top of the page into displaying the lowercase in java-enabled browsers, but I haven't quite got it to work yet.  This template should do it template:lowercase, and should produce the disclaimer as an alternative in non-java browsers.  But it doesn't seem to be working so far (at least, in my first attempt with the iPod article, I'm seeing "IPod" + the disclaimer, not "iPod" as I had hoped).  I don't know if there's a specifically Wikia patch or maybe something I need to do in the css, but I can look into it and try to fix it if yall would like. --thisniss 03:06, 6 July 2007 (UTC)


 * From wiktionary's truthiness page:
 * truthiness - Wiktionary
 * Under a javascript tag:
 * var wgPageName = "truthiness";
 * var wgTitle = "truthiness";
 * Under the body tag:
 * 
 * truthiness
 * --Pro-Lick 04:11, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, so there is a way to change any default--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 04:17, 6 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Yeah, the solution is to be wiktionary. :) If we want case-sensitive page titles, I guess could ask the techs about writing it into the Wikia default.  But given how much angst the recent upgrades have been causing, I wouldn't hold my breath on a global fix.  In the meantime, I'll try again to see if I can make the work-around template actually work. --thisniss 04:50, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Okay, so the necessary changes in the js have been made by Splarka, and will now cause pages to display with iTruthiness. enjoy. --thisniss 06:55, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you Splarka! Good job as always.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 07:54, 8 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, I certainly wouldn't want to speak for Splarka, but you are welcome for the 93% of the work I did (including correctly identifying the problem and the fix up to the .js, which culminated in finding out that only Splarka could fix the problem). And you're right, he does always do a good job. <3 --thisniss 14:35, 8 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Say...do...they're all the same thing, right? Regardless Splarka, good job.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 15:20, 8 July 2007 (UTC)


 * So, every time you say "Splarka" you do Splarka? I wonder if he knows that?  And also, what a great world! ;)

Birthday Cards
Okay, I just realized I screwed up making the "greeting cards" for Stephen's and America's birthdays, etc.

Originally I just copied them over, but the categories are different, so I had to make all new tags to each of the cards and adjusted the pages, etc.

The 4th of July cards are also fixed.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 02:25, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Please Check the Current Events Tube...
...for the latest Independence Day games and junk. Also, please add any other 4th of July things you can think of.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 07:13, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Oh, and there is a new template called "USBday231", which will randomly display Fuzzy's birthday trivia idea.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 07:21, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Two Cents
I just stumbled on this. We might be able to do something like this and use it to encourage people to register. Of course we would have to create avatar-type images, but most everybody has something like that anyway.

Just a thought, comments are welcome.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 17:09, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
 * You mean, make a blog with avatars? Easy as pie.  --Dauno 03:19, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Interesting idea... how would we adapt it to Wikiality? Kinda reminds me of Dibs Registry.  --MC Esteban™ 17:20, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, the idea is to give people yet another way to tell a joke without having to write an entire page. (or at least until they can write an entire page).

We have the polls, where people can pick which of our jokes they like best. We have the captions, which people can post their own joke about a given picture. Then we have the games which people can add to a growing list of jokes (similar to a top ten list).

This would be similar to a game, but more character driven. Kinda like Conan O'Brien's celebrity survey skit. For those who may not be familiar with it, Conan asks a question, then shows the "answers" from three different celebrities. The joke is that even though Conan never asked and no one ever answered you just know that's how the person would have answered it.

So, we would post a "question for the day" (or some such named thing) and give a few examples of how it would work, hoping others would join in.

I can start a mock-up if none of that makes sense.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 18:06, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, I support games like that, and wouldn't mind seeing a mockup as I haven't seen the Conan sketch. Kinda like the Man in the Street they do at the Onion; we could have our own rotating cast of characters?   --MC Esteban™ 03:35, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes! That is actually a much better example...--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 03:39, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Sounds really fun, I'm all for it. I was thinking we could create personas for ourselves as reporters, fictional or real, and have little avatars for the news page.  Maybe we could combine this idea with that or is that too intensive?  --MC Esteban™ 04:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Anonymous Editing
Apparently anonymous editing has been reinstated. Please be careful when blocking/banning IP addresses. Double-check our "policy", make adjustments, changes as needed.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 18:44, 29 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, I noticed this too. Perhaps they put through the long-standing order to reinstate anonymous editing when they did the site upgrade?  I thought we might look at creating a variation on the "welcome" template for anon editors specifically, maybe with text something along the lines of this?  It seems like a good idea to encourage people to make user accounts, especially if they are making multiple edits.  Plus, it might be the case that some of our regular users are editing anonymously without realizing it (not knowing that they're not logged in b/c they weren't prompted), and the "welcome" hello might trigger that realization.  Thoughts?? --thisniss 21:03, 29 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I made this, just in case: Template:Hello2. Adjust as necessary, use if useful? --thisniss 02:25, 30 June 2007 (UTC)
 * We can use your IP user hello for IP users.--WatchTVEatDonutDrinkBeer 02:52, 30 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Can we use regex in templates for a bot to determine if its an ip or username? --Dauno 03:22, 11 July 2007 (UTC)