User:Mendel/Talk Archive 8

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Symbolic Kick - Autocat with Location InfoBox
Here's the symbolic kick/reminder to setup some autocat with the location infobox. (I thought it worth another shot :-)  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 02:53, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

hop on IRC
Could you hop on for a moment plz? kthx Himm Taeguk  (T/C) 10:02, 22 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Resolved. -- ◄mendel► 11:16, 22 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Nothing is resolved... nope I'm just saying hey.[[Image:Wikismiley.svg|19px]][[Image:Spikeicon.png]]  Tenetke Mekko    My Talk 16:11, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

Postcard
Mendel, Mendel, Mendel, postcard, postcard, postcard --   † F1 ©  Talk  17:58, 25 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Userbox! -- ◄mendel► 10:55, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Never give all the Heart
-- ◄mendel► 22:30, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi-res hotlinking
Hey, as usual I am somewhat clueless to the actual appropriate location for my question/suggestion, and so just default to you and get directed from there.

This time: is it feasible to consider modifying the basic skills template (that appears on skill pages, for example uhm, say, Malign Intervention) to include a link to the hi-res version of the skill icon? As an incessantly curious artwhore, I constantly find myself going "... wtf is that" when I see skill icons, and it'd be moderately more convenient to be able to insta-link to the big version instead of having to load up the Hi-Res index, select the profession, and then CTRL+F down to it.

Something like:

Basically, I'm curious if:
 * This modification of a major site feature seems reasonable,
 * The modification would be simple to implement, and
 * Anyone would care enough to require me to go post a notice of proposed development somewhere.

Thanks for any info, -- AudreyChandler 22:28, 29 April 2009 (UTC)
 * A modification of the skill box requires sysop intervention as it places quite a bit of load on the servers, so, yes, people would care. Your suggestion has been discussed before, though I don't recall where; and as far as I know, Dr Ishmael had standardized the names of the High-res icons such that if you know the name of the skill, you can deduce the name of the icon. If that's true, it's not technically hard to implement; I'd prefer a small "enlarge" icon such as the one used on the thumbnail images instead of the more "intrusive" textual link that conveys no information about the skill. The community portal talk would probably the best place to discuss this. -- ◄mendel► 22:41, 29 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Unofficial Official public forums.--Łô√ë [[Image:Gigathrash_sig_G.jpg|Roar.]]îğá†ħŕášħ 22:51, 29 April 2009 (UTC)
 * What would we do when the hi-res icon differs from the in-game icon? --  Shadowcrest  23:17, 29 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, the names are standardized, so it could be inserted as a simple algorithm into the template code. I was unaware of the server-load issues. Alright, so instead of the text, you'd prefer something more like this:


 * {| class="infobox skillbox"

! class="name" | Malign Intervention
 * colspan=2 |
 * colspan=2 |


 * }


 * How's that? (icon may be off-center a little bc, as usual, I'm not a code whiz... to put it mildly) I'll community-talk it once I can clear the basic hurdle of satisfying Mendel. x]


 * (EC) As far as Shadowcrest's concern, that is why I originally intended it to section-link to the primary hi-res article page (eg, High-resolution skill icons/Necromancer) using a # plus the skill name. Those pages have prominent notations above any skill icon that is mismatched. Alternatively, I could draft up a list of mismatched skills which should specifically be excluded &mdash; it's not extensive. And of course PvE skills could be auto-detected by the template code and given a grayed-out magnifier with the mouseover text "No high resolution icon available". -- AudreyChandler 23:22, 29 April 2009 (UTC)
 * If you see me as a "hurdle", please step right past me. I like to think my contributions to the discussion improve what we finally do, and if that's not the case, I'm doing it wrong.
 * Your sample design looks fine now.
 * I don't understand the problem about mismatched skills (probably because I haven't looked), but it is possible to redirect images if the name is not what it should be (see File:MiniPolarBearIcon.png), and it is possible to introduce a parameter in the skill template that specifies the hi-res icon name if it differs (but using a redirect might be simpler?), and it is probably possible to write javascript that displays the icon when you mouse over the magnifier (i.e. without leaving the page) (but I can't do it).
 * Also, I edited your example to take advantage of the image linking that has become possible with the 1.14 update. I suspect is not possible to edit the caption of that, though. Would it make sense to simply link the skill icon to its high-res version? -- ◄mendel► 06:41, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Forgot to mention: we could link the profession icon to the "primary hi-res article page" instead. The possibilities are endless there. -- ◄mendel► 06:46, 30 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Aw, chill~! I meant "hurdle" in a positive sense, like a checkpoint. IE, if you think something is properly designed then it probably means it's ready to be presented to the wiki community at large. I see your opinion as a very good signpost for how much development an idea still needs to be viable (since you're rather clinically direct and objective, generally patient, and not a pretentious caustic jerkwad).


 * The problem with mismatched skills is that the hi-res icons are stolen from the SealedPlay fan kit cards, and some of those cards use the wrong image for the skill (or confuse two images). A good example is at the Ranger page. The skill "Bestial Pounce" (a Prophecies skill) uses the icon for "Savage Pounce" (the Factions duplicate); meanwhile, "Savage Pounce" uses the icon for "Bestial Mauling". And checking "Bestial Mauling", it... has the correct icon. So we end up with 2 instances of Bestial Mauling, 1 (misattributed) instance of Savage Pounce, and... no hi-res to be found for Bestial Pounce. So the SealedPlay stuff has some very severe mixups going on in a few spots, and it's not at all predictable, and sometimes there's no correct icon to even redirect to.


 * I did end up on the same line of thought as you (just link from the icon), but one issue that occurs to me is that sometimes (for various reasons) people want the game-size version of the icon, or to access the File page, and it's difficult to find a link to those otherwise. But, eh, I dunno how significant that concern is. If we do decide to go with the little "magnify me" icon, I'll whip up a cute magnifying glass in Illustrator. ^_^


 * And... whot? Did you say Wikia has image-linking enabled now? :D :D :D That... is swanky. That is... very swanky. -- AudreyChandler 07:03, 30 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh and hmm, linking to the general Hi-Res/Profession page was sort of my original plan, just with a section link (the little # -affix trick) to the icon's image. But when you interpreted it as linking directly to the File page, I twigged to that idea and like it better now. The grounds for it that I'm thinking is solely that it prevents people on slower connections from having to load 92,000 icons just to see the 1 they're looking for. -- AudreyChandler 07:06, 30 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh yeah and the JavaScript mouseover magnifier sounds very cool, but at the same time, I suspect it's probably best to get the basic functional framework in place (as simply as possible) and add cool toys later if they still seem like a viable improvement. But I do really like that idea, if it ever works out in the future (eg, magical code fairies visiting GWiki in the night). -- AudreyChandler 07:11, 30 April 2009 (UTC)