GuildWiki talk:Wikia Migration

/Archive/ - Stuff fixed or no longer needs discussing.

Protection
I'm not protecting atm, we'll see how much it'll be vandalised imo. --- -- (s)talkpage 18:39, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Remove the notice then? I just wanted to be pre-emptive. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 18:39, 31 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm leaving it because: Others might think otherwise. --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG]]-- (s)talkpage 18:41, 31 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Article can be protected independently from the talk page... I see no reason for anyone to edit the article anyways, so might as well go pre-emptive. Unless someone else has a reason not to protect it? --[[image:GEO-logo.png]] Jïörüjï Ðērākō.> .cнаt^  18:45, 31 March 2008 (UTC)


 * There might be other news related to this, released later on. Who knows? --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG]]-- (s)talkpage 18:51, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * In which case autoconfirmeds, and wikia staff members, can add it. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 18:53, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

The notice might invite random vandalism though... -User:PanSola (talk to the ) 18:53, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
 * So either protect it now, or remove the notice. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 18:53, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Gap on the right hand side
Since today I've a gap on the right hand side of the wide of the nav-menu on the left hand side. That annoys me since I've to scroll more down. I like stuff wide without wasting space. Will that be changed? --Birchwooda Treehug 15:11, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * That "gap" is caused by the placement of two other wikia wikis and four ads that you're probably blocking; it looks awful, and I hate it. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 17:41, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Agreed. The ads go on the right with our menu. Or on the bottom. This is insanely disruptive. They also appeared to have added a ton of extra junk on a page about remembering to sign. And as usual, they posted a message at the top of the page and didnt remove it when it was complete.&mdash;♥ Jedi ♥ Rogue ♥ 17:48, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Which is why I'm disliking wikia currently. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 17:52, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * It looks like copying User:AT/monobook.css will make the gap go away; the side-scroll bar is annoying, but tolerable. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 18:10, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * And the side-scroll bar apparently only shows up in IE, so all you FF junkies can be happy. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 18:16, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Just copy+paste mine, it fits better. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 18:19, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, anyone using this may need to tweak the size to fit their resolution. YMMV. -- AT (talk | contribs) 18:24, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I changed it to 85% and its now the perfect width on my 19 inch screen at 1280*1024. I don't suppose theres any chance similar coding alchemy could deal with the new layout of the editing page "This is a talk page. Please remember to sign your posts using four tildes ( ~ )." :@ --Cobalt | Talk  18:44, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I'll look into it. I'm currently trying to remove the crap with the Starting new page. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 18:46, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm on #wikia asking them about it right now RT | Talk  19:01, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * @Cobalt: I had a look to see if I could remove that message, but the div it's contained in doesn't use have any id or class (bad form imo) so it's not easily hideable. But I agree, it's irritating. Try User:Poke or User:Galil, they're probably more experienced at this than me. -- AT (talk | contribs) 19:10, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Found it here. -- AT (talk | contribs) 20:57, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Great
All internal external links have been broken... again. What I mean by that are links to history pages. Like this. Every one of those links made before today no longer works. The same thing happened when we moved to wikia's servers. Is there any way to fix this, without going through every link and manually changing it? --Macros 18:04, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Ads
I don't know where else to put this, but this is ridiculous, the entire lay out of my userpage is fucked up from the new ads on the right. I am DAMN SURE that Wikia said they'd lower the ads to One Per Page, which it clearly is not. I bet there are tons of pages also fucked up from this. Someone with authority go harass them plz =(--D <font color = "#900000">N <font color ="Black">A 21:04, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * This is a seperate issue from the move, go to Wikia Migration.[[Image:Entrea Sumatae.png|Entrea Sumatae]]<font color="#4682b4">Entrea Sumatae  <font color="#4682b4">[Talk]  21:06, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't consider Wikia spotlights as "ads", so I only see one ad per page on Monobook (well it's one ad "unit" often containing 4 sub-ads in it), and one ad per page on Monaco. Zero ads on Quartz (logged-in).  We probably have a problem of definitions here )-:  On the other hand, the problem of the layout of your user page is completely tied to you being counting on everyone visiting your userpage to use the same resolution to get the same pagewidth, so that design in and of itself has issues )-:   -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 21:09, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * True, they technicly only have one Google Multiad, the others are "Wikia Spotlights" so they don't legally count.[[Image:Entrea Sumatae.png|Entrea Sumatae]]<font color="#4682b4">Entrea Sumatae  <font color="#4682b4">[Talk]  21:10, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * DNA, take a look at User:AT/monobook.css, He/She "fixed" it :)--[[Image:AlariSig.jpg]] 21:13, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * If you use an Adblocker, you can get rid of the extra load times, too. AT only has them hidden. --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG]]-- (s)talkpage 21:17, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Block out http://ads.wikia.nocookie.net/ 870 block hits :)--[[Image:AlariSig.jpg]] 21:19, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Can we not discuss methods of "how to let Wikia make less money" on the wiki? -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 21:24, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Nah, that would be repressing us then. Anyway, now that we've moved over there, I've noticed that the load times have tripled, and I spent a good hour or so trying to figure out how to get the damned background back in at the top --Gimmethegepgun 22:12, 2 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Me too, i thought it was my internet at first, but other sites load normal. "Technically" 1 ad or not, it's in a terrible place, it compresses the pages, and i'm aware that my pages be screwed over by this is, largely, my fault, but there's got to be other pages that are now crooked because the main area is now compressed.--<font color ="Black">D <font color = "#900000">N <font color ="Black">A 22:20, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I haven't noticed any lag. I just wish they would move the ads somewhere else, they're annoying as crap on the right. Think of how ticked people got at pan's april fools' joke, it's like that all the time >.> --<font face="vivaldi" size="3" color="Steelblue">Shadowcrest  22:22, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm mostly frustrated by the way half the html on the wiki suddenly stopped working. My character templates look like stupid, and Ruricu and I can't figure out how to fix them. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 22:25, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Don't worry DNA, my page is also screwed up with this newly created right column, even with the ads blocked by ABP. And with the numerous coding issues with the migration, I am one very frustrated user right now.  I don't quite have to time to over-haul my whole damn userpage to fix all the broken code now.  And I'm hoping on Ruricu to fix our Show/Hide issue. -- [[Image:Isk8.png]] <font face="comic sans ms" color="maroon">Sk8  (T / C)  22:27, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Well Shadocrest, it'd be different. The mirror joke would've put the ads on the RIGHT SIDE!!! Mwahahahahahahaha -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 22:30, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

ADS GO ON THE BOTTOM!
I expect a comment from Wikia as to why the ads are no longer on the bottom and left side and are on the right side. This is EXTREMELY disruptive and throws off alot of the pages on a smaller resolution monitor. Many templates overflow into these ads and its horrible. I'm tempted to leave this wiki in favor the shittier but at least more pleasant to look at official one if this isn't rectified. &mdash;130.245.209.133 07:38, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Make a account and "hack it", wikia is a monster that doesn't negotiate.--[[Image:AlariSig.jpg]] 07:41, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Venting thoughts
I like the poll tag that we can do. I do not like:
 * 1) The white sidebar
 * 2) The implications of that (they broke my page - and now I have to fix it)
 * 3) The loss of the favicon (it's in the right place, but all I see is a taunting wikia W)
 * 4) The fact that they created some work finding and restoring the mediawiki defults.
 * 5) The Wikia messages sidebar
 * 6) Jimmy Wales <font color="Blue">RT </B>| <font color="Black">Talk</B>  07:57, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Just customize over the sidebars, my main gripe is the lag, yes there's been more since the url changed! Otherwise I learned a bit about manipulating from this experience.--[[Image:AlariSig.jpg]] 08:01, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I've asked a wikia team member to see if they can change it <font color="Blue">RT  </B>| <font color="Black">Talk</B>  08:22, 3 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Hey guys, I hear you on the ad positions. I mentioned this three weeks ago when I first posted about the migration and no-one voiced that this was an issue. Now that I know it is, I am looking into what we can do to help. Will get back to you asap Angies 15:50, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks <font color="Blue">RT </B>| <font color="Black">Talk</B>  15:53, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

A new thing to worry about
Hey guys, watch this. http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u289/karloth666/rickroll1.gif Neat, huh. Posting an image's URL direct-links the image now; vandals can image-spam without having to go through the trouble of creating an account and uploading images. Also, this probably breaks countless talk pages with links to screenshots and the like on them. Sweet. 08:18, 3 April 2008 (UTC)


 * External image hotlinking is *supposed* to be disabled I think... with photobucket being on a whitelist >_<"  -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 08:26, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, as you can see from this image http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/9832/badgerdj1.jpg taken from User talk:Lann, that's not the case. Hotlinking will be bad for load times, and would be very easy to exploit- post a thousand links to that rickroll gif on one page to see what I mean. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 08:29, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * It's better now. :D [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 08:31, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * No it's not <font color="Blue">RT </B>| <font color="Black">Talk</B>  15:52, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * If there is concensus to do so, we can remove the ability to use any external images. By default, as PanSola said, most external images are blocked; however, a few sites like ImageShack are whitelisted.  You can view the full whitelist here. --KyleH (talk) 17:56, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Because hotlinking removes the need for licensing details, one of the things we take rather seriously here, I would vote to remove the capability altogether. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 18:11, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Remove imo --Macros 18:12, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Remove imo. --<font face="vivaldi" size="3" color="Steelblue">Shadowcrest  18:53, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Username Survey
Hey everyone. I know that some of you are worried about losing your usernames when we merge the user databases (per this discussion). I'm looking in to ways of preventing (or at least minimizing) username conflicts (especially among the most active users here), so I'd appreciate it if you could sign below to indicate whether or not you have already registered a separate account on Wikia in order to ensure that you are able to keep your username.

Sign your name with " "

I already have an account on Wikia that has the same username as my GuildWiki account

 * KyleH (talk)
 * Made it a while back &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 17:57, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG]]-- (s)talkpage
 * [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]]
 * Zulu Inuoe
 * <font face="vivaldi" size="3" color="Steelblue">Shadowcrest
 * Also created an acct a little while back. -- [[Image:Isk8.png]] <font face="comic sans ms" color="maroon">Sk8  (T / C)
 * Just made it now; No one uses my name ^_^ [[Image:Ruricu-sig.png]] ( Talk • Contribs)
 * Yup, sysop on 2 other wikia <font color="Blue">RT </B>| <font color="Black">Talk</B>

I do not have a Wikia account separate from my GuildWiki account

 * I tried registering, but it appears to have been taken by an inactive user. [[Image:Maui_sig.png]]
 * Macros
 * I also tried registering but my name is taken :/ <font color="Blue">Cobalt </B>| <font color="Green">Talk</B>

Comments

 * 3 tildes gives name w/o date, by the way. Less cluttering. --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG]]-- (s)talkpage 18:02, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * "especially among the most active users here" because obviously, they are far more important than everyone else--<font color="Blue">Cobalt </B>| <font color="Green">Talk</B>  18:25, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I didn't mean it to sound that way. I just said it because they're the ones more likely to notice the message. :) --KyleH (talk) 18:26, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

WTF
I just got an edit conflict with myself (checked page history, edits were consecutive), but then the edit had been added anyway when i looked at the page. How can i have an edit conflict with my own edit and why was my edit shown when it specifically said that it wouln't be because of an edit conflict. Has this happened to anyone before the migration or is it a wikia problem?--<font color="Blue">Cobalt </B>| <font color="Green">Talk</B>  18:30, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Did you hit "Save" twice? If not, might be a transaction session issue.  I usually see it when a save is taking too long and I'm trying again, or after a save I hit back immediately to make some tiny changes which conflicts with myself. -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 18:34, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * It's been happening more and more often, because since the Wikia move hitting Save page often takes nearly a minute to submit the changes. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 18:37, 3 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Ah, ok, hammering the save button in frustration when it was taking ages probably wasn't the best of ideas then ;) --<B><font color="Blue">Cobalt </B>| <font color="Green"><B>Talk</B>  18:41, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Major Issue
ALL external links to gw.gamewikis auto-redirects to the main page of this. This breaks tens of thousands of external links within the site alone, without other sites' links to GuildWiki. This problem NEEDS to be fixed in a way that doesn't require manual changing of each individual link. Since you guys can automatically fix all the extra /div tags that were left after the migration, I'm presuming you can also fix this issue, at least on this site, if not the others. Please address this problem as soon as physically possible. Thank you-- (Talk) (Contr.) 18:59, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Can you elaborate on this? http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/GuildWiki_talk:Wikia_Migration, for example, works fine for me. --KyleH (talk) 19:25, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Perhaps it was already fixed? Hmm, I meant to post this yesterday, when they weren't working. In that case, I apologize.--[[Image:Marcopolo47 signature new.jpg]] (Talk) (Contr.) 19:28, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I did post it yesterday. --Macros 19:33, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I saw the post yesterday, but by the time I saw it I think the issue had already been fixed. Let me know (by posting on this page) if you come across any links that don't work properly (or any other technical issues for that matter). --KyleH (talk) 19:51, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Another problem
That I have with this is the god-damn side ads. You guys are actually more than likely LOSING more money by making these ads more... obnoxious, because it makes it even MORE tempting for a user to get fed up with them and use coding to hide them. I for one never used to hide the advertisements when they were placed at the bottom of the screen (a less obtrusive area for them), but thanks to this not-too-well-thought-through idea, I am blocking all of those ads on the side. This, in turn, creates an empty area, essentially a waste of space. It also, as I believe is mentioned somewhere above, breaks multiple pages for users using a lower resolution. Templates will regularly cross into the advertisements, which makes it harder to see both the template and the advertisement. I HIGHLY SUGGEST that you change the advertisement location. These ads are both disruptive and extremely annoying. -- (Talk) (Contr.) 19:12, 3 April 2008 (UTC)


 * And have no purpose --Gimmethegepgun 19:13, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * They're actually much less obtrusive in Monaco, which is good because there seems to be no way to hide them. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 19:15, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, its pretty easy to hide them: User:Warwick/monobook.css. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 19:17, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Hiding them creates empty space and wasted width. And it also makes Wikia lose more money, which is another issue I addressed above.--[[Image:Marcopolo47 signature new.jpg]] (Talk) (Contr.) 19:18, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * The ones on on the right? cos they look really bad, especially the wikia spotlight one :( is there an way to get rid o them? <font color="#FF1493">Cloud <font color="Blue">dyl 19:24, 3 April 2008 (UTC)


 * My .css has some code to span the page over the white space. --- [[Image:VipermagiSig.JPG]]-- (s)talkpage 19:26, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * The problem is that monobook.css is a custom skin, which Wikia didn't design, so naturally their ads would be misplaced on it. They're fine in Monaco, although I wouldn't argue that you should all switch skins, cuz Monaco is a bit annoying. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 19:27, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I have coding for both, and so can use both. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 19:30, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * The problem with your .css, Viper, is that it doesn't really get rid of the extra space, only pushes it over to the side, which makes my page wider than it can show, and that's more of a hindrince to me. Regardless, you shouldn't have to use coding or change your screen just so you don't have extremely vexing advertisements appearing on the right side of the screen.--[[Image:Marcopolo47 signature new.jpg]] (Talk) (Contr.) 19:33, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Hiding them still causes them to load on the page. If they are being paid for each time it loads on a page, hiding makes no difference. But leaving it there and therefore encouraging people to hide it probably violates some terms of use with the google ads. The simple solution is to put these junk on the bottom (I have no issue with this.) Most of us understand that you want to have your ads on a page. But placement is a major issue with us because we are also competing with the official wiki. I like this one better because its more complete and has alot less bureaucracy to wade through, imo. But if the other one is easier to look at, thats going to be the winner. 130.245.23.139 19:33, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * And here we have another advantage of AOL over FF! It doesnt do that for me. ^^. &mdash;[[Image:MaySig.png]] Warw/Wick 19:34, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * No one cares, frankly. [[Image:Felix_Omni_Signature.png]] 19:35, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Mr IP, they get some money for showing them, and more for someone actually clicking on them. With more and more people hiding them, they are losing money. Place them back at the bottom, where they originally were, and all of these problems are fixed.--[[Image:Marcopolo47 signature new.jpg]] (Talk) (Contr.) 19:36, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Monaco skin definitely fixes this right side issue with the ads. I at least recommend that people that find it visually disruptive test out the monaco skins to see the difference.  ABP at least eliminates the lag associated with the advertisements (Loaded a few pages w/o ABP active, MY GOD did it take FOREVER!) -- [[Image:Isk8.png]] <font face="comic sans ms" color="maroon">Sk8  (T / C)  19:38, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Well i certainly never used to hide adds and even looked at some of them for more than 0.25 seconds on the old layout. Now their hidden with the page layout changed so there is no gap, and im considering switching to firefox as my main browser so i can just use adblock. Imo adverts make less money for wikia this way--<B><font color="Blue">Cobalt </B>| <font color="Green"><B>Talk</B>  19:43, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

(resetting indent) Hey all. I just wanted to drop by and reiterate what Angie said above. We hear your dissatisfaction with the ad placement, and we are seeing what we can do to help. I don't have any solid answers on this yet, but I think we can come up with something you'll like. We'll let you know as soon as we have more information. --KyleH (talk) 19:46, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * On the left hand side, under the useful stuff. Put it there. --Macros 19:48, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * OR just back on the bottom where they were before. I think I've said that multiple times now :/ --[[Image:Marcopolo47 signature new.jpg]] (Talk) (Contr.) 19:50, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, but they were on the side when GWiki had only 1 ad. When Gravewit added another, he put it on the bottom. Tbh, less people are going to see it when it's on the bottom, so that's fine with me too. --Macros 19:53, 3 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Ah sorry i didn't see the comment by Angie before, just looking at the bottom section as usual. I suppose atleast we are receiving some feedback from you wiki staff people, which is more than i would have expected :)--<B><font color="Blue">Cobalt </B>| <font color="Green"><B>Talk</B>  19:52, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Better than Gravewit >.>--[[Image:Marcopolo47 signature new.jpg]] (Talk) (Contr.) 19:54, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Ad Solution
I made a page layout that keeps the ads but moves them. It keeps both the wikia spotlights and I know that the google ads come in horizontal and vertical versions so this shouldn't be a big problem. I even added another wikia logo to the footer because it doesn't appear anywhere else clearly. &mdash;<font color=#ff44aa>♥ Jedi ♥ Rogue ♥ 20:17, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * On the bottom, where I suggested it (multiple times), and where it belongs. Although the ads are sideways.--[[Image:Marcopolo47 signature new.jpg]] (Talk) (Contr.) 20:21, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * You think? Oh wow... Lol. I'm not remaking the ads just to have them correctly oriented. You get the idea. &mdash;<font color=#ff44aa>♥ Jedi ♥ Rogue ♥ 20:25, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Call it Equal Opportunities :-)--<B><font color="Blue">Cobalt </B>| <font color="Green"><B>Talk</B>  20:27, 3 April 2008 (UTC)