BattleTechWiki:Masthead

Post in the section Admin Help Requests to get proper attention to the issue/problem. Please be specific and sign your request (by adding ~~~~ at the end).

Current Sarna.net Wiki Administrators

• NicJansma (Talk to me)
• Revanche (Talk at me)
• Xoid (Talk to me) (non-active)
• Scaletail (Talk to me)
• Frabby (Talk to me)
• Ebakunin (Talk to me)
• Mbear (Talk to me)

Auto-updated list found here

About Spam reports

Please report Spammers here only if they have not been dealt with after a day, i.e. no sooner than after 24 hours.

Admin Help Requests (Outstanding)

Make your request here (and sign with 4 tildes (~~~~))

Hiding user creations and deletions on the Recent changes page

Is it possible to hide user creations, deletions and mergers on the Special:RecentChanges page? It is annoying to see the log flooded by those messages, just now there is one real edit in the last 50 changes, the rest are all related to user management. --Neufeld 02:44, 16 July 2012 (PDT)

Neufeld, in the RecentChanges page there's a drop down list with various Namespaces in it. By default it shows everything. To just see real entries (updated/modified pages) select the (Main) namespace from the drop down list and hit the Go button. That should give you what you need.--Mbear^(talk) 07:39, 16 July 2012 (PDT)

Potatoe

We've got a little bit of a problem that I think has come across from the Mechwarrior Online forums. A new user has logged in, created a BattleMech article for some sort of custom mod or joke image of a mech named the Potatoe, and uploaded it with an image into the BattleMech category here. Another new user account was created and flagged it up for deletion, with a comment indicating that it was something they felt belonged in a user's sandbox or the like. A third new user account has just been created, which has been used to rewrite the second users comment, add a comment, and then add a third comment with an attempt at spoofing the user ID. I don't know what the sarna policy is on this, or if there is one yet for Mechwarrior Online and the like, but I've rolled back the edits on the comment page because it seems at the least disrespectful to another editor to overwrite their talk comments while retaining their tag - not to mention childish. BrokenMnemonic 09:12, 22 June 2012 (PDT)

I saw the Potatoe just before I had to pack up and leave over the weekend (currently sitting in a hotel room with internet access), otherwise I would have dealt with it already. In short, fanon (even jokes) doesn't belong on Sarna anymore and is in clear violation of at least one policy. I won't do anything about the comments and user registrations you mention, though I have to say I don't seen why you rolled them back. Disruptive editing in the main section (articles) is the one and only criterium for me, and I don't see that here. But what's done is done. Anyways, I'm on the case now. Frabby 14:37, 23 June 2012 (PDT)

I rolled them back because my understanding was that editors here should treat each other with respect, and deliberately attempting to spoof another user in talk pages or rewriting a user's comment to change what they've said - putting false words in their mouth - seemed completely contrary to that idea. If what I did was inappropriate, then I won't do it again. BrokenMnemonic 15:42, 23 June 2012 (PDT)

Thanks for the clarification. If what you rolled back amounted to personal attacks and/or producing questionable content under another editor's name then rolling it back was definitely called for. Frabby 23:45, 23 June 2012 (PDT)

That's basically what the original edits amounted to - one edit changed a user's posted comment to something diametrically opposed to what they'd said, the second edit posted under the vandal's own ID mocked the original editor, and the third edit spoofed a third users' ID to post a fictitious comment agreeing with the opinions expressed in the falsified first edit and the vandal's second edit. I hope this was just a one off, and not something we'll see a lot more of as the Mechwarrior Online fandom expands. BrokenMnemonic 02:12, 24 June 2012 (PDT)

Sharpelan1

Hy guys, i notice in the last weeks some spambot attacks and so on, please delete this new spam User:Sharpelan1, thanks.--Doneve 17:00, 25 June 2012 (PDT)

Sftntlgch

New spambot attack User:Sftntlgch, please delete the spam.--Doneve 14:59, 29 June 2012 (PDT)

Edit Counter Stuck

Looking at the User Score page, the edit counts seem to be stuck - and the entry for each user doesn't seem to record the number individaul of pages edited, either, although the text string indicates it should be. BrokenMnemonic 00:34, 13 June 2012 (PDT)

That's actually not an error. The User Score page is now built weekly instead of daily for performance reasons. The Wanted pages page is the same thing.--Mbear^(talk) 03:52, 13 June 2012 (PDT)

Ah, that explains it, thanks. Although I notice it gives an overall edit count still, but doesn't tell you how many individual pages have been edited, although it still reads as if it should? BrokenMnemonic 09:12, 22 June 2012 (PDT)

Something goofy going on with the CSS

When a user is logged out and looks at any article, there is a lot of empty space that is not there when a user is logged in. The problem lies in the div ".mw-content-ltr".--Seth 07:45, 9 June 2012 (PDT)

Sarna has become very slow

Sarna seems to have grown very slow, with loading and editing pages taking tens of seconds. It is not my connection, since I have no problem with other sites. Could you please looking into the issue, sinced it makes it a pain to edit stuff here. --Neufeld 07:16, 19 March 2012 (PDT)

It has, this morning. My last two edits I didn't think made it, as the page timed out (after 3 minutes), but it turns out they did. It might be because of something Nic may be doing at this time, as I noticed it before when I think he was uploading the page ranking extension.

I hope it isn't Semantics-related.--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 08:48, 19 March 2012 (PDT)

Looking at the Firebug NET panel, it looks like it's related to the Google Plus stuff. I've seen weirdness like this before at work where we use Google API hosting. Every so often the Google servers apparently get reset and you have to download all the stuff again.

The strange thing is that it looks like the plus one button image is being downloaded twice. No idea why.--Mbear^(talk) 09:18, 19 March 2012 (PDT)

Okay, so what i understand is its beyond our control and we'll just need to ride out the storm. Amazing: Google has had more of an impact on my daily routine with this than the Sun's CDE did last week.--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 09:46, 19 March 2012 (PDT)

Page Ratings

I was trying out the new page ratings feature, and there was something I notice that could probably be re-worded. When checking the box "I am highly knowledgeable about this topic (optional)", you get four additional boxes to check: "I have a relevant college/university degree", "It is part of my profession", "It is a deep personal passion", and "The source of my knowledge is not listed here". The first two options really don't apply to this BattleTech Wiki like they do to for Wikipedia. I would suggest dropping them or replacing them with something more applicable an editor of this wiki.--Seth 11:00, 16 March 2012 (PDT)

I am with you Seth, i found the new box unconformable for us users, i don't know if we need this first version of the rating box, we are a BattleTech Wiki and not the Wikipedia.--Doneve 11:16, 16 March 2012 (PDT)

Gentlemen, the survey extension has only been successfully installed, not modified for BTW. The admin team has been working on much more appropriate questions, so please don't worry. There are also several behind-the-scenes things we'd like to be able to do, if we can modify it. In other words, it is still very much a work in progress and if we could have kept it out of the public eye until it was ready.

BUT...we do want this feedback, so keep it coming. We'll respond as we can. Thanks, guys. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 12:30, 16 March 2012 (PDT)

The Shadow admin caste give use a little bone , but i must say great response Rev., i LOVE sarna.--Doneve 18:49, 16 March 2012 (PDT)

Catalyst Labs Errata/Ask The Writer/Ask The Lead Developer Questions and Answers

I apologise if this is the wrong place to ask this question, but I couldn't think of another place to ask that made sense - if it is in the wrong place, please feel free to tell me to take it to another page.

One of the things I've found myself doing lately is asking a fair number of questions over on the Catalyst Game Labs forums in the Ask The Writers/Ask The Lead Developers areas where I'm trying to pin down answers or details relevant to work I've been doing here. Sometimes, I'm asking for clarifications, other times, I'm asking about things I believe to be erroneous. I then include the responses to the questions in articles on here if it seems appropriate; to be precise, I normally quote the specific text of the response into the article within the notes section of the article. You can see examples of that in the article on the Magestrix Guard and the article on the SLDF VII Corps.

One of the reasons I've taken to quoting the relevant part of the response from the writer or developer is that I know that the Catalyst Labs forum goes through periodic bouts of archiving, where old posts are removed. I know that Catalyst Labs tracks errata and incorporates errata into new editions, when new editions are released... but I'm a little concerned that while we're all trying hard here to make Sarna a valuable tool for players and others, a lot of information that supplements the published information that comes up in areas like the Ask The Writer/Ask The Lead Developer forums isn't captured here unless the person asking the question is a Sarna editor and purposefully updates the relevant articles here.

So, I was wondering if one of the things we should be trying to do here is keep a track of information released via the Catalyst Labs forums so that it can be incorporated into articles here. A lot of the questions in both forums aren't of any use or relevance to Sarna, but a lot of them are - they clarify or expand on detail in books, sometimes books that are extremely unlikely to see a reprint - and whenever Catalyst do an archive wipe and backup, the information is lost. It may be that the information over there isn't really of interest to editors here currently, but it strikes me that it would be useful to have some sort of page or area here where we can log questions and responses, with links back to the appropriate thread on the CGL site while it exists, so that editors here can see what's around and incorporate it into articles as they feel inclined. There's already a page running here for minor mercenary units that strikes me as serving a similar purpose - it logs mentions of units that may end up being expanded later, citing the original source. It feels like we're potentially losing relevant information, and while I don't know quite how it would be best to get that information across here, I do think we should try. BrokenMnemonic 03:28, 14 February 2012 (PST)

Whenever I refer to something that was put up on the Forum (especially official rulings), I usually copy the relevant parts to the article's talk page for reference. Check Talk:Kaznejoy, for example. It's not a rule or policy, just something I do. But it does make sense imho, given that the forums are prone to being moved and losing data. Frabby 03:59, 14 February 2012 (PST)

I've noticed you doing that, and while it works, it's not really what I was thinking of. I don't have an issue with people copying the relevant details into Talk pages instead of incorporating it into the text - whatever works for you as individual. What I'm concerned about is that I think that as basically the only BattleTech wiki of note out there, we should be trying to capture all of the relevant points raised within the Ask The Writers/Ask The Developers areas on the CGL website and preserving them here. At the moment, we only catch those that either have been raised as a result of someone here asking a question, or someone here reading something that catches their eye - rather than an organised effort to try and consistently capture the responses to questions raised by others and at least record them over here, even if they don't get incorporated into individual articles right away. BrokenMnemonic 06:12, 14 February 2012 (PST)

Ah okay, so you