Editing User talk:Nicjansma/Archive2020

== How to ask a technical question to? ==
Hi Nic,

Sorry to bother you with this,  you were the first admin listed!  I was curious whether sarna used the mediawiki semantic extension or not?  It looks like it has a couple of neat features that might be useful.  Sorry if you are the wrong person to ask.

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Semantic_MediaWiki

: Yep!  Currently version 2.5.5: https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Special:Version [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 19:46, 6 January 2021 (EST)

== Planets project ==

Hey Nic,

With you doing a load of stuff on the planet coordinates and nearby systems, I thought it would be a good time to ask since the projects planets stuff has so many iterations and talk pages etc I have no idea what is the current standard.  I have been using [[Help:CreatePlanetArticle]] when I work on pages, from your changes do we have a more up-to date article template that I am not aware of? If so could you point me in the right direction please.

Secondly we have a few systems like [[Ahlat]] that are canon, have coords but no nearby systems table, do we have a way of generating one without me having to sit and do maths?--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 15:02, 5 January 2020 (EST)

: Hey Dmon!  Yeah sorry, [[BattleTechWiki:Project_Planets/Mapping]] is a little hard to follow with so many different discussions around it.  We're starting to make progress again, so you may see some updates.
: I've updated [[Help:CreatePlanetArticle]], so it has the instructions for Nearby Systems.  These will all be auto-generated (including Ahlat), probably within a week, so no need to touch any of them.  Thanks!  [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 08:47, 6 January 2020 (EST)

:Hey Nic, 

:The new tables look incredible! Only one small nitpick though, back in the Battlecorps days the writing guidelines made a point that Sol is never to be called Sol but to be called Terra. I know this is scientifically wrong but it does seem to be the in universe standard.

:Also [[MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries]] added a few new systems that due to the fact the game has the entire sphere mapped we might be able to get some system coords for.--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 15:11, 13 January 2020 (EST)

::It'll be interesting to see the starmap poster that's coming with the Clan Invasion box, and compare it to the coordinates we have now. They put up a low-res image in the latest kickstarter update, but it's useless for cartography. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 02:58, 14 January 2020 (EST)

Hey Nic, I have noticed that a few of the macro generated maps are not working properly. ([[:File:Rastaban 3151.svg]] is a good example, is there any chance you could look into it and see if you can find out what is wrong.--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 07:12, 16 April 2020 (EDT)
:Funny, I can see the map file all right - but there are other files that I cannot see (but other users can), not only map SVGs. We've been discussing this phenomenon on the Sarna forum [https://www.sarna.net/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/188641/an/0/page/0#188641 here].
::Interesting.. I have never used the Sarna forums!--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 11:47, 16 April 2020 (EDT)

== Most visited pages ==
Hey Nic,

This is possibly a bit of an odd one but I have fuzzy memories of the articles on the pages having a visitor count at the bottom and there being a special page that listed the most visited pages on the wiki (It was the Timber Wolf). Am I remembering right that this function existed, and if so does it still exist?--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 17:58, 31 May 2020 (EDT)
:I can confirm such a counter and special page existed, but were lost in a wiki software upgrade a few years back. I dimly recall asking Nic about it back then and him answering that yes, the counters were lost. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 02:08, 1 June 2020 (EDT)
::That is a shame. I am interested in finding out what visitors to the wiki are interested in.--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 05:52, 1 June 2020 (EDT)
::: Yeah it was removed a while ago when MediaWiki removed support for it in the core.  There's an [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:HitCounters#cite_note-1 extension] that ads it back in, I can consider it when I update MediaWiki yet. [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 19:46, 6 January 2021 (EST)
@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 ::That is a shame. I am interested in finding out what visitors to the wiki are interested in.--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 05:52, 1 June 2020 (EDT)
 ::: Yeah it was removed a while ago when MediaWiki removed support for it in the core.  There's an [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:HitCounters#cite_note-1 extension] that ads it back in, I can consider it when I update MediaWiki yet. [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 19:46, 6 January 2021 (EST)
-== SpamBot attacks and the New user message bot ==
-Hey Nic,
-We have recently had huge numbers of spambots making accounts. If you look at the [[Special:ActiveUsers|User List]] the New user message bot currently stands at 787 in the last 30 days. The last time I checked (about 2 weeks ago) it stood at 970 in the last 30 days, and this has been going on for about 3 months now. Luckily as far as I can tell these spambots are not actually doing anything to the wiki beyond creating the accounts themselves BUT as an admin I am finding the New user message bot is "clogging up" the recent changes list and making it difficult for me to actually keep an eye out for other suspicious edits. Is there anything we can do about this?--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 12:14, 15 September 2020 (EDT)
-*EDIT, Just in the time it took me to write this message and then test the user list link worked we had two spambots create accounts making it 789!--[[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 12:15, 15 September 2020 (EDT)
-**I'm honestly not sure if there's anything more we can do.  We have the ReCaptcha enabled for creating new accounts, but they're still getting by it.  I'll investigate to see if there's anything newer. [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 19:46, 6 January 2021 (EST)
-***I've updated the [[BattleTechWiki:SPAM|SPAM]] protections page with recent updates.  Recent updates have slowed the flow of new spam accounts I think. New User bot is at 23 in the last 30 days.  Will keep an eye on it, thanks for bringing to my attention! [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 09:41, 17 March 2021 (EDT)
-****Still at about 29 in the last 30 days, so I think we're better!  Will continue to monitor though. [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 22:33, 2 June 2021 (EDT)
-== Project Lexicon ==
-As I have noted in the To Do List, certain words are misspelled dozens or even hundreds of times on this website. I and several other users have expressed interest in starting a project to remove common spelling mistakes. My goal is to fix any searchable misspelling (ie, it can be found easily with the searchbar function) that occurs at least a half a dozen times on this website. Users will be able to submit common errors to the project, and the members will hunt them down and get rid of them, removing them from the list as they are eliminated. I don't know how to actually start a Project page myself, so I am asking here. --[[User:DragonoftheRust|DragonoftheRust]] ([[User talk:DragonoftheRust|talk]]) 20:57, 28 October 2020 (EDT)
-* Cool idea!  I think just starting with a new page on https://www.sarna.net/wiki/BattleTechWiki:Projects and invite people to join! [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 19:46, 6 January 2021 (EST)