GamerWiki:Village Pub (all)

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This is the Village Pub (all) page which lists all topics for easy viewing. Go to the village Pub to view a list of the Village Pub divisions, or click the edit link above the section you'd like to comment in.

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Welcome to GamerWiki's village pub, the King of Red Lions. This set of pages is used to discuss the technical issues, policies, and operations of GamerWiki, and is divided into six village pub sections. It is intended as the centre of the community.

Please use the table below to find the most appropriate section to post in, or post in the miscellaneous section. You can view all village pub sections at once here. The village pub is not a place to make lasting comments as discussions are removed regularly by the administrators to make room for new ones.

Please sign and date your post (by typing ~~~~ or clicking the signature icon in the edit toolbar).

Village Pub sections

S
E
C
T
I
O
N
S

News |
post

To make announcements that do not fit into Announcements or Goings-on

Policy | post

To discuss existing and proposed policies

Technical | post

To discuss technical issues

Proposals | post

To discuss new ideas and proposals that are not policy related

Assistance | post

To post requests for assistance not covered by the Help desk or the Reference desk

Miscellaneous | post

To post messages that do not fit into any other category

I want... Where to go
To browse all village pub topics at once Village Pub (all)
Help using GamerWiki Help desk
Constructive criticisms from others for a specific article Peer review
Help resolving an edit dispute or making a complaint about a user Requests for comment
To comment on a specific article Article's talk page
Specific facts (e.g., Who developed Metal Gear Solid?) Reference desk
To know about citing Wikipedia in a bibliography Citing GamerWiki
To report sites that copy GamerWiki content Mirrors and forks
To make wiki software bug reports and feature requests MediaZilla
To view other Wikimedia projects Wikimedia Meta-wiki


Contents

News

Village Pub – News
The news section of the village Pub is used to make announcements of new templates, wikiprojects, and details of any other news that does not fit into GamerWiki:Announcements or GamerWiki:Goings-on.

Please sign and date your post (by typing ~~~~ or clicking the signature icon in the edit toolbar).

Please add new topics at the bottom of the page.

Village Pub

Main page · News (post) · Policy (post) · Technical (post) · Proposals (post) · Assistance (post) · Miscellaneous (post)

The Village Pub

GamerWiki:Village Pub has been created in order to give GamerWiki an informal place to discuss ideas, proposals, policy, technical matters, and anything else (within the bounds of good taste and that is at least loosely related to gaming) that comes to mind.

Please feel free to post new topics and add replies. The content that is posted here will be cleared to an archive subpage as the main page gets cluttered. This is currently at the discretion of the administrators. -- tyagi 20:38, 11 Aug 2005 (UTC)

Number of games indexed

18th October 2005 ... not every game has a full page as yet, but we've now got basic details for over 300 of them. How long until 400's reached? Xevious 16:37, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Less than a month, it turns out ... Xevious 18:34, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

And we're well over 600 now ... Xevious 18:21, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Double that now. An easy way to see which game pages exist is to look on the Game category page. Xevious 13:55, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Weekly games to be added

We've started to pull together a list each week of the games that have been released in that week. This'll save people having to go and add these games to the list, and should mean that the titles are in the right format most of the time! See GamerWiki:Games to be Added for more details. Xevious 12:20, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

GamerWiki Discussion Group / Mailing List

A discussion group / mailing list has been created using Google Groups. This group is for discussing GamerWiki activities and administration, as well as any questions which may require a more timely response. Simply go to the group's homepage and add your email address to begin receiving posts from the list.

Homepage: http://groups.google.com.au/group/gamerwiki

Group email: gamerwiki@googlegroups.com

Description: The discussion group for GamerWiki.com, the free, online, videogame encyclopedia

The End-of-2005 Contribution Competition

We're launching a competition! See GamerWiki:End-of-2005 Competition.

The competition is now ended. All of two pages were added under the competition rules. Is it worth extended the competition & re-publicising it?--Barthax 20:01, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Probably worth extending the deadline to end Jan 2006 and re-publicising. -- tyagi 20:21, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
Right, I guess the competition's over? Care to discuss a winner? tyagi 08:42, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
For the record, Barthax won by miles. We'll rerun the competition next year ... Xevious 18:22, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Publicity

Just to say hello to any new contributors who may have joined us after our mentions on GameCentral (Teletext in the UK) or in Retro Gamer magazine. Hi! Xevious 10:29, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

1500 games!

Due to Tyagi's bot now allowing the easy addition of new games to the database, GamerWiki now has over 1,500 games catalogued with at least some information (generally, each game has at least the publisher, format, and release date filled in). I'll certainly be raising a glass tonight! Xevious 11:45, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Definitely. The bot can automatically process formatted lists of titles and obtain cover art where available. It still doesn't do multi-format disambiguation correctly, but this isn't a big deal at the moment. This means we can concentrate on getting the real content in to those areas we're passionate about. -- tyagi 12:48, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I have a feeling that by the end of today, 1,500 games is going to be insignificant ... Xevious 13:03, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

We're now over 4000 games, and that's going to further increase once the next stage of my plan is underway. I've got a list of Spectrum games that is about 6000 games long. Unfortunately, GamerWiki can't handle so many titles at once ... so I'm having to split it up. With any luck Tyagi's bot can run through these post haste and we'll have around 10,000 games on the database. And it won't stop there. I've now got my hands on release lists for the Sega consoles, and the GX4000, and the C64G, and the Atari consoles ... well, I'm excited. Xevious 15:27, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

We're definitely getting there now. What's better is that the bot can automatically add cover art where available. I'll get on the Spectrum list tonight as it requires some bot modifications to run correctly. Please do be careful with the page sizes. -- tyagi 02:02, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

GamerWiki on Wikipedia

GamerWiki used to have an entry on Wikipedia, but it was deleted for being non-notable. That used to be true. However, now GamerWiki's been featured in a few print articles and is much more established. It's larger than, say Encyclopedia Gamia, which does have a page. The other thing to note is that often if a videogame page is deemed to be non-notable, it gets given a notice encouraging people to move it to another Wiki, which currently is EG. I've no idea how much traffic to EG this generates, but I do wonder how they've managed to get known as the 'official' videogaming wiki!

I've put in a request for undeletion here and so far have had two responses - both endorsing the deletion but both having blatently not read up on the reasons. Sigh! Any comments gratefully received. Xevious 13:57, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

  • Checking the history on the Wikipedia Gameguide page shows that another site was pulled from the template due to restrictive licencing. As we do not prevent that information from being hosted here, and only request non-copying, I have adjusted the Wikipedia's link to include GamerWiki. --Barthax 14:15, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Further research shows that template to have been abandoned in favour of this one. this links to the List of Wikis, which GamerWiki isn't on, since it doesn't have its own article ... I think I'm going in circles here ... Xevious 14:28, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I'm not sure that the request for undeletion is going to go through. It appears that egamia is only mentioned on Wikipedia because they had issues with hosting: just a encyclopeadic fact, therefore mentionable. GamerWiki is alive & without issue, therefore unmentionable. :( The reasons behind the original deletion were that there were insufficient links and insufficient ranking. The number of links remain small (was 1 at the time of deletion) and the Alexa ranking remains consistent. I think it would be best not to pursue Wikipedia listing until we have more non-wiki links (numerous of the existing ones are my own identity on different wikis! :( ). --Barthax 18:21, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • The deletion has been endorsed. So, more notability is required. -- tyagi 20:51, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
  • And by more notability, it obviously needs to be something published on the Internet. Because I highlighted the fact that it had been covered in two UK magazines, and that's been pretty much completely ignored ... sigh! Xevious 02:14, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

A new development ... the page for Encyclopedia Gamia's now been nominated for deletion ... Xevious 11:03, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

It's a shame that specialist wiki (such as StrategyWiki, GamerWiki and EGamia) have difficulty getting listed in other community wiki such as Wikipedia. However, the rules need to be applied evenly and fairly. I can understand both points of view (that of the specialist wiki and that of the Wikipedia admin) -- tyagi 07:34, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Update: Encyclopedia Gamia has been deleted from Wikipedia. -- tyagi 10:23, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
Seems that the deletion of egamia has caused a change for the template. --Barthax 10:45, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
Having the individual sites listed in the template is a very good idea. That 'Tim' sounds like he knows what he's talking about . -- tyagi 11:47, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Catchup on newly released games

I've finally completed the big catchup list from June to October, so when the bot runs on that we'll be more up-to-date again. Oh, and hello everyone! Xevious 12:43, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

That's good news & welcome back (of a sort). ;) --Barthax 18:50, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm also back. Been away for about 3 weeks. Will run the bot on updates this week. -- tyagi 22:03, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Help sections reworked

Given the new template structure I've reworked the "how to create a game" section. Tyagi - this could also help with the bot reworking? Any comments, please feel free to let me know - or make corrections yourself! Xevious 23:13, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

As you can probably tell, the Tyagibot isn't currently running. I have put time in to re-coding it around the changed Amazon APIs and the changed pywikipediabot framework, but it just hasn't been stable. The Amazon Webservice in particular appears to have been giving some problems with terminated connections or failed downloads. This causes the bot to hang/crash, which is highly frustrating when it's part-way through a several hundred (or thousand) list process. With the manual intervention that is also required for automated updates, this has been highly frustrating. I'll give the Amazon integration one more try to see if it will go or not. If not, we'll have to look at alternative sources for information and media. -- tyagi 10:09, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Policy

Village Pub – Policy discussion
The policy section of the village Pub is used to discuss existing and proposed policies.

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Village Pub

Main page · News (post) · Policy (post) · Technical (post) · Proposals (post) · Assistance (post) · Miscellaneous (post)

Using GamerWiki Content

Please be aware of new policy at GamerWiki:Policy and GamerWiki:Copyrights regarding the use of GamerWiki content. -- tyagi 02:17, 12 Aug 2005 (UTC)

CERO

We had PEGI and ESRB already; CERO is the Japanese equivalent. I've put it into the GameInfoBox, which means that all existing games will show it as a sort of error ... thats progress, I suppose! Xevious 12:28, 30 Aug 2005 (UTC)

BBFC

How about BBFC also (same certification body as movies)? It is legally binding in the UK. --Barthax 10:05, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

BBFC sort of replaces PEGI/ELSPA in situations where such a certificate is given. Certainly, the PEGI rating has always matched the BBFC one. I'd be tempted to not include it. Xevious 10:14, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Notebars for multiformat

I've previously said that we should include a notebar in the multiformat games template pages to point to where these can be edited. However, I've just noticed that if you try and edit one of the pages that these templates feed into (say, Rugby Challenge 2006 (PC)) then it gives you a link to the template anyway. Should we get rid of the notebar, since it is just clutter on the page really? Xevious 18:26, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

No comments, so I've decided it goes. Any existing templates should have to removed as and when they're edited. Xevious 10:14, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Principal designer

I vote we get rid of this from the GameInfobox. Very few games have it, and it's pretty ambiguous. It should be included in the credits anyway. We don't need to go through and remove it from every listing, just remove it from the template - so not much work at all. Who agrees? Xevious 18:32, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree. I don't think the principle designer field really adds much that can't be contained in the game's credits field. -- tyagi 05:44, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

List of XXX games

(Originally seperate discussions on individual's talk pages, so timeline & responses may seem a little odd in places.)

Is it worth having a List of ... page for those platforms with large quantities of games (similar to List of Sony Playstation 2 Games)? Also: is it worthwhile defaulting the template to use a List of ... link in the Games section? --Barthax 22:32, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually, with the system that's in place, there will eventuially be no need for pages such as List of Sony Playstation 2 Games. Instead, all the games will automatically be listed on the PlayStation 2 category - and this is already linked to tat the top of the system page. But for now, since we've not created pages for every game, I've left that List in, and the lists of games on each console page too. Xevious 23:04, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Ah, of course - as the game page gets created so does the link. Things slot into place automagically. :) --Barthax 15:19, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Xevious pointed out that the structure is in place to auto-created the categories *as the game pages themselves are populated*. --Barthax 15:23, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

You got it! The only problem comes with the fact that at the moment we don't want to get rid of the big lists because they help us to know which game pages we need to create. I was going to stick that PS2 list on the Games to be Added page, but you already get a warning about page size if you try and add anything to it! Maybe I'll just stick a link on the page to the List page. Xevious 15:50, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

So for the larger lists (that haven't been added yet) it'd be easier to create a manual List of ... page until it's content gets manageable - until then have these single pages & reference them from the To Add page.

Yes, probably - but I'm not sure which consoles you're referring to - short of PC and maybe PlayStation lists? Oh, by the way, watch the capitalised S in PlayStation. I know I've missed it a few times too. Xevious 16:15, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

GamerWiki obviously has a concentration on modern stuff currently, but there's massive amounts of older stuff (obvious statement!). Making lists of what is known is far easier than filling out those game pages (again obvious - just building up the background). The current To Add page has very few older platforms, yet many platforms on GamerWiki have quite large lists on their platform-specific page already. My thoughts were aimed at giving all platforms a consistent layout for games (pointer to the specific category). Naturally this means moving the current lists on those platforms to somewhere else so that work isn't lost. Most convenient seems a temporary List Of page for each platform where large lists occur (the "Other titles" section on ZX Spectrum for example) and smaller lists on the main To Add page - creating the necessary category where applicable. --Barthax 16:29, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually: quick concern - is removing a page simple? Otherwise I can see precaution is required for such temporary pages. --Barthax 16:30, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Ah, OK, I understand. Yes, when I created the Games to be Added page, I only copied across a few formats, and haven't bothered to finish that with the rest - mainly because up until now there's been little evidence of them being used. I think your idea is a good one, and if you want to set up similar "List of" pages for formats where there are lots of games, please do so. Don't worry about deleting pages at some point in the future - yes, it's easy to do if you're an admin (like I am!), you just need to check all the links to that page before deleting it. I think if you do do this, then it would be very beneficial. Maybe where such a "List of" page is created, the first line of the entry should be a pointer to that page? This would then act as a secondary pointer under the "List of Games" in the blue top bar. Xevious 16:47, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Cool. Unfortunately you lost me on those last two sentences though. :( OK, "List of" page is the temporary pages and the first line of that should be a pointer to the relevant Category or to the To Add page? I'm not sure what you mean at all by the "secondary pointer [...] in the blue top bar" bit though. :(

I lost myself too! At the top of each system page, there's a blue bar which contains stuff like: Systems | Sega | Category:Sega | List of Games That last link goes to the category page, and will eventually be a complete list of the games for the system. But for now, we need a "secondary" 'list of' games. The pointer to that will be a "secondary" pointer. I think that maybe ought to go at the start of the description so that the blue bar is not implied to be the only games for the system. Maybe the pointer could be called "Other games" or something? Tell you what, I'll do it for the PS2 ... Xevious 17:10, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Superb, got it. :) --Barthax 17:17, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm of the opinion that the List of... pages should be automatically generated using categories. That's what categories are for. Maintaining the list is just another job on top of actually adding useful content that we can do without. Can we move this discussion to the Village Pub? Could you kick it off? -- tyagi 19:22, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

(Combination of "private" discussions finished.)

Two platforms now altered to the "new" format: Sony PlayStation 2 and Sega Dreamcast. Both platforms have a normal (auto-generated) categories: Category:Sony PlayStation 2 and Category:Sega Dreamcast. Both platforms have a manually-created awaiting list: List of Sony Playstation 2 Games and List of Sega Dreamcast Games which both state the same philosophy from the latest video game releases and games to be added page. --Barthax 19:40, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

I think the point to make is that the "List of ..." pages are only a temporary measure, to try and cut down on firstly the long lists of games on system pages, and secondly the massive length and unweildiness of the Games to be Added page. As games are added, then the list of games will be on the category page - and the systems page will always point to that category page due to the template used. So, the PS2 page has a link to "List of Games" in the blue bar - this goes to the category page. Currently (and temporarily) it also has a link to "other games available" - this goes to the 'List Of PS2 Games' page. This latter page is a temporary thing and once all the links there are blue it will be removed. Xevious 21:23, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Platforms within platforms

This is particularly a problem with Arcade, but is likely to pose as an issue on other platforms to a small extent too. Under the arcade systems, there are some games which were released on multiple variations of platforms which turn out to be significantly different and other titles which are completely different games. As an example of both, Double Dragon on arcade has three releases (that I'm aware of): the original Double Dragon, the Playchoice release (crappy NES-port into arcade box) and the completely different versus fighter style game on the Neo-Geo platform. Springing to mind, I am aware of two different titles on the Commodore 64 both called Barbarian - IIRC, one is a scrolling fighter and the other is a versus fighter (there may be a minor variance in title which would negate this example). --Barthax 23:10, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Interesting point. Maybe we will need to make these a special case, and change the game titles ourselves - so we would label them as Double Dragon (original) (Arcade); Double Dragon (Playchoice) (Arcade) and Double Dragon (NeoGeo) (Arcade)? It would need to be done on a case-by-case basis. There could be a disambig page at Double Dragon (Arcade). Unless anyone has any better ideas? Xevious 15:21, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Changed my game names to reflect what Barthax used to make sure it's clear from a policy point of view.

Games with the same title

A similar point here. I'm working through a list of Spectrum games, and there are four with the title "Aliens". I propose we have pages for Aliens (Electric Dreams) (Spectrum), Aliens (Professional) (Spectrum) and so on, and a disambiguation page at Aliens (Spectrum). Any objections? Xevious 12:10, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Looks much better with the spacing than how I started. :D --Barthax 18:44, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

An example disambig page is at Tower of Hanoi (Spectrum) ... Xevious 09:17, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Game Credits

I've editted a couple of articles today, and noticed the way the credits were requested were different for each. I think the one for Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain? (DS) is the more recent template, but the one for Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (GameCube) makes more sense to me, and would probably take up less space. Just wondering which one should be used? Jonster 23:11, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

I think echoing the credit format of the game would be best - it avoids inadvertent interpretation when left unmodified (if the manufacturer can't get it right, then how are we supposed to?). See Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (PlayStation 2) and Gran Turismo Concept 2002 Tokyo-Geneva (PlayStation 2) for cases where seperation by position is a poor way (single individuals are mentioned in multiple places) and see the Hydro Thunder pages for how seperation by position is a good thing! However, in each case these examples are how those games are represented in the manual (Gran Turismo) or on-screen (Hydro Thunder) where no credits are available in the manual. --Barthax 09:51, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
I agree with you that having the position first works better. I've changed the template to reflect this. However, as Barthax says, it depends on the game as to which way around works best. Xevious 10:45, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Xbox Live Arcade

Is GamerWiki going to include Xbox Live Arcade games? Will they be listed as Xbox 360 games or will they have their own category? I'll make a start on them at some point when I know how you'd like them organised. Jonster 22:25, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

  • Absolutely - we should definitely have the Xbox Live Arcade titles in GamerWiki. I'm happy for them to have dual-category. This means we have a category for Xbox Live Arcade and also put the articles in (for example) Xbox 360. This will extend to cover future Microsoft platforms which use Xbox Live Arcade. -- tyagi 08:17, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
  • I think for now just list the platform as "Microsoft Xbox 360" and the media as "download". Maybe also we'll add another category as well. Xevious 12:33, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Game Title Priority

I was curious if there's a set policy on what title is used for same games that have different names in different territories, for example Lylat Wars(Eur)/Star Fox 64(US) or Final Fantasy 3(US)/Final Fantasy 6(Jap). --DWhitney 21:00, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Non-game entries

Continued from the discussion at Talk:Lucky Wander Boy about setting guidelines for non-game content such as books, movies, TV, websites, events, merchendise or other things that may relate to video games. Any ideas? --DWhitney 22:17, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

My opinion is that GamerWiki should first and foremost be a catalogue of games. Directly related to this are gaming magazines and websites, which feature on the "reviews" section of each games page; games developers and publishers; consoles and manufacturers; and storage media. I suppose what I mean is that if you start with a page about a game, anything linked from that page is fair game. I just don't think it works the other way around, though. Xevious 13:58, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Grammar in game titles

I've just been changing some stuff but now I'm worndering whether I should. Basically, grammar rules state that if an abbreviated word ends with the same letter as the full word, there should not be a full-stop after it. Therefore it should be "Mr" and not "Mr.", "Ms" and not "Ms.", but "Rev." is correct. So I was just changing "Ms. Pac-Man" to "Ms Pac-Man". But then was the original name actually with the dot? If so, it shouldn't be changed, should it? I'll stop now while it's easy to revert everything if people agree! Xevious 13:55, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

  • We've got to stick to the original titles, IMO - many titles are purposefully incorrect and others (like Ms. Pac-Man) may have been simple oversights. As Japan have released so many games overseas the likes of Engrish is common too. :) --Barthax 15:28, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
  • I'll revert everything then!  :( Xevious 16:00, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Archiving the pub

Some of these pages are getting pretty long ... will anyone be able to automate archiving the pub? Xevious 14:05, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism warnings

I've created three vandalism templates - GamerWiki-vandalism-1, GamerWiki-vandalism-2 and GamerWiki-vandalism-3 - to be used if and when users need to be warned. Xevious 11:41, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Useful templates. -- tyagi 21:59, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Formats lists for single-format games?

I've just noticed that for God of War, this calls a formats list which only contains one format. I suppose this will be useful if the game ever gets ported to the PC or so on, but for now shouldn't we just say on the God of War page that: "God of War is only available on the Sony PlayStation 2." ... and then carry on with the rest? Xevious 10:57, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

It does seem very redundant when stated as it is on the God of War page. --Barthax 18:46, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you're both right. I was filling in some God of War 2 stuff and completed a multiformat template as part of doing a chronology thing. I realised at the time that it's wrong, as I was thinking it would apply to the forthcoming PSP release, but that'll be under a different title, just part of the chronology? -- tyagi 20:33, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Ah, yes. Never mind, it's not hurting anyone! And when the PS3 fails, and Sony becomes a multi-format publisher, and ports God of War to the Wii ... Xevious 09:42, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Right. Just for that, I'll revert the edit. :-P -- tyagi 11:09, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Technical

Village Pub – Technical
The technical section of the village pump is used to discuss technical issues. Bugs and feature requests should be made at mediawiki.org since developers will not read this page.

FAQ: Current Frequently Asked Questions will be posted here.

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Village Pub

Main page · News (post) · Policy (post) · Technical (post) · Proposals (post) · Assistance (post) · Miscellaneous (post)

Technical Discussion

Links not being recognised

See Talk:True Crime: New York City (GameCube) for details. Xevious 19:13, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

  • Occasionally, it can take a bit of time for the Wiki software to re-index its links. It also happens with image thumbnails from time to time. -- tyagi 05:45, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Pages to be deleted

If you have emptied a temporary page, or deleted spam, or whatever, and the remaining page needs to be deleted, please mark it {{delete}}. This will allow an admin to see it and delete it. Xevious 10:22, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Double Redirect Page

For some reason a pile of items were on the Double Redirect page with links to Help talk:Template for Single-Format Games. On editting the links, they were not linked there, so something odd happened to the Double Redirect page... :( I've cleared up the problem for now, but may re-occur in the future.--Barthax 12:41, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

  • OK, I'll keep an eye on this -- tyagi 18:57, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Image Links

Does anyone know how to get an image to link to an article rather than to the image page itself? For example, on the front page, it would be good to get the "featured article" image to link to the article rather than to the image itself. -- tyagi 21:17, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Nearest thing I can find is a redirect in the comment of the picture (currently active). It doesn't produce a pretty result though... --Barthax 09:24, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, adding the redirect directive automatically removes other content from the page, so the fairuse template is no longer on the page. :( --Barthax 09:47, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, this isn't the desired effect. I'm sure it can be done another way, but it'll be something to do with the MediaWiki markup used to put the image on the page. Perhaps a parameter to the Image tag? I'll see if I can find anything on the MediaWiki meta-wiki. -- tyagi 20:03, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
Links that should work correctly don't seem to be functioning here nor at the MediaWiki: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Navigational_images !! :( --Barthax 16:24, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

Draft Game Entry WikiCode Script

I've developed a small Perl script to generate a gameInfoBox instance. It currently just runs on the command line and dumps the template output which can then be pasted straight in to a new game page. This will give the gameInfoBox component of a new page. I need to include the rest of the page template and also consider multi-format entries. But it's a start. For those who are non-technical, I will ultimately make it a standard Windows executable that can be run by clicking on an icon. But not yet...

Anyway, I'll keep the code at this page GamerWiki:makeGameEntry.

Done another one for those more preferable to use a web browser. GamerWiki:TemplateTemplates

That's an interesting hack. I'll read it through this weekend and see if I can install it OK on our build. -- tyagi 23:36, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
Did you find anything useful here? Xevious 18:21, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Spaces above templates

See NBA 2K6 (Xbox) - look above the formats list. Why's there a big gap? Xevious 15:58, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

This has got to do with the code for including a template.

As embedded text in the page: 

<a name="Formats"></a><h2> Formats </h2>
<ul><li> <a href="/index.php/NBA_2K6_%28Xbox%29" title="NBA 2K6 (Xbox)">Microsoft Xbox</a>
</li><li> <a href="/index.php/NBA_2K6_%28PlayStation_2%29" title="NBA 2K6 (PlayStation 2)">Sony PlayStation 2</a>
</li></ul>

As the template include: 

<a name="Formats"></a><h2> Formats </h2>
<p><br />
</p>
<ul><li> <a href="/index.php/NBA_2K6_%28Xbox%29" title="NBA 2K6 (Xbox)">Microsoft Xbox</a>
</li><li> <a href="/index.php/NBA_2K6_%28PlayStation_2%29" title="NBA 2K6 (PlayStation 2)">Sony PlayStation 2</a>
</li></ul>

The code of the wiki must have been updated recently - has anyone done code changes other than that from the version change? --Barthax 18:56, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

  • No code changes apart from the 1.6.x update recently. If we think this is a bug then I can look at the Wiki code and submit a patch. -- tyagi 03:03, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Bot development

Generating game pages

The only stumbling block here, I think, is in terms of the multi-format system we use. But that's something that could be done later. What I think would be useful:

  • Bot creates a page for each games page on the weekly releases
  • It fills in:
    • Game name
    • Platform (note - this will be different from the short platform in the title, you'll need to do a lookup)
    • EU release date (based on where it's listed on the Games to be Added page? Or maybe you have to do all of one week at a time setting the date in the Bot?)
    • Replaces "gametitle" and "Your New Game" in screenshot bit with game's actual title
    • adds an {autogen} tag for us to use when going through and reviewing
    • possibly other bits if you fancy querying GameFAQs!
  • We can then work through the autogen category adding in all the other details, and doing the multiformat formatting.

Xevious 08:48, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm concerned I may have inadvertently altered something the bot(s) may be expecting - I've altered the GameInfobox template and the help page to accomodate an amount of automatic NeedsCover entry. So, this is more a heads-up in case you begin experiences unexpected errors... :) --Barthax 16:25, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

  • This shouldn't be a problem. I'm in the final stages of bot development to do automated page creation for new titles and it obtains its templates from the Wiki anyway rather than using a static offline copy. I should have it running this weekend (July 15th). -- tyagi 00:58, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Problem with bot overwriting pages

I've just noticed a problem with the TyagiBot. It appears to overwrite pages, resetting all previous content and history. Case in point is Super Stuntman (Spectrum) - the page which began the discussion on the use of scanned-in images. There is currently (at the time of writing) only one edit on the page by the bot. :( --Barthax 09:40, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

It's not overwriting anything - it's just using the correct (Spectrum) suffix rather than the incorrect (ZX Spectrum) one! Xevious 09:03, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

LOL! Sorry 'bout that. D'oh! --Barthax 01:01, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

Joining the list-generation stuff for the 'bot

I've been in the process of collecting more data on older systems. Trouble is, the information is scant so far (no real surprise). So rather than generating the individual pages manually, should I start dumping info into Xevious' bot pages, or should I be generating my own? The format seems pretty simple. :) --Barthax 19:41, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

You're more than welcome to format some information in the style that Xevious uses. What I'd need to know is what template to use off the wiki and what data goes where. Best idea is to drop me a mail with some sample data and how you want it to look. -- tyagi 07:30, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Scanning

Quality of scanning material

Originally discussed over at Talk:Super Stuntman (ZX Spectrum), initial posts below are in reference to Super Stuntman (ZX Spectrum).

  • I have watermarked the images for this article. The reason being that good quality scans of covers can be used to generate pirate copies of the original. I understand that this probably isn't a real risk for such an old title, but with the images being original scans, I thought it might be safe to do this? What do others think? I'm happy to revert if others think this is pointless. -- tyagi 08:04, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
  • Certainly once I get started on more recent items in my collection it does become a significant factor. Better safe than sorry in general. :) --Barthax 13:59, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
  • Can we not just have the pictures at a slightly lower resolution? The watermarks just look a bit iffy. Xevious 15:53, 31 May 2006 (UTC)
  • I agree that a watermark is not really desirable. We need to quantify what is an "acceptably low resolution". There should be some thought about this on t'interweb, so I'll take a look when I've got a moment. -- tyagi 22:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Discussion continued here...

  • Any movement on the acceptably low resolution? I've a little queue of images awaiting upload. :D --Barthax 12:39, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
  • As has probably been noticed, I'm uploading pictures on a reasonably regularly basis... I'm purposefully keeping the resolution sufficiently low so as to avoid potential replication but retain reasonable quality. Should the need to increase resolution occur, let me know & I have better quality scans of all stuff uploaded. --Barthax 12:43, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
  • I think the quality you're using is fine. They're certainly not high enough resolution for someone to make a duplicate. -- tyagi 18:49, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Scanning CDs/GDs

I could do with some input on this matter. My technical knowledge of how CDs (and GD-ROMs) are made up tells me that normal light from the scanner, while bright, will have no adverse effect on the media for the purposes of a reasonably scanned image (I'm not considering high quality - just sufficient for my own purposes of documenting my collection & subsequent submissions of images here under the quality notes above). Despite my knowledge, something is still nagging at the back of my mind telling me something is going to go wrong with the media. I've hunted Google & not found anything. Does anyone have any pointers on this? --Barthax 19:46, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Seems not to be damaging them discs. :D --Barthax 12:36, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

PC games

At the moment we have a situation where PC games are just called PC games, irrespecive of the operating system they work on. Would it be possible to add an extra line to the GameInfoBox which only appears for PC games, which firstly states the operating system and then sticks the game into a category for that OS? Xevious 13:50, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

  • Definitely. I was thinking about this just the other day. Maybe the field should be titled 'Platform'? or perhaps 'Operating System'? -- tyagi 19:45, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Shouldn't be too difficult: there's a series of functions in MediaWiki including the {{#ifeq: <test1>|<test2>|<equal>|<not equal>}} (requires install - see bottom of linked page). --Barthax 15:15, 27 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Now these have been installed, I've added an 'os' variable to the template, shown when a PC game is defined. Feel free to make changes. Xevious 15:18, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I think it would be best to be specific concerning manufacturer for "Windows". We can then safely categorise them too. --Barthax 18:07, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • How do you mean? Xevious 18:09, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Well, is it OS/2 Windows, Microsoft Windows, X Windows - unfortunately "Windows" is a little too generic. There is an issue with DOS games - I would suggest simply DOS for that as most games that were designed for Microsoft DOS will work on IBM PC-DOS and Dr DOS. --Barthax 18:12, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I see what you mean. Agreed, then. Xevious 10:12, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Linux games are another potential issue in the same way as DOS. Most Linux games will work with a particular generation of the GNU C Library. GNU C Library versions are tied to the Linux kernel version, however, games capable of running with a particular GNU C Library version will often run on non-Linux based kernels too! For now, as the market is sufficiently commercially limited, I'd say we keep that to Linux as per DOS. --Barthax 18:15, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Editted the GameInfobox & GameLinkbar templates a little further & as time progresses, those PC games which have no os parameter will get entered into Category:Maintenance/MissingOSParameter. --Barthax 21:09, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Sub-Categories

  • Should we force a PC game to exist in either Category:Personal Computer or one sub-category? Currently they're going into both. --Barthax 18:20, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I'd say let them go into both. After all, the PC category is looking at the hardware, which is analogous to all other platforms. Xevious 10:14, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

GameLinkBar

I've made a very minor adjustment to the GameLinkBar template. Thanks to the ParserFunctions now being included, it now adds in an image of the system if such exists. I've forced the update of 007: Racing (PlayStation) so you can see it in action. To design the images, get the thumb into GIF format & set the transparency. Upload the image <platform>_thumblogo.gif - example one is Image:Sony PlayStation thumblogo.gif. It's a minor thing, but should help liven up the pages. --Barthax 14:06, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Adjusted the SystemInfobox template also. Works nicely on the Sony PlayStation page. :) Could possibly do with a little spacing though. --Barthax 14:13, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Nice idea. Can we use PNG format instead of GIF - it should look nicer. Xevious 15:04, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
No reason why not - or even PNG preferred & fall back to GIF (mind you that's more processing needed...). PNG is fine - I'm old-school web, so immediately consider GIF when it comes to transparency! :D --Barthax 17:58, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
Definitely brightens up the page and linkbar. Not sure where we'll get suitable logos in the right size/quality/format for all systems, but I'm sure we can dig them out. There's also the continued quirk of an image linking back to its image page rather than to a defined Wiki page... Las time I looked at this, I didn't like any of the hacks that people proposed on the Mediawiki list. -- tyagi 18:07, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Chronology re-use

A little light re-use for the Chronology templates now that we have the Parser Functions. On the Dungeons & Dragons page, the Template:Dungeons & Dragons chronology is used twice: first for the list & second for the GameSeries inclusion. The sample utilises a single (non-named) parameter - if that parameter is the word list then the chronology produces * entries and if it's not, then it produces list entries. Will need a little work to get it functioning for the likes of the Street Fighter & other large scale series, but for the smaller stuff, it's nice & simple plus it saves on duplication. --Barthax 17:08, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

  • My word. Have a gold star. Xevious 18:07, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
  • A step beyond gold: The Template:ChronologyList can now be utilised throughout the chronology pages making them much easier to re-use. Create the x_chronology template page as linked to from the GameSeries template and enter the following: 
{{ChronologyList|{{{1|}}}|<first game in series>|<second game>|<etc>|<etc>|}}
You can then use that chronology page in one of two ways. The typical GameSeries template is retained. Alternatively, you can supply the x_chronology template.
The Template:ChronologyList currently supports up to 24 games in any one series. It's very simple to increase that number (the pattern of detail is obvious).
Example time: Template:Midway Arcade Treasures chronology can be used in one of two ways:

List

Using {{Template:Midway Arcade Treasures chronology|list}} gives:

Non-list

Using the template without any parameters gives:

Midway Arcade Treasures | Midway Arcade Treasures 2 | Midway Arcade Treasures: Extended Play (PSP) | Midway Arcade Treasures 3

So, why all this effort? Well, it means we only have one place to update for any one series. Update it there & all pages which use the series in whichever manner will be updated. :D --Barthax 13:10, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Template placement

Something I've just noticed: shouldn't the chronology templates be located at Games/xxseriesxx chronology in line with the other templates, to avoid polluting the template namespace? Actually, we should probably have had the main text at Games/xx, formats at GameFormats/xx and so on, but too late now I think. Xevious 11:38, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

You're right - we should have it sub-named. Going forward, then, would it be better to have these as GameChronology/xx - there are too many formats pages to simply rectify, but we've not got too many of the chronology ones just yet. :) --Barthax 14:36, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
Better to just have Chronology/xx I think, since it's a series and not a game chronology. We should probably also change the formats one as well from now on - yes, there are lots already, but there are many more still to come. I hesitate because at the moment in the Special:All_templates list it's rather handy with the formats page listed next to the main template page in most cases (it breaks when there are numbered sequels and so on), but it'll die if ever someone brings out a game with a name ending in "formats"! Xevious 16:12, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
Just to confirm, then, there would be Games, Formats and Chronology sub-sections. Any thought to using a namespace format: Games: Formats: Chronology: instead? Figured this would be a good time to bring that up prior to any changes. :) --Barthax 17:41, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
Is that possible - doesn't it have to be in Template: namespace in order to work with the {} tags? I vote for Games/, GameFormats/ and Chronology/ or with colons if the namespace is possible. Xevious 10:03, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
You can include any page using {{}} format. When no namespace is given, the Template: namespace is implied. Normal pages have a namespace - it just happens to be blank :D : {{:N/a}} gives:
Text incorrectly entered as N/a should be N/A.
--Barthax 10:32, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
It would be good for it to be in a sub-section, such as Games/, GameFormats/, Chronology/. I'm not at all fussed about it being moved from under the Template: namespace, as (in my opinion) any templates are good under this space provided they're organised sensibly. I'd like to keep all templates together as much as possible. -- tyagi 13:32, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
I think we have consensus then! Games/, GameFormats/, Chronology/. No need to change the formats ones immediately - but I'll change the help guides soon. I don't think it'll take too much time to move the chronology ones, will it? They will need to be changed to be consistent otherwise the GameSeries template will break ... Xevious 14:04, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm doing it now ... Xevious 14:12, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
99% sure I've moved them all to Template:Chronology/xxx and have updated the GameSeries box. At least now they're all gathered in one place so it'll be easy to see them all together - if we do decide to create new namespaces then it's a five-minute job instead of 20! Xevious 14:37, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Further design

Also, for a platinum star - can we incorporate some way of putting in a line break or horizontal line, for cases where there's a main series and a sub series? Xevious 11:40, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Personally, I had thought: put everything prior to the horizontal line into a single {{ChronologyList}} and leave the rest as-is. Now that you've queried it, I realise that's not going to work for the main series page. :( I'll have a think - should be easy enough with more {{#if:}} statements, but I don't want to rely too heavily on them. :) --Barthax 14:49, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
  • I've found a reason for more than the current 24 entries in the template: Template:Bomberman chronology. Should we expand the template or can anyone see how such a chronology could be further split? --Barthax 13:32, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
Expand the template, I reckon. For a series like this where there isn't a side series or so on, then splitting makes no sense. Xevious 14:01, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Spoilers

A new user created a seperate page for weapons on Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Mega Drive) because it contains spoilers. I've moved it back onto the main page and created two templates to go before and after:

Spoilers are hidden here - click 'show' to read

and

End of spoilers

I've had a great idea though. Would it be possible to do a "click for spoiler" span thing in CSS, so you could actually not see the spoiler at all? I might have a go at this but my CSS isn't great. Xevious 12:54, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, it might need specific CSS and Javascript defined in the wiki software itself ... Xevious 13:07, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
Shouldn't be too difficult, just like the Template:GameSeries. --Barthax 18:10, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
  • NavSpoilerFrame now in action for the given example. I've left Xevious' spoiler alerts in place to complement. Comments welcome & improvements very likely needed. :D --Barthax 20:36, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
    • Looking good! Is it possible to include the div tags inside the spoiler-start and spoiler-end templates? Xevious 10:11, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
    • Yeah, I was considering that but there's a coupld of hiccups to the process. First you can't create a page with open <div> tags - the save process will close them off. So, the second issue is the use of passing the content into the template: the manner in which we use the GameSeries template requires the use of a seperate page to include (the Chronology/x pages). We could follow this sort of line & introduce a GameSpoiler/x-style page convention. Comments? --Barthax 16:15, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
      • That sounds too complicated, really. I think what you've got is great; we'll just have to explain how to use it in a help file. Xevious 18:31, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Proposals

Village Pub – Proposals
The proposals section of the village Pub is used to discuss new ideas and proposal that are not policy related (see GamerWiki:Village Pub (policy) for that).

Recurring policy proposals are discussed at GamerWiki:Village Pub (perennial proposals). If you have a proposal for something that sounds overwhelmingly obvious and are amazed that GamerWiki doesn't have it, please check there first before posting it, as someone else might have found it obvious, too.

Please sign and date your post (by typing "~~~~" or clicking the signature icon in the edit toolbar).

Please add new topics at the bottom of the page.

Village Pub

Main page · News (post) · Policy (post) · Technical (post) · Proposals (post) · Assistance (post) · Miscellaneous (post)

Categorising Categories

I've made a first attempt at categorising our categories, i.e. putting "scrolling fighter" under the "fighter" category, "vertical shooter" under the "shooter" category etc. This seems to make sense and I think I've got most of it right. If anyone wants to look over it, it'd be appreciated. I also deleted some unused categories. There were one or two which didn't seem to fit, e.g. "platform" when others are called "platformer". -- tyagi 00:26, 16 Aug 2005 (UTC)

There are a few rogue genres too - check the list against the one at the genre page. Survival Horror springs to mind. Xevious 07:54, 16 Aug 2005 (UTC)

Categorising Media

Currently the GameInfobox template sets no store by the value used for the media parameter. Would there be any mileage in categorising the media? Initially it would serve as a grouping for those without a given category (rather than using a "What links here"). --Barthax 13:21, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Games to be Added

This page is to be updated each week (by Xevious) with the new releases out that week. If we can add each of these to the database, even in basic form, then we'll at least prevent the backlog from getting any bigger! Coments on the placing of this page welcome. Xevious 12:12, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Main Platform "Portals"

At some point, it would be good to think about developing a set of portals, one for each main platform. This page would be the page linked to for a summary of each platform. It probably would not be the complete system information page, but a summary, and a set of the "top games" (whatever they are...). Itk would just be a better place to link to than an entry on "list of systems".

Lists of games could be included, but there's another proposal for that which we could look at at some point. I'm thinking how we could add year/month release information in a category to software releases. So, if you wanted to know everything that was released in "January 2003", you could do so. I'm not sure how to retro-fit this to the Wiki. It's probably the job for an automated bot rather than human effort. The information could be extracted from the release date information and added as a category tag to the article.

Then, on the platform summary page, a list of the current month's/last month's/current year's games could easily be added.

  • Retro-fitting isn't a problem if you have shell access to the back end. In the maintenance sub-directory of the wiki's main directory is a refreshLinks.php command-line script. That will go through the table & as it's called: refresh the links. --Barthax 09:24, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
  • You'd basically have to do a find and replace in the database on, say, "January/2004" to change it to "[[:Category:January/2004|January/2004]]" (I think) ... That would automatically add the games to the correct category. It would be a useful addition, I think. As for the portals, wouldn't it be better just to rearrange the systems pages so that there was a summary and list of top games first on the page, with other details buried lower down? Once we've lost the big long lists of games from these pages, they'r much more manageable. Xevious 11:14, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
  • I hadn't correctly taken on board that we were using whole dates in the template. We could change the template to have naday, jpday, etc. & then set the nadate, jpdate, etc to be the necessary category duplications. Example: User:Barthax/GameInfoBoxExample. This would obviously require some substantial work to be done on the DB to remove legacy template usage as Xevious indicates (or a lot of manual edits!).--Barthax 14:07, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Why don't ideas come in fluid form? :D Splitting the date down even further would allow for combinations & seperations of category date releases: all releases in January, all releases in 1985 as well as all releases in Januar 1985... --Barthax 14:10, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
  • There are definitely some nice possibilities with the date categorisation. I think it's another thing for the To Do list, so let's get some stuff on there, then we can prioritise what is actually important for making GamerWiki work properly and what are nice to have items. -- tyagi 14:13, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
  • I think we're always going to be slightly constrained by the Wiki format. For example, we'll never be able to list FPS game released on the Saturn in 1997. Coupled to this, if we were to split the date down further we'd be able to look at a list of what was released in March, in 2000, but not in March 2000. Furthermore, my idea above wouldn't really work going forward, thinking about it, since it requires the date to be input into the page in an odd way for future games. Xevious 14:36, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
  • I think we're always going to be slightly constrained by the Wiki format. - Very definitely. One of the wiki's strengths is also it's weakness: simplicity. In terms of date categories, however, I've reworked my example to what I believe is a workable solution: User:Barthax/GameInfoBoxExample uses Template:User:Barthax/GameInfoBoxExample. Comments welcome. :D --Barthax 16:20, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
  • OK, but I don't think we really particularly nead the months by themselves - only years and month+year! Now, how are we going to convert the 700+ games we've already got ... Xevious 17:07, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Well, that's where shell access & rebuildLinks.php comes into it. Alternatively, if shell access isn't available on this host, there remains the unlikely process:
  1. Export the entire DB can be exported using the likes of PHPMyAdmin.
  2. Import into a seperate wiki with shell access.
  3. Run rebuildLinks.php run on the data.
  4. Export the data out of that DB.
  5. Import data back in.
The former is far more preferable. :D --Barthax 18:17, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
Hehe, as a third option, I could probably process around 15 per minute with the mouse gestures I have installed on Firefox!! --Barthax 18:27, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
You know what? I've just realised how stupid my above statement is... What's actually going to change the pages to the new layout is missing. D'oh! Sorry 'bout that: I now understand your puzzlement, Xevious. --Barthax 21:27, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
    • OK, done some distinct tests on dates & the options available to a basic Wiki implementation & there's almost none. As a result I've created a hack of the base code on a private wiki (for a similar reason) and come up with the following: metawikipedia:User:Barthax/DateTime_Template_Function. This modification would allow for the template's variables to remain as is. :D The template can then be modified to include the necessary Category specifics, detailing the date as however necessary & then a rebuildLinks.php run server side & all is well. ;) (P.S. I don't expect this to be implemented, but it's an option.) --Barthax 15:57, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Impressive stuff. I will read all this portals stuff carefully at the weekend and see what we can do. -- tyagi 20:54, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Right, read over it *phew*. I can see that splitting the month and year in to separate fields in a game's entry could be very useful. This would allow categorisation based on month and year. Nice for viewing sets of games in a given period. It'd also allow people to generate some nice graphs related to game release schedules all being centered around the December period ;-) In answer to the script notes, yes, we do have sufficient access to the backend in order to perform whatever low-level processing we want to. Running custom PHP scripts (or prefereably something in a 'proper' programming language ;) is fine. I can take a backup of the database before we run anything too risky. As far as the evolution of GamerWiki is concerned, I'm happier investing time in stuff to automate the more mundane tasks, rather than working hard on manual processes which are just time-consuming. I remember that you (Barthax) did post some stuff regarding a custom PHP script, which I haven't acted on yet. It is on my ToDo list. -- tyagi 21:42, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Vanishing placeholder text

A potentially good idea from rllumk - can we make the standard placeholder text not appear unless it's being edited? No idea how that would work though ... Xevious 17:06, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Would putting it in comments hide the info from the page? eg <! -- Page content here --> without space after the ! ... Jonster 17:14, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but you'd then have to explain to people to take that out when they added stuff ... Xevious 17:28, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Have something like:
<! -- Please remove this line when you've finished editting
Content
And this line -->
If they're at the top and bottom of the article they would be noticed ... Jonster 17:33, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Probably would work fine. Tyagi, would you be able to modify the bot to do this? Xevious 17:37, 18 May 2006 (UTC)


Eliminating the "The" from game titles

I don't mean to make more busy work than is necessary but it's a small detail I noticed. In game lists titles like "The Legend of Zelda" are automatically put under "T" when most people would expect it under "L". It's only a problem if you're seeking a game by looking through the lists. Games that start with "The" could either be listed like "Legend of Zelda" or "Legend of Zelda, The".

  • It's something I was considering when listing them all, but I think it's more important to have the full correct title at the top of the page. I wonder if there's some sort of add-on to the Wiki software that can reorder the alphabetic list ignoring "The"s and "A"s? Xevious 09:08, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
Don't know if you ever found a solution to this, but you can change what heading a page is listed under in a category by using the pipe character. For instance, if I have a page "The Shiznit", in the category "Category:Slang", and I want the article to appear under "S" rather than "T", then in the category tag, I would have 
[[Category:Slang|Shiznit]]
or, possibly, 
[[Category:Slang|Shiznit, The]]
or some other form thereof. Hope it helps! --Dinoguy1000 Talk 11:03, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
Cunning. Once Tyagi's a little less busy this could be a job for Tyagibot! Xevious 13:56, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks. You can find full details at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Category#Sort_order . --Dinoguy1000 Talk 19:58, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Game Series Template

  • As may have been not