Warriors Wiki talk:Community Portal/2010 Archive

Several New Policies
Many new policy ideas have been suggested by Helix and are available for reading here. Please post any comments or constructive criticism on its talk page. --Bram ble 17:37, June 6, 2010 (UTC)

Help Desk
The Help Desk has been created as a subpage to the Community portal. Please post there for assistance in any matter instead of posting on the forum, which is now inactive. --Bram ble 17:37, June 6, 2010 (UTC)


 * I cannot find it anywhere! Where should I looke? Helixtalk 21:36, June 8, 2010 (UTC)

Warriors Wiki:Community Portal/Help Desk :) insane  brick'd 21:44, June 8, 2010 (UTC)


 * Many thanks! But I see it's not yet linked to other pages, so that's why I didn't find it. Helixtalk 21:54, June 8, 2010 (UTC)

Informal Announcements Box
Insaneular suggested that the community portal have an informal announcements box, where users can post news that they find relevant, or just share achievements. Statements such as 'I've fixed the Firestar article so it's ready for gold grade', or 'I've gotten my Petalfall charart approved!' would go here. This is not to be confused with a chatbox; it should only be used for announcements, not comments on other's announcements or congratulations. Ideas, commments, and constructive criticism are welcome here. --Bram ble 17:37, June 6, 2010 (UTC)


 * That is a great idea and I support it; people will know what is happening and where can they help out. Helixtalk 21:36, June 8, 2010 (UTC)

Color Scheme
Although all templates and other layouts use shades of blue, there is a difference between their colors (e.g. compare the Charcat, the Warriors Character, the Warriors Book, the Allegiances, the Ceremony templates, the wikitable, etc). Is this on purpose, such as to give a diversity to the site, or should we have the same color scheme for all templates? (I guess it's the latter, but let's discuss it before changing things).

Also I propose to create small templates storing the colors for the schemes, such as giving #ADDAFF and similar, and we'll use those in the layouts. Advantage: not only we'll have the same colors in each, but in the event we decide a color scheme change for the entire site, all layout colors can be changed with a single edit.

Kind regards, Helixtalk 21:43, June 8, 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree that having a universal colour scheme would be a very good idea. =) -- Sandy star 21:59, June 18, 2010 (UTC)


 * It seems this issue was tackled, thanks Sandy. :)  Helix talk 06:11, July 17, 2010 (UTC)

Some useful links and stats
Hi all! I started making this page to list some links and stats that would help us when editing the wiki. You can suggest any addition to it, or go ahead and make the change yourself. If it's deemed useful, it can be moved to another namespace, such as Warriors_Wiki:Tools. Kind regards, Helixtalk 06:00, June 10, 2010 (UTC)

Pages Outside Projects
Hi all. We have many pages on this wiki - mainly relating to real world - that are not, and cannot be included in any current Project. Examples would be: articles on persons, fan movement, years, general terms such as Canon etc. There is too little material to justify creating a separate and dedicated Project, but maybe some kind of governing body (or at least a page summarizing the status and what should be done) can be set up that takes care of these articles - content drive (most of the articles are quite short, for instance those on the authors could use a major expansion), grading and even featuring. Just an idea for the future of course. :)  Helix talk 20:57, July 10, 2010 (UTC)


 * I completely agree with this. I think that there are enough of these pages to thnk about a separate project of some kind for them - a small one. These are some of the most important articles on the wiki and need more attention; I think some kind of communal area for them would definitely help. -- Sandy star 17:47, July 14, 2010 (UTC)


 * I also agree. I've been trying to help out, also. We should have a project for it, but it would be small. As Sandy stated above, they are some of the important articles on the wiki. I think a project that we can create would bring more attention to them. ♥Ice  storm★  00:37, July 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Ditto what Ice and Sandy said. W    a  t  e  r   bender MouseHRULES!   19:36, July 19, 2010 (UTC)


 * I definitely agree. 22:49, August 19, 2010 (UTC)


 * So, will we have one? 18:56, August 24, 2010 (UTC)

Maybe something like a "Project Oversight" that handles things that were oversights in creating the original project structure ;). If we really wanted to we could also make that project the ones in charge of ensuring things like the Mainpage and Community Portal stay neat and tidy (As right now I think that falls to whatever sysop notices it). It would at least create a sort of "Hub" for those articles and the guidance they need to really shine. And it would let them get a grade, and thus actively encourage improvements. 01:33, August 26, 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your input! I agree; in my view it is a great idea that this team could take care of minor and repetitive things like Community Portal maintenance, as admins already have lots of things to oversee. 19:16, August 26, 2010 (UTC)

I would definitely be willing to help out when we get this thing started, if that's okay. :) 23:30, August 26, 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. If it's decided yet, who shall be the assigned leader? 22:39, September 21, 2010 (UTC)

Are we going to do anything with this? Nothing has been commented on for about a month, so we should do something. 22:54, October 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * I doubt there would be enough active members to dedicate time for an additional Project at this time (for instance, see PB and PW where currently only one or two of the contributors work regularly on mainspace articles - if people cannot be active in the main Projects, then we cannot expect an extra project to be successful). We might think of it later. :) Also, we need the admins to comment on this, and their decisions / opinions about the Project. Kind regards, 17:15, October 17, 2010 (UTC)

Special Look
I love our color scheme, it's very professional and cool, but some Wikis, like the one for Avatar, Twilight, and Glee have a fancy and special look to them. Should we? And how can we? I'm no expert on this sort of thing. . . W    a  t  e  r   bender MouseHRULES!   15:13, July 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * I personally think that those wikis, while visually attractive, has detracted usability due to the longer load-times created by the extra images. A re-design might become necessary soon, when Wikia forces the new layout on us, but we can face that bridge when we come to it. There certainly isn't any reason to redesign at the moment due to the upcoming major layout change. 01:37, August 26, 2010 (UTC)

I dunno... I can't imagine wwiki without it being generic and blue. There's all sorts of changes proposed over skins and how they will work as well on central Wikia - the new layout you mention above, Kitsu - so personally I think we should wait and see how that affects us first before deciding anything. 07:35, September 3, 2010 (UTC)

Epic reference template
Hi all. I don't know if this would be better to post on the Project pages (so people would actually read it) or here... anyway, I created a template to ease referencing (mostly because I was lazy when adding refs for the epic nursery list). It basically works like this:


 * gives
 * gives
 * gives

Advantages:
 * Much easier to work with
 * Automatically contracts multiple references to the same page / book to the same ref number

Disadvantages:
 * You must get used to the abbreviations; see list here

Notes:
 * You can see it in action here (check the lists)
 * You may use SUBST: if you want only the "classic" code to be included in the article, instead of a transclusion
 * Yes, I know I should have made this ages ago to ease work... sorry :(
 * It is not mandatory to use it... hope no one is mad at me for taking initiative again without discussing it before

Kind regards, 16:25, July 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * Since no one has congratulated on you the excellent piece of code you constructed, I will. I love this template because it encourages consistency. And makes citing go faster once you know the abbreviation structure ;) 01:35, August 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * Helix you are epic. This is awesome. 23:03, September 12, 2010 (UTC)

Facebook references
This was something I noticed Kitsu brought up on the Project World talk page and there have been other mentions of it before now. Vicky Holmes' facebook page is a huge source of information for all the content projects but as of now there is no foolproof way of referencing it as facebook delete posts off the end. Perhaps we need to come up with some kind of system to either record the posts or find a better way of linking them that points to a direct post and won't be deleted. The first option of recording them in some way sounds better to me, but then we are faced with the problem of makig sure they can't be recorded falsely and with no proof other than the same link (a viscious circle). 07:32, September 3, 2010 (UTC) Ignore me. 13:15, September 11, 2010 (UTC)

Warrior cats!!!!!

 * i love warriors!!! My warrior name is icefire. did you know that you can get your warrior name at the official warriors website? there are games on there too. Meow. g0 jaypaw!98.221.208.184 21:12, October 5, 2010 (UTC)icefire :)


 * We thank you for your interest, but I urge you to take all casual conversation to our Off-wiki forum (you can find a link on our community portal). Welcome to the Wiki. 21:44, October 5, 2010 (UTC)

Fake Cats
Could someone Please Make a Category for Fake Cats?I bet it would be really fun to see all the fake cats that people have made.(Hgfggg1 02:10, October 24, 2010 (UTC))
 * Fan characters are specifically not permitted here by our NOT Policy. You'll have to go somewhere like the Warriors Fanfiction Wiki or Warriors Fanon Wiki if you want to create random characters that do not represent things out of the book series. 02:15, October 24, 2010 (UTC)
 * I Never Knew that Either of those existed.(Hgfggg1 02:37, October 24, 2010 (UTC))
 * That's not even a comprehensive list of other wikis. Their are tons of them out there. 13:33, October 24, 2010 (UTC)
 * Like my wiki, 5clans wiki, too Clarrissa   My Talk Page  16:23, October 27, 2010 (UTC)

Monobook
Okay, I'm not sure what the deal is with this, but I am currently using monobook now that monaco has gone because I refuse to use that horrible oasis 'new look' social networking site skin. I'm not sure how long this option will be available for, but it struck me that I may not be only person chosing this as an alternative to oasis. The point I'm trying to make concerns the sidebar which has some pretty strange titles and links, for example the Community Portal is linked as 'Fourtrees' and there is a broken link to a 'Mailing List'. If it were just me using monobook then I don't really care; I can learn to navigate around the site fairly easily; but if there are other people choosing this as an alternate option, I wonder whether it would be a good idea to update this to make it a little more user friendly and in line with the wwiki of 2010 rather than that of years past. Of course, I'm no computer genius and don't even know if this is possible (I would assume it is seeing as there are custom links there already), or whether this is considered by anyone else to be a potential issue. Just wondered what the thoughts were on monobook itself and the potential of making it easier to navigate for those who can't stand the new look. 17:41, November 3, 2010 (UTC)

I refuse to use the new style as well, Sandy. You're not alone. I'd rather use the older style, as I find it easier to navigate around. Actually, I'm still wondering what happened to the other styles I used to be able to chose from. I liked them, and it made the wiki look...I don't know how to put it...It just made it seem different. Not as plain as it is now. ♥ Holly feather ™♥ 18:20, November 3, 2010 (UTC)

Wow Sandy, nice find. It seems that although Monaco is gone, Monobook is a new option? If that is so, we are saved, and can continue using our old layout. Monobook is nearly identical to Monaco and they are pretty much interchangeable, all we have to do is to customize it a bit to get our old look back.

Why is there a Fourtrees (etc) link? Because Monobook was Wikia's default skin before Monaco. So actually it contains a menu that was set on wwiki in 2006-2007 or so... we just have to edit its contents. So, for starters, I'd kindly request an admin to:
 * Copy the contents of MediaWiki:Monaco-sidebar into MediaWiki:Sidebar
 * Copy the contents of MediaWiki:Monaco.css into MediaWiki:Monobook.css

Unfortunately, I cannot see an admin option to set Monobook as site-wide default; users can only set it for themselves. I hope it will be an option soon. And I hope Monobook will stay. *crossing claws*

Kind regards, 15:19, November 4, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for that, Helix... I had also switched to monobook and was looking to update the menu but didn't know the title of the MediaWiki page to update, let alone what coding to use *stinks at css* Anyways, it was probably some error by me in the transfer, but the sidebar seems to be messed up - instead of showing all the links from monaco which I put there, it shows nothing but the toolbox... any clue as to what I did wrong? ^^; 00:27, November 5, 2010 (UTC)

For some reason, I cannot change my skin into Monobook. I went to my preferences and checked every single tab. I'm not sure if this is just my problem, or many others. 00:38, November 5, 2010 (UTC)

It's on the main tab (the same one as your avatar and signature). There should be an option to choose between Oasis and Monobook there. 00:46, November 5, 2010 (UTC)


 * There is no way to make Monobook the default. They only reason it's being kept at all is the cater to a few wikis that mimic Wikipedia, like Uncyclopedia. As far as I know it won't be an option for general use, just for the parody sites. and even then they might loose it eventually, too. Any of you using Monobook should be warned, though: They don't intend to actually maintain or update it. It might develop problems in the future as the core software adapts. It's a very, very old option, not a new one. Monobook never got played with much because Monaco because available shortly before I got here, and I decided that it was a better skin for how I wanted the layout to work (I <3 the tiered flyout menus and will miss them until the day they give them back). 14:14, November 5, 2010 (UTC)

Insane: indeed, it seems the monobook sidebar does not allow "nested" menus, only plain links and box titles. In any case, here is some sample code (* creates a box title, ** a link in the box): *Content Navigation Yes, I know it's old and I suppose they don't intend to maintain it; still, since several users wish to use it, we can tweak it to resemble the "old" layout (as long as the option is around...) 14:25, November 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * mainpage|Warriors Wiki
 * Warriors Books|Books
 * Category:Characters|Characters
 * Category:Clans|Clans
 * Interact
 * portal-url|Community
 * Category:Projects|Projects
 * Special:RecentChanges|Recent Changes
 * http://www.warriorswiki.proboards.com/|Forums
 * Warriors_Wiki:IRC|IRC

Past/Present tense of articles.
Hi, I often see articles that go a bit like this-"Cat is seen walking into ShadowClan territory. He was turned out into the woods and he walked back home. He is..." I'm not sure if other users are aware of this, or not, but I don't think it has been made clear enough if articles should be written in past or present tense. It's very irritating when an article runs in a similar ay to that of the example above. I think, to avoid confusion to the readers and editors of articles, we should state on The Main Page if articles should be in past or present tense. Any comments? Thanks, Clarrissa   My Talk Page  17:35, November 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * All plot descriptions shall use present tense (except flashbacks which are in past tense); this was brought up and pointed out several times on the PC talk page. If there is an article using past tense, it should be corrected to present tense. 21:05, November 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Okay, maybe this should be pu on the main page? Clarrissa   My Talk Page  17:15, November 24, 2010 (UTC)