Memory Alpha:Announcements

Get the latest scoop about what's new at Memory Alpha! This page is used by the administrators to post relevant announcements, so check back occasionally to get the news. For the latest press releases, check our press releases.

October 2011
Several updates from our host have changed the way you use and view Memory Alpha. Please visit the forum for more information. In response to this, it has been suggested we consider changing hosts. To participate in this discussion, please see the forum.

March 2011
Memory Alpha may be changing its look!

If you would like to take part in the discussion, please visit the forum.

October 2010
Memory Alpha looking different today?

These changes are brought to us by our hosting company - for more information, please visit the forum discussion.

May 2009
3 May: With the release of imminent, the Memory Alpha community has agreed to lock the site to editing a period spanning the premiere date. For more information on this, please see our announcement.

April 2009
23 April: The English edition of Memory Alpha reached the milestone of 30,000 articles today.

September 2008
10 September: The Wikia tech team rolled out MediaWiki 1.13.1 to all of Wikia, including Memory Alpha. This is the latest stable release of the MediaWiki software which runs Wikia, and it contains a number of enhancements and bug fixes. You can read more about this upgrade here. While we don't anticipate any major problems, some issues may appear. Please report any odd behavior on this forum page.

August 2008
1 August: Memory Alpha has added a Bulgarian language edition to the ever-expanding international list at MA/bg.

June 2008
15 June: The way Memory Alpha looks is about to change. For more details, read our announcement of the changes.

January 2008
18 January: Memory Alpha expanded to an even dozen languages with the addition of the Japanese version, MA/ja.

June 2007
13 June: Memory Alpha reaches 25,000 articles.

14 June: As you may have noticed, we are currently experiencing difficulties with our wanted pages list. Due to an error created by the staff at MediaWiki which is affecting the EpLink template, the server is creating red links where there shouldn't be any; thus, there are hundreds of unwanted links ending with the "episode" qualifier. These are not actually pages which need to be created, they are simply produced due to the error. Unfortunately, correcting this error is not a top priority for the good folks over at MediaWiki, so the links will have to remain until we find a way to override them. In the meantime, please do not create pages for those links.

Also, there is an error with DynamicPageList function (see the lists at the top of the recent changes) by a recent update. This is currently being looked into so, unlike the above error, this error should be cleared up momentarily, so please have patience.
 * Update: this problem has been resolved.

March 2007
30 March: Another new language version of Memory Alpha has been created - MA/zh (Chinese).

February 2007
20 February: A new language version of Memory Alpha has been created - MA/pt (Portuguese).

January 2007
17 January: Two new language versions of Memory Alpha have been created - MA/cs (Czech) and MA/ru (Russian).

December 2006
1 December: A new language version of Memory Alpha has been created - MA/sr (Serbian).

2 December: The image issues mentioned below appears to have been resolved. It is now safe to upload new images over old ones.

8 December: Due to an issue with Wikia servers, all JPEG images on Memory Alpha are currently unavailable.
 * Update: The problem has now been resolved for most users. However, Opera users may still experience difficulties seeing images.

October 2006
4-5 October: Memory Alpha has been having some weird issues with its images as of late. On the 4th, the images disappeared entirely. This goes for the ones on the foreign language versions, as well. They were ultimately restored by Jason of Wikia. Now, however, as of the 5th, there seems to be some sort of retrieval error with some of the images; instead of bringing up the newest version of an image, an older revision appears. To make things less confusing (and to prevent the possibility of botching things up even further), we ask that nobody revert or upload over any current images until this whole issue is resolved.

19-21 October: There are still some issues with images at Memory Alpha following a recent database move. Images uploaded to replace previous images with the same file name may not appear correctly (the previous image may still appear, albeit distorted). Uploading new versions of current images should be kept to a minimum, although doing so is not at all required. One possible way of fixing this error upon uploading a new image is to A.) revert back to the previous image, B.) load your revised image without reverting or deleting previous images, and then C.) reverting back to your revision. Note that it may take a few minutes for the changes to take effect, so please have patience.

27 October: Image issues seem to have been resolved, but at present we are experiencing some difficulties with JavaScript. As the site notice states, it's causing the site to automatically refresh every few seconds. OuroborosCobra has alerted Wikia of the problem and they are looking into it; in the meantime, it may be best to disable the JavaScript if your browser is affected; so far, Mozilla Firefox definitely is, while Internet Explorer is not. No idea about Opera or others, though. Will keep you posted on further updates.
 * UPDATE 1: Correction, the image issue is still not resolved. Sigh...
 * UPDATE 2: The JavaScript issue should be resolved for the most part. For the record, the problem was caused by bp's script changes, so hate messages can be sent his way. On the other hand, Bp also fixed the problem, with help from Splarka, so you should also send him some love. After the hate, of course. ;) That said, if you experience any JavaScript problems, please contact bp politely at this page here.

July 2006
July 4: Wikia recently ran into some snags with its testing of a newer version of MediaWiki 1.7, which has resulted in some broken templates on Memory Alpha and other Wikis. These templates should now be fixed, but if you see table tags showing up as text it will be due to cached versions of the page. You can add "?action=purge" to the url to reload the page.
 * Update: There will be some broken templates now and again while Wikia test new upgrades for the MediaWiki software, so please have patience. Our apologies for any inconvenience.
 * Update: Everything should be fixed now, although you may still need to add "?action=purge" to the url to load a page with broken templates. Also, if you find any templates still broken, simply prefix # in that template's code. For example: {{ifexpr:({{{3}}} > {{#ifexpr:({{{3}}}

June 2006
Just to let you know, there is likely to be a short database lock today to allow for a MediaWiki upgrade. It is scheduled for around 19:00 (UTC) today (world clock). The whole process should take less than an hour - all subject to the whole thing going smoothly of course!
 * And they never go smoothly :) it's now likely to be around 06:00 UTC tomorrow (world clock)

May 2006
May 22: The upgrade for MediaWiki 1.6 was not initiated. Instead, Memory Alpha is currently running on MediaWiki 1.7 alpha.

April 2006
April 3: Planned downtime – Memory Alpha will be upgraded to MediaWiki 1.6 later today. The exact time has yet to be specified.
 * April 4: The planned upgrade has been delayed due to technical difficulties. The upgrade is still slated to go up sometime within the next day.
 * April 5: Status of upgrade unknown. Stand by.
 * April 10: The upgrade has taken longer than expected due to a few bugs. These issues are currently being taken care of and MA should be upgraded soon.

January 2006
January 17: Memory-Alpha has now been upgraded to MediaWiki 1.5. Please report problems at Wikicities.

December 2005
December 15: We're expecting 2 new servers to arrive in the next few days, and Jason is planning to push them into service as soon as possible. They are likely to arrive Friday 16 December or Monday 19 December. These new servers will be replacing our current database server and file server. So, getting them in place will mean some (hopefully minimal) downtime for the site, around 06:00 UTC.


 * December 20: A new file server and new database server will be put it into service today. There will be a few hours of read-only time from 04:00 UTC Wednesday, December 21. Updates will be posted to openfacts.berlios.de.


 * December 21: Upgrade complete, please report any problems.

November 12, 2005
Planned downtime: Memory-Alpha will be upgraded to MediaWiki 1.5 on Saturday November 12 at 4am (UTC). Updates will be made at berlios.
 * The upgrade has failed. See MediaWiki upgrade news.

October 22, 2005
Memory Alpha has been named Science Fiction Weekly's (the Sci-Fi Channel's newsletter) Site of the Week!

September 4, 2005
Memory Alpha has been awarded the September 2005 Ex Astris Excellentia award by Ex Astris Scientia. Thank you, Bernd!

June 15, 2005
Memory Alpha will be read-only for a period between 06:00 and 08:00 (UTC) on June 15 for the setting up of database replication.

June 7, 2005
Scheduled downtime: Tomorrow (7 June) at 7am UTC (3am Eastern Standard Time, 9am Central Europe), all of Wikia's servers are moving to a new colocation facility across the street. Memory Alpha will be completely unavailable during this. We are moving at the request of our colo facility, which is putting us into their new fancy facility, since they are planning on shutting down the old one. Our IP numbers and the machines themselves will be unchanged, so you should not notice any difference once the site is back up. The move should take no more than a few hours, but please check the offsite status page or the #wikicities IRC on freenode for updates. A complete set of backups of all databases, images, and configuration files will be made before the move occurs. We're sorry for any inconvenience caused by this.

May 6, 2005
A Swedish edition of Memory Alpha is now available at memory-alpha.org/sv.

March 14, 2005
Scheduled downtime for one or two hours on March 14 from 04:00 (UTC) due to an upgrade of MySQL and MediaWiki.

February 22, 2005
We apologize for the outage yesterday. Due to a power failure at the colocation facility where Wikimedia and Wikia's servers are located, Memory Alpha and all Wikimedia and Wikia sites were down (see related post from the Wikipedia-I mailing list). The servers needed to be rebooted, and databases resynchronized. All should have been done by now, but apparently de:Memory Alpha remains down. Hopefully, this will resolve itself within the next few hours, as the system is restored.

February 9, 2005
Memory Alpha is in the process of moving to a new hosting service. This will involve a major change to our current operating procedure. For the full details, see the announcement about the server move.

February 2, 2005
As most of you have probably heard by now, Star Trek: Enterprise has been canceled. Memory Alpha wishes the cast and crew of Star Trek all the best, and thanks them for their efforts and enthusiasm. We're confident that Star Trek will remain alive, and will someday return, in whatever form.

January 2, 2005
Happy New Year! Memory Alpha is currently slowly implementing Categories, to make searching for and finding articles a lot easier. Join the ongoing discussion at Memory Alpha:Category tree to help!

December 8, 2004
With the holidays coming up, I have some good news! We have reached our €100 mark! Again, thanks to all donors. With people like you, Memory Alpha can stay alive!

October 31, 2004
Happy Halloween, everybody. I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who has donated to Memory Alpha. We've almost reached our target of 100 euros! Memory Alpha recently moved to a new server to cope with the traffic, and your donations are being used to pay for our hosting. All this proves that Memory Alpha is a thriving community, thanks to your continuing support.

September 1, 2004
Memory Alpha is currently in the process of upgrading to MediaWiki 1.3, and changing its default skin to Monobook. This means that certain aspects of the site may not render correctly, or may appear strange. The software and appearance is still being worked on, so such problems should be temporary. Please report all bugs and/or rendering errors to Mediawiki talk:Monobook.css. A full description of the changes and features can be found at Memory Alpha:MediaWiki.

June 20, 2004
Briefly: Memory Alpha has updated its Creative Commons License to match the new version 2.0 of the "by-nc" license, just released by Creative Commons. There are no effective changes with regard to the operations of Memory Alpha or the licensing of its content; the license update is merely intended to re-word and make clearer certain aspects of the conditions of the license. We're just posting the notice here so everyone is aware of the change.

May 14, 2004
Memory Alpha's expansion continues! Today, with the help of Erik and Florian, we've established a new German language edition of Memory Alpha! If you speak or write German, please drop by and lend a hand!

April 12, 2004
Memory Alpha has completed its move to its new server. We are now situated at www.memory-alpha.org. Please update your bookmarks. The database is once again open for editing, with some minor upgrades to the MediaWiki software, and any bugs should be reported to Dan Carlson.

We're pleased to announce the opening of the first multilingual edition of Memory Alpha! The Dutch edition is now open and functional, although it has practically no pages at the moment. If you speak Dutch, please drop in and lend a hand!

March 31, 2004
Harry and I are currently planning to move Memory Alpha to its own hosting account and domain name. We've agreed that the existing arrangement is simply not sufficient for the long term as Memory Alpha grows. The switch will probably happen in a couple of weeks. However, it's going to be a bit of a strain for the two of us to pay for this new hosting account, so we've set up a donation page should any members have some extra funds they can spare us. It would be greatly appreciated!

March 28, 2004
If you try to upload an image and receive an internal error message saying "could not rename file", please contact Dan Carlson. It's likely that someone uploaded an image of the same file name during the "lost weeks"; that means that the file itself is intact in our upload directory, but the database thinks there's nothing there. I will need to know the exact file path of the image that you tried to upload (it's given in the error message, for instance "/hsphere/local/home....").

March 26, 2004
After first backing up the wiki to ensure there wasn't a repeat of this week's unpleasantness, we have finally managed to upgrade the MediaWiki software to the most current version. There are some new features available, try experimenting with them! Updated help pages for features such as the new image syntax will be coming soon.

Please also note that our URL has changed slightly — instead of being located in the /mediawiki/ directory, the pages are now located in the /en/ directory. I've set up a .htaccess redirect, however, so no one should encounter any problems. The /wiki/ shortcut URL should still work, regardless. Please contact me if you have any questions!

March 24, 2004
In an extraordinarily unfortunate accident, Memory Alpha's database was wiped yesterday during an upgrade of the system to MediaWiki version 1.2. This occurred due to an unforeseen error in the database upgrade script. As a result, Memory Alpha has been forced to revert to the last backup – which was made on February 6. All updates after that date have been lost, as have any new user registrations after that date. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

March 8, 2004
We apologize for the continuing access problems with Memory Alpha (and the other sites on the st-minutiae account). This is due to a problem with the host server, and unfortunately is beyond our (or rather Dan's) control. This may or may not reoccur in the near future. If it does, please watch the SCN for information. For the full detail, please see this page at STM.

February 13, 2004
For anyone who noticed the brief locking of the database, this was because of a potentially major error that was being returned at random points while submitting a new or edited article. At first, it looked like we were going to have to roll back our site to the previous version of MediaWiki. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, thanks to some very useful and timely assistance from the MediaWiki contributors' mailing list. If you encounter any further database errors, please report them so we can look into them.

February 10, 2004
Apologies for the brief outage accompanied by weirder-than-usual error messages; the wiki software was being upgraded to MediaWiki v1.1.0. This version includes several security and bug fixes, as well as a couple of other interesting features that should make things interesting -- like automatic messages built into the wiki system. If you find a bug, as usual, please report it after checking the bug reports link (also found on the quickbar).

February 1, 2004
We apologize for the two-day-long server outage that completely crippled Memory Alpha (as well as the other sites hosted in the same account). According to our host, the server suffered a hard drive failure and had to be restored from backup. In the mean time, FTP access was unavailable so a manual restoration from my hard disk was impossible as well. Hopefully, this will be the last problem with the server for a long time to come.

January 17, 2004
You may have already noticed the new links on the quickbar. Two of these are there for convenience, to pages that already exist: this announcements page, and the Memory Alpha forum at the Subspace Comms Network.

The third link is to a brand-new feature for Memory Alpha – a Trek websites directory. An open directory designed specifically for Trek sites should nicely complement our open encyclopedia. Go check it out, and add your own site to the list!

January 16, 2004
The database problems have finally been solved. After the server software upgrade yesterday, our host experienced further difficulties which were restricting the number of requests allowed to flow into the databases -- this had the annoying effect of creating unpredictable and intermittent access to Memory Alpha pages. As of this morning, everything appears to have been solved.

Also, Harry and I have made the decision to change the Memory Alpha copyright policy to adopt a new license, a Creative Commons License. This was done primarily to make it easier for us to display images and other copyrighted media on the site under fair use rules. If you have any questions or complaints, please post them on Memory Alpha talk:Copyrights.

January 15, 2004
Our apologies for the unannounced downtime that was experienced this morning – our host was performing an upgrade of the MySQL server software. Everything should be up and running normally now, however!

December 29, 2003
Our big brother Wikipedia is in trouble! Read this letter to see how you can help!

December 23, 2003
Some cool news: Memory Alpha was mentioned today in TrekToday's news bullets. The word is spreading!

November 26, 2003
The first announcement. Move along, nothing to see here... -- Dan Carlson

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