Portal talk:Main/Archive 2007

Main &rarr; 

Lighter protection
The Main Page is currently protected from being edited by all users without sysop privileges. I recommend lifting the protection to only include unregistered and newly registered users to allow legitimate users who lack sysop privileges but who have contributed to the Main Page (such as bp) to more easily edit the Main Page. Does that make sense? --From Andoria with Love 21:41, 28 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I oppose. The main page is the first thing people see. If we are going to protect things like the featured article pictures, and picture of the day, etc., simply because they are on the main page, why would we open up that very page to the possibility of vandalism? I have other reasons as well... --OuroborosCobra talk 21:47, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

There would be a possibility of vandalism... if protection was lifted entirely. I don't think those users who have been contributing or who will contribute legitimately are going to vandalize the Main Page. By only protecting the page from editing by new and anonymous users, we ensure that only trusted contributors edit the Main Page. --From Andoria with Love 22:21, 28 December 2006 (UTC)


 * If that were the case, why would we have a sysop level protection from any article period? Also, those things I pointed out that are currently protected are at the sysop level, so my argument still stands. --OuroborosCobra talk 22:25, 28 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm all for a lighter protection... after all, that's what "wiki" stands for. Page protection should be the exception, not the norm, and while I don't think that we need to completely open up the main page for anonymous edits, letting logged in users edit seems to be a good thing... unless there's a sudden increase of vandalism, in which case we could protect again. -- Cid Highwind 22:33, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, the sysop level protection is there just in case. For example, some user may come along, make some legitimate edits, then get pissed off at something or someone and go on a vandal spree. So the sysop-only option is just there mainly as a precaution. --From Andoria with Love 22:38, 28 December 2006 (UTC)


 * It also makes sense against other types of "unwanted" edits besides vandalism - think edit wars between contributors etc. -- Cid Highwind 22:41, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, those, too. :) --From Andoria with Love 22:45, 28 December 2006 (UTC)


 * So why would we not want that same protection on the main page, the first thing people see? --OuroborosCobra talk 23:44, 28 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Hurm. The main page has to be protected.  I would agree with an argument which said nearly every other page should be opened up, but the front page is where everyone starts.  If someone vandalizes the Janeway page, the only people who will see it before its reverted are people who picked that time to look up Janeway.  If someone vandalizes the front page, then it will be seen by each, and every person who comes here during the period of time before its reverted.  Considering that I can't think of any beneficial contribution which any average Joe Shmoe would make to the front page, and that I could think of dozens of malicious things he could do, this seems like an unnecessary alteration.  Keep it secure.Hossrex 12:16, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Again, this discussion is not asking for the complete lifting of protection from editing; it will only allow editing from those who are already members and who have already contributed and can be trusted. --From Andoria with Love


 * Please don't read any aggression, or insult in my words. :)  But what benefit could there possibly be from allowing people to modify the front page?  At best, I see this page being modified every 15 minutes, and then reverted 10 seconds later.  In another 15 minutes, someone tries to change it, and 10 seconds later its changed back.  Over, and over again.  At worst, someone...  even someone you'd have thought was trustworthy...  could vandalize the page very badly, and offensively.  Why take the chance?  Whats the gain?  Wiki's are user contributed, and supported, but thats simply because two heads are better then one...  so a million heads are probably better then two.  That doesn't mean the page everyone sees everytime they come to Memory Alpha should be a candidate for vandalism.  If you could walk us through what benefits there could possibly be in allowing people to edit the main page, we can discuss that.  I'd love to hear some great ideas.  :)  But so far, I don't see any good reasons. Hossrex 01:02, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

News Error
It seems that the news column says December 5th instead of January 5th. --UTS DeLorean 22:10, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Fixed. -- Renegade54 22:40, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Icon change
Do you think that it would be possible to change the icon that appears in the address bar fom the current one that just says 'M A' to the Starfleet symbol? Comtraya 23:11, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Its kind of cliched for a trek website. -- Jaz talk |undefined 18:33, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
 * With most browsers you can change the image yourself you just have to change out the file in your cache (very easy to do in Opera). unfortunately it only stays that way until you dump your cache for whatever reason. --User with a probe 18:39, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Too Long
Is it just me or is the main page entirely too long. It's only my opinion but the main page should be as concise as possible with explanation of MA a few highlights and easy access to the spectrum of information available. I don't think that people should have to scroll all the way to the bottom before they see info about editing. My suggestion would be to reduce the "Today in Trek history" and "Upcoming or Recent Episodes and Media" parts something similar to the links in the "Browse Memory Alpha" section at the top. Also I think we should relate the pic of the day to something at least close to the same lines as the article of the week IE each of the pics this week should revolve around Rene Auberjonois or his character Odo. I feel that having a main page that is 4 screen lengths long is a bit much and makes it feel cluttered. --User with a probe 21:17, 17 January 2007 (UTC)


 * The front page is to long. The today in trek histroy can be shorten to the size of the did you know, or taken and put on it's own page entirly. The Upcoming or Recent Episodes and Media setion should have it's own page. That way it can be expanded, and all the countries that broadcast Star Trek can be shown. The lastest news can also be shorten to three bullets.Further more I feel that the browse section should be under the news and fetured article. – Randomname 15:56, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

2007
Um... now that its 2007 should the "Celebrating 40 Years of Star Trek" banner come down? --User with a probe 01:00, 18 January 2007 (UTC) Perhaps we could change it to "Celebrating 20 years of TNG"...? Tired_ 03:51, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Good point, I think it's finally time to remove the banner as well. (Just 4 more years for the 45th anniversary ;)) - Enzo Aquarius 01:02, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree that it should be removed. --Defiant 02:21, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I tried to remove it, Shran overruled a talk page discussion suggesting that it be removed. --OuroborosCobra talk 03:13, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
 * The 40th anniversary year doesn't end until September 8th, 2007. But, if you want it removed, then removed it shall be. --From Andoria with Love 03:31, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Nevermind, Cobra already took it upon himself to do it. You.... bad person, you. :-P --From Andoria with Love 03:32, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
 * *gasp* :P - Enzo Aquarius 03:34, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
 * An interesting prospect... - Enzo Aquarius 03:55, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

A Italian-language Memory Alpha

 * Discussion moved to Other MA versions thread in Ten Forward. -- Renegade54 15:36, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

punctuation
please mind your commas and whatnot especially when doing the news. Front page...typos...doesn't make for a good first impression of the site.

''Tige Andrews, the actor who played the Klingon (omit this comma), Kras, in the "Friday's Child" episode of TOS, died 27 January 2007 at the age of 86. [1] TOS assistant director Claude Binyon, Jr., also died on this day, aged 76. [2]'' --Babaganoosh 06:33, 5 February 2007 (UTC)


 * While I agree we should be as correct in spelling/grammar/form as possible, I highly doubt anyone would have noticed (or cared about) a stray comma. Nonetheless, the comma has been removed and we are currently interrogating it to learn the whereabouts of the other misplaced commas. --From Andoria with Love 11:51, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

mu:Main Page and mu:Special:Recentchanges
Hello, the interwiki mu language link doesn't work the way it should in every homepages of MA wikis. We all get an addition of a "mu:Main Page|mu:Main Page" at the bottom of the page. As equal, I get on fr:Special:Recentchanges right from "pages d'Aide et de Copyrights" words: a mu:Special:Recentchanges link, too. Any fix for these weird things? Thx. --StarTrekMan(Talk 13:26, 21 March 2007 (UTC)


 * It was something broken in the upgrade. It's been reported to Wikia, and we're just awaiting a fix now.  The reason for such is that it was (as I understand it) a special case interwiki link. -- Sulfur 13:50, 21 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Thx for your input here and there, I was hoping it wasn't caused by the upgrade. I was wrong. :-/ Let' wait, now! :-) --StarTrekMan(Talk 14:12, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Project Cardinal
Here's a decent question for all of you;

Project Cardinal, for those of you who don't know, is an underground movement to get a new show entitled Star Trek: Cardinal on the air. In the past, the project seemed almost laughable, but over the last few months, with rumors that Manny Cota is now involved in the project, it's become something of a Trek phenomenon.

My question is; Is it important enough to get its own article on Memory Alpha? Just a little something explaining it as an underground movement and all that good stuff, just like we have articles for novels, actors and other real-world entries


 * Must be very underground-y, still, because I can't even get any Google hits for it. In any case, no, not until it has been announced as an official future series... and it's Coto. -- Cid Highwind 09:42, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

That's what underground means. If you'd like information, contact the president at ST-Cardinal@hotmail.com


 * If it's so underground, then at this point in time, I'd say, no. It doesn't deserve comment right now.  :) -- Sulfur 01:55, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Very well, just thought I'd ask, though I do suggest it gets added as it builds up steam – Keras 07:38, 25 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Yeah. Let it stay underground for the moment... :) -- Cid Highwind 10:48, 25 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Especially since there's no mention of anything about it at Manny Coto's page, other than a comment a couple of days ago on his forum board from someone asking for his input, stating that it is "a movement with thousands of supporters spread across the entire world." The problem is, with no information on it what-so-ever, and no obvious support from Mr. Coto, this is, at the moment, nothing more than unpublished fan fiction. -- Sulfur 13:30, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Cardinal is picking up steam

Forum:MediaWiki Question! Hiding main page title?
Hello.

I noticed that, like on Wikipedia and most other Wikimedia wiki's, Memory-Alpha has the title of the main page (Portal:Main) hidden.

I was woundering how that was done. --JohanTenge 20:18, 12 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Here, it is done via CSS. See MediaWiki:Common.css, the lines following the comment "Hiding .firstHeading, #siteSub, #contentSub on pages in ns:Portal". That hides the title on all "portal" namespace pages. The same can now be done for individual pages, because each page got an individual body class with the MW1.9 update. The class of this page, for example, is: "page-Forum_MediaWiki_Question_Hiding_main_page_title".


 * IIRC, Wikipedia achieved something similar by using JavaScript. -- Cid Highwind 20:29, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

The Black Donnellys
On the main page it says NBC has canceled The Black Donnellys. What does that have to do with Star Trek? - Patricknoddy Talk 20:53, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
 * As the note says, one of the performers was Kate Mulgrew, a Trek actress, one that played a series captain no less. --OuroborosCobra talk 20:56, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Just because of a actress doesn't mean that is technically related to ST. - Patricknoddy Talk 22:00, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes it is, by our standards here. We keep up as much news as possible related to the main Trek performers and what they are doing. If we didn't, there really wouldn't be a whole lot to stick in the news section. --OuroborosCobra talk 22:40, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

Português do Brasil or Português flag?
The left sidebar is mentionned with a "Português do Brasil" wording... Shouldn't we change for the Brasil flag? --STAR TREK Man(Space... the final frontier ) 10:02, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * We typically (as do most others) use the flag of the "mother country" of the language, i.e. England for English (even if it's American English, or Australian English, or Canadian English, etc.), France for French (even if it's Canadian French, etc.), Germany for German (even if it's Swiss German, etc.)... or Portugal for Portuguese. -- Renegade54 12:16, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Ok, so, why the mention in the left sidebar "... do Brasil"? Left it short: "Português", instead? --STAR TREK Man(Space... the final frontier ) 12:53, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * As was explained by the Admin of MA/pt, Brazilian Portuguese is quite rather different from "standard" Portuguese, something along the lines of Parisian French to Quebecois, but even more exaggerated I guess. That, and it was his choice. :) -- Sulfur 13:01, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

He said "A versão em português" over there. But its interwiki links are tagged with "pt-br"!? I still don't get it but, never mind. No big deal here. Renegade answered the mother tongue position for the flags and Im ok with that. Thx. --STAR TREK Man(Space... the final frontier ) 13:30, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * As far as the "do Brasil" goes, the text in the sidebar for a given interwiki link is automatically generated by the MediaWiki software, and since the Wikia tech folks used the Brazilian Portuguese template when setting up MA/pt, the interwiki link became "pt-br" and the resulting text for the interwiki links became "Português do Brasil" rather than simply "Português". (Even though the url for the Portuguese version is "http://memory-alpha.org/pt/..." rather than "http://memory-alpha.org/pt-br/...", which would be analogous to the Chinese url, which is "http://memory-alpha.org/zh-cn/..." . Go figure.) -- Renegade54 14:25, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Now, I get it! ;-) Thanks for enlightning. --STAR TREK Man(Space... the final frontier ) 18:58, 27 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Isn't supposed to be spelled Brazil? - Patricknoddy Talk 22:00, 4 May 2007 (UTC)


 * In french, it's "s". And StarTrek Man is french. :) -- Sulfur 22:15, 4 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually, in this case, it has nothing to do with French or Star Trek Man... it's spelled "Brasil" in Portuguese. :P -- Renegade54 11:32, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

June 8th 10th 2007
3rd annual Trek convention. held in Bonn Germany posted by commander data


 * Yes, that's nice... And that has what to do with the main page? --From Andoria with Love 13:28, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

LATEST NEWS: 16 May 2007
Slight correction: Phillip Pine played Colonel Green in, not. njr75003 06:42, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Sorry...what does this have to do with the main title page?--SebastianProoth 07:26, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


 * It came to the light recently that Phillip Pine had died in late 2006. It may be old news, but it's news nonetheless. It's listed in the "Latest News" section on the main page and had the wrong episode citation, which I just corrected from "All Our Yesterdays" to "The Savage Curtain". --Jörg 07:35, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Understood. Thanks for clearing that up.--SebastianProoth 07:55, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Special:Wantedpages lists many episode pages that already exist

 * Discussion moved to Template talk:EpLink to keep it all in one place...

Something screwy with the pic of the day
We've still got the Phlox image up but clearly there are other images that've been tagged for days since the Odyssey one came up. Anybody know what's up?--76.199.8.123 13:22, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm seeing Leonard, the iguana, which is the correct pic for 12 September. Try flushing your browser cache and reloading the page. -- Renegade54 14:05, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah nuts you're right I hadn't thought about that.--76.199.8.123 23:20, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

To Protective About Main Page
It's been in my head for a while now, but I never got the energy to ask about it. It is understandable that the Main Page is protected for all non-admin. But when it comes to the AOTW. Everybody can nominate a featured-article-page to be an AOTW. but, when it is a new week, and we have a new AOTW, only admins can edit the template. thus, only admins can really change the AOTW. Can't we make it so that atleast ArticleOfTheWeek-template is not protected for non-admins? I mean, sure, you can just ask an admin to make the switch, but it takes time. and if you would find errors that made it through, like that for this weeks AOTW (Dominion War) the source-episode-list is not complete, a few episodes are missing, you can't fix it yourself. You would have to ask an admin, and wait for him/her to do it.

If you are worried about vandals, let me remind you of this: it is not so easy to change the AOTW displayed. We have a lot of users that could fix it just seconds after it was damaged. and it is not just to click edit, you would have to find it first. and that is not the easiest thing to do for a new visitor, or a new user. Any thoughts about my thoughts?-- Örlogskapten. Qapl'a! 16:48, 29 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Part of the issue there is a bug in the mediawiki code. Our choices are:
 * Cascade protect
 * Protect each item individually, which means protecting the POTD items and AOTW items (and pictures!) when they change.
 * The first means that certain things have to be updated by admins.
 * The second means that an admin has to be constantly protecting/un-protecting articles and images.
 * You can certainly see which requires less work.
 * Oh, and the AOTW source list... adding the two extra episodes to it goes over the limit. Grand scheme of things, missing one episode in the cite?  Not a disaster.  Especially when there are so many listed already.  It almost seems like the citation is longer than the blurb! -- Sulfur 17:22, 29 October 2007 (UTC)


 * What he said... although there's a third option - create weekly subpages, just like the "Did You Know" feature has. That way, future AotWs could be edited by anyone and would automatically be displayed on the main page and protected on monday morning server time. If someone wants to work on that change, go ahead. Maybe we could combine that with a general cleanup of all the scattered AotW pages and instructions... -- Cid Highwind 17:51, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Tnx for fast answers. I do see the problem Sulfur described, and I do like Cid's idea. I don't know how to make the idea possible, i'm not used to mediawikicode (or other code for that matter). But I hope that anyone that know how to do it, will do it :-D. -- Örlogskapten. Qapl'a! 18:36, 29 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Done. -- Renegade54 19:13, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

WGA strike
For the "News", maybe add something about the WGA strike and the fact that Orci and Kurtzman are striking, as well as Lindelof and JJ in between filming for the movie? WGA strike at trekmovie.com
 * As long as it isn't worded to sound like it is going to impact production of the new movie, as it won't. We have precedent for reporting things about those involved in the production of Trek that don't directly impact Trek, as what new series they are starring in, etc. This may be worth putting on the main page, but it needs to be worded carefully. --OuroborosCobra talk 01:44, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't think there's any need to add it to the main page. We know there's a writers' strike going on. Abrams, Orci, Kurtzman and Lindelof happen to be WGA members (as all Hollywood writers are), hence they are required to strike. The news is that there's a strike, not which members are involved. And since the strike isn't related to Trek and won't affect the film, I don't think there's really a need to add it. Just my opinion.
 * We could just alert people that production Star Trek won't be affected by the strike, although Abrams, Orci, Kurtzman, and Lindelof are striking. We can cite this report here. --From Andoria with Love 05:29, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm just updating the news page now about the start of shooting, and stating that production will not be affected. It seems appropriate to include it there as an aside, instead of as a separate item. -- Michael Warren | Talk 12:53, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I knew it would affect production, but it is a good thing to note. --75.1.136.53 01:22, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree, and I don't think anything further needs to be mentioned unless it affects the new movie. 31dot 02:33, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

hey everybody?
Is this only happening to me?! —  THOR  =/\= 02:48, 13 November 2007 (UTC)


 * A-men I had the same comment below !
 * Hrm, all better now. A glitch?  How often do they affect us?  —   THOR  =/\= 02:55, 13 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Last time I visited Memory Alpha a few months back it had a really nice main page and all the pages were of consitent style. Now there is a huge banner ad down the right hand side and its all white instead of grey. What is going on? Love the content though, amazing research and knowledge! Kudos


 * Some testing was going on, and a bug was discovered in the mediawiki software as relates to the skins chosen. Unfortunately, it has the side effect of making things look... well... not so good at the moment. -- Sulfur 02:56, 13 November 2007 (UTC)


 * A bug in the MediaWiki software? GASP! How can this be? They've been oh-so reliable in the past! Say it ain't so!!! --From Andoria with Love 04:31, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

IMDb character profiles.
I have a question. I've seen it on wikipedia but is there anyway to link character profiles from IMDb.com to the character articles in the External links? Here's the Kira Nerys profile on IMDb as an example. Fleet Admiral Selene 23:51, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Like this,, which gives you . -- Renegade54 19:58, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Gah. Those are pretty awful profiles I must say.  Not entirely certain what they gain us (if anything at all), but that's just me really. -- Sulfur 20:01, 28 November 2007 (UTC)

SPIKE
Did spike drop the morning DS9 again? I didn't see it. :( 24.253.224.152 19:11, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I just registered, so I can't edit, but the main page is wrong about Voyager. It is not on x3 at 4pm, but x2. It is 6pm now and CSI is on. If someone could update it...Ciderbarrel 23:11, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Voyager is now x3 at 3pm, and DS9 is only 2am, no 11am– 207.172.154.188 03:14, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Spike seems to have removed DS9 from the lineup. Blade: The Series airs in its place instead on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Voyager airs twice in the day at 3PM and 4PM (CST GMT-6) and again at night at 12AM (again, CST GMT-6). – Jeffala 18:47, 11 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I have not seen DS9 on Spike in some time, if the series has been dropped (Already?), then perhaps it should be removed from the where to watch under spike. --Terran Officer 00:31, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Links to Memory Beta
What happened to all the links to Memory Beta in the articles? It was one of the more useful features of this train wreck of a wiki.68.190.213.230 12:38, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
 * The links are all still there, and thanks for the complement, always encourages help :| --OuroborosCobra talk 13:41, 10 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Train wreck of a wiki? The one thing I can honestly say, is that the longer you stick around here, the more the rules make sense.  If you disagree with something, register and help.  – Hossrex 23:35, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

The language links table
It seems that the Serbian language (Српски језик) is quite long in it's native alphabet and frells up the ratio for the little table at the top. I submit the following solution: change the widths of the columns from 50/50 to 47/53. Hoogamagoo 14:26, 12 December 2007 (UTC)
 * It looks fine to me. Could it be your resolution? --From Andoria with Love 06:24, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Fine for me too, I'm running at 1280x800 (widescreen), so that skews things. --OuroborosCobra talk 06:26, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm on 1280x1040, ftr. --From Andoria with Love 06:50, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm... I use 1280X800 (widescreen) as well. I'm using Firefox and I'm running Ubuntu Linux. I propose the theory that it's my default font (Bitstream Vera Sans). But anyway, is it worth bothering making a minor imperceivable change (to most) for us in the minority -- and we're a growing minority! :-) Hoogamagoo 16:36, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Or you could change your font. ;) I don't think such a minor change will be a problem, though. I can't do it right now (plus I want to wait and see what others say) but I think we can change it shortly. --Not From Andoria, but Still with Love
 * I'm at 1280x1024 using Firefox on Windows XP, and it looks fine on my system as well. -- Renegade54 17:06, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Starfleet Command School
I've been trying to figure out exactly how long (on average) it takes to get through Starfleet Command School. I know that the Academy is 4 Years (or so I've been told), but I've never found out how long Command School takes. I tried a search on Google and found some mixed results. Some had it pegged as 1 Year, others had it as 2 Years.

Suggestions, Number Ones? – Joseph T. Kirk 00:52, 16 December 2007 (UTC)


 * That's not what this talk page is for; you want reference desk, my friend. --From Andoria with Love 19:41, 16 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Sorry about that. I still haven't quite gotten ahold of the ropes here. Thanks for the redirection.--Joseph T. Kirk 20:57, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

New Error
There's a huge typo... it says Decemner 27 instead of December 27. -- 66.229.53.170 15:13, 27 December 2007 (UTC)