User:Cid Highwind/Talkpage/Archive2008-2011

This is an archive of discussions/messages/notes which formerly appeared on my talk page. Please visit that page to start a new discussion - do not modify this page!

Good for you
I commend you on voicing your opinions while still remaining professional. That's how an admin should behave. Have a wonderful day. -FC 14:29, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Harem
Hey Cid, is it really necessary to remove a one line explanation of what a term means? --- Jaz 00:13, 4 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes - because we've been removing these "translation hints" throughout the site for quite some time. We're an encyclopedia, not a dictionary. In fact, I think it was even worse in this case (where a real-world term was translated/"explained") than in others, where the name of a fictional item is related to some obscure earth term. -- Cid Highwind 08:55, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks
I'm probably going to spend the next few days making sure I understand all the procedures involved. I'll let you know if I need some guidance. And likewise, if I screw something up, let me know. :-) Anyway, thanks! – Cleanse 00:12, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

RE: FA vote, private message
It's nowhere near as unspecific as you rhetorically make it sound. Your second bullet hits it right on the head. Thank you for being unequivocal there. To have expressed that opinion didn't in any way rule out considering your first or fourth bullets.

Of course, ending discussion and proceeding immediately to some race-to-implement is not what would happen. I think my personal record shows that I collaborate, and that I don't contribute what the community does not want.

...and: Voting doesn't work on wikis? Especially not this one? Hm. This site's members tell contributors all the time that consensus has determined what contributions are acceptable. FA, FA deletion, category creation, article deletion, merging, all of that happens by vote around here. I followed those examples when asking for "yea"s and "nay"s. I guess I've learned a lesson. Sincerely - thanks for teaching me it. I honestly see that it will help me around here in the future. Sorry if it caused more pain in the neck than there could have been. --TribbleFurSuit 19:00, 26 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, first of all, a simple "majority vote" is not the same as "reaching a consensus". Second, even the examples you cite are not just "majority votes". FA nomination needs a reason to "oppose", and once that reason is taken care of, the "opposing" comment counts towards the necessary minimum of 5 comments - not a majority vote. Category creation is a simple matter of "discuss first, act later" to bring up possible problems before they even become problems - not a majority vote. Deletion suggestions aren't resolved based on just the number of pro and contra "votes", but also based on the interpretation of existing policy - not a majority vote. Also, this "vote-like process" is one we agreed on, by consensus, as a means to standardize an otherwise very complicated consensus-finding discussion in each and every individual case. Merging isn't really a process at all, but rather a "request for comments", again to allow for discussion of problems before something is done (the page history merge) that can't easily be undone.


 * In case you're interested, there's this Wikipedia guideline page that details some of the underlying ideas better and more thorough than I could do on this page: Wikipedia:Polling is not a substitute for discussion. -- Cid Highwind 19:40, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks again. I'll look at at that. --TribbleFurSuit 19:47, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Mirror Universe MA edition
The Mirror Universe edition is rather deserted right now, but still a few people are working on it. However, since none of the admins are among the active crowd (god, what an overstatement! XD) and since I do want to see this project continued, I was wondering about how and where to apply for an admin position for that edition. You were listed as one of the MA/mu admins, so I thought I'd ask here, since MA/en is still the most frequented one of all. I'd appreciate a reply either to any of my three talk pages on MA/de, MA/en or MA/mu, or via E-Mail: click! - Bell&#39;Orso 14:15, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

"Unused" maintenance files
I cant tell if the following are used or linked anywhere but do we know why they were (are otherwise) showing up in limbo? --Alan 22:57, 18 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I added some comments to the above image gallery. There are three that are most definitely not in use (+1 probably) and could be deleted. The others are still in use in one or another fashion and should not be deleted (will check the "unsure" cases later). They show up as "unused" because they are not included using the Wikicode for images anywhere, but just via some CSS formatting instruction. -- Cid Highwind 23:43, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

So can we delete some of these? --13:36, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, and..
don't hesitate to correct anything that I might do or give me tips.--31dot 22:07, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

JJ Abrams Interview
Hi Cid, I'm on the Wikia Entertainment team and wanted to let you know about an upcoming interview between the memory-alpha community and JJ Abrams! People in the community can submit questions via talk page, Admins will determine the 10-20 best questions, we'll send the questions to Mr. Abrams, and he'll reply via email. This is a great opportunity to attract new readers and users to the wiki and should be alot of fun. More details are here: -- Karim (talk ) 18:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

RE: ST XI images
OK. I don't know whether the images are from trailers or publicity images. They look like they came from trailers. So if it is OK, I'll just use the conventional Paramount fair use citataton. It is Paramount's material anyhow. Thanks:). – Crimsondawnhears you... 12:31, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I am listing the images on the forum page. is there any special message template I should put on the image pages? – Crimsondawnhears you... 12:48, 9 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I chose the pna-cite. The images really do not look like pirated material; they look far too clean to be from some video camera hidden in a cinema. But there are video editors that improve quality, as well as image editors that do the same. So you are right; one cannot be sure of the source unless clearly stated. – Crimsondawnhears you... 12:59, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Removing realworld from sidebars
Hang on, Cid - might it not be better to have a bot remove the duplicate templates from the pages, rather than dropping it from the sidebar? As it stands, we now have episodes that do not have realworld on them. Finding and fixing them will be difficult, whereas every episode and film has the sidebar on it... -- Michael Warren | Talk 12:19, 12 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Not sure, actually. ;) Whether we remove-from-all or add-to-all, someone or something will have to work through all articles once. In that case, removing has the additional benefit of not hiding a template call in another one that should be independent. -- Cid Highwind 12:24, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Oops!
It appears that somehow my comment on Memory Alpha:Pages for deletion/Microgravity overwrote yours, rather than causing an edit conflict. I'm not sure how that happened... sorry! -- Renegade54 13:54, 14 May 2009 (UTC)


 * No problem, didn't believe it to be done deliberately. :) Strange, though - did you leave the edit page open for some time, before finally sending your comment? -- Cid Highwind 13:57, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I did have it open for a bit... and left the page to get the link and then came back to it. Perhaps that's what did it? Odd. -- Renegade54 14:00, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Too soft?
I didn't want to over-ride your block, but 3 days seems kind of soft for a user whose only edit was blatant hate speech and vandalism. User:173.24.255.219. How would you feel about upping that? --- Jaz  08:46, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * It's an anon with no history. 3 days. That's usually enough to chase 'em off. -- sulfur 11:14, 28 May 2009 (UTC)


 * What he said. Long blocks for IP addresses don't make much sense, in most cases - especially not for a first time offense. So, no, I'm not going to up that. -- Cid Highwind 14:17, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

MA Bylaws
Hey Cid! Question: What, if anything, represents the bylaws for the administration of MA? Is there any single document/page that lays them out or are they just kind of built into the policies and guidelines pages? Thanks.--Hribar 23:31, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Podcast
I apologise if this is the wrong space to do this in. I am not trying to spam. I wanted to make you aware of our podcast. It is entirely based on the Deep Space Nine series. I can say that we use this site as a research tool fairly often and appreciate your contributiuon to the Star Trek universe.

Also I was wondering if there was a proper channel within Memory Alpha to present our podcast. I was hopeing to find an e-mail address, but I hope this serves the same purpose.

The Gamma Quadrant

http://gammaquadrant.libsyn.com/

ds9podcast@gmail.com

We are also in the iTunes store under The Gamma Quadrant.

Thank You.

Examples for Also
Here's a short list of examples that I was talking to you about. &mdash; Morder 01:47, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Demons of Air and Darkness
 * The Changeling (episode)
 * Rigelian
 * Damar

Congratulations - JJ Abrams Interview Prize!
Hi Cid,

I'm on Wikia's entertainment team. I'd like to congratulate you on winning a limited edition Star Trek USB card/drive for your submitted question in the JJ Abrams interview! There were 7 prizes, so we picked 7 winners at random from the 20 that had their questions accepted by the community. Please email me within the next 5 days at: karim@wikia-inc.com to claim your prize. Please include your name, address, and phone number. If I don't hear back within 5 days, I'll have to offer up the USB card to the next winner on the list. Thanks, and Congrats! -- Karim (talk ) 22:47, 16 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Like Bp, I'd like to give some details about it, now that the USB Card has arrived:
 * The card itself has credit card size, and is about three times as thick as a standard CC. The USB connector is designed to flip out of the card and can be turned around 180°. One side of the card contains an image of Baby Spock, the other one the text "Spock's first day, his ears have already piqued.", the StarTrekmovie.com URL and the slogan "In Theaters May 8th". In the upper left corner, there's a code "PP17". An image of the card design can be found here
 * The USB drive has a size of 256MB, and contains three "Exclusive Wallpapers", each in four different sizes. See gallery below, other wallpapers can be found in the blog linke to above.


 * -- Cid Highwind 19:06, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

again for bands
hello! again me for bands. In 1st, thank you very much !!! in 2nd are you picture band creator ??? how did you make those ??? are they your own fancreations ??? C-IMZADI-4 21:54, September 4, 2009 (UTC)


 * Hi. Are you referring to the background images? Yes, I did those, with input from others of the community. They are simply screenshots from various episodes, adjusted to the correct size, and then with a color gradient to black added to them. This can be done using any photo-manipulation software like Gimp (free) or, if available, Photoshop. -- Cid Highwind 12:39, September 6, 2009 (UTC)

hi! yes ! that was my question ! it's interesting, I'm going to try to make my own bands, how you explained me !!! thank you C-IMZADI-4 14:47, September 6, 2009 (UTC)

Hi; if I want to make my owns bands (no use MA-en) in MA-fr; I have to change in "mediwiki:common.css" like you? or in my fr base Can I make it more easy ?

I tried to make it, so it's hard. you can see my BIG labor on MA-fr. Picture: here: fr:Fichier:Bannière livres.png for others on "mediawikicommon.css" and our template which names "fr:Modèle:Bannières". thanks. C-IMZADI-4 09:11, September 13, 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm sorry, but I'm terribly busy at the moment, so I can only be of superficial help. Perhaps one of the other guys can help you out, or it will have to wait until later. Anyway, I see you already managed to create a new subtemplate with its own graphic. That's basically all there is to do. One thing you might want to keep in mind: the formatting of the template works best if the image file is exactly as big as the ones we use (500x75px, example). -- Cid Highwind 10:46, September 13, 2009 (UTC)

Ok ! thank you very much for answer me ! good luck for you activities. C-IMZADI-4 11:21, September 13, 2009 (UTC)

ok I WON against codes, I made my band... I know now... Thank you see you read you have a nice day !!! C-IMZADI-4 07:12, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

Riker's birth stardate
I added an incite, but I'd appreciate it if you would clarify your statement that the stardate is in fact correct in the new discussion on the Riker page, so we can resolve this matter as soon as possible. Thanks. – NotOfTheBody 19:20, December 20, 2009 (UTC)


 * Just did. -- Cid Highwind 19:34, December 20, 2009 (UTC)

Rockband
Would that user be the same as User:Rock band and User:Rock Band, the former of which was blocked indefinitely for harassment and block circumvention? I'm beginning to suspect this, but am not certain.--31dot 22:35, January 1, 2010 (UTC)


 * Comparing their user pages, it seems more than likely. Thanks for bringing that up, I'll have an eye on that. :) -- Cid Highwind 22:49, January 1, 2010 (UTC)

Broken template
It seems that I broke tl yesterday. Just FYI. Fixed now. -- sulfur 12:06, February 2, 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I was just wondering about that. ;) -- Cid Highwind 12:14, February 2, 2010 (UTC)

My rampant adding of categories to templates and trying to clean them up (etc) ended up putting a rampant line break at the end of the actual transcluded code for that one. Oops. -- sulfur 12:18, February 2, 2010 (UTC)
 * That's what you get for being so rampant all the time! :) -- Cid Highwind 12:19, February 2, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the Assist
I used the wrong program to crop the Roxann Dawson image; thing not only copped it, but made it smaller. Thanks for the blow-up back to original proportions. :)– CrimsondawnTalk yuh talk 11:42, February 3, 2010 (UTC)

Malware Message popping up on Macs
Hi there,

Just today I encountered a strange thing on my Mac. When I went to Memory-Alpha to double check a a character from one of the Simon & Schuster books, a message box popped up stating that Malware had been found on your website and directed me to a Google Diagnostic page (http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?tpl=safari&site=212.117.180.54&hl=en-us).

This doesn't happen on my PC, only on my Mac. Our system admin also said it popped up on his screen as well, and that it was probably related to ads on the Memory-Alpha's website. Either way, your site has now become unusable, as every time I click the ignore button to resume my search on your website, an error screen with the malware box continues to pop up, rendering use of the site unusable.

Can anyone in admin or staff look into this? I'm not sure if it's something related to my computer only. However, if it affects others, and is indeed indicative of malware in the ads, then it's a problem for everyone in the Trek community.

Memory-Alpha is a wonderful site and I use it quite frequently to do extra research on any number of issues concerning characters, canon, and all the Trek minutia I can't cram adequately into my brain. I'm hoping this is just a temporary glitch.

Many thanks

Marian Cordry


 * I will forward this to the people in charge of ads, thanks for the note. Can you eventually identify the ad that leads to these problems? Either giving its URL, or at least describing its content? -- Cid Highwind 23:28, February 4, 2010 (UTC)


 * It must be an ad, since I use a Mac all the time, and have all ads hidden away. -- sulfur 01:22, February 5, 2010 (UTC)

Hi Cid - the url for when this happens is just the Memory-Alpha homepage (http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Portal:Main). It opens normally, then all of a sudden the screen turns to the grey background with a box that then pops up. The heading is "Warning: Visiting this site may harm your compter." Below it explains: "The website you are visiting appears to contain malware.  Malware is malicious software that may harm your computer or otherwise operate without your consent.  Your computer can be infected just by browsing to a site with malware, without any further action on your part.  For detailed information about problems found on this site, or a portion of this site, visit the Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page for 212.117.180.54."

It has two buttons at the bottom of this message: "Ignore warning" or "Go Back". When I hit ignore, it goes back to the site, but then quickly goes back to a grey screen with the same warning message.

Sulfur - you said you disable your ads - how do you do this? Would you be able to email me separately? I don't mean to infer that I support an ad-less website, as I know it's important for the support it lends, but I need to be able to access the site for research.

Many thanks,

Marian


 * That's definitely an ad then. It goes to a site registered in Luxembourg.  I use the "adblock" extension on FireFox on my Mac with no issues.  Can you take a screen shot of the page in question when that happens?  You can upload it here and post the image on this page.  That way we can track the nasty ad down and have it removed from the rotation. -- sulfur 02:08, February 5, 2010 (UTC)

Hi Sulfur - well, I just went on again, and of course it's not happening anymore. Also, I received an email from the Wikia Community Team. Here's what it read: " Hello!

Thanks for your malware report. We got multiple reports of the malware issue today, as numerous content sites over the web were targeted by the malicious ad. We believe this has been fixed and are waiting at least 12 hours to re-evaluate the issue to make sure that everyone's cache clears the issue out.If you still see the issue tomorrow morning, please, please, don't hesitate to email me back.

We deeply apologize for any inconvenience and unfortunate security issue."

It's signed Tim Quievryn. Not sure how to go about detecting malware on a Mac - any suggestions out there? If this problem happens again, I will definitely take a screenshot. I had so much to do today that it completely escaped me. Marian

Of sidebars and CSS...
I first off want to point out that I have the deepest respect for the work you do here and the sheer amount of time you've had with the project, and while I disagree, passionately at times, with some of ideas you have, I hope that it isn't taken as personal. I say this since I've seen how these things can get out of hand, and I feel it may be better to point this out now rather then latter.

That said, I'll leave the sidebar madness to its respective pages, and instead mention this. On Forum:My Home, I purposed a change to the look of the user mastheads, since this bright thing above every user page is not blending in well at all with the overall (default) skin. I have been able to get something rather close to my original idea (see below User:Archduk3/monaco.css) by shamelessly using code from the WOW wiki to bolster my complete lack of skill with this; it may be obvious by now but my 'skills' with wiki code are more "pakled" than anything else. It may require a few more tweaks to be up to snuff with the rest of MA, but this is better than nothing.

- 23:46, February 5, 2010 (UTC) UPDATED: 19:11, February 12, 2010 (UTC)

IRC
Pop in...? -- sulfur 21:37, February 28, 2010 (UTC)


 * Sorry, went offline shortly after ranting. Perhaps today? :) -- Cid Highwind 11:06, March 1, 2010 (UTC)

Abbrev Discussion
Cid, thanks for your response on the bots. My question, about changing subsequent mentions of ranks within articles to their abbreviation only seems logical. If this is a repository of information, repeating the same long word within an article seems to me to be superfluous. So that's why I was stating that if we are going to use, most commonly, Lieutenant in an article more than once, then each subsequent writing of the word, after the first time, should abbreviated to Lt. to save room and to improve readability. The same would go for Commander --> Cmdr. What I got from your response was that you wouldn't want to see that, correct? I'd really like to know your thoughts on the matter.--Obey the Fist!! 13:43, March 5, 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, of course. I believe that it doesn't really improve readability to do that. Either there are only few mentions of the rank throughout a whole article, or rank is mentioned each and every time the name is given. If it is the former, then I think it wouldn't be bad to spell out the rank completely, instead of going with abbreviations like "Lt.jg". "Saving room" isn't really that much of an issue here. However, if it is the latter, then it might be better to drop the rank completely from most occurrences of the name instead of changing it to an abbreviation. -- Cid Highwind 15:45, March 6, 2010 (UTC)

Archduk3
Given that at least seven days have passed since I nominated Archduk3 for admin powers, and there has been support of the motion with no objections, I believe that the nomination should be considered successful as per the nomination policy and the powers granted, unless you oppose the nomination.--31dot 00:50, March 22, 2010 (UTC)

Please Delete My Account
Dear "Cid,"

I'm not bright enough to contribute to Memory Alpha. I tried in vain to find out how to close or delete my account, without success. If you're able to, kindly remove my account, or explain how I could do so, and I won't bother anyone anymore.

I have the honor to be

Cordial-Lee yours,

Paul Lee (my real name; I consider aliases often silly and cowardly, but not on a site like this, where they seem appropriate)


 * Hi Paul. It isn't possible to outright "delete" your account, because several contributions are connected to that account, and our licensing requests that individual contributors to an article can be identified. What could be done (perhaps) is that your account name gets changed to some anonymous alias, so that no one can identify the "real you". I'm not sure this is necessary considering the non-offensive nature of the contributions you have made - but if you want that, please leave a note, and I'll try to get Wikia involved. The easier solution would be to just walk away and simply not use the account. -- Cid Highwind 10:20, April 28, 2010 (UTC)

MAlf
You wrote some funny stuff over there, once upon a time. Be nice to have you back. --GNDN 16:42, May 5, 2010 (UTC)

Events category
If you could take a moment to comment on the refined suggestion, since I believe the scope of the purposed categories has changed since you last popped in. - 09:18, May 8, 2010 (UTC)

Printing pxs
I am unable to print any pictures that are under gallery and the px look enlarged, pxs not in gallery mode are fine. When I hit print preview, it shows the pxs as blank. If I log out the px under gallery look normal and can be printed. Some help please. I have not changed my preferences. Shamutto 18:38, July 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * Wikia seems to be doing something goofy to the galleries, again, so I doubt the problem is you. The reason for the difference between logged in and logged out is most likely because when logged out you are actually seeing an old cached version of the page, or image, or the recent changes, or everything. It should fix itself in a few days... - 02:15, July 15, 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually looks like this is another "upgrade". Hopefully we can get these things looking back to "normal" soon. I already posted a comment about this preventing the images from printing, so we'll see what they have to say about that. - 02:44, July 15, 2010 (UTC)

Thank You. Will you please keep me updated about this.Shamutto 13:38, July 17, 2010 (UTC)

New twist in gallery problem. When I pulled up unnamed humans, the gallery pix were fine, I did an edit and the gallery pixs became enlarged and unprintable. This has happened every time I edit an article with gallery pxs. Also even when logged out the gallery px are goofy. Shamutto 20:04, July 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * Do you edit with the fancy rich text editor, or with the direct wiki interface? If it's with the rich text editor, turn it off.  It breaks more than it fixes. -- sulfur 00:29, July 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * The reason the images enlarge when you edit a page is because by doing so the gallery "updates" with the new wikia standard. I'm working on a way to reduce them back to something reasonable, but to be honest, they broke it so badly this time that we may have to start thinking of a workaround. - 02:15, July 18, 2010 (UTC)

Any good news concerning the picture problem. Thank you.Shamutto 17:29, July 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * Based on what has been said in the blog at Central, the problem seems to be that galleries are now background images instead of HTML images, Cid could probably explain what that means (or if it's correct), and bg images don't print. Wikia says they're working on it, so there's that, I guess. - 00:02, July 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * Images can be included in a web page either as "content" of the page (via the standard IMG tag) - or they can be included as background images, which is typically not used for content images but only for design and layout of a page. For example, the "broken scanlines" image is the background image of all MA pages, and the "red/black gradient" image is a background image for some of our page and table headers. When printing, the style of a web page is reduced to a layout more sensible for paper, and background images are often (or always?) not displayed. This is why using background images for graphics that are content is a stupid idea! -- Cid Highwind 10:14, July 27, 2010 (UTC)


 * I wholeheartedly agree that's a stupid idea. If the gallery images are currently configured as background images, to get them to print, you'll need to enable printing of background images in your browser (which is normally turned off to conserve ink, etc.) In Firefox, you do this via File -> Page Setup... -> Print Background (colors & images). In IE, it's basically the same. In Opera, it's Menu -> Print -> Print Options... -> Print page background. I don't currently have either Safari or Chrome installed, but there should be similar options for those as well. -- Renegade54 20:59, July 27, 2010 (UTC)

Even more...
..changes are coming it seems. Looks like wikia will be changing the skin again, amongst other things that apparently can't be mentioned. - 03:34, July 30, 2010 (UTC)

More problems with pixs
I do not mean to be a pest, but now when I bring up star trek articles, the pixs are either blank, or blank with a red x in the cornor, some are ok, but the majority are no good along with the gallery pictures that still cannot be printed. Shamutto 20:04, August 9, 2010 (UTC)

Hello friend
You don't know me, but my name is Bre now i have something that should be interesting. i have the Star Trek the Original Series the first Four Years on VHS minus episodes: 17, 20&21, 24, 28&29, 32, 36, 45-49, 57, 61, 64, 66-68. in beautiful condition! except episode 47 is missing it's case. I was hoping you might be able to tell me what it is I have and what it would be worth. please if you could help me out that would be FANTASTIC!

Creation
Who created memory alpha??

Admiralalexmann 19:25, September 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * See Memory Alpha:About. -- Cid Highwind 20:29, September 15, 2010 (UTC)

Tense revisit
Please see this and comment. -- sulfur 03:20, September 24, 2010 (UTC)

Gallery pixs
What's going on with the gallery pix. Instead of in a row going across the page, they are in an up and down row. Shamutto 017:20, September 25, 2010 (UTC)


 * Do you have an example? -- Cid Highwind 21:34, September 25, 2010 (UTC)

Yes: If you look at any of the unnamed pages, i.e. borg, bajorans, etc. the pix are not across the page when there is a gallery, but up and down in one long line. could this be a problem on my end, and if so what is the solution? Thanks.Shamutto 010:20, September 25, 2010 (UTC)


 * They look fine for me on my system. Can you take a screenshot and report the browser/etc? -- sulfur 00:33, September 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * According to the fine folks at Central, this mainly seems to happen on IE6 and IE7. - 21:34, October 8, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips.
Dear Cid:

Thanks for the tips you left on my talk page. I'm wondering: would you be willing to let me bother you now and then for such questions? Or can you recommend someone I should try to contact? I will undoubtedly need a little "hand-holding" at times. If you'd rather I not disturb you, let me know. I'm just trying to figure out the best and proper way to communicate around here.

I took your advice: on an article's talk page: I created a section saying I thought the following text from the article's intro needed to be reworked. I then posted my new version there in addition to changing the article itself. I tried to be succinct, to-the-point, and non-obsequious. I retained the former text and tried to give a few reasons why I thought it needed redoing. That is what I'm supposed to do on a talk page, right? In my edit summary I said feel free to revert but please discuss with me on the talk page. Is that appropriate?

Thanks again.

--Cepstrum 12:55, October 5, 2010 (UTC)


 * Sounds good, and I see there's already a reply to your recent comments on the Borg philosophy talk page. Seems to work. :) Of course, you can just ask if there are further questions. -- Cid Highwind 13:04, October 5, 2010 (UTC)


 * Great news, Cid! It appears as though the article's talk page could now become a place for making some significant, collaborative improvements. Thank you for letting me solicit your help/advice. I'll try to really cut down on both the number and length of edits I make to talk pages from now on. Stay on point! --Cepstrum 14:57, October 5, 2010 (UTC)

Questions from an eager newbie
Dear Cid:

You indicated I could ask you questions as I learn the ropes here. Are you still ok with that, or should I seek other avenues (such as Ten Forward)?

Here's my question: in the article Borg Philosophy, I added some information and sections and revamped the intro. In the latter, I tried to retain the essence of the material but improved prose, added links, etc. In the former case (the new material), I tried to add as many citations as possible.

On the talk page, someone noted the article is sorely lacking in citations. This is what I then did: I created a new section in the talk page about lack of citations and moved the other's comments there (they were in the section in which I described how I was going to revamp the intro.) Was that appropriate? I don't want to violate etiquette but thought a section discussing lack of citations would be useful.

I also put a "pna-cite" tag on the page. I'm hoping the other guy (or others) can point out missing citations so I can find some to insert. Note: I didn't create the essence of the article, so I don't think it was I who created the mess. But I'd like to help fix it. I'm just unclear about how many citations are needed, and I am unsure exactly how to cite (mention episodes, quotes from characters? I tried to add those things to the new parts I created.) I certainly agree about lack of citations, especially in the intro (despite my revamping and link adding): it contains info that probably is speculation.

I'm not asking you to resolve a conflict, for there is none. I just would like to know how best to proceed and whether the actions I've taken were the right course. I'd like to be able to go in and add citations/remove uncited material but am unsure how much is needed.

Thank you for your time!

--Cepstrum 13:49, October 6, 2010 (UTC)

Site statistics
Unrelated to the discussion about the new skin, is there a special page I can go to and see statistics on #of visitors per month and what not? Special:WikiStats and Special:Statistics doesn't seem to have any. &mdash; Morder (talk) 17:43, October 6, 2010 (UTC)
 * Those were the pages that had the details before. They no longer do. -- sulfur 17:47, October 6, 2010 (UTC)

Guh...thanks. Any external stats site you know of? I know there is one but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it... :) &mdash; Morder (talk) 18:14, October 6, 2010 (UTC)


 * Try alexa.com! :) -- Cid Highwind 22:41, October 6, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, Cid. I finally found the one I was looking for, Quantcast &mdash; Morder (talk) 23:17, October 6, 2010 (UTC)

Cid: can you spare me a few moments? I'm really stuck!
Dear Cid,

I've appreciated your help to me before. I've been forced to learn as much CSS as quickly as possible to make MA readable. I've been editing my "wikiaphone.css" page. So far, I've managed to get just about everything looking great as I'm learning the ropes of CSS. But I have a big problem now: I can not read text on the "preview", "forum", and "revision history" pages. The text is super dark-on-dark. I have tried changing all the settings on my CSS but cannot get the text to change to a lighter color. I don't even know what property to fiddle with. If you could just tell me which one, I could take care of it.

One thing I've contemplated (and experimented with a little) is copying the entire MA custom Monaco CSS to try figuring out where the property I'm looking for is. But it's monstrously long and hasn't helped so far.

I really need your help, for I can't even read the forums or ask questions there.

Can you spare a moment to help? ie, tell me what property I need or (even better), take a quick look at my wikiaphone.css page? It's really short.

I eagerly await your answer, even if it's "no" (then I can try asking another). But it's a big problem, especially because I can't use the all-important "preview" function for article editing!

Thank you very much.

Regards, --Cepstrum 15:13, October 13, 2010 (UTC)


 * The basic problem is that, while I'd like to help you out, I don't really have a clue what exactly you're seeing. Whether it is just a different skin (which, at least, Wikia seems to be working on), or whether it is something completely different - or, if it is another skin, which one exactly it is (there seem to be several used concurrently). So, what would really help me out is to at least get a link to the exact CSS file you're being served. For that, you should have a look at the source code of any content page here, and find a link to a CSS file (probably served from a location starting with "images1.wikia..."). If you can post that link, I can see what I can do. -- Cid Highwind 19:01, October 13, 2010 (UTC)

Cid:

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I don't quite "get" what you mean: ie, I understand you have no idea how things look to me, but I don't know how I could show you. I guess my real question was more like this: I've borrowed from MA's CSS, copied (what I thought) were the important snippets, put them on my wikiaphone.css page, and proceeded to edit it (mainly just the colors) so things would show up readable. The problem is, I'm not entirely sure which properties are which, so I'll end up editing my CSS again and again to try to get, say, the background color of the TOC to be correct (override Wikia's default to make it readable). But it's pretty much trial-and-error: I'll find I get one background/text combo color scheme working only to discover I've made a different one unreadable.

It's a combination of (a) my unfamiliarity with CSS markup, (b) the unclear MA CSS documentation, and (c) the opaqueness of Wikia's mobile skin (and their whims of selectively changing portions of what I see).

Ideally, I'd like you or another to insert comments on MA's CSS that make explicit what each property is which. (Or a quasi-guide, such as, "in this section we define the text colors for X.") But I realize that is an unreasonable request (way too much work!).

In the meantime, I've continued to fiddle with my wikiaphone.css page, and I now have MA looking acceptable.

So, because you're busy, I'll stop bugging you about it and just keep fiddling with it on my own. One of my concerns was my frequent editing/saving of it, which I thought might both confuse people here looking at recent changes and hamper the DB. But if it's OK that I continue to edit-save-test, I can do that.

I want you to know I really appreciate your help and understand your position of not being able to "automagically" fix all my CSS woes/be my personal tutor! ^_^

Thank you anyways. I know I can count on you in the future. This was just an unfair (to you) request.

Take care. I'm sure you'll be hearing again from me soon!

--Cepstrum 13:09, October 14, 2010 (UTC)

CSS and the new Wikia skin
A couple of interesting things for you. Just for the fun of stuff here. -- sulfur 01:15, October 14, 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) The Criminal Minds wiki has a sitenotice that reads "We will NOT be switching to wikia's "new look". We have all worked hard to build this wiki, and the changes will basically undo everything we've done. The new look also places ads within the pages, screwing up the format"
 * 2) This CSS file

CSS
Hi Cid, I see you've been working on the CSS for the new look... One of the changes is to move the "real world article" banner (and probably others?) above the article title. This changes the position of the controls for the page, something we are trying to avoid happening now. The banner is fine in the content space of course, could you move it down please? If you want to talk on IRC about this or any of the changes, please let me know... I'd be happy to sit down with you or the other admins. Thanks, -- Sannse (help forum | blog) 00:14, October 18, 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Sannse. We've changed the position of our banner to where it is now exactly for the reason to adhere to your new Terms of Use. In your human-readable explanation of the legalese (which would be pretty nondescript otherwise), you specifically stated that a banner should not shift down the content area - which is why we're already no longer move the banner to a location outside of the content, but stay within the content area (which should include the header of an article, right?). It would be nice if we could talk about that, whether it's here or on IRC. Of course, to not exclude this community, the results of such chat would be made available here. -- Cid Highwind 13:44, October 18, 2010 (UTC)

We count the "content area" as the area below the header (div id "WikiaArticle"). Basically, we don't want the menus and controls to be moved out of place, the idea being that the top area with all those important elements in it is consistent and clearly understandable (both for newbies to this wiki, and for people moving from wiki to wiki). We are also very keen for people to get to try out the new look in as "standard" a view as possible right now, that's the way we'll get the best feedback we can get.

It looks like you have problems with the tool bar and the talk page icon? I don't see this on other wikis, so I think it may be something in the local CSS. It may help to use the Theme Designer for the most part -- I know that's not your style, as an expert with CSS an all, but it does mean that small elements like the number on the talk page icon have already been styled as part of the theme. The same goes for things like diffs (and if they aren't, please let us know and we'll get it fixed globally. Thanks Cid -- Sannse (help forum | blog) 21:07, October 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * A couple of notes here:
 * The headers that you refer to (I assume you mean the "real world", "alternate timeline", etc ones) should move the article's title down, and thus not interfere with the standard Wikia headers. In fact, when I look at them on my interface, that is precisely what happens.  That tells me that the article title is, indeed, part of the content.
 * The diff CSS that we added to the mix adds more than the default skin CSS entries do, and actually underline and highlight the specific changes. The Wikia diff that I get when I look at things on the community wiki just does +/- and highlights the entire line of text (if there is any highlighting of specific text, I cannot see it being color blind).  This is almost useless more often than not, and the underlining of the specific changes (including spaces added or removed) really brings attention to what has actually changed.  If that can be added to the standard Wikia CSS, then we'd be quite happy to remove it from ours.
 * We have used the ThemeDesigner, quite a bit in fact, but we've found that the specific controls for colors are very generic, and obviously designed for people to use basic cookie-cutter themes. Here at Memory Alpha, we've always striven for a very specific look.  With the change from Monobook to Monaco, we took our time with the new skin to adapt things to be as close to the look we wanted to achieve as possible.  We are doing the same with the new skin, and running in a number of difficulties that we are trying to work around.
 * As one of the main research sites used by Star Trek novel and comic authors (just check out the number of acknowledgments MA has received over the last 3-4 years), and one that the crew on the newest movie used, we have made an effort to pride ourselves on the standardized look and feel of the system that we have, and this is another reason why we have asked for so many customizations (well, features removed) since our move to Wikia. -- sulfur 21:19, October 19, 2010 (UTC)


 * Hello Sannse. I actually don't have much to add to what sulfur already said - but this is my talk page, and I don't want this to look as if I'm ignoring you on purpose. So, here it goes:
 * re Theme Designer (TD): As sulfur stated, we have been using the TD, and found it lacking. Please respect that I, personally, don't want to become a Beta (or is it Gamma already?) tester for Wikia this late in the game, though. If you want feedback regarding CSS customization and the TD, you can just take our CSS file as such. Everything that is in there we deemed necessary to change on top of changes in the TD. On the other hand, if Wikia is going to change their central CSS/TD, I'd be more than happy to work on our CSS in reaction to that. My suggestion would be a sort of "tech blog" on community.wikia that actually lists all your changes in detail, allowing us to find proper reactions.
 * re Banner positioning: If I understand you correctly, you are now saying that the "content area" is not the block that is actually identified as "WikiaMainContent" (which we've carefully avoided to escape from), but the smaller "WikiaArticle" block that doesn't even contain the title of the article (which I still definitely consider to be content). Can you check on that and get back to us in that regard? Also, if this opinion doesn't change, please consider even having this discussion to pretty much be clear feedback that even "power-users" don't understand your system of what is allowed and what isn't - because of mislabeled blocks in the code, but especially because, apparently, what we consider "content" and what you consider "controls" is interspersed more than it really should.
 * -- Cid Highwind 10:39, October 20, 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi both, thanks for the replies. Sorry mine is slow, busy days!
 * Yes, we definitely need to do more to make it clearer exactly what is allowed and what's not. From my point of view, I'm always surprised by what can be done, and the number of edge cases we haven't considered yet.
 * We would definitely like the edit button not to have anything "non standard" pushing it down. Right now, that's the only thing I've noticed that's a problem in your changes.
 * As I said, the intent of all this is to ensure that the general interface and underlying style is consistent -- and that we can rely on that in our tracking of the new look. An example of the latter: if the top navigation were removed and placed back on the left, then we wouldn't be getting valid data when we look to see what change in usage there is across Wikia with the new position.  But that aside, the real change is in the philosophy of asking communities to work within a standard framework.  I'm very aware that's a big step, especially on a mature community like Memory Alpha.
 * On the general CSS of the skin, there have been a lot of tweaks over the last couple of months, and there are certain to be more to come. At the moment there is still a lot of work to do as we roll out the skin and see the effect of true usage (something that's impossible to do in any test environment or beta program).  Once we get past this initial stage, I can certainly look in more detail at your CSS and see what should be added to the main stylesheets.
 * This is all early days, and I very much want to work with you to make this a smooth transition -- Sannse (help forum | blog) 21:07, October 21, 2010 (UTC)

CSS for use in Wikia/MA question
Hi, Cid.

Thanks to you, I've been able to customize my wikiaphone.css for my mobile browsing. I've been able to make things more legible, plus I'm slowly learning CSS markup (still a neophyte), and I've been very excited to be able to adjust most of my relevant parameters. (I have been able to do this by trial-and-error, adjusting certain obvious portions of MA's Monaco CSS.)

Here's my problem: I've scoured the MediaWiki and (pretty limited) Wikia guides to CSS. They mainly refer to the official CSS standards document/manual, which is a great general resource – but they do not help me gain any understanding of the elements used here at Wikia/MA. Thus, there are still some properties I'd like to adjust but am lost about where I can find CSS resources specific to MA/Wikia.

As an example, I cannot figure out what the  element is. As another example, I do understand (obviously) what the  element is.

I'd really like to know where I can find any documentation/manual/guide about CSS and Wikia/MA. Perhaps it's available, but I just can't locate it. And I know I cannot be asking you or anyone else to be my personal guide to explain such things for me! (eg, what some of these elements are, and how to, eg, find out how to customize the color of visited external links only or change the background or text color for picture captions)

If you can point me in the right direction, I'd really, really appreciate it. But perhaps I'm asking too much of you and should ask someone else. Please advise.

Thank you very much for your consideration (even if your answer is "no")!

Best regards,

--Cepstrum 15:41, October 22, 2010 (UTC)

PS I just noticed Archduk3 posted a CSS tip on my talk page, apparently of his own volition. Thus, I'm going to ask him these questions as well. I hope you don't mind and I'm not breaking etiquette/MA policy by doing so! --Cepstrum 15:48, October 22, 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm not aware of any such guide, sorry. Generally, what I do is to have a source code view of some MA page open, and then do a text search for any CSS class of interest (or, vice versa, search for text in an area that needs formatting to find out which CSS classes are used for the surrounding HTML structures). I can help you with a.extiw, though: that's a link (HTML  ) with the class attribute "extiw", which is used for interwiki (external interwiki) links. Those are links that go to other wikis maintained by Wikia. -- Cid Highwind 16:08, October 22, 2010 (UTC)

Hey Cid.

Thanks for the detailed response. I've been essentially doing as you have: look at code snippets I think I want to use and then "borrow" and modify them accordingly. Problem is, although I'm not unfamiliar with markup languages (such as LaTeX, which I use heavily), I don't have the advantage of anything more than a cursory understanding of HTML.

But that explanation of the "extwi" element was great. I would really like access to at least a glossary/index of such terms; how else am I supposed to know what those mean or hunt for the properties I want? I can't believe no such simple guide exists!

Ah well. I guess I'll have to just keep snooping. (I'm so bad I can't even create a custom signature!).

Do you think it'd be appropriate to through out occasional questions on the forums, and if so, which one?

Best regards, --Cepstrum 13:09, October 23, 2010 (UTC)


 * I think it might be best to put those questions on http://community.wikia.com/. That is a wiki dedicated to such questions, so not only will your questions not be misplaced there, you will probably also get more and better responses than here. :) -- Cid Highwind 14:54, October 24, 2010 (UTC)

A little help, again
Hello Cid, maybe you didn't receive the advice, but I've wrote again for a little help in MA.it, please can you dedicate a little time for us? Sorry to bother you, hoping not to abuse your patience, may you take a look on this problem? Thanx and best regard. Gifhtalk25.10.2010 11:28 (UTC)

Thanks for past patience and continued tolerance
Cid,

I was looking at my old talk page entries – and elsewhere – and it reminded me how much trouble I caused you earlier. I had forgotten, but from reading your comments I now understand what a pain I was. I'm probably still a nuisance in ways I don't even know! But I wanted to specifically thank you for putting up with me then (and now). I'm really trying hard to be a good community member, yet I know I'll still be making mistakes. I've greatly appreciated your tolerance and help.

Best regards, --Cepstrum (talk) 21:12, October 27, 2010 (UTC)

Inserting False Information
Cid, I don't think it's fair to block people for making one incorrect edit, without any warning (at least, that's what it looked like; I can't find any other contributions by those IP addresses. If I'm barking up the wrong tree, ignore this post. ;-)

58.96.45.93's edit to synaptic pattern seemed to be in good faith if mistaken. The editor probably saw the Voyager reference and misread the paragraph. A small mistake that we've all done sometime.

Likewise, 75.118.88.87's edit to seems based on a common fanon assumption; a pointer to the canon policy on the anon's talk page might be a better way to go.

Another one recently: 70.185.168.13's edit to Vulcan Science Directorate. His/her other edits appear to be in good faith but sometimes incorrectly formatted etc. And for that edit, I think he/she is correct; the Vulcan Science Directorate did not believe in time travel, as stated previously in that paragraph. ;-) – Cleanse ( talk 00:51, November 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * You are correct in the last case. I misinterpreted that edit. My rollback has now been reverted, and the IP unblocked.
 * Generally, though, if you watch RC closely, you will find that there has been a whole bunch of "small edits" from random IP addresses during the last days, each time inserting just a tiny bit of false information. I don't believe these edits are as unrelated as they seem to be and will continue to roll them back as I find them. -- Cid Highwind 11:34, November 7, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Cid.– Cleanse ( talk 05:22, November 8, 2010 (UTC)

Specific CSS question
Hi, Cid.

I know I've asked for your help regarding CSS before (in particular, my question/frustration at being unable to find any documentation regarding the CSS properties for adjusting certain elements relating to Wikia/MA that influence the look/feel of the site for me and the iPod touch I'm forced to use – ie, my mobile "wikiaphone.css" skin).

I understand and appreciate that you're not my "personal tutor/helper" about this, ;) and you've suggested I try seeking help from the Wikia/MediaWiki community forums. (So far, however, I've had little success making inquiries there, but I can try again.)

The impetus for my current questions to you is from this exchange you had on Defiant's talk page back in 2006. In it I inferred you suggested to him that he take a look at a reference CSS document and then modify it to suit his needs (I could be misunderstanding the whole thing.).

So my questions:

First, can you suggest a CSS quasi-template I could use to look through and make changes to certain properties to suit my needs/preferences? The wrinkle is that for almost all pages, Wikia (and thus MA) uses my wikiaphone.css, which I imagine is quite different from the typical CSS used by "normal" (non-mobile) folks. Note: thanks to your help, I've managed to create my own wikiaphone.css page and add some customization that's worked well. But there are certain additional properties I'd like to be able to adjust.

Hence my second question: as an example of just one simple thing I'd like to change is the color of certain links (something I have been able to do for most links). Specifically, I'd like to be able to do is make the color of links to Wikipedia (from the Wikipedia link template) different from the color of other external links. I can't use a mouse (obviously) to hover the cursor over a link to see its outbound destination. Thus it'd be helpful if I could make the colors of regular outbound links distinct from Wikipedia links (if that's even possible without a bunch of HTML coding to first check to if the link goes to Wikipedia/uses the template).

I apologize in advance if I'm asking too much of you. As it is, after your help and my own tinkering/learning (rudimentary) CSS markup, I'm quite happy about my new ability to customize the visual presentation. I just lack knowledge of most of the properties used.

Thank you and best regards, –Cepstrum (talk) 15:53, November 8, 2010 (UTC)

PS One more note: ''several pages, such as "preferences" or the "preview" mode don't use the mobile skin but something else – probably the wikia.css skin. It's still mostly legible for me. I think it's just a Wikia bug.''


 * For links, this forum discussion may help you find what you need. -- sulfur 16:07, November 8, 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Cepstrum. Regarding link colors, I couldn't state it any more complete than it is on the page that sulfur linked to above. Regarding a sort of "CSS template" - since we last spoke, I found a link to the actual codebase of the new skin here. The individual .css and .scss file located in that file structure are merged on the server and then sent out as either wikia.css or, other parts, as the mobile css. Looking through those files might give you some hints on what can be changed.
 * Last but not least, I will forward your bug report about preferences and preview being illegible to Wikia, and get back to you if they reply. -- Cid Highwind 16:28, November 8, 2010 (UTC)

Cid and Sulfur:

Thanks both much! Those links look like they could be just the ticket I've been seeking. Kudos to both of you for your swift and helpful replies!

(About the bug report: it's not really a huge deal, more of a minor annoyance. The worst is how, whenever I first open a "special" page, such as Preferences or Following, they look weird until I hit "save" in the former or the "show"(?) button in the latter. Then they'll reload with the mobile skin. It's similar for "Recent Contributions". But I've found no work-around for the "Preview" page, which is fortunate, for it happens that the skin loaded for that is mostly legible. IIRC, this is also an issue on the forums. Until Wikia recently fixed something that made the skin be set to MA's, I could not read anything: on those pages it was white text on a white background. Now, at least, I can kind of read it, though it's not in the mobile format/skin unless I sometimes perform an action. Weird, but as of now not more than a nuisance and a little hard to read. I actually think this is due to me having my wikia.css – which I've tinkered with such that my experimenting seems to show up in, eg, link colors – set to mimic MA's and/or the concealer. I think in the cases I mentioned it's displaying things based on that or something else you guys did to help restore MA's old look.)

--Cepstrum (talk) 17:43, November 8, 2010 (UTC)


 * I got a reply regarding that bug report - apparently, there's a probably related problem with mobile css being served to "short" page URLS (like: http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/User_talk:Cid_Highwind) but (sometimes?) not to "long" ones (like: http://memory-alpha.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Cid_Highwind). This problem is already being worked on, and your additional report about Special: pages being broken, too, could lead to this bein fixed sooner now. -- Cid Highwind 21:57, November 8, 2010 (UTC)

Cool, thanks! This is great news. As an aside, I've been reading and re-reading the MA guidelines and help pages, and I've come across instances of tips that apply only to non-mobile users (such as how to access a talk page). It's completely different for the mobile site. Do you think it'd be worth trying to add small appendices at the end of such articles explaining how to do such things for those who must use the mobile version?

--Cepstrum (talk) 13:58, November 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * Definitely - if there's a huge difference between the mobile and non-mobile user interface, this should be mentioned. It might be best to double check that these differences do not stem from any of your personal changes (you could, for example, visit another Wikia while logged out for that purpose), but other than that, go for it. -- Cid Highwind 15:21, November 15, 2010 (UTC)

Cid,

A kind friend gave me an iPad to help make my (truly mind-boggling and painful) health problems more bearable. Thus, I now have the ability to look at both the mobile and regular versions of MA; this makes it far easier to see the differences between the two (and finally get to see MA as most do). Is it sufficient for me to log out (thus getting rid of my CSS customization) and compare the mobile and normal versions (as seen by non-members) to add notes about navigation etc. using the vanilla mobile version? Or do I need to visit other Wikia sites too? (There is none I visit – the only other MediaWiki-based wiki I visit these days is Wikipedia.)

Another question: now that I've got things looking as I like (with a few exceptions, such as the picture captions appearing as light text on a white background; I had the same problem with several other things, such as TOCs and raw code. I just haven't figured out which CSS parameter(s) I need to recolor yet.), I'd like to make my "normal", full-size skin to have a similar appearance, at least the colors, to my mobile skin. I don't know which CSS page I need to edit to do this. Is it the (username)/wikia.css? Or something else, such as common.css, or even something more complicated, such as switching my preference to monobook and editing (username)/monobook.css?

Finally, a quick comment and question:
 * the logged-out mobile version of MA looks awful (eg, the TOC's are practically unreadable with light text on white background).
 * Are you and the other good folks here going to release a FAQ on dealing with the new Wikia and changing one's CSS? (eg, dealing with the concealer thing, recommendations for getting an "optimal" layout, and how to overcome the defects of the mobile version? Perhaps you have already. If not, I might be able to describe how I overcame the mobile problems or offer a (cleaned up) example of my mobile CSS that solves some of the problems.

--Cepstrum (talk) 13:28, November 18, 2010 (UTC)

Thank you
Dear Cid, a short note to thank you for restoring some semblance of order in the Constitution class model, I was a bit overwhelmed with the mayhem the new skin caused to the article...Great job!!-Sennim 18:20, November 8, 2010 (UTC)

Oh no! mobile skin ruined!
Cid,

I've asked you a few questions about the mobile skin before. I've been editing my wikiaphone CSS page with somewhat satisfactory results. Today, however, I logged on to MA and found wikia did *something* to wreck it. It's almost impossible to read, I can no longer edit anything (even my own page or post on talk pages)! The only reason I can post this is by using an iPad to access to main site. But I normally can only use the iPod – and hence, the mobile version. If it remains like this (totally changed to unusable format), I won't be able to do anything; I don't even have links to user, talk, or any other special pages/tools (not even search).

I hope Wikia is just messing around. If not, then they can forget mobile users accessing MA. (Even the formatting of articles I had already had opened in my browser are no longer readable. It looks terrible, and I can't even scroll down to the bottom of a page anymore.

Sorry to bother you about this, but I thought you might be able to either help or alert Wikia that whatever they've done has precluded mobile users from editing or even searching for and reading articles! I'm very, very, sad. (This happened within the last 15--20 minutes.)

--Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 16:06, December 1, 2010 (UTC)
 * There has been talk of this problem Wikia-wide, and I would suggest using Special:Contact to contact Wikia to inform them of your situation.  That might make it a higher priority. -- sulfur 16:17, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Sulfur. It's so bad that without that link, I couldn't have accessed that page (unless I could guess the URL). I'm writing from an iPad, but I have limited access to it (for now, at least). And it's the same for all Wikia sites, apparently. Completely unusable. I wish I could upload a screen shot of what it looks like, but I can't upload anything. I'd have to email it to someone. It's not MA's fault, but I wish someone here could make a work-around for this wiki. I can't even read stuff! I have no idea why they did this: there are no ads or anything. Rats.

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 19:24, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

(Sulfur or Cid: please feel free to move this if you want: I posted here because -1- I knew the URL and -2- I've posted here about skin issues before. I'd need a link to see the new location, though).

I contacted Wikia, and this is what they said:


 * We did update our mobile browser today to provide a simpler format for viewing a wikia page on a mobile device. We found that very few people edit using a mobile device (less than 10 edits a day), and so are testing this new format. You can add ?=monobook to the url to revert to the monobook format. I would recommend bookmarking this since you use a mobile device a lot. We will continue to improve the mobile browser, and I have shared your feedback with our product team. Best, Sarah Manley

I tried her ad-hoc solution, but it only redirected me to the main page. If I click a link from there, it reverts to the mobile (unusable) skin. I can't figure out how to force monobook (worse than previous mobile skin but at least it works) for any other page. Thus, I still can't use the iPod on MA. (I am able to post this using an iPad.)

Any suggestions/advice on her "solution"? How can I force monobook? What does she mean by "bookmarking" it? That works only if I just want to see the main page. (Again: aside from causing me to lose access to everything, even the ability to log out, the new skin looks terrible.)

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 13:17, December 2, 2010 (UTC)


 * Wow. Sorry, to say, but it seems as if you got the short end of the stick, there. :( If I interpret the (in that case, bullshit) answer you got correctly, Wikia doesn't care about editors with mobile-only access, because there are so few of them. If true, your only options will be to either manually add the switch to any URL (which, strangely, should make an old standard skin be displayed and not a recent mobile one) - or prevent the mobile version from being loaded in place of the standard one in the first place (perhaps it is possible to make your mobile browser appear as a desktop one - not sure about the whole Apple/IP*d issue here, sorry). I will try to get an answer myself about what their plans for mobile browsing/editing are. Stay tuned... -- Cid Highwind 15:12, December 2, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, Cid, for your sympathy, attempt to help, and for contacting Wikia about this.

I got a reply from Wikia regarding my follow-up questions about the "solution" and why they did this (no ads appear; it just looks awful and disables everything but search. Even the end of the articles seems to be cut-off). Here's the reply and "solution":


 * Hello,


 * Adding that to the end of the URL should keep you on that page. For example, if you go here: http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Elim_Garak?useskin=monobook. You will need to add the ?useskin=monobook to each of the unqiue URLs, which is why I would recommend bookmarking your most visited pages. [emphasis mine]


 * I hope this helps.


 * Best,


 * Sarah''

First, she didn't say why Wikia is spending time altering the mobile skin. Second, I fail to see how bookmarking my "most visited pages" could possibly work in a wiki. The only solution I can think of would be to make every page I visit automatically redirect me to the page with the monobook thing appended to the URL. Is there a way I could do that with a JavaScript or CSS?

I know I'm not a valuable contributor, but I was really hoping to be: I thought it would've been cool if I could learn more about CSS, JS, etc. and how they work within the MA context so I could help improve the mobile skin here. (After all, I am an electrical engineering PhD student and specialize in programming, scripting, running some TWiki wikis for research projects, and I'm very proficient in LaTeX markup – not trying to brag, just noting it seems I should be able to learn enough about using CSS, JavaScript, and MediaWiki within the framework here such that I could become useful for tweaking MA's mobile skin to improve it and make it consistent with MA's desired look: I seem to be about the only active mobile editor here. I could've worked on tweaking my own skin first and upload screencaps for review. Now I can't even navigate to my own user page without typing in the URL, edit anything, see talk pages, visit my preferences, MA policies, etc. – though I can visit them if I can recall the URLs to type in.) I know I may be the only active mobile editor, but I'm sure mobile visitors come here to read – and now that it looks so bad and is very hard to navigate and even read articles, they might not be coming back. It looks goofy and every section is collapsed. You have to click a button to read each section; if you visit another page and then come back, it's all collapsed again. Browsing pages is a chore, and the text layout is squished and harder to read.

At least I'm occasionally able to access the site using an iPad (like now) to communicate. But I probably will be barred from visiting/posting here much anymore (though it's not as if anyone here will care! heh heh) unless someone can make it possible to write a script or something for me to redirect me to pages with the monobook URL thing appended. I can't (or don't know how) to disable Wikia from forcing me to use the mobile skin on my iPod (except if I use the bookmark "solution"). Most mobile sites allow that (such as wikipedia).

Sorry for the long post. At least you won't have to put up with anymore of my detestable "mini-novellas" in length (as OuroboroCobra accurately described them) posts (though I'd recently changed my ways and had condensed and archived my old, stupid, whiny, long posts). Rats. :(

''Note: I've got this page saved on my iPod and hope to hear your thoughts about this, as well as if you hear anything more from Wikia. But I'll only be able to see your response if you post it here.''

Thanks so much. You've all been helpful to me. I felt like I had finally learned the proper way to do things. Oh well. Guess it's back to Wikipedia for Trek info.

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 18:53, December 3, 2010 (UTC)

JavaScript workaround?
I'm not sure if this is the best place to keep bothering you, et al., about this, but I don't have many options. I know it's possible with JavaScript (in addition to using many other methods) to redirect automatically. I've never used JavaScript before, but I have done Java and a lot of scripting. Thus, I thought JS would be easiest. Instead of trying to redirect, which Wikia already does (against my wishes) to the new, bizarre mobile site, I thought the following little script, which grabs every link on a page and appends "?useskin=monobook", would be better. Knowing neither of JavaScript nor how it works within MA and Wikia, my attempted solution hasn't worked. But here it is. I tried adding it to all my .js skin pages with no luck:

(please see User:Cepstrum/monobook.js: I can't get the code to look right here. Sorry!)

Update: I figured it out how to format it:

var newLinkURL = "?useskin=monobook"; // insert my URL

function changeEveryDarnLink {

for (i=0; i<document.links.length; i++) {

document.links[i].href= document.links[i].href= + '/' + newLinkURL;

}

}

Perhaps I've messed up or haven't the permission to use such a script. Or, perhaps it doesn't work because this would be for actually trying to permanently change the links. I've asked Wikia if they could help me know if I could write a script that redirects only me (after all, they are already redirecting me to the mobile site!).

Or maybe someone can tell me the answer of whether it'd be possible to execute aJS that fetches the current URL, appends the monobook thing, and redirects me. I could probably write it; I just wouldn't know how to implement it (ie, where to put the script and ensure it runs for me).

There is another possible fix that most sites (such as Wikipedia) use: add a link at the bottom that directs a mobile user to the full site. I don't know if Wikia would be willing to do this, if it's something I could do with CSS, or if it's something a bot could do.

I hope a solution arises. It'd still be sub-optimal, for the former mobile site loaded faster, was easier to read, etc. than the full site is on a mobile device. What's funny is that it's still actually easier to read than the new mobile site, which has a small column width, huge text, and those frustrating collapsable sections (plus no links to edit or to anything other than the main namespace).

Please advise. I know I've not been a good editor (so far) and have done more harm than good, but I was hoping to become useful. And if you think moving this discussion to a more appropriate place or notify another MA admin with more experience about this sort of thing, please do (just don't forget to provide a link, please!)

Thanks.

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 15:13, December 4, 2010 (UTC)


 * Hey. First of all, I have to say that the idea of making an editor bookmark the pages he's going to edit (on a Wiki with more than 30,000 pages, no less) really is insane. I'd love to say that I can't believe you were told that - but actually, it's not the strangest thing I've heard from Wikia, so I do believe you. :)


 * Your idea about using JavaScript is not a bad one. I haven't had much time to check your code, but an immediate "bug" I see is that you're trying to affix the skin-changing string using a "/". The "?" attaches directly to the URL, though (or, if a question mark already exists in the URL, is attached using "&" instead.


 * Also, a resource you might want to check is http://jquery.com/, a JS library allowing you to access individual HTML elements in a much cleaner way. Using that, your whole code to change all links would change to something like this:

$('a').attr('href','NEW-URL-GOES-HERE');


 * Perhaps that already helps you. If not, I'll try to code something that works tomorrow. Today, I'm a little busy with other things, sorry. :) -- Cid Highwind 15:44, December 4, 2010 (UTC)

Cid,

Yes, I was actually told to "bookmark" my "most used" pages in a wiki!  ^_^

Thanks much for the JS tip (I'd caught the "/" error but forgot to change it on my many *.js pages: I was trying to add it to my monobook, wikia, and wikiaphone pages because I wasn't sure which would need it.) That code snippet you gave was very useful. My knowledge of JavaScript is limited (well, virtually nil). I merely know how in general to write scripts and haven't (yet) needed to know much about Web programming or anything beyond rudimentary HTML and CSS. I'd like to, though, so I could be a net asset to MA by perhaps assisting with mobile issues (to help make amends for my earlier bungling – I've been quite a "dumkopf" or whatever it is my mother says!).

I just need to be able to get the string for each URL to either change it or append the monobook thing. I'll check out that Web site, thanks. That one-line code snippet you provided is much simpler than my complicated, more Java-esque attempt! A better solution would probably be to do an automatic redirect instead of changing every link – It'd avoid loops, which might be faster, as well as likely have fewer side-effects. I'll do what I can now using the Web resource you provided and let you try to solve it at your convenience later, if I fail. That's really kind of you.

Thanks again!

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 19:12, December 4, 2010 (UTC)


 * This code should do the trick:

//add "?useskin=monobook" to URLs $('a').attr('href',function{  var url = this.href;  var qpos = url.lastIndexOf("?");  var delim = "&";  if (qpos==-1) { delim="?"; }  return this.href+delim+"useskin=monobook"; });


 * There's still room for improvement, though - currently, the "useskin" parameter will be added to ALL links, even external ones.
 * Depending on how the mobile skin works, you will have to add that code to either your "common.js" or to both the .js file matching the mobile skin name and "monobook.js". -- Cid Highwind 18:07, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

Wow, thanks! I've been reading through jquery etc for quite a while. I did figure out how to make all links go to editing my .js page, but I could not figure out how to get the current URL and append a string to it.

Your code works great. But, unfortunately, only for the iPad (full) version. Apparently Wikia allows me to mess with the mobile CSS (wikiaphone) but does not let you control anything else. The iPod version still redirects to the new, unusable layout. I've put the code on my common, monobook, wikia, and wikiaphone .js pages. I guess Wikia is very insistent every mobile user either bookmark pages, retype every last URL manually, or be banned from editing.

How frustrating. Especially given your work to give me fully working code, too. Why would Wikia do such a thing? We can't even opt out (unlike most every other mobile site, including Wikipedia). ?!

thanks for trying, Cid. :(

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 19:58, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

I thought of one last thing to try (unless you're able to find out from Wikia how/where to add this script: it seems I can still edit the wikiaphone CSS (I'd changed some link colors etc.). And I've seen how you (et al.) have used CSS to remove/manipulate some of the unwanted things of the new wikia skin. Would it be possible to, using CSS, to add a link to the bottom of every page I visit to the monobook version? It'd still be annoying to have to do that for every page, but it'd be easier than manually editing the URL. (I'd only really have to do it on pages I want to edit or if I want to get access to anything outside of the main namespace, such as my preferences or a talk page.)

Oh, and there's one more thing to try: querying to see what browser I'm using (mobile Safari) and if it's true, run your script or redirect me to the monobook version. For that, though, we'd need to know more from Wikia about exactly how their detecting my browser and changing my skin (IIRC, they don't redirect me to a mobile site, they just change the skin. That's highly unusual. Most sites have a mobile version that has a clear mobile reference in the URL. Well, and they let the user to access the regular version with a link to the full site. eg, there's "en.m.wikipedia.org" and "en.wikipedia.org". So it's possible; Wikia just does it by forcing a skin change instead of having mobile versions of the wikis.

*sigh* Thanks so much for your efforts on my behalf. I think all we can do is either solve it via CSS or ask Wikia to at least let the mobile user decide whether he/she wants to use the full site (or where their hiding the behind-the-scenes skin change). Perhaps there's an iPod safari plugin or app that makes it appear as if it's not mobile safari. I could also try mobile Opera. Update: mobile Opera doesn't work, either.

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 21:10, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

Saga continues: another response
Cid,

Thanks for devoting time to this. I received another respone from Sarah at Wikia. To summarize, she said they're considering placing a link at the bottom of every mobile page that would allow mobile users to access the full site (like just about every other mobile site does). She said the reason they ruined things was to make it "more readable" and because only about 10% of mobile visitors did much editing. What's "funny" is that it's much, much harder to read now. The text is too big, the column width too narrow, and every section is collapsed: you have to manually click to open and read it (making it very hard to browse through articles). Plus, there's no way a user could read about MA's policies, log-out, or visit anything outside the main namespace (unless, like I, one knows the URLs of the other namespaces).

I could post her entire email, but I think you get the gist. It seems Wikia will stop at nothing until every last type of user is dissatisfied. (If only they'd bring back the old, perfectly fine mobile version! Even if I eventually do get a way to access the full/monobook version, it's not as good, for it loads slower and isn't designed with mobile browsers in mind. But it's better than the truly ugly – and featureless – new mobile version.)

Have you any suggestions for what I should ask her about how we could run the JavaScript you made for the mobile skin? It works fine in the full version, but even though I placed it in my monobook, wikia, wikiaphone, and common.js pages, it doesn't affect the mobile site (though the CSS in my wikiaphone.css page does, strangely enough.)

Thanks again. I'm sure you're busy with loads of stuff, and any assistance you provide apparently is only going to benefit me, just one editor among many and a shabby/bad one, too. (Other mobile visitors will probably not care; they'll just assume MA decided to make things look ugly. But years before I registered to become an editor, I still read with great interest talk pages and policy debates: they helped inform my understanding of what was going on, as well as helped identify dubious articles in which much disagreement existed, just as with Wikipedia. It's good to know when an article has community support vis-á-vis is controversial. Otherwise it's impossible to judge whether an article is "more accurate" or has debatable content. Just my $0.02, or for you and the other EU citizens, my €0.02 – if they even make such fractional euro values! I'm a dumb American.)

Thanks again. I look forward to hearing your feedback. --<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 15:37, December 7, 2010 (UTC)

PS sorry for cluttering your talk page with my long posts!

PPS Here's an analogy to her/Wikia's "bookmarking solution": it's like if a mechanic fixed your car such that it could only make left turns. To turn right, just make three left turns! O.o


 * Yeah, we've got fractional money over here... we even call it cent, too! ;)
 * Anyway, (rather small) update for today: I've been in contact with Wikia regarding these "mobile editing" problems. So far no real results of value, but it seems as if another reply from them is in the queue, and may have some further information. I've also asked about where to put JS so that it works with the mobile skin - waiting for a response there, too. Meanwhile, bp provided me with a web page on which I can check the mobile skin myself - it really looks strange. :) -- Cid Highwind 23:16, December 7, 2010 (UTC)

That's great to here you've found a mobile-emulator tool. Most pages look worse than that screenshot, at least on an iPod touch 4G (latest gen). I deeply regret not taking a screenshot of the old version; the difference is astounding. But I get fewer words/line than you did in that screenshot ;)

Four things:
 * 1) Should I hold off on responding to the latest email I received? It sounds like you're already in communication with them, and it's clear I've been getting nowhere. (All they've added are new "related links" to the bottom of articles, instead of a "view full site" link, unless it was MA that added the former. I doubt it.)
 * 2) I wrote a JavaScript that should redirect me to the full site. I guess Wikia doesn't like that, for they intercepted it and redirected me to their "Create-A-Wiki" page no matter to what site I tried to redirect to (eg, I tried using "location.replace(this.href + ... monobook");). Maybe they're worried about Google not indexing their site pages properly. I suppose it could be abused.
 * 3) The change-links code you wrote almost works for the iPod. The catch is: I have to have preferences set to the Wikia skin, manually go to the printable version of a page, and then every link on that page has the monobook thing appended. Bad news: once I've gone to another page (displayed in monobook), its links are not changed. Puzzling.
 * 4) Thank you for your incredible efforts on my behalf. I still have no idea (a) why Wikia won't add a simple full-site link or (b) why on earth they ruined a pretty good mobile site.

I'd take a screenshot of an example or two of how bad it looks to me (and the complete lack of links to anywhere except home and the search box), but I neither know how to upload it from an iPod nor will Wikia let me. I'd have to email it somewhere.

Lastly, do you think we can solve this using CSS? They seem to let me adjust my CSS mobile page, but I don't know how to use it to add a link to the bottom of every page that'd redirect me to the same URL with the monobook thing appended. It seems like it should be possible, but I've not dug into it or even HTML enough yet. As an electrical engineer with poor immediate know-how of many programming environments, I'm not sure if it'd be worth my time learning JS, CSS, and advanced HTML. (A brief look showed me JS is totally unrelated to the likely more useful – and familiar to me – Java. Unless they unblock me so I could try to be useful from the mobile side of things at MA, I'd probably be better off deepening my LaTeX and Matlab skills, brushing up on Assembly, VHDL, C, or Java, or learning R or Python.)

Thanks again!

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 13:13, December 8, 2010 (UTC)

PS

How can I easily markup a line or block of code as you did? I've tried following all the steps, as well as carefully examining yours and others' work to no avail. (So I gave up in the above code snippet.)

Customization policy updates
FYI, according to this document, we can remove image attribution sitewide now. As such, I've done that in both CSS and JS, just to make sure that it's dealt with. Heheh. -- sulfur 16:13, December 10, 2010 (UTC)

Answer for my wiki "Star Trek en català Wiki".
Yes, I want to be part of Memory Alpha, but do not know how it's done. You tell me something when you have an answer.--Josep Maria 15. 14:21, December 11, 2010 (UTC)

Mobile CSS update and status question
Hi, Cid.

Haven't heard any updates from you or Wikia. Just to let you know:
 * 1) They changed the mobile skin recently again. While it's actually more readable now, it looks no different from any other Wikia (white b/g, black text, Wikia logo, etc.). At least the text is smaller and less cramped.
 * 2) I did some digging into MediaWikia and found there's an extension that I'm sure Wikia is using. It allows a JavaScript to run execute before any other user scripts and allows blocking of  things like redirects (which is probably why I can't stop the mobile redirect.) I think the best solution would be if there were an iPod app or something I could do to disguise the fact I'm using a mobile browser. For some reason, Wikia will not put a simple link (like Wikipedia does) at the bottom of every page for mobile users who want full functionality and the full site. Can't we do this with CSS or JavaScript? After all, you're rearranging/removing other things that Wikia tried to impose.

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 13:08, December 15, 2010 (UTC)

Just now I see a "view full site" link at the bottom of pages. Of course it doesn't do anything, but I'm hopeful. Is this yours/MA's doing or Wikia's? (I'm guessing MA's, for it's next to a link of the type of copyright used here (CC).

Cid: the MediaWikia documentation for implentations of its extensions that allow server-side forced redirecting to mobile skins is interesting. It's a little over my head, but I think it'd be useful for you et al. One thing seems clear: it's possible for Wikia to detect an iPod/iPhone and redirect before the user's scripts can be executed (which is why, I believe, I am unable to redirect in for my iPod but I can for the iPad – which Wikia treats as a normal browser.)

But here is the very telling warning given my MediaWikia:


 * "Consider only using this [the redirect thing] if you have a *really good* handheld stylesheet, as iPhone [or iPod] users won't have any way to disable it and use the "grown-up" styles instead."

I wish Wikia had heeded that. Have you any notion whether circumventing this is going to be possible (either MA adding a full site link or Wikia will cooperate)?

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 14:34, December 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi Cepstrum, sorry for no further updates during the last days. :) If you see a new link then that is Wikia's doing, not ours - there's hope that they are still working on mobile, after all. After one of my last mails to them regarding mobile skin problem, they told me that they would get in contact with you directly concerning some details about what works and what doesn't with mobile editing. If they haven't done that yet let me know, I can check whether that will be "rather soon" or not. -- Cid Highwind 20:56, December 15, 2010 (UTC)

Don't worry about making this a high priority just for me, Cid! (but many thanks). "No," Wikia has had no further contact with me. They seem to just keep changing the mobile skin at whim. The "view full site" link doesn't work (it's just a link to the same page). For editing/reading, I have to manually put  in the URL. The ability to opt-out of the mobile version would be an improvement, but the best outcome would be for them to revert to their easier to read, fully-functional mobile version. Why they abandoned it is a mystery. I wish they could make it an option for mobile users to retain the former site. (Look at the mobile site now: it looks vanilla like every other Wikia wiki).

Thanks again. I'll look forward to hearing their explanation or finding out what their eventual solution is. Meanwhile MA is a chore to even read (if I didn't know the monobook trick, it'd be impossible for me to log out, unless I wiped all my cookies: they don't even let you log in/out!)

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 13:33, December 16, 2010 (UTC)

PS

Look again at the quote I pulled from MediaWiki's guidelines. It's obvious Wikia didn't heed that warning!

FYI: Wikia changed the mobile background back to black. I have no idea what their trying to do. --<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 13:13, December 17, 2010 (UTC)

Fixed?
Wikia has been fiddling a lot lately, and I'm very happy to say that, as of now, things seem workable:
 * 1) The link at the bottom of the mobile site switches it to monobook
 * 2) They seem to be trying to make a mobile editing version possible (it is a little unwieldly using monobook on a mobile device)

The thing is, each page I visit switches back and forth from the Wikia to the monobook skin (and occasionally, the mobile skin!). Aside from that weird part, which doesn't hurt anything really, I'm finally able to browse MA easily, and also edit (if they don't change things again!).

Thanks for all your help, Cid. (Though I still liked the original mobile site best: it was easier to read, faster to load, and had full functionality. Wish they'd have never changed anything.)

--<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 12:35, December 18, 2010 (UTC)

Pixs
The pixs in the articles of Memory Alpha are all on the right side. I have not changed my perferences. When I log out, the same pixs are on the left. --Shamutto 15:16, December 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * Can you link to a specific article and tell me which images you see on which side when logged in/out? -- Cid Highwind 20:48, December 15, 2010 (UTC)

I pulled up the article Whalen from The Big Goodbye. The pix is on the left, the caption of the pix is next to pix instead of inside it,(i.e. whalen in 1940's clothing) is not a caption but is next to the pix. The first line of the article is to right of pix, and than the rest of the article is below the pix. When i logged out, the pix is on the right and the caption is on the bottom of pix.

However, now when I do a print preview of Whalen when logged out, the pix is on the left like when i'm logged in. help. thanks --Shamutto 16:20, December 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * The image should be on the right in any case. It sounds as if the CSS file (responsible for formatting) is not properly loaded when you are logged in - we have had reports about similar problems in the past days. I will forward your bug report to Wikia. Can you please state which browser/version you are using? -- Cid Highwind 21:52, December 15, 2010 (UTC)

First thank you for your help. I have Windows 7 internet explorer. --Shamutto 17:20, December 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * Another question - are you perhaps using the monobook skin? There has just been a discussion about problems with thumbnails on Internet Explorer + Monobook skin. You can check what skin you are using in your preferences. A workaround, while the bug is being fixed, would then be to change to "Wikias new skin" temporarily. -- Cid Highwind 22:49, December 15, 2010 (UTC)

I have tried using Wikias new skin, although the pix is on the right of computer screen, a print preview shows it on the left. --Shamutto 08:09, December 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * Pardon my intrusion, but I'm wondering if this problem you speak of would also cause images to appear with a big white border around them, which also obscures the caption, in Monobook. They do not appear in the new skin.  I've been using Firefox.--31dot 21:22, December 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * At least one person on #wikia claimed he was seeing a thumbnail-related bug using FF+Monobook, although he didn't explain what exactly it was he saw. So, could be... ;) -- Cid Highwind 23:24, December 16, 2010 (UTC)
 * For me the thumbnails changed appearance, inner border gone and slightly larger padding (could be just the lack of the inner boarder), and clicking them now takes me directly to the image page, not the file page with the copyright info citation, but to the image itself. This could all be tied up with my apparent geographical problem, but it does seem like less of a coincidence since these problems all effect the thumbsnails and all started around the same time. Also, my sidebars have double captions. - 00:58, December 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * Apparently, the inner structure for thumbnails had been changed, and the Monobook CSS needed an update to reflect that. Everyone, can you please check whether your individual problems are fixed now? -- Cid Highwind 11:52, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Looks good for me now. Thanks--31dot 12:21, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Let me amend that slightly- the images in the sidebars are fine, but other images still have a smaller white border, although the caption is not duplicated or obscured.--31dot 13:41, December 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * Please give specific examples, so that I can have a look at them. -- Cid Highwind 13:47, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * I've been looking at Avery Brooks, Kathryn Janeway, and Raktajino. It's images other than the sidebar. Actually Janeway seems to be OK right now, but the other two still are odd.--31dot 14:05, December 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * Oh, great... apparently, Wikia managed to partially revert the buggy changes just when I had fixed the issue for both skins. I've now changed the various CSS files again, so that "regular" thumbnails in both skins should look as they should, while no additional caption text appears for sidebar images (which are thumbnails, too, for a number of reasons). Please check whether everything is correct now. -- Cid Highwind 14:39, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Seems to be fine now. If I see problems elsewhere I'll let you know but I think its fine now. Thank you --31dot 15:26, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Nope, in the above examples, Avery Brooks and Raktajino are now fine, but Kathryn Janeway is still broken (in two different ways in two different places). -- Renegade54 15:35, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, I see that too.--31dot 15:38, December 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * Again, being specific about where and how exactly would help me a lot... I've just scanned the page using both Newskin and Monobook and didn't see anything strange. -- Cid Highwind 15:39, December 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * I see thumbnails where they should be, and other than a strong white border on monobook, they look ok to me. -- sulfur 16:02, December 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * Here's an example as it appears on my screen. -- Renegade54 16:18, December 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * What I see is just like Renegade's screenshot. I'd take one myself but I'm not sure how.--31dot 16:31, December 17, 2010 (UTC)

Don't mean to interrupt but ...

 * I've been trying for a month just to get Wikia to let me access MA again by using monobook (their new mobile version is almost unreadable and has no functionality aside from searching – you can't even log out but were forced to use it) and now that they've finally given in, I'm actually seeing those pics correctly! Then again, my browser uses the Webkit rendering engine, not Gecko, I believe (Safari vs FireFox).


 * Sorry for going OT/"bragging": I'm just so happy to have MA back after a month! =D  (though it's not like anyone missed me) --<span style="color:rgb(125,200,50);">Cepstrum  <span style="color:rgb(0,150,255);">(talk) 13:27, December 19, 2010 (UTC)

I dont understand....
I have no idea why you keep deleting my new profile, it is going to be there for the world to see. Is it just, fun? Please answer back with a logical explanation.

-Aurelio Ortegon


 * You created a page in "article namespace" that was not a proper article. I'm not really sure what it was supposed to be, though. If it was supposed to be a page about a fanon Trek character, please not that this is not the right wiki to put that - we deal in canon information mostly. If it was supposed to be a user page, please note that you should register an account first, and then put content on the page belonging to that account (which will be named "User:CHOSEN-USERNAME"). -- Cid Highwind 17:25, December 22, 2010 (UTC)

Star Trek Evolutions
Star Trek Evolutions IS canon. It is part of the TNG Films boxset and was made by CBS/Paramount/Whoever made the TNG Films. 10:31, January 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * While it is a documentary and anything in it is valid for Background information, it is not canon and its information cannot be used in the in-universe part of articles.--31dot 10:53, January 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * For what it's worth: I had to click through several less-than-legal appearing sites now to even learn what exactly "Star Trek Evolutions" is (Amazon description here) - because we don't seem to have any mention of it here on our site, and most google results are for fan fiction or role play. So, the first good step would be to create a Star Trek Evolutions article (or, at least, an article for the Collection itself). Then, as 31dot stated, being an "official release" doesn't make the whole content "canon" - we'd need to know what the exact circumstances of, for example, mentioning the Sovereign class top speed are. -- Cid Highwind 11:02, January 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * I have not viewed the documentary yet, but I do have it as part of the TNG movie Blu-ray set.--31dot 11:05, January 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * The sets it is included with are this (DVD) and this (Blu-ray). -- sulfur 11:12, January 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * In which case, it would be great if one of you could find the mention of a Sovereign class "Warp 9.985 top speed" (see this diff), and put a detailed description of that on the Sovereign class page. That might finally put an end to the lengthy discussion we were having there... :) -- Cid Highwind 11:23, January 4, 2011 (UTC)

No problemo
I'm not sure what day tomorrow is for you (probably Saturday) but it's my Friday. I'll be on throughout the day on Friday from 8am PST to whenever and on my Saturday I'm usually on around 9-10am PST....So I guess I'll chat with you then - or you can just start whatever you feel needs to be started here and I'll just join the conversation. :) &mdash; Morder (talk) 02:34, January 14, 2011 (UTC)

Skin change notice
Cid,

Just recently I've been seeing the big notice at the top of most pages that warns the viewer Wikia changed the skin on October 20 (with a link to the forum).

Not sure if you're interested or I'm notifying the right person; I thought someone should know some sort of bug is resurrecting that message from long ago, at least for me. It's a little annoying (but no big deal).

And question: are most people (or at least people you know) using monobook or the Wikia skin? As a mobile user, I don't have the choice (it's monobook or the awful new mobile skin). Ocassionally Wikia will mess up and present a page to me in the Wikia skin. I'm just shocked at how strange it looks and was wondering if any long-time people were willingly using it.

13:38, January 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * That's the default site-message for non-Oasis skins. If you dismiss it, it should go away, unless you end up not logged in. -- sulfur 17:32, January 18, 2011 (UTC)

Incited info on Jonathan Archer
Hi Cid. I was the one who placed the uncited BG info section on the peer review page as it was directly related to the review itself, which I had mentioned in the overall large section. However, if you feel it would be better suited on the main talk page, it's no biggy. Just saw your edit summary and thought I should explain. Thanks. :) -- TrekFan Open a channel 22:52, January 26, 2011 (UTC)


 * No problem. I was just thinking ahead - the peer review will eventually end and be kept as an inactive sub-talkpage, while people will return to using the "normal" talk page. If we need to archive stuff, it should be there in plain sight (or else, not at all). Since there wasn't any PR-related discussion in that section, I thought it safe to move immediately. -- Cid Highwind 22:56, January 26, 2011 (UTC)

Yeah sure, no worries. -- TrekFan Open a channel 23:04, January 26, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you
I'm an idiot- through habit I must have capitalized the D when I tried to move the page and not realized it- since the page with a capital D did not exist of course there was no history. I very much appreciate your assistance and hope that I did not cause you too much trouble. I apologize for that.--31dot 00:37, February 11, 2011 (UTC)

Poster
Is this legit? I figured you might know. - 19:25, February 22, 2011 (UTC)

Visionary protection etc
Please note that I protected the page at 5:59am ET, due to the constant reversions. I had reverted to pre-dispute immediately before that. At that point, I edited the talk page, noting the protection, and clarifying the comments I had made yesterday (before I had dropped the matter). As such, it was not against either the letter of the law, nor was it against the spirit of the law. -- sulfur 11:56, March 2, 2011 (UTC)

Blair2009
Should have been an Admin by now. Did you or sulfur had some sort of objection, or did no one notice that discussion on my week off. :) - 10:13, March 8, 2011 (UTC)

Sidebar Pix
When I try to print a pix that is a sidebar individual pix the caption under the picture come up twice. For instance if the pix is Tessic, the caption Tessic is under the picture and under the lines that frame the pix, the caption Tessic appears again. Also when I try to edit a pix in the sidebar individual format, the pix does not show. Shamutto 15:07, March 16, 2011 (UTC)
 * Please give a specific page example, and also -- what skin are you using? Monobook or Oasis? -- sulfur 19:18, March 16, 2011 (UTC)

All sidebar pix are like that, but to give you a specific pages, Tessic, and Anan 7. Also another person did a sidebar on Yost and there is no pix there. I use monobook and this is the first time this has happened. Thank you. Shamutto 16:07, March 16, 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually linking to a page helps you know. Not just saying names.  Anyhow, looking at Tessic with monobook, I don't see a doubled caption at all.  Can you take a screenshot and put it online to show what you mean? -- sulfur 20:34, March 16, 2011 (UTC)

When i look at tessic there is no double caption either until you look at print preview or print the page. Also how do I take a screenshot of a print preview and put it online, sorry to be so stupid. Have you look at the pix Yost, there is no pic if a I am signed in or signed out, or in monobook or oasis. Thanks again. Shamutto 16:53, March 16, 2011 (UTC)


 * OK, see? You explained none of that the first time around.  None.  The issue with Yost is that the sidebar code that was used is out of date.  That is now fixed.  I don't get a second caption when I view the printable version via monobook either.  If you are using that printable version, it's just a normal and ordinary webpage you're getting.  If you are using a built-in preview on your own system, then that I cannot help with. -- sulfur 21:15, March 16, 2011 (UTC)

I hit file on my computer and click on print preview. When I print Yost the name is under the picture and under the lines that frame picture. IS this a built in system version? Like I said today is the first this has happened. Thank you. Shamutto 18:16, March 16, 2011 (UTC)

Double imagecaps
Any help to my problem. Still getting double captions.Thank you. Shamutto 13:16, March 22, 2011 (UTC)
 * I've been unable to reproduce this problem with the Oasis skin using Firefox. - 20:13, March 22, 2011 (UTC)
 * See above. It's on monobook with the print preview thing apparently.  I cannot reproduce it on any skin, not even the "printable" page. -- sulfur 20:33, March 22, 2011 (UTC)
 * So that would seem to narrow it down to something with Shamutto's browser. I just tried this on IE8, and except for looking horrid with the wikia nav bar taking up a third of the first page, I didn't have any problems. - 21:13, March 22, 2011 (UTC)
 * Gentlaemen thank you for your efforts and consideration.

Shamutto 15:16, March 23, 2011 (UTC)

Pixs
When I view pixs on Memory Alpha they are on the right with the text to left of pix. When I print the pixs they are on the left of the page above the text. Only sidebar pix remain on the right with the text to left of pix. The text is also different, in that any words caption by bracketts (i.e. malon) print in blue color, while before all text was black. I use monobook and have not changed my perferences. Don't understand while I am having such trouble with pixs, I had no problems for seven years. When I print from other articles from other sources, everything is fine.Shamutto 11:39, April 7, 2011 (UTC)


 * Please tell me what browser you use, and in which version. -- Cid Highwind 17:16, April 7, 2011 (UTC)
 * I use internet explorer, windows seven. Thank you.Shamutto 16:02, April 7, 2011 (UTC)

Something, something - something, dark side
Hi Cid,

Just want to thank you for reminding me I'm not up to this wiki site.

But also, as I'm in touch just now, I think it would be nice if someone made a glossary of terms used on this site and put an access button at the top.

Valora Tree 02:11, April 5, 2011 (UTC)

Outreach
There are only two bureaucrats, so I've sent this to both.......

Hello, I'm Abbott with the wikia entertainment team. Let me just start off by saying I've been a HUGE trekker my whole life, as was my father. I can even still remember the weekly day/time/channel it used to air when I was a kid. I own every episode of every series - including the Animated Series, as well as all the movies. Also, while I work for wikia, I knew about, and enjoyed M-A long before I ever heard of wikia. So - I'm definitely not here to try & "fix" something that is quite clearly NOT broken. What I am here to do is to offer some suggestions, and bounce some ideas off you that we - on the ent. team - have been talking about.


 * Social Networking...
 * There is a German Memory Alpha facebook page - which seems to see a lot of use. Would you be interested in having an official facebook page for this, the flagship Memory Alpha - something more substantial than the "placeholder" page that currently exists? We've had great success pairing up Wikis with their own facebook pages, and the fans/users all seem to love it.


 * Twitter? Not something I'm really into myself, but there again - fans seems to really enjoy twitter updates. (with facebook and twitter, there would be a small link for each on the top of the main page, but no other change to the wiki at all)


 * Fan Community...
 * I'd really love to see a user blog feed on the main page - possibly in the empty space underneath the "Recent and Upcoming releases" section. From personal experience - Trek fans are such a rich & diverse group, they always seem to have something interesting to say. Whether it's something they saw in an old episode they just watched, or a question about the timeline, I think it would be great to see an auto-updating feed of thoughts & comments from fellow fans. To me, this feature goes a long way toward creating more of a community feel amongst fans. With such a huge number of like-minded people using M-A for reference every day, this would be another way for them to reach out to each other and feel more connected to each other.


 * Have you considered top ten lists? You can see an example HERE, I think fans here would love something interactive like that - Top Ten Kirk Fight Scenes, Top Ten TOS Episodes, etc.


 * Cosmetically, the site is a bit on the formal side, but I'd be willing to bet this is completely intentional. However...
 * If you would be interested in a custom scrolling or non-scrolling background, we would love to design an example for you to take a look at on a sandbox wiki. This would let you have an idea of what it would look like, and you could give it the thumbs up or thumbs down without it ever affecting the wiki. Even something as simple as adding a shadow effect to the content section that pulls it up off the current background would look good.


 * I usually make custom headers for the wikis I work on, for example - the ones found HERE. In this case, I think something subtle like the TOS font already in use on the current wordmark logo would be perfect. Nothing flashy, but I think that series font - in the same color as the existing header font - would look great for headers on the different sections of main page content.


 * The mainpage seems like it has an awful lot of links. I'm not sure this is hurting your google search rankings like it would some other sites - since M-A is such a huge and well-established wiki - but it is possible. On top of that, it just seems a lot busier than it needs to be... This, however, is one of those areas where it's sort of hard to argue the point when you've obviously had so much success already.

_______________ So, there you have it. Again, I LOVE this wiki to death, and if you decide none of these suggestions/ideas are for you - no worries, we were simply having a brainstorming session & wanted to share our thoughts with you. :) Hope to hear back soon- Cheers! http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/SCOTIMUS76/siggy3.png  (talk) 19:24, April 5, 2011 (UTC)


 * Some initial responses and thoughts:
 * Blogs - These are a definite no-go for us. The purview here at Memory Alpha is for canon material, not fan discussion of such, speculation, etc.  Blogs are primarily a source of... fan cruft.  There are other Trek wikis for that kind of thing.
 * Top Ten lists - Similar to blogs, these are for personal opinion, something we try to avoid here.
 * As you may have noticed, we strive to be somewhat formal and tie everything into information provided to us from production materials and sources. It is for this reason that we are highly regarded within the Trek production community (production staff, actors, novel and comic authors, etc).
 * Just a quick response, I'll let Cid say some more, as I don't have a ton of time at the moment. -- sulfur 19:53, April 5, 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the suggestions, although I'm somewhat sceptical, too. Sulfur already replied to the "Fan Community" suggestions, so let me give me thoughts regarding "Social Networking": Personally, I'm neither a fan of FB nor of Twitter.
 * In the latter case, I can see no real benefit. I wouldn't even know what exactly to twitter around - this is an encyclopedia and not some news site, so there's not really anything worthy of being a "twitter news item". We do have some "Star Trek news" on our main page, but if we twittered those, we would probably need to invest more time there, which could be better spent on the site itself.
 * Regarding Facebook, I see that there are some project news on the FB-page for MA/de - but that, too, is something that someone would need to invest time in. How much time do you think would need to be invested there - and how would that work at all? Who "owns" the current placeholder page? -- Cid Highwind 21:45, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
 * We sort of already have a twitter that displays any new articles. --OuroborosCobra talk 23:38, April 5, 2011 (UTC)


 * Of course, that feed doesn't seem to be working properly anymore... since the Oasis upgrade in fact. -- sulfur 01:39, April 6, 2011 (UTC)

—Not sure how much time would be needed for the facebook deal - only way to really know would be to get in touch with whomever is running the other one. Afaik, "facebook" itself sort of owns the current English page - it's just a kind of a placeholder their staff creates after a large number of people manually enter a specific site or topic as one of their "likes." When I look at the twitter feed, it seems to be working. Am I wrong in this? If it's not working as intended, I'm happy to look into it for you, there's no reason why it shouldn't be solvable.

On the whole - again, there's really nothing to "fix" here, just someone higher up decided we should spend a little what-if time on it and I happened to be the one chosen to bring those ideas to you guys. I seriously applaud you efforts here - whenever I have a Trek question or curiosity, M-A never lets me down. Thank you for all your hard work! http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/SCOTIMUS76/siggy3.png  (talk) 22:21, April 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * The twitter feed hasn't updated since October-ish. New page created today, not on the twitter feed. -- sulfur 22:26, April 6, 2011 (UTC)

Wikia bot
The wikia bot is SUBSTing the Welcome-CSS template when it's added to talk pages, which it clearly shouldn't be doing. I don't know if that's something that needs to be fixed on wikia's end or if there's a change we can make in how the bot adds the template. - 09:50, May 14, 2011 (UTC)


 * Wikia is an abomination, even if resistance is futile. Just my opinion, no disrespect. Kefkaesque 09:52, May 14, 2011 (UTC)

Well, I tried the template calling a template trick and that didn't seem to work, so I'm out of ideas. - 10:18, May 14, 2011 (UTC)

Can you get a message from me to SpartHawg948 at Mass Effect wiki?
I recently got a message from some guys that are attempting to create their own Mass Effect wiki. They have a history with the administration, as do I which I is why I am blocked (I won't go into the details - it's in the past and I have moved on) and I am asking you to do this for me. The message reads:

Hi.

''I'll be straight to the point. I've learnt you had some "issues" with the ME Wiki, or rather with its admins. So I want you to help with this. Right at this moment I'm struggling to comply with the request by the staff to give attribution to the hard work of Mr. Sparthawg and Mr. Lancer, and it would actally help if someone dropped by and said that it's not exactly entirely theirs. If you become interested in this project - an ME wiki free of Sparthawg's regime - I'll make you an admin immediately. KITTEH POWAH!!! call in teh kittehz 10:14, May 17, 2011 (UTC)''

I don't want to get involved in this matter. It's an ugly power feud between two groups - SpartHawg948 (the Mass Effect wiki bureacrat) and Lancer and these other people. Can you let SpartHawg948 know that I have been approached, give him this e-mail, and let him know I decline? (I know of no other way to getting in touch with him.) This other Mass Effect wiki has been accused of plagiarism and not properly attributing material to the proper sources. Thanks.Throwback 15:03, May 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * If you know the username of the person that contacted you, you should be able to write on his user talk page outside of the wiki you're banned from. Please use http://community.wikia.com/ for that. -- Cid Highwind 15:18, May 17, 2011 (UTC)

I am not looking to contact the person who contacted me. I am looking for a way to get a message to SpartHawg948, a bureaucrat at Mass Effect, that I received this message. As you are yourself a bureaucrat, I thought you might know a way to get in touch with him and let him know of the situation. I hate to do this to you, however, I don't know any other way to contact him. Thanks.76.21.53.118 17:19, May 17, 2011 (UTC)

The person who sent me this message has withdrawn their offer. I am frustrated by this situation. I attempted to find a way to contact SpartHawg948; however, I encounter roadblock after roadblock. I would think there would be a method to contact a person on this wiki network. Apparently not. Again, my apologies for bringing you into this mess.Throwback 17:39, May 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * As Cid suggested, try http://community.wikia.com/User_talk:SpartHawg948 -- sulfur 17:44, May 17, 2011 (UTC)

Leslie
If you have the power to lock down the article do you have the power to look at the sources that I referenced. I'm a bit frustrated because I have sourced and documented the flaws in the wiki. I didn't come here for a fight. I am simply trying to correct flawed information. I'm happy to sit down and go away if I am proven wrong, but quite frankly no one has done that. Instead, I've had my edits deleted, reverted and ignored. I have my sourced information ignored. I have an ever-changing burden of proof. On the Talk page, I'm arguing with people who tell me I'm wrong, but haven't even watched the episode I reference. Is this a winnable fight, or a heaping waste of time? -- 70.183.6.175 13:14, June 14, 2011 (UTC)


 * I locked the article not because I disagree with you (or have any specific opinion about that at all), but because there has been an edit war with you repeatedly adding something and another editor repeatedly removing it again. This situation will have to be resolved by discussion on Talk:Leslie and not anywhere else - please keep the discussion to that talk page, and perhaps I will weigh in there after having read the whole discussion... -- Cid Highwind 13:47, June 14, 2011 (UTC)

Founder
Since when? - 22:29, August 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * No idea, probably related to the "real founder demotion" of a few years back. Will ask Wikia if this can be removed - if not, see current "aka" line on my super-duper profile. -- Cid Highwind 22:45, August 18, 2011 (UTC)

Nice. ;) - 22:48, August 18, 2011 (UTC)
 * I think that I need to be made the founder. ;) -- sulfur 23:06, August 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * Founder. You honour us with your presence.–Cleanse ( talk 23:12, August 18, 2011 (UTC)



Lightboxen
Found a better way to remove the lightbox stuff for images than the method we hacked together. See here. Works like a freakin' charm. -- sulfur 11:49, August 19, 2011 (UTC)

Delete my DS9 page.
I would appreciate it if you deleted the article I now realize was not worth writing at all. The answer to watching DS9 with all the TNG and VOY episodes in-between lies in the articles for every year of the 24th century. --Skywalker80 17:37, August 23, 2011 (UTC)


 * See Memory Alpha:Pages for deletion/DS9, TNG & VOY episode airdates. -- Cid Highwind 19:37, August 23, 2011 (UTC)

Claiming anonymous postings
Good day. I've made a couple edits here and then I decided to create a Wikia account. Is there a way to claim those user contributions under my account name? Currently they appear as contributions from my IP address.

Steveriley 05:21, August 27, 2011 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately not. You can indicate on your user page which edits were yours, but they cannot be tied to a user. -- sulfur 11:05, August 27, 2011 (UTC)