User talk:Xoid/arc/2007/February

the 'new' templates

Xoid, which templates did CJKeys and you work on? I know you upgraded some about a month or so ago, but I wasn't following along at the time. I'm hoping to identify them for the Help pages and to finish the work with the other ones. Thanks. --Revanche (admin) 23:23, 28 January 2007 (CST)

To be honest? No idea. It'd probably be easier for me to just go through the list and check which have documentation that is way off base. --Xoid 21:33, 29 January 2007 (CST)

Whom...that's both good & bad news. I assumed that it was just canon Mechs and that all the others would have to be done (I've changed the help page for canon 'Mechs to match what you provided). If you've done more than that, then i really need to get those identified and update the help pages accordingly. I'll start poking around the relevant templates and working on them in an organized fashion. How should we coordinate our related efforts? --Revanche (admin) 00:54, 30 January 2007 (CST)

We can use this opportunity to fix these will-eventually-be high-use templates before it becomes as much of a burden as the changes to {{InfoBoxBattleMech}} were.

Divide and conquer. Special:Allpages, choose one end of the list, and I'll take the other. Work our way towards the middle. Once either of us starts to get to that point, we inform the other and split up tasks further if necessary. If there are any special changes required that you are unsure how to make; for an infobox for example, we stop, collaborate on that one, then go back to where we were. Repeat as necessary. --Xoid 03:25, 2 February 2007 (CST)

Roger. I'll start at the bottom and work backwards (i.e., I'm taking the right column). I had been assuming that we'd be working just on infoboxes, so I'm not truly aware of what I should be looking for. For example: Template:Wikipedia. I'm looking at its history and I can see you went to town on it on the 17th of December, so I'd presume that one was complete. However, it would be a good example for me to follow, thru the history, of what you actually did. Please provide me steps/wickets/checklist that must be checked and/or accomplished for each unaltered template. --Revanche (admin) 11:08, 3 February 2007 (CST)

Read the code; if it doesn't do what the docs say, fix the docs. If you aren't sure what the template does, take a look at what the doc's say. Try using the template somewhere. If you can't get it working, that's a sure sign the docs are screwy (or too difficult to comprehend — not always a problem… some templates simply cannot be simplified any further). If the template's got ParserFunctions and other junk in it and you have absolutely no idea what it does, just say the word. The {{Check talk}} template is a good example of scary stuff for beginners.

Now, as to how to do the docs. Um… *scratches head* basically? Just in that format. Take a look at the /doc pages for {{WikiProject BattleMechs}} and {{TOCleft}}; just make sure that they are in that 'form' and we'll have consistent looking documentation. (Just FYI: I chose violet and orange to help out those with red/green colour-blindness, the bolding should help somewhat, too.) --Xoid 18:07, 3 February 2007 (CST)

I had followed the link you provided (in each mod you had already completed) for BTW:TDP and that was a goldmine. Having something as easy as cut & paste -as simplistic as it sounds- builds my confidence immensely, in regards to helping out on a project of this sort. What I'd like you to do is follow my progress on Template:Unsigned and let me know if I've screwed anything up. I think the heavy-thinkin' has been done with that cut&paste code and now I just have to be careful with the language of the documentation. --Revanche 18:27, 3 February 2007 (CST)

Seems pretty good. Only thing I can think of is that I might make it clearer that you use either one or the other, though that may be babying it a bit much. --Xoid 19:28, 3 February 2007 (CST)

Aha! I just realized you either bamboozled or drafted my ass! Reading back thru these, I remember now my intent was on providing updated help space pages for the infobox-centered articles ('Mechs, vehicles, books, etc.) to meet the changes I knew you had made to the actual templates for those infoboxes. In my attempt to understand what you were suggesting for a course of action, however, I learned how to provide transcluded documents in order to provide up-to-date help functions on the actual template pages themselves. Not at all my intent! You swindler! --Revanche 19:25, 3 February 2007 (CST)

*raspberry* --Xoid 19:28, 3 February 2007 (CST)

[wiping face] --Revanche 20:20, 3 February 2007 (CST)

Default Sort

As I was working on the ComStar (sourcebook) article, and all its tangents, I questioned how we can properly categorize people by last name. I see that on Wikipedia, the magic word {{DEFAULTSORT:<sort key>}} may have a role in conducting that behavior. Can you confirm my assumption and determine how we can get it to behave similarly here? --Revanche 01:36, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Requires MediaWiki 1.10, which isn't out yet. We could ask Nic to grab this from the CVS and try putting it in himself, but I'd prefer to wait until 1.10 is released before adopting it. God only knows why they allow unstable releases of MediaWiki on Wikipedia, but they do. --Xoid 02:57, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Roger. While we don't have a relative lot here, I don't wanta screw with what we do have. But, when it comes, it would be nice to sort names by last name alphabetical. Looking forward to that stable release. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 15:26, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Oh yeah, very, very much looking forward to it. If it works like I want it to, it'll mean I can get rid of that ugly kludge I used to get 100 tons to show up after 95 tons. Remember that? --Xoid 20:09, 4 February 2007 (CST)

I remember the issue; I'll have to look back to remember the cure. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 20:34, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Project Bio

• Here I'm trying to work thru the ComStar (sourcebook) and add articles from that one source, refusing to veer off my course of "one-page-at-a-time" when I realized that the bios I was creating were just...not good. So I start to form a template for future bios, etc. and I realized I couldn't just leave initial bios without a project box at the top to explain their sparse nature. I've mimicked the other project boxes (specifically BattleMech) and now I'm caught at how to add a face as the icon for the project. I've imported [[Image:Janos Marik.jpg]] to replace that of the BM icon and I've added the new entry to MediaWiki:Common.css. I'm calling it Project:Biography. Could you please set up a WikiProject Message Box for this project? Thanks, Xoid. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 19:18, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Sure. With all the hard work done (from the creation of {{WikiProject BattleMechs}}), all it takes is a minute or so to get it working, and maybe a second or two tweaking the CSS. I do politely request that you find another image though; one that supports transparency. --Xoid 20:11, 4 February 2007 (CST)

I've tried cleaning up and manually working with the image to make it suitable, but it simply does not 'shrink' very well. I fear the same will happen with any other image you choose. Perhaps we can ask one of the forumites to lend a hand? --Xoid 20:33, 4 February 2007 (CST)

To be honest with you, I just went to SuccessionWars.com and grabbed one of Mendrugo's many images that he had provided for that game. I suspect that they will all have the same problem as the Janos image. I imagine I'd find a better, generic image at wikicommons, don't you think? I'll poke around and put forth a few ideas. Thanks, Xoid. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 20:38, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Images I'm a-likin' (with my nicknames):

1. Silhouette
2. Shorty
3. Letter
4. People
5. David

--Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 20:54, 4 February 2007 (CST)

I'm liking Shorty. It'd go well with the black icon theme thingo we've got going with the BTW:PBM and BTW:PV templates. (Yeah, the latter doesn't exist yet. It will, someday.) --Xoid 04:23, 5 February 2007 (CST)

Great! I agree. Its simplistic style is distinct but appears related. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 08:12, 5 February 2007 (CST)

My Personal Wiki

Argh...I thought I had gotten it to where I wanted. Fresh install of MediaWiki (1.9.2); clone of BTW's common.css (IRT your question, no 'hooks'); import and customization of template:InfoBoxBook to become Template:InfoBoxPlanet. I decide to try it out on a test run for Mars, I create {{Tl}} (from here) and I immediately get the current (FUBAR'd) version of the infoboxes (no colors, lack of functionality). I delete {{Tl}}, tho I can't see why it would have screwed up the infoboxes. It would seem something changed to my Common.css, but I hadn't done anything to it, since I before I worked on the infoboxes tonight. I would really appreciate you help on this, Xoid. I don't need a fully-BTW-ized wiki, as its just for me. Just something where I can use infoboxes and transcluded templates. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 01:53, 17 February 2007 (CST)