User talk:Nicjansma/Archive

Infoboxes and Templates

Ok, I'm really only learning that things I think I know aren't really so. I'm trying to figure out infoboxes (think they qualify as templates), but every time I copy code from MediaWiki or Wikipedia's Help, the box is not...boxed and on the right. I'm pretty much at an impasse. If you have any hints on this, then I can start moving forward again. I'll keep looking, but any help you provide would be much appreciated. Revanche 14:26, 18 September 2006 (CDT)

Nic, have you learned anything regarding info boxes? I've got a few more nights of working that would be good for this kind of leg work. Revanche 23:30, 23 September 2006 (CDT)

I was talking with the guys over at MechWikia, and it sounds like the Info boxes automagically go to the right and in a box once there's enough content on the page. Haven't tested this out. Nicjansma 10:16, 24 September 2006 (CDT)

That doesn't make sense to me. I can see the code involved with each box I've come across om Wikipedia. It refers to a template (hope I'm not using that term wrong) for a specifically-crafted box. Maybe what they mean is, when you insert the code on a given page and fill in the fields for that article (ex: insert code for a weapons box, and insert the data for the small laser), it only shows those fields you filled in. Meh...the help stuff at wiki and mediawiki haven't been to clear for a novice editor. Revanche 22:47, 24 September 2006 (CDT)

Whoo-hoo...figured it out for myself, thanks to the use of one at MechWikia. Check this out! Also, I've taken my lessons and I don't wanta forget 'em, so I'm starting a series of Quick Article 'templates,' where editors can grab the code for specific types of articles (forming communities) and not have to worry about actually inserting templates. That's now my big project. I'll build each quick article and four examples. Hopefully, the souls will pick up from there. Revanche 05:42, 26 September 2006 (CDT)

As for MechWikia, how's it going? Are they open to setting up shop here? Revanche 22:47, 24 September 2006 (CDT) Edit: I started poking around again on MechWikia and I saw your post there regarding joining forces. As they didn't respond there, and you don't have a registration on their page, I was wondering if you had gotten a response from them. Looking around on their site, they have a lot of work done on 'mechs, which would be a huge resource for this site. Likewise, you have tons of information I feel they just could not easily replicate on their site. As sheer data goes, I imagine you have hundreds of more pages [looks like over 2,600 to his 65] and it'd be easier - right now - to port their articles over here. If you'd like, I'd be glad to speak with them also, but I wanted to make sure it was okay to represent Sarna. Revanche 00:33, 25 September 2006 (CDT)

I've spoken with Kevin (Some_Guy) over at MechWikia via email, and he seems fairly receptive towards combining projects -- it sounds like he's willing to bring his resources over to Sarna.net. We're still chatting, but things are proceeding smoothly! Let's hope he's going to come help out! Nicjansma 04:49, 25 September 2006 (CDT)

Excellent! He welcomed me on my talk page over there and I expressed my interest in the merger, in response. Revanche 20:51, 25 September 2006 (CDT)

Policies

Nic, how do you feel about me working on some SarnaWiki policies? For example, the three-revert rule, community consensus decision-making process, vote calls and vote processes. If you're interested, I'll start looking to see how wikipedia does it and bring some starter ideas over here. (Reason I ask is because of the discussion I started with Rantamplan over his 'My neveron history' article. Having a policy of voting would be helpful, especially in these early days (unless you want it to be by admins' fiat, until the article submission process is firmly established).) Revanche 20:57, 25 September 2006 (CDT)

Sounds great! I dont' have a lot of experience in those areas, and you're doing well. Keep it up! Nicjansma 02:38, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

Special Pages: Active Users

Nic, do you have the option of adding the 'Active User List' page to 'Special Pages for all users?' Its valuable in that it reduces the users list to only those that have made changes or created pages. I've seen it at MechWikia.Revanche 02:33, 26 September 2006 (CDT)

I don't see it in my list at all. Is it an addon downloadable from somewhere? Nicjansma 02:42, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

Copywrite Policy

Nic, I've been observing entries over at MechWikia and I see that they have a standard policy regarding copywrited material, and one editor in particular is pretty adament about it? What are your views? Back in the day, FASA didn't really appear to be too strict on that and I know Sarna didn't really appear to enforce it either. Myself, I'm not really much of a stickler about that, so I wouldn't be a neo-police officer/editor on the matter, but if you're outright opposed to it, I want to be sure I don't violate it myself. Any elaboration on this would be helpful. Thanks. Revanche 01:00, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

I'd prefer to keep our content original, copyright-free. That being said, I'm not going to be a nazi checking every post to make sure, I don't think we have the time to do that. Nicjansma 02:42, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

I definitely agree with that. What about our policy in regards to when we (as editors) come across non-original material? Deletion of material, a tag requesting the plagerism to be re-written? Revanche 02:55, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

I believe a tag requesting the plagerism to be re-written would be more friendly, and probably get a better response. Nicjansma 02:17, 4 October 2006 (CDT)

Rgr. I'll put that in my to-do list. --Revanche 11:16, 4 October 2006 (CDT)

Featured Article

One aspect I really like with some wikia projects (and wikipedia) is the Featured Article of the Day. Since you're in talks with Some_Guy about BattleTechWiki's (BTW) in regards to the Main Page, can you please look at reserving some space for a similar setup for us? I've got a few ideas (leading mostly to an award program) that would benefit from having Featured Articles on the main page. The main benefit to the first-time Reader is that they see an article that interests them (I'm thinking mainly of well-edited 'Mech entries by CJKey right now) and click on it, and end up exploring the links associated with it. Admins could control the length of the Feature time, etc. etc., but installing such a aspect on the main page is - I think - important. Revanche 01:00, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

I like that idea a lot! Check the Main_Page_Test page out, and we can work on a prototype. Nicjansma

Maybe I'm acting too eager, but I'm not seeing anything there. --Revanche 02:57, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

I think the one thing missing from the front page right now is still the Featured Article. Maybe as we develop some more articles we can start to fill it out? Nicjansma 02:18, 4 October 2006 (CDT)

Definitely, but I've been searching for any information on /how/ to build a main page featured article. Media Wiki would seem to be the best source, but nada (that I can find). Revanche 11:19, 4 October 2006 (CDT)

Awards

Nic, how do you feel about an awards system here? I'm thinking along the line of the Wiki ribbons, rather than their barnstars and I've already created a few custom ribbons. I'm going to try and load a few, to make sure I understand the process of loading and awarding, so please take a look at Policy:Awards (not yet public) and tell me what you think. --Revanche 06:02, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

I hadn't really heard about it until you mentioned it. I like the idea, but it may take a bit more for BTW to develop (i.e. more people) to get a good system going. Nicjansma 02:19, 4 October 2006 (CDT)

Concur. There are more important items for me to spend my time on, in order to get people to stay. But, I'd like to work on it once the templates are done. --Revanche 11:13, 4 October 2006 (CDT)

500 Internal Server Error

Nic, I've tried it from two different comps. Edit and save any article; I'm getting the error. The save is made (as you'll see when you return to the article), but it fails every time. Its been this way for several hours. --Revanche (admin) 22:58, 23 October 2006 (CDT)

Doh! I've fixed this. Happened when I upgraded from mediawiki 1.7.x to 1.8.2. Nicjansma 23:38, 23 October 2006 (CDT)

Glad it was an easy fix. What new features do we get with the upgrade? --Revanche (admin) 00:23, 24 October 2006 (CDT)

Can you double-check for me regarding uploading files? I can't seem to do it and not sure if it is the software or my source files. --Revanche (admin) 08:10, 24 October 2006 (CDT)

I think they should be fixed now too. Nicjansma 11:34, 24 October 2006 (CDT)

Works great. Thanks. --Revanche (admin) 11:57, 24 October 2006 (CDT)

BattleMech Portal

Nic, CJKeys & I are trying to develop a BattleMech 'portal,' where a user can click on a Portal link (following the Canon & Custom links) and see a 'main page' (of sorts) for all things BattleMech on BTW. What I'm starting off with is a copy of the BTW Main Page and will be replacing the directory template with one that displays all the CBT factions. The intent is when someone clicks on faction link within that directory, say the FWL, they'll eb directed to an all FWL category page list FWL BattleMechs. Now, I see this directory list being quite long, once all the factions get added. I could do it with tables, but that means every time a new faction is added, the table has to be adjusted. I'd like the list to automatically divide all the factions into two columns and display it in that one left-side panel. Do you know of any code that would take the list and make it columnar [right word?]? --Revanche (admin) 18:25, 29 October 2006 (CST)

Any guidance, Nic? --Revanche (admin) 16:19, 11 November 2006 (CST)

Sorry, must have missed this the first time. I do not know of anything, but I haven't looked into expanding the MediaWiki software yet. Maybe it will be decently easy? I'll take a look. Nicjansma 20:09, 11 November 2006 (CST)

Thanks. Also, if you could tell me how to shade the background for tables. BattleMech Portal looks a little odd with the white table on grey. The help pages at MW are a bit bare on the subject. --Revanche (admin) 20:52, 11 November 2006 (CST)

It's part of the style="background: #ABCDEFG" part on the first line of the text, such as this: Nicjansma 18:37, 12 November 2006 (CST)

{| style="width: 100%; margin-top: +.7em; background-color: #DCDCDC; border: 2px solid #000000"

That's simply...sniff...beautiful, man. Works perfectly. Thanks! --Revanche (admin) 18:42, 12 November 2006 (CST)

CSS suggestion from Xoid

Nic, pls take a look on my talk page to see a suggestion Xoid has about indentions and CSS. --Revanche (admin) 20:48, 17 November 2006 (CST)

No problemo, I've added this to our css sheet.

Posting to Downloads

Nic,

I'm new to Sarna, although I've hung out at Mordel's Bar & Grill for several years. I have a cardstock model of a Leopard I designed. I'd like to post it in the downloads section. It's a .zip file, with instructions (no photos yet). How can I post it?

Storm

buck_hedges@yahoo.com

Feel free to contact me at [nic at nicj dot net]. Just email me the zip and I'll post it up :) Nicjansma 23:36, 17 January 2007 (CST)

Neveron article template

Nic, ask a favor? Since you're familiar with your forums, could you ask someone on the Neveron side of the house to pop into my talkpage and suggest what an article on each Neveron faction should have? I'm thinking InfoBox type stuff (name, origination date, size, alliances, membership #, location, etc.) and then main article stuff (founder, history, significant events, external pages). In other words, other than what I just listed, what would a neveron player expect to see if he pulled up his faction's article on BTW? --Revanche 23:09, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

Some sort of template would be very helpful. I have tried to develop an interesting template for my own faction (Kommando Korps), including topics that would be neat for players outside the faction to comment on (enemies, friends, etc). Feel free to take a look at it if you'd like. Superjuke 14:02, 14 October 2006 (CDT)

You're breaking new ground here! Feel free to develop it however you want. Looking great so far! Nicjansma 21:19, 21 November 2006 (CST)

Kudos & Thanks

I'm very impressed with the level of improvement being made to the Sarna wiki almost daily. It's a very large project, but it is getting done and that deserves plenty of kudos. Katrar 15:52, 14 October 2006 (CDT)

Thanks! I'm excited you're contributing. We're still all getting the ball rolling in a wiki form, but I have lots of ideas for things to expand upon. Very glad you're here! Nicjansma 23:40, 14 October 2006 (CDT)

Fiction in Templates

Nic, why do you think that the four fiction stories are showing up in the Templates category? --Revanche (admin) 22:39, 13 November 2006 (CST)

I added the <noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude> around the category on the Template:NoEdit page. That means that pages that include the NoEdit template won't include the Category part of the template, so they themselves won't be in the templates category. Nicjansma 01:31, 14 November 2006 (CST)

Got it...thanks. Lesson learned. --Revanche (admin) 01:37, 14 November 2006 (CST)

New Help

Nic, as discussed, I've advertised the site on my own forums. At least two have joined in and started some editing. Jimmy has already posted a story, made a few corrections and joined Project: BattleMechs. I think he's quite pumped. Bowtie Bob, another one of my forum admins, has also dropped by and made a few 'starter' edits. We'll see if we can pique his interest, as he wanders about. I'm anticipating the famous Medron Pryde to pop in and grace us with a number of excellent fan fiction. --Revanche (admin) 01:37, 14 November 2006 (CST)

This is great Revanche, thanks a ton for spearheading this. The new users are making some great contributions and it's all wonderful that they're willing to help out. Let's get the ball rolling! Nicjansma 21:19, 21 November 2006 (CST)

Images

I notice that I can't upload them here. Could you please enable them? There are so many decent SVGs from Wikipedia that are under some form 'copyleft' that we could use. --Xoid 18:00, 29 November 2006 (CST)

Sure, is that just a matter of enabling uploads of *.svg? If so, done! Nicjansma 21:49, 29 November 2006 (CST)

I think that'll be the case. Lets see if the disambig image I wanted to upload works. --Xoid 22:12, 29 November 2006 (CST)

Nope, seems you're missing something. If you want, I can research it later today. --Xoid 22:15, 29 November 2006 (CST)

OK, I think it's fixed now. I had to change the MIME detection logic. Nicjansma 23:13, 29 November 2006 (CST)

Excellent. Thank you very much; I'll get to work on uploading what I think will be some commonly used SVGs, as well as some for basic "prettification" of templates. --Xoid 03:46, 30 November 2006 (CST)

Sorry to bother you again, but just something I thought I'd bring up. Wikipedia has their MIME type for SVGs as "image/svg+xml", theirs display correctly. The source of our first SVG also contains that MIME type. --Xoid 05:38, 30 November 2006 (CST)

I've been getting a lot of messages like this one here: The file is corrupt or has an incorrect extension. Please check the file and upload again. for PNGs, despite the fact that the images work elsewhere. Could you please look into fixing the MIME types.

SVGs still don't work properly, and you'll likely need to use Meta's information on how to get that fixed. --Xoid 06:15, 5 December 2006 (CST)

OK, strange. I've disabled MIME verification completely ($wgVerifyMimeType=false). The other two verifiers I used (built-in and file -bi both seemed to not like certain types). Nicjansma 23:55, 7 December 2006 (CST)

Which leads to that problem. This is something I've come to expect from new MediaWiki installations. A right royal pain. --Xoid 02:44, 8 December 2006 (CST)

Any suggestions for how to fix? Nicjansma 02:51, 8 December 2006 (CST)

No idea. Honestly, while I've seen the problems it causes I've never been into the guts of the MIME detection stuff before. I could do some research on it or I could ask the owners the UD and NW wiki how they dealt with it, but I honestly think that'd it be easier to ask at the Wikipedia help desk — it's highly likely that fixing this is going to be something convoluted that we'll need to be walked through and I know they [owners, now Wikipedia's help desk] wouldn't have the time. --Xoid 03:10, 8 December 2006 (CST)

I think I've fixed this by editiing /etc/http/conf/magic so Apache knows the mime type for PNG. You'll have to re-upload previously broken PNG uploads to fix. Are all other image types working? Nicjansma 17:45, 20 December 2006 (CST)

SVGs still look screwier than hell. Apparently, Wikipedia doesn't use ImageMagic, but something else entirely. Obstensibly, this was due to the poor quality of the images after it had been through with them. I'm officially giving up on them… they've delayed me long enough. Just gonna stick with the use of PNGs instead. --Xoid 05:19, 21 December 2006 (CST)

New namespace

Could you make a custom namespace called 'Policy'? Make sure any pages that are currently named 'Policy:' are renamed to something else before you do, or else they might be permanently destroyed. (General mentioned something about that happening when they did that on the Scroll Wars wiki, I'd take his word on it.) --Xoid 20:37, 1 December 2006 (CST)

All set! Nicjansma 23:59, 7 December 2006 (CST)

While pages weren't obliterated, seems we have yet another problem. Though this one's 'strange' more than problematic. Whatlinks here for 2Policy:Awards. Most curious. Methinks I'll be asking the gurus at meta about this… oddity. --Xoid 15:13, 8 December 2006 (CST)

Yeah, to solve the move problem I moved all of the Policy: pages to "2Policy:..." first, then moved them to the policy namespace. So there are probably some weird redirects floating around. Nicjansma 23:29, 8 December 2006 (CST)

Not my forte

201.213.4.41 has been modifying some articles on planets. They're no my forte, so I can't tell whether its vandalism. His contributions do look suspicious though. --Xoid 13:46, 14 December 2006 (CST)

Yeah, Nic: I was going to step up and the changes, but I'm not certain I'd be judging fairly (looking at some of the entries he made). --Revanche (admin) 11:14, 17 December 2006 (CST)

I rolled back one of the edits that removed all of the Nearby links. For the other planets, I think he is technically correct, so I've left them. Thanks for the heads up. Nicjansma 15:08, 17 December 2006 (CST)

I reverted the rest when I noticed you reverted one. I just thought you missed the rest. OK, I reverted my reverts just now. --Xoid 05:03, 21 December 2006 (CST)

Requesting Cite Extension

Reasoning

It would make adding footnotes and citations a breeze, and facilitate in the importation of at least some (possibly many) articles from Wikipedia.

More information can be found at Wikimedia's page on it. You may wish to bear in mind the concerns that Wikipedia itself has about the use of the cite extension. --Xoid 02:09, 24 January 2007 (CST)

I really support this, Nic. The more I've gotten educated at Wikipedia, the more relevant this seems to have here. BTW has the opportunity to be the database for even the FanPro factcheckers, but to do so, we need to be able to adequately reference the wealth of material. --Revanche (admin) 11:41, 27 January 2007 (CST)

Cool guys, I've added this extension. Please let me know if you find any issues with it. Nicjansma 01:26, 29 January 2007 (CST)

Wow. That was quick. Thanks! --Xoid 01:39, 29 January 2007 (CST)

Founder Userbar Bestowed

Nic, I hope you don't think this is too ostentatious, but I commissioned Skuggi at cbt.com to create some userbars for us. The idea came to me as I worked on the BTW policies today and I realized you had a position that is equivalent to Jimbo Wales' at Wikipedia. So, I asked him to make a custom one for you. Its the only one with stars on it, and all of the userbars make use of BTW's logo (the IS Map with the name across it). I still have to write up the position articles for most of the positions (advocate, moderator, arbiter, administrator), but I figured those people, when they are assigned, should 'wear' their userbars at the top of their userpages, for quicker identification. The Project team members and lead (for example Project:BattleMechs) will put them where ever on their pages they prefer. I was hoping you'd post your's at the top of your Userpage. Anyway, onto the ceremony..."[drumroll]...I bestow the following unique userbar upon BattleTechWiki's founder, Nic Jansma:

"Congratulations and thanks, Nic." --Revanche (admin) 02:07, 20 November 2006 (CST)

This is awesome looking! I've added it now. Thanks Skuggi and Revanche! — The preceding unsigned comment was posted by Nicjansma (talk • contribs) .

Clan Bloodnames

I see you have "Clan Bloodnames" on your list of things to do. I have a list of Bloodnames so long it scares me to know I took the time to compile it. If you let me know what you want to do with it, I'll give what I got. Scaletail 16:08, 23 December 2006 (CST)

That'd be great to see what you have. We currently have Clan Bloodnames but I don't know if it's accurate or complete. Nicjansma 11:39, 24 December 2006 (CST)

Old Virtual World page?

Don't mean to bother you, but I noticed on the orphaned pages list, there is an article that has links to the Virtual World website. Are you planning on adding it to the main links page, or should it be flagged for deletion? There's no pages that link to it, and I'm thinking the information could just be added to the links page. Anyway, just thought I'd ask. --~Malithion~ 19:22, 7 January 2007 (CST)

I currently have a link to it on the left bar (shown on every page). My goal is to spruce the content up for all the links on the left bar soon. Nicjansma 23:36, 17 January 2007 (CST)

Nofollow tag

Nic, I was just reading up on Wikipedia's nofollow tag policy [1]. It seems to me that, even if spammers still 'hide' links on BTW, it will make their short-term victory meaningless, if we can employ a similar capability here. Is this possible? --Revanche (admin) 18:36, 28 January 2007 (CST)

I oppose this move. Reasons being:

• It takes several hours for a spammed link to populate a search engine, even the most aggressive of them won't do it more often than that. Search engines that aggressive don't deserve to be accurate anyway, IMO. (Bandwidth wasting, good-for-nothin'…)
• We are not large enough to make this a necessity; manual weeding out of the problem has thus far been sufficient.
• Google, the première search engine, has recently upgraded its linkfarm detection system (which was already pretty damn good). Meaning that less than 30% of the search engine market is susceptible to this form of 'attack'.

With all this in mind, there is one final point I'd like you to consider:

• This could potentially hurt the site rankings of some niche fan sites in the BattleTech community.

--Xoid 01:35, 29 January 2007 (CST)

While I applaud Wikipedia for their nofollow tags, I agree with Xoid here that it may be appropriate for us to not use it. I think we're pretty quick in removing spam. Nicjansma 14:54, 3 February 2007 (CST)

Navigation popups

Nic, I've found using this tool over at Wikipedia has really helped me when it came to vandal patrols, and in just general navigation ("Do I want to load the next page? Well, let's have a peak."). Its completely optional for use by the editors, but having it available would be nice. Would you please take a look at it and see about turning on its fuctionality here? I also recommend the FAQ for what is involved in installing it here. Thanks. --Revanche (admin) 00:28, 29 January 2007 (CST)

I realize its been only five days, but is this being considered? --Revanche (admin) 11:26, 3 February 2007 (CST)

This extension looks pretty cool. I've enabled user javascript and content. Looks like you'll need to add this to your User:<name>/sarna.js (i.e. User:Nicjansma/sarna.js). I'm going to monitor how the server load is with this, I don't think it'll cause too many problems but it is pre-loading many more pages than you normally would:

// [[User:<you>/sarna.js]]

document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="' 
             + 'http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Lupin/popups.js' 
             + '&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s"></script>'); 

— The preceding unsigned comment was posted by Nicjansma (talk • contribs) .

Thanks, Nic. Look forward to messin' around with it. I really came to miss it when hoping between wikipedia and here. Thanks! --Revanche (admin) 15:44, 3 February 2007 (CST)

Nic, are you getting more than just the 'option' links? Those pop up quite quickly, but I'm not seeing the preview. --Revanche (admin) 16:03, 3 February 2007 (CST) Nevermind, all is swell.

Just saw this on one of the popups: "Preview failed :-( Is the query.php extension installed?" --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 23:14, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Another request

Interwiki linking, please. To wikipedia, preferably with the w: prefix, if at all possible. --Xoid 04:52, 2 February 2007 (CST)

Edit: maybe meta: and mw: too? Considering the amount of links there will be to their help pages (at least until ours are done), facilitating that would make me a happy man. --Xoid 04:54, 2 February 2007 (CST)

Concur. I would help save from importation of general wiki usage pages. --Revanche (admin) 11:26, 3 February 2007 (CST)

I've added these three requests: w:, meta:, mw:. Nicjansma 14:55, 3 February 2007 (CST)

It seems the second two aren't working, I'll determine why shortly. Nicjansma 14:55, 3 February 2007 (CST)

Even without these two working, yer still a legend mate! By god is it ever good to have everything we need at our fingertips so incredibly quickly. --Xoid 18:08, 3 February 2007 (CST)

And you got 'em fixed while I was writing that. XD Good show! --Xoid 18:08, 3 February 2007 (CST)

BattleTech 3056 MUSE

Nic, I'd like to bring your attention to this discussion Xoid & I are having regarding the source of some pre-BTW Sarna articles, specifically regarding the reference to BattleTech 3056 MUSE. Could you please weigh in. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 11:43, 4 February 2007 (CST)

Thanks, replied! Nicjansma 17:07, 2 December 2007 (CST)

Wiki on PC

As the only known admin here to have actually installed the wiki software (no slight to Xoid), I thought you might know if it can be installed in a working manner on a PC, so that just one editor can make use of its features. I've a subject matter that I'd like to track via a wiki and I vaguely remember you stating you have your own personal one. Thanks! --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 21:33, 8 February 2007 (CST)

Okay, I found Wiki On a Stick and its...okay. However, if you have any guidance on installing wiki directly onto a computer, I'd prefer to do that. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 20:47, 12 February 2007 (CST)

I've been using another install of MediaWiki on this same server for personal purposes for about a year now. I love it. I use it several times a week, and it's very easy to maintain. Here's an article on Lifehacker about how to install apache and stuff on a Windows PC if you're interested. I also remember some hosting companies out there offering free personal wikis that you can get to. MediaWiki might be a bit overkill, but I think it's great and easy to use since I'm using it here on Sarna too :) I also have internet access on my cellphone so I can get to my wiki from anywhere. It's behind a SSL connection, and I have the only login and no one else can create logins, so it's pretty secure. Anyways, let me know if you have more questions! Nicjansma 18:38, 13 February 2007 (CST)

Lifehacker is a great place to start. Great, clear directions. Thanks a lot! That worked well. I had looked at some of the other wiki types, but I wanted to stay with MediaWiki, also. Why waste what I've learned here. Nic, are you willing to provide some advice? I've followed the instructions that the Live to Geek column suggested, all the way through accessing the home server, but I can't seem to access it through my router. In fact, by following the directions, I get my router's admin page, as all it does is ask for my router password. I have the WAMP server up and running, and I can easily access the wiki directly (only thru my PC), but not thru the router. Any advice? (I realize your's is hosted on your server, but I'd prefer not to have to host it on my ISP.) --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 22:16, 13 February 2007 (CST)

Most likely your router has an option set to configure your router externally through the web port. What router do you have? It may be an option such as 'Remote Web Administration' or something. I would recommend disabling that. Otherwise, you could set up apache on a different port (8080?) and then port forward 8080 to your computer inside your network from the router's configuration. Nicjansma 02:34, 14 February 2007 (CST)

I have a Linksys WRT300N, brand new this weekend, as the last wireless one conked out. I turned off the remote access; now it doesn't allow me access to the router admin (which is good). I tried to get Linksys support on this, but they didn't even know what a wiki was, so weren't much help. I think I should go to Single Port Forwarding and set up an application ('Wiki') on Externet and Internet ports of 80 (and enabled), but still not having any joy. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 08:34, 14 February 2007 (CST)

Ok...not sure what changed. Maybe it just had to propagate, but now I can access the WAMP5 server page and then the wiki. Most every other link on there is inaccessible to the outside (which is obviously good), but I can 'see' the 'phpinfo( )' info link. Should I press the issue and try and get the wiki to load itself directly (I like being able to access it thru the server)? --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 23:18, 14 February 2007 (CST)

Well, I appear to be able to access the wiki just fine now. However, I'm trying to build infoboxes such as we have here. On #mediawiki chat, they helped me identify that I needed CSS styles for class="infobox". However, I copied the commons.css from here and I didn't get the result I was looking for. The template outputs the data without a box and its placed on the left. IOW, its not an infobox. Do I need to add some code or build a referencing template, perhaps? --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 20:37, 15 February 2007 (CST)

If you are using a default installation of MediaWiki, you won't have a Common.css. I know you said you added it, but did you mean just the page, or did you also include the necessary hooks to include it in a page? --Xoid 00:44, 17 February 2007 (CST)

<Darth>I find your lack of faith… disturbing.</Darth> --Xoid 00:44, 17 February 2007 (CST)

Inner Sphere Mechs are Done

I sent this to all the BattleTechWiki:Project BattleMechs members and figured you might also want to know about it. It might be a good thing to put up on the news page.

---

After working on this for around seven months I am proud to announce that all of the mainstream Inner Sphere 'Mechs that have a TRO entry are finished. I know as the game goes on this will be a continuing process but now we are officially ahead of the curve on the Inner Sphere 'Mechs and I'm sure the Clan 'Mechs wont take too long. The Solaris VII 'Mechs are a creature unto themselves and once I actually buy Map Pack Solaris VII I will start working on those as I have already scanned images for them. I would like to congratulate the whole team. Without everyone here we wouldn't have ever gotten this far. So don't be surprised if you also get this on each of your discussion pages.CJKeys 01:00, 19 May 2007 (CDT)

Awesome, good job! Feel free to edit the News Page yourself! 71.227.199.20 19:24, 8 July 2007 (CDT)

Blue Diamond and Menkent

In my updating of Terra, I discovered that Blue Diamond and Menkent have apparently been mixed up somehow (they're both Lyran planets, but Blue Diamond is near the Falcon border, while Menkent is close to the Chaos March). Is there an easy way to fix that? --Scaletail 15:59, 7 July 2007 (CDT)

It would appear that Fletcher and Fletcher (FWL) have suffered the same fate. --Scaletail 16:12, 7 July 2007 (CDT)

Hmm, strange. I don't see any problem with just switching the text for each. 71.227.199.20 19:25, 8 July 2007 (CDT)

In essence, the titles were swapped out. It may work for the Fletchers (it would take to much to think that hard at the moment). The problem with that idea for the Lyran ones is that planets that are close to Menkent (like Terra) link to Blue Diamond and vice versa. I could just switch the text for them, but then Terra would still link to Blue Diamond (mistakenly believing that it is within two jumps) and the Blue Diamond article would now reflect its actual position near the Falcon border. It wouldn't be a ridiculous amount of work to correct every page that links to it, but I am a bit concerned because this might happen again, so i was hoping that there would be an easier way to do it. Scaletail 12:25, 9 July 2007 (CDT)

Apparently what happened is somebody over at ISCS made an error when they made a map. My mind was almost blown when I thought I realized I had been wrong. The corrected version appears in Handbook: House Steiner. Scaletail 16:11, 15 August 2007 (CDT)

So the House Steiner and House Kurita books from '87 are wrong on that? Is this a retcon gone awry or just someone at FASA, et al messed up a book and now we're stuck with the mistake? Bdevoe 14:29, 18 August 2007 (CDT)

I checked both Kurita (FASA Pub 1620) and Steiner (FASA Pub 1621). They have Blue Diamond and Menkent in opposite places. Unfortunately, my other references don't show either planet, so apparently the latest stuff is corrected. My guess is that the ISCS stuff used the Steiner data for House Steiner, which was why it's backwards. Bdevoe 14:34, 18 August 2007 (CDT)

Uhm, How do i contribute?

Uhm, How do i contribute?

Ive looked around the wiki, and its pretty impressive, lots of info. but most of em are "Battletech Classic" you guys arent focusing on "Dark Age" stuff?

If i could, can i contribute some simple "Dark Age" Articles and stuff?

And maybe Update some of the Mechs Listed?(pictures of variants etc)

by the way, the maps featured in Planets (Wouldn it be better called "Systems And Planets"? you know, being many planets and moons and stuff in a Solar System and all) stoped in the year 3062, are the cartographers planning on expanding the timeline towards the "Dark Age" era?

and int the features maps, Systems without a jumproute(line going to and from them) how do they interact with the rest of the systems besides them? are there simply no way to jump into the system, or did they purposely not anyone jump to the planets( my lack of basic inner-sphere politics in these parts hinder my understanding ).

my e-mail is agus101186@yahoo.co.uk

i hope i can contribute to such a great place for Mechwarrior and Battletech Information.

Welcome! I'm pretty new to this Wiki (but not to Wikipedia), and what I've been doing is just finding areas where I know something that hasn't been documented and then adding that information to the wiki. Overall, as you use the site, you'll start searching around and find some things that are incomplete or poorly documented. You should just get in there and get your hands dirty. :) All of my experience with BTech predates the Clans, so that's where I have the most impact.

Welcome aboard and just start checking out what you want to look at and go from there. Good luck! Bdevoe 13:00, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

Welcome! Please contribute wherever you feel most comfortable. We aren't focusing on Classic or Dark Age specifically, and Dark Age stuff is definitely welcome. If there is any difference between sources in Classic and DA material please note that. Otherwise, welcome, and thanks for helping out! Nicjansma 18:13, 1 August 2007 (CDT)

Snord's Irregular

Hello again, I was just browsing The Snord's Irregular page, and im wondering is the information there canon? if so, then, should we update the Wolf's Dragoons page? to actually include their activities BEFORE 3005, if there was any.

Below is my long winded explanation of the query.

Snord cannot possibly have been a member of Wolf's Dragoons, having been thrown out and met McFinney in 3002... because Wolf's Dragoons only arrived in the Inner Sphere in 3005! Either the dates are wrong, or we served with another merc unit. 84.187.197.140 19:43, 22 July 2007 (CDT)

We'll check up on that

If you open the Wolf's Dragoon page[2], they FORMALY ENTERED CONTRACT with the Federated Suns on 3005, where the Federated Suns deployed them on border of The Capellan Confederation, this is presumbaly the only theatre the Dragoons were working in. Thus, the engagement of Dragoons in Royal, stated in The Snord's Irregulars page[3], occuring in 3002, on the borders of the Draconis Combine might have happened BEFORE they got a contract with The Federated Suns. The proclamation that they suddenly appeared in inner sphere space on the exact date of 3005 is a bit exagerated, since, mostly unknown mercenary units are not usually paid attention to, since there were so many mercenaries outfit going out and about in the inner sphere. Even the dragoons had a small time when they are not widely known, being a very new addition to the mercenary scene. It wouuld be logically for Wolf's Dragoons to get Oriented with the then current inner sphere before deciding in its course of action(its original intended mission actually), thus a grace period of a few years PRIOR to they're First contract is acceptable. But since im not 100% sure, im gonna ask Scaletail, he'll proabably know better.

This page on wikipedia [4], comments that they caused a lot of panic when they first appeared in the Federated Suns, which says, they were Immedietly spotted on 3005. The thing is, if they were such unknowns, possesing all that hardware would kind make people be wary of thyre intentions. Which raises the question, why would the Federated Suns IMMEDIATLY hire them, it like.

A group of Knights, JUST happen to be visiting a castle of a king, virtual UNKNOWNS, would that king SUDDENLY hire these guys to be his guards?? Without knowing what kind of people they are? How can te king be certain these guys wont kil him? right? The king might need time to observe how they perceive the king, and what advantage would it be to field these knights, etc.

Pardon the VERY bad analogy (did I spell that right?), but you get the picture right? --Agus101186 05:25, 2 August 2007 (CDT)

Question

What are the rules for posting a story on Sarna? Would like to write a short story or two. Thanks Valentinejoesmith 15:39, 12 October 2007 (CDT)

Welcome! We have Category:Fiction -- feel free to post everything there! Nicjansma 01:24, 13 October 2007 (CDT)

Contributions

Eh, it's not like I did any real work. Just background linking and categorizing. I still fail to have the energy to actually look most things up, but I will get there... soon... I promise.... --Scaletail

I know that a lot of pages were auto-generated, including the planetary database. What would it take to edit that database to update it for 3067, and even 3130? Scaletail 12:15, 2 April 2007 (CDT)

Well, the problem is I don't have the database for 3067 and 3130 :) If you know of a data file (CSV, text file, something) that has owners for those years I'll happily update everythin! Nicjansma 13:50, 2 April 2007 (CDT)

I was kind of alluding to the fact that I would do it (at least for 3067... I'm not paying $40 + S&H or whatever it is for the poster-sized map that is the only complete map for 3130 I've seen). I'm utterly clueless as to what you would need to update it easily, so what would be the best way? Scaletail 12:01, 9 April 2007 (CDT)

The file I used to generate the planetary data is here. If you can update that file, I can easily re-update the current planets! Nicjansma 17:18, 2 December 2007 (CST)

Sweet. When I actually have the time, I'll see what I can do with it. --Scaletail 14:17, 4 December 2007 (CST)

Vandalism

Kittle mused on her talk page that perhaps, given the level of vandalism that we're seeing, that we may want to consider locking the wiki against edits from non-users. I know that Scaletail, Nic, and I have spent many hours correcting vandalism. I thought we should just put it out there to at least have the discussion. Thanks. Bdevoe 12:40, 16 October 2007 (CDT)

How does someone get banned? Because 212.72.56.31 has made fourteen "edits" and all of them were vandalism. ALL OF THEM. Hes not the only one either, 201.12.178.33 has made nearly forty "edits" and ALL OF THEM WERE VANDALISM. Scaletail, Kittle, and Bdevoe have been the ones who cleaned up most of these idiots' vandalism, I'm sure they agree with me. I think that the major part of the vandalism problem can be fixed if we ban repeat offenders. I don't believe that it is necessary to stop non-users from editing, some of them have made real contributions to the site. I believe that after a certain amount of vandalism that individuals should be banned, regardless of whether or not they are members. I might be more frustrated by it than most people since I have obsessive compulsive disorder, but that doesn't make it any easier to clean up after their juvenile behavior. To the contrary, I spend too many hours fixing minor grammar and spelling errors as it is. Why should I have to worry about vandalism as well? --DragonoftheRust 17:04, 22 October 2007 (CDT)

I placed a one-week ban on those two IPs, with account creation prevention. If it stops at that, so be it. It doesn't I'll make them permabans. The reason that bannings haven't been happening over this is because of the fact that Revanche is on military duty, Nic is busy and I was MIA for a good many months (long story, don't ask). There wasn't anyone else with the power to ban people. Since I'm back, for the time being, I'll try to keep an eye on things. --Xoid 02:37, 23 October 2007 (CDT)

I know that we did see quite a few consistent nonsensical vandalism from a few IPs there for a while, but I would say that out of the tens of articles we corrected, there were many other IPs involved in the process. It seems almost intentional, but I can't begin to reason what the purpose is - the pages vandalized seem random, but there have been multiple edits on the same pages over and over. The actual content seems generated somehow - but I just can't seem to figure out what purpose it serves for the vandal. Regardless, I don't think that banning just those two IPs will do much to stem the tide, but we'll just keep doing what we do. :) 24.9.228.69 11:44, 24 October 2007 (CDT) (above added by Bdevoe 11:45, 24 October 2007 (CDT)).

If you find you're accidentally logged out at the time, you can always replace [[User:your IP address|]] with [[User:your user name|]] instead. Less typing that way. :)

And yeah, I agree that it won't stem the flow much. As I said, it's highly likely that this is being done by a botnet; they typically have a myriad of IP addresses at their disposal so banning single addresses only stops the current spree. VandalBots are generally left on for an extended period of time, then the creator checks to see if they had an impact. If they didn't, they sometimes turn them off… or look for easier targets (be they another page on this wiki or another wiki altogether.) --Xoid 22:39, 24 October 2007 (CDT)

Let's continue this talk on BattleTechWiki:Administrators Nicjansma 17:18, 2 December 2007 (CST)

Back

Due to circumstances beyond my control I was without access to the Internet for a good few months. Couple that with TAFE and such, and I've been strapped for time. I think I can start making time for Sarna again. --Xoid 23:18, 22 October 2007 (CDT)

Welcome back! My work commitment has left me with little time for other projects lately, so I've been only reverting vandalism as I've seen it; not much else. Great to have you contribute whenever you can! Nicjansma 17:18, 2 December 2007 (CST)

Mistitled Articles

How does one get rid of a mistitled article? I recently created a new article for the Hachiman (Combat Vehicle) only to notice that I had unintentionally created a article under the heading of Hachiman (Combat Vehicle. I recreated the article under the proper title, but I don't know how to get rid of the old article! Any advice you have would be appreciated. --DragonoftheRust 15:57, 24 October 2007 (CDT)

This one is rather simple. By default it's not possible to delete anything on MediaWiki unless your account has the SysOp flag set (this is to limit the damage that vandals and/or inexperienced editors can cause.) Add the {{deletion}} template to it and one of the SysOps will get around to deleting the offending article. In some cases we'll nuke it without it having the deletion template; almost universally in cut-and-dried cases (like this one). --Xoid 03:42, 24 October 2007 (CDT)

The SysOps regularly check the articles flagged for deletion -- simply add the template and we'll get to it when we review the list! Nicjansma 17:18, 2 December 2007 (CST)

Category for In-Character Knowledge?

I'm thinking that we may want to add a category for those items that are sort of general in-character knowledge (like MechWarrior (pilot) or C-bill). They're not really part of any existing category. There may be other categories as well (Game Mechanics for instance) that may be needed to properly categorize things. I think I'm one of the few to really run across this issue as most of my contributions have been in the "humanities", so to speak, of the Inner Sphere, rather than on the engineering elements ('Mechs and Vehicles). The only thing I can think of for a category is Milieu, which is probably too "William F. Buckley" for most people. :) I don't have any specific recommendations, so perhaps someone else does. Thanks! Bdevoe 12:14, 24 October 2007 (CDT)

I agree with what you're saying. 'Game Mechanics' sounds appropriate, or maybe 'Terms' or something? Nicjansma 17:18, 2 December 2007 (CST)

Bulleted lists

This diff concerns me. The resulting code from those extra lines is

<ul>
<li>Bullet 1</li>
</ul><ul>
<li>Bullet 1</li>
</ul>

as opposed to

<ul>
<li>Bullet 1</li>
<li>Bullet 2</li>
</li>

This makes things harder for text-to-speech synthesisers to handle and increases page size. Doing it the (currently) proper way results in source that is nigh on unreadable with long lists. Would it be possible for you to alter MediaWiki to render

* Bullet 1

* Bullet 2

as

* Bullet 1
* Bullet 2

does? --Xoid 23:42, 24 October 2007 (CDT)

From what I can tell, any blank line in a list (either # or *), restarts the list. I think this is just by-design for MediaWiki. I didn't come up with anything in searching for how to change this behavior, but I agree it's frustrating. Any ideas? Nicjansma 17:18, 2 December 2007 (CST)

Hello from Wikia

Hi There, I wanted to reach out and compliment your wiki. Its pretty awesome. I manage the Gaming division at Wikia and would love to talk to you about the future of this wiki. Wikia has become the home for lots of independently run gaming wikis (i.e Paragon Wiki) recently as we provide free hosting/bandwidth, product & technical support, advanced SPAM and vandal fighting tools, as well as marketing support. I would love to tell you more about us if you are open to a conversation. On a side note, I noticed you work at Msft. I worked there for 4 years (mostly in the XBOX and Games for Windows Groups). You can email me at angie at wikia.com or leave a message on my talk page Angies 13:52, 19 November 2007 (CST)

Greeting and thanks! FYI there is already a BattleTech project at wikia as well. We were trying to work with them a while back to coordinate (or merge) work. I don't see much activity over there any more. Nicjansma 17:18, 2 December 2007 (CST)

Problems

I just edited Lucien Davion, and when I clicked "save page," I was prompted to complete an addition problem because I inserted a new external link. 1. I was signed in and 2. The "external link" I added was apparently the stub template. On another note, the text of the section edit links is quite large (it seems to be matching the section its attached to). I'm not sure if that change was intentional or not. --Scaletail 15:31, 30 November 2007 (CST)

RE: Captcha on adding a URL when logged in, a new version of the ConfirmEdit extension changed the defaults. I've modified it so logged in users don't get the captcha on URL addition. Thanks for pointing this out! Nicjansma 17:18, 2 December 2007 (CST)

RE: Large [edit] text, I've fixed this. Nicjansma 17:18, 2 December 2007 (CST)

Revanche noticed that the edit toolbar is missing, so I figured I'd point it out. --Scaletail 11:54, 6 December 2007 (CST)

Hmm - what tool bar are you talking about? Nicjansma 11:29, 8 December 2007 (CST)

Nic: the tollbar in questions is the one you see above the edit field for all wiki edits. It has bold, italics, wikilinks, sig buttons, etc. We had them up when I left in the spring and was wondering if they were lost in the recent upgrade. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 15:03, 8 December 2007 (CST)

Cool, found what you're talking about. Looks like it was misplaced from the Skin in the upgrade -- should be all fixed now. Nicjansma 01:41, 9 December 2007 (CST)

Great! Thanks, Nic. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 08:20, 9 December 2007 (CST)

Want to contribute

Hi there, iv been trolling about the CBT community on the net for some time, ive played a bit, but i pore over the books and pretty much everything that goes online regarding the CBT universe. Seeing as how i have insomnia id like to contribute some of my considerable amount of time to giving back to this cause. But im not so sure as to how i can go about this, any direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Master Of Disaster 70.91.143.201 19:26, 6 December 2007 (CST)

Welcome! What are you interesting in most? We have the To-Do list setup, just as jump-start ideas if you're looking for something to work on. There's also the different projects, such as BattleMech, Planet and Biographies you can contribute to. If you have another idea, feel free to run it by one of us or just go for it! Nicjansma 11:27, 8 December 2007 (CST)

Congratulations

...on your engagement. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 13:07, 21 December 2007 (CST)

Yes, congrats! --Scaletail 13:55, 21 December 2007 (CST)

Thanks guys! It's a very exciting time! Nicjansma 00:22, 23 December 2007 (CST)

Indeed, congratulations from me, too! Frabby 06:14, 23 December 2007 (CST)

A little late to the party, but absolutely - congrats! Bdevoe 19:35, 23 December 2007 (CST)

Timeline

One of the things that attracted me to BattleTech so much was the incredibly detailed history and associated dates and timelines. So since I've joined, feel like I'm becoming the timeline dork.

I've asked Scaletail if there was a way to synchronize the year/year items with the main timeline. I don't know much about MediaWiki so I'm not sure if it would be some sort of template or macro that could be developed that when you add an item to the timeline or to an item to a year, they could be synchronized and we don't have to keep going back and forth between the two keeping them manually synched.

Is this possible?

Also, I've not found other timelines but the main one. I'm probably missing something and it's right in front of my face, but the next item could be some sort of tags to allow the automatic creation/updating of the various faction timelines. Locis 14:51, 23 January 2008 (CST)

Cool! It's great to see that you've found a part of the site you can focus on. Unfortunately I don't know of any easy way to keep the two timelines in sync. We could make each year a template and show the text on both the Timeline page and for each year, but that seems like a waste... any other ideas? Nicjansma 17:46, 26 January 2008 (CST)

I've been thinking about it and maybe something like the "before; current; after" tags? For example, create a tag {SL} that means Star League and the timeline item under the year is tagged with it and then the Star League Timeline is autogenerated from all year templates that have {SL} items?

For example:

2235 year template has 5 items. 2 Items are surrounded by {MT} for Master Timeline, 3 items are surrounded by {TA} for Terran Alliance. The associated timelines are generated by using the {MT} and {TA} items.

The tags would work in reverse also, in that any item surrounded by {MT} (etc) on the individual timelines would generate that item on the associated year template.

I'm not entirely sure of the mechanics but that is my basic idea.

p.s. I've found the other timelines but sheesh, I really don't feel like keeping them manually synched! lol Locis 08:47, 27 January 2008 (CST)

Expanded edit toolbar

Nic, I remember someone asking a long time ago if you could add new edit toolbars, like Wikipedia was using. I wandered across a great step-by-step 'extension' that took little 'ol me just under a hour to add in (and that was with re-ordering the buttons in the style I desired). Here it is, if you're so inclined. (Note: in the step where you upload the images of the buttons to the server, rename each one so they start with lowercase letters.) --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 23:22, 12 March 2008 (CDT)

Image transfer

Is it possible to transfer the images that are currently located in the media archive to the wiki? This wold make it easier to use images that are already on Sarna. Maybe the images could simply be moved to the wiki, thus saving space on your server? --Scaletail 17:58, 5 May 2008 (CDT)

You're more than welcome to copy (re-upload) any of the images you wish from the media archive to the wiki. I can try to see if there'd be an easy way to auto-import all of them. Nicjansma 03:32, 14 June 2008 (CDT)

Carrying the BattleTechWiki banner out into the world?

Well not necessarily a banner but is there anything like a standard user bar, logo, etc. one could use to show it on other community's like the catalyst forum or any othere place where BT fans gather? --BigDuke66 21:54, 16 July 2008 (CDT)

There sure is! Check out the Userbar_Gallery under either 'BattleTechWiki' or 'Sarna,' courtesy of our own Skuggi. (You have NO idea how glad I am you asked that question; I created the page (over 8 hours of work) to provide just such a source for one-stop shopping...Sarna's original mission, if I recall correctly). Enjoy! --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 10:17, 17 July 2008 (CDT)

Userbar taken. Thanks for providing. Frabby 11:05, 17 July 2008 (CDT)

Dito. Thanks!--BigDuke66 21:12, 23 July 2008 (CDT)

Planet Data Files

I see you imported all the Planet data, do you know how to get into contact with the guys from Teamspam IS Atlas? I would like to get my hands on the latest set of data files. The set in the download section looks old. I guess not much has changed but well over the years I'm sure that here and there some minor corrections were made.--BigDuke66 21:19, 23 July 2008 (CDT)

His website is [5] and [6] -- don't know if you'll be able to reach him though. Nicjansma 21:31, 28 July 2008 (CDT)

Well I'll try it, thanks.--BigDuke66 20:44, 1 August 2008 (CDT)

Main Page change

Nic, I know in the past you've given me free reign to develop the Main Page, but I wanted to invite you in on a concept, before instituting it by myself. I'd like to add a new section, resembling the bottom box and situated on top of it (beneath the Destination and News boxes) where 'perishable' issues would be announced. For example, Scaletail, Frabby and I have been working on the Canon policy for the site, and we would have enjoyed having more input. By advertising it there, and then removing it when the issue has passed, we can more quickly bring active Editors' attentions to the matter at hand. The section would be employed as a site administartion notice board, out of keeping with the regular news posted. When the canon policy is ready for site voting, I'd like to have this section up and ready, in order to announce the vote. (this would replace the current under-visited Minor News link.) What say you? --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 22:56, 19 August 2008 (CDT)

Sounds great, I'm all for it! Nicjansma 17:01, 24 August 2008 (CDT)

Done! --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 22:11, 24 August 2008 (CDT)

Policy: Canon

Nic, another issue I think is important enough to have the Founder take a gander at, since it helps define the 'attitude' of the site. I don't think there will be any surprises for you (such as a major policy shift), but I think Scaletail, Frabby and I did a good job of helping to avoid canonicity disputes on BTW. Just a word of agreement, or areas you think are off base, would be appreciated. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 22:19, 24 August 2008 (CDT)

Thanks Revanche, taking a look! Nicjansma 01:04, 9 September 2008 (CDT)

E-mail

I just sent you an e-mail thru the BTW system. Please review when you get the opportunity. Thanks. --Revanche ^{(talk|contribs)} 18:22, 26 August 2008 (CDT)

Replied :) Nicjansma 01:05, 9 September 2008 (CDT)