Editing User talk:Nicjansma

= Archive =
Talk Archives:
* '''[[/Archive | 2006 through 2011]]'''
* '''[[/Archive2012 | 2012]]'''
* '''[[/Archive2013 | 2013]]'''
* '''[[/Archive2014 | 2014]]'''
* '''[[/Archive2015 | 2015]]'''
* '''[[/Archive2016 | 2016]]'''
* '''[[/Archive2017 | 2017]]'''

= Current =

Please, I found a fan-produced book that copies the entries of different factions.  I'm not sure if this is acceptable or not.  This is the thread at the OF, please contact Red Pins.  https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=45897.90#lastPost

Thanks

: Nic (and Red Pins): I addressed the concerns on the forum. --[[User:Revanche|Revanche]] <sup>([[User_talk:Revanche|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Revanche|contribs]])</sup> 20:41, 28 April 2018 (EDT)

== Version 1.28.2 ==
Morning, Nic. Thought I'd share this tidbit with you: MW 1.28.2 automatically lists cited references under a section called "references", without any need for the ref code (''i.e.'', '''<nowiki><references/></nowiki>'''). Not a reason to update alone, but I discovered it by accident on one of my wikis. Cheers. --[[User:Revanche|Revanche]] <sup>([[User_talk:Revanche|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Revanche|contribs]])</sup> 11:38, 25 June 2017 (EDT)
:Thanks Revanche!  I plan on doing a full update to MW 1.30.0 soon. [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 21:41, 6 February 2018 (EST)
::Today we were upgraded to MW 1.30.0! [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 20:21, 26 March 2018 (EDT)

== [[Template:InfoBoxBattleMech]] ==
Hello there. I've [[BattleTechWiki talk:Project BattleMechs#New infobox|been told]] that you are the one to speak to about scripted/bot tasks.

I made some changes to [[Template:InfoBoxBattleMech]] to improve its functionality, but they do mean that [[:Category:Empty or nonstandard InfoBoxBattleMech tech base parameter|hundreds of mech articles]] need updating to use [http://www.sarna.net/wiki/index.php?title=Template%3AInfoBoxBattleMech%2Fdoc&type=revision&diff=447100&oldid=349082 the new parameters]. I don't know the first thing about bots or scripting to avoid having to do that by hand. Do you? [[User:Cease to Hope|Cease to Hope]] ([[User talk:Cease to Hope|talk]]) 19:50, 9 September 2017 (EDT)
:Hi [[User:Cease to Hope|Cease to Hope]]!  If you have a database (CSV, spreadsheet, etc) of the 'Mechs and their corresponding Tech Base values, I can make a bot to update all of them.  [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 21:44, 6 February 2018 (EST)

==Extra blocking checkbox for merging & deleting?==
In the everlasting battle against spambots, I have merged literally thousands of spambot accounts into Anonymous. [[Merge and delete users]] is really a fantastic tool.

A suggestion though: In almost all cases, I manually block the user (spambot) in question first before merging & deleting, in order to blacklist the IP adress. The blocking function offers several helpful checkboxes, and I usually check them all except for the last one.

It would cut the time lost on spammers in half if the Merge & Delete function had a similar checkbox option to automatically block the IP the spambot account was created from. It should still be a checkbox because there are cases thinkable where I wouldn't want to block the IP (e.g. we've had a legit user who requested his account be deleted for good, but who wasn't a spammer and would still use the wiki). [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 02:16, 11 January 2018 (EST)
: That is a really good idea.  I checked on the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UserMerge UserMerge extension's Page] but no one has asked for that feature yet.  I'd suggest proposing it there to see if anyone picks it up -- if not, I can see about adding a checkbox some rainy day :) [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 21:50, 6 February 2018 (EST)

== Categories not populating ==
Hey Nic,

I have noticed that Categories do not appear to be populating anymore, the Clan Bloodnames, Noble Houses and Solaris Characters have all had a number of articles added in the last few weeks but do not show up in said category. Older articles seem fine, just newly added/created articles (I have not tried to see if this happens a new category just existing). This might also be effecting the search engine as an article I was working on this morning did not show up in the first few items of the search (I searched Hartford, and House Hartford was not in the first 3 pages, it was picking up the word within articles). Any chance you could look into this? [[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 04:16, 22 February 2018 (EST)
:It's apparently more than that. Categories don't seem to change/update at all anymore. See [[BattleTechWiki:Administrators#Category and What Link Here issues - February 2018]] and [[User talk:Deadfire#Category Link Template]]. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 13:03, 8 March 2018 (EST)
::Indeed I saw Frabby. We have a major problem it seems. [[User:Dmon|Dmon]] ([[User talk:Dmon|talk]]) 14:24, 8 March 2018 (EST)
::Looks like Nic fixed it. Thanks Nic! [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 15:22, 26 March 2018 (EDT)
:::Yep!  Was able to roll out a MW 1.30.0 today, which I've confirmed fixed this (and other) issues.  Hopefully it doesn't bring in any new issues! [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 20:21, 26 March 2018 (EDT)

== Adding Fan Sourcebook ==

Hey Nick.  I'm a member of the team working on the Death From Above Fan Sourcebook.  I have a PDF file we would like to have added to the download section so we can link to it from a Wiki entry.  Its a 65 MB PDF.  We are hosting it on Box until we can get a permanent home for it here on Sarna.  [https://app.box.com/s/zyuv6nw1zqle4el4xzr2yj5qjrijzvun]  Please give it a gander and let me know if there are any issues.  Thanks for your assistance.
: Awesome!  Added http://www.sarna.net/files/info/docs/fan/dfa-sourcebook.pdf [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 20:21, 26 March 2018 (EDT)

== MediaWiki 1.30.0 ==
On March 26, 2018, sarna.net was upgraded to MediaWiki 1.30.0 (from 1.28.0).  This fixes at least two known issues:

* Categories were not being updated after articles are saved.  This was a known MW 1.28.0 bug that was fixed in 1.29.  I've verified pages like [[:Category:Pages with reference errors]] are now updated correctly.
* The [[BattleTechWiki:ToDo]] page was broken because of the DynamicPageList plugin being broken with 1.28.0.  The plugin has been updated.

As with any upgrade, it brings fixes but also the potential for more issues.  If anyone finds any issues, please list them here and I will look into them as soon as I can. [[User:Nicjansma|Nicjansma]] ([[User talk:Nicjansma|talk]]) 20:21, 26 March 2018 (EDT)

==Edits missing on Recent Edits page==
Something is still or again broken: It seems the Recent Changes are skipping edits. As of today, for example, the list stubbornly refuses to acknowledge or report several edits [[User:Dmon]] made to my talk page, while curiously showing intermediate edits in reply to Dmon by myself and [[User:Pserratv]]. We've reported this problem before, alongside the Categories not updating; but now it looks as if it might be a separate issue that either wasn't fixed in the latest upgrades, or has cropped up again. It is naturally near impossible to spot, it was just lucky coincidence that I was informed of a New Message to my talk page (without a corresponding Recent Edit) or I'd neve have found something was amiss. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 10:18, 7 May 2018 (EDT)

== Spambots ==
Hi Nic,<br>
We're getting hit with spambots again - anonymous IPs posting spoof pages. All of the pages tend to follow a common format in their title, and I was wondering if it was possible to adjust Sarna to refuse to allow the creation of article pages containing specific words - for example, I can't imagine we're ever going to have articles here that need the words "Yahoo" or "Netflix" or "Google" or "Paypal", and if we could auto-block the creation of those pages, it would cut down on the spam a bit. I'd prefer to cut down on the spam a bit by finding the spammers and malleting their fingers with a lump hammer until they learn the error of their ways, but a block on new pages would probably be more productive in the short term, if less satisfying. [[User:BrokenMnemonic|BrokenMnemonic]] ([[User talk:BrokenMnemonic|talk]]) 03:02, 8 May 2018 (EDT)
:"Yahoo" shouldn't be blacklisted. We have several links to Yahoo videos of computer game content, for example. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 04:14, 8 May 2018 (EDT)
::I wasn't talking about blacklisting Yahoo as a term in general - just blocking it from article names. [[User:BrokenMnemonic|BrokenMnemonic]] ([[User talk:BrokenMnemonic|talk]]) 05:05, 8 May 2018 (EDT)
:::Ah ok. Yes, in article names it can and perhaps should be blacklisted.
:::In case you're wondering why I raised this topic, I got myself autblocked by the system when I archived my talk page last time - because another user had raised spam reports on my talk page that contained words which were later blacklisted. When I created the archive article, zapp, autoblock. Luckily admin rights apparently override autoblock and I found I could unblock myself. [[User:Frabby|Frabby]] ([[User talk:Frabby|talk]]) 10:04, 8 May 2018 (EDT)