User talk:Mr. Flay

CamelCase

I saw you camelcased the comingsoon template for readability. You don't need to do that. The new wiki software allows for spaces in names so we can write articles with regular capitalization of links. Also, even if an article is titled Mason, mason will link to it just fine. We probably should encourage people to quit camelcasing now the software no longer needs it. - Mgm 04:55, 30 January 2007 (MST)

• Thanks for the sysopping Mr. Flay. If you need any MediaWiki expertise, just shout. - Mgm 10:59, 30 January 2007 (MST)

Template:Role

Hi Flay, I've just dropped in a new template for pages on roles. I'll work on including the neccesary coding to cut display for template parameters that aren't used later when I figure out what coding is required for that in wikipedia. - Mgm 02:00, 31 January 2007 (MST)

Essentially it's {{{param|default value}}} or {{{param|}}} to leave it blank. Works pretty good, though we'll have to enable the #if ParserFunction to do things like hide entire lines/change label text. -- Mr. Flay 06:54, 1 February 2007 (MST)

Well gee, that explains why #if wasn't working earlier when I was trying to make it work like that...--Ac1983fan 09:45, 1 February 2007 (MST)

Yeah, there are a few things that have to be enabled by the site admin... sorry about that! Took me a while to be sure of what was going on, too... -- Mr. Flay 14:11, 1 February 2007 (MST)

Failed ideas

Why are there not enough pro-town roles in The Usual Suspects? Why can'tr the baddies be pro-town, as in (to give just one example amongst many) Mini 250: Villains of Gotham City? Stoofer 09:34, 31 January 2007 (MST)

Stoofer's random thoughts about the new Wiki

For want of a better place, I thought this would be a good spot to note down some of the thoughts I've had about the new wiki, now that I've been playing with it for a couple of hours

• It seems to me to be pretty far advanced - what's stopping you from making it go live and freezing the old wiki completely
• Will [wiki] tags on the forum point here?
• Is the picture set in stone? Why not have the forum logo?
• Why can't we upload (not complaining as such, I'd just be interested in the reasons)
• Who are the sysops and what are their powers (I know what a sysop is)?
• Is it OK to pester you with these sorts of questions?

Stoofer 10:06, 31 January 2007 (MST)

In answer to six: yes, but the rest answered/moved to MafiaWiki_talk:To-do so everybody can see them. -- Mr. Flay 07:06, 1 February 2007 (MST)

Redirection

Thanks for the help with User:Mokina! I forgot about redirection...

i have a question

why do you have Mr. Flay redirecting to User:Mr. Flay?.. shouldn't it be the other way around, since Mr. Flay is your name on the forum boards?.. i'm sure you have a reason for the rhyme, i just haven't noodled it yet...

LyingBrian 14:26, 11 August 2007 (MDT)

i think i figured it out

ok, one reason i think you may have it set up this way is so that when people want to leave you a message like this one, they just edit your discussion page... but you could have your Talk:Mr. Flay page redirect to your User talk:Mr. Flay page... (that's how i set mine up)... the only reason this bugs me is when someone is browsing through the Category:Scummers page (and other similar pages), your name appears under 'M', but it's listed as User:Mr. Flay... it just bugs me, b/c everything under 'M', should start w/ 'M', not 'U', but that's just me... i didn't want to edit your page in case you had a reason, so yeah...

LyingBrian 15:45, 11 August 2007 (MDT)

huh?

Mainly, it's because I cut my teeth on MediaWiki/Wikipedia, where userpages are strictly separated from "articles". But I also think it makes sense

And, you may have noticed, but you get a screaming orange bar when someone leaves you a message at user_talk:LyingBrian. Not so much for LyingBrian. I like your italic hack for this, but ideally I'd like to see people move their userpages to the user namespace. I don't expect this to happen anytime before JEEP implements a unified login, though... :/ -- Mr. Flay 10:05, 13 August 2007 (MDT)

i'm confused... the word "userpages" seems to have two different meanings in the 1st & 2nd paragraphs... in the first paragraph you use the word "userpages", which i interpreted for me would be User:LyingBrian, which makes sense in context, but in the second paragraph you said "I'd like to see people move their userpages to the user namespace.", in context, i would read that as moving LyingBrian to User:LyingBrian, but based on the usage of the word in the 1st paragraph it reads as User:LyingBrian to LyingBrian, so i'm not sure which you meant... i'm really not trying to be picky, but i can't figure out which you meant, and my reply will change based on what you meant, so... lol, i'm sorry i can be so technical sometimes, i hope i'm not frustrating you...

LyingBrian 12:58, 13 August 2007 (MDT)

my thoughts (now w/ clarification, lol)

Heh, no problem. Yeah, what I mean is that userpages should ideally be at User:Whatever, with a redirect/link from Whatever. For the old wiki, there were no namespaces to worry about, so everybody got into the habit of making their page at their name, and that's how they got moved over. The terminology I'm using is far from precise, it's not your fault. (I'm trying to use "userpage" for User:Whatever and "username page" for Whatever). -- Mr. Flay 15:22, 13 August 2007 (MDT)

p.s. i tried to use the title player to refer to a username on the MafiaScum forums, and user to refer to somebody contributing to MafiaWiki...

i believe i agree in concept, but disagree in content... for example on Wikipedia, Mr Frosty is a user on Wikipedia who has a 'userpage' located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mr_Frosty which is separated from the 'articles' on Wikipedia by the "User:" namespace...

however, on MafiaWiki, i think it is totally appropriate to have 'articles' that talk about each player... not every player will be a user (and least until JEEP implements the unified login) and will have a 'userpage', but every player 'automatically' has a 'username page' which is 'created' when they sign up (yes, i know it's not technically created until somebody puts text in the page, but a link for it still exists in their forum profile)...

IMO, the 'userpage' should be used if a user wants to give personal information about themselves such as Mr Frosty did on Wikipedia... included on that page could be a list of articles that user has contributed to, etc... the 'username page' should be used to give information about a player, such as where their username/custom title comes from, their playing and/or modding record(s), win/loss ratio, etc...

in a perfect world we would have a template for these pages (such as we should have for the games) in order to create a unified look, but the 'userpage' could be totally customized by each user... what are your thoughts on this?..

discussion moved

somestrangeflea left a message on my talk page, which i think was intended for you, so i moved the entire discussion including my latest response to User page... if you want, you can leave me a message letting me know you responded, but i'll probably be checking it every day anyway, so you don't have to... also, since i moved it, i'll probably delete the part of the conversation from my talk page, but i didn't want to do so for yours, i'll let you do that...

i would like to hear your comments on my latest reply on the user page vs. username page discussion at Talk:User page, especially under LB's thoughts & SSF's thoughts...LyingBrian 23:47, 14 August 2007 (MDT)

signature

in your signature, i know you have the "Mr." linking to "User:Mr. Flay", and the "Flay" to "User_talk:Mr. Flay", but how do you do that... did you somehow edit your signature so it automatically does it, or do you type it manually, or what?.. i would like to setup the same thing for me, but i don't want to have to type it manually each time...LyingBrian 03:01, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

yeah, i figured it had something to do w/ 'Raw Signature', and my problem wasn't with the syntax, but i don't have a text box to enter anything into (unless i'm being incredibly stupid or something)... for example here are pictures of what i'm seeing:

Before

After

i'm thinking a JavaScript box is supposed to open once i check the box, but nothing's happening... all of my other JavaScript features are working, so i don't know if something's broken, or if it's my computer... i've also tried it in 3 different browsers (Firefox, IE, & Avant), but i get the same result... also, why are there double tabs?.. if this is too much of a pain in the butt, then don't worry about it... when i check the box, all that happens is the text "LyingBrian" changes from a link (LyingBrian) to plain text (LyingBrian) as you'll see when i sign this post... LyingBrian 08:13, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

nevermind, YYCguy answered the question for you... LyingBrian 08:22, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

yep, that worked!!! thanks for your help Mr. Flay & YYCguy! :) LyingBrian 08:29, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

Spam

No problem :). So along the lines of {{DeleteMe}}, what do you think about other non-admin helper pages? I was thinking of a MafiaWiki:Spam Alert page to report IPs/users seen spamming the wiki. --YYCguy 08:26, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

For the userpages of the IPs that are doing so? Hmmm, maybe, though a lot of our spammers are not repeat customers (or we're blocking them too fast). -- Mr. Flay 09:02, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

Actually, more to have them banned in the first place ;). Just a "Hey .. this seems to be a problem user, please look into it." --YYCguy 09:08, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

What about something like {{BlockMe}}/Category:Block sought? Or, we could just give you the sysop tools, it sounds like you've got some MediaWiki experience already... -- Mr. Flay 09:10, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

Yeah, that would work. I think I was thinking of a central page, because you could list the spam edits. But checking user contribs is simple, and saves the non-admin the time of listing crap. I think I was also thinking back to one of the admin pages burried in wikipedia's bureaucracy. But we don't need nearly as complex a system as they have in place.

heh .. giving me sysop tools solves my need to do stuff, but there may be others who want to occasionally help out ;). That decision's yours, though. I used to edit over at wikipedia a lot (mostly this sort of administrative helping), but have never admined. --YYCguy 09:19, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

I'm sure there's plenty to do *grin*. What is/was your account name on Wikipedia? You've only been here a month or two, but if you've got that much experience there, I can probably grant you the tools (and take them away if you turn out to be WikiScum). -- Mr. Flay 13:20, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

TRTR

Talk:The Road to Rome

i wanted to get some input and discussion before i submitted it to mith... LyingBrian 10:02, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

Spammer

BrianMcQueso... i rolled it back, but i don't want to block the username in case BMQ wants to someday create a wiki profile... what do you suggest?.. LyingBrian 12:39, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

Could also be Brian goofing around (and mistakenly logging in without the same capitalization); I dropped a note on the talk page... let's just keep an eye on it for now. -- Mr. Flay 12:40, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

I checked with Brian by PM, he said it really was him, removing some anciently out-of-date history. -- Mr. Flay 13:18, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

ok, i removed the history, and put a link to his forum profile... LyingBrian 23:58, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

external editor

while i was working on the gamebox template, i ran into the 'Grey Screen of Death'... i know i can check the box in Preferences:Editing to "Use external editor by default" & "Use external diff by default"... i was just wondering if you knew of any good freeware or shareware (read i'm really cheap) programs that i could use... right now i'm starting to use Notepad, but i'd like to use a program that has a preview function in it until i can paste it into the wiki... LyingBrian 23:45, 17 August 2007 (MDT)

I never have used any, but I guess you might be able to hijack the preview function of Wikipedia's Sandbox? -- Mr. Flay 00:07, 18 August 2007 (MDT)

Sorting

OK, so DEFAULTSORT isn't quite working the way I thought it is... at least not from within the template. There are two ways I see to fix this. The first is to use somehting like {{DEFAULTSORT:1, Open}} on each page directly (leaving the other categories in the template). The second is to keep DEFAULTSORT in the template and reorganize the way the pages themselves are done. Rather that having titles like "Open 5", you could have one page called "Open" and several subpages ("/1", "/35", etc.). In this case, you use {{DEFAULTSORT:{{SUBTITLE}}, {{BASEPAGENAME}}}} to sort correctly. That all I can think of for now. I hope I've helped! SigmaEpsilon 05:38, 18 August 2007 (MDT)

New template

I've created new {{Player}} template to be used on the game pages. I tested it out on Newbie 438. I'm still a little unsure what to do about "roles" as the role link on may pages seem to like right back to that same section. IMO, this should be used to describe the role directly rather than link to a spot on the same page (or often on the same screen). I'm not familiar enough with the game to know if/how roles change, so could you offer advice on how to deal with this? SigmaEpsilon 12:41, 18 August 2007 (MDT)

Interesting ..

Seems the spammers are getting creative .. [1]

RGB color

18:38, 21 August 2007 (MDT)

oh, sorry... i was just trying to match them up to the colors i referenced on Wikipedia as close as possible w/ the CSS shorthand... i fixed it...
-- LyingBrian

Math not displaying

Do you have any idea why the <math></math> tags aren't working? I thought they were a basic part of MediaWiki. Were they disables on this site for some reason? SigmaEpsilon (talk) 23:25, 24 August 2007 (MDT)

IM

Connect to irc.freenode.net and join #mafiawiki... i'll probably bring this chat room up each day whenever i wake up, so if we need to chat about something we can...
-- LyingBrian 13:39, 25 August 2007 (MDT)

Spammo

so, i was thinking about protecting the pages that seem to be targeted the most by spammers... for example Talk:Mafia... i protected it from being edited by unregistered users & being moved by only sysops... what do you think about this idea?.. do you think that they'll just move to another page, or do you think this will help control it?..
-- LyingBrian 00:40, 28 August 2007 (MDT)

'User' Pages & IM

do you think it would be a good idea to start moving pages about players to their 'User' page if it exists... i thought it might be easier to start doing it now, so when the 'Scummer' namespace is created, they'll be automatically converted over... also, i would like to chat w/ you sometime... i believe you said before that you have trillian, correct?.. so do i, so we just need to set up a time that works well for us both...
-- LyingBrian 15:08, 30 August 2007 (MDT)

Category

i should know this, but i can't seem to find the answer... how do you create a link to a category page w/o putting the page you're putting the link on into the category?... using [[Category:Whatever]] obviously puts the page in the 'Whatever' Category, and i thought you could put a bar in front, such as [[|Category:Whatever]], but that doesn't seem to work either... i'm pretty sure there's a way to do this, i'm just having a blonde day...
-- LyingBrian 12:58, 8 September 2007 (MDT)

nevermind... i finally found it... i was close, it's a colon, not a bar...
-- LyingBrian 13:04, 8 September 2007 (MDT)

Blocking?

Hi again. I just noticed that I can apparently perform blocks (http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/2904/sysopcd3.png) Is this an error? Andycyca me ^_^ What? 00:12, 8 October 2007 (MDT)

everyone can see that page... you'll probably even be able to see it if you're logged out... if you click on the 'perform block' link, you'll probably get this page...link

if you click the link, and can actually perform the block, then we've got problems ;)
-- LyingBrian 01:13, 8 October 2007 (MDT)

I was scared for a moment, Thanks! BTW Flay, a week has passed, I think it's time for the Spam Figthing Guide to get out of my Userpage! Andycyca me ^_^ What? 08:40, 8 October 2007 (MDT)

spam blacklist

can you point me to a page that describes how to use it?.. i've never really understood how it works, or what it does... do i just add a word or phrase to it, and the software prevents ANY url using that word or phrase from being displayed?..
-- LyingBrian 16:42, 10 October 2007 (MDT)