Community noticeboard

Archives:
 * Archive 1 (23 July 2017 - 25 November 2017)
 * Archive 2 (1 December 2017 - )

In The Mirror
I see there is a second Admin on my wiki, https://TheMirror.miraheze.org - to-wit, AbuseFilter. While I appreciate having access to an abuse filter, the associated user was an oddity on Uncyclopedia, as the abuse filter itself is a robot, while User:AbuseFilter is nobody. The only good thing I can say about it is that the WMF report now shows 2 active users rather than -1. This Admin was a recent addition; what is the strategy? Why did it happen? Is someone else now a fellow Admin on my wiki?

On Uncyclopedia, the best use for an abuse filter was to warn people who deposit links to external websites. This behavior is usually an attempt to use the wiki to advertise. The 'bots that do so do not persist, though a couple of humans who really wanted to give other users a reading list took great personal offense.

The satire news was an exception, as a link to a real news article is usually necessary to put the satire in perspective. As that is what I'm doing here, I don't currently need to define any filters.

Separately (and if this is the wrong place to discuss it, please advise), "community" implies collaboration, and I throw myself on the mercy of any Photoshop-adept Mirahezian who can contribute an illustration to "The Mirror" - something newsy, such as involving jihadis in masks or protest signs, as though seen through the rear-view mirror of a car. I would use it in the masthead at The Mirror, or as the wiki's avatar. 00:17 28-Dec-2017
 * I also noticed that AbuseFilter was automatically added as an Admin on my wiki, and the number of active users is no longer -1 as well. CoolieCoolster (talk) 14:27, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * That account is part of Extension AbuseFilter, that blocks user when user meets certain filter (local, or global) that is configured to block anyone meeting the filter condition. It is not a human account. &mdash; revi  08:40, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
 * There are one private global filter that blocks the user when the condition is satisfied. I can’t talk about the details, though, for the sake of security and nature of the filter. &mdash; revi  08:44, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Comments (description) expectations in request form
I made an attempt at requesting a wiki setup which was denied for "Invalid description." However, on the request page there is no indication of requirements for a description or even a description field. The field "Comments" does not at first blush appear likely to be a field for a required description of a requested wiki, and the history of approvals doesn't give much in the way of guidance regarding expectations. I understand that a volunteer community will have some drift with respect to expectations, but a clearer description of what is expected on the request page might help avoid confusion and frustration. Just a thought in case anyone else has noticed the high proportion of declines noting "invalid description" as the Comment (it seems to be by far the most common reason given for declines - although already exists crops up fairly often, as well).Boomerang (talk) 19:05, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

space before signature
I have the unfortunate habit of placing my signature immediately after the end of my messages, which often leads to the signature text/name appearing with no spaces before it. Does anyone know if there is a way to edit the automatic signature (Boomerang (talk) 19:12, 28 December 2017 (UTC)) to include a preliminary space?Boomerang (talk) 19:12, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * See what I mean (?Boomerang...) :-P Boomerang (talk) 19:13, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Nevermind - finally found the "Preferences" page...&#32;Boomerang (talk) 19:15, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

Help needed with main page/portal layout
On my wiki, I originally formatted the boxes of information on the main page like Wikipedia. I thought that it looked outdated, so I have been looking for a style that looks more modern. I am currently using the style of The Lonsdale Battalion for the main page and portals of my wiki, however for some reason the boxes are not aligned with each other properly. If anyone knows how to fix this issue, or another main page style that would fix this issue, please let me know. CoolieCoolster (talk) 05:10, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Link, please.  05:34 1-Jan-2018
 * Here is the main page of the wiki, and the five current portals are on the right on the main page. The main page and all of the portals have boxes that are not aligned correctly at the bottom of the screen. I tried to align them as well as I could by adding spaces to the templates that fill each of the boxes, however different screen sizes or changing the size of the window on a computer can cause the boxes to desync, and even normally the boxes are not perfectly aligned. CoolieCoolster (talk) 05:43, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Got it. Hard-coding measurements is never the right way to go.  You have coded a "wikitable," which will produce a rigid grid of rows and columns, if you simply decline to dictate the width of each.  Let me play with it, and you can revert if you like.   05:48 1-Jan-2018
 * I take it back; the only possible defect I see is that the 80% column and the 20% column have different vertical sizes. 05:55  And that is because, inside your wikitable, you have encapsulated content that takes up different amounts of space.  The 20% column looks awful if I disable images, because in their place I get the name of the illustration, and the names have vastly different lengths.  Re-enabling images and they look tidy, as each image is the same size.   06:02 1-Jan-2018
 * Recommendation: Why is "Main Page/Frame" named as though it is a subpage of "Main Page"? In fact, it isn't; it is in a separate namespace entirely (the Template namespace).  I made one other (centering) edit that you may or may not like.  Will discuss it more tomorrow, bedtime.   06:08 1-Jan-2018


 * It's tomorrow. My only additional thought is that your left section and the right section are never going to line up.  The right section is shorter now because there are only 5 items, but surely the goal is to have so many items that the right section becomes the longer one.  Likewise on https://TheMirror.miraheze.org, I have a DPL list of recent articles, and other housekeeping, on the right; and graphic layouts of 5-8 featured articles on the left.  They never line up either.  Does that look ugly to you?  If not, the only reason is that I haven't drawn a border around each section that would give the impression that they should line up.   14:21 1-Jan-2018
 * I guess it doesn't really matter if the boxes line up or not. I think I will just solve the problem by adding more content to the main page and portals once there are more articles on my wiki. CoolieCoolster (talk) 14:34, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Request Wikicreator
After discussions in the IRC, I would like to request the necessary permissions to begin volunteering as a Wikicreator. Enfaru (talk) 16:43, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * more wikicreators is always good. MacFan4000 (Talk Contribs) 16:53, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Looks good to me but I can't grant it, as I don't have UserRights. ? &mdash; revi  19:34, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅ -- Void  Whispers 19:36, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Miraheze Wikistats
It seems like 250 wikis are missing from the wikistats for Miraheze. CoolieCoolster (talk) 13:55, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
 * It is maintained by people outside Miraheze sysadmin (Not sure about status of Miraheze in the wikistats.labs), and they (iirc) need to manually pull the data. We have no control over when they pull the data from us. &mdash; revi  15:15, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, they seem to update daily but their list of what to update is updated nearly never. My second wiki (https://rfobasic.miraheze.org) they have not figured out is there.  And even on https://themirror.miraheze.org, their number of edits (614) suggests their data are a couple days out of date, as I am up to 625.  On the other hand, closed/dormant wikis and those with 0 edits don't deserve a ranking.  Baffling but of low importance to me.   17:58 5-Jan-2018

New wiki suggestions idea
I was thinking about other wikis I could create, however most of them would be too much work for one person to create alone. Maybe there could be a noticeboard or something on Miraheze meta for people to post their ideas for new wikis so that way if two people are interested in the same idea, they can work together, instead of one person working on their new wiki and eventually getting bored and quitting. CoolieCoolster (talk) 16:28, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Right here would seem to be the correct place. We don't need a new institution when we have "Community noticeboard," though we don't seem to have a Community; there was no response at all to my request for Photoshop help, which will soon be removed to the archive.  Sadly (or not), most users are here to create the content they desire, not the content you desire.  If you create the content you desire, the way to get collaborators is to advertise; but I bet most wiki editors would not want broadcasts about what you have done.  Subtle ads about what I have done have been removed from this page.  I have looked in on your list of wikis to create, but we don't have the same interests, so I just suggest that you not start something where you would eventually "get bored and quit."   17:16 6-Jan-2018

Navbox show/hide buttons not functioning properly
I was wondering if I could appeal to someone's knowledge regarding the show/hide buttons on the Navbox template. I don't know if anyone else uses it but I'm going to throw this out "out there" in the hope that someone can shed some light on it. Whenever i create a new page with the navbox, or edit and save an existing page with a navbox, the show/hide buttons appear (most of the time). However, when I refresh the page the buttons disappear, for which reason I have no idea. If I follow a link from a page with a navbox and follow a link back to it the buttons have disappeared. And then sometimes they just appear. Does anyone know why this odd behaviour is happening? As far as I know I have included all the relevant templates and modules associated with it. Currently I have The Great War wiki set to private so I am guessing only admins etc. can access to have a look. Any help, as always, most appreciated. Thanks. 11:53, 12 January 2018 (UTC)