View source for Talk:Main Page/Archive 2005-2020

This is an archive. For current discussions, please see [[Talk:Main Page]].

==Main page is not very helpful to newcomers (2005)==
At the moment, I think the main page is not very helpful to newcomers. I'd like to make it more welcoming by adding links to: help people find more games and stories; to help people get a game file to work on their system; and to help them explore interactive fiction itself. I'd be happy to write the content on some "scratch" page so that someone on the trusted team could copy/paste it over, if that would help. [[User:Dizzydonut|Dizzydonut]] ([[User talk:Dizzydonut|talk]]) 19:40, 8 November 2019 (UTC)
* Hi Dizzydonut. Sorry it took so long for a response--I don't think people check these talk pages that often. Some of the topics you mentioned are in the FAQ, but I think it would nice to make the FAQ section on the front page friendlier. Titling it 'The Land of FAQ,' I think, is a little bit obscure, and it might be good to link directly to a few of the questions, as sort of a teaser, with people being able to click through to the full FAQ if they have other questions. (Also, the FAQ itself could probably stand to be updated.) I'm not sure if this is the sort of thing you had in mind. [[User:Bg|bg]] ([[User talk:Bg|talk]]) 17:31, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

==CSS (2005)==
Rob tells me the CSS on this page looks [http://raddial.com/stuff/wiki_bad.jpg horrible]. I'm going to try simplifying it. There's no way div heights could be a good idea here. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 04:48, 15 Jan 2005 (Central Standard Time)

The change is a definite improvement from where I'm standing. - [[User:Maga|Maga]] 05:38, 15 Jan 2005 (Central Standard Time)	 
		 
And I figured out that the <nowiki><center></nowiki> tag is turned into <nowiki><div></nowiki> tags and messes with CSS stuff. I removed them. --[[User:David Cornelson|David Cornelson]] 12:10, 15 Jan 2005 (Central Standard Time) 	 

==Place to discuss what features we would like to see (2005)==
Is there a place yet on this site to discuss what features we would like to see in the future? For instance, I think it would be nice to have a page that lists all of the users of ifWiki. -- --[[User:Gtwade|Gtwade]] 13:19, 15 Feb 2005 (Central Standard Time)	 

To Gtwade: That feature's already here: [[Special:Listusers]]. I found it by clicking on the Special Pages link over in the "toolbox". -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 21:25, 15 Feb 2005 (Central Standard Time)	 

Greetings everyone. I have some time to offer, and am a IF supporter and archiver. Instead of using <nowiki><center></nowiki> tags, try using "align=center" within tags, eg. use <nowiki><h3 align=center>My Title Here</h3> instead of "<center><h3>xyz</h3></center>"</nowiki>	 
I would suggest two points- make the Community Portal into an active discussion forum. One good forum package is at http://www.invisionboard.com/. Second point- add a short IF community links page, giving credit to well-run websites that link to here, eg. Baf's Guide at http://www.wurb.com/if/ currently links to ifwiki.org. Thanks. regards ;) --[[User:Eric.xyzzy|Eric.xyzzy]] 09:29, 6 Mar 2005 (Central Standard Time)	 
	 
== greetings ==	 
Nice site! Perhaps you should consider hosting some WikiIF as well. Uncyclopedia has rather stolen the march on this with their [http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Zork Zork] [http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Game Game]. What do you say the real IF community does something to catch up? --[[User:Nerd42|Nerd42]] 20:01, 1 Nov 2005 (Central Standard Time)	 
* Personally, that's not the sort of thing I'd want on the IFWiki, but that's just me. Incidently, this idea has come up before; see [[Wiki Based Interactive Fiction System]] ([[Talk:Wiki Based Interactive Fiction System|Talk]]). Although now that I look at it again, that's not really the same thing as you're suggesting. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 04:21, 2 Nov 2005 (Central Standard Time) (edited)	 
* Well ... all wikiIF pages could have their own namespace so it could be kept seperate from the actual encyclopedia articles ... oh never mind. It's your site, do what you like with it. ;) --[[User:Nerd42|Nerd42]] 16:08, 2 Nov 2005 (Central Standard Time)	 
:by the way, I heard somebody over at wikicities has already suggested having a wikicity entirely devoted to writing WikiIF ... but I don't know if it's actually going to happen. That'd be neat though --[[User:Nerd42|Nerd42]] 11:36, 7 Nov 2005 (Central Standard Time)
* '''NEW''': I see that Nerd42 has found the Novelas fiction wikia for hosting works of WikiIF; see http://novelas.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Interactive_Fiction which Nerd42 has created to host his short ''[[3Wishes]]'' game. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 22:13, 15 June 2006 (EST)

Well, yeah, but 3Wishes wasn't really intended as, like, a publishable work of IF - I mean, it was like a demo/example of how to write stories - like a template for people to copy. And then [http://novelas.wikia.com/wiki/Rose_Hollow someone did] but if you're going to count those, there is also a large [http://fanstuff.hrwiki.org/index.php/Text_Adventures Homestar Runner Wiki] IF writing group that has new games coming out all the time. --[[User:Nerd42|Nerd42]] 15:07, 13 October 2006 (EST)

==Porter's Section==	 
Could we have a page for those of us trying to convert old adventures and old adventure systems (e.g. Scott Adams, Magnetic Scrolls ad nauseam - akin to a wiki form of if-legends). As I have a few scribbles of code and notes that may benefit others, but don't fit within any of the if-legends sub-pages. --[[User:dave|David Lodge]] 20:12, 16 Nov 2005 (Greenwich Meantime)	 
* Sure, I don't see any obvious problems with that on the wiki. Go ahead and create them. If there are license issues, make sure you change the license of the relevant pages from the default public domain declaration to something more appropriate. We already have [[:Category:Scott Adams]] and [[:Category:Magnetic Scrolls]] to put pages in. We could also create a Porting category, if that would be useful; we already have a similar category called [[:Category:Rakontointeraktiva]] for Non-English porting efforts. I don't know how to advise you properly on how to name your pages without more details, though. I'm guessing you'll want pages like "Examples of Magnetic Scrolls code", "Magnetic Scrolls to Inform", "Porting advice", and so on. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 18:03, 16 Nov 2005 (Central Standard Time)	 
** Okay, What I'll do is add the pages under the publisher section, and then link notes to the Category, I've started with the [[Robico Software]] Section. --[[User:dave|David Lodge]] 19:37, 19 Nov 2005 (Greenwich Meantime)	 		 
	 
==Wikibugs==	 
The login/account creation system seems kinda buggy. I forgot my password so I hit the "Mail me a new password" button, which results in an error message (Error sending mail: mail() [<a href='function.mail'>function.mail</a>]: &quot;sendmail_from&quot; not set in php.ini or custom &quot;From:&quot; header missing)	 
	 
Then I tried crreating a new account, but since I was using the same mail address as with my original account, another half page of page occurred (A database error has occurred	 
Query: INSERT INTO `ifwiki_objectcache` (keyname,value,exptime) VALUES('wikidb:messages:Sitenotice','+¶2°RR²?\0','2005-11-30 16:16:54')	 
Function: MediaWikiBagOStuff:_doquery" and so on)	 
	 
Anyone willing to fix this? [[User:PDD3|PDD3]] 10:17, 30 Nov 2005 (Central Standard Time)	 
	 
I have several tasks on my list and plan to get to this at some point. I don't see anything happening before 2006 though. --[[User:David Cornelson|David Cornelson]] 11:21, 30 Nov 2005 (Central Standard Time)

Please change the captcha. The other magic word is "plugh" - this is not easy for a typical user to determine. Admins should change it to something more generally accessible unless this wiki is deliberately trying to exclude potential contributors. Thanks! [[User:Jerimee|Jerimee]] ([[User talk:Jerimee|talk]]) 20:32, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

== Current events notice? ==

I think I have a good idea. I have an ulterior motive for giving it, but I think it's a good idea just the same.

Below the "Land of FAQ" area, there was recently a box giving a notice about the XYZZY Awards winners. I was just thinking, wouldn't it be cool if that box were there year-round, with its contents changing based on current events of the IF community?

My ulterior motive is that I'd like people to be aware of my Spring Thing competition, which is going on right now. But there are also other things to announce... IntroComp is coming up, LoTech Comp is coming up, just to give a couple of comp examples.

My thought is that that box need not contain big text. If the text were smaller, it could more easily contain announcements about more than one current event, whenever appropriate.

Anyway, take this idea and do what you want with it. I'd be interested to hear people's reactions. -- Greg Boettcher

* I have thought a teensy bit about this kind of idea before, and of course, the info you want is already at [[Current events#Competitions & Contest News]]. It's just a matter of a) how do I summarize that ''really'' succinctly, and where on the Main Page would it squeeze in? My current thinking is to squeeze the bottom section over to the left and put a comp news summary to its right and under the Feature Article section. The summarization question is more difficult to answer. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 16:19, 3 April 2006 (EST)
* Okay, I've tried to add a new section to the Main Page. It's not very pretty, but it's a start. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 17:24, 3 April 2006 (EST)
* I think it looks really good. I didn't have in mind just comp news, but maybe that is most of what news there is, after all. You solved both of the two issues you mentioned really well. Yay! -- [[User:Gregb|Greg Boettcher]] 19:45, 3 April 2006 (Central Daylight Time)


I'm wondering if there shouldn't be a section on the front page for the current month's news -- for example, current happenings like IFMonth could share space with the current competitions? Events and competitions seem equally 'current' but the competitions get the benefit of the front page as it is. [[User:George|George]] 18:47, 17 February 2009 (PST)
* It's the 23rd of the month, and IFMonth doesn't even have a page on IFWiki yet. I only got around today to announcing XYZZY Awards are in second-round voting. The BINGO board still proclaims 'Summer fun' even though it's now February. And I haven't been keeping up with the Current events page either, which is supposedly where events are primarly announced. Frankly, I personally don't have the time to keep everything current; I'd rather analyze and document things in my own time. Yes, I could make a section on the front page for current news, but who will edit it? We only have a small number of dedicated editors around here, and I'm sure they're already doing as much as they have time for as it is. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 14:55, 23 February 2009 (PST)
* IFMonth did have a mention on the current February news, on the 17th. I wasn't asking for people to do more than they're doing now, but if it makes sense for the competition news to give up some space for the current month's news -- I thought the main page was created somehow automatically, but it sounds like someone would have to change links every month, rather than the Main page pulling from a 'current month' section? [[User:George|George]] 20:34, 27 February 2009 (PST)
* Parts of the Main Page are built from templates ([[:Template:Main announcement]], [[:Template:Feature article]], etc.) but the only 'automatic' part of that is how the content of [[:Template:Feature theme]] appears to cycle, based on a day-of-the-month system variable called CURRENTDAY. So, it's possible to do something similar with a news template using a system variable for the current month -- and making sure both the Current events and Main Page pages use them, because otherwise there's no savings at all if the content isn't identical. But I kinda hesitate to do all that since the content is already there on Current events. Why duplicate that info on the Main Page? It bothers me already that we're duplicating competition news info; that wasn't my idea. Obviously, why not duplicate the games released this month section as well? If we're going to put all the news on the Main Page, why bother to maintain Current events? -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 03:47, 1 March 2009 (PST)
* Yes, I see your point. So the question is whether there is a workable scheme whereby the 'most current' of current events in recent competitions, upcoming competitions, game releases, and news and reviews could be displayed on the main page in such a way that people would only have to edit the Current events page (and not be worried about breaking something). I think this has value because as far as I know there isn't any other IF page that has this kind of latest news in one spot. However it doesn't seem possible without a complete restructuring of the current events page as it stands. [[User:George|George]] 11:04, 11 March 2009 (PDT)

== CGDC deadline ==
Re: judging CGDC #7, paste from an email sent to the registered judges:
Deadline for judging is: Monday, February 22nd at 12:01AM (GMT-5:00) [[User:Mordred|Mordred]] 11:03, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

:Thanks! I've made the changes. --[[User:Eriorg|Eriorg]] 12:27, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

==Requests==
Could someone with permissions add [[CreatureComp]] to the list of upcoming competitions? The deadline is September 22nd. Thanks ! - [[David Fisher]]
* Sure. I should perhaps mention that that section is currently done by editing [[Template:Comp news]]; you don't need to directly edit the Main Page for that. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 04:17, 22 August 2006 (EST)
Please add also [[Herbstlaub]], the first German language Spring Thing-like Comp. Entries will be published on Nov 23, 2011. Thanks! ([[User:Ifwizz|Ifwizz]] 06:35, 23 October 2011 (PDT))

* Done. --[[User:Eriorg|Eriorg]] 06:53, 23 October 2011 (PDT)

===Upcoming: Herbstlaub 2012===
The German [[Herbstlaub]] 2012 Comp has been announced today with the schedule
* July 30, 2012: Deadline for submission of intents. 
* November 22, 2012: Deadline for entries.
* Voting deadline tbd.
Refs:
*[http://forum.ifzentrale.de/viewtopic.php?t=1142 Forum posting]
*[http://www.stereosanctity.org/herbstlaub/?page_id=77 Rules 2012]
*[http://www.herbstlaub.org/ Herbstlaub Website]
Could you announce the Comp on the Main Page?
Is ist possible to separate the [[Herbstlaub]] Page into a Main Page and Subpages [[Herbstlaub 2011]], [[Herbstlaub 2012]] and to create a Category:Herbstlaub as done for the [[Grand Prix]]? I don't know how, but i would fill the pages with info. -- [[User:Ifwizz|Ifwizz]] 05:56, 9 July 2012 (PDT)

: Heh. Yes, It is possible and I'll try to get that all done sometime today. I've been somewhat behind on updating the Main Page and Current events, but I certainly haven't forgotten about them. So much work to do! -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 07:03, 9 July 2012 (PDT)

== TADS 3 announcement? ==

Considering the way in which Inform 7 was trumpeted on this page in a big bold box last spring, I think it'd be nice to do something similar for TADS 3, now that its general release has finally come out. -- [[User:Gregb|Greg Boettcher]] 16 September 2006
* This message is way too late, but I just wanted to say that I did notice the fact that you responded to my request, and I wanted to say thanks to all concerned. -- [[User:Gregb|Greg Boettcher]] 16 November 2006

==wikipedia==
i've been creating individual pages on en.wikipedia.org for all the XYZZY "Best Game" winners [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XYZZY_Award_for_Best_Game] and all the IFComp winners [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_Fiction_Competition] down the years. they pass wikipedia notability requirements by virtue of winning the 2 biggest prizes in IF. but they're just stubs so wondering if they could be expanded somehow? 

also, a lot of those game articles dont have corresponding game articles here, so would it be possible to just copy and paste those to ifwiki? [[User:Nespresso|Nespresso]] 18:00, 15 December 2006 (EST)

:I can't really advise you very well about expanding Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is a bit out of my league and I have no experience editing articles there. I would first study other (non-IF) game articles on Wikipedia for ideas on what sort of info they like and try to do the comparable stuff for the IF articles. Since Wikipedia likes citations and doesn't like "weasel words", you'll probably want to back up any assertions with links to reviews or r*if threards about the games, I think. If you're merely asking for manpower to edit those articles, well, personally, I'll have to decline. I've got enough on my plate with this wiki right here.

:As for copying info from Wikipedia to IFWiki, there's two issues that have to be addressed: the layout differences and the copyright issue. I'm not going to be too dictorial on stub files that are incorrectly formatted. After all, they're stubs; they're meant to be edited later anyway. (If it's not a stub you're copying, we'll probably need to slap a Needs work template on the page to remind us to fix it.) The copyright issue is more stomach-churning, since IFWiki is public domain and Wikipedia is not. Which means that either the copyright has to be brought over with it OR you can't do a simple cut-n-paste and you'll have to reword it over here. Unless I'm misunderstanding the whole thing, which is entirely possible. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 08:41, 16 December 2006 (EST)

==Editing the main page==
I recently found out that the main page is (maybe?) made from several templates. Is everyone welcome to edit those templates? As they seem rather valuable I assume not. Thanks in advance. ---- [[User:Cassandra Palop|Cassandra Palop]] 08:04, 13 February 2007 (EST)

:Yes, the main page is made from the [[:Category:Main Page templates|Main Page templates]].

:I don't really know if people are welcome to edit those templates (I'm not an IFWiki administrator). But I did edit one or two of them and nobody complained. In particular, I think it can't hurt if we make the Competition News template as up-to-date as we can. But the others should probably be left alone... although, once, [http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php?title=Template%3AFeature_article&diff=21146&oldid=20814 I couldn't resist adding a shameless self-advertisement to the Feature article], but at least it was definitely on-topic.

:I suppose you can edit them if you're quite sure of your changes -- if you want to correct typos or out-of-date info, for instance. Otherwise, it's probably better to use the Template Talk pages. --[[User:Eriorg|Eriorg]] 14:29, 13 February 2007 (EST)

:Yes, people are allowed to edit the templates, especially if they are adding content, improving them, fixing typos, and so on, just like any other page. (Spammers, however, are not welcome to edit them.) If you want to make drastic changes to a template, it would be a courtesy to discuss the proposed change on the template's talk page first, though. And if you want to change icons or graphics in a template, I'd like to be asked first, please. But in most normal cases, you can just go and edit it without asking. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 19:02, 13 February 2007 (EST)

::Thanks, I learn by induction. :) -- [[User:Cassandra Palop|Cassandra Palop]] 04:29, 15 February 2007 (EST)

Er, I just added "Innovation Comp" to [[Template:Comp news]] - it works fine if you view the template page directly, but on the main page it appears as a non-existent link (and puts you in Edit mode if you click on it). The "Innovation Comp" does actually exist, though ...

:It's a normal link now. I'm unclear on exactly how the wiki software works, but I've always noticed that there's some delay in changes in one part of the wiki getting recognized by other pages in the wiki that refer to the changed page. I've seen red links for newly created pages, categories that still list pages that were just deleted, and pages still using an older version of a template that was just changed. As far as I know, time fixes these "errors". It's just not as instant as we would like. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 19:48, 7 March 2007 (EST)

== Adding References Support ==

Please consider adding references support to this installation. The instructions for adding it are [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cite/Cite.php here]. It is a simple addition but makes citations many times easier. --[[User:Jason Scott|Jason Scott]] 13:01, 4 October 2007 (PDT)

== Forgotten Talk Pages ==

I think the comments on the Talk pages tend to be forgotten when they aren't answered quickly enough (i.e. before they're no longer in the [[:Special:Recentchanges|Recent changes]] page).

There are lists of all the Talk pages, including the old ones, in [http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php?title=Special%3AAllpages&from=&namespace=1 All pages (Talk namespace)] and similar pages, but they're not very readable, because they also list all the comments which ''were'' answered.

I suggest that we could create a page with an index of all the Talk pages (or sections from Talk pages)
which still need answers, and another index of all the Talk pages which were satisfyingly answered (or didn't really need an answer).

But maybe there is a better solution I didn't think of? --[[User:Eriorg|Eriorg]] 17:57, 4 February 2008 (PST)

: On the Recent changes page, you can change the namespace to, for example, only look at [http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php?title=Special%3ARecentchanges&namespace=1 recent changes in the Talk namespace]. Personally, I have no interest in trying to handmake an index of unanswered Talk pages; it'd be far easier to just answer them! If questions aren't being answered, it might be because no one wants to answer it, doesn't have the time, doesn't know how to answer the question, or some other reason. Sometimes I don't answer questions because I want to see if someone else will answer instead. Like, see [[Talk:AIF]] where it was suggested that the article isn't balanced etc., that we should solicit AIF people to rewrite it etc. Considering the history of that article, it didn't seem right for me personally to answer that one. At least not until other voices had weighed in. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 03:34, 7 February 2008 (PST)

== FAQ License ==

The section on the main page about the FAQ should say that it's licensed under the Creative Commons ''Attribution-Share Alike'' 2.0 license. --[[User:Sopoforic|Sopoforic]] 06:23, 11 March 2008 (PDT)
: Okay, fixed. Hope that's better. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 12:53, 11 March 2008 (PDT)

== More Game Information ==

The current framework for a game page contains useful information for people who are looking for a game to play, but almost nothing else. We don't have section on synopses, on the reception of the game, lists of NPCs, possible endings, and so on. Is there some kind of policy against spoilery information, or is it just something we haven't gotten around to yet? [[User:VictorGijsbers|VictorGijsbers]] 13:14, 19 July 2008 (PDT)

:I'm not sure, but I ''think'' that such spoilery information is allowed, as long as it's on a separate spoiler page (on the game page itself, there should be no spoilers, only a link to that spoiler page: see [[Games (style guide)#Spoilers]]) and there's a <tt><nowiki>{{spoiler}}</nowiki></tt> template. There are already two spoiler pages, created by Cassandra Palop: see [[:Category:Spoilers]]. (I don't think "User:Cassandra Palop/(etc.)" is the best choice for the page names, though...) --[[User:Eriorg|Eriorg]] 03:11, 20 July 2008 (PDT)

:Very general non-spoilery synopses (ala the "About the Story" at IFDB) can go near the top of a game page, just under the genre icons. I should edit the style page to show that's permitted. However, a full spoilery synopsis belongs on a spoiler page.

:Spoilers are mostly something we haven't got around to yet. And yes, they should go on a separate spoiler page, e.g: "The Gostak/Spoilers" and put in the Spoilers category. I've been wanting to make, for example, a "Worlds Apart/Spoilers" page with all the vocabulary in it, and a Who's Who or Dramatis Personae for various other games for quite some time, but, well, I just haven't done it yet. Look how many games don't even have pages yet, or don't even have "How It Begins" yet.

:Reception to the game may go in either the Notable Features or the Trivia and Comments sections, I think, depending on what you're actually commenting on. General comments like "Galatea was rated 4.5 stars on IFDB as of February 30, 2008." or "1-2-3... offended several players by insulting another author." may go in the Trivia section. Comments about game features may be appended to the paragraph about that feature in the Notable Features section. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 13:02, 20 July 2008 (PDT)

== Dead links on the IFWiki ==

The IFWiki contains many many links to other websites, and that's a good thing. But inevitably, some of them become dead links sooner or later, and that's a problem.

In general, when I find dead links, I try to fix them (with the new address or a link to the Internet Archive, if possible). But I'm sure we miss many other dead links: we can't manually check every single link from every single page regularly!

So, my question is: is there a tool for automatic search for dead links on a whole wiki? If there is, an administrator could use it from time to time and publish the results on an IFWiki page, and the contributors could try to fix at least some of them. --[[User:Eriorg|Eriorg]] 20:50, 31 October 2008 (PDT)

* I don't know of such a tool -- I don't see something like that listed on the Special Pages page -- but maybe there's one out there somewhere on the web. I suppose we can at least start a page for documenting when a site disappears or moves. How does [[IFWiki:Dead links]] sound as a suitable page name for it? -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 07:51, 1 November 2008 (PDT)


[[IFWiki:Dead links]] is a good page name.

There seem to be many such tools available on the web; I've found several with Google, at least. But most of them were for websites in general, not particularly for wikis, and I don't know if they were appropriate for a really big site like IFWiki.

But the link I've found which looked the most interesting [http://fra.anarchopedia.org/Discuter:Commune_libre_de_Oaxaca#Dead_link is there]. Apparently, a bot had searched for dead links on that wiki and automatically mentioned them on the Talk Pages; and it even mentioned the relevant Internet archive links! This bot seems to use [http://pywikipediabot.sourceforge.net/ Python wikipedia robot framework].

'''Warning:''' I never used it, so I have absolutely no idea whether it's safe (I hope it can't cause damage!) or whether it's any good. It might be a good idea to ask someone who actually knows about such things before using it!... --[[User:Eriorg|Eriorg]] 13:15, 1 November 2008 (PDT)

== Gnusto ==

Hello.  I'm the original author of the [[Gnusto]] Z-machine-based terp, on which you don't have an article, though you do have one on [[Parchment]], which uses Gnusto's engine.  I can expand the page on Parchment a good deal, but most of the questions asked on that page concern the Gnusto engine rather than Parchment itself.  Is it all right if I break it out into two pages? [[User:Marnanel|Marnanel]] 00:43, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

: Of course that's all right. I'll take all the help I can get on understanding interpreters better. And thank you. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 10:32, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

== Missing icons ==

Is seems a log of icons are missing for some reason:

http://ifwiki.org/index.php/Category:IFWiki_icons

What happened to them? It's now extremely common to find articles using at least one missing icon and having an empty box appear instead.
[[User:RealNC|RealNC]] 00:50, 17 July 2011 (PDT)

* Huh. That's disturbing. I have no idea why they'd vanish. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 11:00, 17 July 2011 (PDT)
* Hm. It's not just icons; some cover art is missing too. There doesn't seem to be any obvious pattern to it and there's nothing obvious in their histories; no one's been deleting them on purpose. I do remember that the IFWiki logo itself vanished for a while until I pointed out its absence to baf; perhaps this is more of the same thing, where it didn't get backed up somehow or whatever it was. Sigh. Guess I'll have to ask baf to look into it. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 11:10, 17 July 2011 (PDT)
* Thank you, baf! baf said, "I don't know what makes the files disappear, but I'm seeing a grand total of 164 images in a backup made in March that aren't in the current wiki." So he copied them back over. Our best guess at the moment is that it was a side effect of upgrading the wiki software. Maybe. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 14:55, 19 July 2011 (PDT)
** Well, now other images have disappeared. This wiki has obviously been hacked. See: http://www.ifwiki.org/images/ (it even says "Hacked By W-n0K" :-P) [[User:RealNC|RealNC]] 15:26, 21 July 2011 (PDT)
** ACK! That's just cruel. [Expletive.] I'll talk to baf again, see if we can fix it. I have ''no'' idea how that happened; I don't even know how to access that myself. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 02:34, 22 July 2011 (PDT)
* Was the problem solved? It seems that there are still some images missing... --[[User:Eriorg|Eriorg]] 05:41, 29 July 2011 (PDT)



==Suggestion for a date/time widget for the front page==

<!-- Borrowed from Wikipedia [User:Angela] with modifications by Viridian Development Corporation -->
<div style="float:right; padding-left:5px;">
{| style="text-align:left; border:1px solid #aaaaaa; background-color:#f9f9f9;width: 200px;font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"
|- padding:5px;padding-top:0.5em;font-size: 95%;
|
----
<div style="border:1px solid #ccc; background: #fff; border-right:3px solid #ccc; border-bottom:3px solid #ccc; text-align: center; padding:3px; float:right; font-size: smaller; line-height: 1.3; margin-right: 4px;">
<div style="width:100%">{{CURRENTDAYNAME}}</div>
<div style="font-size: x-large; width: 100%;">{{CURRENTDAY}}</div>
<div style="width: 100%;"> {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}}</div>
<div style="width: 100%;">{{CURRENTYEAR}}</div>
<div style="background: #aaa; color: #000;">'''{{CURRENTTIME}}''' UTC</div>
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Welcome to ifwiki.org, the Interactive Fiction Wiki
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The code in this section (only visible through '''Edit'''), if placed at the beginning of the front page, would place the date/time box which appears to the right of this message, on the right edge at the top of the front page. [[User:Tdarcos|Tdarcos]] 23:23, 8 October 2011 (PDT)

* I fail to see the point of this widget. We already have the date in larger print on the front page. There's no particular reason to have the time of day displayed, and if we did, I'd like to have a better contrast so it's more readable. And what would it be to the right of? There's not usually an empty space on the right-side of the main announcement. I'd prefer not to fill the space with cruft. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 21:52, 9 October 2011 (PDT)

==Fun with the spam protection==

When you make a new external link, you have to type in a Catchpa to show that you are not a spam bot. Even if you are a registered user; even if you have been a registered user for years; even if you have already done the Catchpa test 27 times that day. This is, of course, supremely irritating, and if something can be done about it I would be delighted.

In the meantime, though, let me show my favourites among the Catchpa tests that IFWiki asked me to type in today:

[http://lilith.cc/~victor/temp/eautes.png Catchpa 1], [http://lilith.cc/~victor/temp/math.png Catchpa 2].

At least we can be sure that no spambot will ever make it through this test! -- [[User:VictorGijsbers|VictorGijsbers]] 05:12, 22 October 2011 

* hm, I'm sure this topic has come up before, that is, to create a category of trusted users who can bypass the captcha requirement. And obviously, we haven't implemented that yet. I'm willing to add such a category, but I can't implement it myself. I'll have to ask [[baf]]. I'll go send him an email about it. (Also, please remember to sign your posts via the <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> trick. Thanks.) -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 17:19, 22 October 2011 (PDT)
* and Hooray, baf has come through! We now have [[IFWiki:TrustedUsers]], members of which should no longer be deviled by captchas on IFWiki. (And, of course, I've made you a member of that group.) Let us know if there are any further problems like this. -- [[User:Dswxyz|David Welbourn]] 02:11, 23 October 2011 (PDT)
** Great, thanks! [[User:VictorGijsbers|VictorGijsbers]] 02:47, 23 October 2011 (PDT)

== New Listing? ==

I have created a new page for my game but cannot figure out how to list it on the games list.
My page is empty right now having only the title, a welcome, and a link to my website.
I will create the full page once I know I can get it linked properly within IFWIKI.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Draft

==Sidebar Links==

Two questions about the sidebar:

1. Since the "Current Events" category is not current, would it make sense to remove the "Current Events" link from the "navigation" box on the sidebar?

2. Since Games have now been changed to Works, should the "Games" link in the "categories" box in the sidebar be replaced with "Works"? As it is, if you click on it, you get the page that says Games has been changed to Works, instead of getting to the actual works, which is probably what you want.

I'm not sure how to date/time stamp this, or I would. For the record it's 15-May-2015. [[User:Bg|bg]]


:1. Er... I guess it would make sense, but I'd be sad if we had to do that! A much better solution would be to update the Current Events so that they're actually current, but of course, it's a lot of work and somebody would have to do it. Unfortunately, neither I nor David Welbourn have been doing much work on the IFWiki lately, which means that it does feel rather abandoned and outdated on many pages. (Thank you very much for your work on the IFWiki these last days, by the way! Much needed.)

:2. Sure! I've just done it. (I had to edit [[MediaWiki:Sidebar]]; I don't know if you could do it yourself too or if it's only for admins.)

:(To date/time stamp your posts in Talk pages, use the second to last icon at the top of the page, or just type <nowiki>"--~~~~"</nowiki>.) --[[User:Eriorg|Eriorg]] 22:10, 16 May 2015 (UTC)

::1. I'm wondering if there's any way to automate or simplify Current Events to make it easier to keep up? I'm not sure if it's considered important to keep a record of past events, or only to make sure the current news is displayed (deleting info that is out of date) as in the "Comp News" template. And I'm not sure what information is considered important to list. It looks like in the past, things like new issues of SPAG, new game releases, and Competition announcements were included--has anything changed in that regard?

::Here's one idea, and I have no idea if it's possible with Wiki. There's already a "Competition News" box, and people seem to keep that (mostly) up to date, so perhaps additional announcements could be combined with that to make sort of a faux news feed. If it were possible to have one template to keep track of the news, people could add 1-line announcements in chronological order along with the date, and the first x lines of what's on that template (or the last x lines, depending on whether new events are added to the beginning or the end of the template) could automatically be displayed in the Current News box. Once an event was added to it, there'd be no need to remove it or re-categorize it as "past" or "upcoming" because the date would make that clear. It would basically scroll up and hide the oldest announcement each time a new one was added. So you'd end up with something like

:: Current News
:: April 3, 3016 - XYZZY winners announced!
:: May 16, 3016 - SPAG #347 is out!
:: etc. etc. etc.

::Another idea would be to set up actual feeds instead of a faux-feed. I've seen some sites automatically show recent links from Planet IF, (for example, Emily Short's blog <https://emshort.wordpress.com>, on the sidebar) so there's presumably a way to do that here. There could also be a feed for recently added entries to IFDB. I don't know if this is what IFWiki really would like to see, and there'd be no history of the feed items on IFWiki itself, but an advantage would be that once it was set up, it would require almost no upkeep.

::2. Thank you!  [[User:Bg|bg]] 00:06, 17 May 2015 (UTC)



:: Ok, I had another idea. What about this format for a "faux feed" of Current Events? It would include competition news and publications (i.e. new issues of SPAG). Of course, with this format, we'd probably want to skip dates of every new game that is released. For games, it seems to me that having a live feed of recently-listed games on IFDB might be more efficient.

::==April==
::5: XYZZY Awards 2014 finalists announced.
::20: My Compy Valentine entries released.
::25: XYZZY Awards 2014 second round votes due.

::==May==
::4: SPAG #62 released.
::5: ShuffleComp: Disc 2 final drafts due.

::--[[User:Bg|bg]] 13:19, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

:::* I noticed the "special pages" link in the sidebar now gives a fatal error. [[User:Bg|bg]] ([[User talk:Bg|talk]]) 02:37, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

== "Check out these articles" location ==

The "Check out these articles!" section on the main page is listed under the "Contribute!" heading, but the items in this list don't necessarily seem related to contributing:
* See Craft for how-to articles.
* See Theory for articles on IF concepts.
* See Starters if you're new to IF.
* See Current events to keep up to date on what's happening in the IF world.

Is this section actually supposed to be further up the page, between the "Contribute!" heading and the "feature theme" list? It looks like there's empty space there, so it almost looks as if this got accidentally moved at some point. --[[User:Bg|bg]] 03:57, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
::Since I asked this question a year ago and got no response, I went ahead and changed it. [[User:Bg|bg]] ([[User talk:Bg|talk]]) 22:44, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

== Date no longer updating ==

It looks like the date on the main page still reads June 10, and it is now July. [[User:Bg|bg]] ([[User talk:Bg|talk]]) 02:40, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

:* Ok, a minute later, now the date is updated. I'm not sure why. [[User:Bg|bg]] ([[User talk:Bg|talk]]) 02:42, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

== Sidebar links again ==

Now that the "Competition news" page has basically replaced the "Current events" page (at least for events in the past few years), should the "Current events" link in the sidebar be changed to a "Competition news" link instead? Should both links be in the sidebar? Or should we leave the sidebar as-is? --[[User:Bg|bg]] ([[User talk:Bg|talk]])

:: Per discussion with David Welbourn and zarf, I've now replaced the "Current events" link with a "Competition news" link. --[[User:Bg|bg]] ([[User talk:Bg|talk]]) 19:47, 19 June 2017 (UTC)

==Main page could use some new content (2020)==
The main page could use some new content.  Still showing 2019 IFComp.  Provide the blurb or "scratch" page.  I have not tried but it does appear that any "trusted" user can edit it.  There is a main page template. -- [[User:Imamy|Imamy]] ([[User talk:Imamy|talk]]) 12:41 am, 8 June 2020 (Eastern Standard Time)
* Hi Imamy. I hid the announcement about IFComp 2019. [[User:Bg|bg]] ([[User talk:Bg|talk]]) 17:31, 3 July 2020 (UTC)