Talk:About IFWiki

Either I'm doing something wrong or the IFWiki doesn't handle Telnet URLs correctly. The problem appears in the URL for the ifMUD. I'll leave it as is for now and hopefully someone will be able to spot the problem and fix it at some point. -- Sand

I think the MediaWiki software will only accept particular protocols. It wouldn't take the aim link I tried to put on my user page either. The editor help at Meta suggests that only http and ftp are allowed, but obviously news and mailto work also, at least on ifwiki. Anyway, linking to the homepage for ifMUD is probably more useful than directly to the MUD itself, since you need the information there to get set up and logged in the first time. --Ryukage 06:36, 9 Jun 2005 (Central Daylight Time)

I can log in but I can't view my account due to fatal error caused by skin preference

Hi, could anyone tell me where one goes to ask for tech help regarding the www.ifwiki.org accounts? I ran into a problem after opening an account. I was setting up the preferences for the skins and ended up with a fatal error that won't let me view my account. So I made a new account just to post.

I tried deleting all cookies and old files from my browser just in case but I still get this message when I log in:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare class skinmonobook in C:\Program Files\TSW\Apache2\htdocs\skins\Copy of MonoBook.php on line 33

Thanks. Amy

• I'll update the Community Portal page to suggest that tech questions should be asked here; we haven't had any policy for them until now. Unfortunately, I can't help with your actual problem, but I have mudmailed David Cornelson, the guy who originally put this wiki together, and hopefully he can help you. -- David Welbourn 12:19, 10 Dec 2005 (Central Standard Time)

My account's working again. Thank you! Now hopefully I don't stumble and lock myself out again.

Amy

The problem was in the old code. With the upgrade, there should be no way to recreate that error. --David Cornelson 01:27, 16 December 2005 (EST)

Broken links, extra /ifwiki

From Talk:11th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition: User:Merk noticed that links sometimes aren't working. For instance, http://www.ifwiki.org/ifwiki/index.php/Rob_Menke works if you take out the middle /ifwiki/ tag. David Welbourn has also seen this happening on the main page when he wasn't signed on. -- David Welbourn 12:02, 20 December 2005 (EST)

Is the IFWiki safe?

I'd like to know if the content of the IFWiki is safe, i.e. if there are sufficient backups? I suppose it is, but I ask this because I wouldn't like it at all if all my contributions (and the contributions of others, of course) were definitely lost someday! (Maybe there could be mirror sites, like the IF Archive has?? Or is it unnecessary?) --Eriorg 09:25, 6 September 2006 (EST)

• This is something I'll have to ask baf about. As far as I know, IFWiki is currently hosted on the very same physical machine that Baf's Guide is on. I assume and hope he makes backups, but I haven't actually asked him about that. There are currently no mirror sites that I know of, and yes, there probably should be. I myself can't do any of this; I simply don't have the resources. -- David Welbourn 11:45, 6 September 2006 (EST)

Well, did you ask him? --Eriorg 18:53, 10 November 2006 (EST)

• Checking back on my e-mails, it looks like I forgot. There was a database error on IFWiki that I'd asked him to fix the day before, and I guess I didn't want to bug him two days in a row. Sorry. Perhaps you should email him directly. -- David Welbourn 22:12, 10 November 2006 (EST)

ifwiki policies

I would like to know if there is an IFwiki list of policies. For example: what is your opinion about including in IFwiki articles information coming from Wikipedia? (I am not suggesting turning this wiki into a wikipedia mirror, only using their corresponding articles at least as a convenient starting point). Well, thanks in advance! -- Cassandra Palop 12:22, 29 November 2006 (EST)

The policies of IFWiki, such as they are, are most of the pages in the IFWiki category, particularly the style guides subcategory. And most of that is from me just making it up and hoping it's good enough for everyone else to go along with. At least one page here, Spells, was cribbed rather directly from Wikipedia. My reaction was to grimace quietly, grit my teeth, and let the page stand (at least for now). It's not that I'm opposed to borrowing any of the information from Wikipedia (assuming it's information about IF), but I would rather that it wasn't cut 'n' pasted word for word. Pages on IFWiki, for the most part, are in the public domain. Pages on Wikipedia, for the most part, are very much not in the public domain. And well, I really don't want to discuss copyright issues if I don't have to. So, um. I guess I'm giving you the O.K., but um, I'm a bit queasy about it. And I'm also kinda curious which pages on Wikipedia you wanted to, er, not-quite-mirror here? -- David Welbourn 23:29, 29 November 2006 (EST)

First of all, thanks a lot for your fast reply, David. I usually edit Wikipedia (few of my contributions have to do with IF) and my main concern is if I should adapt such edits as for conform to IFWiki standards. Well, I have other questions... but I do not want to take advantage of your kindness :) Thanks, again. -- Cassandra Palop 04:22, 30 November 2006 (EST) P.S.: Yeah, I agree: the article dealing with Spells needs clean up. -- Cassandra Palop 07:21, 30 November 2006 (EST)

Just for the record, David, the Spells page was created by directly examining the games concerned. It's maybe not surprising that the result resembles the Wikipedia article (which I found only afterwards), since both list the spells in alphabetical order and provide the games' own explanations of their effects, but that doesn't mean that I copied anything from Wikipedia. Indeed, I'm a little disappointed that you should jump so readily to that conclusion, and would ask that you withdraw the phrase "was cribbed rather directly". Thanks -- Roger 01:46, 1 December 2006 (EST)

I call for calm and reason in the face of the worrisome tone that the controversy is taking on. I admit that it is risky to make remarks of the kind David made because it is always difficult to trace the sources of a specific article with accuracy, also I think that in wikis (by its very nature) there is always room for the development, cleaning up and improvement of articles (even more). Roger, I personally favor content over appearance (but the aesthetics is not a minor issue for me). Well, I hope this settles the argument. With that said, I hope to do my best with my contributions. A huge thank you to both David and Roger. -- Cassandra Palop 05:54, 1 December 2006 (EST)

Roger, I apologize. I misspoke and misremembered. Comparing the pages makes it obvious that your contribution was independent of Wikipedia. -- David Welbourn 11:02, 1 December 2006 (EST)

Userpages versus articles about people

Unlike Wikipedia, it seems that there are lots of users here who also have articles about them. Therefore it seems to be needless duplication to have both. What's the proper way to mitigate this? Should I do a redirect from my userpage to my article? Strictly taken, this would run afoul of the rule against editing an article about onself (inherited from Wikipedia). Let's discuss this. David Griffith 03:16, 6 July 2007 (EST)

• Here's my take on it: I don't see it as needless duplication. Articles about people (that is, in the People category) should be fairly formal, dry, standardized set of information about a person's contributions to IF, and it's expected that almost anyone might edit those pages.
  
  By contrast, I see a user's page as having little to no formalization apart from what that user wants to impose upon himself or herself, and other users should (mostly) think twice about editing another user's page without permission or good reason. If a user wants his user page to redirect to the main article about himself, that's fine and dandy with me. But a better use of a user's page is to use it to say a little about oneself, perhaps have a personal to-do list of things they want to do in IF or for IFWiki, have a list of favourite or recommended games, and so on. And that should be fine too.
  
  Also, I would like to stress that IFWiki does not have a rule against editing an article about oneself. That particular rule of Wikipedia's does not apply here. People have created articles about their own games, and frankly, that's a good thing. If you wait until I get around to it, you might have a long wait (there's a lot of games and only one of me.) -- David Welbourn 03:43, 6 July 2007 (EST)