HRWiki:Da Basement

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Revision as of 15:08, 19 July 2005 by Acekirby13 (Talk | contribs)
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Where all the cool guys hang out
Welcome to Da Basement! This is a messageboard for coordinating and discussing administrative tasks on the Homestar Runner Wiki. Although it is aimed mostly at sysops, any user is welcome to leave a message or join the discussion here.

Contents

Racial Slurs

I was contacted last night by a user who claims he was banned with this message: "no more message for you, you freakin jew" (I'm not sure if that's a direct quote or not). I never saw the ban in question on the blocked IP list, so, if it really existed (and I firmly suspect it didn't), it must've been a timed block that expired before he contacted me. I will always side with admins and sysops in conflicts like this, but I hope it goes without saying that if this did indeed happen I'm sorely dissappointed. Racism simply cannot be tolerated coming from our admin/sysop staff. — wikisig.gif Joey (talk·edits) 15:19, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

According to the Block Log (which contains every block and message by sysops whether the block has expired or not), no one called anyone "a freakin jew". —FireBird|Talk 17:05, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
This is absolutely ridiculous, but just for completeness sake:
I just searched the entire database and %jew% appears 11 times in current pages, and never in a derogatory manner. Results include "jewel case" (x2), "Jewish skullcap," "Jew's harp" (x3), "jewelry" (x2), "jewelrey," "jewel cases," "asjhfijewifjaskdjfkajewifjewjf," and of course this page. In archived (deleted) pages it appears once as "Jeweettoch" in some spam comment. One email address of a user contains a variant of the word "jewel." Nothing else.
I thought perhaps this user was referring instead to the forum, so I searched that database as well. No red flags there either.
This user didn't provide their username that was blocked or their IP address? The Blocked text includes a user's IP address and clearly instructs them to include that address in any queries they make. Also, did they say they were blocked from editing the Wiki or that they were banned from posting on the forum? Did they say who blocked/banned them? Any answers to these questions would certainly clear things up. -- Tom 20:14, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
My bad. I didn't know the block log kept track of expired blocks. If I had known that I would never have brought this up. As I had initially believed, you guys are all top notch. — wikisig.gif Joey (talk·edits) 21:42, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I just spoke with Joey and here's how it all went down:
Late last night, Joey was contacted via instant message by an irate user about being blocked from the Wiki. The user first called Joey a big racist jerk without explanation and then claimed that Joey had blocked him and used a racial slur in the process. At first the user was unclear as to the content of the block message, but then claimed it was "no more message for you, you freakin jew". The user then told Joey that he hated him and that Joey shouldn't deny saying it. Joey was eventually able to have the user visit http://ipchicken.com to determine his current IP address. This IP address turned out to be one for an AOL proxy. Joey attempted to explain that the user was likely just blocked from editing because of another AOL user who had been blocked, but before he could finish, the user was able to edit again. The user proved this to Joey by editing an article. Joey was then able to convince the user that he needed to go to bed and signed off.
It is clear to both Joey and myself that none of our Sysops used any kind of language that is inconsistent with our principles here at the Homestar Runner Wiki. We both believe this user's claim to be as far from the truth as possible. Thank you all for your patience in this matter. -- Tom 21:48, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Article of the Week

This would be a good place to decide how we're going to choose the article of the week. Maybe the article of the week could be a rotating responsibility for sysops? Aurora the Homestar Coder 21:03, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I think that could get a little confusing and difficult, though I do think posting a suggestion and letting us (and not others- so it won't become another STUFF) vote on it would work. —FireBird|Talk 21:31, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
We're on our last JoeyDay-approved article, so we have to decide on something to do this week. If we go with Firebird's suggestion, I suggest Floppy Disk Container. Homestar Coderhomestar-coder-sig.gif 19:57, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
What we really need is a good system for choosing articles. I think some nice guidelines are our first step. Are there any requirements right now? -- Tom 20:56, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
There aren't really any requirements. I would like to see the requirements: 1. has more than one or two paragraphs 2. is not in a state of flux (i.e. not a new toon or character) Homestar Coderhomestar-coder-sig.gif 20:59, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I agree with Homestar Coder's suggested requirements. I say no toons, though (save odd or interesting toons, such as Where the Crap Are We?, etc.). I also don't want this to become another STUFF that we have to deal with. I think a restricted voting system (like I already suggested) would work. —FireBird|Talk 23:13, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Wow, I never knew we had a basement. This is awsome! Anyways, I totally agree with Coder. If nobody minds, I'm gonna go ahead and make a sketch of Floppy Disk Container for next week. It is always changable. Thunderbird 00:22, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
EDIT: Sketch is in, but it's not on the featured articles page until it gets cleaned up and totally ready.

Featured Articles 26-30

What about this? Here's the articles right to week 30. Now let's start discussing what they should be/start working on them! Discussion for each seperate week goes below the potential page. Once they're finished, we add them to the HRWiki:Featured articles page.

Anybody mind if we do the Floppy Disk Container for week 26? Thunderbird 00:36, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
What about Minor Teen Girl Squad Characters for this week? Thunderbird 00:36, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
How would we do this? —FireBird|Talk 00:40, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Simple, just write a brand new paragraph or two about Minor Teen Girl Squad Characters, and link it to the bigger page. Same sort of way of doing Floppy disk container, I'm still trying to figure out what to write, but I'm sure something'll come to me... Thunderbird 00:59, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
The paragraph that is displayed on the Main Page should be the intro paragraph from the article. See the previous featured articles for examples. If an article one thinks should be featured doesn't have a good intro, then they could certainly write one and include it in the article. Part of the idea of having featured articles is that people will want to improve current articles to bring them up to "featured status" or something like that. -- Tom 02:43, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Quite true. So basically, if the potential article doesn't have a good enough intro, we could just write one for the featured summary, and then add it to the page as well, then it would be all set, right? Basically what I'm wondering is if my paragraph for the Floppy Disk Container is *almost* good enough. Thunderbird 06:20, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, exactly. And once we come up with other requirements, people can strive to improve articles to that standard as well. That's really what it's about, not just having something nice for the Main Page. Check out Wikipedia's requirements for ideas, but keep in mind that we aren't Wikipedia and can make up something slightly different that fits our needs. -- Tom
Okay, are we doing this or not? --ColorPrinter 22:42, 2 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Howzabout Strong Bad's Message Bored for this week? —FireBird|Talk 17:51, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)
I also wouldn't be against leaving Floppy Disk Container for another week. Since it really didn't get much of a week... -- Tom 12:02, 1 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Well, it's week 27, and there's a blank gap on the Main Page. We need to have something! «Rob» 02:53, 4 Jul 2005 (UTC)
So, week 27 became Bubs' Concession Stand. I think Strong Bad's Message Bored would be an okay choice. Homestar Coderhomestar-coder-sig.gif 19:26, 6 Jul 2005 (UTC)
I hope you don't mind, but because Monday was fast approaching and it wasn't being written, I wrote the article about Strong Bad's Message Bored. -BazookaJoe 00:10, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)
I nominate Stinkoman 20X6 Enemies. I just love those little sprites. Homestar Coderhomestar-coder-sig.gif 19:26, 6 Jul 2005 (UTC)
The Paper wanted Teen Girl Squad. I don't think that would be a bad idea. -BazookaJoe 00:10, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)
The Cheat has my vote. Meh! User:Rogue Leader.sig
I think 20X6 would be good choice. —FireBird|Talk 15:05, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)
I nominate tape-legDothedoodoo
Well, I'm back from vacation. And given the nominations for this spot, my reccomondation would be to give it to 20X6, Leave Teen Girl Sqaud for a week or two, and wait until Stinkoman 20X6 has run it's course before giving it top spot. Any other suggestions anyone, or would we be happy with 20X6? Thunderbird 20:31, 15 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Sounds good to me... Homestar Coderhomestar-coder-sig.gif 21:04, 15 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Okay, it's in. How's the length looking? Too long? Thunderbird 08:23, 16 Jul 2005 (UTC)
A bit too long. You can trim off the the whole time capsule example, and {this will be debatable} the speculation about Coach Z, The Cheat, and The Poopsmith. (I forgot to tell you about the good points: expertly crafted and handed in before the due date!) —BazookaJoe 14:37, 16 Jul 2005 (UTC)
I just tried it with a quick preview on the front page and it is a bit long. BazookaJoe's recommendation seems the best course of action. I'm removing the third paragraph now. -- Tom 16:28, 16 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Well I think week 29 is well in hand, so any nominations for week 30? I'm personally up for BazookaJoe and The Paper's suggestion, Teen Girl Squad. Any other ideas? Thunderbird 09:11, 17 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Personally, I like Strong Sad's Lament. But that's just me. --acekirby13|My Talk 20:34, 18 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Actually I was just browsing the nominations page and noticed that little gem. I was just coming to suggest this one in TGS's stead. Maybe bump TGS to next week. That way if we miss a bit due to bandwidth, it's a pretty obvious feature anyways. Anybody else? Thunderbird 21:02, 18 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Sounds good. Now that you mention it, we probably will miss next week due to bandwith. --acekirby13|My Talk 22:46, 18 Jul 2005 (UTC)
I'm down with Strong Sad's Lament. —FireBird|Talk 23:25, 18 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Yea, I think we're gonna have to plan our featured articles around bandwidth until JoeyDay annouces an upgrade. I'm still a bit dissapointed about what happened with the floppy disk container. Thunderbird 04:14, 19 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Agreed. Perhaps when bandwith runs out, the article that was up should stay there for another week. I just don't want SSL to get the short end of the stick and be up there for two days, while TGS, a feature everyone knows about, runs up there at full strength for a week. --User:acekirby13/sig 15:06, 19 Jul 2005 (UTC)

Featured Articles 31-35

Should we just leave the choosing in this format, or move it to a different, more specific page? Thunderbird 21:06, 18 Jul 2005 (UTC)

I'd say move it to its own page. Perhaps redo the Nominations page and insert this instead. At least provide a link on that page to wherever this will end up. --acekirby13|My Talk 22:42, 18 Jul 2005 (UTC)
That's true, maybe it would be best to replace the Nominations page with this. It would clean it up quite a bit. And that way if somebody suggests a page, and everybody else shoots it down, then it's done and probably won't keep popping up. And I think that to prevent edit wars, and considering that these decisions concern the Main Page, maybe the final say should only be left up to sysops or something. I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure that's how they do it on Wikipedia. And I think there's really too many choices to make some kind of standard voting process, I think just general discussion like we've been doing here would be the best format. Start it up on mondays when the new one goes up, and actually choose it on... Friday or so, sooner if there's a total concensous on the article. Anybody else have any input? Thunderbird 04:01, 19 Jul 2005 (UTC)
I would like it if we keep it the way it is. I don't want a million anonys to clutter a talk-style page like this with their own "Marzipan's Purse" nomination (no offense). It would be best if we keep this in a fairly low-visibility and semi-forbidding environment, and leave decisions and article making to the sysops and most responsible members. If it gets too unwieldy for Da Basement, we should move it to a Featured Article Decision page. But it shouldn't be integrated with FA Nominations. —BazookaJoe 04:29, 19 Jul 2005 (UTC)
I think featured article nomination needs its own page to leave this one what it's for, but I agree with BazookaJoe that it should at least be attempted to keep only the more responsible members "in charge," for lack of a better term. Consider this a vote for a Featured Article Decision page. small_logo.pngUsername-talk 04:43, 19 Jul 2005 (UTC)
I completely agree. A page for this, and the sysops get the last call. However, I am kind of sad that the "Submit a Nomination" link goes nowhere, as that page is barely used in the Nomination Discussion. --User:acekirby13/sig 15:08, 19 Jul 2005 (UTC)





New STUFF and Recent Changes

The new STUFF looks great. But Recent Changes is making my head hurt. Every other edit is some kind of template or vote to STUFF, which makes patrolling Recent Changes a nightmare. Will this be what it looks like as long as we have the new STUFF, or are we just tying up loose ends here? —FireBird|Talk 15:35, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It's a little of column A and a little of column B, but as long as this wiki has people voting on whether fun facts are good (and, oh, they're going to find a way to vote), then it doesn't so much matter the location of their votes (on a centralized STUFF page or on talk pages or wherever), we are just going to have lots of edits toward that end. I think the best thing to do is what we're doing now—keeping the voting as structured as simplicity will allow.
Theoretically, the number of edits will decrease now that people can make their votes and move on, instead of discussing each little thing back and forth for ten hours. Each admin and regular user alike should take strides to ensure that the new format doesn't regress into a forum. As an aside, at least the "STUFF" flag in the article title makes it easy to ignore those edits, if you so choose. — It's dot com 23:48, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Maybe we could make the Recent changes seperate Minor edits, User Page edits, and Normal Edits? Just a thought. User:Rogue Leader.sig
You can already remove Minor edits from the Recent Changes, but I doubt the software supports removing User Page edits. It would be great if the Recent Changes page let you pick the namespace, though. Homestar Coderhomestar-coder-sig.gif 16:57, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)
According to this link, when we upgrade to MediaWiki 1.5, we will be able to pick specific namespaces in the Recent changes. — It's dot com 17:00, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Just so everyone knows, this is no longer a problem. The day the new STUFF came out Recent Changes with overflowing with template edits, but all is well now. —FireBird|Talk 17:03, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)
It's true, I do see less STUFF changes with the new system than with the old, which is good. I'm really glad that MediaWiki 1.5 will allow us to specify namespaces in Recent Changes. I have often wished for that ability (sometimes I feel like only reading talk pages, sometimes I don't want to bother with any talk pages...) Homestar Coderhomestar-coder-sig.gif 17:05, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)

Page Move Vandalism

I'm sure some of you that were around this morning will be happy to learn that in MediaWiki 1.5 page moves will be logged in both edit histories and in a Special:Log page and will also be accompanied by handy-dandy "revert" links. -- Tom 14:48, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)

Oh, and just a note: until 1.5, pages should always be fixed using the "move" feature to maintain edit histories. -- Tom 15:09, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)
On that note, when does 1.5 come out of beta, and is that when we'll be upgrading? —FireBird|Talk 15:25, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)
Heh heh. Generally, things come out of beta when they are ready. I'd guess within a few weeks or even sooner. (Not too many blockers.) More information on that can probably be found on the mediawiki-l mailing list. When it happens though, we'll do the same thing as last time with 1.4: upgrade the fanstuff wiki first and see what breaks and then do the knowledge-base when we are sure everything is cool. We are going to be extra careful with this one, since there's a bunch of database changes in 1.5 that have the potential to break things. -- Tom 15:35, 11 Jul 2005 (UTC)
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