Talk:Main Page

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(this is not the appropriate place to ask this question; your other messages have been received; keep your pants on, for real)
(Load times and potential solutions: some unnecessary calculations)
 
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{{Main Page Talk}}
{{Main Page Talk}}
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== TVTropes? ==
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''It has been [[HRWiki talk:Main page redesign|suggested]] that the Main Page be redesigned. Feel free to use [[HRWiki:Main page redesign|its project page]] for proposed redesigns.''
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Not sure the best place to put this, so I'll put it here.... since H*R deals with a lot of parodies and references to various TV tropes, could it be possible to have a quick link to [http://tvtropes.org TVTropes]?  That might help cut down on the "this reference could refer to this or this or [[TTATOT|that]]. {{User:Wbwolf/sig}} 23:33, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
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== sbemail templates ==
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:We currently have no articles that have any links to TVTropes.org, so a quick link to it would be pretty useless. {{User:Homestar-winner/sig}} 01:37, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
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:''See [[Talk:Strong Bad Email#sbemail templates|Talk:Strong Bad Email → sbemail templates]]''
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::That's... not true... {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 01:44, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::OK. But where are they? {{User:Homestar-winner/sig}} 01:51, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::All over the place... i'd do a search, but google doesn't search the wiki code and the wiki search is ignoring "tvtropes" for some reason... The most recent one is a link put on [[Hremail 2000]]. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 01:54, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::::Well, I also just had done a search with Google to see if there were any links. That's why I thought there weren't any. {{User:Homestar-winner/sig}} 02:21, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::::I'm not a fan of TVTropes due to fact it's nothing more than "[[unnatural|an organized forum for people to shout out their ideas all at the same time]]". If it was actually organised, correctly formatted and thus readable, things would be different. I feel it would be more beneficial if we could find an alternative, well-written article about the relevant trope somewhere on the Internet, or even a Wikipedia article, if possible. {{User:The Chort/sig}} 16:44, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Hremails ==
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== Trogday decor ==
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Instead of putting Short for these hremails, Can we actually put, like "Hremail: Hremail 2000"?
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Does the '''Featured content of the day (or whenever)''' template automatically switch to different links on certain days? Such as linking to [[dragon]], [[Trogday '08]] and other things when the time comes? Or is that done manually? Because tomorrow is Trogday. - [[User:HoveringSombrero|HoveringSombrero]] ([[User talk:HoveringSombrero|talk]]) [[File:Shoulder shoomps.png|23px]]
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:"HREmail" isn't actually a category of toons as of yet, though. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]] 04:38, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
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:It's not automatic, but as you can see (at the time of this writing), the decorations were indeed put up to coincide with Trogday. — [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 01:43, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
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::But it's not a short either... {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 05:08, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::They're uncategorized, and there's no reason for us to categorize them until TBC have done so as well. At the moment, they just reside in the New Stuff menu.  {{User:GuardDuck/sig}} 05:19, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::So why on the main page does it list them as shorts? {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 19:12, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
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Couldn't we at least have some kind of navigation between the hremails?  Yes, they're not categorized, but they are obviously related.  --[[User:Son|Son]] 20:45, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::::I agree.--[[User:Crudely Drawn Cupcake|Crudely Drawn Cupcake]] 23:49, 4 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::::They are categorized on HSR.com, if you look under the toons menu, under new stuff, they have a little icon next to them that says "HSE" which stands for Homestar Email? Since the SBEmails have "SBE" next to them? Maybe? Dunno... --[[User:WillowDrake|WillowDrake]] 5:05, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
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== How many references do you need? ==
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:::::::That's not categorized. all toons have three characters next to them like that. Categorized means put into one of the toon categories. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 12:55, 5 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::::::Now that there's a handful of Hremails, I think it's reasonable if only for our own convenience to group them all together. Which is why I did so a couple of days ago. — [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 04:43, 7 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Signature pictures ==
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How many references to a thing need to be on a page for the thing the page is about to become a real page? Just curious because my mock-up seinfeld page includes eight references to the titular show. The page on [[The Big Lebowski]] has the same amount of references... so do I just make a [[Seinfeld]] page now? ----[[User:Jeffjman|J∃ffJ]][[User_talk:Jeffjman|Ma]][[Special:Contributions/Jeffjman|n]][[File:jeffjsigchrismas.png|23px]] 20:13, 7 February 2023 (UTC)
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:done and done ----[[User:Jeffjman|J∃ffJ]][[User_talk:Jeffjman|Ma]][[Special:Contributions/Jeffjman|n]][[File:jeffjsigchrismas.png|23px]] 20:14, 7 February 2023 (UTC)
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::See our [[HRWiki:Inclusion guidelines|inclusion guidelines]]. — [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 21:02, 7 February 2023 (UTC)
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How do I put one of those pictures when I sign things?--[[User:Mariofan1000|Mariofan1000]] 21:24, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Songs archive ==
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:For that, you'll need a signature. Please check [[Help:Signature]] for how to create one, but make sure it follows the [[HRWiki:Signature|guidelines]]. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]] 21:25, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Former Featured Articles ==
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Would it be OK if I created a subpage to my user page with a complete archive of every existing song in the Homestar universe? [[User:TMBGLOVER|I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too!]] 22:28, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
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:I'm pretty sure we [[Songs|have that covered]]. — [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 23:18, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
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::Well, I was gonna add MP3 files with them, so people could download them and stuff. Is that still OK? [[User:TMBGLOVER|I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too!]] 00:26, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
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:::No, that's not what the user space is for. — [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 00:43, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
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In wake of the fact that [[Fourth Wall Breaks]] and [[Nintendo]] need cleanup and [[Date Nite]]'s Commentary Transcript has been left incomplete for nearly 2 years now, should I make a template and a category for Featured Articles that no longer deserve such titles?  I already have some gewd ideas for template pictures. {{User:Bad Bad Guy/sig}} 18:42, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
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== dot dot dot ==
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:Off the top of my head I'd say no. Once featured, always featured. But to get a better idea, you should elaborate on what the wording of the template would be and what image we should use. — [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 18:52, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
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::Wording would basically explain that the article needs improvement before it can once again "highlight the fine work of the Wiki", and the picture would be the pumpkin pie (unless the "worst" ribbon is too harsh, then it will be Strong Sad's Self Portrait in Late October).  If that's too similar to the cleanup template, it could be invisible like {{t|no-image}}.  I just think we need to separate articles that no longer highlight our fine work from those that do. {{User:Bad Bad Guy/sig}} 18:59, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::Like, cough cough, history according to strong bad? -[[Special:Contributions/132.183.138.34|132.183.138.34]] 20:13, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::It's not very clear to me what's wrong with that article. {{User:Bad Bad Guy/sig}} 20:52, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::::Featured articles here are not like those at Wikipedia. At Wikipedia, saying an article is featured means it's considered one of the encyclopedia's finest articles, and therefore those that fall below this standard end up getting de-featured. Here, it just means we thought it was cool enough to put on the Main Page. There's no need to consider an article de-featured here. {{User:Heimstern Läufer/sig}} 02:22, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::::As a side note, lack of a commentary transcript is not enough to deprive an article of its awesomeness. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 10:32, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Why... ==
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Why come whenever I try to link to [[lady…ing]] and [[Cheat Commandos…O's]], the link is broken? Is it because of those ellipses? {{--}} {{User:HoveringSombrero/sig}}
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:Sort of! "…" is different from "...", it's a single character rather than three periods. Try highlighting it and you can see. This is kind of like the difference between “curly quotes” and "straight quotes" - in both cases, the former is typically made via autocorrect in word processors or mobile keyboards, while the latter is preferred by the wiki. So while [[lady…ing]] and [[lady...ing]] may ''look'' the same, they are actually two different typed entries. --{{User:Bleu Ninja/sig}} 22:17, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
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::I've added redirects to fix the issue. {{User:Gfdgsgxgzgdrc/sig}} 23:06, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
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:::Thanks! {{--}} {{User:HoveringSombrero/sig}}
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I've always wanted to ask this, but why do we spend hours a day working on improving articles when almost 10% actually ''read'' the articles?? I guess it's good for something like a youtube video or something like that but is there some wiki inspector that comes along some time in 2009 that we're preparing for? Or is this all just for fun? Just asking. {{User:MichaelXX2/sig}} 21:34, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Navigation sidebar - adding @StrongBadActual? ==
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:Ten percent of what? A far greater number of people read the articles than edit them, and even longtime editors still read articles for enjoyment. I myself read the [[4 Gregs]] article just yesterday and learned some very interesting tidbits. The bigger answer lies in the answer to "Why does one climb a mountain?" Because it's there and it's fun and challenging to do well. — [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 21:58, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
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::Ask not what the wiki can do for you, but what you can do for the wiki. {{User:GuardDuck/sig}} 00:30, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::Put simply, we have way too much time on our hands. {{User:The Chort/sig}} 19:41, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
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== Typo ==
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[[Strong Bad Email]] has been in the sidebar for as long as I can remember, presumably because it was the most popular and most actively updated portion of the website. With the Twitter account handily outpacing both sbemails and "H*R.com updates" (not to mention the [[CGI Paper]] directing viewers to tweet rather than email), might it be worth adding it over there? I know I regularly find myself navigating to the [[@StrongBadActual]] page(s) to fill out "Fast Forward" sections of pages or to find dates when an item or project was mentioned. --{{User:Bleu Ninja/sig}} 20:16, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
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:I agree (and I'm not going to do the whole "Don't you think I agree" part, this isn't [[E-mail Birds]], but it is bird season.), and I fully support putting it there. It's a handy page and we've put a lot of work into cataloging every post made by strong bad on twitter, with fun facts to boot! So consider this my '''SUPPORT'''. ----[[User:Jeffjman|J∃ffJ]][[User_talk:Jeffjman|Ma]][[Special:Contributions/Jeffjman|n]][[File:jeffjsigchrismas.png|23px]] 22:52, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
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::I also '''SUPPORT'''. {{--}} {{User:HoveringSombrero/sig}}
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:::, So I '''SUPPORT''' this too, but I like having easy access to the Strong Bad Email page, considering I usually watch the sbemails by clicking on the external links. So, maybe we keep both? [[User:TMBGLOVER|I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too!]] 22:28, 2 April 2023 (UTC)
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::::Maybe we link to it as <code><nowiki>[[@StrongBadActual Tweets 2023|Twitter]]</nowiki></code> and put it above [[Strong Bad Email]] and underneath [[Special:RecentChanges|Recent changes]]? {{--}} {{User:HoveringSombrero/sig}}
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::::: GREAT IDEA! I like it! [[User:TMBGLOVER|I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too!]] 18:00, 10 April 2023 (UTC)
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but it isn't always clear whether or not the Dennis mentioned is '''reffering''' to the same Dennis in Thy Dungeonman.
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== Editing user pages ==
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'Refferring' should be spelled 'referring.'
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:Fixed. Thanks. =) --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]] 21:54, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
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::Whatever happened to '''be bold''' and have fun? Or was that changed to '''cower down to the sysops and beg not to be blocked'''? =3 {{User:MichaelXX2/sig}} 21:56, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::Well, the [[HRWiki:Featured article for 2009, week 8|featured article template]] is semi-protected, after all... Anonny: For future reference, if you [[Special:Userlogin/signup|create an account]] (and wait a day or so to be autoconfirmed), you'd be able to edit the FA writeup yourself, and fix any typos... {{User:Phlip/sig}} 22:02, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::The annony was referring to the actual ''page,'' which is '''not''' semi-protected. {{User:MichaelXX2/sig}} 22:04, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::::The relevant wording from the featured write-up is identical to the sentence in the article itself. There's no way to know for sure which one he meant, but it's more likely that he was intending the more visible and difficult to edit featured blurb. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 22:25, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Bots ==
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Alright, so, I've been thinking. The block log has a lot of "user banned for editing userpages of other users". So, the main page, for example, has a system so only sysops can edit it. What if we add a system to all user pages that basically makes it impossible for anybody but the user to edit it? [[User:TMBGLOVER|I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too!]] 22:52, 18 July 2023 (UTC)
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:The thing is, I feel sysops / admins / wiki bots should probably still be able to edit user pages. For example, an admin fixing a bug on the page or a bot auto-replacing a link. But I agree that no one else should edit other user pages. Or somehow make a system where users can choose who can edit the page. {{--}} {{User:HoveringSombrero/sig}} 18:10, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
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::We already have [[HRWiki:User space#Ownership and editing of pages in the user space|explicit guidelines]] on who can and should edit user pages.  If a user page is edited for anything other than a legitimate reason, the edit typically gets quickly reverted. No harm done.  Anyone that might be banned in relation to user page edits is most likely doing it in a disruptive manner.  In any case, the block logs mostly include bans for spamming.  There really is no compelling reason to add user page security settings or tools for this.  --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 21:10, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
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If a regular user like me was skilled enough to have a bot and it was only used for good, will it be blocked? --[[User:Fangoriously|Fangoriously]] 02:00, 21 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Wiki availability ==
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:Yes, it would be blocked. See [[HRWiki:Blocking_Policy#Bots]]{{User:Loafing/sig}} 03:17, 21 February 2009 (UTC)
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::Why would a good bot that works be blocked? --[[User:Fangoriously|Fangoriously!]] [[User talk:Fangoriously|Chat]] 00:49, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::Because that's what we have users for.-{{User:Record307/sig}} 03:26, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::Or, if we really do need the services of a bot, it's why we have developer-controlled bots. We actually have one bot, [[User:First Time Here?|First Time Here?]], that comes into play just about every day. Out of curiosity, what do you think we need a bot to do? &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 03:35, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::::There's also [[User:The Cheatbot|The Cheatbot]], which does sophisticated [[HRWiki:WikiGnome|Gnome work]] so that the wiki worked more smoothly. However, it has not been active since 2 June 2008. I wonder why? {{User:The Chort/sig}} 11:31, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
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::::::Yes, I'm aware of my own bot. The Cheatbot is active only when duty calls, and currently there are no pending approved projects. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 15:58, 23 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Tandy game ==
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For about the past week, I haven't been able to access the HRWiki, and downforeveryoneorjustme.com consistently confirmed (and still does) that hrwiki.org is down. However, I see that plenty of edits have been made to the wiki in that time, so obviously it wasn't entirely down. Basically, I've been presented with a white screen that occasionally loaded the hills in the background and sometimes the Homestar logo in the top-left corner, and if I moved the mouse around the screen, it would recognize where links and drop-down menus were, but it wouldn't show me any text for the links and all. Any idea what may have happened/be happening? {{User:The Knights Who Say Ni/sig}} 20:32, 22 August 2023 (UTC)
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What did the "Tandy game" page look like before it was baleeted? --{{User:Fangoriously/SIGGY HERE!}} 17:15, 22 February 2009 (UTC)
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:Hey Knights.  Usually, when a big update is released, wiki activity jumps exponentially and typically the wiki reaction times can slow down to a crawl.  Pages still load but they take forever and one must be patient.  Eventually that goes away as edits taper down.  However, for a site like "downforeveryoneorjustme", their timeout is likely far shorter than regular browsers when reporting if a site is down.  In your particular case it seems that not all website elements are loading and some may be timing out and not loading at all.  I'd typically expect that behavior during peak edit times.  Hope this helps a tiny bit! --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 06:05, 25 August 2023 (UTC)
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::At some point I did see pages seemingly load but remain blank unless I interacted with the tab in some way, though that could have been a browser issue, it never really prevented me from accessing the wiki, and I haven't been experiencing it for a while. I've also had some "unable to connect" errors because sometimes when loading the wiki, it attempts to load an https URL. Most of the time, though, especially after a new release, it's been just slowdowns. {{User:DEIDATVM/sig}} 21:09, 4 September 2023 (UTC)
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== 1.14 Upgrade? ==
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=== Still Slow ===
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It seems that the wiki hasn't fully recovered from its slowdowns back in August.  In the last couple of months I've come across the Job Queue and [[MW:Manual:Job queue|this mediawiki page]] detailing what it is and how it's supposed to function.  I get the impression that currently, all jobs on the wiki are running when a page is being requested.  The page outlines a means by which the jobs can be run in the background (either via cron job or background process; I'd recommend the background process) and then the job run rate could be set to zero (so that pages aren't spending time running jobs while loading).  Is this something that is already in place or could this perhaps be implemented in order to improve overall performance even during busy periods? --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 11:41, 16 December 2023 (UTC)
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I've noticed that MediaWiki 1.14 (non-rc) has been out for three days now, and it seems that [[Special:Version|we haven't upgraded]]. Just a note. --[[Special:Contributions/69.150.85.66|69.150.85.66]] 22:00, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
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==glitch on the main pages ==
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:Three days? Wow, that would be extremely ambitious considering all of the customizations we make to the software, not to mention the fact that we developers have day jobs. Ever since we began doing upgrades the way we currently do, our record for upgrading after an official release is just under two weeks, set back when 1.8 was released. In all other cases it's taken us around two or three ''months'' (and that's not even counting the fact that we completely skipped 1.7, 1.10, and 1.13). With each upgrade, I have refined the process so that I have less to do each time (for example, by moving things out of the core code and into hooks, or by submitting a patch so that a custom feature or fix becomes standard), but some things are just intricate and have to be done manually (like autopipe). I had been making preparations in advance of the official 1.14 release, so hopefully it won't take too long, but just in case you weren't planning on keeping your pants on, I'd advise you do so. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 00:30, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
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== New Page Suggestion ==
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Noticed a glitch on the main pages, done by holding the cursor on one of the buttons, and then moving away, and then moving your finger off the mouse. to see what this does and what I mean, refer to this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgM-NA0Rja4 [[User:TMBGLOVER|I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too!]] 21:08, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
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:There's a whole page about this. [[Main Page Glitches]] {{User:Gfdgsgxgzgdrc/sig}} 21:21, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
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Hey, is there/should there be a page listing all the times that Characters imitate other Characters? Like Strong Bad imitating Homestar on Marzipan's answering machine, Homestar imitating The Cheat in Do Over, etc. etc. What do you think? (I know about the "be bold" thing, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask someone else's opinion =P)
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== Why does the website still have the Halloween theme? ==
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And, for future reference, is this where suggestions for new pages are supposed to be made? If not, where?
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Halloween ended 18 days ago, and so did October in general, so why does the website still have the Hallow's Eve theme? --{{User:Cy4nIsN0tB1u3/sig}} 04:33, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
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~ [[User:Branewashed|Branewashed]] 12:18, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
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:Because we're still waiting for the annual Fan Costumes toon to close out the season, even if we have to wait [[Decomposing Pumpkins|days after Thanksgiving]]. Also, because the sysops in charge of changing the wiki settings are busy people with lives and tend to wait a while to get around to it. -- [[Special:Contributions/68.37.43.131|68.37.43.131]] 23:56, 19 November 2023 (UTC)
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:A page like [[Impersonations of Other Characters]]? Which we've had for 3 years? And there isn't really a set place for new page suggestions... this is probably as good a place as any. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 12:22, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
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::As a matter of fact, yes, a page exactly like that...Yeah. Sorry 'bout that. Ok, so this can be ignored. =P Thanks! ~ [[User:Branewashed|Branewashed]] 12:25, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
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:::No problem, glad i could help. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 12:26, 26 February 2009 (UTC)
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== Emoticons? ==
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==New Fan Stumes’!==
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Are emoticons unique enough to deserve their own page?  Off the top of my head I can think of [[Teen Girl Squad Issue 12]], [[original]], and [[Hremail 62]] as examples. {{User:GuardDuck/sig}} 03:25, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
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The 2023 Fan Stumes has been released! And not only that, but my costume from last year is the very first Strong Bad costume! That counts as a fun fact, right? We should probably note that like how we note when a wikian sent a email. [[User:TMBGLOVER|I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too!]] 17:12, 22 November 2023 (UTC)
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== Self-linking image ==
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== Permafrosted logo? ==
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[[Image:WTC.png|thumb|How the crap is this possible?]]
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The Decemberween themed logo is still up, but December ended 11 days ago. The weirdest part in my opinion is that there's no d'ween themed colors despide icicles and Homestar's hat. Is there something we're waiting for, like a new not-Decemberween toon?
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As you can see, this particular image links to itself on its "links" section. Why/how does it do that? {{User:MichaelXX2/sig}} 02:38, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
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Yours truly,
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:It's because of the {{t|notorphan}} template. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]] 02:40, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
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The guy who confused Dobbs for Daubs. {{unsigned|206.110.189.60|11 January 2024 16:34 (UTC)}}  
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::But how? {{User:MichaelXX2/sig}} 02:40, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::Here's why:  The template has the following code: <code><nowiki><includeonly><span style="display:none">[[Media:{{PAGENAME}}]] <!-- to take the image off [[Special:Unusedimages]] --></span></includeonly></nowiki></code>.  It's a hidden link back to the image itself so that it doesn't show up in [[Special:Unusedimages]]. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 03:37, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::Sorry, that's my picture. When I saw how TBC edited the picture I submitted, that put a tiny little damper on my jovial spirit. I then created my account pretty much for the sole purpose of showing that picture to the world. But, pictures don't go too well on the fanstuff page, so it just has an irregular sort of link. I guess that's why this tag is here. {{User:Bleu Ninja/sig}} 23:53, 16 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::There wasn't any particular conflict with your image, it was just the first one that came to mind that had that template. Nice use of legos, BTW. ;) {{User:MichaelXX2/sig}} 02:05, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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== Email ==
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:I'm not an admin, but I'm assuming the style is simply for the winter season. Even though the Christmas lights have been taken down, it's still a chilly and snowy time of year for {{w|March equinox|at least another month and a half}}. (P.S. Even if you don't have an account, please sign your posts with four tildes: <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>) --{{User:Bleu Ninja/sig}} 17:34, 11 January 2024 (UTC)
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Is it really necessary to put "email" in front of every Strong Bad email name on pages with bulleted lists? Like when it says "Email [[crying]]" on the [[Li'l Brudder]] page. --{{User:Fangoriously/SIGGY HERE!}} 17:46, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
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== Load times and potential solutions ==
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:Yes. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 17:49, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
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::Why? --{{User:Fangoriously/SIGGY HERE!}} 17:54, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::I'm sure we could do without the word "email" being before every SBEmail title, but since so many articles currently have the word on them, it would be easier to just not do anything about it than to change every article. {{User:Homestar-winner/sig}} 18:31, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::I always thought we had "Email" before each name because it doesn't have any captial letters so it doesn't look like a normal toon title. {{User:The Chort/sig}} 19:35, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
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== Fanstuff Wiki Forum ==
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The wiki's been crawling along like something funny that crawls along for about a year now. This hasn't been much more than a minor inconvenience on my end, but it comes up pretty frequently on [https://www.reddit.com/r/HomestarRunner/ the Homestar subreddit], with a concerning number saying they haven't been able to access it at all. [https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/hrwiki.org downforeveryoneorjustme.com] consistently insists that the system is down. I don't know what the hosting situation is like, nor am I anything close to an expert on such things, so unfortunately I can't diagnose the issue... But, [[DNA Evidence|after <s>extensive</s> investigation]], I'm ready to release my findings.
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*[[Talk:Main Page#Still Slow]] {{--}} A few months ago, [[User:Stux|Stux]] proposed a solution involving MediaWiki's [[mw:Manual:Job queue|job queue]]. Seems like something worth looking into.
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Where is it? [[Special:Contributions/72.129.20.89|72.129.20.89]] 02:26, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
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*[https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/host-a-website-with-high-availability/ Host a Website with High Availability] {{--}} The wiki's web host Linode features a guide on how to host a website with high availability. I can understand at most seven words of this, and I'm not sure how well it applies to wikis, but it might be helpful to someone. (They also have guides for [https://www.linode.com/docs/guides/security/ssl/ enabling HTTPS], which improves security... Maybe performance too, but I've heard mixed things about that.)
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:http://z13.invisionfree.com/Fanstuff/ &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 03:24, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
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*[[Special:Version]] {{--}} The wiki is currently powered by MediaWiki 1.15, which released in 2011. Later versions have added collapsible elements, citation features, slideshow galleries, an optional visual editor interface, the ability to rename categories, and most relevant to this particular discussion, [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ResourceLoader improved performance]. The current stable release is 1.41.
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::Where's the Fanstuff Wiki? HUH? '''HUH!?''' I want the HRFWiki back!! --Homestar tiger
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*[[HRWiki:Donations]] {{--}} I just discovered that [[HRWiki:2011 Server Move|the wiki moved servers in 2011]] to cut back on expenses, which [[HRWiki talk:2011 Server Move#Slowness|apparently resulted in slower load times]] (at least initially, while settings were still being optimized). According to [[Special:Ledger]], there haven't been any donations since then (additionally, it still lists FellowSites hosting dues instead of the new host). I've seen multiple people offering to donate if they could, so if the more recent slowness is once again a financial issue, it might help to [https://www.paypal.com/us/cshelp/article/ts2067 get the donation links working again].
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:::It's still under construction and may remain that way for quite some time. However, you can post fanstuff at above forum, as well as at a whole number of different H*R related fansites. {{User:The Chort/sig}} 19:40, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
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*{{p|l=http://hrwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AListUsers&group=developer Special:ListUsers&group=developer}} {{--}} I have no way of knowing how actively people have been working on maintaining backend stuff, but I can see that of the six developers, only [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] and [[User:Tom|Tom]] have been editing consistently since 2016. I realize I'm asking quite a lot of two people at most, and I really don't want to be too demanding... so I can't help but wonder if my suggestions might seem more reasonable if there were more people responsible for backend maintenance. I'm not qualified for that sort of thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were active users with MediaWiki and/or web development experience. As much as I want this wiki to be accessible to more people, I really don't want anyone losing sleep over it.
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::::That's good. I've always said that fractions and fanstuff don't mix. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 22:37, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
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Anyway, sorry I can't offer more help than this, but I hope someone finds this stuff useful (and that I didn't get anything terribly wrong)! {{User:Gfdgsgxgzgdrc/sig}} 01:06, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
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:Out of curiosity, I decided to use [[Special:Statistics]] and the WayBack Machine to calculate roughly how many people have been affected by the slow load times. After comparing the last seven months (from around the start of the slowdowns to now) to the seven months prior, I found that the average number of edits per day has decreased from 22 to 14, and the average number of active users has dropped from 27 to 17. That's a 37% decrease in ''both'' areas, leading me to believe they are linked by a common cause...
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== Green ==
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:Unfortunately I couldn't figure out if that percentage corresponded to anything specific, like "37% of people use this certain type of Internet connection"... That information would tell me which people are having problems accessing the wiki, and from there I might be able to research a potential solution, assuming any of that works the way I think it does. Maybe I'll do an off-site poll somewhere, but I'd need to know what information would be most pertinent to ask... Would that be helpful at all? {{User:Gfdgsgxgzgdrc/sig}} 05:18, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
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All that green hurts my eyes. --{{User:Fangoriously/SIGGY HERE!}} 20:31, 16 March 2009 (UTC)
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:I fixed it some. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|<span style="color: #070; text-decoration: underline">It's dot com</span>]] 20:41, 16 March 2009 (UTC)
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::TURN IT BACK! MAKE IT LIGHTER! This dark green is boring --{{User:Fangoriously/SIGGY HERE!}} 20:58, 16 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::seriously. We should be able to have it normal. {{User:Raiku/sig}} 21:30, 16 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::Why? It's cool and it makes Dot Com's Sig green.-{{User:Record307/sig}} 22:57, 16 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::It's just a little fun for a day (actually an extended day, since we have users in places around the world where it's already tomorrow), and if it's not your style, don't worry, everything will be back to normal soon enough. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|<span style="color: #070; text-decoration: underline">It's dot com</span>]] 23:20, 16 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::::Green fine! Just lighter! No dark! --{{User:Fangoriously/SIGGY HERE!}} 01:03, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:Is this the first year we've done this? I can't recall it in years past. {{User:GuardDuck/sig}} 01:12, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::We did it last year also. {{User:Homestar-winner/sig}} 01:41, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::You missed the point. I just want the green to be lighter green. --{{User:Fangoriously/SIGGY HERE!}} 02:18, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::He wasn't responding to you, he was responding to my question. And to be perfectly frank, I think that a lighter green would only make pages harder to read and harder on the eyes. {{User:GuardDuck/sig}} 02:23, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::Yeah, he could make it a little lighter because you can't read the text on some user pages like [[User:ThePizz|The Pizz's]] userpage.-{{User:Record307/sig}} 02:30, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::::User pages aren't a priority. What's important are the articles, and the darker green makes those easier to read. We did do something like this last year, but it was only on the main page. This is the first year that it's been sitewide. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|<span style="color: #070; text-decoration: underline">It's dot com</span>]] 03:03, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:I love it. This is awesome. &mdash;[[User:BazookaJoe|BazookaJoe]] 03:50, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::::I love how any time a site changes, people complain. It's like this on facebook also. It's only a small change people, and unlike facebook, it's only going to be like this for a day or so. If you don't like it, don't come to the site for the next few hours. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 04:34, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::::::That's uncalled for. If a whole lot of people really had a problem with it, then it would indeed be appropriate for them to voice their concerns here so it could be addressed. (Fortunately, it seems like one isolated case.)&mdash; [[User:It's dot com|<span style="color: #070; text-decoration: underline">It's dot com</span>]] 04:51, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::::::If it was a permanent change, i'd agree. Since it's very temporary, i think people can just suck it up for a day. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 04:58, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::::::::See, there again. You're complaining about people who are not complaining.&mdash; [[User:It's dot com|<span style="color: #070; text-decoration: underline">It's dot com</span>]] 05:02, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::::::::Well then... I stand complained about... or something. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 05:12, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::::In case my comments were misinterpreted, I think this is totally awesome. HRWiki oughta do stuff like this for more holidays, although I assume it's a bit of a hassle for developers and such. {{User:GuardDuck/sig}} 05:27, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::::Glad to see all the rest of you guys joining the green signature crew! {{User:Heimstern Läufer/sig}} 05:33, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::::Well, my "Talk" link was already green, so it's not like it was that much of a reach. :) --{{User:Jay/sig}} 05:43, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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Wow, you Americans really are crazy about St Patrick's Day. Anyway, this sudden colour change got me thinking; is it possible to program into Preferences the ability to change the default colour in which users see the links? That way, you could have everything in green throughout the year! Or any other colour you'd like! Each user would be able to further customise their account, aside from changing the skins. I remember that you did just this with the TaviStyle skin after THAT April Fools incident. And I think you would still be able to override everyone's settings on holidays if you really wanted to. (Speaking of which, I just hope this year you aren't going to change everything to white. That would just be annoying.) {{User:The Chort/sig}} 17:47, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:There's no need to put it into preferences, just change your own monobook.css. {{User:DeFender1031/sig}} 18:11, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::... What's a "monobook.css"? Does it have something to do with those Greasy Monkey scripts I've heard about? {{User:The Chort/sig}} 18:13, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:[edit conflict] To change the color of the links you see, add the six lines from the group at the bottom of {{p|l=http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Common.css&diff=636313&oldid=631951 this edit}} to your personal style page. If you use MonoBook, then that page is located at [[Special:MyPage/monobook.css|User:Your Username/monobook.css]]. '''Note:''' you should leave out the "!important" tags unless it doesn't work without them, otherwise you won't see anything special when we celebrate other days. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|<span style="color: #070; text-decoration: underline">It's dot com</span>]] 18:16, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::Thank you, It's dot com! It seems a bit difficult to do though, because you need to know the special codes for each colour you want. I just wondered whether it was possible to develop an easier interface for those who don't know much about coding, but then, due to the complete and utter irrelevance of changing the link colours, it's probably not really worth worrying about. {{User:The Chort/sig}} 18:28, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::You don't necessarily have to put a specific color number. I could have used "<code>color: green</code>" if I'd wanted, but I was going for something more specific. There are also online tools that can help, and any image editor worth its salt can tell you the hex value of a color. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|<span style="color: #070; text-decoration: underline">It's dot com</span>]] 20:45, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::I personally like this green, as it's my favorite color. Check out my green siggy! Am I in the green sig club now? By the way, you can go [http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html here] for a graphic of the colors and their codes. {{User:MichaelXX2/sig}} 20:53, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::I don't have a green sig. Is that okay? --{{User:Fangoriously/SIGGY HERE!}} 21:10, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::::That's not really what this is about, but sure. It's okay. {Pat on head} {{User:MichaelXX2/sig}} 21:15, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::::Like Heimstern, I don't have to do a thing to my sig because it's been green for months now. {{User:HRjcm/sig}} 21:40, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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::::::::My sig is bi-polar, and proud of it. {{User:GuardDuck/sig}} 22:29, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
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:::::::::Now that you mention it, some of my ancestors were [[Wikipedia:Orange Institution|Orange Irish]], and some were... Green Irish? I guess? So... --[[User:Jay|<span style = "color: #669966">''J</span><span style = "color: #FF8800">ay''</span>]] [[User talk:Jay|<small><span style = "color: #006633">(Ta</span><span style = "color: #FF8800">lk)</span></small>]]
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::::::::::The green took a while to get used to, but I ended up liking it, especially since it saved me the trouble of making a St. Patrick's Day signature. {{User:Bad Bad Guy/sig}} 05:07, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
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==the or The?==
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I've noticed that there has been a bit of inconsistency regarding the capitalization of the word "the" in character's names (The Cheat, The Poopsmith, The Umpire, The Grape Fairy, etc.). So I ask you, are there any established rules about this?  Are certain characters' the's supposed to be capitalized, while some are not? [[User:Omnisweater|Omnisweater]] 14:41, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
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:Not counting things like the beginning of a sentence, the only time an article in or before a name should be capitalized is when it's consistently shown to be an [[integral article]]. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 14:53, 18 March 2009 (UTC)
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== Mysterious red border ==
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Today, I noticed that there was a red border around the HRWiki. Actually, it seems to load last and resizes the entire wiki within the border. Has anyone else had this problem? I couldn't find any discussion about a background change, so I'll assume that isn't what is happening. I can provide screenshots if that would help. &mdash;{{User:Mibluvr13/sig}} 06:05, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
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Umm, I don't have any red borders. {{User:Ugozima/sig}} 22:18, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
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It has been suggested that the Main Page be redesigned. Feel free to use its project page for proposed redesigns.

Contents

[edit] sbemail templates

See Talk:Strong Bad Email → sbemail templates

[edit] Trogday decor

Does the Featured content of the day (or whenever) template automatically switch to different links on certain days? Such as linking to dragon, Trogday '08 and other things when the time comes? Or is that done manually? Because tomorrow is Trogday. - HoveringSombrero (talk)

It's not automatic, but as you can see (at the time of this writing), the decorations were indeed put up to coincide with Trogday. — It's dot com 01:43, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

[edit] How many references do you need?

How many references to a thing need to be on a page for the thing the page is about to become a real page? Just curious because my mock-up seinfeld page includes eight references to the titular show. The page on The Big Lebowski has the same amount of references... so do I just make a Seinfeld page now? ----J∃ffJMan 20:13, 7 February 2023 (UTC)

done and done ----J∃ffJMan 20:14, 7 February 2023 (UTC)
See our inclusion guidelines. — It's dot com 21:02, 7 February 2023 (UTC)

[edit] Songs archive

Would it be OK if I created a subpage to my user page with a complete archive of every existing song in the Homestar universe? I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too! 22:28, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure we have that covered. — It's dot com 23:18, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
Well, I was gonna add MP3 files with them, so people could download them and stuff. Is that still OK? I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too! 00:26, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
No, that's not what the user space is for. — It's dot com 00:43, 23 February 2023 (UTC)

[edit] dot dot dot

Why come whenever I try to link to lady…ing and Cheat Commandos…O's, the link is broken? Is it because of those ellipses? — HoveringSombrero (talk)

Sort of! "…" is different from "...", it's a single character rather than three periods. Try highlighting it and you can see. This is kind of like the difference between “curly quotes” and "straight quotes" - in both cases, the former is typically made via autocorrect in word processors or mobile keyboards, while the latter is preferred by the wiki. So while lady…ing and lady...ing may look the same, they are actually two different typed entries. -- Bleu Ninja 22:17, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
I've added redirects to fix the issue. Gfdgsgxgzgdrc 23:06, 11 March 2023 (UTC)
Thanks! — HoveringSombrero (talk)

[edit] Navigation sidebar - adding @StrongBadActual?

Strong Bad Email has been in the sidebar for as long as I can remember, presumably because it was the most popular and most actively updated portion of the website. With the Twitter account handily outpacing both sbemails and "H*R.com updates" (not to mention the CGI Paper directing viewers to tweet rather than email), might it be worth adding it over there? I know I regularly find myself navigating to the @StrongBadActual page(s) to fill out "Fast Forward" sections of pages or to find dates when an item or project was mentioned. -- Bleu Ninja 20:16, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

I agree (and I'm not going to do the whole "Don't you think I agree" part, this isn't E-mail Birds, but it is bird season.), and I fully support putting it there. It's a handy page and we've put a lot of work into cataloging every post made by strong bad on twitter, with fun facts to boot! So consider this my SUPPORT. ----J∃ffJMan 22:52, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
I also SUPPORT. — HoveringSombrero (talk)
, So I SUPPORT this too, but I like having easy access to the Strong Bad Email page, considering I usually watch the sbemails by clicking on the external links. So, maybe we keep both? I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too! 22:28, 2 April 2023 (UTC)
Maybe we link to it as [[@StrongBadActual Tweets 2023|Twitter]] and put it above Strong Bad Email and underneath Recent changes? — HoveringSombrero (talk)
GREAT IDEA! I like it! I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too! 18:00, 10 April 2023 (UTC)

[edit] Editing user pages

Alright, so, I've been thinking. The block log has a lot of "user banned for editing userpages of other users". So, the main page, for example, has a system so only sysops can edit it. What if we add a system to all user pages that basically makes it impossible for anybody but the user to edit it? I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too! 22:52, 18 July 2023 (UTC)

The thing is, I feel sysops / admins / wiki bots should probably still be able to edit user pages. For example, an admin fixing a bug on the page or a bot auto-replacing a link. But I agree that no one else should edit other user pages. Or somehow make a system where users can choose who can edit the page. — HoveringSombrero (talk) 18:10, 19 July 2023 (UTC)
We already have explicit guidelines on who can and should edit user pages. If a user page is edited for anything other than a legitimate reason, the edit typically gets quickly reverted. No harm done. Anyone that might be banned in relation to user page edits is most likely doing it in a disruptive manner. In any case, the block logs mostly include bans for spamming. There really is no compelling reason to add user page security settings or tools for this. --Stux 21:10, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

[edit] Wiki availability

For about the past week, I haven't been able to access the HRWiki, and downforeveryoneorjustme.com consistently confirmed (and still does) that hrwiki.org is down. However, I see that plenty of edits have been made to the wiki in that time, so obviously it wasn't entirely down. Basically, I've been presented with a white screen that occasionally loaded the hills in the background and sometimes the Homestar logo in the top-left corner, and if I moved the mouse around the screen, it would recognize where links and drop-down menus were, but it wouldn't show me any text for the links and all. Any idea what may have happened/be happening? The Knights Who Say Ni 20:32, 22 August 2023 (UTC)

Hey Knights. Usually, when a big update is released, wiki activity jumps exponentially and typically the wiki reaction times can slow down to a crawl. Pages still load but they take forever and one must be patient. Eventually that goes away as edits taper down. However, for a site like "downforeveryoneorjustme", their timeout is likely far shorter than regular browsers when reporting if a site is down. In your particular case it seems that not all website elements are loading and some may be timing out and not loading at all. I'd typically expect that behavior during peak edit times. Hope this helps a tiny bit! --Stux 06:05, 25 August 2023 (UTC)
At some point I did see pages seemingly load but remain blank unless I interacted with the tab in some way, though that could have been a browser issue, it never really prevented me from accessing the wiki, and I haven't been experiencing it for a while. I've also had some "unable to connect" errors because sometimes when loading the wiki, it attempts to load an https URL. Most of the time, though, especially after a new release, it's been just slowdowns. DEI DAT VMdatvm center\super contra 21:09, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

[edit] Still Slow

It seems that the wiki hasn't fully recovered from its slowdowns back in August. In the last couple of months I've come across the Job Queue and this mediawiki page detailing what it is and how it's supposed to function. I get the impression that currently, all jobs on the wiki are running when a page is being requested. The page outlines a means by which the jobs can be run in the background (either via cron job or background process; I'd recommend the background process) and then the job run rate could be set to zero (so that pages aren't spending time running jobs while loading). Is this something that is already in place or could this perhaps be implemented in order to improve overall performance even during busy periods? --Stux 11:41, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

[edit] glitch on the main pages

Noticed a glitch on the main pages, done by holding the cursor on one of the buttons, and then moving away, and then moving your finger off the mouse. to see what this does and what I mean, refer to this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgM-NA0Rja4 I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too! 21:08, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

There's a whole page about this. Main Page Glitches Gfdgsgxgzgdrc 21:21, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

[edit] Why does the website still have the Halloween theme?

Halloween ended 18 days ago, and so did October in general, so why does the website still have the Hallow's Eve theme? --Cy4nIsN0tB1u3 04:33, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

Because we're still waiting for the annual Fan Costumes toon to close out the season, even if we have to wait days after Thanksgiving. Also, because the sysops in charge of changing the wiki settings are busy people with lives and tend to wait a while to get around to it. -- 68.37.43.131 23:56, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

[edit] New Fan Stumes’!

The 2023 Fan Stumes has been released! And not only that, but my costume from last year is the very first Strong Bad costume! That counts as a fun fact, right? We should probably note that like how we note when a wikian sent a email. I wanna be the TMBGLOVER too! 17:12, 22 November 2023 (UTC)

[edit] Permafrosted logo?

The Decemberween themed logo is still up, but December ended 11 days ago. The weirdest part in my opinion is that there's no d'ween themed colors despide icicles and Homestar's hat. Is there something we're waiting for, like a new not-Decemberween toon? Yours truly, The guy who confused Dobbs for Daubs. — 206.110.189.60 (Talk | contribs) 11 January 2024 16:34 (UTC) (left unsigned)

I'm not an admin, but I'm assuming the style is simply for the winter season. Even though the Christmas lights have been taken down, it's still a chilly and snowy time of year for at least another month and a half. (P.S. Even if you don't have an account, please sign your posts with four tildes: ~~~~) -- Bleu Ninja 17:34, 11 January 2024 (UTC)

[edit] Load times and potential solutions

The wiki's been crawling along like something funny that crawls along for about a year now. This hasn't been much more than a minor inconvenience on my end, but it comes up pretty frequently on the Homestar subreddit, with a concerning number saying they haven't been able to access it at all. downforeveryoneorjustme.com consistently insists that the system is down. I don't know what the hosting situation is like, nor am I anything close to an expert on such things, so unfortunately I can't diagnose the issue... But, after extensive investigation, I'm ready to release my findings.

  • Talk:Main Page#Still Slow — A few months ago, Stux proposed a solution involving MediaWiki's job queue. Seems like something worth looking into.
  • Host a Website with High Availability — The wiki's web host Linode features a guide on how to host a website with high availability. I can understand at most seven words of this, and I'm not sure how well it applies to wikis, but it might be helpful to someone. (They also have guides for enabling HTTPS, which improves security... Maybe performance too, but I've heard mixed things about that.)
  • Special:Version — The wiki is currently powered by MediaWiki 1.15, which released in 2011. Later versions have added collapsible elements, citation features, slideshow galleries, an optional visual editor interface, the ability to rename categories, and most relevant to this particular discussion, improved performance. The current stable release is 1.41.
  • HRWiki:Donations — I just discovered that the wiki moved servers in 2011 to cut back on expenses, which apparently resulted in slower load times (at least initially, while settings were still being optimized). According to Special:Ledger, there haven't been any donations since then (additionally, it still lists FellowSites hosting dues instead of the new host). I've seen multiple people offering to donate if they could, so if the more recent slowness is once again a financial issue, it might help to get the donation links working again.
  • Special:ListUsers&group=developer — I have no way of knowing how actively people have been working on maintaining backend stuff, but I can see that of the six developers, only It's dot com and Tom have been editing consistently since 2016. I realize I'm asking quite a lot of two people at most, and I really don't want to be too demanding... so I can't help but wonder if my suggestions might seem more reasonable if there were more people responsible for backend maintenance. I'm not qualified for that sort of thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were active users with MediaWiki and/or web development experience. As much as I want this wiki to be accessible to more people, I really don't want anyone losing sleep over it.

Anyway, sorry I can't offer more help than this, but I hope someone finds this stuff useful (and that I didn't get anything terribly wrong)! Gfdgsgxgzgdrc 01:06, 11 April 2024 (UTC)

Out of curiosity, I decided to use Special:Statistics and the WayBack Machine to calculate roughly how many people have been affected by the slow load times. After comparing the last seven months (from around the start of the slowdowns to now) to the seven months prior, I found that the average number of edits per day has decreased from 22 to 14, and the average number of active users has dropped from 27 to 17. That's a 37% decrease in both areas, leading me to believe they are linked by a common cause...
Unfortunately I couldn't figure out if that percentage corresponded to anything specific, like "37% of people use this certain type of Internet connection"... That information would tell me which people are having problems accessing the wiki, and from there I might be able to research a potential solution, assuming any of that works the way I think it does. Maybe I'll do an off-site poll somewhere, but I'd need to know what information would be most pertinent to ask... Would that be helpful at all? Gfdgsgxgzgdrc 05:18, 18 April 2024 (UTC)
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