User talk:Vhaeos

From Oblivion Mod Wiki

[edit] Hi Vhaeos

Sorry if this is wrong, been a while since i used a wiki. I am from the Guild website and we had a massive spam problem until recently. In fact heres some news about it so you can see how big the problem was.

http://www.theengineeringguild.co.uk/content.php?246-3000th-spammer-blocked

I had a whip around and donations allowed me to invest in Vbulletin which also has a wiki, its system supports plugins and I used the one that uses the Stop forum spam website to check incoming uses. So far its blocked 3000 spammers and only 1 got through. These days investing in software to stop them is pretty much vital. But the system I employ works and works automatically, those new ones that appear can be "deleted as spam" and that removes all their posts and reports them to the anti spam database at the same time so they cannot return.

If you can see my email, feel free to use it to talk to me if you wish. I'll check back here from time to time to see if theres anything to add.

All the best. -Giskard

Congrats on getting all of your spam issues solved. Luckily for us FancyCaptcha solved our spam problem but if it hadn't I probably would have had to invest in something semi-pricey/hire an 'expert' to help us out. Our primary problem was that ReCaptcha was compromised. It was stopping absolutely nothing. Now that we've dropped ReCaptcha it would seem that the spam has stopped. As for vBulletin I had no idea it came with wiki software. I'll have to look into that. -Vhaeos 17:54, 6 April 2011 (EDT)

Vhaeos

Glad your sorted, according to my logs my software is dealing with 1000 spammers a week now, so far 1 has gotten through. It has become a serious issue online for websites as you know. I doubt websites will continue to function as they have done for decades for much longer given the amount of spam hitting them.

[edit] Reverting pages, an easier way?

Just curious if there is a button I am missing to revert a page to a prior version, your revert text seems automatically generated while I have to do mine the old fashioned way. --The Listener 11:42, 26 May 2006 (CDT)

Whenever I rollback a page, there's just a "rollback" button when I click "diff" in "recent changes." I'm not sure if it's something only admins can do or not. But, either way, thanks for rolling back that spam. I'll add it to the block list.

I don't think I have any rollback button, so I assume that's only for the admins. When you rollback a page, does it store that in the history? If not (if it really rolls back so that there is no return), then it seems logical that only the admins are allowed to do it. --MiSP 10:48, 22 January 2007 (CST)

[edit] So what's going on with this site?

So what's going on with this site?

I added my MOD a couple of weeks ago and it does not appear anywhere in the any of the catagories. In fact nothing seems to have changed for a long time - all the mods catagorized are the early, small buggy ones.

I would like to see my Codex MOD at least appear in the spells section with links for and all other spells listed for other MODs.

If I ahve to do this or there is some procedure for quality control - which was obviously not in effect early on - then please let me know.

Codex = Lost Telvanni Codex? If so, then you would need to put [[Category:Spells]] at the bottom of the page. I've done that for you now. As for activity, it has dropped off a little recently. Vhaeos told me he's been busy lately, and everyone else has their own schedules. I definitely disagree that "all the mods categorized are the early, small buggy ones." But anyway, it's good that you're actually updating your own mod page here. It would be nice if more modders did that. ~Galahaut

Well, I attempted to move this to the talk page, but, it didn't seem to want to work, so, I just restored this. I'll likely be moving it to the dicussion page later. As Galahaut said, activity has dropped off as of late. I have no idea if it'll really ever pick up again like it was at the start, but, hopefully it will. As for your problem with your mod not showing up in the category, I'm assuming Galahaut has fixed it. If you want to find out a little bit more about layout, and tags, you can try reading a bit out of the Tutorials section we've got up. Also, thanks for updating the information about your own mod, as Galahaut said, if more authors would do that, it'd make everything much easier. -Vhaeos

[edit] No uploads?

Uploading doesn't work. Is this deliberate? Garrett 20:07, 27 March 2006 (EST)

Nope, it was an accident, forgot to chmod it. It's fixed now though. Vhaeos

Umm, okay. I'm confused as to what's going on. It would seem something got broken in the move, and we can't upload files. I've tried chmodding it, but, it still get's an error. I'll look into it tommorow. Vhaeos

Okay, I think it's something with our host. Hopefully it'll be resolved in the move. Vhaeos

I still can't upload an image. What's up? cajuncook 14:15, 15 April 2006

Yeah, I know. I asked my host, and I think that they're attempting to fix it. I'll bug them about it again on sunday/monday. I've got no idea what's wrong with it. Sorry Vhaeos

[edit] Requires field

Okay, one other thing. Make the |requires= field work. This is finally coming up with mods that mod other mods (DarNified BTMod), or should I just comment that into the page, since this was techincally designed for expansions?cajuncook

A comment would probably be best, for now. Thanks for adding stuff. Vhaeos

Okay, thanks man. You've done a great job here. :) cajuncook

It's easy to add it so that every mod shows that "Requires" line, but it would be nice to show it only for those mods that actually require something. TL

Yeah, I think Garret was trying to make it so that the requires feild only showed up when something was entered into it. I'm not sure if he found out how to do it though. I'm afraid it seems that he isn't coming around much anymore. Hopefully he'll notice this and tell us if it's possible or not. Vhaeos

I think we need MediaWiki 1.6, then we could use "if" structures like this. With 1.5 it looks like we have to just show "Requires" field for all mods. TL

Wow, neat. I hadn't realized 1.6 was out. I'll certainly look into upgrading. Thanks for telling me. Vhaeos

Just a small note - DarNified BTMod doesn't require BTMod. =) (Sorry, probably devastatingly late response, there's no date on the posts here.) --MiSP 10:53, 22 January 2007 (CST)

[edit] Authors as categories?

I'm wondering about turning author pages into categories. This means that all their mods would be automatically listed on their page upon addition to the database. The only real change is that the page title will of course have Category: in front of it, and that the arrangement of the entries is more limited.

If this is to be done, it should be done early--we've already got nearly 100 authors listed! So what do you think about this? Also, do you think it should be Category:Username or Category:Mods by Username? Garrett 23:51, 27 March 2006 (EST)

This sounds like a good idea to me, something to take some of the load off editors. (Even if it's just a little bit.) I would also think that Mods by username would be a bit better, since it'd be slightly more self-explanatory then just the username. What do you think about the naming though? Would it look weird in the catagory thing as "Mods by username"? Also, how would this work with multiple author mods? Vhaeos

Mods by will work fine; it will look just like this. As you can see the full page names are displayed, but they're sorted by the first letter of the specified part of the page name rather than all being under G. This is easy to do. Multi-author mods would still have to be listed manually as it's the only way to show who's working with who (without creating extra categories for each collaboration), but they would also appear in each author's individual category. Anyway, see what you think. Garrett 02:07, 28 March 2006 (EST)

Is there anyway we can fix this? Vhaeos

That is an unfortunate side-effect but easy to fix, all that's needed is a different template for partnerships that allows for two separate author entries. Visually nothing will change other than the dupe line vanishing. So other than that are you happy with this idea? Garrett 15:44, 28 March 2006 (EST)

Yep, once we get rid of that dupe line, I think it'll be good. Thanks. We just have to start updating the descriptions. :edit: Yeah, another question. We would replace the author profiles completely with the categories, right? This is kind of a nit-picky question, but, would it be possible to have just the name of the author also direct to the category? But, have the author entry above the mod entries? So it'll say like.. "Author Name" and then where the mods are "Mods by Author"? I mean like, in the author entires themselves. Sorry if that didn't make sense. :edit: Something like this. Vhaeos

No, that's not possible, the page name is fixed. However it is possible to make it look like this...

=Category:Mods by Aridale= =Aridale= '''Official Forum Profile:''' [http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showuser=5562 Here.] ==Articles in category "Mods by Aridale"==

...the other option is including the author's name in some fancy template layout. Garrett 18:10, 28 March 2006 (EST)

Do you think that the way we're doing it now is too much of a hassle? Because, I'm kind of thinking that it may be better to just keep it the way we have it now. I don't know though, I'll have to think on it a bit.Vhaeos

Okay, yeah, I'm thinking the way that you suggested would be quite a good idea. Thanks again. Vhaeos

All right, it's final then. 150 broken links coming up! :) Garrett 19:34, 28 March 2006 (EST)

Hah, yeah. I wont be able to help patch them up tonight, but, tommorow I most certainly will. Vhaeos

Well, I've thought of a better way. I'm migrating everything to the categories but leaving the template untouched for now. That way things still work fine. Once all are done then it can be changed. Garrett 19:59, 28 March 2006 (EST)

[edit] Infobox extension

Check out metawikipedia:Help:Inputbox. This would be really useful for a user-friendly way to add pages. You can see what it would look like right here. However without the inputbox there's no way to define a page name on the fly. Garrett 05:29, 28 March 2006 (EST)

This also seems like it'd be extremely useful. How would we implement it though? Vhaeos

See the installation section. This is all server-side stuff. Garrett 18:26, 28 March 2006 (EST)

Hah, sorry. Should've read through it more throughly before I asked a question. Seems pretty easy to install. Thanks. Vhaeos

[edit] Xbox 360?

Hi Vhaeos.

Are these mods available for the 360 or is it all just for the PC?

Thanks.

Mods are PC only, except the official ones. --MiSP 11:02, 22 January 2007 (CST)

[edit] Administrator User:Partaner Time

Hy Vhaeos! I am administrator from the FEMA-Wikipedia and there, I fight mainly against vandalism and SPAM. I would like to help you with the various tasks as administrator. In addition I cooperate on the German Wikipedia. In both Wiki´s, I have the same username Partaner Time :-) I would also like to become active as the second administrator here. Greeting --Partaner Time 07:18, 1 May 2006 (CDT)

Thanks for the offer, but, for now, I don't think I'm going to appoint any other admins. You're still more than welcome to help out around here. Thanks again. -Vhaeos

[edit] Editor - ing

I'd just like to formally ask you if I can Add new mods and such, as I did with the Specular Lighting Fix... Wake

Of course you can add mods, it's actually highly appreciated. If you need any help, you may find an anwser in the Tutoral section. If not, feel free to ask about it. Thanks. Vhaeos

[edit] Hosting

Hi. I noticed you were having problems moving the site to a new host. I'd like to help with that if I can. Would you be interested in free hosting for your wiki at Wikia? The only downside would be the ads that we use to cover the costs, but you'd have the benefits of technical and community staff to help you with any problems on the wiki, allowing you to focus on the content instead of worrying about MediaWiki upgrades. My contact details are at a.nge.la/contact. Let me know what you think. Angela 23:36, 13 October 2006 (CDT)

Wow, a month later I respond. Extremely sorry for that. Thank you for the offer, but, I'm afraid I'm going to have to reject. I'm going to be keeping the wiki on it's current hosting, instead of moving it. -Vhaeos 11:56, 14 November 2006 (CST)

[edit] Advertisements?

If you must go with ads, I recommend Project Wonderful. I don't know how many hits you get, but they're wonderful small inconspicuous-yet-interesting ads with a transparent pricing scheme.

Hm, that looks interesting. Hadn't ever heard of Project Wonderful before now. Currently I'm using Text-Ad-Links (Or Text-Link-Ads?), and am somewhat unwilling to give another auction based site a try. I think I'm going to switch over to a CPM banner type deal, one on a "network." We tried Interstatials, but, they weren't working correctly. Making the site do weird things, and showing more then they should. Hopefully one of these times everything will work out well. Thank you for the suggestion though, and sorry for the belated response. -Vhaeos 22:48, 19 January 2007 (CST)

[edit] Possible to change text color?

Is it possible to change the text color? I'm thinking of the Structurizing mod adding page, perhaps we could (in addition to strike out) change the color of dumped methods to, say, light gray. --MiSP 10:47, 22 January 2007 (CST)

That'd be a good idea. However, I'm entirely unsure if MediaWiki would support that. -Vhaeos 06:17, 24 January 2007 (CST)

[edit] When to Publicize?

Hey Vhaeos. Just wondering, is there anything specific we're waiting for before the Wiki is "opened" to the public again? Galahaut 19:20, 30 June 2007 (EDT)

My biggest problem right now is my host. There's a problem that only they can resolve, and they keep telling me they can, and then they keep not doing it. I've been bugging them every day/every other day for the past couple of weeks, and they still haven't done it. I'm about to email them again. Hopefully I wont have to threaten to move OMW. :\ -Vhaeos 22:51, 30 June 2007 (EDT)

Ah, okay. Galahaut 10:01, 1 July 2007 (EDT)

[edit] What's the actual purpose of this site?

I'm just wondering; what exactly are we trying to achieve with this site? Are we trying to list every tiny detail about mods (like can be seen on the Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul site, which is a total mess and IMHO should be redone from the ground up to be useful), or are we trying to make a place for centralized basic information on mods with links to download sites? With basic information, I'm not talking about installation procedures (that's what readmes are for) or highly detailed changelogs (again, readmes), but a little introduction/rundown, a quick list of main features, a few paragraphs describing more in detail what the mod actually does, perhaps some important compatibility info (like "conflicts with OOO", "requires Shivering Isles" and so forth), a screenshot gallery (not just links, but a screenshot gallery like in Mighty Umbra or Forestheart) and of course reviews. The pages of Mighty Umbra and Forestheart are incidentally good examples of what I generally mean. I think we should focus on that - everything a user needs to know when deciding whether or not to download and use the mod, and as little else as possible. (Again, look at the OOO page - you have to agree it's more useless than helpful, which is the exact opposite of what it should be.) Please share your thoughts. --MiSP 13:41, 1 July 2007 (EDT)

Yes, I'd have to generally agree. I've usually been trying to strip out stuff like installation information and other stuff related to "using the mod," instead of "what the mod does." I do think the changelog/version histories should still be displayed, though, except in cases where the list is massive (Unofficial Oblivion Patch, OOO/MMM/Fran's, etc.). If we're going for the whole "mod directory" service, I think it would be useful for mod users to see what has been changed from previous versions they may have seen or been using. On the topic of Mighty Umbra, I think I'll go clean that up a bit, since it actually has installation information. Maybe we should come up with a list of what information should and shouldn't be included on mod entries? Galahaut 16:37, 1 July 2007 (EDT)

Yes, I agree that knowing beforehand what we should and should not include would make all the work a lot more meaningful. Perhaps we should merge it into the Tutorial page to help new users. We should at least make a list somewhere that we could use as reference. --MiSP 07:48, 2 July 2007 (EDT)

Okay, I created a quick tutorial on the Tutorials page on designing a good entry. Feel free to add things to either list, of course. I also created a Rewrite template to be placed on pages like OOO that need to be rewritten. I think, later, I'll also create a mini-tutorial listing all the different mini-templates (note, warning, rewrite, etc.) we have, and how to use them. Galahaut 13:09, 2 July 2007 (EDT)

I used to be for adding the change logs/installation information simply because I figured the wiki should absorb all the information that it could about a mod. Including all of the 'useless' stuff. However after reading this I'm starting to wonder if you two may be right. OOO is a good example of why we shouldn't absorb everything, however, I don't think there are many entries on here that're like that. I do like the changes that've been made to the tutorial section though. Although I think that the "extreme large/long" rules need to be explained a bit further. May write that in myself here in a bit. The mini-templates tutorial is also really smart. I don't even know all of those. It'd be quite useful to have them & their explanations in one spot. Oh, also, welcome back MiSP. -Vhaeos 17:22, 2 July 2007 (EDT)

Yeah, I wasn't really sure how to explain those. Basically, I don't think we need to get into the inner workings and details of a mod (see OOO, again). We don't need to know every single feature of the mod. We don't need to know every single equation, number, etc. It's hard to make it any more specific, though, since it really varies from mod to mod. Galahaut 17:49, 2 July 2007 (EDT)

With that somewhat settled, I suspect most things should be clear for mod-adding. Good work you've done on the tutorial, however I'd like to see a small encouraging note saying that even just a stripped basic page giving a minimum of information and links is way better than nothing, seeing that this is very helpful for anyone that may elaborate on and polish it later on. --MiSP 14:00, 7 July 2007 (EDT)

I somewhat disagree with what appears to be the consensus up to now in this discussion of what type of content should go on mod pages, such as complete version history or installation instructions. One thing I never saw mentioned is that you don't have access to the README until you download the mod and unzip it! That's the whole point of wanting to know what has been changed since the revision you currently have to see if you want to download the current version. This is particularly true for any large downloads (>10MB). As for installation instructions, that is dependent on how complex the mod is. README's are typically TXT files without formatting options like the Wiki offers. An extreme case is Fran's. Using a plain text README to configure the various options is cumbersome at best. Organizing with nested headers that are hyperlinked is very helpful. ArmoryLab is an intermediate case, where it is still very useful to breakdown the various optional plugins, what each offers, and in what load order they should be in. Sure, all that is in the README, but it's so much easier to clarify things using formatting and having a linked TOC. I tried to see what I could prune from the revision history, but it all still applies and is useful. Just today I received a question regarding what has changed from their version of a year ago to the current version. I don't list that information on TESS because Dark0ne keeps changing the format of the download pages to make navigation easier and to fit more ads on the page. Soon as I get all the blank space out of my page, the format changes and half the page is blank space again. The Wiki solves all these problems for me, as long as I can include 'everything' about the mod I think a user may need. That way, the Wiki becomes the standard place to find anything you need to know about a mod. Having some content on the d/l page, some info on the discussion thread, then a little more on the Wiki, just makes it worse for the user and the Wiki loses value because it's just yet another place to search to try to find something out. My opinion is that everything about a mod be on the mod's page, or the Wiki just becomes another burdensome place to check and hope the info is there. If users don't want all that verbosity, they can stick to the Category:Mods page and find what they're looking for.

Now, if this discussion was limited to mass adding of mods from TESS, then I would agree that just a short description would suffice and that's all that's needed to get the page started so others can contribute later. --Tom Supergan 17:59, 19 July 2007 (EDT)

I do agree that a version history is important. I (sort of) agree with your reasoning about installation information and such, but honestly, in most cases, the installation information is not going to help someone determine if they want to download the mod. The rest of the information will, and then after they decide to download it, and finish downloading it, then they can read the installation instructions.

Perhaps we could reach some sort of middle ground, though. Maybe we could include installation information for mods that have multiple customization options like the overhauls, or ArmoryLab, as all the possible options will help people form an opinion of the mod and decide to download it (or not). I really don't think every mod needs an installation section that says nothing but "stick the files in your Oblivion/Data folder and enable the ESP," but I could see how instructions/details would be useful for those mods with complicated or customizable installations.

I'm still not really sure that adding everything about a mod will really work well, in all cases. Look at OOO, for example. Obviously, it has huge issues with organization and formatting, but even if those issues were fixed, the page would probably still be a mess. Anyway, I'm really not sure we need some set-in-stone standard for this. I'm definitely for the authors of the mods being able to do whatever they want (within reason) with their own mod pages here, so I think this discussion should really only apply to what we do while adding mods that aren't ours. -Galahaut 18:20, 19 July 2007 (EDT)

I say that we just give authors free reign to do what they want with their pages. It can't hurt us if an author wants to use the wiki as a kind of pseudo website to list whatever information they think is important. However, I think when it comes to the people that're just here adding mods to contribute to the wiki, I think it'd be best for them to follow the standard we have now. Just get the entry started, then hopefully the author, or anyone who really wants to go into it deeper can add information. But yeah, I pretty much echo Galahaut. We should make some sort of note about it in the tutorial though, about people being able to add more information if they want, we should just make it a point to tell them to keep it orgranized. I'm of course still open to suggestions. -Vhaeos 19:09, 20 July 2007 (EDT)

Maybe we could include installation information for mods that have multiple customization options" - why include installation information? I fully agree on describing the various options/plugin files, including (but not limited to) which can and can not be used together, but I can't see the need to tell the user that "this file goes here, and this other file goes there" - as mentioned, that's in most (of not all) cases not needed for the user to decide whether or not to download. Concerning the changelog - yes, I agree it's important, but it needs to be formatted properly. A good example of how I think it should be done, is Saddle Bags - the dates are given, the individual fixes is formatted as a list, and each update is a heading, making it applicable for TOC. For a good example of how to make it messy, see Cat's Eyes - neither list formatting nor headings. If it's formatted properly, I think that a changelog the size of UOP's wouldn't hurt, provided it's at the bottom of the page (perhaps over the reviews, though). Any thoughts about this? (By the way, it just occurred to me that Wiki stuff seriously needs integrated message boards.) --MiSP 11:21, 21 July 2007 (EDT)

Pretty much agree completely, there. -Galahaut 21:21, 21 July 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Ampersands breaking links.

Seems that ampersands are now breaking links. See this page for an example. Galahaut 20:54, 10 July 2007 (EDT)

Sorry for the late response. I saw this a while ago, but then totally forgot about it. Anyway, I'm not sure I see what you're saying, because all of the links seem fine for me at the time. If there's something I'm missing though, please tell me. -Vhaeos 16:39, 13 July 2007 (EDT)

The link above is supposed to go to "Acid's Bloody & Serious Eyes," but it gets cut off at the ampersand. If you click the link, you'll see the page title/heading just says "Acid's Bloody," and has no content (because it isn't the actual page), and it is impossible to access the actual page. Galahaut 19:13, 13 July 2007 (EDT)

When I click that link I'm taken to Acid's Bloody & Serious Eyes. Doesn't seem to be having a problem loading for me. Maybe try doing a full refresh? It may be lingering from when I changing things. -Vhaeos 19:26, 13 July 2007 (EDT)

You're actually getting the page with content? Galahaut 19:39, 13 July 2007 (EDT)

Yeah, here's the page I see. http://image.bayimg.com/pa/dl/fa/ab/n.jpg -Vhaeos 00:08, 15 July 2007 (EDT)

Weird. Oh well, as long as it is isolated to me, for now, it doesn't really matter. Galahaut 00:15, 15 July 2007 (EDT)

Worries me a bit, though. What browser are you using? -Vhaeos 17:33, 15 July 2007 (EDT)

Firefox 2.0.0.4 Galahaut 18:08, 15 July 2007 (EDT)

I'm curious, is this still happening to you, Galahaut? -Vhaeos

Yep. -Galahaut 21:15, 25 July 2007 (EDT)

Odd. I can access the page normally on my laptop with Firefox 2.0.0.5 (which is what my PC also has now). Oh well. -Galahaut 17:58, 29 July 2007 (EDT)

Well, atleast we know it isn't everyone on Firefox 2.0 that's effected. Which is certainly good. -Vhaeos 19:09, 29 July 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Help Link on All Pages

Can you add a link to the Help:Editing page in a box on the left of pages (where the navigation, search, and toolbox boxes are)? I always have a hard time finding those help pages when I need them, and we need to make them as accessible as possible for editors.--Tom Supergan

Nevermind, I think I just found the link at the bottom of the edit page. Never noticed it before, and I kept opening a new page looking for help so could never see it.--Tom Supergan 23:32, 19 July 2007 (EDT)

Sorry for the late response. I kept forgetting to respond/act. But yeah, the help page is on the edit page, but it should still be more visable. I'll look into a way to add it to the toolbox, so that it's always there. Thanks again for all of the suggestions. -Vhaeos 19:11, 20 July 2007 (EDT)

The "toolbox" seems to change options whenever different types of pages are entered. So it would be great if a "Editing Help" link would appear in that box whenever the user enters editing mode. And have it open a new window like the bottom of the page link does.--Tom Supergan 21:24, 20 July 2007 (EDT)

A permanent link to Tutorials in the toolbox would help. --Tom Supergan 10:20, 23 July 2007 (EDT)

While I'm on the topic of toolbox links, can the name "Permanent link" be changed to "Archived page" or something similar? I couldn't even find what that link is for on any of the Help pages on WikiMedia. But it's in the user's face all the time, so needs to be clearly defined what its function is. --Tom Supergan 14:24, 25 July 2007 (EDT)

Sorry it's taking so long. Still trying to figure out how to edit the toolbox. I'm pretty sure I'm getting it, though. I'd be happy to put a tutorials link on the toolbox. As for changing the name of Permanent Link, no idea how to do that. If I stumble over it though, I'll certainly think about changing it. -Vhaeos 20:35, 25 July 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Backups

How frequently is the site backed up? There has been extensive changes the past week that would be disasterous if lost. --Tom Supergan 10:10, 23 July 2007 (EDT)

Honestly, if my host isn't backing it up, then no one is. I'll contact my host and see if they've got any kind of automated backup system in place. Hopefully they do. Also, sorry for the late reply. -Vhaeos 20:30, 25 July 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Questions about Unique Landscapes

Just a few things I wondered about concerning the Unique Landscapes page, take a look here. --MiSP 08:54, 12 August 2007 (EDT)

[edit] Broken outdated template

It seems that the outdated template is broken, take a look here (I've noticed it a few other places too). --MiSP 08:54, 12 August 2007 (EDT)

That one just had a typo (oudated). If you find any others, just check for typos or broken formatting, etc. -Galahaut 11:56, 12 August 2007 (EDT)

[edit] List to work off

Concerning a list to work off, I've found that A's List of Recommended Mods does the job quite well. I've added most of the purple mods (Outstanding mods, simply must-haves), and I'm thinking of soon going on to the orange ones (Mods that are popular in the community). This way, the most popular mods will be added first. --MiSP 08:54, 12 August 2007 (EDT)

That's a good idea. I use that list a lot and agree those are some of the best mods to have. --Tom Supergan 18:49, 12 August 2007 (EDT)

[edit] 3 Authors?

Hope you're still checking this page. I was wondering how to setup 3 authors for a page. I tried | author3 = Waruddar, but it didn't show up. It's for the Keychain mod.

Unfortunately, the person who originally changed the mod template to display two authors is no longer around. I can't really follow the template coding he used to do so, so I'm not sure how to extend it for 3 authors. I'll try again tomorrow when I'm more awake. -Galahaut 01:07, 10 November 2007 (EST)

Thanks for taking a look. --Haama 18:43, 12 November 2007 (EST)

[edit] Recent vandalism

Hey Vhaeos, just wanted to let you know that I think there's been some vandalism in the past 2 days from Xbox3 and 69.7.39.101. I'm not talking about the usual ad/spam either. --Aileron 11:33, 5 March 2008 (EST)

Thanks for telling me. For now I haven't taken any action, but if they do it anymore both of them will get banned for a bit. -Vhaeos 21:02, 5 March 2008 (EST)

Just so you know, these jokers have created loads of accounts, abox, bbox, cbox, dbox, all the way through to mbox as far as i know. Volanaro

Aye, and Abox is definitely asking for a ban. Arilita 10:02, 17 March 2008 (EDT)

This idiot has already been blocked on UESP under several names. In fact we also had to implement temporary blocks on an IP range for a while (no account creation, block anonymous IPs only); temporary, though, because it is a school that includes at least one student who is a legitimate editor (Volanaro). If you'd like more details, feel free to get in touch with me -- I'd say through the email feature on the Oblivionmodwiki... except it's broken :| So my UESP talk page might be better. --Nephele 00:11, 19 March 2008 (EDT)

Haha, yeah. The email function is fixed now I think. As for this guy.. he's gone for now. Hopefully he doesn't come back again. If he does, hopefully I wont be so slow on the uptake and be here to help out. Sorry about that. -Vhaeos 23:24, 26 March 2008 (EDT)

do you want the times when he is likely to attack? Volanaro 06:31, 27 March 2008 (EDT)

An email sent to Vhaeos@gmail.com would be really useful. It's no guarantee, 'cause I could miss the email.. but it's better then leaving a message here in the discussion, as I much more likely to miss that - or at least not see it for a while. -Vhaeos 02:23, 28 March 2008 (EDT)

ok, there's a message with all the times on its way to you, i thought i hadnt got the message to enable the email feature but it turns out it was in my spam filter, sorted now though, Volanaro 06:28, 30 March 2008 (EDT)

[edit] WIP mods and mod ideas?

I know a while back you asked whether you could redirect mod ideas to UESP's page.... but since then there have been some discussions [1] [2] [3] leading me to wonder whether it would make more sense to do things the other way around. In other words, whether it would make more sense to move some of UESP's mod-specific pages over here.

Basically, there are a few pages like Major WIP Mods and Mod Ideas which really seem out of place on UESP. Most of our editing community has no involvement with those pages. We don't know how to maintain them or organize them because we don't use the articles ourselves. We can't judge what does or does not belong, what is or is not useful, because we're not the community for whom the articles are written. We've made several requests for feedback from the modding community, and haven't really gotten much response, leaving the impression that the modders aren't actively using the pages.

All in all, it seems like having the content on a site that is more actively used by modders would make it easier for the modding community to use the pages and maintain them in a way that is useful for modders. Furthermore, having these pages on Oblivionmodwiki would open up many opportunities for better integration with the mod information that is already here. At the simplest level, having links from the Major WIP Mods to the appropriate mod pages here on the wiki. At more advanced levels, there are possibilities like adding a "WIP" tag to any WIP mods, that makes those mods automatically appear in a WIP mods category.

Of course, your input and feedback would be invaluable. For example, to get some idea of what your thoughts are about the future direction of this site. Let me know what you think! :) --Nephele 00:41, 19 March 2008 (EDT)

First off I want to say sorry about not responding for such a long time. I didn't even realize that this was here until I moved the site. A WIP section could certainly work. I think it'd require a seperate template, as I wouldn't want WIP mods to be in the Mods section. I feel that'd diminish the usefulness of the mod listing a bit. But really having a separate template would make thing easier in the long run since we could create a WIP category. The problem that we'll have is getting users to add these WIP entries. We can hardly get people to add already released mods. Not that I blame anyone, it's pretty tedious adding mods. The mod ideas section I think should stay on your site. It seems like what is already up on UESP is working pretty well. Much better then our old ideas section ever did. -Vhaeos 23:09, 26 March 2008 (EDT)

[edit] RoBoT

I've created an account called "RoBoT" - the same one I use on UESP. Could you give that bot status then I can set it to work. All the tessource, tessource/cache and tesnexus links will use the new ID1 param so no worries on that score. I've just got one tweak to make on the PES links then it's ready to go. –Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 04:09, 27 March 2008 (EDT)

Sorry - should have mentioned it when I left the message on your page. Please check the bottom of the domain change discussion for my full response. Again - very sorry that you've wasted your time in that regard. Still would be very happy to have all of the instances of TESSource changed to TESNexus though. Just in case TESSource stops redirecting. I've also changed the bots usergroup. Thanks. -Vhaeos 05:33, 27 March 2008 (EDT)

Hi there. RoBoT has finished its edits. There are a few pages (and only a few) that have the old TES Source links but I can't do anything about them because trying to save the page triggers your spam filters. Map Markers and Horse Commands are two that trigger it. How long does your spam filter affect new users? I'll run it again after that. –Rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 11:52, 27 March 2008 (EDT)

The reason that it was getting an error on those pages was because they had the URL free.fr in them, which was one our blacklist. I've removed it from the blacklist, so it should be fine now. Thanks for changing that, saved us tons of work. -Vhaeos 00:53, 28 March 2008 (EDT)

[edit] Xbox

Any reason you haven't deleted the Xbox user account and blocked the IP? Xbox and the other *box accounts are just being used to vandalize pages, as I tried to mention to you in an email and Volanaro mentioned to you elsewhere. -Aileron 18:50, 31 March 2008 (EDT)

Just banned Xbox & Abox. Also, sorry about not responding to the email that you sent. I didn't even realize that I had received it until I searched my spam folder for Oblivion. (Guess Gmail can't be right about spam all the time.) -Vhaeos 23:25, 31 March 2008 (EDT)

No problem. I've been looking through the change logs. Wow there has been a lot of vandalism and a lot of reverts! I think "Yo mum", "Mbox", and "VOLANARO" with all caps, not "Volanaro", are also vandalism accounts used by the same person. There's also "Crusher007" which is either vandalism or a very confused Chinese person. BTW, I was also blocked from viewing oblivionmodwiki.com starting on March 11 for about a week or two. I was able to view the site from another location, so I assume I was blocked by IP. It's ok now. Any idea why that happened? -Aileron edited 16:32, 1 April 2008 (EDT)

Yo mum, MBox, and VOLANARO have been blocked. I haven't blocked Crusher007 yet, but if he comes back and starts causing problems again I'll block him. As for why you couldn't access the site after March 11.. I'm not entirely sure. But for about two weeks before we moved everyone was having problems. Me and Tom Supergan couldn't access the site at all, either. Luckily it was our host, so moving solved the problem. -Vhaeos 17:36, 1 April 2008 (EDT)

[edit] Sandbox

Hi Vaheos, Just a thought but maybe it woiuld be worth creating a Sandbox page here like the one at UESP? It would mean that editors who were test editing like this one would have a place to do so without disrupting the rest of the site. I know this site isnt as heavily as uesp but a sandbox may save a lot of hassle with new editors. --Volanaro 06:53, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

If anyone wants to setup a sandbox, that'd be great. But if we're waiting on me, I don't think it'll get done in a very timely manner. So.. if anyone wants to make it, please do. -Vhaeos 00:41, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

done its based mostly on the one at UESP and might still need a few tweaks but for now its good to go. --Volanaro 13:29, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for setting up the page. It looks good. -Vhaeos 00:49, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New Admin?

Hi Vhaeos, just a thought but given the recent increase in activity on the site, have you thought about appointing a new admin to help keep an eye on things when you and Galahaut aren't around? perhaps someone who has been with the site a long time and can answer general questions from other users? Just a thought and no I'm not suggesting it should be me (althought it would be nice;))--Volanaro 16:54, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Or at least a few more patrollers to monitor the most recent edits. --Volanaro 17:03, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Slight Flaw..

Hi again Vhaeos, just thuoght you should know ive come across a few flaw in the patroller user rights. Firstly, If I find a page that is protected so that it can only be edited by sysops, i can bypass this by simply unprotecting it, editing it then protectnig it again. Secondly, I can delete articles no problem but cannot restor them , this is again restricted to sysops only. Just tohught you should know. --Volanaro 15:43, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Also the page blocked users recieve when attempting to edit a page states that they can cnotact an admin to reslove this dispute, this is not possible since they are unable to edit any page (not even their own talk page as i previously thought) --Volanaro 16:12, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't think there's anything that can be done about the protection thing. Anyway, I think I trust you enough to have access to those pages. Actually, if you have use for it I can give you the power to edit protected pages. Sorry about the restore thing, I hadn't even thought about it. Edited your user rights so now you can pages. In regards to users not being able to edit pages.. you're talking about banned users, right? If that's the case then send me the page that they get directed to and I'll put something more relevant on there. (Like my email, or something.) -Vhaeos 22:41, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hi

Hi, Looking at the Main Page, this wiki seems a little old (the last news post is from March, a while ago). I was wondering if you needed any help with anything. EDIT: Forgot sig. theg721 was here! 18:32, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Wow, this reply is so late that it's practically useless. First off, sorry. As for things that need to be done.. it's always appreciated when someone ads mods. Thanks, and sorry for the late reply. -Vhaeos 01:33, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Need to change the title of a mod page

I recently added the mod [Permanent effect from quest items] to this site. I just checked up on that page again and noticed that I made a mistake which I can't fix.

If you decide to visit the TESNexus page for this mod, you will notice that the name of the mod there is Permanent effect from quest items fix, which is not the same as what is listed here. Please could you or one of the other administraters fix this problem. The current title doesn't explain the mod's job accurately. Thanks in advance. XJDHDR 13:59, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I've moved it for you. -Vhaeos 01:34, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I saw that. Thank you! XJDHDR 21:18, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Hey there, I didnt look at the stub and by the time i made Unique Landscape: Aldermis it was too late. Can you possibly change the page to Unique Land: Aldermis? It doesn't belong in Cryidill but it is it's own world that is linked much the same way as A Strange Door is with Shivering Isles. Felix 22:09, 22 June 2010 (UTC)

I think I did what you asked. Moved the page. If I missed something feel free to leave another message. -Vhaeos

[edit] Skin

The user CSS functionality, which I was going to use to test changes, doesn't seem to be enabled (else it simply isn't working). When it is enabled, one can change the skin's CSS by adding our own CCS code to the page User:<username>/monobook.css. But this page isn't even being loaded by the browser, let alone its content.

Just to be sure, can you please double check the line added to the LocalSettings.php file? If it is correct, then please add the first (Js) line below. In the end, both should appear just as shown below (the Js line is for JavaScript and I think it shouldn't be necessary, but let's try that):

$wgAllowUserJs  = true;
$wgAllowUserCss  = true;

Hamilton Abreu 22:43, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

The following hack should work. In the main.css file for the monobook skin, at /skins/monobook/main.css change the height of column-one and the top of column-two, so that they read:

#column-one {
	height: 1100px;
	}

#column-two {
        top: 38px;
}

Please remember to remove the lines added to LocalSettings.php. Hamilton Abreu 15:57, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Captcha

Hi Vhaeos, I know it's not usually good etiquette to ask for extra rights in such a blatant way, but please could you put me in some group that lets me skip the captcha? It's very annoying when I'm cleaning stuff up! Thanks. rpeh •T•C•E• 06:47, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Hey, left a message in your discussion page in regards to this question. If you need anything else don't hesitate to ask. (Oh, and sorry it took so long. :\) -Vhaeos 02:29, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] New Extension

I'm not sure if you're interested, but the Title Blacklist extension might be worth installing. One thing is that it lets you block certain accounts from being created, and that would help with the accounts ending in 6 digits that have been plaguing this site and others (including UESP before they got blocked). It's not critical, but if you get a chance it would be good. rpeh •T•C•E• 04:05, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

I've responded in your profile. -Vhaeos 02:30, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Spam attack

Hiya,

Since the current spam outbreak shows no sign of slowing, I've taken the slightly harsh step of adding the words "jobs", "dating" and "chat" to the title blacklist. That should slow things down a bit. I doubt it'll affect too many mods, but as a precaution I added a note to the permission error message that somebody should contact an admin if they need a page creating that contains one of those words. If it causes a problem, just delete whatever line is causing it from that first page. rpeh •T•C•E• 09:39, 27 January 2011 (EST)

Alright. That seems totally reasonable and is definitely helping. I'm going to start adding all of the links inside of the spam pages to the SpamBlacklist. Probably wont help much since they're probably using parasite hosting or something to cover up the domains. Not seeing tons of duplicates. I've only went through like 4 pages though. I think we should leave these blacklisted for a week or so. Maybe it'll die down if they find out that our site is offering zero backlinks. -Vhaeos 00:00, 28 January 2011 (EST)

[edit] Another extension

As an afterthought, it might be worth installing CheckUser in case all this spam is coming from one place. I don't really like that extension, but sometimes it's necessary. rpeh •T•C•E• 09:42, 27 January 2011 (EST)

Yeah I can see why you'd not like that extension. I've installed it, though. As you said I can see it'd be necessary. So long as we use it very conservatively I don't see it as being especially terrible. The only time I'm going to use it is if we're getting super bad spam, or a really really obnoxious vandal creating multiple accounts. I expect the same from you. Also I'm sure this goes without saying.. but please go easy on IP range blocks. It's fine if it's needed, I just don't want to punish anyone unduly. I've added you to the Check User group, and myself. We're the only admins currently even active so I guess that goes without saying. Thanks again for another suggestion. I really should know about these extensions, haha. -Vhaeos 00:25, 28 January 2011 (EST)

[edit] Revoked admin status/Future of the site?

At the end of the day, this is your site so whatever you say here is fine by me. I may be able to chip in occsionally (seeing as i do still have a reasonable level of interest in TES) but nothing major for now.

Also, with skyrim slowly rumbling its way onto the horizon, i was wondering what the future will hold for this site as the gaming communitys attention may start to shift away from oblivion. Perhaps some sort of expansion into a fully fledged TES mod site would be in order, covering skyrim and morrowing etc. as well? Just something to think about perhaps. --Volanaro^Talk 08:31, 27 March 2011 (EDT)

Yeah I've been thinking about Skyrim also. If I ever setup something for Skyrim it'd be separate from this site. We're already called the OblivionModWiki and to go away from Oblivion only would mean we should probably get a new domain. If we're gonna get a new domain we may as well have another site. As for your admin status if you decide to come back and get fairly active here I don't have any qualms about giving you your privileges back. -Vhaeos 20:09, 31 March 2011 (EDT)

[edit] New Captcha

Looks like this one might be a bit better. What's the new system called? I can't see anything other than ConfirmEdit on the Special:Version page. rpeh •T•C•E• 05:13, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

Yeah our new captcha seems to have finally done the trick. ConfirmEdit has a few different skews you can choose from. Currently we're using FancyCaptcha. -Vhaeos 16:56, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

Looks like this is no longer working... Another wiki I edit has started using MathCaptcha, which seems to work... time for another change? rpeh •T•C•E• 03:58, 20 May 2011 (EDT)

I'm not sure they're actually bypassing the captcha. Looking over some of the edits they made it appears they aren't actually posting links. The captcha triggers on URLs. I've made it so that any edit triggers the captcha regardless of if there is a link in the post or not. Hopefully that'll fix the problem. If this doesn't fix it I'll turn off editing to public users until I can find a fix. (Since none of the vandalism is coming from Reg'd accounts.) Thanks for letting me know. -Vhaeos 14:53, 20 May 2011 (EDT)

Ah yes - of course. I should have spotted they weren't using external links. It looks like there hasn't been anything new since your update, so hopefully this has done the trick. Thanks! rpeh •T•C•E• 22:21, 20 May 2011 (EDT)

[edit] New Users

Hi Vhaeos,

I dunno if you're still interested in keeping this site going or not. If you are, you should know I've basically turned new user creation off. This line in the title blacklist doesn't just stop people creating new pages in User space, it stops them creating accounts at all. That wasn't what I intended but given that (almost) the only edits we get here these days are spam it doesn't seem to matter.

I've been turning this on and off for a couple of weeks and every time I re-allow account creation we get more spambots. At this point, account creation is turned off and I don't intend to turn it back on again.

This is your site, so if this isn't what you want then please undo my edit to MediaWiki:Titleblacklist. If you do that, however, please can you put a better anti-spam mechanism into place?

Cheers,

Rob. rpeh •T•C•E• 18:30, 31 March 2013 (EDT)

Yeah that's totally fine. As you said we hardly ever get anyone actually adding a mod/editing a page. Until I can mostly alleviate the spam problem the wiki should probably just be an archive. Thanks for everything you've done, Rob. If I can find some new ways of blocking spam accounts I'll drop you a message on your page & let you know that things have changed.

Thanks again,

-Vhaeos 21:50, 31 March 2013 (EDT)