Talk:Main Page/Archive 3

Archive of Talk:Main_Page (3 - 2008)

Main page protection and design
Hullo there! I'm Kirkburn, a Wikia Gaming Helper, and I've just reduced the protection of the Main Page to registered users only.

Wikia's protection policy advises that pages only be protected if they are the target of vandalism - otherwise full protection can cause more damage through neglect than vandalism would have otherwise done. For example, since it was protected the page has been barely updated. I note that you have had problems a long while ago, but with registered user only protection, you should be able to prevent most problems. I hope this works out okay!

You may also be interested in stealing some code from the Wikia Starter wiki which is the current new wiki base design. It makes content a bit easier to add and is easily expanded. Keep up the great work! Kirkburn (talk) 16:52, 5 February 2008 (UTC)


 * We haven't seen many problems with spammers and vandals since moving to Wikia. I'm just going to unlock the front page. If any problems occur, we can readdress it. -- Alec Usticke 17:20, 14 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Cool, thanks :) Kirkburn (talk) 07:35, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

I just added the Wikia Gaming footer to your Main Page. We are adding these to encourage cross linking and a better sense of community between wikis. Feel free to mess around with the links and tweak the design to better fit your wiki (unless you make it pink with polka dots, in which case I reserve the right to cry). Thanks! Kirkburn (talk) 08:09, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Opening up some links to showcase some of the content on NWN2Wiki
I'd like to get a link to the PW_Admin_Roundtable_Library which is for the developers of Persistent world's. This is entirely in my self interest though. However i also can only find character builds via google searches, or by finding their category page. This is a highlight of the this wiki in that these are a much better spot than in the epic builders forum. Then i also don't see a good link for troubleshooting either, or for things that are of interest to the players who don't really know where to look. I'd like for the community to unite all the information in the wiki here.

So to get into some nitty gritty. For the Builder Section
 * Persistent Worlds

For the player section, or perhaps a new how to get started section, putting the info from the "self tech support" threads would help here as well. These are not that important, but need to be very easy to find for new players. Basically any player tutorial or troubleshooting tips should be together in an easy to find spot. The game has gotten quite bug free, but there are still lots of issues for the multiplayer folks.
 * Troubleshooting
 * Finding and Joining a Persistent_World
 * Persistent World Guidelines

For the player section
 * Builds

I'm sure there are more, but these are things i use the wiki to look up, and i really have to rely my own bookmarks to really navigate.
 * I added the Persistent Worlds link to the builder section. Sorry for being slow. Your other suggestions are also good ones. -- Alec Usticke 18:52, 13 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Please see http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page/Test_layout for a prototype of this and more, fuller discussion is at http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=622080&forum=109 Pain 17:16, 17 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm liking the look of it and it seems a more user friendly menu set-up, I say we use it. DM Yarrow 11:23, 18 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Main page updated. DM Yarrow 18:27, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Wiki skin
Heya, I just set your wiki's skin to Monaco slate, using MediaWiki:AdminSkin - Monaco is Wikia's new skin, and you can find out how to customize it on w:c:inside:Monaco Skin Customization. Btw, I love the main page that pain has been working on :) Kirkburn (talk) 08:47, 19 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I Wondered what happened, you made me think i broke something, i'll have to take a look at customizing the stylesheets for this quite a bit, seems very un-D&D like, but it looks like i should be able to make it look right given time. Pain 09:01, 19 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Feel free to change the default colour scheme - I just chose slate because it's what I normally see. "Brick" may make more sense perhaps? Kirkburn (talk) 16:21, 19 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Changed the skin to quartz smoke, seems a lot closer in-style with the main page than Slate was, but of course there's always room for improvement :) DM Yarrow 18:26, 19 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I would seriously recommend changing to Monaco Smoke. Monaco is the new Wikia default skin, and is now the main actively developed Wikia platform. As a sucessor to Quartz, it comes with even more customizability (info linked above).
 * An admin can set the default site skin via the skin section on Special:Preferences, or by editing MediaWiki:AdminSkin. If users wish to see another skin than the default, they can untick "See custom wiki skins (recommended)" on the same page. Kirkburn (talk) 11:21, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
 * PS. D'oh at me typing 'NVN' as the pagetitle, I blame needing a new monitor ;) Kirkburn (talk) 11:23, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
 * PPS. Love the now-implemented new Main Page. Nice work indeed! Kirkburn (talk) 11:25, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
 * @ Kirkburn, I liked the features of the new skin, but some users noted they could not find links they were used to. Any changes here should be done only with community consensus and not by the wikia staff. We have a large community that uses this resource. I believe the only way we will move to this new skin, is if i implement a custom skin based on monaco, which hopefully allows me to control the layout, what is where and the like to a large degree. I've been researching this and i find this is unclear, and would appreciate a step by step, or a page that describes the process. I am a skilled designer and php programmer ( i did www.printbusinesscards.com for an example of my work ) but am very new to the wikia, most of what i've done so far is via trial and error. Pain 19:25, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
 * In addition to the reply on my central Wikia talk page, note that previously AdminSkin was not set to anything, so you could not really guarantee what a user was seeing. Kirkburn (talk) 23:30, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

An update
Heya, just thought I'd pop over and post the below to give you more info about Monaco:

We are switching over all the default skins (for anon users) to our new skin "Monaco" this week. Most of the big wikis have already switched (i.e WoWWiki, Wookieepedia Dofus and FFXIclopedia.

It is now the main actively developed Wikia platform. As a successor to Quartz, it comes with even more customizability - you can find out more on w:c:inside:Monaco Skin Customization, where you can also find out info about the new features and widgets available. The team has taken the liberty of already creating your MediaWiki:Monaco-sidebar, but you can customize it much further with more links.

An admin can set the default site skin via the skin section on Special:Preferences, or by editing MediaWiki:AdminSkin. If users wish to see another skin than the default, they can untick "See custom wiki skins (recommended)" on the same page.

We really want wikis to move on to Monaco partly because it's more awesome than Quartz and Monobook and partly as it is where the bulk of our resources are currently aimed :) Please report any problems or questions with Monaco here.

I do think a lot of your (pretty cool) quartz theme could be ported to monaco, keeping much of the aesthetics.

Anyway, thanks for listening! Kirkburn (talk) 18:02, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Further Links changes
Persistent Worlds is under "Playing" and "Building", but leads to two different places. The name in the "Building" section should be changed to "Running Persistent Worlds", which is for admins, while the other is for players.

Also with the new organization the "Help" in the top right box should be moved to the bottom left "Help" box. I'm thinking some of the Wiki type links can be put in here, depending on which ones are most used so the box can stay full. Pain 19:25, 25 March 2008 (UTC)


 * [Useful links] is in the help topic, this is a very important resource, it could use some more information, but the NWN2 community is so diverse it is hard to really know all the sites involved with it.

New Style Sheet Testing
http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Homepagewithstylesheet.jpg

Tell me what you think of this look, style sheet is here http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/User:Pain/quartz.css and i'll have to do some things i think to make it go into effect. -- Pain 08:07, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * That looks pretty cool! -- Alec Usticke 15:33, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Implemented change, if any issues let me know. I can revert back if there are some unforseen issues. Still am looking at other options, such as monaco if i can do it in a way that keeps it more like the current stylesheet. -- Pain 01:06, 30 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Very cool. Thanks for all your work! -- Alec Usticke 17:44, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Further category changes
The following don't really fit into game info and rules. I am rearranging things
 * Glossary
 * Neverwinter Nights 2
 * Screenshots

Per a users request i am adding creatures to the main page ( person wanted monsters, but this works since it's already in the wiki) Need to put in a redirect to creatures from monsters as well.

I'll be implementing the CSS and new versions of the Wikia logo, NWN2Wiki Logo this weekend unless i get an objection to it. ( Not sure how much input is needed before i start changing everything lol )

To see what i am thinking, please look at... ( CSS and logo example is on the bottom ) http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page/Test_layout

Pain 21:41, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikia Gaming IRC channel
Hullo! I am Kirkburn, your friendly local Wikia Gaming Helper!

You may be interested to know there is a Wikia gaming IRC channel, #wikia-gaming on chat.freenode.net, where you can hop on, ask for help from users of other gaming wikis, or offer your own experiences. If you are not familiar with IRC clients, you can access it from http://irc.wikia.com/gaming.

Different people may be on sporadically, but we organize weekly chats at a fixed time so we can get the most number of people online at the same time to ask and answer questions, or just to hang out. The admins of some of Wikia's biggest gaming wikis (e.g. WoW, Halo) often attend them. You can find the time for the next chat by following this link.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me! Kirkburn (talk) 10:53, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

More on Monaco
Hi, discussion on changing to Monoco seems to have stalled here, so I've made a mock-up of what it might look like. It's heavily based on Pain's Quartz skin, and uses the banner currently on the main page as the header. Of course, Pain and others will be able to tweak the skin just as he has done with Quartz, but I think the effect is really good! The Quartz version would still be available as a personal choice for those who prefer it, but I've found this return to a more "monobook" like layout has been very easy to change to and is much more comfortable to use. I've love to get at least a first version of this live as the site default soon, then it's easier for everyone to try it and make tweaks to get it just right. Please let me know what you think. -- sannse (talk) 11:16, 16 May 2008 (UTC)



I like the new layout -- especially that it gets rid of the stuff along the right hand side of the page. -- Alec Usticke 16:35, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

What I do not like about Monoco is that Related Changes button is missing. It's really difficult to track changes to specific sections without that. -- P22 07:42, 26 July 2008 (UTC)