UESPWiki:Administrator Noticeboard/Archive 32

This is an archive of past UESPWiki:Administrator Noticeboard discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page, except for maintenance such as updating links.

Archive Protection

I just archived six talk pages which will need protection: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I may do two more within the day, but notifying about these for now. — ABCface^◥ 17:13, 29 June 2013 (GMT)

All done. --Krusty (talk) 17:21, 29 June 2013 (GMT)

Two more. — ABCface^◥ 17:23, 29 June 2013 (GMT)

And done. :) --Krusty (talk) 17:27, 29 June 2013 (GMT)

(←) I just archived this, so if someone could please protect it? Thanks. -helenaanne ^{talk ♥} 23:10, 10 July 2013 (GMT)

Done! --Krusty (talk) 23:16, 10 July 2013 (GMT)

Unable to set my Email

In the interest of becoming a mentor, I was going to set up my email page in preferences. However, I am given the "the password is invalid" warning. This is impossible, as I copy/pasted the password into my actual email and it worked fine. All the information is correct. Is this a common error? The password for this site and my email are the same. — Unsigned comment by Grim765 (talk • contribs) at 23:17 on 10 July 2013

What do you mean by "copy/pasted the password into my actual email"? Wiki asks you for your wiki password, no third-party should ever ask your your email password :) ~HellRider ツ^talk ✉^mail 22:22, 10 July 2013 (GMT)

Do'h I just re-read your message, well there is a chance they are not the same, also check for leading/trailing white characters when copying the password. If you're unsure of what your UESPwiki password it, use the password recovery feature, then change your email address on UESPwiki :) ~HellRider ツ^talk ✉^mail 22:29, 10 July 2013 (GMT)

Thanks. I got it to work. Grim765^{The Reaper} 04:07, 11 July 2013 (GMT)

Upgrades for Cheydinhal

it wont let me purchase upgrades for my home on cheydinhal. do u think you could help me? — Unsigned comment by 204.174.31.164 (talk) at 04:12 on 29 July 2013

The wiki isn't generally for questions and answers. Feel free to ask on our forums where, hopefully, someone will be able to help you. – Robin Hood ^(talk) 04:20, 29 July 2013 (GMT)

Protection of Oblivion:Weapons and Skyrim:Weapons

I just noticed that Skyrim:Weapons has been protected since 2011, and Oblivion:Weapons has been since 2008. Seems like an awful long time to leave these protected. I understand the rationale for protecting them for a time, but is this sort of indefinite protection in keeping with the spirit of a wiki? --Xyzzy ^Talk 03:03, 30 July 2013 (GMT)

These pages have been frequently vandalized, or inserted with false information from users mistaking the number they get for stats in-game as the correct value. For those reasons alone, I don't see much reason for lifting the protection. However, they are also pretty content complete. Basically, all we'd be doing by removing their protection is creating a case where those pages may take a turn for the worse. While indefinite protections for content pages can be a bit controversial, I would be more willing to respond to it if removing the protection was somehow beneficial. Also note that Oblivion:Weapons was protected multiple times before permanently being protected, normal procedure for permanently protecting pages. Nephele logically assumed that Skyrim:Weapons would suffer the same fate that the Oblivion version did, so she skipped the temporary stints. I think both of these page protections are logically sound, and don't need to be revisited. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 17:15, 30 July 2013 (GMT)

Usurpation request for the account "Damon"

Damon (talk⁺ • contribs • edit count • logs • email)

As of late, I've grown sick of using pseudonyms, and I am using my given name more and more. To sum up my proposal, since I am rushed at the time, though I'll provide a compelling argument in a bit on request if need be, I want to replace the name "Eric Snowmane" with my given name "Damon", which as shown on the logs, was created on Sept. 1 2006, and has zero contributions, no userpage, no talk page, and no trace of existence on the wiki, save for showing up as a user created on this date. As I discussed in IRC with Velyanthe and AKB, it's a rather controversial move, especially if it were to be a relatively recent account that made the name, but for all intents and purposes, we can consider this account dead. If a consensus will permit me to have what is probably UESP's first USURPATION of an account.

On the above linked page, it says "In order to ensure that usurped usernames be put to good use, we prefer only to grant requests from reasonably well-established users." While I have a connection issue that gives me long stretches of time where I am not here, I would like to imagine a nearly two year old veteran and patroller/blocker is someone who would actually use the account.

Any questions/issues to address? ES^{(talk•email)} 01:40, 31 July 2013 (GMT)

Addendum: Following WP's guideline, I've left a notice, which is basically WP's, stating that I intend to adopt the name, and that the owner of the account can contest the usurpation, assuming he's using the account, or will receive an email that his talk page was modified. ES^{(talk•email)} 02:50, 31 July 2013 (GMT)

I don't know if we are voting on this or discussing it, but I would support this. The account in question has been in existence since 2006 with absolutely no edits. I doubt it has even been logged in once (I wish we could check that) after creation. I see no reason why Snowmane should not be able to use this name. --Nocte|Chat|Look 01:49, 31 July 2013 (GMT)

We do have a limited ability to check when a user logged in. The database has a "touched" flag, which basically tracks the last time anything important happened to a user, including logins, permissions changes, renames, and I think e-mailing. Unfortunately, it also gets updated when the user's talk page is updated, and there's no history on the "touched" column, so now that ES has left him a talk page message, I have no way to see when he was "touched" before that. But back to the e-mailing, the user in question does have e-mail enabled, so perhaps the simplest thing to do is to e-mail him and see if he has any concern about his account being usurped. – Robin Hood ^(talk) 03:13, 31 July 2013 (GMT)

Sounds reasonable to me. My only concern is that it might get confusing down the line, since I know you as Eric Snowmane (or ES). I might just keep calling you Eric anyway :-) ThuumofReason (talk) 21:39, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

Note that while I'm willing to go forward with this, I don't intend to just yet. I'm going to wait until you return to activity, so the usurption is less controversial. As soon as you are ready to edit with some regularity, I'll look into this again. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 21:42, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

(←) Full blown activity like I did at the start of the year and in 2012 won't happen for a bit longer. It will just be sporadic like it's been, with me being out for a month, then in for a week or two at a time, though I will rectify this as soon as I can. We can wait, if that's what you want. It's no big deal. :) ES^{(talk•email)} 21:55, 8 September 2013 (GMT)

May I poke at this discussion again and ask if you are acceptable with my status as an active editor, AKB? While I have a few days where I don't show up, like we all have, I still pop on to the site and on the IRC to be a part of the community, search around for busy work, post on the blog, accept mentor consults/emails, etc. I'd like to think that I am "active"on the site, though I acknowledge I don't push out edits by the dozen every day. -snowmane ^xoxo 00:30, 2 October 2013 (GMT)

Are you absolutely sure you want to be renamed? I am willing to, but it's not something that is reverted once done. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 01:02, 2 October 2013 (GMT)

Yes, I am sure I want to do this. -snowmane ^xoxo 01:08, 2 October 2013 (GMT)

Alright, you have been renamed. Enjoy your new username. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 01:22, 2 October 2013 (GMT)

Achievement bug - War Hero

If season unending has been completed, and you gave the stormcloaks Markarth and the empire Dawnstar (not Riften), and then you join the stormcloaks you are unable to get the War Hero achievement. (Xbox - unpatched version) — Unsigned comment by 121.222.103.183 (talk) at 00:54 on 4 August 2013 (GMT)

Not a bug, and already noted on the achievements page. —Legoless (talk) 01:15, 4 August 2013 (GMT)

Search function

Is there something wrong with the site's search function? I was trying to search for "Masque of Clavicus Vile", and got zero results for "masque of clavicus vile", "masque", "clavicus", or "vile. I then tried searching for "unmarked places", one I commonly use to get to Skyrim:Unmarked Places, and also got zero results. --Xyzzy ^Talk 01:55, 22 August 2013 (GMT)

I was just in the process of alerting Dave to this. I remember hearing Robinhood claiming that DB2 is down, so that might be related? Anyway, hopefully we'll see a solution implemented soon. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 01:59, 22 August 2013 (GMT)

Looks like it's working again. Thank you (and Dave) for the quick action! --Xyzzy ^Talk 02:32, 22 August 2013 (GMT)

Abuse Log

Just to let everyone know, Dave and I have now fixed the Abuse Log so that it displays the correct namespace. For the moment, this will only affect entries from this point forward, but I'll work on correcting the older entries as well, hopefully to be completed this afternoon. – Robin Hood ^(talk) 19:37, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

All the incorrect old links have now been updated as well. – Robin Hood ^(talk) 21:31, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

IP Rangeblock

The IP range beginning with 46.183.162. has been responsible for a number of spam edits. 110, 124, 145 have all spammed Nephele's sandbox 6, while 16, 32, 39, 41, 47, and 91 have attempted the same, but have been blocked. In addition, I think the sandbox needs locked now. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 19:58, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

I agree. We need Krusty to put autoconfirmed protection on the sandbox. Guard of Dragons^{Speak To Me} 20:02, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

I semi-protected the Sandbox page - let's see if that helps. If not, we can look into a range block. --Krusty (talk) 20:18, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

Ok then. Guard of Dragons^{Speak To Me} 20:24, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

Thankyou Krusty. Dragon Guard, any admin would've done, it wasn't necessary to step in and call out a specific one. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 20:36, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

Well, Krusty was the only available admin at the time. So he would've had to be called out to do it. Guard of Dragons^{Speak To Me} 20:48, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

Just because he is visible on the RC does not mean he is the only admin available, others lurk while doing other stuff in their life. There was simply no need to name names, as you continue to do, which can make people look bad through inaction. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 20:54, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

I don't think he meant anything by it, Silencer, it's easy to make the assumption that the most active admin in the recent changes will be the first to notice it. Just for future reference though, DragonGuard, you don't have to name names. Most admins watch this page like it's hungrily eyeing their sweet rolls, so you can bet one of them will take quick and decisive action. :-) ThuumofReason (talk) 21:36, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

(←) Very funny. Guard of Dragons^{Speak To Me} 21:39, 25 August 2013 (GMT)

Hearthfire icon error?

The Hearthfire main page, instead of displaying the Hearthfire icon on the upper right corner of the page, displays "[[File:{{{icon}}}|Hearthfire|{{{iconSize}}}px|link=Skyrim:Hearthfire]]". Is it just me? --Xyzzy ^Talk 06:22, 7 September 2013 (GMT)

The icon appeared for me. Maybe it's just you, Xyzzy. Or maybe the page just needed a purge or something? •WoahBro^►talk 06:31, 7 September 2013 (GMT)

I tried purging it and clearing my browser cache right before I posted my question, but it didn't fix it. It looks ok now, though. --Xyzzy ^Talk 13:34, 7 September 2013 (GMT)

I'm probably ecing someone, but a null edit is required in these cases. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 13:45, 7 September 2013 (GMT)

I'll try that next time, Silencer. Thanks. --Xyzzy ^Talk 13:52, 7 September 2013 (GMT)

Request for archive semi-protection

On Skyrim talk:Easter Eggs/Archive 15. ThuumofReason (talk) 21:51, 9 September 2013 (GMT)

Done. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 22:05, 9 September 2013 (GMT)

IP Block needed for spammer

User:46.119.122.184 ThuumofReason (talk) 14:22, 12 September 2013 (GMT)

Yes ~ Dwarfmp (talk) 15:05, 12 September 2013 (GMT)

Restrictions on YouTube links - take two

Having just tagged a YouTube link for being used for spam, and after observing a few other instances over the last many days of my return, I recalled the topic I brought up in January suggesting that YouTube links be restricted on the site to minimize the their abuse as spam. The discussion never really received must of a glance-over by anyone, looking back at how few replies there were, so I thought I'd revive this, because there are still spammers using YouTube links in place of their other URLS.

Oh, given my absence over the summer, if I did miss something actually happening, then my bad.

Anyway, like I said in the long paragraph I wrote initially, save for very rare instances (so rare that none can come to mind) on talk pages, there are virtually no meaningful uses for YouTube links. Some wikis/wikias use video walkthroughs, but given the open approach to TES, there's no meaningful way to do something similar, and I find it rather unlikely that such a thing would ever be implemented, making the 99.9% of all YouTube links coming here to be either outright spam, or unhelpful posts of links for walkthroughs that can rarely happen. Can we resolve this issue and close off this outlet of spam? While I am all for newbies and numbers having their freedom to post as unrestricted as possible, for the integrity of the site, we really need to stamp down on these spam issues.

The solution that I, RH70, and Lurlock seemed to like was that only auto-confirmed users be able to post these links unhindered, which would prevent them from being posted by bots. Is this something agreeable and doable, or are there other suggestions available?

Of course, we aren't being hit by dozens of bots a day anymore like earlier in the year, so I suppose indifference and letting them seep through and hitting them one at a time as they come isn't too much of an inconvenience to the administration, but wouldn't it just be nice if we could hit the last of the current spammers link sets and have a break and even less bots to worry about? :) ES^{(talk•email)} 18:08, 12 September 2013 (GMT)

I don't see any real harm in requiring that an editor be autoconfirmed before they can post ANY kind of external link, since the vast majority of these would be spam anyway. The odds of a new editor needing to include an external link with their legitimate talk page post is extremely small: I can only think of 2 that I've seen in the last few months, and those were links to image dump sites that weren't really necessary for the discussion. --Xyzzy ^Talk 19:19, 12 September 2013 (GMT)

I haven't seen too many youtube links on the site in my time, but the ones I have seen didn't serve any useful purpose, and I agree with Eric that their potential is limited on a site like this. I would agree that restricting external links to autoconfirmed users would be a good idea for cutting down on spam. ThuumofReason (talk) 19:30, 12 September 2013 (GMT)

The only instance I can think of where a Youtube link anywhere on the site would be appropriate would be on a user's userpage if they post videos related to the TES series. The problem is that it could just be advertising their videos which I believe would be considered inappropriate. Sooo, I'm not quite sure where this leaves me...

Oh, and in response to Xyzzy's suggestion of having non-autoconfirmed users not being able to post links because when they are needed in conversations, I oppose this idea because it just makes everything more complicated and confusing for all parties. •WoahBro^►talk 20:01, 12 September 2013 (GMT)

Few people ever post youtube links. However, we should not restrict link-sharing to autoconfirmed users, because then what happens to General:Links?

If we copy and edit Special:AbuseFilter/2, we can make it respond to youtube/youtu.be links and pop up with a warning (not block the edit; the other filter works fine with just a warning). Alternatively, we could just remove youtube from the whitelist, which would give users a warning but allow them to go forward and post the link if they want (which bots almost never do). I am in support of this method.

Autoconfirmed users still get a CAPTCHA, so they're not completely "unhindered".

WoahBro, the advertising of one's own works would be an issue on an article, but not on a userpage. So long as it's not spam or inappropriate content, it's fine. Vely^►t►e 20:26, 12 September 2013 (GMT)

Okay then Vely. Knowing that, I'd say that your plan of the Abuse Filter for those users along with youtube links can only be posted on userpages. Double security that way. •WoahBro^►talk 20:54, 12 September 2013 (GMT)

Most youtube spam happens on userpages. "Hi I am [name] My state of residence is Nebraska [youtube.com/blah please see my personal site]" kinda thing. Vely^►t►e 21:04, 12 September 2013 (GMT)

Youtube has been removed from the acceptable external links filter due to the recent spate of spam involving it. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 13:41, 21 September 2013 (GMT)

Dragon Guard

Dragon Guard (talk⁺ • contribs • edit count • logs • email)

Dragon Guard has been a disruption to this site for far too long. Almost from his first edits there has been trouble trying to get him to follow wiki guidelines, policies, and rules, which he breaks time and time again. He is rude, unco-operative, prone to edit warring, has harassed and attacked other users, and refuses to acknowledge problems with anything more than a single syllable. I have personally had four other editors asking what can be done about this behaviour, beyond simply asking him to change. He has received two warnings that have stuck, received another two that were judged unwarranted (I bring this up to show the feelings of other editors), received a short block that was essentially a final warning to change, and is currently under a 1RR.

However, he continues to make disparaging remarks about other users, and tries to make others do his work for him. He does not put care into his work, forcing other editors to tidy up his work, makes careless reverts (with one breaking of his 1RR too)(both come under disruptive editing), and has a nasty habit of altering other users talk page posts. Each issue barely scrapes the bounds of legality, but taken in whole, this user is long overdue a block of a serious enough magnitude that he does finally alter his behaviour, because if left unchecked, better editors will leave, and that is unacceptable. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 19:04, 18 September 2013 (GMT)

Agreed 100%. He has been an extremely disruptive and passive-aggressive force on the wiki for months now. He's created or tried to create three irrelevant pages on the wiki which have been deleted, filled the Voice Actors page with unverified information, plagarized at least one article from somewhere else, submitted images that do not fit our standards despite being asked not to, edit warred countless times and generally bothered just about every single editor here. He has been warned politely multiple times by different editors and we have all tried our best to work with him and make him a useful contributor to the UESP. The time has come. --AN|L (talk) 19:17, 18 September 2013 (GMT)

(edit conflict) Per Silencer's argument, I can see a justified indefinite ban from the wiki, but being the nice guy I am, I'd suggest 3-6 months. He's a disruption and is prone to argument, especially over petty issues like that Investigator. That said, we all have our firm beliefs over the wiki, and I can remember getting into shouting arguments with Jak Atackka over months old issues that, in hindsight, I can't believe I was stubborn enough to argue about; including a few words that I am ashamed of, and if he wanted to, could have reported as attacking him verbally.

I think we should give him a few months to cool off, let the current issues die out, and give him a chance to redeem himself. If he isn't willing to correct himself, we can just cut our losses and give him an indef after a brief probationary period after the ban lifts. I believe that though stubborn, he is only thinking for the best of the wiki when he argues so hard that each thing that interests him is thoroughly documented. I've been known to be the same way.

However, if he wants to keep any credibility, I'd recommend he be civil and participate in this discussion while declaring what he wants to accomplish in terms of projects, else I might change my mind on him. The instances of him harassing others to do is work for him is unacceptable, and if he won't be willing to change into a somewhat reliable person, than there is no point to keeping his editing privileges (which are just that, a privilege). -snowmane ^xoxo 19:26, 18 September 2013 (GMT)

Three to six months works for me. I'm officially done dealing with him, as I'm convinced that he is incapable of learning or incorporating feedback. He keeps saying he understands, yet his actions and comments speak otherwise. He clearly does not read the notices, and makes no effort to understand why we say what we do. We're past the point of saying he has "good intentions"; he's been corrected so many times on the same issues that his continued ignorance of said issues is no longer our problem. Being told what is right and choosing to ignore it is no different from acting in bad faith. If we keep showing him leniency, we're sending him the message that his actions have no real consequences, and that he's free to mess up the wiki however he likes. The only way we can get our message across at this point is to show him that his actions have consequences. ThuumofReason (talk) 19:43, 18 September 2013 (GMT)

This user has been blocked. I was actually in the process of preparing a block before this was posted, but that's hardly relevant here. The general sentiment towards these issues has clearly been extremely, if not universally, bittering. I feel enough action has been taken to try to turn this any other way to justify a block at the moment. Any further issues with this user should be handled through the administrative team, if at all possible. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 19:59, 18 September 2013 (GMT)

Connection Limits and DoS Protection

I'm in the process of adding a few safeguards to try and automatically protect the site accident DoS (Denial of Service) attacks, whether accidental (i.e., trying to download an offline version of the site with a poorly behaving program) or on purpose. Most of the random slow downs in the past few months are directly linked to a single IP spamming 100s of connections in a very short period of time. This eventually uses up all the Apache instances and the site becomes slow and ultimately unresponsive.

So far I've added a 20 connection limit for each IP address on Squid. It doesn't appear to break anything (the vast majority of users use less than 10 active connections at a time) but let me know if you notice any thing breaking. I'll be looking at adding more sophisticated DoS measures in the coming days and weeks.

Update: I also just installed mod_evasive on all the Apache and Lighttpd servers. I've tried to use moderate settings for both things that shouldn't affect typical users but if you see broken images or pages let me know. -- Daveh ^(talk) 15:31, 20 September 2013 (GMT)

PHP 5.3 Upgrade

In preparation for upgrading MediaWiki once again I'm upgrading the content servers from PHP v5.2 to v5.3 (which turns out to be much more difficult as usual). I've done the upgrade on content3 already and found a few minor issues I've fixed.

SideBar JavaScript -- For some reason I can't figure out the JavaScript which collapses the sidebar doesn't work anymore. Load any page on content3 and compare the sidebar to that from www/content1. The page source coming from content3 is identical to content1/2 so the issue would have to be the JavaScript in MediaWiki:Common.js. How upgrading to PHP v5.3 on the server affects the JavaScript on the client I don't know. Perhaps some of the other CSS or JS files are changed on content3. I don't remember who originally did the sidebar JS but if they could give a quick look and see what's happening that would be faster than me trying to start from scratch (no obvious errors or warnings on the server or client).

If anyone sees any other issues on content3 or the dev Wiki just let me know. If nothing else pops up in a week or so I'll try doing the upgrade on content1/2. -- Daveh ^(talk) 13:47, 21 September 2013 (GMT)

I believe the javascript in the sidebar was done Jak Atackka, in case you have any specific questions for him. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 14:44, 21 September 2013 (GMT)

Yep, that was me. I think I know what's wrong, but today is quite busy so I'll have to take care of it tomorrow. • JA ^T 00:08, 22 September 2013 (GMT)

No hurry as its only affecting content3 at the moment which is only used for dev/testing. If you figure it out let me know what it was. Thanks... -- Daveh ^(talk) 01:02, 22 September 2013 (GMT)

Update -- The issue was not the sidebar JavaScript but an old piece of code buried deep within MediaWiki's depths that just needed tweaking. If your sidebar happens to look a little strange just do a forced page reload (ex: Ctrl+Shift+R in Chrome). -- Daveh ^(talk) 00:10, 11 October 2013 (GMT)

That's funny, I looked at the code today for a while and couldn't figure out what was wrong. Glad you fixed the issue! • JA ^T 02:26, 11 October 2013 (GMT)

Request for archive protection

Semi-protection for User_talk:Xyzzy/archive2012, please --Xyzzy ^Talk 04:10, 5 October 2013 (GMT)

Generally user archives aren't protected. —Legoless (talk) 00:24, 6 October 2013 (GMT)

Oh ok. Didn't realize that. --Xyzzy ^Talk 00:45, 6 October 2013 (GMT)

Maps Update

I'm finally making progress with updating the site's Google maps. The v2 maps API we use was deprecated by Google a while ago and is being taken down next month. A while ago I tried updating our maps to v3 using the existing code but there was too many changes between v2 and v3 and I didn't make much progress. This time I've started from scratch and added/reused the existing code piece by piece which was much easier in the long run.

The current v3 map code can be seen here using the Skyrim map. It is still a work in progress but has enough functionality for testing and feedback. A few comments and notes on the current map and in progress development:

Fixed ~~Map label positions aren't working (they are all bottom-left aligned to the marker). The label/marker system is completely changed in v3 and I'm still working on it.~~
The overall page style has been changed significantly. Comments and ideas welcome. I'll probably play with a few different styles/color sets that match the style/colors of each map.
Done but needs testing. Note the addition of separate sub-domains for each map. ~~The other maps have to be upgraded to v3 (minor work since 99% of the code has already been upgraded).~~

A better map editing interface has to be done.
Better integration of the map into the wiki. I'll probably keep the standalone pages but to have it nicely work within the wiki (including an editable map).
Done. ~~Packing/compression of all the JS/CSS into fewer files. For ease of development there are many JS/CSS files but once the map is "finished" they can be packed and combined into one JS and one CSS file.~~
Mostly done. ~~Checking of the HTML, CSS and JavaScript with the appropriate standards. It seems to work on all major browsers so far.~~
Initial version done (needs feedback). ~~A mobile skin. It does work on mobile devices but the text for map labels and search results is very small.~~
Added cell grid display option.
Updated the map help including creating the Map Help article.

Done. ~~Need to add other map icons.~~

I have lots more ideas/features related to maps (especially concerning ESO maps) but I'd like to focus on the v3 and style upgrade first. -- Daveh ^(talk) 17:30, 5 October 2013 (GMT)

I definitely prefer the black background here compared to our current one, it just looks nicer with the black and white of the map. While it can obviously be prettied up a bit, that little thing makes it so much more pleasing to the eyes. A bit of an unrelated question to the updates, is it at all possible to fill in the empty cells on the map? It would make the Skyrim map look so nicer. -AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 20:30, 5 October 2013 (GMT)

As for the empty cells, that is at the top of my list after the map update. Not entirely sure how to do it as those cells won't export from the Construction Kit but I'll figure out something. -- Daveh ^(talk) 15:48, 6 October 2013 (GMT)

Update -- The majority of the maps upgrade is done and the maps appear to be working well other than a few minor tweaks. I still need to play with the mobile skin but at least its usuable (unlike the prior maps which don't work well or at all with mobile devices) and some of the other items I have yet to work on but are mostly separate tasks (better wiki inclusion and map editing in particular). Unless there's any significant issues I haven't noticed I'd like to switch to using the new maps sooner rather than later. The old/existing maps can be kept up and we can just change the necessary links to each map (assuming this is relatively easy). I can eventually forward the old maps to the new ones in a few months. I would prefer you use the XXmap.uesp.net direct link but www.uesp.net/maps2/XXmap/XXmap.html will also work.

As usual, let me know of any issues big or small (though I greatly prefer the small ones). -- Daveh ^(talk) 21:57, 8 October 2013 (GMT)

In-wiki and editable versions of the maps (if you have the cartographer permission) are now available at:

For those without edit permissions the map locations are editable within their popup info boxes in the map itself which makes it much simpler and smoother than the old map edit interface. Description of the updated UESPMap extension will be shortly updated at UESPWiki:Extension_UESPMap. I'll be changing map links to point to the new v2 maps shortly barring any last minute issues. -- Daveh ^(talk) 15:00, 10 October 2013 (GMT)

Skyrim Coloured Map Update -- I finally figured out a method of creating a good coloured version of the Skyrim map that doesn't take days of tedious manual work. The current version is available on content3 at content3.uesp.net/maps2/srmap/srmap_dev.html for testing and feedback before pushing it to the live Skyrim map. A few things that I know need tweaking:

Noticeable color difference between tiles along the Western edge of the map and a few other places. Some of this may not be easily corrected.
Legibility of the map labels needs to be tweaked a bit.
More map tiles needed along the West and East edges of the map.
Make the out of range map tile a more solid blue color.
The map tiles were exported in batches of 5x3 cells and there are a few artifacts that need to be fixed (like here). This likely just requires the CK to be set to load cells 7x7 at a time and then re-export all the tiles.
Remove all the sound markers along the Northern shore (some have been removed already).
Figure out a way of hiding all the actor models (small white/green/yellow/red markers slightly visible at the highest zoom level).

A few things I'd like feedback and comments on besides anything else you can think of:

Map Color -- Making the tiles a bit darker, especially the white snow, might be good and help with label legibility.
Artifacts -- If you notice anything on the map that needs to be hidden/removed let me know the position. This includes things like Dragons (removed a bunch) and acoustic spaces/markers that may have been missed.
Water -- I can export the map with and without water which means we can pretty much do any water effect we want like tweaking the color or partial transparency (just have to figure a way of doing it all automatically).

Larger Zoom -- Is one more zoom level needed? Not entirely easy to do mainly from the length of time needed and the fact the process is still partially manual.

The map tile export process is mostly automatic but still requires constant manual monitoring and clicking for 4-5 hours so I'd like to get everything fixed and only have to do it one more time. -- Daveh ^(talk) 19:37, 24 October 2013 (GMT)

Wow... That's simply amazing, Dave! Fantastic work! As for any notable issues, they're a ton of dragons floating about the Throat of the World. Also noticed one at the Dragon Mound with the coordinates -158751, 26607, -1813 and -137131, 68398, -7048. I think that the label issue isn't that big of one, since you can still click on any label you want for a background with good contrast. Partially transparent water would also be nice, but there just isn't all that much underwater in Skyrim that it shouldn't be a HUGE concern in my opinion. Once again, I'm simply amazed at what you've done here Dave. My hat is off to you! --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 19:54, 24 October 2013 (GMT)

Holy crap that's an epic colored map. Wow. I don't think there's a big issue with the color--I really like it as it is, and like AKB said, you can click on any place to get a popup with info. An extra zoom level would be awesome, but definitely not necessary due to the amount of detail already there. There's dragons at -72182, 54478, -10116 and 3459, 96890, -10878 and 173660, -124359, 17320 and -3043, -43338, 6080. Mammoths at -39379, -18164, -5479.

But wow, that's awesome. I love the map. Vely^►t►e 20:20, 24 October 2013 (GMT)

That looks gorgeous. It's a HUGE improvement over grayscale, and really adds some life to the world map. There's a cell between Riverwood and The Throat of the World which doesn't look like any of the rocks were loaded when it was captured. There are also a couple of cells where it looks like it didn't load the same resolution textures in one of them, like here. Or is that how it actually looks? Other than that, the only thing I notice is the lines that divide some of the cells, obviously as a result of capturing the cells from a certain perspective. I notice that there are no horizontal seams whatsoever, only vertical ones, so maybe it'd be worth capturing 3x3 cells at a time. Another option that's a bit more complex but shouldn't take quite as long is to go ahead and capture cells 5x5 or 7x7 or whatever at a time, then going back and recapture 2x2 or 4x4 cells along the seams, the locations of which can easily be calculated beforehand. These are just some basic ideas for going about it, but it's your map, so you can go about doing it however you like. • JA ^T 20:51, 24 October 2013 (GMT)

Glad you like it though I wish it could have been done sooner. I've been playing with ideas on and off over the past year before I finally figured out something that worked through the CK. -- Daveh ^(talk) 00:31, 25 October 2013 (GMT)

Edit: I just tried accessing the maps via User:Daveh/xxMap, and Chrome pops up with this error message:

Google has disabled use of the Maps API for this application. The provided key is not a valid Google API Key, or it is not authorized for the Google Maps Javascript API v3 on this site. If you are the owner of this application, you can learn about obtaining a valid key here: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/tutorial#api_key

The map is visible for a split-second, so it looks like it's working just fine, but the invalid key is disabling it. • JA ^T 20:57, 24 October 2013 (GMT)

Hmm...it works fine for me. Can you try doing a forced reload (Ctrl+F5 or whatever it is) and/or clear the page cache. I assume it is just a cache mixup from the old UespMap extension which uses the old key and the new one. -- Daveh ^(talk) 00:31, 25 October 2013 (GMT)

It's not pretty, but one way to get rid of all the actors is to literally get rid of all the actors. Open Skyrim/Update.esm, click on the first actor, shift-click on the last actor, hit delete. It'll then prompt you a bazillion times if you're sure. Your trick to get rid of messages might avoid that, but if not, hold down the Enter key for a couple of minutes. Save as a mod. When you reload that mod, all the actor refs will be gone. The drawback is that all actors, including dead ones that are essentially part of the scenery, will also be gone (e.g., the dead cow in CradleCrushRockExterior). – Robin Hood ^(talk) 22:29, 24 October 2013 (GMT)

Good idea and may be the best option depending on how long my other idea takes to figure out. -- Daveh ^(talk) 00:31, 25 October 2013 (GMT)

I haven't had time to take a really in-depth look yet, but from the bit that I have looked at and played with so far, all I can say is WOW! It's looking really great, and will be even better once the kinks are worked out. What an awesome addition to UESP! If I happen to notice any oddities later, I'll be sure to note them here, but this looks fantastic. — ABCface^◥ 01:41, 25 October 2013 (GMT)

Update on the Colored Map -- Given the above comments and some additional work I've started on the "final" capture of the colored Skyrim map tiles:

I've managed to make the capture process through the CK entirely automatic which makes it easier...just don't ask how.
Given the former point I'll be capturing a larger zoom level (about 18 hours of capturing tiles depending on how many times the CK crashes).
I've set the CK to load 7x7 tiles at a time and capture the center 5x1 tiles at 512x512 per cell and then split them into 256x256 tiles. This gets rid of all the edge issues in the current tile set.
I've deleted all objects that cause issues (Actors, sound markers, etc...). The remaining few things that sneak through can be dealt with manually.
I'm playing with a few post-processing water effects with some subtle transparency.

Depending on how the final map capture process goes it will be a few days before the final tiles go up and pushed to the live Skyrim map. -- Daveh ^(talk) 18:42, 25 October 2013 (GMT)

The updated set of tiles at a larger zoom level are now on the content3 test map. I haven't had time to review it much but it looks like most of the previous issues have been solved. I've still got to play with the water effects but I doubt I'll have time for that until next week. -- Daveh ^(talk) 18:26, 26 October 2013 (GMT)

Wow, that looks a lot better! There are still a couple of glitches though - you can't get past my perfectionism! Here and here it looks like something got goofed - it looks like in both cases they were shifted a cell up. Other than that, this is looking fantastic! I also had an idea that I'm not at all suggesting you have to do, but I think would be neat: make a night-time version of the map. The main reason for that is because half of the time a person is exploring at night, and some landmarks are less visible than others at night. To be honest, though, it'd look cool more than anything. • JA ^T 22:58, 26 October 2013 (GMT)

Ahhh, good catch. Looks like the automated script and the CK got out of sync for those two places which I was expecting to happen a little more often actually. Easy enough to re-export those two 5x1 cells. The night time map idea is interesting and easy to do now that the map tile capturing is automated. -- Daveh ^(talk) 00:17, 27 October 2013 (GMT)

I've created a set of "night" map tiles and updated the map to be able to toggle them (upper right corner). Pretty nice although I'm not sure if that was what you were looking for. In particular the lights "inside" cities are not shown since I only exported the exterior world space but this can be fixed a number of ways (export sections of the city world spaces or use an open world city mod). Also note the addition of the "show resource" list at the top from the below discussion on flower/resource maps. I'll play with water effects tomorrow and see what I can get. -- Daveh ^(talk) 00:39, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

I've done a few water effect tests which can be seen at Water Post-Processing. Just about any combination of color/opacity and other effects are possible but if there aren't any comments I'll probably use the first example. I'm going to re-export all the map tiles in PNG format as that will make the water processing easier and better in the end. -- Daveh ^(talk)

(←) Personally, I prefer the look provided with WaterTest6 for the possible option with opacity. Basically I want the objects underwater to be the same shade, as a user looking at it would expect them to since the object are going to be evenly distorted by the water. And perhaps I'm just not seeing the obvious option, but I'm currently missing the ability to toggle the night version of the map. Speaking of possible bugs, a user reported the inability to see past the first 50 search results on the map. I am suffering the same issue, so it's not isolated it seems. I'm not sure if this is a general issue with the update, but I thought I would bring this to your attention if it wasn't already.

In general, I still like the results so far! I can't wait to see how this all turns out. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 19:15, 30 October 2013 (GMT)

That last one is the type of water I'm going with so far. The set of tiles on the test map are going to be pushed to live soon. There are a few issues with water being where it shouldn't but in limited places that I'll deal with after some of the other feature and bug fixes are put into place. The reason you didn't see the day/night links (or the new resource list) is that I was linking to the incorrect version. I've fixed all the links in this discussion to point to the proper dev map (the tiles are the same but the code is different). I completely forgot about the 50 item search limit and it should be quick to fix. -- Daveh ^(talk) 21:02, 31 October 2013 (GMT)

Awesome, I really like it! The night-time option looks really cool, and the water also looks great. It'd be worth finding a way to accurately capture the exterior cells for each of the cities, but other than that it's just about done. Nice work! • JA ^T 22:30, 31 October 2013 (GMT)

Protection Status of Skyrim Easter Eggs Page

The protection expired a while ago, and since then there have been several instances of anonymous users making unapproved edits to the page. It's not as bad as it was the last time protection expired, but since there's still some level of activity on the talk page, would it make sense to renew it? ThuumofReason (talk) 22:16, 10 October 2013 (GMT)

Seconding this proposal. Too many people grasping at straws to find eggs. Xolroc (talk) 23:13, 10 October 2013 (GMT)

Agreed. • JA ^T 02:27, 11 October 2013 (GMT)

I put it on indefinite semi-protection. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 10:09, 11 October 2013 (GMT)

Lore:Ulfric

I may be acting too soon, but Ulfric Stormcloak has yet again had verified sourced info removed for allegedly being "unsourced". As a major figure in Skyrim's deliberately confusing (in terms of who was right) Civil War he obviously received lots of attention. So I'm asking for an admin to have a think about some protection. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 03:14, 13 October 2013 (GMT)

I've semi-protected it. —Legoless (talk) 15:45, 13 October 2013 (GMT)

Skyrim item location maps

Now that we're getting progress on skyrim location maps, should we perhaps do the item maps like http://uesp.net/wiki/File:OB-Map-AlkanetFlower.jpg for Skyrim? They'd be useful to have. Xolroc (talk) 12:27, 26 October 2013 (GMT)

Come to think of it, we probably could have done it already using http://uesp.net/wiki/File:SR-map-Skyrim.jpg Xolroc (talk) 12:29, 26 October 2013 (GMT)

I've been wanting to do these maps for as long as wanting to get a colored Skyrim map. Nephele did the Oblivion ones and I'm not entirely sure how she did it...I assume she wrote a custom program that went through the game data and output the images. Writing one from scratch shouldn't be too hard once I figure out exactly what information is needed and where it is found in the data files. -- Daveh ^(talk) 14:12, 26 October 2013 (GMT)

I could do some data mining and see about automating it. No promises, though; I'm learning python quickly but I'm by no means an expert. Xolroc (talk) 14:31, 26 October 2013 (GMT)

One half of the work would be to count the number of flowers per cells (the other half would be making the map overlay). A CSV (or similar) format would work fine here and be easy enough to import just about anywhere. I just had a thought that you could almost make the map overlay in Excel directly from the CSV using conditional formatting. If you do get anything done just let me know so I don't duplicate our efforts. -- Daveh ^(talk) 00:15, 27 October 2013 (GMT)

Installing python on this machine now to start trying to extract the data into friendly csvs. I'll let you know if I give up (rather likely as I often overestimate my own ability). Xolroc (talk) 15:32, 27 October 2013 (GMT)

And now I've found a precursor to TES5edit that dumps data into a text file, so I'm dumping Skyrim.esm now and will write a script to scan that and get out just the item location data. Wondering if this is the best place to keep the discussion/updates on this, perhaps a user talk page would be better. Xolroc (talk) 17:00, 27 October 2013 (GMT)

For general updates here is fine. I tend to keep notes and other detailed information on my user sub-pages in case anyone else ever needs it (or it eventually deserves to be moved to its own page). I've also been thinking that since the map update we can actually easily overlay the flower/resource information on the live map. See the test map I'm working on and play with the "show resource" drop down list in the top center. The data is made up for now but it can be easily made into an AJAX database call. Static images can be captured directly from the live map if needed and uploaded to the wiki. -- Daveh ^(talk) 00:35, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

(←) I've gotten all of the items in "flora" into a crude, poorly-formatted CSV; what's the exact format you need? Reformatting it with a script should be easy. Xolroc (talk) 00:46, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

Assuming you mean the counts of flora per cell just a plain CSV grid of fixed entries, e.g.:

     0,0,0,0,.....,0,0
     0,1,2,5,......0,0
     etc...

Just let me know what the starting cell is for a reference point. -- Daveh ^(talk) 03:44, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

I'm thinking, then, that I'll make a file for each item, with the values arranged as an array:

     a1,a2,a3;
     b1,b2,b3;
     c1,c2,c3;

representing the number found in cell

     (0,0),(0,1),(0,2);
     (1,0),(1,1),(1,2);
     (2,0),(2,1),(2,2);

and so on. I'd start with the top left as whatever the top left cell in the map is, not actually (0,0).

One thing I will need is a list of what interiors are accessed via what exterior cells; I'm not sure how to find that. Any idea? Xolroc (talk) 13:24, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

Yup, that sounds good. I was thinking about the interior cells too and there's no easy other other than iterate through all the doors in an interior cell until you find the exterior. A little tricky and I would start with getting just the exterior cell data done and extract the interior data separately (it may be good to display them separately as well). -- Daveh ^(talk) 13:32, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

I would still need a list of all the doors in the cell and where they lead, but the CK doesn't seem to have an option to export that data like it does for the info on where things are found. I have to manually export each individual thing's usage data, too; I can't decode the skyrim data files and this is faster and easier than trying to figure out how. The TES5edit precursor that I mentioned earlier dumps into a 1.9GB txt file that I can't do anything with because it's just plain too huge, and it also doesn't seem to include information about where things are; just what they are.

I can however dump the interior data into another file in this format: CellEditorID,CellFormID,itemCount; This can be used to later work out the locations to note. Xolroc (talk) 13:51, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

And here we are, everything in the "FLOR" (flora) category. There are some ingredient sources in the TREE category, and I think there may be some in STAT (static) too; it also doesn't include any loose items. The names of the files are the editor id of the item they refer to, with interior locations dumped into *INTERIOR.CSV. I've included the python script I used to generate them from the raw data, as well as the raw data itself (straight from the CK using ctrl-f5). The files are encoded as

     (-57,-43),(-57,-42),...,(-57,50);(-56,-43),...

and *INTERIOR.CSV are encoded as

     CellFormID,CellEditorID,itemCount;CellFormID,CellEditorID,itemCount;...

in no particular order.

Link to the 7zipped folder on my dropbox: [1]

Update: I realized I didn't differentiate between worldspaces while making that script, so parts will have to be rewritten. The data in that collection is mostly accurate but needs tweaking. Xolroc (talk) 22:28, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

Great stuff! I'll start playing around with it tomorrow and see what I can come up with on the live map. One minor change I would ask: change the ';' to line breaks ('\n') which would make it a bit easier to load. I'll probably have to massage the data to upload it the database but I don't know exactly what I need at the moment. -- Daveh ^(talk) 01:16, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

(←) Can do. Working on making it separate by worldspace, too; I messed up with that and things in, for example, MarkarthWorld are counted as things in Tamriel--not a problem, until you realize that BlackReachWorld overlaps with some cell numbers in Tamriel, so they overwrite things in the data list. I've also extracted all ingredient-bearing objects of type TREE (apparently given that type to make them wave in the wind, as it includes variables like "branch frequency" or some such), still need to get the loose ingredients... that'll be quite a task. Xolroc (talk) 02:19, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

And done; here's the FLOR data with non-Tamriel worldspaces extracted and separately contained just like interiors (for later work), and the ;s have been replaced with \ns. I also commented the code a bit, I know it's difficult to understand. *OTHER.CSV is encoded as

     worldspaceid,(x,y),itemcount\n

Here's the link: [2] Xolroc (talk) 12:51, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

Ok, got the other worldspaces separated out. There are two scripts now, one that processes raw data and one that takes in the "*OTHER.CSV" and processes them into individual worldspace files. The link is the same as before. Xolroc (talk) 14:33, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

And this one [3] contains all the data that was in the TREE category. This covers all harvestable ingredients, I think, so next up is to start extracting data from the loose ingredients. Xolroc (talk) 19:33, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

(←) Ahh...I see you beat me to the TREE types as I noticed a few missing. I've created a Google spreadsheet to keep track of all the various resource types. I'd also like to do all the various types of ores (under activators) as listed there. I'd like to combine similar items into one according to their name as given on the spreadsheet. This is particularly noticeable in the ores which dozens of separate editorIDs for each ore. This can be done easily enough post-processing with the CSV files. I'm still working on the database end for serving this cell resource info to the map. If you could provide a few basic notes on how you're exporting the information to [Map Design]. Its not necessary to provide the actual scripts but a basic explanation so that someone who may need to do it next year has a good head start. -- Daveh ^(talk) 21:21, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

I've included the scripts themselves in the data I sent; they're just reformatting though. The data extraction is done via the CK; pressing ctrl-f5 while a table is selected will export that table to a list of values separated by "\t\0". It's rather tedious, but the only method I could find without trying to actually decompress and decode the raw data--and possibly scan through ALL of it, as there likely isn't an easily accessed list of where things are found in the actual data itself.

So, ore veins and loose ingredients are left, then? I can do that pretty easily. The postprocessing would also be easy; the file names are generated from the original file names, which I chose while exporting to be the editor ID of the items. Said editor IDs tend to be of the form "treefloramountainflower01red" and "treefloramountainflower02red" making it easy to identify similar ones and iterate through them, adding the data together. Xolroc (talk) 22:01, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

Ahhh...I didn't know that trick/shortcut in the CK...thanks. Yah, it is easy enough to combine multiple CSVs once I figure out which ones should go together along with the format changes I need to do to get it imported into the database. -- Daveh ^(talk) 22:34, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

Yeah, it's nearly undocumented. I added it to one of our pages on the ck though! I could go ahead and have this export straight to whatever format you need though; what do you want? Xolroc (talk) 22:52, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

The current CSV format with line breaks works fine actually. I manually added two resources on the test map to get it working but haven't had time to combine all the CSVs as needed and output to SQL database commands. -- Daveh ^(talk) 18:17, 30 October 2013 (GMT)

So that's everything we need to get all the data put into easy-to-use formats, except for combining a few (I also think the data from the city worldspaces should be added to the data from the tamriel worldspace, since they overlap 1:1; adding instead of replacing though as there could be flowers right up at the city walls). Next would be to actually get the data on loose items then (ugh) build a mapping from each interior to the exterior that connects to it. Is there a way to extract this data straight from the wiki? Because I know we have it dispersed across the site. Xolroc (talk) 20:24, 30 October 2013 (GMT)

(←) The first set of resource data is now live on the Skyrim map. I created a simple Python script to combine CSVs with the same name according to the list I made. The main thing missing right now are the ore maps and getting more accurate exterior counts for some objects (Nirnroots for example). -- Daveh ^(talk) 01:36, 1 November 2013 (GMT)

Excellent! I'll try to do those asap for you. I dunno how to do nirnroot better though; I got the data I have already. Hm, I think update.esm might add a few samples, too; do you want the data from those if so? Xolroc (talk) 01:47, 1 November 2013 (GMT)

Not sure what happened to a few items but nothing showed up on the map so I removed them from the list. Will have to dig deeper into it tomorrow and see where the problem is and make sure my scripts are working as they should. -- Daveh ^(talk) 02:00, 1 November 2013 (GMT)

I noticed that the ones involving more cells tend to take significantly longer to load; try loading a mountain flower and see how it takes about ten seconds. Xolroc (talk) 14:24, 1 November 2013 (GMT)

The Google maps API is not particularly fast at displaying 100s of lines/boxes and your speed would depend on your computer, browser and your network connection. For example the mountain flowers take only 1 seconds to show up for me on Chrome/IE and 2-3 seconds on FireFox. Once we get the data sorted out we can do a screen capture for each flower and upload as a static image for the wiki like the Oblivion resources Nephele did. I do have an idea on implementing the map from scratch which should be faster but that won't happen for a while. -- Daveh ^(talk) 14:44, 1 November 2013 (GMT)

Was checking that you knew about that, and that wasn't the cause of the nothing-showing-up. Perhaps your script took data in other worldspaces, or from the interior files? Xolroc (talk) 15:12, 1 November 2013 (GMT)

Sockpuppetry?

Two users with similar names and similar userpages have been making a number of revisions to their respective pages recently. User:Apac and User:Apac1805 both started making edits within an hour of each other, and the similarities are making me think it's the same user making two separate accounts. What's the policy on this? I hesitate to call it "sockpuppetry" since they haven't really made any edits in content space yet, and none of the edits are disruptive (except for not using the show preview button), but the two accounts are pretty clearly by the same user. How do we typically handle these situations? ThuumofReason (talk) 17:39, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

The two users used the same IP address within minutes of each other so it is reasonable to assume it is that same person. I would start with "assuming no malice" and check with the user to see why they created two accounts or the purpose of it. If they created two by accident it is easy enough to rename/delete one if needed (I think). -- Daveh ^(talk) 17:56, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

Okay. I don't think there was any malicious intent either, I was just wondering what the procedure was. I'll give that a shot. Thanks, Daveh! ThuumofReason (talk) 18:04, 28 October 2013 (GMT)

Archive semiprotection request

Oblivion talk:The Path of Dawn/Archive 2 was created recently. I'm not sure an archive is needed for such a low-traffic page that barely meets the length requirements, if at all, but since it's there now, can we get it semiprotected? ThuumofReason (talk) 21:33, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

Done. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 22:11, 29 October 2013 (GMT)

Files1 Maintenance -- Uploads Disabled

I need to have a failing hard drive on files1 replaced which will require the wiki uploads to be temporarily disabled starting sometime today. The other services on files1 are being moved off temporarily as well and if all goes well there shouldn't be any noticeable interruption. I'll update the maintenance progress here and on UESPWiki:Status. -- Daveh ^(talk) 15:04, 7 November 2013 (GMT)

All services have been moved off of files1 so let me know if you see any oddities. Due to the various caching layers I'll probably give it a day and see how the load on files1 drop before taking it offline. It should be offline for less than an hour but I'd like to have a small as an interruption as possible. Time to think of how to distribute the files1 services on multiple servers to make this easier. -- Daveh ^(talk) 15:47, 7 November 2013 (GMT)

There was an intermittent issue which would prevent logged in users from viewing the site. This has been fixed but let me know of any other issues. The hard drive in files1 is being replaced right now and I expect to get it back online and serving requests in a few hours barring any other issues. -- Daveh ^(talk)

Done -- The maintenance on files1 has been completed and it is back up and serving requests (it will take +4 hours for the DNS changes to fully propagate). Wiki uploads are now enabled. If there are any issues noted over the next few hours please let me know. -- Daveh ^(talk) 00:39, 9 November 2013 (GMT)

IP block needed for spammer

User:197.210.248.23 for this little tidbit. ThuumofReason (talk) 23:08, 13 November 2013 (GMT)

Done. --Krusty (talk) 23:25, 13 November 2013 (GMT)

Protection and IP range

Recently an IP range (194.81.160.51, 52 and ,53) has attempted to disrupt the site. All three are blocked so this is a note that there is a pattern. The IP has a particular fascination with Skyrim:General Tullius and I think it could do with some protection for a while. Also of note is Oblivion:Umbra (sword), which has a very long history littered with undos. Finally, while we're at it, I request permanent semi-protection of Online:Redguard, in anticipation of the same thing that happens with all Redguard pages without protection. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 00:54, 26 November 2013 (GMT)

An additional request for Skyrim:Races protection. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 20:57, 28 November 2013 (GMT)

I've protected the pages in question. All are on three months except for Online:Redguard, which has permanent protection due to past experiences being entirely negative. I have not performed the range block, as it seems to have gone quiet. If need be, I'll perform it if it goes active again (194.81.160.0/24 should do it). --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 21:26, 28 November 2013 (GMT)

Mobile Site Down

The UESP mobile sight appears to be down. When I load it, I get a blank page and the message Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information. I've checked it from both my phone and my laptop, and it appears on both, so it isn't just my phone acting up. My watchlist is having the same issue, even when loaded from the main UESP site.--AN|L (talk) 15:52, 27 November 2013 (GMT)

Ah yes...this is due to the PHP upgrade I did yesterday and a fix code fixes I missed on the mobile site. Check again in 5 minutes and hopefully it will be back up. -- Daveh ^(talk) 16:03, 27 November 2013 (GMT)

Range Block

Just a note, I've blocked 93.186.23.0/24 due to several IPs from this range being simultaneously problematic. It's for a week, let's hope it quiets afterwords. --AKB ^{Talk Cont Mail} 17:36, 29 November 2013 (GMT)

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