The Sims Wiki talk:Development Portal/Archive 3

Header image 'broken'
As stated above, the mosaic image is broken, at least in my browser (Firefox). If any other users see this issue, please chime in here. If you see this issue and are using a browser other than Firefox, please include it on the table above.

As for solutions, I'm thinking, if this was a Wikia-wide change to the menu bar width, that perhaps we can rig up some css code to re-narrow the bar (hopefully this doesn't violate TOS)... or we can maybe contact JoePlay, the person who designed the original, to have him re-do it with the new, wider setting. --  LostInRiverview talk · blog 05:42, January 21, 2012 (UTC)

Quick report script
I've implemented a system on the reports page to allow users to easily report a user by typing the user/IP address on the first field, the page that was vandalised, which is an optional requirement - the Report template has a link to the user's contributions. Finally the reporting user only has to click "Report user" and it's done.

The JS used for the system can be found here with the corresponding removal script (which the form won't work without) can be found here. Both of these are listed as "importScript" functions on MediaWiki:Common.js.

Currently the system is basic and only accommodates a link to one page (with a history link) and no signature from the reporting user. While I do feel that we can live without these, it would be nice if we could try and implement these.

The scripts/form are still in testing (with the removal script still requiring reports to be manually removed) so if you come across any bugs, feel free to list them down. 12:44, April 22, 2012 (UTC)

Broken HTML tags
So I've noticed that some HTML tags on the Community Portal mainpage seem to be broken. I noticed that (overnight?) we have been upgraded to MediaWiki 1.19 as part of Wikia's global overhaul. Despite HTML5 having native backwards compatibility with older versions of the HTML standard, a lot of tags have become obsolete. This is noticeable in Chrome and I haven't tried any other browsers. 10:22, July 6, 2012 (UTC)
 * This issue also exists in Firefox, so I've added that to the table. In fact, the page won't even load for me, it dumps me on an error page instead. However, I do know that before the upgrade we were having problems on that page, specifically with the randomized Sim pictures and the tags. *edit* If it is those tags, then it's worth mentioning that we use them on other pages as well, including on the Main Page in multiple templates. At last check a couple weeks ago they were still working, but I'll check again. --  LiR speak ~ read 21:52, July 6, 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah I just saw the error message too. Seems like a problem with the MediaWiki installation that's out of our control. I didn't see anything about HTML5 not supporting choose tags so I don't know what Wikia did to them, if anything, though I've noticed that the choose tags still seem to work on a few userpages... 22:00, July 6, 2012 (UTC)
 * Perhaps there's some other code on that page that conflicts with the tags? I honestly have no idea.--  LiR speak ~ read 22:07, July 6, 2012 (UTC)
 * Update: I get an Internal error every time I try to edit the page, even if I'm trying to remove the tags. My guess is that we're somehow missing the actual problem. Are there any other pages with a similar issue on the wiki? --  LiR speak ~ read 22:10, July 6, 2012 (UTC)
 * Interestingly I just tried to copy that page to my Sandbox to try and solve the issue without breaking anything else and I got the same "Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information." error message. I'm yet to encounter any other pages with that issue but I'm now thinking that there is something in the code on that page that Wikia doesn't like. All we can really do is try to find out what but this is weird. 22:17, July 6, 2012 (UTC)
 * Update: I've managed to copy the whole page into my sandbox and it seemed that the Activity Feed HTML tags were causing pretty much every issue, including the internal errors. Everything that's in the Sandbox now (at the time of writing) is working as it should be. For now I've copied my sandbox to the Community Portal mainpage as it seems to be in working order but it's worth keeping an eye on things. 22:27, July 6, 2012 (UTC)

Borders on templates rounded vs not rounded
I'm not sure if it has to do with the recent MediaWiki upgrade, but now some of our templates have lost the 'rounded corners' that they used to have, at least in my browser (Firefox). I've noticed that if I change the template over to use Parthenon, then the problem is fixed, at least for that template (for example, Nutshell). --  LiR speak ~ read 00:29, July 22, 2012 (UTC)
 * Added Chrome to that list too. Before going on holiday, I filed a bug report to Wikia as the Abuse Filter seems to be missing the filter navigation bar, the check syntax option is broken and the optional dropdowns were appearing even if they weren't selected. I'm guessing they are to do with the MediaWiki update which pushed HTML5 support, which could have caused the issue here. Sad thing is I don't know any HTML5 :( 11:10, July 22, 2012 (UTC)
 * I think, specifically regarding the template issue, the best thing to do would be to find the un-rounded templates and re-work them so they load directly through transcluding (and not substituting) the Parthenon template. That way as well, if we choose in the future to update Parthenon, all those templates will be auto-updated along with it. --  LiR speak ~ read 18:25, July 22, 2012 (UTC)


 * I've expanded on the above point, in detail...


 * I think it would be best practice, from now on, for the admin team or anyone creating or updating message templates to transclude Parthenon directly into the template coding. This obviously does not apply to userboxes, main page templates, bio templates, or other templates that wouldn't otherwise use Parthenon.


 * This has a couple advantages. Firstly, Parthenon appears not to be affected by the aforementioned issue involving non-rounded corners that are affecting some templates following the MediaWiki update. Also, using Parthenon allows a cohesive theme across multiple templates used on the wiki. Using direct linking to Parthenon (by transclusion, not by substitution or 'copy-pasting') has the added benefit of allowing adjustments to the Parthenon and all templates that use it without needless edits to those individual templates.


 * I will probably be manually changing over those templates that manually use Parthenon over the next few days, so that they use Parthenon. Most templates by now have been updated to use Parthenon, even if they were created before Parthenon debuted. Any assistance on this project would be appreciated. --  LiR speak ~ read 04:50, July 25, 2012 (UTC)
 * A tip for anyone wishing to help is if you see a squared template and the source code says "-moz-border-radius" and/or "-webkit-border-radius" then it is meant to be rounded. I've just ported the Info template at the top of this page to Parthenon and I'll be on the lookout for more as I see them. Besides, it seems easier to write in Parthenon anyway as the framework is already there and if configured correctly it won't mess up any already existing templates. 20:39, July 25, 2012 (UTC)

Gallery licensing
It was pointed out by TheSims23 that, when users upload images via the gallery button, there is no option to license the images. Currently, one particular user is doing this, which is leaving many newly-uploaded images uncategorized and unlicensed. I have no idea of how to fix this, but could it be something related to Media Wiki? Thank you for reading. -- RoseGui ( talk here ) 18:24, July 29, 2012 (UTC)
 * Some time since July 13 or earlier, the issue has already occurred. I told Wogan about it, but claimed the next day that it had somehow been fixed. Or maybe I was hallucinating at that time, so I just left this issue like this. :/  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  18:39, July 29, 2012 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, uploading images via the Gallery/Photo function on the edit page has never included any form of attribution and users haven't compensated by manually licensing their files. Personally I'd like it if uploading via Gallery was removed completely and users either had to use Special:Upload or Special:MultipleUpload but unfortunately writing an Abusefilter to stop anyone from using it or using Javascript to block is is highly likely against Wikia's TOS. 19:02, August 18, 2012 (UTC)
 * Well, using the add gallery doesn't... but the add photo button actually does.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  07:35, August 20, 2012 (UTC)

Countdown Template Broken
I noticed today that Countdown is no longer functioning. GG says he was editing javascript for the wiki, but he has reverted his edits and the template still doesn't work. I've marked this as a moderate issue due to the fact that this template is heavily-used. --  LiR speak ~ read 19:05, August 15, 2012 (UTC)
 * Chrome too. Initially I thought it may have been down to the MediaWiki upgrade but now I'm thinking it may be something else which is specific to TSW. FWIW, the script which I was trying to add came from a wiki using the upgraded version of MW which we also have and where it worked there, it failed here. Granted, the newest version of MediaWiki still has numerous bugs so I'm not sure what the issue really is but it's rather strange... 19:10, August 15, 2012 (UTC)
 * Odd, It's working now. We'll keep an eye on this. --  LiR speak ~ read 19:13, August 15, 2012 (UTC)
 * I know this seems a bit unrelated but having conducted further tests with JS, it seems there is definitely an issue with adding new JS (like what happened here) and even replacing JS. I've sent a bug report to Wikia to see if there's something up. 20:44, August 15, 2012 (UTC)

Issues with article naming
The conversation below has been copied from Talk:Downtown (The Sims), as it is relevant to multiple articles.

Personally, I prefer the precision of the title, even if it's not that simple. Still, there are some other pages that are based on this precision as well, such as Spells (The Sims: Makin' Magic) and Spells (The Sims 2: Apartment Life), and Downtown (The Sims 2: Nightlife).

If we had to simplify it however, I guess using the title of the EP, e.g. Spells (Makin' Magic) or Downtown (Nightlife) sounds better, with the only exceptions to Pets, Seasons, and upcoming University, which the title The Sims 2/3: should still be kept.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:32, October 11, 2012 (UTC)
 * I was thinking more about Vampire (The Sims 3), for example, which technically should be Vampire (The Sims 3: Late Night) when I moved this page. It seems that the issue of titles in these cases should be decided universally, not just article-by-article. --  LiR speak ~ read 15:42, October 11, 2012 (UTC)


 * (Added more). Ok, our Manual of Style does touch on this issue a bit:

"Articles should be named in such a way that each has a unique title. Articles' titles usually indicate the name of the topic. When additional precision is necessary to distinguish an article from other uses of the topic name, over-precision should be avoided. This can be done by adding a disambiguating tag in parentheses (or sometimes after a comma); however in certain cases it may be done by choosing a different form of the title in order to achieve uniqueness."


 * Now the unique titles issue is obvious enough and no matter which approach we take, it's apparent that the articles do have different names. My concern with Downtown (The Sims: Hot Date) (plus the other examples) is that it's overprecise. We generally don't quibble over which expansion introduced a particular feature when we refer to the features included in a particular game, for example on Comparison between The Sims, The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 or similar pages. I think breaking the pages up by base game only is clear and specific enough to meet our needs. --  LiR speak ~ read 15:49, October 11, 2012 (UTC)


 * Hmm, I see your point. But still, I guess it'd be rather confusing if we say Spells (The Sims 2) as one might say, "What kind of spells can we cast in TS2?? Oh, it's from Apartment Life..." Okay, I guess I overrated this one example, but perhaps it's still worth pointing out the pack it came from...
 * I'm thinking we could just omit "The Sims X", though it will be problematic with the similarly-named EPs...  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:04, October 11, 2012 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I can see that as well. Either way, I'm going to relocate this conversation to The Sims Wiki talk:Development Portal, so we can sort this out wiki-wide. --  LiR speak ~ read 16:26, October 11, 2012 (UTC)

To boil down what's written above... presently we have multiple pages on our wiki that have the 'same name', like Downtown for The Sims: Hot Date and The Sims 2: Nightlife. In some instances, the articles are given a disambiguating addition which includes the name of the base game and expansion pack (e.g. Spells (The Sims: Makin' Magic) and Spells (The Sims 2: Apartment Life)), and in some other instances the names are given for the base game only (e.g. Vampire (The Sims 3) and simply Vampire), regardless of whether the feature was introduced in a specific expansion or not.

We should reach a universal standard for how these articles are named. As I quoted above, the MoS isn't necessarily as specific as needed to resolve this matter; it stipulates that a name should be specific enough to be clear but not over-specific. To that end, I do believe we have three options (please let me know if there's something I'm missing).


 * Option 1: We rename the articles so they are all listed as "Article name (The Sims #: Expansion Name)". This option is very specific in all cases, but can tend to be somewhat lengthy and can be over-specific in some cases.
 * Option 2: We rename the articles so they are listed as "Article name (Expansion Name only)". This option yields a shorter name, except that there are several examples of repeated expansion pack names between two base games, so there would end up being confusion if the same feature were included in both same-named packs.
 * Option 3: We rename the articles so they are listed as "Article name (base game name only)". This option is not specific to the expansion pack the feature is introduced in, but creates a short and simple article title.

Additionally, we could try a hybrid of the options above if we wanted to. --  LiR speak ~ read 16:26, October 11, 2012 (UTC)
 * I'd stick with option 2. As for the title with the repeated expansion names, we don't need to stick with the complete "(The Sims 2: Seasons)" for example; we could just use the base game name for that as a shorter alternative.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:10, October 12, 2012 (UTC)
 * In terms of simplicity, option 2 seems like the best one in my opinion. Asher Éire I'm a lonely person, so please talk to me... 15:23, October 12, 2012 (UTC)
 * I would also go with Option 2, because I believe it would make the article name seem less overpowering, in a way, and could even make them look neater. When we run into the problem of expansion packs with the same name as their prequel counterparts, I propose we name them something such as "Article Name (University 2)", and "Article Name (Pets 3)". It's just a thought I had. ~ Waikikamukow [ Talk - Blog ] - 05:36, October 16, 2012 (UTC)
 * Option 3 sounds like the best option to me purely as I can't see EA adding a neighborhood named "Downtown" twice in one generation. Plus, although this is yet to happen, it would avoid the potential dilemma with EP names carried across generations (e.g. Seasons, Pets) featuring neighborhoods with the same name (like Downtown). 19:30, October 16, 2012 (UTC)
 * If potential EP names get used the second time is to be considered, I'd like to see until The Sims 3: University is officially announced... I really wish EA would've had a cleverer name for that!  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  12:41, October 18, 2012 (UTC)

I've been rethinking all along... and I changed my mind for Option 3. I think we need to put more simplicity on that.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  08:45, February 20, 2013 (UTC)

Problem with references?
It appears that, while reference-links are going to the proper reference, the links from the reference back to the main text are all going to the first reference in the article. Has anyone else noticed this? Dharden (talk) 00:15, November 19, 2012 (UTC)
 * Hmm, you're right. I noticed that glitch while cleaning up some broken references, and I thought that was what caused it. Apparently it only happens to the reference that's only used once. Named references that's used multiple times aren't affected, and seem to work properly though. I assume it's wiki-wide bug?  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  14:51, November 20, 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, named references used multiple times aren't affected, but named references only used once are. I tested this with Aspiration benefit. I'm not sure if it's wiki-wide -- or Wikia-wide. Dharden (talk) 15:14, November 20, 2012 (UTC)
 * Perhaps we could contact a staff if this problem persists...? Frankly, I'm a little bugged with the change on viewing revision comparison. It used to be full-page wide, but now the width is the same as regular page view. There are just some times when we need to see how the page looks like in a full-page width.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:29, November 20, 2012 (UTC)

Mosaic header issues
From this tech blog, it seems that Wikia have killed the CSS module known as "WikiHeaderRestyle" and replaced it with just "WikiHeader". I've gone ahead and made the changes accordingly to restore the mosaic but it's come at a price: the translucent tab background which was present before now ceases to exist, causing the non-highlighted/selected text to be possibly difficult to read for some users. I don't know how to reapply the background as that was part of WikiHeaderRestyle but if anyone has any ideas of solving this then please fire away. 22:03, November 28, 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure if this has to do with what you just did, or with the Wikia update, but the topnav menu has a visible break between the tabs and the dropdown menu, when you're on Special:Recentchanges. --  LiR speak ~ read 23:29, November 28, 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't know what happened here as now everything is back to normal.


 * As for the break between Topnav and the mosaic, Wikia added that in their recent skin update which added the extra width to the skin. It's used for ad space. 20:00, November 29, 2012 (UTC)
 * Disregard that last part, I've just noticed what it really is and I'm assuming this has something to do with Wikia's CSS changes. 20:21, November 29, 2012 (UTC)

Facebook 'Like box' is missing
I've marked this issue as 'minor' since it doesn't impede the function of the Wiki. However, I don't foresee any growth in the Facebook page until that box is returned to working order. I wanted to bring this to everyone's attention; I would attempt to fix it now but I need sleep, and I probably won't be online much tomorrow to fix it either. Post here if the box still appears for you, or add your browser to the template above if it doesn't appear to you. --  LiR speak ~ read 09:36, December 29, 2012 (UTC)

Zombie Skin
(Note: This was originally posted by Tiezel in Talk:Skin. Dharden (talk))

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I was wondering why there was no zombie skin for The Sims 2in the Sim templates. Probably because there are no pre-made zombies? Does it make sense to put it in there? (for the fanons I guess).

The icon in-game shows somehow the University logo, so I also uploaded one without the logo.



Tiezel (talk) 13:27, March 7, 2013 (UTC)
 * Never really paid attention to this. Seeing that there's no good reason why not to include it, I think it can be added in the template for fanon purposes.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:30, March 7, 2013 (UTC)

Forums broken
I know very little about the cause of this problem... but I'm hoping someone here does know about it. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 18:32, March 7, 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm seeing "Invalid tag extension name: forum". I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask Wikia staff if they changed something. Dharden (talk) 18:38, March 7, 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm not really experiencing any issues...  Cavia (  wheek  •   speak  )  18:40, March 7, 2013 (UTC)
 * Ok, now it looks normal for me. It might've been a temporary bug. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 18:42, March 7, 2013 (UTC)
 * I didn't notice anything across Chrome, IE and Safari (iOS), so chances are it's either a caching issue or Wikia messing around with code...again... 18:51, March 7, 2013 (UTC)
 * Back to normal in Opera as well. Dharden (talk) 19:01, March 7, 2013 (UTC)

Introducing Wikipedia's Three Revert Rule
Moved discussion to Forum:Introducing Wikipedia's Three Revert Rule -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 21:26, April 8, 2013 (UTC)

Game guides/Tutorials broken
So if anybody has noticed, the content pages for Game guides/tutorials appear to be missing yet categories are listing the articles as are user contributions. I'm using Google Chrome and it appears to be a serious issue for me. I'll bring this up here to see if anybody else can confirm if they're having the same issues before it's reported to Wikia. It's likely a MediaWiki code issue but it doesn't hurt to investigate deeper. 18:47, May 22, 2013 (UTC)


 * Odd. I'm having the same issue, and I use Firefox. Here's an example of what I'm getting.  Cavia (  wheek  •   speak  ) 19:23, May 22, 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm seeing the same thing with Opera. Dharden (talk) 19:52, May 22, 2013 (UTC)
 * ETA: It appears to be working if "Game guide:" is used, but not if "Tutorial:" is used. Dharden (talk) 20:00, May 22, 2013 (UTC)
 * Yeah just as I was about to contact Wikia, I've noticed it appears to have fixed itself. Initially it wasn't showing as "Game guide" either. I guess it's time for the cleanup task. 20:02, May 22, 2013 (UTC)
 * I knew about this issue yesterday and sent a contact to Wikia Staff. Their reply: "Sorry about that. Slight misonfig on my part. Should be cleared up now.". So, aside from the necessary fixing of redlinks associated with the namespace rename, the issue of the missing pages should now be resolved. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 20:18, May 22, 2013 (UTC)

Sims from The Urbz (console)/(handheld) category
No matter how I tried, I couldn't make automatic categorization for Urbz in specific game. Inputting The Urbz: Sims in the City with or without the (handheld) is pointless since it will just categorize the Urb to Category:Sims from The Urbz, while I need them to be categorized in either console or handheld. This leaves us to categorize them manually. This is pretty old, I know, and we may not even need it anymore, but this is annoying and frustrating. I tried to change or remove the cases in GetGameCat to no avail. I tried looking at Urb, Sim, and Vgcoderev, but nothing changes such behavior in these templates.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  04:01, September 9, 2013 (UTC)
 * In fact, I feel like the template is somehow broken for no reason. I changed the categorization from "Category:Sims from The Sims 3 (NDS)" to "Category:Sims from The Sims 3 (Nintendo DS)", but it can't be changed in any way when applied to Sim articles. I don't suppose it's because of my browser cache, but normally the change will work by using preview while editing the page. In this case, it won't, and it's been days since the template was changed.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  18:44, September 10, 2013 (UTC)
 * I've found the culprit. The GetGameCat conversed the input from Vgcode. This enforced The Urbz input into just The Urbz: Sims in the City since it generalizes both console and handheld version into one category, while in many instances, they're actually distinct. I've changed this so both games have their own Vgcode now.


 * Also, I've found strange behavior on GetGameCat. Instead of looking for the existing cases on the template, it looks on the default case instead (at the bottom of the list) which converses the input from Vgcoderev (The Vgcoderev for TS3NDS was wrong. I've changed it). If the game isn't listed in Vgcoderev, then it will use the one in GetGameCat. I recall this was the case for The Sims 3: Seasons back then. This is odd, and I think this should be noted, considering default case is supposed to be used last in such template.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  05:09, September 11, 2013 (UTC)

Era not displaying
This issue seems have been a long while, but honestly I have no idea why they're still not displaying at all. --Frostwalker Talk to me! 08:00, October 13, 2013 (UTC)
 * Also confirmed in Chrome. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 12:12, October 13, 2013 (UTC)


 * I suspect it was caused by Wikia update on October 1st, when the show/hide button on tables was broken, but I'm not sure. The date just coincided.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  12:43, October 14, 2013 (UTC)
 * I remember seeing them more recently. Since Wikia does a weekly update (on Wednesdays), my guess is that it would be the October 9th update that caused the issue. -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 17:13, October 14, 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm positively sure it was since October 1st. That was before I tried to fix the broken show/hide button on the tables on October 5th. Both happened at the same time.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  12:42, October 19, 2013 (UTC)


 * Still broken as of November 18th. Also confirmed with Opera 12.16. Not moved on to the Chromium-based versions, but I suspect that anything which affects Chrome would also affect them. Dharden (talk) 21:12, November 18, 2013 (UTC)


 * Perhaps we could do something with the .css that may fix the issue, but I'm not sure what to do since I know nothing about .css.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  17:30, November 19, 2013 (UTC)

Broken Admin Dashboard
The content of Admin Dashboard seems to be pushed down below the quick stats on the side. It's been like this for the past few days. Not sure what caused this, though I'd blame Wikia's technical update, either on October 8 or 15.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  12:42, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
 * Confirmed. I just noticed that. --Frostwalker Talk to me! 12:44, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
 * Some time recently, this issue has been fixed without notice.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:22, October 26, 2013 (UTC)

Category:Sims who use a broken face template
I have created Category:Sims who use a broken face template for Sims from The Sims 2 who use one of the "broken" Maxis face templates. There appear to be enough of them to make a category useful. Dharden (talk) 14:57, December 25, 2013 (UTC)
 * Hmm... it doesn't seem to be showing up in the category dropdowns or working when used with "Add category", but is working when the tag is manually added to the end of an article. Anyway, I've added the Ruben twins from Sim State to start the category. Dharden (talk) 15:21, December 25, 2013 (UTC)
 * Perhaps it's not showing because the category is new? Maybe it needs some more time until it can show up. I don't know. I don't have the Add Category button enabled in my preferences. Anyway, I've tweaked so that Sims with Broken-face template will generate that category, so it doesn't have to be manually added.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:15, December 25, 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Nikel. That's the best way to do it, IMO. One thing, though -- young adults with broken faces won't show it until they become elders. Since the "small" parameter is optional, it may be easier to have a YA version of the template than to try tweaking Broken-face to handle that. Dharden (talk) 16:44, December 25, 2013 (UTC)
 * I think the template can still be tweaked so that the second parameter will alter the text for YA Sims. The syntax would be something like  or  . But if you don't feel like tweaking the existing template, I guess that's fine as well.  Nikel   Talk  –  Vote!  17:15, December 25, 2013 (UTC)
 * Done. It seems to work, though YA is case-sensitive. Dharden (talk) 18:37, December 25, 2013 (UTC)

Blurry images
Does anyone experience blurry thumbnails as seen in this and this page? I'm sure there are more than just that. It looks blurry in my browser, but I want to know if it only occurs to me or not. According to this thread, many other wikis experience this too, and the staff has stated that this issue has been fixed. However, it doesn't look like it has here...  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:44, April 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * Yeah, some images are blurry to me as well. Still waiting for the "cache" to clear. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 15:46, April 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * Glad to know I'm not the only one. Hopefully it's resolved in less than a week. It might be forgotten if the issue is left for later than that.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:02, April 27, 2014 (UTC)

Special:UnusedFiles is being faulty
It has been a while that I noticed Special:UnusedFiles has been listing images that are actually used somewhere in this wiki erroneously. I've noticed this for long, and I thought it would fix itself some time in the future, but no. It hasn't been fixed and it's still being faulty. For example, this file File:CamrynMcGaw.png is said to be unused, while it really is used on Camryn McGaw. Even the file page says it's not used anywhere in this wiki. If you try to clean up the unused files in that page, please be careful with this, as you might accidentally delete used images.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  09:59, May 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * I've had (and as I last checked, currently having) this problem on my other wiki. I emailed Wikia and was informed that "A server might've lagged behind". Though when I got the response the page had already updated, so the issue wasn't investigated any further. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I just checked Special:UnusedFiles and it was updated not too long ago. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:09, May 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * It was updated not too long ago, but the issue is still there. There are still many used images that are listed unused, even if the pages that use them are never touched.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  11:35, May 24, 2014 (UTC)

Threadcromancy, but it seems like the issue is still happening. Special:Contact it? --I am  k6ka  Talk to me!   See what I have done  01:30, October 6, 2014 (UTC)


 * Well that sucks! :( --  C.Syde  ( talk &#124;  contribs ) 01:49, October 6, 2014 (UTC)
 * Might as well report it. Can you give some examples of images that are currently used that are listed on UnusedFiles? -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 01:56, October 6, 2014 (UTC)


 * Hmm, nevermind, the issue seems to have resolved itself. I got mixed up with a bunch of duplicate images with very similar filenames! --I am  k6ka  Talk to me!   See what I have done  02:10, October 6, 2014 (UTC)

Trait categories and pages for TS4 vs TS3 traits
A couple weeks ago Trait (The Sims 4) was created. It only makes sense that we would have separate articles for traits in the major releases, so my issue isn't with the creation of that page. However, I renamed Trait to Trait (The Sims 3), since the content of that page deals almost exclusively with TS3 traits. I have since been having LiRBot fix a lot of the redirect/bad links left over from the page move, after which I intend to re-write Trait to be a generic article not focused on traits in one particular game.

My question is, are we going to have separate categories for traits in TS3 vs TS4? For instance, Hopeless Romantic is (IIRC) a trait that will appear in TS4. So, do we create a new page for Hopeless Romantic (named Hopeless Romantic (The Sims 4)) and a new category for Sims who are Hopeless Romantics in TS4? Or, do we use the same pages and categories for both? -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 04:01, May 26, 2014 (UTC)


 * For categories, I think it's okay if we combine both games. Many games share the same categories, like zodiac sign and appearances. Careers are a good example for this, since many careers in different games have similar names, are described differently, but share the same categories.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:39, May 26, 2014 (UTC)
 * Ok, that sounds alright. But what about the trait pages themselves? Taking the example of careers, we tend to keep careers from different games on the same page if they have the same name. So, would we continue to do this with TS4 traits that duplicate TS3 traits? --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 15:43, May 26, 2014 (UTC)


 * I'm not quite sure. Every TS3 trait page is pretty much individual, and has consistent layout. Combining it with TS4 trait seems like it will mess up the layout (some trait pages are for TS3, some for TS4, and some for both). Personally, just for the sake of the consistent layout, I'd rather separate the trait pages. It's not really a strong reason though, as it's just a personal preference.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:10, May 26, 2014 (UTC)
 * If we take that approach, we'll have to rename all the pages with traits whose names are shared. So if Hopeless Romantic is a trait in TS4, we'll have a page named Hopeless Romantic (The Sims 3) and Hopeless Romantic (The Sims 4). So there will be a bit of work involved in making the pages separate. -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 19:08, May 26, 2014 (UTC)
 * Also, if we go that route, wouldn't we have to create a new navigation template for TS4 traits? That would mean renaming Traits to something else. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 17:10, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * I prefer separating the page that way. But I think we don't need to hurry to rename these articles right away. We hardly have any detailed information about trait system in The Sims 4, so it's better to stuff the information we have in Trait (The Sims 4) at the moment. We're not sure if the system is as simple as The Sims 3 either. There are things called "unlockable trait" or "bonus trait based on Aspiration" for instance. Once we have detailed enough information to sort things out, renaming is in order.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  14:15, June 3, 2014 (UTC)

New users not being welcomed
‎73.190.48.34, ‎68.45.246.114, 50.156.12.84, etc. are new editors to the wiki. The only problem is, for some reason Wikia hasn't sent them a welcome message yet.

I asked on Community Central Chat and was told that the bot was "sometimes slow", so I let it slide. It's been several hours and still no welcome message. Think this is another Wikia issue, probably broke some code or their bot is down. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:47, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * Note: Welcome messages aren't appearing for any other wiki too. This isn't related to just our wiki. Hopefully Staff has figured it out by now and will have a fix ready soon. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:49, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * This has been happening since few months back when I was still active in the wiki. The welcome messages will still appear in next few hours though and waiting for almost half a day is normal to me. Nothing we can do exactly about them right now. -- 11:57, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * Okay, sent in a bug report to Wikia. Will hopefully get a response soon. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 19:52, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * While the Wikia had this problem, should all of the users give a welcome messages to the contributors and the registered users or admins only?  ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  11:11, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * The MediaWiki settings always sign welcome messages with an admin's signature. If there are no active admins it is signed by a Staff member. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:47, May 28, 2014 (UTC)
 * The bot signs it with a member of the administrative team or staff, but there's no particular reason why regular users wouldn't be allowed to give welcome messages themselves. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 14:39, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * I mean that a normal user would've give a welcome message to the new editors, however, the sign must be an active admin or a Wikia Staff (if that particular user knows the staffs and the admins well) and not themselves.  ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  15:25, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * If a user is posting a welcome message, they should use their own signature. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 15:33, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * Got the following response from Wikia:

Hello K6ka,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention - it does appear the tool has broken down. I'll flag it up to the technical team, and we'll investigate what has gone wrong.

Apologies for this issue, and best regards,

George Marbulcanti (Kirkburn) Wikia Community Support


 * --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 21:57, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * Bringing this up right now - users can welcome new users with the Welcome and WelcomeIP templates. Be sure to read the documentation at the bottom of those pages. Monitor recent changes and look for users that have a red "Talk" link (meaning they do not have a talk page). If they do not have "STAFF", "HELPER", "WIKIA STAR", or "VSTF" next to their username in the user header box, then you can add a template. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 17:09, May 29, 2014 (UTC)

┌─────────────────┘

Update: Bot is back up and running. Thanks guys. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:00, May 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * I think the bot might be delayed. As the contributor (which it is vandalizing) isn't being welcome.  ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  11:21, May 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * Hmm, it made like a few edits on my other wiki. It also made a couple of edits on the Developers Wikia. Not sure about the other wikis. Oh well. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:40, May 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * So far, the bot's very unstable. Sometimes it welcomes, sometimes it doesn't. If the user is manually welcomed, sometimes the bot will pop up out of nowhere and leave a duplicate welcome message. If the user is not welcomed, the bot won't edit at all and it looks silly. Until Wikia sorts this out, I have thoughts of disabling this feature, at least temporarily, and go back to manually welcoming users by changing MediaWiki:Welcome-user to "@disabled", until Wikia can sort this out. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 13:59, June 4, 2014 (UTC)

Resurrecting this cause it seems the bot is down... again! See User:K6ka/What to do if the welcome bot is down for instructions on what to do. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 12:43, June 28, 2014 (UTC)

Multiple neighborhood parameters in Lot
I've copied Lot onto my testpage (see here) with the intent to modernize it, so it looks like our other main infobox templates. While going through the template, I noticed that there's a spot for multiple neighborhoods, if a lot appears in more than one neighborhood. Since the template ultimately uses the neighborhood name to determine what color the template itself is, it's important that each lot be from only one neighborhood (or, at the very least, from only one game or game generation). So if those extra neighborhood parameters are actually used, then I'll have to come up with another way to give color to the templates. Does anyone know if Lot is used for any lots/houses that appear in multiple neighborhoods? --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 08:16, June 4, 2014 (UTC)

Introducing Outdent
You may have noticed the weird lines I occasionally add in talk pages and forum posts. It looks a bit like this:

┌───────────────────┘

That's called an outdent, and no, the idea for it was not original. It was used on Wikipedia as an interesting (and fancy) way to reset the indents on a talk page. When a talk page was indented to an incredible length, the template was used to signify that the indents were "reset" and users should start from number 1 again. For example:


 * Blah blah blah --User 1
 * Blah blah blah --User 2
 * Blah blah blah --User 1
 * STOP SPAMMING --User 3
 * Blah blah blah --User 4
 * Meh --User 5
 * Blah ... blah blah! Haha! --User 6
 * Jeez, you guys are annoying. --User 3
 * Yeah, I'd have to agree with User 3 with this one --User 8

┌─────────────────────┘

You irritating little children! --User 9
 * Blah blah blah IDC --User 2
 * lolwut --User 4

Something like the above. It's not strictly required, but seeing that I was getting tired of copy 'n' pasting the outdent, I decided to steal the template code from Wikipedia and use it here. Details are in the documentation. You can also just use Od as a shortcut. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:51, June 10, 2014 (UTC)


 * I've never used this outdent thing before, but it looks neat and tidy when you use it. Making a template for it is quite practical. I'm going to try to get used to it!  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  12:17, June 10, 2014 (UTC)

Colors for infoboxes
I've updated the Game color templates so The Sims 4 finally has some color. You can see the colors in action on my test page (here). I took the colors from screenshots of the new in-game Gallery feature, since they seem to be indicative of the palette that is being used in the game. The colors strongly resemble the colors we've picked for The Sims 2 and, even if they didn't, I'm not entirely sure I'm a fan of the colors I have now as they seem very subdued. But, it's a start and we can build off of it. I'm going to play around with the colors a little bit more, but I wanted to open it up to comments and discussion, so we can make improvements. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 23:49, June 11, 2014 (UTC)


 * I originally planned to use white color scheme based on the UI we've seen in the trailers. It's not too similar to The Sims 2 color scheme, but it is for The Sims Social. Probably we could change The Sims Social color, considering the only usage is in its own game article.


 * Also, I see that the Vgsecondaryfontcolor for The Sims 4 is black instead of white that's used in most series. While black is more contrast to the background color, I think I prefer white as it has no major problem with the readability and it's consistent with other schemes.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:24, June 13, 2014 (UTC)
 * Looking back now, I actually like the colors for TS4 as they are. I do think we should make the TS2 colors darker, possibly to match the darker blue UI in the game. As for font color, that should always be decided on a case-by-case basis as it relates to how easily the font is read; just because the other schemes use a white color, it doesn't necessarily mean this one should too. -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 17:00, June 13, 2014 (UTC)
 * I agree with making the TS2 colors darker, especially if that would affect object descriptions in infoboxes. I think that would help readability, especially in articles with several infoboxes. Dharden (talk) 20:58, July 16, 2014 (UTC)
 * I've tweaked Object so that it uses bold+italic for descriptions instead of just italic. IMO, that's easier to read -- at least it's easier for me to read. I think that's because the bolding darkens the text so it stands out more. Dharden (talk) 21:21, July 16, 2014 (UTC)

No Must Watch Videos gadget
This does not appear to be working properly. At least, I am still getting the module, even though I have set my preferences to use this gadget. Dharden (talk) 15:00, June 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * The gadget is broken - you'll need to click here and save Lab's code into your personal Wikia .css file. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 15:06, June 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Dharden (talk) 17:02, June 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * I was just wondering about this myself. Does it mean this module isn't disabled entirely in this wikia?  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  14:51, June 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * The module is enabled on this Wikia, and Wikia forces us to keep it enabled and visible. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 14:54, June 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * Ah, Wikia and its policies...  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:03, June 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * Can some users have the JS/CSS page? Because I want to remove the gadget too, it's bugging me out. Hehe.  .ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  |  (my mistakes)  11:52, July 1, 2014 (UTC)


 * Yes, all users who are logged in can have their own personal JS/CSS pages. Just click here and hit Save. Here's a help page on this stuff. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 12:32, July 1, 2014 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the info!  .ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  |  (my mistakes)  12:42, July 1, 2014 (UTC)

Era template
I did some tinkering and I think I got Era to display correctly again. Please let me know if you notice any problems stemming from it. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 12:53, June 25, 2014 (UTC)
 * Ah, thanks for taking care of it!  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  14:52, June 30, 2014 (UTC)