The Sims Wiki talk:Development Portal

This area is for minor notifications about the administration, maintenance and development of The Sims Wiki. It is primarily adressed to those who actively participate in these areas, but anyone is welcome. This page was created in an effort to have people communicate more about what they're up to, their current areas of interest and what's new regarding development of the wiki.

The main place to discuss things about this wiki is still the Community Portal talk page. This page is more for notifications, which might not neccesarily need a discussion, though feedback is always nice.

Examples of things to post here include:
 * What can I post here?
 * Minor templates you've made, which aren't big enough to warrent a blog post on the front page.
 * Things you've noticed which might require an administrative hand at some point, but isn't urgent and doesn't conflict with any policies.
 * A heads-up on common mistakes made while developing templates or other maintenance tasks.

Please do not archive posts too quickly, people must have a chance to see them and reply. Once something IS archived they can open up the discussion again of course, if it's really needed, by linking to the original discussion.

The Development Portal
The discussion for the place itself should go here. This is the result of a conversation between Duskey & a morris: User talk:a morris, a few posts down.

Timer / Countdown template
I took the told timer template and stripped it down to just the countdown and made a countdown template. Now you can use it in-line or create your own box to put it in. 'Countdown' is currently placed in the Test templates category since I'm not sure about any kinks yet. LostInRiverview has made an effort to find out which time zone abbreviations it can handle on his talk page (archived and moved to Template talk:Countdown). Duskey ( talk ) 13:35, July 19, 2010 (UTC)


 * As far as I can gather, only timezone abbreviations used in the main United States (or adjacent areas of North America), as well as UTC, apply. These zones are Pacific Standard/Daylight Time (PST/PDT), Mountain Standard/Daylight Time (MST/MDT), Central Standard/Daylight Time (CST/CDT), Eastern Standard/Daylight Time (EST/EDT), and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The difference between Standard time and Daylight time depends on the time of year, and whether a certain locality practices Daylight Saving/Summer Time. For this, and a couple other reasons, I would advocate that the countdown clock be used with (UTC) in most, if not all, circumstances. -- Patrick (LostInRiverview) (talk)(blog)(random page) 15:53, July 19, 2010 (UTC)

I'm thinking we can use this for countdowns to release dates or other large events. Maybe even for when a block expires on blocked user pages, but I think it would require changing the javascript since I bet many people will disregard the 'T plus' after it has expired and still see a countdown. Although we could just instruct them to remove it themselves when they can, sort of like warnings. Duskey ( talk ) 13:35, July 19, 2010 (UTC)


 * It's too bad you can't set the countdown to automatically stop counting once it reaches the assigned time... maybe have it say "Time's up!" or something. If that were possible, we would need a template for countups as well, though I can't think of where that would be useful. -- Patrick (LostInRiverview) (talk)(blog)(random page) 21:23, July 19, 2010 (UTC)


 * I've been messing with the javascript and I think I made it work so that it stop counting when it expires and produces a text instead: Template talk:Countdown. Anyone who knows Javascript would probably kick me for the juryrig I made, but it seems to work. I'd like to ask people to test it out, see if we can find some bugs. If not, I'm open to suggestions to what the expiration message should be. It can become abit tricky:

Before: 'x days x minutes' till Christmas.

After: (as it is at the time of writing) Time has expired till Christmas.


 * If it's doable I wouldn't mind adding an (edit) text next to it so people can remove the countdown when it has expired. Duskey ( talk ) 16:14, July 20, 2010 (UTC)


 * I have imported Edit from Wikia Templates. --a_morris (talk) 21:27, July 21, 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I tried implementing a more creative 'time has expired' but I kept breaking it. I can't seem to insert wiki formatting or any fancy symbols into. For now, let's just be glad it works and that it doesn't count up any more when the time is up. If you wanna customize the timer feel free to create some countdown/mytimer or something templates. Duskey ( talk ) 21:39, July 24, 2010 (UTC)


 * I've moved the template from the testing area now. Duskey ( talk ) 07:35, July 28, 2010 (UTC)

Country userboxes
Some wikians have started making Country userboxes. I'm not quite ready to 'release them into the wild' yet. Many of them needs a hand from someone who knows about clashing colors. They also need to sort users properly in the 'Users/Ireland' category by adding ' | '. We also need to create abit more of them I think, so less experienced wikians won't have to face the daunting task of making their own. It's a shame we can't see where most of our visitors are from. When they're abit more ready we can create a blog post about them, announcing them on the front page. Duskey ( talk ) 13:35, July 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * Okay we've got North America, Western- and Central Europe covered with userboxes now. Again since we can't see where our visitors are from this is just me guessing that come from these places. I'm gonna create a blog post, announcing these in a few days unless anyone has any major objections. LostInRiverview and I have been coloring the borders and text according to the actual hex colors on the flags and they are all sorting users properly. There's still time to make changes if anyone has some bright ideas or disagree with a color scheme, but refrain from editing them too much once they're announced on the front page. Duskey ( talk ) 15:03, July 20, 2010 (UTC)
 * On a related note, I've created userbox nick, userbox UTC & userbox irc. I'm thinking we'll 'reveal' them to the public alongside the country userboxes in one of the following days. I need a hand with the UTC one, my creativity is shot. Duskey ( talk ) 22:34, July 21, 2010 (UTC)
 * Made a news post about it. Still working on the UTC template though, I have some ideas. Template-savvy people, please keep an eye on new created country userboxes, some users might need a hand with 'em. Also be sure to create the categories they're referring to when a few people have started using them. Duskey ( talk ) 20:42, July 23, 2010 (UTC)

Userbox sorting
At the moment, all userboxes sort users under U for User. This can be fixed by putting ' | ' in the template as I've done with Fan kaylynnts2. It won't register until users save their pages again I think. Now you know for future userboxes. Duskey ( talk ) 13:35, July 19, 2010 (UTC)

Unused files
The Special:UnusedFiles has been empty for a long time, since Copyright tags had a link to the file itself. Following a dicussion in the Message template standardization project I've deleted the 'self-link' and the 'unused files' page is now booming. I don't know how many there are, but the 'list 500' is available, so that should be fun. If you decide to do a few of them, don't just delete them. Check to see if we can use them on a page. Duskey ( talk ) 13:35, July 19, 2010 (UTC)

TOCleft template
I created tocleft for testing. You can see an example on my talk page. I think it works quite good on user talk pages. It's copied from Tocright though I'm not sure it needs all the code. Maybe someone knowledgeable can fill me in? Duskey ( talk ) 13:35, July 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * You should take a look at Wikipedia:Template:TOC left. --a_morris (talk) 22:36, July 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * Their documentation has some good arguments, I copied their template. No visible difference is apparent, but I'm sure theirs is fool proof and guarded against long titles and other stuff. Thanks for the link. I keep forgetting Wikipedia as a source for... everything. Duskey ( talk ) 14:50, July 20, 2010 (UTC)
 * I moved the template from the test area. Duskey ( talk ) 15:21, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

Expanded news page
I added The Sims Wiki:News. I also made three links to it from the main page. (more news) and 2x 'More...' at the bottom of the 5-point news listings. I chose the SimPrograms RSS feed as a 4th since since they seem to have regular updates on just about anything Sims. I'm open to discussion about other news sites or removing it all together if it feels too much like the wiki is sponsering a specific site. Duskey ( talk ) 21:18, July 19, 2010 (UTC)

No official image
Added File:No official image.png to keep the fan creations from being uploaded to game titles without official box art. The placeholder obviously didn't do the trick. Duskey ( talk ) 19:35, July 21, 2010 (UTC)

Admin userboxes
I had the cheek to change the image in Userbox admin. I think it looks much nicer with the text gone from the logo. Anyone strongle opposed to me changing the other admin userboxes as well? Duskey ( talk ) 20:40, July 21, 2010 (UTC)
 * I went ahead and changed the others as well. Duskey ( talk ) 21:18, July 24, 2010 (UTC)

Digimon spam
I found this http://sims.wikia.com/index.php?title=Pleasant_family&diff=155672&oldid=155669 and reverted it of course. I did not warn or ban since the user has made no other contributions, I'll keep an eye on it of course. I can remember removing the same spam from another article some days ago from another IP. I asked some of the VSTF staff if we could watch for these keywords somehow, without any luck. Just a quick reminder: Keep a lookout for spam like this. Duskey ( talk ) 14:25, July 22, 2010 (UTC)
 * No, I have found the same text in thousands (not literally) pages today. I didn't check if it was from the same person.- JEA13  [ iTalk  ] 19:20, July 22, 2010 (UTC)
 * I say we block if it happens twice from the same IP, though I'm almost sure it's just some proxy servers from all over the world. The one in my example is from Indonesia. Duskey ( talk ) 00:32, July 23, 2010 (UTC)
 * I think the best we can do is use google to search for 'digimon' with the 'site:http://sims.wikia.com' paremeter. It only shows this page atm, but it appears the spanish sims wiki has had the same problems. Duskey ( talk ) 07:20, July 31, 2010 (UTC)

User resolution and browser
Thought I'd share these: Duskey ( talk ) 01:32, July 25, 2010 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia:/Display resolution#Current standards - Shows two surveys of screen resolutions.
 * Usage share of web browsers - Shows which web browser people are using.

Also, check out our Quantcast profile Here's some interesting tid-bits I found on it: Here's the top 5 visitor countries: The last 6 months we've had 13,500 visitors daily.
 * 1) USA - 40%
 * 2) UK - 11%
 * 3) Poland - 13%
 * 4) Canada - ~9%
 * 5) Australia - 7.4%

That's how I interpret it all anyway. Duskey ( talk ) 00:59, July 27, 2010 (UTC)

Message template standardization
I would really like to get started with the Message template standardization project. I was thinking the changes would be made gradually. I have half a mind to do the Copyright tags first. See what it would look like see The Sims Wiki talk:Project Message template standardization/Manual of style (scroll down) and CC. I just need a green light and I'm on it. I won't touch the two warning templates for starters, but everything else is up for grabs. Like I said though, gradually, starting with copyright tags. Again, just need a go and I'd be happier than a porcupine on a pincushion. Duskey ( talk ) 06:48, July 25, 2010 (UTC)

I'm almost done with the new licensing tags (the corect term is licensing, since some of them are not under copyright). I just need to add the no license one, which will have the same name as the current one. The other license templates have been prefixed with 'License' so they can all be found by typing {{lic. I haven't included categories in them yet either. The most noteable changes is in the CC and GNU licenses, where parameters determines exactly which licesen and version applies. Any thoughts, questions, comments, critiques before I continue? Duskey ( talk ) 16:00, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

Added {{t|Under construction}}, {{t|Outdated}}, {{t|Unused template}} & {{t|Template rfc}} and categories to go with them. Duskey ( talk ) 07:24, July 31, 2010 (UTC)

Duplicate files
Using this helpful forum post I listed the files that are recognized as duplicates by wikia. This only detects files that are EXACT matches or other files. If the files have been altered in any way, this does not register it. Now we know how to find those though: I have no idea how to find images that are slightly altered or cropped in our database. Duskey ( talk ) 01:26, July 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * File:Snapshot_6dae6a73_d79dfeab.jpg
 * File:MELISSA.gif
 * File:Mrs_CrumplebottomandGhost.jpg
 * File:Bon_it_vienne.png
 * File:Melody_Tinker/Fear.jpg
 * File:Johnny_Smith_Baby.jpg
 * File:165_Sim_Lane.jpg
 * File:Les_Sims_3_Ambitions_24.jpg
 * File:Bella_and_Mortimer_(The_Sims_Bustin&
 * File:Mortimer_and_Bella

Portals
I created Category:Portal and The Sims Wiki:Fast Lane Stuff Portal, mostly as a test for when Late Night comes out. I've seen other wikis use game portals and it really helps the flow of information especially when a new release is out. A portal for a game should list all the categories and pages that the game affects as well as list some templates which might be commonly used in those articles. Duskey ( talk ) 17:56, July 29, 2010 (UTC)

Created The Sims Wiki:Late Night Portal too. Duskey ( talk ) 01:11, July 31, 2010 (UTC)

Renamed to Category:Portals. Duskey ( talk ) 06:52, July 31, 2010 (UTC)

Era template
I pimped out the era template. Should we go ahead and use this in articles? Duskey ( talk ) 21:21, July 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * It's already in use on all featured articles, but the idea of adding that to all articles related to content in TS, TS2, TS3, or any platform games is way too much... However, I think the padlocks should be added to protected pages. -- Patrick (LostInRiverview) (talk)(blog)(random page) 21:27, July 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * I forgot to add that I personally agree with the protected pages thing. Can it be added to protected titles as well without actually adding content to those pages? Else their links will turn blue instead of red and be listed all kinds of places. Duskey ( talk ) 21:32, July 29, 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't agree with adding categories to the protected pages though, we already have a Special: list for that if I'm not mistaken. Duskey ( talk ) 13:00, July 31, 2010 (UTC)

Introducing VickyBot
I'd like to introduce VickyBot... Vicky...Bot... get it? She can perform some of the more trivial tasks here on the Wiki. She just finished moving all the images in (the now deleted) Category:Sim images to Category:Images of Sims. If you have any requests for similar tasks, ask me on my talk page. That's Duskey's talk page. Duskey ( talk ) 04:15, August 1, 2010 (UTC)