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Information

Here you can post updates on what you're working on or a notice to other concerned with the development of the wiki. For general discussion see the Community Portal talk and for minor news see the Development Portal main page.

New playability types

I've added Downtownie and Foreign townie as acceptable values for the play parameter in infoboxes with {{GetPlayCat}}. --a_morris (talk) 02:50, August 8, 2010 (UTC)

added development portal

Finally made The Sims Wiki:Development Portal, put it to good use :D Duskey(talk) 12:01, August 9, 2010 (UTC)

Tooltips

Artistic

Hover over the link above. What do we think about this? Yes? No? I'm thinking mostly about the table on Trait. Duskey(talk) 21:36, August 11, 2010 (UTC)

Cool! It does take a bit of time to load, though. --a_morris (talk) 21:47, August 11, 2010 (UTC)

Directing to the forum

I made some minor bloopers recently. On the whole "Late Night speculation" and "Twitter interviwe questions" and "Did you know" I should have redirected people to the forum like we did with "The Sims 4 predictions". Now we know, direct people to the forum and not the talk pages unless it's about the ARTICLE not about what the article is about. Duskey(talk) 16:19, August 13, 2010 (UTC)

DPL

I've had DPL or Dynamic Page List enabled for this wiki. It is an 'available on request' extension.

So far it's only being used to count the number of files in Category:Articles for moving to color the background in the Admin Portal if there are any :p

It has many other uses though:

List uncategorized images (even if they belong to a copyright category)
Find image duplicates (maybe, not quite sure)

Things to remember

Use it sparingly
Do not use it in templates
Allow cached results

Duskey(talk) 08:42, August 17, 2010 (UTC)

I added The Sims Wiki:Special pages & The Sims Wiki:Special pages/uncategorized media. If you have any ideas for other custom special pages, do tell. Duskey(talk) 15:11, August 17, 2010 (UTC)

Added more custom special pages, see the main article about them. Remember you can always check where DPL is used with the Tag report. Duskey(talk) 04:55, August 23, 2010 (UTC)

Lovin' it! --a_morris (talk) 04:12, October 30, 2010 (UTC)

Multiple types for T:Object

I have added parameters type1...type5 to {{Object}}. They work in the same way as the traits and type can still be used. --a_morris (talk) 23:01, August 22, 2010 (UTC)

So it's to automatically include more categories to objects? Duskey(talk) 04:53, August 23, 2010 (UTC)

Yes. --a_morris (talk) 04:11, October 30, 2010 (UTC)

New templates

'Roguebfl' over from templates.wikia has added some new templates to the wiki. Here's his message as I requested some more information:

Well I started with {{Infobox}} because it was on this wiki's wanted templates list, before I noticed this wiki's customized ones, but it's upshot is it will change color scheme wither their user's choice of monoco skin. but that resulting in the following:
{{Documentation}}: This is an updated version that among other things will not break when you have a floated template.

{{t}}: Also an updated version, that is both easier to port and causes less server load.

{{tocright}}: this template moves the table of contents to the right side of the page safely.

{{Wikitemplates}}: this template Solves the CC-BY-SA license requirements of templates ported from Wikia Templates just like {{Wikipedia}} does so for Wikipedia.

{{From Wikimedia}}: is also a source template, a lesser version is now part of all new Wikia wikis.

{{Information}}: Is modeled after how Wikimedia marks up Images information, and extensive use promotes providing all the information the various licences need, and helps document when an image will become public domain.(the date)

--Roguebfl ^Talk 07:29, August 24, 2010 (UTC)

The documentation, t and tocright templates are nice upgrades. Wikitemplates should be used when/if a template is copied from templates.wikia. 'From Wikimedia' and 'Information' are actually being discussed in the Message template standardization project and Images project respectively. Duskey(talk) 10:56, August 24, 2010 (UTC)

RTE editor

As some of you may know the Rich Text Editor can break tables and templates like there was no tomorrow. I believe I've found part of the reason why. The RTE deletes single lineskips since wikicode requires a double lineskip in the simple editor to produce on lineskip in the article. This wouls also be why the ---- horizontal line keeps breaking in archive navigation boxes on user talk pages.

An example:

Here's some code written in the simple text editor:

{|
|
*Item 1
*Item 2
|}

Which will look like this:

Item 1
Item 2

When someone using the RTE edits the same article, even if they edit another part of it, it becomes...

{|
|*Item 1
*Item 2
|}

...breaking the list:

*Item 1

Item 2

I believe a solution would be to remember double lineskips for people using the basic text editor, like so:

{|
|

*Item 1
*Item 2
|}

Resulting in...

Item 1
Item 2

As you can see there's no difference from this, to the first table. This should result in break-free tables and templates. Duskey(talk) 21:50, August 25, 2010 (UTC)

Editnotice

Just created Help:Editnotice. Feel free to add some more if you think they're needed. Duskey(talk) 16:18, September 1, 2010 (UTC)

Blocked image file names

I blocked file names beginning with screenshot and snapshot from being uploaded ^^. I also had Wikia add the disclaimer to the buttom of the screen which you can now see. I updated the appropriate warning messages and notices already. Speak up if I forgot one. --Duskey^talk 05:42, September 8, 2010 (UTC)

Orphaned page

Why is DeMayo family/Player stories orphaned when it's linked to through the Family template? --Duskey^talk 23:46, September 20, 2010 (UTC)

Well duh it's not orphaned today since I linked it now, but it'll probably be orphaned tomorrow again. --Duskey^talk 09:14, September 21, 2010 (UTC)

Object buy types

I have edited all object articles that had "yes" as a buy type and changed it to "buy mode", "community lot", etc., as I felt that "yes" was not specific enough and removed it from {{GetObjectCats}}. --a_morris (talk) 18:54, October 30, 2010 (UTC)

Conditional categories in templates

When making a new edit the editor is moving all categories to the bottom of the article. This is a problem in templates like {{GetTraitCat}} because the categories are conditional and it removes them from the if or switch statements. I'm going to contact wikia about it. In the meantime I don't think we can make any edits to them without messing them up. The only way around it that I can see is to create a template for each category and call it in the if/switch statement. --a_morris (talk) 19:32, October 31, 2010 (UTC)

Response from Wikia Nov 2, 2010

A bug happened that turned this extension ON for namespaces where it shouldnt, like Templates:
This has been fixed, and will be corrected tomorrow. -- Regards,
Chris "Uberfuzzy" Stafford, Wikia Community Support Team

I did some template editing earlier and it does seem to be fixed. --a_morris (talk) 22:25, November 2, 2010 (UTC)

{{Family2}} and {{Family3}}

I think I finally have {{Family2}} and {{Family3}} fixed so they can show family connections without breaking anything else. Dharden (talk) 07:55, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

I added this as a stub template for articles related to The Sims Medieval. (I took {{Tss-stub}} and replaced "Stories" with "Medieval", and "tss" with "tsm", so it should work.) Dharden (talk) 14:52, March 31, 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Dharden. --Guilherme Guerreiro (talk here) 16:14, March 31, 2011 (UTC)

Topnav template

Within the past day or so, Wikia has updated something which ever-so-slightly widened the top navigation bar on the wiki. This caused our six dropdown menu options to begin wrapping (dropping down to the next line), which visually is horrible to look at. As a stopgap measure, I pulled the Fanon dropdown menu out and put it under the community dropdown, but I don't think that's a long-term solution. Is there some way we can re-add the sixth menu without causing word wrap? If you have a plan, please give it here. -- LostInRiverview^{talk · blog} 15:52, March 31, 2011 (UTC)

Simple, remove the (A-Z) from the Content tab. —Random Ranaun (Talk to me!) 03:32, April 1, 2011 (UTC)

I would like to, but for whatever reason that (A-Z) doesn't come off... it's not even on the MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation page. I have no idea why the (A-Z) is included there. - LostInRiverview^{talk · blog} 03:35, April 1, 2011 (UTC)

Layouts

There is a problem with some wikitext (ex. links, categories) not being rendered properly when used with layouts. You may want to refrain from using them until the problem is fixed. For articles that already use them the only way to "fix" the problem is to copy the page content, delete the page, and create a new page with that content without the use of a layout. --a_morris (talk) 18:00, April 16, 2011 (UTC)

I think we should completely refrain from using the layouts. Wikia has taken in the complaints, and we should start using it when most of the kinks are fixed. --Zombie ^{talk • blog} 18:44, April 16, 2011 (UTC)

Yes, but a lot of pages use those templates, in particular new pages and fanon. Should we remake them on a new page or something for the time being, or just leave it? --WoganHemlock^{(talk) · (blog)} 09:28, April 17, 2011 (UTC)

Navigation bar glitch

I'm sure quite a few of us have noticed that the navigation bar looks "different". I have noticed this here and on the Call of Duty Wiki. After contacting Wikia about the issue, Merrystar has replied with:

Hi,

Thanks for contacting Wikia. The problem on the two wikis you mentioned has to do with the customization they have done to the skin layout.

For call of duty, they have added a lot of padding to the menus in the Mediawiki:Wikia.css file, with the code ".WikiHeader li a { padding: 0 28px; }" This does not leave enough space to fit the arrows on the same line as the words.

For Sims the issue is simply that with 5 menus instead of 4, and the amount of text in the titles, there is not enough space to leave the arrows on the same line.

Ultimately in both cases (and any other wiki where you see this) the menus simply exceed the available space.

You can fix the issue yourself if you want on Sims by making fewer menus or shorter titles. On Call of Duty you'd have to talk to the admins about why they added that padding; it's commented as a way to make the header look tidier so I assume it was deliberate.

best,

Wendy

I have bolded the parts that are relevant to this wiki. To make the navigattion bar look tidier, we need to remove one menu. Which menu should we remove in order to fix the navigation bar? Lost Labyrinth • (c) • (b) 06:12, May 26, 2011 (UTC)

I noticed how it says Content A-Z on one of the titles. Perhaps we should try making it just content.--W H ^(Talk) 09:08, May 26, 2011 (UTC)

Just was trying to work it out on my test wiki. I have made up two different possible MediaWiki pages, located here and here. They both work without any issues, as I have tested them. --W H ^(Talk) 09:21, May 26, 2011 (UTC)

MediaWiki A has caused the same issue as it seems to be a copy of the original source. Currently, the nav bar looks fine as it is using the MediaWiki B code. It seems to be that the word, "Administration" was causing the issues. For now, I have changed that to admin but if anyone can think of a better word, feel free to either post it here or update it yourself. Lost Labyrinth

• (c) • (b) 16:13, May 26, 2011 (UTC)

Era Template

Though I do really like this template as it makes things seem slightly more 'official', if that's the word, I see a lot of issues with this being added to all articles. For one, in the Oasis skin, it obscures much of the text on many articles, which looks pretty badly done. Secondly, I see it as slightly redundant. People can easily see in what game something appears in, or if it's an article concerning real life, by just usually looking at the infobox or article lead. Plus, I see it as nearly impossible that this template can be added to everything it needs to, for example, NPC's and townies, and if only added to games and gameplay elements, people may find it confusing as to why only part of the wiki have it and the other lacks it. Any opinions? --BobNewbie ^∞(Talk)∞ 10:04, July 2, 2011 (UTC)

I agree with you when you say it's redundant and and nearly impossible to add to all pages, but does that mean we should delete it? I personally love the template, but it's a pity that messes up the articles in some browsers. However if we delete the game era template we should remain era for featured articles, IMO. Thank you. --Guilherme Guerreiro (talk here) 10:08, July 2, 2011 (UTC)

I think we should just keep the one for featured articles. --W H ^(Talk) 10:09, July 2, 2011 (UTC)