Adventures in Odyssey Wiki:Town Hall/Archive13

Archive 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 100,000 Edits · Episodes Project Cast Organization

category ratings

Okay, for a while now I've been unhappy with the slowness and unfriendliness of updating our rating averages. I'm going to play around with a few ideas over the next few days but i think that I'm going to go with the option of creating a new cat_rating namespace. All that will be included on each page in this namespace will be one number for the rating, nothing else. Example "Cat_rating:Episodes in Album 51: Take it from the Top" would only have "0" in it. I was thinking about putting this in the category itself too and then using noinclude tags but that would also be slower, I can use a bot to go through and update the averages once a week or so, this would allow us to use just a normal dpl statement on pages like episode writers without a noticeable decrease in speed, making it so we don't have to manually update those ones either. This is just an idea I had, if anybody else has an idea, I'm open to seggestions, either way, I want to speed this thing up and make it easier to use. Reddo 15:49, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

okay this is coming good I got the average rating thing to work, now I just need to set-up a bot to replace the entire contents of the page ([0-9]?[0-9]?[0-9].?[0-9]?% in regex) with

{{subst:cat rating}}

depending on classes and everything i may be able to get the bot done tomorrow Reddo 22:28, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

bot is now working, tomorrow I'm going to start changing it to the new format which will be a lot easier to update, all we need to do is go through the wanted pages and for everything in the "cat rating" namespace just create the page with

{{subst:cat rating}}
<noinclude>[[Category:Category rating]]</noinclude>

After the pages have been created Reddobot will take care of making sure that they are kept up to date Reddo 02:57, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Okay, I've started the process to switch over now, the page Episode Writers has been changed to use the new system, and I'm happy to say that it loads fast, i'll start switching over more places, once again if you see an uncreated page in the "cat rating" namespace just create it with:

{{subst:cat rating}}<noinclude>[[Category:Category rating]]</noinclude>

then bots will make sure that it's properly updated, I want to add these ratings all over the place, including places like the staff pages. Reddo 18:35, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

layout fix

This morning I fixed a bug on the server that was causing the sidebar to appear below the content section in some versions of chrome, i tested it out in IE and firefox and both of them still look good, can someone test it on safari and opera and just make sure that things look normal for me? thanks Reddo 19:52, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Has anybody been able to look at the site with Safari or Opera yet? I want to make sure it looks right without having to download and install them Reddo 05:26, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Hello, sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I didn't see your post until this evening. So everything appears to looks fine in the latest versions of Safari and Opera. Although Chrome still has the sidebar below the content section. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 06:13, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Nevermind... it's working in chrome now. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 06:22, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

thanks for checking on that for me, and yeah it make take some time for chrome users to notice the difference, it caches the css sheets and doesn't update them as often as other browsers do Reddo 04:16, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, it still wasn't working for me when you first said it, but I emptied the cache and form data and that fixed it. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 17:30, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Why

Why was Where Odyssey is Not deleted? I haven't been here in a while. Stop Wooton Around 03:42, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Where Odyssey is not was deleted because we figured that Jacobisom took a lot of work to get all that done, so we should just let it be. No need to duplicate work, right? God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 04:54, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Plus I've started a system similar that has it's root here. I emailed him about it and he doesn't have a problem with this system. Erwin Springer [talk] 13:59, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Christmas Image on Main Page

Do we want to put some sort of Christmas image/theme on the main page this year? Erwin Springer [talk] 16:27, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

That was my idea with this image. If you want something else, just ask. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 23:35, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

I think that picture is not Chistmasy enough. MarvelousMarvin 01:33, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

Contest Voting

How do you guys want the voting to work for the Logo Contest? God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 03:54, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

May be just one SurveyMonkey survey, as users wouldn't have to create an account. Erwin Springer [talk] 00:04, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

When do want to start voting? Erwin Springer [talk] 22:49, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

As soon as possible. Perhaps at the beginning the new year. MarvelousMarvin 23:16, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

main page

What are thoughts on replacing the main page with this? I like it better, and I've talked to a few people from outside of the wiki and the consensus is that it's an improvement over the current one. It also adds support for rounded corners to the chrome and safari browsers (currently ~22% of our visitors) Reddo 08:00, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

I do definitely like this new design better than the current one. I think, though, that we should wait until the logo contest is over, and have a slightly new main page design, along with a new logo. If we could get this done before January 1, we could have a newish site for 2010. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 15:02, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes, bundle them together! Erwin Springer [talk] 22:04, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

I like the one now better maybe when voting on the logo we could vote on the design between the current one and that one. Stop Wooton Around 23:47, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

If anyone has any objections to the new design, we'll make changes, but I don't see a need to vote God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 03:03, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

I think, since there's already going to be a new main page, I think that to the main page you should add a link right there that says Help:Talk. Probably not a lot of people know how to talk on here. Logo guy 14:58, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Resources Section on Episode Pages

I created resource boxes similar to those on wikimedia sites. An example of how they could be used on episode pages can be found here. Erwin Springer [talk] 02:21, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

What happens to the "this page on" in the sidebar? I think this new recouces section would just take up extra space. Besides, most of those places that the links would link to probably just have the same information as this wiki has. This is supposed to be a database, right? So that people don't have to go somewhere else. Why are atrractive links being created to send people somewhere where they can find the same information as there is on the wiki? MarvelousMarvin 10:27, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't think of use in "competition" with other fan sites. We just want to offer the service of showing where other/more info can be found on a particluar topic/episode. Erwin Springer [talk] 03:32, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

I still don't think it is necessary. I personally am annoyed when I visit a web page, don't find some information that I want, and then the page tells me, "For more information click here." And then I click on the link and end up on a page where there is exactly the same information or less information than I have just seen!! I don't think we need it. It's not necessary. MarvelousMarvin 04:11, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

This is a wiki, and it is the best idea on a wiki to link to any sources we can find. I think it is best to link to these sites, even if they have less information, because they are our sources. Generally, anyone can edit this wiki. If something is disputed, a visit to one of those sources can show what an established, knowledgeable person says about the matter. Cryin Brian Dern 13:09, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

I agree about the not being in competition with other sites... but I also agree that it seems to take up a lot of space... it seems that incorporating the links into the sidebar would be more useful/compact.Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 03:06, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

Wanted Categories

I have reduced the wanted categories page from 302 to 20. The remaining 20 I don't know what to with. I went ahead and worked on the Video characters. I know Ewrin was working on it. So please redelete them if they need it. Stop Wooton Around 04:16, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Nice job! I think you used all of the correct templates. Don't worry about the remaining categories, some will be created in time, other are formed because of special circimstances and don't need to be used/created. Erwin Springer [talk] 03:35, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Today's hedline

Below I have tiped out a newsitem to be displayed. At the risk of appearing as though I can make newsitems anywhere and anytime I want, I left this here for one of the Administrators to install on the mainpage if they want to. Feel free to modify.

As has been mentioned before, the new season, album 51, and The Inspiration Station, Part 1 will air on March 6th, 2010, the first Saturday of that month. For these next 12 weeks before that date, Adventures in Odyssey will re-air album 50, to the end of The Imagination Station, Revisited, Part 1 (where Connie pushes that famous red button), and a lead in to the beginning of album 51. Until then, be sure to be on lookout for new details about the coming season. And, while the episodes in album 50 re-air, be sure to listen to them and than rate the episodes on their episode pages.

MarvelousMarvin 10:50, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

I've made the necessary changes, and I think it looks good. I will be gone for a couple of hours so if you (MarvelousMarvin) want to post it, feel free. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 14:53, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Bot request

The page, episode sidebar needs fixing has about 370 pages on it. I have found out that most of them are correct but the template wasn't changed so is it possible for a bot to do this. Thanks! Stop Wooton Around 01:17, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

I think the ones that need fixing are the ones that still need the resouces section disposed of. MarvelousMarvin 22:31, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

PopUpisode Links

I hope that it's okay that I added a "PopUpisode" tag to the episode information box template. I thought it might be nice to have the link there. Eugene 07:07, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Is it Legal?

I got the Official guide for Christmas and it has some photos we could use. So is legal to take pictures of the pictures then crop them to wanted size? Please, let me know soon if possible, later today. I would like to edit them and put them on today if it is legal. I will be on later today. P.S. Also could someone please archive my talk page. Stop Wooton Around 05:48, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that as long as we're not claiming the pictures as our own, and giving credit to Focus on the Family, then it would be ok. Although I would not suggest taking pictures, but scanning. If you don't have a scanner I can scan the pages that you want. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 23:26, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Contest Comments

Starting with the most recently received working backwards:

1. there should be a foruM fOR Everyone to disCuss Odyssey, aNd ThEre Should be a place where The writerS of adventures in odyssey write about the show. (look for the capital code)-labonath151
2. It's great already!
3. cool
4. It's awesome
5. keep the old one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6. Love all of them!
7. Close between Natedude24 #'s 1&2 and Eugene #2! Stop Wooton Around
8. You spelled Odyssey as O-y-d-s-s-e-y in "2. Any other comments or suggestions for the Adventures in Oydssey Wiki:" on this voting page. And please do better news items.
9. Nothing, it's great!
10. Make a link in the episodes drop down list saysing by saga and link to the story arc and saga page. I always have to use the search bar to reach that page.
11. None of the logos should be used.
12. Null.

In response to number 8, I fixed the typo in the question when the survey was still active, and I believe we should improve our news system. Erwin Springer [talk] 03:43, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Main Page

On the Nov 4, 2009 video podcast (the one with darien's rise finalists) at about 1:36, a part of the ssript actually pops up, fitted to the screen. It is only there for a about maybe, a half second, it looks like a white flash, but if you slow it down you can see it. If you need the picture of it or what is says tell me, or you can look it up yourself, btw I contacted AIO and they verifyed it! I tought you would like this info! - glman

I think the image you're describing can be found here. It was uploaded when the podcast was released, but thanks for letting us know! Erwin Springer [talk] 02:47, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Podcast

I really think that we should come up with a way for the podcast page to automatically retrieve information regarding the individual podcasts via the news pages. I created Template:podcast|this template to be potentially helpful. If we could just do like the episodes and tell it to take certain information and put it in a table, than that would save us a lot of time. I don't think it would be that incredibly difficult either. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 15:04, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Instead of creating a new template, I updated {{newsitem}}. We could apply it to all of the podcast news items and then pull from it. Erwin Springer [talk] 21:53, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

How are we going to get the podcast page to retrieve the information? God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 23:07, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

A list using the method can be seen here. All other newsitems that are podcasts need to be updated with the following method:

{{Newsitem
| id = Literally put "Podcast"
| num = Podcast number, such as "86"
| format = ONLY use this field for video podcasts, by putting "video"
| webid = Take the link on the podcast blog and only put the title. For example, taking this post, put:
     "torry-martin-speaks-about-wootons-random-ramblings-plus-emily-and-matthew-solve-a-mystery"
| date = The newsitem's and podcast's airdate, such as "January 13, 2010"
| text = Description from the official site put in italics
}}

Erwin Springer [talk] 23:11, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

Erwin, what about interviews field? and the free episode format in the format field? And the date field is usually filled using the number date, not the complete date, isn't it? MarvelousMarvin 23:56, 16 January 2010 (UTC)

I could add interviews and free episodes, (I'm unsure of what you mean for the date feild), but I'm starting to think that it may be better to do a manual list, because for this to work we would need to create newsitems that date to before the wiki was created. Erwin Springer [talk] 02:40, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

On the podcast pages the date is usually dispayed like this: 12/2/09. instead of this: December 2,2009. Also, what about the link for downloading the podcast? And we don't necessarely need to create newsitems for anything before 2009. We can do those manually. MarvelousMarvin 02:46, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

The time parser function can take "December 2, 2009" and extract parts from it. The link for downloading is on the far right on the list, and it's on the audio/video symbol on the Main Page. Erwin Springer [talk] 03:08, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

What do you mean by the download link is on the far right on the list? If you mean the link is on the far right on the list of podcasts on the podcast page, then I can't find the link. What I was planning to do eventually is to feature a Listen Online link and a download link for each one of the podcast in the Links section of each year of podcasts. MarvelousMarvin 07:25, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

This is the automatic list I'm referring to, though I think that the manual list work better. Erwin Springer [talk] 21:44, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

I like the manual list better as well. Sorry for the confusion. MarvelousMarvin 01:34, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Newsletter

I had an idea that we could create a monthly email newsletter for the wiki. A newsletter could consist of AIO news, and AIOWIki news and project updates. (The only extension I could find for something likes is at mw:Extension:STSGMassMailer, so I think manually sending out an html email would be the best way to go.) Erwin Springer [talk] 22:30, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

CD

Hello, I am currently working on compliling a complete AIO songs CD. There will probably be more than one volume, beacause there are so many Odyssey songs. I plan to, once finished send it in to Odyssey to try and get them to sell it, but I need people to tell me EVERY song in odyssey. I don't know how we will do it, I will need a big page. I know it will take a few years, but I can't wait to do it. If you have ANY songs you have heard list them like this:

SONG,EPISODE,ALBUM,CHARACTER(s)

Ex. Electric Palace Do Dah, Odyssey Sings, Lost & Found, Bart Rathbone

If the Admin will make me a seperate page it would help!

Thanks, Glman 18:03, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

If you're looking for a list of AIO songs, see Category:Music. Erwin Springer [talk] 18:08, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

I need non-Eugene Sings Songs! Thanks Glman 20:08, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Album 51 Episode Previews

Would it be okay if I added the previews from this page on the proper episode pages? --Eugene 18:11, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

I believe it has been confirmed that we have to wait until the episode airs to post the preview. Erwin Springer [talk] 21:46, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

That's what I thought. --Eugene 22:15, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

I asked and FOTF said that it was fine so I added them Reddo 18:37, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Just for my sanity's sake, wasn't there a point where we had to wait? Erwin Springer [talk] 02:04, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

yes there was, and FOTF would still prefer to not have the previews out before they are released on the official site, however since those ones were leaked on the ToO they said it was okay if we put them up too Reddo 18:25, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

I can't get the previews to play AIOCREFan 01:35, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

It looks like they were removed. Erwin Springer [talk] 03:41, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

I happened to find another copy of all 4 previews after I posted that message. Should I upload them or should we wait until they are available on the Official Site? AIOCREFan 22:16, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

McAlister or McCalister

I looked the name up in the Official guide under the The Ill-Gotten Deed episode info. It stated that...Horace and Grover McAlister... So I am going to try to change all of the McCalister references to McAlister. Stop Wooton Around 00:17, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

A recent PopUpisode actually said tat the team has spelt it mant different ways...I think the only thing that matters here is staying consistent throughout the wiki. Erwin Springer [talk] 01:52, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

I have changed all the names to McAlister so I guess from now all we'll call it that to be consistent. Stop Wooton Around 02:06, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Also,I think that we should think about creating redirects for each McAlister character so that every possible spelling faor thier last name redirects back to their page. i.e. for Horace McAlister, we would redirect Horace McCalister, Horace McAllister, and Horace McCallister. MarvelousMarvin 02:08, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Main Page Protection

Does the Main Page really have to be protected so that auo-confirmed users can't edit it? Many users have helpful ideas, and if something like this happens, someone can simply revert it. Erwin Springer [talk] 03:10, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

I figured that, due to the high amount of traffic, it should be protected from auto-confirmed users. We don't ever want the main page to be vandalized, even if it only lasted for a few minutes. People with ideas can easily put them in the talk page or even here. I think this would actually help us, because we as sysops, would be fully aware of what they're wanting to do, and we might have ideas as to how to do it more practically. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 15:05, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

But does it have to be protected? It may be a pain for an autoconfirmed user to have to make a request just for a minor edit. Erwin Springer [talk] 03:41, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Spam

The Schedule was just spammed with links to non-existant websites (just like the Cat Rating:Welcome to Whit's End (sampler) page was the other day.) I undid the revision but it would be better if someone could delete that revision totally (if that's even possible). It looks like it's an automated system that posted it. It had BBcodes and HTML codes like it was meant to be planted on multiple wikis and message boards. It also had a number sequence in the revision summary.

If any more edits like this appear around here again, I think that we should consider blocking guest edits for a week or two. --Eugene 18:20, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Talk:Abednego was just created with ads and weird stuff. I cleared the article and flagged it for deletion. --Eugene 22:25, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, It's wiki-spam. Happens all the time. Please don't worry about it, a sysop will take care of it. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 04:46, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

New Stuff on Main Page

I purpose we consolidate the "New Episodes" and "New Releases" sections on the main page into one section which would contain new episodes, albums and books. Erwin Springer [talk] 03:43, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

It's a nice idea, but their are a few problems. Listing ALL of the new episodes on the main page would take up A LOT of space. Plus if you combine those sections, it might be confusing for people as to what is a product and what's a new episode. I think that the New Releases section is fine. But I think that the name of the Template: New Episodes hould be changed to Countdown or something like that. I also think that it's a bit useless to have the new episodes template on the main page in the middle of a when a season is airing, like we did with Darien's Rise. In my opinion that template should be used for countdowns to new seasons and the rest of the time the main page shouldn't feature the template. Just some thoughts. MarvelousMarvin 14:45, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

I agree with Marvin. We should keep those two sections seperated. It already looks good, so why change it? (But we may want to consider renaming it to "Future Releases" or "Upcoming Releases".) On a related note, I created a new template for the "New Releases" section on the home page. It organizes it a little better and makes it look nicer. Tell me what you think! — Eugene [talk] 21:06, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

500 Internal Server Error

Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@aiowiki.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

---

I have been getting this message a lot today and the past month. I refresh a few times and it goes away. It doesn't if I'm loading two pages until today. Today it came up and I was loading a game and a aiowiki page. Stop Wooton Around 01:09, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, see the cache section just above on this page, I'm working on it, I'll update when i think things have been fixed Reddo 03:48, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Infoboxes on episode Pages

Is there any way to fix the scripture links in the infoboxes so that they aren't displacing the Writer link or the Director link? For an example see The Imagination Station, Part 1. MarvelousMarvin 14:54, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Done fixed it by adding a {{-}} to that section Reddo 16:46, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Today's episode box on Main Page

Could we add the [whitsend.org/find a station Find a station] link in the episode box right belso the listen online link? Also I think we should add a link under the find a station link that says, "Rate today's episode" and then links back to the episode page. Yes I know we would than have 2 links in the episode box to the episode page, but there is no other practical way I can think of to remind them to rate the episode. MarvelousMarvin 19:34, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Done Erwin Springer [talk] 20:13, 6 February 2010 (UTC)