Adventures in Odyssey Wiki:Town Hall/Archive15

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updates

hi, i wasn't really sure where to put this as it's a hodge podge of things so i'll put it here, i've been working on the server a lot over the past month (you may have noticed that from getting numerous weird errors lately, but it's all fixed now), here's a summary of what i've been working on:

1. rating bar extension now supports having more than one rating bar on a page
2. category average now uses decimal places to get a more accurate rating
3. now able to upload mp3 files
4. mp3 player now has a transparent background by default
5. mp3 player has configurable background and player colors (see here for more details)
6. new extension tabber to replace buggier and harder to use jquery tab one, plan is to have it used to display all work a staff member has done (seen in action here)
7. new extension Smooth gallery can be used for slide shows and new ways to display images (can be seen here)
8. rights change, users can now move images(can be changed back if abused)
9. caching system is up and running, things should be a lot faster now (been working for a few weeks now)
10. numerous other errors have been fixed, error log use to show ~1300 errors a day, now down to ~50 and most of those are invalide page requests eg aiowiki.com/wik/Main_Page (second i in wiki is missing) and there's nothing that i can really do about that
11. new extension google doc viewer to use with pdfs instead of acrobat, quicker and doesn't require user to install a plug-in, should work on all browsers and OS's

So that's what i've been up to, as usual see anything buggy or would like anything else done, let me know Reddo 22:53, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

edit fixed another bug with the mp3 player causing formatting issues, also fixed problem with special page due to new version of rating bar extension, by ratings special page, with a normal page Reddo 00:20, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Is there a way to make a countdown only include the days? God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 00:52, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

That has to be changed at MediaWiki:Common.js. Erwin Springer [talk] 01:38, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I made a new non js countdown with this template it should work just like this {{Countdown days|march 21 2010}} and give -5173 Reddo 02:08, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

So with these new updates can the rating bar be put on the main page now? And I can't stand the new countdown template. Could you come up with something better or at least change it back to the way it was before? MarvelousMarvin 02:20, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

unfortunately no it can't be used on the mainpage yet, i'm really confused as to why it's not working but i'll keep trying, and i made some changes to the new episode section, what do you think now? Reddo 02:46, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, the new episodes template is awesome! Thanks for adding those changes...the audio preview, making the font for the link to the 2010 season page smaller, and changing the coundown template. It all looks great! MarvelousMarvin 02:53, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

I was playing around with the rating bar (trying to add it to the "Today's Episode" box) and have discovered that the system will not properly add templates in the idpage space. If you put in "{{Current episode}}", it will use "{{Current episode}}" as it's id and not add the template like one would expect. But for some reason it will allow you to put in "{{FULLPAGENAME}}" properly. Is there a way to fix this? I can't find any other way that will make it work. — Eugene [talk] 16:49, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I've known that for a long time, I've tried recoding it myself but it's a pretty complicated extension and so far it hasn't worked, i think that it will work with only one small change on mediawiki 1.16 but i don't know when that's due for release Reddo 16:52, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Okay. So I guess we'll just have to live without it for now. Thanks! By the way, the new changes are great! Thanks for your hard work! Two questions, though. How does the Google doc viewer work? And can an icon be put on the mp3 pages like there is on the pdf pages? — Eugene [talk] 17:03, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

to use the google doc view put code like {{#tag:doc|Suspicious Minds.pdf}} you can also use {{#tag:doc|{{PAGENAME}}}} or {{#tag:doc|http://www.aiowiki.com/w/images/a/a5/Suspicious_Minds.pdf}} (ie a pdf that's not uploaded to the wiki) and I'll try to find an icon to put there for mp3 files Reddo 17:25, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

The character intersection has been coming up without results for me on IE8,chrome, and FF, with multiple queries of known results (i.e. John Whittaker and Bart Rathbone). Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 23:50, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know, it's been fixed Reddo 00:27, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

episode infobox

i've thought for a long time that the infobox is kind of messy and on some episodes goes on forever on some pages, so i've been fiddling and after an hour or so i came up with this it's just my idea and we don't have to go with it but i think that it cleans things up a bit, suggestions? comments? queries? concerns? outbursts? statements? opinions? Reddo 05:55, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I really like it. Don't really see anything that could be better. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 06:14, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

So would we add a few parameters to the infobox for external sites, and remove the pagesidebars, or have both? Erwin Springer [talk] 03:51, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

the idea was to replace the existing sidebar as i'm not sure if many people see them there, but we can have both if people want Reddo 03:55, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I like the ones we currently have better. I don't really like the look of those bottons. Stop Wooton Around 12:21, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

I echo the sentiments expressed by Nate and Wooton and add my own: I don't really like the idea of dividing up the infobox like that. This is for a couple of reasons: 1. People are less likely to rate the episodes because (if I understand correctly) the rating bar would only go under the tab called "media". Visitors would be less likely to see the rating bar. 2. People are less likely to edit infomation into the information box because again, they are less likely to see the place to enter the info. 3. On some of the episode pages, this would make the info boxes really small because we dn't have much info. 4. Having the infobox going on forever is kind of a good thing; I think it makes us look like we have a lot of info. However, having all that info could possibly overload the viewer and make him ignore it.

Their are a few good things about it though: links to other websites is a good idea, an improvement on the sidebars. Reddo, I think you're right. not many people see the "This page on" thing. But if you put links to other websites in the infobox, again not many people will see it in my opinion. If we use this new template, it will allow us to put more information in the infoboxes without it looking so disorganized. But some have said that they do not like the buttons in the infobox. So we could come up with a different plave to feature the information. For instance, Ewrin came up with a cool lookin way to feature the sidebar links ar the bottom of the page. With a little improvement we could feature the sidebar links there. Also we could think about some way to feature some of that information inside the cast section. That sections uses up a small thin section of the page but makes the page a whole lot longer. Also we don't necessarely need to feature infomation in thte infobox. We are an AIO Website, not a AIO Wikipedia so we don't necessarly need to operate under wikipedia edicate and rules. We should operate on what pleases our visitors. Find out what they think. If they like it, go for it. If they don't like it, don't do it. MarvelousMarvin 02:06, 5 March 2010 (UTC) P.S. I talk a lot don't I?

I do think we should go with the new infobox.

1. The rating bar will go underneath every tab, as it shows now. You can look at an example in the Sandbox Episode
2. I'm not sure what you mean, when you say that they're less likely to see the place to enter the info. The info would be exactly the same as it is now. It would just be separated into tabs.
3. I personally, think that long infoboxes look sloppy.

We are an AIO Wiki, I think we should be somewhere between an AIO website, and Wikipedia. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 01:52, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I like most of the design, though it needs to be perfected before we use it. Erwin Springer [talk] 02:30, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, Nate, Reddo, and Erwin think it's a good idea...I don't have any major objections...Wooton, doesn't like the buttons but I think that that can be fixed, I think we should go ahead with the new infobox.

Nate, I thought that the rating bar would only go under one tab because in one of the tabs, I think (I'm not quite sure, I'm typing this up offline) that it said that the rating bar would go in that tab. My second point wasn't a very good one, you can ingore it.

A couple of comments on the formating: I think that iof the episode is available, the link to listen should go not in the media tab, but above the album art like it currently does. Then people would see the link better. I also think that we should think about putting the audio preview not in the media tab, but above the album art like it currently is. Again, this is so that people will see it better. Am I correct in the assumption that all the current information and more would still be displayed, just in the different tabs? MarvelousMarvin 18:26, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

In its current state, I don't really like the tabbed infobox. It hides too much of the vital information, in my opinion. Though, if you hide the right information and only show the important stuff on the General tab, it could work. I've always thought that AIO Wiki shows more info than what I need. For instance, on episode pages it shows all of the albums that the episode is included in. I usually only want to know what series album it's a part of. And I usually only want to know the writer(s) and director(s). The rest of the credits can be hidden. So if you get the right information in the right places, I might "gopher" it. :P

By the way, I just created my own episode page to play with. I tried doing something different to see what it would look like. Anyway, you guys can take a look at the infobox I made for it. — Eugene [talk] 23:18, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Since we may be going into changing the whole layout of episode pages, possibly a ToO thread could be made asking what an ideal episode page would include and/or look like? Erwin Springer [talk] 23:34, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't care for the wider infobox. The thin one looks a lot better in my opinion. I really like the tabs. I agree a ToO thread would be good to discuss it. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 00:27, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm also working on a total episode page redesign that might be better than having a wider infobox. I'll post it when it's ready. — Eugene [talk] 01:32, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Posted. Erwin Springer [talk] 01:45, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

sorry i haven't been around to discuss this a lot, but I didn't intend that to be the final design, i still have things that i want to do to it, like, at the top have the listen to link if it's available, and if it isn't replace that spot with the preview if available, if that's not available either then it would show nothing. the rating bar would be located outside of a tab so it would always be visible, (not sure if it should go above of below the tabs. The scripture links will have collapsible sections that will drop down to show the verse in the NIV version while the verse itself will still link to it on biblegateway so users can easily see it in other translations, the links outwards will have the favicon of the site next to the link. I think there was another change i wanted to make to it yet too, I've just been busy with life stuff lately, i should be able to get to these changes tomorrow Reddo 18:46, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

infoboxes

What happended to all the infoboxes? The corners are square now instead of round. I liked the old infobox better. And the episode box on the Main page is very sloppy looking. MarvelousMarvin 16:15, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Are you using Internet Explore? The main page boxes should be fixed now. I think that's what you meant by infoboxes. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 17:09, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes I am using internet explorer. I usually use Mozilla Firefox. Does using internet exploiror make all the infoboxes on ALL the pages appear wierd? MarvelousMarvin 17:28, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

I guess I just answered my own question. i pulled up Mizilla firefox and everything looks a lot better. MarvelousMarvin 17:31, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

depends what you mean by weird, if you mean not rounded then yes, but that's fixed in the upcoming IE9 Reddo 17:32, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

yeah, FF will work, the rounded corners have been tested in Opera 10.5, FF 3.6, Safari 4, Chrome 4 and IE 9, technically we could make it work in IE8 but that would be a lot of work and we'd have to make images for every corner of every infobox to use, I don't think that it's really worth it Reddo 17:37, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Yeah I never use anything but IE so I'm not used to seeing rounded infoboxes. Erwin Springer [talk] 21:11, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

How popular are we?

Okay, so a few seeks ago, I googled "Adventures in Odyssey" to see how far I had to go to find AIOWiki. It was half way down the third page. I just googled it again and found it is now almost at the top of the second page. I have a theroy as to why this is. I think that because the news items have been more consistantly updated and created, the wiki is getting more hits. It is also probably because Jacob Isom brought the wiki up in a recent post on the Odyssey Scoop. So, I would like to thank Reddo and Natedude24 for their faithfullness to the news item department. Now I must ask myself the question, what can we do to continue AIOWiki's success? I think we could make it more user freindly. Make it easier to find things; organize the site better. Work on engageing the visitors more. Make new episodes the number one editing priority becuase people are going to visit those page more than anything else. Make the site more attractive to guests in a visual way (designs, templates, etc...). Work on the accesibility of pages so that people don't have to type and click away about 6 times to access the article they want. And just continue what we've been doing. These things aren't things that are terribly important, they're just things I think could be worked on. I have a friend who's a really big fan of AIO. She doesn't find the wiki very interesting though. It seems like unsless you have alot of time to devote to looking around the site, you won't enjoy it very much. So yes defindtely make it more use friendly. But, all that aside, again the newitems are the most important thing, so good work, guys! Keep it up. MarvelousMarvin 02:30, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I agree. Everyone has been doing a really great job with the wiki! Thanks for everyone's help! If it's okay with everyone, I can put together a general survey for visitors. We might be able to get a better idea of what people like and dislike about the wiki that way. — Eugene [talk] 04:37, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Since the first of the year, we've had 12,800 visits (over 108,000 pageviews) from 4,690 visitors, that come from 70 countries. Each with an an average time spent of about 8 minutes. About 32% were completely new visitors, who had never been to the wiki before. About 50% were referred by search engines, 29% direct traffic, and 20% referring sites. The top referring sites include: The Odyssey Scoop, The Town of Odyssey, and AIO Soda Fountain. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 05:13, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

I just finished creating the General Survey. It's probably too much, but let me know what you think and if I should make any changes. — Eugene [talk] 00:28, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I like the survey idea Eugene, when do you want to release it? Erwin Springer [talk] 02:28, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

When everyone approves it and we choose a spot for a link to it on the Main Page. We could also put it in the footer. — Eugene [talk] 04:09, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The idea to do a survey is a good one. Thanks so much for your work on it, Eugene! I'm not sure how poupular it will be though. It contains a lot of infomation that noneditors probably would not like to answer. For instance, there are a lot of questions about what you edit on the wiki. What if the person taking the survey is not an editor? Also people who don't like a site probably won't fill out an interview explaining why they don't like it. I think maybe we should take a clue from Jacob Isom, webmaster of the Odyssey Scoop, and ask them some questions about the show itself. If we want people to take the survey, try to publisize it as much as possible. See if you can get Jacob Isom to post about it on the Odyssey Scoop. We should also create a news item specifically for the survey and it should be something more than, "We've created a survey asking for your thoughts and opinions on the wiki. Click here to take the survey." No,no,no, add some personality to it, make it a little more fun and exciting. That goes for the survey too. (Don't let it be like the survey Eugene had Connie take. :) Addwh some pesonality to the rest of the site for that matter. Also, we can make the site more user oriented without having people take a survey. Just look at the wiki through the eyes of a newcomer. We can also read the survey's Jacob has done at the scoop to see what people like about a site. Those are my thoughts. Keep up the good work! MarvelousMarvin 18:43, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Those are some good points and I was thinking almost the exact same things. When I went through the survey myself, I thought it was a little too impersonal as well. That is why I'd like your guys' help to make it better. And I actually made it so that the survey questions will change based on previous answers. For instance, if you answered no to the question "Do you contribute to AIO Wiki?", you won't be asked about what you contribute. Also, if you say that you don't have an account, it won't ask you for your username and the reason for creating an account. Anywho, I know how surveys can be a bore for some users, so I want to fine tune it so that we get the most information from as little questions as possible. I can also add some fun to it once we settle on the questions. And if we want to, we can also create another form with only one input box just for suggestions and feedback. Or that just may be too confusing... what do you think? — Eugene [talk] 04:00, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I think everything you suggested is good. I don't really have time to come up with questions right now, I'm busy with school and the Act Like Odyssey Contest. Sorry I can't help more. Maybe after March things will slow down a little. I might be able to help then if you want to wait that long. MarvelousMarvin 23:36, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Heh, do a google search for '"Character Intersection"', and we're on the first page! Erwin Springer [talk] 01:49, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

I think one way you could make it look be tter and get more members is make it pop out of the screen! Make it extra colorful, like other sights. Make it so it's doesn't look just like a wiki, but an AIOwiki! Connielover101 13:46, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

Hey, Eugene. I know it's well into the month of April and I still haven't helped. Sorry about that. Making a survey and putting as much time into it as I would need to to make it worth it is a HUGE project and would require not only a lot of time but a lot of thought as well. Anyway, in short, my time isn't freeing up any so I'm afriad I won't be able to help. So you'd better just go ahead and do it without my help. Besides which fact, I've got an ever growing mountain of projects to do on the wiki and eventually I'll have to let one or another of them slide. You really don't need my help that much I don't think. You'll do great on it! I hope it works out well. Thanks for doing this. Wishing you success. MarvelousMarvin 02:43, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

What's that episode?

Hey does anyone know what the episode is where at the beginning, Whit is doing the invention thing were he's like "Let's see if this thing works!", but instead of it not working, it does work and he's like "Hey look, it works, but the real adventure is using it" or something like that. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 04:31, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

There are lots of epsiodes on the air that started with that. Stop Wooton Around 04:35, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Oh really? I think that there's one that started with that that was released on CD. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 04:36, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I made a chart with the episode intros a while back. Here's what I had listed:

Originally included on:

116: Isaac the Benevolent

119: What Happened to the Silver Streak

122: Castles and Cauldrons, Part 1 (This was cut from the gold audio series version)

Online version only:

31: Family Vacation Part 1

32: Family Vacation Part 2

35: VBS Blues

73: A Bite of Applesauce

81: Good Business

Odyssey123 05:32, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Odyssey123, That chart seems like it might be something nice to include in the wiki somehow... if you want, maybe you could upload it to a user page and I could work on integrating it into something that would work?? Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 17:28, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Poll

Hi everyone. I'm new at this, but I thought it would be cool if the front page of AIOwiki could have a monthly poll. Does anyone think that's a good idea? Maybe u could vote on it. Please leave a message on my talk page if any of the administrators think it's a good idea AriaCurzonFan 18:53, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

That sounds awesome!!! Good Idea!!! Glman 22:32, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Just saying "A poll" is somewhat vague, could you explain further? Erwin Springer [talk] 23:35, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

I assume AriaCurzonFan is thinking of polls like the Odyssey Scoop used to do. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 00:31, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I mean a monthly poll like:

Who Is Your Favorite Character or Bad Guy or Actor. Then make a list of the most famous character - Connie, Whit, Eugene, Wooton, Mandy and so on. Is there any way that could happen? AriaCurzonFan 18:22, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

So was the idea dropped? AriaCurzonFan 08:50, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Quotes

I think we should have one name for the speakers. For example some quotes use Whit while other's may use John Whittaker, John Avery Whittaker, etc. I think someone probably should go through and change it to the page that all of the names redirect to. Though maybe in that quote they use only the first name so maybe do this: John Whittaker{{!}}Whit or any other name they call him in that episode. What do you think? Stop Wooton Around 00:14, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

For the quotes, if we did something using nicknames, the quote templates would get even more complicated, so think it would be best just to put the full character name (or at least be consistent through all quotes). Erwin Springer [talk] 03:55, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

What I was saying is that keep the nicknames but have it linked to the full character name. The full character name will also show up on the Quotes by this character. If when use the {{!}} thing. Stop Wooton Around 12:19, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Poll (again)

Is there anyway that the administrators could make a poll? AriaCurzonFan 09:15, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Well a wiki is not really a place for polls. Polls would be better at the Odyssey Scoop, or another fan-site like that. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 14:30, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

my opinion is that one poll could be okay, but it's certainly not something that should be overused but here's a little something that i did earlier this week Reddo 16:51, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

A quick question. Would one be required to have an account to be able to vote in the poll? — Eugene [talk] 01:10, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

as of right now, no you don't need to be registered to vote in a poll Reddo 03:00, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

the reason I asked about it is because on another wiki, they have a poll, so I didn't think anything would be wrong with it. Oh, Reddo, I love the poll u did! AriaCurzonFan 07:46, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Genre

I think we also need to change the genre categories to something like the theme categories. The current genre categories say something like "To get a better look at this page see History Episodes." and/or Category:Episodes by Genre. We could change it to A complete list of episodes with genre of..... Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 22:51, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

character pages

had some ideas the other day to make the character pages easier to manage, and add some more info, and look a bit more organised, here's what i came up with, code is kind of messy right now and it only works for Whit but if you guy's like it I can expand it out to all characters, the only code that would be needed to use it is {{Episodes for this character}} it gets all the actor names and fills in everything itself, all it needs is for the proper categories to exist, let me know what you think, I'm open to any comments anyone has on this Reddo 18:16, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

P.S. note about speed, this would be the slowest page to load and it would be faster for user's not logged in

I like it! Erwin Springer [talk] 21:20, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

made the code work for any character now with up to 6 actors, only code that's needed is {{Episodes for this character/test}} and I used it on Eugene's page to show what it would be like Reddo 18:32, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

I added support for video appearances under the episodes section, I also took advantage of the new dplcache feature to speed up the page load times by ~6 times, and i fixed the bug that was causing the video categories to sort wrong.

is there any objection to moving ahead with this new template for all character pages? Reddo 18:45, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Did you check other browsers? The method looks different in my versions of IE and Firefox, as seen here. Erwin Springer [talk] 20:06, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

I did check them, I opened the page in IE 8, 9 FF 3.6 Opera 10.5 and Chrome 5 and all of them appear as your firefox one does Reddo 20:36, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

The only page I'm having trouble with is Whit's. May be the list is too large for it? (I'm using IE8, by the way.) Erwin Springer [talk] 21:52, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

yeah i see that now, only on his page, that's weird, must just be too big, i'll look into it more though Reddo 03:12, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

haven't been able to find a solution for Whit's page while using IE but i guess we'll just have to live with it for now. Also I've changed the infobox, there's no need to put in the actors now, it makes a list of the actors based on categories Reddo 01:27, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

Secret Word Contest

The secret word contest has finished, right? So could you put up the codes? I was away when they aired, so I didn't see about it till later. AriaCurzonFan 08:05, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

YEEEEESSS! please! Glman 02:13, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

I had the same thought. However, Ewrin Springer directed me here. Note:This conversation occurred after the secret word contest was over. AIOCREFan 20:05, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

We can post them now. Erwin Springer [talk] 21:12, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

I posted them here, along with adding the free episodes to the Available Episodes. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 04:33, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't think FOTF would like you posting the links to the audio, especially since they are unreleased episodes. This website had unreleased episodes on it, but FOTF asked them to take the unreleased episodes off. If I remember correctly, there was a comment from one of the comment checkers on one of the secret word pages that said that we were not supposed be able to download the prizes. So, I am going to link to the blog post instead of the actual audio link and Natedude24, you might want to delete your edit to the secret word page and the available episodes so that no one can get to the links. AIOCREFan 20:12, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Why don't you wait on doing that until we've contacted focus. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 20:19, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

I didn't see that you posted something until I edited the page. Besides, we should probably be on the safe side and not post the links in case FOTF doesn't want them on. AIOCREFan 20:21, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

I did contact focus a while ago and I told that the bonus content has since been taken down and we can post the secret words. Erwin Springer [talk] 03:07, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

The bonus content has not been taken down. I just read the Campbell County Connection Blog and they linked to Lights Out at Whit's End which has a link to the episode which was a secret word prize. I really recommend you recheck with FOTF and see if they really want people downloading those unreleased episodes. The reason I am suggesting this is because Odyssey Fan was asked to take down the unreleased episodes they gave to download. AIOCREFan 13:18, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

here's what I know ... The secret word contest has ended and you can create a chart of the words and links to their pages. Just don't link directly to any mp3 files, which is standared policy with anything on the official site unless the direct link is offered by them (this is done on podcasts for example). I believe OdysseyFan took down his episode because he was asked by other people, not focus. Erwin Springer [talk] 23:02, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Cast and Crew

I'm adding the new format to some of the cast and crew pages. I've found out that the template {{Characters for this actor}} doesn't work for actors that play video characters. Please help! Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 00:31, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

I've added two new tabs to it for video acting and video characters as seen here Reddo 18:22, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Could you please make two more; a video director tab and video writer tab. Thanks! Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 22:53, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

dpl extension

I finally got around to upgrading to a new version and tweaking it for our use, let me know if you see anything different so we can fix things as soon as possible.

The biggest new feature of this upgrade is the dplcache function, it allows dpl statment results to be stored on the server so that there is very little lag for the server to return the result making our page loads a whole lot faster, even more so if you're logged out, again let me know if you see anything funky

I just converted whit's page over to use the new character list format, the new character list with the new dpl version serves twice as much data in 1/3 of the time compared to the old list with the older version :) also if you're wanting a complete list of changes see here we upgraded from 1.7.4 to 1.8.9 Reddo 18:00, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Why didn't you upgrade to version 1.9.0? AIOCREFan 22:19, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

there's no download for 1.9 yet Reddo 00:07, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

I added support to the purge gadget to refresh the dpl cache so if a page needs to be updated we can just click the purge button instead of having to edit the url. Reddo 18:41, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Chris Fabry or Chris Fabray

On the aiowiki it is spelled Chris Fabry but on the script for Backwoods Jacobs is is spelled Chris Fabray. Which way should we spell it? Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 20:18, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Also since I am adding the episode staff template to the actor pages I've started to check a few actors to see if the are on Imdb.com. How do we know for sure that it is that person? When you make a new character it has a link to Imdb.com but if they are just acting on an episode how do we know? Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 21:11, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

In answer to your first question, I have several of Chris Fabry's books and they spell it Chris Fabry. AIOCREFan 22:03, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

I wonder why it's spelled different on the script. I have Beyond Expections with the bonus feature to see the scripts. Strange??? Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 22:54, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Stop Wooton' : people make typos and mistakes all the time. My guess is it's just that. Likely the writers didn't write the by line themselves, or Phil just didn't know how to spell Chris' name and Chris was too nice to bring it up or something. That's my completely unsupported conjecture.

Bible links

I was wondering how the Bible: links work so that they go directly to Biblegateway? Has anyone considered using Bible.org instead? When you go to a verse on Bible.org, it includes many translations right there. I agree that maybe not everyone would actually want that... but I personally prefer Bible.org. Anyway, here's an example: http://net.bible.org/verse.php?book=proverbs&chapter=15&verse=22

ok, so I was wondering if on the air they always read from NIV? Also, apparently, you can't look at a whole chapter (say, Psalm 136) in multiple versions on Bible.org, so maybe that's a good reason not to switch. Just thought I would bring it up.Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 19:41, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Take a look at the Sandbox Episode it's something I started working on but I've been busy with school lately so it's not finished yet Reddo 19:55, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

If you make a link like [[bible:Genesis 1:1|Genesis 1:1]] it gives you Genesis 1:1 and links to Biblegateway. On Biblegateway, the url looks like this: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Book_Chapter:Verse. But on Bible.org, it it has: book= and chapter= which would be harder to set up. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 02:13, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

Reddo, what about episodes that have an entire chapter for their "verse"? seems like that would be a problem for your SUPER-AWESOME expandable scripture.Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 20:14, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

i thought about that but as I said it's not completely finished yet, I was thinking about when you click show it would just have a link to see it on biblegateway Reddo 00:25, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

Strange List divisions

Why are all of the "list" pages divided up into seemingly non-sense 0-6 headings? example:Category:Episodes_sorted_by_Airdate has + , - , 0 , 1 ... Is there a way to make this not so terrible-looking? Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 19:46, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

It's something I've been meaning to do for quite a while now, hopefully next month I'll get around to it Reddo 19:51, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Out of curiosity..

I was wondering if its ok to use info from the Official Guide as a resource for different things like notes on episode pages?--Jason 00:59, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes its okay! Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 01:56, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Project

Is there any major but fairly easy project I can do? Like, itunes and audible links. Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 04:29, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Wooton, if you have any episodes that you own which don't have plot or quotes, I think that would be the best project. Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 14:26, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

/* Quotes */ dpl problems?

Take a look at , say Wooton Basset's page and scroll to the bottom. Why is there a quote from "For the birds" which has no line from Wooton?Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 23:27, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

okay, I did a lot of changes to the quote system, on the episode pages it should all be the same now but on the character pages there should be a fairly huge improvement, it should only show quotes with that specific character and I've also added who's speaking. It should work but I may have messed up somewhere, as always let me know what you think and if you see anything odd Reddo 01:21, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure if I like the current way with all of the links in the quote section, does anybody else think it would look better if everything was just bolded? once we agree on a style for it I can set it up to do a cache of the results and then the pages will load faster and be updated ~ weekly Reddo 06:31, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

I think that just bolded would be fine... if people want to see the person, they can always either search, or go to the episode.Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 14:42, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

I think the new quotes look really good! Thanks a lot Reddo... but there is one thing I was wondering... For the character pages, would it be possible to have say 5 random quotes and a link/tab to view all the quotes... maybe this isn't needed, it just seemed like some of the pages are really LONG.Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 23:35, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

I think something like that would be possible, I'll see what I can come up with Reddo 00:23, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

recently aired episodes

Is there any way that the recently aired episodes nav list could have a link to the aiowiki page for the episode as well as the listen link?Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 14:45, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

not without involving some hacking of the mediawiki software, the default configuration for it is one link per line Reddo 15:38, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

What about changing it to the episode page, which would then have the listen link? or do people really like the one-click listen? Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 20:16, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Nevermind about that; the recently aired->all is a good page for what I was looking for Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 21:01, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

However, maybe a better label for "recently aired episodes" would be "listen to available shows"? It's two characters longer, but seems to reflect the actual meaning more. Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 21:01, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

States

So are we supposed to put information about Odyssey references about a state on all those state pages? Kenan24 01:54, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

Which state pages are you talking about? maybe you could link to one?Proverbs 22:9 Elementus Green 19:00, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

I think so. there's a page for each state. http://www.aiowiki.com/wiki/United_States --Jason 01:58, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

Question

I've noticed that on the character pages, the episodes they've appeared in are now a bunch of links with these headings about ep ratings at the top. Any particular reason for this? I understand about the ones who have appeared in twenty billion eps that they would have a bunch of links, but the minor characters...where'd the boxes go? --TigerintheShadows 19:56, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

i mentioned it here a few weeks ago and said that if there were no objections I'd go ahead and change all the pages to that format, and no one said no to it so I changed it, it's no problem to change it back to something similar for people that have only been in a few episodes thought, or we could add something link this to each page:

For a detailed list of episodes with Eugene Melstner please see here

Reddo 20:16, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Wrong name

I was looking through the 2010 Season and I saw that Abulita (sp?) is called 'Grandma Parker'. Parker wouldn't be her last name. Eva's last name is Parker because she married David. Could you change the name? AriaCurzonFan 19:19, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

hmm good point, do we know what her last name is though? Reddo 20:08, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

I don't think so, yet. But could u put "Abulita" for the heading? AriaCurzonFan 06:30, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Front page

I don't know how to update the front page. The 'News' section needs updating, so how do u do it? --AriaCurzonFan 10:07, 4 May 2010 (UTC) 10:04, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

When you're on the main page, you can click the "news" tab and enter the information. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 13:57, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Got that far. but when i tried to edit, it said: This is locked so only registered users can edit. I was logged in. ----

Are you sure that you are pressing "news" and not "edit" on the home page? God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 15:56, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry! I got really confused! I have it figured out now. Yeah, I think I was pressing "edit" --AriaCurzonFan 19:12, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Wrong News & Good news!

As I was looking through the 2010 Season, I saw that it said that Red Hollard owns the Harlequin. I contacted FOTF and they said "Red does not own the Harlequin Theatre." Here is the conversation: (I also got some news about an upcoming show! :-)

Q - Does Red Hollerd now own Edwin's theater?

A - Red does not own the Harlequin Theatre. We will be meeting a theatre manager in an upcoming episode called “Stage Fright.”

Let me know what you think. --AriaCurzonFan 14:33, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the info! God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 15:22, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Here's another title: An Agreeable Nanny --AriaCurzonFan 09:17, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

Where did you hear this from? God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 15:11, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

On the newest podcast on whit'send.org --AriaCurzonFan 15:49, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

Character Infoboxes

I was doing preliminary pages for a couple characters in Jubilee Singers, and was having trouble with the infoboxes: which one are we using as a rule now, the one that comes when you push the little button? I like having the 'Type' when they're historical or Biblical, but I can change it back if the policy is to use a different one. Rachel Maxwell 04:07, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

I added "type" to the preload teamplate, if that's what you mean. Erwin Springer [talk] 00:35, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Quotes

Love the quote formatting -- but it seems like only quote1 will come up in the random quote box if there is more than one quote. My imagination? Rachel Maxwell 20:45, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't think that's true - The quote from Bad Company just came up for me. Erwin Springer [talk] 00:27, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

There's only one Bad Company quote though -- Best Laid Plans for example, there are several quotes. (1a, 2a, 3a, you know). I've only ever seen the first one come up. But I may just have missed it or something. Rachel Maxwell 01:39, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Interesting. I was able to refresh a few times and find that the second quote from Tuesdays with Wooton showed up. I designed the template to pick a random quote if there is more than one, so it should do as so. Erwin Springer [talk] 02:00, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

I must just not have seen them. Great job on that template -- I love the random quote. Rachel Maxwell 04:49, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Quote Categories

Is there templates yet for the quote categories? If so what are they? Thanks! Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 22:49, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

Use {{Episode quotes by character}}. Erwin Springer [talk] 02:05, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

A "Contest"

I feel like AIOWiki needs some sort of exlusive event. We have the tools to do some sort of contest here on the wiki. Possibly a 'treasure hunt'? Any ideas? Erwin Springer [talk] 01:08, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

That's a neat idea. Unfortunately, I can't think of anything but some sort of a quiz type thing. I'll think about it. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 05:14, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

What would the prize be? Rachel Maxwell 22:37, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Depending on when we do it, we might be able to give album 52. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 22:55, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I've been doing a lot of the actor pages lately, mostly those who played minor characters, and a lot of them have contact buttons that I get the impression would actually eventually get you to the actor himself. (Or herself.) If we asked nicely, quite a few of them would probably sign something. Again, most of them would be just couple-times-appeared, but for AIO fanatics, it'd be a great prize. Especially coupled with an album. If we begged we might could get some of the major players, I dunno. This could quite possibly be nearly impossible, but I'm just kicking another idea out there. Rachel Maxwell 23:03, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

I know that in the past AIO sites have been given AIO products to give away in contests ans such. May be if Reddo deliberated with AIO we could do it that way. Erwin Springer [talk] 00:50, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

I do like that idea -- if we do it, will it be, like you said, a treasure hunt type thing? Rachel Maxwell 04:20, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Actor Page

The Michael Gough page box only says he has played 1 character, though he has played 2, in 3 episodes. I can't get it to fix, and am not sure what it's doing? Rachel Maxwell 19:09, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Strange. I can't figure it out either. I'm guessing a category page needs to be created. That or the sortkey is messed up. (No, I don't know what that is.:) MarvelousMarvin 20:39, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Wondering also why you changed the actor playing George Leonard White to Unknown? I thought Chris said it was Michael Gough, but I could be mistaken.... Rachel Maxwell 21:25, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

I didn't change it to Unknown. It was like that when I looked at it, even though the editing page said that the actor was Michael Gough. So I removed that information from the editing page to see if it would change anything in the normal page. It didn't. Apparently it is no longer needed to enter the actor into the editing page, because Whit's page doesn't have the actors listed in the editing page but it does in the normal page. I guess Reddo changed the template. To Erwin, Nate, or Reddo: can you change this template so that a link to each of the actors for a character appear in the character infoboxes? I.e. in the infobox for Whit, don't just list the actors names in the infobox, actually add links to those names. MarvelousMarvin 04:50, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

And I think I broke something. Theo Greenly and Theo Greenley-- Greenly is the correct spelling, so I tried to fix it...and now I have no idea what to do, they won't combine, and the infobox won't change. Someone who understands this all, please fix it, and I apologize. Also if someone could move Tim Hossman to Tim Hosman. Rachel Maxwell 19:43, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

sorry about not replying sooner, i've been busy with work, i'll try to fix it on my next day off which is saturday Reddo 01:59, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

those names should now be linked, the michael page just needed to be resaved (rare glitch in the software) and i don't see anything wrong with the theo or tim pages, maybe someone else fixed them Reddo 19:37, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Jessi Corti: I'm fairly certain he's actually Jesse Corti: IMDB link, but I hate to try to change it after messing up the others. If anyone would like to change the spelling, move the page, or second the opinion that it's the same person, I'd be grateful. Also Tom Babbes I'm pretty sure is Thom Babbes. And Mark Shillinger is Mark Schillinger. Rachel Maxwell 13:49, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Ratings

Is there a way we can disable the ability to rate unreleased episodes (for example, Album 52 episodes) until they are released? It is getting really annoying seeing ratings for these episodes. AIOCREFan 21:49, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Erwin made a small fix for this, I'll wipe out the DB records for those episodes and then when they start being released we'll have accurate ratings for them Reddo 19:10, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Wiki Software

Is the MediaWiki software going to be updated to a look like the regular Wikipedia is now? AIOCREFan 21:52, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

No, wikipedia only changed their userskin. Erwin Springer [talk] 22:16, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

I prefer their new look and would like to change the wiki over to look like that in the future but that will take some time yet. First we have to wait for Mediawiki 1.16 to be released, then we have to wait for our extensions to be updated to be compatible with 1.16. then we have to upgrade everything, after that we can start testing the new skin to make sure that we can keep old gadgets and features then we'll have a vote on it and see what our users prefer Reddo 19:17, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Infoboxes

I'm having trouble with the name changes, I've been trying to change the ones mentioned at the end of the Actors section, three things up. I've changed Jessi to Jesse, changed it in all the character boxes in the episodes and changed the name in the character's infoboxes Larry Kent for example -- but they won't change. Still say Jessi. Help? Rachel Maxwell 04:16, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Parental Warning Disagreement

Look, I've been thinking about it since somebody put the Parental Warning ("NOTE TO PARENTS: Like "Memories of Jerry," this episode presents a very one-sided view of the Vietnam War and ignores all of the important Christian leaders who objected to the war for Biblical reasons. Parents might want to talk to their kids about the issues in this episode.") up on The Price of Freedom. I'm all for putting a warning to parents about the sensitive nature of this episode, but I strongly disagree with the wording. This episode was aired in 1988 -- when kids were going through what Kirk McGinty was -- having people tell them their fathers had died for nothing. Whether or not that's true isn't the point. They were kids, and they missed their fathers. This episode does not purport to decide who was right or wrong in Vietnam: Chris's closing wrap says "Sometimes it's difficult to know which side is right in a war. Especially one like Vietnam. It's not like in Old Testament times, when God told his leaders who and when they should fight. But one thing we can be sure of, whether it's in war time or peace time, is that God is always in control, and always working His good and perfect will." The closest the episode comes to "controversial" is in Kirk's father's letter, where he says that "a lot of bad things will be said about what we are doing over here. Some of those things, I'm sorry to say, are true. That happens in war sometimes. I know that sounds like I'm trying to excuse the unexcusable, but I'm not. If the people who are against this war could just talk to some of the Vietnamese and hear the gratitude they express to us for helping them, I'm sure they'd understand a little better. That's what makes the price of freedom worth paying...." And Mrs. McGinty goes on to say how her husband and other soldiers paid the price of freedom, for her, her son, all Americans, and the people in countries they fought in. You can agree or disagree with Vietnam, it doesn't matter. Not in this situation, not in this episode. I'm fine with having a parental warning telling parents they may want to talk this episode over with their kids. But not with saying that it's one-sided. There's nothing one-sided about believing children should be able to be proud of fathers and mothers who did their best to pay the price of freedom -- whatever the war. I didn't merely change it though, because I want this to be a group decision. It's not my wiki. But this is a wiki--a place for facts, not opinions. Again, the idea of a parental warning, reminding parents that this was dealing with issues prevalent in 1988 that children were going through, that it's about Vietnam, I will be glad to support. But I cannot accept it as it is. However, neither do I want to be a trouble-maker, which is why I drafted this extremely lengthy explanation of why I want the wording changed, to read something more along these lines: "NOTE TO PARENTS: Like "Memories of Jerry" this episode deals with the Vietnam War, some opinions surrounding it, and grief of family members of fallen soldiers. Parents may want to be with their kids for this episode to explain their beliefs regarding the war, and to talk about the issues brought up." I respectfully request the Wiki community to consider this change, fully understanding what I am asking. Again, this isn't about Vietnam--just like the episode itself wasn't "about" Vietnam. It was about a man who died in it, and his son's growing up without him in a climate hostile (rightly or wrongly) to his father's sacrifice. However, as I said, I want this to be a group decision, and I will respect the decision of the community. Rachel Maxwell 04:34, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

I agree with Rachel on this Reddo 05:02, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Ditto. God Bless ~ Nate ~ Talk 05:07, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Sounds good to me! Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 05:18, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Then if it's all right, I'm going to change it and the one on Memories of Jerry. Thanks guys! Rachel Maxwell 17:42, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. Erwin Springer [talk] 00:47, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Wanted Categories

The wanted categories were above 500 but now there are just 51 wanted categories. I don't know what to do with the 51 wanted categories that are left. Stop Wooton' Around (talk) 06:33, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

There are a couple more now, Cat ratings for a couple of pages moved for name misspellings. Rachel Maxwell 04:40, 2 June 2010 (UTC)