burntwolf Posted September 22, 2007 Share Posted September 22, 2007 Burnt Wolf is almost a year old. In fact, it will turn a year old about the time my daughter is due to be born (November). So, I finally found some time (before "free time" becomes even harder to come by) and spent the last several hours (er, 8) upgrading and tweaking the wiki. It is now powered by MediaWiki 1.11 (from 1.9). And, from the front page, you can't really tell that I did a darn thing! Some changes to report: * Google ads/Google search are gone. If the site ever garners any amount of real traffic, maybe I'll figure out how to re-implement them. Not like I made one red cent from that in the past year anyway. Google Ads are a bit tricky w/ a wiki, because to really be in compliance w/ the Google ads TOS, some pages shouldn't have ads at all. * No longer forced to 'preview' before saving. If I notice this being a problem, I may have to figure out how to re-implement. I don't know how much this annoyed people, but you don't have to do it for now. * I think I've scrubbed 99% of the spammed content and blocked those users and their IP addresses. * There is now a captcha for creating new user accounts, which should hopefully deter the spam bots a bit. * Added GoogleMaps extension, which is pretty cool (for the Store entries). * Apologies to anyone who tried to help by deleting spammed content and found they couldn't. I think only sysops can do that. I figured I'd start this thread in case anyone needs any help getting started using a wiki, had suggestions for improving the site, or anything Burnt Wolf related. A wiki site is only as good as the community that supports it, and the wiki can take any shape the community wants. There are ways to have community discussions on the wiki through "Discussion" and "Talk" pages, but it's not as easy to keep track of as a message board. I didn't think a whole Burnt Wolf-specific message board was necessary, though. Virgil and I had talked about some kind of partnership way back when, but nothing official has come of that thus far. But, I think of the wiki as an unofficial offshoot of Vinyl Collective and, by extension, this message board. I hope it continues to grow over the next year and beyond. Some year-one statistics: There are 1,616 total pages in the database. This includes "talk" pages, pages about Burnt Wolf, minimal "stub" pages, redirects, and others that probably don't qualify as content pages. Excluding those, there are 775 pages that are probably legitimate content pages. 808 files have been uploaded. There have been a total of 42,133 page views, and 4,283 page edits since Burnt Wolf was setup. There are 61 registered users (not counting the 30 odd spammer accounts I blocked today) Most viewed pages * Main Page (2,738) * Category:Releases (1,755) * Category:Artists (1,595) * Against Me (241) * Category:Stores (239) * Templates (216) * Talk:Main Page (163) * Help:Contents (157) * Brand New (150) * Don't Turn Away (140) Not setting the world on fire quite yet, but there seems to be a small core group of regulars, which is a decent start. Thanks for those who have contributed and welcome board anyone who decides to join in. Cheers --rdp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 I just made an account and created some pages -- lemme know if I'm doing anything wrong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbananagrabber Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 I just made an account and created some pages -- lemme know if I'm doing anything wrong! same, also i suck at getting pictures up there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted September 23, 2007 Author Share Posted September 23, 2007 cool. the pages i spot-checked looked fine. what's the issue you run into w/ putting pics up? if you use the releases template (type "{{subst:releases}}", save the page, then edit), there are placeholders for image filenames. You can replace those w/ some descriptive filenames of the release (how ever many pics you want to post--my template just has placeholders for front/back cover, side a, side . then when you save the page you can click on those links and it will take you to the u/l page. i tried to install a multi-upload extension today, but it was a bit more involved than i thought so i skipped it until i can find some install instrux that make more sense. you can also click 'edit' on any page to see the wiki syntax to emulate too, btw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skumbucket Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 i love you burnt wolf! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 if you use the releases template (type "{subst:releases}", save the page, then edit) This definitely does not work. I keep trying and nothing happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted September 23, 2007 Author Share Posted September 23, 2007 if you use the releases template (type "{subst:releases}", save the page, then edit) This definitely does not work. I keep trying and nothing happens. sorry, I meant "{{subst:releases}}" http://burntwolf.com/index.php?title=Templates I just noticed someone u/l'ed an image using the default filename in the template. This means that whenever that template is called it would show that image, so I deleted it. You'll definitely want to change the name in the template to match the entry. While on the subject of images, I use Xnview http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.html (a nice, powerful, free image program) to crop and resize my pics. This File Resizer may also be useful: http://www.ghacks.net/2007/09/23/image-resizer/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 This definitely does not work. I keep trying and nothing happens. sorry, I meant "{{subst:releases}}" http://burntwolf.com/index.php?title=Templates I just noticed someone u/l'ed an image using the default filename in the template. This means that whenever that template is called it would show that image, so I deleted it. You'll definitely want to change the name in the template to match the entry. While on the subject of images, I use Xnview http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.html (a nice, powerful, free image program) to crop and resize my pics. This File Resizer may also be useful: http://www.ghacks.net/2007/09/23/image-resizer/ They other thing that's kind of bunk is the links to VC/eBay/Popsike, because no one changes the whole "SEARCH PARAMETERS" thing (I doubt most people know how -- and when I tried doing it for a record, it was a huge pain in the ass). Is there any way you can have that automatically take the article title and insert it in those links? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 Another really easy-to-use and user-friendly image resizer is http://www.snipshot.com -- I use that thing religiously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted September 23, 2007 Author Share Posted September 23, 2007 They other thing that's kind of bunk is the links to VC/eBay/Popsike, because no one changes the whole "SEARCH PARAMETERS" thing (I doubt most people know how -- and when I tried doing it for a record, it was a huge pain in the ass). Is there any way you can have that automatically take the article title and insert it in those links? all i do is go to VC/popsike/ebay and search for whatever then copy/paste the entire link in there. but, i stopped being super into that so a lot of times i'll just delete that part of the template. there might be a bot or script that could do what you suggest, but that is beyond my meager skills... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted September 23, 2007 Author Share Posted September 23, 2007 you know, i just read this book: http://www.amazon.com/MediaWiki-Administrators-Tutorial-Guide-installation/dp/1904811590/ref=pd_bbs_4/002-5960152-7685660?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190561390&sr=8-4 and the way they suggest creating templates may be able to plug things in automatically. i'll have to do some more research. they set them up like a CSS, and it fills in user-defined variables. and then, if someone ever wanted to change ALL the pages w/ that template, you could just change the template and it would change all the pages using that template. it seemed kinda complicated though for an average wiki user and kind of dangerous for this type of site. the way the current templates work, they just put in the basic info and are editable from there to however the contributor wants to display the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrc Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 man i just spent a good bit of time learning about wiki. i have never posted and tried to update the Murder City Devils 7". i could not get a image posted, and when i did it would not be formatted like everyone elses. Maybe i'll figure it out next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 man i just spent a good bit of time learning about wiki. i have never posted and tried to update the Murder City Devils 7". i could not get a image posted, and when i did it would not be formatted like everyone elses. Maybe i'll figure it out next time. I just looked over your work, and you were trying to insert an image -- you need to upload any image you want to use for the website here: http://www.burntwolf.com/index.php?title=Special:Upload Then cut and paste the filename (i.e. mcd.jpg) into the proper spot in the template and you'll be good to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrc Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 oh, that would explain it. thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrc Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 sweet, worked like a charm. now that i know how it all works i will work on it when i am bored at work. Also i will be taking better pictures of all my vinyl so i will update my stuff at a leter date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monk0nuggets Posted September 23, 2007 Share Posted September 23, 2007 This is a neat website indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted September 24, 2007 Author Share Posted September 24, 2007 there are a few ways to u/l images i think there is an image button in the edit toolbar too. what i do is just put the filename in the entry, save it, then click on the link to get to the u/l page for that image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrc Posted September 24, 2007 Share Posted September 24, 2007 I figured it out, I updated/added some records. Now that i kinda know what i am doing i will probably work on it some when i am bored at work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted September 24, 2007 Author Share Posted September 24, 2007 cool, thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommytumult Posted September 25, 2007 Share Posted September 25, 2007 I just looked at the wiki during class to see how the spammers situation is going(which looks like it's been pretty much squashed), and man, have you guys been doing some work the past couple of days! Good job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted October 2, 2007 Author Share Posted October 2, 2007 Tommy Tumult is a new sysop at Burnt Wolf btw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burntwolf Posted November 16, 2007 Author Share Posted November 16, 2007 Dreamhost has some scheduled downtime for my site: Due to space and power constraints in our primary datacenter we are moving the entire shared cluster “spacey” to our LAX facility at 10:00PM PST (GMT - 8), two weeks from today, Friday, November 30th 2007. All webservers, mail servers, file servers, and MySQL servers in the spacey cluster will be unreachable during the move, which we expect to take approximately 8 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nickman Posted November 16, 2007 Share Posted November 16, 2007 phew, thanks for letting me know. i had plans to use your site a lot during that 8 hour period but i guess i better find something else to do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottheisel Posted November 17, 2007 Share Posted November 17, 2007 phew, thanks for letting me know. i had plans to use your site a lot during that 8 hour period but i guess i better find something else to do I was wavering between an exalt and a smite here, but in the end, I went with the +1. Kudos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rrd Posted November 17, 2007 Share Posted November 17, 2007 Dreamhost has some scheduled downtime for my site:Due to space and power constraints in our primary datacenter we are moving the entire shared cluster “spacey” to our LAX facility at 10:00PM PST (GMT - 8), two weeks from today, Friday, November 30th 2007. All webservers, mail servers, file servers, and MySQL servers in the spacey cluster will be unreachable during the move, which we expect to take approximately 8 hours. lets hope it gets lost during the move so everyone can finally realize that deadformat.net owns this site so bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.