User talk:Cogniac

SysOp

I promoted you to SysOp since you are a valued contributor to the site. You can now edit every page on the site. - JC the Builder 22:56, 28 December 2006 (PST)

Page Links

It is good you are adding links to other site pages, but there is also a point when it becomes too much. For example, on the Spellweaving page you edited this, "The following graph shows how each individual spell can be cast to gain in skill. Cross reference your skill level at the top with the desired spell along the left column. If your skill level is in the green, you can gain from that spell. If it is in the yellow, gains are possible but are more difficult." Having the skills page linked 3 times in the same paragraph isn't going to serve a purpose and too many links will obscure important keywords that should stand out and be linked. Generally, the first time an important term appears on a page is when you make a wiki link. You are doing a wonderful job, I hope you keep it up. - JC the Builder 06:08, 30 December 2006 (PST)

Vote on Poll

I have installed a new poll extension which I hope to use on the front page. Please go submit an answer to the TestPoll so I can see if it is working properly. - JC the Builder 21:05, 4 January 2007 (PST)

Those checkboxes (I guess those are supposed to be checkboxes) are rather broken. Other than that, good show. --Cogniac 12:33, 5 January 2007 (PST)

I know, I am going to fix the style and images to make it more pretty. - JC the Builder 12:57, 5 January 2007 (PST)

Something Must Have Broke

When I was coding the new privacy shield I had to comment out some code that I had no idea what it does. Let me know if you see anything broken. More on that stuff in the UOGuide:Blog. - JC the Builder 21:16, 5 January 2007 (PST)

About catagorizing

I wish I had caught you sooner before you made all those changes. Adding every item to the Item category is kind of pointless. I have discussed this with BBR before and we agreed that things should not be categorized so broadly. For example you added the Clothing, Equipment and Items categorizes to the Valorite Robe. Those three should actually be categories for other categories. Items would be the top level, then Equipment would be a subcategory of Items, then Clothing a subcategory of Equipment. Finally Cloaks would be a subcategory of Clothing.

I don't think I have explained this very well. If you have more questions let me know. - JC the Builder 15:32, 27 May 2007 (PDT)

The way I was thinking of it was this: you look in the Items category and see every item there is to see. You can either look through the giant list, or pick a subcategory to filter out a bunch of the selections. Then you can select your item from this list, or go down another subcategory. Rinse, repeat. --Cogniac 15:36, 27 May 2007 (PDT)

Well I sort of see the purpose of categories as a way to find like items. Now if every UO item was added to the Items category, what purpose would it serve? No one would ever be looking at that. But maybe someone will want to look under the Robe one for other types of Robes. - JC the Builder 18:45, 27 May 2007 (PDT)

Oh well. I see where you're coming from, and I suppose it makes sense. I've switched about half of it back so far. If nothing else fails, we have no "Wanted Categories" anymore. --Cogniac 18:46, 27 May 2007 (PDT)

I hope you are not offended by these nitpicks. I see you are creating some highly specific categories such as "Leather Ninja Jackets". Is there more than one "Leather Ninja Jacket"? Categories need to have items to fill them. I don't think going any lower than leather armor would be worthwhile. - JC the Builder 15:41, 31 May 2007 (PDT)

I'm just building some of the Category hierarchy. I figure they're bound to introduce various items with UO:SA and beyond, as well as there being a lot of obscure seer/event items that will eventually fall into some of these categories as their articles get made. Better to have them there and empty in preparation for future articles than having to constantly create them as articles are written that fall into them. --Cogniac 15:45, 31 May 2007 (PDT)

Don't worry about banning spambots

You are doing a lot of great work on the front page and stuff. I just wanted to say though that banning those spam accounts is probably a waste of time. I haven't noticed them being used for more then one edit. I have been quite lazy and will try to look into the anti-bot stuff BBR was talking about a couple weeks ago. - JC the Builder 19:40, 5 July 2007 (PDT)

I was actually looking at the history of one of the Talk pages from one of the bots you hadn't banned and it had spammed that page 3 times in a row. So at least some of them are being used again. Probably each gets assigned to a specific page and then spams it periodically. On the plus side, it looks like UOStuff is having the same problem. =P --Cogniac 19:49, 5 July 2007 (PDT)

Ok, keep banning them then. I will try and look into a more permanent solution soon. - JC the Builder 21:58, 5 July 2007 (PDT)

text color links

This should help :

Template:Link, Template:Link, Template:Link

- BBR talk / cont 03:43, 6 August 2007 (PDT)

conditional macros

Have a look at this template: [1] or [2], it should show you everything you need to know. Result for them: [3], [4] - BBR talk / cont 23:40, 6 August 2007 (PDT)

Meh i was bored. Just see Sandbox. i put it to float on the right side, but you can have it float on the left just as easily with the "align" parameter. You should be able to do the other parameters yourself. - BBR talk / cont 00:30, 7 August 2007 (PDT)

The floaty thing is actually a feature that allows you to put text on the left or right of the item text, to save space ;) - BBR talk / cont 22:44, 7 August 2007 (PDT)

Client Updates

I was going over the site statistics and those client number update pages you were adding actually drive quite a bit of traffic to the site. Nice work on adding those. - JC the Builder 21:58, 13 September 2007 (PDT)

Thanks. I've always seen UOGuide as an archive as well as an information repository, plus, meticulously sifting through all those pages to pull out the Client Patches and System Publishes soothes my OCD. Of course, even I get tired of it eventually, which is why I haven't worked on it much the past few weeks other than to add the latest patches. I went through a little over 2,500 pages on UO.com to come up with what we have so far. Only about 7,000 more to go to get back to early-mid 1999! Also: I put in those placeholders for the KR closed beta patches because I have all the patch notes already set up for them, I'm just waiting to hear back from Jeremy on the actual patch numbers, so those will also go in eventually.

I'm also waiting on some other info from her and Leurocian so I can do some more work on my other project, which is that item property template which is finally mostly working. Hopefully that will bring in some serious hits once I get it fully functional and can fill out all the artifact/item pages with it. --Cogniac 13:21, 14 September 2007 (PDT)

Another Promotion

You have been one of the most oldest and valued contributors to UOGuide. So I would like to promote you to the very top. There is really no official title. But you will have complete editorial control over the site and any site decisions have to be run by the both of us. To form an analogy, it would be like one of the people on Wikipedia's board of trustees. There would be virtually no change from what you do now. If you would like to accept then it is just so. - JC the Builder 21:50, 29 December 2007 (PST)

I most humbly accept, sir. Thanks! As an aside: Technically, there would be two changes: a minor edit to the Admin Template and a minor edit to the UOGuide:About Staff section. =P --Cogniac 22:09, 29 December 2007 (PST)

Template Problem

Could you look at the entry for Mind Blast. The template appears hinky, the effect line does not appear nor the icon. I didn't want to meddle as the template is yours and protected. Congrats on the promotion, he sould really come up with a title thought. I GOT IT! Grand Pubah! ok maybe not. ;) --Ceruleus 16:22, 14 January 2008 (PST)

Fixed Mind Blast. The problem was that the parameters for the Magery Spell template have been changed, thus it was only picking up the parameters from the old list of parameters that also happen to be in the new list of paramters. I've slowly been switching the magery spell pages over, but I've only made it through the Fourth Circle so far. So with Mind Blast I'm up to 33/64 now. Also: I integrated the "Notes" section into the Description, since the "See Also" section is part of the template. Meaning that anything added after the template inclusion will show up after "See Also", which is itself supposed to be the last section on the page.
And I think I will pass on Grand Poobah. It reminds me too much of the terrible titles on Stratics. =/ Thanks, though! --Cogniac 17:50, 14 January 2008 (PST)

Oh Template Guru

Could you please take a look at Test Area 2 on UOGuide:Sandbox? I am trying to convert to the UOGuide color. However, I can't go live with it as it is. After the table(s), the text size appears to stay at 90% and the width stays at the table width. See Also, Notes have no bold. Your template does not have that problem. I'm at a loss and would be grateful for any suggestions. --Ceruleus 08:54, 26 January 2008 (PST)

Fixed. It was a fairly simple (and simple to make) error. The resistances/damage types at the bottom is itself a table within the larger table, so you forgot an extra "|}" at the bottom. This was causing the wiki to think that the rest of the page was just another table cell, so it was applying the table's formatting code to the rest of the page.
I also made some code style changes, but none of that really changed the form or function of what is displayed. --Cogniac 16:28, 26 January 2008 (PST)

You're the best! Yes, the table within a table was to "read." Thanks a lot. --Ceruleus 14:44, 27 January 2008 (PST)

I just wanted to say, that I don't have the slightest idea what you are doing with all these templates, but when I have a look the recent changes page, you're always going wild on them ;) I only provide a few scraps of content here and there and got no clue about templates, but it looks like a lot of work and I just wanted to let you know that it's appreciated.

Thanks! My eventual goal is to simplify the editing of UOGuide as much as possible by making a template for almost anything. That way, instead of users having to learn and use a bunch of HTML tags, HTML character codes, CSS styling code, and complicated conditional wiki markup, they can just go right to the template that matches what they need, copy+paste it to the page they're editing, and fill in the blanks. It's still in the beginning stages now, so that means giant walls of edits in the Recent Changes section. =)
--Cogniac 19:24, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Spelling/Grammar and Historical Accuracy

After some thought on it this afternoon, I think perhaps the spelling errors *should* be left in for historical accuracy, given of course that all BNN articles/fiction are exact copies. While not being critical, it does show that even paid OSI/EA/Mythic staff can make typos or outright have different ideas of spelling and/or quality control in their official postings. Of course, user-generated content is fair game for spelling/grammatical corrections. A Style Manual might be a little much, but would help clear things up regarding 1st/2nd person as well as British vs American conventions(color/colour, cancelled/canceled, etc.) -Tancred RedStar 20:59, 28 August 2008 (PDT)

Hi. One this note, I wonder if you have an opinion about headers. As an example: Lower regeant cost was changed about a year ago to: Lower Regeant Cost. Which falls in line with the style of the site. Now the header has been changed back to Lower regeant cost. A campaign seems to have begun to change all the headers again. Its not really a big deal, but it probably would be helpful to stick with one or the other. Or does it matter? Meridus 21:33, 10 September 2008 (PDT)

New Infobox for Items

Tonight, I've been working on a new infobox for items (weapons, armor, etc). I figure that a universal template would greatly benefit the cause of this website. To this end, I wanted to gather ideas about how effective this template works to disseminating information about particular items before I continue developing.

As an example, I've gone ahead and converted the page [[[Aegis of Grace]] on my own userpage using the template, which is still in development. So, honesty, which of the following pages looks better?

Aegis of Grace or User:Thadius856/Aegis of Grace

I'd like to continue developing this template for mass deployment, but would like to first get the nod from the site's administration. If you could please leave your thoughts regarding the template on my talk page, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thadius856 21:36, 13 September 2008 (PDT)

Aegis of Grace, Revisited

I noticed that Aegis of Grace has two different artworks for it. However, when looking over other sites, I noticed that the image you uploaded doesn't appear on any of them. Instead, the one I uploaded does, as well as a picture of a plain circlet.

Are you sure that this image is the correct image? Thadius856 01:43, 16 September 2008 (PDT)

For what it's worth, I know of NO item that uses that particular image. Whatever it is, it isn't common.

- Bomb Bloke 05:49, 16 September 2008 (PDT)

House of Commons Chat Logs

I don't think Stratics will be very happy if we started taking all their UOHoC chat logs. A link to the main page with a brief summary of what topics were discussed in the List_of_Ultima_Online_Houses_of_Commons is as much as should be done. This isn't similar to Ianstorm which the site may go down again in the future and we already have permission to repost them. - JC the Builder 20:43, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Is there a similar function for Wiki as the attic section for CVS? If Stratics went belly up tomorrow(you never know), it would be nice if the info was preserved somewhere and brought out when needed. --Tancred RedStar 21:01, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

The information can always be obtained in the internet archive. Stratics worked very hard to get those chats, it isn't right for someone to host them elsewhere without permission (which I don't think we have and I don't think we should ask for it). - JC the Builder 03:04, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, the ones from this past year (which are the only three that I have put up so far) are so "exclusive" and "important" to Stratics that they haven't even bothered to post them anywhere readily accessible to normal human beings. I had to search through UHall and then follow a convoluted series of links to even get to them.
And speaking of "which the site may go down again in the future," I came across links to some Stargate Worlds Houses of Commons in there that were dead links; the chats were gone entirely. I didn't have plans to go beyond posting the latest three UOHoC's (so that people could actually, you know, access them in any way whatsoever) and setting up all the page links in the list, as I have found a listing of incredibly old patch notes to go through and archive instead, but I think it would be worth it to talk to Stratics about hosting back-ups of their logs.

--Cogniac 08:39, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

UO Client Info

The info on the Client Patch page was ironically more informative than the rather sparse Client page, where much of the info belonged. Also, I'm all for info, but don't like to see it duplicated for two reasons:

Topics should be concisely covered. If it's an extended topic, it should have sub-sections with synopsis and link to extended sub-topic pages.
Since there is no automated method in place to update a client version after a patch, for example, this requires someone to edit the version numbers on all the pages, not to mention "remember" where all those spots are.

--Tancred RedStar 15:46, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

The problem I was seeing was that we had constructed pages specifically to list and link to the various client patch pages, and they weren't actually linked to from the Client Patch page, which seems rather counter-productive/-intuitive. Your assertion that Client Patch was more informative than Client was true. However, this realization should serve to elucidate the shortcomings of the latter rather than provide reason to truncate the former; I.e. Client needs some serious work in and of itself, and content shouldn't be removed from Client Patch to fill it.
Looking at Client from the perspective of a basic user, having the latest version numbers link to client patch pages seems counter-intuitive. If I'm looking at a particular client and I click a link that purports to take me to a page about the latest version, I expect to see all of the features of the client that are found in that latest version. Instead I arrive at a page outlining the latest changes to that client, which for some patches is a contextually uninformative one or two lines ("Changes for localization," "Updates to clilocs," et cetera). This is just one of the issues that could be solved by a complete rewrite of Client, as well as the creation of a page for each client.
If you're worried about having to change data in 890890234 different places, just make a static data template that simply consists of whatever frequently updated piece of data you want to use in a multitude of pages. Then include the template on those pages. Every time the data changes, change it in the template and Voila! redundant work removed.
--Cogniac 21:11, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Template Fixes

Well done and thanks! Much better, you do nice work.
--Ceruleus 00:38, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, sir. I've sort of taken over the templates since you've been gone, I just hadn't gotten to those yet. Your edits spurred me out of my complacency for a time.
--Cogniac 05:21, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Editing Changes

I just wanted to let you know that the recent editing changes that prevent me from using my regular browser, Firefox, have greatly discouraged me from making changes. Ceruleus 03:44, 1 March 2010 (UTC)

Item Properties Template Addition?

I was unsuccessful in adding the following to the item properties nav template. It should take up to 12 lists, if I read it correctly. Not sure why this wouldn't display. Any help would be appreciated.

|group11=Gargoyles Only |list11=Blood Drinker • Battle Lust • Damage Eater • Casting Focus • Hit Curse • Hit Fatigue • Hit Mana Drain • Reactive Paralyze • Resonance • Soul Charge • Splintering Weapon --Ceruleus 01:30, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

These props should also be added to Template:Infobox_item. I've added Soul Charge and Poision Resonance before for the two stealable artifacts, shall I add the other ones or would you like them to be added after the above change occurs? Nimuaq 01:41, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

I just added this to the Item Properties template. To be honest, you were probably succeeding when you were trying to do it yourself. I'm betting you made the change, hit Preview, and then became frustrated when the template in the "Display" section didn't update? That's a caching issue related to transcluding a template on the template's own page. You have to commit the edit, then edit and preview again to see it update on that page.
--Cogniac 03:30, 22 March 2010 (UTC)