User talk:Joannac

Old talk has been moved to User_talk:Joannac/OldTalk

Admin function to Rename/Move a Category?

Do you as an admin have the ability to change the name of a category without having to change it on every page? See the discussion at Category_talk:Expedition_outcomes#"Failed" Should Be "Thwarted".

User to Block

All requests up to date :) --joannac 20:17, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Please don't send me spammers to block unless they've hit >1 page. There are a few spam networks that keep changing IP addresses, and there's no need to ban an IP if it's never getting used for spam again. --joannac 22:39, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

To-do list

• update All Graticules with any stray pages reletbot did this I assume?
• Map NSW and Victoria
• Tag images -- benjw's job!
• Fix retro hashes done
• Clear out Category:Tagged_for_deletion
• Fix inconsistent Swedish grats (mainly around Stockholm) -- ekorren's job! and he did it months ago.
• Tag expedition pages properly (Coords reached, Coords not reached, meetup on ..., meetup in ..., retro, failed, etc)
• Check all the day pages are well-formed

User:ReletBot

works. ty! [1]

Two Ideas

1. Thanks for the Achievements link change.

2. I've created a "What's New?" box and put it on the Main Page. It's been suggested that I put it on the Recent Changes page, but of course I can't do that. Koepfel says you can. What do you think?

news archive • Edit What's new on the wiki?

• 2024-05-17 The Democracy achievement has been added.
• 2024-05-15 The Skate geohash achievement has been added.
• 2024-05-13 The Climb achievement has been added.
• 2024-05-01 The most active graticule for 2024-04 was 52,7.
• 2024-04-27 The Eclipse achievement has been added.
• 2024-04-02 The renaming process for the MNIMB, MNB, and Virgin Graticule achievements/consolation prizes is ongoing.

More pages needing discussion • Discussion archive • Edit Now discussing - please join in: 

• Make sure to check out and give your thoughts on the Proposed achievements!
• For more general discussions, find us here:
  • IRC: #geohashing on irc.slashnet.org
  • Discord: discord.gg/BvRfGat

Maybe right at the top of the page? It looks a bit funny, IMO. And I'm not good at aesthetics --joannac 23:09, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I see what you mean, and I'm not sure why. -Robyn

I want it under all the settings, and before the actual list of changes. But I can't get in there, I don't think. --joannac 23:38, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Uh you put it in MediaWiki ... now I can't edit it to update the messages ... -Robyn

No, she just embedded the template into MediaWiki:Recentchangestext. It can still be edited. About the location, we were just discussing it in IRC: She want it to be below the settings, above the actual recent changes, but I prefer it as it is right now. Koepfel _talk 00:00, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

protect a page forever

Regarding you inquiry in the recent changes: It's "infinite". (at least it used to be in older mediawiki versions) Koepfel _talk 11:53, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

The keyword I want is "indefinite". Not "never", "permanent", "permanently", "infinite", or "forever" (although I am impressed with my vocabulary. maybe the crosswording helped). --joannac 08:40, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

Weird Quasi-Spam

I put a delete tag on a page called Developer. It was the third biggest page on the wiki, and appeared to be full of spam. There was a notice at the top of it that it was a research project, and gave a link to click on for more info. It was a Brown University link, so I followed it. It came up with a page saying "WARNING" and my IP address. So I ditched that IP address. I then chopped the back part of the link and went to graffiti.cs.brown.edu . It looks like it's real, but it also looks like there's people not happy about it, and I think understandably so. They say they won't delete it, but if we want to and scrub our logs, we can. But part of their thing is that they want the spam to persist as long as possible. I looks fishy. I figure you know more about wiki'ing in general than I do, and you're a sysop, so enjoy.  :-) --excellentdude 05:00, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

According to their FAQ, it's a file sharing "network" - we're effectively hosting a chunk of a file for them (they say it's a Linux ISO, but it could also be illegal content for all we know). Maybe not spam in the traditional "advertising" sense, but definitely abuse. Page should be deleted - otherwise the content remains accessible through the history tab. (If that is indeed a research project, they don't want their content to remain there as long as possible, but just want to see how long it does - and thus, if file sharing through wiki spamming is viable long-term. Interesting approach, but still wrong.) --dawidi 05:23, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

It leaves me wondering how useful having the wiki unprotected is. Do we know what proportion of page edits are done by users who are not logged in? And once we ignore the few who would have signed in if they'd remembered to do so, what proportion of edits would be lost by making the wiki log-in-only? I'd estimate it's quite small. And it would certainly make spam-removal a lot easier. -- Benjw 12:18, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

I've removed the page in question. They seem to have created at least 2 pages (Developers, and Singletons), when their FAQ says they'd only do one per site. Maybe someone should yell at them (I will, if no one else does, in the morning).

RE:making people log in, I'm happy to keep fighting the spam if it means we get more expedition reports from people who would otherwise not report because they don't want to create a login (or don't want to login from a public computer if they're geohashing while on holidays or something). --joannac 12:34, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh yes, so am I. But it would be interesting to know if we are getting any reports from people who don't have a login. -- Benjw 12:36, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

2009-04-09_33_-84 (the one that isn't NWoodruff) --joannac 12:44, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Those are both NWoodruff, as far as I can tell from their edits! -- Benjw 13:19, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I found that on the Recent Changes page you can click a link to see only anonymous edits. And yes, there are a few contributions by people who don't seem to have user accounts. Whether they would stop contributing if they had to log in is a separate question, but for now at least, I agree, it's probably easier to keep dealing with the spam. Thanks for the replies. -- Benjw 13:24, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

after the move...

Joanna: I'm sure you'll FIND someone to search for... (or: come visit =) --Nemo 14:32, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Category:Tagged for deletion

When the spammers let you, could you have a look at the pages marked for deletion? There is a lot of duplicate categories and various clutter around. -- relet 12:54, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Wow, someone's been busy! Thanks for going through all of those. -- Benjw 05:14, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for all the cleanup. And it looks like you get to google for shoes in Alberta as well?? Jiml 07:02, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

No worries. Being a wiki admin isn't all about glamour you know... occasionally I have to do stuff too ;)

And huh? Shoes in Alberta? What? *so confused* --joannac 07:04, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

OH! Google *shows* a little slice of Alberta (in that grat) --joannac 07:05, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

White-tiger-swimming.jpg

Yes, this can be deleted. I was going to use it as a ribbon icon, but I got a lot of pushback b/c it's copyrighted. -- Jevanyn

What joannac should sing next

Alice's Restaurant. --starbird 08:13, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Okay, Bohemian Rhapsody is even better. We need a betting pool on how long it will take you to get through the whole song. --starbird 09:18, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

hey, i'd queue alices restaurant up for after that though. --mykaDragonBlue [- i have no sig -] 11:58, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Hey Jude :-) --starbird 19:41, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

The Highwayman by Loreena McKennett, or TV Tan by the Wildhearts. -- Benjw 15:32, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

American Pie is good, too, if you haven't done it. -Robyn 04:48, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Not Joannac's Job

I'm quite surprised to see tagging, expedition formatting and the like on your to-do list. Leave the stuff that can be done without admin bits to the people without admin bits and you do the stuff only you can do. Or is it not getting done? -Robyn 04:48, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Benjw was tagging images; he's busy for a bit though. Expedition formatting is not being done by anyone, afaik. Obviously clearing out tagged for deletion will be done first. Other than that, there's nothing else that requires my admin powers, is there? --joannac 04:52, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I think everyone who reads expedition reports and knows about categories adds them when they see them missing. Here's something you can do: User:Mom just changed her page to User:Sara and needs a moveuser to keep things tidy. -Robyn 05:51, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Robyn, nothing's changed since JimL. There is still no MoveUser function installed. All she needs to do is register the username. --joannac 05:52, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Well there should be, damnit. -Robyn 06:03, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

It's still not common enough to warrant it. Also, if you can think of a genuine reason why someone needs a nick change, I'll go talk to the wiki superadmin person. --joannac 06:11, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks

Thank-you for correcting the categories on 2009-06-24 43 -79 for me. When you go out with your GPS set and you hit 0m you forget that it's not a win because you're going for a different hash. You quite possibly saved me from people with virtual pitchforks and torches. I'll be more careful in the future. Splitdipless 03:51, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

Restricting all edits to registered users?

Hi Joanna, I notice how much spam undo'ing you do, and I'm wondering if we should simply considering restricting all edits to registered users. It certainly seems like it would curb spam. I suppose that's also my SCM (software configuration management) background coming through, where all changes should be attributable (i.e.: an IP address doesn't cut it). Thoughts? --Wenslayer 00:08, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

This has come up many many times in the past, and various arguments have been brought up about it. However, this has come up a couple times recently, so I think it would be good to make a community proposal, and let people oppose, do not oppose, or support it. --aperfectring 00:19, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Heh. First, I think it's funny you didn't put your name on the end of your comment ;)

See above, in "Weird Quasi-Spam". The main point is updating while on holidays, in a internet cafe where you might not want to enter your password.

Also, I don't think I can protect the whole wiki anyway, it's up to the sysad. And geohashing probably isn't big enough to warrant it (at least, the good edits to spam edits ratio isn't small enough to warrant it)--joannac 00:20, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

[Doh! Sig back-dated] Ah, okay, I can see not wanting to enter a password at a WiFi hotspot; hmmm, that's a use case I hadn't considered. Typically, I would just VPN into one of my computers, and then bounce through there, but most folks aren't likely to have this kind of setup. --Wenslayer 00:25, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Registered User Spam

Lately we seem to be getting a lot of spam from registered users (obviously bot created), as you've undoubtedly noticed. They all seem to follow the format "%d buy %s". I don't have much wiki experience, but is there a way to add a script to check the account name before allowing it to be made? I have no idea what the interface is, but it should be easy to write a script that checks the account name before creation. If it can be written in C/C++/Java/Python I'd gladly write it.

Again, I don't know what the wiki interface is, but I was thinking a simple method with an input parameter of a string (the account name) and a return value of a boolean/integer stating whether it's suspected spam or not. The method itself could be some simple regular expressions and could be easily modified in the future if the "%d buy %s" scheme is changed. Hopefully such is possible in a wiki interface? It should be a simple enough script.

Just thoughts of course, but I thought I'd put the idea out there. You can always tell the user that the account couldn't be made and the reason so that any person who actually tried to make an account like that could contact an admin or just use a different name. -Srs0 08:24, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

What about a bot-illegible captcha for creating accounts (or pages)? Afaik that possibility exists for wikis, though I don't know if it is included in this one here. - Danatar 17:12, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

CAPTCHAs are definitely possible. One would need root access to the wiki's server to install it, though. Koepfel _talk 17:40, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

I run Mpedia, a wiki about Mensa, and I'm getting the same spammers myself; and I do have a CAPTCHA in the account-registration procedure (something I did very grudgingly; I hate CAPTCHAs!). This spammer seems to have a way around those. Dtobias 14:35, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Hi there!

Joanna - got your message, thanks! I actually built that bike pretty much from parts, so I take a lot of pride in it. I'm slowly but surely figuring out how to edit the wiki. I did have some issues with uploading pics, so there may be multiples of some pictures, sorry about that. I think I have it now, and I'll try and get it on the first try next time.

I think I broke something

I was working on updating old date pages with expedition summaries, and I think I may have broken something. I cannot write to 2009-06-01 or 2009-06-04. I keep getting a database error page when I try to do so. Please don't hurt me. --aperfectring 23:52, 4 July 2009 (UTC)

I think it was just a transient error, and I happened to be trying to do something there at the same time. It just really freaked me out that I may have really broken something --aperfectring 00:28, 5 July 2009 (UTC)