User talk:Gboyers/archive2

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 * Use : at the start of all your lines to indent your replies to someone else, like this line.


 * Also, Use four tildas ( ~ ) to sign your name with the date, like this - Xenon 18:52, 29 July 2006 (BST)

For previous discussion, see /archive

About patrolled edits...
If I recalled correctly, you mentioned that one of my responsibilities is patrolling edits or something like that. Well, not long ago, there was an exclamation marks next to a couple of entries in the Special:Recentchanges Recent Changes page. I was unfamiliar with the meaning of this symbol so I tried to find out what it means by looking up in MediaWiki website, home to the developer of the very software that powers this site, Wikipedia, Wikia, and many other wikis (though not all of them, anyway). However, I made a mistake, probably because I'm still tired (for God know why... -_-), by looking up Page History instead of Recent changes for which I should've looked at. I got them mixed up. I was confused for moment when I couldn't find anything about exclamation mark thing there.... it only took a while when I suddenly realized I was looking at wrong article.... >_____________<

So, anyway, this glaring error was right in front of me but it only took me a while to realize it. I now learned that exclamation marks next to entries in Recent Changes is an indicator that the page in question is not patrolled edit (or something like that). I feel stupid for not catching this error sooner. Anyway, by the time I got that cleared up, exclamation marks are no longer there. So sorry about it. I'm still learning about this whole moderator stuff which came up to me unexpectedly and, well, heh, I was completely caught off-guard and unprepared. >.<

In conclusion, I'd just thought to share this (probably amusing) story of my error about a particular moment in the time for which I am, at this point, relatively somewhat inexperienced and new at this role for I has been newly appointed to along with George. Now, I got to go and read up on what the hell is "patrolled edits" anyway. Cheers! :p --Legion 17:15, 3 May 2007 (BST)


 * Hehe - that's what tiredness does. When a user makes an edit, it is marked as not-patrolled (with the red exclamation mark). If you see an unpatrolled edit, you should look at it and then click "Mark As Patrolled" in the diff page. All edits made by staff are automatically marked as patrolled, but you can change this in Special:Preferences. Xenon (?) 17:28, 3 May 2007 (BST)

The Administrator, Vandal, and Anonymous
That subject title was supposed to read like a title of a theatrical play. ;)

Anyway, there has been major events going on for me lately. First of all, I have been appointed along with George as Moderators (and yes I'm politically moderate ;)) a several days ago. Then, not more than a week ago, over at Grand Theft Auto Wiki, A-Dust and I were appointed as Administrators (yes, both System Operators (SysOp) and Bureaucrats (don't you love those red tape? ;D)) over there! O_O!

Anyway, we were having problems with this pesky vandal that apparently goes under different IP with similar M.O lately. I'm not very technical person so I don't know if those different IPs involves proxying or anything. *shrugs* So I would recommend those staff members (obviously including myself as well ;)) to keep eyes out for those. One of the M.O.'s for this guy was that he/she always identifies himself/herself as Chip1990 even under those several IPs. I was getting frustrated with this guy so I had to block his/her latest IP for one week (I'd rather that the infinite block be only last-resort, logically...) but since this guy came under different IPs but similar M.O., this would probably renders the blocking useless and futile. I already had warned this guy (under different IPs, though, but with same M.O. once again) twice and yet this guy kept doing it despite our warning. So I felt that this action is necessary but I'm skeptical this would keep this guy off for a week... I don't know. :/

This guy was vandalizing through re-adding unsourcable information despite it having been removed earlier, repeatedly creating useless pages (or useless crap, shall we say) like an article on Japan, U.S. dollar, et cetera that has absolutely nothing to do with the Grand Theft Auto series.

Anyway, as usual, I'm under same user name and display name (Chief of Staff and Legion respectively) there just like here. --Legion 14:20, 4 May 2007 (BST)


 * Thanks for the warning. I've made sure that GTW is pretty secure. Users have to register before they can edit any pages, and they also have to verify their email address. Neither of these precautions prevent spammers from editing, but it makes it very hard for them to keep it up if we keep banning them. I'm about to write a new NSfV policy, so hopefully we will be able to keep spamming to a minimum. I am of course bearing in mind that we don't have 24-hour Admin cover, but I can't go round promoting people without fully checking them out first, or they could do more damage than the spammers. That's why we have the Moderator group - giving people like you the opportunity to be useful but before you've proven yourself to be worthy of becoming Admins. I am considering creating an Staff-Only namespace for discussion of this sort of thing. Xenon (?) 15:44, 4 May 2007 (BST)

About Krischna
The deletion logs shows that you deleted the Krischna page, citing it as irrelevant. Well, I set it as a redirect to future Hare Krishna page because of the fourth paragraph under this archived version of Anywhere City page about Industrial district. It was clearly intended to refer to Hare Krishna but was mispelled... so I set it to redirect to the future article with the correct name for this, uh, gang and that I corrected the internal link in the Anywhere City article, since I never liked redirect link in the article. ;D Just thought you'd like to know. --Legion 02:02, 5 May 2007 (BST)


 * I'd wait until we have the article before we start redirecting all over the place. Krischna isnt something that people tend to look up very much here. It isn't very important so it isn't really worth having a redirect, especially a broken one. Get some content on the page first. Xenon (?) 13:35, 5 May 2007 (BST)


 * Oh, okay. I understand. I just actually wanted to clear out the Wanted pages of those pages for which obviously another wanted pages, especially those with correct names or capitalization, already covered for --Legion 19:21, 5 May 2007 (BST)


 * Sorting out red links (aka wanted pages) is probably the most useful thing you could do on GTW at the moment. Xenon (?) 20:48, 5 May 2007 (BST)

Root Categories
On unrelated topics, about categorization, I was actually aiming for the goal of having all categories categorized into a single category tree... with a root category at the top (or is it the bottom? ;P). The question, though, is.... what is the root category? Also, I was not able to narrow down Special:Uncategorizedpages Uncategorized pages down to sufficiently fewer enough categories so that they can be categorized into a root category, usually because I was not able to find a common thread (or something like that) for few of categories to be categorized into a category.

I am not sure if you understand what I mean by either of the above. I'll try to clarify further if you need. Thanks, Sergeant Boyer (what? That's what the Manager is, right? ;)). --Legion 19:21, 5 May 2007 (BST) (Lance Corporal, not to be confused with Lancer Corps, a corps of calvary soldiers armed with lance.)


 * Having categories all categorised into a tree is absolutely NOT what we want. There is no way we're having that here. On Grand Theft Wiki, categories are ways to list and group similar pieces of information, to make stuff easy to find, and to make it easier to learn about particular categories. Categorisation isn't a game, and we gain nothing by having dozens of categories for the same thing. It's like having everything in its own subcategory, it just makes stuff a lot harder to find.


 * If I want to look at a list of cars, I should be able to go to Category:Vehicles to see every car in every game, then Category:SAVehicles to look at all the cars in San Andreas. If Category:Vehicles only had subcategories in, then stuff would be a lot harder to find. Category:Vehicles does not need to be in another category, it is a basic element of a GTA game. If you can't find the page about Vehicles (even with redirects from things like Cars) then it's pretty hopeless, and a Category:Categories helps you no more than Special:Categories.


 * Yes, we are using Sergeant's stripes for managers, I don't think we need to get into crowns, stars and half-nelsons just yet :) Xenon (?) 20:48, 5 May 2007 (BST)


 * Actually, lol, no. I am not making categorization into a game... to be honest, one of my most preferred ways of browsing, whether it be on Wikipedia, Grand Theft Auto Wiki, or here, is browsing by category. But since there is no common root for all of this categories, that essentially renders my preferred method of browsing (that is, browsing by category) useless and futile. :/ --Legion 20:57, 5 May 2007 (BST) (To boldly browse where no one has gone before. (Yes, that is parodying on "To boldly go where no one has gone before." from Star Trek ;))

Reply
No problems, just got to used to a few things (such as the linking to the GTA series article and GTA game page). I'll try and keep the red links down until time allows for creation of those articles. I was just wondering, however, about the possibility of adding lists to this site, in similar fashion to the GTA Wikia. Similar to the Characters page. Just a thought. Thanks for the welcome. A-Dust 23:29, 7 May 2007 (BST)

Stationary vs. Spawning
I believe A-Dust is referring to "stationary vehicles" as the randomly parked vehicles within area. Spawning vehicles could mean both that and those in the traffic so I would recommend changing that to "parked vehicles" or something like that instead to avoid confusion to those readers. Just a suggestion. Thanks. --Legion 18:11, 10 May 2007 (BST)


 * I realised that as I was making those edits. "Stationary" doesn't really explain much, it could mean anything. "Spawned" could mean stationary or in traffic. I still prefer the second one, because it is explaining vehicles that DO spawn, not ruling out those that might spawn or drive in. "Parked Vehicles" solves that, so yes we should use that one. Xenon (?) 18:18, 10 May 2007 (BST)

I hope GTA Wiki will continue to be in the Internet! I visit here every day! I like your logo.

Hi, I registered here a few days ago. I just want to ask, If I can use any of your material in my own GTA website? I'd need some pics. The website is going to be a finnish one. :) I haven't learned how to use this Wiki site yet, but I try to learn.

PS. Keep up the good work here.

Tuomas 17:33, 15 May 2007 (BST)

Mediawiki
Sorry to pester you, but I noticed you got the gta games lined up on the left hand side of the screen, nice feature. How did you do this? Thanks --Shivers 19:23, 24 May 2007 (BST)
 * That is quite simple - just edit MediaWiki:Sidebar (on any mediawiki wiki) and add extra stuff. Only SysOps or bureaucrats can do that (depending on that wiki's permissions). Glad you like it. Xenon (?) 19:44, 24 May 2007 (BST)

Happy B-Day
Happy Birthday Xenon, have a good one. George 01:14, 5 June 2007 (BST)

Liberty City State
http://files.gtanet.com/images/3363_gtaiv_broker_liberty_yard.jpg http://files.gtanet.com/images/3362_gtaiv_algonquin_chinatown.jpg

There on those two link show some Cars from Grand Theft Auto IV, and it says on all of the licence plates of the Vehicles Liberty City State. Or atleast Liberty State. George 09:42, 9 June 2007 (BST)


 * Okay - that's fine. Please state that in the page where you say "Liberty City State", just so people can see some proof. Use the format  for linking to the source. Nice find. Xenon (?) 19:17, 9 June 2007 (BST)

Re:Inactivity
Xenon, I apologize for my inactivity, i just finished my academic work today and I will be back to edit after my week vacation to my other house down in Florida. Unfortunately I have no internet there b/c im only there seasonally, however I will be back July 14, and will be of much help again. I apologize once again for my inactivity,

47 01:31, 7 July 2007 (BST)

Why did you deleted my entry? it was no spam it was not incorrect, i just don't get it. do you think it was speculation? i'm not a nerd who wants attention. it's very obvious and crystal-clear: "staue of happiness sounds" like (spoken fast) "statue of a penis". thank you for pissing off new members, you"moderator". do you have a problem saying "penis", while providing a wiki dealing with virtual mass murder? i won't come back. please delete my account. now.

GTA Place Images
Are images on The GTA Place available for use here? Just that I realised you and Chris are both admins on the forum. A-Dust 13:44, 2 October 2007 (BST)
 * Using unwatermarked screenshots of GTA games is usually okay, because they're easily replicable and not unique - there's no problem reusing images to show something such as a vehicle, character or place. More artistic shots that lots of effort has gone into might be a problem, and you should refer to the individual site's licencing rules. Logos are fine to reproduce, but usually only to accompany a relevant article (eg about the company or site), but these should not be hacked and edited.


 * Since TheGTAPlace was the site that started GrandTheftWiki, there's no problem in reusing images from there, however you should put on the image description page a message that says where you got it from, such as a URL link to the page. And just to correct you, Chris actually owns The GTA Place - Xenon (?) 15:32, 2 October 2007 (BST)

Re:Mod position
Gee, thanks for the advice; I got used to the Wikipedia style of editing, so sorry about that... And about the mod position, I'll take it... God Bless and have a nice day... Blakegripling ph 09:35, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

The following messages are from after the merge of Grand Theft Wiki and en.gta.wikia.org:

Hi Gboyers, welcome to Wikia. I do marketing for Wikia's Gaming wikis and look forward to helping you promote this wiki more! I was just reading your notes on Project:Merge and one thing concerned me. I don't think its a good idea to take rights away from original en.gta.wikia admins. These two communities have both worked hard and this merge should benefit all, not just the GTW community. Please let me know if there was a specific reason you do not want these users to have their rights? angies (talk) 19:19, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Merge Pages
I've been going through each of the articles to ensure that there is nothing in the article that could be kept. Pages like Jonas Ackerman and Morgan August were exactly the same, whilst others like the Jizzy B. article had nothing worth keeping. A-Dust 23:02, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Creating Pages
Seems impossible to do for me. If you haven't noticed, the "Start New Article" link at the top of every page directs you to an error page. This concerns me because I am interested in creating articles on the missions of GTA III-era games, such as Vice City. I have created articles on many missions in GTA III and would like to do the same for Vice City. I believe the creation of these articles will create a better and more respectable Wiki of this site. Thank you. (User:ClaudeSpeed2001)

Copyright
Is it copyright or any sort of plagiarism if we take an article from another wiki, such as Wikipedia. I was looking at the article for Phil Cassidy and realized that it is much less detailed and well-written than the one on Wikipedia. I was about to just go to Wikipedia and copy+paste everything onto this article, delete the links and pictures, and add new ones, when i remembered that it is a rule not to copyright and have no idea as to whether or not this would be copyright.--ClaudeSpeed2001 07:42, 30 December 2007 (UTC)


 * This all depends on the copyright policy of the wiki you are taking things from. Generally you are okay copying small sections, or basing an article on another one. But it isn't good practice to copy an entire article, or any significant parts of it - it's a lot better to totally re-write it if you can. Wikipedia has a specific Copyright policy where, if you intend to copy and edit Wikipedia content, you must:
 * a) License your content under the GFDL (which we do)
 * b) Acknowledge the authors of the article
 * c) Provide access to the "transparent copy" of the content
 * We can achieve the last 2 of these by linking to the Wikipedia article at the bottom of the article (Eg "Content adapted from [link to article]). However, if you know how, it is better to link to the specific revision of the article rather than just the page. Either way, it is better to write your own content, or totally re-write the Wikipedia content.
 * Legally, you generally can't copyright every single sentence. Small amounts of text are fine to re-use, even without attribution (saying who wrote it). It's also generally okay to re-write an existing article, so long as it isn't just swapping a couple of words without actually changing what it says. You can't just copy large blocks of text without saying who wrote it though (unless that site specifically allows you to do that). Thanks for asking rather than just doing it - Gboyers (?) 12:19, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the Response
I think I see how you do it. It confused me for a minute, because on UESP we use a separate namespace for each game. Well, I don't know much about any other games, so you might have to tag along behind me and disambig pages that would have the same name in another game (sorry). But I'd love to tackle these pages. And UESP uses a quest summary template, so the infobox mission template will be easy for me to get used to. By the way, are British spellings preferred on this wiki (i.e. "armour" instead of "armor")? --GuildKnight 03:12, 31 December 2007 (UTC)