User talk:Ale jrb

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If you post here, I will usually respond here as well - it keeps conversations together. For that reason, I suggest watching this page. If I post on your talk page, you can respond there, or here - I don't mind. When posting a message, please keep conversations about the same thing together, and put new ones in new sections. If people spam or vandalise this page, please do not remove it. I will check it, and deal with it if needed, otherwise it is better if it stays.

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[edit] Wb

Nice to see you back here contributing again :) - anja 15:41, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

I've often read it, just never said anything :P. Thanks though! :) Ale_Jrb (talk) 15:41, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hai

hi - Y0_ich_halt 23:01, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

hai... Ale_Jrb (talk) 23:02, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SkillCheck

Just a note to anyone who is watching my talk page...

I am now (finally) really to release my SkillCheck plugin. After quite a lot of coding and waaaaaay too many bugs to be healthy, it appears to be working enough to be released. You can find out more information here - if you are interested in testing it, instructions are on that page.

If you do decide to test it, I would really appreciate you letting me know any of the following issues (plus any others you come across):

• Skills where information is retrieved incorrectly
• Browsers or OSs where the script fails to do anything at all
• Any JavaScript errors the script makes, even if it appears to be working (for IE, this is a yellow exclamation mark in the corner, for Firefox, it's Tools > Error Console)
• Any incidents of conflicts with other scripts of any type

Hopefully some people will find this useful; either way, it was good fun putting it together :).

Cheers, Ale_Jrb (talk) 21:43, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Looking through recent changes, I see that some people actually beat me to installing it. As such, I was unable to fix a major installation bug tht prevents it from doing anything at all. To fix it, you'll have to re-subst the installation code in place of the old stuff. Oopsie ^_^ Ale_Jrb (talk) 21:48, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Heh, thanks Ale for this, it looks really good! It'll come in useful as well. So far, I can see one problem (and looks like you've seen it too :P ) and that's the speed. When loading a page, it pauses slightly, then carries on. -- Brains12 \ Talk \ Contribs 21:52, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

*Looks at brains and me in RC* Ok! Awesome thing btw, works now too :P Going to try it out and see if something goes wrong. :) - anja 21:53, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

What speed issue are you referring to? I fear that I may not have noticed it due to have a reaaaaly fast internet connection. Where does it slow down? Ale_Jrb (talk) 21:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Just after any page is loading, it seems to load and take a second to get all the data onto the page. (My internet connection isn't the best, but I haven't had this problem before). It's not a major pause, but it's noticable. I don't really notice the same problem in Internet Explorer, which is weird. For once, IE is faster than Firefox... Also compared it with how it was before I installed the SkillCheck, and it's fine then. I can live with it, like I said, it's not a major problem, but thought you would like to know.-- Brains12 \ Talk \ Contribs 22:04, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Ohhh - I think I know what you mean. I barely do notice it, as it loads so fast here, but there is a micro pause between the page loading, and being able to move it. I think this is the script fixing all the links so that the pop-up will appear. Contrary to somewhere like PvX, which handles all the code creation server side (so once the page is loaded, so are the pop-ups), this happens all client side after the page is loaded. I don't know how to optimise it more really. Hmmm.... Ale_Jrb (talk) 22:11, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Wonder if Anet would be willing to implement it server-side... :/ -- Brains12 \ Talk \ Contribs 22:14, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Some help

Without looking at your newest creation too much, may I point you at the available wiki-wide javascript variables, you can always use? For example wgAction (for the value of the action parameter), wgPageName (for the full pagename), wgTitle for the title only (without namespace). There are some more and I am sure that they will help you, especially as you can save speed by simply using those instead of generating the values on your own :) poke | talk 23:43, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

looks like I was too curious in the end! Sorry xD poke | talk 23:47, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Lol. Did you install it then? It nearly works properly - I just need to squish some bugs. I might switch it over to using the handy wiki-vars (I think I knew of them; just never used them before) but I need to finish it first >_< heh. Cheers Ale_Jrb (talk) 23:52, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Not a real installation but I loaded it into the browser, yes :P Btw. you can see the whole available vars by looking at the source of a page; there is a section in the beginning which lists them all ;) poke | talk 23:56, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Script copyrights

I've noticed that in your scripts, you include the line "All rights reserved". Because this wiki's content is licensed under the GFDL, it's not possible to release it under the GFDL and reserve all your rights - since other users may copy it without your permission. I'd suggest you remove the line, and possibly make a statement (like poke did) saying that you will not support people who copy the code. However, if you're not happy with releasing under the GFDL you'll have to remove it. Thanks, -- Indochine talk 10:05, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

I've never really thought about the line - it's on all my templates. I'll fix it. For future reference, though, it isn't actually possible to remove content from the wiki, as the act of adding it licenses it under the GNU Free Documentation License automatically. Just in case you wanted to know :P. Cheers, Ale_Jrb (talk) 10:41, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Well yeah -- It's just a lot of people don't realise that and attempt to licence it under something else. :/ Thanks anyway. -- Indochine talk 10:46, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

"I've never really thought about the line - it's on all my templates." - That reminds me of something... :P poke | talk 11:05, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Heh. :P Ale_Jrb (talk) 11:06, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Your status

So what are your plans for GWW? You gonna stay here and become active again, or go back to Wikipedia soon and forget about the wiki for an extended period of time? I'm asking because I've only seen you at RfA's and your sandbox. (Btw, I saw you here and there over at WP :D). Cheers, calor (talk) 19:19, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I have a notoriously short attention span when it comes to games and the internet, and tend to buzz from one to another. I tend to edit this wiki only when I'm actively playing the game (though I read it quite regularly; it's nice to stay up-to-date) and edit Wikipedia whenever I'm currently bored of all my games and need something solely on the internet to do. I suspect I shall be active over here for a while, though probably not super active, and shall then lapse again. I like that this community is much more tight-knit than over at wikipedia though. :D Ale_Jrb (talk) 19:42, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, Wikipedia is far too businesslike for my liking. I try, but I don't get the comfortable feeling lurking there that I do here. Well, enjoy whatever you wind up doing in the coming weeks and months :) calor (talk) 19:54, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I get that too sometimes, heh. Thanks for the thoughts ^_^. Ale_Jrb (talk) 19:55, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Guild page stuff

Ok.. here's the way it is... tagging for cleanup and having the cleanup not done in 2 weeks is now the ONLY way to get a guild page deleted. So.. any page that doesn't meet minimum content and can be tagged for cleanup will get them off the wiki in two weeks. Where placing an inactive tag on them means they hang out for another 3 months, and THEN get deleted for not enough content rather than being moved into historical status. I'm trying to weed out as much stuff as early as possible. As it is, starting at the beginning of October ALL the tagged inactive pages have to be MOVED to historical status, after being edited into an archival form. It's a HUGE job, and while I would love to be able to just set wikichu on it, it really can't be done that way. Getting the inactive tag in GWWT at least makes tagging a bit faster and easier, since I'm basically the only one doing it atm and I'm feeling more than slightly overwhelmed. -- Wyn 18:46, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Aw. It's great to have the tag on GWWT :) but I still think it could be made easier. I'm thinking... ;) Ale_Jrb (talk) 21:20, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

I would like to thank you for your assistance with tagging the guild pages. It's possible that because you and I were using your script at the same time it didn't function properly for me, as you seem to have had much better success with it than I did. I wasn't trying to imply it was not useful, it was. I'm just in general frustrated by the way the changes to the guild page policy have worked out so far, and was (and continue to be) totally overwhelmed by the amount of work the changes have caused and the lack of assistance that has been forthcoming from the people who fought so hard for the specific changes. Thanks again for your help (and your support on the Policy talk page to revisit some of the changes that were made.) -- Wyn 08:25, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

It's all good - in truth, it has a bit of a bug that it took me a while to fix: it was this that made it appear more successful (it was mistakenly marking pages that had a space after the 'Leader = ' part of the infobox as supplying a leader, when the clearly weren't). Not that it really matters either way, so long as it got done. I see the inactive page moves as being more of a problem... (By the way, for the inactive tag, if only an in-game contact is listed, is one meant to go and ask them if the guild is active before tagging the page? That would be ridiculous. That thought just suddenly struck me as I was typing this, heh.) -- Ale_Jrb (talk) 15:05, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I have no intention of trying to actually contact the leader before moving them (I do check all forums and websites before tagging inactive though I'm not sure everyone else does). I think the whole archiving idea is a bit much, but it's what people wanted, and it was the only way to get any of the changes I did want into the policy. -- Wyn 16:33, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Personally (and I wasn't around when the changes happened, or I would have fought it) I think the archiving (and even checking forum activity) is ridiculous. If someone can't be bothered to edit a page twice a year, it clearly isn't wanted, and shouldn't be kept. Anyyyway. We now have the archiving to look forward to. Yay xD. Cheers, Ale_Jrb (talk) 16:37, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Now that we've cleaned up the inactive list, can you change your bot to just search all guild pages? rather than only ones that haven't had an edit in 3 months? I couldn't figure out your instructions. -- Wyn 23:42, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] about js

is there maybe a variable for "tab currently looked at"? so i can make the refresh script only for when i'm not currently looking at it anyway :) - Y0_ich_halt 17:51, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

You should consider writing an extension for Firefox instead :P Everything beyond the window DOM object cannot be recognized by Javascript, so tabs are not included. poke | talk 18:17, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

ah, so js can't interact with the browser itself. grm -.- - Y0_ich_halt 18:18, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

OMG 2x EC! Well, the following code works with FF (it refreshes the page when you aren't looking at it, or you've got another window active in front of FF). IE will probably hate it, though I suppose it might work. Either way, if you use IE, you don't deserve it to work, sooo...

var refreshTime = 5;

if ((window.location.href).indexOf('selfRef=true') > -1)
{
var timeout = setTimeout('doRefresh()', refreshTime*1000);

window.onfocus = function() { clearTimeout(timeout); }
window.onblur = function() { var timeout = setTimeout('doRefresh()', refreshTime*1000); }
}
else
{
 if ((wgPageName == 'Special:Recentchanges') || (wgPageName == 'Special:Watchlist'))
 {
 window.onblur = function() { var timeout = setTimeout('doRefresh()', refreshTime*1000); }
 }
}


function doRefresh() {
window.location = 'http://wiki.guildwars.com/index.php?title=' + wgPageName + '&selfRef=true';
}

Have fun. Ale_Jrb (talk) 18:19, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

oh, please, what idiot would use ie? o.O also, could you explain the code? i get the refreshTime variable and the else {} part of the second if-function, but what's the other stuff for? - Y0_ich_halt 18:31, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Sure. JavaScript has a bit of a problem in that variables are not transferred between pages (obviously), because when you reload the page, you reload the script. As you only wanted it to run when the page was not being viewed, it has to perform differently depending on the 'window' status (this is a built-in JS object, that represents the window you're viewing). With that said, it's quite simple: here's the basic logic.

1. Check if we have 'selfRef' in the URL (you'll see how this can be true later).
2. If not (which will be the case when you first view a page, because the wiki doesn't put it there), set the 'window.onblur' status to start our timeout. The timeout is handled in the doRefresh function, to keep things neat and optimise it a bit. 'window.onblur' activates when the window loses focus (when you move the window behind another, or change tab. Note that this status is returned to your program by the browser, so might work differently for different browsers - hence the warning about IE).
3. That's it for a basic page view. If the user keeps watching the page, then browses away, nothing will happen at all.
4. If you do leave the page though, onblur will fire, activating the function. This function refreshes the page, but also appends our 'selfRef' to the end of the URL, so the program knows this is not a manual refresh.
5. When it reloads the page, this time, selfRef does exist, so that returns true. Now we have to have a way of stopping the refreshing if the user comes back to the page. For this, we cancel the timeout using window.onfocus (which fires when a window regains focus) using the timeout variable that we set in the previous line (note that I moved this around so it reads better. I'm not sure why it worked the old way, but I guess it did :P). We also have to re-set window.onblur, because this setting was lost when the page refreshed.

That's about it. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions :P. Ale_Jrb (talk) 19:46, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

ah, get it now. - Y0_ich_halt 11:36, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Your head hurts?

How do you think mine feels???? ROFL!!!-- Wyn 19:57, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Heh heh :D Ale_Jrb (talk) 21:35, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

[edit] ROFLFAMOLOLMAO!

hai :)--Hellfirez 04:58, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Um... hi? Ale_Jrb (talk) 15:49, 23 November 2008 (UTC)