User talk:Greener

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Spam Bots on GWWiki

Hi, quick question. The spam bots that make userpages and fill them with random info, where do they come from? Why are they spamming this website? It seems like many of them do not even try to link us to a service or something. Are there even people behind these botting programs or do they just run until they break? Help me to understand Greener. Soldier198 (talk) 05:45, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

The spammers and our abuse filter are in an arms race. As we (and other websites) improve our filters, the spammers have to improve their tactics. They actually are trying to post links, but our filters often catch them at that point. I believe their benign posts that sometimes do get through are attempts to add an air of legitimacy to their wiki accounts. That tactic doesn't work well on our wiki, but perhaps it does on other sites.

Their goal is to get people to visit their sites, or they want to link key words for search engines, like Google, to pick up and then promote. Greener (talk) 14:49, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

I see. Thanks for the information. Soldier198 (talk) 18:54, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

15th Anniversary

• 'Guild Wars' is getting an update for its 15th anniversary

Tomorrow new content will be added to Embarch Beach:

• 10 New Weapons from Anniversary Vendors
• New Trophy item that spawns a boss in Endgame locations
• 10 New Elite Skills!

Be ready everyone. ^_^ --Falconeye (talk) 20:49, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

10 New Elite Skills - This is absolutely astounding news and I am very excited to play with these new skills. However, I do have but one question I must ask. Skill development is usually done by a team. Seeing as they are adding new skills, and adding new skills usually comes with a thorough consideration on game balance, which is, again, something done by a team. So, is there a small team working on Guild Wars 1 again? Or are these skills that were already more or less finished in design but didn't get added in whatever campaign/expac they had been designed for? Soldier198 (talk) 21:21, 21 April 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the notice, FE. And Soldier, I have no idea, sorry. Greener (talk) 01:04, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Apologies Greener, I didn't mean to make it look like I was asking you directly. I was really just speculating. Soldier198 (talk) 01:18, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Vandal reverts

Thanks for catching those two I missed. I was in a bit of a rush as I was (am) at work.  :) --Rainith (talk) 21:20, 21 July 2020 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for being around while I took some personal time away (and a truncated holiday). Very much appreciated! Greener (talk) 21:54, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Busy Bee

Hard at work I see. Drogo Boffin 06:28, 21 August 2020 (UTC)

Lol, not really. Deleting and blocking takes two mouse clicks each. The effort that poor kid is going through makes me laugh. Greener (talk) 14:51, 21 August 2020 (UTC)

Yeah, I went back and was looking through the history I could find and he really has a lot of time on his hand. At least he is making some good edits too. Drogo Boffin 01:36, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

referees

I certainly hope you don't see yourself as a referee. Because if the players collectively tried to change the rules of a sportsball game, the referees wouldn't allow it. horrible | contribs 16:48, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

"[P]erhaps see admin as referees of a game which the players designed." Emphasis added. And FYI, I'm more than aware that all analogies are flawed. Please focus on the meaning rather than the absolute literal when you know it's uncalled for. Greener (talk) 17:04, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

I'm disappointed you ignored the majority of my comment to just chide me instead, and then did the exact same thing you scolded me for right here. horrible | contribs 17:08, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

I think you are looking for faults in every comment instead of taking in the meaning. Drogo Boffin 19:12, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

I think you're reading intent into my messages that simply isn't there. horrible | contribs 19:14, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Submitting bug reports?

Hello Greener. Recently I tried submitting a bug report to Arenanet using the ticket system on the Guild Wars 2 website. The bug in question is a visual bug on a certain skill. I explained the issue as clearly and concisely as I could. The response I received was baffling and unrelated to the issue I presented.

"...Please note that the Guild Wars Support Team does not have the capability to reset, advance, or otherwise modify quest progression for an individual character or account. We suggest that you try to complete the quest again or simply abandon the quest and obtain it again from the NPC that gives that particular quest."

I did not mention anything related to quests or character progression in my bug report. I am left with a few questions.

Did I use an improper avenue when reporting this bug? I saw there was a bug reporting section of our wiki, but it seemed to be in an inactive state. Is it logical to still report in game bugs that are not gamebreaking? Bugs that cause server crashes are prioritized and fixed in a timely manner, but are lesser bugs, such as those related to gameplay, not worth reporting anymore due to the limited manpower available for Guild Wars?

I apologise in advance if you are the wrong individual to approach with these questions; I did not know who else to ask. Soldier198 (talk) 01:05, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

I'll see if I can tap on a shoulder to find out what avenues, if any, are available. Given how the game's in maintenance mode, we might hear there's no route for smaller bug reports, but there's no harm in asking. I'll try to get back to you in a couple of days.

Just to be clear, you were sending the reports via https://help.guildwars.com/hc/en-us/requests/new , which is the gw1 channel? Could you confirm? Greener (talk) 01:40, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply. I actually used the Guild Wars 2 channel located here --> https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us. I used that channel because logging into my account on the Guild Wars 2 website automatically redirected me to it, and whenever I tried to regain access to the Guild Wars 1 channel, I would automatically be logged out of my account. I made sure to specify in my bug report that the issue was pertaining to Guild Wars 1. I also included a screenshot showcasing the bug in action. Additionally, the wording of the reply from the GM seems to imply that he understood the issue as related to Guild Wars 1. Soldier198 (talk) 02:19, 28 September 2020 (UTC)

Alright, the response was what I had thought. With the game no longer supported, we shouldn't expect minor bugs to be fixed. That said, the customer support ticket route is the proper way to send the bug reports, and perhaps in the future something may happen with them. Don't hold your breath, though. Greener (talk) 02:05, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

I see. Thank you for taking the time to investigate that. Soldier198 (talk) 11:01, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

Editing questions

Hi, Greener, I am new to the wiki, and I plan to make hypothetical skill updates for Ranger and Paragon for fun. Received your message about not blowing up the recent changes page. Is there any way to avoid spamming the page besides using the preview button for editing changes? I don't understand why something as unimportant as user page edits would show up on a global 'recent changes' page meant for the entire wiki at large. Crunchy-Staccato-017 (talk) 23:37, 26 November 2020 (UTC)Crunchy-Staccato-017

The show preview button is the best way to minimize how much is shown on the recent changes page. If you've started using it, then you have my thanks, and you don't need to worry about the RC. Edits to user pages are expected and easily ignored in reasonable amounts. Do enjoy theory-crafting about the ranger! Greener (talk) 00:36, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

This "user" got missed

Tried adding the speedy deletion but it didn't get noticed. https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User:WilburWatsford Durp da durp (talk) 20:15, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for the extra poke! The first half of December has been busy, but I still should have caught that. Greener (talk) 20:24, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

Editing guild space

Hey, Greener. I am returning to editing a guild page I once made and last updated back in 2018. I am wondering if all guild pages are locked, if I need to be given permission to edit the page, if the page just needs to be unlocked, etc. The guild page (I thought) was just going to be a historical stamp for the guild and a reference on where we came from and how we formed. Somehow, someone found us on wiki before they saw us in game and it sparked in my mind that the wiki page for guilds is still being looked at. I wanted to update some information on the page, at the very least- the contacts. Thanks! -- Kurzick Krozz (talk) 06:32, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

All of the guild space is locked, yes; it's not done on a page-by-page basis. I will not be making a habit of updating pages for people outside of removing personally identifying information, but if there is a change to how to contact your guild (preferably through social media), I will make an exception this time. Greener (talk) 15:34, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Okay. I will get all the information properly and sent to you for this one time. Give me until the end of the weekend? I'm currently 35,000 miles in the sky right now on an airplane. We really appreciate it. -- Kurzick Krozz (talk) 21:47, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

I'll presume you meant that in kilometres, and are nearing geosynchronous orbit. No rush. Greener (talk) 23:26, 2 April 2021 (UTC)

Yeah it was supposed to be 35,000ft. I was thinking about how many miles were left in my flight. Haha. Where can I send you the changes? There's a couple text changes (mostly text delete), and subpage that can just get completely deleted. -- Kurzick Krozz (talk) 23:54, 3 April 2021 (UTC)

Drop the new version into [[User:Greener/Repalce with this|this red link]], and I will copy it over. Greener (talk) 00:15, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Version has been updated for it's final resting place. Thank you so much, Greener. Also... if you don't mind- Can you completely delete this page? -- Kurzick Krozz (talk) 02:17, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Embarrassing delay on this. It seems even I've now been blocked out of editing that namespace. Long weekend may slow down hearing back on details. Greener (talk) 04:38, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

It's been updated. Greener (talk) 20:26, 7 April 2021 (UTC)

Vacation

My apologies for not posting that I've been away; that's been my normal MO. While I'm back home briefly, I'll be gone again until Saturday. Greener (talk) 21:16, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

You shouldn't announce your away times. Obviously, the Army of Spanish Spammers [ASS] read it and is now flooding the wiki (okay, 3 of them ... ;-P ).

Hope you enjoyed your vacation. Did anything special? Steve1 (talk) 19:57, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Greener isn't the only one who watches the wiki. - Tanetris (talk) 06:01, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Lemme buy you one of those, Tan: [1]. Steve1 (talk) 09:40, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

He might as well be. He and Rainith are effectively the only to sysops we actually have, and we don't have any bcrats. The whole nonsense of "we care about the wiki" really fell flat on its face over the last year, since not a single one of you decided to show that you actually care about the wiki. horrible | contribs 13:50, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Mn. No bcrats. Definitely. Yes. - Tanetris (talk) 20:51, 8 August 2021 (UTC)

Wiki lottery game

It would be hilarious to put the bot spam accounts to use, players watch recent changes and if they create a random account with your name irl you win. 🤣 Durp da durp (talk) 19:01, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Lol, there's definitely a wide variety. Thanks for finding a way to laugh about them.

Unfortunately in terms of the arms race, these bots are coming from a highly distributed set of IPs. Not sure what to do about them beyond waiting for another bot net to be taken down. Wish I could offer all of you more than that. Greener (talk) 19:39, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

How many different countries are the ip ranges from? Sounds like an annoying problem if it's a very distributed 'attack'. If i had to guess the bot makers are also "highly" high if they find annoying the wiki of a 15+ year old game a good use of their time. Durp da durp (talk) 19:49, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

While the usual countries are making their appearance, it's never appeared to be a country specific problem (hence why I'm reluctant to name the ones that I see). The problem used to be company specific, but even that has been changing with this new wave. I'm now seeing bots coming from hosting/cloud companies, to mobile companies, to general public broadband companies. If you told me that these bots were now able to spoof their IP addresses like spam callers can spoof their phone numbers, I would believe you. Greener (talk) 20:43, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Could they be using VPNs to hide true location? Like anyone can set up a TOR node and end up being the public ip of traffic using the TOR network. I'm guessing many companies probably set up nodes for other vpn companies since they probably get paid for them by non-free vpn providers. Anyways, good luck keeping sane with this mess. Durp da durp (talk) 21:42, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Account Merge

Good evening Sir. I lost access to my original GWWiki account, Soldier198, some time ago. I made this new one, sensibly titled Soldier198-2, as a continuation of my previous account. I saw that we have a page to request account merges, however it requires both accounts to sign on the request in order for it to be made. I cannot do such a thing as I do not have access to my original account. Is there anyway still for me to merge the content of this account with that of Soldier198? Soldier198-2 (talk) 14:31, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

Hey Soldier! Sorry that this one fell through the cracks. I'll let a bcrat know to look into this, as I don't have that particular power on this wiki. Greener (talk) 19:03, 27 December 2021 (UTC)

Yes Sir. Thank your Sir. Sir. Soldier198-2 (talk) 01:12, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

Won't be today, as I don't have the energy for If Things Don't Work As Expected(tm), but just a reassurance that I have in fact seen this and will get poking at it when I can (and if I wind up forgetting you can always come yell at me on my own talk page). I might put it off to Monday, just so if somehow the 0.001% chance that everything goes wrong and breaks everything, the server guy is back from the holidays. My intention is to merge the original account's contribs to the new one's, delete the now-empty original account, then rename the new account to the old one's name. I'm like 90% sure that'll all work. If it doesn't, we'll play by ear depending where exactly it goes wrong. - Tanetris (talk) 22:05, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

Implicitely talking about you here:

https://wiki.guildwars.com/index.php?title=User_talk:Rainith&diff=2676728&oldid=2676679

So it's not behind your back. Steve1 (talk) 20:38, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

Verbal abuse in guild wars

does anybody check the logs anymore? There's the same people in pvp doing all the trolling and toxic behavior I report them all the time but nope nothing gets done. There's so little players left that I can't imagine there are too many logs for arenanet to check. Why can't they issue permanent mutes? It's the same people everytimeDennis2333 (talk) 19:37, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

Hey Dennis, sorry that you're having these experiences. Just to be clear from the start, I am not an Anet employee or representative. If you would like to reach out directly to Anet, for example with screenshots of the verbal abuse that's unfortunately occurred, you can go to their support website, login, and submit a ticket (top-right corner of the page).

As for the bots, they have unfortunately been a problem for a while. I do not know how frequently Anet does their banning, but they have historically done so in batches. If you would like to discuss that matter further, I would again direct you towards opening a ticket. Please be aware that Anet avoids discussing any specific details of other people's accounts. Greener (talk) 20:27, 2 February 2022 (UTC)

I probably troll recent changes too much but...

The past couple days i've been wondering what happens to the "new user ;]"s that create accounts, but don't get snagged by the AF for a spam bio or whatever? It looks like the AF batting avg hasn't been too good, but maybe they are ppl... i kinda doubt it though since many share a naming scheme. Do those accounts get stuck on a backend watchlist? Durp da durp (talk) 22:17, 25 July 2022 (UTC)

At the end of last year, the wikis were moved to a different server host, and that server host had quite a good pre-built filter (though it initially had a few false positives). It looks like the spambots may have found a new route in, and we've returned to where we were last December. I'll ask to see if any other settings have been changed, and we will have to ponder if our abuse filter for account creation needs to be re-implemented. Greener (talk) 00:07, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Odd, isn't it. To a human eye, the spambots are instantly recognisable, the vast majority being FirstnameLastname. If I was an admin, I'd make the potentially foolhardy choice of blocking bot-like names on sight, on the assummption that valid users using that name format would be in the tiniest of minorities. Then again, as a non-admin, I don't know if they're all posting spam bios on creation, making this a moot point. — snograt 13:55, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Our filter works similar to the way that you suggest, but I currently have it off. If the problem persists, then I'll consider turning it back on; I'd rather have false negatives than false positives, hence my delay. Greener (talk) 16:45, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

We've upped the difficulty of the captcha. If you experience any issues from this increase, let us know. Greener (talk) 20:05, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Anything else we can try? Looks like we're back to the days of more new accounts being made and banned than actual edits on Recent Changes. --Rainith (talk) 20:58, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

Ooooo0o0ooo new captcha? Is it that horrific one where you have to identify if its a picture of the same building or sign from different angles of images from a google maps car? I know they are testing the method, but dunno if it rolled out yet... i'm a human and i had around a 40% failure rate on them lol. Durp da durp (talk) 21:25, 4 August 2022 (UTC)

Sorry, I was gone for a week. I had hoped to see the number of spam accounts reduced, but that's obviously not the case. I'll reach out again tomorrow to ask about more options. Greener (talk) 23:21, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

Email has been sent off to see what else can be done. I've also turned on one of the previous filters that will prevent some of the accounts being made, but it will not stop all. Greener (talk) 16:51, 8 August 2022 (UTC)

Talk:Guide to Survivor in pre-Searing

I moved it since it adds absolutely nothing to that guide or the guide's discussion. If you disagree please undo my naughtines. Thanks, Steve1 (talk) 18:22, 15 November 2022 (UTC)

Main Page New Look

This change is unnecessary and unwelcome, please revert. --The preceding unsigned comment was added by El Kal-El (talk) at 03:46, 21 January 2023‎ (UTC).

Hey Kal-El, I'll direct you to this page where I hope you can be a bit more detailed in the problem(s) that you are facing. Greener (talk) 03:35, 22 January 2023 (UTC)

Screenshot section

Hey, can you take a look at the question that I left the other day here (Help_talk:Images) when you can please? ―Scribeton (talk) 21:03, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

Hi Scribeton, I've replied on that page. Greener (talk) 04:36, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Edit I'd Like to Make on Locked Page

Hey there, I wanted to add a brief note to the Anniversary Elites pages pointing out that they cannot be learned via skill tomes, as I recently ran into this in-game and was confused, seeing no mention of why this was the case on the wiki. Figured it out, so I wanted to update the pages for future clarity. I was able to update nine of the ten pages, but Shadow Theft is editlocked. I felt weird about changing only 9 of the 10, so I decided to try to figure out how to mention this to someone who can do something about it. Wound up here. --Dillionmcrich (talk) 04:51, 2 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for updating the wiki. I have removed the edit-block on that page. Greener (talk) 05:10, 2 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for your part in keeping the wiki alive. Guild Wars is still a treasure. --Dillionmcrich (talk) 15:22, 2 December 2023 (UTC)

Infobox edit to include the enemy's health

Using Toolbox we can see the enemy's health and yesterday I edited the Desert Wurm (NPC) page to include it, but it's not visible when I save the changes because although it's written in the code, what the page shows is only the Infobox content. Any way to show it? (Not that I'm going to add ALL the enemies health of the entire game in a rush, but I can add the ones I find from time to time when I play). Scribeton (talk) 18:12, 16 December 2023 (UTC)

Hey Scribeton, the health information will not show in the infobox unless the Template:NPC infobox is updated to first look for the parameter and then show the parameter. I suggest talking to the community about displaying the health in the infobox, perhaps on the template talk page. In the meantime, placing the health in the 'Notes' section may be a viable option. Greener (talk) 17:13, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

Understood, I'm going to do that. Scribeton (talk) 22:32, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Gallery deletion

Hello, sorry for bothering again. Can you delete, please, from the database (to free space) all the pictures from the Ahmtur_Arena#Gallery_(post-update)? The GW Map Browser has been updated and I'm going to replace all the screenshots with the textures corrected and loaded. Scribeton (talk) 22:35, 20 December 2023 (UTC)

Done. Greener (talk) 16:36, 21 December 2023 (UTC)