User talk:Ale jrb

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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)

Hai

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

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

ROFLFAMOLOLMAO!

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

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

your skill popup thingamajig

I've been using it for awhile and I kind of like it. There are two problems that I feel the need to mention. Firstly, and this is very recent, the skill icon doesn't show up. I'm not sure if it's a huge cache problem or if ANet changed the location of their images, but it just has a broken URL instead of a picture.
Second, and this is really what's been bugging me the most... when I accidentally mouse over a skill name and then (quickly) click to load another page, a popup hits me in the face and tells me that it wasn't able to load. Is there a way to disable that popup thing? - Auron 04:08, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I'll have a look into it. Should be fixed be later today, probably... depends what's wrong. I'll disable the error message thing now. Ale_Jrb (talk) 12:58, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

It's now fixed. Thanks for letting me know. Ale_Jrb (talk) 16:36, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Auto Archive Bot

Is it finished? I noticed it is still sleeping and its Run page says Enabled, but its history shows it used to say Enable. Just wondering since I wanted to see if it worked. Would be nice to see it actually used. – Adi 15:57, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

He stopped working on it a long time ago, so I doubt that the bot is still running, or even ready to run. poke | talk 15:58, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Darn, Well Was Hoping, Oh Well – Adi 16:01, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

I presumably still have the code somewhere, though I haven't checked, but there wasn't a consensus to run it on this Wiki, so I never did. Sorry to disappoint; you'll jut have to archive manually ;) Ale_Jrb (talk) 16:09, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Request for assistance

I know you are very good with code. Could I ask you to take a look at Guild Wars Wiki talk:Feedback organization. Erasculio is struggling pretty much on his own, with limited assistance from a few, to design an organizational system for the new suggestion area in the new Feedback namespace. Poke apparently has no desire to help, as he has virtually ignored the issues for over a month now despite repeated requests for his assistance. If you have a bit of time you could spend just taking a look at what Erasculio is doing and giving him any advice/support you could I would greatly appreciate it, as would the rest of this community. And thanks for your vote of support :D -- Wyn talk 21:42, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

I'll have a read of it. Ale_Jrb (talk) 21:56, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

I'll comment at some point tomorrow. Ale_Jrb (talk) 00:10, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! -- Wyn talk 00:10, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Feedback

I don't want to clog up the feedback organization page, so here I am. One thing you may have missed with many of the previous discussions was about whether we'd have "peer review/ranking system" or if suggestions could be "deleted or delisted". Well, both of those ideas were shot down, namely b/c who is qualified to make those decisions was too complex/too much posturing/too much bias. So, since we can't get rid of suggestions after the fact, we figure that putting a filter initially would be better. And also, many of the suggestions were from drive-by-posters, so we wanted to make a system that would reward repeat posters more than one-off posters. --JonTheMon 21:05, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

In which case it is still better in the example given on that page that both suggestions succeed than the stupid one, simply because that person is more experienced with wiki-ing. Simply put, one's skill in using wiki syntax and ensuring you don't make a mistake is unrelated to the potential merit of a suggestion, so the system should not discriminate on that basis. I don't see how a difficult system rewards repeat users, either. Feel free to explain it to me if I've missed something obvious. Ale_Jrb (talk) 22:05, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Satanael's response to your post says some things I want to say, so I won't repeat it. But, long and short, we feel that there is some correlation between time spent on a suggestion and its quality. So, while a repeat poster might not have much wiki experience, the fact that they are around means we can fix any problems their suggestions might have formatting. So, I do like Satanael's "easy, not quick". Oh, and one more thing we wanted to do was to have more ownership of suggestions. So, if people point out an improvement or something, it actually gets done; and also less "this is my suggestion" conflict. --JonTheMon 22:41, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

I am personally disgusted with the line of thought that is prevailing regarding the posting of suggestions. I also believe as Ale Jrb does that proficiency in wiki coding and following instructions does not correlate to better suggestions, and by making it difficult, we are just creating a bigger maintenance headache than it's going to prove to be worth in this regards. I mean, sure.. they may not show up on the lists, but they will then exist in limbo on the wiki. Eventually something will need to be done with them. -- Wyn talk 23:03, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Odd that I actually agree with just about every post on this thread, even though most of you seem to think you are on different sides of the issue. I certainly agree with both wyn and ale that "proficiency in wiki coding and following instructions does not correlate to better suggestions". At the same time, I think that there is no question that one of the main reasons we were flooded with unhelpful suggestions before was that some aspects of the basic structure of the previous system lent itself to shooting out one-liners. This all comes back to, as Jon summarized my previous discussion, "easy, not quick". That, in my mind, is why we have a "getting started" page with a simple button to create your user page, that is why Aiiane has put together instructions that get pre-loaded unto the user page and another button to create a suggestion. That is why I also really like Ale's earlier java idea, and if its feasible would still support it getting put in. In general, I like anything that makes suggestion creation easier, I want wiki noobs to come here and feel comfortable making suggestions. However, I am also warry of making the distance between idea conception and idea "publishing" (i.e., listing) too short. We want people to think about their ideas, but not think about how to "publish" them.

As for suggestions that get left in limbo, I can see why that is a concern, but this comes back the advantages of suggestion ownership. It is the responsibility of the user to ensure their suggestions don't stay in limbo, not admins. I suppose that if we get to a point where there are a lot of suggestions in limbo, then we can organize some sort of cleanup krewe to go through and clean it up, but we should cross that bridge when we get to it.

In short, I actually think the system we are already half way through creating does a pretty good job of addressing all of these issues. I don't think we need to make any drastic changes to achieve the "easy, not quick" goal, so, frankly, this discussion should not pose a big obstacle to us moving forward. (Satanael 14:57, 24 July 2009 (UTC))

Skill Check - Stoning

Hi! I just started using your Skill Check script. It works great, and is really handy! But, I'm having an issue with displaying the information for Stoning. It seems to work on most other non-PvE only / non-PvP / non-Monster skills, but for some reason, Stoning doesn't popup. Easiest example, if you go to Earth damage and run down the list of skills, they all popup, except for Stoning (and the PvE only skills, of course). I tried looking at the Stoning page to see if there was an extra something in the infobox, but couldn't find anything. Thanks!-- FreedomBound 15:54, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi. Sorry about the delay - was on holiday :). I'll have a look at it, and get back to you. Ale_Jrb (talk) 11:50, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Hmm. It was missing from my skill list for some reason. Has it been renamed..? Oh well, added in and it now works. Cheers. Ale_Jrb (talk) 11:53, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

No worries about the "delay", and thanks for fixing it so fast. -- FreedomBound 14:51, 23 August 2009 (UTC)