User talk:Changtau2005

Hi there! what can I do for you today?

If you have suggestions about, or are looking to troubleshoot: the Portals, Database, Quote Corner, Site Skin or templates, you're in the right place.

Current Background
Although it still looks good as always, there's a slight problem: the transparent white area that overlaps the background. Some things aren't in their proper places. For example, Adeleine to the right. You see half of her outside of the white area, but upon looking into the white area, there's more than half of a painter there. Same goes for the "curtains" near the top. If it's possible to fix this, that'd be great. If it's maybe too complicated, I understand. Iqskirby Doin' like Duck Tales!  15:20, August 10, 2014 (UTC)


 * Just gonna pop in and say it does that for me too occasionally; such as right now, actually. It doesn't do it all the time, though. It kinda looks like the effect of looking through a magnifying glass. But it's just a minor cosmetic thing and I think it might just be on Wikia's end, anyway. --GiokuAvatar.png G i o k u talkuser 15:27, August 10, 2014 (UTC)


 * Seems 100% of the time for me, unless I'm just not paying as much attention. And yes, a magnifying glass, albeit reversed. So I guess a "demagnifying glass." Iqskirby Shovel Knight Pogo.png Doin' like Duck Tales!  15:39, August 10, 2014 (UTC)


 * I know what causes that. I set a faint background for the article area, because for people not using adblock, when Wikia's screen takeover ads show up, they blacken the background behind the article as well as replacing the images at the side. Yeah. This was before Wikia introduced Fluid layout, where they allowed the article area to expand with the screen, unlike the old Oasis which limited it to around 1000 pixels. It worked correctly at 1000px, but not now. I will disable the faint background, although I don't know how this will interact with the new ads. This should fix the error in sizing. Changtau2005    Talk to meBlogsContributionsBlock me KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  17:32, August 10, 2014 (UTC)


 * That looks better. Although on mobile devices it's only pink. But hey, better pink than something else. It is Kirby after all. Iqskirby Shovel Knight Pogo.png Doin' like Duck Tales!  17:42, August 10, 2014 (UTC)


 * Browsers have differing degrees of compatibility to the W3C standard. Basically this means for less capable, mobile, or older browsers, sometimes they cannot support the latest styling specifications. Don't quote me on this one, but I believe the case for mobile browsers is because they have to operate under much tighter resource constraints. Anyways, I have a workaround for this. The problem is caused by me specifying two backgrounds on the 'body' element. Seems like your mobile browser does not support dual backgrounds on a single element. Normally, I would simply introduce a second element behind the background and put the pink color there -- that's for when the background is loading or if it fails to load it shows pink instead of white, or for devices whose screen size exceeds the background size - they would see a pink border. Now, I can't do that because I can't change the structure of the document (only Wikia can), but I can style the 'html' element. I don't do this because I believe it's not a good idea (due to various reasons), but since this is the only way I can fix this, I'll do it anyway. I will also set the background-size property to 'cover', so for browsers which support it, the background should size with fixed aspect ratio so they do not see the pink background. Changtau2005    Talk to meBlogsContributions</li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  17:58, August 10, 2014 (UTC)


 * Well, I looked a bit further into it, looks like the pink color wasn't caused by what I said above, but to keep a long story short, my solution to this is not what I just described. It should work for users like you now, and best of all, I didn't have to style the html element. Changtau2005    Talk to me</li>Blogs</li>Contributions</li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  19:31, August 10, 2014 (UTC)


 * While this thread is still open, the Visual Editor seems to have a transparent background. When I try to edit in Visual mode, the background skin appears, making it difficult to see the text on the screen. This is not the case in Source mode. Do you know what might be causing this? It could just be a temporary glitch on my end. NerdyBoutKirby  [[Image:VBWL Chainsaw Fish sprite.png|link=wikipedia:Virtual Boy Wario Land|This sprite sold me a Virtual Boy and Virtual Boy Wario Land.]] BZZZZZ!  04:37, August 11, 2014 (UTC)


 * It seems fine to me. Clear your browser cache to see if it goes away. Usually this is Ctrl + F5 or Shift + F5, or if you're on a Mac I think it's Func + F5. Changtau2005    Talk to me</li>Blogs</li>Contributions</li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  17:48, August 11, 2014 (UTC)

Image Formatting Question
So... I thought maybe you might know something about this... so I changed the way we show software ratings on pages, with Template:ESRB, Template:PEGI, and Template:CERO. They work perfectly, other than one thing, which is that they refuse to line up in horizontal rows on pages, such as on Kirby's Return to Dream Land. We were able to get them to line up on Template:PEGI using <tt> <p style="text-align:left"> </tt>, but I used that on the article and it didn't do anything, so I am wondering if it's just because they are in that infobox...? Anyway, it's been driving me nuts, and so I was hoping you'd know a bit more about it than I do. Thanks! -- G i o k u talkuser 18:06, August 11, 2014 (UTC)


 * You have to be careful about how the Wikitext parser handles whitespace. I've fixed the templates - make sure to not leave any space between the end of the template scope (<tt>}}</tt>) and the <tt>includeonly</tt> tag. If you are not using <tt>includeonly</tt> and you are relying on <tt>noinclude</tt> instead, then do the same. What's happening is that the parser is resolving the space you left as a line break, so it wraps the image in a  element, as it would within normal text flow. Notice in my more complicated templates that I use comments all over the place to control indentation in places where it is whitespace sensitive. Either that or you have to know where you can put a spacing where the parser would not try to resolve into an actual spacebar or whitespace character. You'd also want to define images in terms of their height (e.g. x50px == 50 pixels high) instead of their width if you intend to line them up, so their line height matches.


 * No worries if this behavior is unintuitive at first. This gave me a headache when I started using Wikitext too =) Changtau2005    Talk to me</li>Blogs</li>Contributions</li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  21:26, August 11, 2014 (UTC)


 * Oh um, and do try to remove those  tags you've put in the infoboxes for the left-align styling, as they are unnecessary. Generally it's also not a good idea to hide external links within images, so I've removed those. Any link to a url not within Wikia's domain (so that excludes internal wiki links and interwiki links - including those to Wikipedia) should be clearly labeled - in plain text links, there should be an external links icon just after it, so that should suffice, but the user cannot tell using an image link so they may navigate unintentionally. No worries, you pick up these things as you work, heh.  Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  21:28, August 11, 2014 (UTC)


 * Thank you so much! I really appreciate all this help! I actually had an issue with the whitespace once earlier, too, actually; I forgot all about that... I'll make sure to remember that next time. And alright, I just wanted to have links to the software ratings websites, but I understand in that case. Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it. :) --GiokuAvatar.png G i o k u talkuser 22:22, August 11, 2014 (UTC)

Soundtracks
Having some issues again unfortunately ^^; User:Gioku/Workshop started messing up once the soundtrack got past 100 tracks... it was fine when I had 88 songs in it, but now the 82nd song is messed up. And none of the songs after that will load. Hope this won't be too big of an issue! ^^; Thanks in advance. -- G i o k u talkuser 00:32, August 15, 2014 (UTC)


 * Actually, nevermind, it was on YouTube's end... some of the songs messed up when uploading, and reuploading them fixed the playlist here... sorry for bugging you. ^^; --GiokuAvatar.png G i o k u talkuser 15:51, August 15, 2014 (UTC)


 * Eh, no problem. The script was plenty buggy last time so there's more than one reason to suspect it. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  17:07, August 15, 2014 (UTC)

Hotspot
There's no problem with this, but I'm curious about this. Usually the hotspot shows four articles that have the most people editing them within a 3 day time. For some reason, it was temporarily 7 days. Do you know what that may be about? Iqskirby RUN! HE'S GOT DEBUG MODE!  21:41, September 12, 2014 (UTC)


 * I have no idea. We have no control over how the hotspot works, but nice observation. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  13:01, September 14, 2014 (UTC)
 * All right. Iqskirby Sonic 1 Running.gif RUN! HE'S GOT DEBUG MODE!  13:26, September 14, 2014 (UTC)

KTD Template Trouble
(I really should know this all by now...) Ahem, I've been having some trouble changing things in the KTD templates. For one, I can't change Cracker Helmet to 3D Helmet Cannon in the KTD Items template. I also can't figure out the problem Sub-games/Raw in Template:Database/KTD/!DPLAll/Raw. If you're there and you have any spare time, I would appreciate your assistance. No pressure, though, since it's nearing the holidays. Take care, NerdyBoutKirby    Hey! I found it first, buddy!  20:36, December 23, 2014 (UTC)


 * For the DPL list page, it was caused by a missing <tt> </tt> tag and some whitespace in the templates. As for the items, I've changed the naming in the template. Please see the changelog for the exact changes. Cheers! Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  03:02, December 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * Whoa, just realized the top Wikia bar got changed, and you requested a fix for some of my old CSS that was messing it up. How's everyone doing? Been a while. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  03:05, December 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * Most certainly has been a while. Some changes have occurred, mainly just the wikia bar. There was a problem with the drop-down list not going away, but that's been fixed. Christmastime is here, and I wish you a Merry Christmas. I  q  s  k  i  r  b  y [[File:Santa Kirby.png]] What? Haven't you seen a Santa Kirby before?  03:14, December 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * Additionally, Gioku and I have been collaborating on a Did You Know? fact box to place on the home page -- I've been rounding up the facts and she'll be creating the randomized box itself soon. If we don't make any progress on it in the future, I may have to turn to you for programming. For the time being, I'd best put my faith in Gioku. Happy holidays! NerdyBoutKirby  [[Image:DK Sig 2.png|link=wikipedia:Donkey Kong Country|It happens to be Donkey Kong Country's 20th anniversary.]]  Hey! I found it first, buddy!  03:48, December 24, 2014 (UTC)

Kirby Fighters Deluxe Infobox Ratings
This is a problem we've been having for a long while now, but forgot to come ask you about it. On the Kirby Fighters Deluxe page, I cannot make the ratings appear in the infobox no matter what, and I just can't figure out why that's going on. I was hoping you could take a look at it? I would like to finally have that fixed as it's been bugging me for months now haha. Thanks in advance! -- G i o k u talkuser 16:19, March 7, 2015 (UTC)


 * Haha, I'm not sure why myself. I fixed it by copying the boilerplate from the template page and replacing it with stuff in the faulty infobox. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  23:08, March 7, 2015 (UTC)


 * Wow, that's pretty weird! I looked in my workshop earlier and found where I'd been testing it; it worked when it just had the Japanese logo in it but as soon as the US logo got added it stopped working... really weird! Thanks for fixing that though, that was really bugging me, haha! --GiokuAvatar.png G i o k u talkuser 16:12, March 8, 2015 (UTC)

Template Fix
Would you be able to edit this template? Template:Database/KSSU/Bosses/Raw The "Revenge" pages have been deleted as they are obsolete. Thank you Iqskirby  Hi there.  02:07, May 8, 2015 (UTC) P.S. Did you by any chance add the "insights" thing to the wiki?


 * Hi Iqskirby, I've deleted the redlinks from the template. I'm not sure what you mean by insights, however. Did Wikia add something global to their wiki farms recently? You can track every change associated with the wiki through Special:RecentChanges, or track by user via Special:Contributions, like this, for example. Global changes by Wikia do not show up. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  11:38, May 8, 2015 (UTC)


 * For some reason, not that it's an issue, the area to the right that normally displayed "Recent Wiki Activity" is replaced by "Insights" while on the "Recent Wiki Activity" page. It has links for pages without categories, pages without images (excluding infoboxes), pages without links, and wanted pages (redlink pages). Iqskirby [[File:Iqskirby.png]] Hi there.  11:57, May 8, 2015 (UTC)


 * Seems there are a few more templates that have Kracko's Revenge remaining in them. Feel free to fix that. Iqskirby [[File:Iqskirby.png]] Hi there.  00:31, May 10, 2015 (UTC)

glitch
We don't know the circumstances, but for some reason, time and time again, the flag icons within the boxart galleries and what not, such as ❌,, , , etc., seem to revert to their source state on articles. Going into the source reveals that  s have been placed around them, but this is presumed to be a glitch, and not anyone's actual doings. Could you confirm this and fix it? Thank you Iqskirby  Hi there.  01:25, May 17, 2015 (UTC)


 * AFAIK this is an ongoing problem with folks who use the WYSIWYG or RTE editors rather than source mode. It's probably a bug in Wikia's parser, or how they transform the wikitext into the internal representation used for those respective editors and back again. Chances are this only happens on pages with complicated markup only, or only happened within a certain time, i.e. something slipped past testing before Wikia deployed the changes. There's nothing I can do about it, I'm afraid. You can report the problem directly to Wikia directly via Special:Contact if you want to.


 * Also, as best practice, don't transclude a template onto talk pages as this makes changing them and and getting rid of their dependants a lot harder. Rather, link to them via Template:template_name or use Template:Tem, like this . Cheers. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  17:39, May 17, 2015 (UTC)

Titan Head
Since it's rather an issue to edit archives and get rid of red links, I've instead made various redirect pages out of such red links that I cannot simply edit out. However, I can't do the same for Titan Head, as you seem to have it protected. I'd appreciate either having the particular rights to edit it or that you be able to redirect it to Mega Titan. Thank you. Iqskirby Hi there.  18:57, July 19, 2015 (UTC)


 * Well I checked the logs, it's way back in 2011. I've made it a redirect now. I don't remember what happened exactly but the logs show someone who kept recreating the page, which duplicates the merged content. An edit or spam war, perhaps? It was more common back then. I think I protected it from creation rather than redirecting, as the naming for Mass Attack enemies weren't stable yet. Anyways, cheers! Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  19:09, July 19, 2015 (UTC)

Central Circle
After looking up "Central Circle" on the search bar, results for it appear in the various levels/stages for Kirby, as a result of the Levels template. However, for some strange reason, Central Circle is absent from the Levels template. I've checked the source for it and even the source for Database/KatAM/Levels/Raw, but it still hasn't appeared. I know it takes some time for the search results to fully reflect recent changes on pages, but I don't think this is the same thing. Do you know what may be causing it to appear on search like this, but not actually appear in its appropriate place? Iqskirby Hi there.  23:17, July 26, 2015 (UTC)


 * Mm? It's not necessary for it to be in the level template for it to come up in search. Keyword searches are a bit more general than that; they use a function like TF-IDF weighting or similar to determine which articles come up first. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  21:24, July 29, 2015 (UTC)


 * I mention the template because that's where the search results imply its location to be. Regardless, it doesn't appear on numerous articles that the search claims it to appear in. Iqskirby [[File:Iqskirby.png]] Hi there.  21:38, July 29, 2015 (UTC)

Vehicle HP
After browsing some videos on Youtube, Kirby Air Ride has caught my attention. I've watched various videos, but one got to me. There's a video showing somebody max out all of his/her stats. HP only reaches 16, not 18 like the rest, meaning that the max HP is a round 400% of the base. While I've fixed that on the Patch article and have modified the Machine infobox template to compensate for said change, I've been brought to wonder how you got the HP values to begin with, as well as the percent increase. Iqskirby Bihm Masheen Gahn!  17:12, August 29, 2015 (UTC)


 * They're based on debug information. Discussion thread here. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  19:39, August 29, 2015 (UTC)


 * Good to know that these are official numbers obtained via hacking instead of being estimates. Iqskirby [[File:Beam Machine Gun.gif]] Bihm Masheen Gahn!  19:51, August 29, 2015 (UTC)

Music Problems
Hello! We've all been experiencing problems with the music templates recently. Could you please take a look at these templates when you get the chance and try to fix the problem? Thanks. Paul2   Dream Land, meet your heroes!  11:43, August 31, 2015 (UTC)


 * Well, well. That's something Wikia has done, apparently. The templates are goverened by Template:YoutubeIframe/Core, and apparently now administrators don't have edit / creation rights anymore to custom MediaWiki pages, which let us do this kind of fancy custom stuff you don't find elsewhere. If you look in the edit logs in the linked pages, you'll see that I've created them some time ago, but I can't change or even delete them now even if I wanted to. I'll have to contact them and see what's going on. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  12:04, September 1, 2015 (UTC)

Contact message repeated below for reference: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap"> Hi Wikia,

We've been using verbatim tags to document music throughout the site and for custom templates. This feature has been in use for years already, and is built very deeply into some of the articles. Our users have been wondering why these templates suddenly stopped working, and from how I see the parser handles the verbatim tag, and from here,, I believe that it has been silently disabled a few days ago.

Could you please re-enable it on Kirby Wiki?

Best, changtau2005 Kirby Wiki technical admin

Changtau2005   <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul>   Poyo!  12:14, September 1, 2015 (UTC)

Staff reply: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap"> Hello,

Thanks for contacting Wikia.

Verbatim is being phased out of Wikia due to security concerns. It allows for raw injections of HTML and JavaScript into our site. We are instead building replacement tools - Twitter tags, Facebook feeds, video embeds - to replace this feature. If there is a specific use case on Kirby you would like consideration for, please give me a link to how you are currently using Verbatim.

Timothy Quievryn Director of Technical Support Wikia Community Support Team

Follow-up: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap"> Hi Timothy,

I guessed that's probably why its been phased out, either that or a policy change. However, we do use it for soundtrack documentation precisely because there is no other way to do what we want with the default players. Moreover, since only adminstrators can modify the MediaWiki pages required to construct the HTML for each pair of verbatim tags even before this change, it's not quite the same as arbitrary code injection. If there's a specific vulnerability in a code snippet that you are aware of within Kirby, perhaps it would be better to talk to us about it directly? Usually the other admins delegate this kind of stuff to me since I'm a data scientist / software developer myself, so feel free to use technical language if it makes explaining the problem easier.

The main templates that use the verbatim tags are:
 * http://kirby.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:YoutubeIframeSingleVideo
 * http://kirby.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:YoutubeIframePlaylist
 * http://kirby.wikia.com/wiki/Template:YoutubeIframe/Core
 * http://kirby.wikia.com/wiki/Template:YoutubePlaylistPlayer
 * http://kirby.wikia.com/wiki/Template:Youtube

We currently use it to invoke an AS3 player, which is sizable to whatever aspect ratio we want. It also interfaces with a small piece of JavaScript within Common.js that sends AJAX requests to Youtube on page load for playlist data via the gdata API.

Best, changtau2005 Changtau2005   <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul>   Poyo!  19:22, September 2, 2015 (UTC)

Staff response: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap"> Hello,

Thanks for contacting Wikia. Unfortunately, you are incorrect. The code you linked below does allow for arbitrary code injection. This is exactly the reason why these code pairs were disabled.

As of right now, the only fallback to this is the YouTube tag: http://c.wikia.com/wiki/Help:YouTube_extension

We are currently working on replacements for audio players, such as spotify and soundcloud. We are aware of a need for audio only streams and working on getting a replacement. There will be more details to come in our Technical Updates ( http://c.wikia.com/wiki/Blog:Wikia_Technical_Updates), so please keep an eye peeled for them. You can subscribe to the Technical Update blog by clicking the link on this page: http://c.wikia.com/wiki/Blog:Wikia_Technical_Updates?action=watch.

Timothy Collins Community Technical Support

... You'd think you're dealing with professionals here. "you're incorrect.", yeah that's very helpful, thank you.

Follow-up: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap"> Hi Tim,

Can you point out which part (the line number, etc) allows for code injection, and can you give an example? Just saying that I'm incorrect is not specific enough to be help us fix this stuff, nor is it enough for me to explain why 10% of our stuff is broken to the rest of the administration team, much less the users who don't have any idea of what's going on.

Since the explanation on the page explaining verbatim tags specifically says that it is enabled for certain communities, can you explain which of the use cases are immune to code injection, or if otherwise, why they are allowed, while ours is not? Is it something as simple as requiring sanitization of parameters passed from template calls, or is it something else altogether?

Best, changtau2005 Changtau2005   <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul>   Poyo!  22:49, September 3, 2015 (UTC)

Staff response: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap"> Unfortunately, I cannot, as doing so would explain how these vulnerabilities could be used against us. This is the reason that my reply was vague.

The pages that have been whitelisted have been sanitized ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_sanitization ) to prevent HTML from being added. The templates you were using rely on snippets to be 'injected' into the HTML and thus is not sanitized. You can view the current whitelist here: http://c.wikia.com/wiki/Help:System_messages/whitelist

Unfortunately, the version of script you were using not only adds a site vulnerability, but it is actually against YouTube's Terms of Use in that "no video can be streamed at less than 200px height".

As I mentioned before, we do recognize this as being a need within the communities and are working on a replacement tool now to allow this feature once again that does not allow for script injection.

Please understand and I thank you for your patience.

Timothy Collins Community Technical Support

Follow-up: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap"> Hi Tim,

Thank you. That explained quite a lot more to me. From what you've just said, I take that using verbatim to insert HTML, partial or otherwise, is no longer allowed.

I'm not a MediaWiki expert, but I thought our implementation lets administrators insert arbitrary things, yes, as long as the template is protected, but for input captured from template fields, since they are outside of the verbatim tags, shouldn't those be sanitized first, before MediaWiki makes it part of the HTML, like how it happens normally without verbatim at all? Maybe changes the order by which sanitization / template expansion happens, I don't know. I don't see a way that I can try to do a hello world with how things stand, so I'll have to take your word for it, that there is a way for any user to execute arbitrary code, namely there must be a loophole in this sanitization process for verbatim somewhere that I'm not aware of.

This is partly a separate issue, but I'm trying to see what options we have to carry this forward other than using pre-made plug-ins (that are not currently available) that may or may not fully do what we want. I've noticed that Common.js and Wikia.js are also no longer editable (at least by me). Are administrators no longer allowed to tweak global JavaScript, presumably because it also lets us insert arbitrary HTML or execute custom scripts? Assuming verbatim stays disabled, are the JavaScript pages going to stay this way? I fully understand (and appreciate) your commitment to security, but this degree of customization is what MediaWiki so attractive as a platform. I understand administrators shouldn't be able to change LocalSettings.php, but all global JavaScript? I know Wikipedia self-administrates and has a vetting process for global JS at the pump or talk page, but aren't the JavaScript pages still editable by admins on Wikipedia, and is there a reason for the different stance Wikia is taking from Wikipedia, namely what kind of security risks is Wikia trying to protect us/itself from by disabling custom JS?

Thank you for responding to my queries so far.

Best, changtau2005

Staff response: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap">

At the current moment, verbatim usage to insert HTML is not allowed. We are still unsure of how that will be moving forward. We are still trying to find a solution with the least bumps in the road.

I can assure you I did test your set of templates and the vulnerability does exist with them in their current state.

The goal is not to have site JS locked down, no. It's only currently locked down until we have a review process in place (it's going beta soon for testing). After that process is in place, all wikia's will have their JS unlocked and be editable. This ensures that going forward, we do not have the same site vulnerabilities we had recently. Since you seem to know JS a good deal, I will be giving you 'codeadmin' rights on your wikia. This will allow you to edit your site's JS.

Timothy Collins Community Technical Support

Response: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap"> Hi Timothy,

Thank you. I now have a far better understanding of what is in the pipeline and what changes to expect. Let's leave verbatim disabled. Going forward, if there are (or there will be) a set of guidelines or checks somewhere as to what is acceptable in JavaScript to pass review, (which I assume is some automated test or process) I'd appreciate a link to the technical update, article, or equivalent.

Thanks again for answering all my questions.

Best regards, changtau2005

Whoo, that was quite a long exchange, but it was a good one. Timothy (User:Rappy 4187) has given me codeadmin rights (log), so I can once again edit JavaScript pages. I'll not try to fix the playlist players before the JavaScript review is in place, as otherwise if the changes aren't allowed, it may potentially be a waste of time. For the single video players, I think I'll make it fall back to the Youtube plugin, at least temporarily. I'll see when I can make some time to have a good look at the template so I don't break stuff. Changtau2005   <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul>   Poyo!  23:27, September 7, 2015 (UTC)

Ban
You've been on relatively recently, and I'm unsure if NBK will be on anytime soon; there's a problem. Shellbeater1999 and Missalannahromance have been vandalizing. While of course their edits can be easily undone, they should be blocked. Iqskirby Bihm Masheen Gahn!  19:16, September 6, 2015 (UTC)


 * It's not always right to just ban users outright. Usually it's easy to see if they are actually trying to damage or they are simply not sure what a wiki is about. Kirby Wiki attracts editors of all ages and proficiencies, you see. If the edits in question are minor and they don't have maligned intent, simply revert and direct them to the Kirby Wiki:Editor's Manual. Of course, if they are spammers or if they post offensive content, then a long-term ban is usually the best and easiest course of action. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  22:55, September 6, 2015 (UTC)

Gaming footers
Hello, Changtau. A member of Wikia staff just sent our site an invitation to join a new thing called new gaming footers. I shouldn't make the decision to join alone, since this is a big thing for our wiki as a whole. What are your two cents on it? NerdyBo utKirby   I did that with my mouth!  17:24, September 23, 2015 (UTC)


 * Hi NBK! Hmm, the first thing that came to my mind was, "didn't we already have a footer?" =) Last time I saw it, it was a little ~250x200px square with Ultra Sword back when KRtDL was released. Then I read the linked article and it said that these are maintained by Wikia staff and they are going to be removed. It doesn't really go on about what needs to go into a footer, or how it needs to be created (HTML, CSS, MediaWiki?). I only know that it needs to be mobile friendly, and potentially needs to stretch the whole width of any screen (read: responsive design).


 * I really don't see any harm, since it's something we already have anyway. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  03:25, September 24, 2015 (UTC)

Broken infoboxes
According to a message that popped up on Recent Wiki Activity on my end, our infoboxes are broken for mobile users. Since you're a technical master and I barely understand code, would you please take a look at it? That is, if you have time. No pressure.

Cheers, Nerdy Bout Kirby    Edit the happiness!  19:21, December 1, 2015 (UTC)


 * Hi NBK! Thanks for pointing that out. I checked the Kirby page (hit edit and preview on mobile) and it looks alright to me. It doesn't have any of our styling but neither does any other part of the page when viewed on mobile. Actually Wikia has been pushing for flexible layouts and mobile views for a while, but I think if you preview our mobile main page, there's not much there at all in the first place. I've made our infoboxes to be pretty robust to modern browsers so it should be no problem. I think it's complaining because we are not using the new infobox markup. Frankly I don't feel like taking the time to change all that and restyling them only to get back what we already have right now, just because Wikia's script is complaining about it.


 * From what I gather from Wikia's posts about the infoboxes, they're mostly trying to make them easier to edit and style for normal users. Of course, the standardized infoboxes at Wikipedia is a very rich source for mining semi-organized data (e.g. YAGO2 ontology), so perhaps that's one motivation for Wikia to push for them to mining advertising keywords etc. If they had this option when I completely overhauled them, so much the better (and it would have been somewhat easier), but they are 4 years too late. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  23:49, December 1, 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Glad to hear everything's working out. Nerdy Bout Kirby  [[Image:Telly.png|link=wikipedia:Chibi Robo!|Doobydooba-doobadoobop]]  Edit the happiness!  00:03, December 2, 2015 (UTC)

Hello! I'm not sure if you're active on this but I'd love some template help from you.


 * Yes, I'm still around. How can I help you? I'm assuming this isn't basic templating as you can find plenty of information about that floating about. Changtau2005    <ul style="margin: 0; list-style: none;"><li>Talk to me</li><li>Blogs</li><li>Contributions</li><li>Block me</li></ul> KirbyKSSUwalk.png  Poyo!  05:00, February 3, 2016 (UTC)