Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki - User contributions [en]

Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum

2014-11-03T01:28:17Z

Aavatar: buggered again

'''This is a location to discuss non-content matters (what do we do with content disputes, vandalism, etc, what do we want to do with this wiki, and so on).'''

<div class="usermessage">This is the page for current discussions. Archives can be found in [[Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 1]], [[Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 2]], [[Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 3]] and [[Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum/Archive 4]] </div>

== de:Links to be deleted? ==
There are many dead "de:Links" in the wiki, e.g. in Hogfather: "de:Buch:Schweinsgalopp". Is there any hope or intention to fill them with life (again?), or are they deadwood, to be deleted if you are already working on an article and stumble on one of them?--[[User:EinFritz|EinFritz]] ([[User talk:EinFritz|talk]]) 08:47, 16 October 2013 (GMT)
:Leave them for now. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 11:52, 16 October 2013 (GMT)
::I'm still wondering why they can't be linked; theirs still work. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 22:25, 16 October 2013 (GMT)
::I fixed them: see below. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 22:05, 30 November 2013 (GMT)

==Security breach?==
There was just a strange edit by an unregistered user ‎at 10.203.74.26 in [[Talk:Nightingale Valley]].
How did that get in here? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 04:08, 10 November 2013 (GMT)

==Fallout from upgrade==
*Was the "{Edit]" button supposed to move from the right to hard against the section title? It's not visually appealing.
*The Edit Summary box is also funny.

:That was me, I opened permissions and was testing to see if i'd opened them too far. Which I had. All registered users should be able to create and edit pages now. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 04:35, 10 November 2013 (GMT)

Whew! Thought they'd found a new tactic, there. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 04:55, 10 November 2013 (GMT)

==feedback from user==
I've had a really interesting conversation with a first-time casual user of the wiki who came here (my reccomendation) to research background information for fanfic writing. The feedback runs:-

*''I looked at the Discworld wiki, and tried to use it to help Cheery buy her dress. I was not even able to find the Category: Ankh Morpork Businesses for a long time. Neither "Ankh-Morpork" nor "Locations" mention it.''

''And I had the AM businesses page up at one point earlier tonight when was I writing you but lost it and couldn't find it again when I knew the page existed! I tried to put "businesses" into search and went nowhere, even trying it several ways. I finally went clicking down the directory until I ran into "Stuff." It's frustrated me and made my little fic, "Cheery's First Date" not nearly as fun to write. It's not a very good fic, but I'm not sure I want to write another one unless I can get the site details straight. I can tell from reading that you've been a faithful contributor to the wiki since it began, AG/PROV, so I hope this isn't annoying. Or at least can decide to gloss over what I don't know. I have no idea where Frout's is. But neither does Pterry, it appears, so it's okay.''

I mean, I suspect the Categories "evolved organically" with the Wiki, as they contain a few inconsistencies of various sorts. but if a new user finds it frustratingly hard to navigate, is this typical experience for all visitors? should we look at categories and indexing and see if it can be made simpler? (Lots of work...) over to you...[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 22:33, 21 November 2013 (GMT)
:I never thought of anyone ''starting'' from Categories, but apparently...<BR>
:"Categories" has its own section on Main Page so it doesn't seem too hard to find, although it seems to me that "Portals" could use reworking, and Categories might be added as a Portal. "Tours" and both the "Reading suggestions" might be deleted to make room, Biography isn't a portal, just a page. Articles like Disambiguation Pages could be created to group related categories and ease searches. Any other portals? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 23:48, 21 November 2013 (GMT)
::See what you think of the "Categories" portal on the Main Page. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:20, 22 November 2013 (GMT)

==List of Pratchett characters==
Then, I'd like opinions on the major overhaul of the [[List of Pratchett characters]]. Apart from the mistakes and odd nomenclature that can be corrected, I'm not keen on the whole layout, mainly because it removes much of the alphabetical ordering and requires that you know which section to look in. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:46, 22 November 2013 (GMT)

I like it! I got to thinking about the feedback received on site accessibility, and it's probably important for us to realise that not every casual caller will find it user-friendly. The short-cuts and ways in that we know and use might well be not so obvious to newcomers, or to people wanting to visit for purposes of research and fact-finding - which, after all, is what a Wiki is ''for''. Every possible gateway portal should be viewed as a legitimate doorway, and I guess it's down to us to oil the hinges and put "Push" or "pull" on the correct sides. (Why do I feel a need to burst into opera here...) And signage on the walls...

Thanks! [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 12:19, 22 November 2013 (GMT)
:Are you referring to the List of Prstchett characters, here? (Time for another archive, too...)--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 20:31, 22 November 2013 (GMT)

==SNAFU?==
Oh gods! "Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki:" is the specified namespace, but the Mended Drum is in "Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:". What to do? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 04:43, 23 November 2013 (GMT)

==de: links!==
Hah! I fixed the de interwiki links (me, coding and operational ignoramus)! <BR>
Well, I say fixed, but there's a catch. They work, but to move to the sidebar where they belong they have to be on a line after another category. I wasted a lot of time separating them from the body of the article with colons when cutting and pasting them up would have been as easy. Who knew? This obviously wasn't the case in the old version; I wonder if there's another fix in the program somewhere? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 16:22, 24 November 2013 (GMT)

Found it. The trick here is just that the page has to be saved again (not even edited, but opened and saved at least). --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:41, 24 November 2013 (GMT)

*I'm removing the few Cesky language links as I find them. I don't see any evidence that the Czech wiki still exists. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:56, 27 November 2013 (GMT)

==SPAM ALERT! User: Netterku, possible spammer==

Please check out User:Netterku, as I suspect he may be a spammer who has got through the net. Inept, as it's in Indonesian, which I speak as fluently as Vimes speaks Dwarfish (in fact, Vimes is native fluent compared to me). But interesting, in that the spamming sems to be arranged differently and not to the old well-known pattern. If we agree, and the user has not responded to my yellow card warning, shall we block? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 25 Nov 2013
:Let's hope their program hasn't learned the Qwestyons, but I guess a new list can be installed if necessary. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 22:45, 25 November 2013 (GMT)

just dealt with a second spammer who got in. But at least it's a trickle rather than a tsunami... AgProv, writing as..[[User:Vorpga|Vorpga]] ([[User talk:Vorpga|talk]]) 21:39, 26 November 2013 (GMT)

==Change of address?==
Funny...disc.osiris-web.com is no longer in service, but the wiki is available direct from lspace.org. I guess if you can read this you're not bothered, but old bookmarks may not work. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 19:33, 27 December 2013 (GMT)

:I cleaned up when I moved my DNS management to Amazon Route 53. I'll go ahead and reenable it. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 19:39, 27 December 2013 (GMT)

::Turns out it was a bad import. I've fixed the issue. It may take a few hours to propagate. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 19:56, 27 December 2013 (GMT)

==Browsing==
[[Special:PopularPages|PopularPages]] is always amusing, whether it's "why so many?" or "why so few?" <BR>
[[Duke Harold]] is currently the least popular entry, despite [[User:AgProv|AgProv]]'s best effort, but there's little rhyme or reason. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:45, 8 January 2014 (GMT)

==Upgrade complaints==
*Was the "{Edit]" button supposed to move from the right to hard against the section title? It's not visually appealing.
*The Edit Summary box is also funny.
--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 05:38, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

::I hadn't noticed since I don't normally use the LSpace skin. Looks like I'll have to make some style adjustments. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 00:06, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

:::Those should be fixed now. I haven't been able to test in all browsers though. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 04:44, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Yep, fixed those...unfortunately I tried to change skins to have a look and all I got was a blank page. Since all I get is a blank page, I can't change it back either. Any suggestions? User:Old Dickens (in Mr Spuddy-Face disguise as --[[User:Aavatar|Aavatar]] ([[User talk:Aavatar|talk]]) 22:38, 20 January 2014 (UTC)).

:Clear your browsers cache and cookies. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 12:34, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Need to update the UserMerge extension too. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 18:08, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

No, that didn't help (I had the same problem in three browsers anyway). Aren't the preferences stored at your end? - Old Dickens, aka --[[User:Aavatar|Aavatar]] ([[User talk:Aavatar|talk]]) 23:17, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

: I have to go into the database to change another user's skin. You've now reverted to the default skin. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 04:01, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Whew! Thanks; best to be comfortable in your own skin... --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 12:51, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

==Return of SPAM==
Here's the first piece of spam in a long time , from [[User:Bencongslebor]], and MERGE doesn't work. The page goes blank.

: The plugin which enables that hasn't been upgraded to support the new version of MediaWiki. As soon as it's updated I'll apply the update to this wiki. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 14:26, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

::Spoke too soon, the author has updated the plugin. I'll try and get it installed this week. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 14:27, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

Not yet. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 22:00, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

There are a lot of them signing up but not leaving any droppings just now...odd. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 21:43, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

:They're not passing the email validation test. I need to find some time to perform another upgrade of the wiki software. A security update came out a couple weeks ago but I haven't had time to implement it yet. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 21:54, 14 July 2014 (UTC)

Traditionally, though, these people don't even speak English, suggesting that their program has learned the answers to the Qwestions. Did you install the whole list? Should we write more? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 03:31, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

''{{Clicks fingers meaningfully, notes "merge" currently not functional, awaits moment to pounce and rend.}}'' [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 21:00, 19 July 2014 (UTC) Also notes tvtropes formatting does not work here...[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 21:01, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

:Base upgrade complete. Still need to identify and fix issues with the default skin and extensions. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 21:08, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
:: Extensions Updated --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 02:36, 21 July 2014 (UTC)
:: Just updated the list of questions. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 18:16, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

==Another SEARCH oddity==
Surely '''Vortis''', the jeweller, appears more than once here, and certainly in [[Here'n'now]], but a search doesn't produce any result. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:33, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

:A degree of confusion with aquiline villain [[Vorbis]]? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 20:04, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Ah. The apparent non-existence of "Vortis" is another problem. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 23:55, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

:Nothing I can do about the search issue right now. It's a built in part of the application and I dont have the time to modify it. Also, we apparently need a new set of questions for the spam filter. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 01:30, 21 July 2014 (UTC)
::Ay ay, cap'n. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 02:27, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

==Blocking==
Apparently we can use the Block function again? (...not that it ever did much good.) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 23:30, 23 September 2014 (UTC)

Well, I prefer to use Merge and Delete, but I need to find out why that wasnt presented as an option. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 02:19, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

==Outage Notice==
"Amazon has started warning customers of its EC2 cloud computing platform that it's going to start rebooting their instances en masse over the next few days.

Not all EC2 instance types will need rebooting; the fast storage (HS1) and large memory (R3) virtual machines are unaffected. But the reboots will nonetheless be widespread, with all regions and all availability zones affected. Rebooting is due to start this evening and finish next Tuesday.

Amazon hasn't explained why the bulk reboot is needed, but a source speaking to ITNews has said that it's due to an embargoed flaw in the Xen hypervisor. That bug, XSA-108, is due to be publicly disclosed on October 1, by which time Amazon's reboot should be complete."

This will force the wiki down at some point but I haven't received notice yet of the exact time. ---[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]])
:"''due to an embargoed flaw in the Xen hypervisor''" - I'm pretty sure that means the servers are being taken over by alien forces. Anyway, we'll be here when its all over. --[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] ([[User talk:Zdm|talk]]) 21:06, 26 September 2014 (UTC)
::Thanks for clearing that up. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:55, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

==New Premises==
Aaaaaand, we're back (if you know where to look)! '''Don't''' try to use the L-Space skin, however.
There be Dragons. --[[User:Aavatar|Aavatar]] ([[User talk:Aavatar|talk]]) 01:28, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum

2014-01-21T23:17:14Z

Aavatar: /* Upgrade complaints */

User talk:CelticWanderer

2014-01-21T02:17:48Z

Aavatar: delete foreign material

{{User:CelticWanderer/talk-template}}

Greetings and welcome to the monkey house. I got your e-mail: I've been having a few technical problems myself. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 20:42, 7 June 2013 (GMT)
:Thanks for the welcome and thanks for letting me know regarding the email. I sent you two and both times I was told my email had not been verified, when it has. I actually just left a topic on the [[Discworld_%26_Pratchett_Wiki:Mended_Drum#Contact_us_page|Mended Drum]] page about the possibility of creating a contact us page (where the email link opens up the user's default email client) for such problems. --{{User:CelticWanderer/sig}} 20:51, 7 June 2013 (GMT)

I was rerally taken aback to come back here after a break doing other things, and discover the majority of postings on "Recent Changes" were legitimate ones with only a sprinkling of spammers. After so long with the opposite, this was a refreshing change! So glad to have you on board, I hope your stay is a long one! [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 23:05, 10 June 2013 (GMT)
:Thanks for your welcome. I know what you mean regarding the spammers, I am quite shocked at the ammount of spamming accounts that are created on this site on a daily basis. I really do hope the situation is resolved soon and, in the long run, that I can be of some use here. As I am new to the subject it will take me some time to feel confident enough to edit articles but for now I am hoping I can help in the organising and creation of templates etc. --{{User:CelticWanderer/sig}} 23:15, 10 June 2013 (GMT)

User talk:Stato

2014-01-21T02:15:51Z

Aavatar: Created page with "Hello. This is your discussion page; I copied your intro to your user page. I wonder how it got onto User:Celtic Wanderer|'s talk page. [[User:Old Dickens|]..."

Hello. This is your discussion page; I copied your intro to your [[User:Stato|user page]]. I wonder how it got onto [[User:Celtic Wanderer|Celtic Wanderer]]'s talk page. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] (currently suffering a technical out-of-body experience and manifesting as --[[User:Aavatar|Aavatar]] ([[User talk:Aavatar|talk]]) 02:15, 21 January 2014 (UTC)).

User:Stato

2014-01-21T02:08:51Z

Aavatar: copied from another user's talk page

== offering you some art for arts sake ==

howdy, I just hastily joined your wiki after reading tvtropes Discworld headscratchers and noticed an admin from this site saying due to copyright they find it hard to get pictures for this site. I would like to offer you use of any of my fan art you wish to use, free and with the right to use it on here only, some credit would be nice if you do but not essential. I drew a lot of the characters roughly 8 or 9 years ago because I have never mentally seen fictional characters inside my head as easy as I do reading Discworld. there are things I've no doubt got wrong, like Two Flowers four eyes, but mostly I think they fit peoples idea of how they should look. almost all the art work is black and white line drawings and have been seen, and I'm told liked, by Terry Pratchett himself. http://stato-beesknee.deviantart.com/gallery/28742046 im not sure how well that link will work so heres my DA user name incase, STATO-BEESKNEE the discworld art is in a folder called the turtle moves.If you like what you see in that folder please feel free to use it. send me a message via deviant art to confirm its me and you can crop and use any of the (about 50 I guess) pictures you like. right time to finnish that tvtropes page and them come back to se what is on this wiki.

toodle pip
Stato

in the very likely situation I have wrote this in the wrong place could somebody be so kind as to help me get this message to right people?

Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum

2014-01-20T22:38:12Z

Aavatar: /* Upgrade complaints */

Rjinswand

2013-11-07T00:35:55Z

Aavatar: spellings

Rincewind's ''alter ego'' on [[Roundworld|Planet Earth]], who is briefly encountered in {{COM}}. Confusingly he has a South African-sounding name but a Swedish passport.

It might be consolation to Rincewind to know that there is a dimension where there ''is'' something better than magic, if only he knew what it was. Dr Rjinswand knows what it is: he calls it Nuclear Physics.

It would appear that in order to meet his fervent desire to cheat [[Death]] while plummeting through a suddenly non-existent [[noble dragon]], Rincewind was temporarily transported to the nearest available dimension within the [[Multiverse]] where this could be arranged: this turned out to be [[Roundworld]].

From the tale related in {{COM}}, it can be inferred that the energies of Rincewind and Rjinswand temporarily fused. As it was his dimension and home planet, the law of conservation of energy dictated that Dr Rjinswand was the dominant personality, and after a few moments of confusion, all memories of having been Rincewind were forgotten.(To illustrate this point, think of what happens when a witch goes [[Borrowing]] and lingers in another mind for too long.) No doubt had [[Jack Zweiblumen]] also awoken, he would have had brief confused memories of being somebody called [[Twoflower]].

Inertia may have preserved this situation, were it not for the sudden arrival of [[The Luggage]] - the sudden fright precipitated separation of the personalities, and their downward plummet towards the Rim Ocean was suddenly resumed without benefit of intervening airliner, but from a survivable height.

Given that Rincewind was the (largely unwilling) explorer of Roundworld in {{SOD1}}, an interesting question arises here. Were he to be sent into Roundworld during the brief period of time where Dr Rijnswand is alive and practicing medicine to stricken nuclear reactors, would the two personalities fuse again? And let's say Rijnswand was working on stabilising a malfunctioning reactor core, (perhaps one exhibiting signs of ''breakaway oxidisation phenomena*'') say at Three Mile Island or Chernobyl, at ''exactly'' the time when the [[Faculty]] sends [[Rincewind]] into Roundworld. All of a sudden, the person dealing with a rogue nuclear reactor is no longer Rijnswand, but - for just long enough - a panic-stricken Wizzard from a different dimension... this may explain much...

*''Breakaway oxidisation phenomena'' - a less alarming way of saying ''It's uncontrollably on fire''

[[Category:Discworld characters|Rjinswand, Dr]]
:[[de:Dr. Rjinswand]]