User talk:Strangelv

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If you need to leave a message for me you can do so here by editing this page. Please don't forget to sign your message with '~~~~'.

Be happy to help. I'm new to editing though, and my html is rusty. Jarogers2001 03:05, 1 January 2007 (PST)


My Trigonometry is non-existant at this point. I dont start college level trig until January 16th. Jarogers2001 21:31, 1 January 2007 (PST)

Charles mentioned a page structure with GFDL for wikipedia material? Is that for imported articles or all articles that site wikipedia in their content? Jarogers2001 19:45, 7 January 2007 (PST)

GFDL is the licence that Wikipedia uses, which is why I created the GFDL namespace after lunarpedia list voted in favor of it as one of three licences for Lunarpedia to use. GFDL is viral. Referencing it doesn't infect the source article, but using it for a base or including chunks beyond public-domainable quotations will turn non-GFDL content into GFDL content or cause a GFDL violation.
One ambiguity is if GFDL has the '150 contributor' problem where all 150 contributors to a given article must be credited if you're using it. My take on it is that it does (and I'm not the only one, although Wikimedia doesn't seem to be enforcing it that way and may occasionally be in violation of their own licence), thus the import tutorial (where theoretically at least all 150 contributors are listed in the article history and thus credited)... As a matter of fact, this IS one of the reasons I argued for public domain instead -- no copyright means no entanglements, although it seriously constrains our available selection of stock content to swipe and put into the main namespace. -- Strangelv 21:14, 7 January 2007 (PST)

would it be possible on the bottom of the elements template to put the above/below element symbols above and below the symbol for the current element? -- Jarogers2001 00:30, 21 January 2007 (PST)

Please feel free to make changes and especially additions you find appropriate. --Strangelv 00:33, 21 January 2007 (PST)

Periodic Table

I had the Lanth/Act conversation with my chemistry teacher. Since the lanthanide/actinide series fail to share the same properties of what the current arrangement would say their groups should be and no grouping convention has been agreed upon, we should probably leave them blank. The extended periodic table solves the grouping problem but is made up of mostly theoretical elements with only one element that is not on the standard table falling within the "island of stability". Best bet would be to plug a (none) possibly linked to IUPAC in that field. Jarogers2001 18:16, 26 January 2007 (PST)

If I leave some data fields blank, will it cause any conflict with the autostub program? Jarogers2001 05:15, 3 February 2007 (PST)
The only case where I've thought of a blank field as being a problem was the group column (where I improvised '19'), but in general, do what you need to with the dataset, make sure I correctly understand what the final result is, and I'll adapt the script accordingly. ...and feel free to leave unhandy information blank. -- Strangelv 09:28, 3 February 2007 (PST)
I've finished the spreadsheet. Will there be any information lost from the current articles when autostub populates the elements? If so, we need to move those articles so their information can be merged with the autostubs later. Jarogers2001 13:05, 6 February 2007 (PST)
We need to create a test. Your email to the list bounced because of the address you used to send it, but it also stripped out the attachments (attachments and html are automatically stripped out -- this sometimes results in emails showing up completely blank) Let me see if I can crank one out. Working on a new cleanup tag for Peter's article. -- Strangelv 13:10, 6 February 2007 (PST)
I shot one to dimensionality. did you get it?Jarogers2001 13:18, 6 February 2007 (PST)
I see the attachment. Standby. About to perform the test. -- Strangelv 13:28, 6 February 2007 (PST)
Not the expected result, but definitely not a destructive overwrite. http://lunarpedia.org/index.php?title=Lunarpedia:TEST1&action=history -- Strangelv 13:33, 6 February 2007 (PST)
Forgot how to do the export. Jarogers2001 14:07, 6 February 2007 (PST)
http://lunarpedia.org/index.php?title=Special:Export -- list the articles by name here, then save the XML file you get. Doublescheck its structure to see that it's a valid XML document and not hhmlish mangle. -- Strangelv 14:11, 6 February 2007 (PST)
...and don't forget to uncheck the 'current revision only' box! -- Strangelv 14:13, 6 February 2007 (PST)
Export completed. Jarogers2001 14:56, 6 February 2007 (PST)

Search Box

Doing tests. I'll check it this weekend. Jarogers2001 12:59, 1 February 2007 (PST)

Is there a way to put the search box above the maintenance section in the sidebar for ease of searching? Jarogers2001 13:24, 1 February 2007 (PST)
I don't know,unfortunately. This may require hacking monobook, which we need to do anyway. -- Strangelv 14:56, 1 February 2007 (PST)
You might ask the guys over at ReefPedia if they know.
Look again. The only stuff below their search box is the same stuff we have below on ours. We may be on our own for working out how to do that. Possibly stick the search box above the menubar altogether instead of trying to figure out how to insert it into it? -- Strangelv 09:16, 2 February 2007 (PST)
Hmmmm is it possible to edit the toolbox section and put the maintenance area in there? Putting it above the menu bar may very well be the best option. Jarogers2001 09:51, 2 February 2007 (PST)
I wonder if we can clone the menubar and have an upper and lower one. We need a place to discuss specifications for our modified monobook. -- Strangelv 10:35, 2 February 2007 (PST)
You know alot more about that than I do. My HTML is considered basic these days. Jarogers2001 10:49, 2 February 2007 (PST)
Mine is only slowly getting back into any semblance of speed. Until a year ago I was using classical markup exclusively -- no CSS at all. -- Strangelv 10:53, 2 February 2007 (PST)

I did all the changes in the test element template. If you would like me to go ahead and transfer them to the regular template, I can do so once I get home. -- Jarogers

Dunno if you noticed, but I did move the search box. It had to be moved in the /skins/Monobook.php or in our case /skins/Lunarpedia.php file. I'm not certain, but http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:WikiSkin and/or perhaps http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ExpandCss might allow us more flexibility. But as you'll read further down the page, MSIE 5, 5.5 and 6 don't handle CSS very well. I'll try to experiment with them soon. -- Mdelaney 03:51, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Autostub

Found 2 errors. One here another here. My daughter has a derm appt at 2:30 and im trying to set up a second appt with the pediatrician. I may be in and out of lunarpedia. Might be easiest to use AIM Jarogers2001 09:01, 9 February 2007 (PST)

Unfortunately, jabber.asi.org is still down (it's what I use to connect to AIM). I didn't pull them from the database. Not knowing the reason you put them there I kept on using the code to calculate the linked elements on the fly. I may not be able to get any coding done today. Today is earmarked for activities that will likely leave me too drained to do anything else, although I might be able to do a little. Are there any other changes you want to see? Is everything ready for me to run it after I use your data columns (aside from the element infobox, which could be fixed later)? -- Strangelv 21:00, 9 February 2007 (PST) [thought I'd hit send about 9 or 10 hours ago... sorry.]
Everything is indeed ready to go. Jarogers2001 14:47, 11 February 2007 (PST)
Article content has been restored. Jarogers2001 14:01, 13 February 2007 (PST)

I forgot all about that one. Yes it is public domain. 12.75.3.93 11:31, 27 February 2007 (PST)

Stubs and whatnot

Do we have a tag template for something that is no longer a stub but is not yet a complete article, or could use expansion? Jarogers2001 05:20, 3 April 2007 (PDT)

We probably need an articles for expansion tag and category. -- Strangelv 06:25, 3 April 2007 (PDT) -- whose carpel tunnels still tingle and hurt from yesterday's stub sorting spree

names to try

humanspace.org, mannedspace.org, manandspace.org, peoplespace.org, astrospace, cosmospace, futurespace, earthspace, outerspace Jarogers2001 06:28, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Dropdown Menus

I tried installing some CSS driven dropdown menus, they looked crappy, but I suppose we could have fixed that. But the main reason I removed them is that they only work properly with IE7, Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 and maybe Safari. They do not work properly with any version Opera that I tried, nor do they work properly with IE5, 5.5 or 6. So, handy as they would have been, I removed them. Reinstalling them would not be difficult. You can get an idea how they look at Extension:CSS Dropdowns
-- Mdelaney 03:33, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Help Breakdown

Quick Help

I think we should regard the ref tags help as quick help since anyone can use ref tags even when not logged in.

Not-So-Quick Help

This should be moved to a position below Specialized Help.

Specialized Help

The files in the specialized help section don't belong there, as most of their content is aimed at administrators.

Suitable candidates for Specialized Help would be "Using math functions" etc.

Beating your head off a wall Admin Help

That's the place for that nasty stuff with all the import help etc.

-- Mdelaney 16:16, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Spam

James, I recommend we disable anonymous logins completely, can you do this? We are only getting spam now, and I cannot keep up with it. Charles F. Radley 13:21, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi James, I've returned to Marspedia after an extended absence (family, travel, sleeping...) to find you guys have had a bit of a battle on your hands with spambots - I will commence cleaning up the bits of damage I can find via the logs, but if you have anything specific you need me for, give me a shout. Headed back to the US this week, so I'll be more proactive trying to generate content and users all going well. All the best. Ioneill 01:21, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Hey James, thanks for the info on the botnet. I will do my best from this end to stem the flow of junk, but let me know if I can be of further assistance. Cheers :-) -- Ioneill 08:45, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
I blocked a bunch of anonymous IP vandals and reverted their edits, everything since you last signed off, so caught up and current as of 6.30 am Pacific Time, Sat 3rd Nov 2007 Charles F. Radley 13:31, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Hey James, Marspedia is getting hit again by a new barrage of spam over the last week. Looks like the blocking of IP addresses is reaching their expiry. Is there any way of seeing which IPs have already been blocked once in the past (apart from looking at the Special:Ipblocklist which only shows current blocks)? I assume this new lot of spamming is coming from the same IPs, in which case we can probably extend the block to 3 months (if not longer?) for repeat offenders.

Also, when a spambot drops it's trash on our doorstep, it seems that no matter what is inputted (like "bgfdbffd" - random rubbish), only a "1" is displayed on the page. I've noticed the same with Lunarpedia. Is this a funky new countermeasure you guys have put into place? Good stuff :-) -- Ioneill 14:51, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

No, it's about the only way this cretin can get his or her botnet to post to Lunarpedia or Marspedia at all. Unfortunately, this protection isn't in place on Exoplatz, Exodictionary, and Scientifiction.org. Mike was right in putting it up and I was wrong. Now if we can just find where we misplaced the passwords so we can get the other three wikis usable again (or even shut them down until we can). -- Strangelv 01:16, 23 December 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, I noticed that the other 3 sites were getting a hammering. Once we are in a position to get them active again, let me know, I'll try to help with the clean-up job where I can :-) -- Ioneill 13:16, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Marspedia stuff

Putting Lunarpedia Main Page to Shame

Hi James, got a couple of questions for you...

  • I've had a few questions recently from contributors to Marspedia concerning our front page - generally newcomers don't like the format and find it text-heavy. Are admins able to change what is displayed on the front page? Or is there a specific reason for the generic look across Marspedia, Lunarpedia etc. Some suggestions include:
    • Adding a featured article (in a similar way to wikipedia).
    • Separating the copyright info to a different page (I wouldn't be happy with this, but would be happy with a re-formatting effort).
    • Cutting down on text and making it more obvious for newcomers as to what we are doing.
  • Is there a way for sysops to see who has registered with Marspedia?
  • Likewise, can users access a page with reference to the sysops/admin staff so they can quickly get assistence?

No rush with the questions, but thought it best to put past you first. At last we are getting a lot of contributions from some great sources! Cheers for your time, hope you are well. Ian --Ioneill 03:05, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

As an admin you have the ability to do almost anything that can be done without server access, and that definitely includes changing the front page, which is only locked from general users because it's such a good target for attacks. If you have bureaucrat access, strike the 'almost' in the first sentence. Bureaucrats can turn people into admins and bureaucrats.
I fully trust you to make useful changes to the front page. Just note that your innovations may be plagiarized for use on Lunarpedia, et al. 8)
Who has accounts: go to the lower left corner and look at 'special pages' -- there's a mess of stuff there including a small number of special pages that only admins can go to. 'User List' isn't a restricted page -- you could go there as anonymous. Note that I know of no special means of sorting through that list, such as not showing banned accounts. You might want to look at http://mediawiki.org to see if you can find an extension that does what you're hoping to find that the simple list doesn't provide.
Feel free to set up some sort of help request page. Again, this might be something to duplicate on other wikis.
We should probably stop thanking each other, or that's going to eat up a large percentage of our time. 8)
--Strangelv 04:17, 18 November 2007 (UTC)
Lol, good stuff. Will have a play around and see what options we have for the front page. I'll probably be asking for advice when I get some time to commit to any big alterations to the front page. I'll try thinking up some nice gadgets useful to both Marspedia and Lunarpedia (plagiarize away!). Cheers ;-) -- Ioneill 03:38, 19 November 2007 (UTC)


Hey James, I've had a play with the front page of Marspedia and would be interested to hear your thoughts. In particular the new "featured articles" section. This is along the same vein as wikipedia, but I will need to develop this further as there will be future issues with automation of templates. None of it has been taken from Wikipedia as their templates and system is a nightmare. Better to start at the beginning ;-) Most of the text remains on the front page, but I've highlighted the important bits to improve understanding for newcomers. Cheers -- Ioneill 08:55, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Your changes look beautiful.
If you want to change the protection level go ahead. I didn't know that non-admins could make changes to the Marspedia main page -- usually we can't get away with that as the first non-admins to do so historically want to vandalize it or promote something highly dubious and not at all on topic. The klunky, too big, and too wordy copyright notice could probably handle quite a bit of tinkering -- maybe be made smaller and at the same time larger text? It's kind of important for people to have that information, but it does eat up too much room. I look forward to whatever changes you and the other Marspedia contributors can come up with. --Strangelv 07:55, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
Thanks James, glad you are enjoying the progress... I'm just really happy that Marspedia has a small but dedicated group of contributors who are very motivated to add quality articles, given me the motivation to develop the site :) I will hold fire on changing the protection of the main page, but I will be keeping a close eye on what is added/changed. If there are signs of abuse, then I'll lock it down, but for now it seems OK. --Ioneill 19:07, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
It won't be the regular contributors or even anyone capable of making a constructive contribution who will force you to lock it down. It will be people and scripts who have no interest in Marspedia other than as a place to add pagerank or similar to their highly dubious sites, typically selling certian prescription pharmaceuticals, tones for ringing telephones, online gaming services, and the like. In other words the sort of nonsense that presently constitutes most of the content for Exoplatz and Scientifiction.org right now. Hopefully Mike can get the passwords so I can at least lock down new account creation for awhile to contain further damage. --Strangelv 00:23, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Keys Locked in Progress Module

Hi James, embarrassing problem here. I have blocked myself out of Marspedia. I didn't actually think I could do that! I try to unblock myself, it works, but then the wiki realises I was unblocked on a previously blocked IP address and locks me out again. Not entirely sure how i made the mistake, was just being too quick when blocking a spambot IP. Many thanks in advance. Will also message Mike D to see if he's near a computer. Happy Thanksgiving by the way. -- Ioneill 04:13, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Moral of this story? Be sure to have a buddy holding the keys for you when on walkabout ;) --Ioneill 20:21, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Featured Articles and stuff

Hi James. Hope you're having a great start to the New Year!

I'm going to make a concerted effort to get this "Featured Articles" section on Marspedia fully up and running throughout 2008. I think the system I am using makes logical sense (template-driven) and it takes minimal effort to maintain. On your travels, if you come across any nicely written articles you think worthy of being featured on the front page of Marspedia can you nominate them? Instructions can be found via the front page. Will be good to get your view on how this is built :-) I'm hoping that little (useful!) gadgets like this will keep visitors coming back for more as our contributor retention is really bad at the moment (apart from a dedicated couple!).

Also, I've noticed a lot of 500 server errors of late, have you noticed any problems?

All the best, Ioneill 15:11, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Marspedia collaborative pages

Hi James,

Can you see any issues with having some pages on Marspedia dedicated to collaborative work between members of the Mars Foundation? We are trying to find ways to share and modify documents within the group and as we have a wiki already set up, it seems like a good plan to do some of our work on here (besides it will give some members experience of wikis who have so far not experienced it). Is there any way of selecting users who can modify pages (rather than simply restricting editing privilages to admin staff)? This isn't a necessity, but it would be interesting to know.

Hope you are well, -- Ioneill 00:02, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

That's the sort of thing the wikis are here for. I'm sure you can think of how to label and categorize the page in progress. 8)
Creating a special group for permissions to edit... I believe that requires hacking on LocalSettings.php, and I must admit that I grabbed some influenza as a souvenir from the Ron Paul rally at UNT on Monday... -- Strangelv 00:13, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
Ouch, hope you get better soon... and stay away from those Ron Paul supporters, sounds like they're contagious! I'm sure we can do without the special group permissions for now, Bruce was just concerned about non-group members changing things they shouldn't... but we're a nice bunch here, I can't see that being a problem. Cheers, and good luck with the flu -- Ioneill 02:53, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

captcha installation

Hi James, can you please help with this? --Rfc 09:13, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi again, there are new bot attacks in both Lunarpedia and Marspedia, and I wonder whether it is less work to install the new captcha trigger or to revert the bot's edits over and over. As fas as I understand you are the only person keeping the passwords for php access. It should take only a few minutes to insert the green parts:

  1. Logon to the machine where the wikimedia software is running.
  2. Find the files ConfirmEdit.php, ConfirmEdit.i18n.php, ConfirmEdit_body.php.
  3. Be sure the contents of the files match.
  4. Create a backup copy of the files.
  5. Insert the green parts using vi or prepare the files on your PC and ftp them.
  6. Check the effect. If you try to change the first letter in a page a captcha should pop up on clicking the "save page" button.

That should be all. You can count on my assistance, if needed. Cheers! -- Rfc 10:23, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I don't have them. They're all in a text file on a hard drive that may be complete toast that can only run on a specific notebook of mine that may also be complete toast. Dana Carson and Mike Delaney both have these passwords last I checked, however. -- Strangelv 10:41, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
I have left a message on their talk pages. You seem to have some doubt regarding the usefullness or the integrity of this captcha thing. If you are suspicious about me because I am not telling my real name I can understand this. Alteration of the software may put the whole system at risk, and I would not let an anonymous user do such a think, nor would I insert any code as long as I have the slightest doubt on its integrity. Reverting on the other hand is definitely safer, and is actually not so much work. Okay, I'm leaving the decision to you and will no longer nudge. Have a good weekend! -- Rfc 13:04, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
I'm not suspicious of you at all becouse of your anonymity. I'm very pro-anonymous here, thus my insistence on allowing minimal inconveniences for accountless anonymous contributions. The problem is that I don't have a lot of experience under the hood, and have'nt even had the passwords for when I've felt adventurous enough to try. As you can tell from my fumble yesterday, I can mess up when I'm too tired -- sorry about that. O_O Hopefully you haven't had residual effects from that, as Dr O'Neill had when he accidentally banned himself a couple of months ago (even after I unbanned him, he couldn't contribute without logging in).
Good news: Mike found the login information and got it to me and Dana. Trying your suggestion is in the queue, but there's a lot of stuff to deal with first -- you might easily guess what some of these other things are -- many are crises that have been getting worse and worse for months. 8\ Mike is starting with upgrading the wikis to a newer version of MediaWiki. -- Strangelv 04:54, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Ok, all wikis updated from 1.10.1 to 1.11.0, all wikis now have captchas, all captcha extensions use the mod suggested by Rfc. Strangelv will not be happy with me, I have set the captchas as follows: 

$wgCaptchaTriggers['edit']          = true;  // Would check on every edit
$wgCaptchaTriggers['create']        = true;  // Check on page creation.
$wgCaptchaTriggers['addurl']        = true;  // Check on edits that add URLs
$wgCaptchaTriggers['gibberish']     = true;  // Check gibberish
$wgCaptchaTriggers['createaccount'] = true;  // Special:Userlogin&type=signup
$wgCaptchaTriggers['badlogin']      = true;  // Special:Userlogin after failure

Remember, we still allow anonymous editing, as long as anon is willing to enter a few letters in a field.
I haven't decided whether to go with a manual upgrade to 1.11.1 as this would not show up in the Dreamhost control panel. But I am not repeat not the only one capable of performing that update.

Next: The Cleanup!

-- Mdelaney 23:27, 9 February 2008 (UTC)


Oh, this is hard! No bot will be able to overcom this barrier. Unfortunately, the trigger "$wgCaptchaTriggers['edit'] = true;" pops up the captcha on every edit, making the create, addurl and giggerish trigger effectless. So, we can not test the gibberish trigger. How about setting the triggers as follows:
$wgCaptchaTriggers['edit']          = false;  // Would check on every edit
$wgCaptchaTriggers['create']        = false;  // Check on page creation.
$wgCaptchaTriggers['addurl']        = true;  // Check on edits that add URLs
$wgCaptchaTriggers['gibberish']     = true;  // Check gibberish
$wgCaptchaTriggers['createaccount'] = true;  // Special:Userlogin&type=signup
$wgCaptchaTriggers['badlogin']      = true;  // Special:Userlogin after failure
This is exactly as it was before plus the gibberish trigger. Let's start with one of the wikis for testing. The gibberish trigger has not been tested, yet.
-- Rfc 10:28, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
I'm going to leave it as is for a couple of days so the spambot masters get the message that they can no longer spam us. We are thinking of adding an extra user level however, this would be similar to flagging a user as unmoderated in a forum. That way anyone with a decent track record can bypass the captchas while anonymous users and new users would still be required to enter captcha codes. In the interim, we still have a lot of cleaning up to do. In fact we're going to restore two of the wikis to their state as of September 25th 2007 since those wikis have had no legitimate input since before that date and restoring to that point eliminates all the bogus user accounts.
Basically we never lost control of Lunarpedia and Marspedia, and Exoplatz wasn't too hard to clean up. But Exodictionary and Scientifiction got hit really hard, the SQL backup for the Scientifiction databse swelled to almost 408 MB. (Yes, that's four hundred and eight mega bytes)
We'll probably set the first two triggers to 'false' before the weekend.
-- Mdelaney 13:01, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Front Page

Looking Good! I posted a bulletin about the change over at http://groups.myspace.com/lunarbase -- Jarogers2001 18:18, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Sintered regolith is ready for a featured spot. Jarogers2001 06:13, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Category for deletion on Marspedia: Category:MarsDrive

Hi James, I have detected a counterproductive category on Marspedia, combined with a violation of GNU Free Document License. And I have nominated this category on the Deletion page. Can you please have a look and, if you agree, delete the category? Thanks... -- Rfc 20:28, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Abuse of Lunarpedia

  • "User:349 buy synthroid" is a scam that must be removed immediately.--Farred 19:14, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
Thank you for flagging my attention. This attacker has also hit other space wikis as well as lpedia.org; let me check the other space wikis not hit as of last time I checked... -- Strangelv 19:45, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
  • Same song, verses 2 & 3: "User:107 buy starlix" and "User:543 buy stress gum"--Farred 11:27, 29 June 2009 (UTC)


A problem on Lunarpedia

Anonymous IP's have edited Strangelv's User:talk page with no response. There is a new user account that has been started in the Russian language. I suspect illegal activity abusing Lunarpedia's undefended condition. I suggest the temporary prohibition of new accounts on Lunarpedia until this gets sorted out. There should be a policy of english language only on Lunarpedia pages if that policy does not exist already. This is a crisis that I hope we can come through. I am sorry that I am not in position to take on administrative responsibilities for Lunarpedia at present. I am willing to look into what would be needed. Anonymous edits at Lunarpedia should also be temporarily disabled.--Farred 16:52, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately I also have been of rather limited use for wiki maintenance lately. Dana Carson has disabled anonymous edits and I've pasted a technical notice at the top of the main page. -- Strangelv 06:00, 26 November 2009 (UTC)
It is good to know that things are well in hand. Now all we need to do is colonize the Moon.--Farred 03:07, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

New user accounts on 22 February 2010

This boosts the statistics. What is the idea behind it? -- Rfc 17:17, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Hi James, we need a sysop on Marspedia for some cleanup. -- Rfc 19:51, 17 March 2010 (UTC)

Test

If you're reading this, CAPTCHA needs to be fixed. -- 71.96.112.20 14:26, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

The spelling of aluminium

A new user, Jotagiraldez, is apparently very productive and talented. One thing he changed that I would disagree with is the spelling of aluminum being changed to aluminium, the British variant that my spell checker flags as an error. I give an argument for the old spelling on the Talk:Aluminium page if you care to look. --Farred 02:32, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Abuse of Marspedia for advertising

Hello James, There is someone placing advertising material onto Marspedia (without any project relevance). He obviously created two user accounts, two articles, and he uploaded two images. We need to stop this.

One more thought. I seem to be the only person watching regularely after Marspedia. Whenever I see some vandalism or copyright violation, I go ahead and revert it if possible. In cases like the above I can just report it on the deletion page and hope that some sysop comes along and does the dirty job. But Marspedia seems to be abandoned by all sysops, except you now and then. I think we should be able to react more quickly. Any idea? -- Rfc 18:56, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks, James Gholston. I will try to not screw anything up with administrator's tools. Farred 23:44, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Hello James,
My bank tells me no one cashed the check that I sent. Does anyone check the mail down in Plano Texas? Farred 08:14, 19 November 2011 (UTC)


Marspedia - Captcha and Recent Changes

1. Currently Marspedia receives a lot of spam every day - it would seem mediawiki captchas are too easy to break.

2. It seems that Recent changes page displays max of 10 days. This makes it hard to reverse vandalism/spam if noone had moderated input for more than 10 days as only last 10 days visible.

Would make sense to increase this limit.. Spriditis 13:01, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Is it spam?

I was unsure of the contributions of User:EddyoucylleqjkvjsedlgedsfpudnddndcydppzGrboyan. See the talk page. - Farred 20:12, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

The name alone tells me that it's a systematic attacker, one of the ones who create new accounts on the fly. -- Strangelv 08:09, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Here's the IP list you asked for: 112.111.190.139 50.117.66.176 93.182.171.132 87.225.63.149 91.201.232.118 46.119.113.249 93.182.187.21 81.200.28.126 146.0.74.165 95.79.180.56 89.112.59.110 195.191.158.231 85.234.20.141 79.133.131.209 88.85.251.178 37.112.64.130 89.136.232.2 95.79.191.124 95.26.38.167 89.169.208.230 95.49.210.118 109.200.26.51 125.39.78.174 193.105.210.134 87.225.63.111 85.234.20.141 93.182.129.82 85.234.20.141 95.105.107.136 109.124.197.183 175.44.11.62 94.153.111.113 46.17.102.138 89.178.132.102 95.79.180.71 85.234.20.141 92.192.73.175 218.108.168.174 87.117.190.79 178.137.88.128 112.111.188.118 178.123.204.162 199.115.103.130 206.165.222.174 112.111.188.10 193.105.210.190 176.14.111.112 85.234.20.157 95.79.108.196 Rose/Miros 21:28, 26 June 2012 (UTC)

Awaiting reply

I have responded to your comments here and have been waiting for further comment. - Farred 03:44, 7 July 2012 (UTC)

There is a problem at Marspedia.

There is a problem at Marspedia. Every time I edit a page, delete or create a page, instead of the delete page successful page or the new created page my monitor shows a Marpedia background covered with links to spam sites. Someone has gotten some malware uploaded to the Marspedia site.

Also you might want to look at this User talk:Miros1#A questionable file on Lunarpedia. - Farred 19:47, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

WHUMP on a rampage

Hello James,

I just unblocked User:ChristiaanK on Marspedia. WHUMP made a mistake and blocked this user at 16:20 hours on the 17th of February and deleted a few redirects that I restored. I do not know how to adjust the settings of WHUMP so that it will not block ChristiaanK again. There is a discussion of the spam on Marspedia at Talk:Semi-major axis from 12:05 hours on the 16th of February to 13:43 hours on the 20th, nine postings. - Farred 14:40, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Drop rights for IP address users

Hello James,

Lunarpedia is taking up too much time for maintenance. Spam programs walk through the Captcha barrier as if it were not there. WHUMP (the spam deletion bot) breaks down repeatedly. It seems to me that the rights of IP address users should be changed so that they can neither edit articles nor create accounts but only log in to a pre-existing account. In other words Lunarpedia should be a closed wiki rather than an open wiki. New accounts should be available to Moon Society members and such people as have been constructive users in the past. For example the Calgary Space Workers Society could be given an account or two as needed. I see no advantage to continuing to allow account creation rights to IP address users. What do you think? I put this on Dcarson's talk page too. - Farred 08:09, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Glad to get your reply,
I do not think we will do worse than we do now by switching to applications for new accounts. We have gotten no legitimate accounts created since Jose Giraldez. The last legitimate IP address contribution was for Talk:Calgary Demonstration Habitat and it does not seem to be anyone who is new to this wiki. I am willing to try logging in every day to check for applicants. I have been doing more than that for some time now. I look forward to seeing how it works.
You have suggested that I join the ASI MOO discussions before, but I do not know what a MUD client, a TELNET client, or an IRC is. I doubt that I have software for these things on my computer. I now have email and am a member of the Moon Society if this can help in communication. I sent you an email redundant with my earlier edit of this talk page. - Farred 13:28, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
The test should not be whether a user can fill out a form. Computers can be programmed to do that. The test should be whether a user can answer a simple question, not necessarily correctly or incorrectly, but just to demonstrate common sense, which is difficult put into a program. Actual people interested in contributing to Lunarpedia should not be put off by waiting a day for a question and then waiting a day to see that their response is rewarded with an account. I could perhaps make a list of questions to be used once each, and add to the list as necessary. - Farred 14:36, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
I was thinking of a writing test that needs to be on topic. The first time you see 'Hi! I've always been really interested in space and wanna help.' it would pass under my suggestion. If the same text appears for more than one entry it's obviously a fail... -- Strangelv 21:30, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
Can you get http://www.asi.org/adb/09/08/04/mootcan/main.html to work? It's buggy and has issues, but it could get you in long enough to get real time help installing a better solution. Then again, there are people woh use it for years on end, although they usually only come by twice a month to attend meetings... -- Strangelv 21:35, 28 March 2013 (UTC)
At the ASI MOO I got the response: "Probably your browser doesn't support java. If you'd still like to run this applet, please install a browser that does." I do not have java either.
I don't think there is a need to use just one question until some spammer programs an answer into his spam bot. We could ask: "Why are you interested in colonizing the moon?" them "How much ice do you think Galileo crater could hold?" then "What things could settlers make out of sand on the moon?" then "If you were on the moon, could you jump higher than the rim of Crater Copernicus?" then "Should robots return to the moon before people do?" There are an unlimited number of questions that could be asked. Eventually the spammers should get the idea that there is no use in trying to run a bot through a human monitored test and they should just go away. That is the hope anyway.
The form might read: Welcome to Lunarpedia. To register an account, first answer a question. You can answer right, answer wrong, or tell us why you do not think you should answer; just type 20 to 50 words that show us you are not a computer program and you can actually read the question. If you pass, someone will evaluate your answer and give you permission to edit Lunarpedia within 24 hours. - Farred 03:59, 29 March 2013 (UTC)
Trying to set something up here before I get back to work on the new Moon Society website. I still can't find hat I was thinkng of, but I did find the conrol to require email confirmation. Hopefully that'll block at least one botnet. -- Strangelv 23:58, 2 April 2013 (UTC)
Not only is it embarassing that none of us remembered this option, there's just how well it seems to be working right now... I'd add it to the other space wikis and email someone about another that's getting 1000+ attacks a day immediately, but I have two meetngs to get ready for and I need something to show about the web site for the second one (Moon Society Leadership Committee). -- Strangelv 21:56, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

The switch to email confirmation certainly improved things. You have only deleted one SPAM posting since the switch. I hope the improvement is permanent. Now I should have more time for improving Lunarpedia but that takes thinking and I have not done any recently. - Farred 13:46, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

I need to remember the data sources I was looking at when I put Lunarpedia:Maksutov_Crater together. I also need to remember the math that needs to be worked out. Also,there are situations where it's unclear whether two nearby craters are the same one given the longstanding charlie foxtrot with Lunar mapping coordinates. These pages would be created using Autostub1, which has been in development hell since 2006. Descendants of Autostub1 have been used to create all sorts of articles an multiple wikis while it itself is still partially disassembled in the hanger, never haven taken flight. If it ever gets implemented, we'll have more than 10,000 articles. We should probably install a semantic uxtensin and learn to use it first so it'll be easier for people to find the place that's just what they're looking for that they wouldn't be able to elsewhere as nowhere on the publicly asseccible portions of the Internet that I've found is all of this information in one place.
Easier but related task that may count as a warmup: biographies. I've already been using AutoBio to produce biographical stubs for 1970s political activists on LPedia.org, such as http://www.lpedia.org/Percy_Greaves I could provide you with a spreadsheet example with the columns it uses whenI have time. Finally have a working draft template with graphics up running on Drupal. -- Strangelv 14:40, 4 April 2013 (UTC)

Well James, I thought it was too easy and too good to last. The email confirmation requirement was nice for a while but I have just completed a baker's dozen of deletion and block actions against some unfriendly SPAMMER. We are not much better off than before. - Farred 23:21, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Error creating thumbnail

Hello James, there is a permanent "Error creating thumbnail" problem on Marspedia. Example: http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=Charcoal I am sure this is a software bug or configuration problem, that has arisen with one of the last updates or administrational activities. I am afraid, this is really annoying for anyone who wants to do a contribution. Who can fix this? -- Rfc 18:24, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

The problem also exists on Lunarpedia and probably all of the wikis. Unfortunately, we're all completely overwhelmed by the new website and the hosting migration. Last I checked we were very likely going to be migrating the wikis as well. Please fasten your safety belts. The ride may get bumpier in the next couple of months... -- Strangelv 02:04, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

User:Farred blocked on Marspedia

The recent changes on Marspedia indicates that Farred blocked Farred infinitely for spamming links to external sites. It is conceivable that I could have fumbled with the keyboard, but in case this was a case of someone impersonating me, I think I should change my password on Marspedia. Could you get me unblocked so that I can take care of this. Thanks. - Farred 19:06, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Erk! If it's any consolation, you're not the first person to accidentally do this on Marspedia. Ian O'Neil did too when he had time to contribute to Marspedia (last I checked he had a rather visible job that ate up his writing time and may prohibit him from contributing to us). You may also need to make sure you have a different IP address. -- Strangelv 19:27, 9 May 2013 (UTC)
At Marspedia I was able to remove spam and vandalism and block as needed. Thanks. - Farred 22:03, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

About test dot moonsociety.org

I looked at test dot moonsociety.org. I do not know much about web design and my browser is an old internet explorer version that is the newest one my old computer is capable of running. I think it is ie-8. The about, home, and Out of the Cradle buttons work. I did not try all of the others. The head line text for the Out of the Cradle page did not all show up because the sky is the same color as the printing for lines two and three. I see "Earth is the cradle of..." then something is missing. Looks like you have done much work. I hope it is all ready when you want it to be. - Farred 03:10, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

I am not in the habit of being on the lookout for graphics, but I will try to keep it in mind. - Farred 18:48, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

Captcha on Marspedia insufficient

Marspedia could use e-mail confirmation of new accounts too. Otherwise I may abandon Marspedia as too much work. What do you think? - Farred 07:25, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

It's not email confirmation we have here. I was wrong.
In the upper right you might see a message that reads: 1 open e-mail-confirmed account request pending
When things pop up here we need to attend to them, owherwies people give up and wve lose potential contributors. Ask me how I know...
We need a decision on whether or not we're migrating the wikis to GreenGeeks, and I naturally forgot to bring this up at yesterday/tonight's meeting.
I'll try to remember to see what's installe,d but I'm too sleepy to trust myself with changes at the moment.
-- Strangelv 08:14, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
Now that you mention it, there have not been many new accounts since a change was made to the new account process. I have not seen any account request pending notification at all. Perhaps the change was for e-mail confirmation and the requests were not directed to anyone who is watching. Anyway, it surely did cut down on the spam level. - Farred 21:06, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
On occasions when I have blocked some spammer since the 3rd of April 2013, if I checked the date of account creation from the user list it was always before the 3rd of April 2013. A recent block of Whump, EfrenrqqwvmmajwFarinha, was created on the 28th of October 2012 at 19:55. So there do not appear to have been any new accounts since the 3rd of April. - Farred 01:33, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Display Problem

Hello Strangelv,

There is a display problem with the logo. A discussion is on Talk:Main Page. - Farred 18:56, 9 October 2014 (BST)

Sysop action needed on Marspedia

I can not find an active sysop on Marspedia, so I'm asking here for someone to do administration work:

Block the user account: Nylonmel72

Delete the article: http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=7_realities_concerning_professional_carpet_cleaning_everyone_thinks_are_true.

Delete the spam pictures: http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Carpet-Cleaning-Cleaners-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Carpet-Cleaning-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Car-Valet_(Custom).jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Carpet-Cleaning-Service-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Carpet-Cleaning-Services-london.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Carpet_Cleaning_Service_London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Cleaners-London_(Custom).jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Cleaning-Agency-London_(Custom).jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Cleaning-Service-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Commercial-Cleaners-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Commercial-Cleaning-Company.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Commercial-Cleaning.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Contract-Cleaning-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Domestic-Cleaners-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Example.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Personal-Tutors-Pinner.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:GCSE-Exams-Tuition-Pinner.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Hire_Limousine.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Home-Clean-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Home-Cleaners-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Home-Cleaning-London.png http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:House-Cleaning-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:House-Cleaning-Service-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Limo-Hire-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Limousine-For-Hire-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Limousine.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Luxury-Limo-London.jpg http://www.marspedia.org/index.php?title=File:Accounting-Companies_(Custom).jpg

By the way, who feels responsible for Marspedia currently?

Many thanks! --Rfc (talk) 10:55, 9 March 2016 (GMT)

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