User talk:Mini-mitch

'''Please leave all new message at the bottom of the page. Also, please take new heading for each discussion. Please sign all message. Comments that are: unsigned, rude, a personal attack, vandalism will be ignored.'''

Hidden cats
Got a reply back from Dopp today, which reads:
 * Thanks for contacting us about this issue. We've phased out that preference due to lack of use across Wikia, and anyone who still has it is grandfathered in until they select "Restore all default settings" in their preferences. We don't currently have a way of overriding this phase-out.


 * Hidden Categories still work, however, and you can see them in Category:Hidden categories and in your pages' source code (although i see that you're embedding them in templates, too, so that further complicates things). Apologies for the complications this raises. I hope the existing tools provide enough of a workaround for your team members to support the wiki.

I've responded with a feature request to just make it a standard admin power to see hidden categories. This is, I'm sure, technically possible, but I wouldn't hold out hope. If that change is technically easy — which it might be — then someone on the dev team might say, "Yeah, that's worth 1 minute of my time." If it's at all time-consuming, I wouldn't expect much action, because the move has a terrible cost/benefit ratio for Wikia. It's only a few big wikis like us, MemAlpha, and Wookieepedia that even care about hidden cats, despite the fact that they are in wide use on Wikipedia. So we're effectively asking for something for us, rather than a change that most of Wikia will actually use.

Basically, in your position, your only hope of access to hidden cats is to go to Hidden categories or Maintenance, where most of the hidden categories are attached. 18:31: Fri 02 Mar 2012

Rory's main page image
This is what you said last night when I edited the main image to the Rory page:

"SO what if its new - it's better to have a older, better quality quality picture than an badly cropped, poor quality newer one."

Now, to be honest I don't appreciate this as it quite rude really. The image is taken from a BBC One HD screencap - the quality is good, it is not poor. It's not badly cropped either - I just cropped Amy's hair out as it's not relevant to the Rory page is it?

There's no need to be rude like that. There really isn't.

I'm just doing this because I find it contradictory as Rory's current page image should really be cropped as half of it doesn't contain Rory.

Portriat images on this wiki help the page flow much better which is what I was trying to do. The fact its a newer image too, which I've been told on here before is the best thing to have makes the page more upto date. That's a key thing surely?

The current landscape image scrunches the page up and doesn't make it flow well, so surely one that is much better for that, irrespective of whether it's super high quality is surely better? Beside, when the page is at it is, the image doesn't appear high quality until you click to see it full-sized, so surely my image, which is the same quality all the time is much more suitable?

I just hope you reconsider this as I didn't appreciate your rude reason last night. Atleast I've had constructive criticism before in the past, not just plain rudeness, so I'll leave it at that.

--Bbll22 talk to me 11:38, March 4, 2012 (UTC)

Voice actors
Thanks for the great suggestion! is now a part of Infobox Individuals. I've also thrown in for those cases of performances of characters in limited narrative circumstances, like youth/age/alternate universe/because Frazer Hines got sick/because William Hartnell inconveniently died. See them in operation at Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith. 05:42: Sun 11 Mar 2012

Cardiff, Wales
Personally, I'm not sure either way. Though putting "[Earth country], Earth" I would absolutely never do. I completely agree Cardiff, Wales, UK, Earth isn't right.

I think I put it up because of the way it flows more than it being necessary. What would you say about smaller towns like Foxgrove or Dry Springs with that pattern? -- Tybort (talk page) 20:45, March 11, 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually, I wasn't thinking of that at all. I was fine with [City] for major cities and [City], [Country/State] for smaller and fictitious places. I considered the [City] style was because most people know what you mean by London, Liverpool, Beijing and so forth and you wouldn't for much smaller villages and [City], [Country/State] would be okay for them. I was just double checking you thought that was okay. -- Tybort (talk page) 20:54, March 11, 2012 (UTC)


 * I gather you intend the same pattern for story infoboxes as well? -- Tybort (talk page) 20:55, March 11, 2012 (UTC)

Requested variables

 * Home era/Era active/anything like it. No.  Just no.  Not going into that minefield again.  It's out for good. As you'll remember, in the thread Forum:Home Era you yourself de-activated the line after a lengthy discussion that was well attended by a lot of people.  As far as I'm concerned, you determined the consensus on the matter and implemented change based on that consensus.  If you want it back, now, you'll have to reverse yourself and get it approved through the forums.   And it does rather look like both I and Tangerineduel were strongly opposed to it in the original discussion, so I wouldn't expect a reversal from either of us, unless you come up with arguments not originally put forward.  I've got a bot run planned to eliminate all that data, based on the original consensus, so if you're going to start a new discussion, please let me know in the next 24 hours, or the point will be moot anyway.
 * Affiliation is a part of Infobox Individual, as has been written up in the documentation.

So that's two for three on new variable requests. That's pretty good. Keep 'em comin'! (But please use Forum:New infoboxes and you from now on, so that it's all centralised.) 21:44: Sun 11 Mar 2012

New achievements
Any chance I might be able to get you to find me some appropriate images from MA covers which would complete the MA novels achievement track that's in place at tardistest? I've got all the level names done, but I never got around to getting pics. 23:33: Sun 11 Mar 2012

Eighth Doctor infobox pic
Hey, sorry to jump on it so quickly, but I've deleted the pic you just uploaded for the Eighth Doctor. That pic, or one very like it, was what was on the page for a long time, and then deliberately deleted, per the discussion at talk:Eighth Doctor. The one in the elevator was arrived at after quite a bit of discussion and it's actually pretty great. Is it left-looking? No, but it's not right-looking, and the body angles are all slanted left, because he's standing left, but looking up.

A part of the deal in changing out these doc pics is to emphasize the need for, as much as is allowed by the body of work of the actor, extreme closeups in infoboxes.

The elevator shot ticks the boxes of a great infobox pic, and, moreover, it was agreed through discussion. What we really need is a more characteristic Tenth Doctor pic that's tight, left looking and preferably smiling rather than the dour I'm-about-to-die thing that's currently going on. I could look for it, but I need to get back to infoboxes. 15:35: Wed 14 Mar 2012

Untitled message 1
hi, did you delete a page called World Of The Giants?

hi, i am called Mini-Mitch and i am a donkey.

Picture on Hop Pyleen
Why did you remove File:Pyleen.jpg from the Hop Pyleen article?Americanwhofan talk to me 17:01, March 24, 2012 (UTC)

Zygon
Yeah, sorry, lemme explain. Both Wikipedia and Tardis wiki suggested that the Zygons appeared int this episode, so I searched through the episode, looked at all the scenes with pods, and found that the Zygon was either this or this, possibly some horrendous re-imagining, and after studying the clip, I realized that it was obviously the first. I have increased the pictures quality and found a better frame, so I hope you can now see it. compare File:Zygons Attack of the Graske.jpg to File:Mo zy01.jpg. You can defiantly see the yellow-head-sucker-coral-things on his head.... OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 22:37, March 28, 2012 (UTC)

MA GOR
Yeah, I was kinda wondering what happened to the MA thing. Do me a favour and just upload the raw pictures you've got to w:c:tardistest. That is, completely bypass Special:AchievementsCustomize and upload them normally. I'll then take the raw pics and figure out what to do about the rest. Thanks for your work on this so far!

As for Confidential, yes, absolutely go for it. By the way, the new conflicts one may seem silly at first since there are so few pages in the category, but I'm going to be doing a major revamp on the infobox that will give people something to play with for a bit. Lots of little fiddly changes to make, so I figured people should be rewarded. Kinda the same logic as the classic series editing track. And that's worked well; people seemed to have rallied in the cause to make sure the novelisation gets put into the infobox, and to sorta condense the infobox language.

There'll probably be a few more achievement tracks to support new infoboxes over the coming days. I've got about 10 planned, which means that realistically 5 will materialise. 15:56: Fri 30 Mar 2012

Infoboxes
Sorry about that! I must have missed that forum discussion. I've been taking a break from the Wiki for a while. I'm removing them now anyway. I assume that the same rule applies to "(regenerates)" in a Doctor's final story? Oh, and thanks for the compliment!

--GusF talk to me 20:06, April 1, 2012 (UTC)

GOR: CON
Your pics all look great, and I really like the motif of using CON narrators! I've gone ahead and started the track here at tardis. All you need do is add your pics to the mix. Note that the track is called "CON episodes edit track", as I'm getting in a quick name change to the category before the track is enabled. Within the next few minutes, all CON episodes will be under the simplified name Category:CON episodes.

I've gone ahead and saved new names for each award at Special:AchievementsCustomize. Here's a little trick about naming that I didn't understand at first. When choosing names, we need to remember that the name of the award appears in the context of a sentence which goes "Blah blah blah the " " badge blah blah blah". Therefore, to make the sentence work best, we don't want to start with the or end with award, cause that would mean we'd get a sentence that went "Blah blah blah the "The   Award" badge blah blah". So I've tinkered with the names to make them fit the sentence.

Anyway, this one looks done to me. Feel free to add your pics and enable the track at any time. Thanks for the great track! 13:52: Tue 03 Apr 2012

stubs
I disagree Boblipton talk to me 13:07, April 5, 2012 (UTC)

Both. Why have a category for stubs if one is not to use them? Nor do I believe that the extra space between the sections makes the page look worse. It makes it look better. Boblipton talk to me 13:25, April 5, 2012 (UTC)

Dimensions in Time
Look, I know you apparently don't like File:Big_Ron_Hole_Frame.jpg, But I think it works very well at thumbnail size, despite your suggestion that you "can't tell what it is..." I also DID put it through colour correction and sharpening the file... Certainly you can see that in the file history section... But, like I said, It's easy to make the image out, and it dosen't look THAT bad up close, just a bit graphic-y... But as a thumbnail it looks fine. I truly don't see what's wrong with it... OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 21:29, April 8, 2012 (UTC)

Images
Why do you keep deleting my images for being more than 250px? Isn't the rule that it can't be LESS than 250px? I know for one that File:Varga.jpg was at least 400px on the original upload. So in other words, there was no reason to delete it for size. OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 15:45, April 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * Ops! I meant to link to File:Varga2.jpg... Yeah, I have been trying to clean up my images before uploading them, and I'm going to try and get a better copy of Attack of the Cybermen out. I tried very hard to update and clean up File:Peri main less blurry.jog, and I thought it looked pretty good, especially compared to pictures I uploaded next to it. I had even tried to make the pixilated-bit more clear. But besides these two images I mostly understand the problems you have. 18:00, April 9, 2012 (UTC)
 * You did actually delete File:Varga2.jpg erroneously. It was, as far as I could see, completely within T:ICC. I've restored it.  It certainly wasn't <250px, but rather above 400px.  Since there are no telesnaps available from the 60s, the only place we can get an in-universe image is City of Daleks, so OS25's shot is just about the best we're gonna get.  I'd already deleted a previous attempt of his for poor aspect ratio, and the newest Varga2.jpg was in full compliance with my requests.   20:11: Mon 09 Apr 2012

MOS
Why have rules if they are not to be enforced? Not my problem. My problem is why do I have brains if I don't think? Then, once I've thought, why do I have the ability to write well if I don't?

As your question and my two questions seem to run up against each other, I don't see much future in this discussion. However, by all means think well of yourself.Boblipton talk to me 00:32, April 11, 2012 (UTC)

Minnie hooper
minnie hooper appears in the screencaps try find the best image for it

and use paint just in case to delete someone in the background

--User:JarodMighty 14:10, April 11, 2012 (UTC)

Beware GOR over-saturation
Didn't realise you'd snuck in an SJA television stories GOR track. Let's give a rest to the SJS/K9-themed story tracks, shall we? We've got SJ audio stories, K9 TV stories, and SJA TV stories, meaning that we've created quite a number of double-point-value editing opportunities. The little loopholes at Romana I and Romana II — being in both the companion and individual Time Lord edit tracks — are bad enough, but now you've got easily 10 pages that are going to offer double points. We can leave it on for a bit, but if it becomes clear that people are making a lot of trivial edits to Invasion of the Bane or The Gift, we'll need to yank one of the two. 18:53: Wed 18 Apr 2012
 * Good God, man! No need to apologise about being bold.  I'm jazzed that you slipped another editing track in there.  And there's a particular need to pull any of these out of rotation — yet.  In fact, I'm going to re-enable SJS audio, because very few people have actually done a lot of work with those, judging by the medal count.  And looking at the pages, they can certainly use some work.

Double-point pages are just something to consider when making new tracks. Overlap isn't in itself bad. It's just that it creates a kind of "exploit" for the game. If people are abusing it, then, sure, you have to get rid of it. But if people are adding valuable material to the article, because they're attracted by the double-point values, then the overlap is actually working for us. It's just something you have to casually monitor.

If it does come to having o disable something, though, you're right in that it should be the K9 track. What's happened there is that my enabling of a track for all classic stories has overlapped your broader K9 track. If it were "K9 TV series", that'd be fine. But because it's "K9 television stories", then there's a good 20 pages for which you get "double points". Again, though, until it really looks like it's becoming a problem with several competitors, I don't mind awarding double points as people bring the new infobox into full use.

And, for the record, you don't need my "permission" or anything like that to do an edit track. I'm certainly happy to be here to bounce ideas off, but if you get inspired, don't let me stop ya! 20:33: Wed 18 Apr 2012

User:Finister-S, User:Retsinif, etc
Hey, good catch on those sock puppet accounts.... I just wanted to point out that User:Finisterman follows the same name-basis, and only began editing after a long break yesterday. OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 19:53, April 22, 2012 (UTC)

Duplicate Badges
Hi :)

I've just been looking through your badge list, and I have noticed that one of the badges occurs more than once. The Badge is "The Time Lords Doff Their Bowlers At Your Editing Skill" (for making 50 edits on Time Lords). Is this a technical error, or does this actually guarantee you more points in the game?

15:57, April 23, 2012 (UTC)

Your recent message on User talk:OttselSpy25 reminded me that I'd forgotten to include a variable for the case of the single appearance. I've now added it to, , and. If you define, then it'll put up a label of   (in the singular) and list the story name beside it. 19:04: Wed 25 Apr 2012

TVA
Apparently you read my user talk page and decided to take positive action on Boblipton's request. I, on the other hand, rejected his request, so I reverted your change. In context, but is the more appropriate conjunction, since it introduces a contrasting point. It's unexpected that a title should have ended on a different title than the one on which it started, so but better alerts the reader to pay attention to the changed circumstance. 13:42: Fri 27 Apr 2012

Delete?
Why did you delete the william hartnell years?SpongeTron 5000 talk to me 22:33, April 29, 2012 (UTC)

Deletion
oK then, sorry, just thought I could help because I have a father who is a big fan of Doctor Who, especially the older ones, and he would like to know wich ones where available on DVD so he goes on this website but the Bbc dvd releases are bit muble jumbled, so i thought i could sort things out.

Thanks
Thanks for the note I'll keep it in mind. I don't have any VHSs but certaintely do have DVDs that I can give more info on.SpongeTron 5000 talk to me 06:24, April 30, 2012 (UTC)

Captain Jack and 10th Doctor images
Would you happen to know which story the current Jack picture comes from? It isn't tagged, which, in addition to the fact that it almost looks too good, is why I changed it.

And, since I'm new to the whole cropping for infoboxes thing, how do I keep something widescreen when I'm cropping? Is that why you reverted the image I used on the 10th Doctor's page as well? Memnarc talk to me 21:37, April 30, 2012 (UTC)


 * No, I understand it's not a personal thing. I'm all for constructive criticism if it helps me be a better editor. Memnarc talk to me 04:28, May 2, 2012 (UTC)

The united states involvement
i belive last time i was here i left a question on you page about the reason you have eraced the US Departement of Reasearch and developments page, i do expact a reson why when key careters in Dr who like Crnal. Stark (dreamland "animated story") and River Song are involved in it directly and indirectly. could you add an explanation and do i halft to redo it?

66.213.50.2talk to me 15:22, May 1, 2012 (UTC) THE EPIC AMERICAN

i found the history of timelords
you're gonna like it:

http://www.oocities.org/willbswift/index.html

http://www.curufea.com/rassilon/old/index.html

--User:JarodMighty 18:42, May 2, 2012 (UTC)

Image size
My apologies. There was a typo in T:IUP that I didn't catch because I had transferred most of my editing time to T:ICC. The rough upper limit of our policy is 100 kb. The pre-written deletion reason says a file is just too damn big once it exceeds 1 mb (though in practice I start deleting at 200 kb and over, unless there's a damn good reason not to). The maximum MediaWiki (i.e. software) limit is 10 mb, though I have seen some things slightly bigger than that. Dunno if that means the system message is a lie or what.

In easy-to-read list form:


 * 100kb — our basic limit (some exceptions allowed)
 * 200kb - strongly consider deletion or, if you have time, compression
 * around 1mb — the point at which you really have to delete
 * 10mb — the official maximum size

00:36: Fri 04 May 2012

Untitled message 1
Hello I would just like to ask why you deleted my edit to Omega(the time lord) on his involvement in the time war.it was unnecessary as it was a valid piece of info for a time lord page. thank you for your time and RoscoCorp would appreciate your co-operation in this matter. --Coop3 talk to me 15:56, May 5, 2012 (UTC)

Shend
Shend's IMDB page says his real name is Chris Harz, as well as his date and place of birth. The link is right on his article. If you think it's worth mentioning his real name (personally, I don't see why not), I'd appreciate it if you put my contribution back.

Sláinte mhaith! - Hobbes  (  Talk  ) 19:51, May 5, 2012 (UTC)


 * Okay, that's understandable. However, Shend was a member of a band called The Very Things, and they, too, list his birth name as Chris Harz. It's not a big deal, so I won't pester you about it. If you don't think this information is credible and/or it's unimportant, that's that.


 * Cheers!


 * Sláinte mhaith! - Hobbes  (  Talk  ) 20:08, May 5, 2012 (UTC)

Re: Icon Image
Feel free to delete it if you want to. I don't really need it. 06:35, May 6, 2012 (UTC)

Chat
I asked for something similar when the feature was introduced. They didn't see the value of it then. And in truth, given the inactivity of our chat room, I can see their point. If they give you a different response, of course I'll be interested to know.

As I've thought about it since, I'm not sure I really want something that's auto-recording chat. Text chat is so easily misunderstood, especially by third parties who are viewing it later. Our chat policy has given us adequate protection so far.

Has there been a recent incident in chat that has suddenly concerned you? 23:07: Mon 07 May 2012
 * Don't forget that when there is a problem, you can cut and paste the contents of the chat window. The window remembers everything for as long as you've had the window open.  So as long as the window hasn't aborted at a crucial moment, you can make records of incidents, such as User:CzechOut/Chat paste.  It's crude, but it does at least work as a way to preserve a conversation.


 * By the way, tomorrow a lot of enhancements will be coming to chat. If you're unaware of them, do check out community:User blog:Sarah Manley/Updates to Wikia Chat.  14:11: Tue 08 May 2012