User talk:Kiwalesti

Thank you!
Great job on this wiki so far -- thank you for all your hard work! Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help in customizing or formatting the wiki in the way that you want. Wikia has lots of features buried a bit in its help pages, so if there's something you want to do that's frustrating you, just let me know and I may know how to get it done! Good luck to you -- this looks like a game I may have to try out myself. :) — Catherine o' the ComTeam 19:43, 30 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I do have one question, one that I posted on the main Wikia site's forum but never got a satisfactory response. I'm trying to make Monobook the default skin for all users and visitors (so that everyone sees the same thing, regardless of whether they are a logged-in user or just visiting). I like Monobook because it's simple and classic - the new Slate skin is okay but it really doesn't suit this wiki.


 * The problem is, everyone has told me that no matter what I do, I cannot change the default skin for all users/visitors. They've said that only logged-in users can change the skin. Now I'm confused, because I've visited several other Wikia sites (Halopedia, Memory Alpha, Wookieepedia, etc) and they all have custom skins that I can see regardless of whether I'm logged in or not. All I want to do is make a custom skin for the Skybrary - and I would be fine with it being just the standard Monobook.


 * Please let me if there's a way I can do this. Thank you!


 * Hey Kiwalesti- I think I've found a way to do this. Do you have FTP access to the folder this wiki is installed in? If you can get to the LocalSettings.php file, look for this section:

$wgDefaultSkin = 'monobook';
 * 1) Default skin: you can change the default skin. Use the internal symbolic
 * 2) names, ie 'standard', 'nostalgia', 'cologneblue', 'monobook':
 * ...then just set it to whatever you like. Of course, if you don't have FTP access, we may have to ask one of the Wikia staff members to do it. --Calvin November t/c on 17:58, 8 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm sorry for the confusion! We are in the middle of switching over to a new skin:  Slate, or its lighter sister Smoke. See Newskin to see screenshots of Smoke -- if you like it better than Slate I will be happy to switch you over to that one.


 * We have installed Slate as the default on some smaller wikis, on all new wikis, and on several that have requested it.  We have had great feedback from user surveys and from professional website analysis folks that this will be a better skin for our purposes, doing more to draw visitors deeper into your site and entice them to participate and edit -- you will be able to customize what appears in the boxes at the top to feature your best content, have featured articles by category, article voting (if you want it), improved "send to friend" features, and much more is in the pipeline.  Did you know that on Slate/Smoke you can drag and drop the right-hand boxes to rearrange their order?


 * The skin is not perfect yet, and I would really love to hear if there's anything that's particularly bugging you about it. We are trying to address all of the comments we got on this initial rollout before implementing it on the larger sites, but it won't be long before all Wikia sites are using Slate or Smoke as their default -- with the probable exception of Uncyclopedia, whose mission is mocking Wikipedia.  :)   Of course logged-in users will always be able to select Monobook in their preferences.


 * Slate/Smoke will be customizable, but until the design is finalized, taking into account user feedback, we can't finish up the tools that will make that possible.  For now you can use Monobook yourself, and teach your users how to do the same, or try getting familiar with the new skin and help us to fix negative issues with it during this transition period.


 * One more thing! Here's a confusing situation: apparently somebody signed up for an account on the Skybrary and has not used it - but they used another player's "callsign" and he'd like to be able to use that same name. I'm wondering if there's any way to delete an unused account or if "Firefox" will have to use a different name. Obviously I would ask him to contact the user who had established the account, but that user has not contributed and has no contact information. I'm rather perplexed by the situation and looking to remedy it. Thank you! --Kiwalesti] 03:47, 31 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I will have to look into this one further -- it's an unusual situation. I'll let you know as soon as I have an answer.   Thanks!  — Catherine o' the ComTeam 02:01, 3 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Judging from all the attempts to spam this board (see Special:Listusers), I'm surprised this is considered "an unusual situation". It looks like many, many user names are already taken. --Calvin November t/c on 20:25, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Okay. I've been poking around and perhaps this will help. Judging from http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Right_to_vanish, we probably can't delete the user "Firefox". See also http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Changing_username. Unfortunately Wikia doesn't have the Renameuser extension (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Renameuser) that Wikipedia has, as Wikia uses a shared user database. From what I can gather, that means User:Firefox is the same user on every wikia site. Quoting a wikia user's Talk page I found somewhere, "Wikipedia has separate user databases for English Wikipedia, French Wikipedia and so on, so that's why they can have the Renameuser extension."
 * However, it appears that wikia Community Team members CAN rename user accounts if no contributions have been made by that user.
 * You may need to ask "Catherine o' the ComTeam" to simply rename Firefox to something random and get "the real Firefox" to create a new account. --Calvin November t/c on 20:58, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Kiwalesti- You may want to look over the Special:Listusers/sysop and "thin" it out a little (Help:User_access_levels has instructions on how to do that - I believe you have to contact Angela). For example, Mad-Hatter doesn't play Skyrates anymore, his Skyrates account has "been adopted" by other folks and he hasn't added anything to the Skybrary since June (see Special:Contributions/Mad-Hatter - even those contributions didn't require admin/sysop access). For that matter, you may want to assign at least one other Bureaucrat to the Skybrary. If, Heaven forbid, something happens to you, there'd be no one else who could interface with the Wikia staff on behalf of the Skybrary. --Calvin November t/c on 15:43, 5 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Calvin, I've made you a Bureaucrat because you've dedicated a lot of time and effor to the Skybrary. Thanks for everything, and keep it up! Also, deleting users is difficult and maybe impossible, so I'm going to leave Mad-Hatter on the list of sysops - if he doesn't play anymore he probably won't be signing in here anyways. Thanks again.

I'm a little confused why http://skyrates.wikia.com/index.php?title=Eltsina&redirect=no, http://skyrates.wikia.com/index.php?title=Fuseli&redirect=no and http://skyrates.wikia.com/index.php?title=Islo&redirect=no are all setup to redirect to articles about each of The Big Three. It seems that far more references to Eltsina, Fuseli and Islo are to the skylands that share those names, not to the characters. It doesn't it make sense, IMHO, to have a less intuitive naming scheme unless we plan to rename all the other skyland articles as well (such as Goldenrod (skyland) instead of Goldenrod ). --Calvin November t/c on 02:25, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Skins
Hi Kiwalesti. Have you been able to get the new skin looking how you want it to? Please let me know if you need any help. Angela (talk) 03:42, 19 November 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi again. I just wanted to let you know that there's now an even better skin available which you might prefer to the current one. Have a look at monaco or the gaming-themed monaco skins. You, or any admin, can set this skin for the wiki in special:preferences. All of the current features are available, but it moves the sidebar back to the left where more users expect it to be. Monaco Skin Customization is a help page about changes you can make to the new monaco skin. Angela (talk) 12:25, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

An Additional Sysop?
I propose we grant the talented MrDolomite sysop access to the Skybrary. I believe his user contributions speak loudly on his behalf. Your thoughts? --Calvin November t/c on 20:36, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Where hast thou gone, O Alonso?
Check your PM's on the skyrates forum if you ever come back here! Stop making me write graffiti all over the wall of your skybrary page! poke - Thorne

poke poke check messages again

File:Commonwealth.png
Howdy. A file you uploaded, :File:Commonwealth.png]], is currently tagged as No license. Please see and make an appropriate selection for the image. If left untagged, the image will be deleted. Thanks.. &mdash; MrDolomite &bull; Talk 07:12, February 13, 2010 (UTC)

Theme changes
If you are trying to change the Oasis theme, use Special:ThemeDesigner and MediaWiki:Wikia.css (replaces MediaWiki:Common.css) rather than playing with Monaco's settings. -- Kasarn 01:59, October 14, 2010 (UTC)