UESPWiki:Administrator Noticeboard/Archive 33

New Spam

As some of you may have noticed, there seems to be a new wave of spam making its way onto the site. This spam consists of new users (most likely bots) creating their userpages with something about cars and/or vehicles. This is quite similar to the slew of spam not too long ago (and every now and then still) where "users" would create seemingly normal userpages with a link to YouTube or something. Should we perhaps adjust the abusefilter (or whatever we have that catches spam, sorry, I'm not that tech savvy haha) to compensate for this wave of spam. Even if there is nothing we can really do, I think it's a good idea for our actual editors to be aware of this so they can catch it, even though it is pretty obvious.        14:02, 1 December 2013 (GMT)
:Adjusting the abuse filter to block references to cars sounds like a good idea to me. We don't exactly mention card very.much in legit posts. --AN&#124;L (talk) 10:24, 1 December 2013 (EST)
::I added "cars" and "vehicle" to filter 7, as there were very few results for those on the search bar. The edits will receive a warning and then be tagged as a possible bot edit. If that doesn't work, we can change it to "car" and add exceptions (like "caring" or "carcass"), but I'd hate to miss an exception.         17:15, 1 December 2013 (GMT)

Redundant Rights

I was looking at who all our blockers were these days, and I noticed that we've got a few admins still in the group (AKB, Dwarf, and Legoless), which is redundant. We should probably remove them at some point, just to keep everything consistent.

Oh and for some real fun, all the admins can be removed from the patroller group as well, since they have all the same rights on their own merit and don't need to be marked as patrollers. I'm not going to list those here, cuz it looks like pretty much all of our admins are also flagged as patrollers.  &ndash;       01:37, 4 December 2013 (GMT)

:Okay, now that I can do it myself, this mini-project is done. If anyone spots any additional redundancies, please let me know.  &ndash;       19:43, 27 January 2014 (GMT)

::HotnBOThered‏‎ is a bot and a userpatroller.      19:45, 27 January 2014 (GMT)

:::That one's deliberate. I have a database that maintains various stats about the wiki. One of those stats is who patrolled what and the bot needs to be some level of patroller in order to view that info. Nephele and I experimented with it way back when and determined that userpatroller was sufficient for it to read what it needed. We just agreed that the bot would never actually patrol anything. Given that I have direct database access now, the database on my end is somewhat redundant, but I haven't gotten around to looking at whether I want to keep it or not (on the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" principle).  &ndash;       19:59, 27 January 2014 (GMT)

Lore:Names

 and  are possible candidates for temporary protection.      17:17, 7 December 2013 (GMT)

Files1 Hard Drive Maintenance

The random lag on the wiki some people have noticed this week appears to be due to a failing hard drive on files1. In order to replace it .I need to disable the wiki uploads. Unfortunately I am travelling this week so the uploads may have to be disabled for a longer period, likely a day or longer. I'll try to keep it to a minimum but I have limited time to do things and it depends exactly when the hard drive is replaced. I still have to move services off of files1 which won't be until later today. -- Daveh   17:56, 8 December 2013 (GMT)

:Note that uploads are now disabled and files1 is undergoing its hard drive replacement shortly. -- Daveh   01:29, 10 December 2013 (GMT)

::Done -- The maintenance on files1 has been finished and wiki uploads are now enabled. Let me know of any issues that may be related to this. -- Daveh   01:56, 11 December 2013 (GMT)
:::Some of the images that have been uploaded or moved recently are no longer displaying. I assume that it is related to this. Jeancey (talk) 02:40, 11 December 2013 (GMT)
  Yeah, I had this same issue right before the maintenance was performed, which is why I stopped uploading so abruptly that day. If I had to guess I'd  say the problem is that the files are taking way too long to be stored on the server, but then again my specialty is actually coding :P --     02:48, 11 December 2013 (GMT)

:Which images are problematic? I just looked at a bunch within the last couple of days and they all looked fine to me.  &ndash;       19:50, 11 December 2013 (GMT)
::They're fine now but about 12 hours ago you could only see the alpha channel (is that what it's called? ), which leads me to believe my theory was correct. --     19:55, 11 December 2013 (GMT)
:::Okay, well, everyone keep an eye on them and see if they misbehave on future uploads. If not, I'll assume it was something related to the failing drive that just took a while to catch up. Oh, and as for the alpha channel, yes, there is such a thing, and if that's all that was showing, I would think you'd get outlines of images on those that had some transparency. Why only that channel would show up, though, I don't know.  &ndash;       21:49, 11 December 2013 (GMT)

Content not accredited



This is my writing.  It is even linked on your Fansite page.  Please either properly credit it and add links to the completed work (hosted on FanFiction.com) or remove it.

Thank you.
Timsup2nothin  
:We already spoke in IRC, so I've marked the page for deletion. As I said, I think it may have been a genuine misunderstanding, as the user who posted the story originally had attribution in the title before the page was moved. Apologies for any offense caused. Kitkat  16:26, 11 December 2013 (GMT)
::Thanks!  
::: All gone! --Krusty (talk) 17:11, 11 December 2013 (GMT)

IP Block needed

For . Seems like we're getting a lot of IP spammers today... ThuumofReason (talk) 17:20, 13 December 2013 (GMT)

:Looks like AKB got this about an hour ago.  &ndash;       20:16, 13 December 2013 (GMT)

Shivering:Gatekeeper

Requesting protection on .      01:23, 15 December 2013 (GMT)

:I don't think protection is needed at the moment. --AKB   02:22, 15 December 2013 (GMT)

Archive Protection

      12:27, 15 December 2013 (GMT)
: Done. --Krusty (talk) 13:35, 15 December 2013 (GMT)

User Name Change

So recently, I've become quite sick of the rather uncreative name "Skyrimplayer". Thus, I am requesting that my username be changed to Rook, if possible. Thank you in advance! --Skyrimplayer (talk) 16:23, 15 December 2013 (GMT)

:I don't see any issue with this. --AKB   16:30, 15 December 2013 (GMT)

::On the instructions of AKB, "Hurrah". I see no problems either, Rook is untaken.      16:50, 15 December 2013 (GMT)

:::I've changed your username to "Rook", as requested. Please re-register Skyrimplayer to avoid possible impersonations. --AKB   22:17, 17 December 2013 (GMT)

:::: Logged in, and ready to win. Thank you for the help, AKB! --Rook (talk) 22:58, 17 December 2013 (GMT)

Inappropriate Ads

Very sorry to post here. The Report Ad form wasn't working and direct email gave no email address. T_T There is a very prevalent Ad running with a headless girl undressing over and over again. I don't even know what the Ad is for, but it is annoying. Okay--insulting. Is there any way to block or filter offensive Ads? Thanks! 71.86.56.43 03:51, 22 December 2013 (GMT)

:I have never seen the sort of ad on the site. This usually means that the ad is getting to you some other way. Sometimes malware which has been downloaded onto your computer will replace ads on sites with ads of their own, often offensive or inappropriate material. Could you run a scan of your computer to verify that there isn't any malware on it that could be causing this? It is possible that the ad service accidentally slipped in an inappropriate ad, but again, I have never seen it. I could have missed it though. Running the check should be a good way to verify if it is being caused by something on your end, or something on our end. Jeancey (talk) 04:12, 22 December 2013 (GMT)

:: If you could post the ad's website here next time you see it, we could go about having it removed. Otherwise, there's adblocking software out there for a reason. —Legoless (talk) 21:00, 22 December 2013 (GMT)

:::Yeah, nothing we can do without knowing which Ad it was, and Google displays different ads for different users. We do need to get the Report Ad form working. --Ratwar (talk) 22:10, 22 December 2013 (GMT) 

::::I'm not sure whether this is the same add the OP wanted to report, but I've been seeing inappropriate ads for a game called "League of Angels" a lot lately. Basically it's shots of the chests of animated women wearing bikinis. This is the url I got from copying the link, and this is where it leads to. --AN&#124;L (talk) 16:17, 31 December 2013 (GMT)

::::: I've blocked all the "GTArcade" and "League of Angels" related ads I could find but these type of ads seem to reappear every week or two under a different name. I'll try to fix the report ad feature although it is less useful than it once was due to how the ad link is stored. I'll try to figure out a better reporting method that makes it easier to identify ads. In the mean time the best way would be to just email/post here the name of the game/product being advertised. -- Daveh   16:26, 31 December 2013 (GMT)

Archive Semiprotection needed

For . ThuumofReason (talk) 20:43, 30 December 2013 (GMT)

:  I take that back. Something appears to have gone wrong during a recent update to the underlying bot software, so I've halted it for now. If an admin wants to do this, go nuts, otherwise I'll get the bot to as soon as I figure out what the problem is.  &ndash;       03:20, 31 December 2013 (GMT)

::Apparently, the underlying bot software's Protect code was just completely messed up...didn't work, even on newer wikis. I managed to create a hybrid of his old code and new code, and that one works, so we're back in business, and the bot just protected two archives. Looks like AKB got the actual one you requested in the meantime, though.  &ndash;       05:30, 31 December 2013 (GMT)

The Yearly Update for 2014

Welcome admins, editors and viewers of the UESP to another great year to continue enjoying the Elder Scrolls. Looking back at the 2013 year a bit:

:* Page Views: 520 million
:* Visits: 89 million
:* Unique Visitors: 23 million
:* Average Visit Duration: 7 minutes
:* New Visitors: 24%
:* Bytes Downloaded: 55 TeraBytes
:* Mobile Devices: 41% of visits
:* Wiki Edits: 172,431
:* Busiest Day: 3 March with 4.2 million page views
:* Request Rates: 
::* HTTP = 230 requests/sec average, 2400 request/sec max
::* Database = 300 requests/sec average, 6000 request/sec max

Overall 2013 saw only a slight decline in traffic over 2012, which saw 550 million page views, despite having the last Skyrim expansion being released at the beginning of the year. There were no major site issues this year other than a few failing hard drives and a couple of random issues which only resulted in a few, short site disruptions, if any. This is a large improvement over previous years and hopefully we can continue this good uptime record for another year (or more).

Looking forward there are many (oh so many) small things to do but the major tasks involve:

:* Release of ESO
:* Consolidation and organization of the site's source code into Google Code
:* Continue improving site uptime and performance
:* Improve the mobile experience of the site

Preparing and then dealing with next Elder Scrolls Game (Elder Scrolls Online), which will be here soon (April 4th), will be the largest project for the site. ESO may be significantly different than the previous few ES games (MMO, different developer, etc...) and may require some additional site services. I'll be posting a separate topic here shortly to discuss the needed preparation.

As some of you may remember I started working on the UESP as its first full time employee at the beginning of 2013 and will continue to do so for 2014 and I'm excited to see where the UESP will end up at beginning of 2015! -- Daveh   19:42, 3 January 2014 (GMT)

:The really high numbers for mobile traffic are interesting. If I had to guess, people are viewing our site on a phone or similar device while playing the game on their console or computer. Just to make a brief comment on ESO in advance, our advanced preparations are much further along then they were for Skyrim (although this is partially due to a change in philosophy on how to prepare for it). Let's hope it pays off. And on a more personal note, how did this first year end up treating you? The site being up more, and you being more available has been really nice on our side. --AKB   21:15, 3 January 2014 (GMT)

::Yes, that would be my guess as well for the mobile visitors. The site works reasonably well in mobile but there is room for improvement there. It was a great year for me with finally having enough time to work on the site almost as much as wanted and I got a bunch of large projects done. I was still a little busy with some contracting work and a few other projects but am happy on how things turned on. Not having to commute 2-3 hours each day helps a little bit too...:) -- Daveh   22:25, 3 January 2014 (GMT)

:::I'm glad to here your move over to full-time here has gone well so far! Also, having had to take part in a drive across the east coast just because a bunch of people were too afraid to press a single button to reboot a system, I can totally sympathize. But that's getting a bit off track now. --AKB   22:40, 3 January 2014 (GMT)

ESO Preparation

I've been meaning to post something regarding ESO preparation for a while now. There's a lot on my mind but I'll try to be brief. Note that most of this is from the point of view of back-end services, apps, and data collection rather than actual article editing and organization.

:* Private Wiki -- Would a private wiki for those in the beta to start collecting information without having to worry about breaking the NDA be useful? It would only be open for reading for UESP admins and senior editors in the ESO beta. Once the NDA is lifted the private wiki content could be imported into the main wiki.

:* Raw Data Difficulties -- In past ES games we've made extension use of reading the game's raw data format to directly access a large portion of the game and map data to use. I would guess that for ESO this will be more difficult if not impossible due to likely different file formats, possibly encrypted, and the game being an MMO. This is closely related to the next two items....

:* Editable Map -- The potential issue of accessing the raw data is particularly an issue with creating an ESO map like our other maps. I've been thinking about a map very similar to our existing maps but making it completely editable (locations, image tiles, etc...) in a wiki-like format (revisions, patrolled edits, etc...). I'd like to get some sort of map of the game up and running as soon as possible after release.

:* Data Handling and Display -- For past ES games we simply have large tables filled with item and spell information. This works as there are not too many items and their statistics don't change. While I can only guess for ESO itself, based on other MMOs there may many more items (and spells and NPCs) with some stats potentially changing every patch. For example in EverQuest we have:
:::* +100,000 items
:::* +36,000 different types of NPCs
:::* +47,000 recipes
:::* +38,000 spells and abilities

::Mind you this is a 15 year MMO but gives you an idea of what we may be dealing with for ESO in 15 years (we can hope). What EverQuest sites did to manage this quantity of information was to store the various data in databases and let users search and browse through information. Some of the more popular EQ websites include:
:::* Allakhazam -- One of the larger and older all-in-one websites for EQ
:::* Lucy -- The back end item and spell database/collector (was acquired by Allakhazam at some point)
:::* EQTraders -- The best resource for tradeskills and recipes
:::* EQItems -- A very basic item database similar to Lucy.

::When I was playing EverQuest I created a small and basic wiki for it including a basic item and spell database system. Some links of interest:
:::* EQWiki - Main wiki page
:::* Basic Item Search -- Find an item by its name (or part thereof).
:::* Advanced Item Search -- A much more detailed item search.
:::* Cold Iron Hammer -- Example page of an item. You can also view it as an image which was used for displaying item information in forums or websites. For example: 

::Now, this may not be exactly what is desired for ESO but just an idea of what's been done for other MMOs and what I've done myself.

:* Server Capability -- For Skyrim we received a x10 increase in traffic basically overnight so I am expecting a similar traffic surge. We should have enough server capacity to handle this easily (the one issue we had has been fixed) but I'll be looking at things in detail before the game's release to make sure and perhaps purchase more servers before release.

Comments on these points and anything else I've omitted are welcome. -- Daveh   16:58, 8 January 2014 (GMT)

:If we do an item/npc/spell database, a possibility for (registered) users to leave comments would be good. But we would need a way to automatically gather data for this to work at all (unless most of it can be generated generically). For this it would be good to know how comfortable Zenimax is with data extraction methods (and publicly documenting those). One method would be to analyze offline the files stored - how easy and useful that will be is to be seen. Another method that Magelo uses, is distributing a client to players that snoops the memory of the game client to gather data that is only available online. But this is probably beyond our capabilities to do on our own. --Alfwyn (talk) 17:45, 8 January 2014 (GMT)
::I've talked to Jak about this, and I somewhat talked with some of the devs at PAX. Most of the information we typically include should be available to use offline. Things we wouldn't get are drop rates/exact locations, specific ability mechanics (we'll get the ingame description, but not the actual data that actually does it), and a few other things, but most of the other things should be in the client, we just have to access it. I know Jak has been looking into it more than I have, so he probably has a better idea of what is actually needed to gather this info. Jeancey (talk) 18:24, 8 January 2014 (GMT)

:::Ahhh...good to know. A data collector like Magelo is not too hard to get working (famous last words). I believe it just monitors the raw network packets the game sends/receives and deciphers those with item/spell information in it. The hard part is actually reverse engineering the raw data format, assuming it isn't encrypted for ESO. -- Daveh   18:30, 8 January 2014 (GMT)

::::While I like a lot of the ideas that have already been posted, I believe we should try something we haven't really done before (well, we have, but if less than desirable results). I think that, considering the nature of the game, that the developers for this game will be much more willing to have the community get involved with their processes and what not. For example, another fan site, Tamriel Foundry, has been given permission to host content gathered through the beta. Some friendly communiqué between us and the developers may go a lot farther here since an online game simply requires a strong community backing it up. 
::::And a quick note on server capabilities, we should be much better off this time, but not only due to the previous issues being resolved. As the game is coming out at different times for the consoles, the traffic shouldn't be as giant at any one time. I might eat those words, but I think that our number of visitors, while it should be higher, will be much more manageable. --AKB   19:55, 8 January 2014 (GMT)

 Update -- I've already had need for a private wiki for myself so I've setup one up. Read access is password protected and will be limited to admins/editors who I can confirm are in the ESO beta. If you'd like access simply [mailto:dave@uesp.net e-mail me] with some proof of being in the beta (ex: include a small text file from game's installation files). I think this should satisfy the conditions of the NDA but if you think it doesn't somehow just let me know. -- Daveh   17:18, 9 January 2014 (GMT)

:Maybe the ominous CSTool seen in ESO's launcher may help extracting game data? (screenshot]) --        21:57, 9 January 2014 (GMT)
::Sarthes, you can't upload it here. Or anywhere.  Jeancey (talk) 21:59, 9 January 2014 (GMT)

 And something different, more community related. People will want to document their characters and guilds - and because of guilds more than in previous games. We could provide templates to do so on their user pages. But if we want to document shard histories for ESO, there will be a list of emperors which are player names. It's only a small step from there to documenting characters. It would be good to think about how to handle such stuff. Have a namespace set aside for such things? --Alfwyn (talk) 15:08, 10 January 2014 (GMT)

:A Template could work for userpages, but I, personally, would rather keep the namespace as encyclopaedic and professional as we can. A namespace for player characters seems like it would open a floodgate to God knows what. -     15:16, 10 January 2014 (GMT)
::Agreed. There doesn't need to be a list of who becomes emperor. If it turns over as much as I think it will, it will be impossible to maintain. There isn't just one emperor per shard, there is one per campaign, of which there are several per shard. I just think we shouldn't include any player names anywhere in the namespace itself. If a person wishes to include this in their own userpage, they can feel free. Jeancey (talk) 16:01, 10 January 2014 (GMT)
:::Yep. Limit this sort of thing to userspace. I used to occasionally check a wiki dedicated to an MMO I was playing, and their list of guilds was always hopelessly outdated. The nature of MMOs will make it nigh impossible to keep up with user-created info such as this. --Xyzzy     16:53, 10 January 2014 (GMT)
::::If it's anything like WoW, there may be an official page for characters and guilds. We wouldn't need any documentation, and could link there instead.         18:01, 10 January 2014 (GMT)
 The only use I can think of for documenting a unique guild beyond the general overview of what a guild is, would be if we made a page offering a shameless plug for a UESP-based guild in-game, if we had our own guild within the game to play together. Otherwise, I see no tangible gain to attempting to document guilds. They are a dime a dozen... No, a nickel a dozen, that's how man WoW has, t use that as an example. -     18:04, 10 January 2014 (GMT)
::I'm also not sure of the use of capturing guild data on the wiki; however, there is a subforum on the forums specifically for the MMO guilds, and has quite a few dozen listed already. Alternatively, to free up wiki space, you can refer to the forum space. It's already been collecting data from guilds for the last year or so, so it's not a bad idea to use it if you'd like for information as well. Not as clean as a wiki page, depending on how much the forum staff formats threads, but a decent source for "listing" purposes for those who might be interested. --Avron the S&#39;wit (talk) 02:38, 11 January 2014 (GMT)
:::Due to the nature of MMOs, I think prominent link(s) to the Online subforum would be an excellent idea. This would allow us to provide access to game information that many users will come to UESP looking for, but isn't appropriate for an encyclopedic site. --Xyzzy     04:59, 11 January 2014 (GMT)

::::Along the same topic...I was planning on making a "UESP" guild in ESO but membership would be optional. Although, assuming membership in multiple guilds is possible it might be a good option to keep in touch with everyone in the game. I've thought about offering guild sub-sites but there are already a few options and there's too very likely not enough time to get a good system setup in time anyways. -- Daveh   23:58, 13 January 2014 (GMT)

:::::I can disclose very little about it, but I can say that most if not all data is accessible without packet sniffers. ESO is substantial in file size (30+ GB) and a significant amount of info is to be found, but I'm far from knowing exactly how much. And yeah, all of us on the IRC who plan on playing ESO were thinking about setting up an official UESP guild. I imagine it'll initially be composed of wiki editors, but whoever ends up running it (probably not myself) can decide which direction to take the guild, and whether or not it'll require a sub-site. Daveh, is there any need to try stress testing the server pre-launch to ensure nothing goes wrong? My college has a solid networking infrastructure and I could get in touch with them to try simulating massive traffic (though of course you could use one of your less active servers to stress test locally while simulating a downed backup server). •        06:48, 16 January 2014 (GMT)

Wiki Upgrade to 1.22

The upgrade to MediaWiki v1.22.2 is in progress and I've upgraded the Dev Wiki already. I'll give at least a week for myself and anyone else to test things there and let me know if there's anything broken or needs tweaks. Feel free to suggest new settings/extensions but I'll likely wait to add/change anything until after the upgrade to minimize the chance of things breaking. 

I'll let everyone know when the upgrade is scheduled as there will be a few hours of read-only time. -- Daveh   15:30, 3 February 2014 (GMT)
:I would like to suggest that the Navigation Popups extension be added as an optional Gadget. It is extremely useful to those who edit a large number of pages a day (i.e. me). :) If not, I understand, but I would like you to consider it! Jeancey (talk) 15:35, 3 February 2014 (GMT)
::Just collecting issues for the moment here:
::* 
::* 
::*noeditsection pages - that is a new special page apparently not working together with our extension, didn't break anything existing, but would be nice if it was useful
::* 
::*Nothing broken, but the new log in page offers a (red) link to Help:Logging in, some help there would be a good thing
::--Alfwyn (talk)
:::I installed for testing Extension:Disambiguator on dev to replace  which is gone in 1.22 (see here). Documentation says to give it three days to populate that special page - let's see. --Alfwyn (talk) 18:04, 3 February 2014 (GMT)
::::Job Queue is fixed now. They changed the name of the abstract job queue class in MediaWiki from "Job" to "JobQueue", which caused a conflict, since the name of my class was also "JobQueue".

::::Dave: Is it easier if I roll it out to the current version of the wiki, or will you just copy it over as part of the 1.22 upgrade process?  &ndash;       19:29, 3 February 2014 (GMT)

::::: You can update the live site now if you wish but also update the dev server. The upgrade will be a completely new copy of the wiki source copied from what we end up with on the dev server. Whatever is currently on the live site will be gone. I found and fixed the RecentChanges double title...there are two system messages in the RC page header now. -- Daveh   02:16, 4 February 2014 (GMT)

::::::New issue that I just e-mailed Dave about (cuz I think he was thinking of upgrading this weekend), but I thought I'd mention here as well so that we have a record of it: captcha-triggering operations fail after the captcha, putting up just a blank screen. This could be related to the fact that we're now using the ConfirmEdit version of Asirra in 1.22 rather than the original version of Asirra that we've been using on 1.19. Other users have reported issues with ConfirmEdit's version, but that may or may not be related. Dave is looking at it right now, I gather.  &ndash;       23:11, 14 February 2014 (GMT)

:::::::Seems to be an abuse filter related problem, and not captcha. I could add an external link after doing the captcha just fine (one whitelisted by the filter, but not another one), triggering the lesser vandalism filter resulted in a white page too. --Alfwyn (talk) 13:16, 15 February 2014 (GMT)

::::::::Should be fixed, filter triggering actions no longer cause a white screen. I just copied that fix . --Alfwyn (talk) 13:39, 15 February 2014 (GMT)
  Yup, that worked like a charm...and really brought home for me just how aggravating the captcha/warning/captcha scenario can be!  &ndash;       21:38, 15 February 2014 (GMT)

Update --  Just a quick update that I haven't forgotten about the upgrade but with ESO coming out in 10 days and all the preparation work required I'm going to delay the upgrade for a few months until the work for ESO dies down. I also would not rather upgrade and fully test things on a production site just before its traffic increases by a factor of ten overnight. All the dev work for the upgrade is done so I just have to go back and document and test it a bit before actually doing the upgrade. I'll probably keep the upgrade to 1.22 and then look at upgrading to the next version sooner. The idea is to develop a system that makes upgrading a lot less work and quicker. -- Daveh   13:46, 18 March 2014 (GMT)

IP block needed for spammer
94.23.152.25 ThuumofReason (talk) 12:11, 4 February 2014 (GMT)
:Done ~ Dwarfmp (talk) 15:25, 4 February 2014 (GMT)

Captcha vs Edit Filter

The current setup for external links is a three-step process for non-approved users. They get a captcha, then an Abuse Filter warning, then another captcha before the it can be posted (unless the filter has in black listed, then it gets blocked). This can be a huge frustration to these users just trying to provide images they've uploaded elsewhere because they can't as anonymous users here. I'd like to request a temporary disabling of captcha this weekend to see if the filter works properly in denying spam.      22:11, 14 February 2014 (GMT)

:My one concern with this is that if we disable it altogether, it's likely to start allowing massive amounts of fake user creations through. From what I read, though, it looks like it can be configured to allow link creation independently from new user creation. It might just take a bit of playing to get it right. Also, Dave may be planning on upgrading to 1.22 this weekend, so there's that to consider as well.  &ndash;       23:24, 14 February 2014 (GMT)

::Okay, since no one's voiced any objections to this, I've made the changes on all our servers. I don't believe it'll require a hard refresh, but it might. Let me know if there are any problems.  &ndash;       21:56, 15 February 2014 (GMT)

:::Update: One spam just made it through, so I checked the logs. In the last 2 hours 3 other IPs have attempted spam and been stopped solely by the link filter (many many others have triggered it along with other filters).      03:02, 16 February 2014 (GMT)

::::Update: Another made it through, as with the last case it was caught and then tagged. The filter has almost 2000 more hits since the captcha was disabled, which is almost 500 a day. I think its safe to say its working as intended. I'm going to look into getting it to tag the IPs somehow so (if desired) there will be a list of IPs to block each day, some of these IPs are very active in the logs and the workload is likely the reason that some edits have slipped through.      18:57, 18 February 2014 (GMT)

::::::Final Update: Approximately 16k hits to the filter since captcha was turned off and no increase in spam making it through. Unless there are any objections I see no reason we should turn the captcha back on.      02:23, 4 March 2014 (GMT)



This page has had numerous edits trying to add (falsely) House Indoril and House Dres to the list when they don't exist in the game. Can an admin please protect the page due to this ongoing edit war.      18:52, 15 February 2014 (GMT)

Delete reasons

right
I'd like to change our list of delete reasons to better reflect the reasons listed in our Deletion Policy because I'm finding that the existing list is almost never actually why I'm deleting a page. My proposed list is below. I tried to group related subjects a bit more (or maybe just differently) than we actually do on the policy page, but if it's easier, they can certainly be made to match much more closely. I could use some feedback on wording, whether this is too many reasons, if we want to combine or split some (I already have for some), if there are other common reasons we want to list, whether alphabetizing them is the way to go (like I have), etc.

 

Looking at it myself, I think it looks a bit long, but it looks a bit more manageable once it's actually in a drop-down box (see example). It still scrolls, though, which it's probably better to avoid. There are a few things that could readily be combined, if we want, like "Author Request" could just be a reason of its own rather than a whole group. Anyone else have any thoughts?  &ndash;       21:26, 16 February 2014 (GMT)
:Others we could combine are: Redundant and talk page image (if it isn't required, then it is redundant), User page for non-existent user can be removed cause they are almost always either a test, a mistake, or spam/vandalism, so we don't really need a separate copy for that (we don't delete accounts, so we don't often have legitimate users becoming non-existent), also, unnecessary image redirect after rename is the same as redirect from page move (the page in question being the image). Jeancey (talk) 21:34, 16 February 2014 (GMT)

::The "redundant image" might better be described as "duplicate image", which was more what I'd intended...just used the wrong word. I kept the two different redirect reasons because one is a speedy delete reason, the other is not, and I find it helpful to be reminded that only image redirects should be speedied. I agree with the suggestion to remove the non-existent user reason, though. Now that you make me think about it, that's so rare as a reason of its own that we can type that one in if we need to.  &ndash;       21:55, 16 February 2014 (GMT)

::PS, for the sake of clarity, I'll update the list as we go. Obviously, I won't be updating the image each time. :)  &ndash;       22:04, 16 February 2014 (GMT)

::::I have no reason to use the delete feature, since nobody will endorse my campaign to become Supreme Overlord of UESP, but kidding around aside, the list looks good enough to me. It definitely needs expanding, if that first link to the MediaWiki page is what the drop menu is, because there are definitely a lot of reasons that would currently be uncovered, but frequently enough used to be worth a drop menu inclusion. -      &hearts;    22:21, 16 February 2014 (GMT)

:::::Okay, with no further feedback on this in the last few days, I've gone ahead and implemented it.  &ndash;       07:54, 20 February 2014 (GMT)

Block needed

Looks like 194.81.160.53 has decided to continue inserting nonsense into article since their block expired. --Xyzzy     14:53, 17 February 2014 (GMT)

: Done. —Legoless (talk) 15:30, 17 February 2014 (GMT)

ESO Private Wiki and Beta NDA

Even though the Beta NDA has been lifted I'm still keeping the ESO Private Wiki password protected. Any UESP admin/editor can request access (just [mailto:dave@uesp.net e-mail me]). There isn't too much content in the private wiki anyways and not all of it should or needs to be transferred over. Most of it is in very rough anyways. 

I would suggest people transfer pages manually (copy/paste the wiki text) as needed and then delete the page on the ESO private wiki after transferred. Notes or categories can be added to pages that shouldn't be transferred. I also have a bunch of images that will need to be uploaded to the wiki at some point after a bit of post-processing when I have the time. -- Daveh   17:53, 17 February 2014 (GMT)

:A few possibly useful lists of things extracted from the game data:
::* A list of 633 maps (exterior and interior) extracted from the game data can be found on google docs.
::* A list of quests from levels 1-16 in the Ebonheart and Aldmeri regions is available on google docs.
::* A list of 1000 items gathered from the chat log is available on google docs.
:In addition to all that I have a lot of potentially useful images we have to decide how to handle:
::* Combined images for all the 633 maps (range in size from 256x256 to 2048x2048).
::* +4800 icon files (abilities, achievements, inventory, map, etc...) download EsoIcons.zip (32 MB)
::* +300 treasure maps (800x800) download EsoTreasureMaps.zip (200 MB)
::* +400 loading screens (1600x1000) download EsoLoadingScreens.zip (340 MB)
::* +600 map images download EsoMaps.zip (81 MB)
::* +1400 game UI related images download EsoUIArt.zip (18 MB)
: If anyone wants these let me know and I can upload them as a ZIP file somewhere. -- Daveh   13:10, 18 February 2014 (GMT)

:: It would be a good idea to get this data uploaded to the wiki asap, as was done for Skyrim. That quest data in particular is pretty amazing. Having a bot-created foundation would make editing a lot easier. —Legoless (talk) 15:09, 18 February 2014 (GMT)

::: That's a helluva load of images. What's the combined filesize of all that? I expect we'll need most of them eventually; do they need sorting through in any way? Also, is that list of 633 "maps", a list of maps in the image sense, or maps in the zones/levels/areas-separated-by-loading-screens sense? (Or indeed both?) --Enodoc (talk) 17:31, 18 February 2014 (GMT)
::::That's a list of maps in the image sense. Every interior zone has a map, except for the houses in cities. But every cave, dungeon, etc, has its own map. I do believe that every single one of these images needs to be added to the wiki. Every one. Jeancey (talk) 17:38, 18 February 2014 (GMT)

::::: I've added a temporary links to the icons as they were relatively small when zipped. Combined file size is some +600MB. The map list are actual different areas in the game with an actual in-game map. This can be a interior dungeon, an exterior region, province, or smaller sub-regions. The game's map system is not like Skyrim/Oblivion. I'm trying to get a simple online viewer for the ESO maps up and running. -- Daveh   17:41, 18 February 2014 (GMT)

:::::: Would it be worthwhile to upload the tools we developed for extracting the in-game files? On a similar note, would it be worthwhile to upload the technical file info to the wiki, and if so where would it go? We could make an ESOMod namespace, or put it under the Online namespace somewhere. I'm not sure how much more technical info will be obtained from the game files, but if we're going to copy over the contents of the private wiki, we might as well copy it all. •        19:03, 18 February 2014 (GMT)

::::::: I would think having some of that stuff in a TESOMod namespace would make sense. While there won't be game-altering mods for ESO, we may want to put info about UI mods in there. Regarding a map viewer, Tamriel Foundry have created one but I think we could do something better (I also don't agree with how they've lined some of the regions up with each other).
::::::: There's also a couple of things I wanted to mention about the images (thanks for the files Dave!); all of the maps for the "sub-regions" are in the older map style (from prior to Beta 0.16), and in-game there is no different map within the zones for their subzones. For example, in Glenumbra, there are no separate maps for Daenia/Cambray Hills/Kingsguard. Because of this, I wonder whether they have essentially removed the sub-zoning idea altogether.
::::::: The other thing is, in the icons files I can't find the icons for Active/Inactive/New quests (white/black/black-with-blue-glow respectively) that appear on the map and compass (the Journal versions of the quest icons are there, but not the compass versions). Just something to look out for in case they turn up in a later image file set. --Enodoc (talk) 23:23, 18 February 2014 (GMT)

:::::::: A mostly working map viewer is now available at  This is actually all completely new map code created specifically with ESO in mind although there is Skyrim and Dragonborn map data in there for testing. The map code is very early and very rough but it lets you view all the map image data. There are no location data for ESO maps yet. The map is designed to operate like a wiki with editable locations though I haven't done any of the editable-map features yet. It also will let you jump from location to location without a page load (like from exterior to interior...currently you can see this in the Skyrim-Dragonborn zone locations). Comments are welcome although detailed bug reports are not warranted as pretty much everything needs fixing and tweaking at this stage. 
:::::::: I'm not sure whether to do the map like this, with separate exterior maps, or try to combine it like the Tamriel Foundry map. While I don't really like their overall style just having one exterior map might be easier from a usage standpoint (but more difficult from a creation one). 
:::::::: Also added some game UI artwork images in a ZIP file above. Not sure if it has the quest markers you were looking for but I would guess it might. -- Daveh   01:32, 19 February 2014 (GMT)
 In response to Enodoc, there ARE actually maps for these locations in the game, and I know for a fact that Auridon, you do have see the subzone maps in game. So I'm not entirely sure what you are meaning when you say these maps don't exist. Jeancey (talk) 01:38, 19 February 2014 (GMT)

:Dave, that's a very impressive map. I especially like the drop menu of smaller maps. Very cool! -      &hearts;   

::Hmmm, that's weird Jeancey. I'll try and explain what I mean then. When walking around Daggerfall (the city), if I pull up the map, I get the Daggerfall city map. If I right-click to zoom out, I go to the Glenumbra map. If I leave Daggerfall and start wandering around the main Glenumbra zone and pull up the map, I get the Glenumbra region map. If I go through the Baelborne Rock area and pull up the map, again I get the Glenumbra map. I never saw the Daenia map at any point when I opened the map in the Daenia area. I've never been to Auridon, so haven't experienced how the map works there. What was the last beta version you played where you saw the subzone maps?
::Dave, the map looks great (as the wiki maps usually do). I think in this initial stage they don't need to be combined like the TF map. Besides, at the moment you still have to select a zone from the dropdown at TF anyway, otherwise the icons don't appear. I'll have a look in the UI artwork file later when I'm on a computer that can download it. Thanks! --Enodoc (talk) 09:44, 19 February 2014 (GMT)
:::I saw the subzones a few beta weekends ago, but I do remember seeing the Daenia subzone, outside daggerfall. I remember, because I got all the way to the edge of the map, and I remember thinking, this can't be the entirety of the Glenumbra zone, I ran here from daggerfall in 6 minutes or so. Maybe it has something to do with zooming out or something? I never actually zoomed out of the map, I just looked at the one it gave me. Regardless if they are functional NOW, the fact that all the subzones DO have maps indicates to me that they intend for them to be present in the main game. The names are there, and I'm sure if we look through the texts and dialogue enough, we'll find them mentioned somewhere else to back up their lore nature. Jeancey (talk) 22:33, 19 February 2014 (GMT)

::::The thing is though I don't think they are intended for the final game, at least not in their current state. They did a map overhaul for Beta 0.16 and redesigned the lot, but those subzone maps are still in the old style. I think they're left-over remnants from a map system that no longer exists. That aside, from a lore perspective I'm happy for the names to be used. That "Glenumbra's People" book uses them and hopefully there's equivalent books for the other regions.
::::Thanks for that UI file Dave, that does indeed include the icons I was missing! --Enodoc (talk) 00:35, 20 February 2014 (GMT)

 So unless anyone has any objections, I may start uploading some of those images later. If they end up being replaced at launch, we can reupload them at the time. It'd also be worth trying to keep track of any changes in them at beta events before launch; Dave, is it easy for you to identify if something has been changed/added without going through all the files again? --Enodoc (talk) 14:02, 21 February 2014 (GMT)

: I would say go ahead and start uploading anything that seems useful. I don't have a way at the moment to check for file updates but can create a script easily enough. Actually creating something that detects relevant file changes/additions from patches would be useful as this is something that's going to happen regularly with ESO. -- Daveh   15:34, 21 February 2014 (GMT)

:: Do we want maps and loading screens at full resolution, or should they be down-sized before being uploaded? --Enodoc (talk) 22:27, 24 February 2014 (GMT)

::: Unless they're huge, I don't see a problem with full resolution. —Legoless (talk) 22:33, 24 February 2014 (GMT)

:::: Oops, I meant to actually put the sizes here as well. The region maps are 2048x2048, the settlement maps are 1024x1024, and the dungeon maps are 768x768. The loading screens are 1680x1050. The ones I was most unsure about were the region maps. --Enodoc (talk) 23:11, 24 February 2014 (GMT)

 Dave, is that quest list from the data files, or the chat log? We're looking at how to adapt the quest templates for ESO over at CP and there's a few things in the data that don't make a lot of sense. Having only done the Daggerfall quests, I also can't compare with anything that I actually know from in-game. --Enodoc (talk) 09:56, 27 February 2014 (GMT)