UESPWiki:Administrator Noticeboard/Archive 41

Username Change Request 2

I'd like my username on the wiki to be changed from "Jack ac jensen" to "jack_ac_jensen" - I tried the latter during my account setup and it didn't work. If the underscores are an issue, than you can just omit it. Thanks! Jack ac jensen 02:04, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

:The name is unfortunately impossible with MediaWiki. The first letter of a wiki username has to be uppercase, and the wiki interprets underscores as spaces. --AKB   16:54, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

::Would it still be possible to capitalize some characters? Is “Jack AC Jensen” possible? Sorry for the inconvenience, I am new to the Wiki. Jack ac jensen 11:13, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

:::Done! --AKB   18:00, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

ESO Wrathstone PTS Release

Wrathstone (update 21) is out today on the ESO PTS server:

:* uespLog -- Guilder trader interface needs to be completely redone.
::* Turn off sales logging/display (/uespsales off). 
::* In uespTradeData.lua delete/comment lines 1868-1929 (-- The following is copy to -- End of copy...).
:* File Uploads -- Done!
:* Champion Points -- 
:* Skills -- 
:* Skill Coefficients -- Done!
:* Items -- Done!
:* Icons -- Uploaded!
:* Maps -- Done!

-- Daveh   14:44, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

images.uesp.net is slow

The server images.uesp.net, where images are hosted, is awfully slow at times. Right now every image takes like 8 seconds to start downloading, and then a lot more to actually download. Tried this from different ISPs. --78.30.10.162 12:06, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

:There was a temporary issue on files1 for a few reasons including the RAID being checked/rebuilt and backup scripts piling up adding to the IO wait time. A bunch of changes were made to prevent this from occurring again or at least minimize the impact. -- Daveh   14:49, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

Block Needed

Spambot: 

--Rook (talk) 17:10, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

:Done.  &ndash;       18:54, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Page in Arabic
Hi there, Below is the Arabic version of the UESP logo (By:Saleh) which would be great for a new UESP in Arabic website.



We are a small expanding group willing to translate The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Page to Arabic.
:We initially wanted to translate a large portion before submitting a post, But it came to our knowledge that it would be best to do it now.
:Me MajidAlammari (talk) and 1Septim and four other translators (Saleh, Mohammed, Rasheed, Sa'aad) would love to know what to do next.

Kind regards, -Majid

:I can setup a new translation wiki this week and get you started for editing! -- Daveh   14:04, 5 February 2019 (UTC)
:: [Thank you so much Dave! You honor us!, As I am sure you know, Arabic is written from Right to Left which obviously requires the template to be different, I can say that I am certain that you already have this in mind but the possibility that we may be required somewhat advanced coding skills seems quite intimidating for us all] Majid 15:50, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

:::So I've setup the new Arabic UESPWiki at  . I've made MajidAlammari the admin for that wiki and have added 1Septim as an editor. Anyone else that wants to edit that translation can make a wiki account and MajidAlammari can give them the "Translator" permission. There's probably a lot of special work to get the Arabic version working correctly but just let me know if you need help with anything. I've imported the current revision of all MediaWiki and Template pages but there's nothing else there at the moment. -- Daveh   20:23, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

::::[Greetings Dave, Thank you for this kind service and we will work hard to complete our project.]  
::::[This looks great Dave! Thank you!, We sure all are excited to get work! also is it possible to change the logo to the Arabic version? I made a change to the dimensions of the image above to 400x400, or should it be uploaded separately?] -- Majid 06:38, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

::::: I've updated the Arabic site to use that logo although it will need to be reuploaded to 165x159 pixels in size. If you want to keep a higher resolution logo you can upload a new image. -- Daveh   15:59, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

:::::: Hi Dave, Hope you are doing well! I have updated the image dimensions to as you said above, If you may update it now it would look proportionate. And here is an update about the wiki, We decided to start working in this order, starting with Morrowind after it Oblivion > Skyrim > Daggerfall > Arena > Online, And about the other titles we still haven't decided yet. Here is also a work-in-progress example of what a main page would look like Morrowind and also a lore book 36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon one, If you checked one of the pages you can see that the tables/boxes are in the way of things and should be moved to the left on every page, It would be great if you directed me to a method that could help with this issue and also a way to translate the "developer/Release Date/etc..." because I tried and the cell line disappears, lastly if you can please point out how to edit the list under sections so I can translate it?. Thank you so much, Dave, for enabling us this opportunity to be a part of the UESP, Please let us know if you have any advice, Have a great evening. --Majid (talk) 22:11, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

::::::: Will try to answer all your questions:
:::::::* For the game info box you can edit the  Template and change the "float:right" near the top to "float:left". I would guess there are several templates that would need to be edited in a similar manner. 
:::::::* Some of the english text can also be edited in that or similar templates.
:::::::* If you weren't aware of templates you can see a list of all templates used in a article at the bottom of the page when editing. Also see  post on AN here, or on our Discord #wiki_discussion channel.
:::::::* For the left hand menu you can edit 
:::::::* You can also edit system messages at  as needed (most are default so will be translated already but a few are custom).
:::::::* Some CSS/JS can be edited from  and  .
:::::::* There's probably a few things which may need to be edited/overridden server side so if you can't figure out something let me know.
::::::: Great work and if you need more help just let us know! -- Daveh   18:04, 7 February 2019 (UTC)
:::::::: Thank you, Dave, Everything looks much better now!, except the logo which I found out I can't actually change myself, I already updated the dimensions to 165x159 of the logo above as you said, So you could help us set it up. I also found out that I could import pages with the templates which is way better than a simple copy and paste, Unfortunately, I find it inefficient but also convenient since we won't have anything missing whilst editing. Is there perhaps a better method to importing pages rather than manually typing everything in? I hope we aren't causing any inconvenience to you, Dave, We really are passionate about this project, I hope you have a great afternoon. --Majid (talk) 19:21, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

 
You should be able to change the logo...just upload a new image to the same image as linked above. Does that not work? I've already imported all Templates to ar.uesp.net so you shouldn't need to re-import them (I believe it won't let you overwrite an existing template). I assume you're aware of the  and  pages? You can list multiple pages to export although large groups may crash the importer so keep to smaller chunks and verify with RecentChanges exactly what you've successfully imported. --

:That was my original assumption but it did not work, Somehow. And Yes, I am aware, But it turns out I was wrong about missing templates. Also I am sure you are aware of the new #uesp_ar channel that Alpha_Kenny_Buddy already set up for us, Dave, I and my group will ask for help there. Thank you so much for your help Dave :). --Majid (talk) 01:56, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

: Slight problem with inter-wiki links. Unlike e.g.  ,   actually creates a redlink to the Arena namespace rather than adding a link to the sidebar. —Legoless (talk) 21:27, 8 February 2019 (UTC)
::I just looked into it and there's really no nice way around that issue. The only viable solution I can see is to change Arena's namespace shortcut to something different (or remove it altogether). Either way, we have to track down all existing links using the shortcut and change them. Links themselves should be doable by bot. (Note: HnB ''can't'' do it, but HoodBot and CyrusBot should both be able to manage it using something like this to find all pages linking to Arena space, then checking all links on each page to see if any are      links.) Getting users used to a new prefix is another issue.🤔 Also, there's the question of what to do about the existing files and categories with "AR" prefixes. Renaming all of those would be a fairly large job. Technically speaking, most of the alternatives we might choose are also used by other languages, though I don't think we need to worry too much about having UESP in Aragonese (AN) or Araucanian (ARN), so those might be viable options.

::Checking over the rest of our namespaces, we also have conflicts with some other languages, though none of them seem likely to become issues (the most common is probably Turkish). Here's the full list of language vs. namespace conflicts: BM = Bambara, BS = Bosnian, LG = Ganda, LO = Laotian, OM = Oromo, SH = Serbocroatian, SI = Sinhalese, SK = Slovak, SR = Serbian, TR = Turkish. So, despite the conflicts, I don't see any reason to change any of those namespace shortcuts.  &ndash;       04:52, 9 February 2019 (UTC)

:::I'm in favor of either removing the shortcut altogether (but leaving files under the AR name) or switching to AN (despite the confusion with Administrator Noticeboard). Neither option is very appealing, but it looks like we have to choose. &mdash;Dillonn241 (talk) 06:51, 9 February 2019 (UTC)

:::Update: I converted nearly all of the AR: shortcuts on the wiki to Arena:. I'm leaning toward just removing the shortcut, since a lot of times we end up changing them to the full link anyway and moving all of the files to match seems like a lot of work for one letter change. &mdash;Dillonn241 (talk) 07:37, 9 February 2019 (UTC)

::::After some discussion in Discord, and with Cyrus and HnB having replaced all the existing AR links, I went ahead and removed AR as a namespace shortcut (including "AR talk", which was totally unused anyway). Any future links to AR will result in language links in the sidebar, as you can see on . We can keep an eye on any accidental attempts to use AR shortcuts by monitoring this page, at least until there are so many legitimate language links that that becomes impractical. :)

::::For those that may want Arena shortcuts in the future, the   template is still available. If there's strong desire to do so, we can always add AN or ARN or what have you at a later time, though contrary to my original message, I don't think there's any pressing reason to do so right now. Even if we do, it wouldn't necessarily require that we update all AR uses in files and templates, though to avoid confusion, it would probably be best. We can burn that bridge if we ever come to it, though.  &ndash;       20:09, 9 February 2019 (UTC)

:::::I am sorry this has caused you inconvenience guys, Your work is immensely appreciated :). --Majid (talk) 01:56, 10 February 2019 (UTC)

::::::No problem! It's better we figure out these issues now rather than after the Arabic wiki is well-developed and you're trying to make a whole lot of language links!  &ndash;       20:27, 12 February 2019 (UTC)

Block Needed

Spambot: --Rook (talk) 17:14, 7 February 2019 (UTC)
:Done.  &ndash;       17:30, 7 February 2019 (UTC)

ESO Wrathstone Release

Wrathstone (update 21) is out today so here's the usual update.

:* uespLog -- Updated to v1.80.
:* Files -- Done!
:* Skills -- Updated!
:* Skill Coefficients -- Updated!
:* CPs -- Updated!
:* Items -- In progress...
:* Maps -- Done!
:* Icons -- Done!
:* Achievements -- Done!
:* Collectibles -- Done!
:* Quest Data -- Done!
:* Book Data -- Done!
:* Recipe Data -- Done!
:* API -- Done!

-- Daveh   17:43, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

MediaWiki Upgrade to v1.25

I've copied the wiki to  and upgraded it to 1.25 for testing and preparation of upgrading the live wiki sometime in the future. Haven't done much testing yet but so far only a few minor things needed fixing and haven't seen anything big in the MW release notes. My notes for the upgrade can be found at . Note that while the wiki and images are copies other things the wiki may links to are not copies (thinking specifically of the ESO Character/Build data).

Anyone know if we are using any functions in the DynamicFunctions extension? It is no longer maintained and I would like to remove it or move its functionality to MetaTemplate/UespCustomCode. -- Daveh   13:03, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

:I've never seen any of those functions in use, though you or RobinHood would have to do a database search to be sure. My bet is they are not used. #rand looks somewhat useful, the others not so much. I'd like to see them kept through our custom extensions though. &mdash;Dillonn241 (talk) 15:13, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

::I searched through all wiki text and found that we use everything except #ip (which is good as that may be a security concern). For the upgrade I'll move these over to one of our own extensions and remove DynamicFunctions. -- Daveh   16:04, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

:::I actually commented on this on the talk page for the upgrade. Depending how you did your search, you may have found old revisions of pages. I'm not aware of anything currently using #skin or #rand, but I could be wrong. The search for current revisions only is fairly taxing on our database servers, so I limited it to namespaces where I thought usage was likely. I think the only thing in current use is #args, but only on my and the bots' user pages. It's a nice-to-have, since it provide the bots' log filtering options, but not critical. If you feel like moving it over to one of our extensions, that's probably the ideal solution, but if it goes away completely, that's fine too.  &ndash;       23:31, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

::::Moved the 3 features from DynamicFunctions to MetaTemplates was little work. So far I haven't encountered any major issue on the dev wiki for this update. Barring finding anything I'd like to do the live update early next week. -- Daveh   16:17, 14 March 2019 (UTC)


  Upgrade Scheduled for March 21st -- I plan to do the upgrade this Thursday morning EST. There should be no downtime or read-only time unless something goes wrong. Check here for updates exactly when it is started/finished. -- Daveh   14:03, 18 March 2019 (UTC)

: Upgrade is starting soon with updates being posted below. 
::* Started Updated -- Daveh   13:57, 21 March 2019 (UTC)
::* Version Live -- Daveh   14:04, 21 March 2019 (UTC)
::* Database Updated -- Daveh   Daveh   14:10, 21 March 2019 (UTC)
::* Done -- Everything looks good so far but let me know of the usual bugs/issues that you see that may be update related. -- Daveh   14:18, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

:::: I'm getting an Error 500 when trying to use Show preview on a new page of any significant length. Doesn't seem to happen if previewing an already-created article. —Legoless (talk) 19:02, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

:::::I was hoping this upgrade might fix the broken Vector skin, but it didn't. So I would just like to re-raise that as an ongoing issue. --Enodoc (talk) 23:16, 22 March 2019 (UTC)

::::::@Legoless: I can't seem to replicate that. I tried copying AN/Archive 39 (which is pretty large) to a few new pages in different namespaces, and everything was fine. I'm pretty sure we've had similar issues during previous upgrades and they just resolved over time. Is it still doing it for you?

::::::@Enodoc: Despite appearances, Monobook is also technically broken, in that they rewrote a huge chunk of it for 1.25, which includes compatibility with the new page indicators feature. We're still using the old code, which doesn't support any of the new stuff, and I believe is now deprecated. So, that's gonna be today's task for me is to look at that. Once that's done, I'll switch over to Vector and see if I can get that working as well. I was aware it was broken previously, but I have no idea what was wrong with it. If it's something simple, like a typo or a minor incompatibility, it might be a quick fix...or, it might not if it's a complex issue or upgrading the code is more difficult than I think it should be. You'll know when I know! :) (Quick update: had a look at Monobook...it's not just a quick fix, and I wanna do it "the right way" this time, if it's possible, so it's not so much work in the future. Ran into a bit of a snag which has stopped me cold for the moment, since I need Dave to do something. Will come back to this tomorrow.)  &ndash;       02:18, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

:::::::You might need a hard refresh, but Monobook is now upgraded to be compatible with 1.25, which means we now have page indicators (see my sandbox). Because they're a bit less flexible than  , and probably different parameters will be wanted in some cases (to control sorting when there's more than one), I'll create a new template just for indicators and we can slowly switch the common/easily-converted ones over, then see what's left. Vector will take priority over that, though, while I'm still in the mindset of skinning.  &ndash;       10:55, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

::::::::UESP Vector is available and working once again!  &ndash;       15:46, 26 March 2019 (UTC)

:::::::::Can confirm. Thanks! --Enodoc (talk) 17:57, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Adding Twitch and Clothing Shop to Sidebar

UESP's Twitch has been slowly growing quietly on its own, to the point that I think it's appropriate to add to the sidebar. Alongside that, I think it'd be a good idea to add the clothing shop to it, to let people know where they can get their UESP digs at. --AKB   13:06, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

:Twitch definitely (and with an icon). I'd like to see Daveh's opinion on the shop before I form an opinion; there is money involved so it's unlike all the other links.

:Since we're changing the community section, I also want to do something about the Chatroom link, which I tried to change before without luck. I wanted it as an (info) link after Discord but the code doesn't support two links. Instead, I propose this order:

:*Community Portal
:*Forums
:*Blog
:*Chatroom
:*(icon) Discord
:*(icon) Facebook
:*(icon) Tumblr
:*(icon) Twitch
:*(icon) Twitter
:*Merchandise
:*Contact Us
:*Links

:Chatroom is moved up next to the Discord link. You'll also notice I moved Contact Us down next to links. It's not all that useful of a page, mainly serving as a help guide for how to email other users, with redirects to the Administrator Noticeboard and Community Portal as well. I'm hesitant to remove it entirely, but replacing it with Administrator Noticeboard and having that next to Community Portal is an option to consider.

:Merchandise could be changed to Shop or Clothing Shop, but Merchandise sounds best in my opinion for what it is. &mdash;Dillonn241 (talk) 15:13, 11 March 2019 (UTC)

Bulk Delete Unused LG-audio files

Ilaro suggested a bot job in Discord earlier today to delete all files starting with   in our unused files list. There are just shy of 1100 of them! The reason there are so many that are unused is because they're either duplicates (due largely to the change in developers) or because they're simply things we don't need to keep on the wiki, like grunts, moans, and so forth. Obviously, 1100 files is rather a lot for a human to delete. None of our bots are admin bots, though. This leaves us with two options:

# Temporarily give bots deletion permissions, and delete all 1100 files that way.
# There's a maintenance script to bulk delete pages.

As far as I know, we've never deleted pages the second way before, so I wanted to give people an opportunity to decide which option they're more comfortable with, or if there's even some reason to keep the pages that Ilaro and I haven't thought of. Just so we all have a frame of reference, I ran the script on the first 10 pages, so everyone can see how it appears in Recent Changes and on the pages themselves. Specifically, the deletions won't be attributed to a specific user, but instead to "Delete page script", and it will go very, very fast! If people are comfortable with that, I'll go ahead with the remainder; otherwise, I can design a bot job to do it, or keep them, or whatever is preferred.  &ndash;       17:58, 25 March 2019 (UTC)
:Your bot seems like the best idea for it. Any bot could do it, but administrators are the ones who delete files and you're the administrator with a bot. It seems like the best idea to leave the task up to you and have you responsible and accountable for any mistakes, in the event that they happen, since an administration task will be performed. A bot might do it slower than a bulk script, but at the same time, I assume even a delete can be hidden from the Recent Changes page by the fact that it's a bot making the edit (though I don't know for sure as I don't have a bot, so do correct me if I'm wrong), and any users who want to work the Recent Changes page won't have 1100 deletes in a row to see. On the assumption that a bot can have its logged tasks like deletes hidden as a "bot edit". If not, it really doesn't make a difference one way or the other, I suppose. -      &hearts;    18:08, 25 March 2019 (UTC)
:: , but I'd have to double-check on a test wiki to be sure. I'll get back to you on that. (Update: they do indeed get hidden, which makes a fairly compelling argument to do it by bot.)

::Also, contrary to what I said above, I just noticed that the script does have the option to attribute deletions to a specific user, so I would attribute them all to me if we go with the script.  &ndash;       18:13, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

:::Just for clarity, I added all unused audio files that still might be interesting in a sandbox so that they are not in the Unused files page anymore and will not get deleted. I also still have all old files saved, so in the unlikely scenario that one or two of them are still needed somewhere, I can easily reupload them. --Ilaro (talk) 18:27, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

::::If the deletions can all be hidden, then I'm in favor of keeping the RC clean for patrollers and any other users who may want to be there, since the script had its edits shown and there will be a large number of them. And, as I said, I'd prefer that you handle it personally, Rob, since I think an administrator should be in charge of handling the deletions for accountability, since it's an automated task to do administrative maintenance edits. -      &hearts;    18:30, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

:::::Okay, bot job is tested and ready to go. I'll leave this notice up for a full week before I actually run the job, though, since it's effectively a Proposed Deletion tag for 1100 files.  &ndash;       19:13, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

::::::Job is now done.  &ndash;       15:54, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

Patrollers' Access to MediaWiki Space

Many, many years ago, our admin team was lacking in technically skilled people, while there were three patrollers who all had significant knowledge of MediaWiki, so the decision was made to allow patrollers to edit MediaWiki space. That has changed, however, and there are now a few admins who regularly edit MediaWiki space as needed. While some current patrollers have put these rights to good use, there's the concern that even an innocent mistake could cause significant disruption to the wiki. So, I'd like to suggest that we revert that change at this point, and once again make MediaWiki space admin-only. How do people feel about this?  &ndash;       13:25, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
:I support this idea. --AKB   13:44, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

::I don't see the change of circumstance. In the last 30 days, there have been 17 edits in mediawiki space, all but 3 made by Robin. The other 3 were by Ilaro. AKB, you've made a total of 11 edits there in your entire time on the wiki (the edits covering 6 years), your last being last October. Legoless made two edits two years ago, and 10 in total, over 5 years. Dwarfmp made 2 edits in 2012. TRL has made quite a few but only 2 in the last 5 years. Dillon has made 12 edits over '17 and '18, the last last November. Jeancey has never made an edit there. Daveh has made quite a few, the last in December, though I would except him from the count. As a comparison, I have 9 edits to the space. There doesn't appear to be any increase in editing the space, certainly not by admins, and I think this would be a detrimental change considering the number of technically-minded (nevermind actual) admins has not changed by any significant degree to warrant removing the pool of 13 active or semi-active patrollers (from the 56 total patrollers).      19:00, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

:::It's not so much a change of circumstance as just a realization that we don't have a significant need for patrollers to have access to MediaWiki space at this point. While all the edits by Ilaro and other patrollers have been fine, by reducing access to admins only, we limit the opportunities for mistakes or, in the worst case, rogue staff. The number of technically minded admins when we gave patrollers the ability to edit MediaWiki space was zero (depending where you draw the line, of course), where there were three technically minded patrollers (Alfwyn, Jak, and myself). Now, there are two admins that I'm aware of who are programmers, and I think most other admins have varying degrees of comfort in the space as well at this point. So, from that perspective, there's been a fairly significant shift. Coming at it from another direction, there are exactly two active patrollers who have made changes in MediaWiki space. One was Alarra, who made changes to the sidebar; the other was Ilaro's to the site CSS. Both of these were certainly desirable changes, but they weren't urgent, and could easily have waited on an admin to make them.

:::Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to patrollers having permissions in MediaWiki space, but the default is for only admins to have access, and given what could be changed, I think there's a good reason for that.  &ndash;       20:32, 1 April 2019 (UTC)

::::With so little feedback on the issue, I'm not comfortable making a decision either way, so status quo prevails for the time being. Ilaro seems to be making good use of the privileges at the moment in any event. :)  &ndash;       15:12, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

:::::A little late, sorry. I agree with Silencer on this issue though. Unless we start having problems with bad edits from patrollers, there isn't really a need to take away rights that have been there for years. I have a feeling most patrollers who are even aware that namespace exists and that they can edit it know what they are doing or would ask if a change they were making was correct. Mistakes are easy enough to revert. &mdash;Dillonn241 (talk) 02:06, 25 May 2019 (UTC)

Request for UESP email

This may be the wrong place to post, but AKB suggested this as the best place.

I've been working on the UESP Podcast for the past few months now and I'm working on branching it out into other services. I would feel much more comfortable with signing up for things (like Youtube access, and other Podcasting services) using an account that if anything were to happen to myself, the account could be recovered without me. 

As well, requests for interviews and such often work easier coming from an official account versus a random gmail.

Please let me know if this is the best place for this kind of request or not.

Thank you,

--Pylawn (talk) 01:12, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

:Done! -- Daveh   12:09, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

ESO Elsweyr PTS Release (Update 22)

Elsweyr (update 22) is out yesterday on PTS so here's the usual update. Remember that there is an NDA on the main quest.

:* uespLog -- The current release (v1.80) should work for most functions (item mining is slightly broken).
:* Files -- Done!
:* CPs -- Done!
:* Skills -- Done!
:* Skill Coefficients --  Done!
:* Items -- Done!
:* Maps -- Done!
:* Icons -- Done! (re-updated on 26 April)
:* Achievements --
:* Collectibles -- 
:* Alchemy -- Updated! (still doesn't have the correct name/icon for the new potions but the potion effect is updated)

-- Daveh   12:48, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

: Hey Dave, the link to the Files keeps erroring out for me. I'm logged in on the wiki, and I can't get to it from any browser. Is it supposed to be locked in some way e.g. wiki staff only? Or is the link incorrect? Thanks!
: I have a few people on my Guildmaster Discord who would like the icon for the Necromancer class. (I see all the class Skill icons on the Skill Browser, but not the icon for the class itself.)
: --baratron (talk) 18:07, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

::The ESO files doesn't require any login, cookie or anything special. Double-checked it now and it is working fine for me now in Chrome and Firefox. If it still doesn't work for you let me know. -- Daveh   18:26, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

:::It's fine now. The link was incorrect. It didn't have the "pts" after it originally. --baratron (talk) 23:09, 18 April 2019 (UTC)
::::Did spliticons, icons, and icons.diff all get updated today? I'm not seeing new versions in the files, they still all say updated Apr 15 Jeancey (talk) 19:51, 26 April 2019 (UTC)
:::::I don't usually update the files for each PTS patch after the first one. The "icons" section above actually refers to the icons available from esoicons.uesp.net and used by all the various browsers. If you need the updated icon file downloads, however, I can get them for you. -- Daveh   17:42, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

Map Updates

Google has decided to start charging for using their map API even though we don't use any of their map images or features. Right now we're looking at monthly charges over $500 USD which means I'd like to change all the old maps (pre-ESO) to use the newer ESO map code which I wrote from scratch and seems to be working fine for the ESO maps. It should just be a "simple" matter of tweaking the ESO map code to support different game spaces and then exporting the old map databases to new ones. Other than a slight change in UI most users shouldn't notice anything.

I've also made a performance change to the ESO map code which hopefully makes panning/zooming a little smoother. If you run into display issues it let me know. When the updated old maps are ready for testing I'll post updates here. -- Daveh   17:49, 2 May 2019 (UTC)


: Update: The first release of the old maps in the newer map system is now available for testing:
::* Morrowind
::* Oblivion
::* Shivering Isles
::* Skyrim
::* Dragonborn
Some comments and notes on the new maps:
::* Bugs/Performance -- The new maps should be working well. There is still an issue with the map images becoming offset to the locations sometimes. Zooming in/out does not display as well as the old maps but I am working on improving this as much as I can.
::* Search -- Results in the new maps display/work a little differently than the old maps. I'm thinking of keeping more of the old system of display/zooming/moving to a search link.
::* Mobile -- Still needs work/testing to make sure it works well in mobile devices.
::* Links -- The map links to the article and discussion for the map design. If there's a better page for people to request help for the maps let me know.
::* Icons -- Noticed that a few icons are reused for multiple types of locations. If more icons are needed let me know.
::* Edit Permissions -- Edit permissions currently use the ESO map edit permissions for all maps. We can either keep a single edit permission or seperate out by game or by new/old like currently done. I am thinking of a single map edit group/permission unless otherwise requested.
: Got the first bill from Google for June, $1300 USD for 200k map views. This is rather ridiculous so I'd like the change to the new maps to happen by the end of the month (we have free credit until the end of June). As long as the major bugs/issues are taken care of by then I can work on the rest of the minor issues/features later on. So feel free to give any map feature requests along with comments and bug reports. -- Daveh   14:31, 6 June 2019 (UTC)


::List of bugs/suggestions for my reference:
:::*   -- Done! Seems to work ok but due to lack of zooming animation feels a little clunky.
:::*   -- Fixed!
:::* Locations/Images Offset -- Seems to occur more frequently on mobile (but not mobile testing in Chrome).
:::* Zoom In/Out Animations -- 
:::* Slow with Many Locations -- 
:::* Images Not Loading Right Away -- 
:::* Hitting Night/Day When Zoomed In Not Updating All Images -- 
:::* Use Mouse Move Cursor -- On mousedown (or mousedown+mouse move), change the cursor to the move cursor.
:::* Add Interior Maps -- 
:: Note that a full page reload or cache reset may need to be done to see these updates (until I force update the Javascript version in each page). -- Daveh   17:14, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

::::thumb|right|Flooding issueI reviewed the bug reports that were submitted, and besides the currently listed ones, there is "flooding on the Skyrim map", as depicted in the included image when I examined the same area. 
::::A user claimed the location/image offset issue happens on mobile when you use hand gestures to move the map, instead of the button controls. I can't replicate though. --AKB   16:13, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

::::: The flood is also present on the old map  , I assume it's faulty cell image rather than a code bug
::::: I can confirm the image offset issue in mobile (it's the map images that move, and not the location markers) --        15:09, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

  Map Update is Live -- 27 June 2019
I switched all maps to use our code in order to prevent us from being charged for any Google maps usage in July (its free until end of June). I reverted some of the recent performance changes that were causing map layer mismatches on mobile and sometimes desktop. This also disables the cell grid and cell resources in the Skyrim map.  

Map edit permissions will shortly be linked to the "Cartographer". If we need seperate groups for each map let me know. I'll be disabling the old map edit page shortly as well.

I'll be continuing to work on the map improvements over the next month. I did find Leaflet which looks to be a good open source map code and does everything we need. Will consider if migrating to this would be a better option (would probably be less work to migrate and fix most/all of the recent issues/suggestions). -- Daveh   17:57, 27 June 2019 (UTC)

:Skyrim map not working when open  and then zoom to refugees rest - does not show map images on eastern tiles  

::I did some testing, and the "image not loading right away" issue seems to be partially tied to screen resolution. I can reliably recreate this issue on higher screen resolutions. Standard 1080P doesn't have any issue, but bumping it up higher than that and I every time part of the map won't load until I focus on it. --AKB   04:26, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Username Change

Hello, I'd like to change my wiki username to Varchu in place of my current name if I may. Thanks -- Deqath (talk) 06:24, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

:Done. For future reference, with only one edit apart from this one, the usual recommendation is to just create a new account and abandon the old one.  &ndash;       14:47, 3 May 2019 (UTC)

ESO Elsweyr Early Release (Update 22)

Elsweyr (update 22) is out today for early release so here's the usual update.

:* uespLog -- Updated to v1.90.
:* Files -- Done!
:* Skills -- Done!
:* Skill Coefficients -- Done!
:* CPs -- Done!
:* Items -- Done!
:* Maps -- Done!
:* Icons -- Done!
:* Achievements -- Done!
:* Collectibles -- Done!
:* Quest Data -- Done!
:* Book Data -- Done!
:* Recipe Data -- Done!
:* API -- Done!

-- Daveh   13:25, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
: Would you be willing to run a diff against the PTS vs Live, in addition to the diff from v21 to v22? Jeancey (talk) 16:03, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
::I do the ...ptsdiff.txt files but can include a ZIP of the files as well. -- Daveh   16:51, 20 May 2019 (UTC)
:::Great, thanks! Sometimes trying to figure out if there are minor changes in icons and maps is hard without that! We all appreciate the effort you put into this every release! :) Jeancey (talk) 16:53, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

CheckUser Rights for Administrators

First, an explanation for those who aren't familiar: CheckUser rights include the right to view a named user's IP address and to run some basic cross-checks to see if users are using more than one account.

In the very early days, CheckUser and administrative rights were kept separate, as they are on Wikipedia. Initially, only Dave, Aristeo, and Nephele had CheckUser rights and that was just the way things were and nobody worried about it. I think the thinking was that only the most trusted admins should have those rights. Again, this resembled Wikipedia's stance, though it should be noted that admins are a dime a dozen on Wikipedia...not so much here. Back in November 2007, CheckUser rights were given to most or all active admins. I don't see any discussion about it, but I suspect this was to broaden the pool of people who could verify when someone was up to something inappropriate, as there had just been an incident a week or so prior. It also avoids having the situation of admins who are "more equal" than other admins. Since that time, it looks like nearly all admins have been given CheckUser rights the moment they were promoted, but occasionally not. In some cases, this was due to them being temporary admins who were later promoted to full admins, but there have been other cases where I suspect the lack of rights was just an oversight.

It was proposed on Discord earlier that we simply roll CheckUser rights into adminship, so they're given automatically upon promotion. In terms of server administration, this is quite easy to do. It would have the advantage of making sure those rights aren't forgotten in the future, but the potential disadvantage that if we want to have temporary admins again in the future, they'll also get those rights (unless we do additional fiddling with the rights). Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  &ndash;       19:56, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

:Considering there hasn't been an incident (at least so far as I'm aware of) where CheckUser has been abused and considering that there are valid applications for it being used like when a matter arises -- ex. sock-puppetry is an issue we've had a few problems with in the past, or if there's reason to suspect something like a ban might be possibly being evaded by a different account (or maybe in a setting where many users could potentially be on the same network (like a college since many gamers are college/university aged) -- and you want to attempt to see (with probable cause) who may likely be a unique user, then I see no reason with letting it come standard with adminship. Besides, we're so much bigger now that in the event something unforseen were to arise where it could be abused, I'd rather have a large pool of admins who can corroborate on the issue instead of it being limited to a small few number.

:I'm not saying you would ever dream of it, but as an example, let's say only you could do it and you held a grudge against me for whatever stupid reason you can think of for the example. You could say I created some random doppleganger account and was actively using it alongside my Damon account at this very moment. If only you could do it, then if I went to Jeancy or Legoless and said you were lying, they couldn't cross-check and provide a second opinion of their own and your word as the only one to do it has to be accepted as de facto truth, yeah?

:Basically, what I'm getting at is there are practical (but rarer these days compared to older days) reasons where an admin could use that information to handle day to day issues and it won't hurt as a matter of convenience since our current admin staff is trustworthy, and on an accountability and transparency basis I believe letting a larger pool be able to use it to keep each other accountable isn't a bad thing either. -      &hearts;    00:46, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

::Okay, all admins should now have CheckUser rights. This makes the "Check user" role itself redundant for admins, though at least for now, it still exists.  &ndash;       15:55, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

Block Needed (2)

37.233.102.106. Spam.--Rook (talk) 13:09, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

Tab Extension

I previously brought up this topic, but at that time we didn't have the right Mediawiki and PHP versions. However, besides the site upgrade, I found a similar extension that seems the be more versatile, better documented, and was still recently updated. Although I'm not sure how compatible it is with mobile devices, the other one is definitely not. I'm mostly interested in this extension, as it allows for better presentation of images in infoboxes. Any thoughts, additions, or objections? --Ilaro (talk) 09:55, 24 June 2019 (UTC)

:That certainly seems straight-forward enough in terms of installation, and it looks incredibly easy to use. As you say, I can see that being put to use for some of our infoboxes.  &ndash;       03:31, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

::This looks like a useful feature to have for some pages. I can't tell how well it will fit with the rest of the site based on the docs, but it's worth a try. &mdash;Dillonn241 (talk) 17:28, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

:::If I understand correctly, it should make it possible to document things as they should be with the Legends cards in particular. Double cards, transformations and different versions of certain cards cannot be properly implented on one page etc. as of now. So I would like that to be possible, so I vouch for this extension to be added if this is able to make it possible ~  Dwarfmp (talk) 18:11, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

 Done! See  for quick test. -- Daveh   19:38, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

ESO Scalebreaker PTS Release

Scalebreaker (update 23) is now out on the ESO PTS server:

:* uespLog -- Seems to work but haven't fully tested it yet.
:* File Uploads -- Done!
:* Champion Points -- 
:* Skills -- 
:* Skill Coefficients -- Done (not checked yet)!
:* Items -- Done!
:* Icons -- Uploaded! 
:* Maps -- Updated (new locations not yet added)

Note that I'm off on vacation starting tomorrow so it will be a few weeks before I'm back and can update/fix any omissions. -- Daveh   14:41, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Block Request
Hi, I discovered today that I have an older account -  - that I completely forgot about. When creating my current one I did not realize I already had one, and thus I would like to request that my old account be banned. I haven't found anything in the rules about multiple accounts but I'm putting this out here now to avoid any future problems, should someone else discover my mistake.  ElectricVersion (talk)
:This is no issue per WP:CLEANSTART, so you don't have to worry. I don't even really see the need to ban the older almost unused and inaccessible account. Just start editing with your new account and leave the other to collect dust. --Ilaro (talk) 19:58, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

ESO Scalebreaker Release

Scalebreaker (update 23) is now out on the ESO server:

:* uespLog -- Upgrade to v2.00
:* File Uploads -- Done!
:* Champion Points -- Done!
:* Skills -- Done!
:* Skill Coefficients -- Done!
:* Items -- In progress...
:* Icons -- Done!
:* Maps -- Done!
:* Collectibles -- Done!
:* Achievements -- Done!
:* Books -- Done!
:* Quests -- Done!
:* API -- Done!

-- Daveh   13:44, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Block Needed (3)

193.201.224.230. Spambot. --Rook (talk) 14:24, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

:Done. --AKB   15:51, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Cloudflare Image Caching

I started playing around with image caching with Cloudflare last week. Currently the following subdomains are being cached:

:* images.uesp.net -- Wiki images (disabled now)
:* maps.uesp.net -- Map tile images
:* esoicons.uesp.net -- ESO game icons

The last 2 are updated infrequently enough that I can manually clear the Cloudflare cache but the wiki images will probably have some issues when an image is updated. I've disabled the caching for now (may take a few hours to update) until I can figure out how to purge the Cloudflare image cache when images are updated (should be possible). If you notice any other issues that may be related to this let me know! -- Daveh   14:19, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

:Doesn't appear related, but could be. I keep getting an error response when submitting edits. It is frequent but doesn't always appear. The error is "The requested URL could not be retrieved" with the reason being a "Zero Sized Reply", and "squid did not receive any data for this request", generated by "squid1.uesp.net (squid/2.7.STABLE9)". A simple reload of the page suffices to submit the edit and there hasn't been any issues with losing the changes I've made in the meantime.      13:54, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

::I've seen more users reporting this. At least your edits are not lost if you do a hard refresh on the page, but it can be quite annoying while editing.   Ironically got one while saving this comment. --Ilaro (talk) 15:28, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

:::Getting this issue as well, although the image caching is no longer being problematic from my own experiences. --AKB   14:17, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

::::Currently I have Cloudflare only caching the maps and esoicons so it shouldn't be affected Wiki images or the saving issue. -- Daveh   15:18, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

Recent Server Issues

An update on the few recent server issues we've been having:

:* Saving Issue -- Unsure exactly how or why this occurs as I haven't been able to duplicate it myself. I've looked into the error logs and while nothing obvious jumps out at me I've fixed 2 minor issues which may or may not be related so we'll see what happens.
:* Performance Issue at 4am EST -- Originally I thought this was due to cron backup scripts but it looks like it actually happens before the scripts are run and doesn't correspond to anything obvious on the servers. Hard to diagnose since it happens when I'm asleep but will keep trying things.
:* Random Performance Issues -- There have been a couple of "random" performance issues this month. We had a large DOS or some form from Amazon compute servers which I manually blocked and then Squid crashed again which causes an hour or so of issues. Will look into better auto DOS rate limiting solutions as well as if we can move to Varnish or a more recent version of Squid.

If you see other issues or can provide more details on the mentioned issues let me know! -- Daveh   15:23, 27 August 2019 (UTC)

:I made 2 changes which may be useful to know about:
::* Change to how Squid restarts when it Crashes -- This seems to have greatly sped up how long it takes for Squid to restart after a crash reducing the load spike to be much smaller/shorter. Will continue to monitor. Next option is upgrading Squid which I'll look at anyways.
::* Basic DOS Prevention With Fail2Ban -- Installed on all front facing servers (squid1, content1/2/3, files1). Shouldn't interfere will normal browsing but will monitor and see if it catches any DOS attempts. -- Daveh   20:15, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

::Update on the recent changes intended to improve uptime and response time:
:::* Tweaked some of the fail2ban DOS protection to stop it from getting false hits. Will still monitor and adjust as needed. Note that ban time is only set at 5 minutes so an accidental trigger won't last long.
:::* Added some additional Zabbix monitors to track server response time and alert if any get too long.
:::* Created an external site status check from uptime.com publically available at  or  people can check to see if there are any know issues.
:: -- Daveh   14:43, 10 September 2019 (UTC)

MediaWiki Upgrade 1.26

I'd like to upgrade the Wiki software to v1.26 sometime in the next few weeks. The dev server is running v1.26 now with my upgrade notes available at . This seems to be a relatively simple upgrade with no obvious issues but let me know if you find anything. Still have a few things I need to test/check myself. -- Daveh   20:17, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

:I haven't usually been updating dev with configuration and extension changes—got out of the habit when we didn't have dev for a while—so if you haven't done so, you may want to copy those files over to dev to be sure we have the latest and we're not reverting changes to the main servers when we upgrade.  &ndash;       21:59, 29 August 2019 (UTC)

::I'll double-check now and just before the update goes live (whenever that is). -- Daveh   15:23, 30 August 2019 (UTC)

Upgrade Scheduled for 25 September at 10:00 am EST
I'd like to do the upgrade this week to get it done and move on the next (larger) upgrade. There should be no downtime/read only time unless something goes wrong. Look for updates here as the upgrade occurs. -- Daveh   19:03, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

:Upgrade starting soon. -- Daveh   14:04, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
:Database update done! -- Daveh   14:16, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
:Done! -- Daveh   14:20, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

New Features
This is a bit of a non-post, really, because there are no notable new features in 1.26—this version was mostly about internal changes. The only two things that people might remotely be interested in are:
There's an additional line in the   ("Number of page watchers who visited recent edits") that gives an estimate of how many people are actively watching a page, as opposed to people who have a page in their watchlist, but no longer look at it. This number counts people who have the page on their watchlist and who have also visited the page within the last 60 days (at least with our current settings...the duration can be changed). Some wikis disable this or set minimum watchers to a higher number as a security feature to prevent bots from targetting less-watched pages. I personally don't see this as an issue, given how good our spam detection is, but if it becomes one, we can change how things work.
Colons are now explicitly forbidden in new user names, though older names that include them will still work.  &ndash;       21:01, 25 September 2019 (UTC)

Post Upgrade Issues
Post any issues you think may be related to the upgrade below.
   &ndash;       03:27, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
: I've gotten this working on Content3, though I'm not convinced it's the best way, so I've bumped it back to Dave to take a look at, since he's more familiar with PHP and MediaWiki in general than I am. If he can't find a better way to do it (or doesn't have time to look into it right now), I'll put my changes through to the main servers in the next 24-48 hours.  &ndash;       00:19, 28 September 2019 (UTC)
::Dave did indeed come up with a better method, so I've implemented the new UespVector on content3. We had a bizarre hiccup that neither of us can explain, though, so before I roll it out to the main servers, can I ask everyone to click on this link (content3's main page using the UespVector skin) and report back if content3 suddenly crashes or does anything else concerning. If all goes well with that, I'll roll this out to the main servers tomorrow (no, honestly, tomorrow, not almost a week later :P).  &ndash;       01:54, 5 October 2019 (GMT)
:::UESP Vector is now up and running on all servers.  &ndash;       20:40, 5 October 2019 (GMT)

  For example  works fine, but looking for Bloody Hand Tribe in the searchbar will move me to the top of the  page. – Ilaro (talk) 08:10, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
:For me, it's not just searching that's the problem, it's every section-redirect, including Ilaro's example and the one I just looked up, Draw Knife. If I go to the redirect page and click on the redirect link itself, though, it works fine. Notably, the URL itself is correct and the page will jump to the correct spot if you refresh.  &ndash;       07:52, 28 September 2019 (UTC)
::Having the same issue. —Legoless (talk) 14:18, 28 September 2019 (UTC)
:::This should be fixed now, though it may require a hard refresh. It was a known problem at the time on MediaWiki and they worked around it in 1.27. Some browsers always redirected correctly while others didn't. What I don't understand it why this worked fine in 1.25, as the code appears to be the same to me.   I replaced the relevant section of the code with the fix from latest version of MediaWiki and everything appears to work properly once again.  &ndash;       04:19, 29 September 2019 (UTC)

  Never noticed that this only showed up on talk pages and the AN is not a talk page. – Ilaro (talk) 08:10, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
: You never noticed it before because that's a new feature. When I read that in the list of changes, I didn't think anything of it, but we're using Project (UESPWiki) space for talk-like pages. That's easy enough to change, though, so you should start seeing the signature button for AN again in the next few minutes. If there are any other non-talk namespaces that should be added, let us know here.  &ndash;       10:50, 27 September 2019 (UTC)

I don't know if it's directly related to the upgrade or a one-off error for me since it's the first time I've checked the wiki in the last many days and it hasn't yet been reported. In any case, since server people are watching this space, I wanted to mention that on the Main Page just a couple minutes ago and some random article from earlier (can't remember exactly which) I had errors loading all of the thumbnails on the page (reference image). For the Main Page in particular, I reloaded a couple of times and then eventually just used   to clear out the page cache. That resolved the issue for me. Again, I have no idea if this is related to the update the other day, some other server-side issue, or if it was something that just randomly affected me on two occasions today, but I wanted to point it out just in case it was something that should have been looked at. -      &hearts;    03:59, 1 October 2019 (UTC)
::I suspect this is just a small hiccup of the image server or some caching issue as a normal purge worked fine to fix it. --Ilaro (talk) 07:24, 1 October 2019 (UTC)

ESO Dragonhold  PTS Release

Dragonhold (update 24) is now out on the ESO PTS server:

:* uespLog -- Seems to work but haven't fully tested it yet.
:* File Uploads -- Done!
:* Champion Points -- Done!
:* Skills -- Done!
:* Skill Coefficients -- Done and a few bad ones fixed.
:* Items -- Done!
:* Icons -- Done!
:* Maps -- Uploaded (needs locations to be added and maps linked)

-- Daveh   13:18, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

PHP 5.6 Upgrade

I'll be upgrading PHP to 5.6 on content1/2/3 slowly over the next week or so in preparation for future MediaWiki upgrades. All of our major software already supports PHP 5.6 so I don't expect any major issues but wouldn't be surprised if there's some older PHP files on the site somewhere that might break.

Look for updates here and post any potential issues as you find them. -- Daveh   17:05, 3 October 2019 (UTC)

:* Content1 upgraded -- Daveh   19:20, 3 October 2019 (UTC)
:* Content2 upgraded -- Daveh   19:38, 3 October 2019 (GMT)
:* Content3 upgraded -- Daveh   18:26, 4 October 2019 (GMT)

Issues

:*   -- This was due to the compiled module wikidiff2 not being installed on the new PHP 5.6. This has now been fixed. -- Daveh   14:51, 4 October 2019 (GMT)

:*   -- Appears to be missing from the GD module unless the "bundled" version is used or compiled manually. For now replaced it with an empty function in esoCommon.php. -- Daveh   20:06, 4 October 2019 (GMT)

:* EQ Wiki -- This wiki on content1 needs to be upgraded to fix some strict/deprecated warnings. 
:* Dave Wiki -- This wiki on content3 needs to be upgraded to fix some strict/deprecated warnings. 
:* Oblivion Alchemy Calculator -- Many warnings from this site need to be looked at.
:*   -- Change mysql to mysqli functions in older getmaplocs.php and setmaplocs.php. Don't forget the TR map which is outside of source control. -- Daveh   20:06, 4 October 2019 (GMT)

Special:Patrol Broken

Dillon pointed out on Discord earlier that Special:Patrol is broken. It seems like it would've been broken since at least our latest update—maybe even longer—and nobody's even noticed it until now. I seem to have fixed it on Content3, although that's a bit tentative. The oldest version of the extension that I could find was nominally for MW 1.27, but that was still using the same functions that broke on our MW 1.26 wiki. So, either their version numbering doesn't match the MediaWiki releases, or they were releasing a pre-broken extension for several years without noticing they were using out-of-date functions. That seems highly unlikely, and it's left me rather confused and unsure of what on earth is going on there.

Coming back to the point, though, does anyone actually use this extension? If not, then we're probably better off simply removing it altogether, rather than trying to figure out the version mess.  &ndash;       18:52, 19 October 2019 (GMT)

:I've never personally used the page, if we have a fix on content 3 so long as this fix doesn't otherwise make anything else worse i'd say just apply the fix.    21:59, 19 October 2019 (GMT)

::I'm not sure when, or if this was intentional, but the page appears to function again...    04:39, 4 December 2019 (GMT)

:::I don't remember the specifics at this point, but I had fixed it on Content3, but I never copied it to the main server because there was something I was unsure of. In preparing for our next upgrade to 1.27, Dave found my fixes and decided they were fine, so he copied them to the main servers. So yes, Special:Patrol now works again.  &ndash;       05:11, 4 December 2019 (GMT)

ESO Dragonhold Release

:* uespLog -- Updated to v2.10.
:* File Uploads -- Done!
:* Skills - Updated!
:* CP - Updated!
:* Skill Coef - Updated and checked!
:* Icons/Images - Update (mostly)
:* Items - Done!
:* Maps - Updated!
:* Achievements -- Done!
:* Collectibles -- Done!
:* Quest Data -- Done!
:* Book Data -- Done!
:* Recipe Data -- Done!
:* API -- Done!

-- Daveh   20:35, 21 October 2019 (GMT)

Spam filter problem

I'm trying to create a new discussion in  and keep getting my edit blocked by the spam filter, which says that I'm trying to include a link to a Wikipedia page, even though my edit contains no such link. Is there a known issue with this? --Xyzzy     18:03, 28 November 2019 (GMT)

:Here's the message I get:

:     The page you wanted to save was blocked by the spam filter. This is probably caused by a link to an external site.

:If the filter has blocked a legitimate, non-spam edit, post a notice on the Administrator Noticeboard stating what word or website was blocked (as long as the word is not part of a URL you can enter it on a page) and why you need to add a link using that word/website. If an administrator agrees that the blacklist is preventing a legitimate edit, the blacklist will be modified as necessary.

:    The following text is what triggered our spam filter: google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=

:This link does not appear in my edit, even when I preview it.

--Xyzzy     18:08, 28 November 2019 (GMT)

::That link was existent on the page further up, i've changed that link to be an internal wiki link instead which will allow you to now make the edit. Although, the question remains - is this how the spam filter is intended to work?    18:19, 28 November 2019 (GMT)

:::Thank you, Kiz. --Xyzzy     18:59, 28 November 2019 (GMT)

::::It took me quite a while to figure out what was going on here because the SpamBlacklist code is actually silently loading a common blacklist from off-site. That blacklist forbids any Google searches (regardless of language variant) that end in "url?", since those can be used to redirect directly to a URL, thus bypassing most other types of filtering. Unfortunately, Spam Blacklist isn't terribly configurable, so short of ignoring the common list altogether, there's not a lot we can do about it. It might be possible to whitelist those URLs, but given the potential danger, it's probably better that we don't.  &ndash;       20:20, 28 November 2019 (GMT)

:::::Probably best to leave it alone then, just strange how that link got in the first place I suppose.    20:32, 28 November 2019 (GMT)

UESP 2020 Calendar Giveaways!

As a small thank-you to all our admins and editors we are giving away 2020 calendars composed of fan submitted screenshots. All site admins (wiki admins, forum admins, discord admins, guild officers, etc...) are entitled to one calendar. To claim just enter your real name/address along with your wiki account name on the mailing form.

For non-admins, if you've edited the wiki at anytime during 2019 you can enter a random drawings for just wiki editors...just enter your e-mail and UESP wiki account name in the contest form. 

You can see what the calendar looks like here. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the UESP!-- Daveh   21:12, 2 December 2019 (GMT)