News/2008 Archive

Recent updates
* **Current News**

2008 updates
* Friday 21st of November  (talk)
* Monday 17th of November  (talk)
* Tuesday 30th of September  (talk)
* Thursday 18th of September  (talk)
* Thursday 11th of September  (talk)
* Saturday 28th of June  (talk)
* Tuesday 27th of May  (talk)
* Monday 12th of May  (talk)
* Thursday 17th of January  (talk)
* Monday 14th of January  (talk)
* Monday 7th of January  (talk)

**This is an Archive of the news from 2008. Please do not edit it.**

## Breaking up with Razer

Sponsor contract with Razer has been terminated due to unpaid bills. We have hosted their banners for 2 months basically for free. And without response to any of our emails there is nothing else to do but to remove banners and terminate sponsorship contract.

We are looking for another sponsorship partner.

## Problem, 2008 11 17

You've probably noticed over the past few hours the site has been running slow and PvXbig isn't working properly. It appears that the server has been acting up. Unfortunately both of our server side admins haven't come on yet for the day. As such you just have to remain patient, if we're lucky it might be temporary (for what ever reason). If not, we just have to wait it out until either Hhippo or GCardinal come on to have a look.  **~ PheNaxKian** **Sysop** 17:38, 17 November 2008 (EST)

### Diablo 3 Wiki is online!

We have started this Diablo 3 Wiki. The free Diablo 3 info source anyone can edit!

### Build database

Unlike other Diablo wiki's we will focus on Diablo 3 only (*not other versions*). Build database (*if such will be possible in game and needed*) will be implemented as soon as game enters beta stage.

### Free and independent

Diablo 3 Wiki will be absolutely independent both when it come to content and admins. Admins are voted by community and content can not be controlled by game makers or anyone except the Community!

### Help us!

We hope you can us with making of Diablo 3 Wiki! Interested in becoming admin? Email me at admin<[@]>gcardinal.com

## PvX Forum

A strong community is vital to the success of PvXwiki; pretty obvious, right? Unfortunately, too often, people fail to make a distinction between chatting with other users on their talk pages and outright trolling which tends to distract from the wiki as a whole (not to mention that wikis aren't designed to handle large, fast paced "conversations"). With that in mind, we've decided to try a little "experiment." The <<< DELETED >>> is essentially a (generally) un-moderated area in which PvX users can have those same conversations without the drawbacks. We're expecting that people will take advantage of the Forum (i.e. that people will stop having these conversations on PvXwiki), so enforcement on user talk pages may increase.

## PvXwiki got hacked

### What happened?!

Due to a big security hole some 3rd party got access to out MySQL backup utility. It has been used to run simultaneously restores in order to crash the MySQL DB. And they did succeed with that.

But since we had nearly daily backups it wasn't a problem by it self. We could just restore. However, whoever did crash the DB also deleted all DB backups and snapshots. The latest backup admins had downloaded and stored was from 23.08.2008. So the only option was to use that DB to restore PvXwiki...

Since this server has RAID and runs on ext3 it is nearly impossible to restore deleted files. In theory it is possible - but it would require several days or weeks offline time.

### Sorry

Hhhippo and I are deeply sorry, as much as we possibly can be. After all security of this website is our responsibility. I just hope you guys will understand and forgive us for this mistake...

### Actions

We will setup an external backup solution using our hosting provider iWeb.ca - it has a dedicated person who will check the server and backups every day. They will be stored and copied to safe locations etc. It cost a lot - but it is the only way to ensure this that this wont happen again.

Again, we are sorry!..

gcardinal 15:16, 11 September 2008 (EDT)

## Innovation ratings

The innovation ratings no longer count to the overall rating of a build, which is now composed of 80% Effectiveness and 20% Universality. This takes effect immediately and includes also all votes submitted before the change. See PvXwiki\_talk:Real\_Vetting for details.

## The Clear tag

Lately, it seems more and more people are using multiple consecutive <br> tags to format their userpage, or are making userboxes and leaving them with no special formatting afterwards. The former has the problem of not adapting to later changes to the page; the latter has the more serious problem of disrupting the flow of text and moving section headers around. Fortunately, a simple solution to both exists: Template:Clear. Usage notes have been added to that page.

## In re Trolls

PvXwiki has, as I'm sure many people are aware, experienced a steady increase in the amount of trolling and disruptive behavior. However, the Admin team has largely turned a blind eye to such activity. After all, generally speaking, there's no harm in letting people have their fun. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly more difficult to ignore the deluge of trolling that pervades PvX. There's a difference between harmless trolling and "We're gonna flood RCs trolling." Even then, were people willing to contain their trolling solely to user talk pages and use Minor Edit we might have been able to continue to ignore it. Lamentably, this has not been the case. Indeed, that "harmless" trolling has increasingly become the source of NPA violations, 1RV violations, and general wiki-drama. Yes, we want to allow people to have fun, but when that fun begins to have an increasingly deleterious effect on the Wiki and the community an appropriate response has to be developed and it has gotten to the point where the Admins are essentially left with two options: make a decision to ignore the trolling once and for all or ban the offenders. Yes, we're never going to be able to eradicate all of the inane/elitist behavior that goes on on PvX, nor would we necessarily want to, but we do want to make an attempt to improve the community.

If I thought that posting this note would be enough to quell even a fraction of the trolling that goes on on PvX, this would be the end of the message, but I don't and this isn't. For all the trolls on this wiki, inveterate or otherwise, consider this a **final warning.** From this point forward, disruptive trolling (i.e. trolling which has a deleterious impact -- to be left to the discretion of the Sysops) will result in a **permanent ban.** Furthermore, Sysops are vested with the authority to protect the offender's talk page from non-Admin edits (to prevent further trolling). Finally, Sysops are authorized to revert on sight any edits made by sockpuppets of the offender and to ban the sockpuppet.

## Informal Discussion Begins Regarding PvXwiki2

I'm sure that some people are aware that ArenaNet has lost no time in creating a Wiki to document Guild Wars 2. For us at PvX, this raises the inevitable question of where GW2 builds will be stored. I for one would like to see a second PvXwiki -- while we may not have earned the best reputation, I hope few people would disagree that we've done a better job than GuildWiki did. One of the problems however was that we started too late. While a a lot of people on this site may simply enjoy discussing builds for the sake of doing so, the only people who genuinely *need* all of the content that we have to offer are those who are either new to the game or perhaps those who are new to PvP.

Guild Wars 2 presents us with a golden opportunity however. When a game first comes out, particularly during open beta, there are no established builds. People may, via theorycraft, decide that a particular skill is good simply because they can recognize its value, but it's a stage during which everyone is learning. The key to a successful PvXwiki2 is to establish ourselves as the place to go to discuss all of those new develops as they are occurring in the context of build creation. It won't last forever of course, but if we can establish a strong reputation from the beginning and get more people involved, we can build a strong community from the start.

As the header indicates, all the discussion so far regarding a PvXwiki2 has been very informal. However, I was spurred to create this news item by a couple of conversations I had on MSN Messenger regarding the possible future of PvXwiki in regards to GW2. We were bandying about a couple ideas about how to make the site successful, among other things a strong relationship with GW2W (which will obviously see tons of traffic when GW2 first comes out) were mentioned, but I wanted to give everyone, Admins and users alike a chance to get involved in a discussion to plan (in a very rudimentary and even theoretical manner) how to best establish ourselves (assuming we plan to do so).

The theoretical goal of a "BuildWiki" should be to originate the meta. While this is largely impossible, we do have an impact on Guild Wars, and when Guild Wars 2 comes out, we'll have an opportunity to possibly come much closer to achieving that goal. And if we manage to do so with reasonable success, we'll have a much brighter future (and hopefully a much improved reputation).

So, any comments related to the formation of a PvXwiki2 (I believe Gcardinal may have registered a domain name for this eventuality), the best ways to promote such a site, the best ways to prepare, anything along those lines should be posted on the talk page.

## News - 14 January 2008

### Build Master Policy Implemented

Our Build Master Policy has been implemented! Votes from Build Masters are weighted twice as much as standard votes, and BMs can also remove bad votes.

Congratulations to our first three buildmasters: Pluto, Skakid9090, and Unexist!

To get involved in the Build Master Selection process, go to PvXwiki:Requests for Build Master Status.

## News - 01 January 2008

### ArenaNet ignores our website

For some very strange reason I have completely failed to get pvxwiki added to http://www.guildwars.com/community/fansites/

I have emailed them like 6 times, from different accounts including admin@pvxwiki.com - with no luck what so ever.

They don't even want to respond? And what is so special with pvxwiki so it cant be added to fansite roster?

What kinda of community support is that?

As of http://www.guildwars.com/community/fansites/program/ we can get Elite or Specialty fan site position.

I think it is important to let the community know about this issue. gcardinal 04:39, 7 January 2008 (EST)