User talk:Porplemontage/Archive 3

current talk page

Archives

1. 1
2. 2

Uncollapsed-border table styles

Have any internal .css files been changed recently? I just noticed that certain tables with border-collapse:separate no longer have the expected white space between (the borders of) each cell (history diffs, Template:MaintenanceLinks) but others still do (Template:MeleeTiers), and everything looks as expected outside IE9. Toomai Glittershine The Brass 18:14, 18 September 2012 (EDT)

Nothing has changed and Template:MaintenanceLinks has the white spaces on my IE9. --Porplemontage (talk) 18:36, 18 September 2012 (EDT)

<youtube> and <choose>

How were these tags set up in the server? LightningBlue 23:08, 29 September 2012 (EDT)

RandomSelection and YouTube extensions. --Porplemontage (talk) 23:12, 29 September 2012 (EDT)

Lockout

How long until the site is unlocked for everyone else? Air Conditioner My edit count 17:45, 23 November 2012 (EST)

The DNS changes have been made and now we're just waiting for them to propagate. Should start working for most within a few hours and hopefully we'll be back to normal by tomorrow morning. Thanks for bearing with me on this; I know it's a pain and it's not something I'll be making a habit of. --Porplemontage (talk) 18:03, 23 November 2012 (EST)

The only real pain with this was how no one was informed beforehand (publicly on any of your wikis, as far as I could tell) it would be happening. For something like a server move I would expect you would be able to tell people you were going to do it at such-and-such time and it might take a day or two to resolve. Toomai Glittershine The Victorious 10:13, 24 November 2012 (EST)

Sorry about that. The initial plan was to get it done overnight so most people wouldn't notice, but it ended up taking way longer than I expected. I've learned a lot in this process and for next time there will be a system of announcements and updates in place. Thank you to everyone for being patient and putting up with this. At least now that it's done we got a nice server upgrade and hopefully we won't have to do this again for a very long time. --Porplemontage (talk) 14:37, 24 November 2012 (EST)

So what's this now then

Okay, so we moved to 1.20, that's nice and all. Why did that result in Monobook being infected with a bunch of Vector styling for things like the edit box and history diffs? Toomai Glittershine The Interspacial 08:47, 10 December 2012 (EST)

The edit box can be turned off in your preferences; the diffs are just the new 1.20 diffs. --Porplemontage (talk) 12:19, 10 December 2012 (EST)

Yo

Can you move Target Smash!! to Target Smash!, please? DoctorPain99 23:17, 8 February 2013 (EST)

Adding usernames to the automatic ban list

Can you add ALLAH, GOD, PARADISE, HEAVEN, and all variations (lower case and reverse spellings) to said ban list? MegaTron1XD 02:00, 3 March 2013 (EST)

Ok. --Porplemontage (talk) 02:14, 3 March 2013 (EST)

For your information

Since the thumbnailer was crashing when I was trying to work with "File:OilPanic..jpg" (note the double dot), I moved it to File:Oil Panic Melee.jpg. It then coughed up this:

Warning: unlink(/home/ssbwiki/public_html/images/thumb/d/d4/Oil_Panic..jpg/120px-Oil_Panic..jpg) [<a href='function.unlink'>function.unlink</a>]: Permission denied in /home/ssbwiki/public_html/includes/filebackend/FSFileBackend.php on line 393

Warning: unlink(/home/ssbwiki/public_html/images/thumb/d/d4/Oil_Panic..jpg/180px-Oil_Panic..jpg) [<a href='function.unlink'>function.unlink</a>]: Permission denied in /home/ssbwiki/public_html/includes/filebackend/FSFileBackend.php on line 393

Warning: unlink(/home/ssbwiki/public_html/images/thumb/d/d4/Oil_Panic..jpg/200px-Oil_Panic..jpg) [<a href='function.unlink'>function.unlink</a>]: Permission denied in /home/ssbwiki/public_html/includes/filebackend/FSFileBackend.php on line 393

Just in case this is important somehow. Toomai Glittershine The Eggster 09:13, 9 March 2013 (EST)

Got it, thanks. --Porplemontage (talk) 10:04, 9 March 2013 (EST)

Search is borked

A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was:

(SQL query hidden)

from within function "SearchMySQL::searchInternal". Database returned error "145: Table './ssbwiki_wiki/searchindex' is marked as crashed and should be repaired (localhost)".

Occurs whenever what's being searched for does not have a page or redirect. Toomai Glittershine The Undirigible 15:16, 13 April 2013 (EDT)

Fixed. Thank you for reporting this error. --Porplemontage (talk) 16:44, 13 April 2013 (EDT)

Extensions question

I have an ambitious idea in mind, but I don't want to get too far into it if the foundation is infeasible. The concept hinges on having two extensions:

• Extension:Variables
• Extension:Loops
  • In addition, ExtLoops::$maxLoops would need to be higher than the default 100 (the idea wouldn't involve hitting 100 loops very often, but it will a few times). 250 might be okay but to be sure I would prefer 500 or even 1000 (assuming that -1 for unrestrained is infeasible).

I'm not currently asking to install these extensions right now; I'd just like to know if you have a problem with either of them. Toomai Glittershine The Chronicler 15:38, 22 April 2013 (EDT)

May I ask what you'd like to use them for? My concern is similar to here - using a lot of nested loops and CPU usage when it's not really necessary or there's a less-intensive way to get it done (even if it does make it less-convenient). --Porplemontage (talk) 19:32, 22 April 2013 (EDT)

The main premise of the idea is to use looping to display rows of icons (or possibly simple templates to choose such icons). For example: displaying 8 red squares, 3 yellow squares, and 15 red squares all in a row. There would be no loop nesting; I may create a wrapper template for the loop code.

The idea can work without these extensions, but this would involve manually counting the code for dozens of icons. We could also use subst: so that we can use loops to edit and preview but then not use loops once saved; I'm not a fan of this approach but it can be done if necessary. Toomai Glittershine The Chilled 22:59, 22 April 2013 (EDT)

Ok, I'm fine with installing the extensions whenever. --Porplemontage (talk) 00:40, 23 April 2013 (EDT)

Alright, given how the idea is turning out positive, I'd like to have these two extensions put in now so I can create on-site proofs of concept. Toomai Glittershine The Chronicler 11:50, 4 May 2013 (EDT)

They are now installed. --Porplemontage (talk) 12:18, 4 May 2013 (EDT)

While the vast majority of relevant pages don't need more than 100 loops, some apparently require an absolute minimum of 498 loops. Please increase ExtLoops::$maxLoops. Toomai Glittershine The Superlative 20:29, 7 July 2013 (EDT)

Ok. --Porplemontage (talk) 21:11, 7 July 2013 (EDT)

Regarding Wikitroid

Hi Porple, we've probably never met before. My name's Roy. I'm also a user over on Wikitroid, and the admins are seriously considering a fork away from Wikia. However, despite considering it, they're not planning to merge with NIWA and instead want to fork to their own servers. I just wanted to ask you if Wikitroid could potentially become an affiliate of NIWA even if you have your own Metroid wiki. Thanks, --RoyboyX Talk 20:27, 6 May 2013 (EDT)

Whether Wikitroid can join NIWA is a question for the Metroid Wiki community; they are the ones with the right to allow or veto a member that covers their ground. Toomai Glittershine The Wacko 22:27, 6 May 2013 (EDT)

Hey buddy, I think you should be careful. While I think this question may be okay, I know that your discussing of Wikitroid forking is a bit...frowned upon back over there. I just don't want you to get yourself in trouble. DoctorPain99 00:38, 7 May 2013 (EDT)

This isn't Royboy's proposal, this is an independent wiki created by the admins on Wikitroid. Mr. Anontalk 11:16, 7 May 2013 (EDT)

Pre-2011 contributions

Hello Porplemontage! I was sent here by Toomai regarding on an issue with my contributions page. It only goes up to 2011 but it does not show my contributions before the SSB Wiki was formed. Magiciandude (talk) 22:50, 8 June 2013 (EDT)

It looks like the way MediaWiki handles this is that it only assigns the old contributions to you if you were registered before the import occurred. At least this means that new users can't hijack edits from unregistered veteran users. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. --Porplemontage (talk) 08:35, 9 June 2013 (EDT)

Frame bars and resolutions

You appear to have a very strong opinion as to frame bars being no more than ~680px long. The sidebar is about 170px wide, meaning your total max desired page width is about 850px. According to these statistics, over 90% of people use screens larger than 1024px wide (which might be lower in general since that's a tech-ish site but will also be higher because that was in January). I assume you have resolution statistics for this site specifically that suggest we have a reasonable amount of people using lower-end monitors? Toomai Glittershine The Jiggy 17:23, 19 July 2013 (EDT)

It's not just monitors, though. Mobile phones, tablets, and game consoles typically render the page at 1024 pixels wide. About 28% of visits come from a mobile OS, and then add the people with low monitors and it's probably about a third. These people shouldn't have to get the horizontal scroll where the page looks funky. --Porplemontage (talk) 18:35, 19 July 2013 (EDT)

Removing youtu.be links from the spam filter

Hi, can you remove links with youtu.be from the spam filter? I don't see how these links are particularly susceptible to spamming to merit blocking them, and it complicates linking to youtube videos on the wiki. Omega Tyrant 04:40, 11 August 2013 (EDT)

Ok. --Porplemontage (talk) 05:02, 11 August 2013 (EDT)

Yo

Other NIWA staff members (spefically this guy) have inormed me to let you know that urls are to be changed to /wiki/$1 all across NIWA. If you have more questions/concerns/complaints, ask him. DoctorPain99 22:42, 14 August 2013 (EDT)

If you're going to do that, ensure that the current link style at least redirects to said new style, or a ton of offwiki links will break. Toomai Glittershine The Yoshi 22:58, 14 August 2013 (EDT)

I don't intend to make the change. NIWA is a network of independent wikis and doesn't mandate such policies. There's no need to make our URL's redundant (ssbwiki.com/wiki/... ok) and longer for no reason. Lylat Wiki should fix DKWiki's interwiki link. --Porplemontage (talk) 23:20, 14 August 2013 (EDT)

Minor Search Issue

Entering the letter é as part of a search term seems to make all the auto-fill suggestions disappear, despite it being used in several articles. I don't know if the search behaves this way with other accented letters. JamesHeart 22:49, 29 August 2013 (EDT)

Fixed it; thanks for the report! --Porplemontage (talk) 13:38, 30 August 2013 (EDT)

Extension:UserMerge

I know we had this at some point, so we had the option of merging sockpuppets and accidental multiple accounts (see the MeleeFan98 section here), but it seems to be gone now. What's up with that? Toomai Glittershine The Chilled 18:29, 30 September 2013 (EDT)

I just worry about that extension being abused or mishandled since it's irreversible, so I'm more comfortable keeping it disabled when it's not needed. It's back now. --Porplemontage (talk) 18:48, 30 September 2013 (EDT)

Also, do you know if deleting Category:Stickied threads would break the forum system? RoyboyX Talk 18:35, 30 September 2013 (EDT)

No, it can be deleted. --Porplemontage (talk) 18:48, 30 September 2013 (EDT)

Caps and game-based redirects

Usually when searching for some, one has the freedom to not get the case exactly right and the searchbar would get it right even if it were a redirect. However, I just noticed that redirects like Megaman (SSB4) and Sonic the Hedgehog (SSBB) only bring the searcher to the correct page if the case is exactly right, which is a problem mostly for StH since a user might capitalize the T. This only seems true for the fighter pages though, as something like Sonic the hedgehog still works even if all letters are capital, so it's likely just the parentheses messing it up. JamesHeart 13:41, 1 October 2013 (EDT)

For whatever reason, MediaWiki gets picky with all-capital "words" such as SSB4 and won't catch the redirect page. A page called Megaman (ssb4) would work if the user entered uppercase or lowercase in the search bar, but Megaman (SSB4) only catches if they search uppercase. It's a MediaWiki issue and I'll mention it to MediaWiki. --Porplemontage (talk) 14:05, 1 October 2013 (EDT)

Thank you. I'll mention this to Toomai on IRC the next time I see him in case MediaWiki can't do anything about it. JamesHeart 14:09, 1 October 2013 (EDT)

Lock down SmashWiki

If the attack is still going on by the time you get this, lock down SmashWiki until we have reason to believe the spam attack that's going on has stopped. We should also isolate an IP address and report it to an internet service provider to shut this thing down. RoyboyX Talk 20:34, 28 December 2013 (EST)

It's back to normal now. MarioWiki has been dealing with this vandal since February, and a range block should take care of it. --Porplemontage (talk) 21:08, 28 December 2013 (EST)

Recent stuff

I'm probably going to come across as antagonistic here, but I feel that I have to ask for an explanation: How come, for an hour-long editing outage across multiple wikis that provided users with a misleading error message, there was no hint that maintenance would be taking place? Toomai Glittershine The Spectrum 19:05, 20 May 2014 (EDT)

Maintenance was not taking place - there was a problem with the server. I apologize for the inconvenience it caused. The real issue is that I was unaware anything was broken - I check the sites a lot to make sure there are no issues but it's obviously impossible to monitor everything 24/7. I have stuff like automatic downtime alerts setup to go to my email, but that doesn't work if the site is up and something else is wrong. Next time please email me (porplemontage at gmail), message me on NIWA, tweet at me - anything that will set off a notification on my phone so I get the message and can start fixing it right away. Any time I do maintenance that would disrupt the site it's always at like 4am EST when we have the least amount of traffic. --Porplemontage (talk) 19:34, 20 May 2014 (EDT)

Okay understood; I thought I saw you on WhosOnline so I figured you were already doing something, so I didn't go through any of those channels. Toomai Glittershine The Xanthic 20:12, 20 May 2014 (EDT)

Mobile site issues

I tried accessing the site from my mobile today, which is where I used to access the site all the time (I only recently aquired a laptop). Suddenly I was bombareded with constant popups every time I loaded a page. Something to look into. I'd give you a list of some of the ads (they were pretty varied), but I tried using the site again just now and the ads stopped showing up. ♡FirstaLasto♥ 11:32, 28 May 2014 (EDT)

The only ads are Google AdSense banners. --Porplemontage (talk) 13:13, 28 May 2014 (EDT)

Do they cause popups on mobile? I've never even seen ads on the site, mobile or otherwise, and it's weird that it only happened today. ♡FirstaLasto♥ 13:34, 28 May 2014 (EDT)

Only if you click on them. --Porplemontage (talk) 13:36, 28 May 2014 (EDT)

Well, I didn't click on any ads (since none showed up aside from the popups). I hope the mobile site hasn't been compromised somehow. ♡FirstaLasto♥ 16:13, 28 May 2014 (EDT)

The site is the exact same from any device - there is no "mobile site." --Porplemontage (talk) 16:45, 28 May 2014 (EDT)

Huh. I have no idea, then. It was weird. ♡FirstaLasto♥ 18:06, 28 May 2014 (EDT)

Currently on my phone, getting these popups again. The domain is adcash I think. Can android phones get viruses? If so, sorry for bothering you about this, cuz its probably that (dunno why it only ever happen on this site, though, nor how i got a virus when prior to yesterday I hadnt used my phones internet in a few days). ♡FirstaLasto♥ 08:41, 29 May 2014 (EDT)

Liquipedia

Apparently Liquipedia is claiming they have partnered with us. Was anything said about Liquipedia in the emails you exchanged with Alex of MLG? Omega Tyrant 09:25, 24 June 2014 (EDT)

Nope, no other sites were discussed. --Porplemontage (talk) 09:54, 24 June 2014 (EDT)

Malware

Hello. I've been using the Smash Wiki for awhile now, and upon clicking the icon in the top left corner, I'm brought to a pop-up half the time. Is there anything on the wiki itself that would have caused this?--RICEMANTOM (talk) 15:13, 9 September 2014 (EDT)

No. --Porplemontage (talk) 23:37, 9 September 2014 (EDT)

Google is your friend. MegaTron1XD 23:45, 9 September 2014 (EDT)

'ey

We have a problem with a very persistent vandal, creating new accounts and spam pages via a series of completely unrelated IP addresses (all his accounts of are the form "Tommy barnes ##", though we shouldn't be blocking that name from signups because it won't help, and it makes him easier to track). The nuclear option would be to prevent people from making pages unless they're autoconfirmed, but do you know of a better option? Toomai Glittershine The Researcher 16:39, 14 September 2014 (EDT)

Sorry, I don't. Other than just continuing to block him. --Porplemontage (talk) 16:51, 14 September 2014 (EDT)

Hi!

So you founded this wiki? That's awesome! You should do something about the bad rules the other admins are making up, though. 72.181.167.204 21:12, 15 September 2014 (EDT)

Just so you know, admins don't make up rules. Most of the rules here are proposed by users and must get community support in order to pass. ZeldaStarfoxfan2164 (talk) is bad for me 22:17, 15 September 2014 (EDT)

Usergroups question

Could you look into the viability of using $wgAddGroups and $wgRemoveGroups in order to allow administrators to put users into and out of probation, but no other groups? Toomai Glittershine The Glow 17:21, 22 September 2014 (EDT)

Yes, that should work now. --Porplemontage (talk) 17:40, 22 September 2014 (EDT)

Okay something funny's going on. Miles of SmashWiki just successfully tested this ability by adding and removing me from the probation usergroup - except that while the log says both were successful, I'm still in the probation group. And for some reason I can't change it on myself; it gives an error that says "Conflict of user rights changes! Please review and confirm your changes.". I can't add myself to the rollbacker group either (which I tried just to see if it worked) with the same error. Toomai Glittershine The Resolute 19:11, 25 September 2014 (EDT)

...and the instant I made this edit, the problem vanishes. Huh. Sorry about the distraction. Toomai Glittershine The Loony 19:13, 25 September 2014 (EDT)

Hello.

As a temporary measure to help curb vandalism and traffic for the upcoming releases, please block new pages and image uploading for non-autoconfirmed users. Toomai Glittershine The Xanthic 15:11, 2 October 2014 (EDT)

I agree with that action, but it'll only help a little. New users could still edit other unprotected pages and vandalize them. Rtzxy Smashing! 15:13, 2 October 2014 (EDT)

Ok. --Porplemontage (talk) 15:23, 2 October 2014 (EDT)

Ridley

His page was up for splitting into a separate page for his boss appearance due to length, and now that we know his role in SSB4U I was just about to do the split, but as I clicked on the link to create Ridley (boss), this showed up:

Permission error
From SmashWiki, the Super Smash Bros. wiki
You do not have permission to create pages, for the following reason:
The title "Ridley (boss)" has been banned from creation. It matches the following blacklist entry: .*r[1li;]d(e)?[1li;](e)?y.*

Is there some sort of protection, or is this a glitch or something else? RoyboyX Talk 16:48, 29 October 2014 (EDT)

This is a page-blocking regex intended to stymie the efforts of a persistent bad-faith user. As we have temporarily blocked all new content pages from IPs and new users, I think this is safe to remove. Toomai Glittershine The Celeritous 16:54, 29 October 2014 (EDT)

MediaWiki namespace editing

As you can tell from that image, that is me editing a page in the MediaWiki namespace on my iPod (via mobile editing). However, I am not an admin, and I can't edit the page on the desktop. Is this an error, or am I missing something? I'm not experienced with this interwiki stuff, just to let you know. Just curious, by the way. Also note that I didn't save, for fear of messing something up with the wiki. Rtzxy Reflect! 21:29, 13 November 2014 (EST)

You'll get an error if you try to save. --Porplemontage (talk) 23:38, 13 November 2014 (EST)

All right. I tried saving; the error popped up. Thanks for the response anyways. Rtzxy Reflect! 23:42, 13 November 2014 (EST)

New pages/images

I believe it is safe at this time to re-enable new pages and images for non-autoconfirmeds. Toomai Glittershine The Chronicler 18:18, 7 December 2014 (EST)

Ok, it is done. --Porplemontage (talk) 18:22, 7 December 2014 (EST)

.svg converters

I have recently begun experimenting with .svgs. So far, all my tests have been simple (single path) and successful, so I threw in a curveball - Image:MetalMarioSymbol.svg, which requires filters and masking to display correctly (it should look similar to Image:MetalMarioSymbol.png). As can be seen, it failed to render anything but a blank image. I suspect that the program whose job it is to do the svg -> png conversion is too old or too dumb to know what to do with it. (Viewing the raw .svg file in the browser does work as expected.)

Now I'm not 100% set on doing a lot of .svg stuff yet, but in order to continue I'd like to get a fix on how much of a pain this would be to fix. A quick look tells me that it would involve basically changing a variable and installing the relevant program, but that the process can be arduous. (For the record, I use Inkscape to make the .svgs, but I try to avoid Inkscape-exclusive features.) Toomai Glittershine The Chilled 15:14, 8 December 2014 (EST)

So, we use librsvg. The other ones sound like they would cause more server load than I would like, and potentially other issues. That image doesn't work on Wikimedia either, so it might have errors or just be too advanced for what is expected to be supported? --Porplemontage (talk) 18:51, 8 December 2014 (EST)

Well Wikimedia uses librsvg too, so it's not a surprise that you get the same result in both places. The raw file itself isn't invalid or anything; all three major browsers display it as expected. This file in particular is low-priority, since it would only be on 4-5 pages and the others I've tried so far are fine, but it does suggest that the problems I originally stopped using .svgs due to are still present.

I'm curious about the "server load" note though. I'm no expert, but I thought that the .svg converter would only run whenever an image is needed at a never-before-used resolution, or the source is changed and the cache needs to be dumped/redone. Is there a hidden cost I'm unaware of?

What about Extension:NativeSvgHandler? Are there any major browsers left that can't display svgs? Just throwing ideas out, no idea how viable they are. Toomai Glittershine The Obfuscating 19:11, 8 December 2014 (EST)

It's just about keeping everything as tight as possible. If traffic is way up and then the converter takes a bunch of RAM/CPU and hangs, it wouldn't be good. Stability is my #1 thing and I worry about stuff breaking. I guess there are benchmarks here. It looks like that extension works great except in IE... I wouldn't expect anything else. --Porplemontage (talk) 19:48, 8 December 2014 (EST)

Doing this fixed it for IE. --Porplemontage (talk) 20:00, 8 December 2014 (EST)

Awesome, thanks. Now we can blame browsers for rendering wrong instead of the wiki. :P Toomai Glittershine The Producer 20:04, 8 December 2014 (EST)

Just for fun

Ten years later, do you still remember this? RickTommy 06:30, 10 December 2014 (EST)

Haha, of course! --Porplemontage (talk) 15:10, 10 December 2014 (EST)

While we're at it, why did you misspell "create"? RickTommy 01:53, 19 December 2014 (EST)

Just a typo. I shot off several emails at once. I put some thought into some of them but that was just a quick random one I did real quick without even checking it. --Porplemontage (talk) 03:01, 19 December 2014 (EST)

Ability

What abilities do developers have? (Smashworker101 (talk) 17:49, 4 January 2015 (EST))

On the wiki specifically, lock and unlock database. In general, everything. --Porplemontage (talk) 15:09, 6 January 2015 (EST)

so the developers can do anything? (Smashworker101 (talk) 15:47, 6 January 2015 (EST))

Yes, I can do anything... --Porplemontage (talk) 16:45, 6 January 2015 (EST)

WOW, INCREDIBLE POWER! It's like you answer me like I was stupid or something. :p (Smashworker101 (talk) 16:49, 6 January 2015 (EST))

Wiki time

Something funny's going on with the wiki time since it came back online. See that large block of image deletions in recent changes? The second-last one is marked at 13:32, and the last one's marked at 15:07 - yet it was done at 14:07. All times listed after that deletion are similarly an hour too far ahead. I'm seeing a similar hour-skip on MarioWiki. Toomai Glittershine The Engineer 15:47, 6 January 2015 (EST)

Good catch, thanks. Fixed now! --Porplemontage (talk) 14:57, 6 January 2015 (EST)

It's not quite fixed. All edits made at the current time (15:25 as of writing) are being placed lower down RecentChanges than the top edits, the latest of which is at 15:47. Rtzxy Reflect! 15:26, 6 January 2015 (EST)

There's nothing that can be done about that, and it's not a major problem (it'll be irrelevant once those edits are old enough to not appear). Toomai Glittershine The Undirigible 15:28, 6 January 2015 (EST)

VERY problematic ads - site is basically unusable for users

I a bringing this up because this issue makes me outraged as an internet user.

This is in regards to the "Large" ads that show up at the bottom of every medium to large page on this site. If a page (ANY page) isn't extremely short, then the ad space at the bottom will load in two large "square" shaped ads, and these ads are always ridiculously heavy on memory usage. "Video Ads". I am not talking about ads that have animation, or those banner ads that have a video in them where you can "click to replay with sound". No, these are literally just video players and they load in a VERY high-quality, full-length video that eats up all of the browser's memory and causes the page to lag so badly that it's as if the user were using dial-up!

I will provide you a more specific example, but please keep in mind that this is just one example and this problem extends across all large pages. On a large page such as http://www.ssbwiki.com/Music_%28SSBB%29 it is nearly impossible to navigate the page because, directly below the infoboxes at the very bottom, there is a "table" element with two "iframe" elements inside of it. The id of one of these iframes is "sovrn_ad_unit_267940_async". This element is almost always a high-quality video that deals with either fashion or health on some unidentifiable flash video player. The videos feature logos that say "FashionTheater" and "HealthTheater", respectively. Clicking on these ads does nothing except pause the video; they do NOT take you to any advertisers webpage. I can tell that this ad is causing the immense lag because as soon as I delete the table element from the page, the lag disappears ENTIRELY.

On this particular page load, BOTH of the ads at the bottom resulted in this problematic ad. That's TWO INCREDIBLY HIGH-QUALITY VIDEOS PLAYING AT ONCE. Scrolling the page was nearly impossible. It took me TEN MINUTES to get this information because that's how slow the page was. This will happen on ANY page unless it is very short in length.

I see now that this still occurs if I have made an account, unlike some other wikis. This is a huge HUGE punishment for users of this site. What if someone is playing a Smash Bros. game and they want to look up some information really quickly here? They're going to be hit with this HUGE drop in performance, and then they will probably never come back to this site ever again. This is a huge problem for the hundreds users who stop by your site.

I was told previously that "video ads are a thing that cannot be avoided". This is absolutely, 100% untrue. This and other MediaWiki sites are the ONLY website I have EVER seen that has these kinds of high-quality video ads. I peruse the internet quite a bit, and there are some ridiculous and annoying ads on some of the biggest sites out there, but not a single one employs auto-play High-quality flash video play objects like this. I have contacted plenty of other websites to let them know that a bad ad was hampering my experience, and they have all promptly fixed the issue.

If you need further proof of how bad my browsing experiences are, I would be willing to film a video of the problems and provide this for you, but I don't think it needs to come to that.

Remember, I am absolutely not asking you to stop displaying ads. I support the use of ads, which is why I do not ever use adblocker. But these need to go. These aren't even ads because users cannot click on them to be taken anywhere; they are literally just tiny, high-quality flash video players. I highly encourage you to find out where they are coming from and remove them or replace them with something else.

Shadow2 (talk) 16:21, 8 June 2015 (EDT)

I get no ads, whether logged in or not. You should probably scan your computer for adware. Serpent King (talk) 16:30, 8 June 2015 (EDT)

Same. Nyargleblargle (Talk) 16:42, 8 June 2015 (EDT)

We have three separate computers in this household, none of which are connected in any way. On all three systems, using Firefox Chrome and IE, I can see ads and I can see these same problematic ads each time. You guys must have some adblocker enabled that you have forgotten about. I am tired of this this lazy response where if you can't see it, then the person must be infected with a virus. I can go test this on more computers if you need me to, and I'm sure I'll see the exact same thing. Shadow2 (talk) 17:14, 8 June 2015 (EDT)

I, for one, never installed any ad blocker. I can confirm that there are no ads on Safari. Nyargleblargle (Talk) 17:19, 8 June 2015 (EDT)

For the record, I do see ads similar to those being reported here when logged out, though I've personally only had performance issues on Bulbapedia. Toomai Glittershine The Altruistic 19:14, 8 June 2015 (EDT)

I have these ads. I gotta support turning em' off when you're logged in. LittleMacmain97, a new kind of noob. (talk) 17:28, 26 June 2015 (EDT)

You could download AdBlock and block ads. Did you already download AdBlock on your PC? If you say you still see those ads, I guess there's something wrong with your computer. Toad the Kool 2 (talk) 07:52, 21 July 2015 (EDT)

I am sick of this excuse. Throughout my life, I have come to learn that problems don't just go away if you hide them. AdBlock isn't going to fix these ads. It'll fix it for you maybe, but not every single person in the world uses adblock. This is not an acceptable answer. Shadow2 (talk) 23:35, 28 July 2015 (EDT)

And by the way, is Porplemontage just going to completely ignore this? Everyone I talked to said I need to go to him, so now I'm here and he's not saying a word. Stop ignoring this problem, please. Shadow2 (talk) 23:37, 28 July 2015 (EDT)

The problem is, Porplemontage doesn't always get on, leaving Miles and other admins to have to solve problems sometimes. I do know what ads you're talking about though, I see it a lot on sites like Bulbapedia and Spriter's Resource, so I understand what you mean, but I don't recall getting an ad like that on THIS site specifically. I even went to a couple small pages just now just to confirm, and I got different non-laggy ads instead. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bulbaboy (talk • contribs) {{{2}}}

I've tested the ads and they don't cause my computer to lag. You or anyone else they cause issues for should block them. I've been running the same ads on MarioWiki for years and this is the first complaint I've gotten. If I got hit with a ton of complaints then I'd seriously look into replacing them, but because these ads have worked well for us, I'm biased against messing with our current ad strategy. --Porplemontage (talk) 00:33, 29 July 2015 (EDT)

So you're the developer...

Nice to meet you. I am a rather new user who has made several minor-ish contributions to the wiki. It's an honor to meet you, Ganonmew (talk) 13:20, 13 September 2015 (EDT)

Nice to meet you too - thanks for helping out! --Porplemontage (talk) 21:05, 13 September 2015 (EDT)

Ads and div overflow:auto

Take a look at the strip of icons on this page: as expected, the div that contains it has a horizontal scrollbar so it doesn't fatten up the page itself. Now look at it again when logged-out and ads are present: that breaks it for some reason, and massively expands the div even though it still keeps a scrollbar. Does this for me in both IE and Chrome. Might want to look into it. Toomai Glittershine The Multifaceted 19:15, 13 September 2015 (EDT)

The page is better now, thanks for the heads up! --Porplemontage (talk) 21:05, 13 September 2015 (EDT)

So...

First of all, it's an honour finally meeting you... If you can call that meeting. And I kinda wanted to ask an off-the-point question. May I? Drill Blaster Mark 2 (talk) 18:40, 25 October 2015 (EDT)

You can ask.. --Porplemontage (talk) 22:01, 25 October 2015 (EDT)

Are you one of the very first people who opposed Wikia's policies? I've read SW, so that's why I'm asking. Drill Blaster Mark 2 (talk) 04:32, 26 October 2015 (EDT)

I can't say that I was, no. I wasn't active on Wikia - I had my own thing going on with the MarioWiki. But when I became aware of what was going on with Wikia, I offered to host some wikis. --Porplemontage (talk) 05:56, 26 October 2015 (EDT)

Oh okay. That also perfectly explains why your userpage in MarioWiki is much more detailed. Anyway, thanks for clearing that out. Here's a signature you can use if you ever want to:

--Porplemontage (talk)

I now say goodbye, and don't forget to stay awesome, Steve. Drill Blaster Mark 2 (talk) 10:29, 26 October 2015 (EDT)

I'd like to being your attention...

...here, Poppa Montage. Ganonmew, The Evil Clone 20:49, 29 October 2015 (EDT)

Toomai is the one you should be contacting about this. Miles (talk) 21:07, 29 October 2015 (EDT)

Huh. Ganonmew, The Evil Clone 21:08, 29 October 2015 (EDT)

I would be the one to implement this, but only if the admins asked. --Porplemontage (talk) 00:05, 30 October 2015 (EDT)

If I may ask...

Why is it that Special:Preferences isn't affected by one's CSS? I'm just curious. Aidan, the Wandering Space Warrior 13:11, 30 October 2015 (EDT)

I've also been wondering that. Every time I wanna do a quick adjustment to (Or even see) my preferences, I need to reapply my CSS! INoMed ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 13:20, 30 October 2015 (EDT)

For security, custom CSS and JS isn't applied to the preferences and login pages to protect sensitive information such as your password. --Porplemontage (talk) 20:54, 30 October 2015 (EDT)

So THAT is why my 23kb CSS keeps disappearing in preferences! Thanks for the help Porple. INoMed ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 14:15, 31 October 2015 (EDT)

Special:Webchat

Could you change the webchat channel from #sw to #smashwiki? It's still gamesurge. Toomai Glittershine The Orchestral 19:52, 12 November 2015 (EST)

Done and done. --Porplemontage (talk) 23:27, 12 November 2015 (EST)

Hello there

so your the dev eh? Nintendofan1653 (talk) 11:59, 13 December 2015 (EST)

There's this issue I've been having lately

Every time I try to use one of the maintenance pages (like "Articles with incomplete sectons") without being logged in, I am presented with an older version of this page. This doesn't happen if I'm using my mobile phone. Is it just me, or...? Drill Blaster Mark 2 (talk) 14:45, 13 December 2015 (EST)

Categories often present a cached version if you're not logged in. Miles (talk) 15:34, 13 December 2015 (EST)

Makes sense. But does that also explain why my mobile phone isn't affected by that? I'm asking because this happens 100% of the time on the PC. Drill Blaster Mark 2 (talk) 15:47, 13 December 2015 (EST)

Mobile always gets a fresh copy of the page. --Porplemontage (talk) 16:56, 13 December 2015 (EST)

Hi there.

When trying to visit the special page "Special:MyPage" I get this error: "Fatal error: Call to a member function get() on a non-object in /home/ssbwiki/public_html/includes/Wiki.php on line 250". Is this a known glitch with the page, and are you able to fix the issue? Thank you. INoMed ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 12:59, 18 December 2015 (EST)

Thank you for telling me! --Porplemontage (talk) 13:33, 18 December 2015 (EST)

No problem. INoMed ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 13:35, 18 December 2015 (EST)

Just checked, the glitch is fixed. Thanks a lot! INoMed ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 13:41, 18 December 2015 (EST)

A quick question since you're the wiki's developer

Why don't you edit articles about smashers, characters, moves and the like just as much as we do? Just curious. -- The 70's called. They said BeepYou was here :v 18:43, 18 December 2015 (EST)

No reason, I just focus on the developer side. --Porplemontage (talk) 23:51, 18 December 2015 (EST)

When I try to access Greninja's SSB4 page...

It says something about a database error. Could you maybe try to fix that? Thanks in advance! Penro ...that's all. 09:21, 7 February 2016 (EST)

Same with Zero Suit Samus's SSB4 page. Penro ...that's all. 09:23, 7 February 2016 (EST)

Thank you, should be fixed! --Porplemontage (talk) 09:35, 7 February 2016 (EST)

problem

when i look up dapuffster in the search query it says something about a database error Poultry(talk) the fluffy 15:30, 8 February 2016 (EST)

Got it, thank you! --Porplemontage (talk) 16:49, 8 February 2016 (EST)

thanks!! its working now! Poultry(talk) the fluffy 17:10, 8 February 2016 (EST)

The spam in the delete log

So that all has to go? If so, want help with that? Serpent King 03:26, 11 February 2016 (EST)

Sure, that would be great. I got a message from Google that they detected spam and that it hurts our reputation. They cited a page that had already been deleted, but the page title/edit summary itself was still detected as spam. I just hid a bunch from the 9th. --Porplemontage (talk) 04:08, 11 February 2016 (EST)

Kk so both the revision and the delete log entry have to go? Serpent King 04:10, 11 February 2016 (EST)

Turns out just the delete log entry needs to be hidden since the revisions aren't visible to guests. --Porplemontage (talk) 04:16, 11 February 2016 (EST)

Well guess I did some extra credit then, no harm done. Serpent King 04:18, 11 February 2016 (EST)

Anyway, I'll keep this in mind when deleting spam in the future. Serpent King 04:22, 11 February 2016 (EST)

Yep, no problem. Thanks! --Porplemontage (talk) 04:28, 11 February 2016 (EST)

I dunno if this is a glitch or not but...

Whenever I attempt to rollback and fail due to a conflicting edit, I get this notice at the bottom of the page: Notice: Uncommitted DB writes (transaction from DatabaseBase::query (LinkCache::addLinkObj)). in /home/ssbwiki/public_html/includes/db/Database.php on line 4147 Disaster Flare (talk) 12:55, 15 February 2016 (EST)

Yep, that's a glitch. Penro ...that's all. 12:56, 15 February 2016 (EST)

It's something that will likely be fixed when we upgrade MediaWiki, but isn't any cause for concern right now. Thanks for reporting :) --Porplemontage (talk) 01:42, 16 February 2016 (EST)