User talk:Daveh/Archive 2011

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This is an archive of past User talk:Daveh discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page, except for maintenance such as updating links.

Two new Namespaces[edit]

It looks like we're starting to get content for Oblivion Mobile and Stormhold now, so please can you create namespaces for these last two mobile games? In this thread we're going for "OBMobile" (OM) and "Stormhold" (SH) but any better name for the former would be gratefully accepted! rpeh •TCE 08:21, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

*nudge* rpeh •TCE 01:06, 28 January 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for the nudge...done! -- Daveh 01:17, 28 January 2011 (UTC)

Lag[edit]

Hi Dave. I'm posting this just in case you're not aware of it, but there's been a significant lag to the site most of the day. Sometimes, seemingly randomly, there's no delay at all, but more often than not, pages are taking 30 seconds to a couple of minutes to load. Robin Hoodtalk 09:13, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. I had seen it yesterday a few times but thought it was just my local connection since it only happened once or twice. I've rebooted content1 which seems to have cleared the issue. -- Daveh 14:06, 13 February 2011 (UTC)
Yup, looks good to me today. Robin Hoodtalk 20:40, 13 February 2011 (UTC)
It might just be my imagination, but although everything was fine right after the restart, it's slowed down again now. It's not too bad yet, but it's worth watching. rpeh •TCE 21:15, 13 February 2011 (UTC)
I had a couple of slow page loads earlier in a cluster close together, but then it cleared up, so I assumed it was temporary and nothing to worry about. If I notice anything further, I'll post back, but I'm planning on play Diablo 2 for a bit, so I may not have the opportunity to notice anything at all. :) Robin Hoodtalk 21:49, 13 February 2011 (UTC)
Previously it would be slow if you forced a page to reload while logged in. Both content1/2 seem fine now when reloading but I'll keep checking. -- Daveh 00:20, 14 February 2011 (UTC)
Just took 30+ seconds on this page (clicked to edit before it finished).--Ghurhak gro-Demril or TAOYes? 01:43, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Image Upload Problem[edit]

I've had a few problems uploading images last night and this morning. Last night I thought it was because of the lag, but now I'm guessing it's more likely that content2 doesn't have the necessary permissions because it works roughly 50% of the time. This is what I'm getting:

Internal error
The upload directory (public) is not writable by the webserver.

rpeh •TCE 12:55, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

The Wiki images directory had become unmounted on content1 (or I didn't correctly mount it in the first place). It is now mounted and writable on content1/2. -- Daveh 14:29, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Greetings[edit]

We have been trying to contact you regarding uesp.net. Can you please contact dduncan@curse.com at your earliest convenience. Thanks! --71.63.243.179 22:25, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Was this you?[edit]

Was this edit you? I've got no idea what it does, and it's probably not a good idea for random IPs to be able to add instructions for server config. Please could you patrol it if it's you, or delete it if it's not. Thanks. rpeh •TCE 01:34, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Yah, it was me. I was logging in and out testing things and forgot to log back in to edit. -- Daveh 01:54, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
Thanks - better safe than sorry, though. It might be worth semi- or fully-protecting those pages since there really isn't anyone bar you that should be editing them. rpeh •TCE 02:02, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Upgrade Issue[edit]

Hi Daveh, we've run into some issues with the server upgrade on the forums. Some of the member's avatars have reverted, and uploading avatars is now disabled (though it is enabled in the forum software). Just wanted to let you know.--Ratwar 18:41, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks....I'll look into it. -- Daveh 18:42, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
There was some file permission issues I corrected and I tried to update any missing avatar images from the old content1. Let me know if that fixes things or not. There may be a couple of images that were reverted to a version from a few days ago. -- Daveh 18:55, 21 February 2011 (UTC)
Image uploading is definitely a go again. Thanks!--Ratwar 21:15, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Trying to get in touch with you![edit]

Hello Daveh!

I'm Lesley Ann Abernathy, content manager for Curse.com! I had a few questions for you but every time I try to send an e-mail it gets bounced back :( Would you please send me an email at labernathy@curse.com if you'd like to talk further? Thanks a lot! :)

Amira 16:19, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Blog Links[edit]

I just tried to save a new post about TES Music that included several links to YouTube for examples, but was told that my post contained "illegal content". Ever the hacker, I tried using bit.ly to get around the ban, but it turns out bit.ly is a banned site too.

Do we really need this kind of content filter on articles? Given that one must ask for permission to get post access in the first place, and that all comments are filtered... it seems unnecessary. Please can you remove the offending filters? I have an article waiting! Thanks. rpeh •TCE 22:41, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

This was just the default setting of the blog. I think posts from you now don't check the anti-spam list but let me know if you still can't post. -- Daveh 22:51, 26 February 2011 (UTC)
It works now. Thanks! rpeh •TCE 23:15, 26 February 2011 (UTC)

Forums[edit]

There seems to be a problem with the forums at the moment: I get a 404 error and "The requested URL / was not found on this server." Please could you take a look? rpeh •TCE 08:49, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Try now rpeh they are working for me again at least, while they weren't yesterday. --AKB Talk 15:05, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
I was cleaning up old files/links and mistakenly deleted the new forum link and kept the old one. Fixed this morning. -- Daveh 15:08, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Bot Server[edit]

This is something that's been at the back of my mind for a while, but with the recent server upgrade it might be plausible: can we have a bot server? Several people have asked if we can have something like SineBot, and the response has always been that the bandwidth would make it impossible. Now that all the servers are on the same rack, that shouldn't be an issue.

Once I started thinking about the new server configuration, other possible uses sprang to mind, such as keeping track of external links and flagging dead ones and maybe performing other tasks that would be bandwidth-intensive such as tracking broken anchors.

Speaking purely for myself, I'd need to be able to run .NET code to do this, and that might not be an option even with the mono project. I'm bringing this up now because we have an absolute max of 8 months less one day before things start getting really busy and now is the time to make big suggestions.

Please let me know what you think. rpeh •TCE 21:42, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

That should be possible though it depends on the details of course. SineBot looks straight forward enough and I would suggest using content3 as a bot server. It is currently our "misc" server and in the worst case of a bot taking a lot of CPU nothing else important would be affected. I'll have to look into .NET/Mono in more detail. I assume you were thinking of writing a bot in a .NET language? Note that I'll update your content1 password tomorrow as well as restore your home directory from backup. This weekend was a mess and I didn't have any time for the site at all. -- Daveh 03:27, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
Yup, I'd be writing in C# if at all possible. It's obviously not a high priority task. If there are other things you have planned, such as upgrading the wiki software, they should definitely take precedence.
Don't worry about my home directory: there wasn't anything in there except a couple of links, which I can easily recreate. Everything got moved into the map directories long ago. I just wanted to make sure I had up to date versions of the map code so I could start looking at making any preparations for Skyrim that we might need - I doubt there'll be more than 24 hours between release and us being asked where our map is.
Thanks. rpeh •TCE 07:04, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Search Data[edit]

I'm sure you'll be glad to know that I've got another request for you. After all, it's not like you've got anything else to do, what with RL job, server upgrades, MediaWiki upgrade, and all my other requests, so I hope you'll take care of this quickly ;-)

Can you get some information on what things people search for? We just had someone asking for information on how to close the Anvil Oblivion Gate, and my sarcastic reply died on my fingers when I found that the search for "Anvil Oblivion Gate" brought back precisely zero results. I've taken care of that with a redirect, but it made me wonder how many other queries could be pre-answered with the right redirects.

Obviously, it'd be ideal to get a list of searches that result in no results so that we can create the appropriate redirects, but even a simple dump of search terms would be useful. Whenever you've got a moment... rpeh •TCE 20:53, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

There are a few ways we could do this:
  1. Apache/Squid Access Logs -- Currently disabled to save space and we haven't used them anyways.
  2. MySQL Bin Logs -- We can parse the bin-logs for all search queries although this doesn't get us the number of results (I don't think anyways). This is currently the only way of retrieving past searches. I forgot that the bin-log doesn't record SELECT statements, only write statements, so this option won't work.
  3. MediaWiki Extension -- It would be nice to add logging of searches with result count directly into MediaWiki. There is Extension:SearchLog which hasn't been worked on in years but may provide a starting point.
I'll think about it some more while I'm on the road the next few weeks. Long term the best bet is probably #3 and we #2 can be done pretty easily if we want an overview of prior searches. -- Daveh 15:12, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for looking into it. Option #3 sounds great, although it's a bit of a worry that the extension hasn't been worked on in three years. Hope the road trip goes well and provides you with lots of ideas. rpeh •TCE 15:23, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
I likely will only use the extension for ideas on how to implement it and then create a custom extension within the UESP extension framework that Nephele created (or as a standalone extension). The primary difficulty will be figuring out which MediaWiki hooks to use. -- Daveh 15:36, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

Update: I've added the initial version of the Special:SearchLog extension which logs all searches and provides a (very) basic display of logs. I'll be adding basic features to the log display/navigation in the near future and for now you can just view the first 100 entries. -- Daveh 23:14, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

That looks like a great start - thank you! I doubt there's much we can do for whoever searched for "dust from getting glow o the the will wisp", but hopefully we can find some good redirects for other people. rpeh •TCE 06:20, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
I should note that the order of words has been sorted to make queries like "daggerfall vampire" and "vampire daggerfall" identical. There are also more searches than I thought there would be (one every few seconds) which changes how the data can be viewed...perhaps some sort of daily/weekly summary. The performance data also points towards the possible need of an alternate search engine. Another thing to note is that the searches are limited to 20 matches by default which is why 20 appears a lot. -- Daveh 13:53, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
I'm not sure if this is a problem with my browser, but apparently the search function lacks a bit as of now; searches like "Corruption" and "Independent" now leads to a blank page instead of a list of pages related to the words. --Krusty 14:54, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
You aren't alone here, searching for heavy armor led to nothing. To test this I typed in a bunch of nonsense characters to see what happened and I was sent to advanced search with no results. Whenever something would return a result it seems to lead to the blank page. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 14:57, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
By which I mean as long as it does not have a perfect match and automatically redirects you, it doesn't work. For example typing in Heavy Armor causes this problem as it as you could mean, say Morrowind:Heavy Armor or Oblivion:Heavy Armor. But if you type in Oblivion:Heavy Armor into the search engine it simply redirects you to the correct page. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 15:04, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
(e/c)It looks like there's a problem with searches at the moment. I just did a search for "guild mages" and got a blank, empty page with the url http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Special:Search?search=guild+mages&go=Go&nsnum=0&redirs=1&searchtitles=1 . I've had the same problem with one or two other searches too.
I can't believe some searches are taking so long: 9s for "countess of skingrad" is insane. My guess is the site was slow for some other reason, because my own tests show that result coming back (empty) almost instantly. Slow pages like that, though, can be created as redirects, which should speed things up. rpeh •TCE 15:01, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
I assume this was a temporary issue as all the example searches appear to work fine now. If you find any terms that duplicate the issue just let me know. It "shouldn't" be the new search log as all it does is use the existing MediaWiki hooks to record all search terms. Part of the reason for implementing the search log was to try and track down periodic issues like this. Looking at the logs it appears this issue was caused by someone spamming a search request for "dragon of order the" (20 times in about 20 seconds) which temporarily overloaded the database for a minute. Part the solution will be get a better search system and part better limits to prevent users from being able to perform DoS like this (whether accidental or not). -- Daveh 15:45, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
I'm still getting the problem here. It's not a caching thing because I've tried two different browsers. The page is completely empty, although Firefox reports it's 26 bytes long. rpeh •TCE 15:50, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
I assume you mean the above "mages guild" link? Can you try the link with content1/2/3 instead of www? Sometimes the Squid cache decides to cache a "bad" page request. -- Daveh 15:53, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
I get the same result on all three, I'm afraid. It seems like it's a problem with the namespace-guessing code. If I search for "Notes" while on Recent Changes, I get the blank page. If I search for OB:Notes, Oblivion:Notes appears. If I search for "Books" while on Recent Changes, blank page. If I search for "Books" while looking at OB:Notes, I get OB:Books. rpeh •TCE 15:55, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
Ahh...I see. The issue was that I had the "search titles only" preference unchecked. When it is checked I can duplicate the behavior you see. -- Daveh 16:04, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Update: I've fixed the search bug as described above by a few people. Let me know if anyone still sees the same issue or other search issues. -- Daveh 19:27, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

That seems to have done the trick! Other people who got the problem may need to hard-refresh, but it's working fine now. Thank you. rpeh •TCE 20:17, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
On the subject of searching: When you search from the namespace, it first looks for that title from the current space. But searching from Userspace seems to first look in Skyrim. For example, when you search for "rpeh" in mainspace you get a normal response. Same with other spaces. But from Userspace (even from his actual userpage) you get this. It searches for Skyrim:Rpeh rather than User. --DKong27 Talk Cont 20:53, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
Shhh! Nobody's supposed to know that I play a role in the new game! rpeh •TCE 21:04, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Full YouTube walkthrough[edit]

I'm planning on doing a Let's Play on YouTube for Oblivion sometime soon. I'm almost done with my first project, and I'm going to do two more games before I do Oblivion, according to my current schedule. When I get to Oblivion, I'd like to use this Wiki as my source of enemy stats, including strengths, weaknesses, attack, defense, health and levels. I'd also have a map image onscreen from the dungeon pages for when I first enter, covering the doors, containers and spawnpoints. I'll be covering all the quests I can do with the main game and Shivering Isles, maybe more if I can get my PC version to work. The reason for this post is that I'm asking for permission to use the content on this website to create a video walkthrough of the game. BubbaYoshi117 23:11, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

All UESP content is available under the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License as described here. A YouTube video won't be copy/pasting bits of text, so a lot of what that page says isn't relevant. I imagine a brief "Thank you" to the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages would be enough. I look forward to seeing the walkthroughs! rpeh •TCE 09:08, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

Another Request[edit]

Hopefully this won't take too long. Re this discussion, please can you add the protect right to the bots user group? Hopefully that should allow RoBot to carry out the task. Thanks. rpeh •TCE 22:05, 7 April 2011 (UTC)

Done...sorry it took so long but I've been on the road for a while now. -- Daveh 00:56, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
Thank you for that. I hope your extended road trip has been productive. rpeh •TCE 06:23, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

New Admin[edit]

rpeh has been approved by the community and it's been about a week, so if you have no objections can you please give him the usual rights? Thanks! --GKtalk2me 22:32, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

Done. -- Daveh 23:45, 18 April 2011 (UTC)

New Namespace[edit]

Per the community discussion here, can you please create the new namespace "Books:"? Thanks! --GKtalk2me 19:18, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Done...I haven't added any namespace aliases for it yet. -- Daveh 19:34, 25 April 2011 (UTC)
It looks like "BK" is the choice for alias. Please could you add that? rpeh •TCE 20:35, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Donations?[edit]

Hey, I was wondering how I would go about donating a small amount of money for the upkeep of UESP? Just a little way of contributing and giving something back for all the times that I have relied on the site :)

Also, I tried using the email address in the Contact Us page, but I got mailer-daemoned x] Jaden 16:21, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Many thanks for the offer but the site's costs are currently covered by the advertising at the bottom of each page. If that money is still burning a hole in your pocket feel free to donate it to a worthy charity. -- Daveh 01:52, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Cached Warnings[edit]

We're getting a lot of IP editors complaining of being warned for vandalism when they haven't been. What seems to have happened is that a couple of vandals (96.4.127.21 and 96.4.127.20 especially) viewed several pages after having been warned, which means those pages have been cached with the "New Messages" banner on them. When another IP editor views the page, they see the banner, click the link, and get taken straight to a warning page.

I'm putting prominent messages on user talk pages that we know are affected (the two above, so far) and we're looking at some changes in the warnings we use to make it clearer that people might not be the target of a warning. Obviously, none of these solutions are ideal, so I wonder what changes can be made to the caching so it doesn't happen. I know absolutely nothing about the options you can tweak to change what pages are cached and what criteria can be used to exclude them. If there's anything you can do on that score, great. If not, would it be possible to have a page that generates a list of pages that were cached because of the action of one IP? That way, we could try to ensure that pages with warning messages were purged.

Basically, any help or advice you can give on this one would be very welcome, because there ain't much we can do. rpeh •TCE 22:09, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Yah...that's an interesting problem. I'll try to do some tests to see how it is working to better understand the problem. -- Daveh 14:26, 8 May 2011 (UTC)
I know you're busy, but is there any update on this? The lists (1 2 3) are getting longer, and it seems like purging doesn't always work. rpeh •TCE 17:32, 27 May 2011 (UTC)
I haven't looked into it in any great detail. There appears to be no obvious solution though I wonder how Wikipedia handles it. Their overall setup is pretty much the same as ours so it would be easiest if we can figure out their solution. I'll spend some time on it this weekend. -- Daveh 00:39, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
The next time it happens can you check the page on content1/2 directly to see if the issue is the Squid or the MediaWiki caching layer. I assume that since you mention that purging sometimes doesn't work that it may be with both layers. -- Daveh 00:51, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Possible relation to above problem[edit]

I just today got a notification whilst viewing the Bloodmoon:Creatures page of a new message, which led me to this page: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/User_talk:82.45.146.195

Im fairly certain I made no edits to that page, especially vandalism or obscenities, so I'm a little confused why I'm suddenly getting a notification of a warning and subsequent blocking from back in July.

Walk Throughs[edit]

Hey: Daveh

My twin bro got me playing Oblivion about a year ago and its been the only other game I've really liked since Halo. But trying to find things in this game, is hard for me, which I why I love your site and the walk-throughs; it made playing this game doable and exciting. Thanks. I wanted to ask when do you suppose the walk-throughs will be completed at this site for Skyrim for the main quests: Main quest, Mages, Fighters?

Also, I wonder if Bethesda would give you guys at this site the game early for that reason?

98.71.246.226 23:33, 8 June 2011 (UTC)Oshea osheadavis14@hotmail.com 98.71.246.226 23:33, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

As been as this is the unnofficial elder scrolls pages I doubt we will have access to information before the game comes out. When it does come out, it may take a month or so to document quest walkthroughs, especially as the quests are more randomly generated. Hope this helps. --Manic 22:53, 11 June 2011 (UTC)

While we have asked nicely Bethesda is (rightly) very stingy about giving out pre-release information and beta/early versions of the game. So, while its not completely impossible its unlikely (though we'll still try anyways). -- Daveh 12:52, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

For your attention[edit]

UESPWiki:Administrator_Noticeboard#Request_for_new_right_for_blockers Thanks again Dave. Elliot (talk) 04:45, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm on vacation but if its just a simple change I can review it and do it quickly in the next few days in my spare time. -- Daveh 13:28, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
I took a quick look and cannot find any built-in setting that would permit this. The only relevant is a global parameter to permit/deny blocked users from editing their talk pages. You can, however, protect a user's talk page which should prevent a blocked user from editing it. Currently only site admins can protect pages but this can be extended to patrollers if needed. -- Daveh 19:11, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Two requests[edit]

There's been a big outbreak of vandalism on the site and the usual methods aren't helping much. Please can you:

  • Install the Oversight extension (unless installing MW 1.16 is quicker!) per this discussion, and
  • Remove "move" rights from "users" to "autoconfirmed users" per [discussion].

I know you're on vacation, but I really hope you can do something quickly. rpeh •TCE 22:48, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Both done, let me know of any issues. Note that I do plan on upgrading MediaWiki sometime before Skyrim since we're a few versions back. -- Daveh 19:37, 23 July 2011 (UTC)
Welcome back, and I hope you had a great holiday! Thanks for making those changes. The oversight seems to work perfectly. User:Elliot made a great suggestion about using the TitleBlacklist extension to block page moves, and I that change has been working pretty well. I've undone it now, so let's see if the new permissions work... rpeh •TCE 23:33, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

Sections Problem[edit]

Currently having a problem viewing Oblivions Page and Skyrims Page. When I attempted to view the Skyrim page it instead came up with a slightly glitched version of the Main Page. Glitch is as described - Instead of the block of the main page starting immediately under the Top navigation bar (containing 'Page' and 'Discussion') the block of the main page starts level with the search box. This was the same when I tried Oblivions page. The rest of the pages seem to be working correctly. Don't know if this a problem specific to me or whether it affects anyone else. It affects me whether I am logged in or not. Thanks KizC 13:42, 23 July 2011 (UTC)

It's not just you. It's a problem that occurs almost every day, at the same time. You get a glitchy main page (sometimes with the words "UESPwiki has a problem") and no access to any of the namespaces. The problem typically goes away within 15 minutes, but it's still worth looking into. --Krusty 15:44, 23 July 2011 (UTC)
I just got back from vacation and will look into the issue. Thanks! -- Daveh 19:37, 23 July 2011 (UTC)
Thanks, just thought it was worth a note to see if it was just me or if it was a general problem. And it seems to not go away for me regardless of time. KizC 20:01, 28 July 2011 (UTC)

Few inquiries[edit]

I was wondering if you had any plans for Special:UespSiteStats anymore. Also, I was wondering if it would be possible to get a skipcaptcha for blockers. Thanks again Daveh. Elliot (talk) 04:40, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

I could probably get the UespSiteStats working again by updating the server keys but since the Zabbix monitoring is up and running on monitor.uesp.net I didn't see the need after the last server migration. If this page is useful, however, it isn't too much work to keep up. I'll look into the blocker skipcaptcha (should be easy but sometimes isn't). -- Daveh 17:01, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Outage[edit]

We just had a brief (~5-10 mins) outage. Trying to access the site produced the "UESP has a problem" page, and even the server-status pages on content1 and content2 wouldn't load, although content3 was fine (and almost empty). Eventually I managed to load the pages and both servers were showing completely full process lists, full of "W" requests. I've got the pages saved if you need me to email them. I couldn't load anything else to check any other status pages.

I've seen something similar happen at around this time before, although not lasting as long. Since it seemed a minor problem, I put it down to "stuff happens" and moved on. It begins to look like a more serious problem though. rpeh •TCE 12:28, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

The same thing has been happening at around 8:15 EST almost every day for a few weeks. There is no obvious internal issue so I'm looking at trying to determine if it has an external cause. Part of the issue is that I'm almost always on the road or otherwise unavailable at this time so I'm setting up some basic logging to try and track the source. -- Daveh 16:59, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Name Change Request[edit]

Just Rigas. Plain Rigas. --Rigas • TalkDeeds 10:24, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

Done! rpeh •TCE 10:27, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
Thanks a lot.
I thought only Daveh could change names... Did that change or was I wrong from the start? --Rigas • TalkDeeds 15:34, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
Admins got the ability to do it a couple of years ago. rpeh •TCE 15:41, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
Couple of YEARS ago???
Hell, I only left for a few MONTHS. I really need to update my database.
Anyways, thanks again. --Rigas • TalkDeeds 17:12, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

ESM/ESP Format[edit]

User:Krusty just pointed out to me that even if we can't get a copy of the files in advance, we might be able to get some kind of "Yes, the format is similar to TES3/TES4 file formats" or "No, it's totally different" statement. If you can pass this question down the Twin Lamps railroad, I'd be grateful. rpeh •TCE 00:25, 2 October 2011 (UTC)

I didn't get an actual answer (no modding information being released yet) but a hint that the formats are similar to the previous ESM/ESP/BSA which is probably a good enough indication it is the same format just extended for Skyrim's content. I've tried to find information on the FallOut 3 ESM/ESP format but it seems to be either scarce or non-existent for some reason. -- Daveh 17:13, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
I've put some basic information that I've collected about Fallout3 at Tes5Mod talk:Mod File Format. I've also been tinkering some with the Fallout3.esm gathering some extra details -- for example, I've got a complete list of the Fallout3 records and subrecords; I've identified all the subrecords that contain refids pointing to other items. I'm happy to share that information if it's of interest to others. --NepheleTalk 17:41, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
If the formats are "similar" we should be in business. If the only things that need changing to read the files are the same sort of changes I had to make for Fallout then we should be hot to trot after a few minutes, at least with straightforward things like names. Hacking the more intricate details out will obviously take a little longer, but being able to get basic info quickly will be a huge relief. rpeh •TCE 05:59, 8 October 2011 (UTC)


I have decoded Oblivion and Fallout 3 formats in my esptools (google). Started updating Oblivion format at TREE record. Fallout 3 decodings will be useful for Skyrim. Let me know if you need a help somewhere. Juhana 23:38, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

Always could use help documenting the formats. There is Skyrim Mod:File Formats page which links to the various specific formats. The ESP/ESM is slowly being filled in. You can either help fill in entries yourself or whatever documentation/code you have would be helpful as a reference as well. I'm actually about to paste a large section of raw text output from some processing of the Skyrim.esm file for helping document that format. -- Daveh 00:14, 28 November 2011 (UTC)
The relevant data I was mentioning is at Skyrim Mod:Mod File Format/Raw Data. -- Daveh

Registration[edit]

I don't know what I keep doing wrong, but whenever I try to register I never get the activation e-mail. I am not sure why this keeps happening, I have went through two e-mails, made a new account and tried another e-mail. I fill out all the boxes and I would like to be able to register. Imperialkhajiit 21:34, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Have you checked your junkmail? Sometimes the activation e-mail goes in there.--Kalis AgeaYes? Contrib E-mail 22:41, 3 October 2011 (UTC)
Imperialkhajiit: Are you using an aol email address? AOL's spam filters block emails from UESP (truly block, not just put into a spam folder). Also, FYI, the activation email is only necessary for enabling email-related features.
Daveh: If I understand AOL's email spam rules correctly, the easiest way to fix this problem is to change the address used for UESP email -- make sure all outgoing emails use an '@uesp.net' email address instead of an '@sympatico.ca' address. It's probably worth doing for the forums as well as the wiki. And it might be good to see if we can fix this before Skyrim's rush of new accounts. --NepheleTalk 22:47, 3 October 2011 (UTC)
I've changed all the wiki and forum outgoing e-mails to be from uesp.net. Is there any way to test if this works with AOL? -- Daveh 23:18, 5 October 2011 (UTC)
Thanks, Daveh! I've asked on the CP for volunteers to test it, so hopefully we should be able to find out. --NepheleTalk 01:13, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, but what can I do to register? I used all of my e-mail accounts, is there another way?Imperialkhajiit 21:09, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

I don't think you need an email to register. You just need it to receive emails - either automated for changes to pages on your watchlist. Or from other editors through the email function. And are they all AOL accounts? An alternative would be a Gmail account or an equivalent? --Kiz ·•· Talk ·•· Contribs ·•· Mail ·•· 18:26, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
If you still need help with registering, we really need more information:
  1. Are you trying to create an account on the wiki or the forums?
  2. What is the final part of your email address (the part after the '@' symbol)?
  3. When was the most recent time that you requested a confirmation email?
  4. Have you added 'uesp.net' to your email whitelist?
  5. Have you checked your junk email folders?
Basically, there's something different going on with your registration than with the hundreds of other people who have set up accounts on UESP, so we need feedback from you on what is different if we're going to be able to help. --NepheleTalk 20:48, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
Thanks for breaking it down for me. Here are my answers.
  1. I am trying to register on the forums
  2. @comcast.net
  3. About a week ago
  4. I don't know what that is or how to do that but I added it to the safe senders list
  5. Yes
Thank you for helping me.Imperialkhajiit 21:09, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
Aha: #1 is a critical piece of information that wasn't obvious ;) Which leads me to realize that I left out an important followup question: what is the name of the forum account you tried to create (or if you've done it a few times, which account would you prefer to use)?
After remembering how to get to the right page on the forums, I found a newly-created account for ImperialKhajiit which I assumed was you. I've activated the account, so I think you should now be able to login without worrying about the confirmation email. I also (I think) asked the system to send you another confirmation email -- mainly to see whether some changes Daveh made during the last week fixed your problem. Let me know if either of those actions worked. --NepheleTalk 21:34, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
Thank you so much I sucessfully was registered. I don't have a chance to check my e-mail at the moment, but once I can I will tell you. Thank you so much again.67.186.157.34 22:03, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

About the e-mail, I didn't get one, I just checked now.67.186.157.34 00:58, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Politics of Skyrim[edit]

Hey, what can you tell me about the politics of Skyrim. I've search everywhere and all I can get is that there is a civil war and some king died. I want to know because I want to be able to immerse myself into the game immediately as if I were a Nord and knew the politics of the time before my arrest. I know I want to be a rebel and fight for independence, but where are these people mostly located? What cities are disloyal to the Empire? What are the organizations? — Unsigned comment by 66.255.16.50 (talk) at 02:25 on 7 October 2011 (GMT)

A good question but everything we currently know is listed on the Skyrim article. Unfortunately, I don't have access to any "secret" information about the game. -- Daveh 11:48, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
One of the joinable factions the "Stormcloacks" are a rebel group fighting for the independence of Skyrim, their leader is Ulfric Stormcloack the Jarl of Windhelm. So your best bet is probably the city of Windhelm. Fin Dova Feyn 13:13, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
See Skyrim:Factions for everything the wiki currently has written on the political groups of Skyrim. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 13:15, 7 October 2011 (UTC)
200 years after the Oblivion Crisis the Empire is falling apart and Skyrim is on the verge of civil war as the Elven provinces and Black Marsh have left the Empire. As tensions rise in Skyrim, the High King is assassinated. A civil war starts between the minority who want to stay in the Empire and the majority who want to leave. The last of the Blades are in the minority as they swore to uphold the Empire. At the same time, it is revealed that this civil war is just the final part of a prophecy, which included the Oblivion Crisis, that predicts the return of Alduin. As Alduin returns, the Dragons appear and cause more damage.You are the last dragonborn and have the power to defeat the dragons and Alduin. RIM 15:39, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

New Promotions[edit]

Do you want the honour of making the six promotions discussed under Temporary Role Changes? If you're too busy, I can take care of it instead. --NepheleTalk 00:08, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

I would but I'm just about to step out for the day so feel free to do it yourself. -- Daveh 13:01, 29 October 2011 (UTC)
There is another addition based on latest discussion. Thanks Dave. elliot (talk) 07:00, 9 November 2011 (UTC)
It's your decision as always, Daveh, but there's no consensus on this one. rpeh •TCE 07:24, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Getting logged out[edit]

There have been a lot of comments recently about people being logged out while editing the site. I've not had the exact problem myself, but I've had the wiki tell me it's lost my session data several times, once after only a couple of seconds. Can you think of anything that might have changed to cause this? We've got two topics on the Community Portal about this at the moment, so it's certainly not an isolated problem. (One, Two) rpeh •TCE 08:42, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Same as you rpeh. I've never been logged out but have gotten Loss of Session Data a few times. It doesn't usually affect anything, and saving page again has worked, but it is curious that it is happening. Oh the irony, I just got it as I tried to save this edit. --DKong27 Tk Ctr Em 16:06, 4 November 2011 (UTC)
Links for reference: [1] [2]. -- Daveh 17:14, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Quick Bards College Question[edit]

Hey Dave! Just noticed you added a few bugs to the Bards College quests, and since I have a feeling something is wrong with this quest line, I just want to ask you, as a PC player; did you receive the three "find-the-instruments"-quests as objectives, or as "real quests"? I suspect they were meant as real quests, because we have them created as pages (meaning the Bots recognized them as quests) and they are listed as quests in the Guide Book. --Krusty 01:41, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure they were just listed under the "Misc Quests" section rather than single quests. I actually found the drum before I got the quest and it didn't automatically update the quest log like it sometimes does when you find quest items before you get the actual quest. -- Daveh 02:35, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

how do i[edit]

How do I add my user page to categories, like "Users from Canada" and "PC users"?

Forum Issues[edit]

I've had it reported to me from the forum moderator Avron the S'wit that the forums are currently inaccessible for many users. While I'm not suffering from the issue personally, they say that the forums are missing all of the boards, instead replaced by a single sentence: "This board has no forums.". I'm not sure what's going on, but it seems to be effecting users at random. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 21:12, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

I noted this on rpeh's talk page but it looks like a simple permissions issue for normal members. —Rick 21:14, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
That can't be it, as I can log in and access all of the boards (besides the moderator board, but that's hidden by default). As of now, the problem seems to effect random users, with no clear connection between them. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 21:17, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
Are you in any group other than 'Registered Users'?Rick 21:19, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
It's also affecting more than just forum visibility, for example, when logged in I cannot view profiles, and the list of logged in users is completely unlinked. Search is also missing. —Rick 21:19, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
And I can access the Moderator Control Panel... elliot (talk) 21:25, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
(edit conflict) Same as Elliot. mxk101Talk 21:26, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
(edit conflict) I'm in confirmed and registered. It doesn't seem to be linked to any specific group of user. Some mods can access the forums, others can't, some regular users can't access the forums, while others can't. --AKB Talk Cont Mail 21:27, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
I'm fairly certain it's an issue with user group permissions, since things are OK when you log out. I'm guessing the Registered users permissions were broken. —Rick 21:30, 10 December 2011 (UTC)


Yeah, well same thing for me, but I have been told everything is accessible if you are not logged into the forums. But, by doing this you can post nothing. Imperialkhajiit 21:38, 10 December 2011 (UTC)Imperialkhajiit 21:37, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
One of the forum tables was corrupted on the database and needed to be repaired. It looks like you should be able to access the forum again but there may be more permission errors. If there are just let me know. -- Daveh 22:06, 10 December 2011 (UTC)
I am not able to reply to posts in the announcements forum, not sure if intentional or not. —Rick 08:03, 12 December 2011 (UTC)
What forum group are you a member of? The "Tea Party Mods" had incorrect permissions which I fixed but the other moderator groups look fine. -- Daveh 14:22, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

I have a link for the UESPWiki:Daggerfall and don´t know how to implement it right.[edit]

Hello,

First i want to say i can not so good english, i´m from Germany. But Daggerfall was ever my favorite game; i played it so often and so long and i must say the internet page you have make is amazing fantasic and helped me so much times, to have more fun in this game. It´s very great work you and the people done!!

I have a little link (of course in english ;) fond to make the informations better, but i don´t know if and how i may implement it to your page, so i thinked i send it to you.. i hope you find the time and a way to implement it.

I have found out if you have a Major, Minor or Misc. skill over 100 in Daggerfall, you are a master in it and all over skills can raise more than 95... that was very sad for me and i found no trick for that on UESPWiki, but on a other side. The information can help more people on your page, because searching this other side was hard work, eventuelly there is a way to set a link in the hints or skill section.

Here is the link -> http://www.jceason.dircon.co.uk/dagger/dfbugs.htm (and thats the relevant information -> When you reach 100% in one of your primary, major or minor skills you will be declared a 'Master'of that skill. Once this happens, advancement in any other skill is halted at 95% as the game limits them to 5% below the mastered skill. This limitation can be overcome by creating an item to raise the mastered skill above 100%, which will allow the other skills to progress as normal.)

It will be nice if you answer me, if this reaches you and that i know if it´s makeabel. I hope my broken school english was not to bad to understand.

Yours faithfully Thomas

An addition to the Easter Eggs[edit]

During the "Campaign" in Skyrim Paarthurnax uses a phrase that is a reference to Star Wars. Paarthurnax says something like "The Dova blood is strong in you" which may be pointing to a number of times someone says "the Force is strong in you/this one".

I would have added it to the Easter egg section after double checking what Paarthurnax says but the Easter egg section is locked. Thanks, Danpapua.

There's a reason the Easter Eggs page is locked - too many additions with the use of "says something like" and "which may be pointing". We simply had too many edits to the main article, so it was shut down. If you think your suggestion is valid, please use the article talk page. --Krusty 19:33, 20 December 2011 (UTC)

Registration 2[edit]

Hi, I tried to register to the forums like imperialkhajiit and it has been about 2 days with no activation e_mail. I would really need it to be registerd before Christmas for private reasons. Help please. Oh! My email is evbe1@comcast.netDragonsoul17 23:29, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Hello![edit]

Hi Daveh my name is Cole and I'd like to bring to your attention a small problem I've been having with an administrator. I went through a small dspute with her/him over Skyrim:Elder Scroll, I eventually resolved the problem but I'd like to point out his/her arrogent bevavior through the matter, which you can see on the history and discussion. But here is an example

The information that I have put on the page revises the information from Olivion, which was just a redirect to the lore page. The Elder Scroll is compleatley different in Skyrim, please dont vandalize what I have been working on.I will change this one last time.— Unsigned comment by Cole1 (talk • contribs) on 29 December 2011

"The information that you are deleting is all Skyrim specific the infobox, the item id, the notes about what happens you get the scroll or read the scroll. The page you are editing is a page specifically describing the item that is received in Skyrim, and should follow the same format as every other scroll and book on the site. That format should not be overwritten with quest-specific information or other information that does not belong on the item page. If you would like to discuss this further, you should use the Skyrim talk:Elder Scroll talk page, because that where the content of the article should be discussed. I am only one of several editors who has undone your edit, and therefore the discussion should not be on my talk page. Furthermore, adding the content to the page again will constitute edit-warring, which is not productive. You should start a discussion on the article talk page and wait for that discussion to be resolved instead of ignoring what several editors have now told you." NepheleTalk 04:20, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

It seems like he/she is threatining me, also he/she told me to (move to bottom and reply) like she didnt want others to see it. sorry for the box cant find out what caused that.— Unsigned comment by Cole1 (talkcontribs) on 29 December 2011

New comments to talk pages should be added to the bottom of the page, which is why again moved this comment to the bottom of the page before replying. If you check the other comments on talk pages, you will see that they always are in chronological order from top to bottom. I didn't tell you to "move to bottom and reply" -- that was my edit summary to explain my edit, which consisted of exactly that -- moving your comment to the bottom and replying.
As for threatening you, pointing out site policy is not threatening you -- it is telling you the facts of how this site operate. Edit-warring is against site policy, and that is exactly what you have done. You have violated now violated the three-revert rule, because you have now undone other editors' changes to Skyrim:Elder Scroll four times. Nevertheless I'm stepping away from the page and waiting for someone else to provide an opinion, because I'm following site policy and not doing a third revert on the page.
I've explained every change that I've made to you, and I've responded to your questions. However, given that you find my responses so unacceptable, I will no longer be responding to any of your comments. --NepheleTalk 05:18, 29 December 2011 (UTC)
Nephele is one our most experienced admins and she explained the issue to you very clearly and politely. While I welcome and encourage new editors to contribute to the site you must keep in mind the overall site design, content and policies. Keep your edits smaller and only add existing information to pages until you get a better handle on things. For example, you could of just added your new image to the bottom of that page instead of rewriting the entire page. -- Daveh 14:51, 29 December 2011 (UTC)


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