User talk:Nephele/Archive-2007-06

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What to do...[edit]

Hello, I pretty much have a ton of free time and was wanting to help out on the UESP site. Tried asking ya before in my talk page in replys to your comments, but never really got answered. I have Oblivion for the 360 and the computer, but quite more avalable on the 360. I also have Morrowind for the computer and XBox, but thats more avalable on the comp. I really don't know where to start with stuff, and the wanted list is kindda sparadic, so thought i should ask you. Just tell me what to do or give me a project or something lol. Thanks, D521

Sorry for not answering your questions earlier. I was meaning to get around to replying, but then got distracted by other requests and lost track of things. UESPWiki:Helping Out and UESPWiki:Task List are the pages that list tasks that need to be done. If you want more specific advice it really depends upon what you're interested in... writing articles, taking screenshots, creating maps, answering questions, working out equations, etc. Without some general idea of what you're looking for, it's hard to point you in the right direction. --NepheleTalk 23:20, 30 May 2007 (EDT)
Meh, no problem on not getting back to me, quite alright lol. As for what i like to do, its mainly write articles i guess, cant easly take pics really of stuff, but deffently like oblivion better. I've checked the two help links but their not what im talking about, the first just shows what you "Can" do, and the second shows what needs to be done in mass, I also find it quite easier to work on an already existing page, makeing a new one (i tried) does not seem to work well with me. Answering Q's dosen't seem too bad either, and i dont really know how to do the equations or maps. What i'm really looking or is like a page or set of them tht needs a bunch of work. Also for on in specific, the SI Creatures page, what else does it need to me "Compleate" ive added a bunch of stuff, but the thing is still there, do i need someone to look at it or what? Thanks for all the time you've spent helping me ;),D521
I can't help at all with the SI creatures page... I'm completely SI ignorant at this point so I can't say what might or might not need to be on the page.
One thing you might want to check out is a new project I haven't quite yet started, which is described so far at Oblivion Places Redesign Project. It definitely qualifies as a set of pages that need a lot of work :) Let me know if that looks at all interesting. If it does, I could provide some better explanations of what needs to be done. In the meantime, I'll try to keep my eyes open for other ideas. --NepheleTalk 00:50, 1 June 2007 (EDT)
Hello again, I am quite interested in the project, and would love to help. I'll only be able to be on the 360 for the next while, but I usually end up exploring alot of places. I also have the strat. guide so I can fidn places, and all of the mods save; KotN, Orrary, and tomes (may get tomes soon). Just tell me what i can do to help and I'll start, D521
If you'd like to start changing some of the place pages into the new format, that would be great. Choose one of the places listed at [[UESPWiki:Oblivion Places Redesign Project/Data]] (other than Wenyandawik, which is the example), and try copy/pasting the new information from the Data page into the place page. Then explore the place and add any additional information that's needed about how to get through it. I've added some more detailed instructions to the UESPWiki:Oblivion Places Redesign Project pages. If you want to start right away, you can see if you can make do without any of the new maps. Or if you give me a couple days I should have a chance to post the new maps for a couple of the places. --NepheleTalk 00:54, 4 June 2007 (EDT)
Ok, that would be fine, I need an excuse to run aroudn for no reason at all lol. I'm horrible with maps btw, so am i just coppying and pasting them, or do i have to actually edit them?
You can just ignore the maps. That's what I was trying to say in my last comment... if you don't want to deal with them, just don't touch them and I'll take care of the maps for any pages that you work on. As it says at Specific Tasks, you can choose to do just one or two of the tasks (i.e., "Overall page layout and basic information" and "Walkthrough information"), and leave the other tasks for someone else to do. --NepheleTalk 11:36, 4 June 2007 (EDT)
Oh ok great, so any specific place ya want me to start? and also is there an easier way to talk to you besides this talk page by chance?
You can start on any of the places listed at [[UESPWiki:Oblivion Places Redesign Project/Data]]. You can check in IRC and see if I'm around to discuss things more; email also works. --NepheleTalk 22:22, 4 June 2007 (EDT)
Ok, just made the Amelion's Tomb one, is this the correct format/was this one off limits? heres link so check out and give me yell, thanks. Amelion's Tomb
Looks good, looks like you've got the format figured out :) --NepheleTalk 00:16, 5 June 2007 (EDT)
Ok, seem to me done with all the ones on the list. Can you lease check em out when ya get the time? Thanks :D ~~D521

downloading[edit]

o sorry im really kinda new to this whole board type of thing but anyway i bought a new harddrive all together took it to the friends house then i downloaded it onto tht harddrive from his 360 using his account but after that it said that the downloads we being loaded whenever we played oblivion on his system. but as soon as i brought it to my own it showed my downloads in the memory bank of the harddrve but i could not get into the download section of the actual game and activate them and wat notCheney12 17:29, 3 June 2007 (EDT)

If the harddrive was connected to your friend's Xbox when you downloaded the mods, then the mods would be registered as being owned by your friend. Your Xbox will probably only recognize mods that are downloaded directly to your Xbox. --NepheleTalk 22:25, 4 June 2007 (EDT)

so is there anyway i can get those downloads without owning xbox live?Cheney12 16:14, 5 June 2007 (EDT)

Didn't they include all the downloadable content in a boxed version you can buy in the store? I forget. Anyhow, other than that, there is probably no other legal way - and we don't discuss the illegal ones on this site, so don't ask. --TheRealLurlock Talk 22:02, 5 June 2007 (EDT)

Possible contribution??[edit]

I was thinking of contributing the following. Where would it go?

I'd say the information belongs on Oblivion:Wayshrines, probably by adding a new section to the page. --NepheleTalk 11:07, 7 June 2007 (EDT)

The Pilgrimage of the Nine Devines: Sample Tour[edit]

(This now appears as part of :Wayshrines )

Thanks! Kalevala 17:16, 8 June 2007 (EDT)

Game Wikis[edit]

Hey, I was just wondering if I could use some of your "help" content for a wiki I'm doing on Bioware's upcoming Mass Effect. Would that be ok? — Unsigned comment by 162.84.82.76 (talk)

What's reqired by the legal side of things is listed at UESPWiki:Copyright_and_Ownership#Using_Materials_from_UESP. If that's all covered, I don't see why there should be any problem with you making use of some of our Help pages. --NepheleTalk 11:01, 7 June 2007 (EDT)

Oblivion 2[edit]

Do you think they will make an Oblivion 2? If so when do you think it would come out? Lilcocomojoe579 12:48, 8 June 2007 (EDT)Lilcocomojoe579

No, I don't think Bethesda is going to make Oblivion 2. They probably will, however, make a TES 5, and people have already been speculating what/where it might be. --NepheleTalk 22:52, 8 June 2007 (EDT)

Editing help[edit]

Thanks, Nephele. That was getting quite frustrating!!! Rpeh 15:09, 8 June 2007 (EDT)

Glad to help :) I've been there myself. For example, I just spent the whole morning trying to figure out why some map labels were printing out in random positions, only to find out that I was mixing up degrees and radians. Oops! --NepheleTalk 15:37, 8 June 2007 (EDT)
I always find it helps to relax and eat some pi. Rpeh 15:51, 8 June 2007 (EDT)

Slightly different wiki code then I am used to.[edit]

I noticed editor notes that apear only to other editors doesn't work the same so I corrected that an make notes in the Note area only.

I am redoing the missions adding content and corrections to some areas of shimmering islands as I go since I noticed some aspects left out and other correct items, so I am retsting to make sure.

I have a concern about the sites storage size, and how much content can be added. As far as small images to guides to bring them to life. I can store images offsite to help with this. — Unsigned comment by Spazzy (talkcontribs)

The site has plenty of hard disk space for images; if space ever becomes an issue in the future, Daveh would add more capacity. We'd much rather have images uploaded to the site than have off-site images. If they are hosted here then the wiki software has a lot more control over the images (i.e., you can set in your user preferences that you want all thumbnails to be 120px by default if you want pages to download more quickly; the wiki software will then generate 120px versions of all images). --NepheleTalk 09:05, 11 June 2007 (EDT)

A possible job for Nephelebot...[edit]

After creating another :Category:Spam-Blockers|spam-blocker, I started to think about ways to prevent these pages from appearing in the first place. The typical M/O is that an anonymous IP will create a Talk page with all their junk on it. Since Talk pages can be created by anyone, even if they're new or anonymous accounts, there's nothing stopping them from doing this. But we can't prevent new/anonymous users from creating Talk pages, because it would prevent legit users from asking questions, protesting blocks, etc. Here's what I was thinking - If we could make it so that there was already a Talk page for every article and User page - make them blank, of course - then we could safely disallow the creation of Talk pages by new/anonymous users. What it would require is someone to go through and create blank Talk pages for every page that didn't have one. Obviously way too much work for any sane human being, but a perfect job for a bot. If you want a precedent, take a look at Wikipedia. Nearly every article of any importance has a Talk page, and many of them are blank, or contain nothing more than a few categorization templates (something we've never bothered with). I don't know how long this would fend off the spammers - they could always edit existing pages instead or create lots of bogus accounts and let them sit idle for 3 days before using them, but it's that much more effort for the spammers to re-program their bots to do that. (And multiple accounts would not work well unless they have different IPs - otherwise banning one auto-bans all the others too.)

It's not a perfect solution - a perfect one would probably require some sort of plugin that can detect the patterns in the page-names they're creating and just prevent them. A quick look at that category page makes it pretty obvious what patterns would be flagged as non-legit. Not one of them is ever a page name that has any legitimate reason to exist. It's possible you could even program Nephelebot to monitor recent changes, and auto-delete any new page that matches those patterns. There are many bots on Wikipedia that do things like that. It might be something to look into, and maybe less drastic than my first suggestion. --TheRealLurlock Talk 02:26, 17 June 2007 (EDT)

One of the spambots is creating new talk pages. But other spambots are editing existing pages, so trying to prevent talk pages from being created would do nothing to stop those spambots. And even for a bot, the scope of what you're suggesting seems to me like overkill. Ratwar is concerned about the effect of creating 2000 redirect pages on the site's resources... creating 20,000 talk pages (including talk pages for every one of those redirect pages) would be even more of a drain on the site. The talk pages would have to be regularly updated to deal with any new pages that have been created (which would require scanning all 20,000 pages on the site to see which ones do or do not have talk pages... even at 360 pages per hour, that would still take more than two days to do). And creating every possible user talk page is even more problematic... how would you even go about trying to create a talk page for every possible IP address??
As for monitoring recent changes, a decision that I made pretty early on with NepheleBot is that the bot would not run continuously, and it's explicitly stated in NepheleBot's description that the bot will not run continuously. There are a lot of factors that went into that decision, which we can discuss in more detail if you're interested. But even if NepheleBot was running continuously, it still wouldn't be able to do what you're suggesting: the bot has no admin powers, so it can't delete pages.
Unfortunately, it's just not obvious to me that either of these ideas would have a significant enough effect on the spambots to warrant such drastic changes. --NepheleTalk 22:31, 19 June 2007 (EDT)
Well, I guess that idea was a tad drastic. But the other one has some merit. As for the bot getting admin priveleges, I'm sure we could convince Daveh to arrange that if there were a way to make this work. Otherwise, having a bot that simply blanks spam pages and places a Speedy Delete template on there would be almost as effective. If spam-bots start to see that all of their pages are instantly blanked and marked for deletion as soon as they create them, they may realize how little point there is to post their junk in the first place. I personally don't have a problem with a bot that constantly monitors Recent Changes if it doesn't impact the server too heavily and is serving a good purpose. (As I said, there are countless bots doing things like this on Wikipedia, and they seem to be handling it pretty well.) I'm just looking for some sort of preemptive solution to the spam problem - it seems like all I do lately is deal with spam pages. (Though admittedly I've been a bit too busy these days to do much else - hopefully a situation that will change soon.) --TheRealLurlock Talk 19:45, 20 June 2007 (EDT)

High-five[edit]

For blocking two plus-sign vandal accounts simultaneously... --TheRealLurlock Talk 18:28, 23 June 2007 (EDT)

Question[edit]

do you have any contact with the Forums admin?

the forums admin is needed to actually check messages and to take charge — Unsigned comment by Obliv4PS3 (talkcontribs)

I can try to get in touch with someone, but I doubt I'll be able to until at least tomorrow. --NepheleTalk 01:42, 24 June 2007 (EDT)


thank you I myself have been trying to become a helper mod and the other helper mods are asking for much help sense there is only one that is active.
I was wondering if you ever got in contact with him/her? — Unsigned comment by Obliv4PS3 (talkcontribs)
I've left him a message, but I think he's on travel right now. It might be a week or more until he's back. --NepheleTalk 19:06, 27 June 2007 (EDT)
Thank you for your help I am now a Moderator on the forums. --Most Honored Listener 00:01, 1 July 2007 (EDT)

Merging IP contributions[edit]

M'aiq greets you once again! M'aiq would like to give you a word of thanks for inspiring M'aiq, a huge pile of amazement at your huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge (at least, to this furry creature) state of service and a question (:

Now, M'aiq wouldn't go here without reason, that is way too like non-furry creatures! M'aiq would like to know wether it is possible to merge account's contributions. M'aiq came by a loss of session data, and accidentally submitted an edit as just his IP, not his account- and then proceded to submit it twice. So M'aiq would like to know if it is possible to merge contributions, so such things don't happen again in the future (: M'aiqM'aiq thinks talk serves no purpose. 16:30, 25 June 2007 (EDT)

There definitely isn't any easy way to do it. If it's even possible, it's something that only Daveh would be able to do. Sorry. --NepheleTalk 20:09, 25 June 2007 (EDT)
Hmm, oh well. M'aiq thanks you for the help (: M'aiqM'aiq thinks talk serves no purpose. 12:06, 26 June 2007 (EDT)

Help With Pronunciation[edit]

Hello there! I am Captain Playjex here asking if I can have my own little project. I would just love to leave how to pronunciate an NPC's name, like I did in the Nordinor article in the Oblivion NPC section. Thank you. user:Playjex

Sincerely, Captain Playjex

Everyone on the wiki is free to come up with their own projects to work on. But if there are differing opinions about what modifications are appropriate, which seems to be the case here, it's really not up to any one person to make a decision about what should be done. Consensus decisions are made by the community as a whole, so somewhere like the Community Portal would be a better place to ask for feedback. And it would help everyone to provide input if you could give some reasons why you think adding pronunciations is necessary or useful. --NepheleTalk 23:32, 27 June 2007 (EDT)
How about just providing pronunciation in cases where the name is actually spoken in in-game dialog? Although even that isn't a guarantee, as we've seen several names get pronounced differently in multiple games or even by different people in the same game. But at least it's a step above pure speculation, which is what we'd have in most cases, I think... --TheRealLurlock Talk 00:28, 28 June 2007 (EDT)
Okay, thanks you guys. -Playjex

Spam Question[edit]

When I remove spam from a page, is there a way I can flag the article (in this case, a user's page was the target - User:Lord E) so that you or another admin can find and block the sites? My apologies if this is answered somewhere. I checked the Spam section of the warnings, and it said that a spam warning is usually not needed. Should I use this to flag the IP of the spammer? — Unsigned comment by Jason the2nd (talkcontribs)

As I recently stated on Eshe's page, posting a warning for spam is usually not necessary. One of us usually catches it and deals with it. Warnings are not necessary since we generally block spammers on the first offense. If we miss it, though, the proper place to post a notice would be on the Vandalism Noticeboard. --TheRealLurlock Talk 19:15, 28 June 2007 (EDT)
Yep, as Lurlock said, flagging the edit or IP isn't necessary. Just putting "revert spam" or something similar in the edit summary when you clean it up is enough to let one of the admins notice it. I know I tend to scan through everything that's happened each time I check in, and I'd guess the other admins do something similar. If more than a day were to go by without any followup, you could post a message on the noticeboard. And if that were to start happening with any frequency, we would perhaps need to set up a more formal system to flag the IPs. But so far, that extra work hasn't been necessary. --NepheleTalk 20:30, 28 June 2007 (EDT)

I Apologize[edit]

srry Nephele, I apologize for messing up the faction things. I won't do it again, though I am starting my pronunciation.

Sincereley, user:Playjex


Hello, oh-so-great administrator! And a question.[edit]

(I wasn't trying to be sarcastic in the title, that would be very rude of course)

Hey, Nephele. I am a new user here and got addicted to this website. About 3 weeks later, I joined. I only have a mere 25 or so edits, but I think that this is because a lot of stuff has to be done with the Construction Set, including but not limited to: checking if something is a bug or supposed to happen, creating charts/tables with enemy, armor, NPC, or leveled weapon statistics, and a task that is part of the places redesign project that has to do with adding pages for marauders or conjurers that are similar to the Bandit page. Before I joined the wiki (or planned to), I downloaded the CS, which did not work, probably because I don't have Oblivion installed as I play it on the PS3. It says it can not load a bunch of important things, then says it has to close it becuase of a serious error (or something like that)!! I'm pretty sure you don't have this problem, but can you direct me to a site that shows how to fix a terrifying bug like this? Thanks.

By the way, nobody welcomed me at my talk page yet, which doesn't even exist... :( (I feel so lonely) CRACK-A-BACK 07:36, 30 June 2007 (EDT)

The Construction Set does nothing without the game data files, unfortunately. You'll need to purchase a PC version of the game to do anything with it. (Unless somebody knows a way to transfer the files from PS3 to PC, but I haven't heard of any such thing yet, and it's probably illegal if it does exist.) --TheRealLurlock Talk 09:05, 30 June 2007 (EDT)

Actually, if you go to the Bethesda official website, it states that the Construction Set is free to use for anybody, including people without Oblivion installed... well then, I guess I need to buy the game again... at least it's probably a good thing since I can do things like add pictures and things... Oh, and hello other oh-so-great administrator! :> CRACK-A-BACK 16:20, 30 June 2007 (EDT)

The construction set is free for anybody to download and use. But it's just a tool to let you read and edit the game's data files; without the data files it is pretty much just a useless piece of software, especially if you want to use the CS for the types of things you've mentioned. And the only (legal) way to get the game data files is to install the PC version of the game. Before purchasing the PC version of the game, though, you might want to double check that your computer meets the minimum game specs. Some of the error messages you mentioned could have been caused by having not having a powerful enough video card. Even just to use the construction set, your PC has to meet the game's specs. --NepheleTalk 16:27, 30 June 2007 (EDT)
Not entirely useless - You could use the CS to make a total-conversion mod, basically building a new game from scratch using the tool. Of course, that would be a LOT of work, but people have done things like that. Anyhow, I'm not sure about the game's specs being required to run the CS, just to use some of its features. For example, for a long time I couldn't play the game, due to my video card not being able to display the graphics. They wouldn't display in either the game or the CS. (Problem eventually solved with Oldblivion, but that's beside the point). At any rate, even though my computer was not up to spec, I could still open the CS and look at object stats, dialog, scripts, etc. Anything that didn't involve graphics rendering worked just fine. Anyhow, just thought I'd clarify that statement. --TheRealLurlock Talk 01:08, 1 July 2007 (EDT)

Ok, thanks. I was thinking that the CS was quite useful... but of course I had to be wrong like I always am.  :P CRACK-A-BACK 16:36, 30 June 2007 (EDT)

Thanks for the heads up about the walkthrough. I did exactly as you recommended for the benefit of this community. Thanks for the patience. :) --Gs lance 17:38, 30 June 2007 (EDT)