The Sims Wiki talk:Development Portal

Special:UnusedFiles is being faulty
It has been a while that I noticed Special:UnusedFiles has been listing images that are actually used somewhere in this wiki erroneously. I've noticed this for long, and I thought it would fix itself some time in the future, but no. It hasn't been fixed and it's still being faulty. For example, this file File:CamrynMcGaw.png is said to be unused, while it really is used on Camryn McGaw. Even the file page says it's not used anywhere in this wiki. If you try to clean up the unused files in that page, please be careful with this, as you might accidentally delete used images.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  09:59, May 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * I've had (and as I last checked, currently having) this problem on my other wiki. I emailed Wikia and was informed that "A server might've lagged behind". Though when I got the response the page had already updated, so the issue wasn't investigated any further. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I just checked Special:UnusedFiles and it was updated not too long ago. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:09, May 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * It was updated not too long ago, but the issue is still there. There are still many used images that are listed unused, even if the pages that use them are never touched.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  11:35, May 24, 2014 (UTC)

Trait categories and pages for TS4 vs TS3 traits
A couple weeks ago Trait (The Sims 4) was created. It only makes sense that we would have separate articles for traits in the major releases, so my issue isn't with the creation of that page. However, I renamed Trait to Trait (The Sims 3), since the content of that page deals almost exclusively with TS3 traits. I have since been having LiRBot fix a lot of the redirect/bad links left over from the page move, after which I intend to re-write Trait to be a generic article not focused on traits in one particular game.

My question is, are we going to have separate categories for traits in TS3 vs TS4? For instance, Hopeless Romantic is (IIRC) a trait that will appear in TS4. So, do we create a new page for Hopeless Romantic (named Hopeless Romantic (The Sims 4)) and a new category for Sims who are Hopeless Romantics in TS4? Or, do we use the same pages and categories for both? -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 04:01, May 26, 2014 (UTC)


 * For categories, I think it's okay if we combine both games. Many games share the same categories, like zodiac sign and appearances. Careers are a good example for this, since many careers in different games have similar names, are described differently, but share the same categories.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:39, May 26, 2014 (UTC)
 * Ok, that sounds alright. But what about the trait pages themselves? Taking the example of careers, we tend to keep careers from different games on the same page if they have the same name. So, would we continue to do this with TS4 traits that duplicate TS3 traits? --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 15:43, May 26, 2014 (UTC)


 * I'm not quite sure. Every TS3 trait page is pretty much individual, and has consistent layout. Combining it with TS4 trait seems like it will mess up the layout (some trait pages are for TS3, some for TS4, and some for both). Personally, just for the sake of the consistent layout, I'd rather separate the trait pages. It's not really a strong reason though, as it's just a personal preference.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:10, May 26, 2014 (UTC)
 * If we take that approach, we'll have to rename all the pages with traits whose names are shared. So if Hopeless Romantic is a trait in TS4, we'll have a page named Hopeless Romantic (The Sims 3) and Hopeless Romantic (The Sims 4). So there will be a bit of work involved in making the pages separate. -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 19:08, May 26, 2014 (UTC)
 * Also, if we go that route, wouldn't we have to create a new navigation template for TS4 traits? That would mean renaming Traits to something else. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 17:10, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * I prefer separating the page that way. But I think we don't need to hurry to rename these articles right away. We hardly have any detailed information about trait system in The Sims 4, so it's better to stuff the information we have in Trait (The Sims 4) at the moment. We're not sure if the system is as simple as The Sims 3 either. There are things called "unlockable trait" or "bonus trait based on Aspiration" for instance. Once we have detailed enough information to sort things out, renaming is in order.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  14:15, June 3, 2014 (UTC)

New users not being welcomed
‎73.190.48.34, ‎68.45.246.114, 50.156.12.84, etc. are new editors to the wiki. The only problem is, for some reason Wikia hasn't sent them a welcome message yet.

I asked on Community Central Chat and was told that the bot was "sometimes slow", so I let it slide. It's been several hours and still no welcome message. Think this is another Wikia issue, probably broke some code or their bot is down. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:47, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * Note: Welcome messages aren't appearing for any other wiki too. This isn't related to just our wiki. Hopefully Staff has figured it out by now and will have a fix ready soon. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:49, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * This has been happening since few months back when I was still active in the wiki. The welcome messages will still appear in next few hours though and waiting for almost half a day is normal to me. Nothing we can do exactly about them right now. -- 11:57, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * Okay, sent in a bug report to Wikia. Will hopefully get a response soon. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 19:52, May 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * While the Wikia had this problem, should all of the users give a welcome messages to the contributors and the registered users or admins only?  ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  11:11, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * The MediaWiki settings always sign welcome messages with an admin's signature. If there are no active admins it is signed by a Staff member. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:47, May 28, 2014 (UTC)
 * The bot signs it with a member of the administrative team or staff, but there's no particular reason why regular users wouldn't be allowed to give welcome messages themselves. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 14:39, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * I mean that a normal user would've give a welcome message to the new editors, however, the sign must be an active admin or a Wikia Staff (if that particular user knows the staffs and the admins well) and not themselves.  ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  15:25, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * If a user is posting a welcome message, they should use their own signature. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 15:33, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * Got the following response from Wikia:

Hello K6ka,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention - it does appear the tool has broken down. I'll flag it up to the technical team, and we'll investigate what has gone wrong.

Apologies for this issue, and best regards,

George Marbulcanti (Kirkburn) Wikia Community Support


 * --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 21:57, May 28, 2014 (UTC)


 * Bringing this up right now - users can welcome new users with the Welcome and WelcomeIP templates. Be sure to read the documentation at the bottom of those pages. Monitor recent changes and look for users that have a red "Talk" link (meaning they do not have a talk page). If they do not have "STAFF", "HELPER", "WIKIA STAR", or "VSTF" next to their username in the user header box, then you can add a template. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 17:09, May 29, 2014 (UTC)

┌─────────────────┘

Update: Bot is back up and running. Thanks guys. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:00, May 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * I think the bot might be delayed. As the contributor (which it is vandalizing) isn't being welcome.  ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  11:21, May 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * Hmm, it made like a few edits on my other wiki. It also made a couple of edits on the Developers Wikia. Not sure about the other wikis. Oh well. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:40, May 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * So far, the bot's very unstable. Sometimes it welcomes, sometimes it doesn't. If the user is manually welcomed, sometimes the bot will pop up out of nowhere and leave a duplicate welcome message. If the user is not welcomed, the bot won't edit at all and it looks silly. Until Wikia sorts this out, I have thoughts of disabling this feature, at least temporarily, and go back to manually welcoming users by changing MediaWiki:Welcome-user to "@disabled", until Wikia can sort this out. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 13:59, June 4, 2014 (UTC)

Resurrecting this cause it seems the bot is down... again! See User:K6ka/What to do if the welcome bot is down for instructions on what to do. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 12:43, June 28, 2014 (UTC)

Multiple neighborhood parameters in Lot
I've copied Lot onto my testpage (see here) with the intent to modernize it, so it looks like our other main infobox templates. While going through the template, I noticed that there's a spot for multiple neighborhoods, if a lot appears in more than one neighborhood. Since the template ultimately uses the neighborhood name to determine what color the template itself is, it's important that each lot be from only one neighborhood (or, at the very least, from only one game or game generation). So if those extra neighborhood parameters are actually used, then I'll have to come up with another way to give color to the templates. Does anyone know if Lot is used for any lots/houses that appear in multiple neighborhoods? --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 08:16, June 4, 2014 (UTC)

Introducing Outdent
You may have noticed the weird lines I occasionally add in talk pages and forum posts. It looks a bit like this:

┌───────────────────┘

That's called an outdent, and no, the idea for it was not original. It was used on Wikipedia as an interesting (and fancy) way to reset the indents on a talk page. When a talk page was indented to an incredible length, the template was used to signify that the indents were "reset" and users should start from number 1 again. For example:


 * Blah blah blah --User 1
 * Blah blah blah --User 2
 * Blah blah blah --User 1
 * STOP SPAMMING --User 3
 * Blah blah blah --User 4
 * Meh --User 5
 * Blah ... blah blah! Haha! --User 6
 * Jeez, you guys are annoying. --User 3
 * Yeah, I'd have to agree with User 3 with this one --User 8

┌─────────────────────┘

You irritating little children! --User 9
 * Blah blah blah IDC --User 2
 * lolwut --User 4

Something like the above. It's not strictly required, but seeing that I was getting tired of copy 'n' pasting the outdent, I decided to steal the template code from Wikipedia and use it here. Details are in the documentation. You can also just use Od as a shortcut. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:51, June 10, 2014 (UTC)


 * I've never used this outdent thing before, but it looks neat and tidy when you use it. Making a template for it is quite practical. I'm going to try to get used to it!  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  12:17, June 10, 2014 (UTC)

Colors for infoboxes
I've updated the Game color templates so The Sims 4 finally has some color. You can see the colors in action on my test page (here). I took the colors from screenshots of the new in-game Gallery feature, since they seem to be indicative of the palette that is being used in the game. The colors strongly resemble the colors we've picked for The Sims 2 and, even if they didn't, I'm not entirely sure I'm a fan of the colors I have now as they seem very subdued. But, it's a start and we can build off of it. I'm going to play around with the colors a little bit more, but I wanted to open it up to comments and discussion, so we can make improvements. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 23:49, June 11, 2014 (UTC)


 * I originally planned to use white color scheme based on the UI we've seen in the trailers. It's not too similar to The Sims 2 color scheme, but it is for The Sims Social. Probably we could change The Sims Social color, considering the only usage is in its own game article.


 * Also, I see that the Vgsecondaryfontcolor for The Sims 4 is black instead of white that's used in most series. While black is more contrast to the background color, I think I prefer white as it has no major problem with the readability and it's consistent with other schemes.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  16:24, June 13, 2014 (UTC)
 * Looking back now, I actually like the colors for TS4 as they are. I do think we should make the TS2 colors darker, possibly to match the darker blue UI in the game. As for font color, that should always be decided on a case-by-case basis as it relates to how easily the font is read; just because the other schemes use a white color, it doesn't necessarily mean this one should too. -  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 17:00, June 13, 2014 (UTC)
 * I agree with making the TS2 colors darker, especially if that would affect object descriptions in infoboxes. I think that would help readability, especially in articles with several infoboxes. Dharden (talk) 20:58, July 16, 2014 (UTC)
 * I've tweaked Object so that it uses bold+italic for descriptions instead of just italic. IMO, that's easier to read -- at least it's easier for me to read. I think that's because the bolding darkens the text so it stands out more. Dharden (talk) 21:21, July 16, 2014 (UTC)

No Must Watch Videos gadget
This does not appear to be working properly. At least, I am still getting the module, even though I have set my preferences to use this gadget. Dharden (talk) 15:00, June 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * The gadget is broken - you'll need to click here and save Lab's code into your personal Wikia .css file. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 15:06, June 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Dharden (talk) 17:02, June 24, 2014 (UTC)


 * I was just wondering about this myself. Does it mean this module isn't disabled entirely in this wikia?  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  14:51, June 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * The module is enabled on this Wikia, and Wikia forces us to keep it enabled and visible. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 14:54, June 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * Ah, Wikia and its policies...  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:03, June 30, 2014 (UTC)


 * Can some users have the JS/CSS page? Because I want to remove the gadget too, it's bugging me out. Hehe.  .ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  |  (my mistakes)  11:52, July 1, 2014 (UTC)


 * Yes, all users who are logged in can have their own personal JS/CSS pages. Just click here and hit Save. Here's a help page on this stuff. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 12:32, July 1, 2014 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the info!  .ThePeculiarMe  |  (talk to me)  |  (my mistakes)  12:42, July 1, 2014 (UTC)

Era template
I did some tinkering and I think I got Era to display correctly again. Please let me know if you notice any problems stemming from it. --  LostInRiverview talk ~ blog 12:53, June 25, 2014 (UTC)
 * Ah, thanks for taking care of it!  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  14:52, June 30, 2014 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation error
I want to add Blog:The Sim's Pen to the navigation under blog posts button, but the editor doesn't allow me. It says the level 1 menu is too wide. It's odd, because it will say so even if you preview it without making any changes. Sooner or later if we need to edit the navigation, we need to shorten the level 1 menu name as well. I tried to change "Interact" into "aaa" and the editor allowed me. Any ideas which menus to shorten?  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  14:46, September 18, 2014 (UTC)


 * I'm getting the glitch on my other wiki too, which is strange, because it fits just fine. Looks like Wikia broke something here. Special:Contact it, maybe? --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 14:47, September 18, 2014 (UTC)


 * Well, the error tells us to go to w:c:community:Help:Navigation. The "error" seems intended, meaning it's more like they changed the limit (while keeping the preexisting navigations intact so they won't be broken).  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:03, September 18, 2014 (UTC)


 * Hmm, it seems like the error has been fixed. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 14:03, September 19, 2014 (UTC)
 * ...only to be broken again! What's going on here, Wikia? --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 14:28, September 20, 2014 (UTC)


 * Okay, I have reported the issue at Community Central. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 21:38, September 20, 2014 (UTC)


 * Alright, there are two solutions to this that I have tried on my test wiki and has worked.
 * Move the page MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation to another title, make your changes, and then move it back. This, however, will break the navigation bar while the original navigation page is a redirect, but it works.
 * Copy and paste the following code into your user CSS file:

/* Special thanks to User:452 for this! Original taken from http://community.wikia.com/wiki/User:452/global.css?diff=prev&oldid=1343313 */ /* This thing fixes the broken width check in MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation */ .ArticlePreviewInner .WikiHeader li.nav-item a { /* Because the width check is broken. */  margin: 0; padding: 0; }
 * This code works by reducing the width of the tabs in the preview window. It looks horribly squished while previewing, but it will fool the check into thinking that it's of the right size and will let you publish the edit. Just be careful! This could potentially allow you to save an invalid layout into the page, which can result in unpredictable results! It's best to test your changes on a test wiki to make sure nothing is out-of-place or broken before you save it on a real wiki.
 * You can also put this in your global CSS file so it loads on all wikis, which is useful if you're an admin on other wikis. See Help:JavaScript and CSS Cheatsheet for details. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 01:59, September 21, 2014 (UTC)
 * The issue only appears to occur when using Google Chrome 37... other browsers and older versions seem to work without the fix above. --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 11:58, September 21, 2014 (UTC)

Sorry I was a little late to follow this up. Nice workaround! Thank you for reporting and finding a workaround for this issue, k6ka. :)  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  11:54, September 22, 2014 (UTC)

Introducing Edit conflict
Sick of running into edit conflicts while editing a talk page? Are people starting to think that you're an ignorant pig for not reading the comments right above yours?

If we could develop a magical extension that automatically resolved talk page edit conflicts, that would be wonderful. But we obviously can't do that -- talk pages are essentially the exact same as any other page. Really.

So here's another solution. If you ran into an edit conflict while editing a talk page, you can defend yourself against "Y U NO READ MY POSTS??!!" comments by adding Edit conflict in front of your comments. For example:

I'm not sure if this is the correct way to do it... --User 1
 * Oh for sure, it is! --User 2

Let's say you were typing a response right underneath User 2's comment. As soon as you click "Publish" you are told that there was an edit conflict. The current page looks like this:

I'm not sure if this is the correct way to do it... --User 1
 * Oh for sure, it is! --User 2
 * If you read the manuals at MediaWiki.org, you'll see it's correct. --User 3

You would normally go to the bottom of the page, copy your changes, and then paste them under User 3's comment. With the new template, however, you can now easily tell the world that there was an edit conflict and that there is no need for finger-pointing if your comment is the same as User 3, or if it tries using an argument that User 3 had just knocked down.

I'm not sure if this is the correct way to do it... --User 1
 * Oh for sure, it is! --User 2
 * If you read the manuals at MediaWiki.org, you'll see it's correct. --User 3
 * According to the MediaWiki.org manuals, yes, this is how you do it. --You

Which comes out as:

I'm not sure if this is the correct way to do it... --User 1
 * Oh for sure, it is! --User 2
 * If you read the manuals at MediaWiki.org, you'll see it's correct. --User 3
 * According to the MediaWiki.org manuals, yes, this is how you do it. --You

If you have experienced multiple edit conflicts you can also add an optional parameter to the template that indicates how many edit conflicts you endured. For example, if you encountered three edit conflicts, you can add  to show for it, which comes out as:

You can also use the shortcut template - Ec, which does the exact same thing.

Have fun! --k6ka (talk &#124; contribs) 15:01, September 27, 2014 (UTC)


 * This is a good concept, although I don't encounter edit conflicts that often. And even if I did, I would change some things in my post. u.u  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  12:19, September 29, 2014 (UTC)

Category:Families / Sims by neighborhood and world
While we've had resolved the issue to distinguish world from neighborhood by terminology, there's one thing I have in mind. Categorization has organizing purposes, and I believe that having two distinct categories, i.e. Category:Sims by neighborhood and Category:Sims by world, is redundant. We know how worlds and neighborhoods work differently, but we also know that these two are essentially the places where lots, in which Sims live, are situated. This means that worlds and (non-TS4-wise) neighborhoods are actually on the same level. Hence, I propose that these categories to be merged just for the sake of simplicity.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  08:35, October 5, 2014 (UTC)


 * ETA: Other things that regard worlds and neighborhoods remain unaffected. I only want to discuss about these two (three, with Category:Families by neighborhood) in particular. Categories like Category:Worlds and Category:Neighborhoods should stay that way, I suppose.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  08:36, October 5, 2014 (UTC)