Talk:Main Page/Archive/2006-2011: Difference between revisions

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= Initial ramblings=
{{talk archive}}
Sorry, I don't want to junk up the main page with someone's opinion on "the manual" and the wiki documentation.  [[User:Hellosimon|Hellosimon]] 10:41, 5 June 2006 (PDT)


I too think that the Main Page shouldn't get too verbose. I don't understand the need for that little comment in the User Documentation section, but if someone insists on having it placed on the wiki, then a compromise should be reached somehow. I suggest moving it to some other articles. --[[User:64.229.232.249|64.229.232.249]] 16:14, 5 June 2006 (PDT)
= MediaWiki Extension Requests against SPAMING =
Every day a new spam are edit on this WIKI, It's so Boring. Personnaly i havn't right to delete account, and can only delete the Spam.
But if administrator of the wiki can install some of this extension to prevent spamming, it could be very nice... I know there some Capcha installed, apparently is not enough


I agree: Simon, while you have definitely done some nice job here, you need to realize that you can achieve much more by collaborating constructively with other contributors rather than by simply opposing contributions of people who have in fact contributed significant amounts of work to the project for quite some time.  
* http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Anti-spam_features
I think, the corresponding paragraph wasn't an "opinion" on the manual or the wiki and it certainly wasn't meant to reflect badly upon your efforts, rather it was merely meant to complement the wiki.
and please read this page http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_spam
There's simply a very clear relationship between "The Manual" and "the wiki", if you fail to recognize this, your contribution (that is, this wiki) -even though very much needed and extremely worthwhile- is condemned to fail eventually.


== Making the manual accessible via wiki software ==
Thanks. --[[User:Lolalilo|Lolalilo]] 01:58, 11 February 2011 (EST)
 
= MediaWiki Extension Requests =
* 02/2010: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Pdf_Export - exporting to PDF files
* 02/2010: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Drafts - allow users to save drafts of articles
''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] ([[User talk:MILSTD|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/MILSTD|changes]]) 17:01, 20 February 2010  (UTC)</small>
 
= Translating the wiki (10/2009) =
There needs to be a dedicated article about translating individual articles, especially about prioritizing certain articles (based on the [[Special:Statistics|stats]]) and about translation strategies. Also, there should probably be a couple of new templates specifically to be used for translation efforts, such as "translation request" and "translation in progress", as well as "translation help or review required".--[[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] 18:10, 1 October 2009 (UTC)
 
Ok, apparently there's something in the works [[Help:Translate]] ''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] ([[User talk:MILSTD|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/MILSTD|changes]]) 18:12, 1 October 2009  (UTC)</small>
 
Also see: {{mediawiki|Extension:Translate}} ''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] ([[User talk:MILSTD|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/MILSTD|changes]]) 17:01, 20 February 2010  (UTC)</small>
 
= Planned Wiki Changes & Todo =
Please see [[Wiki Plans and Todo]] ''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] ([[User talk:MILSTD|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/MILSTD|changes]]) 15:45, 8 April 2009  (UTC)</small>
 
= Making the manual accessible via wiki software =
On the other hand, I would recommend to also look into making "The Manual" editable via some sort of web based frontend, this would also ensure that people are able to easily contribute modifications to the manual, which is really the ultimate source for flightgear users.  
On the other hand, I would recommend to also look into making "The Manual" editable via some sort of web based frontend, this would also ensure that people are able to easily contribute modifications to the manual, which is really the ultimate source for flightgear users.  
A possible approach might be to import the underlying LaTex sources in docbook format into some sort of docbook based wiki (i.e. http://sourceforge.net/projects/doc-book/).
A possible approach might be to import the underlying LaTex sources in docbook format into some sort of docbook based wiki (i.e. http://sourceforge.net/projects/doc-book/).


''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:Melchior FRANZ|Melchior FRANZ]] ([[User talk:Melchior FRANZ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Melchior FRANZ|changes]]) 12:48, 18 July 2006  (UTC)</small>


As the manual is maintained in LaTex, is would be very hard to translate the wiki notes to include them in the manual. I suspect that this will be a "Won't Fix" as it is easier to copy and paste the text from the wiki and go from there. I am open to ideas though. [[User:Gorilla|Gorilla]] 06:33, 2 March 2008 (EST)
:As the manual is maintained in LaTex, is would be very hard to translate the wiki notes to include them in the manual. I suspect that this will be a "Won't Fix" as it is easier to copy and paste the text from the wiki and go from there. I am open to ideas though. [[User:Gorilla|Gorilla]] 06:33, 2 March 2008 (EST)


== Using a dedicated FAQ database ==
= Using a dedicated FAQ database =
Also, I feel there are some sections covered in the wiki that aren't really optimally handled by a wiki: most notably the "FAQ" section should preferably be implemented via some sort of dynamic FAQ system (i.e. http://www.phpmyfaq.de), likewise the sections titled "Bugs", "TODO", "Feature Requests", "ideas" etc. could probably all be handled far more effectively by using a real bug tracker such as bugzilla (http://www.bugzilla.org/), phpbugtracker (http://phpbt.sourceforge.net/) or mantis (http://www.mantisbt.org).
Also, I feel there are some sections covered in the wiki that aren't really optimally handled by a wiki: most notably the "FAQ" section should preferably be implemented via some sort of dynamic FAQ system (i.e. http://www.phpmyfaq.de), likewise the sections titled "Bugs", "TODO", "Feature Requests", "ideas" etc. could probably all be handled far more effectively by using a real bug tracker such as bugzilla (http://www.bugzilla.org/), phpbugtracker (http://phpbt.sourceforge.net/) or mantis (http://www.mantisbt.org).


Concerning database backups: you should preferably set up a cron job to upload a compresed SQL dump to the flightgear FTP server on a regular (daily?) basis, I am sure you'll be granted write access to a corresponding directory, this would ensure that everything will in fact be backed up regularly and possibly even mirrored.
''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:Melchior FRANZ|Melchior FRANZ]] ([[User talk:Melchior FRANZ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Melchior FRANZ|changes]]) 12:48, 18 July 2006 (UTC)</small>


["I think, the corresponding paragraph wasn't an "opinion" on the manual or the wiki and it certainly wasn't meant to reflect badly upon your efforts, rather it was merely meant to complement the wiki."]
*  how to define and limit editing rights for certain users? ''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:Alfozavr|Alfozavr]] ([[User talk:Alfozavr|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Alfozavr|changes]]) 10:57, 17 June 2007  (UTC)</small>
This assumption is correct. The manual is the center piece of the FlightGear user documentation, so does anyone have a suggestion (one that makes sense) on how to deal with my comments aside from "removing it" or "moving it into negligence/insignificance" ?
Martin.
== Using a dedicated bug tracker ==
Martin's text has been placed (not by me) in the paragraphs at the top.  I rather like this compromise and hope it works for everyone.  I agree a bugtracker would be ideal - didn't someone start one?  Also, if anyone wants to grant ftp access to a server, I'll gladly cron a script to upload the backup tarball.  I have it backed up to multiple locations in the meantime.
- [[User:Hellosimon|Hellosimon]] 11:36, 11 June 2006 (EDT)


A couple of days ago I started setting up a local test bugZilla installation, while I am currently unable to provide reliable hosting, I would really not mind installing it on whatever webspace is available, likewise I can provide the preconfigured database dump if someone else wants to use the preconfigured Flightgear specific categories.--[[User:FlightZilla|FlightZilla]] 17:59, 17 June 2006 (EDT)
= Backups =
= PDF Export Facilities =
Is the database regularly backed up? What about hosting the wiki directly at flightgear.org?
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/wikipdf/ Wikimedia plugin to export to PDF]
--[[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] 15:25, 4 February 2008 (EST)


Regarding the manual: isn't there a possibility to export wikimedia pages to PDF format? That way, we could maintain the whole manual via this wiki. Any thoughts?--[[User:FlightZilla|FlightZilla]] 18:10, 17 June 2006 (EDT)
:Yes, there are daily backups of the [http://hellosimon.org/backups code] and of the [http://hellosimon.org/backups/mysql database].  We also have off-site backups.  [[User:Hellosimon|Hellosimon]] 17:04, 4 February 2008 (EST)
 
= Updates =
 
I've updated MediaWiki to 1.11.1 so if you notice any regressions let me know. [[User:Hellosimon|Hellosimon]] 15:03, 2 March 2008 (EST)


If you check out the following links, you'll see that there are extensions available that would make it possible to easily provide PDF exports for all contents stored here, that way it would also become feasible to consider migrating the entire manual over to this wiki, so that it would also become more maintainble in the end:
The wiki has moved to a new server which should relieve the performance problems. [[User:Hellosimon|Hellosimon]] 11:26, 10 June 2008 (EDT)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiPDF
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/PDF_Export
--[[User:FlightZilla|FlightZilla]] 17:21, 19 June 2006 (EDT)


Hello, guys. If I get it right, you're discussing various documentation types here.
= Proposed Additions =
== New Templates ==
Some wiki pages are of relatively poor quality, having some templates to elicit help would be useful, such as for example:
* needs review by native English speaker
* needs screenshots
* needs better layout
''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] ([[User talk:MILSTD|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/MILSTD|changes]]) 03:32, 16 May 2009  (UTC)</small>


I think, this wiki is a lot more convenient than any other form of keeping documentation and at the same time communicating. It can be edited fast and easily and maintained up-to-date. However, the following questions need be solved:
:Also a template for the FlightGear news would be perfect to keep them synchronized on the different pages (especially the translations of the Main Page) ''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:Hamster|Hamster]] ([[User talk:Hamster|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Hamster|changes]]) 21:42, 17 September 2011  (UTC)</small>
* how to convert it to an offline version (maybe .pdf) so that it could be bundled with the FlightGear base package?
::I've just created a [[Template:News|news template]] and added it to all main pages. Please check for your own language whether this works and is up to date (some are not). For the other templates, we do have [[Template:Cleanup]]. And I just created [[Template:Image requested]] and added a "reason" variable to the cleanup template (where you can say it needs a spelling check)
::[[User:Gijs|Gijs]] 07:12, 18 September 2011 (EDT)
::PS: Please sign your messages on talk pages with <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>


= Limiting access rights =
== PDF Export ==
* how to define and limit editing rights for certain users?
* PDF Export - [http://sourceforge.net/projects/wikipdf/ Wikimedia plugin to export to PDF] ''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] ([[User talk:MILSTD|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/MILSTD|changes]]) 14:38, 31 January 2008  (UTC)</small>
:* {{mediawiki|Extension:WikiPDF}} - WikiPDF is an extension for MediaWiki, which converts MediaWiki-articles to LaTeX or PDF. ''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] ([[User talk:MILSTD|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/MILSTD|changes]]) 15:07, 28 December 2009  (UTC)</small>


It's better to have one consolidated source of information for both bugs and descriptions. For now, user has to search through mailing lists, forums, user manuals (even not a single user manual, but several) and this wiki. It's absolutely not convinient for both users (they spend lot's of time searching required information) and developers (they spend lot's of time updating and syncronizing certain information in various sources).


This wiki is suitable for bug tracking too. Users can provide feedback in a convinient form. They just open the corresponding page and add their bug to the list. Developers can respond to the posted bugs right away. Mailing lists are a lot less user-friendly and effective and a lot less popular among users (not developers) in this regard, this is the reason why some bugs may stay unreported and why many users forget about FlightGear as soon as they run into a problem.
Regarding the manual: isn't there a possibility to export wikimedia pages to PDF format? That way, we could maintain the whole manual via this wiki. Any thoughts?--[[User:FlightZilla|FlightZilla]] 18:10, 17 June 2006 (EDT)


Unfortunately, it seems to me, this wiki is not popular among developers and users. -- [[User:Alfozavr|Alfozavr]] 06:59, 17 June 2007 (EDT)
If you check out the following links, you'll see that there are extensions available that would make it possible to easily provide PDF exports for all contents stored here, that way it would also become feasible to consider migrating the entire manual over to this wiki, so that it would also become more maintainble in the end:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiPDF
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/PDF_Export
--[[User:FlightZilla|FlightZilla]] 17:21, 19 June 2006 (EDT)


= 02/2008: Wiki issues (database, login & performance problems) =
:Hello, guys. If I get it right, you're discussing various documentation types here.
Recently, the wiki seems to be suffering rather seriously from database connection issues, also often login information doesn't seem to be retained properly and performance is often seriously affected, as well.


Error messages include:
:I think, this wiki is a lot more convenient than any other form of keeping documentation and at the same time communicating. It can be edited fast and easily and maintained up-to-date. However, the following questions need be solved:
  Sorry! This site is experiencing technical difficulties.
:* how to convert it to an offline version (maybe .pdf) so that it could be bundled with the FlightGear base package?
 
:''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:Alfozavr|Alfozavr]] ([[User talk:Alfozavr|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Alfozavr|changes]]) 10:57, 17 June 2007  (UTC)</small>
  Try waiting a few minutes and reloading.
 
  (Can't contact the database server: User hellosimonor1 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections (mysql01.powweb.com))


I too am frustrated and fed up with the performance issues I've had with this host and I'm currently researching alternative hosting. [[User:Hellosimon|Hellosimon]] 15:06, 4 February 2008 (EST)
::07/2009: Even more talk about the merits of supporting PDF exports for wiki articles: {{forum link|p=39847}} ''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] ([[User talk:MILSTD|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/MILSTD|changes]]) 14:36, 9 July 2009  (UTC)</small>


Is the database regularly backed up? What about hosting the wiki directly at flightgear.org?
:::12/2009: Also see {{mediawiki|DocBook XML export}} for details about exporting to docbook/XML ''<small>—This unsigned comment was added by</small>''<small> [[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] ([[User talk:MILSTD|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/MILSTD|changes]]) 15:05, 28 December 2009  (UTC)</small>
--[[User:MILSTD|MILSTD]] 15:25, 4 February 2008 (EST)


Yes, there are daily backups of the [http://hellosimon.org/backups code] and of the [http://hellosimon.org/backups/mysql database].  We also have off-site backups.  I'm trying to reduce the burden on Curt rather than add to it, but he owns the domain so it's his call.  [[User:Hellosimon|Hellosimon]] 17:04, 4 February 2008 (EST)
= Issues =
----
There's a problem with the images to. I get this message at the place of a thumbnail when I upload new images:


Image:Error creating thumbnail: sh: line 1: /usr/bin/convert: No such file or directory
== Image Upload Rules ? ==
It looks like something with the database to...--[[User:Gijs|Gijs]] 15:01, 5 February 2008 (EST)


The link to convert changed to /usr/local/bin. This should be fixed now. [[User:Hellosimon|Hellosimon]] 15:00, 2 March 2008 (EST)
I have noticed that many imagess on the wiki are .png files. We could save several GBs just by converting .pngs to .jpeg files.
Would it be an idea to discourage people to upload .png files, and to upload .jpegs?
--[[User:Armchair Ace|Armchair Ace]] 08:51, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 13:30, 6 June 2019

Replacement filing cabinet.png This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.


MediaWiki Extension Requests against SPAMING

Every day a new spam are edit on this WIKI, It's so Boring. Personnaly i havn't right to delete account, and can only delete the Spam. But if administrator of the wiki can install some of this extension to prevent spamming, it could be very nice... I know there some Capcha installed, apparently is not enough

and please read this page http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_spam

Thanks. --Lolalilo 01:58, 11 February 2011 (EST)

MediaWiki Extension Requests

—This unsigned comment was added by MILSTD (talk • changes) 17:01, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Translating the wiki (10/2009)

There needs to be a dedicated article about translating individual articles, especially about prioritizing certain articles (based on the stats) and about translation strategies. Also, there should probably be a couple of new templates specifically to be used for translation efforts, such as "translation request" and "translation in progress", as well as "translation help or review required".--MILSTD 18:10, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Ok, apparently there's something in the works Help:Translate —This unsigned comment was added by MILSTD (talk • changes) 18:12, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Also see: mw:Extension:Translate —This unsigned comment was added by MILSTD (talk • changes) 17:01, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Planned Wiki Changes & Todo

Please see Wiki Plans and Todo —This unsigned comment was added by MILSTD (talk • changes) 15:45, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Making the manual accessible via wiki software

On the other hand, I would recommend to also look into making "The Manual" editable via some sort of web based frontend, this would also ensure that people are able to easily contribute modifications to the manual, which is really the ultimate source for flightgear users. A possible approach might be to import the underlying LaTex sources in docbook format into some sort of docbook based wiki (i.e. http://sourceforge.net/projects/doc-book/).

—This unsigned comment was added by Melchior FRANZ (talk • changes) 12:48, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

As the manual is maintained in LaTex, is would be very hard to translate the wiki notes to include them in the manual. I suspect that this will be a "Won't Fix" as it is easier to copy and paste the text from the wiki and go from there. I am open to ideas though. Gorilla 06:33, 2 March 2008 (EST)

Using a dedicated FAQ database

Also, I feel there are some sections covered in the wiki that aren't really optimally handled by a wiki: most notably the "FAQ" section should preferably be implemented via some sort of dynamic FAQ system (i.e. http://www.phpmyfaq.de), likewise the sections titled "Bugs", "TODO", "Feature Requests", "ideas" etc. could probably all be handled far more effectively by using a real bug tracker such as bugzilla (http://www.bugzilla.org/), phpbugtracker (http://phpbt.sourceforge.net/) or mantis (http://www.mantisbt.org).

—This unsigned comment was added by Melchior FRANZ (talk • changes) 12:48, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

  • how to define and limit editing rights for certain users? —This unsigned comment was added by Alfozavr (talk • changes) 10:57, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Backups

Is the database regularly backed up? What about hosting the wiki directly at flightgear.org? --MILSTD 15:25, 4 February 2008 (EST)

Yes, there are daily backups of the code and of the database. We also have off-site backups. Hellosimon 17:04, 4 February 2008 (EST)

Updates

I've updated MediaWiki to 1.11.1 so if you notice any regressions let me know. Hellosimon 15:03, 2 March 2008 (EST)

The wiki has moved to a new server which should relieve the performance problems. Hellosimon 11:26, 10 June 2008 (EDT)

Proposed Additions

New Templates

Some wiki pages are of relatively poor quality, having some templates to elicit help would be useful, such as for example:

  • needs review by native English speaker
  • needs screenshots
  • needs better layout

—This unsigned comment was added by MILSTD (talk • changes) 03:32, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Also a template for the FlightGear news would be perfect to keep them synchronized on the different pages (especially the translations of the Main Page) —This unsigned comment was added by Hamster (talk • changes) 21:42, 17 September 2011 (UTC)
I've just created a news template and added it to all main pages. Please check for your own language whether this works and is up to date (some are not). For the other templates, we do have Template:Cleanup. And I just created Template:Image requested and added a "reason" variable to the cleanup template (where you can say it needs a spelling check)
Gijs 07:12, 18 September 2011 (EDT)
PS: Please sign your messages on talk pages with ~~~~

PDF Export

  • mw:Extension:WikiPDF - WikiPDF is an extension for MediaWiki, which converts MediaWiki-articles to LaTeX or PDF. —This unsigned comment was added by MILSTD (talk • changes) 15:07, 28 December 2009 (UTC)


Regarding the manual: isn't there a possibility to export wikimedia pages to PDF format? That way, we could maintain the whole manual via this wiki. Any thoughts?--FlightZilla 18:10, 17 June 2006 (EDT)

If you check out the following links, you'll see that there are extensions available that would make it possible to easily provide PDF exports for all contents stored here, that way it would also become feasible to consider migrating the entire manual over to this wiki, so that it would also become more maintainble in the end: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiPDF http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/PDF_Export --FlightZilla 17:21, 19 June 2006 (EDT)

Hello, guys. If I get it right, you're discussing various documentation types here.
I think, this wiki is a lot more convenient than any other form of keeping documentation and at the same time communicating. It can be edited fast and easily and maintained up-to-date. However, the following questions need be solved:
  • how to convert it to an offline version (maybe .pdf) so that it could be bundled with the FlightGear base package?
—This unsigned comment was added by Alfozavr (talk • changes) 10:57, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
07/2009: Even more talk about the merits of supporting PDF exports for wiki articles: [1] This is a link to the FlightGear forum. —This unsigned comment was added by MILSTD (talk • changes) 14:36, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
12/2009: Also see mw:DocBook XML export for details about exporting to docbook/XML —This unsigned comment was added by MILSTD (talk • changes) 15:05, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Issues

Image Upload Rules ?

I have noticed that many imagess on the wiki are .png files. We could save several GBs just by converting .pngs to .jpeg files. Would it be an idea to discourage people to upload .png files, and to upload .jpegs? --Armchair Ace 08:51, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

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