RIP Wiki ;-;7

[Lecic]

http://webm.land/media/3EiP.webm

 

[Tydeth]

Interesting... I wonder if Duke has backups of the other pages and just hasn't uploaded them yet.

If not, then at least any information readded to the wiki will be current. Of course, currently the only user on the wiki is Duke.

In the meantime, locating and reading the BlockConfig.xml and blockBehaviorConfig.xml @ StarMade/data/config/ will inform about how the different blocks work.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

All joking aside. We will rebuild!

 

[NightFury76]

If its in the xml, can it be added to the game as a help tab tree style? If it is I'm sorry I'm new.

 

[DukeofRealms]

We can regenerate most of the articles from our wikibot; we just need to make a few changes to match it with the previous style. That way we'll have the latest information on all items in the game (we really need to do this anyway). Most of the articles on the wiki were from items, and those are really easy to convert from the in-game XML to our wiki. The bot can do item descriptions, item values, item images and manufacturing processes (which is essentially what item pages were anyway). Once the bot is completed, we'll have restored 500 or so articles. We might even automate the process, which will cut back a lot of our work. We were hesitant to do this before, as it would override user changes. That's not an issue anymore.

We've already restored all templates and styles (which were years worth of work), we had those backed up on the French wiki. It's all functional and ready for use now. That's about 140 pages worth of backend wiki work.

As for system pages, we only have a few of those. I have some local backups and we're currently uploading them, this is a pretty good chance for us to get system articles up to date and input new ones. If we implement an in-game wiki (which is a possibility), we can use materials from this one.

I'm also looking at implementing Citizen Registry authentication on the wiki, so it'll be easier for people to contribute.

It's a bit of a blowback, but not too serious. Within a few weeks we could very likely have a more comprehensive and up to date wiki than before All in all, we've lost some progress on our system articles, it is unfortunate. On the bright side, most of our system articles were out of date anyway!

Today the wiki has been moved to the same system as the forum. Unfortunately, this was a few days too late, the mirror/backup server for the wiki was shutdown two days ago due to lack of funds. The wiki was planned to be moved into our new system which uses the forum backup system yesterday. Our host (who we are no longer with as of today) had issues with the server it was on and all data was wiped.

We do need more wiki volunteers! Do remember, both the wiki and forum are community sites, everyone who works on them is a volunteer, forum mods, wiki/forum administrators and server admins. Crimson-Artist is our only active wiki administrator and editor. The wiki has been a bit neglected with most of our volunteer hours going into the forum. If you're able to help us with in-game systems, templates, etc for the wiki, get over and edit Editing will be available in the next day or so. We don't really need any work on block pages yet as our bot can do that for us. Hopefully, we'll have that ready to go in the next week.

 

[Valck]

We can regenerate most of the articles from our wikibot; we just need to make a few changes to match it with the previous style. That way we'll have the latest information on all items in the game (we really need to do this anyway). Most of the articles on the wiki were from items, and those are really easy to convert from the in-game XML to our wiki. The bot can do item descriptions, item values, item images and manufacturing processes (which is essentially what item pages were anyway). Once the bot is completed, we'll have restored 500 or so articles. We might even automate the process, which will cut back a lot of our work. We were hesitant to do this before, as it would override user changes. That's not an issue anymore.

I don't want to say this is how it should have been done in the first place, with all the data already available in machine readable format, because priorities, but... this is how it should have been done in the first place.

I'm also looking at implementing Citizen Registry authentication on the wiki, so it'll be easier for people to contribute.

Yay!
Not only is the wiki in shambles but...
Not only is the wiki in shambles but...

[/QUOTE]

Today the wiki has been moved to the same system as the forum. Unfortunately, this was a few days too late, the mirror/backup server for the wiki was shutdown two days ago due to lack of funds. The wiki was planned to be moved into our new system which uses the forum backup system yesterday. Our host (who we are no longer with as of today) had issues with the server it was on and all data was wiped.

"Due to lack of funds" should be foreseeable and planned for ahead of time. I don't think it translates to "Schine doesn't have the funds", that's serious, more like "we had only paid for x time frame and planned to migrate before that, but couldn't in time because of work overload", but even if it were, you should and could have said so and asked for additional funding.

We do need more wiki volunteers! Do remember, both the wiki and forum are community sites, everyone who works on them is a volunteer, forum mods, wiki/forum administrators and server admins. Crimson-Artist is our only active wiki administrator and editor. The wiki has been a bit neglected with most of our volunteer hours going into the forum. If you're able to help us with in-game systems, templates, etc for the wiki, get over and edit.

Again, I have stated repeatedly the one thing holding me back was the need to create yet another account, and I can only speak for myself. I do hope registry integration becomes a thing.

All things considered, it sounds like while "losing" the wiki was a bad thing, "finding" a new one will bring a lot of change sooner than expected, out of sheer necessity. So yay, the wiki is dead, long live the wiki!

Thanks all, volunteer(s) and staff alike, for your dedication.

 

[Scypio]

There is a french wiki ? Nobody told me ! Damit. Got to help translating it too then.

 

[DukeofRealms]

I don't want to say this is how it should have been done in the first place, with all the data already available in machine readable format, because priorities, but... this is how it should have been done in the first place.

Yes, the old wiki had a bot to do this as well. Editors changed most of the block formats, so the bot can match this and redo it. We'd update the blocks every few months with a bot, we haven't done that for a while now.

"Due to lack of funds" should be foreseeable and planned for ahead of time. I don't think it translates to "Schine doesn't have the funds", that's serious, more like "we had only paid for x time frame and planned to migrate before that, but couldn't in time because of work overload", but even if it were, you should and could have said so and asked for additional funding.

The wiki isn't funded by or run by Schine, it's funded by the advertisements displayed on the site. Administration, server maintenance, development, editing is all done by volunteers. There has been a lack of volunteer hours for the wiki, it doesn't have enough active staff members. The same can be said for the forum. Lack of funds was indeed a simplified version of events.

What happened was the wiki and forum exhausted the accumulated funds dealing with the unexpected site rebuilds on March 12-17, 2016 (due to the Citizen Registry, main website and other StarMade sites crashing and subsequently being reconfigured). There were a few shortcuts taken to get both sites back online as quickly as possible, particularly the forum due to it being the only remaining StarMade site for any official info. Once both sites were back online, work begun on properly moving both the forum and the wiki to new stable configurations. The forum completed this 2 weeks ago and the final move happened a few days ago. The wiki was scheduled to complete this move 3 days ago, but was moved forward to the next day due to lack availability. The mirror/backup servers which were implemented in the March reconfigurations as a fallback automatically discontinued 3 days ago, which was supposed to be just in time for the move (the new configuration has its own backup system). The wiki's database server failed 2 days ago, without the mirror/backup server as a fallback. Before the March configurations this wouldn't have been a problem as Schine kept hourly database backups as an external 3rd party for both the forum and the wiki, just in case something like this happened. This was never added back and backed up versions are automatically deleted after a month.

A combination of bad timing (a bit of luck) and poor decision making resulted in this occurring. We do need more volunteers to help out with both the forum and particularly the wiki. Admittedly, the wiki has been neglected, we would have never left the forum open to failure like that, even for a few hours. There is only one volunteer sysadmin left (myself), the decisions made which lead to this consequence are solely my fault. I've mainly focused my hours on the forum, one volunteer sysadmin is not enough to properly maintain both sites.

The system the wiki and forums are on now will not have the same issue. We have local and external backups running once a day at minimum. We're also in the process of implementing another longterm archive backup system similar to what we had before in March.

I'd like to clarify a couple of things, I've done this a few time when speaking on behalf of the forum or wiki. As I mentioned before, the forum and wiki are both community sites. Everyone (including Schine staff members) who works on the forum/wiki is a volunteer, whether that be a forum mod, wiki/forum admin, developer or system administrator. I happen to be a forum/wiki administrator and sysadmin for both community sites, as well as working at Schine. It is confusing, especially with the design of the forum imitating star-made.org and using the Citizen's Registry as authentication (anyone can do this).

Again, I have stated repeatedly the one thing holding me back was the need to create yet another account, and I can only speak for myself. I do hope registry integration becomes a thing.

This was planned when the wiki was first released. Unfortunately, unless mediawiki (or an extension) starts supporting OAuth2 or we get enough skilled volunteers to implement it, this won't be happening anytime soon. I've taken a look at it and it's a fair amount of work to do.

 

[Master_Artificer]

Hmm, well if the wiki is starting from scrach as it were, would it be appropriate if I were to assist?

I am thinking of adding things like maths to weapon pages, shields, and armors.
Things like under vanilla block values (of course) the minimum number of blocks for a wepon to break a basic, standard, and advanced hull under the computers entries to beam, missile, pulse, and cannons.
Then under effects, same thing when slaved, and also the block ratio required.

For hulls things like block HP, and Effective block HP with armor and armor bar, as well as maximum block HP when used the effect and the armor and the armor bar.

Also things like salvager effeciency, minimum number of rechargers for a shield supply module, etc etc.
Would that be appropriate to have?

I have never looked into adding stuff to the wiki, how would I go about that with the new wiki?

 

[Crimson-Artist]

Hmm, well if the wiki is starting from scrach as it were, would it be appropriate if I were to assist?

I am thinking of adding things like maths to weapon pages, shields, and armors.
Things like under vanilla block values (of course) the minimum number of blocks for a wepon to break a basic, standard, and advanced hull under the computers entries to beam, missile, pulse, and cannons.
Then under effects, same thing when slaved, and also the block ratio required.

For hulls things like block HP, and Effective block HP with armor and armor bar, as well as maximum block HP when used the effect and the armor and the armor bar.

Also things like salvager effeciency, minimum number of rechargers for a shield supply module, etc etc.
Would that be appropriate to have?

I have never looked into adding stuff to the wiki, how would I go about that with the new wiki?

thats exactly what i wanted to do with the old wiki but didnt have the indepth knowledge to add it. all of what you said would be perfect.

if you wana start editing just go the the wiki and create an account. as duke said its not tied to the registry yet so its treated as separate account. I never found that a problem since i just made my log in info the same as my starmade dock one.

from there you can start editing pages. any link highlighted in red is a link to a page that doesnt exist yet. if you click on it it will allow you to create that page. You can also create pages manually by typing the name of the page you want to create in the search bar. after the search you will be asked if you would like to create a page with that exact name you typed in. same deal with the red text, just click on it.

for general editing of any page theres a big edit button on the top right hand corner of the page. Its also a good practice to type in a summery/reason for your edit before you hit the save button. (Helps people understand what you did).

right now schema is working on a bot to restore the block pages so i would either hold off on added that info to individual pages or add them to the more broad game mechanic pages. or you can do both, personally I want important information as visible as possible.

 

[Gonzalo]

what happened to it?

 

[Olxinos]

Btw, what are all those recently created pages? (like "Dino storm gold coins hack no survey" or "Look After Your Pet Dog Correctly Using This Article‎", I mean Starmade pets isn't a thing, is it?)
Is there a way to delete them? They look like spam and it's cluttering the recent changes page. It's annoying.

 

[Crimson-Artist]

Btw, what are all those recently created pages? (like "Dino storm gold coins hack no survey" or "Look After Your Pet Dog Correctly Using This Article‎", I mean Starmade pets isn't a thing, is it?)
Is there a way to delete them? They look like spam and it's cluttering the recent changes page. It's annoying.

unfortunately they are. Only a admin can delete them. as soon as I get my admin status back they'll be good as gone

 

[JRL101]

Amazing to know you guys are right ontop of the whole thing ^ u^
Any sign of someone messing with the servers?

Btw, what are all those recently created pages? (like "Dino storm gold coins hack no survey" or "Look After Your Pet Dog Correctly Using This Article‎",

Yea i noticed its started just before the wiki went down. It might have been a hostile take over. Its defiantly obvious. Marked all the ones i could see, but there's bound to be some there from before the shutdown. So check users with access from before the 9th that still exist. Noticed some profiles without info and weird names.

Might need a way to identify actual users from the bots.

What other kind of help do you require on the wiki?

 

[Crimson-Artist]

Amazing to know you guys are right ontop of the whole thing ^ u^
Any sign of someone messing with the servers?



Yea i noticed its started just before the wiki went down. It might have been a hostile take over. Its defiantly obvious. Marked all the ones i could see, but there's bound to be some there from before the shutdown. So check users with access from before the 9th that still exist. Noticed some profiles without info and weird names.

Might need a way to identify actual users from the bots.

What other kind of help do you require on the wiki?

me and duke just went through and managed to delete most of not all of the spam pages. Hopefully we can get some spam protection soon.

as i've said before schema is working on a bot to automatically create and maintain the block pages so what we need is just general pages for various game mechanics or entities. most of the important pages like power,weapons, defense, etc. were saved and only need to be updated/maintained. We need pages for things in the universe like sectors, galaxies, wormholes, etc. as well as some tutorials for things like custom skins, turrets, and any other meta.

in short its going to be alot.

 

[Master_Artificer]

In 3 or so hours I should be off work and if I feel up to it I will break out the whiteboards and draft up some ideas that I think the Crimson-Artist will like in terms of getting more participation and making participation easier.

 

[nightrune]

This was planned when the wiki was first released. Unfortunately, unless mediawiki (or an extension) starts supporting OAuth2 or we get enough skilled volunteers to implement it, this won't be happening anytime soon. I've taken a look at it and it's a fair amount of work to do.

If anyone wanted to attempt this. I can gladly help out, Test, Code review, but I lack the time to take it on fully nor am I a php expert. It seems there are a lot of oauth2 libraries for php already out there. So the main chunk of the effort would be adding it to media wiki.

 

[Master_Artificer]

Okay I am working on it Crimson-Artist :D

 

[JonasWalker]

It might just be me but something looks off for some of the Thruster Module formula here. For some reason I keep getting what appears to be nonsensical results. Is there an issue or am I just rolling 1's when doing the math? :p :D

 

[Master_Artificer]

Damn pokemon go being popular and addicting... using up my 2 hours of free time per day