User talk:Ventriloquist/Archive 3

This page is an archive. The contents have been moved from another page for reference purposes only, and should be preserved in their current form. Discussion or voting on this page is not current. Any additions you make will probably not be read.

Past

Interaction as a section header makes no sense

Seeing how what we're documenting in that section is not "what happens when you interact with an object" but "when this object has text, this is it" - just like we call it dialogue not interaction on NPC pages. Konig 17:52, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Y'know, I initially wrote a disagreeing reply, but thinking about, it does make sense. Huh. —Ventriloquist 19:35, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Of course for the sake of simplicity we could just label the section "Dialogue" even if it's more of a Monologue. Except when we find out are characters are crazy and actually do hear an object talk back when it really, really, shouldn't. Konig 19:42, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

But my consistency! I'd be more comfortable just sticking to Text, since Dialogue isn't exactly correct in most cases. —Ventriloquist 20:01, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

The game uses the dialogue UI, so it's technically correct.--Relyk ~ talk < 20:54, 9 April 2016 (UTC)

Something I occasionally use: when you approach the object, it displays "Interact (F)" or some other action more appropriate to the object. You can use that prompt as the header. SarielV

16:28, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

Thanks

I appreciate this edit is going to come over as me being an asshole and doing some kind of revert asshat shittery, but I bought 4 complete sets from the WvW skritt trader last night - and then sold them to refund some of the cost. I didn't really understand that "sell back" refered to merchanting the item immediately with my first read-through though, so thanks for reading carefully. -Chieftain Alex 16:19, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

You're wrong and I hate you. —Ventriloquist 19:33, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Ultra zoomed in screenshots

I'm wondering, do you know how User:Chiubi gets their screenshots for weapons with human models so zoomed in? I cannot seem to make them much bigger than what I've uploaded for the Spectral set, yet theirs is about 4x larger. See Daydreamer's weapon skins for example. Seylan (talk) 17:51, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Aren't they Vent's screenshots? — snograt

19:21, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

And why does Vent's talk page redirect to an archive? O_0 — snograt

19:25, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

They're not mine, they're a part of the german gallery project. Also, I created an archive for my talk page but was in the process of removing the redirect when you commented. Let me be slow next time! —Ventriloquist 19:36, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

IIRC, two users participated in the screenshotting process - one person (Chiubi, I think) would equip the weapon, and the other person would screenshot the weapon, eliminating the need for any awkward angles. —Ventriloquist 19:33, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Vent, I seriously thought I was two counts of crazy there. Seylan, just ignore me - it's usually the wise option. — snograt

20:04, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Editing guidelines and conventions

Heya,

So I probably should have asked this waaaaaaaayyyy sooner in my editing 'career' but somehow managed to get away with it so far. I've been trying to find some editing guidelines where it says which conventions the wiki likes to use. For example, Notes go at the bottom, interwiki is alphabetical in order, screenshots are always .jpg, etc... Somehow though I fail to see a document with these details.

I've come across the Guild Wars 2 Wiki:Practices and processes, but this seems to be templates and basic instructions on how to make the editing work, or convey to generic wiki practices. Unless I'm missing something, is there not a place where it says what this wiki has decided as conventions? I'm in no way criticizing, I'd simply like to find somewhere where it's all thrown together so I can get a complete picture of what GW2W prefers. -Darqam (talk) 15:24, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

There actually wasn't anything for the .jpg thing, so I did add it last week to Guild_Wars_2_Wiki:Image_formatting. Most people don't know saving things as.png makes files usually twice(sometimes triple...why upload maps as .png why *stabs a marshmallow*) the size of .jpg which is why it's best to primarily use .jpgs for screenshots and such.(And on a related note, Darqam, you're guilty of uploading at least two images as .png when they should have been .jpg so tsk tsk! XD) I think the reason for things being alphabetical is just that that seems to be that that's how things are sorted in general, so that's why things get listed that way, so sort of an unspoken rule perhaps? - Do_odleplex 16:38, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) Unfortunately I don't think there's a place where you can find all of the conventions the wiki has decided on in the past. The importance of formatting (notes over trivia, where to place the interwiki links etc.) is something you pick up while editing, as *most* pages are consistent with that way of formatting.

When in doubt, position yourself as a reader, instead of an editor. Which information would you think a (generic) potential reader might find more useful - trivial information (such as when an item was released) or acquisition (where to find the said item). Additionally, if you're unsure about the conventions, you can always ask someone you think's more experienced with the wiki. Editing is all about learning and contributing.

If you have anything specific you'd like to know (section hierarchy, for example), feel free to shoot! —Ventriloquist 16:44, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

@ Doodleplex, those are probably when I made use of photoshop for cropping, my default save is png because I tend to use transparency a whole lot, was not thinking I imagine.

@Ventriloquist, I had nothing specific in mind; I was simply trying to put myself in the shoes of someone brand new, and couldn't find information I would be looking for; ah well. This was after all more for my own curiosity than anything else. Thanks for the info. -Darqam (talk) 16:51, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Hrm...well you might have just explained to me why some users did upload as .png, they uploaded a lot of icons and probably didn't even notice. And I was only teasing about having two, as one user decided to upload nearly a dozen high quality images as .png, with nearly every single one being over 3 MB. RAWR!- Do_odleplex 17:01, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) It might be worth looking over that list of formatting. I'm fairly sure that at least some are grossly out of date. Especially the need to separate Living World from Personal Story story instance articles... they're really the same thing in the end.

Edit:@Doodle: I think it's a matter of people just having a preference for one file type over another and not bothering to work to wiki conformities because they edit the wiki so little. Konig 17:03, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

I already posted multiple times about fixing the story infobox along with the {{story infobox}} writeup :P--Relyk ~ talk < 17:40, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Well why hasn't it been done yet then, Rylek the Hylek!? Konig 17:47, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Wasn't much response to do anything. A /v2/story endpoint would be nice though. Along with changes they'll make with season 3 and releasing season 1 to the story journal.--Relyk ~ talk < 17:52, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

There are only four skills with 256x256 icons, but updating them was apparently a mistake. The only comment I could find on the wiki related to this point was a single note in your talk archive mentioning how to find icons to upload. It would be really helpful if there was a note somewhere in the practices & processes about these conventions. Spannu (talk) 06:52, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

The signet icons (as all skill icons) are ripped from the GW2 dat file in 128x128, so we're trying not to upload files smaller or larger than that to maintain consistency. Item icons belong into the 64x64 category, while effects are usually 32x32. In any case, I added that information to Guild Wars 2 Wiki:Image formatting#Game icons to avoid confusion in the future. —Ventriloquist 11:11, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

I found those in the dat; I have no idea why there are only larger versions for those and Tempest/Berserker traits. But there are plenty of reasons to have a simple convention to avoid figuring things like that out anyway, so thanks for adding that to the list. Spannu (talk) 15:50, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

Huh, ANet is weird like that. Sure thing, feel free to ask away if you're curious about why/how something is done. —Ventriloquist 16:17, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

event link template

Hiya,

So I've noticed over the past few days (weeks?) that you and some others have removed some links to events using {{event|<event name>}} and replaced them with simple [[<event name>]]. So my question; is there a time and a place where the template is preferred over the link (and vice-versa)? Personally I'm a fan of that template but if there are times not to use it I'd rather know. -Darqam (talk) 16:24, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

I'm gonna take a guess here because this is what I've been working off of, so if I'm wrong here I'd like to get it right as well: I think we're only supposed to use {{event|<event name>}} on Zone Pages, Meta pages, and NPC pages under ===Event involvement===, otherwise we're to use [[<event name>]]. Why I'm not 100% sure, but that seems to be how I usually find events being linked. - Do_odleplex 16:33, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

Generally you want to avoid using icon-generating templates in the middle of text. It doesn't look good (especially with the number marking the level of the event), and that amount of information isn't necessary for something as simple as an item page. Do, however, use the template anywhere else where such information would be useful - like Doodle above me said - event sections on NPC pages, and of course, zone and meta pages. —Ventriloquist 20:38, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

Hum ok... well people might have to go behind me fixing some of those whenever I tag those, since I've found that to be 'useful' in apparently more places that usual. That said I'll keep it in mind, thanks to the two of you. -Darqam (talk) 20:42, 12 May 2016 (UTC)

Protection log

full disclosure, this will be an immature comment.

As the disclosure says... Although I fully understand the action, the reading the log 'Ventriloquist protected "xxxxxxx"‎ ' made me laugh quite a bit. I'll censor the name since people can be picky. Having nothing else mature to say I'll see myself out. -Darqam (talk) 22:12, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

I giggled too. Always protect them. Always. - Do_odleplex 22:19, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Folks, this is a serious wiki. I laughed too. —Ventriloquist 22:30, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Deleting personal info

Hey Vent, not sure if you're around still. Mind deleting User talk:60.240.181.61 and then letting them know to contact Support instead? Thanks. G R E E N E R 03:37, 11 June 2016 (UTC)

Nvm. I pulled Tanetris out of retirement. G R E E N E R 04:09, 11 June 2016 (UTC)

Sorry, timezones, message was posted at 5AM. Thank you for catching that, though. —Ventriloquist 12:02, 11 June 2016 (UTC)

Hey there!

Hope I'm doing this right... Thank you for the message :) I'm a bit new to Wiki Editing and I guess I got in a bit of a groove and kept doing things in a slightly more cumbersome way all over the place >.< I'll try to go back and clean up the precursor items I touched! (I kept a list of the things I edited over the past few days. It's lengthy... whew.) It was my pleasure to clean up the Guild Missions pages, too! We do a lot of them, and when I saw "awards 30 merits" I gasped and knew that wouldn't do! Speaking of which... You'll probably get an influx of edits and clean-ups from folks in my guild, as a guild mate has made it part of a weekly competition to contribute to/clean-up the GW2Wiki. Hopefully that doesn't cause too many issues for folk like you who tend to see/keep an eye on recent edits >_____> Fingers crossed! All the best-- Falindae77 (talk) 12:57, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

'ello again! Quick note - when posting on users' talk pages, post new topics at the bottom of the page. I love the fact that your guild has a competition that helps the wiki, it's a great initiative! As for the clean-up, it's no trouble at all; me and a few other users track recent changes, so cleaning up will not be an issue. If you're adding information and content to the wiki, you're helping a lot, so let me thank you and your guild for your help. Happy wiki-ing!—Ventriloquist 14:36, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Good day!

Dear Ventriloquist, could you very kindly help me OR point me in the right direction so I can learn to "stylise" my username, as you can see it looks very dull! Kind regards, — Mythical moa (talk) 06:42, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

If you go to preferences (top right), under User profile is the signature settings. Putting wikicode and html markup in it will allow you to create a custom signature. If you want to experiment with how it looks before applying it (and test it afterwards to make sure it's doing exactly what you wanted) you can edit Guild Wars 2 Wiki:Sandbox, or maybe make a personal sandbox at an address such as User:Mythical moa/Sandbox. --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 07:45, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Thank you! Does this look okay, or is the image too big still? — Mythical Moa

05:18, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Help:Signatures details what a custom signature should have. It should be 19px tall at most, probably should be its own image (it can be the same one, just upload it under a new name), and your signature should link to your userpage and/or talk page --Gimmethegepgun (talk) 05:46, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Several Questions

Not sure if this is the right place, but I have a couple of questions. I would like to edit the page Bandit Supplies to include ones that I've found while working on hearts. However the only one it currently covers is labeled as historical. Would the best way to deal with this be to: create a new article for the current ones, create a new article for the old one and move the existing article there, or to have both on the same page with some kind of tag for the old content. Secondly, when I try to create or edit an article with an '&' in the title, the editor bugs out and chops off the bit after the &. Is this just a visual thing, or is there something extra I need to do? Llarryllamma (talk) 02:14, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

If the Bandit Supplies are not the same as the one documented on Bandit Supplies, move the current page to Bandit Supplies (historical) then create a page for Bandit Supplies for the ones currently in the game. '&' is a special character in the URL and the wiki currently doesn't understand it's part of the title name. We are looking at fixing this *cross fingers* (along with other characters that break URLs like the plus sign)--Relyk ~ talk < 02:50, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

Duplicate Files

If I find a duplicate icon such in regards to skills (example: File:Illusionary Sword Attack.png), weapons (example: File:Axiquiotl.png) or items(example: File:Depleted Power Crystal.png) should I tag it to delete and redirect it to the icon that has more things linked to it or do I just leave it alone? - Do_odleplex 19:55, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

Oh no, go ahead and tag it. The less dupes we have on the wiki the better. As for the File:Illusionary Sword Attack.png, you can leave that one alone since the phantasm page pulls it from the direct file, so if I were to delete it, it would break the template, and I'm not a fan of file redirects. —Ventriloquist 20:12, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

Alright will do! I don't want to break any templates without knowing it, so I think I'll avoid the skill ones for now, as I feel touching those might cause issues on user's charater pages, which are scary enough already to fix lol. And just to make sure I'm doing it correctly, simply going to the page and putting in "|icon = Filename.jpg" in the infobox with the filename being the widely used icon will make everything good, correct? No template breaking? - Do_odleplex 20:41, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

Yep, that's the general idea! You'll know if you did it right by going to the file you want to tag for deletion and seeing "There are no pages that link to this file." in the File usage section, after editing all the pages that were using it. —Ventriloquist 21:01, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

File redirects (as in pages using "#redirect [[...]]" don't work on this wiki, so yeah don't try to make file redirects. -Chieftain Alex

21:42, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

Ahh. I meant relink the images and not redirect(one day I'll be able to type what I mean correctly), but good to know that info. In regards to redirect, what about files like this File:User Silverleaf sig.png(which has a duplicate image I need to resolve), should I remove that redirect? Also found File:Sentry Turret.png and File:Holographic Communicator.png, that while having the same icon, have two different categories. What should I do if I come across similar icons with different categories, leave them alone or link one to both categories for one and unlink the other? - Do_odleplex 19:53, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

File:User Silverleaf silverleaf.png can be replaced by the other, more used file, so just remove it from the two existing talk pages and tag it for deletion (it's a pretty ancient user file anyway). As for files that should belong in multiple categories, just add [[Category:Whatever icons]] underneath the licensing section to include it in more than one category.

For example, if you have a file called File:Breath of Flame.png and it represents both a weapon and a trophy, the file page should look like this.

In your case, choose whichever file you want to keep (I'd recommend the Sentry Turret file since it's a shorter filename), add the gizmo category to it (copied from the Holographic Communicator file page), and tag the now unused icon for deletion. —Ventriloquist 23:27, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

Okay, so far so good. Can I assume renders link to themselves? Ie File:Norn Raven Shaman render.jpg? (Also I found users really love pictures of Stephane, as they've uploaded it twice. I'm amused.) - Do_odleplex 18:48, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, renders are weird like that. Another thing you can do if you're unsure whether a file is orphaned or not is to click "what links here" in the tools to the left of the editing box (or alternatively click alt+shift+J) and if the page is empty, tag it for deletion. In your case, the render is linked to itself and now my talk page. —Ventriloquist 19:55, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

Ahh it doesn't show up on the page because it's not seen, it's only a link. Shoot. Well then, I'm going to poke through what you deleted recently to double check to make sure none of those were linked that way (and I switched the render to the one I don't want deleted so it's duplicate can be deleted). Also I'm assuming user images, like File:User Shewmake Frm ICON Mesmer.jpg which has a twin uploaded by another user, should be left alone right? - Do_odleplex 20:15, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

You don't have to double check my latest delets, I always check if anything's linking to them before deleting them (they were all clean). As for the user file, you can go ahead and tag it. It's an orphaned user image from 2012 that has an existing copy of it, so it serves no purpose; id't be a different scenario if it was used somewhere, but since it's not... —Ventriloquist 22:12, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Okay, I have an unique one, File:User Mafaraxas sigimg.jpg has a duplicate but the note on the duplicate says to delete the one that's in use even though they're duplicates of each other and the one in use has the correct file name. - Do_odleplex 18:54, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

You can delete the unused one, I guess. The files were uploaded 8 years ago, and I don't think the user that originally uploaded it cares that much about it, anyway. However, if you feel like it, you can respect the author's wish and then tag the currently used one. —Ventriloquist 19:16, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

I wish I could delete the image but I'm not an admin, just an extended editor heh. I'll mark it for deletion, because I doubt the user, if they returned would even remember it as like you said they didn't seem to care about it. Maybe one day I can be an admin, but I got a lot to learn if that's to happen... - Do_odleplex 19:21, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

(Update) Instead of spamming the recent changes page with "Delete all these things weee" I made a page. Feel free to play with it as needed. =) - Do_odleplex 23:46, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

Is there a way to kill the code on User:Rari/Pets by skills? It's got duplicate images linked to it, broken image links and it never loads because of said code. - Do_odleplex 22:13, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

Yep, I've used the pre tag to eliminate it, don't think it'll be missed. Basically the pre thing turns any wiki code into text, so it's useful when dealing with super-old pages that are causing issues. For future reference, if a certain page is a huge mess of code that is sending out errors because it has too much information on it, you can type http://wiki.guildwars2.com/index.php?title=page name&action=edit into the URL to enter the editing box without ever loading the page, thus being able to disable it from the inside. —Ventriloquist 22:21, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

Awesome possum! I knew about the hyperlink but wasn't sure how to kill the code, good to know for future reference! - Do_odleplex 17:18, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

corrections

First off, thanks for going through all those long edits; I'm sure that probably just as painful as what I did to make them. It's greatly appreciated. As for the word "Phoenix"; I don't know what it is but it has always always looked 'wrong' to me to have the 'o' before the 'e', so I almost always misspell it... Along with quite a few other words... There's a reason why I either type things out or rely on other people to find my mistakes :D -Darqam (talk) 16:23, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

In your defense, phoenix is a weird word. —Ventriloquist 16:46, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

And now for catching "shorts"... yeah I really need to build an exception in the program I use to catch that... -Darqam (talk) 17:03, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

I sorry

Sowy Vent-sama... Whenever I don't know what they fall under I just go with "icon"... granted I figured that one out later and didn't update it... <3? -Darqam (talk) 19:19, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

A few years back Alex and I spent several days cleaning up the entire ArenaNet icon category and it eventually reached a one-digit number. The fact that there are currently 1,093 uncategorized files makes me weep. But don't worry, your sins are forgiven, but my fight against icon categorization must go on. /dramatically looks out the window —Ventriloquist 19:23, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Hum, well whenever I get this report done (Ha, yeah I'm supposed to do work right now), I might dive into that and see if I can help. I'm certain that many of those are still mine, so it will be a good way to cover my tracks. -Darqam (talk) 19:27, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

It's no trouble really, but if you have free time or want to do mind-numbing tasks, categorizing files is the way to go! —Ventriloquist 19:31, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Seems like Doodle stalked this page and is already on it :p -Darqam (talk) 19:45, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

To be fair I already was dealing with duplicate icons, and categorizing 'em makes it a lot easier to find the duplicates. xD - Do_odleplex 19:50, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

We've got this. -Chieftain Alex

20:14, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Got edit conflicted by AWB alex... *cries* -Darqam (talk) 20:19, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Edit conflicted by a human. *beeps* -Chieftain Alex

20:44, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Good! *grumble grumble* -Darqam (talk) 21:15, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

BACK in my day, you din' have no fancy roo-bots to edit stuff for ya, we'd add categories one by one. —Ventriloquist 21:19, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Dunno why Darqam isn't using his robot to be honest. Chieftain Alex

21:26, 3 August 2016 (UTC)-

(Reset indent) I'm not using the bot because I have absolutely 0 idea as to how I would tackle this with AWB. the parameters for image editing are on a different file... no idea how I would do that... My experience and skill with it is super basic. -Darqam (talk) 21:30, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Should user images such as File:User Finite Sig.png be edited so they only have {{User image|<Username>}} as their licensing? *Gently nudges her page of stuff that needs to be deleted and looks hopeful that AWB can delete most of it... - Do_odleplex 21:35, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

I used this, then stuck it in excel and sorted the table, then copied entries which should end up with the same category into notepad++, saved. Loaded from text file in AWB, applied pattern to replace {{ArenaNet image|icon}} with whatever I wanted.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! File
! Context
{{#arraymap:
{{#dpl: | category = ArenaNet icons | namespace = File | format = ,¶File:%TITLE%,, }}
|\n|@@@|
{{!}}-
{{!}} @@@
{{!}} {{#ask: [[Has game icon::@@@]] | limit = 1 | searchlabel = | ?Has context | default = unknown context | headers = hide | mainlabel = - }}
{{!}} {{#ask: [[Has game icon::@@@]] | limit = 1 | searchlabel = | ?Category | default = unknown category | headers = hide | mainlabel = - }}
|\n}}
|}

I did some deletions with my bot a few minutes ago. As long as they have the same reason it's easy enough since I trust you guys... -Chieftain Alex

21:43, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

"gj guys, we got the unsorted icons from 1200 to 76 lol"-Chieftain Alex \o/. Do you weep slightly less now Vent?

Also, thanks Chieftain; I'll keep that in mind next time something similar is needed. -Darqam (talk) 22:22, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

I am satisfied. And to think it's all because you forgot to add an icon category to that one file, heh. —Ventriloquist 22:26, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

I haven't been here super long, but I am getting the impression that this is sort of how the wiki works. Every once in a while the stars align perfectly, a few people see a problem and want to solve it, a reason presents itself, and BOOM problem solved. Anyway... I guess I'm not so sorry anymore; but will try to be careful in the future. -Darqam (talk) 22:46, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Spambots

Hey Vent. Just took a quick look at the abuse filter, and it seems like 199.15.233.168/29 (which is 199.15.233.168 - 199.15.233.175) is more of the problem than just 199.15.233.172 (talk • contribs • logs • block log). I didn't check addresses outside that range, but those ones are a bundle. G R E E N E R 15:58, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

Curse those Texas bots. I've prolonged their block duration, they basically just spammed every three days. Should be okay now, until the others (dare) to appear. —Ventriloquist 18:02, 18 August 2016 (UTC)

What to do, what to do

I am cooking and reading books. So much free time! :D What about you, besides editing wiki? :> The F. Prince (talk) 21:50, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

I can't really do anything productive since it's almost midnight here; thankfully editing the wiki is fun for me. Now I'm interested into what you're cooking! —Ventriloquist 21:52, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

I am the same timezone I assume (GMT +2). :P I've been cooking vanilla semolina pudding (which is very easy - 5 minutes and done, I am terrible cook >.<) and I've made apple pie. ^-^ But everything is wrong since I woke up in the middle of the night with horrible head- and stomachache. :( The F. Prince (talk) 08:59, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

Oh neat, we're in the same time zone. I'm also sorry to hear that, hope you get better. —Ventriloquist 09:24, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

Armor changes

I was reading through all the armor variants and noticed that they are grouped by how they are acquired. IE: "Karma" means they are purchased from the Karma vendor, "Gem Store" means they are purchased from the Gem Store. If this is true, then "Free to Apply" should refer to those armors that are available to "Free to Play" players, which is why I made the corrections. If I am wrong please let me know so that I stop trying to fix it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by WickedPrince (talk • contribs).

I think you're misunderstanding. Free to Apply means that the armor pieces themselves cost no transmutation charges, whereas the other armors require charges. Also, most of the armors are available to Free to Play players, meaning that that categorization is not distinct enough. With that being said, keeping it as Free to Apply is the most correct and acceptable solution in this case. —Ventriloquist 20:39, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

Recommendations for looping

Hey, I'm not sure if you're well versed in looping, but I suspect you should be because you're a sysop and everything but... How would you recommend going about iterative loops. I've researched on mediawiki that it is do-able, however I cannot test the looping extension. I looked through the supported extensions and couldn't find it. Sythe 21:00, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

What are you trying to achieve with "loops". -Chieftain Alex

21:50, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

I was looking over the Destroyer Weapon Crate and realized people were typing each weapon in the container by hand, my idea was to loop through and simply add 1 to the weapon id per loop. If this is not what you're looking for, I'll drop it. Sythe 22:06, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

I was the one that added those IDs, and laughed as I did it. It's not too common that the item IDs follow such a beautiful order, given that they cross weapon types. Anet's often more scattered. G R E E N E R 22:19, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, I assumed it would be ordered as beautifully as you say, but if it's not always the case then I guess it's better off not doing it :/ Sythe 22:52, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Maybe one day...

...I will master the subtle art of archiving. I was going to move the page, but upon checking the previous archives, none of them had moved the page to preserve the page history so I thought I didn't have to for that page, so right now, I am this quaggan: - Do_odleplex 23:01, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Blame Alex for being lazy! Also, I messed up the original move, so I'll take one quaggan box as well. —Ventriloquist 23:03, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Bullets or indents

In reference to the recent edit on Veteran Mordrem Guard Restorer are we using indents or bullets for lists of events? Previously I used indents before making an account but then they were edited into bullets. Now they're being edited from bullets to indents. Some clarification would be helpful. Sythe 16:54, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

We typically use indents when the line begins with a symbol, such as for services, events, and hearts. Konig (talk) 17:47, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

Hi Sythe. To add onto what Konig said, the NPC formatting describes how NPC pages for this wiki should look like. Articles for NPCs should follow the structure shown on that page, so whenever you're in doubt, just look up the formatting consensus to make sure your edits are 'correct'. —Ventriloquist 18:30, 16 September 2016 (UTC)

A warning about all formatting guideline articles... they tend to get forgotten about when folks begin a new-and-improved format. So there are times when they're in fact outdated. We've been trying to prevent that though but it happens still. Konig (talk) 00:17, 17 September 2016 (UTC)

This my be a silly question, but we still use bullets for the meta pages, not the ":" correct? - Do_odleplex 20:55, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

Personally I'd say using a colon. But they've not been updated from when we were using asterix. Konig (talk) 22:37, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

They look terrible if you use them with colons, as if something was missing, hence why I asked before doing anything. - Do_odleplex 22:38, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

(slightly relevant,issue only applies to map meta event pages with DS being the worst offender) Advancing on the Blighting Towers looks terrible with all indents (thanks largely due to the spacing issue for colons), and terrible with one-indent colons. Colons have this wierd spacing issue which looks fine on talk pages but bad in lists - perhaps I should investigate changing the formatting appearance of colon indents (top/bottom margins on dl elements) for mainspace articles only? (mucking around). -Chieftain Alex

23:51, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

Yeesh, I thought we didn't do indents on those? —Ventriloquist 23:53, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

Oooo I like number 5. It has colours! (But 4 is probably better) - Do_odleplex 23:55, 18 September 2016 (UTC)

@Vent: We indent meta events, but we haven't for map metas, but formatting they're basically the same. Konig (talk) 03:46, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

Status v Tag

I've been switching anything I see with | status = hot to {{Heart of Thorns content}} as status feels like it's more for things that are future or historical content. It also helps if something that was in HoT gets removed, like Peejj for example. If I've got the wrong idea entirely, I'll stop, but I saw the edit on the circus dagger so I thought I'd comment to see if I'm totally off base here. - Do_odleplex 23:58, 20 September 2016 (UTC)

I use tags when the article is current, and {{Heart of Thorns content}} when it's historical or future. I don't think it matters, I just find status = hot easier to manage. —Ventriloquist 00:01, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

And still needs to be removed!--Relyk ~ talk < 00:54, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Which one? - Do_odleplex 01:24, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Relyk likes to tease his audience. —Ventriloquist 10:31, 21 September 2016 (UTC)

Halp!

Since you're around; could you take a look at Talk:Ether Seal? Seems we have a tiny problem. -Darqam (talk) 14:44, 30 September 2016 (UTC)

I had the tab open, but went to grab lunch. Time to dig in. —Ventriloquist 15:03, 30 September 2016 (UTC)

New house

Congratulations on finishing your move so quickly. Hope your new place is what you hoped for. -Chieftain Alex 23:26, 6 October 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Alex, it sure has been heck of a ride. It is, and I'm in a really good place now, both mentally and literally. Here's to a new start. —Ventriloquist 16:59, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

Cheers to that! Happy for you, Vent. G R E E N E R 18:40, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

Thank you Greener, it's much appreciated! —Ventriloquist 22:38, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

Now the important question: Did you already have the breaking in the house party? If not, you are obligated to invite all the wiki folk. -Darqam (talk) 00:36, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Not yet! Expect plane tickets in your mailbox in 10-12 business days. —Ventriloquist 15:08, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Happy birthday!--Relyk ~ talk < 03:45, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

Ranch Hand Trish

Curious to know why the icon in her dialogue is an anomaly, looked normal to me unless I missed something. =o - Do_odleplex 17:42, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Such dialogue options were part of the largely-removed Personality system. IIRC, that specific dialogue generated charm points, but lacked the dialogue icon that would suggest so (which would be the heart). However, since the personality system has been abandoned, the anomaly is no longer relevant and can be removed. —Ventriloquist 17:54, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Ahh okay. Would it be safe to turn it into a note, or just nuke it completely? - Do_odleplex 17:58, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Not worthy of a note, imo, but you can, if you want. —Ventriloquist 19:07, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Side note: Personality system is not gone, just invisible to players. If you play your cards right, you can still trigger the Militant, Diplomatic, Unpredictable, etc. dialogue options. Konig (talk) 19:23, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Well, yes, removed in the sense that players that started playing after it likely won't know about it. There's still that dude in Bloodtide Coast who sells boulders for karma+personality points. —Ventriloquist 20:16, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

yep unpredictable is still around. ~~Which NPC is that Ventriloquist?~~ nevermind found him: Prospector Wren. -Chieftain Alex

20:35, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Ripping players off since 2012. —Ventriloquist 21:11, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Comment Requested

If I ask on the "Request for comment" page, it's likely to get ignored, and both you and Alex were around when the page in comment was created(and since in the past if I posted a question here, Alex usually pops in, so I can get both of you at once! XD), I feel you two might be able to help on Talk:Zodiac Light Armor Skin. - Do_odleplex 17:12, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi Alex! —Ventriloquist 19:13, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi Ventriloquist! -Chieftain Alex

19:57, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi Doodle!--Relyk ~ talk < 20:06, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi guys! <3 - Do_odleplex 20:10, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Sup nerds - Felix Omni 20:44, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Ignited Wraith Tonic

Thanks for cleaning up Endless Ignited Wraith Tonic! Looks a lot better now. I'm curious about a couple things though. The skill for it "fear" obviously has a page already for something else in game. So, I went off something else that had the same name as something else and it looked like they created the new page with what the second page was for in parentheses, so I created the skill at Fear (Endless Ignited Wraith Tonic). Is that correct, and do disambiguation links need to be added to them? Second question, is it better for someone who can use the api to get the id and the skill icons? Or does just taking a screen shot and cutting the icon out work? Brently (talk) 00:16, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

I'll answer some of this. For the skills, the API will not return them since they aren't class skills. Best way to get the ID is to type '/wiki ' and then hit shift+click on the skill. The wiki search should show you the id. As for the icon, you can try to upload a screenshot (cropped) of them and have someone later upload/redirect to a higher quality; or you could take a screenshot of the skillbar and let someone else do the entire work; both amount to virtually the same amount of work on all ends I think. -Darqam (talk) 03:18, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Heh, you kind of answered all of it. As for the icon, you can upload a screenshot of it (on or off the wiki) and we'll track it down. —Ventriloquist 21:14, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

Why'd you do that?

Other NPCs include the icons. - Felix Omni 17:29, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Per the NPC formatting, as well as this discussion. The skills are similar, but are most likely not the same; they might have a longer cooldown (or no cooldown at all, like with Rytlock), deal different conditions, have a greater range, etc., so it's not really accurate to link them to the player version. —Ventriloquist 17:44, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Ah, well, good call then. I guess Rytlock and Braham and others should be changed for consistency? - Felix Omni 18:23, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Well the icon being on the page helped me recognise that I'd said completely the wrong skill so that was good. Maybe you could have the icon for visual identification of the skill without the link back to the player version? -Azurem (talk) 18:37, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

You are correct, so I implemented the changes to both pages. The {{skill icon}} template cannot be used without linking to a skill, so the only way we could show icons (with text) is to manually insert [[File:skill name.png|25px|link=]] into the skill section. —Ventriloquist 19:15, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

What about using {{plain icon|<asset name>|'''skill name'''}}, for example

Meteor Shower gives you the icon, but you don't link back to Meteor Shower. - Do_odleplex 19:28, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Oh, derp, forgot that template existed. Yeah, that could work! —Ventriloquist 19:51, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

The good news is...

I discovered my bot can do null edits, which means I can go through those duplicate icons a lot faster, and I don't miss anything a file might be linked to. Yay! Happy Quaggan! The bad news: "Candidates for speedy deletion (139)" (and rising). I'm sorry to give you so much to go through. =< (Here, have a heroic bunny. Maybe it can help save the day?) - Do_odleplex 23:02, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Yay! Boo! I'll take some jabs at the deletion list. —Ventriloquist 23:18, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Bam, boom, speedy's done. —Ventriloquist 23:43, 18 November 2016 (UTC)

Image comments

Going through the water weapons galleries(as I found the *perfect* spot to take pictures of water weapons! Weeee!), and I gotta say, you either had way to much fun uploading them or went a little crazy doing so. XD It certainly made it more amusing for me anyway haha. XD - Do_odleplex 05:11, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Oh, I definitely think it was the latter. Glad I could help, hah. —Ventriloquist 10:16, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

"Inc keeps stealing my gig!"

Ha! Am I too fast or are you too slow?! Getting old, huh. :P No worries, the next chapter is all yours! talk 17:28, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

Well, you see, back in my day... Nah, you can keep posting them, I'm just poking fun. Unless I get to it first! —Ventriloquist 17:54, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

Skritt See Stuff

Skritt see shiny go away. Skritt mourns loss of shiny ice thing. Skritt wanted to keep, but skritt understands. - Do_odleplex 00:38, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Ventriloquist didn't do anything to shiny. Konig took shiny away to live at Greater Ice Elemental. -Azurem (talk) 01:06, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Oh I know, I'm just being silly, inspired by the deletion comment on the move remnant hehe. - Do_odleplex 01:21, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

-takes all the shinies, and kills all the quaggans- Konig (talk) 01:47, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

QUAGGAN SMASH! - Do_odleplex 01:53, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Why does angry quaggan have stars floating out of his back? -Darqam 02:04, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

I have no idea, I should probably remove that... - Do_odleplex 02:14, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Quaggans love shoooOOOoooting stars.--Relyk ~ talk < 02:37, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Look at the background, they're not stars. They're luminescent vines hanging from the ceiling.

In other news... -floods Vent's talk to make it a dead quagganarium- Konig (talk) 02:56, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

WhooOOOooo are you people? —Ventriloquist 14:23, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Stop asking questions. Follow Jormag's will or die. -Azurem (talk) 14:40, 4 December 2016 (UTC)

Kodan Calamity or Really Cool

I don't think the Endless Kodan Tonic transforms your weapons into Frostfang and the Fractal sword, and it just looks the same as [[:File:Ursan Tonic Effect.jpg]]. =x I mean if it does, that's really cool, and I totally tagged it wrong. - Do_odleplex 23:24, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Since it's a combat transformation, it would be nice to have a screenshot showing a kodan with weapons equipped - since that's the main difference between it and the regular ursan tonic. —Ventriloquist 23:26, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Okie dokie! - Do_odleplex 23:28, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

I cry everytime

-Darqam 21:52, 25 December 2016 (UTC)

Hey, where would the wiki be without unsigned comments? —Ventriloquist 22:22, 25 December 2016 (UTC)

I still think I need to figure out a script that checks if I have signed or not... could be useful. -Darqam 22:34, 25 December 2016 (UTC)

Scripts, shripts! Where's the fun in that? —Ventriloquist 22:41, 25 December 2016 (UTC)

^ I have "Darqam and his signature still aren't friends" saved as an editing status because I'm amused heh. - Do_odleplex 00:14, 26 December 2016 (UTC)

A script:

(function () {
    var isTalkPage = mw.config.get('wgPageName').toLowerCase().indexOf('talk:') > -1;
    var saveButton = document.getElementById('wpSave');
    if (isTalkPage && saveButton) {
        saveButton.form.addEventListener('submit', function checkSignature(evt) {
            if (document.getElementById('wpTextbox1').value.indexOf('~~~~') < 0) {
                alert('Did you forget to sign?');
                this.removeEventListener('submit', checkSignature);
                evt.preventDefault();
                return false;
            }
        });
    }
})();

Just add it to your common.js :P poke | talk 10:31, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Great idea! Now, do you have some code which will remind me to use all the lovely templates we've create? Vent will only clean up after me so often. G R E E N E R 10:48, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Awesome, I wasn't actually expecting that to be possible... Thanks Poke. -Darqam 14:11, 27 December 2016 (UTC)

Pssst

According to User_talk:Darqam#Ogre_Maul_icons, could you please un-delete File:Knockback (Ogre Maul).png and File:Spin (Ogre Maul).png if they properly match skill 2 and 4 of Azurem's image? They seemed to have been deleted when they shouldn't have (if the icons are correct). -Darqam 18:06, 31 December 2016 (UTC)

I undeleted them, but they don't match the icons at all. Both of them are currently redundant (one is an ele skill icon, and the other a warrior skill icon), but feel free to upload the actual icons over the ones I restored. —Ventriloquist 14:49, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Dang, ok well I'll keep looking for the icons, but they are being really elusive for some reason. Thanks for the undelete anyway. -Darqam 16:50, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

edit: HA! the second I typed that out I think I found them. I guess they were updated with the release of Raid1 instead of earlier, as I thought. -Darqam 16:51, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Self-linking

Just wondering, what's the difference between bold and bold? Does the self-link do some technical wizard stuff? —Azurem 19:14, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

As far as I'm aware, there isn't a difference, but it's just the way we format things. —Ventriloquist 19:35, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

As I was told years ago, we self link so that we remember to change the wording in the case of a article name. Such as changing [[Thing]] to [[Thing (object)]] because [[Thing (NPC)]] gets made, or for any other reason of moving an article. When we move the article, that first (and should be only) instance of bolding the article name turns from a bold to a link, so it reminds us we need to reword it.

It's also a matter of community preference (aka "just the way we do things") on top of that. Konig (talk) 20:18, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

That makes sense I guess. —Azurem 22:57, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Destructible

{{object infobox}} says "destruct: Optional. If the object can be destroyed and therefore has a health bar. Defaults to n." It doesn't say anything about "by the player". Neither does Guild Wars 2 Wiki:Object formatting. If that is the policy then it should be written down somewhere. I don't think that's the first time I've put things that you're supposed to defend from enemies damaging/destroying them as "destructible", because logically they are. —Azurem 19:22, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

The way I understood it is if the sole purpose of the object is to be destroyed, we put destruct = y. Most environmental objects (read: static bundles) have health bars, but that doesn't necessarily mean they can be destroyed by enemies. —Ventriloquist 19:35, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Still seems weird to me. You're saying like Cannon (Nageling) should have that note at the bottom about what happens when it's destroyed, and then in the infobox it should say "Destructible: No"? To a normal reader, that's a contradiction.

Looking at Category:Static environmental weapons there are quite a lot with destruct = y, so you might want to go through that with a bot or something because I don't think any of them are destroyable by players other than the WvW siege. —Azurem 22:57, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

You know what, Azurem? You're absolutely right. Honestly, when that parameter was added, that's how I understood it, but your theory makes more sense. —Ventriloquist 23:21, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

Oh, cool. I do try to make sense, but I'm not always successful :P —Azurem 00:05, 2 January 2017 (UTC)