Minecraft Wiki talk:Community portal

This is the community's main discussion page.

Talk about anything wiki-related here!

English or American english?
We sorta need to get a uniformity going in the wiki. this is an issue in many wikis, and needs to be corrected.

What type of english do we use? American or English?

I personally, of course, choose British English, though I know the majority of readers are american. so it's an issue of origin versus popularity.

thoughts? votes? --Kizzycocoa 15:08, 2 August 2011 (UTC)
 * American English, because the majority of users are American, Curse is an American company and the servers are located in America. (as far as I know)--Quatroking -  MCWiki Administrator  15:11, 2 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I am going to vote for American English simply because it is easier for Firefox users. The default installed Firefox autocorrect dictionary prefers American English, even in the Great Britain version, or so I have read.  Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 15:13, 2 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Also voting American English - it's what the majority of people are used to and frankly, if you went British English people would just be correcting articles anyways (because no one bothers to read the rules :P) --Warlock 15:21, 2 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I vote British English, simply because I automatically spell that way. Especially when describing the colour of things, or what behaviour they display. :D DreadLindwyrm 15:47, 2 August 2011 (UTC)


 * There was already a discussion on the date format that should be used, and I believe whatever language that is used, it should be the same as that language's date format, or all dates are changed to an international standard, or at least an internationally readable format (DD Month-Name YYYY).
 * I, of course, will vote for British English, as this is a wiki, it is generally considered best to use the most formal language (even small things like saying it is instead of it's). Remember that "American English" is just a lazy version of British English. It is even slightly similar to txt speech, which while much more lazy and severe than what American English has done, American English is still removing letters from normal words with the only reason to make them quicker to type or write, which is the same and very popular concept of txt speech. – ultradude25 ( T at 19:48, 2 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Note the vast, vast differences between the Wikipedia pages for American English and SMS Language or Internet Slang. American English is a dialect in its own right, containing a large amount of unique words (not abbreviated phrases).  As far as calling British English the most formal language, I'm going to have to say:   :)    Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 20:04, 2 August 2011 (UTC)


 * The problem is I'm extremely biased against American English, because I hate America for being childish with this whole "we have to be independent and not do anything the same as anyone else" nonsense (which is ironically making me be childish about it). Things would be a lot simpler if America just stuck with normal English, and didn't use outdated measurements like Fahrenheit.  – ultradude25 ( T at 17:32, 3 August 2011 (UTC)


 * It makes discussions like these pop up on all of the wikis. :T And Scaler does have a good point. (Possibly a discussion-resolving point?)  Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 17:39, 3 August 2011 (UTC)


 * You realize Britian has its own crazy system of measurements too, right? --Warlock 17:43, 3 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't like Britain's money system, I don't actually know what measurements they use, but at least they use normal temperatures. – ultradude25 ( T at 00:08, 4 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Britain has the same 'money system' as america - we have 100p (uk cents) in one pound (UK dollar) and we have notes for £5 and up. The only differences are names, that america uses 25¢ coins instead of 20p coins, and that notes start with $1. We also do not have a crazy system - for distance we use miles and feet (in fact, this is the official standard but at home half of people use metres and km), but everything else (weight, volume, temp etc) is metric. What is crazy about that, after all you have units in groups of 12s or 3s or even 1760s! Jaredjeya 07:07, 28 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Isn't Minecraft using American English (gray instead of grey)? I think it could be confusing to have the games terms in American English and the rest of the page in British English. – Scaler (t) 20:15, 2 August 2011 (UTC)


 * It may use American English but all measurements are metric Jaredjeya 07:09, 28 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't see what that has to do with anything. Metric is not tied to one particular variant of English (it originated in France, not Britain, for that matter), and it's an international standard; using any other measurement system would only create ambiguity, at least in some situations for some people. 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 13:37, 28 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I vote for American English. Mainly because it's the english I learned and know how to write. Ok, you can say now, that you would correct it to British English. But thats a lot of work. But I know too, that there are people who have time to do such things. The other point is the thing Scaler highlighted. –The preceding unsigned comment was added by Freaktechnik (Talk . Please sign your posts with


 * I think it does not matter as long as we don't use british terms like trolley or american terms like a la mode. not that anyone would really use either of those on the minecraft wiki, but most american people understand grey and colour and most british people understand gray and color. Also in terms of measurements we should use the metric system because minecraft uses meters. Also what is everyone talking about with the british being more formal? You guys use contractions too- right?

–The preceding unsigned comment was added by allenofdrum (Talk . Please sign your posts with


 * "à la mode" is not american it's french ^^". I agree to use the metric system. – Scaler (t) 20:05, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * American English is the Curse standard. That being said however, British English is also acceptable, and not something that should be hunted down and changed, nor should any use be reprimanded or reverted for using it. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  00:40, 13 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I would !vote for American English, since that's what Minecraft seems to use, though I should also point out that I am American myself. 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 13:37, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Notch/Mojang Watch?
I think it's time to devise a new plan.... Not every little item mentioned by Notch or the rest of Mojang in tweets, and blogs will become a part of Minecraft, yet people seem to believe that everything needs a page. I suggest we create a single page where this stuff can be listed, and the links to the tweets and comments can be posted for future reference. If and when we have confirmation that an item is coming in a patch, or has actually been added to the game, THEN the information can be used to create a page.... Opinions? -- Wynthyst  talk  00:36, 13 August 2011 (UTC)
 * A huge list of citations with the references along with it should be workable.--Quatroking -  MCWiki Administrator  01:22, 13 August 2011 (UTC)


 * To quote my response two topics above:

The Upcoming Features article seems too definite for features that are so in development that they are very likely to change, so an article following the development of new things would help proliferate the knowledge of updates. I know quite a few people that are not able to follow the Twitter and Google+ accounts of developers but would still like to know what to expect in future patches. It is, after all, data that is contained in a version of Minecraft even if that version is only known to the developers.
 * --Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 02:38, 13 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I follow Notch's Twitter feed religiously, and I have excellent bullshit sensors - I can almost always tell when he's just joking around about some feature or another (cue hotdog tweet) - so I could help out in that regard. Does anyone do the same for Jeb's Twitter feed? 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 06:19, 18 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually, Jeb knows about this particular issue since I told him about it once on the IRC. Either way I've got him followed too and it's pretty easy to filter out the jokes and stuff.


 * We can probably make a big page of references using grouped references; would fill the role perfectly.
 * I have never been happy with the dabtext-in-titles craze here, though I've also never really voiced it before. 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 05:01, 28 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually, the about template would do perfectly in the Diamond page. My two basic points were that we should use ingame names and, if necessary, use (Item) or (Block) as the added text in the title.  Really, though, if we use ingame names that there should be no problem.  No two things are named the same.  Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 06:14, 28 August 2011 (UTC)


 * That's good to hear. I'd appreciate hearing the thoughts of others on this though (particularly admins/Curse staff); if this discussion will manage to get a change to happen, it should be sooner rather than later. 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 13:31, 28 August 2011 (UTC)
 * The only thing I have to add to this discussion is that any change of the naming convention needs to be agreed upon by more than just the two of you. This affects the entire wiki. So please plan on this being a very lengthy discussion... i.e. weeks, if not months before it is implemented. If you need to go to individual talk pages and point them at this discussion to get adequate participaction, I recommend you do so. Also, no renaming of base images is allowed, they can be reuploaded, but not moved as this affects the German and Dutch wiki as well. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  14:28, 28 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Why didn't we use the official ingame names in the first place? Was it just because because one person decided it to be so? Drenay 14:32, 28 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Don't worry, I was hunkering down for a lengthy discussion beforehand. :)  I don't expect the way we create pages to change very quickly, as otherwise rash decisions could be made.  I don't think that image renames would really be necessary, though.  As long as the image looks right, its name doesn't really affect anything. Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 16:18, 28 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I find it much easier to use the object(type) naming rather than the in-game name on several articles, the ores being a few of them. It's more efficient and it makes searching easier. I'm against changing the way we name our articles.--Quatroking -  MCWiki Administrator  16:37, 28 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Re:Drenay: The current naming scheme was used before official in-game naming existed. I don't care much either way (both make sense) but I suppose I lean a bit on the don't change side since that's the status quo. --JonTheMon 17:00, 28 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Again, I would point out use of the about template as a good way to link together ores and their minerals. The only problem I can foresee is differentiating between Brick and Bricks, the brick block.  Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 17:12, 28 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I vote No, I like the way the wiki is set up. It makes things look more official or elegant. Cool12309(T 18:11, 28 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Please don't resort to "I like it"-style arguments, especially when there are quantifiably objective reasons to support one system over the other.
 * The current system is needlessly complicated and confusing - unless someone has taken the time to make the necessary redirects, a person cannot just come to the wiki and type an item's/block's in-game name into the URL bar or search bar and end up at the correct page (in the absolute best case, the proper redirect exists and points to the proper page; in the "good" case, the title they typed is a disambiguation page or redirects to one, meaning their intended target should be one click away; in the worst case, the title is a redlink or a redirect to an unrelated article). The current system does absolutely nothing that can't be done a million times better by judicious use of About. Wikipedia:Disambiguation is a very good read for those who are going to comment here. 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 19:59, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Let me just provide an example for my point. Melon (Seed)s are melon seeds. They are not Melons of the type Seed. Redstone (Repeater)s are Redstone Repeaters. They are not Redstones of the type "Repeater". It is my personal belief that the title should say what the item actually is instead of putting a part of it needlessly into parentheses. Putting it in parentheses isolates the first word as the actual title of the article, such as the Redstone (Repeater), which seems to be called a Redstone. Such a thing is analogous to calling Experience Orbs Experience (Orb)s, or Fishing Rods Fishing (Rod)s. Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 13:34, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

Don't know if this is relevant or not, @Verhalthur, but there are two items in the game with the same name. The two items, both named stone slabs, one created from 3 cobblestone blocks, the other from 3 stone blocks. Should there be a mix of the two formats? Or would that cause confusion? Like, the redstone, iron and gold formats are decent, but Diamond (Gem) should be renamed to Diamond (item) because the word "gem" isn't mentioned anywhere ingame nor by any of the staff. Diamond may not even be a "gem" in the game. (seeing as it's in a fictional universe) I see the issue arise with Brick Block and Brick (block) though. The item smelted from clay and it's block counterpart are called Clay Brick and Brick respectively, right? (sooo confusing) --HexZyle 14:06, 29 August 2011 (UTC)


 * The Stone Slabs problem would be a case where I would title them something like Stone Slab and Stone Slab (Sandstone). The parentheses are being used to differentiate two ingame items of the same name, which works fine.  I am not suggesting completely eliminating the format, just using it only when absolutely needed.  Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 14:12, 29 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I could see a good argument in that case for something along the lines of "Stone Slab" and "Smooth Stone Slab", or "Stone Slab" and "Cobblestone Slab" (or, as Verhalthur pointed out, this would also be one good case for part of the title in parentheses - something like "Stone Slab" and "Stone Slab (Cobblestone)"); no matter how it were done, though, a single About tag at the top of the article titled "Stone Slab" would immediately tell the reader which slab the article would discuss, and provide a link directly to the other article (all of this is only an example, though, since currently all the slabs are covered on one article). In general, using on the page with the shorter, more general title should be enough to handle ambiguity (so, on such pages as "Diamond", "Brick" and "Clay", "Iron", etc.). 「 ダイノ ガイ  千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 16:06, 29 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Agreed. The about tag seems like the best way to deal with all this madness :D --HexZyle 16:17, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

We need to use official names, so pages should be named as they are named in-game, items with confusing titles such as the clay problem should have an about template instead of having a different name, blocks with the same name should have the page with this name redirect to a disambiguation page that links to the different blocks pages named with parenthesis containing the differentiating property between the different pages(block/item; stone/cobblestone; etc.)--Yurisho 17:20, 29 August 2011 (UTC)


 * There is no need for redirects; just have the dabpage at the title needing disambiguated. This is another aspect of the current setup that makes absolutely no sense and is needlessly complicated. 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 20:26, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

I changed my mind, I like this a lot better now that it is explained. If I got it right, the pages are to be named the ingame name, with the exception of Stone Slabs (with a solution of something like "Stone Slabs" be a disambig. page). If a block has a same name as an item, put (Block) or (Item) respectively. Is that how it was meant to be interpreted? Cool12309(T 21:03, 29 August 2011 (UTC)


 * More or less, yes (but note that we wouldn't actually have to do anything with slabs, since, as I said above, they're all covered on the one article). Also, this would be a good opportunity to discourage CamelCase in every single page title - "(item)" or "(block)" work just as well as "(Item)" or "(Block)", and neither "item" nor "block" is a proper noun, so there's no reason to require they be capitalized. 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 21:11, 29 August 2011 (UTC)

, too. Only stuff that really goes by the same name should be named equally. and i can’t come up with a single example.

if it’s Pumpkin Seeds, why is it Melon (Seed)? Melon Seeds is much nicer and more logical, as you don’t say “melon” if you want to refer too melon seeds.

also, especially the redstone pages are silly: do you notice sth.? yes, we can completely drop the parentheses for all those items. – Flying sheep 14:07, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Redstone (Ore)
 * Redstone (Dust)
 * Redstone (Wire)
 * Redstone (Torch)
 * Redstone (Repeater)
 * Redstone circuits

Lawsuit
Should the lawsuit between Mojang and Bethesda have a page for it? Or at least mentioned in the Mojang AP page? It is an important part of Mojang history, you could say. &#124; JSan 17:51, 27 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Definitely not its own page. This is the Minecraft wiki, not the Scrolls wiki.  I could see it fitting well on the Mojang page.  Verhalthur (talk)(contribs) 18:17, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

Added 1.8 stuff
…to ItemSprite and thus all dependant templates (such as Items). what do you think? – Flying sheep 13:38, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Once 1.8 is out and we know what's in it sure :D -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  13:41, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * The mushroom blocks need to be added to Template:Blocks. Could someone please get around to that? Oh, and if the Huge Mushroom page looks ugly, that's my bad. I'm currently working on making the images 150px instead of 15px --HexZyle 14:08, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * EDIT: oh wait, the block side textures are 16px. Do I just expand them to 160px? --HexZyle 14:10, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * @HexZyle: Someone needs to update File:BlockCSS.png first. (see link below) some genius has only added the cyan flower and left out the rest (though i don’t know how to deal with the new stuff at the bottom, where we already put out stuff. how about doubling the image height and putting everything which has to be edited (grass, leaves) in the bottom part, so one just has to replace the upper half when an update comes out?) – Flying sheep 14:15, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * What the hell is a cyan flower? Is someone trolling? And no, I'm not talking about the terrain.png, the mushroom blocks from the huge mushrooms should be added into the Planned: section of the blocks template --HexZyle 14:26, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Ah, sorry, didn’t read properly. of course they should be added, even if their textures aren’t there already :D – Flying sheep 14:30, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * @Wyn: or we could just do it now that we already know it, sice jeb has uploaded the new item and block sheets: https://imgur.com/a/0Dpgb d’Oh – Flying sheep 14:15, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * now i did the same with the blocks! – Flying sheep 15:29, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Someone should go through and update Melon, Melon_Seeds, Melon_(Slice), Pumpkin_Seeds, and Rotten_Flesh (did I forget any?) with the new sprites. --Warlock 16:17, 1 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Oh, well I meant add the blocks and links, sorry i didn't explain it correctly. Like: Huge Mushroom (Red Cap | Brown Cap | Stalk) --HexZyle 23:25, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm just curious what part of don't add these until the update comes out and we know for sure what's in it wasn't clear in my original reply? -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  05:30, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't really see the need to delay, we already have plenty of info on upcoming items/blocks. Everything else is blatantly obvious. --HexZyle 06:13, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Opening the wiki to anon edits
Once again I am bringing this topic to the community for discussion. We have implemented a lot of really good tools to battle vandalism and spam (which has always been the primary reason for not allowing anon edits). Limiting participation to only registered users my reduce some of those issues, however, it causes others. Recently, a user had to jump through a gazillion hoops to try to contact someone at Curse because they had forgotten their wiki account password and didn't have email enabled to be able to reset it. Since he was unable to log on, he was also unable to contact any of the admins via their talk pages, or the noticeboard or anywhere else. This needs to not be the case. I want to enable anon editing, and quite simply, unless you, the community provide me with solid reasons to not do this, it's going to happen. Thanks! -- Wynthyst  talk  05:26, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * I support this whole-heartedly. Wikipedia has managed quite well with allowing anons to edit for a decade and counting; I don't see why we shouldn't be able to. Do you have any sort of timeline for how long the community has to comment on this issue? 「 ダイノ ガイ 千？！ 」? · ☎ Dinoguy1000 06:22, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * No
 * Nonononononononononnooo
 * No
 * Oh god, I can imagine it. We'll have aspergite weekly. We'll have articles about cars added daily. We'll be rolling around in nazi iconography and ascii art of various organs. the pages will constantly be vandalised to the point that no admin team can bear it.
 * and the pages they'll make. steve the slime will be up first. followed by god knows what. porky the pig? Geoffrey the Ghast?
 * and the pages they'll make. steve the slime will be up first. followed by god knows what. porky the pig? Geoffrey the Ghast?


 * this just cannot happen.
 * ever.
 * EVER. o_o --Kizzycocoa 06:42, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Enough drama Kizzy. It happens on every other wiki on the network every day without any of these dire consequences you are predicting. Through proper use of the tools that we have available most of what you describe will never see the light of day. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  06:51, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * While I personally don't like anon edits due to IP addresses being really hard to remember for me (maybe I should start writing them down...), I really think the abuse filter can handle them pretty well. Just seeing how well it has dealt with the constant spam we used to get before it was introduced (I wasn't even aware the automatic spam was still happening, until I opened the block log and found the abuse filter all over it) had really proved its effectiveness to me (although I wish I knew how it worked).
 * I would definitely like some limits set on them though, like only let them edit, maybe let them create pages, I'm not to sure on that one, no page moves (they can get really messy to undo), and either no image uploading or a limit on how many images they're able to upload per-day (although that's pretty easy to undo, so it might not be worth bothering with). – ultradude25 ( T at 07:23, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Things like page moves, and image uploads are restricted by default. We can add additional restrictions (within reason) as the community feels appropriate. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  07:26, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * I agree that anons should be able to edit, and I agree abuse filter is good enough to prevent spam, I do think the anons should have limited editing only. The reason for that is that anon editors are mostly in-experienced in editing, noted by the fact that they don't find it worthwhile to register, or even if they are good editors, they are certanlly do not know this wiki's specific cloture and customs(i.e titles like uses, trivial, etc.).
 * Therefore I suggest only allowing them to edit pages, and not creating them, I also think it will be a good idea to forbid big edits - let's say, an edit that will have a bold number at the "Recent changes" page(this will not apply in the admin noticeboard and admins talk pages). I also think they shouldn't be able to upload pictures, and if they will be able to, there will be a size limit.--Yurisho 07:46, 2 September 2011 (UTC)