Minecraft Wiki talk:Community portal

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Recent appearance hiccup/Sidebar feedback
So, a few days ago the font and zoom on the wiki got borked for a bit, and I noticed that something new got added (and subsequently removed): a feed to forums and a feed to notch's twitter account. I used chrome and only really noticed the feeds at the bottom of the page, but then I checked it out in IE and it really borked the page: on my screen it took up about 20% of the right side of my screen, really squishing the content. Did anyone else notice this and was anyone else bothered by it? --JonTheMon 16:40, 15 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Using FF4.0.1, it first borked up the font and threw stuff under each page, which moved to the left of the page later that day.--Quatroking -  MCWiki Administrator  17:24, 15 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Do we want to mention something to Curse so that it doesn't happen again? --JonTheMon 12:44, 16 June 2011 (UTC)
 * "Please do not add this sidebar at all, add it to the right bar instead. kthx"--Quatroking -  MCWiki Administrator  13:11, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

Here's a look at what we want the right sidebar to look like:
 * http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22949533/Screenshots/sidebar%202.png

and another sample actually on the sidebar:
 * http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22949533/Screenshots/Sidebar.png

The hope is to drive more traffic to the news page and also highlight the official Twitter also. We can look at the statistics in real time to see how useful people find the new links, and the goal was to test the spot for a weekend and see how it performs. –The preceding unsigned comment was added by DoranM (Talk . Please sign your posts with
 * So, yeah, on my screen that takes up like 25-30%, and with the left sidebar taking up like 15%, that adds up to my content being really squished. An abbreviated sidebar integrated into the left bar (possibly with collapsible sections) might be a more space-efficient plan. --JonTheMon 15:36, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

What resolution and screensize do you have Jon? DoranM 15:42, 16 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Depending on the location, somewhere between 1024 wide and 1280 wide. --JonTheMon 15:46, 16 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I strongly object this bar. it would just make things clunky. besides, who is going to look at Notch's blog/twitter/news all the time? we BARELY update the news as-is already, and Notch only posts in short bursts. I think for the sake of ten minutes, for what is usually idle chatter from notch, we can sacrifice these to the main page, if they're even needed.
 * or, the left sidebar. that would be acceptable as well. but right? that's too claustrophobic, and the chances it's useful to someone, if it were put on the main page (which in my opinion is more likely to happen due to functionality) is next to zero.--Kizzycocoa 16:28, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

Using 1920x1080 at home on my desktop, and the bar would use 17.5% of my screen. On my laptop however, which runs at 1366x768, the bar would take up to 24.5%, which doesn't leave much space left for the content and the main bar. Now, on 1280x1024, which is a resolution used by a lot of schools (remember, a lot of crafters are teenagers) and people who use 4:3 monitors the bar would take a full 25%. Considering this is most likely the most used resolution, adding a bar that takes 25% of the screen space is just insane and a really bad choice of design. Besides that, as Kizzycocoa mentioned, Notch's twitter is mainly casual and doesn't have that much Minecraft in it at all. We're better off making a list on twitter with all the Mojang guys in it, and then using that feed instead. As for the location, how would it look like if the left bar got enlarged by about 30 pixels, and then a twitter box under the navigation controls? It reaches all users and shouldn't cripple the size of the content.--Quatroking -  MCWiki Administrator  16:45, 16 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Is there going to be any acknowledgement of these concerns before an implementation? --JonTheMon 16:32, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Can you integrate the sidebar into the already existing sidebar on the left? There is a lot of white, unused space on the right. Drenay 16:51, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Too big, meaningless content, wrong place. We don't need something like this. And in german wiki, it's at the bottom again. Please remove it. -- Oliver Scholz  de.Wiki Admin 17:22, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks a lot for cutting my content area down to 50-60% and having large margins on the sides of longer pages. It just makes the content oh-so-special to be squished and framed by such large, expansive whitespaces. And hey! For regular pages I get not just 1 infobox, but 2 infoboxes worth of space used on the right! --JonTheMon 18:14, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I love the game and use the wiki almost daily, so I had to create an account to say that I hope this does not stay. The wiki doesn't need a Twitter feed and the forums are already linked on the side menu and main page of the wiki. Too much wasted space for something the wiki didn't even need. :\ Khalija 18:11, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't mind having the feed, but putting it on the right squishes the content a bit too much in my opinion. --Celtic Minstrel 18:17, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * NONTEBAM - No one need this evil bar at Minecraftwiki :P -- Oliver Scholz  de.Wiki Admin 18:22, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * We don't need the tweets, we aren't a Minecraft social network. The "Recent Articles" thing can go just go away, or go on the main page in the News section. We need space for our content. Drenay 18:26, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

--Nategiven 18:50, 17 June 2011 (UTC) ''I am running a private server with a 1280x1024 monitor on which the screen is split in half: left is the server command window where I monitor what my players are doing, and right is the item code screen for when they send me requests. I can't see any content on the Wiki page anymore because of the right panel you've added. Is there any way we can make that more screen friendly for those of us who aren't in maximized windows on widescreen monitors?''

I find this sidebar to be a nuisance, because since my computer is without a widescreen monitor, the sidebar gets compressed onto the pages and as such severely interferes with the content, making it look absolutely horrible and awkward to read. What's more, when I look at pictures, the sidebar ends up covering most of the image and I have to click on the picture just to see the whole thing, and I shouldn't have to do that. If this is a feature intended to stay, I suggest it be implemented better, with those who have smaller monitors in mind. Not everyone has a 1920x1080 monitor or larger, and with it as it is now, I find it to be severely intrusive and poorly integrated. If anything, this sort of thing should be on the front page or at the bottom of the pages, or just not used at all. DMagnus 19:07, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

For those who wish to remove the sidebar Use the skin, Monobook. it removes the right sidebar

also, after a small browsing session in Vector, I can say it is a bad place for a bar. it should either be put to the left, or onto the main page.--Kizzycocoa 19:53, 17 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Ok, so I KNOW you people are reading this.
 * stop this idiocity.


 * we do NOT want it. can't you guys understand that? this is a collaborative effort. a community effort. and the community is saying your sidebar is BAD.
 * and yet, you go against it with this insane, ugly, space-eating, useless, and even BROKEN (the twitter feed is a blog feed) sidebar?


 * like I said, I know you've seen this. until I posted, everything was good. So, as a User, and a person with my own thoughts on this, I wish to say:


 * stop being selfish with this side bar.


 * We are the community.
 * We know what we like, what will look good and what will not.
 * And we do not want this wiki ruined by higher-ups who SECRETLY and WITHOUT WARNING AND DISCUSSION ruin the wiki with an space-guzzling sidebar that can easily be put in the left bar or main page, with a link to Minecraft WHICH IS IN THE LEFT SIDEBAR ALREADY, and a twitter feed that DOESN'T WORK, and is FULL OF PERSONAL TWEETS, HARDLY EVER CONTRIBUTING TO MINECRAFT.


 * I am also saying, I am saying this as a user. I have fallen out of administration for much lesser issues due to liking the wiki and wanting to improve it. If I were demoted due to having a voice, I know I have be taken away from the team with the best intentions of the wiki in my mind and intentional.


 * Which is more than you can say on the matter.--Kizzycocoa 20:50, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

I am too against this sidebar: the wiki is nearly unusable with this. Are you trying to make the users go away? – Scaler (t) 21:06, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

Remove the goddamn sidebar or I will track down whoever added it and burn down their house(s). This is the worst possible thing you can do and it is completely unnecessary.--AncientPower 21:08, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

I'd also like to add, seeing as people from a community like this would probably take it the wrong way, the above comment is sarcastic in a passive-aggressive way. I'm not really going to burn down your house, it's just a way of expressing my hatred for the sidebar. Just saying, since people around here probably can't take a joke of that caliber.--AncientPower 21:23, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't like the bar because it is just too wide on a 4:3 ratio. Hey, I like CRT monitors. That bar literally takes 1/4 of the screen; the wiki now looks like a newspapers column. Besides, I have those pages open in other tabs, anyway... --orionsyndrome 21:25, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

With the sidebar, hard to use minecraft wiki when the web browser is not maximised, takes up too much space. Not approve. Tinaun 22:02, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

I've never seen a larger sidebar in my life. I use a portrait monitor, so when using the wiki the space that real content can occupy on my screen is now reduced to a column just four inches wide. It's, not only annoying, inconvenient and largely useless, it makes using the website practically impossible, and is seriously off-putting for someone like myself who uses the wiki almost every day. DanOfLA 00:24, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

I also do not like the sidebar; I already check the minecraft forums regularly for news and don't much care about the twitter. If this info is going to be put on the wiki, please put it on the main page or a specific news page, but not on every single content page. I go to content pages for specific information, and the sidebar cuts the width of the content by about a third given the size of my normal browser window. If the sidebar stays, I will be use either a userstyles change or a Stylish override to hide it. MouseyPounds 00:12, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Gracious me! Management team, Please give us a way to close/open the right bar! It compresses the articles and (at least to me) is sometimes a nuisance. It's nice, but please, give us a minimize button! –The preceding unsigned comment was added by Prisma90 (Talk . Please sign your posts with

These things belong on the main page if anywhere, not on every single page. Please remove them. Munin295 01:44, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Is the picture that links to the Minecraft page really necessary? If someone is looking at this wiki, I think they would be fully capable of navigating to that page. Along with that, where the hell did you get this idea?! I have never seen another wiki have one of these! &#124; JSan 03:02, 18 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Wasn't the right-side sidebar taking up entirely too much space that the admins couldn't remove why WoWWiki forked? >.> --Kaydeethree (talk) 03:49, 18 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Add me to the list of people that hate this. I follow Notch on Twitter, I don't need to see his tweets on every page of the wiki. I go to specific places to see news, not every page of the wiki. Manifold 04:26, 18 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Please keep this section on topic the topic of feedback regarding the Sidebar. Off topic posts will be removed. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  07:35, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

I really don't like it. Even with a modified vector.css, there is a blank space at right of my screen, which reduces the width in the center. And same, if I want to see notch's twitter and stuff, I just type the address. Checking one time a day is sufficient, not 20 times a day. (tldr: remove it!) C ali nou - talk × contribs » 07:54, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Just to repost, Notch himself expressed that the bar has made the page worse. http://twitter.com/notch/status/81867527868792832 --Kizzycocoa 09:44, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Remove it. It is really ugly, useless and space-consuming. The wiki is the source of stable encyclopedia-like information, not recent tweets - that should go to the minecraftforum. Recent articles are the same as Recent changes on the leftbar. Tweets do not fit here and are really useless without hyperlinks - niether http://... ones are hilighted, nor @user, nor #hastag, nor are there links to tweets themselves). And because the wiki is >90% about the paid version of minecraft, almost everybody browsing this already bought it, so the banner is completely useless. And, being so useless, it consumes so much space, that users with small displays have to do an anoying lot of scrolling. So just Remove it. -- Shambler0 09:50, 18 June 2011 (UTC)


 * I actually really like it although there should be an option to close and and open it. Samka 10:31, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

I vote remove the sidebar. It makes me lose the focus on the article and focus on the sidebar instead. --RichardG867 12:55, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Remove - Compresses available article space and makes the pages difficult to read, particularly on smaller screens where I previously had no problem reading articles. Tswsl1989 14:58, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

I made an account, just to say, REMOVE THIS THING. PLEASE. ElementalChaos 00:29, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

The right bar column is way too big, it takes up 25% of my screen space. Please move it somewhere else. Xinhuan 04:15, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

I would like to make a threat-free request to make the sidebar hide-able through the user preferences, and perhaps to make it hidden by default. I am also confused that "Recent Articles" is not actually of the wiki but forum posts, which is misleading/confusing. Furthermore the Mojang teams' tweets are already viewable elsewhere and as this is an encyclopaedic site I feel it should have its space filled with information and not social network-esque streams. Rant over. -- Filosof 16:28, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Remove - This side-bar is squishing up the articles, and also useless. We don't need it. Almost the whole community hates it! Remove it already! Somebody500 (有人500) 12:46, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Righthand sidebar
moved from Minecraft Wiki:Admin noticeboard

The righthand sidebar takes up too much space. On my screen which is 1280x1024, it uses 25% space, leaving only about 1/3 of the screen left for actual content. Please remove or move it. There is a discussion going on here but with no feedback from Curse Admins for 4 days: Minecraft_Wiki_talk:Community_portal. The right-hand bar is why so many people hate Wikia, and also part of the reason why WoWWiki (the second largest wiki in the world) forked away from Wikia (amusingly) to be hosted by Curse as WoWPedia. - Xinhuan 04:37, 19 June 2011 (UTC)


 * The sidebar is far to wide for non-widescreen. Cound ther just be an option to hide it, or to be set on jour preference page or (just like the the blocks template) by a hide button? --STS(t 19:11, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't think it's a good sidebar. It really narrows the screen, it results in a lot of dead space on longer articles, on ie6 (which I use at work thanks to government policies, it overhangs this edit window (really frustrating, can't see the end of my sentneces as I type them) and the links in the tweets aren't live. I think it'd be a great addition to the left-hand sidebar if formatted down to that width and the links activated. Also that'd be more consistent with the look of the wiki, I feel. Adje 10:57, 21 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Wikia added a sidebar much like this new feature, and users were up in arms about it, enough to leave Wikia completely. (a) it assumes that every user's window is larger than 1024px wide and (b) it creates unusable empty space on the page, below the sidebar.  There's a word for it in the newspaper/magazine business, something about empty alleyways -- in radio it's called "dead air" and avoided at all costs. --Mozai 13:15, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Consensus
Ok, it appears that the consensus about the sidebar is near-unanimous in that it is not good. I propose it is either removed or moved to a less intrusive location (left sidebar / front page). --JonTheMon 14:27, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, we do not have the powers to remove this sidebar. also, just as bad, I fear that only statistics or Notch can sort this. that, or a huge surge in wikihate, which is still likely. --Kizzycocoa 15:19, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Greetings, Curse staff!
For the related forum topic of this discussion, please see here

I am Major Rasputin, also known as User:Gnu32 around here. I am a professional web developer and designer, an expert in user interfaces and an expert wiki-editor. I have numerous contributions to this wiki and for a while I had been helping out on one or two projects around here.

Could I just ask, what is this?



Thank you, --Gnu32 18:06, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Did your account got hacked? Why do you even ask that, it's the "new" sidebar, with recent Notch's tweets and posts. C ali nou - talk × contribs » 18:44, 19 June 2011 (UTC)


 * I asked because I was merely curious as to what this large tumor was doing sitting on the side. --Gnu32 18:50, 19 June 2011 (UTC)


 * If I could, I would upvote you times infinity, Gnu32. DMagnus 19:42, 19 June 2011 (UTC)
 * you can here and here. --Kizzycocoa 19:44, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Greasemonkey
If you have Greasemonkey instaled (called 'user scripts' in Google Chrome), I wrote a greasemonkey script to get rid of the sidebar and restore each article's full width. --Mozai 15:28, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Every page I load now starts a video file playing. It doesn't matter that I've stopped it 100 times! Please please remove this stupid waste of our bandwidth or at least enable logged in users to hide it. It's making me regret and loathe coming here. Can I pay a subscription to see no adverts and no sidebar? I would. Adje 14:54, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Eyesore
A week later, and it's still a bloody eyesore. This needs to be removed. --JonTheMon 17:13, 30 June 2011 (UTC)
 * All moderators and some Curse staff agree. Curse as a whole so far does not.


 * We really wish we could help, but we can't. I myself feel like I'm failing as a moderator atm due to it. --Kizzycocoa 17:14, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Sharing?
Hi. I'm new to Minecraft, and I was just wondering if, in multiplayer, one player can share an item with another. I haven't done multiplayer yet, but have a friend who wants to.

uuum, you throw it at them? please play multiplayer before asking questions on it --Thatdude624 16:54, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Play multiplayer and press Q (default) to drop an item for someone else to be able to pick up. Or open the inventory screen and drag an item to the outside of the box. Hope i helped :) --Gunnez360 11:24, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

New bug?
I noticed that when I look at glass through glass, the glass I'm looking at is invisible. Any help? –The preceding unsigned comment was added by Noodleharm (Talk 04:54, 16 June 2011. Please sign your posts with
 * As far as I know glass has always behaved like this. – Scaler (t) 07:38, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

This isn't a bug, glass is supposed to act like that. Can you imagine if you could see the particles on every block of glass? Thick panes would barely be transparent at all...

DanOfLA 00:34, 18th June 2011 (UTC)

Swedish translation
Hi, I'm going to start a Swedish translation, all contributes are welcome! The project would have the name Minecraft Wiki:Projects/Swedish translation. Platina 10:49, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Just a question, when am I able to create new articles? Is after 4 days, or? Platina 10:52, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * 3 days and 10 other edits. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  11:15, 20 June 2011 (UTC)


 * OK, thank you! Platina 17:16, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Page creation restrictions
Hi guys! A while ago we applied some page creation restrictions to limit some spam bot activity. We have developed some new ways to deal with the spambots, so I have had the restrictions lifted. Pages can now be created by any user from the moment they register.

Just because we have new tools, it doesn't mean we don't still need your eyes to watch for spam, please use the Minecraft Wiki:Admin noticeboard to let us know if something isn't working the way it should! -- Wynthyst  talk  23:11, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

SPYWARE ALERT: ScorecardResearch
The wiki's been compromised with a dangerous piece of spyware called ScorecardResearch. I don't know how, but this is the sourcecode that's been injected into the site:

This is a screenshot of what just came up a few minutes ago: http://i.imgur.com/G5bI8.png. It is important that users ignore this box or click the X, but it would also be safer to keep off the Minecraft Wiki until this is fixed. And before anyone suggests it, no this is not my end. I don't get spyware or viruses.

Thank you, --Gnu32 19:14, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I saw this an hour ago. I can confirm this.--Kizzycocoa 19:17, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * That's not a dangerous piece of software, it's an industry standard analytics platform. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  19:18, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * No honey, I don't think you understand. This is a malware attack. If you're suggesting that maybe, somehow, this is supposed to be on this website, something is very, very wrong here. --Gnu32 19:22, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I have never seen that before. It's probably Adblock. Drenay 19:19, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * No HONEY, you don't seem to understand. This is a tool that we are using to gather analytic data. It's not malware. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]] talk  19:24, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh dear. --Gnu32 19:28, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * It sure seems like the same thing that has caused thousands of people computer issues, looking at those search results. Manifold 22:00, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I read through most all of the articles, and understood that the issues were not with the computers, but with the sites those computers were visiting. It also appears that any issues they may have had are in the past, as all of those results are 6 months old. Of course, I urge any of you to report to us immediately if this in any way impacts the performance of your computer. -- Wynthyst [[Image:User Wynthyst sig icon.png ]]  talk  06:07, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

random page in English
is it me who are being really blind and don't see a "always show pages in English" button, or is a page automatically showed in a language that is under the translation project when i click the random page button (witch i tend to do sometimes when i'm bored)? If it is automatically shown in a different page than English, would it then maybe, be a good idea to put up a box somewhere on the page saying "This page is part of the minecraft wiki translation project. Click a language below to see the page in that language" or something along those lines. Again if there is an "always show pages in English" button please tell me where it is (but please, be kind consider the idea i suggested to, i would appreciate it) Trunks554 17:28, 28 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Random page is a random page of the whole wiki including the sub-pages of the translations projects. There is already a box saying if a page is part of a translation project (if translators don't forget to add it) and a link to the english page (just under the page title). – Scaler (t) 00:04, 29 June 2011 (UTC)


 * I've been looking at this issue for a while, and apparently it can be fixed using this. It's an improved version of the original feature, however the original has been deprecated since MW 1.16.0. Using the original feature, all we'd have to do is this:  which would then exclude all pages in the Projects category. I have no idea how the improved version works however. Luckily, a friendly IRC user on the #Mediawiki channel is willing to look at it some more for us, as it might prove useful to him too!--Quatroking -  MCWiki Administrator  11:28, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

changing rule 20.A proposal
Rule 20.A at the moment says:"This rule does not apply to articles covering Mods.", there is a problem with this version, as it suggests that rule 20 does apply to texture packs, and that you can use custom texture packs that have no connection to a mod the screenshot was meant to show. Thus I propose this version:"This rule does not apply to articles covering Mods and texture packs, as long as the screenshot contains custom texturepacks, UI mods and other custom content that is relevant to the article".--Yurisho 07:11, 30 June 2011 (UTC)