Wiki bugs/issues

[thingirl]

Whenever I try to search for something on the Wiki, the page spins out for a few seconds and I get a note saying "Due to a system error, your search could not be completed" any my only option is to search again. (Screen shot attached.)

I used to be able to reload the search a couple times and have it work, but now that I need it, it seems to have quit all together :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: Although, I can get around it by knowing what page I'm looking for, but still!

Am I the only one having this problem? And how can it get fixed if I'm not.

EDIT: It's working now.

EDIT2: GAAH!!!!!!!! I didn't de-jinx! It's broken again :(. Not that it was working 100% of the time anyway, but...

[Young Ned]

Sounds like wikia.com is having problems. Hopefully they'll have it fixed soon.

[kzero]

I've seen this problem off and on for the past few days also. I also think it's a wikia problem that we probably can't do much about.

[thingirl]

Great... :rolleyes:

[Oldschool]

Actually I've seen that problem before although it's been very intermittent. And IF I remember correctly it was discussed before, but I can't recall anything else.

[Scarbrow]

It's quite unpredictable, very annoying, and happens wikia-wide (I also participate in a few other wikis, like WoWWiki and Ogame Wiki)

When you're stuck with that, remember two things
1) It's just temporary, and sometimes only lasts a couple of minutes
2) While slightly slower, we have a very strong category system, and is linked from several points of the Sidebar. Use that to navigate, and you'll find the page quickly

[thingirl]

Well, I suppose a good necro-threadder would also be a good necro-pager.

Too bad I don't have any real time until Friday.

[Oldschool]

There seems to be an issue related to the Adblock Plus add on with Firefox and Chrome and the Sryth Encyclopedia. Noticed it when I tried to get the url for blood grubs in the add a word thread. Ended up using the node/infoid url and manually adding the term. Just had time to further test it.

Hangs up on the Encyclopedia page, http://sryth.wikia.com/wiki/Sryth_Encyclopedia when I clicked it. Ending up going to the node/infoid url and manually adding the term.

Took a bit to track it down but IE9 works correctly as does FF and Chrome with Ad Block Plus disabled. But if Ad Block Plus is enabled it hangs (all three tested and both FF/Chrome tested with Ad Block Plus enabled/disabled). Seems to jump past the "Leaving the Sryth Wiki" box which shows ads unless one is logged onto the wiki. Although from the url it seems to be getting hung on the encyclopedia page, but the page reloads are too quick to say for sure.

Not sure when this started (I noticed it at least a week or so ago but thought it might be server/browser related), but I know it's worked with Ad Block enabled previously.

Also if you're logged onto your account (tested with Firefox only) there's no issue even with Adblock Plus enabled.

Just thought I'd pass this along for Scarbrow, Shadowblack and the regular wiki staff as well as users even though it doesn't seem to be on wiki's end.

Note: Changed the thread title to include all bugs/issues so as to not to have multiple threads.

Edit: Just remembered Adblock updating on Firefox a while back which may well be the culprit. Currently running version 1.3.10 which was updated/released 9-28-11. Just checked Chrome which I don't use as often which happens to be running Adblock 2.4.28 which updated 10-7-11. Also am running the latest current versions of Firefox and Chrome. Not sure about Chrome as I don't use it regularly, but Firefox was working correctly. And considering the update date to Adblock I'm thinking it's related to this version as it was working ok a little while back.

[Scarbrow]

I've just been able to load the page without problems on my Firefox 7.0.1 with Adblock Plus 1.3.10. It takes a while, though. The main problem I see is the URLs are not correctly shown, a bug that bugs us from time to time in the wiki for URLs containing the "&" symbol.

Curiously, for logged-out users that's not a problem, but logged-in (with or without ad-block) the darn & sign causes troubles. I don't know how to fix it ATM

EDIT: Heh. I just found it. I think it's fixed now. Thanks for reminding me of this, OS. Repped

[psychoadept]

As a heads up for everybody, there's a problem with spoiler tags on the wiki right now, in which they and everything within them are invisible. I'm looking into it, but it may be over my head. Beware that there may be hidden information until this is fixed...

[Tetracapillactomist]

First an edit I did not make (it happened once before, about a year ago; no wiser now about it than I was then), and now this.
I noticed blank spaces, sizeable ones, and thought "???" (even checked the edit window, but nothing seemed like a reason to cause it at a quick glance - then I saw your mention of the spoiler tag issue there; spoilers had a problem before, a minor one, in failing to display MR ratings properly, but a disappearing act beats that hands down).

My first thought was: failed advert insert, bugged and invisible... *shrug* (still suspicious).

As to info being invisible for the time being, that's bad.

I guess you have to open the editing window if you really need (to read, not necessarily edit) the information, for the time being.

(I never really liked too many spoiler tags, mind you: there are spoiler warnings on top of most pages, and some pages are filled to the brim with spoiler tags, sometimes for items or ATs found, experience rewards, anything and everything - the Fogbough page is like that, sometimes necessary, sometimes overused - a thrill, I guess...
Course, I just go through the page clicking tag after tag, thinking 'stop trying to hide stuff from me, dognabit! I came here to find out or verify, not to play peekaboo...' :-)
But even I used them occasionally, mostly to hold details, long lists of foe data, in-game text reference, examples, anything of secondary importance, or anything that would occupy too much space. They're handy when they're visible.)

"Come on, Wikipedia! Load, you unwieldy behemoth!" ;-)

[psychoadept]

Yeah, it's those big blank spaces. :) I had the same thought you did, but someone who didn't know what was *supposed* to be there probably wouldn't think to check the page source.

Scarbrow and I are in conversation with people on the Wikia community forum, and he's already devised a work-around in case we don't get it fixed quickly. Everybody give him reps!

[Scarbrow]

For the record:
The discussion in our wiki (http://sryth.wikia.com/wiki/Sryth_Wiki_talk:Spoilers_policy)

The Wikia discussion (http://community.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Spoilers_turning_invisible)

The proposed workaround (http://sryth.wikia.com/wiki/Template:Spoiler). Please take a look and comment, I think the template could become an all-round better option

[Young Ned]

The workaround looks great, but almost too flexible. I think we should pick one particular format for the spoilers and stick to it. I liked the examples best that had no table class and no title.

[Scarbrow]

I've tried to address that. How do you like it now?

[Young Ned]

Nice job! I think the default red makes the spoilers nice and visible, and we still have the option of using other classes if we decide we want two or more kinds of spoilers. :cool:

[Scarbrow]

More suggested changes? Or should we proceed already with the big change from <spoiler> to {{spoiler}} ?

EDIT: It seems there's no way to know all the pages marked with the spoiler tag. The word search only narrows the search to the 600-odd pages that contain the word "spoiler". Oh, my....

[psychoadept]

I've used the new one in a few places now. I suggest we use the new one when we make edits and try to update the old when we stumble across them.

[Scarbrow]

I've used the new one in a few places now. I suggest we use the new one when we make edits and try to update the old when we stumble across them.

Agreed. It will take a while until we've updated them all, but it's most likely the only practical way

[psychoadept]

I'll see about updating the spoiler policy page, including instructions on how to update to the new tags. If I understand correctly, in most cases you can just substitute <spoiler> for {{spoiler| and </spoiler> for }} (at least that's worked for me).

[Scarbrow]

Two good news

First, I have devised a way to enclose wikitables in the template, which previously didn't allowed them. Granted it's a workaround ,but you can now use the SpoilerBegin and SpoilerEnd templates to mark spoilers (and {{Spoiler}} works the same). Instructions on the Spoiler template page.

Second, I've found a way to find all the spoilertags in the wiki. If you want to help, go to the Statistics (http://sryth.wikia.com/wiki/Special:Statistics) page and download the "Current pages" dump (I've requested a new one, but the old one dated 26th October should have most or all spoilertags). Then you can search the resulting XML for the "&lt;spoiler&gt;" literal, and on the previous <title> tag you'll find the title of the page still having spoilertags. That way we will be able to root out them all.

EDIT: I think I've changed them all. Only a new database dump can confirm it, though, so we should try again in a week or two. I'm off to Wiki Updates (http://srythforum.com/showthread.php?t=481) to brag a little bit.

[Young Ned]

Great job, Scarbrow! Thanks! :D

[kschons]

Rhaknar's Mad is not under the Fogbough Forest (Outer Wood) page when it should be after all it is found there.

[psychoadept]

Good call. I'm adding it.

[psychoadept]

As I've been adding these new quests outside the Battlegrounds, I've discovered that the Battlegrounds page is really not well organized. I posed a question here about what to do about it:

http://sryth.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Zumryn%27s_battlegrounds

I'm posting it here mostly because I've been spamming so many small grooming edits that I worried it would get lost in the shuffle.

[Young Ned]

I responded on the talk page with a question.

Incidentally, speaking of "spamming" lots of small changes, it would be nice if you would use the Preview Changes button to view your changes and add more incremental changes before saving, rather saving each change individually and then making another one two or three minutes later. I saw something like a dozen small edits in a row made to one page by you, and it does really tend to clutter up the history...

[psychoadept]

Thanks, I'll try to remember to use the preview. I tend to be a little paranoid about losing work if I don't save it often, especially when I'm bouncing back and forth between game and wiki. I'm known to get distracted easily and forget what I'm doing. :)

[Oldschool]

I responded on the talk page with a question.

Incidentally, speaking of "spamming" lots of small changes, it would be nice if you would use the Preview Changes button to view your changes and add more incremental changes before saving, rather saving each change individually and then making another one two or three minutes later. I saw something like a dozen small edits in a row made to one page by you, and it does really tend to clutter up the history...

Never realized that so ditto to what PA said on all counts ;) as I often do that if I'm catching up the updates after a bit of procrastinating.