Difference between revisions of "User talk:FrJohn"

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== Changes for the morning of May 11, 2016 ==
  
== God bless you ==
+
You're probably still working on this, but it looks like the changes I made to pages this morning were lost. A couple of them were minor, but I did a significant wikification/edit of one of the pages [[Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia]].  Any chance this can be restored?  (P.SThank you for all your hard work!) [[User:Katjuscha|Katjuscha]] ([[User talk:Katjuscha|talk]]) 18:05, May 11, 2016 (UTC)
I hope that we can do a very nice site in arabic --[[User:Habib|Habib]] 19:23, November 10, 2006 (PST)
 
 
 
 
 
== Protest ==
 
 
 
Fr. John,
 
I published my article on Hebrew Catholics in the Orthodox Wiki portal for two reasons, the first is I couldn't log in the General Wikipedia and the second because it is related to an Eastern spirituality. You said you deleted it because it is not convenient for your site, i mean, you consider it not appropriate. So, where is the information right for your believers and anybody else? Where is the Christian spirit you proclaim? I don't pretend to alien or romanize the Orthodoxy, as i understand we are from the same Apostolic root. Where is the final period for a real unity? When until are the Latin and Orthodox fighting for little things?
 
I'm a great admiror of the Eastern culture and its ritual traditions. I respect and support the diversity in the Church of Christ. I believe in the unity but not the uniformity. So, if you could see i look for the defined identities from the peoples.<small>—The preceding unsigned comment was added by [[User:Levikahano|Levikahano]] ([[User talk:Levikahano|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Levikahano|contribs]]) {{{2|}}}.</small>
 
 
 
::Hi Levikahano, It's not right for OrthodoxWiki because it deals with a Roman Catholic group. I'm not saying the group isn't important or that we may share many things, but this generally isn't in the scope of material that we would include here. I would encourage you to put it on a Catholic wiki, or even on Wikipedia. May God bless you. {{User:FrJohn/sig}}
 
 
 
== Deletes and undeletes? ==
 
 
 
I'm curious as to what exactly you're doing.  Are you trying to erase article histories to remove direct evidence of vandalism?  If so, it makes examining the legitimate part of the histories somewhat difficult...  :/  &mdash;[[User:ASDamick|<font color="blue"><b><i>Dcn. Andrew</i></b></font>]] <sup>[[User_talk:ASDamick|<font color="red">talk</font>]]</sup> <sup>[[Special:Randompage|<font color="blue">random</font>]]</sup> <sup>[[Special:Contributions/ASDamick|<font color="black">contribs</font>]]</sup> 16:03, June 3, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
== Book sources page formatting ==
 
 
 
There are HTML formatting problems on the [[Special:Booksources]] page.  (after the ISBN number is entered) This once worked but now does not.  There is no way for me to fix it, so I'll just report it. [[User:Andrew|Andrew]] 12:57, June 13, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
:I went ahead and wikified the page.  Is there a particular reason why the html formatting no longer works? —[[User:Magda|<b>magda</b>]] ([[User_talk:Magda|talk]]) 13:09, June 13, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
::Hmm... probably has to do with the upgrade to 1.6. I'm out of town now, but I'll try to have a look next week when I get back. [[User:FrJohn|Fr. John]]
 
 
 
==Name blocks==
 
Are we able to block certain usernames from being used?  Right now, the system of renaming has its advantages in the history section of vandalised articles, but the same usernames can still be reused - can we put, say, a '*vandal*' block up? &mdash; edited by [[User:Pistevo|<font color="red">Pι</font>]][[Special:Listusers/sysop|s]][[User talk:Pistevo|<font color="yellow">τ</font>]][[Special:Contributions/Pistevo|é]][[User:Pistevo|<font color="blue">vο</font>]] at 21:57, June 16, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
:I think it's possible, but I'll have to refresh my memory on this. Let me try to look at this later in the week. [[User:FrJohn|Fr. John]]
 
::It is, you need [[:metawikipedia:Username Blacklist|this]] extension. [[User:Gregg|Gregg]] 15:40, June 17, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
:::Thanks Gregg! That makes it easy. {{User:FrJohn/sig}}
 
:::P.S. If anyone has an idea what should be blocked, please send me an email.
 
 
 
== Hello, Father ==
 
 
 
Thanks for the message. I'm a php programmer. I'm mystified by wiki, but I'll figure it out.<small>—The preceding unsigned comment was added by [[User:Rightwingprof|Rightwingprof]] ([[User talk:Rightwingprof|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Rightwingprof|contribs]]) {{{2|}}}.</small>
 
 
 
==Re:==
 
 
 
Thanks, not sure how much I can, or will contribute, but hey, maybe I will learn something.
 
<small>—The preceding unsigned comment was added by [[User:Mmatga2me99|Mmatga2me99]] ([[User talk:Mmatga2me99|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Mmatga2me99|contribs]]) {{{2|}}}.</small>
 
 
 
== Thank you for the welcome ==
 
 
 
Dear Fr John,
 
 
 
Thank you for the kind welcome. Much appreciated. It's nice to be here. -[[User:Antonios aigyptos|Antonios]] 15:27, August 5, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
== Sysop ==
 
 
 
Thank you, Father John.  I find it a pleasure to accept your invitation. I wouldn't do too well on handling theological subject, but history, etc. and sounding off on non-theological subject I can do.
 
 
 
I had been meaning to e-mailing you on the subject of sound (audio) lifes, but have kept putting it off. I have a recording of my father-in-law's choir (Victor Pokrovsky) that I recorded at Nicolai-do in 1957 and have wondered if you want to place audio files on Orthodoxwiki. I have the file in two formats, AIFF Audio file and MP3 Audio file. I know the perferred format is 'OGG' but so far I haven't found the means to convert it. The file is short, 11 minutes, but of course is a large, 112MB and 127 MB. There is a slight pause at about a one third point for a shorter version.
 
 
 
I can send the file to you if you have access to a means to convert the file, when I get to a high speed connection. I'm on dial-up. Or less I could just up-load load one of the two versions I have.[[User:Wsk|Wsk]] 20:28, August 10, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
::Hi Bill, Of course it's a nice addition, but sysops generally aren't the ones to do the heavy theological writing. Mainly they're just empowered to do a few extra things for the good of the order. Thanks for accepting!
 
::You might not have noticed yet my very subtle announcement on the [[OrthodoxWiki:News|news page]] about [[osource:Main_Page|OrthodoxSource]], a new sister project to OrthodoxWiki (very much in ''alpha'' stage at this point, which is why the announcement wasn't more strongly stated). The audio recording you mentioned would be great on that site - it's exactly the kind of thing I envisioned it for actually.
 
::I haven't worked out what to do with large media files yet. There's a few possibilities, including using a free third-party service like [http://ourmedia.org OurMedia]. I think I'd rather keep more direct control of the archives though, so I'm thinking about using something like Amazon's S3 service, which is totally scalable. The downside is that I'd have to ask for donations to cover some of the (relatively minimal, at least initially) cost. We have room to grow on the server we're on, but I don't want to overwhelm things, especially if our media hosting grows, as I hope it will.
 
::In terms of formats, I envision being much less strict than Wikimedia Commons - my concern would be less for openness of the format than for general accessibility. In this regard AIFF/MP3 are hard to beat. Maybe the easiest thing to do would be to email you with an FTP login, then you can upload the files at your leisure. Does that sound ok? [[User:FrJohn|Fr. John]] 21:50, August 10, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
Your offer, Fr. John, sounds very good. I received your e-mail and now I will send the file as soon as I learn to use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). This is a first for me. The OrthodxSource sounds like a great addition.[[User:Wsk|Wsk]] 20:10, August 15, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
== Sysop invite ==
 
 
 
Why, thank you, Father. I'd certainly like to help. My technical/wiki mark-up skills may not be that great, but I'm willing to do anything I can. Just tell me what I need to do next. [[User:Gabriela|Gabriela]] 22:47, August 10, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
:Thanks for accepting, Gabriela. You've got enough down, and I'm sure you can keep learning. I'll send you an invite to the Sysop list. You can look over the archives if you want to get an idea of where we have been. [[User:FrJohn|Fr. John]]
 
 
 
== become an OrthodoxWiki sysop ==
 
 
 
Thank you for the invite  Father John, I'd be glad to help when I can.  I am going to be busy for the next few weeks, but then I'll be able to give it more time.  [[User:Andrew|Andrew]] 20:05, August 14, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
==Contributed articles==
 
I've forgotten - are contributed articles supposed to be within the normal OW space, or is there a special place set aside for them?  &mdash; edited by [[User:Pistevo|<font color="green">Pιs</font><font color="gold">τévο</font>]] <sup>''[[User talk:Pistevo|<font color="blue">talk</font>]]'' ''[[User talk:Pistevo/dev/null|<font color="red">complaints</font>]]''</sup> at 03:19, September 1, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
:Hi Pistevo, we're planning to move them all to OrthodoxSource. It hasn't really launched yet, so maybe we should just post it here with a <nowiki>{transfer}</nowiki> tag. — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
 
 
 
== Dcn ASDamick? ==
 
 
 
Dear Fr John: I wonder if you know what's become of Deacon ASDamick? His user pages both here and on Wikipedia list him as departed indefinitely from the services; but as he was so active (I interacted more with him there than here, I do confess), I wonder what's happened? &mdash;[[User:Antonios_aigyptos|<font color="orange"><b>Antonios Aigyptos</b></font>]]<sup><i>[[User_talk:Antonios_aigyptos|<font color="blue">talk</font>]]</i></sup> 16:36, September 4, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
::Hi, He's taking a (hopefully temporary) leave of absence for while. — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
 
 
 
Ah, I see. Well, as long as nothing's terribly wrong. From the on-line perspective, he's just up and vanished with no means of contact -- so one worries! &mdash;[[User:Antonios_aigyptos|<font color="orange"><b>Antonios Aigyptos</b></font>]]<sup><i>[[User_talk:Antonios_aigyptos|<font color="blue">talk</font>]]</i></sup> 17:17, September 4, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
:Yep, I can see that. Thanks for your concern - he's fine though. And still email-able. — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
 
 
 
== [[Primus inter pares]] article ==
 
 
 
Hello Father,
 
 
 
I saw that you added the Wikipedia source link to the article in question. I read the parts of the style manual regarding how to do that (besides copying and pasting the actual Wikipedia URL), but I still seem to be confused.
 
 
 
Also, that link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primus_inter_pares%26oldid%3D67646207, also seems to result in a Wikipedia error.
 
 
 
I tried to import the article as best I could, my apologies if I erred.
 
 
 
[[User:Hellenica|Hellenica]] 22:20, September 8, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
:Hi Hellenica,<br>Thanks for your work here. Good catch on the link. You don't need to apologize - you're just learning. Because of the licensing, we need to explicitly state the Wikipedia article as a source. Since it doesn't add anything to what's currently there, the current article doesn't need to be cited as an external link. If you don't have time to edit all the wikipedia-specific stuff out, and add Orthodox stuff in, just mark it with a <nowiki>{{cleanup}}</nowiki> tag until it's been fixed up. Again, thanks! — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
 
 
 
== Vandalism ==
 
 
 
There is a user, [[User:Youte2|Youte2]] who is defacing countless articles, it looks like a bot. [[User:Hellenica|Hellenica]] 21:26, September 9, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
:Thanks, got him. — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
 
 
 
== Re: My e-mail address ==
 
 
 
Dear Fr. John,
 
<br>You know, actually I thought about that myself, but I didn't consider it such a problem because I already get spammed up to the lagoon, what with the e-mail address embedded in the headers of my web sites.  Fortunately, Yahoo! has made it very easy to clean out all that bulk mail with just a few clicks.
 
<br>But you're right.  Why make a bad problem even worse?  Thank you for your concern and for making that change.
 
<br>Sincerely, John Bockman
 
 
 
:No problem, glad to help. Yours, — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
 
 
 
== Upload problems ==
 
 
 
I'm having a problem uploading an image of the late Metropolitan Vitaly. I get an error message when I do that.:
 
Internal error
 
 
 
Could not copy file "/tmp/phptpCoq5" to "/home/owiki/public_html/images/6/66/MetropolitanVitaly.jpg".
 
 
 
:Thanks for pasting in the whole error message - that helps! I'm not really sure what happened, but it looks like there was a corrupted file under that same name. I've deleted it - please try again and let me know if you have any more problems. Thanks! - Fr. John
 
 
 
::Nope, I'm still getting the same problem
 
 
 
::Could not copy file "/tmp/phpkVAglv" to "/home/owiki/public_html/images/6/66/MetropolitanVitaly.jpg".
 
::--[[User:Aleks|Aleks]] 15:12, September 26, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
:Hmm.... ""/tmp/phpkVAgl" is your local path? What program are you using to store the image? I wonder what would happen if you tried renaming the source filename to something more standard, with a MIME type that the wiki would recognize. There are MIME restrictions in place which prevent "unmarked" files without certain extensions from being uploaded. You might also type a different destination filename. Let me know again if that doesn't work. Thanks, — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]]
 
::Nope, my path local path is "/home/sasha/Desktop/MetropolitanVitaly.jpg". This must be some kind of path on the server. I'm using Mozilla Firefox on Linux (Fedora Core 5). The problem occurs with any image of Metropolitan Vitaly. The images are all jpg. If you'd like, Father, I can e-mail the image to you and you can try uploading it.
 
([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
 
:This problem is now fixed. — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk]) 09:54, September 27, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
== Featured ==
 
 
 
Thanks! I've actually been away for two weeks, which is why it hasn't changed - I thought I put it on my userpage, but apparently not... &mdash; edited by [[User:Pistevo|<font color="green">Pιs</font><font color="gold">τévο</font>]] <sup>''[[User talk:Pistevo|<font color="blue">talk</font>]]'' ''[[User talk:Pistevo/dev/null|<font color="red">complaints</font>]]''</sup> at 20:17, October 6, 2006 (CDT)
 
 
 
Hi Fr. John,
 
 
 
Thanks for that it looks much neater now, okay this is a sad point and feel free to yell at me for it - now no one will know that I did it? as it doesn't list me as being involved/ a contributor in the page - now I know that as a Wiki user that shouldn't bother me as it's really all aobut growing the knowledge base but I guess I am vain and also I could use the brownie points! Sorry.
 
But really I do like what you have done and it really does look much better and I uderstand entirely why you have done it, so please feel free to totally ignore my cribbing and moaning.
 
 
 
Thanks
 
 
 
Mela91e
 
 
 
 
 
==Father Bless!==
 
 
 
Father bless! 
 
 
 
Hello Fr. John,
 
I found your link here via the discussion page at Wikicath.org.  Sadly this Catholic wiki is being overrun by spam links and misguided attempts by Protestants to convince us we're all pagans.  I saw that you'd made an offer to help deal with the spam, do you know if the owner of WikiCath is going to do something about it soonOr perhaps I should just find another Catholic wiki  =/
 
 
 
Anyways, I do love this Orthodox Wiki and want to see something similar for us Catholics.  :) 
 
 
 
You humble brother in Christ,
 
-Devin
 
a sinner
 
- [[User:Dscherck|Dscherck]] 23:40, November 3, 2006 (PST)
 
 
 
==Recent Changes==
 
Not sure what the problem is - or the solution - but [[Special:Recent changes]] keeps coming up as an executable. &mdash; edited by [[User:Pistevo|<font color="green">Pιs</font><font color="gold">τévο</font>]] <sup>''[[User talk:Pistevo|<font color="blue">talk</font>]]'' ''[[User talk:Pistevo/dev/null|<font color="red">complaints</font>]]''</sup> at 05:42, November 4, 2006 (PST)
 
:I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.7It's not even letting me go to a page and then load; I click and it pops up that Firefox is trying to open a "application/x-httpd-php" file from orthodoxwiki.org. My RSS feed is working fine, though. &mdash; edited by [[User:Pistevo|<font color="green">Pιs</font><font color="gold">τévο</font>]] <sup>''[[User talk:Pistevo|<font color="blue">talk</font>]]'' ''[[User talk:Pistevo/dev/null|<font color="red">complaints</font>]]''</sup> at 02:12, November 5, 2006 (PST)
 
::Still the same.  Also, for whatever reason, it works fine using Internet Explorer. &mdash; edited by [[User:Pistevo|<font color="green">Pιs</font><font color="gold">τévο</font>]] <sup>''[[User talk:Pistevo|<font color="blue">talk</font>]]'' ''[[User talk:Pistevo/dev/null|<font color="red">complaints</font>]]''</sup> at 00:34, November 6, 2006 (PST)
 
::Also, it works fine in Firefox 2, which I've just installed.  &mdash; edited by [[User:Pistevo|<font color="green">Pιs</font><font color="gold">τévο</font>]] <sup>''[[User talk:Pistevo|<font color="blue">talk</font>]]'' ''[[User talk:Pistevo/dev/null|<font color="red">complaints</font>]]''</sup> at 00:52, November 6, 2006 (PST)
 
:Not sure what to say at this point, except I'm glad it's working for you! I have noticed this problem with a few sites in the past, and I'll continue to dig a little bit and see it I can't find out anything more. Thanks, — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
 
 
 
== Edit Throttling ==
 
 
 
Hi FrJohn, I'm working on an Edit Throttling Mediawiki extension. I've seen you guys have faced a lot of vandalism in the past. I tried to install Bad Behavior, but it didnt work on our wiki. We were vandalized again using a Move flood (lots of Moves in a short time). I've also seen BB denies some legitimate users. Have you been vandalized recently and what else are you using besides Bad Behavior to stop vandal bots and human vandals, while not causing inconvinience to legitimate users? thanks! --[[User:JohnK|JohnK]] 18:34, November 5, 2006 (PST)
 
:Hi FrJohn, thanks for response. Today I finished up writing the Edit Throttle extension and have put it into place for testing. I think it will work well, even for your problem:
 
::Basically, the only problem that remains is when a human agent creates an account with a temporary email address and then blasts us.
 
:In my ET extension, if a user is not on some "safe lists" (which can be edited only by SysOps like any Mediawiki page [just like in the SpamBlacklist extension page]), he will get blocked automatically if he tries to make more than for example 5 edits in 1 minute, or 20 edits in one hour (these numbers can be adjusted). Our wiki also requires people to login so thats also one help. Although maybe later I'll change this but with lots of alterations to make sure people's IP addresses dont become public etc. I did the login thing primarily so our IP addresses arent put out in public (really not wise of Mediawiki developers to get this idea of throwing out people's IP's for the world to see). I'm testing this extension and its working great for now. I even adjusted the Spam blackList so it only scans for spam, if a user is not on those safe lists. The theory behind all of this is simple: Except for WikiPedia, all wikis are usually edited by a small group of people. That makes it possible for this extension to do its job nicely. I might ask you sometime more detail on the other extensions/utilities you've installed - if the ET doesnt work well. If it works well for me after I've tested it nicely, I'll let you know if you would like to have it to (it will probably not be coded best, but atleast it works). I love the idea of these safe lists. This is perfect for wikis like ours, where a small number of people edit the wiki. For example you have about 2000 users, which is good. Its manageable and even ideal to have these safe lists. Even if a user is not on the safe lists, he can still edit, but more strict limits will be imposed on his editing, just to make sure we dont have a vandal at large. I even have a function in there, which detects lots of edits from people who are not on the safe list, and then it locks the wiki, allowing only "safe list" users to edit the wiki. This is useful if vandals use anonymous proxies with different IP's to make a flood that way, or if a group of vandals decide to attack a wiki at the same time. Safe list users get free tickets. Others have to be scrutinized. With the control of the Safe lists only in the hands of Sysops, its easy to control access. Doing that saves a lot of headache, where all we'd be doing is either fearing when the next attack is going to happen or reverting the attacks. There's another list "Frequent editors". That list has special people on it like Sysops, or people who we know edit the wiki a lot. To them, no limits of any kind are imposed. I'm excited and cant wait for our first vandal to attack to see what happens. Sometime I might ask you for advice for possible patterns of vandalism we could deal with. Our wiki is very controversial (means, a large group of people hate our presence to varying degrees) and so it was absolutely important to have these protections in place, otherwise we could not survive. All we'd be doing is reverting attacks if we werent protected so this will be very helpful for us. Because this is new, I'm sure the system can be breaken by some means or patterns ov vandalism and I'll see what goes on and adjust accordingly. So many other things as well can be put in place and designed, for example, I could limit the number of edits depending on the age of the user. If a user is only 60 minutes old (fresh user created), it could only do 5 edits and then further editing could only be possible if we add it to the Safe list. The process would be designed to be transparent to the genuine editor, but a quick road block to the vandal. We could even possibly limit IP edits. For example, we could have a maximum of 10 anonymous edits everdday just to keep things in check. These kinds of checks can also be created but for now, I'll stay with what I have and just allow logged-in edits. --[[User:JohnK|JohnK]] 22:06, November 12, 2006 (PST)
 
 
 
::This sounds very good, John. I'd love to give it a try. I like the idea too of being able to restrict by age of user. Instead of putting 1000 people on the safe list, I could just specify that any accounts older than 3 months can edit more furiously than brand new accounts. I don't care too much about the elegance of the code, as long as server load isn't dramatically increased. I'd be happy to use OrthodoxWiki as a test wiki for you. Happily, we're at the point right now where automated bot attacks aren't really a problem, and the occasional human ones get cleaned up pretty quickly. I could see ET as a way to further cut down on cleanup costs, though. God bless! — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
 
:::Ok great. I'm testing it out on our own wiki first right now and have some more fine tunings to do and then I'll probably give the script to you after I think its good and ready. The server load will be fine, yes. The script is very efficient. It basically only runs if a user moves or edits (which is rare on small wikis, or at most a maximum of every few minutes or sometimes even hours). If a script finds a user on the Frequent Editor list, it exits right away. My script actually helped reduce the load becuase it doesnt process Safe user posts for spam, so thats a big efficiency (the SpamBlacklist is a huge long list of possible spam URL's and certainly for example, we dont need established editors' posts being monitored for spam. Thats ridiculous and wastes server resources). So you're right then, its the new accounts that are always a problem. I'll fine tune and get back you sometime. If possible could you give me some links where I can see where vandalism took place on your wiki here? Then I can incorporate those behaviors into the script if possible.
 
:::I'm also trying to make it so that all the parameters (e.g. minimum user age: 3 months) can be adjusted easily on the wiki, without need for us to get into PHP and FTP, and then all we need is to login and do these changes. Also I plan to try to introduce some sort of emergency button that halts editing from users not on our safe lists, and also another button which halts all editing. This can be helpful in the worst situation where there's lots of flooding going on and we're not sitting on our PC with access to the server code. Of course the automatic blocks are important. If we're not at our PC, we dont want to come back and find all our pages vandalized (like I experienced two times) and since we're not always at the PC, we want the auto blocks to take care of these things. I'll be fine tuning the script in the coming days and weeks for these kinds of features. Since vandalism is not a problem for you right now, I guess you wouldn't need the script in an emergency, correct? So I'll just fine tune and make it bug free to make sure it works, before giving it to you. If you'd still like a copy, let me know, however, there may be some bugs there that I havent caught so I would say you could wait a little before testing it out on your wiki. Lets see what happens today. The vandal usually strikes after 24 hours of opening up the wiki so I expect some thing caught in the trap if that script works. Meanwhile if you have any suggestions for what this script could do, feel free to propose any ideas that you think will be effective in reducing vandalism while least inconveniencing genuine users.--[[User:JohnK|JohnK]] 15:28, November 13, 2006 (PST)
 
::::FrJohn, also, what kind of automatic restrictions do you think should apply to users not older than 3 months? Posts/day limit? Links limit? I'll be looking forwarding to seeing your vandalism examples so I can observe. Another thing, do you have a link for the single user IP extension? The one which enforces one user registration per IP.--[[User:JohnK|JohnK]] 04:29, November 15, 2006 (PST)
 
  
:Hi John, Sorry for the delay here. What I think would be most useful and complement what some of the other extensions do would be edit/post limits per hour and per day, customizable for each wiki, and able to be tweaked by age of account. That sounds good. Links haven't really been a problem for us since we put in "bad behavior" - the spam-bots go elsewhere, but I can imagine this being helpful in some situations. I don't think an extension to enforce one account per IP is a good idea - there are too many folks with shared computers or dynamic IPs out there. I use the espionage extension for this purpose - just to cross check any suspicious accounts to see if there's multiple per IP. Sincerely yours, — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
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: Hi! Thanks for all your work. The wiki was long overdue for an upgrade (c.f. [[OrthodoxWiki:News|news]] )... I tried first running 1.27, and then 1.26. Turns out that hitcounters were [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T120216 removed]] from core in MW 1.26, so I've moved the site back to 1.25 and added the [[mw:Extension:HitCounters|HitCounter extension]], so we should be ok moving forward. Let me see what I can do about recovering those edits. (It was a question of reverting before many edits were made or losing the hitcounter history, going back to 2004...) — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk]) 18:10, May 11, 2016 (UTC) — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://orthodoxwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk]) 18:10, May 11, 2016 (UTC)
::Thanks. I already have a function that calculates the age of a user, so I can easily get that into the system. What do you think would be good limits on the number of edits and the age too? I can create multiple levels of protection as well (e.g. 3 months, 6 months, 9 etc) and assign edit limits to each "age" level. There's no limit to what we can do, maybe just your idea of the 3 months is good. My extension has become quite customized although yes its as simple as adding the extension include in the LocalSettings.php. There are many things which i can turn into "options" that each wiki can customize itself with. My next step is trying to hide the page on the wiki which will hold all our variables (edit limits etc). I dont want hackers to figure out the limits otherwise they'll try to exploit the system and although it will be an added nuisance, its just better that the Variables page is out of public view. its meant to be an Admin only page. For now I'm still testing it and refining it as I go along. Every few days I make an small improvement in it.--[[User:JohnK|JohnK]] 18:01, November 17, 2006 (PST)
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: ...and please do let me know if you see any other issues.
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::No problem!  :)  I'm just kind of noticing the differences. I got a whole bunch of server errors for a couple minutes there, but I'm sure that was from the upgrade (I don't get them anymore either). I am determined to get the counter on the front page to 4900 (and hopefully beyond that!)
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:::How does [[Bulgarian_Eastern_Orthodox_Diocese_of_the_USA,_Canada_and_Australia|this]] look?
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::::Awesome!  Thank you!  :)  [[User:Katjuscha|Katjuscha]] ([[User talk:Katjuscha|talk]]) 20:26, May 11, 2016 (UTC)
  
:Hi John, Hmm... Since we haven't had too many problems lately, I'd want something that wouldn't really get in people's way - like 4-5 edits/min, 10+ edits in 5 mins or 20 edits/hour for users under 3 months. I don't think it's needs to have too many levels - just one for new users and one for older users. For other wikis that don't require accounts or email confirmation, these features might eb more useful. I also don't think it would necessarily need a wiki page - I think many MediaWiki sysops will be used to tweaking settings in a file, as long as the documentation is clear. Thanks, — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
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== How can I submit my sandbox page for publication on Orthodox Wiki? ==
::I can do that easily. I just need to find a way to hide a page from the public view so only sysops can see/edit the system Varaibles page. After that I can make it customizable through the edit page. I like the idea of being able to edit it through the wiki. That way we dont have go in, edit and upload through FTP. Do you know some PHP? I could send you the code and you could edit it as you like, although I havent put in the age check yet.--[[User:JohnK|JohnK]] 13:40, November 18, 2006 (PST)
 
:::See though, your proposal can break the system. A hacker could register, wait for 3 months and then flood. Thats why I believe the safe lists is a good idea. Either that, or apply limits to _everyone_, regardless. We may _adjust_ the limits for users older than 3 months, that would be better than not having any limits at all for possibly a hacker who registered and waited for 3 months. The limits may be alarming at first, but if you look at recent changes, people really dont edit more than what you said, 5 posts/minute, e.g. I used my age function now but I commented it out, thinking that this can break the system. The "no limits" should _only_ be applied to people who we know for sure, will never vandalize (unless their passwords are stolen, but this danger exists for anything, not just a wiki so it has to be disregarded). If I put in a check that puts higher editing limits for users older than 3 months, that sounds reasonable, but not to remove the limits altogether. What i will do is put such a limit there, but it will be up to you. You can set the age limits for "old" users so high, that its practically impossible to break them my human editing, so it will basically amount to "no limits". Others like me will bring down the limits for every user regardless, to be safe.
 
:::Do you know of any good way to hide a page so only sysops can see/edit it?--[[User:JohnK|JohnK]] 14:38, November 18, 2006 (PST)
 
  
Hi John, You have a point there. I guess we've dealt with this by using bad behavior, which is effective against bots, and giving sysops the ability to ban users and IP's. In the context of our active community, this has worked reasonably well. We also have a "mass delete" extension installed which allows us to delete all new pages created by a user at once. Even with all fo this, I see a good. place for edit limits. There will certainly be different needs on different wikis. A safelist seems like a good idea too. As for how to hide a page, I don't know myself, but there are some good models out there. I think, e.g. of the "Last User Login" or "UserScore" extension, as well as many others. You can default to the sysop of bureaucrat user flag, or create a custom user group... — [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
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Hello Father John,
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I have created a page on the Nuns of Shamordino of Solovki Prison and Vorkuta Gulag. I would like to submit it for publication. How can I do that once the page has been created in Sandbox?
  
== Help Editing page ==
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Thanks very much.  Robert
  
FrJohn, I do not know if you are looking at this, but I think that the [[Help:Editing]] page has a frame problem. The left menu gets loaded with the text on the right. -  [[User:Andrew|Andrew]] 08:09, November 8, 2006 (PST)
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[[User:Relic67|Relic67]] ([[User talk:Relic67|talk]]) 18:14, August 13, 2016 (UTC)
  
:Weird! Thanks for the heads up. [[User:FrJohn|<b>FrJohn</b>]] ([http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/User_talk:FrJohn&action=edit&section=new talk])
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: Sorry, Father! I had forgotten to leave my contact details using the four tildes. Hope you can answer my question now. Thank you. [[User:Relic67|Relic67]] ([[User talk:Relic67|talk]]) 18:25, August 13, 2016 (UTC)

Revision as of 18:25, August 13, 2016

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/archived discussion 1 (through 09-07-2005)
/archived discussion 2 (through 11-20-2005)
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/archived discussion 7 (through 12-10-2014)


Changes for the morning of May 11, 2016

You're probably still working on this, but it looks like the changes I made to pages this morning were lost. A couple of them were minor, but I did a significant wikification/edit of one of the pages Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia. Any chance this can be restored? (P.S. Thank you for all your hard work!) Katjuscha (talk) 18:05, May 11, 2016 (UTC)

Hi! Thanks for all your work. The wiki was long overdue for an upgrade (c.f. news )... I tried first running 1.27, and then 1.26. Turns out that hitcounters were removed] from core in MW 1.26, so I've moved the site back to 1.25 and added the HitCounter extension, so we should be ok moving forward. Let me see what I can do about recovering those edits. (It was a question of reverting before many edits were made or losing the hitcounter history, going back to 2004...) — FrJohn (talk) 18:10, May 11, 2016 (UTC) — FrJohn (talk) 18:10, May 11, 2016 (UTC)
...and please do let me know if you see any other issues.
No problem!  :) I'm just kind of noticing the differences. I got a whole bunch of server errors for a couple minutes there, but I'm sure that was from the upgrade (I don't get them anymore either). I am determined to get the counter on the front page to 4900 (and hopefully beyond that!)
How does this look?
Awesome! Thank you!  :) Katjuscha (talk) 20:26, May 11, 2016 (UTC)

How can I submit my sandbox page for publication on Orthodox Wiki?

Hello Father John, I have created a page on the Nuns of Shamordino of Solovki Prison and Vorkuta Gulag. I would like to submit it for publication. How can I do that once the page has been created in Sandbox?

Thanks very much. Robert

Relic67 (talk) 18:14, August 13, 2016 (UTC)

Sorry, Father! I had forgotten to leave my contact details using the four tildes. Hope you can answer my question now. Thank you. Relic67 (talk) 18:25, August 13, 2016 (UTC)