Smashpedia:Administrators' noticeboard

The Admin Noticeboard is intended to be a page to quickly alert administrators to issues that need their attention.

To make a request, statement, create a new section and provide a neutral, precise summary of events with thought-out reasoning, and, if possible, links to any pages with relevant discussions. It is also a good idea to notify any users involved with the request with a link to the section on this page. Make sure to add new sections to the bottom.

Report vandals in the section labeled for such reports. Be sure to include a link to the user or IP address's contributions list.

Vandal reports
This guy. RAN1 dom  chu punch!!99 11:02, October 14, 2009 (UTC)
 * Blocked by Semi. – Defiant Elements   +talk  16:26, October 14, 2009 (UTC)

If you didn't already block this guy... RAN1 dom  chu punch!!99 00:17, October 16, 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks, guys. (Blocked by Pikamander2). RAN1  dom  chu punch!!99 00:22, October 16, 2009 (UTC)

This one is on a serious "new page" rampage. There are just about 20 new pages (which are worthless) by him. RAN1 dom  chu punch!!99 02:46, October 17, 2009 (UTC)

PLEASE, help me with this guy. I think he is Japulley (or however it's spelled.) I don't want to feed this guy any more troll food...big vandal on SSBB character pages... Havoc  Reaper48  >:D!!!  21:53, November 19, 2009 (UTC)
 * Blocked. He's known as "MG's "friend"", or "the character page vandal" - he uses proxies to evade bans, and usually edits as an IP.  Penguin  of  Death   22:17, November 19, 2009 (UTC)
 * He's back...again. This guy don't know when to quit... Havoc  Reaper48  >:D!!!  16:37, November 21, 2009 (UTC)

This guy's been vandalizing the SWF article relentlessly. RAN and I have been reverting his edits, but I'm not in a position to deal with him. 98.117.158.220 04:03, November 25, 2009 (UTC)
 * Shadowcrest blocked him ages ago. See here. Oh, and by the way, link to an IPs contributions list, not their user page; that way we have regular blue links to their contribs so we can see what they did.  R A  N 1 15:52, November 25, 2009 (UTC)

Here's another one I forgot to report: 70.30.10.14. 98.117.158.220 01:14, November 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * As with another one-time vandal someone else tried to report a while back, admins don't normally block vandals who just try to vandalize once before moving on. It's a waste of time if they're not going to come back to pester us more; just revert them in that case.  R A  N 1 01:24, November 26, 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure what to make of this one; he blanked a user page (Sleeh28), but then Sleeh then moved the page to "User". This doesn't make any sense…  R A  N 1 05:10, November 30, 2009 (UTC)
 * I reverted the move and the blanking. I don't understand it either...  Penguin  of  Death   11:04, November 30, 2009 (UTC)

Here's another: Special:Contributions/24.174.3.4 98.117.158.220 04:29, December 1, 2009 (UTC)
 * Blocked. By the way, if you want to link to a certain page, but want it to be shown as "This one" instead of "Special:Contributions/24.174.3.4", you'd put This one . That would create this: This one. It looks neater.  R A  N 1 19:38, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

Here's one that happened a while ago but never got blocked. 98.117.158.220 06:02, December 4, 2009 (UTC)
 * That was four months ago! Blocking them now would be beyond pointless. Only report vandals who are currently vandalizing the wiki. Also, your last two sentences were unnecessary - keep reports short and to the point, preferably just a link to the relevant contributions page.  Penguin  of  Death   11:35, December 4, 2009 (UTC)

Koopas
I think that merging all Koopa-related pages together would be a good idea (which isn't too surprising, it being my idea). Describe everything in terms of Green Koopas, then explain the differences between the Green and Red versions for each form. Have one section on each of the forms of Koopa-kind: Shell; Koopa Troopa; Koopa Paratroopa. Describe how jumping on / attacking a Koopa Paratroopa turns it into a Koopa Troopa, how jumping on / attacking a Koopa Troopa turns it into a Shell for a period of time, and how these shells cannot take damage, but can be thrown to do damage, and can be destroyed by throwing them off the screen. Have two pictures of each of the forms, one of each colour, and a picture of each of the relevant trophies. Currently there are at least eight pages on Koopa-kind - there need only be one or two. I'm not sure if the Green Shell (Item) and Red Shell (Item) pages could be incorporated into the one page, as there is quite a lot to say about them (e.g. damage lists) but even if they couldn't be part of the main Koopa page, they could be made into one Shell (Item) page, removing all references to the shells found in the Subspace Emissary in Brawl. The following are the Koopa pages that would be affected by the move:
 * Green Koopa Troopa
 * Red Koopa Troopa
 * Green Shell
 * Red Shell
 * Koopa Paratroopa
 * Red Koopa Paratroopa
 * Green shell glitch (which doesn't even have an appropriate name)
 * Red Shell Glitch (which is the same glitch as the above)

 Penguin  of  Death   11:57, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Aside from keeping the items Green Shell and Red Shell separate, I concur. Miles ( talk)   20:27, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Would you put everything Koopa-related all on the one page? Wouldn't that make it horribly long? Also, if the above Koopa plan is viable, I think a similar thing should be done about the members of the R.O.B. Squad, just because having a page for each member leaves the pages very short, but with a lot of repetition between them. In other news, is my signature okay? I seem to be the only person to have used the coding...
 *  Penguin  of  Death   21:38, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * A long article isn't bad by default; rather, a complete one is desirable. On second thought, though, Koopa Troopas (both colors) should be one page and Koopa Paratroopas should be another.
 * And for sig rules, read on. Miles ( talk)   21:57, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Damn... I knew there was a reason why that code was never used. About the Koopa Paratroopas, is there really enough to say about them to justify their own page? And is there so little to say about Shells as items that their own page is not justified? I'd have thought that the Koopa Paratroopas were the least important of all Koopa-kind (I'm determined to make that a real phrase). I don't mind. So long as some sort of cleanup occurs, I'll be happy. Just point me (or whoever you want to do it) in the right direction, and I'll write the relevant pages.  Penguin  of  Death   22:26, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

R.O.B. Squad
After the above discussion with Miles, I reworked all R.O.B. enemy pages into one R.O.B. Squad page. What do you think? I haven't moved the original pages, and it's all one edit, so just undo it if you don't think it's appropriate.  Penguin  of  Death   11:09, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd use that article to describe the R.O.B. Squad as a whole, and do a quick summary of each kind of R.O.B. enemy. However, I'd keep the other three articles separate from this one.  Miles ( talk)   12:59, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Image removal
It seems that multiple users, including Sonic64 and various IPs, cannot save the Palette swap (SSBB) page without all the images getting deleted. What the heck is going on? Toomai Glittershine  eXemplary Logic  The Stats Guy  The Table Designer   cntrbs 22:22, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Correction: it seems that some users cannot edit any pages without the images being removed somehow. The problem seems to be unique to new users. Toomai Glittershine [[Image:Toomai.png|20px]] eXemplary Logic  The Stats Guy  The Table Designer   cntrbs 22:24, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I tried editing a page with a new account and without being logged it, but I couldn't reproduce it. --Posted by Pikamander2   (Talk)  at 23:42, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

The answer is the new rich text editor (RTE) which I'm sure most older users disabled. It causes problems like: (for a more complete list see here)
 * Removing page content (images in particular).
 * Breaking tables.
 * Breaks formatting by eliminating linebreaks near  tags.

Do we want to disable this RTE for all editors? -- Shadowcrest  17:45, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Auto Disable it, and if people want it enough, they can turn it on for themselves. New users won't be able to understand most likely. Smoreking (T)  (c)  17:50, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * It might be a good idea to make an announcement. Something like "It has been discovered that Wikia's new Rich Text Editor causes problems such as image removal. Please disable it in your preferences." Toomai Glittershine [[Image:Toomai.png|20px]] eXemplary Logic  The Stats Guy  The Table Designer   cntrbs 18:40, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * We can auto-disable it for all users on the wiki, who can re-enable it in their preferences if they wish. Imo that's a much easier solution that putting it in sitenotice, which most people ignore anyway. Shadowcrest  18:43, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree with Shadowcrest. Miles ( talk)   18:56, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * IP users (the ones who seem the worst affected) couldn't change it in their preferences, as they don't have an account, and even if they could, it would be unfair to rely on them to change their preferences themselves, so putting out a notice wouldn't work. Auto-disabling the Rich Text Editor is the only option.  Penguin  of  Death   19:57, 29 June 2009 (UTC)
 * What Penguin said. --Posted by Pikamander2   (Talk)  at 20:47, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

&rarr; copied from User talk:Clarinet Hawk:

Wikia response: We cant do that. Its either on at the wiki, or its off. The setting to use it is on a per user setting in their global settings, we cant make it "default off" at a wiki. So if the extension is enabled at a wiki, all the people who opt to use it can, and it is turned on in the settings of all new users (something we cant adjust per wiki, since accounts are global, they dont actually get created at any 1 wiki).
 * So basically, we can't auto-disable it. I don't know what else we could do, aside from preventing IPs from editing and making new users disable the RTE themselves, but that seems rather extreme. :/ PenguinofDeath 17:59, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I think the best we can do is to somehow alert users of the problem, and just damage control the IP edits until the RTE is fixed. I know that announcements are ignored by some, but I don't see what else can be done. Toomai Glittershine The Stats Guy cntrbs 19:29, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

(end of copied posts)


 * According to w:c:guildwars:User:M.mendel, the RTE will probably never be bug-free. He thinks that unless wikia scraps the current one and designs an entirely new one, there will always be problems with it, such as image removal or messed up tables. (See here for a written declaration; he also told me on IRC "I think it will never be completely bug-free when it deals with wikicode".) Seeing that auto-disable is not an option, should we consider disabling the RTE on the wiki? (Also keep in mind that we can add it later if they do get around to fixing it.) I don't know about you all, but running damage control for forever seems like a waste of time to me. --  Shadowcrest  02:38, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Endless damage control is boring, so either disable it, or block IPs from editing (if possible). The latter would save us a lot of trouble in other areas, but would greatly reduce the number of good faith edits as well. I'm not sure - one of the two.  Penguin  of  Death   04:35, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm with Shadowcrest on getting rid of it for the whole wiki, at least til it's less glitchy. Miles ( talk)   19:43, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm also in favor of disabling the RTE. The limited benefits of having the RTE enabled are far outweighed by the hassle it creates.  –  Defiant Elements   +talk  18:03, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

Requesting article deletion
I'd like to request that the article written about me in the smashers section be removed. I do not want my personal information open to the internet. This is the page: Smasher:Levi. I am removing all personal information regarding myself until the entire article is deleted. Also I am removing my brother's name from his page to maintain his anonymity. The article on him: Smasher:Neat. Mariownage (talk) 08:21, 6 July 2009 (UTC)
 * If you think an article should be deleted, please tag it using .   Penguin  of  Death   08:41, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

SSBM fighters' Overview/Gameplay/X in competitive play sections
So I was talking to Pikamander2 here, and he suggested taking my question here. My full reasoning can be found on his talk page, but in short, about 6 or so Melee fighters' have a short, messy section similar to attributes, though under a different name. I believe we (and by "we" I mean me) should replece those sections with an attribute section based off the pros and cons already there. Agreed? Enigmatic  Mr.   L  02:00, 7 July 2009 (UTC)
 * If it would improve the articles, do it.  Penguin  of  Death   04:35, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

Sock puppetry
A little after I left a message about my leave on my user and talk pages, an account named Forenzza radio was created and then proceeded to try and offend me on my talk page. I didn't egg him on, so he then left me a message on Zeldapedia (see here), where he admitted to creating the account to "stem any turmoil" that would have happened, under his normal account, I assume. He then told me he was imitating the users I had offended at SmashWiki and that I should tell an admin just so they could see how I had "belittled Smash Wiki to the lowest level possible". I just thought you might be interested in finding out the IP of the account to see what user it is that's operating a sock puppet and throwing around personal attacks. Thanks for the time.
 * --Baltro (talk) 20:35, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I dunno if this is relevant, but there's now a Forenzzza radio 2 account that was just made.  Cheez person  { talk } stuff ''' 00:12, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * You're right. In my opinion, that only worsens the offense. --Baltro (talk) 04:48, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Protection
Can someone protect this page please? It seems to be a vandal magnet.  Cheez person  { talk } stuff ''' 00:26, September 14, 2009 (UTC)
 * One vandalism does not a target make. Clarinet Hawk (talk · contributions) 22:18, September 14, 2009 (UTC)
 * It's been vandalized more than once.  Cheez person  { talk } stuff ''' 00:53, September 15, 2009 (UTC)
 * ...you mean twice? Shadowcrest  19:12, September 15, 2009 (UTC)
 * There were some issues when it was being made, but that's about it. I thought there was more than that.  Cheez person  { talk } stuff ''' 22:27, September 15, 2009 (UTC)

Pokémon
There are way too many Pokémon pages and I suggest some of them should be merged. I see a similar issue has come up before with Koopas. Tuth (talk) 15:38, September 29, 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually, I think we're okay for Pokémon pages. The rule is that all trophies should have their own article, and that no character that only makes an appearance in the series as a sticker deserves its own article. As far as I know, all Pokémon pages stick to that rule, so they're all fine. The problem with the Koopa pages is that they're not very well organised or standardised.  Penguin  of  Death   16:18, September 29, 2009 (UTC)

Serious Smasher Page problems...
Hmm... this page has been the subject of small edit vandalism. Shadowcrest already protected it, but it is in total disarray. I don't think this guy or or this one were fooling around at all... A bit of help, please? R A  N  1  domchu  punch!!!  02:36, November 10, 2009 (UTC)
 * Reverted vandalism, extended protection, warned Dan00b (not X.x.x as all they were doing was changing his location).  Penguin  of  Death   09:42, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

Policy
I think we should improve our language policy. Originally it was fine as we swore minorly every now and then but there's people like 13375poolr who say the f word freely. This wiki is supposed to be appropriate for all ages. In fact, I myself am only 12. 98.117.158.220 01:18, November 26, 2009 (UTC)
 * There's a whole bunch of reasons why we shouldn't. Among them is that freedom of expression is something we value here on Smashwiki. Another reason is that what use is it to 'control' people's words? If I have to say 'flip' instead of fuck, what are you changing? You're changing a sequence of sounds that's completely arbitrary to the meaning. If it's the negative emotion that you are trying to keep away from yourself, then you're extremely naïve. If it's the combination of the sounds that make up the word fuck that you're afraid of, you're a retard. I'm going to assume you're not a retard, and it's the negative expression that you don't like. 1) Grow up. 2) Changing the word doesn't change the capacity to express negative emotions. 3) If we all start saying 'flip' and 'crap' and 's word' and 'witch' instead of what they really mean then we sound like a bunch of tools and immature 8 year olds who have sensitive ears. We're not changing the language policy. Semicolon (talk) 17:21, December 7, 2009 (UTC)
 * I would hasten to add that Semicolon is not encouraging users to start swearing more - swear words are almost always used to convey the fact that one is angry or upset, feelings which can be much better articulated without the use of swear words, as needless swearing can only aggravate the situation, which could end up getting out of hand. We don't need a "language" policy - users just need to be more mature in their dealings with others.  Penguin  of  Death   17:48, December 7, 2009 (UTC)
 * hey guys, welcome to the internet Shadowcrest  19:58, December 7, 2009 (UTC)