User talk:Peteparker/Archive/July07-November07

From Marvel Database

Contents 1 Database Fields 2 Kind Words 3 Cool! 4 Minors 5 Disambig Template 6 Move Pages 7 Categories 8 the phantom is not real 9 Gift 10 sorry 11 Yep, I know 12 You got a new friend. 13 phantom page 14 Omega-Level 15 DOMO ARIGOTO! 15.1 Some questions (about bots) 16 Oops! 17 Power fields 18 Citation 19 Template Changes 20 Congrats 21 New Image Template 22 Awesome! 23 Fields 24 Oh my! 25 Woo hoo! 26 Dutch MDP 27 Oops! 28 Special Class 29 Comics:X-Factor Vol 3 30 Johnny Dee 31 A couple things 32 Another chore for you 33 BOTS 34 Possible template addition 35 Power name switches 36 Pincers 37 templates 38 CauseOfDeath

Database Fields

I've been thinking about your "Power1, Power2" type database fields idea, and based on the categories I end up adding at the end of a profile, you should also have "Team1, Team2" fields. I know you have the Affiliation field, but it doesn't automatically categorize characters by their teams. Since it's supposed to be a database, there should ideally be a field for every non-unique piece of data. For instance, I'd like to see "Creator1, Creator2." The Origin field should be fixed up to sort things like Mutant, Mutate, Super-Soldier, Robot, Alien, etc. Strength and Occupation could also be linked up.

That template looks a bit odd to me. I think it would be wise to leave a place where the powers are explained more fully. For instance, telepathy can be used to accomplish a wide variety of effects, but not all telepaths can accomplish all those effects. Or if a character has the power to absorb energy, it should be explained what specific types of energy can be absorbed. What we have now is good; the power fields should just provide a quick overview. I think what regular wikipedia has is good, though it might not work here because the character boxes could get too long. Perhaps move the physical descriptions up by the name, put them in a smaller font, and arrange them side-by-side instead of stacked list? That just eats space. Although, Marvel.com has some really long boxes, and they don;t seem to mind. Also, you should use a ";" as a separator instead of a ",". It's rarer. You put a comma in a bot and there's no telling what you'll get.

PiranhaSister 18:18, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

1. Aliases, I think, ought to be its own field, because not everybody uses an alias that needs a disambiguation page, and what's the point of a disambig that takes you right back to where you were?

2. The weight thing ought to work, unless somebody is editing from Europe or any other place that uses metric. The skin color thing is great.

3. I suggest you get good with visual aesthetics. The look is what is going to sell the entire site. Information that is more visually accessible is what'll get people coming here over any other site out there. It's not my strongest trait either, but maybe try putting the blue background back behind the power list, a little lighter perhaps, and left-justifying it. That centered thing doesn't work for me. Nothing else on the page is centered, so it throws everything off.

PiranhaSister 19:33, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Kind Words

Thanks for the kind words. I am trying to make the pages more informative and more user friendly. I noticed that the Exiles disambig page has a link to the comic on it. Is that your doing? I think it is a great idea and can further connect users to information which they want.

We are discussing this topic in the forums. Visit the thread "Tired of Continuity? Try Cover vs. Comics" for the latest discussion. Thanks again. --Artful Dodger 04:46, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Cool!

It is pretty swish, isn't it? Jamie added it a while ago, along with Hair2 and Citizenship2 and a couple of others. Pretty useful for the "can't be pigoenholed" characters. Still tricky for the characters with two different forms, like the Hulk, but I'm sure there's a way around that too. -- Supermorff 12:21, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Minors

Ha...doing a great job as always, just a heads up...I think we changed the process for "Minor" character names. I think we are going to be using the normal naming system and then just using the "Minor:Template" on the pages needing to be minor. Not a huge deal, but may want to change for going forward. LOL...didn't you get the memo?!?! Check out the debate on this link --M1shawhan 01:32, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Disambig Template

Howdy...
I noticed you have been working on disambig pages a bit, centering messages in the thumbnails, etc.
Have you seen my new template?
What do you think? Does it do the trick, or is it too complex for readers?
--Jamie 19:15, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Move Pages

Hey...for quick moves - use this link: User:M1shawhan/Updated_Character_List. For the pages that are available at least. This way, each move I can track a little easier. Plus, we don't have to go back later and remove the "move" tag. Also, let me know what you think, it will be a little like Squirrelloid's page but more updated and monitored. --M1shawhan 23:36, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm also trying to add in some characters that are not created here yet as well...that way we can get the naming down BEFORE the page gets created also. --M1shawhan 23:38, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Categories

You're welcome. I suppose you mean the Appearances categories? -- Supermorff 12:07, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

the phantom is not real

you and shany need to stop it with the Daniel Corsair Summers or phantom i have looked into it and he is not in the omniverse and needs to be deleted not expanded. and if you need the phantom page dont link it to other pages.The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jackob (talk • contribs).

Gift

Thanks for the gift! Copycat989 18:56, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

sorry

I am sorry i lashed out, I was just upset by seeing phantom linked to cyclops,cable, lilandara, cannonball, rouge, copycat, deadpool, vulcan, jean grey, and the goblin queen. It was very annoying and im sorry i lashed out. my only real problem with it is its links to other 616 pages. Thank you for trying to help me, i am new at this.Jackob 20:47, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Yep, I know

I've already reverted most of the others earlier today. Unfortunately though, I have a feeling that an edit war is gonna start over this. Despite the fact that anybody can edit the profiles on Marvel.com, which is where he or she is getting their information from, and some of the information in the profiles isn't accurate. The various powergrid ratings are also included in the profiles and, in lots of cases, they contradict the information provided for the superhuman powers of the characters. According to Marvel.com, Wolverine has level 5 strength and that's in the 25-75 tons. That means, according to Marvel.com, Wolverine can lift at least 25 tons.Jack Hammer 23:12, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

You got a new friend.

PeteParker I would like to thank you for the offer to be your friend (yes). MutantKingMagneto

phantom page

it looks a lot better now, thanks

Omega-Level

Sorry, I thought that it did not matter to add possible or speculated on characters. I can contribute data, but not too trustworthy:

- Jubilee: Emma Frost speculated that she could control her powers at sub-atomic level and in massive amounts of energy, although has never demonstrated as much power.

- New Son: I read in the Wikipedia that was a Gambit of an alternative reality able to control the kinetic energies so and as they make the Omega-LEvel mutants, although now with himself not to find it.

- Selene: Of course their powers are incredible, although unfortunately it is not known very well which are mutant powers and which magic powers. I was based on which in one of his first appearances considered to Rachel Summers like their equal one.

Finally, you excuses my English, still I have much to learn. Thank you very much.--Craneo_rojo 18:44, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

DOMO ARIGOTO!

See that you got yourself a bot! Woohoo! Let me know how that works out there for ya. ;) --M1shawhan 22:47, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Is it hard to create/run a bot? I would love to have one myself. The Clever Guy (Talk • Contribs • E-Mail) 15:23, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Yo...you gotsta show me how to do this too. I downloaded python and I am confusED! I think my robot is smarter than me...is that a good thing? ;) --M1shawhan 23:28, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Some questions (about bots)

"mylang = 'en' family = 'marveldatabase' usernames['marveldatabase']['en'] = u'YourBot'sNameHere'" I presume that if I want the bot on DC Database, "'marveldatabase'" will change to "'dcdatabase'". Is this right? (or should it be "'dcdatabaseproject'"?) The Clever Guy (Talk • Contribs • E-Mail) 12:49, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Never mind. I forgot to read all instructions. The Clever Guy (Talk • Contribs • E-Mail) 12:51, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I can't make the bot to log in. It's quite annoying. Should there be a "login.py" file or anything? The Clever Guy (Talk • Contribs • E-Mail) 12:27, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Oops!

Your User:Peteparker/Sig shows the same date all the time. :(
If you want to customize your signature, you can do so in your preferences, on the 'user profile' tab, in the 'nickname' field, I believe.
I haven't really tried myself, but I really like the way you have yours!
--Jamie 14:54, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Power fields

That'd be great. The only problem is formatting. There are currently 69 Power categories (with maybe ten or so subcategories) and sad to say, but I've used a few inconsistent naming conventions (Telekinesis v Pyrokineticists). You'd have to fix all the naming problems and then educate users as to what exactly they should type in the field ("Superhuman Speed" instead of "Super Speed"). Also, to where would it point? "Powers" or "Characters by Power"? Not insurmountable problems, but I think you're going to get a more than a few bad links in there. PiranhaSister 23:14, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Citation

I referenced the page where I found the info. It's at the bottom of the Scale, after the graph. Says "references" above it. It's not a very good reference, because the guy says he's referencing yet another thing, but it's the most orderly explanation I've found. The graph was mine though.

PiranhaSister 02:38, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Template Changes

Now that you have the power to change major templates, you mustn't forget to think about the full changeset that must be done...
Those fixes you did for gender were great, although fairly small... they should still be added to the DCDP, too.
Since you don't have admin there (yet), you should let a DCDP admin know of your fix so they can make the change for you, or leave a note on the corresponding DCDP template indicating you have changed it. Someone will be around to update the DCDP template eventually...
I am debating giving all DCDP admins power on MDP and visa versa so that all admins can update templates on all projects...
What do you think?
--Jamie 08:14, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Congrats

We were all pulling for ya. Glad to see you step up to the plate...and now the apprentice becomes the master! ;) --M1shawhan 17:26, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

New Image Template

Hey there!
I have just spent some time polishing our new Image Template.
My intention is that it will be applied to every single image on the database, in the same way the Character Template is on all character articles.
It should make categorizing & detailing our image collection much easier, especially for newbies.
The template is here and I have done up a few test images.
I was hoping for your help...
Could you try it out a bit? (It is the 2nd to last button on the edit tools bar.)
Please be harsh... if it sucks, tell me how to improve it! :)
Any and all feedback is appreciated!
Cheers,
--Jamie 06:39, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Awesome!

I am so glad you are helping out with the templates now!
A welcome aid, indeed!
Don't forget to update the documentation to tell users all about the cool new features you added!
--Jamie 21:07, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

No lie!!! Sheesh...glad you got the job! Let me know if I can help out, otherwise have at it guy. You're doing GREAT!!! --M1shawhan 22:49, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Fields

The new fields feature kicks ass. Keep it up! PiranhaSister 21:52, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh my!

Not that I really care, but we do need to be consistent. :)
We need to update UnusualSkinColor to UnusualSkinColour, we typically use international spelling rules in such cases.
(Mostly cuz I am Canadian. ;)
Let me know if you need any help updating the template or the articles using it. I'd bet this would be a perfect usage for a bot!
Do you know any friendly bots who are up to the task?
--Jamie 02:59, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Woo hoo!

That StringFunctions extension is quite possibly my NEW FAVOURITE!
I have spent hours playing with it and your ideas for using it on Occupation, Origin, etc.
With many half-sleeping thoughts, I have somehow derived a MUCH better way of handling ALL this non-sense handling as MANY options as we like (truck driver, alien, etc)...
Furthermore, my new method will actually CLEAN UP the template! (Not make it more complex)
I won't be able to make those changes today since I have a few other things to do and 6am is rolling around...
I haven't slept in nearly 24 hours now...
Suffice it to say, when I implement the changes, you might just poop yourself a little. :)
(Initial testing off-site is working EXACTLY as I'd hoped...)
--Jamie 09:31, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Dutch MDP

You did an awsome job on the Dutch site Pete! Thanks. For some talk look at the test page: [1]. I know for sure that as we have fixed the job on that template that Jamie will fix it on the template page on the site. Cheers!! Peter Wildenbeest 16:58, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi Pete, Now I have translated the Team Template on the Dutch site. But there is the same problem with the letter "e" in the category's. Please help me out here! http://nl.marveldatabase.com/Overleg:Marauders_%28Earth-616%29. Maybe you can let me see how you fix this so I can fix it in the future by myself (I hope....). Peter Wildenbeest 11:44, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Oops!

Please be careful when writing on talk pages. :)
Twice, you have removed my comment when adding yours... :(
All good in the hood,
--Jamie 19:10, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Special Class

Um, why did you put my Special Class thing in the Glossary? Because that was supposed to be a team page and my computer was acting weird (we had a virus), so I didn't get to use the tool bar thing, and I was going on vacation with my Mom that week. MutantKingMagneto

Comics:X-Factor Vol 3

All the pages on this page popped over to the "Comics:" listings...was this a test, change, or mistake? It looks like your bot might have gone a little "HAL2000" for a second there. ;) --M1shawhan 01:27, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Johnny Dee

I was just wondering why you moved Johnny Dee to Jonathan D. Lazer. I couldn't find any mention of that being his real name anywhere on wikipedia or marvunapp.com. PiranhaSister 05:19, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

See, this is where your precious, high-falootin' naming conventions break down. Johnny can be a nickname for both John and Jonathan. Dee could be a last name or an initial. From what I've read, he and Lazer were in cahoots in a plot to kill mutants, but Lazer spilled his guts, and Dee killed him. No other site mentions any sort of relation. See now how it's best to stick with the most well-known name?

PiranhaSister 06:10, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

A couple things

1. Can you add Pointed Ears to the Unusual Features template? Also, Tattoos.

2. Can we think of a way to consolidate team article pages with team category pages? So that when we add a character with "Category:Team Whatever members" it attaches the character to the team or race's page itself. It's better aesthetically. One stop shopping, so to speak. I've tried putting the team profile on the Category page, but that's bad for linking, and the categorized entries are stuck at the bottom and not displayed prominently enough. Once we figure this out, you can have the Affiliation field automatically categorize characters into their groups.

PiranhaSister 04:50, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

I would think that this can be done with the drop-downs we were talking about at one time for these...once again the forums held the answers... :(

Essentially it would be a hidden list (like the spoiler) and we were going to try to tag these on for the categories at the bottom of pages. So that when you see the "Category:Team whatever members" link at the bottom of the page, you would still be able see the items in the list. This was just an idea on the forums and never found light, but I liked it and was for it. The only thing that I can think of that would be close is to tag on a template, but that would be pointless if we are trying to consolidate things. Not sure what steps to take on it, but let me know if this at least starts any gears turning. ;) --M1shawhan 05:04, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

A drop down would be good, except it should it probably go in the blue box or somewhere else near the top instead of at the bottom. Although a simple drop drown box like you have for Users at the top of the screen might be limited. Some teams have too many members for anything but a box that expands both down and sideways, but that shouldn't be too difficult to manage.

As for appearances, it seems silly to have both an unordered list as well as chronological list. It's really cool how the Cast field automatically sets up the appearances page, so just expand on that. The comic template already has month and year fields, and if you combine that with the Cast field you could automatically categorize appearances chronologically, though you may need a day field to get at characters who appear in two different books in the same month. And anything you do would be absolutely useless for characters who appear in loads of books like Wolverine. His chronology would befuddle NASA.

PiranhaSister 14:46, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Another chore for you

I've been using the search box to scan articles for keywords so I can do some power classification, and I've noticed it's too broad. It treats every entry as a partial string and assumes multiple words have "OR" between them. I went to search "see the past" so I could get psychometry and retrocognition and the results were next to useless. I'm not against partial string scanning, since that'll catch articles even if I have the wrong phrasing, but a few boolean operators would be nice.

Speaking of Category:Characters by Power, they are starting to bleed together (psychometry and retrocognition, for example). Other categories are too broad, not specifying different methods and sources. Some powers are so esoteric, I'm having a hard time thinking up one or two word names for them. You might want to look through there and see if you want them further organized, perhaps in a hierarchy. Energy Manipulation alone could have multiple subcategories. And a Psychokinesis heading could scoop up a lot of categories. The down side would be that a lot of categories would be initially obscured, requiring the user to take more action when browsing. Is there any way you can mandate that any category that has subcategories to automatically display them? If you think its warranted, shoot me an organizational plan.

Add "Tentacles" to the Physical Features template, por favor.

PiranhaSister 22:59, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm for Power1/Power2 fields, but keyword scanning the existing power field could lead to bad things. For instance, if you keyword-scanned this sentence "His mind control powers derive from pheromones and are not a form of telepathy," the scanner would categorize it as both Pheromones and Telepathy, which would be wrong. We can't control how people are going to edit or train them to phrase things just right. You might be able to work around it by scanning for words in-between tic marks, like Superhuman Strength, a lot of articles don't do it like that and even those that do have all sorts of things in there.

If you want to do a trial run, automagik the strength field. I've been using the Class XX system Marvel seems to enjoy to classify characters Class 10 and above, and then Weak/Normal/Peak Human for everything else, and "Superhuman" for unspecified levels of superhuman strength. I left off everyone Class 1 through 9 because that would be a lot of subcategories that were ordered incorrectly (i.e. Class 1, Class 10, Class 100, Class 2, etc - another thing you might want to fix). I know you have your own scale, but I don't find it very specific, and I've noticed Marvel saying "Class 100" or "Class 50" in their books (mostly shady government agents use it). If you it did that way, you could make a little page like you have for Height and Weight.

I just had the idea to take that frame on the right side of the screen (with navigation, project pages, help, admin, etc.) and replace it on the edit screen to include helpful information and phrasing guidelines. Here's another place for drop down boxes if you want them. Using the mouse to click an entry in the drop down box could even auto-paste that power or whatever at the site of the cursor in the editing text box like you're doing right now with the templates and other wiki-buttons at the top on the edit box.

Give me some time and I'll get back to you about the power hierarchy. What you suggested is a lot different that what I had in my mind. I was going to take method into account. Psionics and such. For instance, chronokinesis (Time Manipulation) would for me fall under psychokinesis because most of the people who do it do it psychically. Also, some of the characters who can do chronokinesis also have telekinesis so they're probably related in some way. I don't think you can classify everything the way you had it. Having claws, for instance isn't any kind of manipulation whatsoever. On the other hand, Disruption can be accomplished any number of ways (Phasing, Telepathy, Technopathy, Telekinesis, Electricity, Biological Manipulation). Categories like that might need to be split up to account for method (Telepathic Disruption, Technopathic Disruption).

PiranhaSister 01:02, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Class and tons matches up exactly, I think. Class 60 means the character can lift up to 60 tons over his head. Here's something:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jamdav86/Strength_level_(comics) A little more google searching will clear it up.

You can do the same thing to Category:Hydrokineticists if you want.

There are many methods of immortality. Vampires, healing factors, cursed by Death, alien physiology. Most have nothing to do with time manipulation. Lots are sustained by exotic forms of energy which offset cell death. Being stuck in time would have other repercussions. I think it's best if we don't try to force it and just organize what we can and let the rest stand as it will.

PiranhaSister 03:40, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Your never answered me: can we mandate that subcategory heading automatically be displayed from the many characters by powers screen? Otherwise, we might want to scrap the whole idea.

PiranhaSister 18:34, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

BOTS

I emailed you, let me know if possible or not. --M1shawhan 18:47, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Possible template addition

Think about putting a "Killed By" field in the template. Going through the articles, it's information that comes up a lot. You have a Last field and a PlaceOfDeath field, so why not this? It would be useful for classifying a character as deceased when you don't know the issue or the place. You might even automagic it up, so the user could see all the characters that Wolverine or somebody had killed. You may need a KilledBy2 for characters that come back from the dead a lot. PiranhaSister 00:59, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Power name switches

Could you tell me where you got the those latin names? I'm not an expert myself, but I have a couple issues I hope you can resolve. For instance, Barokinesis. Gravity is already the latin word for gravity. That's where we got it. It means heaviness or seriousness. I never changed it myself because I didn't know if it should be "gravikinesis" or "gravitikinesis". Baro is close, meaning weight, but I think it would confuse people because a "barometer" measures atmospheric pressure. Meanwhile, a "gravitometer" does measure local gravity, so I would now suggest "gravitikinesis".

Seplokinesis, I think should be changed back to Disintegration. It's just too esoteric a name. I've never heard of seplo as the root word for anything, and disintegration is instantly descriptive. I only try to change them to the fun latin names when the meaning is still clear or deducible.

Ectokinesis I think translates as "Outside Motion," which is close enough. Electrokinesis, Botanokinesis, Zookinesis, and Acousticokinesis are all good, though the last one might sound better as Acoustikinesis. Again, I'm not an expert. Trichokinesis I can't find anywhere.

PiranhaSister 03:43, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

I've changed my mind. Because plants and animals are living things, and the power has more to do with communicating with or mental dominating those life forms, the names should be "botanopathy" and "zoopathy."

PiranhaSister 03:59, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I didn't spot the move tags because I don't watch those pages. I use my watchlist as a to-do list, watching pages that still need work. I'm done with category pages after I complete them.

I think those some of those phobia names are made up. Who the heck is afraid of gravity? Switch seplokinesis and trichokinesis back. Change to Zoopathy, Botanopathy, and Acoustikinesis. I'll get back to you about Ectokinesis.

PiranhaSister 16:45, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Pincers

Add pincers to the physical features template, please. PiranhaSister 06:00, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Yep, exactly.

PiranhaSister 13:53, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

templates

Is there a guide somewhere that I can look at on how to code templates so I can start practicing on some of my template ideas? PiranhaSister 21:38, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

CauseOfDeath

I took a handful of Morlocks a made Category:Cause of Death. It's very rough and it's not linked up to anything at the moment, but take a look and see how the automagicking would work. Let me know if it is doable. PiranhaSister 22:46, 7 November 2007 (UTC)