Forum:Achievement Prefix

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There is already a "Quest:" prefix for all quest articles on WoWWiki, so why not also an "Achievement:" prefix? I think it could work. Xavius, the Satyr Lord 21:50, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Yeah that might be a good idea. We might even consider converting "Quest:" to a namespace and making a new namespace for "Achievement:". Then searching would be easier. --Beware the sneaky smile! Fandyllic (talk · contr) 5:47 PM PST 8 May 2009

Especially since the the majority of achievements seem to have the same name as places, npcs, items, quests, etc. Sssssssssssssssssssssssss For Pony! (^Sssss/_Slithered) 21:02, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

From Wikia's perspective: Converting Quest would be a tech job, as we already have many, many articles using the namespace. However, adding an Achievement namespace is more feasible as we don't already use the prefix.

But: there is an issue with what namespaces get searched by default: unfortunately due to the crazy way MediaWiki works, adding the quest namespace may take it out of most users' default search options. It's something we plan to work on though, on our end. Kirkburn  talk  contr 18:22, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Dreaming here... If we start proliferating namespaces, how about adding the new namespaces (formerly in the global namespace) to ALL saved search preferences. They can take it out later, and doesn't corrode existing search ability. Alternate (1): declare the new namespace(s) and suggest the "change your defaults by going [Here]" in a wikia-created banner message. You know, the "click to make go away" ones. Alternate (2): change search parameters so the new spaces are a subset of (Main). Deselecting Main would deselect them as well.

Hey, I did say I was dreaming, didn't I? Amazing what a person with zero knowledge of the internals can imagine, isn't it? --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 23:11, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

heh ... those are pretty reasonable suggestions, but unfortunately it is also complicated by how preferences are shared between Wikia accounts. I like the idea of making a "content namespaces" option, with main, quest, etc, underneath it. Kirkburn  talk  contr 13:04, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

I like how you blame MediaWiki then it comes out it's really a Wikia problem... --Pcj (TDrop me a line!•C207,729 contributions and counting) 13:09, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

I blame society! --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 22:39, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Hey now ... We're not happy with how complex and unintuitive some MW options are, but reworking them is no small job (but is still something we're looking at). MediaWiki's normal setups have far less variety than how it's used across Wikia (especially in regards to namespaces and skins), so it shouldn't be too surprising it doesn't cope too well with certain areas. Kirkburn  talk  contr 09:01, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the explanation, Kirkburn. You are operating at a level much beyond what I am familiar with. Are you also providing feedback to the Mediawiki Foundation? What you find unintuitive I am sure others do as well. Perhaps it can be improved. --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 17:43, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

$wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault seems pretty straightforward, it must be Wikia's implementation which is screwy. --Pcj (TDrop me a line!•C207,729 contributions and counting) 17:50, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

We use that, but: if new namespaces are then added, they won't necessarily be in your list if you already made changes to your default search suggestions. Additionally, if you change your search settings on one wiki, it affects your other wikis, which is a little unintuitive. Eirik, yup, we do provide stuff back to the MediaWiki bugzilla when appropriate (like, if it's not a Wikia-specific issue), and several of the staff are into MediaWiki/Wikipedia communities. Kirkburn  talk  contr 18:25, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Like Eirik suggested above, the settings for content namespaces should copy from whatever setting the user has for the "main" namespace, which they would be split from. I understand the problem with shared users, that does make it more difficult. --Pcj (TDrop me a line!•C207,729 contributions and counting) 18:36, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Namespaces and number values

An aside from the discussion above: I am confused how namespaces in search preferences, other than the mediawiki default namespaces, can cross wiki lines. I recall a description of how name spaces are assigned numerical values in some location. I may well have misunderstood the reference; if so, please forgive me.

1) Do search preferences refer to each namespace *by name* (avoiding name/index clash)? If they do, are the namespaces disambiguated by the wiki they apply to? (If not, is there a good reason beyond "just haven't done it"?)

2) Or do search preferences refer to namespaces by index? ... which would work fine for standard mediawiki namespaces, and very poorly in a wikia environment of independent namespaces. (Unless they are, once again, disambiguated by wiki name/ID.) If this is the case, who can we take our frustrations out on? --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 19:53, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Indeed, namespaces get numerical values. The way most of the user preferences are shared across wikis means that whatever settings you have on one wiki applies to others. Most of the time this works well, but it has some issues with namespaces and skins, because those are different on different wikis. These issues only show when they involve custom namespaces and skins, because all the standard skins and namespaces are identical (e.g. forum on one wiki has the same identifier on another). If you've edited your search defaults on one wiki without "namespace 302", when you go to one with that namespace, it'll assume you don't want to search it, because it's not in your defaults.

It currently works this way because it was simplest, had the least overhead, and works for 99% of cases. When Wikia was being set up, there was also less variation between wikis. Of course, as Wikia has matured, different wikis have diverged, and of course WoWWiki arrived on Wikia.

Now that Wikia is a more stable development environment, we're moving into more advanced changes, and would love to get everything working for 100% of cases - so we're considering ways to improve issues like these. Kirkburn  talk  contr 20:58, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Does wikia have a clearinghouse for namespace indices? I don't recall that they needed to be consecutive. If that's correct, then at least we could avoid colliding with existing namespaces on other wikis. --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 20:16, 21 May 2009 (UTC)