Original Proposal

This is what I typed for the original proposal

 -- Data Form / Source Code editing -- + Add a poll to this page Title: [________________________] Allow more than one option to be selected? [ No ][▼] Number of days before poll is locked? [ 0 ] (0 = never locked) Options: * [___________] » remove * [___________] » remove » add new option 

The current version of the design document

This is a CSI from the design page, located here: http://projects.wikidot.com/thread:324

 -- Data Form / Source Code editing -- + Add a poll to this page Title: [________________________] Allow more than one option to be selected? [ No ][▼] Number of days before poll is locked? [ 0 ] (0 = never locked) Options: * [___________] » remove * [___________] » remove » add new option 

by leiger

Over the past 6 months, Wikidot.com has added numerous new features to it's arsenal, giving developers even more powerful tools to use. Without a doubt, the last half-year has seen not only the greatest number of changes, but also the addition and upgrade of some of the greatest features. The ListPages module was completely upgraded, we now have a CSS Module, and we were given Data Forms and Private Categories.

One thing remains constant, however. Each and every one of these features was first designed, with massive community input, on either the Wikidot.com Blog or on the Projects Forum. Each one of these features first required a creative mind to come up with the idea, and similarly creative minds to continue to modify and improve on it's implementation.

The Iron Giant template site project was a resounding success when it first launched. Several templates, all of very high quality, were submitted to the site by the community. However now, months after the site's launch, no new templates are being added to the site.

What is needed is for someone to be creative and to come up with a new template idea that hasn't been done yet.

I am also a member of the CycloDS Evolution community. My main website, titled "CycloDS Revolution", is dedicated to this Nintendo DS flash cartridge. The device allows users to store all of their games on a single device, instead of carrying multiple cartridges around with them.

As any complex piece of technology can be expected to have, the CycloDS has its own Graphical User Interface (GUI). Members of the community are able to design their own themes for this GUI. One of the major problems I have as a theme creator is a lack of creativity. I may decide that I want to create a new theme, but I always stick to the designs that have worked for me in the past. I find it hard to experiment with new techniques, and my themes are never quite as good as they could be as a result.

Creativity is key. Without it we risk ourselves becoming satisfied with the same thing over and over again. Wikidot needs a constant stream of useful features, and a constant stream of new sites that test the boundaries of those features. Otherwise interest will dry up and the user-base will start to fall away.

We need more Iron Giant template sites, that take heavy advantage of Data Forms and Private Categories.

by leiger

And only the naïve believe that their 'best essays' charm results in anyone actually clicking on their links. How could they, after all, when spam-related links are often deleted within minutes of being posted - a couple of hours at the most?

Now, Wikidot spam fighters the world over have new tools at their disposal.

It takes about 10 minutes for a new user to create an account at Wikidot.com and to activate it with a link sent to their email address. Factor in about 5 more minutes to post a couple of spam posts all with identical content (usually with the phrase 'best essays' mentioned in there somewhere), and some spare time to learn the wikidot syntax for external links once they figure out that HTML doesn't work. That's 20 minutes of a spammer's life gone already.

Then consider that it takes 10 seconds to undo all of that.

Spammers don't really have much of a chance, do they?

Experienced Wikidot user Ed Johnson was inspired yesterday to create this ballad in honour of the spammers that give their time in the service of essay-writers everywhere, only to have the dream taken away so suddenly. It almost brings a tear to the eye.

Ballad of the 'dot Berets

(sung to the tune of Ballad of the Green Berets by Robin Moore and Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler)
Listen to the original on YouTube

---

Fighting spammers from the cloud
The fearless team that clicks so proud
They come to fight, they're here to stay
They hate spam, they're the 'dot Berets

---

Chorus:
Golden wikis upon their chest
They're a team, they're Wikidot's best
A hundred spammers will try today
Not even one gets by the 'dot Berets

---

Trained to live off caffeine's buzz
They don't sleep, they have a cause
A team who fights by night and day
Spam can't hide from the 'dot Berets

---

Chorus…

---

Back at home a goal's in sight
The 'dot Berets have spam to fight
They have clicked for those who 're pissed
They crush spam with a mighty fist

---

Chorus…

---

Camouflaged, a shit-bag tries
What they don't know, is they can't hide
They post and run, with their 'best essays'
But there's no escape from the 'dot Berets

---

Chorus…

---

Download a PDF

by leiger

The Microsoft team are tight-lipped about the name and refuse to call it "Windows 8".

What new features will we see in the new OS, which rumour has it is due for an early-2011 release? We can only speculate.

by leiger

For example, the world's smallest horse ? :)

The module looks like this:

Attributes

(optional) prepend

• A line of text that appears before the text that has a hover effect on it

(required) text

• The text that you want an image to appear for when the mouse hovers over it

(required) image

• The image to appear when the text is hovered over
• Can be either a full URL or a relative URL (e.g. "/pagename/image.png")

(optional) attributes

• Allows you to set attributes for the image, such as height and width

(optional) append

• A line of text that appears after the text that has a hover effect on it

Example

The example shown above was generated using the following code:

by leiger

It uses webkit, which means that there's a slightly better transition effect in Apple Safari and Google Chrome than in other popular browsers.

When you hover the mouse over the spoiler button, the box will expand to show the hidden text. If the text doesn't fit in the 200px-high box, a scrollbar will be added automatically.

To install this package in your site, add this code to your page:

[[include :css-competition:include:spoiler
|text=TEXT TO HIDE IN THE SPOILER
|image=IMAGE URL
|id=SPOILER ID
]]

Attributes

(required) text

• Any plain text that you would like to hide in the spoiler box
• Cannot use Wikidot syntax
• Cannot use the pipe symbol "|"

(optional) image

• If you would like to use an alternative image, enter the URL
• Must be width 80px, height 20px

(optional) id

• When using an alternative image, an id will avoid affecting other spoilers on the same page
• When two spoiler modules have the same ID, the one lowest down on the page will take effect

Feature requests can be made on the blog or CSS Competition website.

Examples

by leiger

A while ago I messed around with this bot and while it impressed me, it wasn't that good. While it's still nowhere nearing perfect, it seems to have improved since I last had a chat with "Eliza" — here's our conversation…

by leiger

They are:

• Find a topic to focus on, and stick with it
• Regularly update, and make sure your visitors know that you are updating
• Always try to respond to questions/comments as soon as possible

That's been working well for CycloDS Revolution and the CycloDS Compatibility list, but with a blog it becomes a bit more difficult. Even specialised blogs tend to stray from the topic from time to time.

Here's a few questions for you:

1. Is there anything you would add or change on the list above
2. Which direction do you want this blog to head in? Is there a certain topic you want me to focus on blogging about?

by leiger

Why? Becuase if you continue to drink you're only embarrassing yourself, and everyone around you. I just got back from a mate's party…

I was planning to leave about 5 hours before I did, but didn't want to leave a couple of drunk people hanging around. Only when one finally fell asleep and the two girls left did I feel that it was safe to leave them there on their own.

It's amazing how quickly a situation can change when alcohol enters the equation. And it's just as amazing how someone that is completely smashed, continues to drink.

Sad, really… and a bit pathetic.

by leiger

^{Source: apod.nasa.gov}

But what does this mean for us? That tiny little green aliens live right next door, and that there's life on the moon? Not exactly.

Reportedly, 25 gallons has been found. That's just under 100 Litres for us Aussie folks and the Englishmen that hang around here ;-) It might not seem like much, but keep in mind that this is the moon we are talking about. NASA would have probably been excited with a discovery of just one litre and they got so much more than that.

Astronauts could use water on the moon for survival in space and to make rocket fuel at a lunar base².

Some links to look at:

• Water on the Moon Confirmed by NASA Crashes
• There is plenty of water on the moon, NASA confirms
• Also, check the list of footnotes

Other scientific news today:

• Chandrayaan discovers magnet on moon

by leiger

Originally announced on his blog earlier today, James says that if someone were to begin writing a story on a wiki, but later decided to stop due to a lack of time, "another person can continue the story by writing their own pages". He continues: "Stories can then become collaborative works, and as we know, wikis are perfect for collaborative works."

This sounds exciting, but stories are meant to be written by one or two individuals for a reason. If you have too many editors, you have far too many points of view, and that leads to disagreements about where the storyline is headed. It just doesn't work!

If you don't like the plot, the characters, or the intended ending of a collaborative story, that usually means a dead-end. But, James has something to say about this as well. He goes on to suggest that if you don't like the story, that you should take it in a different direction, "depending on the plots YOU choose along the way."

"This is something that typical wiki engines are not capable of; but as we know, Wikidot is not your typical wiki engine."

So what does this mean?

1. The person/people you are collaborating with write a story
2. You disagree with some portion of it
3. Next you begin writing your own version of the story, adding in the events and the characters that you want to include

This is a problem — the publisher would only want one story. That's what they would have said in the contract, as well. Wikidot is different because there are no publishers. Everything you write gets published to the web, even if it's of a different opinion or focus to the work others have contributed.

The Never-ending stories wiki deals with this perfectly. At any point in the story you are encouraged to take it off on a tangent and to stay as true to the story as you want to be. For things to make sense to the reader, you should keep in mind what has already happened… but the future is yours to shape.

Practice your writing abilities… tell the world your version of the stories found on the wiki… and have fun reading the very unexpected turns that other writers have made even though they started at the same point as you did.

by leiger

The roadmap site has been featured in an article on news.wikidot.com.

The article, found here, presents a quick overview of the website's purpose, and lists the most popular aspects according to pledge amount. It is intended mostly as an advertisement of the site to users that don't regularly visit the blog or other community areas. There may well be businesses out there that are willing to pledge a few hundred dollars towards a feature that you or I want, and therefore I see that as a massive advantage — for both us and the Wikidot team.

This is the original article that I wrote. For the latest version, follow the link that I've posted above.

The roadmap site does what every other roadmap does — it gives someone a sense of direction. In this case, it’s a way for you to show the Wikidot developers which feature you want them to implement next. Intended to be used alongside the official blog’s weneed list and not to replace it, the website allows you to pledge an amount of money to the team, which you can give them if they add the feature that you asked for. What’s more, it’s completely risk-free as you can withdraw your pledge at any time, even after the feature has been added!

Currently the most-wanted aspect on the roadmap site is data forms, which has attracted a $2500 pledge from an anonymous user. A basic version has been implemented using the design document and you are able to use it now, but there is a lot of work required before it is complete.

Other popular aspects that are featured on the roadmap site include dedicated site registration (which has been partially implemented), multi-language support, an improved application framework, and last but not least: private categories, which has four separate pledges totalling $500 USD.

The best way to invest in the future of your business is to invest in Wikidot.

by leiger

For example, I've just created a module that you can use which posts the words "Thank you" in large, colourful letters. It will not be added to the CSI modules site because this is just a bit of fun, and not intended to be widely used.

If you want to thank someone — here is a quick way to get your thanks across with minimal effort! Just use this code:

[[include :leiger:module:thankyou]]

There are no attributes for this one (for now, at least)… it's just a really simple CSI!

Known Issue: Does not work from within a page comment, and neither do any other includes.

Preview:

Thank you!

by leiger

As you are most likely well aware by now, this blog is still in a very basic stage. I started blogging here only recently, and the site layout — while better than it was a few weeks ago — still requires a lot of work.

When I stop tweaking the design, that means I've finished. Until then watchers of the site are likely to get quite a few notifications about the small changes I make. Unfortunately, I think I sent off about 20 or more emails on the day that I was working on the Analog Clock module. I apologise for filling up your mailbox.

I've learnt from that mistake and when I needed to make an update just yesterday, I first tested that it worked on a private site of mine that no-one was watching, before updating the version located here.

So, along with these regular changes to the site comes the realisation that I have made a few mistakes with the original layout. One of those minor mistakes was forgetting to add /tags/-_closed to the blog feed URL. I've just fixed this issue now, however people that are currently subscribed using RSS will have to grab the new link manually.

You can subscribe (or re-subscribe) to this blog's RSS feed using the link on the homepage, or by clicking here.

by leiger

Summer has only begun when the flies come out in their huge armies, intent on driving me mad with frustration from their constant buzzing around my face. Therefore, by that definition, summer began yesterday. With fireworks and all.

A simple task such as hanging out a few clothes on the line is apparently reason enough to start swarming all around me. Of course, science has a more realistic reason. But I refuse to listen for it fails to account for one tiny fact — flies hate me!

Or maybe they like me too much… maybe that's the problem. Maybe I need to stop sweating in this heat? If only that was possible.

^{Source: Dickiebo}

by leiger

First off, I'll show you the analog clock itself… I entered a few settings here, then made it into a CSI module for you. Thanks also goes to James Kanjo for this Iframe Embed page, which I couldn't have done this without!

This is the official documentation for this module. A direct copy of the documentation can be found on the Userspace Modules site.

The Clock

^{CSI packages site | Development blog | Edit documentation}

1. Copy and paste the code into one of your pages
2. Then enter the values you want using the attribute table
3. Save your page — it's that easy! :)

Attributes

After changing some of these settings, clear your cache (Ctrl+Shift+Del), then refresh the page (Ctrl+R) to see the changes.

Timezone selector

There are 498 possible time-zones. I suggest that you use the search function of your browser (activated by pressing Ctrl+F) to find the country and city that you live in.

by leiger

Here is my post, posted to the Wikidot.com Blog:

 The ajax request failed. Please check your internet connection or report a bug if the error repeats during your work. code:500 

 * [# Admin] * [[[admin:themes|Manage theme]]] * [[[admin:manage|Site manager]]] 

 [[div class="error-block"]] Included page "" does not exist ([//edit/true create it now]) [[/div]] [[div class="error-block"]] Included page "" does not exist ([//edit/true create it now]) [[/div]] 

by leiger

For non-Aussies: South Australia and Victoria are two neighbouring states in Australia. The capital of SA is Adelaide, and the capital of VIC is Melbourne.

South Australian number plates might say "The city of churches", and Queensland plates generally read "The sunshine state". Victorian plates follow a slightly different line of thought and go for "The place to be."

So, my question to all Victorians, is what you are doing in SA if Victoria is the place to be? Surely your time would be better spent over there? ;)

Adding to the state rivalry is this advertisement for West End Draught beer, which has drawn some controversy.

Now, if only Port Adelaide would get off their asses and win themselves another premiership… then I'd really be proud to be South Australian.

by leiger

Thanks to the contributions of Ed Johnson and Steven Heynderickx, I have an answer.

 blockquote{ border: 1px dashed #999; padding: 0 1em; background-color: #f4f4f4; } a{ color: #00A; } p{ font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; } 

 .gallery-box{ overflow: hidden; width: 98%; } 

 #side-bar{ float: left; width: 14em; padding: 1em; margin: 0 0 1em 0; clear: left; } 

by leiger

For anyone that thinks the above sentence is a bit strange, I'll quickly explain one thing to you. In Australia, Christmas is characterised by summer, heat, and a strange absence of the snowmen that other countries seem to make. In fact, we don't even get snow in winter here!

Today is another hot day. I'm not sure what the forecast is, but at the moment I have the air conditioner turned on and it's currently 31*C in here. That's about 88*F for you northern folks. Mind you, my air conditioner doesn't exactly work properly… but this is much better than what it is outside :)

So, let's talk about the weather. Admittedly the most boring subject of all ;-) Post a comment, let me know what your little part of this planet is like at the moment. I know that I wouldn't have it any other way.

by leiger