User talk:Timothy Askins
New Messages
Add them here!
Tim,
I see that your page has been see-sawing between a category driven page and a simple linear design. Can you explain why it was twice reverted back to linear design. The reason is, I was proposing that the MCV page adopt the category design (as it is getting too long) and I gave your page as the example of the format. Were there problems with this format or was it simply member preference? --Celt Mac �ireann 16:32, 29 Jan 2006 (GMT)
Miscellaneous Messages
- Are you aware that lists of: PKers, enemies, Spies and revive lists are currently being debated whether or not they should be banned, Moderators gone mad. I think the deadline is around the 6th of Jan. --Celt Mac �ireann 08:10, 3 Jan 2006 (GMT)
- Thanks for that, though as you pointed out, that is just a step toward a larger goal. It seems like the moderators will have a hard time getting their reforms voted through, so unless they appeal to Kevan, I don't think we will see any changes soon. 11:36, 5 Jan 2006 (GMT)
- Tim, any more updates on the CotR attacks in NW East Becktown? --Celt Mac �ireann 18:50, 6 Dec 2005 (GMT)
- Weather report is now in full swing. Two global updates in the last two hours, even. :) 11:36, 5 Jan 2006 (GMT)
Completely Random
AH but do you read this one? - Yes, I do. :) I use the wiki far too much.
Other
Thanks for the repair work. Typhon's been banned now. --Spiro 12:23, 24 Oct 2005 (BST)
Wiki Editing Messages
CotR Door Knockers (adding information to the PLEB pages)
Tim, Why not give a reference to this info at the PLEB link
For information on known survivors with zombie skills who have been spotted in the suburb, click here.
I am operating in East Becktown and I know PLEB personnel are using it to wack spies. Surely it makes sense to link the info to the page for more immediate access. --Celt Mac �ireann 20:27, 17 Dec 2005 (GMT)
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES REVIVE. Church of the Resurrection Book of Life.
Full list
Amokkitten, Ampoliros, Ashley J'Williams, baldbantamfire, BigGayJesus, Blitzen, Brainzuh, Caesar's Ghost, Caote, Cera, Damn Your Nachos, Darmon27, Dean Westlake, Decompostor, Dickie Fux, Dreadstalk, Drinky Dead, Elijaaargh, elracs, Empionn, funkronomicon, Givmee DeBraine, Graaarg, Hanukkah Zombie, Hootinanny, IconoclasticGoat, ieatbrainz, Igor de Mortis, j robert oppenheimer, John Madden, JohnSteel, jordantyler3, Joss Freeborn, juju bees, Ken Yong, Lake Tam, Laura de Mort, Lung Butter, Madkat, Malroth, Man with no name, McGuirk, MISHUGINA, Molded Jello, Mr Adamson, MuerteAndante, Nikto, Oxy the Moron, Pitu, Rabtross, Ralph Willum, Raur, Reverend Blanford, Robbie Colwan, Rottem Banana, RRoman3, Saint Attila, Samy Vellu, Schummer, Sinbad the Zombie, Slothmore, Spong Monkey, Spooflarn, Swishy McJackass, Tacsac, Tenucay, Threch, Velvetfinger, WWZJD, Yarric, Z0mb0, Zakal, Zombie Maligno, Zombieham Lincoln, Zombunny,
The following, from the above list, appear to be Church elders actively seeking to spread the word of SZJ and are to be headshot first:
Ampoliros, baldbantamfire, Damn Your Nachos, Dickie Fux, Elijaaargh, funkronomicon, jordantyler3, Laura de Mort, Madkat, McGuirk, Mr Adamson, Oxy the Moron, Robbie Colwan, Schummer, Spooflarn,[Tacsac], Tenucay, Threch, Zakal, Zombie Maligno, Zombieham Lincoln.
--Celt Mac �ireann 21:02, 8 Dec 2005 (GMT)
- I'd like to but our current policy is that we are only listing PK'ers on our website. However, this information has appeared on our forum, and those of us with Firefox are putting it to good use.
East Becktown Weather Report
Hi Tim,
Let me first begin by saying that the weather report is a very good thing (much better than the zombie tracker) and indeed we have copied and have nearly finished the edit for Molebank. I just have some observations.
Firstly the bold and timings were a nice touch but they seem to be a little overused. Surely the point of them is highlight a danger, but I have seen blocks with 2-3 zombies highlighted. Less is more.
Secondly - This is something which you seem to have remedied. I was trying to edit the weather report recently but found that I had to go though 4 different stages to arrive at the edit page. These weren't easy to find and a novice would've been easily put off.
However, I see that some thoughtful PLEB has now put a link to edit the weather report, but why didn't you take it one level further down onto the actual edit page?
http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php?title=Template:Weather_Report_for_East_Becktown&action=edit
instead of
http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php/Template:Weather_Report_for_East_Becktown
Also perhaps the edit link should be where the date now is and not buried 3 paragraphs after the map.
One last thing. In Molebank we always have a problem with people knowing the location of the revive point. We have tried to offset this by clearly distinguishing it with a different (non-game) border colour. Its success so far has been debatable.
Anyway, these are just some points that slightly irked me, (especially the edit page). But with such a fast response, I'm glad to see that East Becktown is in safe hands.
--Celt 18:06, 25 Nov 2005 (GMT)
- I appreciate it when someone like Celt takes the trouble of giving me detailed feedback. I failed to get the link to an edit page working, I'll have another go soon. I suspect it's ':' related. :) I've started to deal with the bold type being left on the page after the numbers have gone back down, though other users are still leaving it up. --Timothy Askins 02:46, 1 Dec 2005 (GMT)
A Plan
Tim, r u a fan of lord of the rings? If so, what suburb in Malton is Mordor and where exactly is Mount Doom? Could we maintain a generator in the phone exchange for a week? How about leading a fellowship? Let's put them on the back foot. Let's make the Zs the new Caiger Mall survivours. --Celt 20:32, 2 Dec 2005 (GMT)
- Reading messages like this in the wee hours can do strange things to your brain. It took me half a cup of coffee before I could deal with it properly. :D The generators seem to be doing well. The spies have finally given up hacking at them, and I've never found it empty when I've checked. I hope this continues.
Dulston Zombie Map
Dear Timothy Askins, I appreciate you taking the time to help us with our zombie map. I don't know a whole lot about template writing or html, just what I've learned trial-&-error and monkey-see/monkey-do stuff. http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php/Template:Dulston_Scouting_Report is the page, it isn't much, I want it to be a resource for all the survivors of Dulston. We have zombie troubles and this would really help. Thank you again for anything you can do. --Matthew-Stewart 05:50, 26 Nov 2005 (GMT)
- I get distracted easily, so do keep reminding me about things I've promised to help out with. Reminders in my user-talk = me doing stuff! :D
--Timothy Askins 02:46, 1 Dec 2005 (GMT)
Map Templates - Scripting advice
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the advice on the colours. I was looking at jonathan fletcher's map and it seems that he has used cascading style sheets to automatically fill in the colour details. He simply assigns different variable names eg fire, church and then calls them from in the page. Might save you some work if you're going to be making any more suburb maps (West Becktown and Dulston). Don't you have a life? --Celt 15:16, 27 Nov 2005 (GMT)
- Good advice. I was learning about the wiki as I went along. I started by making the graphics, and then read up on wiki-variables later, hence the lack of classes. I really didn't design the map so that it would be easy for other people to modify for their own suburb - which was a little shortsighted... there are difficulties relating to wiki's and CSS though.
--Timothy Askins 02:46, 1 Dec 2005 (GMT)
Map Templates
It seems like the names of the various buildings are stored on the Template:Weather Report for East Becktown, but the colors of the buildings are located on the East Becktown Zombie Map instead. Since the two are tied together, the result isn't portable. Also, I like the colors as-is (i.e., true to UD), but it might make more meta-game sense to apply a uniform color policy, which I'll describe, um, under Uniform Color Policy. If you are interested in helping, we could add building classes to the template and inherit colors automatically, which would make them easy to modify and portable. The NT Access makes the map a piece of cake to update. The hard thing is that there are about six different places (e.g. the [edit] links inside the page) where it looks like you can update the map but you can't, and even with the correct clicks it takes about three clicks to actually get there. --Tycho44 21:53, 21 April 2006 (BST)
Messages regarding PLEB
East Becktown Barricade Plan
Timothy - In regards to your comments on http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php/Talk:Malton_Fire_Department (yeah, I just realized there was a discussion sub-page ;). I think that is a great idea to separate the command structure from the more functional day-to-day details. I also brought in the PLEB barricade plan when I joined the MFD, having hooked up with PLEB first. While we are not yet near a large enough membership to enact the plan ourselves, I did distill the PLEB plan and Blue Emus thread on the same idea into the Uniform Barricading Policy, which has, overall, gathered a fair amount of support.
West Becktown Barricade Plan
A suggestion: Don't barricade any building to EH unless it's within 2 squares of a free running entrance; it makes it kind of unattractive for even experienced players to hide in, since we spend more than 3 AP getting home after hunting, and it doesn't really offer that much more security.
The only exception to this I could think of would be if you wanted a region of exclusively EH/nonexistant buildings with more than a 2-block radius; in this case you might think of the middle building(s) as very unlikely to be targetted because zeds would have to walk across lots of a) hard to open and b) more-or-less empty buildings to get there, and it wouldn't be visible on the 3x3 while they were attacking the fringe buildings. In this case, it might work as some kind of psychological fortress; but you'd have to really want your safety pretty badly.
- This message from a member of the Warseers (Eastonwood)*
Penumbra 18:55, 1 Dec 2005 (GMT)
An excellent comment, that we are debating even as I type this. Funnily enough, that fortress technique is the same one I used on my recent three-day holiday in Ridleybank. I had quite a nice time - did a bit of barricading, read a poem or two... and came home feeling quite refreshed.
It's nice to hear from the Warseers again. I'll post your message on our boards, so all the PLEBs can debate it. I think we might be doing something different with the WB plan, though the debate is still in the early stages. Cheers, --Timothy Askins 07:28, 2 Dec 2005 (GMT)
What is the consensus on placing a VS entryway within every 16-block region? For example I was looking at West Becktown 10-12 x 34-37. The VS+2 would provide a rescue for pre-FR characters running out of AP -- so where would such a character be most likely to flee? I was tempted to suggest leaving "Help Bank" open ... although anyone at the bank is within sight of the Ainslie Road Fire Station [9, 35] in Dunell Hills suburb. In my opinion, (informed by the Uniform Barricading Policy and all that), changing the Tatchell Building [11, 35] and/or Capper Alley Railway Station [11, 34] to VS+2 would be courteous without significantly hindering the WBBP. Buildings that are adjacent to a lot of streets are poorer choices for an EH safehouse (running routes are limited) and better choices for a VS+2 entrance/newbiehut. To be clear, if its not Ridleybank, it doesn't need a 3-deep EH-only zone. West Becktown's zombiecount doesn't justify Extreme Fortress Tactics. During Mall Tour '06 all bets are off, but frantic survivors are forgiven for overbarricading everything in the midst of a siege without using that to inform policy. --Tycho44 19:56, 9 Feb 2006 (GMT)
Zombie Squad Submission
Hi, I've been delegated to represent the Zombie Squad in negotiations over your proposed West Becktown Barricade Plan. Our group (with others) have just came out of a protracted siege of the 3 resource buildings on the southern border of West Becktown, so we are looking to get the barricade levels back to an optimal situation after having them as high as possible for a long time now. It has been suggested that we sign up to your barricade plan. It is still being discussed amongst the group, but we were wondering what your reaction would be to designating the Flowar Building (NT) as EHB. The justification being that there are 4 other NecroTech buildings within 5 blocks, just over the border in Molebank (as seen in the screenshot to the right), and that a Hospital, NecroTech and PD all lined up like that, all at VSB, make a very tasty target. Anyway, as I said, it's still under discussion, but your thoughts on it's effects on your barricade plans integrity would be considered -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 09:31, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
- A few other bits of information about the area as it stands now. Cemetery 12,38 is the current revive point for the Flowar Building, and Junkyard 12,40 and St. Osyth's Church have been the entry points to the complex during the recent siege -- boxy T L ZS Nuts2U DA 09:38, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
Category/Article Discussion
Hi Brian,
I've stuck the discussion regarding your category/article status in an archive folder, and posted a link to the discussion of the same subject on moderation board. If you object, let me know by leaving a message on my user discussion page. I've also voted. --Timothy Askins 11:25, 30 Nov 2005 (GMT)
- Hi Timothy, what exactly is this in relation to? URL to the article in question please? :) BrianSutherland 22:43, 30 Nov 2005 (GMT) (Syndicated to your talk page for convenience.)
Category talk:Malton Confederacy - By posting on it, I caused it to pop into the recent changes list, and some painfully ill-informed discussion resulted which was compounding the miscomprehension problem, and many of the posters seemed unaware that the same discussion was proceeding elsewhere. I could write a very clear post that would stop the whole debate, but I'd earn the enmity of several other users in the process. Thanks, --Timothy Askins 02:24, 1 Dec 2005 (GMT) p.s. if you leave me a note here, leave the Summary box empty... :D
Hey Timothy. I read your post on the VfD page (I don't know if it belonged THERE, but that's besides the point), and I have a few comments on it. First of all, it seems to me that the main reason for Alexi disliking MC having its own subcategory is the fact that it supposedly makes the group somewhat greater and more important. On several occasions I stated that categories are a way of categorizing and not enhancing the e-penis of the members of the group who owns the category. Unfortunately, it didn't go over too well, and the user thought that he would attempt achieving the same supposed levels of fame that we enjoy by creating his own category.
Regarding the organisation category - I think in the future we might find it difficult to categroize what is a group and what is an organization... Is PLEB an organisation or a group? It sure seems like a group to me, but yet you removed it from the group listing... I think the name "Groups" encompasses all kinds of organizations - after all, different groups within the category operate differently, and have different goals.
Regarding the validity of our category: granted, we don't have much content besides the subgroups and members. However, due to the nature of MC, the "sub" groups are actually important. They used to be and still are totally independent groups, retaining their own authority while cooperating through the Confederacy. I suppose more things could be put up, such as the barricade plan for the area, but it would simply be mirroring things from the MC webpage.
Also, I suggested before that MC adapts the PLEB model - with a separate group and a separate category page - if only because of mediawiki, which tends to mess up category display when redirected to a category page. The general trend on this wiki, however, was to consolidate article and category: pages instead of keeping them separate.
Lastly, I don't think we should have too strict of a policy on group pages. I mean, user Alexi seems to demand just that, and while I don't want fifty thousand three word pages owned by one group, there are reasonable circumstances where multiple group pages might be created if neccessary. Once again, the amount of pages that a group runs does not in any way increase its importance, and is merely a matter of making content more accessible.
Lastly, sorry for using PLEB as an example of a multi-page group - you were the first ones that I remembered. And I hope this is where you want the message, instead of the top of the page. :P -Daranz | Talk | 16:16, 2 Dec 2005 (GMT)
Hi Timothy, thankyou for letting me know about your response. I don't have time to give a lengthy reply but for the most part I agree with you. The main thing I am concerned with is that whatever approach is taken, it is applied uniformly. If it's decided that they do deserve subcategory status, well, there are definitely other groups that merit it, such as the CoL, since it too functions as more than a group by itself. So then I am wondering why there is both the "organisations" category and the "subcategory" issues. You mentioned, "We aren't a coalition of groups, we don't belong in Organisations".. So I was wondering how you would define the difference between an Organisation such as CoL and a group which contains sub-groups but is not classifiable as an organisation. Or put more plainly, what is the difference between a subcategory group and an organisation. Finally I want to see some of the pages cleaned up a bit, specifically:
http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php/Category:Organizations
Since I am at the moment visualising a "group that needs a subcategory" as at least similar to a "group which is classified as an organisation" I am having trouble understanding why a group which is a subcategory on the groups page is similtaneously a subcategory on the organisations page.
I am not really adding anything to the discussion with this post (which is why I am leaving it here rather than on the deletions page), I just wanted to establish / raise the issue of the actual definitions involved, and put forward my own thoughts on it. Elliothatman 20:05, 2 Dec 2005 (GMT)
Yagoton Barricade Plan
I wasn't the one who added the picture to the plan. The Abandoned are responsible for it. I only wiki-fied it and formatted the section. Go to their talk page to get them to convert it into an editable version. --Nov 07:41, 1 Dec 2005 (GMT)
Ah well, the code is pretty simple, so I'm sure they'll get around to copying it at some point. --Timothy Askins 07:28, 2 Dec 2005 (GMT)
