Forum:UnSignpost Changes!
Just to warn everybody that UnSignpost will be out of action and dramatically changing over the course of the next few days. These changes are for the better and will be explained in full detail by means of another forum once everything has been figured out. Thank you. Sir ScottPat (talk) 
VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 11:28, October 22, 2013 (UTC)
PS - I am not done yet and will be taking breaks inbetween changing it. I will let the community know when UnSignpost is back and ready to use again.Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 11:40, October 22, 2013 (UTC)
- OK, I look forward to it. --
RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 12:53, October 22, 2013 (UTC)
UnSignpost's Idea!
Ok so the plan is simple. First remarks were made on Anton's talk page. The basic reason for the change was to make it easier for editors to use and therefore updated more regularly, to allow UnSignpost to keep properly updated on Uncyclopedia news and not two weeks behind as it has been recently (because it takes time to produce a newspaper and many articles are needed for one to go to press) and the "update page" was being neglected as the editors didn't have time for it.
Our new idea is for UnSignpost to be just a newspage that is updated, like the front page of the BBC news for example.
A top story is written out in full and then previous stories are linked to the page below with summaries.
Each story has its own page. This allows us to keep track of articles and allows the reader to choose an article and simply read that one without having to read any of the others.
The front page needs cosmetic work to make it look more like an online news page. That is beyond my technological capacity and any volunteers for that would be gratefully accepted.
To the right hand side there is the forum, VFH, biopics etc. update. These will now be in date as well because you won't have to wait every 2 weeks for an update!
The press room is still in action for comments and sometimes flyers or UnSignpost specials will be delivered to subscribers however no more newspapers will be produced and delivered on a regular basis.
Please comment on this change below. It is not final and please do not tweak the UnSignpost pages as we are still undergoing work and out of action at the moment. Thanks. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 21:40, October 22, 2013 (UTC)
- My concern is that we will no longer have a periodical that covers what is happening across the wiki. A dynamic page gives no indication of the history of the wiki, but instead just a snapshot of what is happening now-ish. The other side is that the delivery of the USP has a significant impact on activity on the site. By making an edit to a talk page it drops an email through to users that are somewhat inactive that says “hello - we're still here”.
- Delivery can be made much easier. I'd created a js bot at one stage that would do deliveries on my behalf. It was slightly buggy (occasionally delivering more than once for a particular user), but the bugs could have been worked out. (Someone else used their bot instead, so I retired mine before tweaking.) As for the creation of the USP - when I was running it I created a few tricks that meant that all an editor needed to to was drop in the text of a couple of articles, add in a few forums or various links, and it was produced. Adopting those to the updated format wouldn't take much at all.
- To be honest if we're scrapping the existing format predominantly due to the effort needed to produce it, I'd rather take on the production of it again than see it fade out. • Puppy's talk page • 07:59 23 Oct 2013
- This may be a knee jerk reaction, by the way. I have a soft spot for USP, so I may be over-reacting. Main pint though is that if you simply need help to streamline the process, just ask. (And be a little patient, but still ask.) • Puppy's talk page • 08:02 23 Oct 2013
- OK to answer you concerns Puppy:
- Writing an UnSignpost takes a bit of effort because you have to find a few news articles. If there is one piece of news that desperately needs publishing then it needs to wait for half a week before someone else writes another article and then a few days until UnSignpost is made and delivered. By then the news is one week out of date. Most of the stuff in the last few issues has been one or two weeks out of date. This is what I'm most concerned about. UnSignpost could be way more in-date.
- Few inactive users receive UnSignpost deliveries. A bot would be helpful yes. UnSignpost specials (for Christmas, Easter, Guy Fawkes and whatever anyone else celebrates) can be done. Also flyers can be dished out every month with links to main page and summary of news on it at that time.
- As for the problems with a constantly changing front page and no record of what happened at the time. Well actually there is record. Articles will be made on their own pages and stored here, with the month of their production (Archives will be added when we have a big enough collection to need them).
- I hope that answers your points. I am trying to improve the paper to make it more efficient and give the same quality of service not trying to cut it down to produce the bare minimum we are capable of. Thanks. Sir ScottPat (talk)
VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 08:14, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
- Covers most of it. Revamping the page so that it adds in articles is not a complex process. Similar to what is being done with features we can set it up to link to whatever article has been "passed" by the editor in chief, and have the previous articles linking in below it as well. (A little dab of dpl here or there and Bob's your mother's boyfriend who seems just a little too interested in your sexual activities.)
- What I'd suggest though is going back to what we discussed going back a little while ago. linking something as Uncyclopedia:Unsignpost/An article about a topic is a lot messier than Unsignpost:An article about a topic, and having a dedicated UnSignpost name space makes some of the coding aspects easier as well. If we do this for UnNews, than UnSignpost is just as viable. Moving the main page to UnSignpost:Main page (which would simply be UnSignpost as well) also makes things neater.
- Are we able to go through a vote for UnSignpost as it's own namespace here? • Puppy's talk page • 08:27 23 Oct 2013
- That would be brilliant Puppy. Moving it to its own namespace would save my poor fingers however the amount of effort required in renaming links put me off putting forward that idea here. If you are willing to help in that process that would be great. Thanks. (If you agree to this I'll set up a vote) Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 08:33, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
- I strongly support this idea. Just looking at the pulldown menus in the logs shows that the set of namespaces is not closed; adding a mainspace lets us restrict searches and operations to that space.
- Also like the de-emphasis of a "press date." I've repeatedly encouraged ScottPat to delay an issue until there is real news. Scrambling to assemble an UnSignpost because it is the fortnight, when ScottPat has an article idea in mind, is a pointless diversion. I also like the idea of a monthly broadcast through opt-in; as I said elsewhere, it is nice for Uncyclopedia to have a pulse. Spıke Ѧ 10:41 23-Oct-13
- That would be brilliant Puppy. Moving it to its own namespace would save my poor fingers however the amount of effort required in renaming links put me off putting forward that idea here. If you are willing to help in that process that would be great. Thanks. (If you agree to this I'll set up a vote) Sir ScottPat (talk)
Tweaked idea based on Puppy's comments
We keep the changes put in place and our news will be reported through an up-dated newspage. However every month or two weeks we pick the most relevant news articles off the front page and make an UnSignpost paper we send out to the subscribers that will be in-date as of that day. If times get tough I will focus more on the newspage and less on the newspaper. The newspaper will not include every UnSignpost article and only those plucked off the newspage at the time of publishing. I would also be grateful if Puppy could re-create the delivery bot. What does everyone think of this idea? Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 08:30, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
Namespace?
As stated above, I have decided to set up a community vote to make an UnSignpost namespace for UnSignposts so that UnSignpost will be able to use UnSignpost: instead of Uncyclopedia:UnSignpost/. As stated on said forum by Puppy this would make typing and coding a lot easier. So here we are then:
Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 09:52, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
Vote: Make UnSignpost into its own namespace
For. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 09:52, October 23, 2013 (UTC)- Violently in agreement. As on that other Forum there. UnSignpost is analogous to UnNews but focusing on site news. In fact, the more the two services could resemble one another in structure, the better. Spıke Ѧ 11:11 23-Oct-13
- For. What Spike said. --Mimo&Maxus (Talk) 11:13, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
Comment. Wikia only allows a maximum of three custom namespaces, which Uncyclopedia has since used. Good luck. Tala Benny (talk) 11:21, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
Can anyone confirm this or give evidence of this? Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 11:23, October 23, 2013 (UTC)- What am I saying? Uncyclopedia has tonnes of its own namespaced subsiduaries. (UnNews, UnQuotes, UnTunes, UnDebate etc.) Wikia would have stopped us by now if this rule existed. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 11:30, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
- Help:Custom namespaces. See "How do I request a custom namespace?" Kawaii Desu UGUU (talk) 11:46, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
- Which we exceeded with the last dozen or so namespace requests. Uncyclopedia is a slightly unusual wikia based wiki, in that being a parody of Wikipedia and various other wiki formats it tends to have a more fluid format. Of course, if Wikia choose to not allow a new namespace, that's within their discretion. • Puppy's talk page • 12:05 23 Oct 2013
- Help:Custom namespaces. See "How do I request a custom namespace?" Kawaii Desu UGUU (talk) 11:46, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
- What am I saying? Uncyclopedia has tonnes of its own namespaced subsiduaries. (UnNews, UnQuotes, UnTunes, UnDebate etc.) Wikia would have stopped us by now if this rule existed. Sir ScottPat (talk)
- For. Back to the topic at hand. • Puppy's talk page • 12:05 23 Oct 2013
- For Anton (talk) 13:18, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
- For. --RomArtus*Imperator ITRA (Orate) ® 13:57, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
- For. ---- Simsilikesims(♀GUN) Talk here. 14:34, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
Is that enough votes?
If it is then do I simply need to replace all Uncyclopedia:UnSignpost/ with UnSignpost: or do we need to tell wikia or something? Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 13:25, October 23, 2013 (UTC)
- Have to approach Wikia. There are a couple of steps that need to be gone through in order to get this done. I'd probably wait at least 24 hours from opening the vote before we call it closed though - due diligence. But Special:Contact/features would be the next step. • Puppy's talk page • 01:58 23 Oct 2013
- Long enough. I moved a bundle of pages in preparation, and I've asked Wikia to make the change, citing this vote. Probably won't hear back until Monday, but the wheels are in motion at least. • Puppy's talk page • 09:24 26 Oct 2013
We're back!
After our momentary shutdown for a day UnSignpost is back online and all refurbished. Thank you for your patience. Sir ScottPat (talk) VFH UnS NotM WotM WotY 16:07, October 23, 2013 (UTC)