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Wiki Rules
Hi Everyone!

Welcome to Orain! I want to start a thread outlining Wiki Rules.

Obviously, there's going to be some guidelines that each wiki will need to follow, such as:


 * Absolutely no attack wiki's will be tolerated. This includes wiki's created to disparge, attack, humiliate, harass, or otherwise cause harm to an individual, corporation, organization, etc.
 * With that being said, it's obvious that we will not censor wiki's. Personal opinions are allowed, and as such, you're free to have whatever content you wish to have - within reason. Obviously, threats made against others, attacks, etc. won't go unnoticed.
 * Dormancy. At what time will a wiki be considered dormant? How should that be handled? Should there be a timeline? What if someone else wants to revive the wiki? What process should be followed?

This is only a start, but let's start! :) D u s t i *poke* 22:20, 17 July 2013 (UTC)

Terms
I've written drafts for the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy. What does everyone think? Kudu (talk) 14:59, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I approve. D u s t i *Let's talk!* 07:13, 8 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Ditto John (talk) 15:04, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

Suggestions
I don't see too many wiki farms survive longterm without sustainable finances. That usually means ads or deep pockets. Otherwise, the regular staff person or persons burns out over the years. Longevity of my wiki is far more important to me than ads on my wiki. That is because moving a wiki can be a lot of work, and one loses hits when links go bad due to moving.

I really don't think most people with wikis mind ads as long as they don't have to see them when logged in. A wiki farm can be non-profit or semi-profit, and use ads. See wikipedia:WP:Funding Wikipedia through advertisements.

I would like to be able to provide my email address in my preferences so that I can get a password update email when I lose my password. And more importantly, so that I can get notified of changes to my watched pages. I don't regularly check watchlists on wikis I edit on infrequently. --Timeshifter (talk) 21:37, 7 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Ads are horrible to me. That's why I left ShoutWiki, and never create an account on Wikia. --Zhuyifei1999 (talk) 04:47, 8 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm currently the individual that's funding Orain. I can assure you that we're not going to be going offline anytime soon. As of right now, I don't believe we'll be using ads. We'll be running off of my funds as well as any donations that we may receive. Kudu, do you mind enabling the last request Timeshifter made? I believe that's a reasonable request. D u s <font color="#0000ff">t <font color="#6600cc">i *Let's talk!* 07:12, 8 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Email is now ✅. Kudu (talk) 14:51, 8 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Timeshifter, you should come on IRC sometime. I assure you that we're going to be around for a while and that we'll be more successful and therefore more sustainable by keeping it ad-free and donation-based. Kudu (talk) 15:12, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for enabling email in preferences. It is good to know that your funding is longterm. Many people will want to know this before starting a wiki. Maybe you could have opt-in ads for people like me who can not donate money, but are willing to put up with ads on their wiki in order to do their bit on funding. Google AdSense is easy to enable.

Some wikis will get popular at times, and you will get slammed. Bandwidth needs and costs will go up and down. See the info at the top of my Wikipedia user page: wikipedia:User:Timeshifter. It is not technically necessary to use servers one owns. There are many large commercial server farms with servers spread worldwide that could handle the bandwidth needs. They have dynamic load balancing and can handle any fluctuations in bandwidth needs. --Timeshifter (talk) 17:23, 8 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Opt in ads are possible and I may consider that should there be a strain on funds. I've already gotten the site approved for adsense and we do have an account. Thanks for the suggestions on bandwith and such. Do you have a wiki in mind that you're thinking of bringing to Orain? <font face="MV Boli"><font color="#ff0000">D <font color="#ff6600">u <font color="#009900">s <font color="#0000ff">t <font color="#6600cc">i *Let's talk!* 18:53, 8 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Opt-in ads are a good idea, although we would have to code an extension for that. We're currently on such a server farm (Amazon EC2), and we would definitely love to auto-scale once we have the necessary funds. Kudu (talk) 19:36, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

I may possibly fork more stuff from Wikia. I don't know. I forked some stuff to ShoutWiki. I may fork some other stuff to a different wiki farm so that I can keep each wiki more highly focused.

Orain and MyWikis are the only other free MediaWiki wiki farms left standing that I know of. See: I may start a separate wiki on ShoutWiki. So that I have 2 wikis there. There are a lot of things I like about ShoutWiki. They allow what is called a "private" wiki that leaves all decisions in the hands of the original founder. Including deletion, who can edit, who can see the wiki.
 * Category:Free MediaWiki wiki farms

I created a wiki that the public can view. But I determine the scope of the wiki, and what new pages are allowed. I let anybody edit including anonymous IPs. If I need to leave ShoutWiki I can delete the whole wiki. That is a big advantage to Wikia. I have duplicate pages on Wikia that I no longer edit, and so they are out of date. ShoutWiki now has a forum that is just beginning. Central forums are very important in my opinion. Forums with pages that can be individually watchlisted. Wikia's forums are a huge help. They have a great community of CSS and JS experts.

My main wiki is at ShoutWiki, and that wiki gets a huge number of hits for a few months every year. I would be unlikely to move that wiki again because I need to be sure the wiki farm can handle the bandwidth. My other idea for a wiki would not have such bandwidth fluctuations. But right now I am just thinking ahead. Nothing is likely to happen right away until I get other things in order. --Timeshifter (talk) 20:28, 9 August 2013 (UTC)


 * These are the types of ideas that we need :) Thank you for bringing them forward! The private wiki option is certainly do-able. Our focus is on creating the area, options, and security that you need and want. Private wiki? ✅. The ability to delete your wiki if you want to move? ✅. Forum options ✅. I'm not going to say no to any reasonable request.


 * As far as bandwidth goes, I don't believe that's a concern. I'll let Kudu answer that. <font face="MV Boli"><font color="#ff0000">D <font color="#ff6600">u <font color="#009900">s <font color="#0000ff">t <font color="#6600cc">i *Let's talk!* 21:01, 9 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Like Dusti said, all of those things can be arranged. As for the servers, we put a lot of thought into our platform, and we're constantly upgrading our infrastructure. As for the central forum, we're planning to add one very soon. Kudu (talk) 21:04, 9 August 2013 (UTC) (revised at 22:03, 11 August 2013)


 * I helped figure out some bugs with the forum software just enabled at ShoutWiki, and used in the past, at Wikia. See mw:Extension:DPLforum, and see the discussion here. --Timeshifter (talk) 00:02, 10 August 2013 (UTC)
 * DPLforum is what we were planning to use. It's been checked into our repo, and it should be enabled in the settings sometime soon. Kudu (talk) 04:14, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

Post-login text error
When one logs in, the text still reads "You have been automatically logged into other projects of the Wikimedia Foundation." I think this is the MediaWiki:Centralauth-groupname message. Samwilson (talk) 08:14, 13 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's the correct message - however, it's already correctly set, and I didn't change anything since your post. Please tell me if it happens again. Kudu (talk) 14:43, 13 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Looks like John got there before you (at 12:29). :-) Looks better now. Thanks! Samwilson (talk) 22:45, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Been seeing a lot of 504 errors
I've had a lot of page "time out" while editing on my wiki, and speed is generally slow when opening more than one page at a time, even here on the Orain Meta wiki. Arcane (talk) 19:12, 15 August 2013 (UTC)Arcane
 * Our automatic monitoring system isn't reporting any such errors, but let us know if it happens again. Kudu (talk) 22:02, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Merger Notification
17 August 2013 • FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Orain.org and TropicalWikis.com proudly announce that they are merging. This merge comes after careful consideration after the two WikiFarms began talks several weeks ago. Orain.org will be taking over responsibility for the TropicalWiki farms and ensuring that the end user still receives the best customer service possible. Current farms on TropicalWikis will be undergoing a review and wikis that are currently inactive according to Orain’s inactivity policy will either be merged and locked to prevent spam or discarded.

No changes will be taking place in regard to user accounts. Accounts will be moved over to Orain’s servers and user preferences, passwords, etc. will remain as they were on TropicalWikis.

Any notifications regarding a wiki’s status will be sent over the next couple of days.

Questions can be sent to any TropicalWiki or Orain staff member.

--For the staff, Dustin Muniz <font face="MV Boli"><font color="#ff0000">D <font color="#ff6600">u <font color="#009900">s <font color="#0000ff">t <font color="#6600cc">i *Let's talk!* 16:42, 17 August 2013 (UTC)
 * If you need to contact TropicalWikis staff, you can ping me on IRC (Tux). --Tux (talk) 17:03, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Google Adsense
After reviewing estimated monthly costs and such, I've decided to seek assistance from the community. We are going to be enabling Google Adsense globally. Initially, I believe we're going to have it set to anonymous users only. We'll see how that works and if, with community feedback, users are okay seeing the ads logged in - we can continue it in that sense. I am largely against ads, and I don't wish to do this - however, to ease the financial aspects with running the site - I believe ads will help. It will be a small, non-imposing ad at the bottom of the toolbox. I welcome your comments and input. <font face="MV Boli"><font color="#ff0000">D <font color="#ff6600">u <font color="#009900">s <font color="#0000ff">t <font color="#6600cc">i *Let's talk!* 15:47, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I don't have too many objections to that, as long as the ads don't compromise Orain's wiki flexibility policy in regards to content. As for the amount of ads, that seems eminently reasonable, and I don't object at all to their proposed placement. Arcane (talk) 17:58, 20 August 2013 (UTC)Arcane
 * We have the ability to filter the type of ads that are displayed. I think, with us being technology oriented and such, that ads along those lines would be the ones that will be displayed.