Current events
In checking the logs as processed by AWSTATS (reading the raw logs is rather boring) I noticed an odd referrer line. After researching it, I found that it comes from a piece of adware. According to Symantec, the makers of Norton 360 and related suites of security software and tools for deep work on PC's, it is "potentially unwanted" and installs an IE Toolbar that will pop-up ads that "look like they are from FaceBook". To me the fact that they are trying to hide the source of the ads and, it seems, pull sites through their own software to add advertisements, makes this not "potentially unwanted" but "completely unwanted". I'm suggesting that all users of Shifti check their PC's for that and other nastiness and, if possible, either remove the stuff themselves or find someone with the skills to remove the crapware for them.
This suggestion comes because our users are the lifeblood of our site and therefore very important to us. If their computers are infected with one piece of crap like that, then there are likely other pieces of crapware installed. The name of the crapware in question is "Yontoo" -- people, please note the name and check your systems. Crapware like that never comes alone and usually opens up holes that other crap can use to screw your computer completely.
- --ShadowWolf (talk) 01:56, 4 August 2012 (UTC)
Old News 
Old News 
Shifti has now moved to a new hosting provider whose machines have more grunt than could ever be provided by me. The only problem is that I will not be able to provide the comprehensive, weekly database dumps that have been being provided. Not to worry, though, because the new host provides a cPanel interface that should let us backup the databases easily.
- --ShadowWolf (talk) 03:40, 9 July 2012 (UTC)
Finally figured out what was causing the problems with the upgrade to MediaWiki 1.19 and have completed it. Due to file-caching issues (I believe!) there may be some issues with images not displaying properly. This is not something I can easily solve, but I will attempt to purge the cache manually and see if this does, in fact, fix the issue.
Other than that, enjoy! The site is now running the latest public version of the MediaWiki software and will likely soon be moved to its new home on a hosted service that Jon Buck is paying for out of his own pocket. We're hopeful that the move (when it is completed) will solve the lag issues and the problems some people have reported with editing pages.
And yet again spammers win - any new accounts require a validated email before editing is allowed. I have, as well, installed an extension that checks several blacklists of known bot addresses and similar for purposes of blocking known spammers.
- --ShadowWolf 19:04, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
The spammers win again - I've updated the captcha system to use ReCaptcha so we should be facing less spam. The problem is that this now means more technological hurdles for the users and that isn't always a good thing. On the plus side all people flagged as "author" in the database will be able to skip the captcha system.
- --ShadowWolf 15:36, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
- I'm still seeing what look like 'bot registrations. They fit the pattern but apparently can't post anything. --Buck 19:07, 28 January 2012 (UTC)
- I see 'em too, but can't do anything unless they start spamming. And if they've broken ReCaptcha, then there is no real way to stop them. Unless there is another system we can use in addition to the two or three spam-blocking methods already in place. --ShadowWolf 20:20, 28 January 2012 (UTC)
- I'm still seeing what look like 'bot registrations. They fit the pattern but apparently can't post anything. --Buck 19:07, 28 January 2012 (UTC)
After a report from Robotech Master I fixed an error in the font embedding that seems to have effected users of Chrome and possibly other WebKit based browsers. Simply put they expected a 'font-style' and 'font-weight' specification in the font-embeddings, which I didn't do because I didn't know of the requirement. I've also cleaned up that part of the CSS and made the embedding a bit more streamlined. Hopefully this works to solve the problem of italics and boldface not showing for some people.
- --ShadowWolf 17:24, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
