User talk:Cyruptsaram

Welcome to the Cyruptsaram

Thanks for your edits! We hope you'll keep on editing with us. This is a great time to have joined us, because now you can play the Game of Rassilon with us and win cool stuff! Well, okay, badges. That have no monetary value. And that largely only you can see. But still: they're cool!

We only take the best!

We've got a couple of important quirks for a Wikia wiki, so let's get them out of the way first.
British English, please
We generally use British English round these parts, so if you're American, please be sure you set your spell checker to BrEng, and take a gander at our spelling cheat card.
Spoilers aren't cool
We have a strict definition of "spoiler" that you may find a bit unusual. Basically, a spoiler, to us, is anything that comes from a story which has not been released yet. So, even if you've got some info from a BBC press release or official trailer, it basically can't be referenced here. In other words, you gotta wait until the episode has finished its premiere broadcast to start editing about its contents. Please check the spoiler policy for more details.
Other useful stuff
Aside from those two things, we also have some pages that you should probably read when you get a chance, like:

• the listing of all our help, policy and guideline pages
• our Manual of Style
• our image use policy
• our user page policy
• a list of people whose job it is to help you

If you're brand new to wiki editing — and we all were, once! —  you probably want to check out these tutorials at Wikipedia, the world's largest wiki:

• How to edit a page
• Editing, policy, conduct, and structure tutorial
• Picture tutorial

Remember that you should always sign your comments on talk and vote pages using four tildes like this:

~ ~ ~ ~

Thanks for becoming a member of the TARDIS crew! If you have any questions, see the Help pages, add a question to one of the Forums or ask on my talk page. -- Doug86 (Talk) 08:32, July 12, 2012

Hi there. Please remember to add categories to articles you create because articles that are not categories fall off the search index and can be candidates for deletion. Also please note that when writing "the Doctor" during a sentence, the "The" should not be capitalised. Thanks. --Revan\Talk 07:48, July 13, 2012 (UTC)

Categories

When adding categories please be aware that you add categories that actually exist. I have spent most of the morning going through your articles removing the "character" category and adding ones such as "individual humans" among others. Please observe the changes that I have made to your edits to better understand the working of the wikia. Thanks. --Revan\Talk 13:52, July 13, 2012 (UTC)

We have categories covering this already such as the Prose writers or Audio writers categories. When adding the categories to a page from the published page, a drop-down box comes up giving you all the categories we have, and refines itself as you type a category. Hope that helps. --Revan\Talk 14:03, July 13, 2012 (UTC)

No problem. I've enjoyed reading your edits so far, you evidently have a wide knowledge of the DWU and do the wikia a great service by adding new articles from stories that we currently don't have much information on. Let me know if there's anything I can help with at a later time. Until then, enjoy editing here! --Revan\Talk 14:14, July 13, 2012 (UTC)

Also, when tagging categories, don't use the "Individuals" category unless a page cannot be categorised as anything else. It's a category of last resort, you might say. Memnarc ^{talk to me} 08:23, July 15, 2012 (UTC)

Among other things, yes. When tagging individuals, it's a good idea if you look to see if what time period they come from is identified in the story (or stories) they appear in. You also want to look for identifying characteristics, like their species or their profession. Finally, for easy tagging, start typing in the little tag area at the bottom of each page until a menu pops up. That should give you some idea if the category you want to give the page exists or not. Don't start creating new tags until you're better versed at categorising. Memnarc ^{talk to me} 08:57, July 15, 2012 (UTC)

Recent edits

Hi! You're doing a great job of adding information to the wiki that wasn't here before. However, before you go much farther, you might want to take a look at the Manual of Style. It's a list of style rules that this wiki follows. It will help you in further editing, and your edits won't need to be corrected so much. Thanks! Shambala108 ^{talk to me} 17:18, July 14, 2012 (UTC)

I'd like to second this advice. When editing, try to keep the tone more formal, rather than conversational. Memnarc ^{talk to me} 06:34, July 15, 2012 (UTC)

Block

You have been blocked for a period of not longer than 24 hours for a pattern of editing behavior that is disallowed. You have been adding categories which are unnecessary, and which will not likely be created. More information will follow after a more thorough review has been completed. I needed to stop you cold in your tracks so that the reversal of your edits would not be so laborious.

Despite this, rest assured that your presence here is appreciated, and this blocking doesn't mean you're a "bad" editor. In fact, the ban will be lifted very much sooner than 24 hours. Consider it a li'l "hold on a second" rather than anything actually punitive.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 20:49: Sun 15 Jul 2012 

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner. I hadn't originally intended the ban to last this long, but real life intervened.

Basically, the deal is that we don't really need categories that consists of people's names, like Category:Verity Lambert. Category names must tell us something a bit more than that. Moreover, these categories are inconsistent with our current goals of adding what's called Semantic MediaWiki coding to the site. We haven't quite got around to doing the classic series, but if you'll notice, we already have in place extensive SMW coding on the new series.

What this coding allows us to do is to create a truly relational database, wherein we can ask questions like, "What stories were written by Russell T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn?" This query would provide, in its very simplest form:

Children of Earth: Day Five (TV story), Children of Earth: Day One (TV story), Children of Earth: Day Three (TV story), The End of Time (TV story), The End of the World (TV story), The Runaway Bride (TV story), Tooth and Claw (TV story)

So while I see where you were going with your category placement, this isn't the architecture that we want to build — especially on behind-the-scenes personnel — because it doesn't give us any ability to relate one thing to another.

At the end of the day, your categories would have been stripped anyway. I was merely stopping you before you wasted too much of your time.

As I stressed in my first message, your presence here is both appreciated and required. I again apologize for not being able to write this follow up message sooner. Your block is now lifted.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 15:08: Mon 16 Jul 2012 

Thank you very much, I will resort to categorising with available categories. But you don't seem to have unblocked me. I do not mean to sound forward, I agree with your advice, and it was absolutely fair that you blocked me. To be honest, I don't even know why I began to all those categories in the first place.

I just looked over the block and it isn't in place now. Have you tried to edit an article? --Revan\Talk 17:00, July 16, 2012 (UTC)

a thank you from me

I was going through the recent activity lists to see if there were any new articles that needed cleaning up and saw that Czechout had left a message, said "Uh oh" to myself and went to see what he had said and done. First, let me note that I have been cleaning up your articles because that is my specialty here. I basically watch the TV shows and that's it, so I don't contribute many new articles, but I do know how to edit and clean up text a lot better than -- to put it without false modesty -- anyone else here. You give me a lot to clean up, but that's fine -- our skills are complementary. You catch the fish, I clean 'em.

From my viewpoint, Czechout knows how to write well, but has gotten trapped in a bureaucratic mindset and I've had a couple of wrangles with him and been locked out once. I'm not sure which feels worse for you: the implication that you're not the best writer in the world or being told you're a bad boy because you didn't do some damned bureaucratic nonsense. I also think the manual of style is unreadable and badly intentioned -- writing well is a matter of thought and practice and highly idiosyncratic. I urge you not to let the bastards grind you down, to keep on doing what you do well and expanding your self-imposed tasks slowly and deliberately.

To sum up, I don't expect anyone to do everything well around here but you certainly do something well: you get the facts down on their appropriate pages in a form where they can be cleaned up pretty easily. I say more than thank you, I say "bravo." I hope you'll keep on doing it. It certainly gives me something to do.Boblipton ^{talk to me} 21:09, July 15, 2012 (UTC)

I'm gonna jump in here and add my voice. I completely agree with Boblipton here and definately don't think that because of the ban we don't want you here on the wiki. In my opinion your additions to the wiki are exactly what this wiki needs to grow; new articles from non-TV productions which are sadly neglected by other users. I can see why ChzechOut enforced a ban on you, but I'd just like to say that in my opinion it was a tad harsh a punishment. So on the basis of all that I have said, I hope you decide to continue editing here. --Revan\Talk 21:44, July 15, 2012 (UTC)

Years pages

I have a sneaky way of doing it which can't really go wrong. Just go on another year page and click to edit it, then copy all the page and paste it onto the year page you want to make and change the dates. Simple. --Revan\Talk 09:09, July 17, 2012 (UTC)

Audio stories

Should the plots be filled in? I should think so! I would suggest using the classic stories as models, since the modern stories are overloaded with details that are irrelevant to the word PLOT.

Although some of the items are set up with templates that are intended for other sorts of items, most stories -- what the high-falutin' people around here call"narrative sources" can use an introduction, a synopsis (brief on the order of "The Doctor and Amy go to the Moon and eat green cheese"), a plot (the skeleton of the story), notes and continuity. If you can do some of these, it would be great. Boblipton ^{talk to me} 10:45, July 17, 2012 (UTC)

I am astounded at your capacity for soaking up all this stuff. I bought one issue of DWM -- the new companion with great dimples -- and that was enough for me. Still, go to it. By the way, I noticed your asking how to add a timeline tag. As a general rule, when I want to add a tg but don't know what it is, I hunt up an article that has the tag and check it out by putting the article in editing mode.Boblipton ^{talk to me} 12:29, July 17, 2012 (UTC)

Past tense

Please remember to write artciles in the past tense. The first sentence of your article "Perpetuity Chamber" was written in the present tense. Also please remember to add a source to your edits, as I had to go through the "what links here" tool to find what pages linked to the article to that I could add a source for you. Thanks. --Revan\Talk 14:24, July 17, 2012 (UTC)

Categories

Articles which have categories such as "planets visited by the Doctor" or "humanoid species" don't need the "planets" or "species" categories added also. This is because if these are added then they will show up twice in the system as the "humanoid species" category is a subcategory of "species". Thanks. --Revan\Talk 16:19, July 17, 2012 (UTC)

Please don't add categories to your blog, as categories are saved for pages within the wiki. Thanks. --Revan\Talk 07:42, July 18, 2012 (UTC)

Emily Boyes-Dennison

Dear Cyruptsaram, I am having some issues editing Emily Boyes-Dennison. I cannot tell, the way the article is phrased, whether her father or she designed the ships. If you would tell me which, I can do the editing. Boblipton ☎ 10:49, July 19, 2012 (UTC)

That was quick. Thanks!Boblipton ☎ 10:52, July 19, 2012 (UTC)

tinkering with hyperlinks

Just a hint because I know that the fussiness of hyperlinks drives me crazy -- especially given some of the weird, made-up names and the extended ones like Cursing the Course of the Bourse of the Nekkistanni Horse House and Fgh!kkrj of the People (audio story) -- it got really annoying when auto-suggest wasn't working.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Although auto-suggest only recognizes the name of the link if you capitalize the first letter of the name, you can go back, put it in lower case and so avoid the long form where you put the upright line and the case you want. I noticed this morning that you had written {open double bracket} The Moon|the Moon {close double brackets}. It does just fine if you just just do the bracketing around "the Moon". It's case sensitive after the first letter, but then so are most of us.

I hope that's clear enough and a bit helpful. Boblipton ☎ 10:47, July 22, 2012 (UTC)

Categories

I recently re-read your response above, and I was disturbed by something. I don't want to suggest that you can't create new categories. Obviously any user can create a category. The only thing I want to stress is that you examine what's called the "category tree" — the thing which binds all the categories together — and see how categories are typically named and used. If you have questions, please ask. A good place to start your exploration is Floor 500, our top-level category. Or you can just click on the word "Category" in the category listing on any page.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 18:29: Mon 23 Jul 2012 

Individual Humans

Hey there, just letting you know that the proper category we have is "Individual humans" and not "Human individuals". I've corrected your edits so far, but please remember this when creating more articles. Thanks. --Revan\Talk 12:54, August 1, 2012 (UTC)

Edit problem

Hi! I have noticed some issues with some of your recent edits. For example, on the cat page it took you 8 edits just to list a reference. Also, there were some edits where you added unnecessary periods and then immediately removed them on separate edits. I don't know what the issue is, but I just wanted to give you the heads-up that this type of editing can look like vandalism, and I've seen users warned and/or blocked for this. Shambala108 ☎ 16:17, August 2, 2012 (UTC)

I thought it might be something like that. I can completely relate, I have had many different kinds of problems mess with my edits since I've been doing this. Shambala108 ☎ 16:53, August 2, 2012 (UTC)

I'm really sorry, I just noticed that you had left a message on my talk page a couple of weeks ago. I can't help with your computer problem, but I can give you a couple of suggestions on how to work around it. First, when you edit, do it by section rather than the full page, so if you lose something, it won't be as much. Second, if you have a lot of text to write, put it in a Word document or something like that and then copy/paste to the edit page. Both these tricks work for me when my computer is acting up. Shambala108 ☎ 05:13, August 24, 2012 (UTC)

Diagnosing your editing problems

Sorry to hear you're experiencing editing problems. Without more information, the only thing I can tell you is that it is a problem specific to you. I've received no reports of similar problems affecting other users. I've seen no traffic at Wikia Central suggesting a problem broadly affecting users' editing abilities. (Bugs do tend to get noticed on Thursdays and Fridays, because updates usually happen late Wednesdays.)

I'm going to need from you some more specific details to help you.

1. What operating system — including precise version number — are you using?
2. What browser — including precise version number — are you using?
3. Is this a problem that affects you regardless of the browser you're using? (If so, please include all browsers and version numbers you have on your system.)
4. Are you using any version of Internet Explorer?
5. Could you describe in more detail what you mean by "my computer is chucking me out of the edit zone"? In what way is it doing this? I'm guessing from the above messages that it's not just aborting; it's actually publishing. Does it happen only when you're typing? If you open an edit window and do nothing will it still "chuck you out"?
6. Does this behavior only happen at tardis.wikia.com, or can you reproduce it on other wikia.com sites?
7. Is your keyboard set up in a completely default way, or do you have certain "special" keys redefined so as to, for example, play certain video games or type certain symbols more efficiently?
8. Do you have any personal CSS or JS enabled on your Wikia account?

The only thing we can do to diagnose an unusual, person-specific problem is to start at the top and eliminate things one by one. We'll figure it out, though.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 17:15: Fri 03 Aug 2012 

I need for you to answer the questions I asked, please. Re-read questions 1 and 2. The majority of admin here — me included — use Macs and Safari, so I can assure you that this site does work perfectly well with modern Macs and Safari installations. However, I still need to know the exact OS version number and Safari version number to help you.

I also need you to download Firefox and tell me your results. We need to determine whether this is a Safari bug or something more generally wrong with your system.

If it does happen Wikia wide, then it's not a tardis.wikia.com problem. Nevertheless, I'll still try to help you — if you can get me some greater details about your setup.

Please bear in mind that Wikia does not support any version of Safari lower than 5.0, so if you're on a PPC Mac, you're (kinda) screwed.

Another thought: if you've recently changed any security settings regarding blockage of pop-ups or the use of java, you could be inadvertently affecting the editing window. So try to think back a few days to when it was all working for you and consider whether you've made any changes to your Safari setup.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 20:00: Sat 04 Aug 2012 

Um, this is the third time I'm asking. Can I please get answers to my questions? I need to know what precise version of OS X you're using, along with the precise, full version of Safari. It's great that Firefox is working for you. That helps narrow things down. But you still have a problem. We're not done yet.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 20:59: Sat 04 Aug 2012 

For the fourth time, what version of OS X are you using? Please go to the Apple menu and pull down to "About this Mac".
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 21:08: Sat 04 Aug 2012 

Please enter Special:Chat so that I can get more information.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 21:13: Sat 04 Aug 2012 

Tip o' the day

Well, okay, three tips. :)

1. Dab terms are important. They help us distinguish one John from another. Or, as you discovered today, one Pat from another. Be careful, though, that you've included both parentheses, or a variety of technical problems will ensue. So the proper name is Pat (Imperial Moon) not Pat Imperial Moon).
2. Use a stub template, not a stub category. Familiarise yourself with Tardis:Stub templates. Use {{character stub}} not category:character stubs. The template will automatically add the right category, but it will also put up a nifty little stub flag, so that other users can see the article is running a little short.
3. category:Individual humans is — perhaps ideally — a category of last resort. It's what you use when you can't find any other distinguishing feature about a person. So if you can put a character into category:Human astronauts you don't need category:Individual humans. A basic rule of thumb about categories is that you should never put a page into two categories that are within the same part of the category tree. Since category:Human astronauts is within category:Individual humans, you've over-categorized. Think of a simple bit of categorisation. You shouldn't put Lassie into both category:Dogs and category:Collies, because category:Collies is already a part of category:Dogs.

Thanks for continuing to edit here!
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 19:58: Sat 11 Aug 2012 

Spaces at the end of a page

Please do not eliminate the final carriage return on a page. Though this blank vertical space may look extraneous to you in the Wikia skin, it's very helpful to editors in the Monobook skin, as well as to those using Wikia who have decided to turn the category module off. See, if you're in one of those two camps, the categories appear at the end of the page, not in a little box off to the right. The space at the end of the page separates the categories from the main body of text, which makes the page code easier to read.

Also, the MOS BOT will actively add back in this carriage return, so you're really just wasting your time eliminating it, as you did today at Doctor Who Wiki. Thanks :)
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 16:51: Mon 27 Aug 2012 

Continuity and brackets

Revan recently reverted an edit you made to The Sorcerer's Apprentice (novel). In that instance there does not need to be brackets around the story because it's referred to within a sentence. By adding the brackets you kinda destroyed the sentence structure. --Tangerineduel / talk 17:08, August 27, 2012 (UTC)

Signature

Please remove the term "Head Administrator" from your signature. It is practically breaking our T:MISLEAD USER username policy. --Tangerineduel / talk 17:39, August 27, 2012 (UTC)

From the quick look I've had it appears that anyone's signature is constant throughout the different wikis. You might be able to create a sub-page template on the wiki where you are admin and include that in your signature so when it calls on that sub-page here nothing happens.

You can also drop CzechOut a message and get his thoughts on it as he's got more experience with the tech side of things. Thanks. --Tangerineduel / talk 09:16, August 28, 2012 (UTC)

You might want to give Help:Signature a gander. It'll tell you how to create your signature so that it's a series of templates. You can then change the templates on every wiki you go to. This will then give you the ability to have a signature with "Administrator" on those wikis where you are an administrator, but to remove that tag here, where — as Tangerineduel advised — it's a violation of our local rules to say you're an admin when you're not.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  03:41: Sat 08 Sep 2012

Asylum of the Daleks

I dunno. Why are you asking me? If Asylum of the Daleks and related content is open, then it's open. This wiki defines spoilers as simply "stuff not officially released or broadcast", rather than ANY major plot thread or turn. -- Tybort (talk page) 21:25, September 1, 2012 (UTC)

Perdova

Ah okay, sorry there. If there is a category for just military officers then sure. Commanders and human generals aren't categories which we need and that's why I deleted them before. I deleted the soldiers category from the article because it was already covered by human military officers. I hope that clears things up a tad. --Revan\Talk 10:39, September 8, 2012 (UTC)

Disambiguation

When creating an Name (disambiguation) page, the word "disambiguation" must be lower case. If you've ever looked on the Category:Disambiguation you'll see that all articles that have the bracketed "disambiguation" on them are lower case. Thanks. --Tangerineduel / talk 12:26, September 8, 2012 (UTC)

Proper use of quotation marks

Please review T:ITAL. Quotation marks are to be used on Hartnell-era episodes, like "Johnny Ringo".
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  20:46: Fri 14 Sep 2012

Interlanguage links

Whatcha doin' on the front page, my friend? If you'd like to propose additional language wikis, please lemme know what you're doing so I can handle all the details. Adding a new wiki is a bit more than just adding a link at the bottom of the page. Please see Forum:Interwiki Requests for more info.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  23:49: Sun 16 Sep 2012

DoctorWhoTV

Hey :). Please remember you should not link to the website "Doctor Who TV". For more information, please see the message on the series 7 talk page. Many thanks. MM/Want to talk? 15:52, October 5, 2012 (UTC)

Spider's Shadow cover

What's your source for File:BFP109b.jpg? You didn't give a license for the image, and I wasn't aware that BF did covers for the single ep adventures that are part of another release.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  22:04: Sat 19 Jan 2013

Well, I'd be interested to know where you got it. However, I'd tend to think that if it's not the official BFP website, it's just a mockup done by an enterprising fan, and therefore something we can't use.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  15:02: Sun 20 Jan 2013

The url has the word "blog" in it and "you're not sure" whether you can use it? Clearly our education programme has gone awry. A blog is definitionally a fan site. T:NO FANFIC and T:OOU SRC apply. Definitely disallowed.
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍  15:23: Sun 20 Jan 2013

Appreciation

Just to let you know that I appreciate your effort to add plot sections to spin-off media. It's something I want to start working on, though I haven't read that many books yet! Glimmer721 ☎ 00:06, March 12, 2013 (UTC)

Christmas cheer

Happy holidays!

As this fiftieth anniversary year comes to a close, we here at Tardis just want to thank you for being a part of our community — even if you haven't edited here in a while. If you have edited with us this year, then thanks for all your hard work.

This year has seen an impressive amount of growth. We've added about 11,000 pages this year, which is frankly incredible for a wiki this big. November was predictably one of the busiest months we've ever had: over 500 unique editors pitched in. It was the highest number of editors in wiki history for a year in which only one programme in the DWU was active. And our viewing stats have been through the roof. We've averaged well over 2 million page views each week for the last two months, with some weeks seeing over 4 million views!

We've received an unprecedented level of support from Wikia Staff, resulting in all sorts of new goodies and productive new relationships. And we've recently decided to lift almost every block we've ever made so as to allow most everyone a second chance to be part of our community.

2014 promises to build on this year's foundations, especially since we've got a full, unbroken series coming up — something that hasn't happened since 2011. We hope you'll stick with us — or return to the Tardis — so that you can be a part of the fun!

Speculation

Hi! Please don't add speculation to articles. We don't allow things like "it is presumed" or "it is assumed". Also, we never use "it is unclear" for the in-universe section of pages. Please take a look at Tardis:In-universe perspective for some guidelines to writing in-universe articles. Thanks! Shambala108 ☎ 20:06, March 22, 2015 (UTC)

Deletion tag

Hi! Please do not remove content from pages that you nominate for deletion. The {{Proposed deletion}} tag is sufficient. Please read Tardis:Deletion policy for a complete explanation. Thanks. Shambala108 ☎ 20:19, March 23, 2015 (UTC)

Production credits

Hey. I noticed you were adding credits for crew members. If you want to guarantee you have a complete list, you can use Template:Pcred. For example, on Matthew McKinney, instead of listing out everything, you can just type {{pcred|3D artist}}, and a list will appear on the page. A lot of credits were missing from that page, but now they are all there with minimal effort. You can read more about it on the template page. P&P talk contribs 20:01, March 29, 2015 (UTC)

PAST tense

Hi! Please note that, as stated earlier on this page, you must use past tense for all in universe articles. Thanks. Shambala108 ☎ 00:32, March 17, 2017 (UTC)

Once again, I have to remind you to use the PAST tense for all in universe pages. It's not fair to expect other users to clean up after your edits. Thanks. Shambala108 ☎ 18:18, March 19, 2017 (UTC)

Uncredited cast

Hi! Please make sure to add a source for any uncredited cast/crew pages you create. Thanks. Shambala108 ☎ 14:14, March 17, 2017 (UTC)