User talk:Kazim

In the Logs, I see you deleted Iron Chariots Wiki:Searching on Aug 19th, saying, "This is the second time this page has popped up as a redirect, and I don't know why". I do. It's linked to from the Search results page when you do an unsuccessful search (follow last link to see example). - dcljr 02:07, 26 August 2006 (MST)
 * Actually, it shows up on successful searches, too. - dcljr 02:36, 26 August 2006 (MST)

Known issues
Since registering a few hours ago, I've made an initial pass through the wiki (main navigation pages, special pages) looking for "obvious" problems. I've collected them at User:Dcljr/Sandbox. Basically, I wanted to give you (and Matt) a heads-up before I go in changing everything. &lt;w> - dcljr 03:41, 26 August 2006 (MST)

Spaces in URLs
I've replied on my talk page. - dcljr 03:13, 29 August 2006 (MST)

Comment-box
The only extra typing which is required is "text=" (as you could just start the text section with Comment: ). The old comment-box didn't format correctly in every situation (if, for example a picture or menu div or anything else exists to the right or left of it) which required me to make comment-box2 (to adjust the right margin) and might have eventually lead to comment-box3,4,5,6,7,8,9 (to adjust left margin or color or anything else). That could all be replaced with one template, so why not do it? Additionally, templates which use (unnamed parameters) have additional limitations that prevent some "behind the scenes" stuff from working - unnamed parameters, for example, don't always work well when referencing one template from within another. - Sans Deity 10:44, 10 September 2006 (CDT)


 * Actually, using "text=" AND typing the extra bolded word "comment" is a lot of extra typing, especially considering that it will be repeated many times over throughout the course of an article.
 * Despite the issues you raised, it seems to me that the generic box is shorter and easier for most simple text. What if I reintroduced Comment-box and made it reference Comment-box1 as a special case?  Then we could still use Comment-box1 any time we need to use a picture or whatever.  -- Kazim 11:14, 10 September 2006 (CDT)
 * I guess that would be ok, the problem is that if people add pictures or sidebars later, without properly understanding the templates it's going to be a bit of work for them to figure out that the need to completely change which template is referenced. Instead of looking at the template in use and simply changing/adding a parameter, they now have to completely switch templates. I'd rather type a little extra now so that the only thing an editor would need to do is add a "width=" (or similar). I suppose it's ok to have a million templates but I just want the templates to be manageable and having one template that had a pretty solid default function while allowing optional parameters to be set. One thing we'll definitely want to do, either way, is categorize templates and make sure that they're well documented - which would include documenting all similar template.


 * Generally, I'm of the opinion that "Comment-box1" shouldn't be considered a "special case" template, it should be the default - because it's the one that doesn't suffer from the problems that "Comment-box" suffers from. But that's just me...add it if you like, I'll be typing the extra few characters. To me, it's not just about which solution requires me to type less, it's about which solution is more useful and simpler. Why learn many templates for comment boxes when you only have to learn one? Maybe we don't want every comment in a given article to have the "Comment:" preface, some should maybe be "See also:" or "Response:". Maybe we don't want them all to be the same color...if a particular comment is more important or references another article it may deserve another color. Comments where we agree with the apologist might deserve a different color than where we disagree or where their claims represent immoral beliefs. - Sans Deity 20:33, 10 September 2006 (CDT)

Doubting Thomas and Kirk Cameron?
I don't understand how the "I used to be an atheist" argument has precedent in Doubting Thomas (see this change). Could you please spell it out? --Arensb 10:34, 15 December 2007 (CST)
 * Expanded now; see article. --Kazim 18:40, 15 December 2007 (CST)

Vandal
Watch for a Vandal calling himself Yerranos. He's a fundy Christian doing secular Wikis. Proxima Centauri 13:32, 21 June 2008 (CDT)


 * Thanks for the tip. I have to say I misread your message the first time, and I went through your own recent edits saying to myself, "Hey, Proxima Centauri doesn't sound so much like a vandal..."  :)  --Kazim 10:31, 22 June 2008 (CDT)

Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about this. How do you make sure no one is vandalizing the wiki? What if some Christian like Yerranos starts deleting articles. Will our work be wasted?--wissam hemadeh 15:18, 5 April 2010 (CDT)

Donations
Hello, Russell

I've been hoping you guys would get an automated donation system going by now, but decided to press the issue. I demand that you give me a way to send money to this project!

Hmm, let's see. I think there's supposed to be something I do at the end of a wiki edit. Maybe this is it. Beriukay 07:41, 13 May 2009 (CDT)


 * Hi Beriukay, thanks for your interest. If you want to donate, I suggest you sent it to the Atheist Community of Austin and mark your donation as earmarked for Iron Chariots.  You can donate at this link.


 * Thanks Kazim. That was painless. Beriukay

Short URL
You might've already considered it, or maybe even never thought about it, but having index.php?title= in the sites URLs looks yucky, unprofessional, and somewhat annoying if manually typing out an address. It's relatively easy to get rid of the index.php?title= part so it's like it is on Wikipedia. Instructions can be found here - Aardvark 07:26, 17 June 2009 (CDT)

Wiki Date / Time is off
The wiki's clock seems to be off by more than a week.... Jwissick 01:38, 5 April 2010 (CDT)

A suggestion
I've been doing some research and found some huge websites related to religious issues. Unfortunately, Christians and Muslims dominate the web. I was thinking of doing some more group projects on this wiki, as in critiques of theistic websites, articles, books, debates, philosopgers (Craig, Plantinga, Swinburne, Behe) etc etc. I don't get the obsession with Ray Comfort- he's the dumbest person I've seen.--wissam hemadeh 15:27, 5 April 2010 (CDT)

Also, the wiki seems to have little insight on the religions themselves. What we have is great but take a look at this website for example, www.answering-islam.com  >It's a Christian website which attacks Islam, and it is extraordinary.--wissam hemadeh 15:27, 5 April 2010 (CDT)


 * Feel free to add them! --Kazim 14:28, 15 April 2010 (CDT)

Activation of LaTeX?
The UI for this site has a math button, but it doesn't work:

$$\hat{H}|\psi\rangle = \frac{\partial}{\partial t} |\psi\rangle$$

Is it possible to get this enabled? There's a basic guide here:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Enable_TeX

I've done stuff kinda like this before; it could be time-consuming or trivial depending on what kind of server you've got set up. Just curious if this could be fixed. It's more than a little weird being on a site that talks about science and logic, and only having HTML to work with, but I know you guys are busy, so it's not a huge deal if that's all we've got.

Christhiru is a Dick
I've never used wiki software before so I'm not sure if this is the right place to posit this, but every change the user Christhiru has made needs to be undone and his account needs to be banned. He basically deletes entire, valid, well formed, articles and occasionally adds a link to his sh*tty apologist blog. I have no idea how to go about undoing his many changes to the site or how to launch some kind of formal complaint, but Christhiru is a dick and he needs to be stopped ASAP.

FF searchplugin
I've been trying to work out how to make an Iron Chariots searchplugin for firefox for the last few hours to no avail. Can you help me or defer to someone who could help me? I think it would also be a good idea to add an autodiscovery feature to the site just so people can 'add' the site to the search bar.

Secularism and Xianity
Sorry for posting this on this talk page, but for some reason I cannot use the forum - I tried numerous times, used different names, but still it never allows me in. Anyway, Im here for some help. Over the years, I have heard from many Christians that their religion is responsible for creating many things (reason, science, democracy, morality, ect.) and I am sure we have heard some form of it once. For this, I recently created the article Christianity invented science and explained why it is wrong. I chose this one because it is growing in the conservative academia and Christian apologetic literature. However, there is just one more topic I want to address, the delusion that Christianity invented secularism. I would not bother with this unless it was no growing as well, but I see it very frequently. Anyway, I know we already have a article on separation of church and state, but I wanted to know if I should create an entirely new article refuting the stance that secularism is a Christian idea and separation of church and state was invented to keep government out of religion and not the other way around. What should I do? Wolf 15:35, 12 September 2011 (CDT)


 * You probably should have read the instructions in the access request forum. Anyway, I've added Feredir28 to the member group, I'm assuming that's you. Kazim 12:52, 13 September 2011 (CDT)


 * Thank you, I shall move this topic to the forum. Pardons for not noticing that page. Yes, I'm Feredir. Again, thank you. Wolf 14:08, 13 September 2011 (CDT)

Ray Comfort
Have you plans to write a refutation of Ray Comfort’s views? Two users are concerned. Proxima Centauri 03:08, 4 November 2011 (CDT)

Yeah, have there been any more advances on that? Oh and Kazim? we need another plug for iron chariots on the Non-Prophets, we havent had one FOREVER!....and congrats on the wedding!I made a Rick Perry page,and it has something on it about a group called the New Apostolic Reformation you should read...the youtube video I linked to summarizing it was rather good, it would be humorous on the show..... WhatsAGoodUsername?


 * I've already clearly expressed what I'd like the Ray Comfort page to look like on the associated talk page, and it doesn't include extensive argumentation -- that's for pages about arguments. I will try to remember to plug IC on Saturday, and I'll also be talking with Matt about what needs to happen next with software upgrades and anti-spam measures. --Kazim 17:16, 18 November 2011 (CST)

okay, thanks for the update. WhatsAGoodUsername?

= SPAM SUCKS! = If you need another person to help delete spam, I'm game.I dont have much else to do, other than play xbox. WhatsAGoodUsername?

I see that a boatload of accounts got created while you were upgrading MediaWiki, before you disabled account creation. Did you manage to delete those accounts in the database, or does someone need to go through them and block them? Since most spammer accounts are throwaways, maybe I should just ignore them until they start actively spamming. --Arensb 09:49, 26 February 2012 (CST)


 * Your call, If they haven't already spammed by now then maybe they won't. --Kazim 10:15, 26 February 2012 (CST)

Wiki TLC
Just wondering if it's possible to upgrade the wiki software to a more recent version. I also noticed you're getting a lot of spambots registering, and there are some extensions that could be installed that would help prevent so many from getting through. Finally, it looks like most of the wiki's administrators haven't been very active recently, which while I'm sure have they good reasons, means you might want to think about adding some trusted active users to the list. I know how much of a pain running a wiki without active patrolling can be, and this seems like a good resource for those questioning their religious beliefs, so I hope it gets the attention it deserves. --Resplendent 00:39, 14 February 2012 (CST)


 * Matt Dillahunty is the only person who has the admin login for the server. He keeps telling me he'll get around to upgrading it eventually, but hasn't had time to get around to it.  He told me that it could speed up the process if I would back up the server contents on my computer, but he has yet to send me the login info.  I have been reminding him for MONTHS to do this, but he apparently has better things to do.  My hands are tied, I would do something if I could. --Kazim 06:15, 14 February 2012 (CST)


 * FYI the wiki is upgraded, now I just need to work out what are the best steps to take in order to prevent spam. For now, new account creation is disabled. --Kazim 10:15, 26 February 2012 (CST)

Trying out the "cite" extension
The banana is the atheist's worst nightmare!

Cue Handel's Messiah...
Thank you! [bg] Now, if we can just get to work on expanding the interwiki map, enabling [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Short_URL#Setup_steps short URLs] and [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:ParserFunctions additional parser functions] (and possibly installing the [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Math math] and/or [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:FlaggedRevs flagged revisions] extensions)... [w] BTW, regarding spam, see [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Combating_vandalism MediaWiki:Manual:Combating vandalism] and maybe the list of extensions at Wikipedia:Special:Version for ideas, if you haven't already. Oh, and note that we now have [//wiki.ironchariots.org/api.php an API]. I'm not sure this really changes anything WRT spam/vandalism, but it might. - dcljr 16:16, 13 March 2012 (CDT)
 * Thanks for the list. I'll get on that as soon as I can.  I had already been reading the Combating Vandalism page, but so far all I did was install the blacklist.  As it turns out, that only blocks people from creating shady URL links, which is nice, but it doesn't stop them from registering hundreds of junk accounts.  I intend to add Captcha to the registration process and then keep reading.  I'll add the other stuff you requested when I have the time, but I've been busy with a move lately.  --Kazim 16:09, 14 March 2012 (CDT)
 * The best extension I found to block spam accounts is this one, though it does still require some time/effort due to manual approvals. --Resplendent 01:32, 17 March 2012 (CDT)