Doom wiki?

[ducon]

What’s wrong with the wiki?
It’s up but the database is closed.

[Gez]

ducon said:

What’s wrong with the wiki?
It’s up but the database is closed.

Nothing's wrong:

WARNING: The database has been locked for maintenance, so you will not be able to save your edits right now. You may wish to cut-and-paste the text into a text file and save it for later.

The administrator who locked it offered this explanation: Temporarily locked for backup.

They're doing a backup, and locking the database while you're copying it is necessary to prevent getting corrupted backups.

[ducon]

OK, but since May, 14th… :-o

[boris]

Works fine for me. If you still get the same page you might want to force a reload, maybe it's a caching problem.

[Quasar]

No, the database is locked. And something is wrong. The server is infected with a new breed of the Geodo botnet command and control node. It has managed to obtain elevation to root and has installed itself into a hidden location.

There is no threat from this for visiting doomwiki.org or any normal mancubus.net sites; the C&C operates on an off-numbered HTTP port. The problem is that the PEER1 network which provides IP addressing to ServerBeach is threatening to null route the server if the C&C node is not removed. So far we are unable to remove it despite hours of effort.

There is also not currently any indication that passwords or user tokens have been compromised, but, with a root exploit in command of the system, it is of course not entirely possible to promise this.

Manc is in talks with various service providers to look for a replacement. In the meanwhile, I have locked the wiki database to prevent loss of data in case the botnet operators attack the server, or if it becomes inaccessible for some other reason such as termination of service.

[kmxexii]

Oh shit

That is definitely not good

[Quasar]

Just an update to note that the wiki will be migrating to an entirely new server (which may itself be an interim solution in the long run but that's to be determined probably much later). As noted by manc in the front page news thread, this process is scheduled to kick off sometime later today, so expect the site to be unavailable for a good period of time after it starts, and then I'm sure there will be some inevitable technical issues to work out after it is reconfigured in the new environment.

[ducon]

Thank you for the news.
Please hide the Apache version in the minimal page.

[invictius]

Why can't we get rid of doom.wikia.org which seems to only serve to give outdated information and confuse newcomers?

[GreyGhost]

Unfortunately, it's not ours to get rid of.

[fraggle]

invictius said:

Why can't we get rid of doom.wikia.org which seems to only serve to give outdated information and confuse newcomers?

Wikia refuses to remove the page because it makes them money (adverts)

[LogicDeLuxe]

fraggle said:

Wikia refuses to remove the page because it makes them money (adverts)

Could we just put a reminder that there is an up to date alternative right in the logo? It would appear on every single page, right?

Unfortunately, doom.wikia.org comes up very frequently on Google with any Doom related query.

[esselfortium]

LogicDeLuxe said:

Could we just put a reminder that there is an up to date alternative right in the logo? It would appear on every single page, right?

Unfortunately not. The change would be considered vandalism and reverted by the Wikia maintainers.

[Koko Ricky]

Can someone explain to me why there's a rivalry between the two Doom wikis?

[invictius]

GoatLord said:

Can someone explain to me why there's a rivalry between the two Doom wikis?

I don't think it's a rivalry as such, the logos, layout etc is identical, up to a certain date the info is identical, it's just that the wikia one is redundant and for both to co-exist, we'd have to update content for both.

[scifista42]

This post told me just enough of what I wanted to know about it (the quoted wiki page + the post itself).

[Quasar]

By editing for wikia, you essentially offer your time and knowledge on a pro bono basis in order to contribute to what has become a billion-dollar ad serving engine which, with each passing month, treats that content which originally built it with increasing disrespect.

Recent offensive additions to appear on wikia since the last time I discussed the "post mortem" of our transition include intrusive AdBlock-circumventing Amazon Direct video ads in multiple wikis on any article relating to a TV show or movie, and a large column of "Must Watch Videos," which distract and try to divert user attention from the wiki content to a third-party provider with which wikia has a significant financial arrangement.

So do you want your efforts to support a community-owned, charitably operated site which focuses exclusively on its mission to be an enduring encyclopedic resource, or, an ad-laden mainstream media company with a demonstrated lack of ethics built on a shady idea which generates profits from an uncompensated labor of love, and where the security of the data continuing has no guarantee?

That's basically the choice you make when you choose between the two. Which any individual wants is entirely up to them.

Some competition or conflict is inevitable because wikia is permanently entrenched with a vastly overinflated, unearned web rank courtesy of Google. Despite our having reduced the number of external referrers to the doom.wikia site by orders of magnitude via a concerted effort by almost every part of the Doom community, it continues to outrank our site by sometimes as much as 10 slots for some queries, even in instances where our content is much more up-to-date and of significantly higher quality.

You try being in that situation and not get frustrated occasionally ;)

[Csonicgo]

Note that Wikia wasn't even close to being the cesspool it is today. Some of us had a feeling that it could only get worse, while a few still objected, saying to give Wikia "time" to work the kinks out. It's been 5 years, and Wikia obviously failed.

While we're on the subject, I would like to extend an olive branch to those who were against the fork back in 2010. As of 2015, the Wikia version of the Doom Wiki has only two active administrators, leaving it mostly to Wikia staff to police. I understand that anonymous contributors and those not "in the know" contribute to the Wikia version, but most of "the community" has already switched over, Wikipedia now links to the fork, most (if not all) Doom sites link to the fork... and what little contributions the Wikia version gets aren't checked for factual accuracy.

And contrary to the worries of a select few, Quasar hasn't overthrown the wiki and declared himself "DooM G0D!".... At least not officially.

[kmxexii]

The Doom Wiki team has cool people working on it. I hope that it one day crushes the wikia beneath its boot just as I slowly clawed my way past all the defunct WAD review sites. Until then, I'll help out when I can, even if that just means offering link buttons when appropriate

[ducon]

Yay, the wiki is back.

[Avoozl]

Has the wiki ever been updated with info based on the recent Romero unused doom stuff release?

[LogicDeLuxe]

The Doom Data Utility License link in this page is dead: http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Data_Utility_License
Does it still exist? Could that be uploaded to the wiki directly?

[Gez]

LogicDeLuxe said:

The Doom Data Utility License link in this page is dead: http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Data_Utility_License
Does it still exist? Could that be uploaded to the wiki directly?

Looks like the entire johnromero.com domain is dead. Given that the content of the page shows a parking address at godaddy, I guess Romero forgot to re-register the domain.

You should try archive.org for it or its previous address in rome.ro.

[Csonicgo]

Avoozl said:

Has the wiki ever been updated with info based on the recent Romero unused doom stuff release?

Yes. Those articles are being worked on currently, some by me...

[fraggle]

Avoozl said:

Has the wiki ever been updated with info based on the recent Romero unused doom stuff release?

http://doomwiki.org/wiki/2015_Doom_source_data_release

GoatLord said:

Can someone explain to me why there's a rivalry between the two Doom wikis?

There is no "rivalry" - there is the Doom wiki (doomwiki.org) and an out-of-date version that Wikia uses to make ad revenues and refuses to take down.

Gez said:

Looks like the entire johnromero.com domain is dead. Given that the content of the page shows a parking address at godaddy, I guess Romero forgot to re-register the domain.

That's quite frustrating. Even before the site died, I had noticed that certain pages on the site were no longer working, including the mirror of Lee Killough's old site.

[Salt-Man Z]

kmxexii said:

The Doom Wiki team has cool people working on it. I hope that it one day crushes the wikia beneath its boot just as I slowly clawed my way past all the defunct WAD review sites.

It took the Transformers Wiki a year or two to beat out Wikia on search engines, if I recall. Granted, the Transformers brand is a lot more active than Doom, but still, the overtaking of Wikia by DoomWiki is more of a when than an if.

[Gez]

Well it's been four years already.

[Quasar]

fraggle said:

That's quite frustrating. Even before the site died, I had noticed that certain pages on the site were no longer working, including the mirror of Lee Killough's old site.

Welp, there goes a huge chunk of Doom history, unless he gets it back online. Anybody bothered to ask him about it yet?

[Linguica]

No one backed it up for just such an eventuality?

Anyways, yeah, someone should ask him for the files from that page. We could mirror it on DW at least.

[chungy]

You guys should check archive.org more often. Of course it's backed up.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080801192035/http://www.rome.ro/lee_killough/index.shtml