User blog:Ursuul/A Sad Week

This is one of the most depressing weeks I’ve covered. Although many may say I am too ironfisted, I do not relish letting Staff Members go. This week, I had to do it a lot, & I may have to keep doing it in the coming weeks. But enough about me. You came here for news, & so you shall have it! Although a bit rushed, there were many interesting happenings this week besides the demotions, so enjoy.


 * -|Changelog News=

Commands:
Updates have all but come to a halt, much to the News Team’s dismay. However, some console commands have trickled through, so a list of all old and new console commands can be found below and on the Console page.


 * -|Wiki Event News=

Sandbox
The next Sandbox will be on April 1st (no this is not a joke), 2017. Saturday from 10 AM EST to 11 AM EST, then there is an hourlong gaming session. We hope that many people will attend tomorrow!

New Board
As mentioned previously, a new Diep.io Board has been created in the Forum. This board is for anything related to the game, tanks, updates, mechanics etc.

Possible Contest
Previously, the two Tank Building Contest was an epic success and a highlight on our Wiki.

Now, and  are planning on conducting a third installment of this popular contest. They have been inspired by the Spanish Diep Wiki because of their triumphant tourney. More details on this can be found

Calls to Action
The Administrators would love to hear your input on these threads; your input will guide the direction in which the Wiki moves forward.


 * -|Wiki Policy News=

Staff Policy Change
The existing Staff Ranks were designed to be as capitalistic as possible; to let those skilled and active rise, while allowing those who were not active to return to being normal users. This intended degree of competition was never properly implemented, but from now on it shall be. Staff who are ambitious and want to excel will have every barrier removed from their path up the Staff Ladder, but Staff who are inactive will have their supports removed. If anyone reading wishes to try their hand at joining Staff, and providing help to the Wiki as a whole, then now is the time to apply for an Internship. If any existing Staff are reading this, then rejoice; now is the optimal time to rise and excel.

Demotions
We’ve had a quick rush of demotions recently — while it is not even close to the Purges of yore, it shall serve as a warning to those who do not actively and proactively use their given rights well. Read Ursuul’s blog post here for greater context. Demotions List


 * -|Tech News=

Bot Paradise
Özün Oldun now runs off of a Virtual Machine operated via Cloud Computing. This means that rather than relying on Ursuul’s junker computer (which frequently overheated) to log chat, Özün Oldun relies on Amazon’s servers, which should be able to run 24/7 without any of the issues that plague junker computers. Chat Logs should now be much more reliable for the following year (the duration of the free Cloud Computing subscription from Amazon), so long as all goes well.

Discussions Notifications
Fandom has finally released the long-awaited Discussions Notifications. These will help people stay up-to-date on all of their Discussions activity, on this Wiki and elsewhere. Additionally, the notifications dropdown was given light CSS restyling on this Wiki only; mainly to remove the link glow and to add a grey background when hovering over notifications like with the old notifications dropdown.

Script Holocaust
To cut back on load times, increase chat functionality, and to fix ChatLogger (read: bot) bugs, a great many scripts were removed from site-wide use. You can install these scripts for yourself via global or local JavaScript, but they will no longer be served to all users by the website itself. Here is a list of the fallen scripts:

General Scripts

 * TopEditors
 * YouTubeModal
 * MarkBlocked
 * NullEditButton
 * AjaxDelete
 * LastEdited (limited to Rollbacks only)
 * MonobookHighlight
 * DisplayClock
 * Flags
 * MessageWallUserTags
 * ExtendedContributeButtonOptions (many tears were shed)

Chat Scripts

 * Emoticons Button
 * !ban
 * !kick
 * PrivateMessageAlert
 * Tictactoe (was never fully functional)

Chat Statuses
These were streamlined to reduce the number of Statuses one had to scroll through, replacing most with general Statuses. This also decreases load times marginally.

Chat Announcements
ChatAnnouncements were changed to allow all users, not just Chat Moderators, to use them. This is temporary, to see if they are suitable for general use. If they are not abused, then they will stay.

Main Page
Several module size issues were fixed. It is now slightly more appealing from the Mobile Oasis Skin as well.


 * -|Future Plans=

Staff Standardization
Staff colors and fonts will soon be standardized, much like a dress code. This is to allow normal users to easily distinguish between the different types of Staff as well as all Staff from normal users. The exact colors of each rank, or even if each rank will have its own color at all instead of shared colors, is still being decided. Once a decision can be made, all unique styles will be moved to Staff.css, which only Staff Members can see. This will allow Staff Members to keep their unique fonts and to show them off, while allowing normal users to easily make distinctions between Staff. Colors already given out to reward recipients will stay, but the future of style rewards will be debated. If you wish to give an opinion on this subject, & have a say in what new colors Staff will use, then voice your opinion in this thread. Vote!

Mobile App
Still no word from Fandom Staff about the progress of the Mobile App, but the News Team will keep you posted!

User-Groups Pages
No User-Group pages were finished this week, but a page about Powerusers is planned the coming week! The statuses of the remaining User-Groups are displayed below:

Main Page Expansion
While still technically on hold, several changes were made the past week. Besides general spacing bug fixes, the MP-Feed and MP-Blog Modules were removed, and were replaced by MP-Blog2. Check out the changes!

On Hold Plans

 * 1) Main Page Expansion
 * 2) Oasis Theme Overhaul
 * 3) [ Monobook Expansion]
 * 4) Franken Forum Board Rules
 * 5) Community-To-Do-List Overhaul


 * -|Opinion Polls=