User talk:Drawoh

Recap tidying project

Thanks for your help. I made a few small changes but generally excellent, thanks a lot. We have a lot to get through! Soo 16:55, 15 September 2007 (BST)

I've had a look at what you changed. Sensible. I'll do some more when time allows. Drawoh 18:27, 15 September 2007 (BST)

Still making good progress I see! Thanks for all your work so far. Just as a quick note, you can delete the "sol" parameters from numbers template if the player wasn't asked for a solution (for example, Round 5 here). The results are the same but there's some argument for keeping the templates as simple as possible. Also a lot of the automatic numbers rounds have the score in brackets at the end of the solution, but this can be deleted. Soo 14:19, 18 September 2007 (BST)

Thanks for the comments. I'll take note. Just done one more, but going out for rest of day now. Continue tonight, or tomorrow. Drawoh 14:24, 18 September 2007 (BST)

Hey, welcome back! Things are pretty quiet here as I'm overloaded with work, but I'm still trying to fix up the odd recap when I get the time. How was your holiday? Soo 07:39, 25 October 2007 (BST)

Better to be overloaded with work than not enough work, imo. Holidays were great, thanks. Two back-to-back trips. One to Costa del Sol, and the other to South Wales. No need to say which had the better weather. Now trying to remember how the recap tidying works. Just as well there's a guide. Drawoh 11:27, 25 October 2007 (BST)

On the subject of tidying, I would like to make it a lot easier to insert the symbols like multiplication and disallowed word - I'm sure you've found this annoying too. Wikipedia itself has a system for that, to handle accented characters, but I can't work out how it's done. Anyway, good to have you back. Soo 00:41, 27 October 2007 (BST)

Any way of helping to get those characters in would be useful. I can never remember the code sequence for the cross indicating misdeclaration, so I always find another, and use copy & paste. As for the others, I can usually remember the character sequences, and so I normally type them in rather than copy & paste, but a simpler way would be great. Hope you manage to find out how. Drawoh 19:23, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Series 55 complete!

Wow, great work on that! I'm still making progress through Series 51, I'll definitely get that polished off before Christmas. Are you going to take a break for a while or you keen to continue with Series 56? Soo 00:28, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm working on 54 at the moment, and have completed two octochamps. Before moving to the third, I finished off the two outstanding octochamp games in 55 - the ones which had been awaiting a dumper run. I'll continue with 54 now, not going so fast as I was in September though. I had plenty of available time in September, cos my wife was away for most of the month. Now she's back home and finds mundane things for me to do, rather than allowing me to concentrate on the important things in life! Drawoh 09:45, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Dumper error

Thanks for that edit summary, you alerted me to a slight error. I accidentally added some of dumped recap data under my own username, which broke a few things. Hopefully there's only about 10 of these out of the ~1100 recaps, but the correct data is all there in the history if you feel like merging it back together. Soo 23:58, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Glad to hear that's all it was. I'd noticed it was all in history, and so will pick the stuff out of there for the one I was doing, and any others I come across. Drawoh 08:59, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

See User:Reams#List of things I broke by accident. I'll fix these at some point. Soo 13:52, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing series 57 programme 1. It made finishing off the tidying so much easier. Drawoh 14:26, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Style guide

Is this the style guide you were looking for? Also, we now have a template for handling misdeclarations, which will be useful if we ever change how we handle them. You can see it in action in, for example, Round 12 of Episode 3874. Soo 15:11, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes. That's it. Now I know there's a link in my discussion page, I'll be able to find it in future. Drawoh 15:31, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

There's actually a link to it from the project main page Countdown:Recap checking project, but it's not very prominent. Soo 16:07, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Took me four scans to find it, but find it I did. Thanks. Drawoh 16:27, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Seed table

I figure there should only ever be one page with the "still in progress" message on it, so there's not much value in making a template for it - we can just Cut and Paste it. Soo 19:37, 31 March 2008 (BST)

Main page

You're right, the main page is a bit out of date. I have a prototype new main page in the works, but it's not quite ready to go yet. I'll update the current one temporarily. Soo 19:37, 31 March 2008 (BST)

Disambiguation

Moving a page changes the title and creates a redirect from the old one, so existing links will still "work" but they don't get changed in place. For disambiguation, we have to go through all the existing links and change them manually. I can't believe how many ambiguous names there've been lately, I guess they only get more common as time goes on. Anyway, I had to remove the "moving pages" privilege from normal users because spambots kept using it, but I'll promote you to admin and you can get all the other powers associated with that too (like page deletion.) Soo 19:37, 31 March 2008 (BST)

Rounds to check

I think what you're looking for is Template:Rounds-to-check. Usage is

{{Rounds-to-check|999}}

where 999 is the Corral ID for the recap. Cunningly enough, this is not the same as the Episode number; you need to browse the Corral and extract the number from the URL (it will be something like "/recap.asp?recap=999".) I'll do some of them later if you like. Soo 14:11, 12 April 2008 (BST)

I'm just wondering why you've put rounds to check for recaps that have been done by people, not robots. In theory they've already been checked. Cheers, Mglovesfun 23:41, 12 April 2008 (BST)

For the record I don't consider missing TTT clues to be worth marking "Rounds to check", as a lot of them are probably lost irretrievably and some might say so much the better. Maybe we'll have a purge on them when all the other details are sorted. Hope France is good :) Soo 18:36, 13 April 2008 (BST)

Yes, no major damage done either way, but it's always cheering to see that percentage meter creeping up. Soo 00:39, 14 April 2008 (BST)

S h i t. Lucky someone reads the recaps properly! One of my big plans for the summer is to write an automated wiki-recap verifier with features similar to the Recap Writer, checking for blatant inconsistencies like wrong totals, words not in the selection etc. I guess I should add "Method actually evaluates to the stated answer" to that list... Charlie 22:50, 14 April 2008 (BST)

I can't view this page because at work because of automatic firewalls due to the word now in bold. Could you remove it? The Doctor 16:53, 12 July 2010 (BST)

Word edited.--Drawoh 17:05, 12 July 2010 (BST)

Cat keys

It's a long-standing annoyance that I will eventually fix. The first version of MediaWiki that I installed didn't have the DEFAULTSORT feature, either, so I will have to do some trickery with the key values to fix them. It's on my todo list. Charlie 00:34, 26 April 2008 (BST)

If you look closer you'll see Dumper has edited about 800 of them :) However my first-attempt script was too simple to deal with episodes that have more than one catkey (like finals) so I'll do another pass later on and hopefully there should be very little hand-tweaking required. Thanks for prodding me about this, I have been meaning to do it for ages. Charlie 11:02, 27 April 2008 (BST)

Right, that should be all of them. If you spot any more that are incorrect, it's probably easiest to edit them by hand. Charlie 12:08, 27 April 2008 (BST)

Spam

Likely we're just unlucky in that regard- it'll come and go. Hopefully it'll go more than it comes, though. Nebagram 13:02, 17 May 2008 (BST)

Redirects

Hi, just to say that most people consider redirects to be a good things, especially regarding common typos like Alan Saldanha instead of Allan Saldanha, so there's no need to delete them, they don't "spoil" the wiki or anything. Look at this for example, it just creates more ways for people to find the article.

Malicious/Spamming Idiots

I'm at a loss as to why this keeps happening, but all we can do I suppose is keep laying the smack down on his IP addresses until he runs out of proxies/gets bored. The latter is more likely- how many times can you spend time and effort vandalising a page only to see it wiped out within three clicks and seven seconds anyway? Nebagram 15:15, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Back

Nice to have you back, you been away? Mglovesfun 19:27, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Where exactly; I've been to the French Alps there's a small chance I made have heard of it. Mglovesfun 22:07, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Update

3 quick things:

• Sorry I haven't been able to keep the wiki updated for a bit, but I'm behind on watching the shows.
• Would Stewart Holden do as a featured article?
• I was thinking possibly something like Category:Reappearers (or something like that) might be quite good. Countdown Kid 19:18, 10 July 2009 (BST)

William Davis

Hi Howard. Could you update all the William Davies links to William Davis please? I have managed to confirm that it was indeed the journalist and magazine editor who appeared. User:Vande 15:02, 15 July 2009 (BST)

Done drawoh 18:49, 7 October 2009 (BST)

Thank you! Vande 19:34, 7 October 2009 (BST)

Additional Puzzle

There is also a problem with Will D. Downing. Whenever you click on any of his links, such as this one http://www.countdownwiki.com/Mary_Horswill nothing comes up, and it is also impossible to find him via the search box. User:Vande 13:06, 16 July 2009 (BST)

Thank you Howard; I hope you had a good holiday. I've just been looking at the listings on IMDb, and I think these are phantom episodes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1015583/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1015601/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1015584/

Lol okay, thanks Howard. Retirement sounds "well good" - I'll tell my dad, he turns 65 in 5 years.

It's okay Howard, I've sorted out those "phantom episodes" now. They were Specials which weren't fully-listed on here Vande 13:18, 29 September 2009 (BST)

Thanks for sorting out all the "full stop names", Howard. Just need to update your own page now! ;-) Vande 19:28, 7 October 2009 (BST)

Duplicate Names

Thanks, although all the caps with mistakes were mine. :-) Kai Laddiman 10:44, 5 September 2009 (BST)

Howard, Damian has mentioned here that the two Margaret Reads are the same person. Vande 18:28, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Margaret Read fixed Drawoh 19:35, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

According to Martin Bishop here, both Garry Prestons are also one and the same. --Vande 10:29, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

This month's featured article and how to apply for adminship

Hi Howard, I'm sure that it hasn't escaped your attention that This Month's Feature Article has been in place for around four months! Whilst it's become something of a mildly amusing running joke perhaps it's time to move on from GANDISEEG, especially with there having been plenty of effort put into the wiki over the summer by several regulars.

As someone who knows how irritating it is to have someone tell you to do something banal when you no doubt have many better things to do, I would also like to take this opportunity to ask how you became an administrator, as I would be willing to help out. The new academic year looms overhead, but I'm sure I could spare a little time each month. Best wishes, Chris 'Crispy' Philpot 19:09, 13 September 2009 (BST)

Disam

How can you spend 6 hours just doing disam? Kai Laddiman 09:08, 17 October 2009 (BST)

Haha, nice one. I would've done the same.

Also, similar to Crispy, I wouldn't mind trying my hand at getting adminship. I was talking to Charlie recently and he said that the DATE templates were a hassle to update. I would probably quite enjoy doing them if I could. Kai Laddiman 10:58, 17 October 2009 (BST)

Masters Series 2

Many of the players in this series do not have their Master Series games included on their own page. drawoh 00:05, 18 October 2009 (BST)

I am in the process of doing this, Howard. I have only just added the games to the Masters pages - they were completely blank! I have almost finished doing Series 1, then I will start on Series 2. Vande 01:09, 18 October 2009 (BST)

Okay, all done now! Vande 11:07, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

External Links

Howard, a while ago I added a section about this to my talk page, but no one has responded. I am now forced to add all my external links without the "http://" bit, and wait for someone with extra powers to sort it out. Madness. Vande 23:19, 18 October 2009 (BST)

Worked for me today for the first time in ages. Let's hope it wasn't just a fluke! ;-) Vande 14:13, 27 October 2009 (UTC)

Re: Front Page

Hi Howard, and thanks for letting me know about the erroneous web address for St. Hugh's Church which I've now fixed. Are there any other tournaments on the horizon which could be added? Best wishes, Chris 'Crispy' Philpot 19:31, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

If you spot the rest of my brain somewhere around these parts perhaps you would be so kind as to let me know? ;-) Thanks for letting me know, mate! -- Chris 'Crispy' Philpot 19:34, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Re: reinstating the tournaments box - done. Please let me know of any forthcoming Apterous tournaments and I'll add them in.

Best wishes, Chris 'Crispy' Philpot 20:59, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Average petitions

I might have to disagree with you because average's show how many points a contestant has had during his/her games, besides it would take not very long for editing 8 people in a series, with a calculator, that would take maybe 1 minute which isn't very long at all so that is why I have to disagree with you Howard.Countdowner

S or SF

That was a silly mistake even though I know S means a special episode and SF means a semi-final. Thanks for correcting me Countdowner.

COC13

I have changed it to suit us both The Doctor 17:27, 02 June 2010 (BST)

COC14

From the forum: Kirk'll be competing in Countdown's "Champion of Champions" expected to be transmitted in January 2011.

Can somebody...

Change the "current series champion" on the main page from Chris to Ollie? JohnnyCanuck 13:07, 21 June 2010 (BST)

Disam Pages

Sorry. I only realised today that Series 30 needed amending. The Doctor, 1918, 08 July 2010 BST

I'm bored. Could you help me with something?

Basically, whenever I click on an external link to countdownwiki.com it comes up with A picture of a woman with a cheesy grin. Could you help me also with my maintenance page, YouTube additions?

Spread the word!!!

The Doctor 1936, 08 July 2010 BST.

Numerical Redirects

Can You do them. I don't understand the template --The Doctor 09:41, 14 July 2010 (BST)

Thanks Howard. The Doctor 13:13, 14 July 2010 (BST)

Countdown wii game

I'm thinking of getting it. Do you have it, and if so, what's it like? The Doctor 14:56, 14 July 2010 (BST)

Countdown USA!

I fixed the dream series so that it includes Rx-letters instead of R-letters. It should be perfect now. JohnnyCanuck 20:17, 20 July 2010 (BST)

Block and delete someone request

UGG Boots is prime possibilities for feminine sparkle.

This and User:Lovelife0611 are mental!

I removed all content. The Doctor 08:08, 25 September 2010 (BST)

Done. Thanks, Doctor.  :)--Drawoh 08:19, 25 September 2010 (BST)

AAGH! Epic vandalism today, and this person is getting away with a different IP address each time. I managed to revert 2 during the day, James is reverting now, but the guy is vandalising more and more. (BTW The links don't link to real sites) --The Doctor 16:51, 4 October 2010 (BST)

I think you'll find it's not a person, it's a botnet. Though I've no idea what the botnet creator's motive is. See also this discussion on the Esolang wiki. -- smjg 18:38, 4 October 2010 (BST)

Fascination for UGG Boots?

Wear Pink Ugg Boots to Steal The Limelight is VERY Popular!

[[New Quarterbacks at The Helm in The NFL For 2010 is And NFL too!

Btw do you like my new user page? HELP! The Doctor 07:37, 9 October 2010 (BST)

Piped links in templates

Hi, just to make things a little easier for you, I shall point out that there's no need to use {{!!}} inside a link, even if it's within a template argument. For example,

{{game | |  | P | [[Chris Davies (Series 61)|Chris Davies]] | 94-84 | [[Hugh Binnie]] | [[Apterous]] }}

works just as well. The reason is that the wiki engine skips over links in order to determine which pipe symbols actually relate to the template. -- smjg 01:22, 12 October 2010 (BST)

Thanks Stuart.  :) --Drawoh 09:24, 12 October 2010 (BST)

Congratulations on something not really important!

Judging by the url, your latest edit on Series 63 was the 60,000th edit! The Doctor 17:26, 12 October 2010 (BST)

Really!! How did you find that out?--Drawoh 23:59, 12 October 2010 (BST)

I was going to undo it because I thought that Scott hadn't qualified. I clicked undo and in the summary it automatically comes up with (in this case) Undo revision 60000 by Drawoh (Talk) - Second thoughts meant I had miscalculated so I didn't undo it. --The Doctor 16:45, 13 October 2010 (BST)

Thanks Doc. I knew I'd seen a reference to edit number somewhere, but coundn't remember where. As for Scott having qualified, there's definitely time for only five more octochamps (including Jack, if he makes it) whether the final is on 17th or 24th December. And my confident prediction is that it'll be on 17th.--Drawoh 17:50, 13 October 2010 (BST)

Based on insider knowledge from a future contestant, and based on the last dates of recordings, I have the final as actually December 10th. :o JRTerrier24 19:42, 13 October 2010 (BST)

10th Dec suggests just eight days of recordings, including those that were done last week. One would then be a two day session. We'll know for certain soon.--Drawoh 19:51, 13 October 2010 (BST)

This is a long shot and I don't want anyone to get their hopes up, but I have a (barely) possible explanation. If 10th Dec is the date of the final, could the series be ending early so that COC14 can be fitted in before the end of the year? If it were to be 3 weeks long like usual, it would run from 13th to 31st Dec. Dunno, I just saw this page and thought I might mention it. JohnnyCanuck 20:26, 13 October 2010 (BST)

They might just do 7 episodes, meaning 13th - 20th, which sounds more reasonable, as I think they would finish about a week or so before Christmas, like they've done since 2002. --The Doctor 20:35, 13 October 2010 (BST)

oops...

See {{Upcoming Tournaments}}.The Doctor 21:12, 13 October 2010 (BST)

Er... I've had a look. What's wrong?--Drawoh 22:29, 13 October 2010 (BST)

ok. one letter wrong. was that it?--Drawoh 22:40, 13 October 2010 (BST)

Dummy

? The Doctor 20:29, 27 October 2010 (BST)

I used a dummy page to fix the problem about Phil Hammond's pic not appearing. It served its purpose, so I then deleted the dummy page.

Your associated category updates all seem to be working well.--Drawoh 20:32, 27 October 2010 (BST)

Featured Articles

I have thought that having Martin Gardner for 4 months is long enough and now it is nearly the new year, I'm going to give Jack Hurst a markup and hopefully he should be in, and can you change the link on the front page from Ollie to Jack? Thanks. The Doctor 16:27, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Only just seen this (after nearly six months). Will do it, once I've remembered how.  :) Drawoh 08:38, 13 June 2011 (BST)

Very old message, as you say, so why not John Hastings instead? Oh, this page's history might help. The Doctor 18:59, 13 June 2011 (BST)

Go to edit on my user page and just copy the section under My featured article? The Doctor 19:07, 14 June 2011 (BST)

New tournaments

In the last few hours, I got an email from Jeff Clayton planning on in Chester on Sat 19 Nov, and Michael Wallace says Co:Lon is up again on Sat 29 Oct The Doctor 10:25, 2 September 2011 (BST)

Just seen this. Main page updated. Let me know if it needs changing. Drawoh 18:17, 6 October 2011 (BST)

I think you might want to put "No under 18's" for Co:Lon - I contacted Michael and he said that the pub toughened up this year. Otherwise I could have rocked up myself! The Doctor 19:45, 6 October 2011 (BST)

Done!Drawoh 11:02, 7 October 2011 (BST)

Nice to see you to see you....

nice! Welcome back! 17:53, 7 October 2011 (BST)