User talk:Erik the Appreciator

Small Question
I recently had a little too much time on my hands and I whipped this up. I was wondering if I could make a link to it on the Class Series page and open the door for other people to do the same. Eventually, my hope is that we can give readers a wide view on different class setups. Tanooki1432 04:07, 22 March 2011 (CDT)
 * Well I guess so. Since this subpage of yours is written more informally than an article, it should stay at that subpage, and the link should probably be at the bottom and make some sort of reference that it links to a user subpage. Erik the Appreciator 12:40, 22 March 2011 (CDT)

Suggestion for future updates
I've noticed the little elemental bullets in use at the site. I've also noticed that the ones for Luna... really need some work. On top of that, we've got the inevitable introduction of a Sol adept, so distinguishing between Sol and Venus may get annoying. Might I suggest a few different images I've made? They should be fine in terms of integration, just replace the old ones with the new ones, and add Sol for when we get a Solian in the future. The Luna one is changed to match closer to the 'shadow of darkness' seen in dark dawn, the Venus is changed to reflect closer to it's representative color - more brown than yellow. Sol is a light yellow, reflecting light. Here's what I've got: http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/ToKStarD2.png http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/ToKStarG.png http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/ToKStarL4.png

I've also got a picture of them grouped together for reference purposes (though a couple extras are thrown in as well): http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/BulletSelection.png

Your thoughts on them? I figure it should help distinguish them in the future, on top of having them look better than that black... thing that Luna currently has. 75.60.182.188 12:51, 22 March 2011 (CDT)
 * That's definitely a helpful proposal, and like you said, those changes with Venus and Sol would only be made once Golden Sun 4 makes light-aligned Adepts a reality. Obviously, whatever colors the game might end up using for the bullets for light and dark elements will be what the wiki uses, and we can expect the developers of their own game to come up with bullet colors that appear different enough from each other that the difference can easily be seen (Sol and Venus). Right now there's never been any official bullet graphic for darkness released, but since the current black bullet graphic is a fan creation, there's nothing harmful about replacing it with your version right now. Erik the Appreciator 13:12, 22 March 2011 (CDT)


 * Heh, no problem. When I saw it I thought it kinda looked like the old version of the one I made for a project I'm working on over in the ToK, so I figured the same approach to making it was done.  Too bad a dark grey to black bullet just... looks like a black circle with a white dot in it.  At least this one should look noticeably more presentable. 75.60.182.188 13:28, 22 March 2011 (CDT)
 * Although I have to say, right now it looks a little too similar to the Jupiter star bullet that's in the Character template, and I can tell that the reason the dark and jupiter stars in your little montage above can be more easily told apart is because your Jupiter star is actually colored a little more consistently violet. It might be worth replacing the Jupiter star bullet next, so could you post your version of it here as a separate graphic from the montage? Erik the Appreciator 13:37, 22 March 2011 (CDT)
 * Heh, there's a reason for that - when editing the bullets for the project, I noticed that the Jupiter bullet was almost... kinda artifacty. The same things I did to edit the others I coudln't do since it was too varied - so I just made a new one that worked.  Here you go: http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/ToKStarA.png . If you need anything else, let me know, 'k?


 * Hey, just a heads up... After getting ahold of the Dark Dawn style bullets and making a set, I've made a few edits so that the Sol and Luna star/bullet things fit the set more. http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/GSHCLuna.png Luna has been just slightly brightened so that it looks less opaque, and fits the set more.  http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/GSHCSol.png Sol's been redone completely, the first one being far too soft, causing it to not fit in with the set.  The DD bullets actually had venus as a brownish color, and so just using yellow for Sol helped me realize it helped it fit in much better.  While I was at it I figured I'd tweak Luna a bit as well, and that's the result.  If you're curious, I'll throw in the DD set I made.

New set vs Old set is as follows: http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/BulletSelection.png vs http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/GSHCStyleBullets.png. DD set is this: http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/Sprites/Misc/DarkDawnBullets.png. Want to swap to the new Luna, or are you fine with the old one?


 * The modifications to Sol and Luna do look and fit better now, so I would vote to have those implemented. Erik the Appreciator 12:23, 31 August 2011 (CDT)


 * I see you adopted the Venus star too. Might I suggest changing the character file template to reflect it?  Right now, when looking at the info on venusians, it shows up with the old colors.  Since Sol is likely to have a yellow or golden color to its future indicator, it may be a good idea to make the field more brown than gold to match the updated bullet.
 * So that's an attempt at a darker venus color scheme. Any slight differences that can be proposed like to the middle color? Erik the Appreciator 18:47, 31 August 2011 (CDT)


 * Well, you already have the color scheme down. Look at the Venus Djinn info template - those colors works really well.  I suggest adopting those colors for the Venus Adept info template as well, as well as any other Venus template using the old yellow colors. 75.55.116.32 03:53, 1 September 2011 (CDT)
 * Well, actually, things do seem fine now with just my edit to the character infobox colors. Since no light element has actually been released, it isn't as important now to perfect the venus colors on the character infobox as it would be in the future. All venus coloring on templates might end up changed anyway in response to the Light element's release, depending on how light's actual bullet color in the future turns out. Erik the Appreciator 12:54, 1 September 2011 (CDT)
 * Even so, it'll probably be a good idea to standardize the colors you use for the elements throughout the site. I suggest using the ones for Djinn as a basis - you appear to base the color of the tables off of the djinni, and as they are this game's version of Elementals, they are colored the same as their element.  Should we later have fundamental djinn (please Kraden no...), the same method should arguably be applied to not only their tables, but all instances of wielders and instances of their respective fundament as well.  So while it may not be exactly necessary right now, with no true person being able to use the Light Fundament, and with no real examples of a proper use of the Dark Fundament, it would actually go a long way to help the wiki look a bit more professional. 70.253.92.89 20:10, 5 September 2011 (CDT)
 * Okay, changed for the character infoboxes. I do have to admit that worked out better than I thought. Erik the Appreciator 20:32, 5 September 2011 (CDT)
 * ??? You did? I can't really seem to notice any difference, even after clearing my cache...
 * Huh, it certainly made its difference known to me once I submitted things. After saving my edits, refreshing Isaac's page turned the peach-ish part more yellow so that it matches the deeper venus color on the Djinn template. I'll point you exactly to the original color here and the new, more appropriately yellow color here to show the difference I'm talking about. Incidentally, I use a FireFox 3.6 version. Erik the Appreciator 22:00, 5 September 2011 (CDT)
 * Ah, it was a minor change. That explains why I didn't notice it... still, I think the colors should be standardized, rather than different for different sections.  At the same time, of course, I'd like to know what Camelot's personal take is too, but... well, I wouldn't even begin to know how to go about just asking the question.  If only we were press, eh?  Personally, though, I've got a suspicion that Luna's gonna be the same color as those shadows of darkness the shadow creatures in DD had, while light's either gonna be white, yellow, or gold... Geez. I wish we had a solid answer to this, especially for Venus, which has been shown as yellow, brown, and green... so inconsistent...  ...Ack, I'm ranting.  Anywho, I guess that's good for now, or something.  I'd honestly think it'd be better as the same brown that the djinn uses, but I'll just give it a rest for now.  Good work as always on the wiki, and I love what you've done with the djinn.

Thanks, though, I should confess something now: All this time I've been making a big mistake in reading into what you were talking about. It didn't occur to me that you were talking about the Djinni infoboxes that are at the top of each of the Djinn articles themselves, which have the dark peach color scheme and a dark brown border that you were proposing. I actually thought we were talking about the left Venus section of the Djinn directory template that's at the bottom of each of the Djinn articles. What I had done was make the character infobox for Venus Adepts match the two brighter orange color schemes from the directory template, and that takes the character infobox away from the darker peach of the Venus Djinni infobox. I do see how the Venus character infobox is not colored like the Venus djinni infobox now...

Looking at all these templates, there's non-standardized color issues going on with the other elements too. Each of the four elements right now has a color scheme for the character infobox of that element, the Djinni infobox of that element, and how that element's section in the Djinni navigational template is colored. In most of these cases, the color schemes are not identical. It should be more of a focused undertaking to do color standardization for all four of the elements, because if one element has its colors standardized, the other three should have theirs done the same way. With this in mind, I'd probably propose that an overall undertaking to standardize all colors on elemental templates is best done when there's a Golden Sun 4 released and the two Fundaments have been officially established alongside the four Elements. Erik the Appreciator 00:50, 6 September 2011 (CDT)

Okay, so I've put the primary colors of the Djinn infobox templates onto the four Character infobox templates, so that should make them look alike, and therefore more standardized. Now Matthew's character infobox is more brown like the Venus Djinni design. The two primary colors seen on each element of Djinni's infobox are now the lightest and darkest tones of the three color tones on each element of Adept's infobox; the only reason character infoboxes still look a little different from Djinn infoboxes in general is because there is a "midway" color in between the light and dark tones. I think the brownish color I chose as the midway color for the Venus Adept infobox is good. Erik the Appreciator 01:15, 6 September 2011 (CDT)


 * Okay, now that I've not been awake for 22 hours and my brain isn't stalled out on neutral, I can make a proper reply! The new standardization looks nice.  Let's hope GS4 clears any misunderstandings up, as well as gives us something to work with for the fundaments.  Good work. ^-^ 70.253.92.89 21:17, 6 September 2011 (CDT)

Think you could slow down a bit?
I know you're getting a lot of good work done, but some of us use the Recent Changes page to keep tabs on the wiki's progress. (Well, I do, at least, but I doubt I'm the only one...) You made 92 uploads in little over four hours, which really floods the page. While it is possible to display up to 500 edits at once, the default is 50, and I, at least, find it aggravating to have to increase the number of displayed edits on a regular basis. So in the future, if you're going to be editing many pages or uploading a lot of files, do you think you could split the project into smaller chunks and only do one or two per day? It would make things a little less overwhelming for the rest of us. The World&#39;s Hungriest Paperweight 17:32, 4 May 2011 (CDT)
 * Wasn't expecting this kind of request... In my defense, the nearly-hundred uploads in a few hours here is a special case I find hard to imagine being able to do again in the near future because of how out of the limited number of collections of things in Golden Sun that would require lots and lots of separate uploads, most seem to have been finished by this point anyway - from what I can tell, perhaps only a Psynergy icons project remains now, and taking in-game snapshots of monsters everywhere, cropping them, and uploading them into monster line pages individually would be something that would take lots of the spread-out time and occasional page-to-page editing you're talking about.


 * Now, the default you have right now for the Recent Changes is 50. Is that specifically a number you like for the RecentChanges to be at, or would you prefer it be at 100 or 120 or 150 at all times? Because it's possible to have the recent changes display any of those numbers of edits for you every time you go there without having to manually change it each time: go to your preferences to the Recent Changes panel, where you can not only type in the default number of changes the RecentChanges shows, but control how many of the days past are displayed, from a week to three months (O_O;). I hope this will help your problem...


 * And there's another strategy I think you'll find very useful: you can make the RecentChanges not display file uploads by clicking on the Namespace drop-down menu and selecting File, and then checking the Invert Selection box. Only actual edits will be shown, and due to how a file upload does take an obnoxious amount of space in RecentChanges whether there's a few of them or fifty of them, this is actually highly useful information for anyone that views RecentChanges to know. It's probably the most useful function of the whole Namespace/Invert selection bar of the RecentChanges page, especially because while I have this temporarily burst of inspiration to get long-incomplete parts of the wiki done, I wanna milk that to its fullest. Erik the Appreciator 18:19, 4 May 2011 (CDT)


 * The first thing I should say is that I don't usually log in until I plan on actually editing. If I'm just checking what changes have been made, I only see the Recent Changes page using the default settings. Even if that weren't the case, though, I probably wouldn't use the features you've mentioned. I prefer only displaying a small number of the most recent changes because it makes it easier to tell where the edits I've already seen end and where the new ones begin. Having hundreds of edits displayed at once can make it easy to lose track of things. As for the uploads: I'll admit that, when a bunch of files are uploaded at once, I only skim them. However, when only one or two files get uploaded, I do like to find out what they are. On a related note, I believe it's possible to filter out minor edits. The problem there is that different people have different opinions on what qualifies as a "minor" edit, so filtering them out may hide some actually noteworthy edits.


 * Now, I realize that most of this is just my personal preferences, and I'm the only one that has control over that. But you have to keep in mind what the "default" view is, as that's what people use by default (hence the name). The World&#39;s Hungriest Paperweight 11:11, 5 May 2011 (CDT)
 * Oh yeah, that doesn't apply to whoever's not logged in. Well, how do you get onto the site to begin with? If it involves a bookmark either in the bookmarks menu or on a bookmarks toolbar in the Firefox browser, first of all that bookmark can be defaulted to the Recent Changes menu through having that page as the URL of the bookmark. That's precisely what I do - my browser's bookmarks to the wiki are on RecentChanges, because I always look through Recent Changes every day too, and that save a lot of redundancy rather than defaulting to the main page every time I go on. Since I'm always logged in, my preferences of showing 120 edits always applies. With all this in mind, now, even those who aren't logged in can still see 100 changes as their default by having the URLs of their browser bookmarks to the Recent Changes page be what the url of RecentChanges would be once the 100-change option has been selected ("http://goldensunwiki.net/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&limit=100"). Incidentally, this works to make even my little File-filter concept possible to be a "default" too ("http://goldensunwiki.net/index.php?namespace=6&invert=1&limit=100&title=Special%3ARecentChanges"). Just another strategy I think you should keep in mind.


 * Okay now, here's where I start editorializing: The end result and goal of any of our editing is to improve the content and reader experience of the thousands of readers who only care about seeing completed and relevant content. I'd always act on that, regardless of how many edits that takes up. So, if there's another opportunity for an editing/uploading marathon such as this DD Psynergy Icon thing I just started, I would personally choose to do all of it quickly like I did with the Djinn icons, rather than try to accommodate other users' RecentChanges convenience preferences. Erik the Appreciator 12:19, 5 May 2011 (CDT)


 * Well, I never know what computer I'm going to use next these days, so the bookmark idea won't work for me, although other people might be able to take advantage of it. As for your second paragraph, I can't really argue with that. I probably wouldn't do the same, but you have a good point. Anyways, I'm glad you've only uploaded the icons for Venus Psynergy so far, because, when working on adding DD equipment icons to the equipment list pages, I and another editor (I can't recall who at the moment) agreed that the default size of DD icons create weird spacing issues and are a bit too big to be using them as substitue bullets. Not without shrinking them, anyways. We think 24 pixels is about small enough; any more, and they get too hard to make out.


 * As I said, I'm glad you've only done the Venus Psynergy so far. If you had done all four elements, we'd have to go back and change all of them. Since I caught you before then, we can incorporate these changes into future edits, reducing the overall amount of work everyone has to do. In short, another reason to not do everything at once is to give other users a chance to chime in and make suggestions.


 * And before you respond, I can already see a counter-argument: Since we can always come back and change things later, it would be better to get the basic stuff in first and make the necessary adjustments afterwards. I won't deny that it's true, but I think cooperation and collaboration, as well as keeping each other informed, is also important. So, if you stand by the counter-argument I've stated above, we'll probably just have to agree to disagree ;) The World&#39;s Hungriest Paperweight 16:15, 5 May 2011 (CDT)
 * I knew that specifically waiting for your response before doing the other three elements was a good idea XD
 * After all, I think just the same as your second paragraph - it takes less work for one to do a quarter of a big project, have discussion on that, and then do a more ideal job on the other three quarters, than to do the entire project and then fix the entire project all over again.
 * Psynergy page structure and presentation in general is something I'm going to be discussing a lot in the near future because I'm going to try to create an entirely new and consistent page structure on a couple Psynergy pages for the rest of the Psynergy pages to be revamped in the same style, just like how I - and you - had done that with some weapons, which is now causing other users to revamp all the other weapons in the same style. With that being the case, what we're really just doing here is getting the file uploading done and putting the icons in pages just to show users revamping the pages later that all the icons are in the pages and available to work with. Erik the Appreciator 16:45, 5 May 2011 (CDT)
 * Just a quick note... which you may have intended, and I just wanted to be sure, you can go ahead and upload all images as is, and just resize them on the page. That makes for much better wiki quality to begin with. Just saying ~ dkpat 16:47, 5 May 2011 (CDT)


 * This conversation seems to be steering more towards image size, which is perfectly fine, but since it doesn't have much to do with Erik specifically (ignoring the fact that he's the one uploading them), perhaps this conversation should be continued on a forum? The World&#39;s Hungriest Paperweight 17:00, 5 May 2011 (CDT)

Thought you should be aware
RyuKenshin just lost his brother in a motorcycle accident. ToK is pretty shaken up over it. Tanooki1432 00:38, 30 May 2011 (CDT)
 * Oh man... I had permanently left the TOK over a half year ago, and yet in spite of that I'm quite grateful that you took the time to bring it up to me here. I would absolutely give every heartfelt condolence I could imagine, and the dread feeling I have in my chest right now really can't compare to how he must be feeling. I wish him the best. Erik the Appreciator 01:18, 30 May 2011 (CDT)

Should we seek Affiliation?
Do you think we should seek out affiliations with some Golden Sun websites? In the long run, IT is likely to improve our content, though I'm sure most of the community knows about us anyways, plus it would help move those who know us from wikia to here I think. ~ dkpat 11:02, 4 June 2011 (CDT)
 * I'm actually not so sure if certain of these sites would even appreciate that. Several years ago when I was much less wise, I had made several guest posts on Golden Sun Realm pretty much advertising the wiki and encouraging people to come and work on it to while Golden Sun 3 was just some far-off dream. The webmaster told me off for basically trying to steal some of the fansite's much-needed traffic, implying that the wiki has always been competing against the other, separately owned fansites. I think this wiki is really much more like the one close affiliate to the Temple of Kraden, almost like it's an "extension" of that, one reason being how many of the wiki's users come from there.
 * Of course, my answer is based on an issue that was around four years ago, so I'm not sure how much these perspectives hold up today... Erik the Appreciator 12:21, 4 June 2011 (CDT)
 * Oh my, that seems like their webmaster was a bit of a .. well not friendly person. I fail to understand how we are possibly taking traffic away from any site that can truly claim to be a fan site. Only sites we could take away from is a site dedicated only to information, just as we are. If it has a community I don't see it as a information based site. Sadly, it seems there really isn't many sites in our fandom; Golden Sun Realm, Golden Sun Syndicate (which appear to be the same thing...) Adept's Refuge. ok, more than I originally thought. I don't see any harm in asking though, and if they are mean about how they say no, then I wouldn't want to be an affiliate anyways. I could start contacting a few and see what happens. ~ dkpat 12:41, 4 June 2011 (CDT)
 * Erm, I for one sorta thought they had a point at the time, since that was when the wiki was much less of a wiki; the webmaster had therefore thought that the wiki was "my" site. I wasn't exactly doing the best conduct at the time either with the way I was posting URLs to it repeatedly. Erik the Appreciator 14:34, 4 June 2011 (CDT)
 * Ahh... well I guess it is more understandable then. But still, I do not see harm in emailing various sites and asking if they would be interested. If they aren't, oh well nothing is really lost. But if they are, we might gain more traffic, they might gain more traffic, and hopefully we would get more exposure in the community. Why would they get mad from making a simple offer, and even if they do get mad, what harm does that do us? ~ dkpat 14:52, 4 June 2011 (CDT)
 * Right, like I said, that was four years ago. Perspectives are much different nowadays, so I agree it would be worth bringing it up. Erik the Appreciator 14:55, 4 June 2011 (CDT)
 * lol, Ok then. Do you have specific sites in mind that you think we should ask, Or should I just try those I see fit to? lol ~ dkpat 15:11, 4 June 2011 (CDT)
 * Just ask the ones you see fit to, yeah. Erik the Appreciator 15:22, 4 June 2011 (CDT)

A question for this wiki?
Does this wiki includes Battle Videos? Luis Felix Raileys 05:24, 11 June 2011 (CDT)
 * No, that takes too much file size. At most, it might have URLs to YouTube battle videos offsite. Erik the Appreciator 12:04, 11 June 2011 (CDT)
 * Just popping in because I'm stalking your page, but if you want to allow them - go for it. I have plenty of space, and if it would help the wiki's content, I'm cool with it. --Aredmoon 21:10, 7 August 2011 (CDT)
 * Since I've been thinking of posting this for a while, There are also YouTube embed extensions we could use, if we wanted to do that as well. ~ dkpat 21:18, 7 August 2011 (CDT)
 * I'm just gonna chime in - A Youtube embed extension would probably be preferable in the long run, regardless of Red's space. :) AlishaShatogi 22:00, 7 August 2011 (CDT)

You asked
...and you shall receive. I'm changing the level required to make a page to auto-confirmed. This will prevent brand new accounts from making pages, thus preventing 90% of spam pages. ~ dkpat 13:54, 10 July 2011 (CDT)

Psst...
Can you take a small break from the Djinn and take look at the discussion going on on the main page. I really want more opinions about it before we act. Great job so far with the Djinn btw~ dkpat 13:56, 17 July 2011 (CDT)
 * Mmm, I guess I'll try, but I had hoped that was strictly the department of you and Hungry, the users who have actually been interested in the categorization issue and therefore put lots of thought into it. I'm going to have to read the discussion closely in order to even know what to comment on. Erik the Appreciator 14:00, 17 July 2011 (CDT)

<3 Djinn page work.
Saw what you did to Garland - THAT's what a Djinni page should look like! :D Thanks! AlishaShatogi 15:02, 7 August 2011 (CDT)
 * I've done 76 others like that. 42 remain! Erik the Appreciator 15:45, 7 August 2011 (CDT)

Well this is odd
So, I'm editing the Fume Psynergy series to reflect the newer format, with the templates and all. Apparently Dragon Fume's PP cost was altered from 35 to 28 in Dark Dawn. There's not really a way to reflect both in the template right now. Any ideas? --Sippyjuice 18:44, 10 October 2011 (CDT)
 * That's a good catch, and something pretty much unprecedented in the series. What I did was basically fit the Dark Dawn value into the range section and used roll-over templates on each of the different numbers to indicate which game they apply to. You can see the syntax on the Fume page. Erik the Appreciator 20:10, 10 October 2011 (CDT)

Reaching Crossbone Isle
Just wanted to let you know, I found what would appear to be a reliable method for determining what rowing teams will take you to Crossbone Isle in GS on a gamefaqs board. I examined the methods used and they seem reliable. I've posted the system I found on the Tolbi-bound ship talk page if your interested. I was wondering whether it should be added to the article. Tzion 21:41, 11 October 2011 (CDT)

NIWA meeting
Hello Erik! I would like to tell you about a meeting that NIWA is wanting to have with senior heads for each wiki, The meeting will be on Skype, as it is probably one of the better giganto group chat programs. It is really encourage that everyone attend is possible (no set date yet) In general the topic will be what NIWA can do to help all of it's member wikis in the upcoming year. In general it is agreed that NIWA has reached it's growth limit, and should stop focusing on finding new members, and instead focus on making better our current members. (I believe a mass email will be going out with regards to this as well) Please try to attend when it comes around. my skype contact is dkpat1, if you make an account just add me to contacts. ~ dkpat 19:49, 9 January 2012 (CST)
 * Mmm, well, I've never done or tried Skype in my life. More importantly, though, I can't imagine this wiki needing any help beyond what it already has - it really looks like everything about it is perfectly fine and can stay that way - and I'd rather not have to go out of my way to attend something when I don't even really consider myself that active on this wiki nowadays. I'd say they can have their meeting and broadcast any news that comes out of it. Erik the Appreciator 21:20, 9 January 2012 (CST)

Update
I think its about time to update the introduction section to Rief's and Amiti's page. They are the only ones with a large block of text for their introductions. I would do it but I wouldn't know where to put the text. Chinkycandie 18:56, 11 January 2012 (CST)

Question
Why did this branch off the Golden Sun Wikia? --96.242.163.228 09:22, 29 April 2012 (CDT)
 * About a year and a half ago, Wikia wikis everywhere were appalled when the Wikia higher-ups forced this restrictive new "Oasis" skin on them all. The skin very narrowly limited the article content on the page and stuffed lots of ads and cumbersome "features" into every page every user would see, and it was done strictly for money reasons. Not only that, the Terms of Use on Wikia was updated to no longer allow Admins to use custom CSS or JavaScript to completely remove these "core features" for all users.
 * Several high-profile Wikia communities copied their Wiki contents onto their own servers and moved, most notably Wowwiki into Wowpedia. We weren't necessarily all up in arms over the Oasis thing and would've likely stayed at Wikia had nothing else come up, but the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, which is a collection of Nintendo-related wikis that were either not on Wikia to begin with or had also made the move from Wikia, invited us to move over to one of their servers, and they offered to pay the cost for a domain for us. It was an excellent offer because it allows us to have a custom-designed skin with minimal ads and junk, like the golden skin that's active nowadays. Erik the Appreciator 12:43, 29 April 2012 (CDT)

Dark Dawn Character Ages
Hey erik, we have a user asking about these in the Forum (I'm trying to look into a way to show Forum changes in Recent Changes...) But If you have any idea where we got this information from, could you please respond to them. I can't figure it out. (Wiki Discussion Category) ~ dkpat 11:38, 1 May 2012 (CDT)

Greeting from Zabbeth!
Wow! I had no idea the site was moved. Though, it's not letting me log in. I'm trying to transfer my account from there to here, but nothing's happening. Have any tips or info? Zabbeth24.247.209.120 18:25, 11 May 2012 (CDT)
 * Wasn't expecting you to suddenly pop up! ^_^
 * Hopefully User:Dkpat knows about the technicalities... Erik the Appreciator 19:19, 11 May 2012 (CDT)
 * I've told User:Aredmoon to take a look at this when he gets a chance. He dealt with the technicalities when we moved soo... Hopefully he will know what we can do (and he is the host soo hopefully.) If absolutely nothign else, we can delete the account so it can be remade I suppose. ~ dkpat 21:57, 11 May 2012 (CDT)

Zabbeth, here is what you can do. Just follow the instructions on here. Golden_Sun_Universe:Move Try the first email first, and if you don't get a reply (which is possible since it has been a while), then send an email not to aredmoon (he is in Spain for a semester... so he's a bit busy) but instead to http://goldensun.wikia.com/wiki/Special:EmailUser/Dkpat and I'll see what I can do for you. (I think I've got it figured out) ~ dkpat 13:34, 13 May 2012 (CDT)

Tried the link you provided. Claimed I was "throttled", and didn't send it out. Gonna try again later. 24.247.209.120 13:51, 13 May 2012 (CDT)


 * I just found the page to reset a password at (took a bit of searching) anyways, you should have a new password in the email you used (which is a yahoo account) If you don't have access to this account anymore, then I'm going to have to require that you send an email through the form on wikia to me (to verify it is you basically) and you can put a new email address in the email that you send for me to change your email address here to, which I will then send a password to. Hopefully I've got this all worked out! ~ dkpat 13:58, 13 May 2012 (CDT)

Thank you for the help. It feels good to be back. Zabbeth 15:11, 13 May 2012 (CDT)
 * Glad it worked out for you :) --Aredmoon 12:15, 14 May 2012 (CDT)

Do I ask permission too much?
I'm a little paranoid that I may tread on y'alls toes or something, which is why I keep bringing things up but not actually editing the wiki topics. I guess it's cause I'm still kind of new here, so I wanna make sure it's fine to go and do so. So... I guess I'm sorry I keep mentioning stuff without correcting it - I'll try and fix that behavior in the future. Rolina 21:28, 11 September 2012 (CDT)
 * Right, well, generally one is encouraged to follow Wikipedia's so-called "Be Bold" editing guideline for fact-fixing and the editing of prose in articles. It's whenever there's something to do with the syntax of templates and table structure, as well as any situation where you think about making a more radical change or addition to a page, that you'd want to go to the talk page first with the users that handled the harder syntax before. Erik the Appreciator 00:49, 12 September 2012 (CDT)
 * Eh, right. I'm just rather new for wikis period, so I'm still a bit shy to get my feet wet.  I'll be sure to go in and edit stuff I find from now on.  After all, I can literally look up the code with Atrius' editor.  Only thing I may have to ask for is Dark Dawn, assuming if I can't find the game when I look stuff up.  It's usually put up in its place, though, so it shouldn't be common for that to happen.  I suppose if anyone wants to double check mechanics, throw me a ring. Rolina 01:06, 12 September 2012 (CDT)

Redirect Discussion
Hey Erik, take a look over at User_talk:Dkpat. Please and thank you :3 ~ dkpat (talk) 15:00, 4 October 2012 (CDT)

Spam Accounts
I notice that the wiki is having troubles with spam accounts. Have you tried contacting the head of NIWA (or whoever is in charge in front of you) and requesting that all accounts require an e-mail address? This can help block some of the spam, as the spammer will need a real e-mail address in order to spam. I have tried it before, and despite potential loopholes, it has worked in minimizing the spam. --Secreteer (talk) 15:47, 5 October 2012 (CDT)
 * Umm... we are in charge of us. NIWA is simply an affiliation group that we are a part of. Specifically Anti Spam is something I've been dealing with. Just Prior to you becoming a member I had email confirmation required for all edits, however, this did mean that Anons could not edit the wiki, so I began to look into alternate measures. ~ dkpat (talk) 16:32, 5 October 2012 (CDT)
 * Afraid the next step is captcha, though personally I'd prefer... more lethal action be taken to stop spambots. Too bad it's illegal... >_> Rolina (talk) 08:17, 6 October 2012 (CDT)
 * Hey... these are getting really bad. They've overrun the forums, and they're getting back here.  I think we need some kind of measure here... a captcha, in combination of forcing accounts for forums as well. Rolina (talk) 00:56, 24 November 2012 (CST)
 * Mmm, the methods of preventing the spambots have always been purely dkpat's department, and I therefore wouldn't know how that one spam article about love managed to get past whatever he set up. I don't think he ever set up something similar for the forums, though. All I can do is just delete the forum junk threads and wait on him. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 01:57, 24 November 2012 (CST)
 * Rolina, we've always had captcha. Quit suggesting it. The forums are the only place that is completely open, and honestly, most bots ignore them strangely.~ dkpat (talk) 08:12, 24 November 2012 (CST)
 * I'm suggesting a more complicated one, or at least another means of keeping them at bay, and no, the bots aren't ignoring the forums. They're posting quite a few new topics full of, well, junk.  They've been removed now, but the rate that they were being posted before I brought it up was worrying. Rolina (talk) 10:12, 24 November 2012 (CST)
 * Right, well there was about 25 topics in the General forum that were made over the course of several days recently, which I had mass deleted. That was more or less a freak occurrence because that had never happened before, and I see they haven't posted anything new since I deleted them. I guess because it is so rare that the forums get a surge of bot posts, and it is so easy for me to mass delete them (literally I just have to checkbox them all and choose a delete option), the forum version of the bot problem probably isn't all that worthy of anti-spam attention right now. But we'll just have to wait and see.
 * For the mainspace on the other hand, it looks like there's been 2 spam articles that had been made within the past 24 hours by one "Lewis2324" spam account - somehow that got past whatever captcha system had been set up. I'm not sure what to think about that - whether it's an isolated occurrence or marks that more of this will happen over time - since previously there would always be a lot more spam... Erik the Appreciator (talk) 11:51, 24 November 2012 (CST)
 * The currently installed captcha is the most advanced captcha that there is, So we can't get a better one really. (don't suggest Recaptcha, we've been there and done that and seen how ineffective it is.) On top of that, I have implemented a number of spam blacklists and required email confirmed accounts (and disallowed a good database of throwaway emails), so there is honestly not much else that I can do to prevent further spam. Every wiki has spam problems, even Wikipedia. ~ dkpat (talk) 21:47, 24 November 2012 (CST)
 * Interesting, so this actually is the height of spam security we're in right now. And any isolated instance of some piece of spam making it through is sort of a special case we can't really blame the security for. Knowing that, I'm okay with deleting and blocking whichever spam occurrences can still happen. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 22:31, 24 November 2012 (CST)
 * The only further steps I could take, (to my, and all of NIWA's knowledge) would be to not allow edits for accounts that haven't passed a certain age threshold (30 days for example) or to disallow new account creation. Both of which I don't think are good ideas. The age restriction works fine for sites lie Bulbapedia because they have an overly dedicated user base with a large amount of users, We don't have that so I feel like doing that would just drive potential editors away. (The other thing Bulba has and suggests is a very active admin presence to control spam.) ~ dkpat (talk) 22:45, 24 November 2012 (CST)

How's Life?
Hey! It is me the user Luis Felix. It is been a long time. How's life out there? --- Raileys Xerilyas ( Userpage 02:24, 27 November 2012 (CST)
 * Life is fine, though the only things that seem to go on here at the wiki now is the occasional spam accounts that fill up the forums with posts that I have to delete. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 11:12, 27 November 2012 (CST)
 * Yeah. Too much spams. I just kinda fixing the templates for my GS Transfer Password Page. What's news about Golden Sun so far? ---Raileys Xerilyas ( Userpage 20:14, 9 December 2012 (CST)
 * There really hasn't been any news for a long time now. After Dark Dawn they made a Mario tennis game on 3DS, and then they said they would consider whether to make a fourth Golden Sun game after that. There hasn't been any news yet on whether they went ahead. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 23:38, 9 December 2012 (CST)
 * If Wonder Bird is the enemy to be fought always with high EXP in The Lost Age, what is for Dark Dawn? I do play it by now and Dissidia Duodecim.--- Raileys Xerilyas ( Userpage 20:51, 12 December 2012 (CST)
 * It's the Tua Warriors fought at the end of the game right before the final boss battles. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 21:05, 12 December 2012 (CST)
 * Thanks for the answer. :) As I observe in the whole series, Nintendo and Camelot never made an actual timeline for the whole series (to make the time events in the whole series a lot of sense). I just made one as a spoiler. Feel to read it in my userpage (if you liked to). --- Raileys Xerilyas ( Userpage 20:35, 19 December 2012 (CST)

Forgotten...
I've created a new account in this wiki because I've forgotten the password of my previous account (RaileysXerilyas). (I dunno if admins in this wiki can hack my password. XD) RaileysXerilyasRX (talk) 04:43, 27 April 2013 (CDT)
 * That's okay, I guess. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 12:14, 27 April 2013 (CDT)

Message of Appreciation
Hey Erik, just want to appreciate all the work you do here, in-spite of it being years since ANY of these games came out. Also, I want to appreciate your 2012/2013 rebalances, they're really really fun! Marandahir (talk) 19:55, 6 February 2014 (CST)
 * Haha, well I'm just impressed and delighted that between their availability on the hacking community and on Mediafire, my GS1 and GS2 rom hacks were downloaded over 230 and 170 times each by this point, respectively. And the ironic thing is that I've been dormant on this wiki in comparison to the Smash Bros. one, where I've written all the Franchise Description sections for all the Universe articles (like this). Erik the Appreciator (talk) 21:27, 6 February 2014 (CST)

Regarding RNG manipulation
We all know that in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, you can manipulate the RNG mechanics to ensure that you can get item drops from enemies featuring weapons like the Tisiphone Edge and the Atropos' Rod. However, one think I think the article RNG abuse strategies are missing are minimum level requirements. Some of the enemies may have too much HP to be finished off in the two turns needed to ensure the 100% chance, even if you use elemental equipment to boost the power. For this reason, can we put a bare minimum in each article towards what level the characters should be in order to have not only the right psynergy, but also enough strength and power to kill the opponents in two turns to activate the RNG abuse? --Secreteer (talk) 15:29, 6 April 2015 (CDT)
 * EDIT: I forgot that HP goes up in Hard Mode, which would made distinguishing the levels between easy and hard mode difficult. --Secreteer (talk) 15:43, 6 April 2015 (CDT)
 * Well sure, but I'd have to leave putting in highly involved data like that to users like you. You should definitely do all that if you want to. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 20:57, 6 April 2015 (CDT)
 * I am not sure how exactly I would put in these differences. Do I just state a recommended level for when to attempt the RNG methods in Easy Mode and a recommended level in Hard Mode?  I mean, you can attempt RNG manipulating for an Atropos' Rod at level 40 in Normal Mode, but in Hard Mode level 50, the amount of damage needed to KO it means you will most likely come short without using elemental equipment and attack boosters.  I definitely think there should be some mention on the wiki of how to execute each RNG method.  Most likely, we should have alternate RNG methods for Hard Mode with specific minimum levels, since Normal Mode RNG methods require you to be several levels higher to pull off in Hard Mode due to the increased HP.  --Secreteer (talk) 10:04, 9 April 2015 (CDT)
 * It doesn't sound like there is anything lacking with the alternate-method-for-Hard-mode idea you're putting forth here. I couldn't suggest anything better than two methods per article, basically put into their separate sub-sections and being written in full detail separately from each other. Based on what you're bringing up, it doesn't sound like Hard-mode versions can just be modifications of Normal-mode versions; rather, that they would basically have to be entirely different setups requiring higher levels of the party to use higher-tier attack Psynergy, which warrants entirely different blocks of text content to be written for them. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 12:15, 9 April 2015 (CDT)
 * Understood. Will something like this work? --Secreteer (talk) 18:30, 9 April 2015 (CDT)
 * I made an edit showing what I think would work best. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 20:00, 9 April 2015 (CDT)
 * Regarding the Atropos' Rod edit: putting an additional enemy onto the field will affect the amount of RN put out, meaning that a method that works on two opponent will not work on a method with a single opponent. --Secreteer (talk) 20:03, 9 April 2015 (CDT)
 * Huh, well it's been years since I had tried any of this stuff. But I think my edit shows how things should probably be formatted. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 20:05, 9 April 2015 (CDT)

New NIWA Member!
Just thought I would let you know that Inkipedia has officially been inducted as the 23rd member of NIWA. Please update your main page accordingly. I'll upload the Favicon for you. Thanks! --Starphoria (talk) 11:55, 4 July 2015 (CDT)
 * Also, your links for Starfy Wiki and Metroid Wiki are broken. --Starphoria (talk) 11:57, 4 July 2015 (CDT)
 * Thanks for the heads up on both those things. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 13:06, 4 July 2015 (CDT)

-Hello and apologies-
Hello! I apologise if I'm presenting this message wrongly, as I am fairly new to this Wiki.

Recently, I accidentally deleted some text from Silver Blade. 511 words to be precise. I noticed your editor's comment and realised what I had done. I had begun to edit a small grammatical error and must have accidentally selected and deleted a section. As I hope you can infer from my tone: this was an accident. I would never want you or anyone else on this Wiki to believe I were vandalising or being detrimental to this database.

I realise how this was irritating to re-edit and I apologise once again.

As I said, I am new, however my love for Golden Sun has motivated me to chip-in. I would appreciate further heads-up if I make any errors, though I will endeavour not to do so.

Regards, TheLightKnight


 * Oh! That possibility honestly had not occurred to me, even though I was hoping that there was an explanation of some kind as to why entire sections of content would disappear even though you had been making good edits elsewhere. (I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but it wasn't just the Silver Blade article where an entire section got deleted; the day before, you had deleted an entire section of the Nut article, which I'm assuming you didn't mean to do either.) I thank you for both making your editing efforts and for clarifying to me on my talk page what you were trying to do, and I would like to assure you that editors like myself and User:HungryPaperweight like cleaning up new user's edits if they add good new points to articles missing information.


 * I'll post this wiki's Welcome Message onto your talk page to show you how you can make sure your edits don't accidentally delete other content, and how to post your signature at the end of your talk page messages, like my signature at the end of my response right here: Erik the Appreciator (talk) 20:41, 24 August 2015 (CDT)

Help with Images
Hello again! I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm playing through Golden Sun to get various screenshots for pages lacking in pictures. And I'm not quite sure how to import images from my computer to the pages. This may be a stupid question, but I've looked on the Help page and it didn't give me much help. Regards -TheLightKnight- (talk) 09:24, 26 August 2015 (CDT)
 * Click the Upload File link at the left section of the site, under the "Tools" heading. On that screen, click the "Browse" button and use that to select the image you're importing into the site's file storage from wherever you have the image on your comp. Before you push the Upload File button at the bottom, you should fill in the "summary" box with a brief description of what it depicts from which game. However, while it's standard on various wikis to then select a licensing from the dropdown box below the summary box, I personally leave that at "none selected" and instead type in the following syntax below my descriptive content text in the summary box itself because it causes a simpler result that doesn't rely on specifics:


 * ==Licensing==


 * From there, you can post the image file wherever you need to in pages with syntax like RuinsInterior.png Erik the Appreciator (talk) 12:24, 26 August 2015 (CDT)

Just Curious About Something
Um, hi! I'm really sorry to bother you, but I was just sort of curious about something, and I didn't really know who else to ask about this. I was browsing through the site and under the "Wanted pages" there are a few pages listed as "Help: -" and I'm just curious to know what those sorts of pages are/what they are intended to be. I don't mean to burden you or anything so I'm really sorry to bother you over a curiosity of mine, but if it's not too much trouble, hopefully you can get back to me about this (and if not, that's totally ok, too). Thanks! Sorry, again! --Whimsikal (talk) 20:07, 11 June 2016 (CDT)
 * Several years ago, some of us had been filling out the pages in Help:Contents for formality's sake because larger and more active wiki sites typically have these same sets of guidelines copy-pasted so as to resolve conflicts and contentious issues with the types of content they put forth. But as nowadays this wiki's just a couple users making occasional edits (like yourself!) and this wiki never gets any vandalism or controversy, we've never bothered filling that stuff out, since a lot of wiki-editing etiquette is commonly understood among many kinds of wikis without the need to be stated. And you don't need to be so reserved about whether your efforts to understand the workings of an unfamiliar site are "inconveniencing" anyone here; your current editing is more than appreciated as is. :-) Erik the Appreciator (talk) 15:44, 12 June 2016 (CDT)
 * Ah, geez; thanks for getting back to me (it's very sweet of you)! Ok, cool :) I will keep this in mind for future reference. Thanks, again! Also for future reference: if I do ever have any other questions, is there anyone specific that I should run them by? (I only came to you because I saw you were active, recently. I don't know if my judgement there was well justified) --Whimsikal (talk) 19:15, 12 June 2016 (CDT)
 * Since I don't see anyone else being remotely active, you can always run them by here. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 22:16, 13 June 2016 (CDT)

Hey Erik! We've got an Affiliation Request
Long time no talk! :) I sent an email to Golden Sunrise several months ago asking them to update their link to the wiki to use this website instead of our old wikia version (primarily because that site has almost no good Dark Dawn information) and they just now got back to me. They updated their link and have offered more formal affiliation as well. They have created three banner options for us to choose from so that their affiliate logos retain their site styles. Take a look at these three banners they created and choose one you think would be best to represent us. http://imgur.com/a/0jGk6 ~ dkpat (talk) 09:39, 1 September 2016 (CDT)
 * I guess the middle one because the Wise One looks... "planetary", maybe? Something one would associate with the word "Universe?" That's my only way to choose one out of three choices that all look perfectly fine otherwise. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 12:07, 1 September 2016 (CDT)

Regarding Spam
Hey Erik, I'm giving you a heads up that I have disabled account creation for now since the spam problem has started. I'll review it later tonight and see if there is something else I can do about it. Also, a heads up that Special:Nuke is an amazing page for mass deletions like this. ~ dkpat (talk) 12:29, 6 April 2017 (CDT)
 * Huh, I was wishing there was a function like that. Thanks for pointing it out. Erik the Appreciator (talk) 13:35, 6 April 2017 (CDT)
 * So Update, I re-enabled account creation and added an additional captcha check, we see how that worked out now. Looks like ReCaptcha NoCpatcha has been hacked at last. I've once again disabled account creation for now. ~ dkpat (talk) 07:54, 8 April 2017 (CDT)

Two new members of NIWA
Hi! Inkipedia and ARMS Institute has been added into NIWA, could you add them to the list on the main page? --Raltseye (talk) 04:41, 1 March 2018 (CST)