The thumbnailing issue reported yesterday was fixed. It was so simple a fix that I’m honestly bemused right now…

All I did was change “/bin/bash” into “/bin/sh” in a script file.

That’s all.
Anyway, if there are other issues, please let us know of them.

So thumbnail we all.

We’ve been notified of an issue with images that need to be thumbnailed. Apparently, the software isn’t converting them, so I’ve e-mailed the mediawiki help list to see if there is a fix for this issue.

This issue only affects images that are newly uploaded, or have never been thumbnailed before.

In the interim, if you come across this error, simply remove the image from any page that produces the following error:

Error creating thumbnail: sh: /home/bsgwiki/w/bin/ulimit-tvf.sh: /bin/bash : bad interpreter: No such file or directory

By removing the image syntax, you also remove the error message, thus making the page easier on the eyes.

Updates as we get them.

After conferring with another webmaster who used eAccelerator, and had run into the same issues as we had, we have changed over to Alternative PHP Cache.

There are no issues with this setup right now. If you do, however, run across any issues, please notify us.

So say we all.

The caching features on eAccelerator, after getting them to at least work, have been disabled due to an issue the caching feature caused when people attempted to log in. (For logged in users, they were fine until they were logged out.)

I’m firing off an e-mail to the MediaWiki discussion list to see how to get the caching features to work nice with MediaWiki.

As an additonal note, the “show/hide” feature and the RSS feed extensions don’t appear to work with MW 1.9. Other than that, everything works fine, unless there’s a gremlin somewhere lying in wait.

Just to let everyone know, a Mediawiki upgrade is in progress, so you may be receiving PHP errors while the upgrade is being done.

We’ll keep you posted.

The eAccelerator software has been updated, so that the caching functions now work. This will enable the wiki to run faster, as frequently used scripts and pages will be saved, and not generated every time a request for them is made by users.

Also the login problem is being worked on. Stay tuned to this blog post for updates.

Down again — Shane

Well, since 3 A.M. ET the site was down. From what I’ve seen so far, apache was acting funky and wouldn’t allow any of the MediaWiki PHP scripts to run. (And, apparently, sometime after I rebooted the entire server at approximately 6:30 A.M., the eaccelerator PHP optimization / caching program reset to its default. Since the current version doesn’t play nice with MediaWiki, that was another issue.

As of 3:12 P.M. ET, everything is working right now. Once I update eAccelerator to a MediaWiki friendly version from CVS, everything should be good.

From all of us that contribute and help maintain the Battlestar Wiki, have a happy holidays! Thanks for a great year.

The Battlestar Wiki has been e-mailed by AdBrite’s Account Executive, Kevin Weatherman, about advertisers who are interested in advertising on the Wiki. Sites such as www.thsale.com (a site dedicated to MMORPGs) and other gold member sites are apparently interested, but are wanting a better ad placement on the wiki before committing.

The suggestion given by AB was to put the ads on the top of the page and on the left (likely underneath the sidebar boxes). Joe told Kevin that this would be discussed with members before going ahead with a decision. Please visit the Wiki page for the discussion on this matter.

eAccelerator, a PHP optimization and caching program, has been implemented on the server. While caching functions are not yet enabled, due to an apparent conflict with MediaWiki in that regard, the optimization features have yielded some nice results so far.
I’ve contacted the Mediawiki technical mailing list and am awaiting their reply. I hope that once page caching is functional, the pages will load faster, and the load will be reduced from the server itself.

With the optimization in place, the pages are appearing to load faster — though I’m awaiting feedback on this from other users. So if you’re seeing changes, or not seeing anything at all, please let me know by replying to this post.

So say we all!

It’s been a while since I “blogged” about BSG Wiki, so I thought I’d let everyone know about a few things:

• Adbrite test run: The Adbrite test run on the English Battlestar Wiki has been a success. In fact, it’s generated more revenue for us than I had originally projected. As of right now, we’ve earned $250+ dollars due to the ads, which is more than enough to cover the hosting expenses for the month of November and 66% of December. I’ll post a breakdown of the results in the next few days, probably Friday. Due to the success, we’ll be rolling out the ads the media, Spanish, German and Chinese wikis within the next few days.
• BattlestarPegasus.com: The website which began in 1999 has been relaunched under a new Imperious Leader, your’s truly. The aim of BattlestarPegasus.com is different than Battlestar Wiki. It aims to be a source of fan creativity, news, information, reviews, editorials, galleries of artwork, and research materials. And, right now, it needs your support. So if you are a writer, artist, or even a fan news reporter and like to report on Battlestar-related endeavors (conventions, new merchandise, and the like), please e-mail me at joe.beaudoin@gmail.com and we’ll work on something.
• French-edition: We’ll be launching a French edition of Battlestar Wiki within the coming month. Stay tuned.

So say we all!