For the longest time we’ve been using a fairly basic captcha software to prevent robots from signing up for accounts on the Battlestar Wiki. This has changed.

We now use a captcha service provided by “reCaptcha“, which can be integrated into any MediaWiki painlessly. Essentially, the captcha is graphical (or by sound for the visually impaired).

If you wish to set this up on your own MediaWiki-run wiki/site, the instructions are here.

The service is active across all wikis. Any problems should be reported to me.

Some of you may notice that we run ads by Google AdSense. This is effective today.

Basically, the current AdBrite ads will still run; however, depending on who has the higher eCPC (estimated Cost Per Click) cost, an AdBrite or Google AdSense ad will show up. Both ads are governed by our [[BW:AD|advertising policy]], so if you run across any ads that run afoul of the policy, please contact me.

The point of using both advertising services is to maximize monetizing the Battlestar Wiki so that it is not dependent on donations (although you are welcome to make them!), but rather money is made from how many visits (which we get tons!) we get on a daily basis.

How this works is basically the ad service with the highest priced ad will be the one shown to our visitors, so we get the most money to finance the server.

Also, we are looking into integrating Google’s search into our own to improve search results, and in an effort to point people to other sites in the fan community so as to bolster the Battlestar community being an actual community, and not a bunch of segmented groups.

So say we all!

Check out the new wiki on the online web series, Sanctuary, which is run and operated by some of the very same people who run Battlestar Wiki.

Like the Battlestar Wiki was in the beginning, the wiki needs a lot of help in building its foundation, and we hope that some of you that frequent Battlestar Wiki will help out over there as well.

See: http://www.sanctuarywiki.org

Exclusive News from the Battlestar Wiki

A while ago I made contact with [[Anne Cofell Saunders]] over email to discuss her involvement with the Battlestar Wiki. During our course of conversations, I was informed she will not be returning for [[Season 4 (2008)|Season 4]], which is slated to begin in January 2008. This is sad news to me and the Battlestar Galactica community at large. We wish her luck in her adventures.

Her writing credits include “[[Pegasus (episode)|Pegasus]]”, “[[Sacrifice]]”, “[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]”, “[[Torn]]”, and “[[Dirty Hands]]”. She co-wrote “[[Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II]]” with [[Mark Verheiden]] and “[[Dirty Hands]]” with [[Jane Espenson]], and received story credit for “[[Resurrection Ship, Part I]]”.

However she will still be with NBC starting work on a new show named “CHUCK” — where she will lead the show as Co-Producer for the pilot.

So, as [[Edward James Olmos]] and [[Katee Sackhoff]] confirmed, Battlestar Galactica‘s fourth season is its’ final.

So we have 24 hours left of Battlestar Galactica to look forward to.

So say we all!

UPDATE! [[David Eick]] posted an update to the show’s fate on SciFi Wire!

“I promise you that when [executiuve producer] Ron [Moore] and I make a decision about Galactica’s future, we’ll let you know.”

Please offer your comments on us at Alexa. If you have an amazon.com account, please fill out the review form here.

I’m looking for honest feedback (constructive criticism is welcome, baseless attacks are not), as well as to give people who use Alexa a taste of what the wiki’s all about.

So say we all!

There’s currently a proposal to have an official presence on MySpace.

Please review it [[Battlestar Wiki:Think Tank/MySpace Presence|here]] and discuss the issue either here or as a response in this blog post.

If you upload an SVG file now, Mediawiki will now render this type of image correctly, however, if you view an SVG file, you will only see the source code on how it’s created.

    “We are all victims of mathematics.” – Londo Mollari, Babylon 5

Spurred by the discussion of gender contributions, I took a look at our audience composition, and some of the results are downright interesting, not only in terms of gender, but also in terms of income, family situation, and even sites that share a similar audience composition to us.

The results of this are here, provided by the third party organization, Quantcast.

Just after I posted my previous blog entry, Sarah e-mailed me with a link to her pdf paper, which is available here. The paper does contain additional ideas that didn’t make it to her lecture/presentation at the panel.

Also, for those of you who want to see discussions on the wiki, a “Think Tank” proposal has been set up [[Battlestar Wiki:Think Tank/Female Involvement|here]], with discussions on said [[Battlestar Wiki talk:Think Tank/Female Involvement|here]].

Speaking only for myself, and not on behalf of “ze Wiki”, I’d like to comment on Sarah Toton’s talk in a raw “stream of consciousness” way. What I mean to say is that these thoughts are more or less unpolished, but I would like to bring them to the forefront for discussion.

continue reading this entry »

As you know wiki are great tools to source information. However, there are time when things do interact with each other [[BW:INTER|cross-show platforms]]. I like to take this time to show some support to our fellow partners and have always backed our dedication to excellence no matter the difference in story telling…

• MemoryAlpha
• The 4400 Wiki
• Wookiepedia
• Wikipedia

And one site — that is not really a “wiki” per say — but a friend – BSGCast.com.