User talk:DollarStoreBa'al

Speak through the interdimentional portal

My mistakes

General Chitchat and such

Hey, as per your comment on Main Page#Create my user page, I created your pages. Welcome to the wiki! Please always remember to sign your comments with --~~~~, and ask in the Community portal if you don't know something. If you want, you can read the the Editor FAQ! Welcome. --FaviFake (talk) 18:02, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Thanks! DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 19:11, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

hi btw :) ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 15:11, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

hello, how are you doing this fine morning, my dear fellow? DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 16:03, 27 February 2025 (UTC)

Hiyo

I'm trying to lurk less and be friendly so I just thought I'd ah drop in :) ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 15:53, 3 March 2025 (UTC)

Bello. me editor guy who edit much. edit fun! DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 17:00, 3 March 2025 (UTC)

hahahahaha edit fun indeed. ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 15:20, 4 March 2025 (UTC)

Question: How do you add those user boxes that you have on your page? Those would be nice to have. DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 16:52, 6 March 2025 (UTC)

copy and paste this and remove the nowiki tag:

{{Userbox | border-c = #255 | border-s = 1 | info-s = 9 | id = alastor jumpscare | info = [[User:Definitely Bill Cipher|This user has a pet cannibal deer.]] | float = left}} and replace it with what you desire, for example:

{{Userbox | border-c = #255 | border-s = 1 | info-s = 9 | id = ;) | info = [[User:DollarStoreBa'al|This user _____ ]] | float = left}}

⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 14:50, 11 March 2025 (UTC)

Dude thanks! DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 13:48, 17 March 2025 (UTC)

You're very welcome dear. WEE WOO ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 14:18, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

Wow

Am I so cool that I got a mention on your user page just because I showed you how to make userboxes? I mean, if I am... thanks. ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 14:44, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Yes. Yes you are. DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 15:43, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

YAY TYSM i will get you free jambalaya for you immediately due to that (if you're into that) ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 14:19, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

No need. Also, I see you're from Louisiana. DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 03:44, 29 March 2025 (UTC)]]

Haha or maybe I just like jambalaya :). Also you are not 4029 hHHA ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 14:17, 8 April 2025 (UTC)

The 5s and Es and Os

Reply to this if you've figured out what the meaning of the thingy on my user page is.

it's base 3 Caliban (talk) 09:07, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

 :O ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 14:31, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

Nope! I'll give you a hint: talk to sam. DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 14:33, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

https://voca.ro/1Akmh0zRqa8Q Caliban (talk) 16:02, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

uhhh...DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 20:41, 11 April 2025 (UTC)

sorry, that's not it. Don't know what to say to that.DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 17:54, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

You have one week! Hint: beep boooop --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 16:30, 6 May 2025 (UTC)

Morse code? BobcatInABox (talk) 19:33, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Morse code of what? You are very, very close.--DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 20:47, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Time's up! If you put this into [1] and click play, you get the intro to Bad Apple. --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 14:44, 13 May 2025 (UTC)

It's better than 2869: Puzzles BobcatInABox (talk) 11:11, 14 May 2025 (UTC)

Want to do some repetitive work?

Hey dollar, I noticed you're very active here! I don't have a ton of time, but I recently overhauled the template {{comic}} to add many new features. While we figure out Header text, would you be interested in editing the contents of about 50 pages (the early xkcd comics) to make these new features work? It's a lot of repetitive work, you'd just need to make the same small edits on 50 pages. (If you're interested in why the OG comics were in a different order, see LiveJournal). Just let me know and I'll finish the documentation for the template! --FaviFake (talk) 17:13, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

What exactly would I be doing to get these features to work? DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 17:18, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

If it isn't super-complex wikitext things I can totally help! --DollarStoreBa'al ^Converse 19:21, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

Right so you'd just need to move things around and remove some useless code. This process adds a second white navigation bar at the bottom to browse the OG comics in the original order. You can follow this example. The steps are:

Start from comic number 4:

1. Based on the short sentence written above the explanation, add "ognumber =", "ogprev =", and "ognext =" (so the navbar can work)
2. Add "oglink =", and move ONLY the link from "before" to "oglink" (so from HTTPS://..... until the end of the link, move that to "oglink")
3. Now, from the edit preview, copy the original title.
4. Delete everything in "before =" now that you moved the link
5. Add "ogtitle =" and paste the original title that you copied.
6. Finally, in "titletext", add two couples of apostrophes ('') in these places: https://imgur.com/a/BewKKr1
7. Now save the changes, and click the new white "Next >" button you just created to go to the next one!

And you're done! It's much simpler when you try it. Of course you don't have to do it, feel free to work on the header text! --FaviFake (talk) 20:41, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

me am do. --DollarStoreBa'al ^{ConverseFaviFake (talk) 11:05, 26 April 2025 (UTC)com/wiki/index.php/S--FaviFake (talk) 11:05, 26 April 2025 (UTC)pecial:Contributions/DollarStoreBa%27al My life choices} 20:51, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

Oh and I added friendly errors for when you forget to add one of the "og" labels. Just note that if you don't provide "ognumber", the cool white navbar won't show up. Remember to always insert a pipe before a label, like this "| ognumber =". And once you get to comic 55 you're done! That's the last one --FaviFake (talk) 20:58, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

Hey, I don't really understand where I'm supposed to put these. --DollarStoreBa'al ^{ConverseMy life choices} 21:01, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

Nevermind, I got this. --DollarStoreBa'al ^{ConverseMy life choices} 21:05, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

Erm nope the OGnumber, OGprev, and OGnext you should take from the first sentence above the explanation. For example 24 says it's sixth. Anyways, I found a pretty big bug in the template, so I guess we should stop until it's fixed. The Original title doesn't show up! Arghhh! I'll fix it.

I'll let you know when you can continue. Thanks! --FaviFake (talk) 21:18, 24 April 2025 (UTC)

alright, sounds good! Dang tho. Let me know and I'll get right back to it. --DollarStoreBa'al ^{ConverseMy life choices} 13:45, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

Hey, I, um, undid all your edits because they broke the template haha. I guess this was more complex that I thought! Don't worry, I'll finish them myself over time. I'm more experienced than I thought it seems! Thanks for trying to help anyways! --FaviFake (talk) 18:52, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

Reviewing them, it seems you were not isolating the link correctly and leaving there some HTML elements that closed other open HTML elements that weren't finished! It did look, interesting, at least! --FaviFake (talk) 18:55, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

So sorry about that, I noticed those random Html elements. Thought they were part of the bug. oops. --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 22:45, 25 April 2025 (UTC)

No worries! --FaviFake (talk) 11:05, 26 April 2025 (UTC)

excuse me

but it appears you have discovered that I was a spammer in a past account or maybe this account. who's to say anymore? anyway i'm trying to fix that hehe ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 14:02, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

template

What is a template? What’s a

Whack! You've been whacked with a wet trout. Don't take this too seriously. Someone just wants to let you know that you did something silly.

and

Smash!

You've been squished by a whale!
Don't take this too seriously. Someone just wants to let you know you did something really silly.

?
If it looks weird, click edit ^April_fools^update!(talk) 12:20, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

I'm assuming you're asking what a template is and not about sea life. Templates are basically shortcuts that we use for commonly used things. For example, {{cn}} creates ^{[citation needed]}. You can create one pretty easily. I made those because they're commonly used on Wikipedia, and wanted to transfer them here. --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 13:41, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

how can I create one? ^April_fools^update!(talk) 13:21, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Here's something that may be able to help: {{AprilFoolsHelp}} --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 13:43, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

thxxxxxxxxx ^April_fools^update!(talk) 13:46, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

You are very welcome! I hope you are excited to start contributing to the wiki! --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 13:46, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

By the way, please don't be afraid to ask me any questions at all. If I can, I will help! --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 13:48, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Thanks DollarStoreBa'al, which is {{Thx$store}} (if I can call you that)

Template Tips

Ok. Sorry, needed to get that out of my system. Thank you for the supplement. Truly. It's a good warning. Just please don't start randomly insulting people towards the end. This is a wiki. Speak the facts, and nothing more. In this case, the facts are:

• Templates are easy to create.
• It's useful to learn from other templates.

Those are the facts. Now, you're done. Don't go on to insult them about how they're too stupid to do something useful.

No insult intended, no mention at all of stupidity, just the obvious eagerness. Tried only to give caution not to run before you've learnt how (and, ideally, where) to walk. All edits show up, to anyone looking. The initial query had not been answered, when I started the reply, and I had to hastily rewrite things to fit back in on the end.

To the above, I'd add:

• Know what purpose your template will have.

That way you're less likely to create something that you later regret, give or take a rename/delete. (If you want anything totally deleted, it may take a long time, a meanwhile you can only edit it 'clear', but still findable and the history checkable.) Most templates are not there to add pictures of sealife, but to grease the wheels of common (or not so common) Explanation page scenarios. And we might even thank you for a good shortcut for something we maybe never realised was needed before.

For a more technical 'manual', Help:A quick guide to templates might be a useful next read, and from there jump around into other Help: items. There's a lot you can do, though you certainly won't want to use it all right from the start. Take your time and know why you're doing something, as well as what'.

Good luck for the future, I've probably said as much as you need me to say for now. 82.132.246.73 17:39, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

While this is very useful, it would be nice if you posted this on User:Aprilfoolsupdate!'s talk page. He's the one learning the ropes, and it would probably be very useful to him. --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 17:47, 7 August 2025 (UTC)

Requests/favors

If you need anything done, reach out to me! I'll let you know what I can do to help you! --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 19:49, 15 August 2025 (UTC)

Hi DollarStoreBa'al, are you good enough to have the link to my user page? ^April_fools^update!(talk) 01:57, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Done! --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 15:56, 18 August 2025 (UTC)

Hello again Darling :D

I'm back after the summer hello sir O) ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 13:59, 26 August 2025 (UTC)

A fellow school-based follower of the truth, I see! Welcome back, and I wish thee well on your adventures. --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 14:00, 26 August 2025 (UTC) P.S. I use monobook style now.

Category thing

Hey, can someone tell me why my talk page is on 'pages to delete?' -- DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 18:08, 27 August 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I have tracked it down to this edit by User:Aprilfoolsupdate!, where they used a (fairly useless and unnecessary) template (that they created themselves) called Template:Thx$store to thank you for helping to teach them the process of creating a new template. Since I marked that template for deletion, when the comment calls for the template, it also marks your talk page for deletion. I have changed it so that the template is replaced with the text that it would substitute in and your page is no longer marked for deletion. Also signed off your unsigned comment. 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 18:30, 27 August 2025 (UTC)

When someone says "I have tracked it down" you know they mean business. Thanks, that's quite reassuring. Another mystery IP (not sure if it's the same guy as today) did warn him not to make meaningless templates. Of course, I also made a meaningless template, so.... --DollarStoreBa'al^ConverseMy life choices 18:33, 27 August 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/ltbdl

they think we're the same person, ha. raeb 02:29, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

I did not think this is what I would come back to. That's wild and hilarious.

They are raeb

And I am Dollar

And we are not the same person

--DollarStoreBa'al^converse 13:42, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

OMG THEY BANNED YOU WTF? I've pleaded your case, but idk if they'll respond. --DollarStoreBa'al^converse 13:49, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

Okay, wait a second. A checkuser does checks on User IPs. If you were found guilty, that means that you were editing under the same IP as me. By any chance, do you go to school in Lincoln, NE? --DollarStoreBa'al^converse 14:04, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

one, revert your case pleading, it's silly and won't help, and two, we're "very unlikely" to be the same person according to checkuser, don't panic. maybe link them here. (i don't go to school in lincoln.) raeb 15:00, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

Ok, now it's weird. I didn't know you couldn't have alt accounts, even if you explicitly stated that they were, indeed, alt accounts. Seems a bit strict if you ask me. Also, 1+1=Window, not Yes. --DollarStoreBa'al^converse 22:53, 3 September 2025 (UTC)

Can you please help me

I helped you with the userboxes. Now I need your help. How do I get my sig to be something besides what it is now? ⯅A dream demon⯅ (talk) 19:34, 9 September 2025 (UTC)

Hi there, Tori here. If you want to change your signature, go to your preferences page on the top right of the website (it's next to your Talk page and Watchlist). Scroll down until you see the signatures section and change it. If you need help figuring out wikitext, feel free to shoot me a message on my talk page! 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 01:32, 10 September 2025 (UTC)

Template:what if? chapters

Sorry, but what's the point of creating a template for what if chapters? What do you intend to use it for? 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 16:28, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

I intended it as a workaround in order to edit two pages at once. (those being the blog page and the chapters page). I noticed there was a discrepancy between the tables on the two pages, and I created a workaround for it. Also, it's faster than copy-pasting, now that the load times are astronomical. --DollarStoreBa'al^converse 16:30, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

Sounds good! 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 16:40, 3 October 2025 (UTC)

Ok I'm sorry but I had to change it back. Here are a few drawbacks:

1. Now people reading our summaries can't edit them directly.
2. The history is gone. You should've moved the page, not copy and paste. Both for copyright attribution (see WP:CWW) and for maintenance, to see when and why something was added.
3. Now we need to transclude the table on 1 more page (servers!), and the pages that were already transcluding the page (except what if? (blog)) now are transcluding both the page AND the template.

And most importantly: there wasn't any discrepancy between the pages that transcluded the pages, just as there is no discrepancy now. The table was the exact same.

Could you explain what discrepancy you saw? The code and text behind the original What If? Chapters page, the blog page, the new template you created, and any other pages transcluding What If? Chapters was truly identical (and still is, just with the added issues listed above.).

Also; templates are not supposed to be edited frequently. A template is created in order to save time writing the same code on dozens or hundreds of pages. The table both needs to be edited and is only transcluded on a few pages. These are the pages in which the page was transcluded: [2] --FaviFake (talk) 10:04, 4 October 2025 (UTC)

There were just some chapter summaries I saw that were different between the blog page and the chapters page. I'm not angry about this, thanks for bringing up the points which I am not advanced enough to see. --DollarStoreBa'al^converse 12:55, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

Huh, that's odd. The only difference between the two is that the last header cell on the left becomes highlighted in yellow when transcluded. --FaviFake (talk) 19:16, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

Current signature.

I've noticed that your signature does <all the fancy stuff><NEWLINE><space><timestamp>. Might be a good idea to remove the <NEWLINE> before the (presumably auto-appended) <space><timestamp> as it currently puts your

timestamp like this.

Which is probably not what you'd intended. 82.132.245.74 20:47, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

......Nope, didn't intend that. I'll see if I can fix it. (not signing this because... well, you know) --DSB -- DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 21:12, 4 November 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I've found the issue. I was trying to make my signature in times new roman using Template:TNR. This template uses div for it's styling. For some reason, it's inserting </div> between the signature and timestamp rather than after. Is there a way to get the </div> to go after the timestamp rather than before (which is what I was intending)? Thanks! --DSB -- DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 21:18, 4 November 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Standard advice is to not use div-tags in your custom .sig, for exactly this reason. You should be able to do the same (except for the undesired newline-forcing) with span-tagging where you invoked div-tags.

The way it rendered (must basically have been subst:ed between what you used and how it renders), I didn't know you'd used the TNR template. If that's for character-length reasons then a "TNRspan" template (or something not four characters longer, if you're extremely tight for space) would have to be used.

Or change the TNR so {{TNR|span=yes}} will specially 'return' you your no-Div version (that's the nice-looking version; you could also have it do something like responding to {{{1}}} being "s" or "1", if you can only afford to extend by two extra characters). That makes the one template dual-use, instead of making another template.

TIMTOWTDI. But you'll know what you want to do, I can only give vague pointers. 82.132.245.74 22:22, 4 November 2025 (UTC)

Weird. I changed the TNR template to <span> instead of <div>, but upon testing it's still doing that weird newline thing. -- DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 14:11, 5 November 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Finally fixed. I can't get the timestamp to also be TNR, but at least it doesn't auto-newline. --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 14:15, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

That looks not too bad, though the timestamp is sans-serif again. Though might' in part be browser-dependant as to how it looks (mine may react only to the 'serif' and not the full 'Times New Roman', giving a TNR-like serif-font that works good adjacent to the non-specific choice of sans-serif font. Also, at first glance, there's a mystery as to why the timestamp is BOLD+ITALIC (or maybe STRONG+EMPHASIS, for the pedants).

The structure is probably as follows, rewritten just for visual representation/explanation. Formatting that you do is in ()s, my explanatory notes are in ** and * pairs:

**start of 'fixed text' signature insertion**
  (SPANopen style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;")
    --
    (BOLD+ITALICstart)
      (LINKpage)User:DollarStoreBa'al
      (LINKtext)
        (SPANopen style="color:#E3C6BE")
          DollarStoreBa'al
        (SPANclose, i.e. end:style="color:#E3C6BE")
      (LINKclose)
      (SUPERSCRIPTopen)
        (LINKpage)User Talk:DollarStoreBa'al
        (LINKtext)
          (SPANopen style="color:#CC9A8B")
            Converse
          (SPANclose, i.e. end:style="color:#CC9A8B")
        (LINKclose)
      (SUPERSCRIPTclose)
    *expected to be an /implied/ (BOLD+ITALICSclose), here*
    *check HTML source for why not?*
  (SPANclose, i.e. end: style="font-family: Times New Roman...etc")
**end of 'fixed text' signature insertion**
**start of 'timestamp' signature insertion**
  *BOLD+ITALICS is still active?*
  *but all /other/ formats ended by the most recent (SPANclose)*
  14:15, 5 November 2025 (UTC)
**end of 'timestamp' signature insertion**

Without looking at exactly what you're doing behind the scenes, I'm not entirely sure, but I think the {{TNR}} includes a close-Span tag, preventing that from 'rolling on' into the timestamp bit.

Exactly how the BOLD+ITALIC rolls on, I don't know without checking the HTML source. Might be an intentional function of the wikimarkup-to-HTML conversion that 'remembers' that formatting and reapplies it as necessary, at least until a 'forced' end-of-scope (end of a Div or P tag, a Br/Hr monotag, new ordered/unordered list item (or changing the list-level), table cell/row transitions, and then there's the next (same/different) ":"-prepended indented follow-up lines and (of course) double-newlines) to force even no-prefix lines into paragraph-breaks. All of these (and other less obvious wikimarkup scenarios) probably translate to a hard /div closure in the HTML.

Does {{TNR}} currently close its own Span? Does removing that Span-end let it 'roll on' over the timestamp? If you do that, does the insert-signature process close off all remaining Spans after the timestamp? (Normally, a signature is followed by a newline+newline or at least a newline+:nextlinehasindents, but if you add a P.S. comment after a timestamp that benefits from an unclosed formatting rlling through, does anything add a closure to stop it rolling through onto the P.S...? Can't test this, myself, directly, but it'd be interesting to find out!)

Note that I don't know if you intended TNR to be used anywhere else. But by changing it from Div-based to Span-based it changes how it looks if I "use it here

", and if you then make it so that it open-Spans but never close-Spans then it would change the appearance of this paragraph even further.

...ouch. Actually, I had assumed it would currently (as 'span-only', opening and closing) not linefeed, browserside, but currently it adds a forced break, and doesn't even have any way of knowing how many indents (if any) to add before the continuation text.

Though if nobody else is using it for anything else, it shouldn't matter. Just pointing out that (if they are) changes you make to fine-tune your signature could have collateral effects for other people who use TNR when it does one thing but then find that it's doing another thing.

Creating a template 'just for your own use' is Ok-ish, but you might just want to note its purpose and (current) peculiarities in case someone thinks that it's intended for a more general purpose, and in a more logical manner than you've had to make it 'work' just for you.

It's also known for templates to contain imbalanced markup, with either how it is used or the presence of a second 'closing' template (see {{cot}} and {{cob}}, that mark the 't'op and 'b'ottom of a 'co'llapsable area) making the final result properly balanced in the end. But mostly you'd expect internal closure of anything the template started, whether Spanny or Divvy in nature, or justify it and make it obvious without digging through the actual template-code itself.

But I don't know how useful all of this is, to you or those coming along afterwards (before or after further template tweaks, etc). I'm just trying to pass on everything I think could be helpful, knowing that a lot of it could be 'beyond helpful', i.e. actually quite irrelevent. If not incomprehsible. (If not wrong, given I can't even test many assumptions, directly!) But here it is, anyway. HTH, HAND. 82.132.244.89 16:24, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

I'm using the TNR template because it looks cool, but it also does have a purpose. It's used in early Taglines and header texts. --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 16:53, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

Having tried many things, I've found that including the TNR template at all is messing up the timestamp. I'll see if there's another way to include the template without that, but idk if there is a way. In the meantime, here's my new Sig: --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 17:25, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

((I researched,cchecked and wrote the following followup whilst you were replying, just aboce. You've answered some of my points, plus seem happy with as it is now, but still posting it given the thought I put into it... ;) Not that I actually think that it's necessary as helpful as I might have hoped it to be, in the end! Absolutely no reply expected, if you're happy to say nothing more.))

Ok, actually looked at the HTML source, now, neutering the 'raw' markup, whitespacing it and adding **commentary**:

**start signature, fixed text**
**default formatting**
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 16px;">
 **formatting is now TNR**
 --
 <b>
  **formatting is TNR+Bold**
  <i>
   **formatting is TNR+Bold+Italics**
   <a href="/wiki/index.php/User:DollarStoreBa%27al" title="User:DollarStoreBa'al">
    **formatting is TNR+B+I and a link..**
    <span style="color:#E3C6BE">
     **...which is coloured**
     DollarStoreBa'al
    </span>
    **back to TNR+B+I link, no colour**
   </a>
   **back to TNR+B+I, no link
   <sup>
    **TNR+B+I+Superscript**
    <a class="mw-selflink selflink">
     **TNR+B++Sup and a link (to this page, in this specific instance)**
     <span style="color:#CC9A8B">
      **TNR+B+I+Sup link is coloured**
      Converse
     </span>
     **TNR+B+I+Sup link, no colour**
    </a>
    **TNR+B+I+Sup, no link**
   </sup>
   **TNR+B+I, normal-script again**
  </span>
  **this should have removed TNR, *and* the 'inner' B+I too...**
  ** (Although this is not what you wanted, it's what you should get!) **
  **...but apparently we're now just with B+I**
  ** (This might be my own browser's interpretation, not everyone's.) **
  **this is the inbuilt transition between fixed-sig and time-sig**
  **a space is here, then...**
  14:15, 5 November 2025 (UTC)
 </i> ** (Your signature markup does not ask for this!) **
 **just Boldness left**
</b> ** (Your signature markup does not ask for this!) **
**neutral format again**
**end of signature**

What goes with the "TNR+B+I" going to "B+I", I don't know. Unless they've changed the HTML spec regarding this in the last decade or three.

The wiki-server back end was smart enough to add the close-Italics and close-Bold, at the end of the signature (perhaps, knowing that these were imminent a 'smart' error-checking by the browser's HTML-renderer let their formats persist, when otherwise they would not have? ...odd, but possible). Possibly it would have also closed the TNR-span, after the B-closure,cif not already asked to do so by the end of the TNR-template?

...so...

1. First 'fix', remove the </span> from TNR. See how that affects any newly applied signatures (it won't change old ones).
2. Also see how/if it changes the indent-loss above my "...ouch" line, above.
3. Also also chase down if TNR gets used anywhere else in this wiki, at the moment, and check that you've not broken anything else that other people might have used it for.

If the first fix works and the third thing isn't a problem (ignore the second issue, I'm happy for it to change), then you're sorted. Otherwise (no fix, or even further broken in ways that aren't any good for anyone) reverse the change to where it works best for everyone and accept it not working precisely how you think you want it.

If it fixes, as suggested, I'd also be interested how signing with ~~~~ and more text works. (i.e. does it TNR the "and more text"?) Not that it's important, just my own curiosity.

And think about a more advanced explanation on TNR's page, if it's going to be 'an odd template' in any way, like being Span-opener without being a Span-closer.

That's all. Over to you, nothing more I can do (I could change TNR's code, but not then test it with your signature), but maybe I've done enough to help. Without too much confusion. I'll let you sort the rest out on your own, unless there's anything specific that arises to follow-up with. 82.132.246.131 17:45, 5 November 2025 (UTC)

tbh I'm good. Besides, I have no clue how to convert that raw HTML into usable wikitext (idk how to code, planning to learn someday). Either way, works fine. Also, you commentary has made me realize how complex my sig actually is. Times New Roman+Bold+Italics, which is a link which is colored. -- DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 19:21, 5 November 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Ummm... Do you know that your current signature is sort of 'unmunged'? As in, you're making the markup show by 'escaping' the markup characters entirely so they don't (properly) act as markup, but as literal text. (You had it working ok(ish), not sure when it went wrong, without scrolling through your Talk contributions.) 82.132.236.186 17:34, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

Addendum - had a deeper look, it was broken for 14:00, 20 November 2025, for Talk:3170: Service Outage, but had worked until 20:27, 19 November 2025, for Talk:3168: Beam Dump. Whatever you did to your profile, between those two times, maybe undo it? Wasn't caused by any public page edit (like the TNR-template), nor can I think of how you'd break that without being obvious. Anyway, FYI.

(My guess is that you copied it out to somewhere, to edit, that thing auto-obfuscated the markup for its own visual reasons, then the copy back was done of the 'ruined' markup version. I haven't gone through it with a toothcomb, to see what your intended hanges may have been. And maybe you even intended this... Until I read a page 'normally', not just zourcewise, I hadn't spotted that your long signature-markup was now so... 'literal'. And can't imagine it should be. ) 17:57, 22 November 2025 (UTC)

I may or may not have INTENTIONALLY unchecked 'treat above as wikitext', simply to confuse people :) --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 00:08, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

"Complicated signatures contain a lot of code ("markup") that is revealed in the edit window, and can take up unnecessary amounts of narrative space, which can make both reading and editing harder." -WP:SIG 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 02:10, 23 November 2025 (UTC)

Your signature literally has more characters than mine. --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 02:24, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Does it matter? Your un-wikitexted signature takes up far more characters than 255 (498 to be precise). It's also a pain in the ass to read and is bound to confuse anybody who sees it. 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 02:48, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

WP:REDIRECT

As per Wikipedia policy, redirects are only to be made for typos that are "likely misspellings (for example, Condoleeza Rice redirects to Condoleezza Rice). Note: this criterion typically does not apply to redirects from typos in the template namespace; consensus is that such typos, unless they are very common, should remain as red links until they are fixed." 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 03:19, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Ahhhhhhh. Alright, noted. -- DollarStoreBa'al (talk) 14:17, 11 November 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

GOD DAMMIT!!!! --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 19:05, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Easily done. Don't worry. I nearly intervened myself, but thought you might fix it yourself soon enough.

it also makes me wonder if you have any opinions about this recent idea that you reminded me of, if you/42 would consider it useful in such situations. It's not had any other input beyond the fellow anonIP originator, but (wordiness/edit-errors aside) I like what was said. It's a pity that nobody's even said they don't like it. Or don't understand it. 82.132.246.151 20:14, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

I did skim through it a bit the other day when it was posted, but it was so dense that I probably only remember/understand 50% of it. The IP editor made some pretty good points, but it's not like I'm very good at making templates either. Maybe User:FaviFake or User:Lettherebedarklight can do something about it. 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 20:34, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

I'm not actually too sure about this. How would be let newer users (who may not know about the template) to retrosign? --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 20:37, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Well, those who don't know how to (or that they have to) sign probably aren't the target audience. ;) There are plenty of templates that even I probably wouldn't remember until I went looking for what's there, or found out about by someone else using it. (It's how I know about {{outdent}}, for example.)

But the principle's simple enough. Duplicate the unsigned templates as retrosigned ones, and remove the nagging bit. Favi or Darklight could do it simply enough, if they think there's reason to. I could do it, except for the little matter of not being allowed to. Also, I'm not the one trying to sell the idea, just seemed an apt de-stresing comment for the circumstance we had. (Nice though this conversation is, it really needs the propsal(s) to be replied to, if anything.) I'm just hoping you feel calmer, now, Ba'al... :p 82.132.245.237 03:42, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Wait was that proposal written by you, IP? The format seemed AI-generated but i really did not read it for more than 10 seconds. FaviFake (talk) 18:38, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Having read it..... yeah, that's about as far from AI generated as you can get. I've seen IP use that format in the past, and the content is very explainxkcd-term heavy. I don't think AI would be able to generate the words 'unsigned templates as retrosigned'. Nobody except us understands what that means. --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 18:52, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Not me-IP (the IP in the above bit), but probably one of the other long-standing-if-occasional-IPs that there must be.

Also very much me-like, so the linguistic flourishes mesh well with what I understand/might write myself.

In lieu of them saying anything more, themselves, I've already decided to do my bit to try to 'translate' the core idea to Muggle-speak. If I'm able to bridge the gap without being wrong about either/both! 82.132.244.30 19:25, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

3

vv4dh<iwumbd i7rig s9 vddr aowe

BAABBABBABABABABAABBABABBAABAABABBBAABAABAAAAABBABABBABABBAAAABAAABBABABBAAAABAABABBBAABAABAAAAABBABABBABABBAAAABAABAABABABAAABBABBABBBAABAABAAAAABBABABABBABAAAABBAABAABB BAAABAABABABBABBAABBBAAAAAAAAAABABAABABAAAABAAAAAAABBBA

USETHEVISIONFROMYOURCHILDSEYE 204.137.100.1 (talk) 08:19, 13 November 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Oh, hello there! what do you have for us today, codeman? --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 14:22, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Starting from scratch, and dismissing (for the moment) the possibility of it being the 'cluetext' as a rotating key, the first looks polymorphic, in some manner, as the obvious repeat-letters that the known plaintext will have aren't all repeated in the ciphertext (and repeats in the ciphertext aren't matches in the known plaintext. It's also perhaps not subject to the main fatal flaw in Enigma (other than the "the message-senders use predictable original plaintext" thing) that means that a character never maps to itself, as there are indeed (at least) two same->SAME mappings.

Though given it is mapped to a changed-case (compared to what we expect from code#1) and includes alphabetic-to-punctuation-via-numeric transitions, my first assessment is that (with the exception of spaces being preserved/specially treated, as per usual) it also maps between A-Z input and a wider output.

The most obvious idea is an XOR-based progression (prior code/plain character v.s. each subsequent one), but if done straight from ASCII codes that's going to give you far more weirdness than lower-cass-plus-occasional-punctuation. Which suggests perhaps a more proprietry enumeration/de-enumeration (it's not a shifted-6-bit output, so I won't try a shifted 5-bit input).

...back to the cluetext. It's not the same-length as the ciphered phrase (if it had, I'd have assumed it was concocted as the "one time pad"), either with or without counting the spaces. But perhaps it's a Playfair cipher (less obvious than "PASSWORDPASWORDPASSWORD...", when analysing for patterns), but I haven't got time to check that properly, right now, and I still think there's a non-linear (but trivial) relationship. Perhaps simpler than what I've already thought of.

The 'As and Bs' I haven't yet really looked into, beyond ruling out that it's a direct binary expansion (at least in 8-bits, 28 characters of that, and one spare bit, ignoring the space, or 32x 7-bits plus 1). It seems to be 225 A+Bs (3x3x5x5; so 3x75, 5x45, 9x25 and 15x15 (square, which might' be significant) are the main splits), if I'm not barking up the wrong tree. But I have other things to do right now, so the next flash of inspiration will have to wait. 82.132.231.193 18:03, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

"Agreed. Let's reset. The previous codes both started with 'Transmission X of four'. This looks similar, so it's safe to assume that 'ds4cdebsjbsx u;g6w hf whyb' equals 'transmission three of four'. This is actually very good for us, because we can map each number to their translated version:

• d=t
• s=r
• 4=a
• c=n
• d=s (perhaps a mistake)
• e=m
• b=i
• j=s (wait...)
• b=s????????????????
  

Cool, that didn't work at all. It's probably double-encoded, or it's using a very strong code (maybe a vigenere?). Whatever it is, substitution doesn't work on it. --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 19:05, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

That was my first-g 82.132.245.151 21:40, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

The Bs and As appear to be either a bacon Cipher (UO LUM E ZERO ONE ONE ZERO ONE TWO ZERO MINUS FOUR ALL CAP) or a Caesar Cipher, though if it's the latter it would need to be double-encoded like last time, because the most coherent option it's giving me is POOP POP POP OP OP OP OOP POP OPPO OP OOP OP P POOP OOP OO OO OPPO POP POP OPPO OO OP OO OPPO POP POO OOP OOP OP P POOP OOP OO OO OPPO POP POP OPPO OO OP OOP OOP OP OP OO OPPO P POP P POOP OOP OO OO OPPO POP OPPO POO OOP POOP OOP P POO OP OOP OP OPPO P POOP P POO OO OO OO OOP OP OOP OP OO OOP OO OO OO OP P PO. Something tells me they weren't trying to make potty jokes.

Based on the fact that we're on this specific wiki, I'll assume that it's the first one for now. It's referencing Volume 0 (I think I know where they got the idea for this). The rest of the numbers are now 110120-4. I'll go check the page. 18:52, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

Page 110120 has this poem on it, in the 'cypher' section:

THE START OF THE TENTH-FAVORITE WORD USED BY BENDER
THE TOON THAT WENT SOUTH WHILE COMMANDED BY ENDER
THE NUMBER OF LIGHTS THAT PICARD SAID WERE ON
AND THE CLASS OF THE PLANET WHERE KIRK SHOUTED "KHAAAN!"
THE RINGS FOR THE MEN MINUS RINGS FOR THE ELVES
AND THE PRODUCT MOD 10 OF A FIVESOME OF TWELVES
THE END OF A CODE NES GAMERS KNOW
AND THE BASE USED TO MODEL HOW QUICKLY THINGS GROW
WHEN THEY'RE XOR'D TOGETHER THE CHECKSUM IS "E"
WHICH WILL TELL YOU YOU'VE GOT THE PENULTIMATE KEY

...This is the penultimate key, if there are four messages. --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 19:05, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

I've not had any further time to look at this, but:

• If I were devising an actually useful secret code, the first one (which is clearly a character-to-character mapping, though not a static one) would involve a little more trickery than an 'unsalted' progression, and the second (clearly a bitwise represenation) should probably be repackaged back into a full 'alphanumeric' token set (e.g. base64 or UUEncoded 'text friendly' outputs, but perhaps rotated a bit to disguise the tell-tale signs of that kind of output.
  • In fact, I might have used Gray-Code tables, even a mini form of a LZW-ish token-stream compression algorithm, to further thwart analysis by making it not even a consistent change in entropy from original character to the resulting output string. With such a single short 'message', it probably could have defied any realistic form of frequency-analysis, or at least made for hypothetically 'sensible' alternative decodings emerge from parts of the data, when choosing the 'right' wrong decoding methods.
• However, bear in mind that (though with greater challenges, from the #1 code to #2, so presumably even more for #3) these are codes that are supposed to be cracked. Well, maybe #4 (or even the final set of 4x4 characters that's ultimately puzzle #5) will be 'fiendish'-level, but #3 shouldn't be more than 'devilishly difficult' to work out.
• I didn't know "Bacon Cipher", by that name, but it looks like you've got that worked out by (assisted) brute force. I might have tripped up over the U+V and I+J equivalences, initially, but the composer has clearly used the 'classical' version in a straight manner.
• Taking that as done, though, we're left with the backforming of the TRANSMISSION message, if only so we know what (different) apparent nonsense the "x@hc" should become. Where I'd focus, is on what caused "ISSI" to be "bsjb". Why, three characters later, has the encoding ended up on the same output char (could suggest a three-character Playfair key), yet the 'S' characters, positioned "S..SS" became "d..sj" (so not a 3-char key). Positioning the 'clue phrase' against the characters gives "V..I" against the "I..I"->"b..b", so it's not being the same by dint of coincidentally similar transformations from the keyphrase.

But that's still an analysis that I'm doing with the presumption of it being deliberately somewhat obscure (having somehow 'discovered' part of the encoding secret). It's probably only going to be more hidden in plain sight, as part of the 'game', but still helps to know how you'd approach a more deliberately obscure method of coding. Hence how I broke the semaphor one ...well, mostly... without realising that it actually was semaphor. (If you hadn't have settled the Bacon Code solution, I might have tried looking at it being morse-based, with ambiguous character/word boundaries.)

Anyway, when I pop back here and find that you/someone else has fully solved it, I'll probably kick myself for entirely missing the most obvious answer. Also I can't seem get "CE4Q60AE" (or alternatives/variations that I've tried) to give me a checksum of "E" (or 0xE?). So, if that's actually important, I might have something else wrong. 82.132.245.151 21:40, 13 November 2025 (UTC)

YOUARERIGHT 204.137.100.1 (talk) 14:03, 14 November 2025 (UTC) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

About what? What are we right about? --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 14:04, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

User rights

I noticed you created my user page but did not create my talk page or give me the rights to do so myself. Why is this the case? GreyFox (talk) 17:25, 24 November 2025 (UTC)

OMG so sorry. Fully forgor. Should be fixed now. --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 02:25, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Minor edits

Just FYI, you can mark in preferences under the editing tab for all edits to be marked as minor so that we don't clog up the Recent Changes page so much, as people can click "Hide minor edits". 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 21:30, 2 December 2025 (UTC)

...whoops. --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 21:30, 2 December 2025 (UTC)

/WORKPAGE

Wow. While doing maintenance work, I found your workpage. I've always known it existed, but just brushed it off and let you work alone. I don't know how much it means to you, but I'm really proud and happy of how far you've come. In just a couple months you've been able to make a pretty sizable impact here. By the way, I love the work you've been doing on there. Please keep it up! <3 42.book.addict^{Talk to me!} 10:40, 3 December 2025 (UTC)

It means a lot to me. Thanks for the encouragement! --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 14:00, 3 December 2025 (UTC)

Have another look at the Disappearing Sunday Update images

• File:Disappearing Sunday Update with number 2185.png - has a browser address bar
• File:Archive with Disappearing Sunday Update.png - Thumbnail History versions had an address bar, and it *used* to have the 'disappeared comic', perhaps least useful of the three, as it currently is, being the only one of the three not currently linked-to. Might be worth trying to find out what Kynde was trying to do, there.
• File:Archive with Disappearing Sunday Update and date.png - was marked for deletion, as "identical", but it wasn't, had a hover-text date on it. Don't know if that's still useful (not being used as a linked image?), but I wouldn't make that my first deletion, especially as it's a linked-to page.

...needs double-checking, really, to make sure that things that aren't totally useless are not thrown out just because they look useless at a glance. 82.132.239.140 18:57, 4 December 2025 (UTC)

Good catch, and now fixed. Thanks for letting me know! --DollarStoreBa'al^Converse 18:59, 4 December 2025 (UTC)