User blog:BlazingStar/The New Archived News Section

Now that I've decided I'm going to have one of these Wikia blog things, I have to transfer all of the things that I had posted in the "Recent Activity" section on my user page to...well, here. Fortunately, it wasn't all that much. Obviously, it's growing with time, though.

In the following posts you can find important events such as when I first became an admin, when I started my crusade on infoboxes, and my mini-party over my 100th edit. So without further ado, here it is! (Look, it's even in chronological order, starting from most recent! Aren't I awesome?)

Sat. Oct 9, 2010: My Opinion of Wikia's New Look
So, Wikia's gone and changed its layout. For the first time in recent memory, this is something that will be affecting all of Wikia. In a few days, even logged-out users won't have a choice. In a month, registered users will lose the option of the old Monaco skin forever.

I tried to resist the change for a few days, but in the end I decided I might as well get used to it before it's forced on me. So I'm trying it out now. Two words, people: '''SO. CONFUSING.''' It took me three reads of Wikia's guide to the new look and a whole lot of experimenting/blundering my way around the site to figure out where all of the buttons are.

What I'm Sad About
-sob- OUR PRECIOUS SIDEBAR IS GONE!!! WAAAAAAAH!!! I loved that sidebar! I helped to cherish it, made it more convenient, helped it to grow! I got inspiration from other big anime wikias to help make it! And now half of it's been trashed and stuck to the top of the page! T_T Oh, the cruelty!

No seriously. WTF. Now there's really no way to see who the friggin' admins are on this place, which is an issue a lot of wikis have. And what'll happen to the "About Us" page and "Wanted Pages"? Stay tuned to find out, guys...

What I'm Okay With
I was irritated with the default color scheme (something called "Carbon") in about thirty seconds of scrolling around. I missed the old Hellsing black-and-red that made this place look so cool and dramatic. Plus, some of the template colors didn't look right with it. That was quickly fixed once I discovered Wikia's new Theme Designer. Once I figured out how to customize, it was like magic! The old colors were back! I even gave the Hellsing Wiki words at the top of the wiki a new font. And that's when I decided this new Wikia layout (although sudden) might not be bad after all.

Mon. Sept 20, 2010: 500th Edit Celebration
So I was kinda busy lately with posting the now-completed Weapon templates to all the weapons pages, and updating the Manual of Style now that we have a 'Needs Help' banner, and all that good stuff, when I realized: I'VE REACHED 500 EDITS GUYS!!!

I'm pretty sure my 500th edit was creating my latest blog post. I don't even remember when the 400th one was. Did I even document that? -checks blog and Recent News- Nope. It must not have been important. No one cares about a cuartocentennial, or quatinneal, or whatever it's called, anyway. But this one, the 5-oh-oh mark, it's AWESOME! *parties with maracas*

( Note: I've checked with the all-powerful "other wiki" now. The word for 400th year anniversarry is "quadricentennial".)

Tues., Aug 31, 2010: Explanation for future potential absences
Holy bejeezus, I've been gone almost a month? That's a long time to be gone from a wiki. Not physically gone, mind you- I haven't been on vacation or anything- but away from this wiki. Now I feel awful. At least allow me to explain.

This year is goingn to be an important year for me as far as school and all. So I was all focused on preparing for it in the latter half of the summer. (Plus there was family over! That was fun...and time-consuming. >.< ) Please, please understand, my fellow Wikians, that I might not be on as frequently as I have been in the past. And as for that, I give you my utmost, deepest, honest-to-god-sorry apologies. *bows* Gomen! TT_TT (Translation: I'm really sorry! *streaming tears*)

Fri., July 2, 2010: Start of Weapons pages project
(Note: For cross-reference, see this blog post.) 

I think that to start making those pages for every individual episode is a bit too much for my schedule right now- Despite it being summer, I don't think that I'm going to get to make pages for every individual episode like I wanted right this instant. Instead, I think I'm going to wait until my schedule is looser. Note that this could be next week, a couple weeks from now, or a month from now. It'll get done when it will get done! *huffs*

Wikipedia Scares Me Sometimes
I learned something today: Wikipedia has a very, very large archive of knowledge on guns. I'm talking semi-automatics, rifles, air-powered ones, and magazine-fed ones. Every type of gun, gun brand, bullet, and caliber in existence. It's really helpful in the articles that I'm writing, which I'm doing to match AleximMose's awesome pictures of every Hellsing weapon like, ever. But the fact that Wikipedia has all this is kind of scary.

Jun 24: Returning from hiatus
''*sigh* Gomen, minna-san! (''I'm sorry, everybody!) My computer crashed from a virus, effectively keeping me away from the internet for a full two weeks. So I'm sorry that I haven't active nearly as much as I'd have liked to the past two weeks while my computer got fixed. (That much time away from the computer! It was terrible. T.T) I'm going to fix that in the future.

New Episode Templates
On the 11th Earth-san informed me that we now have episode templates. See? Don't they look cool? He says it's all thanks to me, but I had only dreamed of the idea, I never would have actually gotten around to it. But he did! *pumps fist* Now I can go and make articles for all the episodes! Yay!

May 17: 300th edit
Wow, I'm really racking up these things! My third-centennial edit (okay I know this isn't an anniversary, but still...) was me adding one of those new shiny infoboxes to Rip van Winkle's page, and adding a picture. I think. Okay, fine. I'll get excited. *waves flag* Whoop de doo. Happy now?

Sun. May 15: Created Character Infobox template
At last, this wiki has a template for the character infoboxes! Do you know how tedious it was having to copy the code over and over again each time we wanted to insert a box?! I finally figured out how to make the template! Hooray! *does a little cha-cha dance* (For more info, see this blog post.)

Wed., May 12, 2010: Wanted Pages and sidebar
I'm putting out a cry for help on this wiki, once and for all. We now have a page for the stuff we need but the admins aren't able to add! Like a shopping list of sorts. Hopefully we'll get some help. I mean, I put it right up there on the main page.

Speaking of the Main Page, it's gotten a makeover recently. Now I put up all sorts of stuff, right up front, and rearranged a couple sections. Go me! These admin powers sure are handy. :D

The sidebar's gotten some new looks, too. Although I'm mostly experimenting, I'm basing our look on the sidebars of the best wikis I can find- the Bleach Wikiand the Darker Than Black Wiki. And it's absolutely pure coincidence that those two just happen to be my favorite animes right now. That's right, coincidence. *innocent look*

Sun., April 25: 200th edit
My 200th edit happened to be leaving a welcome/encouragement message to SlavEliseev, so that's just another thing I have to thank her for, other than her recent category-adding edit work! Go SlavEliseev! *throws confetti*

Yeah, I'm not going to throw a party like I did last time. I suppose it's like getting older- the more birthdays you have, the less big a deal birthday parties are. So the more edits you have, the less major the edit-count landmarks are going to seem.

Mon. April 5: 100 edits
So...yeah. Over the weekend, this little thing happened- I now officially have 100 edits. What's that? You didn't hear me? I now have 100 EDITS, people! I am now taking deep breaths, trying not to freak out here, because I already kinda did that when I got my adminship. So I'll just quietly congratulate myself. Besides, I already celebrated by using my new super-admin powers to change the skin on this wiki. Pretty cool, huh? :D

New Project
My new mini-project is fixing all of the broken links on this wiki. (There's quite a few of them, I'm sad to say.) My modus operandi? Easy- I just head on over to the "Wanted Pages" page, which can be found on the Main Page. (Was that a little too redundant? o.o) Anyway, a lot of those "wanted pages" are not really wanted pages at all, but are broken links.

Hmm...
I'm also thinking about moving this whole "Recent Activity" section to my "Blog", which is currently blank. After all, that's where you're supposed to update your activity on this wiki. Besides, this section is getting pretty long...*sigh* Just something for me to think about in the future.

Thurs. April 1: I'M AN ADMIN!
Star-chan is now an admin, peoples! W00t! *throws confetti* Sniff...I'd like to thank the academy, and Wikia, and the Wikia Academy, and especially The Color Earth-san, who gave me super-special admin powers. ADMIN POWAZ, GO!!! *takes sentai superhero stance*

Okay, so I might be getting a little carried away here. But I really am excited, and I truly think The Color Earth-san is awesome (see, I even added a Japanese honorific after his name!) because he helped me on the infoboxes and everything. Together, the two of us will RULE THE WORLD! make this wiki great.

Fri. Mar. 26: Infobox project announcement
Right now, my pet project on this wiki is infoboxes. You know, those cool template-boxes under the picture of a character, item or episode that you see around different wikis. This wiki needs infoboxes, and I have no idea how to do it. Please, please, if anybody has any tips on starting a new infobox template on a wikia, leave a note on my Talk page. *bows* Arigato! ^_^

UPDATE
The epically awesome Color Earth, who is basically the adoptive father of this wiki I suppose, helped me out on this. I am now travelling the wiki, making infoboxes for the characters in the name of justice! So here's one big shout-out to The Color Earth-san.