User talk:DRY

Hi there!
Welcome to our wiki, and thank you for your contributions! There's a lot to do around here, so I hope you'll stay with us and make many more improvements.


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I'm really happy to have you here, and look forward to working with you!


 * Tullis 13:48, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Nice work on the Completionist Achievement Guide. --Tullis 13:48, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Look forward to criticism/corrections. -- DRY 23:17, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Nice work (again) - the planet pages are all looking great. --Tullis 21:49, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Small request?
Is there any way you could cook me up a very small template, nothing major (about the size of the spoiler or cleanup tags) for articles that might benefit from inclusion of / improved quality screenshots? Just something to tag on pages to make people think about contributing pics? I'd really appreciate it. --Tullis 20:08, 18 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Sure thing. As a starting point for discussion, how about Template:PicturesWanted? -- DRY 00:02, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

Density
Thank you for including mass in planets, which saves us a lot of pointless math. Can you give us density too? For terrestrials, density follows from radius and mass. (Gas giants like Saturn might be oblate, having a radius from the pole shorter than that from the equator.) Density will give us further guidelines on planetary composition I believe. You can use Earth's density as the baseline, or just multiply 5.52 for g.cm-3.-- Zimriel 01:30, 14 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Sure, I can look into it. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get to it for a couple of days at least. Real Life&trade; intrudes.... -- DRY 22:30, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Eletania Prothean ruins
May I upload a new screenshot in place of the file ? The advantage of my screenshot is that is shows the ruins in their entirety, and there are no characters/vehicles standing around. I am asking because I see that you have placed a copyright on that screenshot, so I wanted to know if it bothers you to replace it with a 'free' (i.e. Public Domain) version. Here is the new screenshot I am talking about (It will of course be compressed later, just like all others will be). Darkdrium 03:37, 26 July 2008 (UTC) EDIT: Same question for the. I only have a large one though, but it is perfectly centered. Darkdrium 03:50, 26 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Feel free to do as you wish, by all means. (Although I'd strongly suggest that you scale and compress them first – it's not like there's a lot of extra effort involved.) However, please be aware that screenshots of a copyrighted work like Mass Effect are almost certainly not considered to be in the public domain. You cannot unilaterally declare such a screenshot to be in the public domain any more than you could a self-taken photograph the The Voice of Fire or a photocopy of Catch-22. This is the reason why I mark my screenshots as copyrighted, but invoke fair use. -- DRY 04:28, 26 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh I see. I will make the changes.Darkdrium 16:49, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Luna
May I know the reason for undo my modification on Luna? I have uploaded the image which is used in Mass Effect along with the description. But the current image of Luna's surface is not taken from the game. --Snfonseka


 * I assumed that the edit was accidental since it swapped the planetary map and the screenshot. Do please by all means include screenshots, but please don't replace the planetary map in the infobox with one. (All planets and asteroids which can be landed on have their maps in the infobox by convention; see, for example, Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Planets.) -- DRY 17:39, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

OK. --Snfonseka

Old planetary map placemarkers
Are we still using these old placemarkers, the ones that look this?



... or is it okay to delete them? I don't see them being used anywhere and I don't want to categorise them if I don't have to. --Tullis 18:00, 15 March 2009 (UTC)
 * As far as I know, they aren't used anywhere any more. Deleting them may cause missing image links on pages which used to use them, but I can't imagine anyone really minding. --DRY 21:06, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Congrats
Congratulations and welcome aboard the most awesome admin team on any wiki EVER!!! (although I may be a little biased there) Seriously though, it's good to have you here. I look forward to working alongside you (metaphorically, of course) even though you do sometimes prove me wrong and give my ego a bruising. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask. SpartHawg948 19:50, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Avatar
I find your keeper avatar to be oddly fitting, sir. Good show. : ) --Tullis 18:48, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

ME fanfiction wiki
Hello DRY, I am Kamikaz, the administrator of the Mass Effect Fan Fiction Wiki. I took a look at some of your contributions to this wiki and I was just wondering if you would like to come to the fan fiction wiki and help with some contributions there too. Think about it.--Kamikaz 02:04, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Cluster:Artemis Tau
There seems to be some issue with Cluster:Artemis Tau. An anonymous user and I both tried to fix it, but still no go. Can you take a look? --Tullis 19:34, September 20, 2009 (UTC)
 * Will do. Looking into it now. --DRY 19:47, September 20, 2009 (UTC)
 * Quite probably a Wikia problem (see w:Forum:Invalid tag extension name: noinclude). I'm purging the sub-templates to see if that will help any. On the bright side, it only seems to be a problem on the Cluster:Artemis Tau page itself and not places where it is transcluded.... --DRY 20:11, September 20, 2009 (UTC)
 * No joy. I suggest that we wait 24 hours and see if it fixes itself when the cache times out and raise a Wikia bug if not. --DRY 20:15, September 20, 2009 (UTC)

Editor w/ Image Issues
Heyo! You know this stuff a lot better than I do, so if you get a moment could you maybe pop on over to User blog:Ralok/Call for help? Ralok is having some issues with the cluster boxes not showing up right, and I think (but am not positive) that it's on his end. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! SpartHawg948 02:27, December 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll see what I can do to help. --DRY 03:31, December 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * Looks like IE, Chrome, and Safari don't like rowspan="0" for some reason. I'm not familiar enough with the standards to know who's right, but I've fixed the cluster description boxes. Hopefully there aren't too many other places which use rowspan="0". --DRY 04:17, December 23, 2009 (UTC)

Quasar
G'day I'm just curious about your page on quasar and completely and totally don't understand any of the information on it if you wouldn't mind could you you explain to me how exactly it all works... I'm not saying your information is wrong i'm just saying that from my personal observations they seem wrong and those parts would include these projected winnings part of your table do not exist in the game both on the low stakes and high stake quasar games the only winnings to be found are on the numbers 15-20 and even then its rather simple and your option on the payout numbers are completely wrong or non-existent as far as i can tell as well as the average winning per game part, of course math has never been my strong point but i've always been rather good with patterns anyway if you could at some point get back to me about it all so i can understand your information and what you based it upon i'd really appreciate it thanks --Soldier Of Ruin 07:54, January 5, 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually I wasn't the original author of that information, although I do remember double checking the math (and managing to get one of the entries wrong&hellip;.). My only contribution really was to tidy up the formatting a bit. The math is pretty straightforward, so it should be easy to re-check if you like. --DRY 15:44, January 5, 2010 (UTC)

From VarietyMage 20:37, January 26, 2010 (UTC)

Actually, I ran the numbers (with help from Wikipedia's entry on "expected value"), and here's how it comes out:

Using "1-8", outcomes (rolling a 1 the first roll results in a 16, neither a win, loss or break-even, and doesn't count):

(15 total)

0

50

100

200

-200

-200

-200

0

50

100

200

-200

-200

-200

-200

(Sum: -700) / 15 = -46.67 expected value

This is not accurate, because not all other outcomes are losses

average win based on all win/break-even conditions:

Sum of win probabilities: (0 + 0 + 50 + 50 + 100 + 100 + 200 + 200) / 8 = 87.5 credits * (8/15) probability = 46.67

46.67 + sum loss probs(-200 * (7/15)) = -93.33

46.67 + -93.33 = -47

OR, not looking at break-evens:

700 / 6 = 116.66 * 6/15 prob = 46.67

46.67 + -93.33 = -47

Now for "4-7" outcomes:

100

200

-200

-200

(Sum: -100) / 4 = (-25) expected value

Breakdown by probabilites:

300 * 0.5 = 150 avg win

-400 / 2 = -200 avg loss

win prob(150 * 0.5) + loss prob(-200 * 0.5) = 75 + -100 = -25

-25 is better than -47, and so you should use "4-7". Since the buttons and rules are the same for both low-stakes and high-stakes, the same methods should be employed for both.

Hope this helps. :)

Better
I´m Thinking They Look Better
 * Were you intending to change all of them? If so, I'd suggest trying to build some sort of community consensus first. --DRY 18:45, January 6, 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually, the uploaded images were much lower quality than what we have now. Sorry, but we can't accept them. --Tullis 21:58, January 6, 2010 (UTC)

Mass Effect 2
Since mass effect two is right around the corner, I suggest you change the main page to have a mass effect logo and mass effect two logo on it for the perspective games. Also, the sidemenu needs an overhaul. First item on it should be mass effect and second item should be mass effect 2 and then spawn the menu out on each tab for the perspective games. If the menu isn't easy to read, they will go somewhere else and edit.. Polexian ♦♦Talk♦♦♠♠Leave Message♠♠ 15:20, January 23, 2010 (UTC)

On editing quirkiness...
I spoke to SpartHawg948 about editing problems, and he referred me to you. Thanks for fixing what I screwed up. Anyway, I tried to sandbox what I edited in last time, and again, the table screws up, even though I inserted my text at the end, after the table.

Any ideas as to why it screws up?

Here's my code:

Actually, you should be using "1-8" for 15. Using the "4-7" button will give you a 50-50 chance of winning or losing, but that's not the best odds.

Breakdown using "1-8" button:

1 (16): Roll Again (doesn't count: neither a win nor a loss)

2 (17): Break Even

3 (18): Win

4 (19): Win

5 (20): Win

6 (21): Loss

7 (22): Loss

8 (23): Loss

1, 1 (17): Break Even

1, 2 (18): Win

1, 3 (19): Win

1, 4 (20): Win

1, 5 (21): Loss

1, 6 (22): Loss

1, 7 (23): Loss

1, 8 (24): Loss

Results (15 Outcomes):

Wins: 6 (40.00%)

Break Evens: 2 (13.33%)

Losses: 7 (46.67%)

Non-Loss to Loss Ratio: 53.33 to 46.67

The ratio 53.33 to 46.67 is better than the ratio 50.00 to 50.00. While you may not win as much, you *will* lose less, which gains you more in the long run. For each loss, you have to risk losing again to get back to where you started, so lowering the losing percentage is just as important as increasing the winning percentage.

Thanks again,

VarietyMage 05:37, January 26, 2010 (UTC)


 * Is this being added as plaintext following the table? That should "just work". On an editorial note, I would suggest that you include a brief paragraph outlining the difference between optimizing the rate of return for a single game as opposed to multiple games. I would strongly suggest avoiding the horizontal line markup. Alternatively, add a new section with your data in tabular format with an explicative paragraph. --DRY 07:26, January 26, 2010 (UTC)

Actually, it doesn't matter now. When you asked me to include a paragraph about optimizing rate of return, I went to the Wikipedia page on expected value (since I had college statistics over 10 years ago, and forgot a lot of it). I went through all the calculations, and it turns out I was wrong. Outcomes was what I was getting at, but once you run the statistics, you win more using what the table has over time - if you don't lose your shirt by randomness. It has to do with how much you win per each winning outcome, and the one in the table only wins 100 or 200 credits, which bumps up the profit greatly as opposed to added break-evens and 50's doing it my way. Also, the added number of loss conditions (-200 per loss) skews things in the computations. So, all for naught, but a good learning experience for me anyway. Problem solved. Thanks :)

I also added my finding to the person who had a similar question three questions above this one.

VarietyMage 20:13, January 26, 2010 (UTC)

Welcome
Thanks for that, but I actually have an account here. I couldn't be bothered to sign in though since I gave up and left that account to focus on Wikipedia which, honestly, I prefer, because it is far better at containing useful information than the majority of wikis I encounter. While I'm glad to come here for information I may not find elsewhere, the general quality of Wikipedia articles is far better in my view as it doesn't let people (the majority of which are, frankly, morons) add in original research on a whim and Wikipedia needs sources. I mean, when you encounter a Wookiepedia page saying that Darth Vader was involved heavily in stopping an attack by dinosaurs and walking skeletons on the Death Star, Wikipedia would remove that garbage immediately, asking for a source. Wookiepedia took three months to remove it (and I was the one who had to do it...). 217.43.94.6 20:28, January 30, 2010 (UTC)
 * The greetings are actually auto-generated, but welcome nevertheless. We generally have a pretty high standard of proof, but it does tend to discourage casual contributors. It's a bit of a balancing act. --DRY 20:54, January 30, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome
I was going to input all the planets but you had already beat me to that. I'm trying to think of the best way to update Cluster:List to include all the new Clusters, but it seems a little troublesome for now. Lotier 04:38, February 1, 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually the excellent community at large has beaten both of us to it. I'd suggest leaving the larger structural wiki elements aside for now: we'll spruce them up once things start to stabilize a bit. (There are several similar bits which are going to need clean up, like the Planet Index, the Milky Way page and so forth.) --DRY 04:41, February 1, 2010 (UTC)

Mass Effect Organization
I have started a forum thread on this. Please provide your imput. I think it looks much better having it separate. Forum:ME1_and_ME2 Polexian ♦♦Talk♦♦♠♠Leave Message♠♠ 11:21, February 4, 2010 (UTC)

Broken Redirect on User's Page
Hi there, can you assist with cleaning up the following broken redirect? This user seems to be inactive. User:PanSola/slate.css Thanks! --Chalta 01:18, February 5, 2010 (UTC)


 * Please disregard. Issue has been resolved by user. Thanks. 68.146.79.244 03:12, February 5, 2010 (UTC)


 * Actually, that was me --DRY 03:58, February 6, 2010 (UTC)

Hello
Hi, I'm the new admin and bureaucrat at | Mass Effect Fanon. I was wondering if you were the creator of this site because I have a proposal for our two wikis. If you are not, could you please tell me who is, I've had trouble trying to find who is. Thanks.--Bluethunder Talk 02:19, February 6, 2010 (UTC)


 * I'm one of the admins here, but our spiritual leader is undoubtedly User:Tullis. I'm more the nuts-n-bolts guy (templates, dpl, general wikichu&hellip;) here. User:SpartHawg948 rounds out our core team here. --DRY 04:01, February 6, 2010 (UTC)

Greetings and an Easy Question
I'm glad to be on board and hope I don't screw anything up too badly. I've been reading the style guides, and I can't find anything on how to link to a specific location in an article. I managed to jury-rig one with an external link directly to the edit location I wanted (minus the &action=edit), but it's inelegant, and I'd like to know how to link to said location directly.
 * The syntax is User talk:DRY. Be aware that these "anchor links" are very brittle: if anyone changes the section name, the link will be broken, but will not redline &mdash; it will take you to the top of the page instead. --DRY 07:16, February 7, 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you; I'll edit the post to which I was referring with all haste. Sorry about forgetting to sign my first post -- I'm new to Wikia and haven't learnt the habits yet. Immortal Hunger 07:22, February 7, 2010 (UTC)

Style questions and suggestions
I have two style questions/suggestions.

First, I've noticed that some character pages will introduce the characters by name and rank. I'm specifically referring to Ashley Williams, Kaidan Alenko, and David Anderson. The problem I'm having is that they all received promotions, so the ranks can be inaccurate depending on whether you are discussing in reference to either Mass Effect or Mass Effect 2. I would rather have the introductory paragraph be more neutral in reference to time and general background, and have under the section for the specific games, their ranks and any promotions.

Second, I noticed that Liara's Illium quests, Illium: Liara: The Observer and Illium: Liara: Systems Hacking are listed under the Missions tab of the Journal, not the Assignments tab. So I guess they're officially Missions and not Assignments, even though they're rather minor sidequests that do not advance the main plot. Should the be re-categorized as Missions and all the references to them as Assignments be changed?

Seburo 07:25, February 12, 2010 (UTC)


 * If you feel that you can improve an article, by all means have a go; or else discuss it on the relevant talk page. (We usually ask, as a matter of politesse rather than policy, that major changes are discussed before being implemented; but this probably doesn't require that level of debate.) For my part, I have to say that I don't really see a need for rephrasing the character articles. For the missions and assignments, yes, the category should match the journal section. --DRY 16:55, February 12, 2010 (UTC)

Welcome Message
You may have received this before but I really like that auto-generated welcome message. Good info links on it as well. Take care! Flannel Salmon 23:44, February 12, 2010 (UTC)

Getting Admins Notice
I was wondering about where to post questions or comments that directed primarily to the Admins, beside posting a new topic on each user talk page? I posted a couple of questions/suggestions on the Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style talk pages, but apart from yourself, I got no comments from the other Admins. I am aware that it has only been a couple of days, and I'm not trying to push the matter - I'm just not sure the other Admins monitor that page. Is there a more appropriate place to leave a link for my comment/question/suggestion? Somewhere where I know that at some point the Admins will see it? --silverstrike 15:53, February 13, 2010 (UTC)


 * Your best bet is to contact User talk:Tullis and User talk:SpartHawg948 directly. As you might imagine, there is quite a high rate of incoming material at the moment, so things can easily slip through the cracks. --DRY 16:42, February 13, 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing that Caleston Rift image. Very embarrassing :D

Fun Fun!
Just a quick heads up- had another incident where a Russian spambot created a gibberish article (well, gibberish to those of us who can't read Cyrillic, anyways) that, as near as I can tell, was extolling the virtues of some product called the StressEraser. Last time this happened it wasn't just one, it was a wave of them, usually several a day for about two weeks, I think it lasted. I advised wikia, and they said they were working on it, and then it went away, so I assume they fixed it, but it looks like it may be back! So keep an eye out for them. Hopefully I'm wrong and this was an isolated incident, but better safe than sorry, eh? SpartHawg948 13:29, February 15, 2010 (UTC)

Stores Inventory
I noticed a rise of the amount of articles regarding stores in ME2 that started to list inventory items with their prices. I started to create a template for this (User:Silverstrike/Sandbox/Shop, and also noticed another template in development: Template:ME2Store by Dch2404) but half way through I started to realize that those listings are somewhat redundant and could be listed at one location (Merchants or Stores articles). What are your thoughts on the matter? --silverstrike 17:49, February 15, 2010 (UTC)
 * Could be done either way. Or, if the individual pages use templates, a summary page can be generated using DPL. Having a sidebar on the individual pages at least makes them a little less empty. --DRY 19:02, February 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * In that case, do you prefer I continue to work on my template or should I leave this project for Dch2404 to finish? --silverstrike 19:11, February 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * I suggest that you coordinate your efforts in the best way that suits you both. If we're going to have standardized merchant pages, a Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Merchants ought to be created. --DRY 19:14, February 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * If were on the subject - do I have your permission to change the Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style/Weapons article to instruct the use of the ItemsList template? --silverstrike 19:31, February 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't see why not, although I'm not familiar with the weapons pages myself. I'm sure someone will revert if they feel strongly that it's inappropriate . (Also, it's good of you to ask, but we don't have any special official policy for Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style above and beyond regular pages. Contributions are welcome, but are subject – as always – to reversion by others. Of course, with meta pages like that, discussion (as you've done) is always a better course.) --DRY 19:37, February 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * I've already cleaned up ME2Store, only minor formatting/presentation might be left. There should be a merchants page, but it'd be nice to be able to insert a particular store's info into random pages where it could be useful; I'm sure full page listing would be fine... just don't condense it with some other subject (i.e. ME1 & ME2 sections). Do Stores->[Transclude Stores(ME2) & Merchants(ME1)] etc! but that's kindof the ME1/ME2 thing. I just don't see why two pieces of content should be together if at any point it time, one of the pieces would be excluded altogether, like when only playing ME2--0333 20:00, February 15, 2010 (UTC)

(Reset indent) A summary page or table is most easily done if there are individual merchant pages each using a consistent template from which DPL can fetch the information. For content split discussion, see Forum:ME1 and ME2. --DRY 20:03, February 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * I think you use the link to Forum:ME1 and ME2 as punishment (I sure felt like it while reading it) ;p.
 * On topic: I added the template I created for the ME2 stores with a few questions to Mass Effect Wiki talk:Manual of Style/Merchants --silverstrike 20:22, February 15, 2010 (UTC)


 * Welcome to my world. If you think reading it is fun, try cleaning up multiple different attempts to split, join, re-split, and re-join articles. It's a bit like herding cats. --DRY 21:07, February 15, 2010 (UTC)

Eclipse Vanguard weird squares?
Hi I made edits to the Eclipse Vanguard page and their has being these weird squares on the page, I have no idea what they are, and what I did wrong to put them their? it seems every time I delete one another ends up on the page what am I doing wrong? its realy bugging me :S thanks.DC 17:21, February 16, 2010 (UTC)
 * They seem like unicode markers. Do you use any unicode characters that might cause this? This behavior is somewhat odd, considering that the wiki supports unicode. --silverstrike 17:25, February 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * No and it has never happened on any other pages thats why Im confused by it. When I pasted it onto Word to try and delete it their its a question mark within a black diamond. The weirdest thing is it doesn't let me delete them.UPDATE- managed to delete it got a freind to re-email the text got rid of the squares thank you for trying help, still dont understand why it occured but at least their gone:}.DC 17:35, February 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * That's a UTF-8 encoded unicode replacement character, which is usually rendered in as a question mark in a diamond. (The UTF-8 is ef bf bd which is U+FFFD.) I'm not certain why that would be happening, although I can think of a couple of potential reasons. Are you cutting and pasting from an external application? If not, are you using the fancy or plain built-in wikimedia editor? Which browser are you using? --DRY 19:02, February 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes I write the articles on the plain wikia page and then copy and paste it to Microsoft word to check on spelling errors and then copy and paste the ammended version back, if their was major/many such mistakes. For the vanguard article though I didnt copy and paste it back because it was small enough just to correct (the blue suns article I copied & pasted but had no square problem). Perhaps I pressed or done something to the vanguard article that messed it up?. But I cant work out why they would not simply delete, being honest im just glad its gone.DC 20:44, February 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * It probably was a character injected into the clipboard by Word (perhaps a non-printing join or somesuch?). Anyway, I'm glad that you've got it sorted out.  --DRY 20:48, February 16, 2010 (UTC)

Xbox Wikianswers
Hey DRY, I see you're very active here and was wondering if you'd be able to join us at Xbox Wikianswers. Have a look at User_blog:Joeyaa/A_Call-Out_to_Mass_Effect_Veterans and tell me what you think. Thanks for the time :) Joey (talk) 06:12, February 17, 2010 (UTC)

New blockquote template
I looked at some of the assignments articles and noticed the Blockquote template that is used to show the messages that Shepard get before and after assignments. I thought some styling of the template could enhance certain page.

How it looks now: "Reports tell us you've been operating in the Omega Nebula. We'd like you to look into a situation on Lorek, a nearby planet in the Fathar system. Scan the planet for a base, where we believe Eclipse mercs are holding one of our operatives. You should be able to detect the operative's transmitter. Extract the operative; if the operative is beyond rescue, recover any relevant intel that Eclipse may have collected. This is a very delicate matter, Shepard. We trust in your discretion."

With a bit of styling:

--silverstrike 19:16, February 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * It's fine in and of itself, but the existing blockquote is used in contexts where the styling would not be suitable (inside Points of Interest tables, for example). I had been thinking about adding an emailquote template, ideally somehow using &lt;poem&gt; to better handle multi-line input, but I've been too swamped both here and in Real Life&trade; to even contemplate it.  (Even a pair of templates for email begin and end would be OK, if the parsing gets nasty, e.g. in the presence of other wiki markup – like links – on the quoted text.)  That would probably be the best bet, if you can hack one up.  --DRY 21:07, February 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Pre-assignment:


 * Post-assignment:


 * After countless edits and revision in which the poem tag refused to parse the  parameter, I checked the documentation for it and found out that the tag have issues (none of the examples they provided helped) - so, for the time being, I replaced the &lt;poem&gt; tag with a &lt;blockquote&gt;. If ever I find a way to revert back to &lt;poem&gt; I'll let you know.
 * There is another style for the mailquote - I couldn't decide on the color scheme - seeing as I'm not so good with colors, you might want to suggest other color values:

&ldquo;&rdquo;
 * For each pre/post assignment letter, there is a template call (same template). --silverstrike 23:35, February 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * The parsing issues are why I mentioned a begin/end pair. However, that doesn't seem necessary:


 * That seems to work reasonably well, although it doesn't play nicely with other block formatting elements like indentation. It's probably good enough, though.  In passing, I don't think there's any need to provide multiple colour schemes or to otherwise distinguish "start" and "end" messages through styling: that will usually be naturally expressed in the context in which the message appears.  --DRY 00:01, February 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * I've applied it to Normandy Crash Site. It looks pretty decent.  Thanks for your efforts!  --DRY 00:26, February 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * Then I misunderstood your meaning - although, giving the options of colors can be used to make the template suit other needs (journal entries, for example). --silverstrike 01:05, February 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * I think I'd prefer totally separate templates rather than parameterization when they're used for different purposes, particularly when they're this simple. --DRY 01:12, February 18, 2010 (UTC)


 * While integrated this template to the N7: Blue Suns Base article, I encountered two examples for other uses of similar templates:
 * Journal entries - as noted before
 * Console, PDA, etc. - seem to be on many assignments.
 * Should I create additional templates, use the same template, or should I leave it alone (at least for now)? --silverstrike 02:37, February 18, 2010 (UTC)
 * I'd just go ahead and use emailquote for all electronic notices; blockquote can continue to be used for things like scanner messages, dialogue boxes and so forth. --DRY 04:11, February 18, 2010 (UTC)

Color Scheme
While working on the emailquote template I noticed many articles on the wiki that show tables or generic boxes with color scheme not suited for this wiki. I therefore tried to create a template that will return certain color values based on parameters defined. A few examples: Will return the background value:  for the second color scheme. Will return the alternating color:  for the first scheme (default scheme). I tried to make it as user-friendly as possible. I think this template could simlify the usage of colors in the wiki and can be easily changed in the future. --silverstrike 14:27, February 18, 2010 (UTC)