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Village pump (technical) archive  

This page contains discussions that have been archived from Village pump (technical). Please do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to revive any of these discussions, either start a new thread or use the talk page associated with that topic.

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How to fix a template pushing tables down the page

Hello, we have been having problems with {{Politics of Scotland}}, see Template:Politics of Scotland. It is mucking up the layout of several articles (it is used on about 150 articles, and growing rapidly). Someone else commented about it on a Talk page a couple of days ago, but I can't remember where. I noticed it again here: Aberdeen Central (Scottish Parliament constituency).

What is going wrong, and can anyone help fix it? --Mais oui! 12:29, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

{{Election box begin}} has a clear:both in it that's forcing it to go below anything right-aligned. The solution is either to remove the clear:both (if it's not actually needed... if it wouldn't adversely affect other pages... but there are a lot of pages that use it), or to use something other than {{Election box begin}} (eg. {{Election box begin noclear}}). --Interiot 12:40, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks. I'll have a look at the first option. The 2nd one needs created, so I'm not sure if I would manage that, but I can try. --Mais oui! 12:43, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Hey, you are the Interiot of StubSense aren't you! I've only just discovered that: it is brilliant. Thanks. Is there a list of stub-sorting tools anywhere, both internal to Wikipedia and external like yours? I ask this cos I used a special search facility on Wikipedia a couple of months ago, and I cannot find it again. I think that it searched a particular category keywords. --Mais oui! 12:47, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, StubSense is pretty useful. There are several category-related tools, see here. If the tool you're looking for isn't listed there, hit "show all" and maybe it'll be listed there. --Interiot 22:20, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

30kb = ? prose

Someone asked at Wikipedia talk:Summary style how much 30kb is in terms of article length, ie how many words or paragraphs, at a rough guesstimate. Any ideas? Steve block Talk 19:28, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Colin Powell claims to be 30kb long when you click on the edit tab, if that's any help to you. RicDod 19:33, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

You could also use the Lorem Ipsum generator to generate 32768 bytes. ~MDD4696 20:27, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. It looks like a word count of about 4700-4800 words is a rough guide. The Powell article has 4697 based on copying the printable version to word and the Lorem Ipsum generator came up with 4851. Paragrpahs don't seem to scale. Steve block Talk 20:42, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

It really depends whats in with the prose, things like infoboxes, tables and heavy formatting (say color coding or lots of use of {{unicode}} and similar can greatly increase the size of the wikicode without really increasing the ammount of prose. So can heavy use of non-ascii text (2 or 3 bytes/character) 5000 words in 30K is probablly about right though for text with little to no formatting. Plugwash 00:54, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Mac OS X Applications That Work with Wikipedia's External Editor Protocol?

Are there any Mac OS X applications that work with Wikipedia's external editor (or, for that matter, external diff) protocols? — WCityMike ^(T | C)  ⇓ plz reply HERE  (why?) ⇓  04:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Is there a list of USER tags?

How do I find the list of available user tags? (ie. the ones on my talk page I can put to say more about me)Droliver 03:55, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I assume you're talking about userboxes? If so, they're all over God's green earth. This'll get you started, though. — WCityMike ^(T | C)  ⇓ plz reply HERE  (why?) ⇓  04:31, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

PHP download

For some reason, an update to Wikipedia has made it so any attempt to edit in Internet Explorer while logged in (At least in my experience: IE7 although other IE versions on other computers have yielded the same result) reaults in a File Download window popping up for index.php. What can I do? (Made this post anonymously: User:Alph Tech STUART)

Please reply on my talk page if anything comes up.

Uncheck "edit in external editor" in your preferences. --Brion 03:48, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Logs - what are our users actually interested in

I know it has been discussed many times before and I know there are some big technical problems, but it could be really helpful to get some sort of information about what our users are really looking at. Are the obscure pages which we spend so much time huffing and puffing about really the ones that people are looking at, are there some pages which are frequently looked at but in a poor state, are wikipedia editors a representative sample of our users?

To gain some sort of feel for what our users are looking at does not require that we get accurate per page statistics. Indeed it might be sufficient just to get the raw log data from a couple of servers to improve our understanding of our users. It could be enlightening. --Salix alba (talk) 23:14, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

There are a variety of statistics pages available, see Wikipedia:Statistics, including several (old) pages showing hit counts per page. The raw web server logs are not generally available (for privacy reasons if nothing else), so hit counts and searches are made available only at the discretion of the developers (who are generally busy enough that I suspect this seems like a low priority). I would think it wouldn't be too difficult to make some filtered version of the raw logs available with, for example, the source client masked out, although even this would take some development. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:15, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I think that the question HOW Wikipedia users use Wikipedia is perhaps more interesting. Statistics may not give us a very useful idea of what people want. For example I (and probably many who write Wiki articles)will often hit all sorts of things I don't read, or hit the same article several times in the course of work, e.g. when looking around to see what needs doing, or when working on links esp interwiki links. What I often ask myself is: what do most Wiki users do? What kind of people are they? Are they looking for something special or just browsing randomly? Do they find articles that interest them by going to categories, or by using 'search', or by following links from another article and ending up becoming absorbed by something different etc, etc. This is something that only a questionaire could try to answer. Has anything like that been done? Hikitsurisan 05:36, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I have a MediaWiki server where I filtered the logs with a Perl script to produce a table of search engine terms that people were using to find pages on the wiki (see it here). I like these because these show you exactly what people are looking for, and you can compare it to the article they got and see if there's something that needs adding or clarifying. I think it would be interesting to create a software extension that logs recent searches in a new database table and prints them on the article's talk page. Think of it as "anonymous feedback". Deco 23:31, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Preferences in Opera

I only notice this on Operia: the preference tabs do not work at all, so I can only edit the preferences that appear on the first page, I suppose I can log in another browser and change them, but that is the only way.Voice-of-All^Talk 21:31, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, works for me. I'm using Opera 8.54. --Conti|✉ 21:48, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

9.00 Beta.Voice-of-All^Talk 22:31, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Using 9.00 beta 2 on Linux, works normally. Kimchi.sg 03:19, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

New access class oversight

As technical question was answered, this has been moved to WP:VPP. Please continue the dicussion there to prevent a ForestFire

Are there any details of what this permission specifically does, and how it will be assigned? User access levels states "Allows user to delete previous revisions of pages" and that it will be individually assigned. meta:Help:User rights does not mention it at all, but it appears to be a valid (though unassinged) group on meta as well. — xaosflux ^Talk 05:28, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

This is a work in progress, see meta:Hiding revisions. For the moment it's just me, but now with some logging instead of invisible database work. --Brion 05:33, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the speedy answer, and straight from the horses mouth too! — xaosflux ^Talk 05:45, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I wish I had this permission, so that I can kill bad edits without having the FA (or anything else) see "this page was deleted" for a while.Voice-of-All^Talk 07:31, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

It won't be given out except to trusted users or developers; e.g. the arbitration committee on this Wikipedia have it. The scope for abuse is high, and it isn't quite like a straight deletion of one revision - it hides it from all users, including sysops. robchurch | talk 15:26, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

So I take it we'll be seeing Wikipedia:Oversight policy and Wikipedia:Requests for oversight soon?  :/ What would be wrong with allowing any sysop to delete a revision this way, but only "oversight" users to view/restore such deletions? —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 08:03, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

If something is deleted with this function, it can only be viewed or restored by a database developer. — xaosflux ^Talk 05:40, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Apparently this is already in production, and being used, see the Log. As of this post, this permission has been set on 17 accounts. The meta page also is suggesting that "Draft policy needs to be drafted before use." — xaosflux ^Talk 05:29, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

As technical question was answered, this has been moved to WP:VPP. Please continue the dicussion there to prevent a ForestFire

Accidental Deletion of Text

I have been recently accused of vandalism. Some of the articles I have edited (usually just altering an image) I hit the show preview tab to make sure everything looks ok. After I save it I've noticed that parts of the entry then have text removed and I did not do this. One of the more experienced users told me that this is a rare glitch. Can you help so this does not happen again? Dstorres

The same problem has happened to me, parts of the page have been removed from the edit box somehow (without me realising) and then when I press submit half the page is missing. Fourtunatley this has only really happened on my userpage (if you take a lok at the history). Hopefully there is some explanation. Lcarsdata ^{Talk | @ | Contribs} 14:05, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Creating an account

OK, this a Wiktionary problem not a Wikipedia problem, but I'll bet someone here can help me. The problem is that trying to create an account at Wiktionary, I fill out the form and press the Create Account button; then I get the message “Sorry, you have already created 6 accounts. You can't make any more.” In fact I have no account there.

• Does anyone know where to go for technical help at Wiktionary? (Here at Wikipedia Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) has always been helpful. At Wiktionary I tried Wiktionary:Information desk. But it's page description doesn't seem particularly apt, and after 9 hours I have got no response.)
• We use much the same software here at Wikipedia, don't we? Could such a problem creating an account happen here? If so, what would you advise?

--teb728 08:23, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I believe there is a limit on the number of accounts that can be created per IP address per day, you must share an IP address with other people, who have already used the 6 accounts. I'm not sure if there is anything to do other than wait until tomorrow. Martin 08:29, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. I don't know what did it, but I was finally able to create an account. I suspect that I may have screwed things up by floundering, trying to see the Captcha image used to frustrate spammers; anyway success happened 24 hours after I stopped floundering. --teb728 04:56, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Why doesn't Search find articles having titles that exactly match the search text?

I entered the following text into the search control:

Mental Health Parity Act

and clicked on Search, but it failed to show me the article having exactly that name!

Had I pressed Go, it would have taken me directly to the Mental Health Parity Act. Is this working as designed? — franl (talk) 18:07, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

• I would report it to Bugzilla. I've noticed this too. It seems to sort search results based on article content matching, rather than giving preference to article titles matching. In the meantime, don't use Search. --BRIAN0918 18:11, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

The search index has not been rebuilt since this article was added. -- Rick Block (talk) 18:41, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

It might be a good idea to modify the search code to also check for an exact match and add this to the top of the result list if it is found. It wouldn't be much slower and it would eliminate bizarre cases like this. Deco 00:02, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

A lot of problems like this arise when the search index is out of date. What is the reason for the low frequency of updates? bobblewik 11:00, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Servers out of sync today?

Are some of the servers out of sync today? I just edited The Person's Case into a redirect, and while the history shows the edit, the article displays as before, despite page reloads.. --John Nagle 21:48, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

FWIW, I haven't noticed anything weird. Isopropyl 21:50, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Tried ?action=purge. Does it work now? Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 21:51, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Wierd.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Person%27s_Case?action=purge gets the new version, repeatedly.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Person%27s_Case gets the old version, repeatedly.

--John Nagle 21:58, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Try bypassing your cache. Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 21:59, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

It's OK now; maybe server propagation was running a little behind. --John Nagle 22:06, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Help with Disputes Templates page

Help! I created a new template called Template:autobiography, and it produces this:

I am trying to add it to Wikipedia:Template_messages/Disputes, and I am trying to make the entry for specifying a date parameter (like what they have in Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup, but it's not working in the Disputes page! I have put a "This page is undergoing a major edit" into the page until someone can help me. The place to edit is at the bottom of the first section. Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ajo Mama (talk • contribs) .

You don't need a date parameter. --Rory096 21:09, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

The only article this template was added to is Jimmy Wales Trödel 23:35, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

User info-boxes

Is there a place I can find where I can see all the wee information templates to go into my infobox? Hole in the wall 08:50, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Userboxes. æle ✆ 2006-06-04t13:52z

Can't figure out what's wrong

Okay, so I started an article here [[1]], then discovered there was already an article by that name here[[2]]. My article has lots more info, and I'd like to redirect the other one into mine, but they have the same name. Can somebody help? IronDuke 00:38, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

The capitalization of "is" was the problem. I've fixed that now, and pasted the content of the other article at the My_Name_is_Rachel_Corrie page (which should be moved back to conform to naming conventions). When you're done, feel free to tell me here or in my talk page to fix it completely. Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 00:44, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

I believe I am done for the nonce. Consider yourself poked. And thanks... IronDuke 00:47, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Site notice use

The Communications committee is working on coordinating the use of sitewide notices for Wikimedia projects. This is needed for the upcoming fundraiser, as well as other potential announcements relevant to all projects, such as Wikimania or technical issues like single login.

It's anticipated that we will use a bot to help update these messages, which due to the nature of the pages being edited will need to have universal sysop privileges. Rest assured that we won't be using it for other sysop functions.

--Michael Snow

Chair, Wikimedia Communications Committee

Alcohol and cancer

Long story as to how I found the page in question. Anyways, I saw that someone complained that they had removed a section by accident. I checked it out (thought a revert would fix it right up)... The removed section had been appended out of out to the bottom of the page. And the editing buttons are now in the wrong order/location. Some serious technical difficulties. Some of the sections have been completed replaced due to broken sections. The jump menu is completely worthless because the titles for the sections are different than the titles of the text contained within sections.

Evidence: Part of the references, (Edit&Section=15) is fine, then the broken area is next, regarding breast cancer, and this has its own edit button, but it is defined as (Edit&section=1), which takes me to the top part, on daily intake amount.

Sincerely, Logical2u 23:09, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

PS: If this should be in assistance, I'm terribly sorry for the bother.

I've fixed the problem. Basically, someone added a <ref> tag but forgot to add the closing </ref> tag which meant a whole section was caught up in the tag, and in the wrong place. Incidentally I'm glad you posted here because maybe a developer will see it and do something about it (if anything can be done) (hint....) Captainj 00:22, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

WP:BUG — Edward Z. Yang^(Talk) 00:34, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Filed: Mediazilla:6199. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 22:39, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

(Perma-)linking to Google Books page images?

Google Books is quite a valuable tool, particularly that the full text of many older books is now online.

Does anyone know how to construct a URL that contains exactly the information needed to retrieve a specific page from a specific book? When you perform book searches in Google Books, you get very long URLs such as

http://books.google.com/books?vid=0jBbDKSPrZrizk&id=YJCpzADyFWMC&pg=RA12-PA282&q=surf-boarding&vq=surf-boarding&dq=charmian+london+hawaii

If this link works, it should bring up page 282 of Charmian London's "Our Hawaii," but it seems to contain quite a lot of extraneous information. How much of that is volume and page number? Obviously the query I used is part of the string, and I have to wonder whether there is any session information, or information on my Google account, that might change in future or not work for someone else.

I've found by experiment that something like

http://books.google.com/books?q=ISBN+0827606184

seems to be quite reliable in picking up a book by ISBN number, but that doesn't retrieve a specific page, and of course older books did not have ISBN numbers.

I've had partial success in "deconstructing" the long URLs by removing what I suspect to be irrelevant information, but you'd think there would be some well-known way to do this.

Ideally, of course, I'd like to have the Cite Book template automatically construct the appropriate Google Books and A9 searches from the supplied information. Dpbsmith (talk) 10:01, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

• Keep the ID and PG parameters in the URL, that's all: http://books.google.com/books?id=YJCpzADyFWMC&pg=RA12-PA282 --BRIAN0918 12:24, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks. I was concerned that the gibberish might be linked to my Google Books login or a cookie or something and might not work for others. Did you figure this out by experiment, or does Google explain it somewhere? Dpbsmith (talk) 23:03, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I think this site is a whole lot better than Google Books. Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 12:37, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

That site doesn't let you search inside the text of the book. r3m0t ^talk 11:03, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

(While we're on the topic... www.a9.com 's book search is very useful. The set of books and the pages they will allow you to see is not the same as Google's. The big problem with a9's book search is that Google's search feature works much better than a9. Also, Google's university partnership is starting to bear fruit and Google Books is beginning to contain full views of many public domain books... and not duplicating Project Gutenberg, either. a9 seems to yield only limited views of currently-in-print books). Dpbsmith (talk) 23:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I created templates for this, {{googleprint}} or {{googleprintpage}}. Unfortunately google subsequently changed the format for links to specific pages, so the second template stopped working. Anyway, this is all somewhat moot now, since they've been deleted by those fine folks at templates for deletion on the basis that they constitute advertising for google :/ Lupin|talk|popups 04:43, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Edit buttons not working in Firefox

None of the javascript code-insert buttons are working in Firefox; they haven't worked since I came back from wikibreak a few weeks ago. I've even tried reinstalling Firefox. Javascript is enabled, and I don't get any errors in the Firefox Javascript Console except for minor monobook.css errors that I've always gotten. The buttons are working fine in IE. --BRIAN0918 21:17, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

They work for me (Firefox 1.5.0.3 on Debian); if you were on wikibreak for several weeks, you probably missed the change some time ago which completely changed the way they work, and still have the cached versions of the old JavaScript. Try clearing your cache; it'll probably fix the problem. --cesarb 22:50, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Nope, doesn't work. I was on wikibreak for weeks, but I've been back for a week or so, and it hasn't worked at all this week. --BRIAN0918 00:30, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

1. What doesn't work about them?
   1. Do they display as icons, but nothing happens when you click on them?
   2. or, do they display as text, but work when you click on them?
   3. or, something else?
2. Do you have customized buttons in your user JavaScript? If so you may need to update your custom code.

Details always are helpful here. --Brion 06:36, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

The only bit in User:Brian0918/monobook.js that is related to these buttons is the following, which replaces the content that would be printed when I click the signature button with a custom signature:

function sigFix () {
document.getElementById("toolbar").innerHTML=document.getElementById("toolbar").innerHTML.replace('--~~' + '~~','— MY_CUSTOM_SIG');
}


function reformatMyPage() {
  sigFix();
}
if (window.addEventListener) window.addEventListener("load",reformatMyPage,false);
else if (window.attachEvent) window.attachEvent("onload",reformatMyPage);

What needs changing in that? --BRIAN0918 12:30, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I've noticed the same behavior. The buttons appear and work properly with Firefox under Linux, but not with Firefox on Windows. When they don't work, I only see text where the button bar should be (don't have the exact text right now since I'm not on a Windows box right now). The only other difference that I can think of besides the operating system in use is that my Windows installation has GreaseMonkey as well (but since I don't really use its features, I've considered completely removing GM). Slambo (Speak) 19:32, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Okay, a little more information now that I'm on a Windows box. The buttons appear as text, showing the alt-text for each of the images. However, each of the alt-texts is actually clickable and does what the buttons do. So, if I click on the words "Bold text", it adds '''Bold text''' and clicking on "External link (remember http:// prefix)" inserts [http://www.example.com link title]. In each case, the appropriate FIXME text is highlighted so I can just continue typing. The problem is that these java buttons are all shown as plain text and not as buttons; the text is printed as plain text and does not appear underlined or in the normal link color, so unless you know that there are supposed to be buttons there, you wouldn't necessarily figure out that they were links. I can upload a screenshot if you want. Slambo (Speak) 22:41, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

The way the edit buttons were created was changed some time ago, which as a side effect broke, in some browsers at least, any user scripts that relied on modifying getElementById("toolbar").innerHTML. To make it work again, I came up with a more robust solution that modifies the buttons before they are actually generated by installing a wrapper around the addButton() function. You can probably adapt the code, at Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/Sigdash, to suit your needs. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 11:26, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I am looking after the Extra edit buttons code and this sort of problem came up a few weeks weeks ago. I think the problem is because the order the buttons are created has changed. I believe Wikimedia software runs in the following order: the page loads, monobook.js is run and then the buttons are built. This means you can't edit the buttons using InnerHtml anymore (if you do the toolbar breaks). The best way forward is probably to add another button using mwCustomEditButtons to add the signature you want. Extra edit buttons has plenty of examples as to how to add extra buttons. --MarkS (talk) 20:03, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

With the new code, adding extra edit buttons is very simple. You can see an example at User:Ilmari Karonen/editbutton user.js. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 13:43, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

The problem isn't in creating new buttons, the problem is how the default buttons appear as shown below:

The edit buttons do not appear correctly using Firefox on Windows.

The edit buttons do not appear correctly using Firefox on Windows.

I have not made any changes to any css file, this is how they appear by default. Slambo (Speak) 16:43, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

It's a known bug. See Bug #5747. --John Nagle 16:49, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Volunteer needed to test problem. 
See Bug #5747 --John Nagle 20:19, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Font just keeps getting bigger

The page for Dag_Hammarskj%C3%B6ld doesn't seem to be working very well, and there is no way to look at the history or edit it...(I'm using ie7 beta 1)

it looks fine in firefox 1.503 and in IE6. Can you post a screenshot? BTW if you find for some reason that you cannot see the edit/history tabs you can manually add &action=history or &action=edit to the url. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 23:52, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Reference Button

Can I ask for a reference button to be added along side those formatting buttons. It would involve a <ref>{{cite}}</ref>. Computerjoe's talk 21:05, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

While references are important, I don't think they're standardized enough to warrant a formatting button. I assume you mean the edit toolbar above every page's Edit text box? --J. J. 22:11, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Here, add this to your monobook.js (edit the open/close/sample parameters as needed). Be sure you have the js wrapped in <nowiki></nowiki> (example) --Splarka (rant) 07:25, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

 if (mwCustomEditButtons) {
  mwCustomEditButtons[mwCustomEditButtons.length] = {
    "imageFile": "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/Button_ref.png",
    "speedTip": "References",
    "tagOpen": "<ref>",
    "tagClose": "</ref>",
    "sampleText": "{{cite}}"};
 };

Did it work? I saw you fiddling with it. Maybe try adding just this as a quick test (but you should never load code you don't trust, copy it to your userspace if it does work externally) --Splarka (rant) 10:51, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Splarka/refer.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s"></script>');

The code had a spurious addOnloadHook(mwCustomEditButtons), which I removed. It should work now. (mwCustomEditButtons is an array used by the edit toolbar code, not a function to be executed.) —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 22:07, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, even with that it worked fine for me. Sorry ^_^. Tangent: Perhaps there should be a repository of buttons, organized (images created and such) by a trusted administrator in their userspace, that users can add one-at-a-time with document.write lines in their monobook.js with a simple instruction page for utilizing it, and discussion page for suggesting new ones... A year ago when I wanted to rewrite the toolbar (on another wiki) I did it the hard way, by making my own addButton() function in my monobook which added the buttons I wanted in the order I wanted, was a mess! --Splarka (rant) 01:10, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts? Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 22:30, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

References

Hi there, I have been working on this article: Zoroastrians in Iran and a lot of the material comes from the same sources, so at the moment the Zoroastrians_in_Iran#References section looks kinda untidy, whats the solution? Thanks! --K a s h ^{Talk | email} 20:33, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

What do feel about the change I made? It's a step in the direction <ref> plays well with. EncMstr 20:59, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch, yeah much better now! :) --K a s h ^{Talk | email} 21:00, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, it seems Tupac Shakur is having trouble with this himself...uh, I mean... Well, something's up, any ideas? -Mysekurity ^[m!] 05:45, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

I looked, but could find only one which was a duplicate...er triplicate. Otherwise this article has a lot of citations. That seems like something not to try to solve.... EncMstr 18:18, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Redirects

Question: Wikipedia is not paper redirects to Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, but every time I type in Deletion log it doesn't automatically redirect me to Special:Log/delete, just the actual redirect - as if it was a double redirect. Why is this so, and can it be fixed? Hbdragon88 23:12, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

From Help:Redirect#Interwiki redirects and redirects to special pages, redirects to special pages have been disabled (transclusions of special pages similarly don't work). I don't know the precise reason, but I'd guess that this is difficult to implement in the current software. There's an open enhancement request to allow redirects in the special: namespace, see bugzilla:5834. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:59, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Not implemented because of abuse? We wouldn't want to have someone redirecting their user page to Special:Userlogout. :] Kimchi.sg 03:13, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Re: "transclusions of special pages similarly don't work". There are a few that do, try some of these: {{Special:Recentchanges/5}} {{Special:Wantedpages/5}} {{Special:Newpages/5}} {{Special:Newimages/5}} {{Special:Prefixindex}} {{Special:Prefixindex/Zzz}} {{Special:Allpages}}. (Yah I know, WP:BEANS and all). --Splarka (rant) 07:31, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Special pages can be transcluded if coded to do so. robchurch | talk 22:20, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Introduction

I think the Wikipedia:Introduction could look like this:

To: [[/sandbox/]]{{Please leave this line alone}}<!-- Go BACK -->use [[/sandbox/]]
 <!--This is not a Test area. When you edit a page, 
 consider how your changes are improving it: in this
 case, for example, you should leave it be. -->

If the Introduction were not used as a sandbox, its text would stop getting deleted by people trying out editing. Another page should be used as the sandbox used by people reading the introduction. About a third of the times I've checked the introduction, I've found it wasn't there.--Chuck Marean 19:50, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Ruins the whole, "you can edit this page, right now! Go ahead!" nature of the introduction. I see no harm in a little reversion; schedule with a bot if desired. robchurch | talk 22:22, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Portals Problem

Does anyone know what is up with the portals, they are acting funny. See Portal:Australia for example. Jedi6-(need help?) 08:50, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Never mind, it seems to be fixed now. Jedi6-(need help?) 08:54, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Cite book

Is there guidance on the use of the {cite book} tag, please? BlueValour 03:30, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

For many of these templates, there is some help on their talk pages, Template talk:Cite book in this case. Is that the sort of information you were looking for? --iMb~Meow 04:21, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Uploading images

How do I load images to Wikipedia w/o loading them to the commons? --JD

Click on 'Upload file' under 'toolbox' in the left hand column. BlueValour 03:32, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Heads-up on section editing

I've fixed a bunch of section-editing bugs today. Hopefully I haven't introduced new ones, but if you notice anything new funny where section edit links bring up the wrong section, please report it immediately at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/ so I can take care of it. Thanks! --Brion 01:06, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

References and numbered lists?

In Pac-Man#References, there are four footnoted references made using <ref> tags, and two global references added to the section itself (one line break after the <references/>) as numbered list entries. But they are numbered 1,2,3,4,1,2! Is there a way to make both types of references belong to the same numbered list and be numbered 1,2,3,4,5,6? Seahen 00:40, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you need to use HTML (I added the correct tags). Alternatively, you could format them more typically of non-footnoted references, as (to pick a page off the top of my head) Global warming#References. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 01:23, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

monobook.css

hey guys, what's up,, I know CSS codes but i don't know the tags that are associated with the text, so I would like to know the <SPAN> or <DIV> IDs or CLASSes so I can edit them, basicly I want to change the font of the articles and main page, basic stuff, thanks --mo-- (^Talk | _#info | ) 22:56, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Install Firefox, and open the Tools>DOM Inspector (screenshot). --Interiot 23:07, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

View source anyone? I use it to program all the time.Voice-of-All^Talk 23:24, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I have firefox but the options under tools are

• • Websearch
  • Read mail
  • New messages
  • Downloads
  • Extensions
  • Themes
  • JavaScript Console
  • Page Info
  • Clear Private Data
  • Options...

There is no DOM Inspector --mo-- (^Talk | _#info | ) 23:45, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

As VoA said: Control + U is your friend (or right-click, view page source, or View->Page Source from the Mozilla menu.) Also it might help to peek through the site skin css and the supplimentary css patches to the site skin and the skin-independant patches to the site css which operate on all skins. --Splarka (rant) 00:51, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

On windows, when you install it, you have to select Custom Install, and select Web Developer Tools. There's also a semi-hacky way to install it after the fact. --Interiot 01:41, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Catalogue of CSS classes. --cesarb 21:49, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Linking to a picture I uploaded

Ok, new to Wikipedia as I am I'm having trouble figuring out how to link an image to an article. I read the help, I followed it to last detail, yet it does not link the image to the article!

I'm talking about image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Komiza22.JPG and about article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komi%C5%BEa

I took the image myself when visiting the place, what am I doing wrong there?

Androg 11:35, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Edit the page and put [[pagename]] around Komiza and it will create a direct link to the article Komiza.Lcarsdata ^{Talk | @ | Contribs} 11:45, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Fixed it for you - you were linking to ".jpg" when the file you uploaded the file as ".JPG" - MediaWiki is case sensitive to these sorts of things. :) --james_{(lets talk)} 12:47, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. :) Androg 11:23, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Disable control-e jump to edit page?

As a long-time Emacs user, my fingers are hardwired to press control-e to jump to the end of the line when editing text, and my web-browser, Safari, generally supports this functionality. Unfortunately it appears as if the MediaWiki or Wikipedia software binds this to jump to the edit page. This makes me loose all my edits on a page and happens to me at least twice per Wikipedia editing session, due to this habit. I imagine this must happen to some others as well. How can I disable this key-binding feature? Joey Hagedorn 06:01, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Put this in User:Joeyhagedorn/monobook.js (or whatever skin you use):

ta['ca-edit'] = new Array('`','You can edit this page. Please use the preview button before saving.');

Should do the trick, maybe. Reassigns it to a highly unused key. You can also just leave it blank. --Splarka (rant) 07:28, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Also, see MediaWiki:Monobook.js for other keys you can change this way (in theory). --Splarka (rant) 07:29, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

As a general suggestion, though, I would recommend that you a) use End to jump to the end of a line (which is a universal standard, AFAIK), and b) use a browser that doesn't lose stuff entered into forms when you go to a new page (like Firefox). —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 09:57, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Mac OS X doesn't use End to go to the end of a line; it uses Cmd-→. Since the edit page is the same URL as... well, the edit page, Safari won't let you go back to the first instance because it seems to be the same page. æle ✆ 2006-06-02t06:25z

What does End do, then? —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 21:54, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

When editing a text box, End seems to do, nothing at all; when not editing a text box it jumps to the end of the page. Further, I don't think its too reasonable to try to break the control-e habit. You reference End as a "universal" standard, but I argue this is not the case. In the UNIX heritage, control-e is commonly bound to jump to the end of the line when editing the command line and is set this way in most shells by default, where End again does nothing. The control-e binding is also available in all Mac OS X Cocoa applications, following this precedent. While I am not arguing that control-e is the standard for jumping to the end of the line, I don't think End is necessarily more universal, though it may be common in some circles. Joey Hagedorn 06:34, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

My bad. Guess I'm just too Windows-centric.  :) —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 01:12, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Off the page

I was writing an article about "Hannah and the Pirate Caves" and when it was published, it was only two lines. When I wrote it, it was exactly seven lines. Why? Because the article went veering off the page! The same thing has happened with this article. What can I do to stop this? Thanks!

mmgirl140, which is also my neopets username :)

When you indent lines, the wikicode interprets them as literal code and wraps the html in <pre> tags, so just be sure to start each line without a space before the first letter. --Splarka (rant) 22:19, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Wiki database

Is it safe to give out a complete database for a wiki, or should some tables be left out? Gerard Foley 19:34, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

The database includes password hashes and e-mail addresses of users. You must, at the very least, exclude these columns - I would exclude the entire users table. Deco 20:10, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

A safer option would be to use the dump export tool to create the article dumps in XML format. However, if doing a full dump, I'd advise omission of the user table (esp. email addresses and full names), watchlists, and the recentchanges.rc_ip field. robchurch | talk 23:27, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Redirecting for different use of caps

How would you redirect someone from one page to another. As in if the page is called "ABC" but they type in "abc" it brings up nothing. I want to be able to have "abc" redirect to "ABC". I'm pretty sure I've seen it done for others, so I was curious if there was a way.

If not, should I just make duplicate entries?

See WP:R for the details. --iMb~Meow 06:15, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Bug with Google Toolbar for Firefox

I discovered that after installing Google Toolbar the following problem occured: When I edited a large page -> went to another tab -> loaded a page there -> went back to the tab where I was editing, text from the edit window has been cut.
After deinstalling Google Toolbar again this Bug disappeared. Thanks a lot to my friend Alhen for helping me find out that it was this extension. (He could also reproduce this bug by installing the extension).
I already send an email to Google Toolbar but I just wanted to let you know.
Best regards --birdy _{(:> )=|} 00:20, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Ah! So that's what causes that bug! Prodego ^talk 01:02, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Adding Nutritonal Facts to Diet Pill Articles

I'd like to add a table aligned to the right that includes information for a diet pill, much like the ones for football teams e.g. Oakland Raiders, and american football players like: James Mungro I looked all over Wikipedia but it seems like these tables are templates and I can't find any for over the counter drugs of nutritional facts for vitamins.

I'd like to be able to create the table but I need to know how to align it to the right with the text wrap. I'd appreciate any help either here or on my talk page. Thanks BrianZ 19:17, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I've figured it out temporary, but does anyone know where I can find a template for a right aligned table for Nutritional Facts? BrianZ 19:25, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

How about {{Nutrition Facts}} or {{Nutritional information}}? Special:Prefixindex is handy. --Splarka (rant) 07:26, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Variables in templates

Hi! I'm an admin from Slovenian Wikipedia and would like to ask here for some help on using variables as part of templates. I have been trying to add a date based on variables {{CURRENTDAY}}, {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} and {{CURRENTYEAR}} in a specific template on Slovenian Wikipedia. The template should work so that when it is substed the variables are substed too, but when it is only transcluded the variables are not shown at all. Is it technically possible to achieve this and how is it done? Thanks very much. --Eleassar ^{my talk} 17:40, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Try this clever little hack (stolen from Template:Afd):

{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|{{<includeonly>subst:</includeonly>NAMESPACE}}|{{<includeonly>subst:</includeonly>CURRENTDAY}}, {{<includeonly>subst:</includeonly>CURRENTMONTHNAME}}, {{<includeonly>subst:</includeonly>CURRENTYEAR}}|<!-- nothing -->}}

--Splarka (rant) 07:21, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Note that, as far as I'm aware, this hack will completely FUBAR your template if you don't subst. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 08:41, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

{{#ifeq:{{NAMESPACE}}|{{<includeonly>subst:</includeonly>NAMESPACE}}|{{<includeonly>subst:</includeonly>CURRENTDAY}}, {{<includeonly>subst:</includeonly>CURRENTMONTHNAME}}, {{<includeonly>subst:</includeonly>CURRENTYEAR}}|'''HEY YOU! YOU HAVE TO SUBST THIS! RAR!!'''}}

*grin* --Splarka (rant) 10:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Followup (re Simetrical): You can make your template appear somewhat normal when not subst'd (and have the only visual difference be a timestamp): crude example. One drawback is the ugliness of the code when substed, the {{#ifeq}} stays with the page (attempts to subst it do fubar your unsubst'd template, ug).

Another option is to have an optional parameter, eg: {{sometemplate|~~~~~}} and have a {{{1|}}} show it if it is used. This could be subst'd or not and have the same affect, as the timestamp would be a parameter in the template when the page was saved: {{sometemplate|22:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)}}. --Splarka (rant) 22:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Won't display sidebar

When I go to the article Gazeka I, it doesn't display the Community portal-special pages links, only the main page. Johndoe 111 10:54, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Gazeka looks fine (no other articles with that prefix exist, unless it is on another wiki). Can you provide a screenshot? --Splarka (rant) 07:10, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Problem with USC talk page: "Cite error 3; Invalid call; invalid keys, e.g. too many or wrong key specified"

I added a comment to the Talk:University of Southern California page and, all of a sudden, none of the final few sections (which had previously showed) were visible. Instead one comment was cut halfway and replaced by the error message "Cite error 3; Invalid call; invalid keys, e.g. too many or wrong key specified" in big, bright red letters. I have no idea what is doing this. Any ideas? The missing text is still visible in edit mode --Bobak 15:21, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Malformed <ref> and </ref> tags were causing parser confusion when it encountered your <nowiki> tags. I fixed it. -Splash - tk 15:29, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! --Bobak 19:02, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Blank pages

I keep getting blank pages everywhere. My watchlist, making an edit, etc. What's going on? --Zeno McDohl ^(talk) 14:57, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

See above, do you use Google Toolbar for firefox, it's having that problem? That was a guess. To get better help you may want to post your OS version and browser type and version. ++Lar: t/c 15:53, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I was also having the problem, on a MacBook, using Safari 2.0.3. Joyous! | Talk 15:59, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I have Google Toolbar, but the described issue is not what I'm having. Mine are complete blank pages. Looks like a php error that was surpressed to me. Windows XP SP2, Firefox (latest). --Zeno McDohl ^(talk) 16:38, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

wiki in two languages

Hi! I'd like to make a bilingual wiki - meaning it should have two versions, one for each language. What I need to know is - should I install two separate wikis, or is there a way to avoid this? One of the problems is the navigation box - I need it to be in different languages for different sections. Can that be done? Any ideas? Thanx :)

Keystroke for Minor Edits on Mac Firefox?

I've been trying to determine some keyboard shortcuts for Mac OS X for Wikipedia. The Ctrl-W keystroke turns the watchlist off and on. However, Ctrl-I appears to be assigned to "this is a minor edit", but it doesn't seem to work in Mac OS X's Firefox. Any idea what might be going on? Anything I can get into monobook.js or somewhere else to get it to work? I really think I'd more accurately use minor edits if I have access to it on the keyboard. Your tech help on this item would be vastly appreciated! — Mike •  03:52, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Anyone? Please, this would be a huge quality-of-life (and quality-of-edit) improvement for me. — Mike •  11:17, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Quick follow-up — the Ctrl-W for watchlist does work in Safari, but, similarly, the Ctrl-I doesn't affect the minor-edit checkbox. (I am getting Ctrl-I from the fact that Ctrl appears to be the "access key" prefix for Macs.) — Mike •  11:19, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Ctrl-I toggles the minor checkbox for me in both a recent Camino nightly and Firefox 1.5.0.3. I know that doesn't help you fix your problem, but at least you know that it should work on OS X.... --iMb~Meow 11:46, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Annnnndddd... it works under Firefox 1.5.0.4, and Safari too. Do you have any programs installed on your Mac that might be intercepting Ctrl-I for nefarious purposes, or any weird custom javascript extension thingies on your Wikipedia account that may be interfering? --iMb~Meow 11:56, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. I feel a bit silly: I disabled a keyboard program I had, and the keystroke worked, so I investigated its settings. Evidently, a very long time ago I assigned a keystroke to Ctrl-I that ran a now-non-existent AppleScript. Once I zapped that, the keystroke works fine. Feeling a bit silly now. But quite thankful. Thanks. — Mike •  14:26, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

ParserFunctions confusion

Every transclusion of User:Alerante/ddate that doesn't involve leap days breaks complaining about unexpected * operators (see User talk:Alerante/ddate); the problem is that there aren't any asterisks in the template code. The template page itself works fine. What have I done wrong? æle ✆ 2006-06-07t23:10z

Wild guess, replace /leapdate (subpage) by the complete name User:Alerante/ddate/leapdate. -- Omniplex 06:40, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I think I love you. æle ✆ 2006-06-08t15:05z

Firefox Find in edit window

I've been using IE for years, and decided recently to check out Firefox for Wikipedia editing. Everything seems fine, except Find. With IE, Find will locate text in the edit window, but Firefox seems blind to all text within the edit window. Anyone know if there is a setting, extension or any other trick that will fix this? TIA -- Mwanner | Talk 20:22, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

It actually does see inside the box (turn highlight all on and see), but for some reason doesn't search it. I have no idea why... Prodego ^talk 01:02, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

From Wikipedia:WikiProject_User_scripts (the page is a mess, hard to make a direct link):

• A tab when editing that allows you to search in the textarea. I know of a replace script but not of a search script. I'm sure it would be easy to create. Gflores ^Talk 18:35, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

It's not what you asked for, but if you're using firefox you can install Retro Find and Regular Expression Find to get regexp searching throughout pages, including textareas. Lupin|talk|popups 13:10, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Also see Wikipedia:Tools/Browser_integration#Search_within_Textarea_Extension_with_regex. --Splarka (rant) 07:36, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

User:Zocky/Search_Box is the nicest solution I know. Lupin|talk|popups 14:11, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Works great! Many thanks, -- Mwanner | Talk 15:29, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Problems with Firefox and previews

I'm currently having a problem editing articles using Firefox (1.5.0.4). Frequently when I edit an article if I choose to preview the edit, then switch to another tab, when I return to the tab with the edit in the last half or so of the article has disappeared from the edit box. As you can imagine this is can get very irritating when trying to get the correct wiki links on an article. Is this a common problem or is it just my browser, and is there any way around it? --Daduzi 17:33, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I've been having this problem as well (Firefox 1.5.0.3, Windows XP). If I move the cursor to the end of the text in the edit box, it doesn't always seem to happen. Sometimes I notice it beforehand, but sometimes I submit it and then have to restore the page; sometimes other users have to clean up my mess (e.g., [3]). The worst thing is that "Show Preview" is subject to the same problems, so I could edit a page, click the preview button, check out another tab, return, approve of the preview, submit the changes, and get a truncated version. This bug appears to only affect longer chunks of text, but yes, it's highly irritating. — Knowledge Seeker দ 17:41, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I haven't noticed this (Firefox 1.5.0.4, Windows XP). How repeatable is it in a given set of circumstances? Have you tried sandbox tests to narrow down the problem? —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 01:17, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I've had the same a few times recently (also Firefox 1.5.0.4, Windows XP) and once saved it.[4] Opening the truncated version in a text editor and saving in Unix format (so only one char for a newline, rather than two for DOS) gives 4097 characters. Any programmer will recognise this as being suspiciously close to 4096 = 2 ^ 12. The extra 1 character is due to the final newline that the Edit window always appends to any text when you re-open it. I was also using both Show Preview and Show Changes. Colin Harkness°^Talk 11:00, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I've managed to reproduce this

• Go to seizure and press Edit this Page.
• Click on Main Page in the navigation box.
• Click on your browser Back button.
• The edit box is now truncated to 4096 characters of text.

In fact, you can see the edit box change just before the browser goes to the main page (the scroll bar gets longer, indicating less text). Therefore it must be something happening as you leave the edit page. I can get this to happen anonymously too. Colin Harkness°^Talk 13:11, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Works without truncation for me (Firefox 1.5.0.4, Debian). If it happens with back/forward, it could be related to the bfcache — try disabling it (set browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers to zero) and see if it fixes the problem. --cesarb 21:48, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I tried that without success. Someone else has figured out what the problem is though, uninstall Google Toolbar and it should be fine. --Daduzi ^talk 17:20, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

That must be it! Let's hope Google fixes that bug soon. In the meantime, I hope I don't get any page-blanking warnings from fellow RC patrollers! — Knowledge Seeker দ 07:28, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Works for me, too. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 08:40, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

• I've also noticed that making an edit and pressing CTRL+Z (undo) before pressing preview truncates the text in the same version of Firefox... I haven't made any specific measurements, though. Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 07:47, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Can you hide users minor edits

in special:contributions? I asked the help desk and no responses. I know theres some things you can add on the address (like to see specific namespaces), is there one for showing only non-minor edits? -Goldom (t) (Review) 17:10, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

&hideminor=1Geni 02:00, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

If you wanted to do "&hideminor=1" you would have to change to the "/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&target=USER&hideminor=1" version instead. Also, the only way for "&hideminor=1" to work is if you get a special javascript and put it in your js file. I have a special script that makes it "&viewsource=1", but if I didn't have that javascript, it wouldn't work. --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 05:30, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Not at this time. Please follow the instructions at the top of the page for information on how to file a feature request, if desired. robchurch | talk 12:11, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Show the number of users watching?

If every page showed how many users had it in their watchlist, you could identify pages that you should "look after" because few others did. This could be subjects that are outside your main areas of interest, but you know a little about. It would also give readers an indication of the quality of the content. If your "edit watchlist" page showed the number of watchers for each page you watch, you could stop watching a page when the number of other watchers gets high, to reduce the total number of edits you have to review. -- Nils Grimsmo 13:22, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but imagine how useful that would be for vandals. All they would need to do is find pages with no watchers, and vandalise them. Administators do have access to Special:Unwatchedpages, which lists pages that aren't watched by anyone, however regular users do not. Prodego ^talk 13:29, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I'd find that useful to know too. Vandals would get no information if no value is shown below a reasonably high threshold. However, there might be privacy issues, one could deduce the last editor's "is watching" status when a value has changed, which not everybody may like. Femto 10:53, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

A part of this feature exists as special page "unwatched pages" (or similar) for admins. -- Omniplex 06:20, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Change in Wiki markup or what?

I headed on down to my user page today and noticed that much of the text was reacting abnormally. For example, at the top, I have my name in big ASCII art, with each line containing a space behind it to "box" all the text and make it appear correctly. The boxes aren't appearing, leaving many lines and underscores scattered where my usual greeting is. Also, pressing "Enter" twice and typing again should produce a new paragraph, right? Not here. Everthing is being grouped on the same line. So what exactly is going on? Is this a change in Wiki markup or what?--The Ninth Bright Shiner ^talk 20:44, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Try enclosing the ascii art with <pre> and </pre> tags. -Kmf164 (talk | contribs) 20:53, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

A small regression caused by a recent tweak to the parser code has been identified and corrected. robchurch | talk 22:01, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Source hyperlink - padlock symbol

Having hyperlinked a source, a padlock symbol has appeared to the right of the number - any ideas, please? BlueValour 17:33, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

You hyperlinked an https link, not http; https means secure. The padlock is indicating that. It may be a problem. --Golbez 17:40, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Missing Edit Toolbar in IE

Hi.
I have use of a Win2K laptop (with IE6.0) at work, and a venerable Win98SE PC (with IE 5.5) at home.
If I edit at work, I can see the edit toolbar, yet I cannot see the toolbar when editing at home.
(At home, an error is also reported on the IE status bar.)

I am sure that there is 'something missing' in my home setup, but I have not yet been able to establish what it might be.

Is there a 'minimum spec.' PC required for editing Wikipedia? Else, any clues as to what I might be able to do to fix the problem? (Unfortunately, upgrading to a newer PC is not financially viable at present.)
EdJogg 17:14, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, you might consider visiting Windows Update and upgrading to IE 6.0 at least. :)

If you can report details of the error at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/ we might be able to take a look and fix it if we can get ahold of a copy of IE 5.5, but no guarantees. --Brion 20:38, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Or try Mozilla Firefox? -Kmf164 (talk | contribs) 20:40, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

catagories

Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace is a list of commonly used templates. Many of these add the page to a catagory that is inappropiate. The templates cannot be subst'ed because we want to show the current template not one from a month or year ago. Is there any way to remove the catagories? Jon513 15:44, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes. The categorization can be dependent on the namespace of the page the template is on. I've modified Template:SharedUnknownEDU, Template:Sharedipedu, and Template:SharedIP to only add the page to Category:Shared IP if it's a User talk page. The rest can be done similarly (although most of them will take an admin to change). -- Rick Block (talk) 00:01, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

The new <ref> function improvements

A lot of editors complain about a few bugs they've spotted (along with the goodies) in the new ref function, and even engage in debating and edit-warring about applying or removing it in articles! There's been an extensive (endless) discussion in the relevant talk page (Wikipedia talk:Footnotes). Such discussions often confuse developers who find it harder to recognise what the users desire, than to actually do it. I took the liberty to try and bring these proposals together and formulate a comprehensive proposal for the developers, which has been put to vote. Since you guys here are the most experienced in this, I would like to encourage your participation in the poll, and/or your comments if you so wish.  NikoSilver  ^{(T) @ (C)} 12:48, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Invalid Confirmation Code

I just registered for Wikipedia, and it says in My Preferences that I need to confirm my email address, so I clicked the button that tells me to send a confirmation email address to my address. However, upon receiving this email and clicking the confirmation link in the email, it brings me back to Wikipedia, as, of course it should but it says invalid confirmation code every time I try. Can anyone help with this? Bulbie 09:49, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Check and see if it's a long link that's been split onto two lines, sometimes this will cause either an early end to the link or a whitespace character in the middle of it. -FunnyMan 09:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

It sounds like a duplicate email might have been sent, which would invalidate the first code. Delete all confirmation emails, then go back to Special:Confirmemail and have a code mailed once more. The URL in the email which arrives should work.

If it doesn't, please let us know. Thanks. robchurch | talk 12:41, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Editing problems

This problem has occurred a few times in the past, but this time I decided to report it to the VP. A few times, when editing a page and make a preview, the editing box then has only the first few lines of stuff, and everything else is gone. I was making a somewhat major edit on a page when, when I previewed the page, the editing box with all the text and code had only the first few lines of stuff, and everything else was gone. All that hard work. I tried pressing back, but it only resets the page (equal to pressing cancel). I restarted editing the page and tried again, when the same thing happened - this time I copied the contents. Reedited, this time without using preview. Note that I use Firefox to edit Wikipedia, which may be the problem. I don't use IE to edit Wikipedia anymore, and because of this, I cannot recall this happening. So can anyone explain what's going on? --FlyingPenguins 02:10, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

If you have Google Toolbar installed uninstall it, that should fix the problem. --Daduzi ^talk 03:39, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Isn't there some other workaround? I have the Google Toolbar, and I use it often. It would be too big of a loss to remove it. --FlyingPenguins 05:57, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Since the problem is with Google Toolbar itself there's not much that can be done as a workaround, but you can always install Googlebar which has almost all the same functions as Google Toolbar but doesn't have the same issues. --Daduzi ^talk 14:29, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Damn. Oh well, I guess I can live with the problem. I doesn't recur too much. --FlyingPenguins 23:22, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Underlined links?

Noticed wikilinks are now underlined in blue? And earlier this week I swore I saw red links with a line through them. is someone experimenting? --mtz206 (talk) 21:52, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

No. Read the advice in the box at the top of this page. robchurch | talk 12:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Oops, sorry. --mtz206 (talk) 12:44, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Bug not fixed

Using Safari on Mac OS X, I noticed a bug in the mediawiki software - the edit toolbar does not appear when I try to edit a page in this browser. Searching the list of known bugs, I found that someone else had already noticed this - [5]. However, the bug report states that the bug is fixed - it isn't. The edit toolbar still doesn't appear with Safari. Can anyone help? Thanks very much. (And yes, I did read the instruction to report bugs at Bugzilla - but this doesn't quite fit, being neither a bug report nor a feature request.) --Richardrj 20:40, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

What version of Mac OS X are you running?

The old version of Safari, available on 10.2, has limitations in the JavaScript support which will case the toolbar to fail, as I recall, so it won't display there. It works fine with current versions of Safari on 10.4. I'm not 100% sure about 10.3. --Brion 23:34, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm running version 10.4.2. Additionally, when I go to About Safari, it says Version 2.0. Still no toolbar. Don't worry about it, it's not a biggie. --Richardrj 04:29, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like you need to take a trip to Software Update; you're several months behind on bug fixes and security upgrades. --Brion 05:36, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Weird problems on a page

The page Stem cell is having some kind of issues. Edits don't appear to be working and if they do, weird things happen to them. Any ideas what's going on?--Peta 00:03, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

When I first tried to edit it just now, I was told I was editing a previous version of the page. I purge it and tried again without getting that message, but I couldn't see the effect of my edit until I purged again. A few minutes later I tried another edit and that worked fine. I suspect some proxy had a lag but has now caught up.-gadfium 01:53, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

It wouldn't be a proxy lag. The first behaviour sounds like a bug; that shouldn't happen. robchurch | talk 12:45, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Searching through Page History

Often, I find myself wanting to find out when (and by whom) a particular piece of text was added to an article. Is there any way to search a page's history in order to find out when someone last added or removed a specific bit of text? Currently, I have to manually check several dozen pages before I can finally zero in on which edit added the text. Is there any way I can speed up this process?--Alecmconroy 07:33, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

In short, no. Given n revisions, you're going to have to inspect a maximum of log₂ n pages if you inspect them intelligently (start with the middle; if that has it, that narrows it down to the earlier half, so take the middle of that and repeat; if it doesn't have it, that narrows it down to the later half, so take the middle of that and repeat). There was a suggestion to mark who added what changes on the pages themselves, but as far as I know it's dead due to coding difficulty and efficiency issues. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 08:46, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

The worst case is even worse than log₂ n because of revert wars. Just because the target word is present in article version n/2, that doesn't mean I can't assume it has been there ever since that time. It could have been in the article, been removed from the article, and then put back in sometime later. --Alecmconroy 09:22, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, true. Edit wars are almost always easily noticeable in summaries, though, except if occurring on very large timeframes. It's therefore probably safe in general to take the simple logarithmic approach. (Always worked for me, anyway.) —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 22:25, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

You could always try the honesty approach and ask on the article's talk page. Of course if edit wars are involved....

I think an annotate ability would be great - and not too expensive if the software were modified to store the necessary info during every change. But this would be a difficult modification. Deco 20:14, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

There is User:AmiDaniel/WhodunitQuery, it is pretty limited, but may help. Prodego ^talk 18:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

What links here, URLs and wikilinks

The "What links here" page for, e.g. to pick a page at random Jon Fulton, registers only those pages that include a wikilink to Jon Fulton (like this one now). It excludes pages on which a URL to that page has been posted. If I posted the URL to the John Fulton page ([6]) on another page, e.g. to pick another at random: Hexamine fuel tablet, Hexamine fuel tablet would not appear on the What links here page for Jon Fulton.

Is there any way the WP software could be altered so that What links here includes not only pages with wikilinks to that page but also pages with URLs to that page? I don't know if there would be any disadvantages to doing so. One advantage would be that it could help detect internal spamming, as for AfDs. Шизомби 20:08, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I imagine that some bots convert a URL to a wikilink. Do we have to try AutoWikiBrowser ? --DLL 20:52, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

It should be doable, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 08:43, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't think having bots change the URLs to wikilinks would be a good solution, since they could just be changed back. How worthwhile it might be, I'm not sure. Would there be an easy way of determining how many pages have URLs to WP pages that are not diffs? If there are a lot, it might be more worthwhile and if there's not then it might not be. Шизомби 21:26, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Template:POL vandalized

Someone has somewhere vandalized Template:POL, because it doesn't work anymore, but I don't know how this template works and where it is vandalized. Could someone help please? Maartenvdbent 17:10, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Fixed. It was {{Country alias Poland}}. Next time, just try to edit the template (or an article using it if the vandalism only shows when the template is used); you should see below the edit box a list of all the templates used by it. Open each one and check their history; you'll probably find one which has been edited recently. --cesarb 17:16, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Time Stamp consistency.

There is an issue regarding the variation that is observed with the time stamps on posts. Consider the AfD for Benjamin Cohen (internet) — according to the history logs, a post on the issue was submitted on 25 May 2006 at 03:42. However, the timestamp on the message was 07:42, 25 May 2006 (UTC).

Is there a way to have the history log information match the post's time stamp? The consistency would be very helpful. Cheers. --Folajimi 12:59, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Signature stamps are generally in UTC (offset 0). History will show in your time zone (whatever offset you have in your Wiki date preferences). Set yours to 0 if you want a match. --iMb~Meow 13:11, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the timely reply. Cheers! --Folajimi 13:50, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Help with redirect and possible deletion

Apologies, I created an article that became "Peter samson" which someone kindly moved to "Peter Samson" because of the lowercase s. When vistors type a person's name in the main Wikipedia search box in all lowercase ("peter samson" or "bill gates" for example) do biographical articles created like this always redirect from the "Upper lowercase" original? If so, would it be possible to delete "Peter samson" and recreate "Peter Samson" while the article is a new stub? Susanlesch 09:50, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

If the redirect really, really bugs you, you can ask to have it deleted over at WP:RFD. On the other hand, it does bring you to the right article right now, so it's harmless. --iMb~Meow 10:07, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

What happens when you enter a name and then click "go" (or press enter) is described at Wikipedia:Go button. The bottom line is that usually, but not always, if you enter a name in lower case you'll get to the right article. Note that wikilinks are always case sensitive (except for the first letter), so the redirect from an uncapitalized version is necessary if you want to be able to link to it. -- Rick Block (talk) 16:21, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Mm, but for a person's name, hopefully no one would want to link to the lowercased version. This particular redirect is superfluous, but no harm done if it stays. --iMeowbot~Meow 16:30, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Preventing appearances in the "Recent changes" list

Is it possible to prevent edits to a certain page from appearing in the recent changes list? I ask because it would be useful on, say, a project which attempted to categorise recent edits, to prevent unnecessary time being spent categorising the edits which categorise... Happy-melon 07:52, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

If you're somehow processing the recent changes feed (for example, when categorizing), just put on a filter that ignores the page(s) of your choice (and thus doesn't list them). Misza13 ^{T C} 08:34, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

By default, bot edits do not show on Recent changes (the same happens to the hidden "bot revert" feature). If the project is using a bot, it might apply for a bot flag. --cesarb 17:20, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Spam blocking tinyurl.com

There are many legitimate uses of tinyurl.com, but Wikiepdia has it blocked. I was editing the article Diatonic scale, and added this reference:

• Franklin, John C. (2002). "Diatonic Music in Greece: a Reassessment of its Antiquity", Mnemosyne 56.1, 669-702 [tinyurl.com/m2xqc]

I wanted to include a link to his pdf version of the paper, but since he put spaces in the url, it didn't work; hence I created a tinyurl alias, which, very annoyingly, Wikipedia blocked. Surely there is a better way? The url

http://www.kingmixers.com/Franklin PDF files copy/DiatonicmusicinGreece.pdf

does not work in a Wikipedia bibliography. Gene Ward Smith 07:26, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

The 'spaces in the URL' problem is trivially easy to work around - replace all spaces with %20 like this: http://www.kingmixers.com/Franklin%20PDF%20files%20copy/DiatonicmusicinGreece.pdf Raul654 07:30, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Beyond that, we will NOT be linking to tinyurl. It makes verifying addresses nearly impossible, and renders the spam blocklist useless; not to mention the fact that at least some tiny URLs are ephemeral. Raul654 07:31, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

There are no legitimate uses of tinyurl on Wikipedia; you can always use the full URL. The uglyness of long URLs can always be hidden with the [] syntax. --cesarb 17:23, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

There is one possible exception: there's a bug in IE related to anchors containing hex codes. If the anchor text contains a bracket, as some Java documentation anchors do for example, it's impossible to link from a Mediawiki site with standard syntax, because the decoded (original) form screws with Mediawiki and the hex encoded form screws with IE. Deco 20:11, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

No. tinyurl does a HTTP redirect, which AFAIK does not allow it to specify an anchor. So, you'd still have to add the anchor here, and you gain nothing. --cesarb 21:26, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Right you are. Deco 21:57, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Disambiguation Templates

Is it safe - and appropriate - to use {{2CC}} {{3CC}} {{4CC}} on new disambiguation-pages for acronyms?

If I run across an existing disambig page that still uses {{2LCdisambig}}, which appears to be deprecated, should I change it to {{2CC}}? --Notmicro 07:21, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

This probably should be asked at Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance). --cesarb 17:25, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Help with article title

Afraid I made an error. Peter samson is a new article but the person's last name starts with a lowercase s. How do I fix that? Thank you. Susanlesch 05:20, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

You can fix that by moving it to the correct title, which I have done for you. -- Kim van der Linde ^{at venus} 05:26, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for moving the article. When I enter "peter samson" in the Search box, the page "Peter Samson" says it was redirected from "Peter samson". Same thing for example for "bill gates". That does not look right so I will post another question. Susanlesch

Determing Page Size for Pages <30kb

For long pages, a warning popups up on the edit page conveniently telling me how big the page is. Is there any way to see how big a page is for articles under that size? --Alecmconroy 04:35, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I think that's just the number of characters of code, so the easiest way I know would be to copy-paste the page's code into MS Word and do a Word Count under the Tools menu. --Kchase02 T 06:58, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

If you search for the article, the search result shows the size. -- Rick Block (talk) 16:27, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Help with centering problem on infobox

Can anyone help me fix the centering problem of the voter tally infoboxes in the History section of Súmate? I had to add a random character at the end of the section, or the next sub-heading is automatically centered. I don't know how to fix it. I don't speak HTML: I just copied the boxes from another article, Hugo Chávez, so if anyone can fix the problem for me, that would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help.Sandy 01:32, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I've put the tables in a table, so they align reasonably well. Better? -- Rick Block (talk) 02:00, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Beautiful - thank you SO much! Sandy 02:01, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Move Page

After you move a page, there is page that says, "Page "Page 1" moved to "Page 2". Please check if this move has created any double redirects, and fix them as necessary. "

Well, I remember when the link to "Page 1" used to have "&redirect=no", but now it doesn't, so when you click the link, it redirects. Did someone do that on purpose?

GeorgeMoney ^T·C 00:23, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

It was changed due to problems with the parser and <nowiki>s in bare links. Titoxd^(?!?) 07:17, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Bot for dummies

I use Mac OS X, and try to run the pywikipediabot. I have downloaded the scripts from sourceforge. I am not too familiar with how to use python and would be happy if someone told me what to do run the pywikipediabot on MacOSX. I have figured out I should use the Terminal application, but have not found out how to run the scripts. Kratzko 15:52, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Have you looked at WP:BOT? You need explicit permission to use bots on Wikipedia. ~MDD4696 16:59, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Some people do not consider interactive modes of pywikipediabot to be a bot, in the sense that it doesn't change anything indiscriminately and without review by a human. Deco 10:19, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Unstoppable Vandalbot

Would it work if someone wrote a bot the just copied itself onto pages in the mainspace, and those bots subsequently did the same thing and they all just continuously copied themselves onto articles, I mean is it possible? and if so, is there anything that anyone could do to stop it. Philc _T^E_C^I 15:02, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

A bot is a computer program, how could it copy itself onto a page? Martin 15:04, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I thought they were java script or something. I don't actually know, I was just speculating. Philc _T^E_C^I 15:11, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Like the myspace bot... yeah good question. THE KING 15:12, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

WP:BEANS. User:Zoe|^(talk) 16:40, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

No worries. Short answer is: no, such scenario is not possible. Well, unless <hideous WP:BEANS idea removed>. Misza13 ^{T C} 16:46, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Well what about if those viruses are used, that spread about the internet until theres hundreds of thousands of them unoticed and then simaltaneously register for wikipedia accounts and then repeatedly vandalise pages in quick succesion so that each would vandalise mybe ten pages before any human could block it. Also due to the fact the owner of the computer is unaware, a lot of good faith editors may be blocked, or even block themselves. I know this is far fetched, and unlikely that anyone cares that much about a non-profit companies collapse. But in theory, would it work? Philc _T^E_C^I 17:38, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I am aware of the WP:Beans issue surrounding this subject, but it is not allowing the vandals to exploit the anyone can edit manner of wikipedia in the same manner that vandals do at the moment, I thought maybe if it was possible at the moment, someone could change that. Philc _T^E_C^I 17:41, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Devs have the ability to lock down the database if such a thing occurred. If this came to pass, a simple capcha on account creation would fix the problem, negating all the effort the hackers went through very quickly and easily. --Golbez 17:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Is this what is happening when the database does get locked then? Philc _T^E_C^I 17:59, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

No, that is for maintenance of some kind. Martin 18:05, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Or an automatic lock to allow the slave database servers to catch up to the master. robchurch | talk 21:23, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Human vandals adapt rapidly to new technical barriers. A distributed automated attack would be out of the virus writer's hands once it's unleashed, which gives us the opportunity to formulate a means of detecting and blocking them all. I wouldn't worry about the damage large numbers of simultaneous vandal edits could do - if this scenario arose, they'd just roll back the whole database. Deco 01:33, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Determining if something is an open proxy

How do I do this?Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 03:50, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Pretty easy. Just try to get it to proxy your own requests. Deco 05:36, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

How do I do this? Blnguyen | Have your say!!! 05:41, 9 June 2006 (UTC).

Open your web browser's connection configuration and instruct it to use the suspect IP address as a proxy. robchurch | talk 12:43, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Of course, you'll have to guess the correct port. You could just try common ports such as 80, 3128, 8000, 8080 and so on, but for an exhaustive search you'll need a port scanning tool such as nmap. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 23:03, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Background colors for svg images

Can someone explain this to me?

• [[Image:Ichthus.svg|44px|]] =
• [[Image:Ichthus.svg|45px|]] =
• [[Image:Ichthus.svg|46px|]] =

In other words, when displayed at a size of 45 pixels, that image has a gray background. For any other color, it has a white background. Why is that and is there any way around it?

BigDT 17:49, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

They look fine to me, with SeaMonkey 1.0.1, and FireFox 1.5.0.1. But wrong with IE 6.0. At least one solution is simple. :-) EncMstr 18:01, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Whoa ... I just opened the page in Firefox and they show up as transparent images in Firefox - no background at all. Why in the world is that? BigDT 18:04, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

One odd thing is shown by SeaMonkey: the 44 and 46 pixel images have an expiration time as expected: within a few seconds of when I viewed them (11:10:56 -0700). But the 45 pixel image is 2006-06-06 12:59:59 -0700. Why should a differently scaled image have a radically different expiration time? At least the time wasn't 06:06:06.... (All are rendered as "image/png". How to get IE to reveal the same information?) EncMstr 18:25, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

• Question: Could this have something to do with it? Take a look at this image on en - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ichthus.svg ... now look at it on commons ... http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Ichthus.svg ... if you are using IE, on en, it has a white background, but on commons, it has the gray background. That's probably not a good thing - two different images having the same name. What is the best way to go about fixing this? Obviously, it would be a good idea for the image to have a transparent background on IE - it just looks ugly right now everywhere it is used. Can we just make it a gif? Can we split the en version to a different image or just delete it so that everything will use the commons version? BigDT 18:46, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

With SeaMonkey and FireFox, both images (commons and en) indicate a transparent background—a checkboard pattern with light gray and white. Viewing those in IE 6.0: the en version shows a white background; the commons, a medium gray background. Neither show anything resembling transparent. The commons image is newer at January 252006, so it's hard to believe it might be some caching issue. EncMstr 19:04, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Here is a test page with the image sized from 10 to 89 pixels. Viewed in IE, all look okay except the 45 pixel version. EncMstr 20:09, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

This is just another instance of IE6's poor support for PNG transparency. The workaround is to stick a solid rectangle behind the image. I'm on IE7 Beta 2 and they look fine. Deco 23:27, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Of course the simplest solution is not to use IE...  :-) Captainj 00:05, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Nothing useful to add - but thanks for several seconds of clean fun, scrolling up and down that test page playing "bigger fishies, smaller fishies". =) Femto 17:26, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

How does it look now? While this doesn't prove causality, I manually entered this URL http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Ichthus.svg?action=purge and the background changed from bluish gray before to white (in IE55SP2, always looked the same in Opera). Femto 17:53, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

The 45px version apparently is used in a lot of "this user is a Christian" userboxes, by the way, which would explain possible cache expiration issues. Femto 18:04, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

After purging the local version, all the images now have a white background. Problem solved. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 11:15, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Suggest adding the results of your test viewing to User talk:EncMstr/svg scaling test#Test Results. John Reid 16:29, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Editing tags

Hi, not to be rude to the person who originally designed them, but I think the tags over the editing box are really quite ugly. Also not very discriptive, when they should be to screamingly obvious to highlight how helpful they really are. After activly editing for over 6 months now, I have only just taken it apon myself to check out what they all actually do. Some of them are agreeably useless (to me), but things like signing and redirect are just amazing! The amount of times I have searched for a redirect page just to copy and paste the template to create various new redirect pages is rediculas, and could have been helped only if the tags were sufficiently idiot-proof, and designed to fit in with this age of pretty shiny buttons (rather than fit in with the age of windows 95). I think age they are on every edit page, and are visable to every editor, effort should be made to make them as perfect as possible. Just like the amount of time that clearly went on our wonderful Main Page --mastodon 15:22, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it can be really hard to convey in an easy to understand manner what the buttons do, using only a simple image. I think most of are servicable, with the exception of the media file link button (what on earth is THAT?) and the redirect button. However, a redirect page is a pretty hard concept to convey in a single image.--digital_me^(t/c) 04:26, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

For me, in my browser, the buttons are useless and I disable their display. I wish we had less clever crap and our pages loaded more quickly and more smoothly. John Reid 16:22, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Form backgrounds wrong colour

In Monobook, forms such as that on Special:Movepage have a white background, when their namespace makes the surrounding area a light blue. Any chance of a fix? BigBlueFish 16:59, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

The form's color is correct; it's the contained table that's the problem. Adding table { background-color: inherit; } to your CSS will work, but may interfere with other things. The table itself has no class or id, and so can't be styled by itself.

I've filed this as Mediazilla:6278 and attached a patch. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 23:48, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Question about naming an article in French

I wish to Move the existing page now using the acronym SPOT to a new name, so that I can create a new disambiguation page for SPOT. However its full name is "Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre" which refers to a series of French satellites in orbit. Is it "legal" under English-Wiki guidelines to name a page in French? Is there a style-guide page to which I should be referring on this? --Notmicro 06:52, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Médecins Sans Frontières suggests to me that would be OK. (I knew it in English for a long time before I learned the French name.) I searched and could not find any specific policy answering your question. However, Wikipedia:Naming_conventions suggests in the intro that "article naming should give priority to what the majority of English speakers would most easily recognize", though I have no idea whether that would be the acronym or the full French name. The acronym section suggests using the full name in most cases. Finally, you could always move the current SPOT to SPOT (satellites) and put your disambig at the old page. Hope that helps! --Kchase02 T 07:44, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

The agency's official name should be used, whatever it is. If they have an English name, it might be better to use that. Foreign languages typically aren't a problem for page names as long as they're written in the Latin alphabet and don't use characters that IE won't display. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 04:48, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Page hit count

Is there any way to determine the number of hits a wikipedia article has received over a given period of time? And any other stats that are available for a given article? Cheers, THE KING 15:14, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

The answer is basically no, please see Wikipedia:Technical FAQ#Can I add a page hit counter to a Wikipedia page?. -- Rick Block (talk) 15:21, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes. Download a database dump and view the relevant column in the table using a query. This will tell you the visits since some particular point in the past, whenever they last reset it - you can use hits on a popular article like George Bush as a metric. Deco 01:34, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that column hasn't been updated for years. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 04:45, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Unable to reach article Cmd.exe

I am unable to access the article Cmd.exe, either directly or via Wiki links. Links to the article appear good (blue) and I know that the article exists, but for some reason the page never loads. I have replicated this issue on multiple computers, using Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, and Exploiter.

If this is not the right forum to bring up such issues, my apologies in advance, and please let me know what the correct venue is.... Charles dye 19:34, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Odd, it works for me... --Ashenai 19:36, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Works for me. Most likely you're using the web through a firewall that's running some kind of virus filter that prevents loading pages with an exe extension. Deco 19:36, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

That makes sense. Charles, can you view this page? It's the current revision of cmd.exe, but with a bit of wizardry added so the URL won't end in .exe anymore. --Ashenai 19:40, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that works for me. Thanks, all of you. Any ideas for a more permanent workaround? (I can't be the only one....) Perhaps a permanent redirect page, with a name not ending in .exe ...? Charles dye 19:46, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

There's already one: Windows command line. --cesarb 20:09, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Excellent. Thank you. Charles dye 20:18, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Image glitch

I'm having trouble with an image on this page: Nuclear power by country. There should be a map of the world, which works fine when left at full size, but it disappears when resized, replaced with a copy of the caption underlined in blue. Why is this (I've tried refresh and purge cache). smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 19:09, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

After purging the image description pages both on en: and on commons: a few times, it magically worked somehow. --cesarb 20:27, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

It's happened again after I uploaded a fixed version; and I can't seem to get it to return to normal. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 20:52, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

I've managed to fix the glitch by changing the image size from 500 to 800; any idea what causes the glitch, though? smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 21:14, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Long page warning

I've added an id="longpagewarning" attribute to the long page warning, MediaWiki:Longpagewarning. This makes no difference to the appearence of the message, but allows individual users to customize it via their user CSS page. So if, like me, you find the message annoying when editing a lot of long pages (such as talk archives), you can hide it by adding:

#longpagewarning {display: none}

to your monobook.css – Gurch 15:14, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Many flags are gone!

While doing research on flags, it appears that several flag images have vanished from their pages, such as the Flag of China and the Flag of Puerto Rico. Why have they disappeared, and what can be done to bring them back? --^hello,gadren 13:29, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

They seem fine to me. robchurch | talk 13:36, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm -- I've tested it in IE, and they appear now...does anyone know what could have happened to make them not appear in Firefox? --^hello,gadren 21:20, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Works fine for me in Firefox (1.5.0.4). --Daduzi ^talk 23:32, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Edit doesn't seem to work properly

When I try to edit the "Notes" section of the "Sweden" page, I get an edit field which is almost completely empty, definitely not showing any source code for any of the notes visible on the page.

(I wanted to add to the weird first footnote regarding the motto; Sweden has no motto as country; the motto stated is the motto of the King, and when he dies, if Sweden is still a monarchy, his successor will have a new motto.)

So it appears something is wrong. I'll leave it as is in the hope of helping some bughunter out.

/Christer

Actually, you have to add the note in the middle of the text, at the most appropriate place, and then wrap it with <ref> tags. So, it would look like

<ref>content about the motto</ref>

MediaWiki then automatically puts it at the end of the page and in the correct order for you. Titoxd^(?!?) 07:25, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Monobook.css and broken links?

Setting the color of your links via monobook.css seems to run roughshod over the red-linking of links for non-existent articles. Am I wrong? If not, has anyone figured out how to work around it? — Mike • 05:27, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

This can be solved by setting the a.new class (as well as all the rest) back to red (or to whatever you want) in your CSS as well. Eg:

#bodyContent a { color: #00ff00; }
#bodyContent a:visited { color: #5a3696; }
#bodyContent a:active { color: #ffa500; }
#bodyContent a:hover { text-decoration: underline; }
#bodyContent a.stub { color: #772233; }
#bodyContent a.new { color:#CC2200; }
#bodyContent a.new:visited { color:#a55858; }

Although you may wish to extend it beyond #bodyContent (in which case you'll need to use more, for actions and personal and such), or choose a color besides green (why!). See the main skin css for inspriation, or bug my talk page if you need more help. Note: There is a strange inconsistency in Monobook CSSs. The new link color is set to #CC2200; in your Special:Preferences but #ba0000 in the site-wide CSS. Use whichever you prefer. --Splarka (rant) 07:36, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Am I right in saying that bodyContent is only inside articles? Even substituting in my own colors for a, visited, and active, the above changes revert most of the site back to "normal" for me — I have to admit, the driving reason behind me trying to change the link colors is my watchlist — trying to tell whether I've visited a diff or not is difficult for me when the blue and the purple "diff"s are right next to each other. — Mike • 14:30, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

.special li a { color: #ffff00; }
.special li a:visited { color: #00ffff; }

Might be just what you need. That should only change the link colors for lists on Special: pages (recent changes, watchlist, unused files, etc). Above is an example, add subsections (a.new, a.new:visited) from the top list as needed. If, however, you wish to change *all* link colors on the site, you can be a bit more broad (just remove #bodycontent, and add some !important) --Splarka (rant) 15:02, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Works like a charm. My deep thanks to you! — Mike • 15:16, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia Policy: HTML Color Codes and Their Use

Well first-off I would like to thank the warm and helpful Wikipedia community without whose guidance and understanding I would not be here at all. You all do so much to benefit Wikipedia and the community as a whole, an endeavor which is both admirable and selfless and can not be praised enough.

As to my problem, I am a new user of Wikipedia and have recently taken on the task of modifying and editing the somewhat defunct List of Portable Application Software article as far as modifying and expanding it's entries for reference purposes. In doing this it occured to me that it might possibly be helpful to mark down what operating systems these applications work with via a three letter word and color system that would allow users to quickly search for what applications are compatible with their given Operating System. Something like this:

• Bug Squish (site) - a simple, but addictive point and click game where you defend your arm against ever increasing waves of blood sucking insects. Based on the game Blood Suckers for Mac OS.
  • Compatible with: WDS, MAC, LNX

After the idea occured to me and before implementation could be done I searched the forum for any similiar user of color codes and/or color code policies, but came up with nothing. So, in the absence of any general information, which I did not find though it may very well my exist what policy does Wikipedia have on color code use and given that policy does my example serve an effective use of color code or would some other method be just as beneficial without corrupting the clean, effective template which Wikipedia prides itself on maintaining. --WalksWithGrizzlies 00:15, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

You can use any color you want, as long as it's black. --0x845FED 00:23, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

On the outside, color codes look unprofessional. On the inside, they crowd the article source code with HTML tags, which are slightly annoying to deal with and tend to frighten users who don't know how what they are. Have you thought about Wikipedia:Tables? --Smack (talk) 02:10, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

No I haven't, but it's a good idea, and I think I will implement it. Thank you Smack. --WalksWithGrizzlies 02:22, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Color coding, basicaly avoid color coding cotent. Not everyone may be reading Wikipedia online, and it present problems for color bling people and so on. --Sherool (talk) 07:31, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

As per the link Sherool provided, never rely on color codes, but they can be added if you like for extra visibility of the point you're making. However, avoid using such bright colors as the foreground; anything lighter than about #808080 (50% lightness) should definitely be avoided. (Also, consider using <span style="color: ...;"> instead of the deprecated <font color="...">.) —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 17:15, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Problem with misplaced [edit] links

File:Wong Kim Ark edit glitch.jpg

Look at the way the [edit] links on this screen shot are all in a row and overlapping the article's text

The [edit] links on United States v. Wong Kim Ark — as well as several other pages I've seen — are misplaced. Take a look at the accompanying screen shot; I see four [edit]'s in a row, and they're overlapping some of the text of the article. My guess is that it's a style sheet problem and that it has something to do with the images that extend across multiple sections. Any ideas how this could be fixed? Richwales 05:51, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Sections and Images have had a long feud in some browsers. Tried a scatter of the images with some <br clear="both"> to prevent the sections' edit buttons bunching up, does that look better? --Splarka (rant) 07:13, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this does look better. My main thought (and only real semi-objection) is that scattering the images in this particular way might make it appear that specific images are connected to specific sections of the article, rather than to the article as a whole. Richwales 14:19, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Interesting this has come up again. There needs to be a better solution, probably technically, perhaps to do with the way things are floated. Marseille is a disaster, though semantically it is fine and any solution would be an unnatural hack. BigBlueFish 16:55, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Could we get a rundown on how to use <br clear>? All I know is <br clear="all" \>. --Smack (talk) 02:14, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Per W3.org:

clear = none|left|all

Specifies where the next line should appear in a visual browser after the line break caused by this element. This attribute takes into account floating objects (images, tables, etc.). Possible values:

• none: The next line will begin normally. This is the default value.
• left: The next line will begin at nearest line below any floating objects on the left-hand margin.
• right: The next line will begin at nearest line below any floating objects on the right-hand margin.
• all: The next line will begin at nearest line below any floating objects on either margin.

HTH, — Catherine\^talk 06:06, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

There's also the templates: {{clear}}, {{clearleft}}, {{clearright}}, and {{clr}}. There's some sutble difference between {{clr}} and {{clear}} (see the discussion on the template talk page); for floated images, {{clear}} is the right one. --cesarb 10:35, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

I've fixed Marseille, and the solution isn't that much of a hack. When you have a strip of floated images, and they are all the same size, changing it to a floated strip of images (putting them into a floated table and adding |none| (or changing |right| to |none|) to prevent them from floating) completely avoids the problem and looks the same (unfortunately, I don't know how it behaves under uncommon browsers; I believe the difference, if there's any, shouldn't be much). --cesarb 10:46, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

image won't show up on commons

Why is this broken??

I've uploaded the same image 3 times. The first two were exactly the same and the 3rd was a smaller version. For some reason, it won't show up on the page.

The bizarre part is if you directly use the URL of the image which should be displayed, the browser shows it fine.

I've tried both Firefox 1.5 and Safari 2.0. :( I successfully added two other images to the commons tonight. I don't understand why this one is problematic.

Brainsik 07:36, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Looks fine to me; maybe there was a database lag. --Golbez 07:38, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

When I click your "it won't show" link above I see it OK with IE Version 6 - Adrian Pingstone 07:41, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

You may have ad-blocking software installed, which refuses to load an image from a directory called "ad". Why it doesn't block it when the link is explicit I don't know. You should be able to reconfigure your software to not block anything from wikipedia.org or wikimedia.org.-gadfium 09:04, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

gadfium, you are right! I should have realized that, thanks! Should I delete this section now that this is resolved? - Brainsik 15:51, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Nah, leave it up. It's useful for others browsing the VPT. ~MDD4696 16:36, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Template Length

A small question here; provided below is a template to an article I have been working on, and as one can see, one name has met the template restriction for length and has been moved down into another row (Kirei Kotomine).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Fate/stay_night

How can I lengthen the template to include this character's full name on one line? Terek 17:32, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Change "width=50%" to something larger. However, keep in mind that on some people's screens, 50% is more than wide enough to keep everything on one line - and on others, 100% will never be wide enough. So I suggest you leave it lie, it's not that big an issue. --Golbez 17:39, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

It will work for all screen sizes (test by resizing your browser window) if you use non-breaking spaces (&nbsp;) instead of regular ones, or make the whole table non-wrapping with "white-space:nowrap" in its style attribute. Femto 14:35, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

There's even a template to help with that: {{nobr}}, which acts as the nonstandard <nobr> element (and in fact just uses white-space: nowrap around its argument). --cesarb 10:54, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

More template server load debate

Previously, Brion has said that we shouldn't worry about server load for templates. But he mentioned, as a caveat, that an exception should be made for signatures, since they're so insidious. What's the story with {{tl}}, then? It's transcluded on some tens of thousands of pages. Is this a problem, or should we be arguing over which wikicode is prettier instead of worrying about server load?

(Reference: Wikipedia talk:Template substitution#tl; and cl) —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 05:12, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

About 70,000 pages, to be specific. --Rory096 06:50, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Anyone using such a template is a complete and total idiot and should be immediately booted out of the project. I'm serious. How freaking hard is it to type a damn link? --Brion 07:41, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I've stated a similar opinion before. What is difficult about typing [[Template:Sometemplate|]], enclosing it in braces for prettiness, if desired? Nothing. robchurch | talk 15:36, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Just count the characters, {{tl|-}} 8, {{[[Template:-|]]}} 19. For your example still 18:30. Doing that once or twice is no issue, but folks working with templates writing docu or what else need it very often. -- Omniplex 23:52, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Um. So is the server load a problem? —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 05:36, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Obviously, see m:Template:sttnw, it uses three auxiliary templates plus the new #language: to list all known alpha2 and alpha3 codes. The observable behaviour is more like 26*26*26+26*26 than merely 4. -- Omniplex 23:52, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Zing. --Rory096 08:03, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

See, I fixed {{tl}} a while ago so that it could be subst:ed, and now it's been properly fixed, but no, people still don't substitute it... {{user}} and the like are probably just as bad. Alphax ^τεχ 00:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

How about Category:Templates which must be substituted any template in that category could be picked up by bots and substitutes. --Salix alba (talk) 23:19, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

In regard to Brion's "idiot ... should be booted out of the project". Are you serious about that? User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 00:25, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Goodness gracious, as one of those idiots that use them frequently. Particularly, they are handy to swap with {{lt}} and {{lc}}.

--William Allen Simpson 02:12, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Category article

I don't get why User talk:Ohlhous is listed in Category:Articles_for_deletion. Any idea? - Liberatore(T) 17:49, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

There doesn't seem to be anything in its recent history that would have added it, but I did a null edit and it no longer seems to be in the category. -- Rick Block (talk) 19:43, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. - Liberatore(T) 20:37, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Check the templates used in that page, one of them is Template:Erie Canal Lock, which is a deleted template that somehow got an AfD header in its last revision. --cesarb 20:56, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Image:Spider-Man.png

Re: Image:Spider-Man.png

The image uploaded okay enough to be on the server ([7]), but it won't display on the image description page/in articles/any thumbnail above 32px. WTH? - ExcaliDragon 13:35, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Should work now, I purged the cache a few times. —Ruud 15:17, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Most of article disappears after small edit

Johnny Mercer: After I added sentence or so plus footnote under Career and then save, the rest of the article disappears.

I have reverted it once to before the small addition and gotten the whole article back. Yet when I add the sentence plus footnote again, the same thing happens! KarenAnn 13:12, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

The <ref> tag requires a closing </ref> tag, see Wikipedia:Footnotes. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:20, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

SVG and text label rendering

Does the SVG to image renderer on wikimedia commons support text labels in SVG. The two images here were made with Inkscape and saved as Inkscape SVG. The text labels do not show. Is there a way to have text showing.

• 
• 

Thanks Shyamal 04:36, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

The server is missing the fonts, most likely. Save it with a standard font or with the fonts bundled up with it. The surefire way is to have the software render the fonts as shapes. Deco 05:40, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

I finally found out that you need to select all the text and use Convert to Text in Inkscape for this to become visible. Shyamal 06:35, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

You were using a SVG 1.2 feature (flowing text and graphics). Since SVG 1.2 is still a draft, the server renderer (rsvg) probably doesn't implement it yet (Firefox 1.5 doesn't). --cesarb 15:32, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

How to make User boxes

--Hallmonitor 01:45, 15 June 2006 (UTC)How do you make user boxes for your user page on Wikipedia?

Use {{userbox}} (see Template talk:Userbox for the documentation). However, be careful; userboxes are controversial (see Category:Wikipedia Userboxes discussions for most of the huge discussion). --cesarb 01:56, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Thumbnail problem

I'm unable to get the thumbnail at Muhammad_ibn_Musa_al-Khwarizmi#Arithmetic to display at a size larger than 174px. What goes wrong? —Ruud 00:08, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

I can get it to preview at 500px... [[Image:Dixit_algorizmi.png|thumb|500px|Page from a Latin translation, beginning with "Dixit algorizmi"]] -- Миборовский 00:12, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

And what about 180px? —Ruud 00:30, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

485px and up seems to for fine. —Ruud 00:33, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Works for me at 180px wide. -- Миборовский 01:33, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I purged the images at Commons a few times (as suggested a few threads above this one). —Ruud 02:22, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Stalked by creepy script.

A month or two ago, I was trying out a social bookmarking known as Scuttle. I saved a javascript tool which was provided as a bookmark. Now, anytime I log into Wikipedia, I get this announcement about how the browser has prevented the opening of a pop-up window. On a fresh system install, this pesky script is still present!

Any suggestions on how to kill this script? --Folajimi 23:20, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

You need to fix your personal javascript file: User:Folajimi/monobook.js. Blanking it would work if there is nothing you need there. Dragons flight 23:26, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Could you please kill it for me? I'll do anything!!! Well, almost... --Folajimi 23:30, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Okay, it's blank now. Dragons flight 00:00, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

You can edit your own monobook.js, I think. -- Миборовский 00:06, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

I know I can blank the page; however, I would like to actually have the page deleted. --Folajimi 00:11, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Done. -- Миборовский 00:13, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks. Case closed. Cheers. Folajimi 00:19, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Display of Hebrew letters

There's a cosmetic problem with the Hebrew alphabet. Some Hebrew letters are typed in wikicode as Unicode entities (for instance, at Rosh Hanikra). They display clearly. Others are typed in wikicode as actual Hebrew letters (as at Asher ben Jehiel). They display fuzzily, at least in Firefox. What's going on here? --Smack (talk) 22:23, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Both display fine, at least to me (Firefox 1.5.0.4, Debian). Notice that there's another difference: in your second example, they are bolded (which can change the font display, especially if you have a low DPI display). --cesarb 22:36, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

In one of the articles, the Hewbrew letters are redered in a bold font, which probably causes the fuzzyness. Using unicode/entities has nothing to do with this. —Ruud 00:30, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Categories

Is there a reason why the navigation system for large categories is so bizarre? Firstly, when it is split up into pages, it says "there are 199 pages in this section of the category" which is not useful at all. Wouldn't the real size of the category make sense? Also, that each page only shows subcategories which are in the same alphabetic position as the 200 articles at that point is really irritating, when there might be just ten subcategories but spread over four pages. BigBlueFish 17:41, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

It's a quick hack to keep the site from dying on categories with tens of thousands of pages. Hopfully we'll get a chance to improve it some day. :) --Brion 19:11, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I see. Times like these when you're not so glad so many people are living ;) BigBlueFish 20:34, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Image problem

I uploaded an image, Image:Action Request System.png. At first the thumbnails wouldn't work, so I purged it, which fixed the problem. However, after I did that, the image doesn't show up on its page. Did I forget some crucial step or mess something up? Thanks, Varco 01:50, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Just purge it again. And again. And again. After some time you'll end up getting lucky and having both thumbnails displaying fine (what shows on the image description page is nothing more than another thumbnail, with its size configured on your preferences). --cesarb 02:23, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I had a feeling it involved more purging. --Varco 02:41, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Same problem, at Image:2006.02E.NONAME peak.PNG, located in 2006 Pacific hurricane season. I've purged 20+ times now, and I can't figure out what's wrong, or why it is wrong... Titoxd^(?!?) 05:15, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

It's really the same problem; like the previous one, the thumbnails are not empty, but broken PNG files which end just after the vpAg chunk, which is followed by the IDAT chunk on a non-broken image. Which probably means the files are being truncated before being completely written, and always at the same place. Something weird must be happening with the imagemagick resizer. --cesarb 15:54, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Why are page frameworks inconsistent?

Why are page frameworks inconsistent? If you look at 'User contributions' it says 'Newer' and 'Older' (with capitals). If you look at the same thing in article histories, it says 'previous' and 'next' (without capitals). Some pages have an 'edit' tab and others have an 'edit this page' tab. Would it be possible to make these basic frameworks consistent? bobblewik 18:27, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Admins can customise interface text. robchurch | talk 20:03, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Aha. Thanks for giving the source of the inconsistency. I wonder if an Admin would be willing to fix it? bobblewik 19:06, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Bring it up on WP:VPR, wait until discussion dies down (auto-archiving of the thread would be a good point), then present any consensus on the appropriate MediaWiki talk: pages along with {{edit protected}}. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 03:41, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Bogus "what links here" entry?

Hello. I recently went and moved American Airlines Arena to its correct name, AmericanAirlines Arena (no space). After I moved the page, I used AWB to modify a number of articles that had pointed at the old page. I noticed, though, that in the What links here for American Airlines Arena, there is an entry, Template:: AFL Arenas. This "what links here" appears to be left over from an old (April 23 2006) version of Template:AFL Arenas.

Does anyone have an idea why the "what links here" for this page is picking up an old version of a template? Cheers, Lbbzman 14:06, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Not only an old version; it's a Bad title. --cesarb 15:25, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

In fact, I recall seeing something similar before, but with categories. The mistitled template probably does link to the page, and probably is really a broken copy of an old version of the template; it's not an old version of the template, but a copy of an old version of it. You should just wait for the next time brion runs the broken title fixer, which will move it to a sane name where it can be deleted. --cesarb 15:58, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Timeline question

A question about an <timeline>:

Don't know if this is the right place to ask for assistence, does anyone know what went wrong with my edits on Template:Timeline French Open Women's Singles Winners ? After making a change, the blue link texts doesn't match the underlying black text --LimoWreck 17:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

If you remove the numbers before the name, or place them after it, the template works, but if you thing they are important in that way I can't help, sorry. Philc _T^E_C^I 15:19, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, some other people tried to edit, but it keeps making a bad alignment between the names and the blue links... very strange, as nothing essential seems to have changed... --LimoWreck 14:21, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

subst in ref

Is is possible to subst a template insite a <ref> tag. I seem to be having trouble doing it. see Pidyon HaBen. Jon513 18:28, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Graphic from another language

I would like to use a graphic from a German wikipeida article for its English counterpart. Is there a way to do that directly or do I have to reupload the photo? Thanks! Americasroof 16:38, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

The photo has to be reuploaded, either to en or to commons. It's possible the picture on the German wikipedia is already on commons, and not actually on the German wikipedia. --Golbez 16:43, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your quick reponse! Americasroof 16:55, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

User Contributions Link

I have my own wiki, so I decided to go nuts and change the MediaWiki namespace (making the edit tab say "vandalize" and the move tab say "on wheels", etc.....) Well, I then decided to make it serious, and revert all of that, except I couldn't find one of the things to revert. I made the "user contributions" link that appears on user pages say, "user evilness", but I can't find the MediaWiki file to revert it. I looked in all of my contributions, and I could find nothing. Does anybody know the MediaWiki page for the "user contributions" link? --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 15:36, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Go to Special:Allmessages on your wiki. It lists all system messages, and those which you've customised will be listed twice, one with the default text, and one with the customised text.

In addition, you could use your browser's find function on that page to find the current text. robchurch | talk 15:46, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I couldn't find it because I was using Special:Allpages and set it to see pages in th MediaWiki namespace. Thanks, --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 22:28, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikifying a list.

Timber#List_of_Indian_timber_trees In the above list, the numbring (1,2,3) for list has been done by typing the specific number. Can some one modify it so that # can be used for automatic numbering. P.S.-The list is incomplete. I will complete it soon. --Siddhant 08:23, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Done. This information is really better display as a table. I'm working on converting it to one. ~MDD4696 16:09, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Wiki page redirection?

How can you make it so that if a person was searching for topic XYZ, but the normal logical way to search for it would be to just search XY, that they'll find the XYZ page? I've noticed a few things I search for either have longer or slightly different syntax than what I typed to search. When I tried starting a new article however, the shortened version doesn't even register as being close to the full title of the article. (Gundam War Collectible Card Game vs. just typing "Gundam War") KawasakiNinja 02:36, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

To use your example, create the article titled Gundam War, and type #Redirect [[Gundam War Collectible Card Game]]. That creates a "redirect" page that automatically sends you to the article with the information. Joyous! | Talk 02:40, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

For more information, you can read this page on redirects. Joyous! | Talk 02:42, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you! KawasakiNinja 02:46, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Citing a Book Source

Hi, I was wondering if you could help me to do a reference/citation? I was wondering how to document a book source (just a regular book). I tried to look it up on the wikipedia pages, but I guess I just don't understand, or am not looking in the right places. Would you be able to help? You could just put a message on my talk page with a citation in it (anything with a title, author, publisher, date, etc) and then I'll look at the edit page of my talk page and copy it into the article I want to reference, changing the text to make it the book that I am really referencing? Thanks! DerGlizerndeDiamant 02:09, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

There are templates that automate this process. See {{cite book}}. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 05:46, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

updating masses of links

I've boldly (they told me to be bold) inserted a disambiguation page on the name of 'Margaret MacMillan' in order to start something on the dreadfully overlooked UK nursery school pioneer of the same name. This seemed like a really neat idea until I started the dutiful bit of moving references to 'Margaret MacMillan' to 'Margaret MacMillan (historian). Only then did I realize that (historian) appears to have written the definitive book on the Treaty of Versailles and is hence cited abso-bloody-lutely everywhere. Is there no way that this process can be automated?

I'm prepared to Do The Right Thing and plod through them but it's going to take me a very long time. On the other hand I don't want to revert and concede (historian)'s right to squat on the name.

Any views??

I would think that an automated tool to make such changes exists (though I don't know for sure). I see entries in the histories of some articles that seem to indicate there are bots that walk through articles making mechanical changes. Such a bot would be exactly what you need. — franl | talk ✤ 23:53, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

From your contribs list, it look like you already Did The Right Thing. For future reference AutoWikiBrowser can relieve some of the tedium, and I am +ve that there are bots if you and ask nicely at WP:BOTREQ. One day, I feel sure the devs will gift-wrap us a thingumy in Mediawiki that works this out for you when you first move the page. :) -Splash - tk 00:22, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Wait a minute, if you want all the links to point to the historian, then surely it would have been better to leave the historian at Margaret MacMillan and just put a line at the top (eg: "For the school pioneer see Margaret MacMillan (school pioneer)"). By the way solve_disambiguation.py cuts through the tedium of disambiguation link repair (which is what you were faced with) faster than greased lightning - but a human still makes every decision.--Commander Keane 01:07, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

If you're only disambiguating between two subjects, I would advise you to leave Margaret MacMillan where she is and add {{for}} at the top. That way user clicks are minimized: the majority of viewers who want the historian will only have to click once, the minority will have to click twice. If you use a disambig, both the majority and minority will need two clicks. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 05:45, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Stacking Images

Take a look at this...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

I did something like that on my user page, except I wanted the flags on the left. But when I change "right" to "left," this is what happens:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

What's with the difference? Why are the images in a row instead of stacking on the left?--The Ninth Bright Shiner ^talk 20:41, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

The difference is in the monobook stylesheet:

div.floatright, table.floatright {
    clear: right;
    float: right;
}
div.floatleft, table.floatleft {
    float: left;
}

I don't know why there is no clear for left-aligned images, possibly it has issues with certain browsers? Anywho, you can make a table to fake it (see below) --Splarka (rant) 21:35, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

No need to fake it, just use {{clearleft}}:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

I believe it's done that way by default because it's usually the desired result. --cesarb 01:19, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Shared IPs

Hi. I was wondering what was being done about shared IP addresses. I know that you are intentionally blocking them to prevent vandalism to wikipedia. Are there any plans to change mediawiki to allow admins to specify certain usernames that aren't banned when using the shared IPs? I ask this because the other day I had a question for this page, but since I was at school at the time, I was unable to ask. Thank you very much, Shardsofmetal ^{[ Talk | Contribs ]} 19:56, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

No official plans, but I am going to look at the blocking code some time (July-August ish) and rewrite chunks/all of it to make it a bit more clueful. robchurch | talk 20:02, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

See Mediazilla:550. It's a known issue, there should hopefully be a fix sometime. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 05:43, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Icons don't show up at 48px

Hmm.. here's an odd little problem. I've been adding infoboxes to various Mac OS X software pages, only to find that their icons disappear when shrunk below a certain size (rendering them invisible at 48px, the standard icon size). Examples include ShutterBug and GameRanger. I'm not sure how MediaWiki works - does it take a while for smaller previews to become available (or something?), or have I screwed up the code on those pages? Thanks! RandyWang (^raves/_rants) 11:20, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

They seem fine. The image swervers seem to have had a brief bout of nausea a little while ago. --iMeowbot~Meow 12:10, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

...and that's because someone else changed the size :) That is weird, it doesn't want to scale to sizes near 48 pixels, but is happy to display at sizes somewhat larger and smaller than that. I suppose the answer is to not try to scale that image tp 48px :D --iMeowbot~Meow 12:19, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

My big worry is that I screwed something up, since 48px images show up fine at OmniGraffle and ITunes - but apparently that's not it. Am I just not cool enough? :P RandyWang (^raves/_rants) 13:43, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Did you try purging the images? (See the FAQ at the top) --cesarb 01:27, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Two completely unrelated requests - accents in edittools and linkwatch

Based on discussions on the respective talk pages (MediaWiki talk:Edittools and Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation pages with links), I bring the following requests to the table:

1. Instead of having ÁáĆć... ÀàÈè... ÂâĈĉ... ÄäËë... and so forth on the Edittools menu, may we have a function to click that just adds the appropriate accent to a letter has been highlighted? Being able to pick just the accent (e.g. ′ ^ ~ - etc.) instead of the accent combined with the letter would cut that board in half.

2. A "links to page" watchlist that alerts users whenever a new page links to the watched page would be most useful for swiftly fixing disambig links.

Cheers! bd2412 T 05:40, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

1. This appears to be more feasible than I thought at first. Support for combining characters seems to be very good: ÁÃÇĂĄǚ displays identically to ÁÃÇĂĄǚ in both Firefox and IE. I've commented on the relevant talk page.
2. I suggest you make an enhancement request on Bugzilla:. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 17:24, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

There's only the small problem of the Verdana combining characters bug. --cesarb 18:53, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Turns out that's not an issue. MediaWiki automatically substitutes the preformed glyph for the combination, if a preformed glyph exists. Anyway, continue at MediaWiki talk:Edittools. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 05:35, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Image won't display

Cow hitch has a resized image embedded in a template. For some reason, the image refuses to display. I substed the template into the Sandbox, and removing the size attribute makes the image work. --Smack (talk) 02:07, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

The 200px thumbnail is not being generated for some reason. I'd say it's some server glitch, and that it will probably resolve itself in a day or two. Post back if it doesn't. ~MDD4696 02:28, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Purging the image description page (Image:Cowhitch.png) was enough to fix the problem. I don't think this kind of problem resolves itself, unless one of the developers for some reason asks MediaWiki to regenerate all the thumbnails on the whole site. --cesarb 10:22, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Purging the image description page, of course, purges all thumbnails for that image. robchurch | talk 13:36, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Ah, and here I was trying to add ?action=purge to the end of the image URL! Thanks for the info guys :). ~MDD4696 14:16, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Same problem again, at Reef knot. I purged the image description page, as described at Wikipedia:Purge. It said to wait "a few minutes." It's been about 20 minutes, and nothing has happened. What's going on? --Smack (talk) 02:01, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

How to put a line through text?

I notice that some editors put a line through text to cancel it but leave it readable. How do they do this, please? --BlueValour 17:48, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

By surrounding their text with <s></s> or <strike></strike> e.g.

<s>struck-out text</s> → struck-out text

-Splash - tk 17:50, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

• Great - many thanks. --BlueValour 19:14, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Can templates save state between invocations on a single page?

I'd like to write this:

 {{RandomTemplate|param}}
 ...
 {{OtherTemplate}}

and in the code for {{OtherTemplate}} I want to access the value param that was passed to {{RandomTemplate}}. Is there any way to make a template save state so that it can be accessed by the same (or another) template lower on the page? — franl | talk ✤ 15:54, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

No. --cesarb 15:56, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

For some things, you can save something in a javascript variabile, but that doesn't work if javascript is not supported or enabled in the browser. What exactly are you trying to do? Maybe there is an alternative solution. - Liberatore(T) 16:05, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

I created a set of templates — {{MultiCol}}, {{ColBreak}}, and {{EndMultiCol}} — which work together to create a multi-column page section using a table. The code for {{MultiCol}} and {{ColBreak}} each contribute parts of a single table, so I'd like the user to be able to pass a parameter to {{MultiCol}} and not require the user to pass the same parameter to {{ColBreak}}. I hope this makes sense. — franl | talk ✤ 16:11, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Are you aware of {{Col-begin}} and its associated templates? If yours are not redundant, my only suggestion would be to try and code {{ColBreak}} in such a way that it is independant of the parameters to the other templates. ~MDD4696 16:26, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, {{MultiCol}} and friends are similar to {{Col-begin}} and friends, but simpler to use. See the comparison at the bottom of the {{MultiCol}} page. — franl | talk ✤ 20:09, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

"Edit" links

It seems that today the edit links for the various sections of Portal:Literature do not only look odd. Also, clicking on one of them produces an empty page rather than that particular section. <KF> 15:45, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

They seem ok now. - Liberatore(T) 15:54, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

It was probably the lack of a __NOEDITSECTION__, which I've just added. --cesarb 15:55, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! <KF> 17:00, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Thumbnail view

When I'm making some thumb, the image is not displayed, showing only common red cross. Is it only on my comp? --Brand спойт 12:00, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

What image? Also, see the FAQs about purging and ad blockers at the top of this page. --iMeowbot~Meow 12:07, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Any, e.g. in Athens I see a red cross instead of the city flag I added. Here I noticed that if I change the thumb view from current 125px to 200 the flag will be shown. What happened? --Brand спойт 12:28, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

The purge thing in the FAQ fixed it. --iMeowbot~Meow 12:55, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Problem with edit counters

Could someone check and try these two edit counters: Interiot's Edit Counter and [Kate's Tool. There's seem to be either a problem with these tools or with the database. CG 10:40, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

I just got this with my secret Interiot working version on my user page:

• Username Stephen B Streater
• Total edits 2080
• Distinct pages edited 355
• Average edits/page 5.859
• First edit 11:14, 12 February 2006
• (main) 996
• Talk 473
• User 79
• User talk 211
• Template 1
• Template talk 1
• Category 1
• Wikipedia 172
• Wikipedia talk 146

Your Interiot link didn't work though. Stephen B Streater 11:16, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Do you have an idea why? CG 12:21, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

From interior toolsite:

• en.wikipedia.org data is no longer updated. To get an updated edit count, you'll need to use an external tool, such as Flcelloguy's, or Interiot's javascript.
• Edits for some wikis are not available on the edit counter. This includes enwiki_p [1], kowiki_p, mswiki_p, thwiki_p, and jawiki_p. This is because these wikis are not stored on the main database cluster. This may be fixed later.

-- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 12:26, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Interiot 1 is no longer updated, but Interiot 2 works in a different way and is up to date. It's on my user page. Stephen B Streater 17:03, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

The databases for the English Wikipedia and the Yaseo wikis are, once again, being replicated onto Zedler. We're in the process of reimporting the English Wikipedia database from a dump file due to data corruption, after which, it'll start to tick again. robchurch | talk 20:05, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Renaming a category?

Not sure where to ask about this, but I think [category:Children's ITV television programmes] should be renamed [category:ITV children's television programmes] for consistency with [category:BBC children's television programmes]. However, I haven't a clue how one would go about renaming a category and correcting all the references in the articles. --Shantavira 10:38, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Categories for deletion, specifically {{cfr}}. --0x845FED 11:23, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for your assistance.--Shantavira 15:18, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

"Bad Title" page gives HTTP 200

An attempt to GET (or HEAD) an invalid image URL from upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ will receive a "Bad Title" page . . . which comes with an HTTP header Status Code of 200.

Surely that cannot be right . . . ?

Owlcroft 03:28, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Infobox image not displaying correctly

The infobox image of Nick Bakay on his page is too large for its resolution. Using wikicode to set its size parameters can make it appear the correct size, but it also makes wikicode appear on the main article page on either side of the picture. I and another have tried modifying the syntax used to get it to appear the right size without any visible wikicode, but have been unsuccessful. I don't know if this is a bug, or my knowledge of wikicode is lacking. Thanks for any help. _si»abhorreo»^T 23:49, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't know why this entry was removed - If I blanked parts of this page, I apologize, it was unintentional. _si»abhorreo»^T 00:18, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

That particular template uses a parameter "imagesize" to deal with that. I set it to 150 in the article, feel free to change it that isn't what you wanted. --iMeowbot~Meow 00:37, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Great, thank you for your help. _si»abhorreo»^T

New article contributions

In the list of "my contributions" is there some way I can identify which articles I started? I was expecting them to show up with N like they do in "recent changes" but they are listed like a regular edit. Thanks.--Shantavira 19:02, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Right now, no; we don't track newness or creation in the revision table, so long term, the information disappears. robchurch | talk 20:07, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

missing features in Classic skin

I've noticed that there's some features missing from the Classic skin, such as the "cite this article" link on articles and the redirect insertion button on the editing toolbar. Is a fix on the way? Or can we fix these problems ourselves by editing our "standard.css" file? --Ixfd64 18:09, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

The redirect insertion button is created by MediaWiki:Monobook.js, so it would have to be added to MediaWiki:Standard.js. The only problem is that Classic simply does not support editable global javascript, and thus editing MediaWiki:Standard.js does nothing (see the lists at Wikipedia:Catalogue of CSS classes). You would have to convince the developers to add support to it to the standard-derived skins (the monobook-derived skins all support it). Even better would be the creation of a global MediaWiki:Common.js, to avoid duplication (like is done with MediaWiki:Common.css).

The "Cite this article" link is created by the skin (with the tooltip added by MediaWiki:Monobook.js); again, you would have to ask a developer to add the link on the Classic skin.

--cesarb 18:50, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

I suspect the "cite" link comes from Avar's other cite extension (the not-so-well-known one). I expect it can be expanded to add the link to other toolbars, or quickbars. robchurch | talk 20:08, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

List of all subpages?

Hi all. I'm looking to get a list of all the subpages on Wikipedia, in all the namespaces. I know you can use Special:Prefixindex to get a list of subpages for a particular page (for example, all of my own), but I want to do this for all pages. Are there any ways to do this? Perhaps I need to request a database query? Since the toolserver is screwed up, is it even possible to get someone to run the query? ~MDD4696 17:24, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

You can just leave the Display pages with prefix:          box empty and it will show all the pages in that namespace, 1000 at a time. Of course, with 1 million+ articles, you'd have to do that a thousand times, just to get article namespace. </unhelpful> --Splarka (rant) 02:55, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

It should be possible to have a toolserver user execute the SQL needed, the enwiki import has finished the page table. This is a trivial thing; I'll clone my bog standard reporting script and tweak it in a short while, and dump the URL on your talk page. robchurch | talk 20:09, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Rob, I really appreciate it. ~MDD4696 20:50, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Adding a picture that links to another Wikipedia page

This is probably a pretty newbie-ish question, but what is the proper "code" to use when I want to put in a picture that, when clicked, takes you to another Wikipedia page? I'd like to alter the CNBC schedule grid by adding the program idents in the program column which then take you to the program's Wiki site. Thanks! Vikramsidhu 19:16, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

This is highly discouraged unless absolutely necessary, but can be done with Template:Click. See Template talk:Click for how to use it. BigBlueFish 19:42, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

You probably shouldn't add the program idents as you plan on doing, because there's a good chance that doing so will violate the Wikipedia:Fair use policy. There have been similar cases in the past that have been determined to run afoul of this policy; one example is a table listing each year's winner of some sports tournament, which included the logo of the team on each row. —Bkell (talk) 20:22, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

It would be much better to include a link in the caption for the picture. See the 'Framing' section of the Picture Tutorial for more information on how to add text to a picture; such text can support wikilink syntax. User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 02:36, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

View Source

Copied from MediaWiki talk:Blockedtext

Is there a way to "view source" when you are blocked from editing a page? If the page were protected, I could view the source, but if I click edit on an unprotected page and am blocked, I get sent to this page instead of being able to view the source code. (I use AOL, which is always being blocked for all of its users). 152.163.100.138 14:47, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Try reading the blocked message?

If you need to see the wiki text of an article, you may wish to use the Export pages feature or download the raw wikitext.

--Lord Deskana ^{I VALUE YOUR OPINIONS} 14:55, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I'm just an incompetent newcomer who is too lazy to read. Thank you. 152.163.100.138 15:02, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

No need to apologise, I was a newcomer too not that long ago. --Lord Deskana ^{I VALUE YOUR OPINIONS} 15:05, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

You should know that both options are not that great. In one you have to allow a download to your PC (which I won't due for fear of viruses). If you cut and paste the text from Special/Export PAges, you don't get exactly what you would have gotten in the edit box (The headings are not done right for one thing). I still think there should be a way to view the source in an edit box type arrangement, as you can if you click view source on a protected page. I'd like to ask one of your software guys if they can do this for us, if it is not already possible. Thanks. 152.163.100.138 15:20, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

You should try posting on Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) in that case then. --Lord Deskana ^{I VALUE YOUR OPINIONS} 15:23, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

I will do that. 152.163.100.138 15:27, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

How about adding &ctype=text/css? --HartzR 17:53, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

major resolution issues

I believe there is a serious technical issue when Wikipedia is viewed on a high-resolution monitor. The main issues is text with the <small> markup which not only appears in bold typeface, but appears bigger than regular text. I believe this effect can be simulated in lower resolutions by increasing the text size. Given that the future of PC monitors is obviously going to be higher resolutions, it seems to me to be fairly important that this anomaly is corrected. I don't really know how/where to go about instigating change - this seemed as good a place as any. Cheers, DJR (Talk) 14:52, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

I have a fairly high resolution monitor (132 DPI), and <small> appears smaller and in a normal typeface (not bold) to me. There's probably something incorrectly configured on either your browser or your operating system (there's no special CSS which would change the <small> from the browser default). --cesarb 15:20, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

I just checked all the CSS files in the Catalogue of CSS classes, and only Cologne Blue has special CSS for <small>: small { font-size: 75%; }, which makes the font smaller and doesn't make it bold. The other skins use the browser default (on Firefox, the default is equivalent to small { font-size: smaller }). --cesarb 15:25, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

If I alter the text size to "medium" or less, then <small> text indeed appears smaller. However, general text is too small at high resolution, so it is better viewed with text size "larger". This creates the problem with <small> text. However, I've just checked it out on Firefox and it seems to be fine, so it must be an issue in the Yahoo! browser. Cheers, DJR (talk) 15:39, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

List of web browsers seems to imply the "Yahoo! browser" uses the MSIE engine. Why aren't I surprised? --cesarb 22:04, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Merging/renaming

There are two pages about one breed of dog: the Kromfohrlander. One of the pages is spelled incorrectly (Kromfohlanders), but has more information, and the other page is spelled correctly (Kromfohrlander). Could I just rename the first page to the correct spelling, or would I have to merge it into the second page. --Pharaoh Hound 12:19, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

It's better to merge the information and turn the wrongly named page into a redirect, unless the wrongly named page was created by a copy-and-paste move, in which case you would ask an admin to do a page history merge instead. --cesarb 12:39, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for the help! --Pharaoh Hound 13:41, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Open Links in a New Window

Hello. I was wondering if anyone knows why clicking a link in an article doesn't open a new window (or more usefully, a new tab in Firefox) or if there is a way to make it do this if it is an option that can be changed. This is because when browsing an article, I often want to see the link, but not necessarily change pages completely, or see the information right away (like in mid-sentence). Also it is all too common to start following links due to curiosity and completely lose track of what I was looking at to begin with. Anyway, if anyone has a solution or even if anyone else feels the same way, please let me know! Thanks. ~Thomas

If you want to open a link in a new window/tab, click the middle mouse button or ctrl+click, the same as you would on every other web site in the universe. --Brion 11:26, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, I've heard they're actually using the bottom rat button in Tau Ceti... Misza13 ^{T C} 11:44, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Images do not resize (thumb or px)

I am making maps in png format and have lately had some that do not size properly (thumb or px). The maps are on Commons. The odd thing is some work fine and others (made and uploaded at about the same time) do not. Here are the ones I know do not resize (they will link at full size):

• Image:Map of Northumberland County Pennsylvania Highlighting Sunbury.PNG on Sunbury, Pennsylvania (new map, made on a different computer than the other three)
• Image:Map of Indiana County Pennsylvania School Districts.png on Indiana County, Pennsylvania (new map)
• Image:Map of Fayette County Pennsylvania School Districts.png on Fayette County, Pennsylvania (new map)
• Image:Map of Fayette County Pennsylvania With Municipal and Township Labels.png on Fayette County, Pennsylvania (this old map worked and I uploaded a new version which now will not resize)

There may be others. I think there must be a problem with the file, but can not figure it out - any help would be appreciated. I have read the FAQ and tried purging multiple times on the Indiana Co. page, but it did not work - thanks. Ruhrfisch 04:35, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Just try purging it a few times more, and make sure you are purging the image at Commons. —Ruud 10:54, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

• • Thanks - I was not purging at Commkons - that worked. Ruhrfisch 14:30, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Tables not working

On the page James McKinney Elementary School, there is something wrong with the table at the bottom of the page. Can you fix it for me, please? Sir Studieselot 04:28, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

It didn't like the rowspan on the headers, so I changed it to a fixed height. --Daduzi ^talk 04:48, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

where can i find the help section covering this command

COMMAND= {{ref_harvard|Bean1|Be An Actuary 2005|none}}.

I saw this command in the article "Actuary"

it links to refernce at the bottom of the page. i would like to learn how the details of this command works but havent found it on any of the help pages.

joe 22:20, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

That is called a template inclusion (or template for short), and what that does is include the page at Template:Ref_harvard into the page there, with the parameters (after the vertical pipes). What that particular one does is: <span class="reference" id="ref_{{{1}}}{{{3}}}">[[#endnote_{{{1}}}{{{3}}}|({{{2}}})]]</span>. Which basically means, it links to a section at the end of the page titled endnote_NAME (where NAME is the first parameter plus third parameter). This uses the <a name=""> html tag, which wikicode implants in each section header (= == === ==== etc). Detailed usage instructions can be found at Template_talk:Ref_harvard. See m:Help:Template for a description of how templates work. --Splarka (rant) 23:54, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Bottom of the page shows in "edit page" mode but not in "regular mode"

When I open the page Jazmin I find the last parts missing, including the templates put there. But, when I open the page in "edit page" all of the missing part is still there, including the whole filmograpy. How do I get it right, and make the whole article appear in regular mode (i.e. reading or non-editing mode)? (Aditya Kabir 20:30, 23 June 2006 (UTC))

Probably because you had an unclosed <ref> tag, but you already removed it. They need to be self-closed, for example: <ref name="ib01" /> --Splarka (rant) 23:44, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Template causes paragraph breaks below to disappear

On UTC+0:20, the presence of {{timezones}} causes what should be two paragraphs to become one. I've never seen this before; can anyone explain it? – Smyth\^talk 16:27, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Removing the <center></center> tags fixed it. Changed the horizontal margins to auto (although you need a very high resolution or small text size to notice it). --Splarka (rant) 23:21, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Malformed html

New changes to edit page brought us some malformed html. It has broken one of the script i'm using. Is there any quality control regarding changes to the wiki? -- tasc ^talk_deeds 14:13, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure if we're talking same thing here... I'll provide some details. Editing interface seems malformed. An excerpt from the page's source (this is within the box for inserting various characters):

 <p><small><span id="edittools_characters"><b>Characters:</b>
 <a onclick="insertTags('Á','','');return false" href="#">Á</a>
 <a onclick="insertTags('á','','');return false" href="#">á</a>
 <!-- MANY MORE insertTags HERE... -->
 <a onclick="insertTags('<ref>','</ref>','');return false" href="#"><ref></ref></a>  
 <a onclick="insertTags('<references/>','','');return false" href="#"><references/></a></span>
 </p>
 </small></div>

I have highlighted the culprits - HTML tags which are closed in a wrong order. This breaks the validation of a page and causes some tools (like the godmodelite script) to stop functioning. Same phenomenon was observed when I was trying to migrate the script to pl.wikipedia.org - noone was able to help me there, which led me to creating a fix for the script - this should however be only a temporary solution. Can someone have a look into this and fix it? Misza13 ^{T C} 14:54, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

yes, this is it. I didn't mentioned it explicitly since mistakes can be seen in any decent validator. -- tasc ^talk_deeds 15:38, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Any suggestion concerning a project team for this defined purpose ?

• Create a list where people register to do the job
• Create a list of objects to be verified, including date of last change and date of last verification ; if it's html, a bit for "W3C validate". --DLL 18:27, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

This looks like someone making an edit to MediaWiki:Edittools which resulted in some imbalanced text. Pester a local admin. robchurch | talk 19:15, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Brion suggested breaking the </small> and </div> on to separate lines, and it seems to have worked (because the parser isn't perfect):

 </small>
 </p>
 </div>

--Splarka (rant) 23:15, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Taking different actions wthin a template based on presence or absense of a subpage

Does anyone know of a template that does the above? I'm not sure #if or switch does this, or I can't quite suss out how to do it. I want a template to emit some text if a particularly named subpage of the page it is invoked on (({{{PAGENAME}}}/Comments for example) does not exist, and if it does, transclude it within the template. Pointers to examples gratefully received. ++Lar: t/c 12:35, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

You can use #ifexist for that. See Template:IncludeIfExists. You may need to include : if not including another template (Liberatore, 2006). 19:19, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

awesome! thanks! ++Lar: t/c 20:09, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Non-categorising templates

I'm working on a subpage to my userpage to write an idea for a help section I had. I wanted to show examples of templates, but when I put them in, it puts the subpage in the categories that they refer to; i.e, putting the good article template in lists my subpage as a good article. Is there any way to prevent this? --Iorek85 07:09, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Problem solved on my talk page by user:Nunh-huh. Thank you. --Iorek85 07:19, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Kamikaze

Is it just me or it there 2 weird pic at the top? American Patriot 1776 04:05, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

It's not just you. There looks to be something wrong with Template:Cquote. --james _{// bornhj (talk)} 04:19, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Further investigation, the cquote template uses Template:Click. Click outputs this code in normal usage:

 <div style="position: relative; width: 20px; height: 20px; overflow: hidden">
 <div style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; font-size: 100px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 100px; z-index: 3"><strong class="selflink">   </strong></div>
 <div style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; z-index: 2"><a href="/wiki/Image:Cquote1.png" class="image" title="Template:Cquote"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6b/Cquote1.png/20px-Cquote1.png" alt="Template:Cquote" width="20" height="15" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Cquote1.png" /></a></div>
 </div>

But, when it's being used in Kamikaze, it outputs:

 <div>
 <div style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; font-size: 100px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 100px; z-index: 3"><strong class="selflink">   </strong></div>
 <div style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; z-index: 2"><a href="/wiki/Image:Cquote1.png" class="image" title="Kamikaze"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/Cquote1.png" alt="Kamikaze" width="40" height="30" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Cquote1.png" /></a></div>
 </div>

Note how the outer div has lost its position: relative (it's inside a table cell). Weird. --james _{// bornhj (talk)} 04:26, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

There was an extra vertical bar in the call to cquote which I removed, and that seems to have solved the problem. I'm not sure how it caused the problem in the first place.-gadfium 04:31, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Looks good to me. --james _{// bornhj (talk)} 04:36, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Aishwarya Rai

Look at the filmography... Shakti: The Power links to another wiki and not to the film's article... can that be fixed? gren グレン 23:49, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

As that prefix is used as an interwiki link, you can't create such a page, so linking to it wouldn't do much good. See also: m:Interwiki_map. --Splarka (rant) 07:11, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

The film has an article at Shakti (2002 film). – Smyth\^talk 16:38, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

How do I learn about categories?

Frequently I would like to add categories to an article, but the only way I know how is to find other articles with categories and copy them.

Is there a list of categories somewhere? KarenAnn 22:35, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

There is [8] if you want a list of all categories, but the best way to do it is to find a very general category and navigate your way down to more specific subcategories. For example, if you wanted to find Category:Former Wikipedians, you would go from Category:Wikipedians → Category:Wikipedians by Wikipedia status → Category:Users not currently active→ Category:Former Wikipedians --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 22:46, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

The only other way I know of to find new categories is to do a google query that includes site:en.wikipedia.org inurl:wiki/category. (site: and inurl: serve to limit the results to just enwiki categories). (or use wikipedia's internal search if you're looking for very new categories)--Interiot 02:36, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Goto Help:Category. Everything is there. --Jared W 21:57, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Using an external editor

I can edit, for example, Reptilian humanoids in fiction, but not American terrorism. Everything seems to work fine; no errors appear, but nothing gets written to the page. What should I check? Tom Harrison ^Talk 21:13, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

It seems like you did edit the page. --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 22:52, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I did that edit with the built-in editor. It works fine everywhere, and the external editor works fine on most pages, but the external editor won't work for me on American terrorism. Tom Harrison ^Talk 23:24, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Guess based on action=raw, the JA interlanguage link at the end could be related to your problem, I'll add it below for a test. -- Omniplex 07:34, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

アメリカの戦争犯罪

Thanks, I don't think that's it, but then I don't understand how the interlanguage link might cause it. Your suggestion gave me an idea. I copied American terrorism to User:Tom harrison/terrorism, and I can edit it there. Tom Harrison ^Talk 14:06, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Curiosity

I was wondering how pages get 'main page' in the 'article' tab at the top. Do they just have to begin with the words 'Main Page'? Daniel (‽) 19:44, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Via abuse of global javascript (at MediaWiki:Monobook.js):

//Main page tab no longer says article
function mainpg() {
      if ((isMainPage || /[\/=:]Main_Page/.test(document.location)) && document.getElementById('ca-nstab-main')) {
            document.getElementById('ca-nstab-main').firstChild.innerHTML = 'Main Page';
      }   
}
addOnloadHook(mainpg);

Still no cure for cancer! ^_^ --Splarka (rant) 20:17, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Section edit

I seem not to be getting section edit links. "+" still works fine. Is this me or is this a broader problem? - Jmabel | Talk 17:44, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Check your preferences, in particular the one labeled "Enable section editing via [edit] links". --cesarb 19:13, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Editing userpage

Not sure if this is right place to post this, but I found myself unable to edit my User page because when I open the edit window I don't get a Save page button. I don't have this problem on any other page. ~ trialsanderrors 15:57, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Clear the cache of whatever web browser you use, else, try it with a different browser. Martin 16:05, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

The problem's been ongoing for one or two week now. Not a cache issue. ~ trialsanderrors 16:14, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

That's pretty weird. What browser are you using? Can you provide a screen shot of the issue? Does logging out help? --Brion 16:45, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

I was able to edit it just now (I hope you don't mind, trialsanderrors) and then remove the test with no problem. Joyous! | Talk 16:49, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. Whatever you did, the buttons are back! ~ trialsanderrors 16:52, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

How to create Special:Statistics page on a separate Wiki

Could it be as simple as making a link to Special:Statistics and creating a new page from that? Any help at all is appreciated. 75.2.14.252 06:37, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Special pages are "Special" in that you don't create them, they are generated by the software. You can add new ones with extensions, but if this wiki runs MediaWiki then Statistics should be there already. If it doesn't run MediaWiki, then you probably won't find your answer here. --Splarka (rant) 07:20, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks Splarka. 71.156.94.2 07:43, 22 June 2006 (UTC)