Template talk:Wikipedia's sister projects/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Problems with Template:wikipediasister, do you see them too?

For some reason Template:wikipediasister doesn't want to include properly. On my browser (Galeon/Mozilla under Linux), I start seeing HTML markup inline after I save the page? Do you have the same problem? -Lexor|Talk 10:25, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It looks fine to me. I made the links direct. Did that help? --mav
Yep. Must be something weird in the namespace syntax when it parses it to HTML. Probably have to ask a developer like Brion or Tim Starling. Thanks for fixing this. I wonder if it's worth an extra MediaWiki for the intro paragraph as well for the three versions: standard, text-only and table-free? --Lexor|Talk 10:37, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
So long as we want to have the wording be the same. --mav
Well at least a subset of the sentences should be, I would have thought, otherwise the pages could drift, in fact the text version doesn't match the standard right now. By the way, could you also replace the inline markup for the sister projects with the {{msg:wikipediasister}}? Thanks. --Lexor|Talk 11:14, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Done. --mav

Images

Do you think this would look better? It needs a bit more formatting/resixing:


Meta-Wiki
Coordination of all Wikimedia projects


Wiktionary
A multilingual dictionary and thesaurus


Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals


Wikiquote
A collection of quotations


Wikisource
Free source documents

Dmn?

Well it does look better, standalone. Does it look better on the main page too? Ankur
  • You bet it looks better! But, I'm afraid to say, it only looks about 10 times better! Really, these pictures would really lvien up the sister projects section! Great idea!

BTW: I thought that at a point they all used to have pictures? What lonely person had to take the life out of them?! --Exigentsky

Clickable images

Is there any way the images can be made clickable? (ie act as links?) Otherwise it would be annoying to click on the image, expecting to go to the site, when one goes to the Image: page instead. Dysprosia 01:12, 9 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I've asked about this before as well when the Main Page was first redesigned. It would be nice to have on anything on the main page really. RADICALBENDER 23:00, 10 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Absolutely. I mean, a lot of people coming to wikipedia are newcomers. They've spent there lifetime clicking on images that either enlarge or take them to another article. To a newcomer it obviously is a strange behaviour for an image to take the user to the attribution page even if the image does enlarge. On the main page it is expected that clicking on the image will take you to the article rather the Image:Xyz.png page. So definitely image on main page should take you to the article. This reminds me of the wikipedia logo - which takes you to the homepage of wikipedia instead of Image:WikipediaLogo.png or something of the sort. Now if there were a solution to the problem of wikipedians who will want to modify the image. --Ankur 02:29, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I put a redirect on the image page of the Meta image, the same can be done for the others. The only disadvantage is that it is now inconvenient to go to that page: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Image:Metawiki.png&redirect=no .--Patrick 11:19, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Actually, I don't think it will, for places like Wikibooks or Wikiquote, which don't have the capability to link to the projects using conventional [[ ]] means (eg, you can't go wikibooks:Main page) Dysprosia 05:04, 12 Jun 2004 (UTC)
The first three seem to do that but the last two do not. for me at least... --Rj 18:21, Jun 12, 2004 (UTC)


Three work (plus en: for going back), two do not:

m:Main Page wikiquote:Main Page wikisource:Main Page wiktionary:Main Page wikibooks:Main Page

--Patrick 15:57, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)


It seems somebody's had the cunning idea of making them into interwiki redirects - something that I'm normally against, because you can't then get back to the redirecting page without handcrafting a URL, but which is probably forgiveable in this case as it's probably the only way of achieving the desired effect. The reason wikisource and wikiquote aren't like that is that they still haven't had interwiki prefixes set up for some reason. Anyone fancy bugging a developer to do it? - IMSoP 15:22, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

OK, seems all the interwiki redirects work. Previously, the Wikibooks image took you to a multilanguage portal, which seemed rather illogical to me - this is the English Wikipedia, and the Wikibooks:Main Page links fine to those other languages should the user so desire, so I changed it to just go to the Main Page. --Twinxor 04:03, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Usually, you would just be able to use the following coding to link to, say, Wiktionary, with an image...


But apparently external images are disabled on Wikipedia... -Rainer

Wikitravel

I see that Wikitravel has just been added to this list. First of all, it looks kinda out of place, on its own row to the far right. Secondly, the line above the logos says that the Wikimedia Foundation operates these projects, which isn't true for Wikitravel: according to m:Wikitravel, the project is run by two Wikipedians, but it isn't an official Wikimedia project. – [[User:Mxn|Minh Nguyễn (talk, blog)]] 20:24, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I would include WikiAtlas links in Wikitravel.

Wikinews

Should a link to wikinews (sorry - I don't know the interwiki) be included? It's a WM project, right? --Whosyourjudas (talk) 06:10, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

It's still in beta, and it doesn't have a final logo, so it's probably too early for that. -- Netoholic @ 07:04, 2004 Dec 4 (UTC)
Google news is still in "beta" too, so thats a moot point. Plus Wikinews has been in the news already on several high profile sources, so people will be wondering where the link is. The newspaper logo will do for now. [[User:Norm|Norman Rogers\talk]] 11:47, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Discussion

First of all this is a wikimedia project in its own right and the discussion is already under way in the "village well under miscelaneous." GerardM 16:20, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Sorry but I see that as you stating that you're going to do it and two people saying that it shouldn't be there". That's not a discussion. violet/riga (t) 16:28, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
You discussed this in IRC #wikipedia and most views there opposed adding it. You went head anyway. You were reverted in the Christian-only Christmas season holiday template by one of the people who disagreed with you in IRC (me) and here by two people who I don't recall being around for the IRC discussion. I suggest that you look at the non-discriminatory "Happy Holidays" message sites like Google.com are using and try to understand that there are people having holidays and family gatherings now who aren't Christian and should receive wishes of happiness as well. Jamesday 17:31, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
The thing is that this IS a project and this project IS centered around a phrase in the Italian wiktionary. It being a project is known for more than a month in both mailing list and in the projects. Its place for a few days in the WIKIPEDIASISTER page is correct. What we were talking about was on having it on the Main Page, it is not. GerardM 22:34, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
The same arguments apply there as well: the project should not be discriminating against those who are not Christians but are having their family gatherings at this time. That's likely also the reasoning why sites like Google don't go for a Christian-specific holiday wish. It's possible to craft a suitable message but this isn't it. Jamesday 22:54, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Your insistence on happy holidays is denying that there is a project about a phrase. It is unreasonable to insist that it should be "happy holidays" because that is that what this is about. GerardM 23:11, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Copy/paste from WP:VP:

The whole thing is horribly unfriendly for newbies:
  1. It's not clear what the links are
  2. Red links are supposed to mean no article
  3. The layout is, to be blunt, rather dull
If it were tidied and these points dealt with then I could understand its inclusion. As it stands I've removed it for the time being. violet/riga (t) 16:25, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Right, so your arguments have nothing to do with the points that I made. Your contributions are neither helpfull nor friendly and you have already reverted four times this template. So according to the rules you cite you should be banned for 24 hours.
That the thing is in green and red is, because these are Christmassy colours and therefore appropriate. The links to the first three are not articles, they are sound files. And the last is an OBVIOUS referral to elsewhere. It being dull is good as it needs no more attention than the attention it gets. GerardM
I do not understand why it is unfriendly. Perhaps you can discuss things..
Just because you do not like it you start a revert war. You do not adress the arguments why this information is indeed in its right place. The arguments that you use have nothing to do with the project itself. To top it all you say that I need to be banned (hardly friendly) while you were the one to revert three times first. GerardM 08:28, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I've protected the template. As it's no longer Christmas in most of the world, I've reverted to the non-Template:ChristmasWish version. I'd be within my rights to block GerardM for violating the 3RR, but I'm feeling generous. -- Cyrius| 01:52, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

It is the second day of Christmas, in the Western Christian tradition it is generally celebrated as a holy day. So there you are wrong. Secondly, the revert war started NOT with me, I was not the one to have done the third revert therefore it is not me you could have banned "within your rights". Thirdly, the arguments I put forward have not been adressed by the "other party" or you at all so there is another mark against your action. GerardM 08:28, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Dori reverted it to start with, not me - you were the first to break the 3RR. You did so without discussion either here or at the stated Village Pump. My points are still totally valid and using Christmas colours as a defence doesn't work when you are breaking the style rules - those Christmas colours could've been worked into it in a different way. My reference to it being dull is that it takes up a large part of screen real estate but with very little content. Further I'd already said that I had no particular problem with it being there but that my other points needed to be addressed before I saw it as acceptable. Sorry that your obvious good intentions have been reverted this way but with more discussion it could've worked out. violet/riga (t) 11:11, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
My count says you hit 5 reverts in 24 hours, GerardM. Actually, violetriga was in violation too, but I miscounted low on the both of you. I came here to unprotect it, but from your comments it looks like you plan to just resume reverting. -- Cyrius| 19:31, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Text aligment

I'm adding style="text-align:left" to the table to prevent the words from being too far from each other. I do this because it took me some time to figure out that the 'of' right before the Wikisource icon didn't have anything to do with Wikisource but was part of the Wikiquote description. mark 16:21, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Image sizes not specified

I propose to add |35px to the various images in this template. In general it's good practice to specify the image size, in case someone uploads a higher-resolution version. Also, note that the images should be protected, as they appear on the main page. dbenbenn | talk 00:21, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

No objections. We should point to the highest resolution file, rather than the fixed-size thumbnails currently used, though. -- Netoholic @ 01:10, 2005 Feb 11 (UTC)
In every case I checked, the higher-resolution version is at the Commons. We can't protect images from the Commons. (Even if they're protected there, we don't control that.) Possibly the right thing to do is to use a protected copy of the high-resolution version here. dbenbenn | talk 02:34, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Probably a good plan. -- Netoholic @ 03:16, 2005 Feb 12 (UTC)
One need only create the image description page (pasted content from Commons is OK) and protect it - then no-one but administrators can upload over it. — Dan | Talk 05:31, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
No one but administrators and users at the Commons, that is. Possibly that's good enough. dbenbenn | talk 06:23, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Done. I've uploaded local copies of the Commons images, just out of paranoia. dbenbenn | talk 04:55, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
The images used were specially-compressed 35px images, which saved several KB from the Main Page size (which I've reverted back to). They could be protected in Commons or copied locally to Wikipedia and protected here. Tom- 01:19, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Uploaded them here and protected. Tom- 01:38, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Good point. I unprotected and deleted the non-thumbnail versions, that aren't used here any more. I re-added "|35px" to all the images. That way, the template doesn't break if for whatever reason someone makes the images wider. I'm paranoid. dbenbenn | talk 20:16, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

By the way, the savings at the moment is 12974 bytes. But note that the specially-compressed versions don't look quite the same; the space savings comes from discarding a lot of colors. dbenbenn | talk 16:24, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Interwiki

some interwiki: cs:Template:Wikipediasister de:Template:Hauptseite Schwesterprojekte es:Template:Proyectoswikimedia it:Template:PaginaPrincipale/Progetti sk:Template:WikipediaSister

Done – Gurch 20:01, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Please change come logos

is there anyone who can replace some of this logos by logos from the commons? the text should be:

<!-- IF YOU VANDALIZE THIS TEMPLATE YOU WILL BE **BLOCKED** IMMEDIATELY AND CAST INTO A BOTTOMLESS PIT. -->
Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia hosted by the non-profit [[Wikimedia|Wikimedia Foundation]], which operates several other  [[Wikipedia:Multilingual coordination|multilingual]] and [[Wikipedia:Copyrights|free-content]] projects:
{| align="center" cellpadding="2" width="100%" style="text-align:left"
| [[Image:Wiktionary-logo-en-35px.png|35px|<nowiki>]]
| [[wikt:en:Main Page|'''Wiktionary''']]<br />Dictionary and thesaurus
| [[Image:Wikibooks without text-35px.png|35px|]]
| [[b:en:Main Page|'''Wikibooks''']]<br />Free textbooks and manuals
| [[Image:Wikiquote-logo.png|35px|]]
| [[q:en:Main Page|'''Wikiquote''']]<br />Collection of quotations
| [[Image:Wikisource-logo.png|35px|]]
| [[wikisource:Main Page:English|'''Wikisource''']]<br />Free source documents
|-
| [[Image:Wikispecies without text-35px.png|35px|]]
| [[Wikispecies:|'''Wikispecies''']]<br />Directory of species
| [[Image:Wikinews-logo.png|35px|]]
| [[n:Main Page|'''Wikinews''']]<br />Free content news source
| [[Image:Commons without text-35px.png|35px|]]
| [[commons:Main Page|'''Commons''']]<br />Shared media repository
| [[Image:Wikimedia without text-35px.png|35px|]]
| [[m:Main Page|'''Meta-Wiki''']]<br />Wikimedia project coordination
|}
</nowiki>

Schaengel89 @me 14:40, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

See Template:WikipediaSister/temp for proposing changes. The changes are
  1. Image:Wikiquote without text-35px.png -> Image:Wikiquote-logo.png
  2. Image:Wikisource-logo-35px.jpg -> Image:Wikisource-logo.png
  3. Image:Wikinews-logo-textless.png -> Image:Wikinews-logo.png
As long as we have to keep local copies of the logos for protection anyway, I think we should name them differently. For example, "Wikinews-logo-PROTECTED.png", instead of simply "Wikinews-logo.png". That way, you can leave "Wikinews-logo.png", which is used by a lot of pages, unprotected. dbenbenn | talk 19:26, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Smaller

/smaller - experimentation for use as footer. SV|t 05:21, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Adapting to narrow screen

In an attempt to make this template adapt better to narrow screens, I have made some changes at Template:WikipediaSister/temp. Instead of using a single table (which extends past the right hand margin if you make your browser window narrow enough), I use several smaller tables, where each smaller table has CSS properties that allow it to float. On wide screens, both my new design and the old design look the same. In browsers that understand CSS "width" but do not understand CSS "min-width", both designs look similar at all screen sizes. On narrow screens (provided the browser understands CSS "min-width"), my design will change the number of sister projects per row, so we move from

 Wiktionary   Wikibooks  Wikiquote  Wikisource
 Wikispecies  Wikinews   Commons    Meta-Wiki  

to

 Wiktionary   Wikibooks    Wikiquote
 Wikisource   Wikispecies  Wikinews
 Commons      Meta-Wiki  

and then

 Wiktionary   Wikibooks
 Wikiquote    Wikisource
 Wikispecies  Wikinews
 Commons      Meta-Wiki  

and finally (on really narrow screens) just a single column. Does my version at Template:WikipediaSister/temp work at least as well as the current version for everybody? —AlanBarrett 12:58, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

It's a nice idea. However, in my configuration (Firefox, monobook, width of browser window is 1016), Template:WikipediaSister/temp uses three columns, even though Template:WikipediaSister (with four columns) fits fine. Furthermore, Template:WikipediaSister/temp is justified, so there is a very large space between the words "Dictionary" and "and" in the line under "Wiktionary". -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 13:33, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
I see the same three-column behaviour in Firefox, but not the same justification problem. Using the DOM inspector, I see that Firefox is using widths that are a fraction of a pixel too wide, so changing the "25%" to "24.9%" will fix that. Strangely, I used exactly the same technique with width:25% for http://www.wikipedia.org/, and Firefox doesn't have the same problem there. Does it work better after my recent changes? —AlanBarrett 14:48, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
"width:24.9%" worked fine in Firefox, but Opera trated it like "width:24%". I am now trying "width:25.0%", which seems to work in both Opera and Firefox. I'd appreciate reports from users of other browsers. —AlanBarrett 16:02, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
I still see only three columns, but the text is no longer justified (I just checked my preferences and saw that I had Justify paragraphs set; this may have cause the justification problem). -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 16:27, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
Please try going back in the history of Template:WikipediaSister/temp to view the version that had "width:24.9%". —AlanBarrett 16:39, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
The version with "width:24.9%" is indeed displayed in four columns. By the way, how did you find out the width in pixels being used by Firefox? I have the DOM Inspector extension (version 1.0), but I can't see where to find this information. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 17:21, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
Inside the DOM Inspector, select the item you want in the left hand pane (e.g. a particular DIV or TABLE or whatever). Then click the icon in the the top left hand corner of the right hand pane, and select "Computed CSS Style". Scroll down to "width". —AlanBarrett 18:09, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
Nice, I never noticed that icon. With "width:25.0%", the TABLEs have computed width 205px, and the DIV containing the 8 tables has computed width 817.412px. On the other hand, with "width:24.9%", the TABLEs have computed width 204px. By the way, I'm using Firefox 1.0.4. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 18:21, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
I have Firefox-1.0.6. The behaviour seems inconsistent; sometimes it rounds computed widths to integer numbers of pixels, and sometimes not. Anyway, "width:24.9%" seems to be working for now, so let's wait for comments from users of other browsers. Thanks for your testing and comments. —AlanBarrett 18:36, 8 October 2005 (UTC)
Are these problems life threatening, or is this concept going to work on all browsers? I would like to be able to use this system to make the Community portal fixup show well on any screen. See User:Trevor macinnis/sandbox/community portal fixup. This looks too on my system, at any resolution. Using Firefox 1.0.7 on XP. -- Ec5618 18:15, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Directly link to project pages

The Dutch and Vietnamese Wikipedias have each developed (slightly different) templates that will take an image and link it directly to a wikilinkable page (rather than the image's description page), using some clever CSS positioning. Even though the images in this template redirect to the projects' Main Pages, it would be less confusing to users if the URL of the link actually reflected where the image eventually leads the user.

If you're thinking of using the Vietnamese version of the template, note that everything within the noinclude tag will not be transcluded, and that this version requires four parameters:

  • hình: the image's filename, without the namespace prefix
  • ngang: width of the image
  • cao: height of the image
  • liên kết: the destination page's name; a URL won't work, but you can still use the interwiki syntax

The Dutch version assumes a square image, so it only requires three parameters.

 – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs, blog) 09:11, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Re: Directly link to project pages

Now that Template:Click has been set up, making the project logos link directly to the projects is much easier. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 19:56, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

That was me, although I basically stole from the Dutch and Vietnamese versions, thanks a lot for your help. Although I have every confidence in those versions, I had to make a few changes myself and I'm still a relative newbie to this sort of stuff. So there's a test version at Template:WikipediaSister/temp, if people could check it out with different browsers and the like before putting it on the main page proper. the wub "?!" 11:50, 13 December 2005 (UTC)
I love the new use of {{click}}. Just to make life easier, the images used in this template are Image:Wiktionary-logo-en-35px.png, Image:Wikibooks-logo-PROTECTED.png, Image:Wikiquote without text-35px.png, Image:Wikisource-logo-PROTECTED.jpg, Image:WikispeciesZS-protected.jpg, Image:Wikinews-logo-textless.png, Image:Commons without text-35px.png, Image:Wikimedia without text-35px.png. dbenbenn | talk 22:20, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Interwiki link to vi:

Please add an interwiki link to the Vietnamese version of this template:

<noinclude>[[vi:Tiêu bản:Liên quan Wikipedia]]</noinclude>

Thanks.

 – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 04:40, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Done. —Mets501 (talk) 04:55, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

The logo for wikibooks does not appear in the template. Please could an administrator fix the template to include the logo. --Jorvik 09:04, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Wikisource

Hello! Admins, please change Wikisource to "The Free Library" (sister to "The free encyclopedia":-).

This has been adopted as the multilingual slogan of Wikisource, as you can see here: wikisource:.

Thanks!Dovi 11:14, September 5, 2005 (UTC)

Done, except that I used "The free library", so that capitalization is consistent across entries. Let me know if you disagree. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 13:54, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

I don't know about this... first of all, it's kind of ambiguous, because Wikibooks could also be viewed as a "free library" (of textbooks). Wikisource doesn't contain all kinds of published works, after all. Secondly, the other projects don't have their slogans listed next to their logos here: Wiktionary has "Dictionary and thesaurus" listed next to it, for example, not "The free dictionary." – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs, blog) 09:03, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

"Wikisource doesn't contain all kinds of published works, after all." Since this has come up again, a brief reply: Wrong! Wikisource does contain all kinds of published works (except for copyright restrictions). It is indeed a free and open library. Wikibooks is not, nor does it claim to be. It is not meant to contain published works.
As for Wiktionary - yes, "The free dictionary" is indeed a lot nicer, since these links are meant to promote the sister projects. Though it would of course be a good idea to ask them first at Wiktionary. Dovi 10:18, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
What I meant was that, unlike your typical public library (at least in the US), Wikisource doesn't contain any uncopyrighted text. According to OldWikisource:Wikisource:Policies and guidelines, "there may be unspoken guidelines, such as the necessity of a text to be notable." So you probably won't find any old dime novel at Wikisource, whereas you might find some at a good public library. Though that may be my bias; I grew up within driving distance of PLCH, which did have such extensive collections. I realize that Wikibooks is even less likely to include things like dime novels, but then Wikibooks could be likened to a school library, in which case it does fit the bill pretty well. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 22:23, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
Copyright: So what? Unlike your typical encyclopedia, Wikipedia doesn't contain any text with copyright restrictions. And yet we all still agree to call it "The free encyclopedia." What's the difference? Why not "The free library"?
In my assessment, "the free encyclopedia" is a considerably less ambiguous term than "the free library" (because the word "library" has a much broader range of connotations than the word "encyclopedia"). If you disagree, feel free to discuss changing Wikisource's description of Wikipedia to something that you deem more appropriate. —David Levy 16:04, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
That is your assessment. Bottom line, both words can be used in a variety of contexts; no short word or slogan is ever perfect. At Wikisource, Birgitte already suggested (and as far as I know everyone agrees except maybe Thomas) that we not to a petty tit-for-tat with Wikipedia on this. "The free encyclopedia" is a great slogan, and we keep it because it is what Wikipedia has chosen (and after all we are Wikipedians too). Just because one David Levy has suggested several times that we may do it, we are not going to disregard the consensus of tens of thousands of Wikipedians. But we continue to expect that the courtesy will be returned. Dovi 18:53, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm not suggesting that you engage in "petty tit-for-tat." I'm saying that if you truly believe that another description would be better, go ahead and discuss its implementation. "The free encyclopedia" is backed by consensus as our official slogan, but I don't believe that it's ever been established as our official sister project template description. The two designations are not synonymous, and the fact that the slogan of one project (out of nine) has long been used in the latter capacity does not automatically mean that this always is a good idea. Wikipedia places content on our main page as a courtesy to readers, and Wikisource should do the same. —David Levy 19:48, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
"Dime novels": There is apparently a misunderstanding about this (also keep in mind that English policy pages from "oldwikisource" are no longer relevant now that en.wikisource has been set up). If Wikisource has any notability requirement, it is simply that a book must be "good" enough to have been previously published in some fashion. If it has been published, and it is public domain or the author/publisher grants license permission, it is always clearly welcome at Wikisource. Cheap literature from 19th and early 20th century is entirely welcome. Cheap published contemporary literature is also welcome if license permission is granted. Nearly anything that belongs on the shelves of a brick-and-mortar library also belongs on the "shelves" of Wikisource. Please upload all your "dime novels"!
Wikibooks: No school library currently collects the wiki-produced textbooks and study guides held at Wikibooks. Wikibooks defines itself not as a simple collection of such texts, but as a collection where anyone can edit them, i.e. a project to write and produce them. A finished and published textbook or study guide that might be found in a typical school library doesn't go to Wikibooks, it goes to Wikisource. (In fact, it is entirely possible that Wikisource might someday host permanent frozen versions of Wikibooks textbooks and study guides that have undergone peer-review; it would be a great form of collaboration between the two projects.) Now, could Wikibooks or Wikiquote nevertheless still be called "A library of How-To information" or "A library of quotations" as some have recently suggested? Yes. But they could just as easily be called "An encyclopedia of how-to" or "An encyclopedia of of quotations." The point is, though both "library" and "encyclopedia" may be used in some secondary ways, the basic, primary brick-and-mortar meaning of "library" is exactly the model intended in "The free library".
No one expects an encyclopedia to contain somone else's copyrighted content (at least, not to any great extent). People certainly expect that of libraries. To most people, "the free library" is likely to be interpreted as "the no-cost library." The phrase "Free-content libraray" is far less ambiguous. In fact, I suggest that you seriously consider changing your official slogan to "The Free-content Library." It might not sound quite as catchy, but it's much less confusing.
A regular encyclopedia presents signed articles written by a huge variety of scholars. These are copyrighted by their very nature, and the encyclopedia pays the authors for submitting their work to be published in the encyclopedia and for the rights to be transferred. The fact that Wikipedia articles belong free to the public from scratch is one thing that detracts from their worthiness in the eyes of some critics (though most of us here surely disagree with those critics). Dovi 18:53, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
The goal of Wikisource is quite emphatically to include everything that may be found at a "good public library" (without getting sued). The brick-and-mortar library (everything from your local town library or school library to a large university library) is the primary model for "library" in "The free library". In my opinion, there is no problem discussing this, analyzing it, critiquing it, etc. as much as people want to. But the discussion should be held at Wikisource, and the decision made there should be respected elsewhere. Dovi 07:21, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
You previously expressed agreement with BirgitteSB that the sister project descriptions should be discussed and standardized via the Wikimedia Foundation. Now you're back to arguing that what Wikisource says goes. —David Levy 16:04, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
Of course I agree that should be done, and not just for Wikisource alone. Myabe next week Wikibooks will come up with a better phrase and the admins who work on the Wikipedia main page will refuse to use it. But doing that will take some very major effort and time by somebody, and will probably not happen for a good long time. In the meantime, this remains unresolved. Yes, I'm still "arguing" the obvious point that projects should respect each others logos/slogans/descriptions in Sister-project templates unless there is a very strong, clear, good reason not to. Dovi 18:53, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
All of your arguments are based upon the assumption that the projects' slogans automatically belong in the sister project templates. What gives you that idea? —David Levy 19:48, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
Okay, I see what you're saying. But the problem is that readers will see the little "library" tagline and think that you will see not only cheap, obscure books from a hundred years ago, but also things like current bestsellers. Call Wikipedia an "encyclopedia" and the visitor won't automatically think that we host copyrighted content, but call Wikisource a "library" and that's precisely what they might look for.
That is a reason why it can't be called a library? Because people can't find recent copyrighted paperbacks? For heaven's sake! Thousands of people visit Wikipedia every day expecting to find signed, peer-reviewed-by-experts, all-rights-reserved articles just like in Britannica. And when they do not find such articles, thousands of people have and continue to criticize Wikipedia for not being a real encyclopedia, for precisely that reason! On the contrary, the texts at Wikisource are real published texts, we don't write them ourselves. The only things we don't hold are those we could get sued for. Just like a regular library doesn't hold books for which it doesn't have the funds to pay by just copying & binding them.Dovi 14:01, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
On the other hand, I suppose that calling Wikisource a "free collection of source texts" just fuels the misconception that I had, that a work had to be notable to get included at (the English) Wikisource. So I guess we need to come up with something else. I just don't think that Wikisource really fits an ordinary visitor's conception of a library, even if it could someday have the same scope.
At the Vietnamese Wikipedia, where I'm a sysop, we constantly have the issue of users thinking that we also include dictdefs. It so happens that a common Vietnamese word for encyclopedia, từ điển bách khoa (lit: "encyclopedic dictionary"), is very similar to the word for dictionary, từ điển, and many people view these two words as synonyms. We use the less common bách khoa toàn thư to differentiate ourselves from a dictionary, but new users will still create lots of dictdefs, because they come to Wikipedia with the conception that it is a dictionary; most of our press coverage and most of our mentions in forums etc. describe us as a từ điển bách khoa. To me, calling Wikisource a "library" has the same consequences as calling Wikipedia a từ điển bách khoa: while technically correct, the description will lend to misconceptions about the project.
For goodness sake, what misconceptions? Whatever they are, why can't good policy pages clear it up, especially now that we have extremely good ones at Wikisource? Well, at least we now agree that it is technically correct. I wonder if David Levy will agree too? His concern was accuracy. Dovi 14:01, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
You've quoted me in an out-of-context fashion. My "accuracy" concern pertained to the suggestion that the phrase "The free-content library" be used (which would have incorrectly implied that this was the official slogan of Wikisource). My objection to "The free library" (shared by others) pertains to its ambiguity.
What you perceive as its ambiguity. The place to resolve that is at Wikisource. You're invited. Dovi 18:53, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm not the only person to perceive this ambiguity. Several other people (including one of your administrators) agree. And again, I fail to understand why Wikisource is the place to determine the content of our main page. —David Levy 19:48, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
The current description ("Free-content library") clearly is every bit as accurate as "The free library" (as noted by BirgitteSB on your Scriptorium page) and it's considerably more informative (for the reason explained above). I can only conclude that your continued insistence that the official slogan be used stems from pride. ("We're the free library, and we deserve to be called that!") Again, we don't include slogans for any of the other sister projects, and I don't see why Wikisource should be treated differently (at the expense of our readers). —David Levy 16:04, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
"Free content library" is an improvement (at least "free" and "library" are in there). It is not considerably more informative (would "Free content encyclopedia" be significantly more informative?), nor is anyone suggesting anything at the "expense" of Wikipedia readers. Again, Wikipedia's slogan is presented on all Sister projects templates. Whether the idea that it should simply be the actual slogan is (1) "pride" or (2) a simple assumption that Wikipedia should respect the Wikisource slogan just as the reverse is true. Dovi 18:53, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
1. I've already explained why "free-content" is much less ambiguous than "free." 2. Yes, "Free-content encyclopedia" would be more informative than "The free encyclopedia." 3. No one is disrespecting the Wikisource slogan. Again, your assumption that it belongs on the sister project templates by default (and that the failure to include it is an affront) simply isn't valid. —David Levy 19:48, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
As for Wikibooks, I now see why it shouldn't be described as a "library". Your explanation should be more prominent, though, because it really serves to clarify the distinction between the two projects.
This whole discussion has convinced me that at Wikisource we need to open a page called s:Wikisource:The free library. I'll put it there... Dovi 14:01, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm sorry for carrying on the discussion here, rather than at Wikisource, but it is still on-topic for Wikipedia's sister projects template. Some of my misunderstandings about Wikisource, by the way, are probably because I haven't really paid attention to the project for many months, even though I'm an administrator there. Shame on me...
 – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 09:52, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
Actually, that is exactly my concern. What difference does discussion on Wikisource even make if we come back to Wikipedia and people who never discussed it on Wikisource start the conversation all over again from the beginning? Dovi 14:01, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Just to clarify my position on this (since it was brought up). I cannot understand why the readers of Wikipedia-The free enclycopedia would see any ambiguity in Wikisource-The free library. The readers of Wikipedia being the least-informed possible audience. Here is summary of the different reasons given:

  • The free library” is inaccurate
This opinion is misinformed. Wikisource is what one would expect from a library. I disagree that anyone would expect to find a current best seller on the internet for free. The agreement to Free-content library seems to concede this point.
As I just explained, no claim has been made that "The free library" is inaccurate. The problem is that it's ambiguous. The word "free" can be interpreted as "having no monetary expense." While that's true, it doesn't convey the nature of the available material. "Free-content" does. —David Levy 20:51, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
  • We don't include slogans for any of the other sister projects
I don’t understand the relevence of this objection. No other sister projects has asked you to include a slogan. It is not as though this objection refers to a set precendent or previous discussion.
You misunderstood my point. I'm not suggesting that we can't or shouldn't ever use a project's slogan. I'm refuting the implication that it's standard procedure to do so (and we're unfairly discriminating against Wikisource). —David Levy 20:51, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
  • "the free library" is a nifty slogan, but it doesn't convey any sort of distinction between Wikisource and Wikibooks (which also could be referred to as a "free library").
This opinion is mis-informed. Wikibooks could not described as a free library, as people who contribute at Wikibooks have already explained. Wikibooks produces textbooks, Wikisource collects a variety of soure material. Is not the goal of Wikisoure’s decription to describe how Wikibooks is different, but to describe Wikisource. The agreement to Free-content library seems to concede this point.
I don't see how. The problem with "The free library" is that it fails to convey the nature of the content therein. "Free-content library" can only mean "a library containing free content." Someone familiar with Wikibooks (which many of our readers are not) might not be likely to refer to it as a library, but it is a library of sorts. —David Levy 20:51, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
  • ”The free library” doesn’t specify what kind of library Wikisource is and readers can’t be left to guess. (Amibiguity)
I disagree that readers on seeing word library would then wonder “Well what kind of library?” I simply believe it false that readers don’t commonly know what a library is without further description. The agreement to Free-content library seems to concede this point to a degree. I believe the readers of "The free encyclopedia" do not need to have free further specified for them.
1. People often refer to their neighborhoods' public libraries simply as "libraries," but that doesn't mean that we should adopt this as the only definition of the word. Keep in mind that many readers of the English Wikipedia (and Wikisource, for that matter) do not speak English as a primary language. Specificity can be very helpful. 2. I'm willing to bet that most of our readers interpret "the free encyclopedia" as "the encyclopedia that I can use without paying money." Again, this is less of an issue, because people don't expect to find other entities' copyrighted content in an encyclopedia. —David Levy 20:51, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
  • A consensus amoung those who contribute at Wikisource doesn’t count as a consensus for this because they aren't a valid cross-sampling of the Wikipedia community as a whole.
This really isn’t an objection to “the free library”, but rather a reason to invalidate a large number of voices supporting “the free library”. First of all in practice consensus is always achieved amoung those are most interested in the result. When Wikipedia starts drawing names at random to achieve a vaild cross-sampling of the community in order to properly make a “real” consensus, then this argument will hold more weight with me. Personally I find this attitude disrespectful.
No disrespect or invalidation is intended. Dovi has repeatedly recruited Wikisource users to join the discussion, and this obviously has skewed the input. This decision affects our readers more than yours, so we must attempt to gauge the consensus of the Wikipedia community as a whole. That doesn't mean that your opinions should be disregarded; it means that we must be mindful of their inherent bias. That isn't an insult, and I wouldn't expect a consensus transplanted from Wikipedia to hold a great deal of weight at Wikisource. —David Levy 20:51, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
I just want to say I strongly disagree with idea "our readers" and "your inherent bias". Our goals in this are one in the same.
Your perspective is not that of a typical Wikipedia reader. You know Wikisource up and down, and this message is geared toward people who are largely unfamiliar with the site. —David Levy
I see no problem in transplanting consensus either.
I'm referring to consensus regarding the text that appears on our main page. I don't expect other projects (including yours) to allow Wikipedia to dictate the content of their main pages. —David Levy 22:21, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
If you truly get a varied group from different countries to come to agreement, that agreement is unlikely to be overturned by a seperate group equally varied.
No one is attempting to "overturn" your slogan selection. It simply doesn't automatically correspond to the selection of our description of your project. —David Levy 22:21, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
As to bias; the people who work at Wikisource are simply better informed as to what Wikisource is.
Yes, you are. As such, you aren't in as good a position to place yourselves in the proverbial shoes of someone who's never even heard of Wikisource. To you, "the free library" seems entirely unambiguous, but that's because you don't need someone to explain to you what Wikisource is. —David Levy 22:21, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
Truthfully Wikipedia consensus does hold weight at Wikisource. Not because it is from Wikipedia, but because if a variety of people can reach consensus it is for a good reason. I often look for a Wikipedia consensus when trying to decide naming conventions for different authors.
It's one thing to adopt someone else's consensus as your own (because it makes sense to you), and quite another thing to be told that you must accept someone else's consensus (no discussion, no questions asked). The English Wikipedia frequently copies ideas from other Wikipedias and from sister projects, and they copy some of our ideas. The sites don't force one another to comply with their respective practices, and a great deal of variety exists in many areas. —David Levy 22:21, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
You know I feel the outcome here is a forgone conclusion, I just wanted to clarify the approach that I feel should be taken in this. I trully hope nothing like this comes up in the future amoung any sister projects. However, I feel the most concern about this idea of "we" are deciding this, don't recruit "your" people, etc. It sets a bad precedent--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 21:40, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
Dovi has plainly stated that this was Wikisource's decision to make (and we shouldn't even be discussing it here). I'm sorry, but this is our main page. —David Levy 22:21, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
That all being said my remarks at the Scriptorium were made due to the fact I believe myself to be a pragmatist. I would prefer to leave things on a good note with Free-content library, than on a bad note with Free-content library. This is because in any case I do not believe the opposition will relent to allow The free library. Also the disscussion had become contentious enough at that point, I did not believe anyone new would dare join in unless they cared greatly about the outcome (And those people would most likely be from Wikisource and thus invalid in the opposition’s eyes).
Again, no one has stated that your opinions are invalid. We simply can't assume that they reflect those of Wikipedians in general. —David Levy 20:51, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
Free-content library is accurate and not misleading as I believed previous wording was. With that achieved, I believe harmony and cooperation between the sister projects is more important than arguing for further concessions which would never be granted.
However it must be understood how frustrated it must be to see something achieve such overwhelming support amoung a great variety of people from all different language domains and to have that negated because these people aren’t part of the right group. It is easy to see how these people might feel disrespected by some of comments made during this disscussion. The people who work at Wikisource are used to achieving consensus amoung a large variety of people (Issues are regularly discussed internationally and inovations shared amoung the different language domains). They are used to consensus being respected and that is what this is about more than pride. I can take the disrespect shown to Wikisource and turn the other cheek out of desire to leave no lingering bitterness towards Wikisource for future cooperation. Let me clarify I do this for self-serving reasons, not because I think turning the other cheek makes me any better of a person than those who don’t. As I said I am pragmatist, Wikipedia is in the posistion of strength here. Wikipedia has a great number more contributors and visitors than Wikisource. Wikisource will probably want something from Wikipedia in the future and I think is best not to be remembered with animosity. Wikisource will always be the supplicant, and supplicants are regularly refused on whims. In my opinion it should not reflect ill on anyone, just because they wish to continue this even though I believe the outcome is unlikely to change. As to my e-mail to the foundation list, I think it would be a good idea to standardize this on meta. Mainly to prevent any future animosity between any of the sister projects. However it is less than 50/50 if that will ever happen and it would be a matter of months even then. That is my view on the situation, sorry it is so long.--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 20:04, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm very sorry that you view the situation in this light. We're simply trying to describe your project in the manner that best conveys its nature to our readers. We aren't trying to take your slogan away from you or imply that your project is inferior or unworthy of respect. —David Levy 20:51, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
A small but revealing trivia point regarding Birgitte's comments about Wikibooks. Take a look at the sister-template on the Spanish Wikipedia: While Wikisource is "La biblioteca libre" ("The free library"), Wikibooks is "La editorial libre" which translates "The free publishing house." Now that is an exact disctinction (one project collects works, one writes them). What it fails to indicate, of course, is what kinds of books Wikibooks publishes (it publishes only textbooks and study guides). But again, no short phrase is ever perfect, and "The free library" does a great deal better.
Wiktionary, by the way, is "El diccionario libre" ("The free dictionary"). In any event, it is important to keep in mind that the English Wikipedia is part of a larger whole, one that includes many projects in many languages. An awareness of this should be reflected —This unsigned comment was added by Dovi (talkcontribs) 20:53, 22 March 2006 (UTC).

Ack! I've been basically away from the computer for a couple days, and someone's gone and put this discussion through a high-powered blender! :^) Before I respond to as many points as I can remember, please keep in mind that I was suggesting this change mainly for consistency's sake, and also because I felt calling "Wikisource" seemed likely to produce misconceptions about Wikisource. I was not aiming to belittle the consensus already reached at Wikisource; I just wanted to offer some thoughts on an obscure Talk page. And please respond below my comment; it makes it much easier for others to contribute to this discussion without having to run this page through a parser of some sort.

To me, Wikisource's description (perhaps as opposed to slogan) has to be more complex than that of Wikipedia or Wiktionary, because encyclopedias and dictionaries are more or less household items. A library is not; nor is a brick-and-mortar publishing house. I thought "The Free Library" was a great, catchy slogan for Wikisource when I first saw it, and it really fit in well with that "Carl Spitzweg" image on the English Wikisource front page. But, being familiar with the Wikisource from before it split into language editions, this slogan struck me as a real oversimplification. Sure, a reader may stumble into Wikisource and decide to look for Shakespeare or Dostoevsky, which is what they'll find. But another reader may indeed look for the latest bestseller. Generally speaking, they won't find it there.

The average person's expectations of an "electronic library" will probably depend on their experiences with a brick-and-mortar library. Some of the latter kind will offer current books like the latest bestsellers (PLCH, the Cincinnati library, does), and some won't. But not everyone will even know if their local public library contains this year's bestsellers. Furthermore, a parent may stumble upon Wikisource looking for Dr. Seuss books to read to their child. Maybe the public library's closed on Sundays. Popular children's books are something that a half-decent public library in North America (and probably elsewhere) is bound to have. Well, there'll be a listing of his works at Wikisource, and maybe after clicking on a few dozen red links, they'll find a copyright-infringing, poorly-formatted copy of "The Lorax". Their reaction? "How disappointing." Maybe this parent was going to look for Dostoevsky or something afterwards, but upon seeing their first query result in something like this mess, they could give up on the project entirely.

Such a scenario could be avoided by making an effort to describe Wikisource more accurately. See, Wiktionary might have people come in expecting an OED or Webster's or Roget's, but what they'll get instead isn't likely as disappointing as what they'll find by visiting Wikisource in search of a popular kid's book. Searching for hospital might not yield the most eloquent, most comprehensive definition of the word, but you'll get a basic definition, and if you're interested, a translation into Swahili as well.

But that comes back to my argument about encyclopedias and dictionaries being household items. People generally know what they contain, and what to expect from them. People will expect any half-decent dictionary to contain a definition for "hospital", but they might not expect a definition for "The Brothers Karamazov". So some people will be disappointed or irritated that Wikipedia isn't written by scholars, but they'll probably still get some information on what they're looking for. On the other hand, the parent searching for Dr. Seuss won't find anything other than a list of titles and a link to an encylopedia entry.

Regarding policy pages to prevent dictdefs: the Vietnamese Wikipedia does have a policy page on this. You can get to it from the standard new user welcome template, and from the page automatically presented to new users. It doesn't matter. People have already formed ideas about what certain things should have and what certain things should look like. It takes a lot to unlearn those ideas, and by then we've already got a few dozen dictdefs.

Again, these are suggestions to reduce confusion, in my opinion only and provided "AS IS" for your amusement. I am not trying to strongarm the entire Wikisource project into abandoning their slogan; in no way am I trying to "disrespect" Wikisource in any way, and I believe that David Levy is participating in this discussion in good faith. I shouldn't have to say that.

 – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 07:22, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Wikisource II

The Wikisource link in this template may now be changed to s:. The Main Page currently linked to now longer functions, and is a sort redirect.Dovi 07:19, September 12, 2005 (UTC)

Done. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 13:54, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

Wikisource links

Once again, please replace Wikisource slogan with "The Free Library" as pointed out here.

The layout for the code copied from the new Main Page appears sloppy in Firefox. In my opinion, the previous code should have been kept. I don't think when people were voting on the page, they thought much about this template, or even realized that anything about it was changed. Plus the discussion (link above) does not seem to have been taken into account at all.

The proper way to have done this would have been to have transcluded the template into the proposed Main Page, and dealt with any updates to it on a local (template) level. By simply copying outdated code into the proposed main page, the result was a degraded template. Dovi 08:51, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Firstly, I apologize for not replying to the aforementioned discussion. The redesign project was consuming literately all of my free time (and then some), so I forced myself to stay away from that page until the election concluded.
I disagree with the idea of including the slogan (instead of the description "Free-content source texts," which is based upon wording from the Wikisource main page). We don't list slogans for any of the other sister projects, and descriptions are more useful in this context. ("The free library" could just as easily be applied to Wikibooks.) We certainly should include whichever text is backed by consensus, so please feel free to raise this issue at Talk:Main Page.
FYI, the text/coding that appeared in the draft was not outdated; "The free library" was deliberately changed to "Free-content source texts" as part of the proposed redesign, and the coding was changed to address a display bug of some sort. I use Firefox, and I'm not seeing the problem that you've cited. (If possible, please upload a screen capture.) —David Levy 09:09, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
The slogan is a Wikisource decision, as is the logo that appears in the template. (The logo currently happens to be undergoing intense discussion at Wikisource. If and when Wikisouce changes it, it will change on the Main Page here too). Wikibooks is in no way an open library, nor does it claim to be. Wikipedia is listed as "The free encyclopedia" in "sister-links" from all the other projects, and I would expect the same courtesy here. Perhaps, however, we will change our Wikipedia link to something more descriptive and attractive, like "Wikipedia - Open-source articles..." Dovi 09:45, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Please see my replies on Dovi'a talk page. —David Levy 14:43, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
"The free library" is actually a better description than "free-content source texts". Wikisource:Astronomical events is an example of something that is not a source text, but which you can find in a free library. I support changing the description of Wikisource on this temlpate to the free library. --Kernigh 18:08, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Can someone clear up my questions:Who is actually preventing the change (back) to the description of "The free library"?

On what authority? Wikisource and its slogan/descriptive phrase is a wikisource responsibility. Those who participate on it have decided, in all the language sub-domains, to go with "The free library" as their description of that project - why do you think you know better than those who regularly work & participate there? Frankly having read the discussions above the sole reason for not using wikisource's own approved description/slogan is a rather irrelevant & pedantic semantic argument over what constitutes a library & what people would expect to find there. Isn't this a rather minor & pointless reason to be creating all this fuss & going against established usage. AllanHainey 12:46, 22 March 2006 (UTC) AllanHainey 12:46, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Is Wikisource really a wiki?

Sorry to bring something else up with the discussion on Wikisource, but after reading the descriptions of what it is, especially the ones referring to it having "frozen" versions of Wikibooks, I realised that the big, major distinction between Wikisource and the other projects is that it effectively just copies existing works. There is, rather obviously, no rewriting of the source texts or writing of new text. Which got me wondering why it calls itself a wiki. I suppose that rather than anyone editing wikisource, anyone is free to add text to it. Though not having visited it in a while, I'm not sure how the verification processes work. Wikispecies is kind of similar I believe, in that once it is agreed what source to use, there is no argument over what should be recorded. Ditto with Wikiquote and Wikicommons. I'm not sure how much editing and changing of definitions can occur at Wikitionary, but I am trying to draw the distinction here between Wikiprojects that involve editing and writing, and Wikiprojects that involve collecting and recording (aggregator projects, maybe). I would label Wikisource, Wikiquote and Commons as projects to record and collect existing texts/media. Wikispecies catalogues existing species data. Meta-Wiki might be called a manual/discussion forum. Wikitionary involves actually writing definitions and the other stuff a dictionary has. Wikibooks involves both republishing existing material and writing new material. Wikipedia records stuff, but does so by rewriting stuff or writing new stuff. Would this distinction, between the amount of writing and recording that goes on in each Wikimedia Project, be useful? Carcharoth 11:27, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Wikisource doesn't involve writing new text though it does involve writing of introductions, wikifying & adding annotations (distinguished from original annotations - to clarify the text), sourcing, proofreading,creation of author pages & lists of texts, categorisation, creation of translations of foreign texts, etc. There is a lot of scope for anyone who comes along to add texts or edit them, or indeed to edit the structure of wikisource so it is perfectly justified to call itself a Wiki. Atually going by the wikipedia definition a unique type of website, specifically one which allows anyone visiting the site to add, remove as well as edit all content, quickly and easily, without the need for registration. it could be arguably more of a wiki than wikipedia as wikisource doesn't require registration. By the way while wikisource does have some "frozen" versions of texts there are few of these & the protection policy is only just getting going (it is far easier to add a text than for it to be proofread, especially for it to be proofread by 2 users) . Perhaps 99.99999% of wikisource isn't protected. AllanHainey 12:58, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
I always thought "wiki" defined the method of building a website rather defining the content.--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 15:25, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
Yes, it does. I apologise for asking whether Wikisource is a wiki, which I realise may have offended some people. Of course it is a wiki. What I was doing was mulling over some of the differences between wikis. All the wikimedia projects are wikis, and all use wikimedia software, but there are some rather interesting differences between them. Nothing to do with the discussion of the wikisource slogan and its description on the Wikipedia Main Page (which is what brought me here), but something I thought I'd bring up. I agree with what you say below, that the slogan/description issues should be left to the Wikimedia Foundation to decide. My views are that both sides in such a debate need to be courteous. Respect the "linking" policy of the other wikiproject, but also respect the right of each wikiproject to write its own content for its own readers. Carcharoth 08:28, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Lets end the Wikisource debate . . . for now

Truly how any of the projects are represented is a Foundation decision. Since it is clear this cannot be settled amoung ourselves, they will have to make a decision. I would not be surprised if that took six months. Nothing good can come of any of us continuing this discussion in the meantime. And a great deal of bad blood can be created. As I have explained before, I am not happy with current situation. But I am appealing to everyone to walk away from this now. Please just let this make it's way through the slow but inevitable workings of the Wikimedia Foundation. I am taking these pages off my watchlist and I suggest everyone else do the same. If you do not follow my advice, please at least refrain from summarizing any comments I make in other locations here. I think I have been clear in my opinion, if you have any doubts ask me on my talk page or IRC--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 22:35, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

You make it sound as if something official has been submitted to the Wikimedia Foundation? I don't subscribe to IRC or follow much of the Wikimedia Foundation news or discussions, so am I missing something here? Carcharoth 11:26, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
Birgitte did raise the issue on the Foundation mailing list here, though there appears to have been no replies to it yet. AllanHainey 12:04, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
OK. Thanks for pointing this out. Carcharoth 17:02, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Wikisource name...

Just one more comment, really for any Wikisource people who are still around. I was wondering whether, in the light of all this thing about Wikisource best being described as a library, why the name Wikilibrary isn't used? Has this already been used elsewhere? It certainly seems a clearer and more easily understood name than Wikisource. Carcharoth 11:31, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't think we want to go down the route of changing wikisource's name, there is enough problems deciding whether the logo needs to be changed. The name wikisource derives from its original name project sourceberg, a pun on Gutenberg. While it is a wee bit odd there is no reason to change it as it is basically a library of sources. Either name would be technically accurate, but wikisource sounds better & is already well known. AllanHainey 11:59, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

SisterProjects templates

Hi! I'm a member of the Wikimedia Foundation Communications Committee which is organized to manage inter-Foundation and extra-Foundation communications such as the SisterProjects templates.

I have skimmed through discussions here and elsewhere regarding the language choices on Wikipedia. I will be bringing this issue up at the next committee meeting (sadly, 1 April at 0900 UTC). I would like to mention there is an effort underway to collect all Project/Language logos, slogans, and descriptions at Slogans.

To give the best information possible to the Committee, I would ask that a very succinct answer be provided for the following questions:

  • On what basis does en.Wikipedia ignore another WMF project's slogan?
  • On what basis does en.Wikipedia ignore another WMF project's description?
  • Is the SisterProject template on Wikipedia using slogans or descriptions for all projects?

- Amgine 00:11, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Alignment

Would someone please fix this! The Main Page has the three logos (Wikiquote, Commons and Meta-Wiki) on a separate line from the Wikispecies logo for some reason. --Connel MacKenzie 03:32, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Comparing versions, it looks like only the most recent edit (28 March) is causing the problem. --Connel MacKenzie 03:36, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

I've simply reverted that edit, I'm not sure what it was intended to accomplish. If it was supposed to do something that's now missing, please figure out how to do it another way. --Michael Snow 06:02, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

See #Text aligment above. I've now added the "text-align: left" to the 8 parent divs. It looks fine in my browser, but of course it looked fine before, too. User:dbenbenn 17:03, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Wikisource tagline

To try and deal with this situation, since it appears Wikisource would like their slogan of "The Free Library" acknowledged, I suggest we use "free library of source texts" as the description. This accomplishes the following:

  1. Incorporates the slogan
  2. Gives enough description to let people looking at this know what Wikisource is (that's the ultimate purpose of the template, I believe, and the slogan alone doesn't quite do this)
  3. Distinguishes Wikisource clearly from Wikibooks
  4. Suggests to the mind why it's called Wikisource in the first place

Would that suit people? --Michael Snow 06:02, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

I tried this wording. Despite the description that appears on their main page, the Wikisourcers indicated that their site contains more than source texts. (Therefore, "free library of source texts" is overly specific.)
Please see the archived discussion. —David Levy 13:15, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
I have found that the use of "source text" leads to a misunderstanding about the scope of Wikisource. What about "free library of source material"? Is that too vague for you? Unfortunately the scope of Wikisource is very broad to it is hard sum it up concisely.--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 14:23, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
I recognize and share your concern. Wikisource contains more than "texts," so the description shouldn't imply otherwise. I don't, however, think that "free library of source material" is a better description than "free-content library." The term "free-content" is widely associated with the type of material that Wikisource offers. By comparison, the phrase "source material" (which I don't recall reading or hearing before) is unclear. Of course, this is merely my opinion. —David Levy 15:35, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
I was just working with a thesaurus trying to come up with something after I saw Micheal's comment. I should have known better. I do not want restart any sort of debate. Amigne indicated that the wheels are in motion to make these templates consistant across projects. Forget what you have just read, I was not here. . .--Birgitte§β ʈ Talk 15:56, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
As I said, I'm merely expressing my opinion. I'm not criticizing you or attempting to squelch your input. —David Levy 18:32, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
I'm not attached to the word "texts" specifically, but I'd like to understand in what way Wikisource contains things that wouldn't fit that description. It was my understanding that the place for other media (images, sounds, video) is Commons.
Also, thanks for pointing me to the previous discussion. I fear the proposal suffered a bit from the acrimony that developed there. I don't want this to be a debate, I hope we can develop some mutual understanding to reach an acceptable solution. --Michael Snow 16:51, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
Good luck with a slogan (I think it's fine as is), but I updated the logo to the stylized iceberg (it's what they use now, anyway).--HereToHelp 14:30, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Eu InterWiki

Please, add the next interwiki if it is possible: eu:Txantiloi:Wikimedia. Thanks.--Berria · (talk) 14:43, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Done. --CBD 22:49, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Missing wikipedia family?

Does anyone notice some of the wikipedia projects are missing?

This may include:

  1. http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
  2. http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia
  3. http://egamia.com/wiki/Main_Page
  4. http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Main_Page
  5. and some more

Is there any place which list all other wiki projects, not just the "8 main sisters"?

If not, should we try to compile a page or template like the above?--Wai Wai (talk) 09:11, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually, these are not sister projects. They are associated with Wikia not the Wikimedia Foundation which governs Wikipedia, Wiktionary, et cetera. The way I understand it, they are not related. It just so happens that User:Jimbo Wales and User:Angela work for both. They are probably thousands of wiki on the web. I see no reason to create any template with all of them. Wikia lists all of their wikis. -- Psy guy Talk 21:15, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Wikiversity link

The wikiversity link appears in red on the main page. It appears correctly on the template page, though. I tried clearing my cache, but it is still in red. Maybe someone should take a look. -- thunderboltza.k.a.Deepu Joseph |TALK15:34, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Hmm..never mind. It seems to be fine now. Dont know how, but the link automatically changed from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V: to http://en.wikiversity.rog/wiki/ . Oh well...-- thunderboltza.k.a.Deepu Joseph |TALK16:12, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

It is doing it again per this timestamp. Syrthiss 16:12, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Inclusion in multilingual port

Hi. This template should be included in the multilingual port, as the one that is there now appears to be the old version. Thanks - Jack (talk) 01:17, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Interwiki

Could an admin add the greek interwiki to this template. It shall be linked to el:Πρότυπο:Αδελφικά εγχειρήματα. Thanks very much. --CeeKay 06:22, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Done – Gurch 19:51, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

wikiversity

please change the png-wikiversity logo to "Wikiversity-logo.svg" - thanks --87.122.19.46 10:08, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Done. NCurse work 16:32, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
MediaWiki automatically renders all SVGs as PNGs. The PNG in question was derived directly from this output and optimized specifically for use in the template (with the blank border removed). Switching to the SVG (which wasn't uploaded and protected) resulted in an inferior image, and I've reverted this change. —David Levy 17:03, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Wiktionary

There a new official Image for Wiktionnary : Image:Wiktprintable_without_text.svg —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.51.94.74 (talkcontribs) 18:51, 8 November 2006.

It hasn't been implemented yet, and there still are some important details to work out before that can occur. —David Levy 19:14, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

New 'clickable image' method

I have updated this template to use the new 'imagemap' mediawiki feature. One issue I noticed is that the little 'i in blue circle' icon which links to the image description page cannot be re-sized. It is fine for large images, but seems a bit over-sized on these little thumbnails. I have placed this on the left to minimize the amount of overlap with the project icons themselves. --CBD 16:06, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

It can be hidden by putting "desc none" within the <imagemap> tags, which I have just done. the wub "?!" 16:30, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Template name

Perhaps this template should have another name. This one sounds similar to Wikipediadisaster at a first glance. --Eleassar my talk 10:22, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Interwiki links

Dear administrator, please add the following interwiki links:

[[ca:Plantilla:Contingut Projectes germans]]
[[ia:Patrono:Projectos Wikimedia]]

Thank you in advance, Julian 11:27, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Done. -- JLaTondre 16:32, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

...and the following interwiki links:

[[ca:Plantilla:Contingut Projectes germans]]
[[cs:Template:Wikipediasister]]
[[el:Πρότυπο:Αδελφικά εγχειρήματα]]
[[en:Template:WikipediaSister]]
[[eu:Txantiloi:Wikimedia]]
[[es:Plantilla:Portada:Proyectos]]
[[fi:Malline:Sisarhankkeet]]
[[fr:Template:Projets Wikimedia]]
[[he:תבנית:מיזמי ויקימדיה]]
[[ia:Patrono:Projectos Wikimedia]]
[[it:Template:PaginaPrincipale/Progetti]]
[[nl:Sjabloon:Hoofdpagina/Projecten]]
[[no:Mal:Søsterprosjekt]]
[[pl:Szablon:Siostrzane]]
[[ru:Шаблон:Сообщество Википедии]]
[[simple:Main Page/Sister projects]]
[[sk:Template:WikipediaSister]]
[[sv:Mall:Wikipediasystrar]]
[[vi:Tiêu bản:Liên quan Wikipedia]]

Heldergeovane (talk) 18:52, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Image replacement request

{{editprotected}}
Hi. Please change the wikiversity logo to Image:Wikiversity-logo.svg. Thanks. Siebrand 21:52, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

The logos on this template are all PNGs optimized for display at their exact size. MediaWiki does not render the SVG quite so nicely at such a size. Is there a difference in content between the logos (I can't see any)? If not, there should be no need to change it – Gurch 22:35, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
In fact, the scaled Wikiversity logo required more pixel-by-pixel tweaking than any of the others did. —David Levy 03:11, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi, plaese replase Image:Wikibooks-logo-35px.png --> Image:Wikibooks-logo.svg (This is a image from the Wikimedia Commons.) Thanks --OsamaK 16:45, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

{{editprotected}}

Please see the above section. —David Levy 17:09, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
Oh! I'm sorry.--OsamaK 13:37, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Please replace...

Please see the two sections directly above this one. —David Levy 07:23, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki

{{editprotected}} Is it possible to link to MediaWiki.org? It's the software that runs Wikimedia and a wikimedia-maintained wiki. I was surprised it wasn't already on there. The interwiki prefix is mw:. Matt/TheFearow (Talk) (Contribs) (Bot) 22:21, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

The {{editprotected}} tag should be used to request uncontroversial/consensus-based edits. I believe that this idea has been proposed and rejected in the past, but you're welcome to discuss it here. Please note, however, that both the Wikimedia Foundation and MediaWiki websites are linked at the bottom of every page. —David Levy 22:28, 17 July 2007 (UTC)
True, but the footer is barely looked at. I believed it was reasonable uncontroversial, as it is on the official "Our projects" list on foundation (foundation:Our projects). It's an official project. Also, the image is at Image:Mediawiki.png. Matt/TheFearow (Talk) (Contribs) (Bot) 00:44, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
As a general rule, non-routine additions to the main page are not uncontroversial unless consensus is established beforehand. In this instance, I believe that it's been argued that the MediaWiki site is of little interest to most of our readers. —David Levy 01:38, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Domain names

Why is it that of the nine links, only six of them seem to have their own individual discreet domain names, whereas the remaining three (commons, meta and species) seem to be subsets of the wikimedia.org domain name? If they're a special case, shouldn't they be grouped together in this template (i.e. all on the left)? 82.16.7.63 11:17, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Especially since they're the only links with wikimedia's blue rings encapsulating their logos... Can I also ask why the species logo contains texture when none of the others do? 82.16.7.63 11:20, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

My understanding is that dedicated domain names are used for projects that have separate language editions. Beyond that, there is no special significance.
The Wikispecies logo's textured appearance is simply s stylistic decision that was made during the design process. A version that more closely resembles the other projects' logos exists, and it has been suggested that it be used at this scale. —David Levy 11:32, 8 August 2007 (UTC)


Add to template please

{{editprotected}}

Please add no:Mal:Søsterprosjekt (analogous template in Norwegian wikipedia. --Lipothymia 16:40, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

checkY Done --ais523 16:53, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Quick question

I'm fairly sure this is a bit controversial for an {{editprotected}} tag, but I propose that someone adds links to the Simple English Wikipedia and its subprojects. Any thoughts? Cheers, ( arky ) 01:05, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Why would it be controversial? -- Ricky81682 (talk) 01:43, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Simple interwiki

{{editprotected}} Can somebody add the interwiki [[simple:Main Page/Sister projects]] to the interwiki links here? It's interesting that it's not a template, like the others, but seems to serve the same function and has the same contents. Rigadoun (talk) 16:58, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Done. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 01:43, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

{{editprotected}}
Can you add [[nl:Sjabloon:Hoofdpagina/Projecten]] also? Rigadoun (talk) 14:29, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Here's Hebrew, please add that as well!

  • [[he:תבנית:מיזמי ויקימדיה]] Dovi 18:56, 1 November 2007 (UTC)
checkY Done - Nihiltres(t.l) 00:19, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

More languages

{{editprotected}}

Please add the following:

fr:Modèle:Projets Wikimedia it:Template:PaginaPrincipale/Progetti It Is Me Here (talk) 14:31, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

 Not done - but now you can do it yourself. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 17:09, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
Really? It doesn't appear so - I'm still on "View Source" only. It Is Me Here (talk) 19:41, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

This too: ka:თარგი:დობილი პროექტები Farkas János (talk) 17:05, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Meta versions

I think we should edit this template to make it look more like the version at Meta m:Template:Sisterprojects with all the projects listed. MBisanz talk 07:11, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Change links to link in same window?

{{editprotected}}

Could this template be changed so that clicking on the Wikibooks icon, for instance, takes you to b:, but in the same window and not in a new window? After all, people can always Shift + Click or Ctrl + Click and I personally find getting a new window when clicking on those links annoying (especially as they always launch restored down in IE7). Do others agree with me? It Is Me Here (talk) 11:43, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Clicking the Wikibooks link or the Wikibooks icon stays within the same browser window. It sounds like an issue on your end. --MZMcBride (talk) 18:35, 6 September 2008 (UTC)
Interesting. It now appears that the image link stays in the same window, but the word link opens a new one. Any idea which setting I would need to change to correct this? It Is Me Here (talk) 12:18, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

"Please wait - implementation isn't even local yet." — What exactly does that mean? Meta has already changed their logo, and if you visit meta, you'll see it in the top left-hand corner (you may have to purge your cache though). How much more "implemented" can it get? I've fixed it here. - Rjd0060 (talk) 15:07, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

You think that the top left hand corner is the only place it needs to be implemented? I'm not going to revert again, because a war here would be pointless, but you are perhaps unaware of the proceedings as they are occurring at Meta; numerous pages, templates and other pages still require an update. It seems obvious that full initialisation of the logo's use should occur before this initialisation spreads to the other projects. This is logical, no? Correct me if I am wrong. —Anonymous DissidentTalk 01:57, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
Perhaps it is - the new logo has been added to other projects, including Commons (and many many others). I see no problem with it here. Thanks, Rjd0060 (talk) 02:25, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
Since Meta's already changed, I don't see a huge issue with updating the other sites as people run across images, although I do wish Meta would make a high-res version of the new logo + text, ideally something in svg. MBisanz talk 02:47, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
I wish that Meta had bothered to consult Wikimedia's communications committee before rushing to make a PD image (which anyone can use for any purpose without any conditions) its logo. Some Foundation employees feel that it's okay, but Mike Godwin is uncertain, and we're still waiting to hear from a representative of the communications committee (which typically places fairly strict conditions on the selection of the projects' logos). —David Levy 03:02, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
Hmm, in that case we might wanna put it on hold, I was of the understanding such a logo license was not an issue, but if there are Foundation-level concerns, they supersede any existing project consensus. MBisanz talk 03:45, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
As the icon remains in use at Meta (at least for the time being), I see no substantial benefit in avoiding its duplication here (given the fact that the legality is not in question). But if the logo suddenly is changed back at Meta, this probably is why. —David Levy 04:48, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
Interesting. Clearly, people didn't know about this particular issue. - Rjd0060 (talk) 03:48, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
Indeed, the issue appears not to have been discussed until I raised it at Meta and on the Foundation mailing list.
To be clear, there might not be any problem at all. And if there is, it doesn't mean that the current situation has any immediate legal ramifications or will cause any long-term harm. —David Levy 04:48, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
The Foundation and the Communications Committee were fully aware of the logo vote, if the Meta community wants to use a different logo than the foundation logo, they are entitled to vote for one; which they did. There is no issue with them using the PD community logo if they like too. Mike Godwin was giving advice, not a position. I expect them to probably move toward a freely licensed one in the future, but this is perfectly acceptable to the Foundation. Cary Bass (talk) 23:52, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the reply! To be clear, am I correct in understanding that you've confirmed this with someone on the communications committee? (My inquiry has not been answered.)
Also, does this reflect a distinction between Meta-Wiki and the other Wikimedia projects (with stricter branding criteria in place for the latter)? —David Levy 00:14, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Don't use external links

{{editprotected}} To prevent the use of external links, I would like to change this template to:

Wikipedia is hosted by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]], a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other [[Wikimedia:Our projects|projects]]:

{| class="layout" cellpadding="4" style="width:100%; margin:auto; text-align:left; background:transparent;"
| style="text-align:center;" | <imagemap>File:Commons-logo-31px.png|31px
default [[commons:|Commons]]
desc none</imagemap>
| style="width:33%;" | '''[[commons:|Commons]]'''<br />Free media repository
| style="text-align:center;" | <imagemap>File:Wikinews-logo-51px.png|51px
default [[n:|Wikinews]]
desc none</imagemap>
| style="width:33%;" | '''[[n:|Wikinews]]'''<br />Free-content news
| style="text-align:center;" | <imagemap>File:Wiktionary-logo-51px.png|51px
default [[wikt:|Wiktionary]]
desc none</imagemap>
| style="width:33%;" | '''[[wikt:|Wiktionary]]'''<br />Dictionary and thesaurus
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | <imagemap>File:Wikiquote-logo-51px.png|51px
default [[q:|Wikiquote]]
desc none</imagemap>
| '''[[q:|Wikiquote]]'''<br />Collection of quotations
| style="text-align:center;" | <imagemap>File:Wikibooks-logo-35px.png|35px
default [[b:|Wikibooks]]
desc none</imagemap>
| '''[[b:|Wikibooks]]'''<br />Free textbooks and manuals
| style="text-align:center;" | <imagemap>File:Wikisource-logo-35px.png|35px
default [[s:|Wikisource]]
desc none</imagemap>
| '''[[s:|Wikisource]]'''<br />Free-content library
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | <imagemap>File:Wikispecies-logo-35px.png|35px
default [[wikispecies:|Wikispecies]]
desc none</imagemap>
| '''[[wikispecies:|Wikispecies]]'''<br />Directory of species
| style="text-align:center;" | <imagemap>File:Wikiversity-logo-41px.png|41px
default [[v:|Wikiversity]]
desc none</imagemap>
| '''[[v:|Wikiversity]]'''<br />Free learning materials and activities
| style="text-align:center;" | <imagemap>File:Meta-logo-35px.png|35px
default [[m:|Meta-Wiki]]
desc none</imagemap>
| '''[[m:|Meta-Wiki]]'''<br />Wikimedia project coordination
|}<noinclude>
{{pp-template|small=yes}}
{{documentation}}
</noinclude>

MC10|Sign here! 03:45, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

To see why the external-style link code is used, please compare the printable versions of the current template and your proposed revision. —David Levy 05:55, 15 June 2009 (UTC)
What? Do the full URLs have to be shown in the span title? —MC10|Sign here! 01:07, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
The benefit is that the sister projects' URLs appear in printed copies of the main page's "printable version," thereby informing readers of their locations. —David Levy 01:36, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Add alt text

{{editprotected}} As per WP:ALT and the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, the functional images in this template should have alt text. Could you please install the straightforward sandbox patch to do that? Thanks. Eubulides (talk) 04:42, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Done. —David Levy 05:22, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Secure server

I intend to fix the links in this template so they work correctly also when viewed through the secure server. See discussion at Template talk:Wikipedialang#Secure server.

--David Göthberg (talk) 03:45, 19 December 2009 (UTC)

checkY Done - The Main Page now has secure links for most of its inter-Wikimedia links, when using the secure server.
--David Göthberg (talk) 21:01, 23 December 2009 (UTC)

Doesn't play well with images

This template seems to create large amounts of whitespace when it is put near images, such as on WP:ALTOUT. I'm not sure if there is any solution to this if this template must not be flowable due to considerations on the front page. Gigs (talk) 15:02, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

First of all: I think we should not add any fixes to this template itself, since its main purpose is to be used on the Main Page.
But about the box flow problem on your page:
Even worse, when using Firefox 2.0 and some other browsers, and a screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher, then the thumbnail above the "Sister projects" section in Wikipedia:Alternative outlets overlaps (covers) part of this template. This is a known box flow bug in some browsers. The simple way to fix that is to add a {{clear}} at the top of the template, or on the page. Then we who use Firefox etc will instead see the same whitespace above that section as the rest of you see.
But I guess you want the template to squeeze and flow to the left of the thumbnail. And yes, there is a method to do that that works in all browsers. We use that method for most of the templates in the mbox family, such as {{ambox}} and {{ombox}}. To test that the method also works in this case I changed the code in that section to this:
== Sister projects ==
{{ombox
| image = none
| style = margin: 0; border: none; background: transparent;
| text = {{WikipediaSister}}
}}
(The "style=" line is just to make it look good.) And it worked in all my browsers. But this is not intended use for {{ombox}} so I don't recommend using it like this. Instead for now I recommend just putting {{clear}} above the "Sister projects" section header on your page.
But I will think about this. Perhaps I should code up a transparent lightweight version of the mboxes, without border and with no image handling or other stuff, that only supplies this box flow fix.
--David Göthberg (talk) 16:13, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
Thank you for the fast feedback. I suspected it would not be straightforward. Let me know if you come up with anything, and feel free to change WP:ALTOUT as needed. Gigs (talk) 18:56, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
Yes, I have noted so in my to-do list. And I have added a {{clear}} above the section heading "Sister projects" in that page for now.
--David Göthberg (talk) 00:53, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Move request

{{movereq|Template:Wikipedia's sister projects}}

Template:WikipediaSisterTemplate:Wikipedia's sister projects — Should be changed for better readability. This template is rarely used, speaking of quantity, but used on the Main Page, so I think that it requires a discusssion. The template was created in 2006, when there have been thousands of different writing styles in template names. One used CamelCase, the other one wrote all in one word and so on, making things harder to remember. Nowadays, pretty much all uses the spelling how it's proper English, just like in the article titles. In this case, I'd propose a rename to "Wikipedia's sister projects": This is the section name how it's used on the Main Page, thus making it easy to identify. I generally also feel that these templates of that kind on the Main Page should best always reflect the corresponding section name, so should it ever be changed, this name should so, too. Of course, I could understand possible doubts about it being a Main Page template, but that shouldn't be any problem. We'd just have to move the template, just as we move any article. The created redirect will automatically be protected as long as this template is protected, so no space for a vandal to harm Wikipedia. We might then correct the redirect on the Main Page, but that wouldn't be necessary, since redirects are cheap. --The Evil IP address (talk) 16:05, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Why? The section's exact title is "Wikipedia's sister projects", and the term "Wikipedia sister projects" could contribute to the widespread misconception that the Wikimedia projects are parts of Wikipedia. I'll create a redirect at Template:Wikipedia sister projects, however (and if there turns out to be consensus for your suggestion, I'll swap it in as the template's actual name). —David Levy 17:26, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
It seemed like a simpler name for the template, and I don't see how it could contribute to any such misconception. :S As the template is not used exclusively by the main page, I don't fully understand the logic in naming it after the main page section title. It was just a suggestion, I don't oppose the move, though I might have given discussion a bit longer than 81 minutes before being bold and doing it anyway. PC78 (talk) 18:02, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
I wouldn't use the term "bold" to describe such a minor, inconsequential change. The old names were unintuitive and inconsistent, so moving the templates is harmless at worst. As noted above, if different names are decided upon, they can simply be moved again.
The templates are viewed vastly more often via the main page than they are via other pages, so the headings used there are the most intuitive titles possible (which users seeking the templates are likely to try, and possibly even copy and paste). {{Wikipedia sister projects}} contains two fewer characters, but it's much less likely to be guessed (because it arbitrarily deviates from the label that most users see, thereby defeating the purpose behind these moves). If our goal were brevity (as opposed to consistency/intuitiveness), {{sister projects}} would be even shorter.
Of course, the existence of redirects renders this mostly academic, except for the aforementioned misconception that the Wikimedia projects are parts of Wikipedia. "Wikipedia's" is possessive, so its use in the context of "sister projects" is likely to be interpreted accordingly (sisters of Wikipedia). Conversely, "Wikipedia sister projects" can be interpreted as "sister projects that are parts of Wikipedia" (just as "the Smith sisters" are sisters in the Smith family). —David Levy 19:54/19:59, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
Given the lack of complaints about this, I wouldn't expect these similar changes to be controversial. As noted above, there really isn't any harm at all, so I'll go ahead and move the templates. —David Levy 17:26, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
  • Didn't yet see this, but thanks for moving. I think the redirect solution in this case is perfectly working. --The Evil IP address (talk) 23:01, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Alphabetized order

I think it would look better, and be easier to see and locate, if the sister projects were in alphabetical order. This would make sense in an encyclopedia. Please see the updated code in the sandbox. Thanks, --Funandtrvl (talk) 00:50, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

 Done — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 13:12, 3 June 2011 (UTC)
Thanks! --Funandtrvl (talk) 23:12, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Meta location

Can Meta be moved to a more prominent location, say, right after Commons? The other projects are mostly-separate from Wikipedia, while what happens on Commons and on Meta can (at least occasionally) directly affect us. It would also make sense alphabetically, of course, as the others all start with "Wiki" in the listing. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 15:31, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

I'd be fine with it, and have taken a stab (that someone else should double and triple check) in the sandbox, but ... I'm not putting it up myself without more voices. --j⚛e deckertalk 23:43, 28 July 2012 (UTC)
That code looks fine (creating a sandbox draft slipped my mind for some reason, thanks!). I didn't just make the change for the same reason - an extra pair of eyes or two couldn't hurt. But {{editprotected}} b/c it should be uncontroversial. --Philosopher Let us reason together. 08:19, 29 July 2012 (UTC)
Question: Before actioning this, I'd like to ask why the proposed version is a significant regression? Compared to the current version, it uses protocol-absolute URLs instead of protocol-relative, and also uses the old secure server https://secure.wikimedia.org/.
Less importantly, there are also variations in column width management: the present version sets width:33%; to the three cells in the top row, whilst the proposed version sets this on the first cell in the top row, but the second and third cells in the second row. --Redrose64 (talk) 11:49, 1 August 2012 (UTC)
I wonder if his modification was based on an outdated sandbox draft? I've thrown an updated draft into the sandbox (synced it and then made the changes). --Philosopher Let us reason together. 01:15, 3 August 2012 (UTC)
Done --Redrose64 (talk) 10:30, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Wikidata

Wikidata went live today, and so should be included in this template. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 22:09, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

According to the sitenotice, it's "not yet fully functional, we are still setting things up." I suspect it's not yet completely ready for the traffic that would result from it being linked to from the Wikipedia Main Page, so I would suggest waiting a bit. Also, it doesn't even have an interwiki prefix yet. --Yair rand (talk) 22:36, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
Nonetheless, it's a live, official Wikimedia Foundation project. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:16, 31 October 2012 (UTC)
As much as I love Wikidata, I'm uncomfortable about encouraging people via the Main Page to contribute to a database which might be reset. Perhaps best to wait a week or two, for confirmation from the technical people that everything is fine and that contributions will be safe. —WFCFL wishlist 19:07, 31 October 2012 (UTC)
I'm with WFC on this. We need to make sure it's stable, first. The Signpost has already put out the word that it's live. That'll drive traffic over from our most experienced users (and the ones most likely no not be turned off if things go haywire. In a few weeks we can do a bigger, public rollout. This is also Sven Manguard 19:06, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

I'm supportive of more immediate inclusion, but most here seem to be advocating for at least a short waiting period. In the meantime, why don't we focus on exactly how to integrate Wikidata once it's ready? We currently have 9 projects spread nicely in a 3×3 matrix. With Wikidata, that will become 10. How should we lay them out? I suggest that we not disrupt the nice 3×3 matrix, but introduce a new row below the others and center Meta-Wiki there, with Wikidata taking its spot (though I don't particularly mind how projects are arranged in that matrix). {{Nihiltres|talk|edits|}} 17:21, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

Wikivoyage is also becoming a sister project, so we should consider that as well. sumone10154(talk) 18:28, 4 November 2012 (UTC)
Perhaps we could have Commons and Meta together, then, as suggested earlier? 11 is an awkward number to arrange. I'd suggest having the two centred on their own row, but that wouldn't play well with the current table format, so left-aligned seems OK. I'm not too picky about which goes with Meta, but the discussion section immediately above offers a decent enough justification. {{Nihiltres|talk|edits|}} 18:10, 5 November 2012 (UTC)
Alternatively we could add Mediawiki to the list. Mediawiki is a pretty important project, in my opinion, and I don't see why we leave it out. --Yair rand (talk) 06:46, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

please add a link to wikidata on this template --TheChampionMan1234 05:15, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

See the template's sandbox for a mocked-up version (obviously NOT ready to copy across). Note that (a) the interwiki links on the images don't appear to work yet, and (b) Wikivoyage's logo hasn't been decided yet. — This, that, and the other (talk) 02:43, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

In the below section it's mentioned that Wikivoyage won't be "formally" launched for a while. Can we add Wikidata to the list with my original suggestion of isolating Meta-Wiki, in the meantime? We can add in Wikivoyage (perhaps with Yair rand's good suggestion of MediaWiki as well, for symmetry) once that's formally live. {{Nihiltres|talk|edits|}} 08:27, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Here is a permalink to my mockup. It preserves the top-to-bottom, left-to-right alphabetical ordering, while taking Meta-Wiki out of the order to highlight its, well, meta status. {{Nihiltres|talk|edits|}} 08:49, 13 November 2012 (UTC)
That would reverse the move of Meta into alphabetic position which was only just over three months ago, see section immediately above. --Redrose64 (talk) 11:22, 13 November 2012 (UTC)
Yes. My reasoning is that if any single project is to be isolated from the others visually, it should be Meta. When Wikivoyage is added later, we can move it back. It's no big deal, I feel. I'd have done it already, but I'd like some degree of consensus before editing something on the Main Page. {{Nihiltres|talk|edits|}} 07:16, 14 November 2012 (UTC)
I also wonder why we use alphabetical ordering. It was discussed briefly above, but it seems like an unnecessary case of pedantry. I really think Wikinews does not deserve its top-centre spot - for goodness' sake, it already has another link on the Main Page (from "in the news"). Really, the three biggest sister projects, Commons, Wiktionary and (which is the third biggest? Wikisource? Wikiquote? Maybe Wikivoyage, once officially launched?) should be across the top.
Or, if you want a different measure, we could sort them by Alexa ranking, which gives an order of Commons+Wikispecies+Meta (these are inseparable with Alexa data), Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity, Wikinews, the not-yet-established Wikivoyage, and Wikidata easily in last place (it's not really a reader-facing site after all!). Common sense would suggest to put Commons first and species/meta last. — This, that, and the other (talk) 09:12, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

{{Edit protected}} Wikidata now has over half a million items and phase 1 is in full working order. I think it is time to add it to the sister projects template. Delsion23 (talk) 17:05, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

Please supply a logo and slogan first. As well, please suggest a location: at the bottom of the first column, at the top of the second, or something else? Nyttend (talk) 13:08, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
Logo, Slogan: "Free knowledge base". Bottom of middle column would make the pattern symmetrical. Along the lines of this. Either that or two rows of 5, but that may be a bit cramped. Thanks very much. Delsion23 (talk) 18:20, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
I still don't think it's a good idea to add it yet. Maybe we should wait until things are a bit more stable. --Yair rand (talk) 18:41, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Description of Commons ambiguous

Please hyphenate "free media". --FrankDev (talk) 06:03, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

Already done by Crisco 1492. — Mr. Stradivarius (have a chat) 10:18, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

Wikivoyage

Please add link and a logo to WV site in the template. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.188.128.45 (talk) 15:05, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

We're not officially launching Wikivoyage until December when bugs are ironed out and there is a new logo, so it would be best if the addition to the template is done then. That may also give time for the Wikidata people to get their wiki sorted out for addition to the template. JamesA >talk 10:58, 8 November 2012 (UTC)
We are looking at Jan 15th, 2013 as the official launch date of Wikivoyage. Wikidata is thinking of officially launching around the same time. Can we add on this date? If no objection I can try to format things properly. Anyway checking with Lydia to make sure this will work for wikidate. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 20:12, 15 December 2012 (UTC)
Have created an example of what it would look like if Wikidata, Wikivoyage, and Mediawiki where added User:Jmh649/Sister sites. Not set on the ordering. They can be adjusted as people see fit. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 22:59, 15 December 2012 (UTC)
We could also use something similar to this [1] Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 01:13, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Option 1

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:

Option 2

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:
Meta Wikimedia Wikivoyage Wiktionary Wikiquote Wikisource Wikibooks Wikiversity Wikinews Wikimedia Commons Wikispecies Wikidata
Meta-Wiki
Coordination
Wikivoyage
Travel guide
Wiktionary
Dictionary
Wikiquote
Quotations
Wikisource
Documents
Wikibooks
Textbooks
Wikiversity
Learning tools
Wikinews
News reports
Commons
Media files
Wikispecies
Species
Wikidata
Structured data


Option 3

Option 4

Discussion

I am happy with either. Wondering what others thoughts are? Not preference on the ordering. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 02:36, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

I hugely prefer the more compact layout of the second one. Pashley (talk) 05:52, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Neither option 1 nor option 2 will work well at lower resolutions. We can maintain the current level of compatibility by simply adding a fourth row to the longstanding layout (as in option 3). —David Levy 06:41, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

I still prefer dropping Meta from the current 3x3 layout and putting WVoy in its place. Meta-Wiki, Wikidata, and MediaWiki are projects for editors, not for readers. Powers T 12:12, 23 December 2012 (UTC)
I like that idea. In fact, I'd have to say that I prefer it over any of the layouts suggested above. —David Levy 16:04, 23 December 2012 (UTC)
Yes, that sounds better to me.···Vanischenu「m/Talk」 12:52, 25 December 2012 (UTC)
Wikidata is about as much for readers as Commons is, I think. --Yair rand (talk) 10:10, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

I think Option 2 would be too small and crowded for many uses. 75.41.109.190 (talk) 01:16, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

I've taken the liberty of adding a 4th option that retains the current-style 3×3 grid for the main content projects (here listed in chronological order by date opened) but adds a smaller-format list of coordination and support type wikis below it. Better? Perhaps? - dcljr (talk) 01:36, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

I think Option 4 is the best one. It highlights the Wikimedia projects for user by readers, but doesn't mask over the editing work that goes on in the background. I would argue that Wikidata will eventually also be for use by users as well as editors, particularly in the generation of customised lists, but we can change that when we get there. Delsion23 (talk) 01:51, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
I agree that we should keep some recognition for all the editing efforts that take place. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 01:55, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
I'm not entirely opposed to the idea, but the layout could use improvement (perhaps better demarcation and some sort of explicit explanation of the distinction).
I don't know whether the chronological order is part of the proposal, but I'll note that I strongly prefer keeping the list alphabetical. —David Levy 09:54, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
Agree lets keep it alphabetical.Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 10:15, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
Option 1 would be my preference, for making best use of space — although switching Meta for Voyage would be equally satisfactory. All these proposals would be made clearer and more scannable by giving the project descriptions a lower visual hierarchy, for example smaller / lighter text as seen in the footer here. — Pretzels Hii! 22:24, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
Option 1 makes the best use of space on your screen (and mine), but it relies on space that's nonexistent at low resolutions. —David Levy 01:32, 28 December 2012 (UTC)
Option 3 would work well at various screen resolutions, and includes all the projects. --Aude (talk) 02:50, 9 January 2013 (UTC)
Agree prefer option 3. We need to use the main page to attract further contributors just a bit. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 15:21, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Add Wikivoyage (edit request)

Please replace the contents of this template with the contents of User:David Levy/Sister projects, per discussion two sections above. Powers T 00:18, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

 Done. Welcome to the family! James F. (talk) 00:53, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Wikidata interwiki link

Please fix the link of Wikidata at the picture. Thanks! --kwan-in (talk) 11:58, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Partly done: Not knowing the correct interwiki shortcut (see Help talk:Interwikimedia links#Wikidata), I've de-linked the picture - the text link works though. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:15, 15 January 2013 (UTC)
I've added the correct link (d:). —David Levy 15:01, 15 January 2013 (UTC)

Wikivoyage is is "free"


Wikivoyage is currently listed as a "Open travel guide", and should be changed to "Free travel guide". Currently it is different compared to all of the other entries, which use "free _____". Additionally, voy:Main Page says "...the free, worldwide travel guide that anyone can edit." Legoktm (talk) 09:41, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks and fixed Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 12:17, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

MediaWiki: Free software development?

The description of MediaWiki is misleading. It's not free software development (as in developing any random, free software); it's free information about a certain wiki software (MediaWiki). Should this be changed to something else? If so, what should the new description be? According to mw:Project:About, "This wiki is for the documentation, discussion and development of the MediaWiki software", but that's obviously way too long to use as is. The Anonymouse (talk | contribs) 18:25, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Looking above at some previous template designs above, "MediaWiki software development" seems like a good description. The Anonymouse (talk | contribs) 18:29, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
But it's redundant, as the link already reads "MediaWiki". How about "Wiki software development"? This also seems more informative, as many people familiar with the meaning of "wiki" don't know what MediaWiki is. —David Levy 18:32, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
That's a good option, and I agree that "MediaWiki software development" is a bit redundant. The Anonymouse (talk | contribs) 18:34, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
I've made the change. —David Levy 04:13, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
Looks good! The Anonymouse (talk | contribs) 04:14, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

New Wikivoyage logo (change for legal reasons)

Please change the template to use File:Wikivoyage-Logo-v3-icon.svg. πr2 (tc) 03:39, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

@Jamesofur and Jalexander: maybe you can do this? πr2 (tc) 03:42, 2 September 2013 (UTC)
Done, thanks! Jalexander--WMF 06:31, 2 September 2013 (UTC)
I've also updated the instances used on this talk page for demo purposes, since they were not demos of the image itself, but demos of proposed arrangements for the various sister projects. --Redrose64 (talk) 09:03, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

Suggestion

This is a suggestion for a different layout for the template the following is the new template.

Commons Commons
Free media repository
MediaWiki MediaWiki
Wiki software development
Meta-Wiki Meta-Wiki
Wikimedia project coordination
Wikibooks Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals
Wikidata Wikidata
Free knowledge base
Wikinews Wikinews
Free-content news
Wikiquote Wikiquote
Collection of quotations
Wikisource Wikisource
Free-content library
Wikispecies Wikispecies
Directory of species
Wikiversity Wikiversity
Free learning materials and activities
Wikivoyage Wikivoyage
Free travel guide
Wiktionary Wiktionary
Dictionary & thesaurus

compared to

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:

Found this style on the Wikivoyage home page. Design credit: Pretzels. - Surfer43 (talk) 02:11, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit protected}} template. This was discussed quite recently, see #Wikivoyage above. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:21, 29 June 2013 (UTC)
I was trying to establish consensus. This has nothing to do with the discussion above, as WikiVoyage is already listed on the main page/template. This was just a proposed style change. Surfer (talk) 20:57, 29 June 2013 (UTC)
Even so, {{edit protected}} should not be used to establish consensus - it should only be used once consensus has been established, or for uncontroversial changes. More at WP:EDITREQ. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:56, 29 June 2013 (UTC)
OK. Surfer (talk) 23:23, 29 June 2013 (UTC)
I like it. However, having four on a line doesn't look very nice on less-wide screens. Perhaps we could do something with CSS queries to make it three to a line on certain screens? --Yair rand (talk) 10:54, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

@Yair rand, Surfer, and Pretzels: (and from the #Wikivoyage thread above) @JamesA, Jmh649, Pashley, David Levy, and LtPowers: @Vanischenu, Dcljr, Delusion23, and Aude: See Talk:Main Page#A more visually appealing sister projects template where this idea has been re-raised. :) –Quiddity (talk) 07:49, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

Support I have a very narrow screen. I think the four on a line looks better. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 17:34, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

Welcome to our new sister project!

Please see the bottom of the following list for our new sister project.

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:

Now all we need to do is to update the template... --Guy Macon (talk) 04:30, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Project order

I notice the final section of the Main Page lists "Wikipedia languages" in order of the number of pages in that project. Have we ever considered including this information with this template on sister projects and also ordering it in this way?

I'm interested if, in principle, there could be support for a move to this? Obviously the details would need to be worked through. I'm not sure where we should put MediaWiki and Meta - given the intended audience (readers rather than editors) can I be bold and suggest they go at the bottom?

I have done a mock up of how the template could look:

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:

Please let me know what you think. AndrewRT(Talk) 22:15, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

I don't see the point in giving those aexact numbers, as they cannot be updated automatically. Even if generalized (ie. 24 million for Commons) they would still need to be updated manually. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 09:22, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 17 February 2015

Display (pipe) Commons to Wikimedia Commons as Meta-Wiki have it.  - T H - the fury of nature given flesh 07:54, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Seems redundant, because all of those sister projects are run by WMF and it says so at the top. In any case there will need to be consensus for this change. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 12:46, 17 February 2015 (UTC)
I agree that that would be redundant and unnecessary. Perhaps if the template included non-WMF wikis or was hosted on a non-WMF wiki, but the current context should make it clear. Additionally, people generally refer to Commons as, well, Commons around Wikipedia, so there's no need to deviate from that. – Philosopher Let us reason together. 21:15, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 1 July 2016

The English Wiktionary's logo has changed to File:WiktionaryEn - DP Derivative.svg (see wikt:Main page; the decision was made here). Please update this template accordingly. Thank you! —Granger (talk · contribs) 01:12, 2 July 2016 (UTC)

 Donexaosflux Talk 01:22, 2 July 2016 (UTC)
Ew... is there a version without the subtitle? -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 08:14, 2 July 2016 (UTC)
eraser Undone temporarely. The logo is too small. I wanted to remove the subtitle, but found the logo autoprotected because of its inclusion here. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 08:27, 2 July 2016 (UTC)
 Done again. That looks much better. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 08:49, 2 July 2016 (UTC)

Tableless layout proposal

The twelve items are rendered as a list rather than a table. Main benefit is that it's one easy step away from a mobile-friendly layout, e.g. Edokter's fluid version, once TemplateStyles are live. Possible minor improvements to accessibility and SEO due to semantics.

In modern browsers and IE8+, the only significant visual change should be that the project title links remain top-aligned. This doesn't affect most desktop widths, but I think improves readability in smaller viewports. IE7 arranges the list in two columns instead of three, and I couldn't think of a fix for it.

Any problems or fixes I should make before requesting an edit? Matt Fitzpatrick (talk) 21:27, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Latest change

@MSGJ:this change has really messed up the display, sorry to say. On my smartphone, the template now displays as one continuous line running off the right side of the screen. What's worse, it reduces the entire page where I had it linked to postage-stamp size, requiring manually resizing the entire page.  JGHowes  talk 21:20, 26 October 2018 (UTC)

@JGHowes: does the /sandbox look better for you? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 21:27, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
Yes, that looks fine!  JGHowes  talk 21:31, 26 October 2018 (UTC)
Okay I have deployed that version. Thanks for your comments. We are also discussing it at Talk:Main Page. Regards — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 22:32, 26 October 2018 (UTC)

Preventing substitution

@MSGJ, Yair rand, Fox, and FR30799386: (from this thread) it looks like Gryllida has been substituting this template in user talk pages like User talk:Cristiano Tomás and about 240 others. unfortunately, this leaves a mess behind including the <templatestyles>...</templatestyles> which per Wikipedia:TemplateStyles, is not what we should be doing. so, it would be good if we could either (a) add unsubst logic to prevent substitution (e.g., see this version), or (b) add ifsubst logic to use inline css when substituted (e.g., see template:smallcaps). Frietjes (talk) 18:41, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

What a shame, that was not intuitive at all. Do you think it should be fixed as I have a list of these user talk pages? I am not sure how to prevent it triggering a 'you have a new talk page message' notification, like whether marking the edit as minor or as a bot would help..
Of the two solutions I'd prefer approach (b) because in my opinion it should show the current version at their talk page even if the template changes. Gryllida (talk) 18:47, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

ERROR

On the fully-protected page Template:Wikipedia's sister projects there is a </tr> that does not have an opening <tr>, and later in the page there is a <tr> that does not have a closing </tr>.

I have posted a corrected version on Template:Wikipedia's sister projects/sandbox.

--Guy Macon (talk) 20:37, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

 On hold checking... — xaosflux Talk 02:47, 6 February 2019 (UTC)
 Donexaosflux Talk 02:52, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

Very bad HTML

Why does this template use a number of <tr>...</tr> elements that (a) are not enclosed by a <table>...</table> element and (b) do not enclose any <th>...</th> or <td>...</td> elements? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:48, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

I have changed this code in the sandbox to remove these tr tags, which were causing Linter errors on the template page and everywhere the template is transcluded. I tested the sandbox version in Wikipedia:TourBusStop, and it looks fine and eliminates the Linter errors. Please move the sandbox code to the live template. Thanks. – Jonesey95 (talk) 08:27, 16 February 2019 (UTC)
 Done — JJMC89(T·C) 08:43, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

Edit request to add protection template

Add /* {{pp-template}} */ to the page. Given that TemplateStyles pages are parsed as Wikitext, there is no reason that protected ones shouldn't display a padlock at the top like other pages. {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 00:08, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

(nine pending edit requests at the same time). {{3x|p}}ery (talk) 00:08, 4 March 2019 (UTC)
 Donexaosflux Talk 19:13, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Fully-protected edit request June 5 2020

The CSS for this template should use flexbox to allow the template to evenly place the items along the width of the screen for screens that can't fix 3 items in a row (for example phones). Browsers that don't support flexbox are still supported sinces there's a backup width of 33%. I set the base width for browsers that support flexbox to 25% since there won't be any gaps since flexbox will remove them, this make it look much better on wide screens. I also changed the description for Wikiversity to "Free learning tools", which is used by Wikisource, Wikiversity, Wikinews, and Wiktionary, as the current one of "Free learning materials and activities" is too long (even now since it takes up over 20em). The changes that need to be made are:

  1. Move the contents of Template:Wikipedia's sister projects/sandbox/styles.css to Template:Wikipedia's sister projects/styles.css, keeping /* {{pp-template}} */
  2. Replace Free learning materials and activities with Free learning tools on Template:Wikipedia's sister projects

BrandonXLF (talk) 05:29, 5 June 2020 (UTC)

Can a sandbox be prepared so we can test it with different browsers? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 16:31, 6 June 2020 (UTC)
MSGJ, Template:Wikipedia's sister projects/sandbox is set up with the changes and the new CSS.BrandonXLF (talk) 18:56, 6 June 2020 (UTC)

There seem to be no issues with the proposed code, so I have  Deployed — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 08:06, 9 June 2020 (UTC)

Tested On

Please list any tests that you have done here, giving details about operating system and browser. --Guy Macon (talk) 05:32, 7 June 2020 (UTC)

Windows

(All of the below are on the latest update of 64-bit Widows 10. All browsers are the latest version unless specified.)

  • Firefox (latest version): No problems.
  • Firefox (version used in Tor browser) No problems.
  • Google Chrome: No problems.
  • Microsoft Edge: No problems.
  • Internet Explorer 11: No problems.
  • Internet Explorer 10 (emulation): No problems.
  • Internet Explorer 9 (emulation): Falls back to current behavior.
  • Internet Explorer 8 (emulation): Falls back to current behavior.
  • Internet Explorer 7 (emulation): One item per row, overflows off page, image is one left, same as current version of the template.
  • Internet Explorer 5 (emulation): Everything is to the left and one item per row, same as current version of the template.

Mobile, other than android

Android

  • Google Chrome (latest): No problems.
  • Microsoft Edge (latest): No problems.
  • Firefox (latest): No problems.

Chrome OS

Linux, BSD, UNIX, etc.

  • Firefox (Debian/WSL2): No problems.
  • Firefox ESR (Debian/WSL2): No problems.
  • Firefox (Ubuntu/WSL2): No problems.

Other

Still using an MS-DOS based browser? Or a Commodore Amiga? list your tests here.

Wikiversity

Please change the Wikiversity tag line from "Free learning tools" to "Free learning resources". See Wiktionary:tool vs. Wiktionary:resource to understand the difference. Tool isn't consistent with the Wikiversity mission. Thanks! -- Dave Braunschweig (talk) 02:53, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

Note: This was changed from "Free learning materials and activities" six weeks ago by User:MSGJ. --Yair rand (talk) 03:15, 22 July 2020 (UTC)
 Done updated to match "resources" from wikiversity:Wikiversity:Main Page, Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources. — xaosflux Talk 13:53, 22 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi, can we use the official Wiktionary logo (Wiktionary-logo.svg) instead of current image (Wiktionary-logo-v2.svg)? --W like wiki good to know 00:36, 4 January 2021 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 12 June 2021

Please remove the outdated comment <!-- |alt= turned off because these icons are essentially decorative and have identical text immediately following. If for some reason the below link should be removed (in any list item), ensure that |alt= matches the intent -->. The comment became outdated after Special:Diff/1027441718. —⁠andrybak (talk) 11:31, 12 June 2021 (UTC)

@Izno: (who made the change quoted). — xaosflux Talk 11:57, 13 June 2021 (UTC)
 Done Izno (talk) 14:12, 13 June 2021 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 28 December 2021

I think we have a workable consensus at Talk:Main_Page#Support_infobox_saying_"Wikipedia_is_written_by_unpaid_volunteers" to make the following change:

Current wording

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:

Proposed new wording (additions in bold)

Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer-run projects:

Please note that several people in the Oppose section – Xaosflux, Seraphimblade and Chess – specifically suggested or expressed agreement with this wording (which is fairly standard anyway). --Andreas JN466 19:46, 28 December 2021 (UTC)

Not yet. I'd like to see a full discussion on the new proposed wording before we go off and edit the Main Page. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 20:00, 28 December 2021 (UTC)
Sure. Where though? Here, a new section on Talk:Main Page, or elsewhere? --Andreas JN466 15:39, 29 December 2021 (UTC)
Probably a new section on Talk:Main Page would be reasonable. Chess (talk) (please use {{reply to|Chess}} on reply) 21:18, 29 December 2021 (UTC)
@Chess: I've started one. Please feel free to tweak the format, add info etc. Best, --Andreas JN466 16:04, 30 December 2021 (UTC)
 Not done (as there is still discussion going on) - feel free to reactivate it when the discussion concludes. — xaosflux Talk 05:42, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Discussion at Talk:Main Page § Proposed wording change for sister projects template

 You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Main Page § Proposed wording change for sister projects template. Tol (talk | contribs) @ 04:35, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

 Done For the record, the template change was made by MSGJ. Stephen 01:45, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
That would be Special:Diff/1066482393. Another for the record: the discussion was archived to Talk:Main Page/Archive 203#Proposed wording change for sister projects template. —⁠andrybak (talk) 13:34, 2 October 2023 (UTC)