Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by JYolkowski (talk | contribs) at 18:33, 2 September 2006 (→Expunging block log entries: don't repeat myself). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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Newcomers to the technical village pump are encouraged to read these guidelines prior to posting here. Questions about MediaWiki in general should be posted at the MediaWiki support desk.

Frequently Asked Questions: (also see Misplaced Pages:Technical FAQ)

• Intermittent database lags can make new articles take some minutes to appear, and cause the watchlist, contributions, and page history/old views sometimes not show the very latest changes. This is an ongoing issue we are working on.
• The search index is often out of date, sometimes taking weeks before it's updated. Because of that, recent changes are not immediately reflected on the search.
• If all the links in the articles suddenly become underlined (or the opposite), or red links instead end with a red question mark (or the opposite), or paragraphs are fully justified instead of left justified (or the opposite), it's probably because your browser failed to load one of the stylesheets (or the server sent you a wrong one). Do a forced reload or bypass your cache.
• If you have problems making your fancy signature work, check Misplaced Pages:How to fix your signature.
• If you changed to another skin and cannot change back, use this link.
• It has been reported that the Google Toolbar extension for the Firefox browser is the source of some strange problems (including blanking part of a page when editing it). If you have that extension, try turning it off or upgrading to a newer version. See bugzilla:5643 for more information.
• If an image thumbnail is not showing, try purging its image description page (if the image is from Wikimedia Commons, you might have to purge there too). If it doesn't work, try again.
• Some adblockers, proxies, or firewalls block URLs containing /ad/ or ending in common executable suffixes. This can cause some images or articles to not appear. Also, it's surprisingly common for people to accidentally block the image server (upload.wikimedia.org) on Firefox.
• If the section edit links are being pushed down by floated images, check Misplaced Pages:How to fix bunched up edit links.
• If you are asked to download a file (index.php) when trying to edit, or your browser launches an image editor when trying to edit, disable "Use external editor" on your preferences.

These discussions will be kept archived for 7 more days. During this period the discussion can be moved to a relevant talk page if appropriate. After 7 days the discussion will be permanently removed.

Trouble Staying Logged In

I'm having an awful time trying to figure out why I can't stay logged in. I thought it had a connection with some software on my computer, and it seemed to be OK yesterday, but now today, I can't stay logged in beyond navigating to another page.

Anyone have any idea

I have made sure to enable cookies

I have the same problem on both my wife's computer and mine

I have the same problem with Mozilla Firefox and IE

I DON'T have the problem at work

I have updated Java and Macromedia Flash

I thought that there was a conflict with Kodak Easyshare software, because disbling it seemed to work yesterday, but it doesn't help today. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.82.9.76 (talk • contribs) 12:24, August 13, 2006 (UTC).

What happend to watermark image id="EnWpMpBook2"?

It dissappeared this weekend systemwide in all wikis. It's used on alternative mainpage designs here, but at ka: it was on the frontpage. Does someone know the reason? Would appreciate. - Alsandro · T · w:ka: Th · T 14:46, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

math symbols & pictures problem

Pix may be blocked - will recheck. Recent problem. I have RH9, Mozilla.

Math symbols in text, sometimes in LaTex etc often are distorted into what looks like random hashmarks or bird scratch. Many formulae can't be read because symbols in Greek, or special math symbols (like Intercept symbol, logical Not-, etc) are dropped. - I can read generic PDFs with same symbols etc.

can't find article

Hi, I uploaded an article this morning, and can't find it when I browse Google or Misplaced Pages search. Is there something I need to do so that the page shows up? --— Preceding unsigned comment added by Annakup (talk • contribs)

It will update eventually, just wait :-). Your article (Families for Families) will most likely be deleted as an advertisement however. —Mets501 (talk) 03:09, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It's been deleted (not by me) —Mets501 (talk) 03:28, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

It looks like it was deleted due to copyright violations. --WhiteDragon 18:59, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Save Page - NOT

The Save Page button is working 1/2 the time or it does NOT work at all. Martial Law 19:18, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

You mean you press "save page" and then the saved page doesn't load sometimes, right? Same thing is happening to me. —Mets501 (talk) 19:22, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

You press SAVE, nothing happens....

You press the SAVE button, either nothing happens, or you get into a edit conflict - w/ YOURSELF, "Operation has Timed Out" signals. Or it freezes. Martial Law 18:33, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Interactive Map

I am sure this question has been asked before but I can't find an answer anywhere. I am working on a series of articles for buildings in a suburb. Each building has its own article. I want to show a map of the suburb (which I have) with each building marked. When a reader clicks on the individual building on the map, it will take them to the Misplaced Pages article for that building. I haven't seen this done anywhere before on Misplaced Pages - any ideas? amitch 05:50, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

You could try it with {{Click}} and use a borderless table to assemble it, but it won't work in all browsers (and images should really just link to the image description page). Alternately you could try {{Image_label}} to insert text links. --Splarka (rant) 07:16, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Ugh. Do we really want an article on every building in a city? User:Zoe|(talk) 16:14, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, this isn't a technical answer, but a stylistic one. You may wish to create the article on the suburb, and then include brief summaries in that article of the buildings that are the most notable. An individual article needs to meet wikipedia's notability guidlines: WP:NOTE. It's unlikely that, say, the building on the corner that used to have a laundromat but now has a falafel joint in it is really a notable building requiring an article, though it may be worth mentioning in a section of the city/suburb's article dealing with economic change in the area. Phidauex 16:28, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

This is for a small number of very notable, historic buildings in the area. Aside from WP:NOTE, I don't think I'd have the time or inclination to do every building! I guess this questions distills down to: is it possible to show a map and depending on where the user clicks, link through to individual articles? There doesn't appear to be a clean solution at this stage. amitch 21:36, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Daanschr/_Maptest <-- an example of {{Image_label}} --Splarka (rant) 07:16, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Template:National parks of the United States map <-- another example base on "Click-Inline" --Donar Reiskoffer 07:49, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Those are pretty neat examples. It's worth noting that click-inline works on Camino, Firefox OS X and Safari while Image Label didn't work on any of the three. —Rob (talk) 11:25, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

User-links alignment broken

Sorry if this has already been discussed elsewhere, but I've been having a weird new display bug since this morning: In IE with monobook skin, the top link bar (the one that contains user page - "my talk" - "my preferences" etc.) is displayed normally as right-aligned, but shifts to left-aligned the moment I hover the mouse over it. (Irritating, if you come to think of it.) It's on all Wikimedia sites apparently. Has some central style sheet been changed recently? Fut.Perf. ☼ 11:24, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Seems to have been fixed now. Thanks to whoever fixed it! Fut.Perf. ☼ 11:52, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

This is a bug in Internet Explorer, and is intermittent. Contact Microsoft for support. --Brion 11:47, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Interesting incident

Special:Contributions/203.134.131.18

My interpretation of the sequence of events here is:

• someone from that IP vandalized a page and left
• someone dropped a warning on the IP talk page (but it is not picked up)
• much later someone starts reading WP from that IP and gets the message.
• unnecessary grief follows.

Is my interpretation of the technical details of the new message process correct? That is, an IP address receives a new message flag even if they are only reading WP from that address, and no matter how old that message is? That's unfortunate, isn't it? 192.75.48.150 19:02, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

AFAIK, your interpretation is correct. --cesarb 19:41, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Anontalkpagetext could be made more noticeable, such as the design I did here. Gerard Foley 20:52, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Creating an account is useless advice here, mind you. This has to do with people who aren't editing at all. 72.137.20.109 03:38, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

They get the notification only if a session has been opened, which happens if they have attempted to edit a page or log in. Otherwise it's disabled for cache-friendliness. --Brion 11:45, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Weird error while trying to access some pages.

For some days I've been getting a weird error while trying to access some pages on Misplaced Pages. It's mostly for the Main Page but I've noticed some other pages have this problem as well. I have uploaded a screenshot of the error here:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/_sleepflower/wikierror.jpg

(It's in Dutch but I trust everyone is familiar with it; it basically asks me if I want to save a file called "Main_Page" that is of unknown format.) I tried to access the Main Page here but all I got was this weird error. This has happened on and off for the last few days, sometimes disappearing and then reappearing again. It seems to be only a problem in IE, as I am using Firefox right now (I couldn't access the technical help page in IE, got the error again) and it works just fine. I use Windows XP with IE 6. Anyone know what this is? 62.163.35.231 10:44, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

In your preferences, under the 'Editing' section, make sure "Use external editor by default" and "Use external diff by default" are off. Prodego 13:41, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Um, I'm not a member of Misplaced Pages so I can't change any preferences. 62.163.35.231 15:54, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, I figured you just were a non-logged in user. When you use I.E., are you sure you aren't logged into an account (possibly without knowing it, if "Remember me" is set)? I can't think of any other way for this to happen, unless Internet Explorer is misconfigured somehow. Try resetting it's defaults as well. Prodego 16:00, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

I am having the same problem too, got IE 6...I tried restoring to defaults and it is still not working, I can't access the main page or some articles...is something wrong with my comp...or wikipedia?

My guess is something with wikipedia and IE. Firefox seems to work just fine. I also did not have an account when trying this. Have logged into multiple machines with multiple versions of IE 6 running and all exhibit this behaviour.

The main page is working for me now...but still some of the articles are still not working for me...I don't have a account either.

I've found that it can work at times, then try the same page again and the Main_Page download prompt occurs again...

The main page isn't working for me once again as aren't some articles...what is odd...the articles not working for me...keeps on changing. This is very werid.

This will have been the Squid 2.6 ETag issue, and fixed as of a few days ago. --Brion 11:44, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Sunscreen affects visibility?

After reverting vandalism on Sunscreen, I added to the offending user's talk page:

{{subst:test3-n|Sunscreen}} ~~~~

The preview looked okay, except Sunscreen was redlinked. Assuming I fat fingered it, did the copy and paste again. It was still red linked and there was no obvious problem with spelling—and it didn't seem to be a day when a word like the defied correct spelling.

A while later the red vexed me, calling for more investigation. Clicking the redlink edits a new article named Sunscreen %E2 %80 %8E (spaces added for clarity). Those codes all seem displayable, though checking UTF-8 references, I got more confused: they could be gamma, cedilla, A umlaut. Or they could be circumflex a, control, single shift 2.

1. What are those characters?
2. Which interpretation of the codes is the right one?
3. How did they get there? (I think my methods are vanilla.)

—EncMstr 18:33, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

E2 80 8E is a single unicode codepoint in UTF-8: the "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK". How it got in there, I don't know. If you edit the talk page, you can actually delete the non-printing character and fix it. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 18:41, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Unicode character directionality indicators are displayed in watchlist pages and I'm not sure how many other contexts (MediaWiki now supports bi-directional text interfaces). If you copy the text I think you may or may not pick up the directionality indicator (which is invisible, so it's a little hard to tell if you've picked it up or not). Unexpected redlinks likely have this character at the end. I can make these go away (in Safari) by cursoring to the end of the link, making sure to be on the first closing "]" and backspacing from there. This may be worth writing a Bug report about. -- Rick Block (talk) 19:02, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

See the above section #Problems_with_images. Copy/pasting text in a wiki is often a game of chance. This may be yet another worthy of the FAQ (I've seen 3 or 4 in the last month or so). --Splarka (rant) 07:08, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

no user id listed at the end of my posts

Why is it that whenever I post something to Misplaced Pages it dosen't show my user id at the end like it does for other people. I don't know if this is called the signature or not on this system or if I haven't set it up correctly or what the deal is. Any assistance anyone out there can provide me with would be most appreciated.

e-mail removed to prevent spam —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Rockerrb (talk • contribs) 2006-08-23 19:39:07 (UTC).

I'm not going to email you. You have to sign your posts with either 3 or 4 tildes (~~~ or ~~~~). The latter is preferred since it also adds a timstamp. — Frecklefoot | Talk 19:43, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps you're thinking posts should be signed automagically? That would be great for talk pages, but seriously annoying clutter for articles. —EncMstr 20:39, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, the problem is (whihc might be a good thing) is that WIkipedia handles edits of talk pages in exactly the same way as articles. This is why your messages aren't signed automatically. Jeltz talk 22:57, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

LiquidThreads will fix this, IIRC. Titoxd 07:25, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Multiple refs not working

In the Duke Nukem Forever page, I just tried to add three refs pointing to already existing refs - but only one of them works (#22). The other two (#18 and #19) don't show up at all, instead becoming empty refs down at #23 and #24. THis puzzles me and I am wondering where I messed up. Hbdragon88 03:40, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

The original reference (to both) has a missing "=" (the syntax is <ref name=xxx>). The subsequent reference looks fine in both cases. -- Rick Block (talk) 04:11, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I fixed the problem. Hbdragon88 07:08, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Severe browser compatibility issue introduced... Cannot report with Bugzilla!

Since the Bugzilla page requires registration that includes an e-mail address, I am unable to use it to submit this bug report: The Links 2.1pre4 web browser can no longer view English Misplaced Pages content as of August 23, 2006 (and possibly up to a month before that). Any attempt to load a Misplaced Pages page results in much garbage being displayed, instead of readable text. A lot of the garbage shown in the display consists mostly of asterisks (*) and periods (.) with a few alphanumeric characters and punctuation marks.

Spanish, German, and Netherlands Misplaced Pages are still readable, and all languages are readable in Mozilla and Lynx.

72.49.64.171 08:28, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

This was most likely a temporary problem with the Squid 2.6 upgrade, due to a change in treatment of ETags. If so, this should have been resolved a couple days ago. --Brion 11:39, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Downloading sounds

Hi, I think the whole idea of Misplaced Pages is amazing and it has been the main source of my education for a while now. However,There's just one small complaint, I can never download your sound examples! What file type are they? Is there software I can download for this? Am I doing something wrong? Are they not Wav. files? And if not, why not? Please let me know as I am a composer/sound engineer who would benefit greatly from your examples of sine waves and ring modulation etc.

Will be looking forward to a reply

Sonny Collins

See Misplaced Pages:Media help —Mets501 (talk) 15:07, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Disappearing PNG images while using Firefox/Windows

Is anyone else noticing PNG images disappearing and reappearing in Misplaced Pages while using Mozilla Firefox for Windows? Is this a browser issue or a Misplaced Pages issue? (Sorry if this has been brought up before) Stevie is the man! 15:54, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

More info: The PNG image in question has a transparent background and is being used on the WikiProject Louisville page as well as project templates. Stevie is the man! 20:24, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

template cite news

This is an edit request for protected template:cite news. See template talk:cite news#Moving cats and interwikis to doc subpage. I would like to have the new doc page pattern completed there. See also Misplaced Pages:Template limits. --Ligulem 16:16, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Done by CesarB. Thanks! --Ligulem 22:30, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Nuvola-inspired File Icons and Edit Bar for MediaWiki

I have created new File Type icons and Edit Bar icons for MediaWiki. Take a look at commons:Category:Nuvola-inspired File Icons for MediaWiki and commons:Category:Nuvola-inspired Edit Bar for MediaWiki

• These are a lot better, in my opinion, then those that ship with MediaWiki.
• They are of a unified theme, unlike the current MediaWiki icons.
• Some contain copyrighted icons, like Word and Excel icons. I believe they can be used to illustrate files created by those programs. If that is incorrect, I have also included alternate icons without those restrictions.
• I have also included some generic icons for file extensions I have not thought of, should they be of help, just copy them out of the generic folder and into the icons directory and rename them "fileicon-extension.png".
• These icon set is intended for use in the largest possible situations. For instance, if have included .doc images because many companies need them on their wikis, even though they are banned on Misplaced Pages.
• I would be thrilled if they were chosen to be included in future version of the MediaWiki software, and I give the MediaWiki Foundation full rights (where I have the rights to give) to do so.
• I don't have SVG versions, because I don't know how to use SVG software. Should someone have the skills and the Nuvola SVG icons, they are welcome to create more.
• To install on your own wiki, download the zip file from my website , and extract the icons in your /skins/common/images/icons directory, overwritting the old ones.
• To view them all on your wiki, you must make a little change in "/includes/ImagePage.php" Open it up in your text editior and hit Ctrl+F. Type in there "$this->img->isSafeFile()" Hit Find. Replace this string with the text "1==1" Don't forget you need to make these changes again, if you upgrade MediaWiki.
  • One little note about this. Icons were disable for "not safe files", but I don't know why. Displaying a file icon seems to be perfectly safe. Can a developer tell me why icons are hidden for non-safe files? Thanks.
• If anyone has changes or ideas, just drop me a line, w:User_talk:Michael180

What do you think? --michael180 18:19, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

I quite like them. To be used on MediaWiki I'm sure that they have to all be fully open-source etc., but I don't really know about the whole system. —Daniel (‽) 21:51, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

I looked at all the edit bar icons for a short amount of time and wrote down what came to my mind when I saw them. Here's what I got: Bold (correct), Web link (correct), Heading (correct, but it looks a bit like "hi"), Picture (correct, but it's not very obvious), Italic (correct), Article link (correct), Calculator (wrong, I wasn't sure on that), Sound (correct), Strike out (wrong, it's actually "nowiki"), Signature (correct). I like the icons, and they would be even better if a couple of them were made a bit more obvious. Icey 22:11, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I made some alternate edit bars icons in response to User:Icey. The H1 could be just H, or we could change the codes to get H2, H3, etc. What do you think. The trademakred file icons (Word, Excel) could be removed, if they are not allowed. There are alerrnates already included. --michael180 17:22, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Number of edits

On RfA there is usually mention of the number of edits often by type. How do I find out my stats, please? BlueValour 22:08, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

See the links at Misplaced Pages:Edit count. --cesarb 22:43, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Or rather see the links at Misplaced Pages:WikiProject edit counters#Projects. I suggest using either Essjay's or Lupin's on enwiki. --Interiot 06:38, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Add to search

How long does it take for a new article to make it into the search feature. I search for the title of my article and it does not show up — Preceding unsigned comment added by Involved (talk • contribs) 01:08, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't think there should be any delay. To what article do you refer? I don't see any new page-creations in your contribs list. ~ Booya 06:17, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

There is a delay of several days, perhaps longer. MECU≈talk 12:42, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

See the second FAQ at the top of this page. --cesarb 22:26, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Multi-line redirects: confirmation required from developers

• Context - Until recently, redirect pages were storing only the very first line and deleting everything else. Recently, redirect pages have been storing more than the first line.
• Question - Is this a permanent feature than can be documented, and officially used by editors?
• Complement - Some have started using this feature for adding information to redirect pages without having to pile everything on the first line (category tags, redirect templates, meta-information in HTML comments, etc.). A new change in MediaWiki, going back to the old single-line behavior, would erase all pages using the useful but currently undocumented feature. We thus need to know if it's officially implemented, or if it's a glitch that we shouldn't use.

-- 62.147.112.177 10:00, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Er, is there no developer on this board? Should it be posted somewhere else? Zero answer seems weird for such a straightforward yes/no question. 62.147.38.54 13:29, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I was also waiting for an answer on this one because of the discussion at Misplaced Pages talk:Redirect. What I could find is bugzilla:1476, comment #19, which seems to imply that this is a permanent change. (Liberatore, 2006). 15:00, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

That's a great link! It provides us with an external, authoritative source about the status of both issues. I've added it to the talk page so as to keep it. Meanwhile:

I went to #wikimedia-tech and got a partial answer from Brion, then a complete answer from Tim Starling, the short story being:

• Categories in redirects are officially OK
• Multi-line redirects are officially OK
• BUT templates in redirects, such as the "R templates", are not OK for performance reasons, and may be broken in the future.

The first two points are good, but the third one will be a problem for the current documentation at Misplaced Pages:Redirect and all the Misplaced Pages:Template messages/Redirect pages

The long story and IRC logs at

Wikipedia_talk:Redirect#Content_of_redirects:_templates.2C_categories.2C_multiple_lines.

-- 62.147.38.54 17:24, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

OT: Dear 62.147.38.54 (62.147.38.54, 62.147.112.177), may I ask you (two, three?) to create a login so you will have an own talk page. You seem be doing nice work here, so why make it so complicated ;-) --Ligulem 17:48, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Diff edits

When in a diff page, the edit buttons next to a subject heading dissapears. Has anyone else been having this problem? I am using Linux KDE with Firefox 1.5.0.4. Thanks --liquidGhoul 10:45, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Section edit links only appear when you are looking at the newest version. So when viewing a diff, the newest version must be on the right side. As I understand it, section editing is implemented by merging the changes for the edited section into the newest version. Merging into an older version is not supported. So this behaviour is as expected. The section structure of a page may change significantly over revisions, so the section numbering (which is used for section editing - see the url when clicking on a section edit) might be totally incompatible. --Ligulem 11:06, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

It's certainly technically possible... It's probably not implemented because, well, how often do you need to revert only one section of someone's change? --Interiot 11:22, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Woops. I was pressing diff on the waychlist, but it was a very active page and a new edit must have occured between. Thanks --liquidGhoul 11:45, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Wikimedia.org server problems

In the past hour or so, http://svn.wikimedia.org (m:MediaWiki_extensions) has been down. I've looked at some of the status sites, but it's hard to interpret the results on them. Anyone know of the best place to go to check on the most up-to-date mediawiki and wikimedia server status? --J. J. 17:45, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

The best place to check the up-to-date status is the IRC channels. --cesarb 22:16, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

There was an odd outage which coincided with Brion being absent for the weekend. Long resolved, now. 86.134.92.120 05:01, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, I found out on the tech IRC channel. It's amazing how many people were online and willing to respond to my questions there! I meant to respond here earlier to tell Cesar thanks. --J. J. 13:59, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Joining two accounts

By error I have registered twice ton Misplaced Pages - after some time of inactivity I couldn't log in so I have registered anew. Now I have found that I have some contribution to both accounts and also some to my IP before I have logged in for the first time. Is it possible to join the three into one account without losing any information? noychoH 19:56, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

No, unfortunatly accounts can not be merged together. Prodego 20:42, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

You could, however, REDIRECT one User page to the other and explain what happened. User:Zoe|(talk) 03:16, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

The redirection shall not allow to see the contents of your talk and personal page : copy them first to the account you wish to keep. -- DLL 18:50, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Link

How do I link to other wikimedia wikis?--Mac Lover _C 20:40, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Well it depends what wiki you want to link to and why you want to link. Can you be more specific please? Prodego 20:41, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

For a different language wikipedia use ], so to link to "Star Trek" on the spanish wikipedia use ]. The link will appear on the sidebar. If you don't want the link to appear on the sidebar put a colon in frount as in ]. For a different project try the project name i.e. ]. 213.94.234.66 21:24, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

See InterWiki for a general description, and ask here again if you need further help.-gadfium 01:53, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

See also meta:Interwiki_map for a list of possible interwiki link prefixes (you can also link to non-wikimedia sites, actually). (Liberatore, 2006). 22:29, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Semi Protection

On wikipedia to edit a semiprotected page a user must have a 4-day old account, but on my wiki (MediaWiki 1.6) a user only needs the account no mater how old it is. What is the cause of the difference? 213.94.234.66 21:24, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I think a better place for that is at mw:Project:Support desk. —Mets501 (talk) 03:31, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Quick answer; the autoconfirmed group isn't switched on by default; set $wgAutoConfirmAge = 86400 * 4; in LocalSettings.php to do this. 86.134.92.120 05:00, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Fonts in SVG

Could someone tell me what fonts are supported for SVGs? Or more specifically, if I was to upload an SVG with DejaVu Sans (as a referenced font, not embedded) could MediaWiki render it correctly? I want to upload SVG renderings of a number of Unicode characters not in most fonts, which are currently GIF and I need to know if I can use DejaVu Sans as text or will I have to convert it to standard SVG paths (easy, but larger size than if it was text) - _хот 15:00, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Ok I've established by myself, that it can't. But how can font support be added to MediaWiki, especially since DejaVu Sans supports such a wide range of charachters and is free (libre free). - _хот 15:22, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

File a feature request at bugzilla. A server admin should see it soon enough and do something about it. If not, consider contacting one directly (via their talk page, e-mail or IRC). —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 16:30, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Menu creation

How to create a menu on an article in wikipedia that can be expanded dynamically with a plus sign? One example is to create a detailed menu of a book, so that it will not take much space. If some one can give me a code and instructions to implement, it'll be great. Thanks in advance. TruthSpreader 15:40, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

See Template:Dynamic navigation box. Does it help ? -- DLL 18:47, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Script?

Lately, a few times a day, when I'm accessing Misplaced Pages, my Firefox browser pops up a message about a script that can't run & gives me the choice of stopping it. Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here? (If you do, could you possibly answer here and ping me on my user talk page to let me know to come look? Thanks in advance.) - Jmabel | Talk 18:57, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Doing what? Accessing what? Viewing what pages, performing what actions, etc? Full text of error or warning messages that appear? Name of the script? More information is needed. 86.134.92.120 04:59, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Splitting a wikitable

I want to split the table at Huddersfield Town F.C.#Managers over three columns with the headings at the top of each. 'How to', please? BlueValour 21:24, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Do you mean something like this?

Regards, Lynbarn 21:45, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks for this. Just a supplementary; is it possible for a small amount of white background space (as opposed to a blank column) be inserted between each pair of columns, please? BlueValour 22:42, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

How's this?

The amount of white space depends on your browser page width, so it may not be quite what you wanted.-gadfium 00:07, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I'll have a go with that, thanks. BlueValour 00:19, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Editing discographies

I just changed the name of the upcoming Modest Mouse album to We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, however, I can't figure out how to change it in the box at the bottom of all the MM pages. Can someone help me out here? The "the" is clearly lowercase, so the discography box on the MM pages should reflect that. Evan Reyes 03:16, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

This box is a template, see Template:ModestMouse. When you edit an aritlce, all the templates used in the article are listed at the very bottom of the edit page. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:32, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I've fixed it, but my post here to say so and explain clashed with Rick Block's explanation above.-gadfium 03:33, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Storm may affect Misplaced Pages servers.

Is Misplaced Pages servers in Florida prepared for this thing ? IF it hits where they currently think it'll hit, the storm may take down Misplaced Pages. Ready for a Hurricane ? Martial Law 05:43, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi. You must be new. Let me introduce you to 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. In particular, Hurricane Charley. Wikimedia is located in the Tampa area, and they were more than prepared for what happened back then; this storm is not too likely to hit Tampa, but either way, yes, they have plans and know what they're doing. --Golbez 06:03, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

In fact, they did cut power to downtown Tampa during Charley, and the WP servers ran off a generator. --Golbez 06:11, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I was raised as a military brat USAF and US ARMY, w/ some family in classified govt. agencies. In the military, you learn to be prepared, or you end up dead due to enemy action, bad weather, disease. Martial Law 07:01, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

this storm is not too likely to hit Tampa As of 11AM EST Sunday, Tampa is right in the center of the projected track. -anon

Latest track data show it may hit Tampa head on. Hope I'm incorrect. Martial Law 02:16, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

There are contingencies established at various levels to handle this sort of thing. 86.134.92.120 04:58, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

How can I remove the border around an image?

I have searched and searched and cannot find the answer. I don't want a border around my image. JadedHeart 09:08, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Don't use thumb or frame.

	]
	]
	]

Also see Help:Images and other uploaded files. --Interiot 09:18, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I wasn't using either thumb or frame, and the smilies you posted also have a border around them. I don't want the box to show, I think it probably has something to do with the fact that it is a hyperlink, cuz it was purple and after I clicked on it, it was blue. So I guess my question should have been, "How do I make hyperlinks not be framed?"JadedHeart 18:33, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Are you using the skin "MySkin"? That skin always adds the blue/purple border around images. If that's the issue, then switching to another one (eg. MonoBook) will make the images framed as I described. --Interiot 06:43, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Print an article

Hi everyone, I want to print an article in Misplaced Pages. So I copy it in Microsoft word, but the wiki style will be lost! How can I transfer the info in wiki to Microsoft word if I don't want to change the style? (Like picture place and math formulas, etc)--MehranVB 14:31, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

The easiest way to print an article is to click "Printable version" in the toolbox when reading an article, and then just print that page. —Mets501 (talk) 14:34, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I know this, but I want to edit the article in Microsoft word. --MehranVB 14:39, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Which version of Word? —Mets501 (talk) 14:48, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Microsoft Word 2003 (I have XP one too) --MehranVB 16:11, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

In the article you can click on 'edit', copy the page source to word, edit it, then copy the new version to a wiki edit window in your browser, click on 'show preview' and print that... S Sepp 16:46, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Not receiving confirmation e-mails

Help, Mr. Wizard!

No matter how many times I click that button to send a confirmation e-mail to my address, I never receive a single one. They're not even spam-blocked; they just don't come. It's been 12 hours since my first try, and even that one hasn't arrived. I don't use a free address (e.g., hotmail, gmail, etc.), it's a standard e-mail address. I have no idea what's going on here...--TServo2049 17:23, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

If you're relating to your WP account : tick the appropriate in your preferences tag "Enable e-mail from other users". -- DLL 19:18, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

That preference has nothing to do with email address confirmation. 86.134.92.120 04:57, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Template:European mathematicians

The Template:European mathematicians has some serious issues. Could some kind person please try to fix it? You can see what is doing to all affected categories by taking a look at Category:German mathematicians. Thanks! - GilliamJF 19:24, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Can I find a editor's IP?

Is there a way to determine an editor's IP? For example, I would be interested in knowing the IP that the brand-new User:Olmeque used for his/her first posts. Curiously yours, Madman 20:48, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

If you have a compelling reason to do so, you can ask at Misplaced Pages:Requests for CheckUser. However, such information is not given away lightly, so just wanting to know an IP of an editor won't get you anywhere, as that data is protected by our Privacy policy. Titoxd 20:54, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

It's certainly not worth suspending the Privacy policy, no. Thanks for your time, Madman 02:59, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Workarounds for browser problems displaying tables and Thumbed images.

• Undoubtedly these are known bugs, but I am interested in workarounds to achieve the resulting format in both Firefox and IE. My versions are the latest as of this date: Firefox for Windows, 1.5.0.6. -Mak Thorpe 23:28, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

This line should be below table 2. Under Firefox and Konqueror it will display beneath Table 1. Using Safari, it appears beneath Table 1 not overlaid on the image. Under IE, it will appear to the right of the second table.
—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mak Thorpe (talk • contribs) .

I took the liberty of adding Konqueror behaviour to this section.-Mr Adequate 04:47, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps what you're looking for is this? My guess is it will display consistently across all browsers.

Table 3. Using Safari, the image displays normally with the table adjacent (on the left). aaaaaaa bbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbb ccccccccccc dddddddddddddddd eeeeeeeeeeeee ffffffffffff gggggggggggg hhhhhhhhhhh iiiiiiiiiii jjjjjjjj kkkkkk lllllllllll mmmmmmmmm nnnnnnnnnn ooooooooo pppppppp qqqqqqqqq rrrrrrrrrr sssssssssss tttttttttt uuuuuuuuuuuuu vvvvvvvvvvvvvv wwwwwwwwwww xxxxxxxxxxx yyyyyyyy zzzzzzzz

with some text following the table. Using Safari, this text is below the end of the image, creating a visual gap following the table. -- Rick Block (talk) 13:54, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

• Hey- I wish it were that easy. Does your solution answer the issue? Nope. Not at all. The goal is that the table be able to utilize 100% of the screen space without regard to whatever thumbed images may or may not have appeared before. Surely there is some way to tell the renderer- Kill all previous states- clean slate. User wants 100% of the width of the client subwindow reserved for articles. I don't care how ugly it is- I just need it to work on all major browsers. -Mak Thorpe 15:42, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Then, you mean like the following? -- Rick Block (talk) 17:34, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Text sort of goes along for a while, but now we want a full width table.

And, here's some text following the table.

There are worse cases. See SpyAxe. Try changing the window width; some widths look good, and for some, images overlap text. Sometimes, even the "edit" text button overlaps other text. Now that's a clear CSS bug. Remember HTML "tables", when nothing ever overlapped? --John Nagle 18:28, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Rick. br clear all looks like it kills the float state that was confusing Firefox or IE. Hopefully others will confirm this solution (Table 4) works just fine on Safari and Konqueror. Regards, -Mak Thorpe 23:55, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

In Konqueror, Table 3 appears with normal wrap not overlapping the image but beside it. Table 4 appears below the image.-Mr Adequate 01:49, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm almost 100% certain <br clear=all/> works for all browsers (it works for Safari as well as the others previously listed). I would have suggested this originally, but didn't understand what you were attempting to do. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:52, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Tables of contents have disappeared

Using Firefox, the TOCs on all Misplaced Pages pages are gone. (I still see them using IE.) As nobody else has complained, it is probably just me, and could be something I have inadvertently done with the browser settings, but I have absolutely no idea what that could be. Any ideas? Tupsharru 06:35, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

See FAQ question #3 above, and see if force-reloading a page fixes it? --Interiot 06:49, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

It did, thanks a lot! (Duh! I should have thought of that.) Tupsharru 06:56, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Commons protection

An idea which is floated from time to time on WT:DYK is to apply for adminship on commons, as often images from Commons need to appear on the Misplaced Pages front page, and the current process is to save the image from commons, reupload it, protect it, and then delete it once it has gone from the front page. Adminship on Commons would save a lot of time as it removes the need to reupload the image. However, if an image is protected on Commons, does it automatically get protected on all other projects, or could I potentially upload another image to Misplaced Pages under the same name, thus circumventing the protection? smurrayinchester 07:03, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Commons has historically rejected giving adminship to people on other projects unless they are also active contributors on Commons, and yes, your fear is correct, someone could just upload a local image to circumvent protection on Commons. Dragons flight 07:07, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

MediaWiki Software Like one on Misplaced Pages.org

I installed mediawiki software on my server and it works well. There is only one thing missing. Not every template is included. How do I install additional features so that the mediawiki software that I have installed becomes exactly like the one which is running wikipedia.org

Are there additional plugins, etc available which have to be installed.

For example, the following tags <ref></ref> are not parsed and look like tags only. The method that I have used is to iimport xml dumps using importdump.php and then browse the pages .

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.163.2.66 (talk • contribs) 13:25, August 28 2006 (UTC)

Install the extensions listed at Special:Version (Cite, ParserFunctions). --Ligulem 14:03, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Doubled references?

I was editing the article on High Technology High School, and I added a new reference. When I previewed the page, everything seemed right, but when I saved the page, the references were doubled. What I mean by this was that there are six references, but reference one became reference 7, reference two became 8, and so on. Has anyone encountered this before, or will it fix itself?

--BadgerOfDarkness 19:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Seems fine here. Six references, numbered 1-6. --TheParanoidOne 19:28, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm having a similar problem after editing Millsaps College to add a reference. I've checked twice, and there is only one set of <ref></ref> tags in the article; still, the reference is numbered as 2, and there are two identical references in the References section. Am I missing something subtle in the article body? PS Yes, I forced a reload from the server just to double-check. :-) --Tkynerd 19:54, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Silly, silly me. I assumed my problem at List of misnamed theorems was too bizarre to have been reported before, but obviously not. Sorry for the duplicated question below. ---CH 03:00, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

And few more sightings of this interesting phenomena: Iž and Prvić. Seems like references which more than one occurence get their indexes doubled, and those with only one occurence get doubled... strange... --Dijxtra 15:00, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

See below: Misplaced Pages:Village pump (technical)#Solution to problems with footnotes and references. Errabee 15:08, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Miniclip ref numbers duplicated

Something has gone wrong with the reference numbers at Miniclip. The references are duplicated and the first inline reference numbers is 8. No obvious cause. --John Nagle 19:38, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Looks like the same problem reported below with several other articles. Presumably someone broke the cite code temporarily. It seems to be fixed now. --John Nagle 02:50, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I confirm the problem still exists as of 14:00 August 29 (UTC). It can be fixed temporarily with a WP:PURGE, but comes back if the article is edited. I first noticed the issue August 28 at 19:20 (UTC) when it was reported at WP:FN. Gimmetrow 14:09, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Hyperlink issues after logging in

Every time I log in using Monobook skin, all hyperlinks appear underlined. It's fixable by clearing my browser cache, but in doing so I lose the download time benefits of having the pages cached. (Note: I use Internet Explorer). C. M. Harris 19:38, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

There's a less drastic way: do a forced reload on a single page (like this one). It will download again only that single page, and the CSS files (which is what you want to reload). I believe even a normal reload is enough, which should not download again the images and global CSS/JS. --cesarb 19:49, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Having trouble with an article I just created

The article is called Parchman. For some reason the footnote citations show up twice when I save the aricle. However, upon preview there are the correct number which is three.

Something is doubling the footnote citations and I can't figure out what. Help would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure it is something simple that I'm just not seeing! Mattisse(talk) 21:18, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, now suddenly it is fixed, and all I did was add stub. Don't understand. Mattisse(talk) 21:23, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Now suddenly, the footnote citations are doubled again -- six instead of the three in the article. And all I did was add an internal link. Could it be Wiki? Mattisse(talk) 22:39, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Having trouble with an article I just edited: similar to previous post

This problem is similar to that just reported by Mattisse. I'm adding information with cites to Myopia, but I just noted that a number of cites are doubled or appear multiple times in the References section. I can't figure out what I may have done wrong. Thanks! -AED 21:31, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

In my case it either cured itself (mysteriously} or was fixed when I added a stub at the bottom. Maybe it is some sort of Wiki glitch. Now mine is fine. Try adding the {{stub}} at bottom. Mattisse(talk) 22:11, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestion. I tired it but it didn't work. -AED 22:20, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm having a similar problem with an article I'm building in my sandbox. Adding a stub tag didn't work for me, either. Zagalejo 22:21, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

The very first citation in Myopia is labeled "43". For what it's worth, I found that removing the "References" section changes it to "1"... obviously there are no footnotes then. -AED 22:25, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I added a mere internal link, and now the problem is back again. And that just doesn't make sense. I wonder if I should take the internal link out or revert. Very strange. Mattisse(talk) 22:42, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I reverted to version that was O.K. before and the footnote citations remain doubled. I think it must be Wiki, although I don't understand how. Mattisse(talk) 22:51, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I did a null edit (save the page without changing anything) and it broke again. So might have nothing to do with your edits. --Ligulem 22:59, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

That's what I'm thinking since there is no rhyme or reason to it. Mattisse(talk) 01:21, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Back Page

When I use this computer that I'm on currently, and I use the Back Page function to go to the Recent Changes page, instead of giving me the page as it looked at the time that I was last there, it gives me a refereshed page. Any ideas on why? This doesn't happen on my PC at home. I'm using IE 7 here and IE 6 at home, could that be the reason? User:Zoe|(talk) 22:14, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Browser settings? In IE (6), it's Tools > Internet Options > General Tab > Temporary internet Files, Settings... then choose when you want it to check for newer versions. —Bunchofgrapes (talk) 22:43, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

That's it. It was set to check for new versions automatically. Thanks. User:Zoe|(talk) 22:48, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Strange situation with footnotes

I have an odd situation with footnotes on the United States Marine Corps article. The very first such link (1a in the references) doesn't go anywhere. Moreover, the links to the article and current version show different numbers of footnotes.

I have a feeling it's a malformed footnote somewhere, but are there any clues to where it might be?--Mmx1 23:10, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Having added a closequote to the name="something" field, the # of refs is back to 52. However, the first 2 backreferences (links from the footnotes back into the body of the article) are still broken. --Mmx1 23:19, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Further update: See User:Mmx1/Sandbox2. References are duplicated for some reason. Must be a bug in the cite code. I see the identical bug when logged in via firefox and as anon via IE.--Mmx1 23:38, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't know what's causing it, but purging () fixes it. --NE2 23:52, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Um, every time the page is edited, it destroys the order of the links. It didn't do that before, and you can see what it is doing to Hurricane Katrina. Can a site admin revert any change that happened to cite.php lately? Titoxd 02:50, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Can you describe this destruction in more detail? For instance, is it a doubling of each footnote? --Brion 10:38, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

There are two different phenomena. In one form, the entire list of footnotes is doubled. If there are supposed to be 10 foonotes, there will be 20 (numbered 1-20), with the first footnote in the text starting at number 11. In the other form, every footnote has doubled letters in the reference section, both and , as if a named template were being re-used. Gimmetrow 10:45, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

For an example of the first form, see Conservative Judaism#Footnotes (until someone clears it). Gimmetrow 11:17, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm having the same problem (see above #51) and also the person who wrote the note below mine {#52). So far we have received no help. Mattisse(talk) 12:20, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

We know how to fix it short-term. I'm leaving that one un-fixed so others know what we're talking about. Gimmetrow 12:30, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

There should be a more pernament and long-term solution than purging individual pages. The sheer number of questions asking the same questions (including me) is amazing. —Jared Hunt August 29, 2006, 14:28 (UTC)

The problem only seems to happen for me if I edit an individual section and rearrange the order of footnotes within or add a new one. If I edit from the top of the page things stay in order. In either case, after reloading a minute or two later, the problem seems to resolve itself. It might simply be an issue of the cache being confused. Perhaps it registers only a part of the article updating instead of the entire thing. I'm not a technical expert, but that's my best guess. Ryu Kaze 00:17, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Some articles have been recached. However, I'm the last edit on one article over 12 hours old, and the issue is still present. It also appears after most edits on most articles using cite.php. Gimmetrow 00:23, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Hm. Do you know if anyone's been having the issue whether they edit from the top of the page or just an individual section? Like I said, it's not happened for me at all when editing from the top. Ryu Kaze 00:52, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I haven't done a detailed study, but I usually edit the entire page at once rather than by section. (Editing by section seems to introduce extra line breaks at the end of the section, sometimes.) I still see the problem regularly. Gimmetrow 00:56, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I guess that answers my question. Thanks. I guess it just must be random. Ryu Kaze 02:04, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

phtml

If you go to the page http://en.wikipedia.org/phtml it redirects to Main Page (and uses real http codes to redirect), but if you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/Phtml it uses the wiki-redirect system to go to PHP.

If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/search/?title=phtml it wiki-reidrects to PHP and so does ?title=Phtml.

If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.phtml it http-redirects to main page.

So i'm guessing it thinks /phtml is equivelant to /wiki.phtml .

Is there any reason why it thinks a slash is a dot?

GeorgeMoney (talk) 23:35, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Knowing the usual syntax for regexps, and knowing that that redirect is from mod_rewrite (which uses regexps), I'd say someone wrote . (matches any character) when they meant \. (matches a literal dot). Report it on bugzilla (product Wikimedia, component General/Unknown), and a developer will fix it later when they have time. --cesarb 18:35, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Exactly it. Fixed, thanks! --Brion 11:23, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Template:IPUser

Exists now, just thought I'd let you know. Happy editing--{anon iso − 8859 − 1janitor} 23:54, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Need help in coding, probably

Due to a second instance of vandalism in my archives by users who cannot edit my user talk page (it was sprotected after it had been vandalized multiple times by IPs of banned users) I had decided to create a subpage that I have transcluded into my user talk page. However, I do not want level two headers nor do I want sections by established users to be superceded by possibly vandalous edits by malicious vandals. Is there a way to either

1. Make it so the unprotected section forces level 3 headers for each section? or
2. Make it so the unprotected section is always at the bottom of my page, and new sections via the new section tab are placed before it?

--Ryūlóng 01:29, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and I do not feel that unprotection is necessary at this moment in time. Ryūlóng 01:30, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

No. --cesarb 18:35, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Mysterious problem involving footnotes and citation templates

I tried to make a little List of misnamed theorems, but something went terribly wrong and I can't figure out how to fix the problem. For some mysterious reason, all the arrows pointing to the place where a footnote occurs are doubled in the reference section. Only the second of each pair appears to be functional. Please fix it if you can! ---CH 02:57, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

After a WP:PURGE of the page, is it still there? Gimmetrow 02:59, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Purge the cache. Something is wrong, but that appears to fix the issue, at least temporarily. Here's a screenshot of what's going on (click on the image and zoom in at the top references). Titoxd 03:02, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

It seems to come and go. Reloading the page was one of the first things I tried, and it didn't seem to help. To my surprise, just after making the above query, reloading the page did seem to resolve the problem, but this definitely didn't seem to help earlier today. I am still baffled, but the fact that so many are experiencing problems suggests that something in the code might have been broken by a modification earlier today. ---CH 03:09, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I didn't just mean purge the cache. I added ?action=purge to the URL and reloaded. You probably saw the version after I did that. Gimmetrow 03:11, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

• ?action=purge has just worked for a similar problem I had. I've never encountered it before, has something changed today? Espresso Addict 04:01, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
• I'm thinking there may be something wrong on Misplaced Pages's end because this is the first time I've encountered this problem, and others as well. Any guesses? —Jared Hunt August 29, 2006, 13:53 (UTC)

I'm not sure if there's any connection, but I noticed that today I could not reproduce a certain error that has always "worked" in the past, namely leaving out the slash in a closing </ref> tag. When it "works" this error captures all or at least a good chunk of the following text, up to the next header, assuming that it's still reading the reference. However, when I tried it today cutting out the slash produced just the same results as normal in the preview, and when I returned, having cancelled the edit, my footnotes were as described here. -- Antaeus Feldspar 15:50, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I had the same problem. I'm going to try the purge thing.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back 16:16, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that worked.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back 16:18, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

This question is very quickly becoming the MFAQ of the day. Is any permanent solution at hand? -- Lost 16:23, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

The permanent solution is to invalidate every page in the cache (which may be happening, job queue seems fairly large at 420k and growing), and make sure the software invalidates a page with every save. Gimmetrow 16:35, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I have filed bugzilla:7166, related to this issue. Dragons flight 18:29, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

But apperently someone beat me, see also bugzilla:7162. Dragons flight 18:29, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Note that it appears on pages that do not use the references comment, such as Gliding and Choe Manri. (Do you need a separate registration for bugzilla?) Gimmetrow 18:38, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I have added a colored box to the top of this page to direct people towards the temporary solution (and to avoid even more sections talking about the same problem). --cesarb 18:50, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I found this while editing a page. Looking at it from another browser, all was OK. Rich Farmbrough 08:44 30 August 2006 (GMT).

Whatlinkshere strangeness

I recently checked the "What links here" for the article Arsenal F.C. (e.g. ) and found it now contains a lot of articles pertaining to Italian municipalities (e.g. Camporgiano), a seemingly unrelated topic. I assumed it was something to do with the navigation templates they use (Template:Province of Lucca) but I can't find any link to Arsenal F.C. within the template, nor anywhere else in the article. Checking the "Related changes" link for Camporgiano produces a list of mostly unrelated articles (Arab League, Guadeloupe, MSN), none of which are seemingly linked to in the page. Can anyone shed a light as to why? Qwghlm 09:14, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah. Strange stuff. I haven't tracked down anything yet. For example I'm also utterly puzzled why editing Pope Pius I says it transcludes Template:Comic book reference =:-P. Need having a closer look on templates to make sure nobody vandalized any template. --Ligulem 09:59, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I fixed a html tag error on Pope Pius I. But now we have the doubled footnotes problem there (as reported on this page already, scroll up)... --Ligulem 10:06, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Could be a database problem. Edit a page and a number of non-present templates are listed, but once the page is saved the template connections seem to get fixed. (Then a purge to fix the foonotes... ;) Gimmetrow 10:36, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

After checking a few articles, I wonder if the template problem is a consequence of the recent WoW vandalism. Various templates were moved around. Gimmetrow 11:26, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

The Special:Statistics page shows that the job queue is currently huge, and all cached data and stuff done through templates is probably a couple of hours out of date. Kusma (討論) 11:52, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

50,000 entries on job queue is nothing dramatic. --Ligulem 11:55, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

The job queue is now over 400,000. Could it be that every page on WP is being invalidated and recached? Gimmetrow 16:31, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Just for the records: Job queue length is now on 890,180. I would say this *is* huge now. Never seen it that high before. --Ligulem 22:02, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if the two are related, but Whatlinkshere for images was patched very recently, which will require rebuilding the link table for all images. However, I don't know if those are being farmed onto the jobs queue. Dragons flight 01:24, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I came here to report the same problem, whatlinkshere for PC Gamer reports thousands of links from articles which don't link to it. What's up? - Hahnchen 02:14, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I was just about the report the same strangeness for Louisville, Kentucky. I usually check Louisville redirects to determine whether they were meant to go to University of Louisville. This current problem is hindering that check. Stevie is the man! 02:33, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Haven't found anything in common between various pages. Simple pages seem OK. Pages for various animals seem OK (these have a taxobox infobox). Minor league baseball teams seem OK (images and simple infobox). Costa Rica thinks that Saturn and Ashford, Kent link to it; all three of these are somewhat complex and use several images, templates and infoboxes (but different infoboxes). You don't suppose the Template whose name is an exclamation point is having its name used in a context which makes it be interpreted as a program or SQL "bang" symbol? (SEWilco 05:55, 30 August 2006 (UTC))

Notice #Problem with operation of category pages below says a category is including articles which do not have the category. Categories and Whatlinkshere may both be using indexes of some type. Without looking at the code, I wouldn't be surprised if the job queue is a DB index of some type. Something wrong with the first two type of indexes might affect the job queue, or perhaps all three things are entangled in some sort of index problem. I'm painting with a broad brush, but all this will undoubtedly get looked at shortly by someone with more detailed awareness of the system. (SEWilco 06:08, 30 August 2006 (UTC))

Two possibilies: Someone found an unprotected meta template and screwed with it, or the tables are actually screwed up. Of interest to PC Gamer-related issues, {{Ann_anime}} is somehow transcluded now or at some point in the recent past to hundreds of pages for an unknown reason. Kevin_b_er 08:02, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Footnotes error?

I was just reading Misplaced Pages:Help_desk#Footnotes_at_Opus_Dei and thought that it was a problem on that end, solved easily by deleting cache etc. But after I editted Every Song Is A Cry For Love, the same error occured to me. The problem is gone and it's does not matter for me much, but I'm wondering if there's a bigger problem at Misplaced Pages's end. —Jared Hunt August 29, 2006, 13:28 (UTC)

Read this section above. Gimmetrow 13:37, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Solution to problems with footnotes and references

Putting this in its own section because tons of people seem to be having this problem right now.

Adding ?action=purge to the URL of the page you are having problems with (load the page, then in the address bar, add ?action=purge to the end of the URL and press Enter) seems to fix the problem with doubled footnotes and references that don't work, at least for some people. It worked for me with the Millsaps College article I edited yesterday. I'm not sure this is a permanent fix for the article itself; it may just fix your browser, but I guess it's worth trying.

Credit goes to User:Gimmetrow in the "Mysterious problem involving footnotes and citation templates" above. --Tkynerd 13:44, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I think User:NE2 mentioned it earlier, here. Gimmetrow 13:49, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

It has been noted in Misplaced Pages talk:Footnotes. (SEWilco 14:38, 29 August 2006 (UTC))

It is not browser specific. I tried it on two computers. It may be User or Page specific. Morphh 18:00, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

As I've been adding a lot of references lately to an article, I've also come across this problem. And I noticed something interesting, thay may hint at the cause of the problem. Editing a section creates a different result than editing the entire page. The footnotes or references start with those that are placed in that section or below, and then the entire article is scanned again, which results in only some footnotes or references being doubled. If you edit the entire page, it essentially does the same, resulting in a complete doubling. Errabee 14:44, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

It just happened to me with the initial version of Gay rights in South Korea. Plain editing did not work, purging did. Cleduc 04:56, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

This is a good fix, but still very annoying. The doubling effect has happened on three articles I have edited references for -- starting yesterday. --MattWright (talk) 17:43, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I have tried the purge fix on Taxicabs of the United States but its getting worse - can anyone fix this article, please? TerriersFan 18:23, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

It seems fine: 4 refmarks, 4 notes. Gimmetrow 18:28, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I have edited some other sections and it has fixed itself. Weird. Thanks for looking, though. TerriersFan 18:41, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Has anyone put in a bug report to mediawiki? -- Stbalbach 04:00, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

A bug report has been filed. 86.134.92.120 04:54, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

There is a red notice box presently at the top of this page. For the benefit of archival readers I'll mention bugzilla:7162. (SEWilco 04:58, 30 August 2006 (UTC))

Bot access funniness

I've recently reactivated the rambot and in the process of testing it I made these changes. This is not normally a problem, except every time I make a successful change, I get a "403: Forbidden" response code. This despite the fact that the edit happens anyway. I have no idea why and would like to know if anyone else is aware of this particular problem. — Ram-Man 15:39, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I can't speculate about why it allows you to edit and then gives you a 403, but I know Misplaced Pages 403's a variety of user agent strings that look like bots it doesn't like. Given the venerable age of Rambot, it might have been contructed before those restrictions were put in place. Dragons flight 01:18, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

That seems likely. It was totally restricting me when I had no user agent specified, so when I made one up, this was the result. I could spoof another bot's user agent string, but I'd rather get this one to be used, since it is unique and would be easier to block in the event of problems. Interestingly, getting a 403 is more efficient in terms of bandwidth than receiving a success with the new page included. I'm pretty sure I don't get a 403 on any other errors. Nevertheless, for all I know this could be a bug in the user-agent filtering. UPDATE: Strike that. I changed my user agent to spoof that of the pywikipediabot, with the same result. Apparently a 403 success :). — Ram-Man 12:01, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I think I may know what the problem is. Because the rambot predates current bot policy, and it has been running approved for years (besides being inactive for the past ~1.5 year period) without any regard to the forming/changing policy that has affected new bots. I've never been listed on Misplaced Pages:Bots/Approval log, so my guess is that the software is filtering out any account with the bot flag that are not on the approval log, or something similar to this. I'm unfamiliar with the "recent" technical limitations, but I think the rambot was the first bot with the bot flag, so any newer approval changes might not have been applied. This bug may be limited to the rambot only if that is the case, since any other new bot would have the flag AND be approved. — Ram-Man 12:21, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

It's listed as a bot in Special:Listusers, so there's nothing on the MediaWiki side of the equation. AFAIK, there's no "approved bot" flag in the database, and there's no interface to do so. Check the bot's IP, if you're running it from a different computer. Is it blocked? Are you trying to access a URL in Misplaced Pages's root folder or something similar? Titoxd 16:56, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm to understand there's blocks on various useragents in the squid proxy cache servers to prevent poorly coded bots from running amok. Perhaps a developer would know what user agent you could specify to avoid the 403. Kevin_b_er 19:55, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I suspected that it had nothing to do with "approval" and as for the user agent stuff, I spoofed the user agent to match the ever popular pywikipediabot, so it should have been none the wiser. And I'm editing from the same IP address and the addresses used in the bots seem like they should also work using a web browser. I don't know what the difference is. — Ram-Man 20:03, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Try something completely unique, and ideally put contact information (a URL, or even a wikilink would work) as part of the User-Agent string, and try it again... if it doesn't, then you are requesting a link, after page save, that is blocked by Apache (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/.htaccess). Titoxd 20:40, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

The user-agent string that I'm using *is* unique, since I just invented it to make it work at all. And the "request" is a page submit, which returns 403. If I view or edit the page (i.e. with "&action=edit") it works fine and I get a standard 200. When I view the SAME link with "&action=submit", that's when I get the 403. The only difference (besides the POST data being sent) is "edit" vs. "submit". -- RM 21:24, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Animated GIF too big for thumb?

I uploaded this Image:Hurricane Katrina LA landfall radar.gif (6MB animated gif) file to Commons earlier. However, MediaWiki fails to produce a thumbnail (like to the right), making the image useless. Is there a hard limit on the max size to animated gifs for thumbs?--Nilfanion (talk) 19:44, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

fixed, any ideas what happened?--Nilfanion ([[User

talk:Nilfanion|talk]]) 22:05, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

There's a limit on time and memory usage for image thumbnailing. If thumbnailing the image comes close to the limit, then some servers may be able to scrape under it while others fail. I wouldn't recommend using animated GIF as a storage format for large videos, Theora is probably better. Some day we might even have support for embedding it in wiki pages. You could generate a small animated GIF thumbnail offline, for temporary use in articles. -- Tim Starling 11:27, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, thats just what the producing program outputs in ...--Nilfanion (talk) 12:23, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Expunging block log entries

Anyone know offhand if there's already a BugZilla bug about the idea of expunging bogus entries from the block log? I looked, but didn't see anything that fit. This came up in this thread: User_talk:Lar#Carnildo an offshoot of Misplaced Pages:Requests for adminship/Carnildo 3 Thanks! ++Lar: t/c 21:50, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I oppose. Two things can be done in cases like this. First, the user can save the links to the discussions (talk pages, ArbCom, WP:ANI) where the community agrees that a block is improper. Second, a respected admin can add an unblock to the log with an explanatory summary, so anyone viewing the log is notified of the situation. NoSeptember 13:02, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

In certain cases, I think, pointing to history and so forth, and even a cancelling unblock, are insufficient to properly expunge a record. Specifically, in Giano's case (whatever I may think of his general civility of late) I feel he has been unfairly labeled with having committed "hate speech". In another case, we have an admin that blocked a user for one second "because they said they had a clean block log". In another case, we have an admin who blocked a user ACCIDENTALLY and labeled it with the warning he meant for the troll he was trying to block. The block log is very significant and very permanent. I do not think that expunging should be done lightly, or by just one person acting alone, but there ought to be a way to get rid of entries that clearly should not be there in the first place. I'd like to see this more widely discussed but I am not sure where exactly. I note that I have been told by several old hands that there HAVE been cases of block entries being expunged in the past, but that it took direct developer intervention and was potentially error prone, and not easy to carry out. This new interface would make it easier but I do not advocate that it have wide availability. ++Lar: t/c 14:24, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Unlike oversight removal of edit summaries with personal information, improper block log entries will remain very rare. We would desysop an admin who deliberately added personal info to a log, for example. An interface would seem a very low priority, and its existance would encourage increased use of the option. Mistakes can be explained away as I mentioned above, it doesn't really besmudge one's record if the record shows that the block summary was in error. As for increasing discussion, you can link to this thread from WP:ANI. NoSeptember 14:39, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree with NoSeptember, particularily because if there is something truly egregious, then a developer can remove it, and if there's an interface, we'll go in a slippery slope, removing entries that really aren't that objectionable. (and for the record, I could benefit from this, just look at my block log...) Titoxd 17:00, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

There is already, I believe, a facility to really delete an edit, available to a subset of admins (arbitrators and a few others). I think the facility Lar proposes might be useful, and would support it if it doesn't involve too much work. And, for the record, the case which prompted Lar's enquiry did of course result in a desysopping - but the block record remains. --kingboyk 18:36, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

In an extreme case like this, where someone has been seriously defamed in a way that could cause real-life harm in easily-imaginable scenarios, I think there should be a way of getting an item out of a block log. I don't think it should be easy or routinely available, and nor do I think that the wrong suffered by Giano gives him a free pass forever to be as uncivil as he likes to whoever he likes, but I DO think he has been seriously wronged and that Misplaced Pages should find a way to do something about it. And it should do likewise in any other rare and extreme case. Metamagician3000 09:03, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that this is a good idea, but should only be available to users with the oversight permission. (As it happens, this consists mostly of current and former ArbCom members, and also includes two developers, three bureaucrats, and Jimbo Wales). Oversighting blocks should probably only be done on ArbCom decision, however. --ais523 12:02, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Totally support the idea of improper blocks being expunged from block logs. Particularly ones with false and defamatory block summaries. (→Netscott) 12:56, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Not knowing this thread existed, I posted a very similar idea on WP:AN#Forgiveness_on_Wikipedia.

I think there is a problem with NoSeptember's objection in that the way the web works does not guarantee that people will always go to a user's page to check whether he's left a note of some previous block being unjust, or the block comment inaccurate. Worse, you could have some users who are very active on contentious topics and get hit by several unjust blocks. Explaining all that is going to make for dreary reading. Much better to purge the record in good faith. It's always good to be aware that what's created on Misplaced Pages may always be taken outside of Misplaced Pages. And I can't remember a time that the defeatist position turned out to be the right one with respect to Misplaced Pages conduct. - Samsara (talk • contribs) 13:56, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I tend to agree, I think that it would be nice to have a (restricted) ability to purge log entries. People digging for stuff are probably going to look at the block log first, and having to maintain stuff on your user page explaining in detail why a certain block was unjust is probably not the best way to counter that. I'd like to see this for all log entries as well. This functionality might also help when some malcontent, frustrated by his edits that violate libel/privacy/copyright/obscenity/etc. laws being removed by oversight, starts putting this junk in the titles of articles, in usernames, etc. JYolkowski // talk 20:34, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree with this proposal, administrators make mistakes and there needs to be a form of oversight to these logs. I just gave myself this while trying to put an end to a bunch of socks doing this . DVD+ R/W 06:51, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree also. Although purely accidental blocks are often easy to discern (such as the block I accidentally gave DVD R W a few moments ago :(), those accusing the blockee of hate speech and other horrendous acts leave a black smear across a user's record, harming their reputation. - Tangotango 07:33, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps it would be acceptable to restrict it only to oversighted users, as they're were granted that permission to deal with these kinds of things. Titoxd 07:42, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree that oversight is probably the correct level of authority for this privilege. JYolkowski // talk 18:31, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Problem with operation of category pages

A problem has appeared with the operation of category pages. Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs contains entries for articles that are not in the category. Alan Pascoe 22:23, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Might this be related to the above #Whatlinkshere strangeness? Are we having problems with indexes? (SEWilco 06:02, 30 August 2006 (UTC))

I edited one of these articles, which believed it contained the template, and the spurious entry disappeared. Rich Farmbrough 08:40 30 August 2006 (GMT).

bugzilla:7162 was fixed, and the problem apparently was stuff from recent edits being added to edited articles. So the recent flurry of ISBN-related edits was probably seeding this bug with ISBN category tags, which were then added to other articles. (SEWilco 15:45, 30 August 2006 (UTC))

Foreign language external links

I notice that these are frequently added to articles such as here but they do not display. What do they do, please? TerriersFan 22:40, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

You'll find them in the left column (outside the main article block). Under the "navigation", "search" and "toolbox blocks", there will be another block called "in other languages". Canadiana 22:47, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Jan Smuts's youth - Footnotes problem

I'm trying to edit the above article, but I am running into a problem with footnotes. In ordinary circumstances this page should have 21 footnotes - but as you will see on the page, these 21 have increased to 42. For some reason the first 21 are listed as per usual, then the list is repeated for 22 through to 42. Furthermore, the footnotes in the text now start from number 22, rather than number 1. Can anyone shed any light on the problem?

Xdamr 23:29, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Just noticed the solution above - purging the page has done the trick.

Xdamr 23:34, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this appears to be a common problem at the moment - it happened to me last night. Daniel.Bryant 09:21, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Footnotes problem fixed

Since there's five million duplicate threads above, I won't respond in any of them individually.

The problem should now be fixed; use action=purge on any remaining affected pages or just edit them again. --Brion 11:15, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

See bugzilla:7162 (status: fixed). Thanks. --Ligulem 11:19, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

What about the spurious entries on category pages and What links here pages? As suggested elsewhere, editing an article causes it to disappear from listings it does not belong to, but it could be years before the listings are correct again. Alan Pascoe 13:54, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Are those from editing of templates? Wait for the templates to clear, or edit the pages. --Brion 15:23, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Odd results from What links here

What is Compost doing in the "What links here" results for "Tiberian Hebrew"? There are other entries in that list that probably don't belong there either. Is there something inaccurate about "What links here"? --Hoziron 12:26, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't get compost in that list. Try purging your cache on that page: Mozilla/Safari: hold down Shift while clicking Reload (or press Ctrl-Shift-R), IE: press Ctrl-F5, Opera/Konqueror: press F5. —Mets501 (talk) 13:21, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

That's because compost was just edited. If you edit any page, the links and categories for that article are updated and returned to normal. Gimmetrow 13:25, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I would like the ability to see which pages used to be linked to a page. Also, to see which pages used to be included in a category. Some sort of history page to track these things would be useful at times. NoSeptember 14:07, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree, category history and category watching (so the Category shows up on your watchlist when a page is added to it) would be a great thing. —Mets501 (talk) 14:08, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Technical inability for sysops to unblock themselves

Since it is already discouraged for sysops to unblock themselves, this inability should be "codified" in the MediaWiki software, in order to prevent intentional and unintentional abuse. Perhaps only bureaucrats and stewards should be allowed to unblock any sysop.Peter O. (Talk) 14:00, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

There are good reasons to be able to unblock oneself, technical reasons. As long as we are willing to desysop admins who improperly use this ability (on a case by case basis, due to mitigating factors), there is no real need to codify it. NoSeptember 14:05, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Sometimes it is necessary for a sysop to unblock themself, such as if they are autoblocked due to someone else's vandalism. —Mets501 (talk) 14:09, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Try being behind AOL and not be able to unblock yourself. Titoxd 17:01, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

text color

How do you add custom text color? 206.176.119.180 18:26, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Like this:

<span style="color: COLOR;">TEXT</span>

replacing COLOR with the color of your choice (either in English or the hexadecimal code) and TEXT should be the text you want to change the color of. —Mets501 (talk) 18:37, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

However, please avoid doing this as it will break the consistent nature of articles on the site. In addition, forcing text to be a specific colour harms accessibility. 86.134.92.120 19:30, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Basically, colored text is good for signatures, user pages, portals, and a few other things. Other than that, though, it should not be used. —Mets501 (talk) 19:48, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

...and some might argue against even many of those. Certainly signatures that look like angry fruit salad can be distracting and annoying. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 16:14, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Battle of Saratoga

Can someone fix the wikiness of this article? The first three "edit" links are groups halfway down the third section in the middle of a paragraph -- Kendrick7 20:43, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Fixed. See Misplaced Pages:How to fix bunched up edit links for a detailed explanation on how to fix it in the future. --cesarb 21:36, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Interwiki linking

Is there a page about interwiki linking/external linking and how it should be, especially in regards to wikia and how Smallville_(Season_1)#Pilot links to this. - Peregrinefisher 20:56, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

These pages might be useful to you: Misplaced Pages:Interwikimedia_link, Misplaced Pages:Interlanguage_links, meta:Help:Interwiki_linking, meta:Interwiki_map, list of prefixes. Icey 21:12, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I guess I mean what are the rules about what's appropriate, not what' the syntax. - Peregrinefisher 22:53, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

That's a question for Misplaced Pages:Village pump (policy), not (technical), actually. Misplaced Pages:External links might give you some directions. (Liberatore, 2006). 15:38, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Userpage Work

Hi, I'm a small time user and I wanted to add some spice to my userpage. I really don't think I have enough content on my page or enough experience here that it is worth someone who is good at this to overhaul my userpage (like Sango, Master of Puppets or Phaedriel), but I thought of adding a border, some new font color (I just found out how to do that by reading above), or some show/hide stuff. Is there a place I can visit or do I just have to stare at the complicated formatting on a well done page and try to figure it out? --Clyde Miller 21:00, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Most effects are done using CSS, which you can research elsewhere in the web; for instance, for a black 1 pixel border, surround the content by <div style="border: 1px solid black"> and </div>. To hide a section, you have to use magic classes parsed by a magic code at MediaWiki:Monobook.js; see {{hidden}} to see how it's done (you can use {{hidden}} directly if it fits your needs). --cesarb 21:26, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks I'll look into that. I'm not really sure what I want to do yet, but this really helps. --Clyde Miller 02:54, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Or you can do what everyone else does; find a page you like and copy the layout :). —Daniel (‽) 20:00, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah I've seen people do that. I'm not sure, but I'll consider it. --Clyde Miller 20:13, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Trying to put user contributions on watchlist

Hi, I was trying to find a way to be notified when known repeated spammers contributed, so that I could check their edits. I know there is some kind of complicated (for me!) workaround with CSS and enhanced recent changes. I asked at the help desk, and was told:

Make a subpage that lists such users and use the related changes feature to see what changes they make. - Mgm|(talk) 11:16, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

which was an adequate (if not ideal) workaround in theory.

I am having a little trouble getting it to work though. I've set up a page at User:Postglock/UserWatchlist, but when I click "Related Changes" from the toolbox, I can only get some edits to appear, although there are edits made after then. I'm not sure if others see the same thing, but (for example) no contributions from the first link Special:Contributions/203.129.192.23 appear on related changes. Thanks in advance. -postglock 07:46, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't think related changes works with Special: pages. One could potentially write a quite script to output this query in a more user-friendly format... It could be done in javascript or elsewhere, not necessarily on the toolserver. --Interiot 16:26, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

That's a pretty interesting solution, but unfortunately I lack the skills to write any kind of script to deal with that... It does appear that some of the Special:Contributions pages are picked up by related changes, it just doesn't appear to be complete. (You might need to extend the date range for the example above.) -postglock 06:57, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

I can't up load an image

I try to upload a small jpeg and get the error:

"." not valid file format

any ideas? hza 12:38, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Maybe name's wrong. Is your computer configured to see known file extensions? If not, configure so, and, if file name ends in ".", ".jpeg" or other strange extension, change it to ".jpg". If it hasn't extension, add ".jpg"

—Nethac DIU, always would speak here—
15:40, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

How to use Block log?

Someone put a sign on my page saying: It is suspected that this user may be a sock puppet, meat puppet or impersonator of Shravak. Then it says go to block log for evidence. How do I use block log to find out the evidence against me? Dattat 16:45, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Go to your contributions page (from the links at the top) and there will be some links under the title. One of them will take you to your block log. —Daniel (‽) 17:02, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, I don't get it. I am supposed to enter something in there in the middle box? I aready removed the sockpuppet thing because the directions said that if there was no evidence entered on the red link, I could. That's correct, isn't it? Dattat 17:14, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

You did not answer me and now 999 has put it back. I am going to take it away because where is the evidence? There is nothing at the block log page. Dattat 19:39, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Here's the evidence. Icey 19:46, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

But I made one edit to that page. Why am I being lumped in with someone else? 999 has already received warnings from Netsnipe and Dan which he erased from his talk page when Netsnipe specifically told him not to do any more erasing or change of his comments. Dattat 19:55, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

It looks like 999 has misunderstood the methods of determining sock puppets and then reacted offensively to the consequences. So relax, if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about. Icey 12:20, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Delay on Search function seems to just get longer

Having made enquiries at Misplaced Pages:Searching about the long lag for the search index (the answer seems to be that the search index is updated whenever someone can get around to it, and as the Search function is not considered a priority, this is quite infrequently), I'm wondering at what point the Search function becomes so out of date that it's considered an urgent problem. From my own experience it currently seems to be over three months since it was last updated (question: is this for the Misplaced Pages as a whole, or is the search index more up to date for some articles than others?), which is more like several months than the "weeks" mentioned in your FAQ at the top. Is there a way we can petition those who can update the search index to somehow set a regular timetable to do this (in principle, the oftener the better, but I recognise they are busy with a great many things, so perhaps weekly or fortnightly at least is practicable)? Thylacoleo 01:47, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

You can ask, but that won't actually help. I just need to sit aside for a few hours without being asked to do other things and get it fixed up. --Brion 08:51, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough. I suppose I'm just hopeful that the necessary-but-not-always-urgent job of updating the search index could somehow be squeezed into the regular schedule of jobs amidst all the important-and-urgent ones that demand attention. I fear that it has a tendency to fall by the wayside until it too becomes urgent (as perhaps is the case now). I appreciate that updating the search index is a dull, onerous, time-consuming and thankless task. I can't do anything about the first three, but I can with respect to the last one: thank you! Thylacoleo 01:25, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

talk/contribs links in signature

Please explain how I can set up my user name to include the talk/contribs links when I use four tildas to sign a message. I probably wouldn't want to do this every time - is there a way of toggling it on/off (five tildas, perhaps?) I find these quick links incredibly useful. Many thanks, Lynbarn 07:49, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

The short answer is no. You can change your sig but you can only have one at a time. I'll tell you how to do this and show you a workaround.

Go to Preferences and put any text you like in the Signatures box, including links to your talk or contribs. It's a small box but will hold plenty of text anyway. Please, out of respect for other editors, don't get too cute. Images and templates are forbidden; colors and weird characters are usually ugly and make you look silly, not cool. Check the box Raw signature; this removes your default sig, which is just a link to your user page. Insert your new sig plus timestamp anywhere with four tildes.

Five tildes inserts only the timestamp. You can make this work in your favor. Create a subpage within your own userspace (e.g, User:Foo/sig1). Put your sig there and from that point on, sign your talk page posts like this:

{{subst:User:Foo/sig1}}~~~~~

Obviously, you can create a sig2, sig3, sig4 page. But please note well that all your sigs should include, at a minimum, your username and a link to either your user page or your talk page. It's probably unwise to avoid overelaborate sigs in general and avoid using widely different sigs from page to page.

There's a generic template you might consider, {{user}}. To show you how it works, I'll sign this post with it. Good luck! John_Reid (talk • contribs) 03:00, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

my contribs aren't being recorded!

for some reason, many -- most -- of my contributions aren't listed on my 'my contributions' page. does anyone know why an edit wouldn't show up there? thanks, --Il hamster 08:04, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Could you point to some examples? A common reason might be that you made edits while logged out. --Brion 08:51, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Another common reason is that the contribution was to an article which was subsequently deleted. --cesarb 15:38, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Unicode font selection

(moved from Misplaced Pages Help Desk) Hello. I have several Unicode fonts installed on my computer, for use with various typefaces in some graphics work I do. (For example, there is a Unicode font resembling Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, etc.) Anyway, when IPA characters in a Misplaced Pages article appear, they are in one of the very light fonts I have installed, and are difficult to read. Is there any way of telling Misplaced Pages which Unicode font I want displayed, or does it always default to something? Thank you. — Michael J 08:53, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes. If the IPA is properly tagged, you can edit your user CSS (user/monobook.css if you are using Monobook; for other skins, see the list at WP:CLASS) and add the following:

.IPA { font-family: "Bitstream Vera Sans" }

replacing "Bitstream Vera Sans" by the name of the font you want to use. As for the default, if you are using IE, it defaults to a fixed list of fonts; if you are using anything else, it uses your browser's default (all browsers but IE are able to get characters from other fonts if they do not exist in the current font). --cesarb 15:36, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Edit toolbar buttons won’t load (except )

I’ve been unable to edit any wiki page from one particular computer running IE6 and XP sp2. Logged in, logged out or cleared cache, has no effect. This problem is roughly 1 month old, it all worked fine before, and I can’t remember to have changed anything significant on that installation for a long time.

The problem

Reading pages goes okay. Edit window will load till it hits the toolbar buttons, it will load the Redirect button (), but non of the others (it’s trying to load it from …/skins-1.5/…etc. but will never happen). From that moment on that particular IE window is locked. Other IE windows will ‘http 404’ on all wiki sites, but not on anything else. Closing IE has no effect; I have to reboot to be able to read any wiki content again.

The closest bugzilla report I could find is Bug 5324: No edit toolbar and related/duplicate reports, but I’m running IE6 on XP, not mac/safari. Anyway, I haven’t been able to solve it. Has anybody a suggestion where I should look to solve the problem? Thanks. --Van helsing 14:43, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

The button is being added via MediaWiki:Monobook.js (the section under /* add a redirect button to the edit page toolbar */. Odd that that would work as an onload, but that javascript in the page wouldn't. I can suggest a few things to try, maybe, to narrow down the problem. Try these to see which stop the lockup:

1. Try disabling javascript, this should obviously work (but maybe not?).

2. Try going to the edit window of a user style page, these don't load the toolbar: User:Van helsing/monobook.js. Also try going to the view-source of a protected page, eg MediaWiki:Monobook.js (if you aren't sysop).

3. Try disabling the addbutton function temporarily. Put into User:Van helsing/monobook.js and then clear your cache:

function addButton() {
   // do nothing
};

4. Try other Wikis for the problem:

A. Wiktionary

B. Wikia

C. Uncyclopedia

Report results here (anyone else have any ideas?), this will help narrow down the cause. --Splarka (rant) 07:32, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Any documentation on the various #if functions?

Hi folks, I'm trying to play around with the #if, #ifeq, and other commands. Is there any published documentation on how to use these things? I've been going at it blind, but I'd like to go at it with a better idea of the syntax. Thanks, Deathphoenix ʕ 17:44, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

See m:ParserFunctions. --Interiot 17:53, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

See also Category:Templates using ParserFunctions for practical examples of usage. -Mak 19:07, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Wonderful. Thanks, guys. --Deathphoenix ʕ 19:37, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Template:Hidden - Auto Show/Hide

The show/hide box produced with {{Hidden}} automatically remain open unless there is more then one of those, when all of the boxes remain closed. These is no way to set individually if the boxes should be open or closed by default. I think that editors should be able to control each box individuality if the boxes should default open or closed. It would be nice if a coder would be able to build this feature. It could be controlled by adding "|default=hidden" to the template syntax or writing something in the actual code. I am not too good with JavaScript, so I don't know what will work. If someone can build this feature it would be nice. See the discussion at Template_talk:Hidden#Default_to_show

The boxes are powered from the base javascript and are affected somewhat from MediaWiki:Monobook.css This feature premiered at de:Misplaced Pages:Navigationsleisten --michael180 00:21, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

This feature doesn't work at all in my browser (Mozilla 1.2.1 and please don't ask why). Please don't use it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by John Reid (talk • contribs) 02:39, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I coded up a replacement for the createNavigationBarToggleButton function at MediaWiki:Monobook.js which allows one to specify if the box should be open or closed by default. It can be found at if you want to check the code. Once it's added to Monobook.js (replacing the function already there), using NavFrameDefaultHide instead of NavFrame will force the box to be hidden by default, and using NavFrameDefaultShow instead of NavFrame will force the box to be shown by default. I intend to add the code to Monobook.js in a few days if nobody complains. --cesarb 16:59, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Show as a tree / Show as a list in Catgegories

When did this come about? Any additional info available? older ≠ wiser 01:30, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Do you like it? Duesentrieb volunteered to make an announcement, since he did most of the work. He announced it on commons, de and the category tree page, saying that he wasn't active on en. I've now followed that up with a post to wikitech-l, which is hopefully a more visible forum for Wikimedians generally. Here is the archive of my post: . -- Tim Starling 05:12, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Haven't had a chance to play with it very much yet, but my initial impression is that it will be very useful. older ≠ wiser 12:09, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

It could be useful (though I suspect I shall mainly stay with list), but it was very confusing when Cats started showing as a tree without my having selected it. DuncanHill 12:17, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I find it very confusing, mainly when many subcategories exist, and I'm totally opposed to the fact that categories appear as a tree by default. DeansFA 12:22, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I like that new feature. Kudos to Duesentrieb and Tim! --Ligulem 14:36, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

In response to some criticisms, Duesentrieb has just implemented a "unified view", which combines the strengths of both the tree view and the list view. There's apparently also an override parameter for bots. -- Tim Starling 14:40, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Categories are now appearing as a tree by default with no apparent means of over-riding this - help please! I find the list view much easier to read and navigate. DuncanHill 15:19, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

One potential problem is that people who click on the "+" sign and get the "nothing found" result, might think that is the end of the road: no articles there. Of course, it really means that there are just no subcategories. But will new users realise they need to click on the category link to see the articles inside the category? Carcharoth 16:10, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Another problem is that it is slower and less intyitive than the list, and depriving users of the choice (as appears to have happened) will discourage editors from exploring the categories to find the best ones for articles. DuncanHill 16:13, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I might (eventually) prefer the option to switch between views, rather than this "unified" version in use at the moment. But please, where was this discussed? It could be a great feature, and I use many of the Category tools, including the awesome Category Ladder, but I really want to see a debate about this rather major change (or be pointed to one if I missed it). There is also a post by Tim Starling here that explains some of this. Also, Tim's comment above was "In response to some criticisms" - well, where can I read these criticisms and add my own? Thanks. Carcharoth 16:21, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Edit summary stubbornness

Occasionally, I get the message warning me of no edit summary, even though I've provided one. Cute workarounds, like previewing again and then saving, with or without copy-pasting the edit sum, sometimes work and sometimes save the page without any edit sum. I feel it's vital to edit with good summaries, so this is an issue for me. John Reid 02:42, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it counts the section that you are editing as part of the edit summary (the part of the summary that's like /* Edit summary stubbornness */). Could that be your problem? —Mets501 (talk) 14:24, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Zero section editing

Hello all. I suggest adding a feature to display '' link for zero section as this is done in Russian Misplaced Pages. You should append

/* Making "edit" link for zero section */
var disable_zero_section = 0;
function edit_zero_section()
{ 
 if(disable_zero_section != 1 && (document.getElementById('bodyContent').innerHTML.match('class=\"editsection\"')))
    document.getElementById('bodyContent').innerHTML = "<div class=\"editsection\" id=\"ca-edit-0\"></div>" + document.getElementById('bodyContent').innerHTML;
}
addLoadEvent(edit_zero_section);

into MediaWiki:Monobook.js and

.editsection { float: right; margin-left: 5px; }

into MediaWiki:Common.css. This link looks like all other '' links. If doubt, please test in your own monobook.css & monobook.js. In Russian Misplaced Pages this is a default. Edward Chernenko 07:59, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Full support. If the specialists don't find any no-go's I would love to have this. I tested it in my user js/css and found a bug. The js should be:

/* Making "edit" link for zero section */
var disable_zero_section = 0;
function edit_zero_section()
{ 
 if(disable_zero_section != 1 && (document.getElementById('bodyContent').innerHTML.match('class=\"editsection\"')))
    document.getElementById('bodyContent').innerHTML = "<div class=\"editsection\" id=\"ca-edit-0\"></div>" + document.getElementById('bodyContent').innerHTML;
}
addLoadEvent(edit_zero_section);

--Ligulem 10:06, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

If that means what I think it does (having an edit box for the lead/intro, the text before the first section header) I most definitely support that. --kingboyk 11:47, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Aye, you can see it in action on the Russian article for 2006. However, if we decide to have this, I think it would be better to write it directly into the software, because:

• No Javascript would be used. This means less downloading and some people don't have Javascript enabled.
• It seems like a simple task to write it into the software.
• It would work with all the Wikipedias.
• It could respect __NOEDITSECTION__, or maybe this does that already?

Icey 12:18, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Arguments against Javascript are too common, not related to this idea. The fact is that we need this feature right now (it provides great traffic economy when zero section should be edited in big article). Also, this code supports NOEDITSECTION: it only appends edit link for zero section if there is already at least one edit link (so it will not be displayed for articles with NOEDITSECTION or protected articles, for article without subtitles or when user disables edit links in preferences). Edward Chernenko 12:24, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Cool, that's good that it works like that. I disagree that we need it "right now". Wouldn't it be better to wait a bit longer to get it implemented directly into the software so that it can benefit everyone, instead of rushing it in just for us? Icey 12:40, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I think that increasing global JS in size isn't so bad for users while it is cached by browser. Yes, you'll be forced to reload about 3K after this change but you spend much more reading your watchlist once :). About engine implementation: MediaWiki developers are too busy; haven't you seen number of unresolved reports in mediazilla? ;) So, I think that's not good idea to place some fixes on our side right now... Edward Chernenko 12:50, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps it is okay to get it written in like this for now, and then a permanent solution could be implemented in the future. I doubt it'll save much bandwidth, but it's useful at least. Do you know why the pages don't have links written into the top already? There may be a valid reason for that. Icey 13:27, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I strongly support this being added to the site js and css. Why not common.css and common.js though? —Mets501 (talk) 14:20, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

There is no MediaWiki:Common.js. See bugzilla:4178. --cesarb 15:53, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Using images from other wikipedia

I usually write in CAtalà viquipedia and sometimes I need an image that it's not in Commons but I find in GErmany wiki, for instance. The only solutions I know is copy this image to Commons and, then use it from Català wiki. Is it possible to use an image from English, French or whatever wikipedia without move it previously to Commons?. What should be the sintax to display the image?.Thanks. --Amadalvarez 09:52, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't think that there is a way to do that. You either have to copy it to your local Misplaced Pages if it's under fair use or put it on commons for everyone to use if it's under a free license. —Mets501 (talk) 14:21, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Job queue

A couple of things I've observed about the job queue at Special:Statistics:

1. If only <noinclude> text is edited in a template, which of course has no affect on pages transcluding it, the job queue still grows. In the case of very heavily used templates like {{WPBiography}} this can add a 6 figure number to the queue unnecessarily. It would be better if Mediawiki were able to filter our changes of this kind.
2. It would seem also that if a template is edited, and then changed again whilst the first round of changes are in the job queue (not desirable, but sometimes a bug is found or an edit reverted) the job queue grows again. Wouldn't it be better to queue up articles only once and perform all changes when the article reaches the front of the queue. --kingboyk 15:31, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

1. Could it be that you meant text in <noinclude>? If yes, Misplaced Pages:Template doc page pattern solves that problem.
2. Would be nice, but is nothing to make us bothered, as this is the job of the developers to optimise the servers as far enough as needed to support what is allowed. Or disallow by technical restrictions (example: Misplaced Pages:Template limits) what is unwanted and will never be tolerated. Of course this as an ideal ;-). --Ligulem 14:26, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Whoops, I did mean <noinclude>. Thanks. --kingboyk 17:36, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Listing redirects to a template

I've just moved a heavily used template ({{WikiProjectSongs}}→the much easier to remember {{Songs}}).

My problem is that this template is used on over 13000 talk pages (Index · Statistics · Log) and the what links here list is very large. Is there any way of finding out which pages redirect there only, so I can check for double redirects? --kingboyk 11:50, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

There are no double redirects. I set the limit to 5000 (Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Songs&limit=5000&from=0), which covered all links/transclusions, and looked for the word "redirect", it was only found once, so there's no double redirects. —Mets501 (talk) 14:28, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Excellent, thanks - and thanks for the tip. --kingboyk 17:31, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Odd article names

I was looking through the dump of the database looking for some words for the wiktionary when I ran into a whole bunch of odd article names:

• AmericanSamoa
• AppliedEthics
• AccessibleComputing
• AfghanistanHistory
• AfghanistanGeography
• AfghanistanPeople
• AfghanistanEconomy
• AfghanistanCommunications
• AfghanistanTransportations
• AfghanistanMilitary
• AfghanistanTransnationalIssues
• AssistiveTechnology
• AlbaniaHistory
• AlbaniaGeography
• AlbaniaPeople
• AsWeMayThink
• AllSaints
• AlbaniaGovernment
• AlbaniaEconomy
• AfroAsiaticLanguages
• ArtificalLanguages
• AbbadideS
• AbbevilleFrance
• AtlasShrugged
• ArtificialLanguages
• AtlasShruggedCharacters
• AtlasShruggedCompanies
• AyersMusicPublishingCompany
• AfricanAmericanPeople
• AdolfHitler
• AbdominalSurgery

Notice that these are article names with the space(s) removed. They are redirects. Any idea why these exist? (Someone at wiktionary asked about finding a list of all single word WP article names that didn't have entries in Wiktionary.) RJFJR 14:05, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

No idea. Maybe initial typos that were moved later? —Mets501 (talk) 14:30, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Early versions of MediaWiki used CamelCase to generate wikilinks, and other wiki softwares still do. These are probably very old articles or had such redirects made to catch links created in that style by users who are used to link like that from other wikis. --Sherool (talk) 15:28, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, these are old CamelCase redirects. They probably need to be kept for historical reasons. Carcharoth 16:22, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, that's interesting. Thank you. RJFJR 17:01, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

To confirm this, you can look back to the date of creation. For example, see the 31 May 2001 initial article for 'As We May Think'. Carcharoth 17:32, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Namespace question

Hi! Quick question: If I make an edit to User:Example/sandbox, then in which namespace would my edit be counted to be in—user space or article space? TIA!-- thunderboltz 14:11, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

User space. It is a subpage of page Example in namespace User. RJFJR 14:18, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Okay, thanks! I was beginning to wonder why I was having so many user space edits. This explains it. Thank you.-- thunderboltz 14:28, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

wikify template

Um, is something up with the wikify_date template? I think someone messed with it, and I don't know how to fix it. Thanks. Schwael 17:52, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Please ask User:Bluemoose (, ). --Ligulem 18:09, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps also point out that the {{Wikify}} template now appears to use the first optional parameter for two things, the date and whether the template is being used on an article or section. Icey 18:14, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Assistance needed at Wikiversity

Over at the English Wikiversity, we're working on a new main page design. It contains some bugs that need to be eliminated, and I'm hoping to recruit an experienced coder to take on the task. In particular, we need to add <h2> and </h2> elements to the headings in the right-hand column, and the image is off-center (and lacking the right-hand border) in IE6. Also, the original designer used a complex system of transclusion that hopefully could be simplified, and I'm sure that plenty of our code is sloppy and inefficient.

Thanks in advance! —David Levy 09:03, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

No one has responded, so I'm bumping this to the bottom. If anyone can help, please step forward. —David Levy 08:15, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Out of desperation, I'm bumping this one more time. We have consensus to implement the new Wikiversity main page, and only the need to fix these bugs is stopping us. Is anyone able and willing to help? —David Levy 18:06, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

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