Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 25

Template categories
(Cross posted from Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Judaism) Sometime in the past few days I noticed that categories that are included in templates are being included in articles to which the templates are transcluded. This is a problem because some of those categories are supposed to apply to templates only. For instance Template:Antisemitism topics is in Category:Jewish navigation templates. This is a category for templates only. But the category now includes all pages that include the template, such as A Protocol of 1919, Anti-Defamation League, Anti-Judaism, and many others. This is clearly erroneous and has only been true for, I believe, less than a week. This must be a recent change to the Wikipedia source code (correct word?) because I noticed it change a few days ago. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 04:26, 7 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The change was caused by which moved the category outside ... . See Help:Template. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:46, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks a million. That was driving me nuts. There's at least one other that I know of, let's see if it was the same editor. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 07:02, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Nope. different issue entirely. --Steven J. Anderson (talk) 07:12, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Articles I've created
I've neglected to keep good track of my WP activity. Is there an easy way to get a list of articles I've created? Thanks. -- Boracay Bill (talk) 07:44, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * http://tools.wikimedia.de/~escaladix/larticles/ Gimmetrow 08:05, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Inline cropping of images
In the Wikipedia, it would be most useful to be able to crop images by means of optional parameters in a statement. This could be done by four additional parameters which specify the extent of the viewable image. One way of doing this would be to have four "crop margins" which would be the number of pixels from the edge of the source image to the edge of the rendered image. Such a facility would remove the need for the external cropping of images in third-party applications software, be far more flexible for editors and eliminate the need for separate uploading of the same image. Eg. the following could be avoided:

Greenshed (talk) 11:27, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Already on the buglist: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7757 --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:22, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

log link
Does anyone else think that adding a link to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&user=&page= to the toolbox for articles (or indeed all pages where it's not already displayed)? If not for everyone, what do I need to add to my monobook.js or monobook.css to add the link to my own display? Happy ‑ melon 14:47, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
 * It's the same link as "View logs for this page" on top of the history page. I would guess that most users would first want to look at the history anyway. As a for your own display, add the code below to your monobook.js, it should add "Page logs" link just before "Upload file" link. —AlexSm 15:41, 7 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted.  Happy ‑ melon  15:59, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Essay Categorization and/or Classification - need pointers on how to develop macro/script/whatever
Hello, as part of the upfront research for the categorization effort, I would like to create a list of all Wikipedia pages that link to Template:Essay (and/or are in Category:Wikipedia essays, and find out what other templates and (more importantly) categories apply to those pages. However, I don't feel like sitting there and doing it manually; moreover, I want to gain the programming/other technical experience that will come from finding a way to automate this. Any tips? I am taking Computer Science III (and have learned Java, C++ and Visual Basic at the beginning level), if that helps you assess my proficiency level in a way that will be helpful in offering me appropriate advice. Thank you. Obuibo Mbstpo (talk) 21:16, 6 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I think you basically have three choices:


 * You can use a specialized editor (AWB and wikEd come to mind, but there are others). I'm not personally familiar with what each can do (or even if any can do what you want); you might ask at the talk/discussion pages.


 * You can use a bot. You can either create your own or request the assistance of someone who already has a bot (or will write one for you) - see WP:BOTREQ.


 * You can use a data download (dump) and/or query Wikipedia as if it were a database - see WP:EIW. (Note, for example, the request below.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 22:11, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

If you plan on taking on this task yourself, take a look at the API. It is not too hard to learn and will do exactly what you want (you just need to script in some loops, etc to automate it). Here are some URLs to get you started (and if I am doing more than teaching, my apologies and feel free to ignore these).


 * |templates Here are the first 500 pages (with categories and templates) that embed.


 * |templates Here are the first 500 pages (with categories and templates) that are in Category:Wikipedia essays.

All you would really need to do is look at how to grab items 501-1000, etc. Then just eliminate the duplicates. Hope that helps. - AWeenieMan (talk) 02:43, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikimania banner
The Wikimania banner looks OK in the mainspace, but incredibly out of place against the pale blue background in all the other namespaces. The "hide" button, while avoiding FA-stars on my browser, still bumps into protection padlocks, and the admin logo on my userpage. I shudder to think what happens with those users who have practically filled their top-banner with FA and GA stars. Is it possible to pull the banner in a few pixels from the right edge of the screen, or at the very least to make it blue-backed outside the mainspace? Happy ‑ melon 09:24, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

My talk page archive deleted
Hello. I would appreciate any help resolving this particularly mysterious problem. Sometime ago I started the process of creating Archive 2 of my talk page as per this diff. I then copied and pasted this into my Archive 2. You can imagine my surprise when today I got this diff when I clicked on my Archive 2. I have asked the admin involved for an explanation. But judging from his edit summary he thought the archive was an orphan or non-existent. Since I know both of these scenarios are wrong and cannot possibly believe Kirill did this I would like to know the background of this amazing phenomenon of the deleted archive of my talk page without my knowledge. Thanks. Dr.K. (talk) 10:50, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * As you can see from the history of the page, which I just momentarily restored, you inadvertently created your archive not at User talk:Tasoskessaris/archive 2, but at Talk:Tasoskessaris/archive 2. User:Bjweeks moved the archive to its correct position in your userspace and tagged the redirect for deletion under WP:CSD (he could also have used WP:CSD).  Kirill then legitimatley deleted the page.  I hope this clarifies things for you - once you have read this message, please add the template  to Talk:Tasoskessaris/archive 2 so that we don't leave an untidied mess in the mainspace.   Happy ‑ melon  11:03, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much Happy for your fast reply. I knew it wasn't Kirill's fault as I noted above. I'm happy (no pun) to know the reason behind this mystery. What do you know. I guess it was sometime since I archived something and got it wrong. However I don't understand the untidy mess comment. If the page is deleted why do I have to re-tag it for deletion? Dr.K. (talk) 11:17, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * When Bjweeks moved the archive to its correct location, a redirect was created from the talk namespace to the user-talk namespace, which is untidy and unhelpful. Kirill deleted it because it fell under one of our CSD criteria.  As an admin, I can see the histories of deleted pages, so I could see what had happened; but in order to be able to show you the history, I had to restore the page to make the history visible to non-admins.  Once you'd seen and understood, the page could then be deleted again, and to make sure it wasn't missed if I forgot to check back here, I asked you to tag it for CSD.   Happy ‑ melon  11:31, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Excellent approach. Thank you very much for your courtesy and your time. BTW I cleaned up some similar mess regarding archive 1. Take care. Dr.K. (talk) 11:35, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Missing edits to Administrators' noticeboard/Betacommand
I have been trying to complete a submission to Requests for arbitration, and in doing so I wanted to supply some diffs from the discussion at Administrators' noticeboard/Betacommand. However, there is a huge gap in the history of that page: this revision history lists no edits between 06:36 on 4th March and 22:43 on the same day. However, the discussion at Administrators' noticeboard/Betacommand shows numerous contributions, starting with User:Ryan Postlethwaite's opening of the thread at 18:03, 4 March 2008. So I checked Ryan Postlethwaite's contribs for that period, and they show no edits to Administrators' noticeboard/Betacommand before this edit at 23:47.

The edit at 06:36 was an archiving by User:MiszaBot II; the next edit was this one by JzG at 22:43. The diff shows having added about 35KB of text, including 64 signed contributions by other editors. I think that this is unlikely.

Can anyone explain what is going on here? Is this a database error, or have the missing edits been oversighted? If they have been oversighted, why has this been done? --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 16:19, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * It seems that User:JzG has simply moved the thread from WP:AN/I to Administrators' noticeboard/Betacommand. No oversighting has been going on, as far as I can see. --Conti|✉ 16:41, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that does indeed seem to be the case. It's a pity that the edit inserting the moved thread into Administrators' noticeboard/Betacommand gave no indication that it was a thread being moved, but at least I can now see what happened, and i know wehere to find the diffs. Thanks! --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 16:53, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Linking to redirects
Is there a way to link directly to a redirect page without the user ending up on the page that it redirects to? -Freekee (talk) 17:26, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * You can add &redirect=no to the address bar so http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Aston_Villa_managers&redirect=no would take you directly to List of Aston Villa managers instead of the target List of Aston Villa F.C. managers. I don't think there is way to do it in wikilinks. Woody (talk) 17:35, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I feel a template brewing... — Edokter  •  Talk  • 18:25, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Whaddayaknow... Noredirect already exists... . — Edokter  •  Talk  • 18:27, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks Woody, but if I was going to do it as an external-style link, I'd just do
 * The template looks pretty good, though. Thanks! -Freekee (talk) 18:52, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikimania banner error
I'm not sure if anyone has noticed (which is surprising) but the Wikimania links on the banner do not work. Simply south (talk) 22:48, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Or they do now work but at the exact moment i posted. What was it? Simply south (talk) 22:50, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Ever since an update a week or so ago there have been weird little problems when pages are rendered that usually go away when you just reload the page. It might gave been that. Sometimes links will break or have strange formatting, as if a tag in the actual HTML was broken, but it doesn't happen too often. -- Ned Scott 00:26, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

&lt;timeline> behavior
The article Timeline of architectural styles 1750—1900 has wikisyntax I've not run across before:   . Among many links, it contains an apparent bluelink to Jacobethian (at about 1839). However, following the link goes to a nonexistent page which "what links here" says nothing links to. —EncMstr 23:31, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * How can this be? The wikisyntax for the link seems ordinary:  at:1838 text:"Jacobethian" shift:(5,-2) 
 * Is timeline documented somewhere?


 * See Help:EasyTimeline syntax. All links are displayed in blue and image links like that are not recorded by "What links here". PrimeHunter (talk) 23:47, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks! —EncMstr 00:02, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I did some searching and fixed the "blue redlinks" there and on the next timeline. The normal spelling turned out to be Jacobethan without 'i'. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:25, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

New messages question
You know that orange template that's displayed when usertalk pages have been edited? Is it possible to make that message appear when other pages are edited well? Maybe adding something in one's monobook? -- penubag  (talk) 05:11, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, User:Ais523/watchlistnotifier.js will do this. Copy that code to Special:Mypage/monobook.js, save, and empty your browser cache. It will then leave such a message whenever a page on your watchlist is changed. If you only want specific pages to trigger the message then maybe you can leave a note on User talk:Ais523 and see if Ais523 can make something for you. -- Ned Scott 05:37, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I'm aware of that script, but like you said, I'm only looking for a version where certain pages trigger its appearance. -- penubag  (talk) 06:28, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Post a request at WikiProject User scripts if you haven't already done so. It is probably possible, as it's similar in principal to the user page edit notification that someone developed a while back. Adrian M. H.  18:55, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

How can I streamline updating (stub) templates?
At the moment, I am trying to update stubs and other templates which contain .PNG (or similar) images which have been superceded by .SVGs (see this, for example). However, I have no obvious way (that I know of) of knowing exactly which (stub) templates use the old images; only which articles use them, which are listed in the "File links" sections of the image pages. Is there any way of finding out exactly which templates use a certain image, and, better still, to edit them all at once?

Also, even after editing a template so that it uses a .SVG, the "File links" section of the .PNG (etc.) image will still insist that the article which contained that stub template still contains the old image, even after I refresh all tabs etc. in IE. For example, this list has this article as one that uses its image, even though I have updated the stub that includes that image to now include the new one. How do I update that list?

Thanks! It Is Me Here (talk) 20:00, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * The list will only update when an edit is made to the page, or when the automatic request to recache the page works its way through the job queue, which can take several hours on a busy day. Your best bet is to make a change, then move onto another image, and stick the first one at the bottom of your list.  Work your way back round to it after a few hours or a day, and most of the pages should have been recached for one reason or another.   Happy ‑ melon  21:55, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks, but what do you mean by "stick the first one at the bottom of your list"? Edit the page? Write down what I've edited on a piece of paper? It Is Me Here (talk) 07:41, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, or just save the list somewhere on your computer, move onto the next one once you've made an edit, and then start at the top of the list again once you've got to the bottom. Remove any image which is "done" from the list and you'll eventually work your way through it.  Without a dev standing by to run the clearJobQueue script (or whatever it's called) that's the best you can do, I think.  Happy ‑ melon  20:20, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

ID insurance
As insurance, you may "commit" to your identity by adding a cryptographic hash

to your user page as instructed here.-copied from log-in spacial page

I would like to do this on my user page but when I put my "String"(Which is all numbers) into the parameter and hit Show Preview it did nothing I am assuming that a result-"Hash" displays(and is different\mixed from string entered) if it is done correctly. Thank you in advance for your time Marcia Wright (talk) 02:32, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * You need to get your hash string, then enter that into the template. Go somewhere like here, select the 'SHA 512bit' algorithm, type your secret string into the 'write or paste your text here' box, and click 'hash this text'. Then copy the hash string produced, and add to your userpage. Algebraist 05:12, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * The User committed identity template may be useful. Sorry, I failed to read. --Teratornis (talk) 21:15, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Re-ask for Help
I still cannot insert the Image:Meda-Stemma-New.jpg in the Meda (MI) page, as coat of arms. The new link is correctly written into the "edit" page, but in the template there is still the old image. I have already purged the cache. If possible, please answer me here Thanks, -- Doppio M   14:10, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ I have no idea why that error caused the page to display the old image rather than an error, but it seems fixed not. Happy ‑ melon  20:18, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Widescreen monitors
Why doesn't Wikipedia have a set width for articles. If you look at the Times newspaper they centre there tables so that no matter what size monitor you have it wont effect the display. The Telepgraph left-justify their site. Can wikipedia not do the same so we can have consistancy in the layout of the articles ie: no ugly white spaces whether using a widescreen monitor or not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.110.200.43 (talk) 17:59, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia allows users to substantially change how pages appear to them. See: Customisation and Help:Skin. There might be some option to make Wikipedia look to you the way you want. There is probably less chance of globally changing the appearance that everybody else sees. --Teratornis (talk) 21:12, 9 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia has for the most part been letting the user's web browser arrange the information the way which the browser considers best. This allows the information to be presented on screens of all sizes, although the fixed sizes of some things such as images causes problems.  I think it's an issue for browsers, as it is best for Wikipedia to provide the information and not let artists force the user to have something which doesn't work for them.  Some editors are aware of the issues; I recently tested an article in both small windows and a two-screen-wide window.  -- SEWilco (talk) 21:32, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Missed...
When the technical issues regarding the capital letter restriction were fixed? Lazy to find out by myself, as usual :) --Brand спойт 19:48, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * As far as I'm aware, there has been no real fix. The iPod article is actually located at IPod, and the eBay article at EBay.  Both those pages contain the  parameter, which is a 'hack' to render the first character of the title in lowercase when the page is displayed.   Happy ‑ melon  20:14, 9 March 2008 (UTC)


 * If I remember correctly, however, there is a different parameter by-passing special character restrictions. Why is that? Wouldn't it be simpler to have a single "change displayed title" template? Waltham, The Duke of 22:42, 9 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes there are several templates for the various issues. These templates are also used to categorize the specific technical restrictions that apply to articles (See also Category:Wrong title templates. The reason is that if something ever changes, we can easily change it for those categories that need to be changed. For instance Initially lowercase titles could only be fixed with a javascript hack. However the magicword now allows you to fix that properly. And the lowercase template was easily adapted to use that new magicword. There is also downsize to fix titles with super- and subscript elements. DISPLAYTITLE cannot fix those so far and they are still fixed with Javascript atm. It is not inconceivable of course that one day DISPLAYTITLE will also be able to handle those cases, and we could then easily fix all those instances. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 23:03, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Weird: image not showing
In the Gavin Newsom article, the image in the "Board of Supervisors" section is not rendering; the wiki code shows up instead of the image. (In both Firefox and Safari on a recent Mac.) If you click the section edit button though, the image renders properly. The code all appears to be totally standard -- any ideas what's up? -Pete (talk) 22:17, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅ An image inclusion higher up on the page was malformatted causing all images following it to not show. diff of the fix. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:41, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Great, thanks!! -Pete (talk) 22:54, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

ISBN
I installed something in my monobook some time ago that allowed me to click on ISBN numbers and go directly to Amazon.com. Now, it takes me here. There's instructions there to install certain language to make it automatically go to a given site. Since the language is different than what i had, I tried it, but to no avail (I've reverted to the previous monobook version). Does anyone know why this feature stopped working?

Yes, I bypassed the cache. Coemgenus 21:38, 7 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm guessing that you got the code from User:Lunchboxhero/monobook.js. And even if you didn't, you might want to look at this modification to that page, done on March 3rd. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 21:54, 7 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure where I gotthe original code, but I tried Lunchbox's today. This comment on his talk page suggests people aren't crazy about the automatic link to Amazon.  Is that what the 3/3 changes were meant to alter?  I guess I'll just work around it.  Thanks for your help, John. Coemgenus 22:18, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

I've fixed the problem, see User talk:Lunchboxhero/monobook.js.

Lunchboxhero (talk) 03:58, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikia interlink is down
It seems an update on Wikia's main wiki has broken the Wikia interlink, Wikia:Name of wiki:Page name. I've let people know on irc:wikia, and someone there said they'd pass the message on to a dev. Leaving a note here incase anyone is wondering what the status is on this, since we have a lot of Wikia interlinks. -- Ned Scott 05:31, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Here is a temporary solution for those wanting to restore the links in their wikia templates. Use the following format to make the links:


 * — Edokter  •  Talk  • 12:20, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikia and wikipedia
Up until yesterday evening (European time), there were no problems linking to wikia via e.g. wikia:Stargate:Cold Lazarus. Formerly, this syntax would link to to http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Cold_Lazarus. But as of yesterday, it tries to connect to http://cold_lazarus.wikia.com, and then redirects to http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Not_a_valid_Wikia. I haven't seen this issue raised anywhere else, and I don't know the right places to bring this to attention, so I'm making a note here. – sgeureka t•c 11:25, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * See also --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:22, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Wikia:Stargate:Cold Lazarus actually produces http://www.wikia.com/wiki/c:Stargate:Cold_Lazarus which doesn't work currently. Interwiki map places http://www.wikia.com/wiki/c: in front of what comes after Wikia: and this has apparently been so for a long time. It works (at least in this case) if c: is removed: http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Stargate:Cold_Lazarus. It sounds like it's Wikia which has changed and doesn't accept c: at the moment. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:43, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Wikicities: doesn't generate c: so it works here: Wikicities:Stargate:Cold Lazarus produces http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Stargate:Cold_Lazarus which redirects to http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Cold_Lazarus. The Wikia site may revert to allow c: so I don't think we should change links yet. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:48, 8 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your replies. (I had somehow missed Ned Scott's message above, probably because it was "too short".) I have replaced the high-profile SG wikia links with wikicities, but I didn't touch the others per PrimeHunter. – sgeureka t•c 16:24, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

It seems the problem is also causing issues within Wikia's interwiki system as well, so hopefully it will be fixed soon. -- Ned Scott 00:24, 9 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Heh, still no fix, and still hard to find anyone who seems to know what's going on. I'm a bit supporter of Wikia and the possible relationships we can and do have with them, but the lack of response on what's even going on, and when we might expect a fix, is very frustrating. I'm not even sure where exactly to report it to, but I've left two more notes in different areas, and occasionally prod the irc channel to see if anyone knows what's up. Maybe I'm just spoiled by how Wikipedia has stuff set up already for that. Even if less than perfect, the shear amount of activity we've gotten has allowed us to anticipate a ton of situations. -- Ned Scott 05:14, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the info, even if there are no news. My hands are completely tied in this matter, so this will be another patience exercise for me. – sgeureka t•c 13:27, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * It seems to be fixed now! -- Ned Scott 23:00, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Really screwy table
In List_of_Airbus_A380_orders_and_deliveries, someone has used a very odd style to produce a table that ultimately looks right. (Search for "Barockgarten großsedlitz panorama.jpg" in the wikicode.) Can anyone strip out the extraneous stuff without breaking these tables? Or do you know of a more appropriate place to ask this question?--Father Goose (talk) 09:54, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm working on getting this into the timeline element itself. It's not the easiest thing to do however. Might take quite some time. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:55, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I did a little bit of cleaning, and tried to get that first graph working without that complicated hack that its using, but it's proving to be challenging. I'll take another look if I get back, but its truly an ingenious hack to workaround the fact that EasyTimeline only allows the most simple links and cannot handle images in the barindicators. I'm not sure if there is another way at all. Add to that the fact that imagemap cannot handle the timeline images because the template adds div elements arounds them, and you have quite the puzzle :D --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:14, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, thanks for trying (sucker ;-). Anybody else up for a surprisingly difficult technical challenge?--Father Goose (talk) 23:04, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia and US Daylight Saving Time
According to my watchlist page, the current "Wikipedia time" is 04:07 PST. The US entered Daylight Saving Time at 2AM Sunday morning, so the correct time should be 05:07 PST. Thanks, WalterGR (talk | contributions) 12:07, 10 March 2008 (UTC).
 * You need to change the date in your preferences to use the new time zone. Wikipedia operates under UTC, which does not use Daylight Savings Time.  Harryboyles  12:19, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh, that's right. I forgot that the preferences use an offset from UTC, rather than a timezone. Thanks! WalterGR (talk | contributions) 12:32, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Existence checking
What's the most server- and time-efficient way for a bot script to check whether a given page exists? Happy ‑ melon 19:27, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * This works pretty well: existing page and no page. Franamax (talk) 21:58, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * And you can add "&format=json" to make it machine readable. Of any of the other formats listed. Franamax (talk) 22:03, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

ISBN script no longer working(?)
In August 2007, I had installed a script obtained from User:Lunchboxhero/monobook.js with modifications that allowed an ISBN click to pass on through to http://worldcat.org, and it successfully worked until 7 March 2008. Now (after 7 March) I am taken to  rather than to. I have left a message for, but he seems not to have been around for about two weeks. Questions: Has something changed about the wiki ISBN functionality recently? How can this be resolved? There seem to be several of us with a similar problem. Thanks in advance. (Brought here because Special:Booksources has no talk page.) — Bellhalla (talk) 20:23, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Try Book sources. -- SEWilco (talk) 20:25, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * For an answer? Or to take the discussion there? — Bellhalla (talk) 21:06, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Try asking on the Talk page there. The specialists may be monitoring that page, and we now direct other contributors to go over there.  -- SEWilco (talk) 21:30, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The ISBN code changed recently, to simplify the URL that the links link via. The script will have to be modified to work with the new links. --ais523 21:34, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I just made a copy into my own monobook.js, where it says "isbn=" I changed it to "Special:Booksources" and it seems to do the job (after purging the cache). Your mileage may vary... Franamax (talk) 21:54, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * That worked for me. Thanks. — Bellhalla (talk) 03:14, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Might not be pretty but hacking often works out. Hopefully it will work in all cases. I'll mark this as resolved then, un-mark it if you find more problems. Franamax (talk) 03:50, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Main page title looks odd using the "Modern" skin

 * OS: Ubuntu Linux 7.10 (andLinux kernel)
 * Browser: Firefox 2.0.12
 * Skin: "Modern"

Whenever I view the main page, the words "Main Page" appear, which is a problem of itself, but they appear in black, as opposed to the normal white that modern-skinned pages usualy do. When I purge the server cache, the problem goes away, but if I go to another page and back it changes back to black. Clearing my browser cache did not fix the issue. ff m  23:55, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Strike that, seems to be an issue with a Gadget. ff m  00:00, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Transclusion of interwikis by Sandbox header
On the discussions pages of the sandboxes, the interwikis are appearing as a bunch of links below the header, instead of interwikis on the sidebar. --209.244.43.122 (talk) 22:50, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * That's because talk pages can't have interwiki links; they just show as normal wikilinks. They should have &lt;includeonly> around them. — Edokter  •  Talk  • 23:36, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Already has &lt;includeonly>. We are going to have to add code that 'noincludes' the interwikis when transcluded to a talk page or create and protect talk page forms of the header. --209.244.43.122 (talk) 20:26, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Julian Date
The formulae I wrote for the tenures of current office-holders using Julian Dates, like the one here, have suddenly stopped working. Does anyone know why? Coemgenus 13:56, 11 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I fixed it.--Patrick (talk) 14:24, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Cool, thanks for the help. Coemgenus 14:28, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
 * It was a bot which made the same error on many other templates. I have fixed all those which were not fixed already. The bot operator has been informed. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:33, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Double-click to Edit
Hello Folks, Where would a person go to offer an opinion about the feature that allows users to edit articles by double-clicking on the page?

Thank you for the assistance! -asx- (talk) 19:33, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Offering an opinion here would be fine. If you have bug reports and such, they would to go to Bugzilla. Cheers. --MZMcBride (talk) 20:11, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
 * In my opinion its not a good idea, for obvious reasons.   CWii ( Talk  21:33, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
 * It's in Special:Preferences, under the 'Editing' tab. Off by default, probably for those obvious reasons. I've never even tried to use it myself; it would be interesting to hear feedback from someone who has, or even someone who knows why it was added in the first place. --ais523 21:39, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

History page format
The html code in "history" tab pages has changed twice in the last couple days. Does anybody know why? Gimmetrow 21:50, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
 * The change broke my userscript histComb, I was wondering if something else broke as well... Anyway, &lt;span class="history-user"> was removed in 31724, probably unintentionally. When I mentioned this on IRC, the dev added it back in 31803. —AlexSm 23:01, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

graphic formats for Diagrams
I plan including some diagrams in articles, mainly in the simple form of line drawings with explanatory text, for example like a family tree of some Methodist Circuits. This example is gif drawn using Serif Draw Plus, which is my usual drawing package.

The export options in Draw Plus 8 include PNG, which I think is a Wikipedia preferred option. (of course, it has gif, jpg, tiff, bmp, etc.) There is also a DXF option, which is the only significant vector alternative to the Serif formats.

May I use for Wikipedia articles the best of either the PNG or the GIF export options, taking into account legibility when zoomed in to a reasonable extent, and file size? 8-bit depth seems to be the choice for PNG in this case. At the moment, SVG seems to be less practical (because of the time it would take to learn, and the lack of any SVG export option on Draw Plus - but I think Corel Draw has SVG export, so I may look at that if available at zero cost on GNU or GFDL type license.)   Robert of Ramsor (talk) 22:38, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Although I edited a page, I still see a previous old unedited version.
Hello,

I found this problem after I edited a page, http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doosan. At first, I edited from an original page of “doosan.” When I finished editing, I wanted to check if it works from other computer. The problem is that I couldn’t have the same result that I had from my computer. (From other computers) The problem is that if I search for “doosan” I get a result of old unedited version of doosan page. But, if I search for “doosan group” I get a result of new edited version that I just completed. Also, a strange thing is that I don’t see any problem with my computer. Either I search for “doosan” or “doosan group” I have the result of the new edited version. And when I asked to my friend to try, she had the same previous problem, getting a different result when searched for “doosan” and “doosan group.” However, when she logged in, the problem disappeared. She could see new edited version regardless of typing “doosan” or “doosan group.”

I know that my explanation is somewhat confusing, (I apologize for that), but I will be greatly appreciated if you could help me to solve this problem!

Thank you, Thank you,

Cindy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.226.142.31 (talk) 01:04, 12 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Doosan is a Wikipedia redirect to Doosan Group. Wikipedia redirects don't make URL redirection so it gives different url's, but the software generates the same content, except for the redirect message below the name on Doosan. One of the url's has been cached somewhere. Try bypassing your cache (if the caching is at your ISP then this will not work). PrimeHunter (talk) 02:35, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Enable dynamic navigation
Wikibooks has this feature, and it's very good. (see it, view source). This should be fairly easy to implement, and is far better looking than our little nav boxes with the little concealed [show] button. -- penubag  (talk) 05:31, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

magnet effect on cd
Hello all, Can anyone verify if magnet can affect the data sored in CD? Thks.Hamdan64 (talk) 02:08, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * This is not the right place to ask that question. First read the CD article, then if you still don't know the answer, try the WP:Reference desk. Sbowers3 (talk) 04:26, 10 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The short answer is no (or at least, not to my knowledge). —Remember the dot (talk) 04:41, 10 March 2008 (UTC)
 * The long answer is no. Unless you drop a really heavy magnet onto the CD or use a magnet to scratch it up, that will have an effect. Franamax (talk) 03:58, 11 March 2008 (UTC)


 * And the complex answer is maybe. -- Ned Scott 07:59, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Category feature
Currently, there is a feature on the simple English Wikipedia that allows users to add, remove, and change the categories of an article by just using plus and minus buttons at the bottom of the article! How come the English Wikipedia does not have this? Parent5446(Murder me for my actions) 12:09, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Its a gadget, never mind. We should get some cool gadgets. I'll take it to the gadget request page. Parent5446(Murder me for my actions) 12:16, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I have a port of that script running on en.wikipedia. I would love if you would help test it. User:TheDJ/Gadget-HotCat.js --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:27, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Lol, it seems that the version on simple is actually a copy of my en. version :D --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:31, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Cool script, by the way. I'm just now starting to experiment with it. (Tried to do so a few days back, and was wondering if the script was actually working or if it was conflicting with others. Turns out there's a difference between "importscript" and "importScript"...) Thanks - the auto-list-as-you-type feature is really handy. --Ckatz chatspy  17:54, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

IPA displayed inconsistently
I've noticed an anomaly with the display of IPA characters. I have no trouble with IPA in IE; the problem shows up in Firefox (version 2.0.0.12). The IPA characters in the cheat-sheet of the Edit form all show up fine on any page, and in many pages, IPA characters in the page content and the Edit box proper show up fine too. But in some pages, the content and Edit box display only some of the IPA characters, substituting other characters with odd spacing for some of the more common characters (like ˈ and ɑ). (NB: as I enter this in the text box, those two IPA characters do not appear correctly; the first is the primary stress mark, the second the open back unrounded vowel.)

The IPA templates do not appear to be the problem, since I get the same behavior with or without the templates.

Examples:;
 * Ciabatta (page with no problems)
 * Chrysophylax Dives (page with the problem)

I've experimented for some time now, and decided to ask here. The only hypothesis I've come up with that makes sense to me is that some difference in the structure of the pages introduces a new CSS relationship, but I've found no smoking gun.

Elphion (talk) 17:08, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Addendum: Very occasionally I see problems in IE, too, though in this case the affected characters are displayed with the "unsupported character" box. There seems to be no correlation between the spots where IE fails and where FF fails. Elphion (talk) 17:56, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Good news about font support
I have good news! The WebKit Nightly Builds (pre-beta releases) support both the CSS 2.0  rule and data URIs. Since both  and data URI support are required to pass the Acid3 test, we can expect future versions of all major browsers to eventually implement these features.

In less technical terms, it is now possible to embed fonts into your personal CSS file regardless of whether or not you can install fonts onto the computer you are using. The downside is that adding fonts through CSS can significantly increase page load time, so this technique should be used only if you don't have rights to install fonts on the computer you are using. For example, you might want to use embedded fonts when editing from a public computer.

I really wanted to use this for articles such as Burmese language, where font support for the scripts used is uncommon. But alas, Safari (at least on Windows) has problems with unusual scripts no matter what font is used. In the end, I used the "DejaVu Sans" font because I couldn't get any more useful font to work. I'd be very interesting in hearing about other fonts that we might want to provide.

So, to try it out:
 * 1) Download the latest WebKit Nightly Build. This is pre-beta software, so it's recommended that you do not install it on a computer that you care about.
 * 2) Copy the   rule from  to your personal CSS file. Beware, no browser would let me do this properly except Internet Explorer. Safari wouldn't post the edit, Firefox froze up, and Opera did some very strange character duplication.
 * 3) Compare  before and after installing, or compare how it looks on Safari to how it looks on a different browser.

Oh, and make sure to let me know what you think! —Remember the dot (talk) 08:03, 12 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Woo-hoo! Offtopic: does anyone know a good free, sans-serif Unicode font suitable for user interface? MaxS em(Han shot first!) 08:07, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * For Wikipedia this wouldn't be as useful since only GFDL and PD fonts (which are extremely rare) can be embedded here due to copyright issues, it would only really serve a purpose if either a. hosted externally, or b. used as a user css (which defeats the original purpose). -- Prince Kassad (talk) 13:46, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * We would only be using free-as-in-freedom licenses, so any copyright problems would be extremely minor. No one is going to complain if we include an LGPL font in a GFDL encyclopedia. In fact, the extra fonts would most likely be available as gadgets, and the LGPL base64-encoded file (which looks like gibberish anyway) would not even be visible to users.
 * Aside from that, the DejaVu Sans font has an extremely permissive license. The only restrictions are that you must credit Bitstream, Inc. and Tavmjong Bah, and you can't use the words "Bitstream", "Vera", "Tavmjong Bah" or "Arev" in the names of derivative works. —Remember the dot (talk) 17:05, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Remove edit link for a single section
I know edit links can be disabled for a whole page, but is there a way to do this for a single section. The section in question is part of a template which is transcluded onto the page, and clicking the link means the editor will be changing at the template, not the article. I have installed a link to the correct edit page, but I would like to get rid of the useless link to the template if it is possible. Does anyone know how to do this? Thanks. --GW_SimulationsUser Page 21:24, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Instead of giving the heading using ==Example== syntax, use Example instead. Tra (Talk) 22:06, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Problem fixed. --GW_SimulationsUser Page 22:23, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Or, you could substitute the template – if the situation allows, of course. Grace notes T § 15:28, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Move doesn't autofill new title?
Is this a temporary glitch, a newly introduced bug, or a deliberate feature? Just now, I went to Move a page and the new title wasn't autofilled in as a copy of the current title, which I could edit to the new title. Every other time I have Moved a page it was filled in and I just changed a letter or two to the new title. Sbowers3 (talk) 02:47, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I tried it just now (without actually moving a page). It seems to properly copy the value of wpOldTitle to wpNewTitle. — CharlotteWebb 18:50, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Because it was fixed already: 13343. —AlexSm 20:36, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Archiving the archives
When a talk page exceeds a certain limit, a message appears at the top of the page in editing mode mentioning the page's size. If the page grows too much, it also advises the editor to archive some of the discussions. I agree that this is a very useful suggestion. However, I find it extremely silly that I see the same message when editing archives. "Archive the archive" is simply stupid. Is there a way to prevent this message from appearing in pages where an archive or talkarchive template is transcluded? Waltham, The Duke of 03:47, 13 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Not easily. As far as the software is concerned, those could be any template. If it really bothers you, it could probably be done with Javascript. <font color="#056366">Mr. <font color="#056625">Z- <font color="#054F66">man  05:49, 13 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Nah, I'm not that cranky. I just thought it would be an improvement. Anyway, thanks. Waltham, The Duke of 13:12, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

block logs
is it possible for specific entries to be removed from a block log? —Random832 16:35, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, ask Brion. It'll have to be something of BLP class, though. Max<font size="+1">S em(Han shot first!) 16:58, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

New Special:Prefix
In the Family name template is a rather useless feature: Special:Prefixindex/Family name. Is it possible to make a special page based on index of DEFAULTSORT key? That would allow for search of people by last name in many cases. And since category-sorting if possible, it is probably not too resource intensive. – Leo Laursen – ☏ ⌘ 17:46, 13 March 2008 (UTC)