Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

[[:|WP:VPT
WP:VP/T]]

The technical section of the village pump is used to discuss technical issues about Wikipedia. Bugs and feature requests should be made at BugZilla since there is no guarantee developers will read this page.

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 Wikipedia: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The search index is often out of date, sometimes taking weeks before it's updated.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 Wikipedia: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 Wikipedia: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.
Some ISPs use transparent proxies which cause problems logging in. If you find that you are automatically logged out just after you have logged in, and removing all your wikipedia cookies does not fix the issue, try using the secure server (much slower) to bypass the proxy. This happens most often with some satellite ISPs (particularly HughesNet/DirecWay/DirecPC).

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This page is automatically archived by Werdnabot. Any sections older than 7 days are automatically archived to Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive. Sections without timestamps are not archived.

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Top edittools location

A user on the Hindi Wikipedia asked me where the page was to edit the toolbar that shows up on top of the edit window. The one with bold, italic, underline, etc. Recently on en.wiki it had a lot more buttons, but again seems to have less. In any case a search through Special:Allmessages didn't turn up anything that I could find. Is there a good page explaining where all the Mediawiki space pages are? Help:MediaWiki namespace and Wikipedia:MediaWiki namespace weren't terribly helpful in finding the location. Thanks - Taxman ^Talk 17:27, 12 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

For the buttons see MediaWiki talk:Monobook.js#Toolbar extras. This edit removed the new buttons. You can add the buttons to your personal js file (I added some of them to mine). --Ligulem 18:47, 12 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see them there...--//Mac Lover ^Talk _C 01:59, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics page

Am I the only user having trouble accessing the statistics page? It hasn't worked for several days now. Reem.--67.165.216.16 08:37, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nope, it didn't work for me either. Shards of metal [ Talk • Contribs ] 18:57, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Doesn't work for me either William conway bcc 00:02, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Improving an article

I am planning to completely rewrite an article. I figured that the best way to do this would be to create a copy in my personal sandbox, edit that, then copy the content back to the article. I figured I'd do that so that the article doesn't look bad in the meantime. However, I want to encourage people to help me improve the article. I would ask that it be done at my sandbox. But that means that when I copy the content back to the article page, only I get credit for the edits, and not the other authors. Should I move the page to my sandbox, and then immediately revert? Or is there a better way to completely rewrite an article? Thanks, Shards of metal [ Talk • Contribs ] 22:35, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If it's something to which you're likely to invite people, I think I'd create a separate userspace article for it (i.e. User:Shardsofmetal/Article name here), copy the article to it, revise it as far as you'd like / feel able, then invite folk to respond/contribute to your userspace revised version. If/when the moment arrives when you and any collaborators feel the userspace article is ready to replace the mainspace article, post a warning on the mainspace article's talk page, then replace (or not!) the mainspace article sometime later.

Hope that helps / is not tuition involving eggs and sucking, David Kernow (talk) 23:50, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This approach needs some merging of page histories to preserve credit for all contributions. Carcharoth 01:30, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I was concerned about not giving credit to all contributors. That is why I thought If I moved the page, then immediately reverted, the new page would have the page history in it, while the old page would still have it's content. Then, I could post a message on the talk page pointing to my sandbox (or another subpage, wherever the new page is), recommending that they make any new edits there. Then, when the rewrite was completed, the new page could be moved (after making sure there weren't any new edits that would get overwritten) back to the article page. Would this work? Or would it be a bad idea? Thanks, Shards of metal [ Talk • Contribs ] 03:22, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why not copy and paste the current content into your work area, then when you're done, copy and paste it back again? The old history will still be in the article, but the new content will overlay it. This is what I did with Porto-Novo when I rewrote it. (although it was actually User:Xed who copied it back in). User:Zoe|(talk) 19:04, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

He wants other people to join him at work in his work area, and wants them to retain credit for the work done in his work area when moving the new material over. Carcharoth 12:20, 15 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If multiple people work on the temporary copy before it is moved back into article space, then a history merge is required to properly integrate the two versions. As this process takes an administrator to perform, I would suggest placing a note on Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard when the time to merge arrives listing the two files to be merged along with a short explanation of why you are requesting the merge. If only a single person works on the temporary copy then Zoe's recommendation is the better way to handle the reintegration. --Allen3 ^talk 12:58, 15 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No need for a page history merge, just say in the edit summary merging changes from Talk:Example/Temp and change the temporary article to a redirect (with an edit summary like merged to Example so it will be known it should not be deleted). Page history merges can get ugly if the article was edited in the meantime (the history gets interleaved, which is very confusing). --cesarb 15:51, 15 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Perfect. It should also be noted that leaving the edit history of the merged in text at a subpage of the article's talk page is better than leaving it at a subpage of a user's page. So I think the complete answer runs:

(A1) Copy current content to subpage of user page if you want to work on it yourself.
(B1) Copy current content to subpage of article's talk page if you want to run a collaboration on rewriting the article.
(A2) Cut and paste individual rewrite over article, remembering FIRST to check what changes have taken place since you copied the article, and incorporating them into your rewrite.
(B2) Merge subpage and article with edit summary as cesarb says above, remembering to incorporate changes since copying as explained in A2.

I would also add a note to the talk page explaining what has happened, and a note to the subpage explaining why it shouldn't be deleted (contains edit history). Just a blank page called [[Talk:Example/Temp]] might get deleted without anyone checking the final edit summary or even checking the page history at all. Carcharoth 16:46, 15 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's why you change it to a redirect: while blank pages might get deleted or reverted without a closer look at the page history, that wouldn't happen with a redirect (and if you include the redirect in Category:Unprintworthy redirects, it's even neater). --cesarb 23:13, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Top-level TOC template...?

Is there a template that produces a TOC listing only the top-level sections within an article (i.e. sections whose headings are created using the == Heading == syntax)...? There seem to be a fair number of templates that include "TOC" in their names, so apologies in advance if I've missed the one that fits the bill. Thanks, David Kernow (talk) 23:40, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There isn't one, it would require css changes or changes to the mediawiki code. However, it wouldn't be hard to create one by adding some css to MediaWiki:Common.css, such as:

.toclimit5 li.toclevel-6 {display:none}
.toclimit4 li.toclevel-6, .toc4 li.toclevel-5 {display:none}
.toclimit3 li.toclevel-6, .toc3 li.toclevel-5, .toc3 li.toclevel-4 {display:none}
.toclimit2 li.toclevel-6, .toc2 li.toclevel-5, .toc2 li.toclevel-4, .toc2 li.toclevel-3 {display:none}
.toclimit1 li.toclevel-6, .toc1 li.toclevel-5, .toc1 li.toclevel-4, .toc1 li.toclevel-3, .toc1 li.toclevel-2 {display:none

And then creating a template to handle this:

<div class="toclimit{{{1|5}}}">__TOC__</div>

You might convince them to add it to Common.css if you explain it is purely aesthetic and fails gracefully (worst case scenario: it displays all the levels). Alternately, you can remove the TOC via __NOTOC__ and create your own menu with anchor links (will have to be updated manually as sections change). A third option is to remove the section headers and use large text (not advised). --Splarka (rant) 07:29, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your various pointers, Sparkla; I'm making a copy of your paragraph for possible future reference. Since the amount of code to be added seems minimal (and non-invasive), I wonder if it might be incorporated by the powers that be sooner rather later – assuming no objections. Which of the various routes (Bugzilla, Wikimedia, ...) do you think stands the best chance...?

Meanwhile, I'm happy to continue constructing the occasional manual TOC for those pages with many sub(sub)sections, but yes, it's not a long-term solution. Thanks again, David (talk) 01:13, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The best route would be to propose it at MediaWiki talk:Common.css. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 04:24, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Best case scenario: This would be a temporary css solution, just to increase demand for it, and possibly have it supported natively (such as adding parameters to exclude headings, like <H4 toc="false">, or having __TOC__ variations like __TOC2__ __TOC3__ etc). In the same way that HiddenStructure was replaced by ParserFunctions. --Splarka (rant) 07:20, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Per Simetrical's pointer, have now copied the above to MediaWiki talk:Common.css. Best wishes, David (talk) 13:32, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tricky vandalism?

You know when an attempt is made to shrink down an image too far (in an image link), and a little error image is shown in its place? Well I think someone has replaced that error image with an ad:

Here's an example (click on it to see what I mean):

I don't know the name of the original error image, so I can't fix it. Perhaps one of you guys will know what to do.

--The Transhumanist 00:19, 15 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know what you mean. If the problem still exists, can you perhaps upload a screenshot? —Mets501 (talk) 00:41, 15 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The problem went away, seemingly by itself. Which is even more disconcerting. --The Transhumanist 08:51, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Underlining

If a Wikimedia project has all its links underlined (by default), how is it changed so that they aren't for all users and visitors? And before someone says that they're not underlined unless set in one's preferences, here are five examples: Welsh Wikipedia; Serbian Wikiquote; Danish Wikibooks; Romanian Wikinews; and Tamil Wiktionary. --Adam (Talk) 16:21, 15 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You have to modify $wgDefaultUserOptions in the wiki's LocalSettings.php file. If it's a Wikimedia project, file a BugZilla report. Tito xd^(?!?) 19:13, 15 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I've filed a BugZilla report. --Adam (Talk) 16:05, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The report was met with this reply: RESOLVED INVALID, ask the sysops on the wiki to edit the stylesheet in the MediaWiki namespace appropriately. --Adam (Talk) 19:54, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

NavigationBar

Discussion moved to template talk:Navigation bar -- Rick Block (talk) 18:15, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Help with an infobox

So, I created Template:Infobox religious building and I'm having trouble getting the template to align properly and for whatever reason it's completely missed up the TOC (table of contents).

Please see User_talk:Sapphire/Sandbox. I'd appreciate it if someone with far more knowledge of coding than I possess could take a stab at it. -- Sapphire 08:56, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You hadn't closed the css { thing, causing the toc to get included there. It should be better now. - Bobet 09:45, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but I'm having one more problem. The template doesn't line up where it should and while the TOC problem is fixed it pushes multiple images down the page and makes everything look akward. If you'd look at the my sandbox's talk page, scroll down and you should see the problem I'm talking about. Thanks. -- Sapphire 15:11, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, that's a problem with every template I've seen, not just this one (I didn't realize you meant that by your first post, since I've gotten so used to it). As far as I know, it's not possible to have an infobox and images that are right-aligned, but to the left of the infobox template (by using wikipedia's markup), same with the moving section edit links. As a workaround, people usually move the images to the left (which only leaves a small strip for the text) or start a gallery. Or just write more text so that the images will fit in neatly. - Bobet 15:41, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I work on Wikitravel most of my time so I normally have a different UI experience, but I realize what the problem was shortly before reading your explanation and I'll just use the work around. Thanks. -- Sapphire 15:51, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Staying logged on

I've been losing my session login a lot the last few hours. Are others experiencing this? Does anyone know what is happening? - Jmabel | Talk 18:42, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is question comes up quite a lot. My usual answers:

Make sure you have cookies on (unlikely to be the problem this time, unless you've turned them off, as you've stayed logged-in before)
Use the 'remember me' checkbox when logging on
If those don't work, there's a link in the FAQ section at the top of this page that takes you to a slower alternative connection that doesn't have these problems (it uses https, not to hide your edits, but to make the Internet connection behave; you'll have to accept the licence). --ais523 10:23, 17 October 2006 (U T C)

My Firefox version was stale, so I turned to InternetExplorer during some days and encountered the problem. Now I use Firefox (glory in heaven). -- DLL ^{.. T} 19:24, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Locating history of deleted pages

I am trying to locate the history page of an article that was removed back in March or April 2006. A search for the term reveals no article, and thus no history page. Is there a way to locate history pages of articles that have been deleted?

David (Cross-posted on Village Pump (assistance) page)

Do you know the article name? If not, I might be able to help find it. If you do know the article name, the advice at Wikipedia:Village pump (assistance)#Locating history page of deleted article is good. --Interiot 19:27, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Problem encountered when using search function

When I type in two or more words (usually) into the search function, I sometimes get a an special error screen that says "There was a problem with your search. This is probably temporary; try again in a few moments, or you can search Wikipedia through an external search service:" It doesn't seem to happen with single word searches, though it can be difficult to find exactly what I am looking for with just single word searches. So what is up with this? SkinnyZan 19:43, 16 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I sometimes get this problem too - some days seem worse than others,usually repeating the search works. DuncanHill 10:27, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A Yahhoogle search is quite more accurate that our internal search box. It does not care for diacritics and sometimes finds or offers bad spelling info.

I'm not in love with our poor search, too restricted "by technical limitations", which I duly understand, because a good search is costly. A Firefox search add-on : Wikipedia&Google, is something nice to have. -- DLL ^{.. T} 19:20, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Longest article name in wikipedia?

Wondering about some wikitrivia: What is the longest title of any article? And what is the techincal limit? "Gymnaslærer Pedersens beretning om den store politiske vekkelsen som har hjemsøkt vårt land" is the longest I've found so far. - Kris to d 12:59, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I only know Category:Long words. Kusma (討論) 13:02, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How about Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphopnopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimarnavatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit (it's a redirect, actually). Tizio, Caio, Sempronio 13:08, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

According to the db dump of 25/09, the longest article appears to be Protocol Bringing under International Control Drugs outside the Scope of the Convention of 13 July 1931 for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs (183 chars). Also worth of mention is Talk:Lopadotemamachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotirmmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepicossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon. According to Wikipedia:Title, the maximal allowed length of a title is 255 chars (excluding the namespace). Tizio, Caio, Sempronio 13:30, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, that Talk page's a db-talk, and now tagged as such... Feel free to detag it if you think it contains information useful in creating an article (presumably on wikt:). --ais523 13:34, 17 October 2006 (U T C)

No problem. We still have Talk:Comparison of Internet forum software/w/wiki/Talk:Comparison of Internet forum software/wiki/Talk:Comparison of Internet forum software/w/wiki/Talk:Comparison of Internet forum software/ :-). Tizio, Caio, Sempronio 13:37, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As of March 06, so some may have been renamed since then:

Anything in Category:Articles whose titles are too long seems like a candidate. My favorite is Protocol Bringing under International Control Drugs outside the Scope of the Convention of 13 July 1931 for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, because they can keep prepending follow-up protocols. --Interiot 14:15, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Images not appearing

Please have a look at the Monkton Combe article. I put a picture on this article yesterday, but it shows a red cross in the frame and no picture. If I click on the picture, the enlarged version shows completely normally so I know the picture is on the server. CTRL-F5 makes no difference. Is there a temporary fault on WP? (copied over here from the Help Desk at another Users suggestion)- Adrian Pingstone 15:54, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

?action=purge on the article or image description page doesn't help either, and the problem is occuring on several different images, some from Commons, some from enwiki. Entering the image's URL manually gets an error saying that the PHP script exists but not the image. (CAT:CSD is a striking example of the problem at the moment, but as that category tends to change a lot it may not be by the time you read this). --ais523 16:03, 17 October 2006 (U T C)

OK, all's well now, the picture shows (on IE Version 6) - Adrian Pingstone 20:16, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm having the same problem. On several articles, pictures aren't displaying. They were displaying just a few days ago, so I don't know what has changed. Any help would be appreciated. Thx! --71.37.111.75 03:35, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

NM I think everything is working fine again (no apparent reason, weird). --Dimblethum 04:15, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

StringFunctions

I think StringFunctions and DynamicFunctions should be added to the Wikimedia severs. They would be very useful in templates since they can operate with strings (for instance, I am thinking of a template that could automatically determine whether a particular IP adress is valid (ie. it would find that 72.76.122.155 is a valid adress while 132.277.76.9 is not). I think the developers should immediatly add them, because the code already exists). Polonium 19:09, 17 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I already answered this on m:Talk:ParserFunctions. -- Tim Starling 07:01, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

RSS watchlist

Is there any way to get an RSS feed of the articles on my watchlist? [email protected] 00:56, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not automaticaly, there are RRS and Atom feeds for each article's history, but you need to subscribe to each one individualy. There is also a recent changes feed, but that one is not very suitable for human consumption because of the high trafic. --Sherool (talk) 07:12, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

RfA reform plan

Please see [1] - a new idea for simple reform that needs more feedback. Rama's arrow 04:46, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Simile Project

MIT has developed an awesome AJAX interface for timelines called Simile. It's under a free license (BSD) and would be an incredibly useful tool for Wikipedia. We should investigate what technical issue would be involved in integrating their technology with Wikipedia (if it's even possible). Kaldari 17:45, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Looks intriguing (and a little inspired by Google Maps...?). Have you tried posting the above elsewhere, e.g. Wikimedia...? Regards, David Kernow (talk) 09:13, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Columns, infoboxes, floating, and layout

As seen in this diff, the content section of the Gospel of Mark article used <div style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;"> to create a two column layout. I, however, felt that using a browser specific, CSS3, non-standard bit of code was a bad idea (for obvious reasons, no?). So I converted the columns over to the {{col-begin|width=95%}}{{Col-break}} etc templates. And everything was fine until this edit. On my laptop, with a fairly small resolution, the columns run over onto the two floating navigational tempaltes on the right. You can probably see this by simply decreasing your browser window size. Is there something easy that can be done to fix this? Or is using the CSS3 the best solution? You can't clear the float, because then the content won't start until under the templates. What if the columns were floating as well?--Andrew c 23:00, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Infoboxes broken

All sorts of layout just started breaking - infoboxes aren't showing borders or floating, tables aren't showing up properly, all sorts of stuff. I'm using Cologne Blue, FWIW. What changed, and can it be changed back? Nothing different on my side, as far as I know... Zetawoof^(ζ) 00:34, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind - randomly started working again. Go figure. Zetawoof^(ζ) 02:03, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I still see this in pages like Islam and NHL. -- Jeff3000 02:53, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see this anywhere. Did you try purging and force-reloading? —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 06:23, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm on monobook, and this problem appears to be affecting me as well. In fact, they are broken right at this moment. --WCQuidditch ☎ ✎ 18:15, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please post screenshots. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 02:18, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dictionary Search + Wikipedia

I browse with Firefox and I have an addon called "Dictionary Search" that allows one to search dictionaries and other web sites through highlighted text and a right click. When I use this with Wikipedia it replaces spaces with plus signs. So if I search for "Wikipedia, the free encyclopdia" what is actually search for is "Wikipedia,+the+free+encyclopdia". Would there be a way to fix this on Wikipedia's end? I've posted a request to fix it with Firefox. Naufana : talk 01:19, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=$&go=Go&sourceid=Mozilla-search works well enough for me. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 06:22, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Userbox Images

How do u use an image in the iD portion of the userbox? Kingalex56 02:37, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you're using {{Userbox}} to design it, set the id parameter to id=[[Image:Foobar.jpg|45px]] (obviously replacing "Foobar.jpg" with the actual name of the image you want to use). Make sure it's not a "fair use" image. And although in my example I said to set the width at 45px, actually it's the height that should be 45px so you'll have to do some math to figure out what the width should be to get the height at 45px. —An gr 15:04, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Columns

Why does <div style="-moz-column-count:3; column-count:3;">[bulleted list of items]</div> work with Firefox, but not IE? And is there a way to use columns in IE other than using {{col-begin}}...{{col-break}} etc. I'd like to avoid having to hardcode breaks in my series. — Moondyne 06:27, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"moz" within a property name has an overwhelming aroma of "Mozilla proprietary". Meanwhile, column-count is part of the draft for CSS3; as IE isn't so hot on implementing even CSS1, I think you can forget about CSS3. -- Hoary 06:36, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

-moz-column-count is the one which works on Firefox, and (as the -moz prefix shows) it's a Gecko extension; it works almost the same as column-count, which is on the CSS 3 draft (and AFAIK no browser implements). The use of both is for future-proofing (as other browsers can be expected to implement column-count but not -moz-column-count). So, it's not that it does not work with MSIE; the problem is that it currently works only with Gecko-based browsers such as Firefox (but it can be expected to work with more browsers in the future, because of the future-proofing). --cesarb 17:56, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

image tag problem

hi, i have found the image of Leinil Francis Yu via a YOUTUBE video which i "printscreen", from Gerry Alanguilan's blog but i dont know whats the right tag for the image. YOUTUBES can be embeded on anyone's site without a formal permission, so whats the right image tag for it? †Bloodpack† 06:39, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

{{somewebsite}} (which is a speedy deletion tag). The fact that YouTube allows embedding doesn't mean that all their videos are freely licensed. Zetawoof^(ζ) 06:58, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

creating an image link to wikimedia

I'm trying to insert http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Iris1.jpg into an article; ordinarily I'd use [[Image:Iris1.jpg]] however there is already an image in the english wikipedia called Image:Iris1.jpg and it defaults to that image. How can I insert the correct image? Vicarious 06:59, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You can't as long as there is a "local" image with the same name. You need to "move" the image that's blocking the commons image (that is: upload it under a different name and delete the old one). I would suggest moving the "local" flower image to commons with a more descriptive name, copy all the relevant history and then tag the old for deletion. --Sherool (talk) 07:20, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

ugh Vicarious 07:26, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Aligning ? on taxobox

Hey,

I am currently trying to remove the bevelling on the title of Template:Taxobox. You can see an example of the taxobox being used here. Upon removing the bevelling (display:block;), the question mark on the right of the title appears in the top right of the article (where the FA star goes). I was wondering whether anyone knew a solution which involved removing the bevelling, but retaining the position of the question mark. To test, you can use my test page, it is up to date with the current taxobox (ignore the red link, when you press edit it is up to date). To test, use this page. Thanks --liquidGhoul 08:09, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have created a solution, would people be able to test on my test page above whether it works in their browser/OS. Currently, I know it works on Firefox in XP and Linux. Thanks --liquidGhoul 12:52, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Parts of Wikipedia's computer thinks my article does not exist

HELP! I've emailed people not connected with Wikipedia to review my article Harry Aubrey Toulmin, Sr. and for some reason, they cannot pull up the article from the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Aubrey_Toulmin%2C_Sr . Also, when I enter "Harry Aubrey Toulmin" or "Harry Toulmin" into Wikipedia's search, it says that no such article exists. I thought that it was because my article was missing something, such as de:Harry Toulmin, pl:Harry A. Toulmin, sk:Harry Aubrey Toulmin, sv:Harry Toulmin. I don't even know what these do, but I added them to the bottom of the article because I saw the code on some other article. That didn't change anything. Why can't outsiders pull up my artice Harry Aubrey Toulmin, Sr. and why can't I find my article via Wikipedia search? Mosty important, do you have a link that I can provide to those outside Wikipedia to be able to bring up my article, Harry Aubrey Toulmin, Sr.? Thanks.Jreferee 12:10, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The problem appears to be something related with the final dot. The url http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Aubrey_Toulmin%2C_Sr%2E seems to work. The search function is not always up-to-date, so it is not a surprise it didn't find your article. Tizio, Caio, Sempronio 12:26, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the help. The title of my article "Harry Aubrey Toulmin, Sr." ends in a period (".") which apparently is a problem according to this link[2]. I'll follow up with Bugzilla.[3] Thanks again. Jreferee 13:35, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As a work around, I've created redirect pages from Harry Aubrey Toulmin, Sr and Harry Aubrey Toulmin Sr, You can give other people links to these pages. –RHolton ≡– 14:33, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Making such redirects is generally a good idea. Recently I wanted to look up Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (not knowing it's actually What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, and as I very often do when going to an article, I just typed the expected URL into my URL bar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whatever_Happened_to_Baby_Jane? -- but of course the URL interpreted the question mark as an indicator that some parameter was about to come, and dropped it, taking me to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. At the time, that was a red link, so I made a redirect. It would be good if a bot could be programmed to find all article titles ending with a punctuation mark and make redirects from punctuationless forms. —An gr 14:50, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

MOVING A SANDBOX PAGE TO A LIVE PAGE

How do I move a page that is currently in the "Sandbox" to a live page?

Wikipedia:Sandbox isn't really an ideal page for drafting articles, as the only practical way to move them to mainspace is to copy-and-paste the edit windows (do this only if you've written all the text there, so as not to infringe copyright). If you create the page in a user sandbox, you can use the 'move' link at the top of the page if the article doesn't already exist. --ais523 15:55, 19 October 2006 (U T C)

It doesn't have to be the Wikipedia:Sandbox. It could be User:xxx/Sandbox. The answer is: you have to have an account, be at least four days old, and can click on the "Move this page" link. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:55, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Category pages background

Can someone make the backgrounds "transparent" in the div or table markups (whatever they are) so all the category pages simply display in the light blue background color? They look pretty unprofessional now. Thanks, Rfrisbie^talk 18:54, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Edit 'section'

Why has the 'edit' button gone up to the top-left, rather than the usual right of a heading section? - Mailer Diablo 19:51, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I've noticed a lot of weird things going on today, most importantly that, but also the random disappearance of the words "the free encyclopedia" from where it says "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" at the top of the page, and at one point the text below the edit window that currently reads "Content that violates any copyright will be deleted. Encyclopedic content must be verifiable. You agree to license your contributions under the GFDL." had turned into something completely different.

But as for the edit button... move it back, please. Causes a whole lot of unnecessary whitespace. -- NORTH ^talk 23:13, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Everything appears correct to me. Tried purges and forced reloads? —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 02:22, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Forced reload fixed it for me. Ashibaka tock 20:29, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Problems logging in

Lately, I am experiencing problems logging into Wikipedia from my PC. I am currently using a web browser called Crazy Browser and my PC is a Pentium II. Allow me to explain the weird situations that began to arise a few days ago. For example, the main page of the project presents the images in an incoherent manner and it takes me a very long time for the page to upload itself. On top of this, when I click on the Sign in option, the page fails to upload correctly and only shows the navigation toolbar on the left. I have not faced this problem when I am using a different PC from a different location. Can anyone help me with this? I have checked my PC for viruses and spyware and so far, my PC is clear from them. Is the Wikipedia website facing a bug or is it just my PC, which suddenly went bonkers? --S iva1979^{Talk to me} 21:17, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm also having trouble, staying logged in. Is there something being updated, or am I just having problems at my end? -Royalguard11(Talk·Desk) 00:15, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think that I have solved this problem. I changed my default browser to Firefox and there were no problems. I feel that there is something which is being updated on Wikipedia that caused the problem. I guess that I have to get used to this new browser as soon as possible! --S iva1979^{Talk to me} 03:57, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Continuing Search problem

I am editing a page called "Hay, New South Wales". In Australia New South Wales is almost always abbreviated to NSW, so anyone searching would probably use "hay nsw" to search for this particular town. My problem is that a search on "hay nsw" doesn't get the "Hay, New South Wales" page as the top result (or anywhere close to the top result). After some previous advice I added a re-direct on the "Hay, NSW" page to re-direct to the "Hay, New South Wales" page - this works fine. Despite this, however, the problem still remains - anyone searching on "hay nsw" will not get "Hay, New South Wales" (or even "Hay, NSW" for that matter) as the top result. Why is it so? And how do I fix it? --Ikeshut 04:24, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Make another redirect. Like Hay nsw which I just made. Garion96 (talk) 04:27, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Case sensivity : - Oh, Charles, your case tickles me so much! -- DLL ^{.. T} 20:38, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Boxes on user page

Does anyone know what the syntax for <div> is? I'd like some of the 'boxes' that you see on fancier user pages on my page, but I don't know how to use them.--CarrotMan 09:49, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Div is a very diverse tag, used for divisions between content in pages. You may use css inside the div tags, and div also has a few other "parameters" as well. You can do a google search for how to use div tags, you'll probably get quite a few results. —Mets501 (talk) 10:59, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Most userboxes are templates, instructions for creating and using them are at Wikipedia:Userboxes. -- Rick Block (talk) 13:27, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Infoboxes are a mess

As commented above infoboxes are making a mess of pages. They are appearing on the left with a desert of white space to the right. It looks awful. I am using Firefox. Sumahoy 11:43, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See my comment below. I'm using a nightly build of firefox, Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.9a1) Gecko/2006121804 Minefield/3.0a1

edit

. The infoboxes have been broken for a few days now. ... aa:talk 06:14, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please post screenshots. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 01:24, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

List of articles that have been deleted

Is there any way for a WikiProject to keep a list of articles that fell within the scope of their WikiProject and that have at some point been deleted, other than manually maintaining a list? Is there a list anywhere of all pages that have ever been deleted? Anyone have any idea how large the number is? Carcharoth 13:36, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To answer one of your questions, there is Special:Log/delete. That is the deletion log and is a list of all the articles ever deleted. It searchable by title only. I'm not sure how you'd go about finding deleted articles relevent to your WikiProject unless you know the title. Hope this helps some.--Andrew c 15:10, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Need help with tables

Hello, I need some help with table. I am trying to create something like {{Round16ext}} for a family tree, and here is my problem: I want the gap between "son" & "daughter" cells be 10px in height, so I specify it. But then I want to draw a thick black border connecting "son" & "daughter." That does not work if the gap is completely empty. So I have to put &nbsp. But then the gap becomes very wide. Is there a way to reduce its height and still have the border? Thanks!

Version 1: with thick border, but wide gap

		Son
		Cell 1

		Daughter
		Cell 2

Version 2: no border, but the gap is of right height

		Son
		Cell 1

		Daughter
		Cell 2

Renata 14:20, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I can see no difference using Firefox, both look good ; with an IE tab, I see no connecting line at all! The Round16ext template looks good in both browsers. Try again! -- DLL ^{.. T} 20:35, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, never mind. I figured out how to do it where I needed it, but for whatever bizarre reason the above tables do not display properly at all. They display properly only when I am previewing them before submitting this comment... Weird, huh? Renata 00:12, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Image not displaying

Does anyone know why Commons:Image:Berlin Wall graffiti&death strip.jpg, which displays just fine when you go to its Wikipedia "pseudo" page at Image:Berlin Wall graffiti&death strip.jpg, isn't displaying properly on the pages where it's being used (Berlin#20th century, Berlin Wall, 1980s#War and politics, etc.)? It's not the syntax used to put the image in the articles, because (1) it seems to be affecting all articles it's in, and (2) the syntax hasn't been changed, and the picture was displaying properly last week. Doing a "hard refresh" with Ctrl-F5 doesn't work, and I'm not the only person for whom it is failing to display. Any thoughts? —An gr 14:43, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. Purging the image description page, both here and at Commons, didn't work. —An gr 18:54, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There was something wrong with the thumbnail image generated at Commons. I tried resizing it by a pixel so the software would make a new thumbnail and now it works. I did change the & in the image to its URL-encoded version, maybe thats why it choked on the image? --QTCaptain 03:09, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I had to do another hard refresh, but it seems to be working for me now too. Thanks for your help! —An gr 10:01, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

left-aligned templates?

Did I miss some discussion about left-aligned templates? I noticed that between yesterday and today many of the infoboxes (examples: Lew Allen, Nissan X-Trail, Chevrolet TrailBlazer -- which I know used to have it on the right) appear on the left, above the article text, rather than on the right, with the article text starting to the left of the template. Could somebody point me to the reason for the change? I've been trying to avoid wikipolitics as much as possible, and would just like to know why. Thanks, ... aa:talk 15:05, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe it's a browser thing. All three of those examples are displaying on the right for me (Firefox 1.5.0.7 on Windows XP). —An gr 15:09, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Category problem

Category:Ecuadorian politicians automatically includes Category:Politicians by nationality, which is a redirect, and Category:Politicians by country, which it shouldn't. It should only be in Category:Politicians of South American nations because of the way the politicians category is set up. - GilliamJF 19:25, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm... I've manually removed it from Category:Politicians by country, but Category:Politicians by nationality seems to be being generated automatically by the {{Fooian fooers}} template on the category page. That template isn't being used on any other category of politicians, so maybe you can just dispense with it. —An gr 19:46, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. - GilliamJF 20:01, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Load of different wiki syntaxes

Which method of the following is more efficient in regard to the server load?

Placing {{ Template | {{Subtemplate1|Foobar}} | {{Subtemplate2|Foobar}} }} or {{ Template | {{Subtemplate1|Foobar}} | {{Subtemplate3|Foobar}} | {{Subtemplate7|Foobar}} }} (note 1, 3, 7), etc. into a page/article
Using a template with #if: (#if:Para1|..|.., #if:Para2|..|.., etc.; see m:ParserFunctions); example: {{ Template | Para1=Foo | Para3=Bar | Para7=Foobar }} (note 1, 3, 7)

Greetings, Melancholie 15:04, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not exactly sure I understand the difference you're talking about, but assuming you mean using nested templates vs. using a single template implemented with m:ParserFunctions the ParserFunctions one is more server-load friendly. Fetching the content of a template requires a database lookup. The amount of time required to do this dwarfs the time required to process the template's contents and consumes a much more precious resource (database time vs. Apache web server time - there's essentially one database, but dozens of Apache web servers). -- Rick Block (talk) 16:04, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There are many databases for the purposes of reading. Every slave server has its own database that can be read. Your analysis might be correct regardless, but it doesn't matter. Please don't worry about performance; just use whatever format is most convenient for you. If it causes load problems, the developers and system administrators (who closely watch profiling data for resource hogs) will deal with it. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 02:05, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Edit sections

Is it just my browser, or did the MediaWiki for the edit button for sections just change? Instead of appearing small to the side of the page, the button appears before the section title! --Gray Porpoise^{Phocoenidae, not Delphinidae} 16:41, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's happening all over. Monobook? --GunnarRene 16:58, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I'm using the monobook skin. Now, the edit button is back to the right, but it's larger than it originally was. --Gray Porpoise^{Phocoenidae, not Delphinidae} 17:01, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm using Firefox, and the edit links appear to be the same size as they were before. Maybe this problem is limited to IE/other browsers? --TMF ^{Let's Go Mets - Stats} 17:07, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm using Opera. But now the edit links are back to normal here too. --GunnarRene 17:13, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It happened to me using Classic skin and Safari browser. I logged out and then back in and the problem went away. --hydnjo talk 20:24, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This may have been an issue because of some behind-the-scenes mistakes with CSS importing and version numbers and stuff. Just do a forced refresh if it doesn't work for you, or wait and it will go away. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 02:12, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Template {{ed}}

Suddenly all the little [edit] links are showing up in large size on the left side of the screen, rather than small and on the right. Can anyone explain what happened? --Metropolitan90 16:41, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, now they're back in the correct position, but larger than usual. I expect that someone will probably correct that also. --Metropolitan90 16:43, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Font problem

Hello,

Is there someone could help me in the font problem? I work in the ko Wiktionary and want to display ancient greek flawlessly. I've collected so many fonts and put in Monobook.css_ #bodyContent. But it doesn't work (see here) as I've wished. I don't know if this problem is only in my computer configuration. A obserber in assistance said, he couldn't find any problem. -- 아흔(A-heun) 16:45, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

It shows correctly for me. Could you provide a screenshot? —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 02:15, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

an annoying alert appears everytime when i browse wiki page......

since a few weeks ago, an annoying alert saying "do you want to allow a file to be downloaded?" has kept on jumping out everytime when i browse in wiki (this alert ONLY when i browse wiki)...either i click yes or no....nothing happen. it just keep jumping out in any page of wiki. this is a problem of IE i believe because this doesn't happen in firefox. but in other computers, this doesn't appear in IE either. it seems to be a problem only of myself. 219.77.121.33 17:21, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It also appears to be a problem only you are having, sounds like your "Internet Explorer" browser has a problem. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:40, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In Special:Preferences, go to the Editing tab and untick 'Use external editor by default'. Tra (Talk) 18:36, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm...Just tried that, but still useless.... I've just reinstalled IE, or trying to use IE 6, but still the problem isn't solved. Oh by the way, this problem has been emerging since few weeks ago. Before that, this problem never emerges, I don't know if it is the problem of windows update or what. Lugiadoom 21:32, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try unticking 'Use external diff by default' as well. Tra (Talk) 00:03, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I just tried to uncheck that, (in fact i never check that two) still hasn't solved the problem. Quite strange. I have also cleared the cookies, temp files....But the problem still exist... Lugiadoom 05:45, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Does it give the name of the file it wants to download, and on which pages does it come up, which pages does it not come up on, does it still happen when you're not logged in, and do you get the same error when browsing meta: or wikibooks: (which run the same software)? Tra (Talk) 14:14, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, it just jumps out an alert window (as shown in this picture http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/2264/sshot20061024010421kf1.jpg) This happens also even I'm not logged in, and yes this also happens when browsing meta: or wikibooks:. Lugiadoom 17:08, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, this may sound paranoid, but when was the last time you updated your antivirus signatures and ran a complete scan? Have you ever run a program like Spybot Search & Destroy (also with updated signature files) to get rid of any mal/spyware that may have been installed on your computer without your knowledge? I ask this because the behavior you describe is not typical of wiki projects, and judging by the responses that you've gotten so far, not seen by other editors. Slambo (Speak) 17:25, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I updated that one week ago, but this happened since few weeks ago. I have been using Ad-Aware SE Personal for a few years... but i suspect this is a problem caused by some security updates...So i come and ask for advice. Lugiadoom 18:11, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps a firewall rule changed? Slambo (Speak) 18:57, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nope, didn't edit the settings for a few months. Lugiadoom 19:39, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You mentioned security updates. Just to clarify, are you running Service Pack 2? I can see by the screenshot that you've downloaded a lot of toolbars etc. Did you install anything or change any of their settings around the time when the alerts appeared? Tra (Talk) 20:00, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I use XP SP2, and windows often updates sth....Sometimes internet security files, although I don't know what they are...I have tried to uninstall the programs related to internet security (E.g. Norton Internet Security) but still useless... So i think it is related to XP itself...But I don't want to format my computer... Lugiadoom 20:41, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Layout changes?

I've noticed that as of today, WP looks fine in IE on XP, but on an old version of Opera on a 98 machine, the layout seems to have changed somewhat. The globe logo is gone, the "article/discussion/edit/history" tabs have been replaced by a bulleted list right under where the logo was, the font size of the left hand menus is slightly larger, the boxes around the left hand menus are gone, and at the bottom of the pages there's a note that the articles were "Retrieved from 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/[article name],' like you sometimes see on one of those unauthorized mirrors. I've tried reloading and it still looks the same. Was there an update that the older broweser can't deal with? Dyfsunctional 17:57, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like the css is not being displayed properly. Try using a newer browser. Tra (Talk) 18:39, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Uploading graphic

I have created line drawings, nothing copied from a book or the internet, with some text, using Excel's drawing tools. The drawings are in an Excel worksheet, but I can copy and paste them to a Word or WordPad document as a picture ("enhanced metafile), or as just a picture. So from either the original Excel worksheet, or from a document, I can select the drawing. I can then put it on the clipboard by using Cntrl C. I need to know how to upload this drawing to Wikipedia, so can use it for an article that needs editing. I read that a drawing should be saved as a PNG file, but that doesn't appear in my "paste special" list of options. Where do I paste the drawing on my PC so I can list the source link to it on your upload image page? Regards, Thermbal Thermbal 20:29, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Just paste it into Paint and save it as a PNG, or preferably, save it as an SVG if possible. Drawings should always be saved in vector format (SVG) when possible. — Dark Shikari ^talk/_contribs 03:34, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Font size increase

Whilst editing today, I have twice done something with the keyboard and the mouse simultaneously (I think) that has enlarged all of the font sizes throughout Wikipedia. The first time I thought it was Wikipedia itself that had changed the font sizes (as happened a week or so ago with table formatting), but now it has happened again and the font size is ridiculously big. Does anyone know how I can return the font size to normal?--Diniz 20:54, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What browser are you using? If Firefox, try Ctrl + "-" key. --Aude (talk) 21:13, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

IE 7, Safari, and firefox support font size enlarging. Ctrl + or - may solve the problem.

If you are using IE 6 and it doesn't solve the problem, go to View, font size, and choose medium. Lugiadoom 21:37, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In Firefox, Ctrl + 0 will get you back to "normal" font size regardless of whether you're currently above or below it. —An gr 21:53, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've got it back to normal through View->Text Size. Thanks for your help!--Diniz 19:20, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Failed to parse - Unknown Error

In my talkpage, I tried to put in <math>x ≠ 0</math> and I get an Failed to parse (unknown error) message in bold red. The error doesn't appear when I try to edit, and it is <math></math> like everything else on my page, I am at a loss and I put a {{helpme}} and they were at a loss to. I was refered her by them, help? btg2290 23:40, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Enter it as <math>x \neq 0</math> to give

x\neq 0

. WP:FORMULA tells you more about how to use <math> tags. Tra (Talk) 23:51, 21 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

External Links

How can I put an external link inside a userbox? Whenever I've tried, it just screws up the layout of the userbox. BeefJeaunt (Talk) 04:56, October 21 2006 (UTC)

Putting <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.example.com link]</span> will give you link without the little external link icon so it shouldn't mess up the userbox so much. Tra (Talk) 14:20, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Talk:Main Page problem

I am getting a blank page when I click Talk:Main Page. I can see the most recent version and the history, but a normal click does not work. Anyone else having this problem or is it just me? Thanks, Banyan Tree 15:15, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's working fine for me. Try refreshing, or clearing your browser cache. Tra (Talk) 15:35, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'll be darned. I thought that because I'd closed my browser since I first noticed the problem that was already covered, but a simple reload does the trick. Thanks! Banyan Tree 15:41, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Messed up image at 200px

[[Image:Hemisphere_m.jpg|200px]][[Image:Hemisphere_m.jpg|50px]]

Image displays perfectly well at other sizes, but not on 200 pixels. What happened? --GunnarRene 19:48, 22 October 2006 (UTC) Feel free to delete the old versions by the way. --GunnarRene 19:50, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I fixed it by purging the image description page. By the way, I've had to remove the thumbnails you placed above because they're fair use. Tra (Talk) 20:45, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks.--GunnarRene 20:55, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

History entries sometimes flipped

With Tawkerbot2 reverting at Procellariidae (history) on 20:14 UTC 22 October 2006. Tawkerbot's revert is before the edit it reverted, and Tawkerbot's diff makes it look as if it did nothing.

Same thing with AntiVandalBot and Texas (history) on 00:40 UTC 22 October 2006. Its diff makes it look like it did nothing.

Does this happen occasionally with edits a second apart and is nothing to worry about? Gotyear 20:54, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Adding YouTube Video (with Player) to a Wiki Page

Sorry to bother with this question, but I looked around MediaWiki for an answer and couldn't find one. I'm sure it's simple (or impossible). My question is this. I want to add a YouTube video to a Wikipage. I found the code on YouTube, but am not sure how to make the player appear with the video ready to play. Can this be done? How? Thanks. MarshallPoe 21:53, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, that's not possible - Wikipedia doesn't support embedded objects (primarily for security reasons). Just link to the video. Zetawoof^(ζ) 22:26, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Further question: is that Wikipedia policy, or a limitation of Mediawiki? In other words, does Mediawiki support embedded objects on wikipages? I have a personal wiki that runs Mediawiki, and I'd like embed the YouTube video on pages there, if possible. Thanks again. MarshallPoe 23:48, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki does not support embedded objects at this time. Embedded Java will probably happen sooner or later for the benefit of Wikiversity or what have you, but there are no timeframes. —Simetrical (talk • contribs) 01:26, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You could install an extension that allows you to embed YouTube files. Tra (Talk) 01:35, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Tra. I left a message on your user page. I confess I don't know how to install an extension... I'm I just way over my head, or can I do this? Btw, this request, though related to Wikipedia, is for another wiki project using Mediawiki ([MemoryArchive]). MarshallPoe 14:35, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Just to expand a little, please don't link to a YouTube page if it's a copyright violation. User:Zoe|(talk) 18:02, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A page I do not understand

I went to the page for High Sheriff of Cornwall and the references look a bit odd to me. Are they ok? Is there a problem? --Filll 00:32, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed them. It took me a bit, but some had extra <ref> tags without closing them after the book or website reference with the </ref> tag. Thanks for the heads up. Gotyear 00:52, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

CydeBot slapping me down

Hi there, I changed c**t to cunt (what's the point, I know, lol) in the Craig David article, in the trivia section, because of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Content_disclaimer and one of Cyde's bots changed it back or deleted it or something. I was going to tell Cyde but only registered users can post on his talk page, and right now I cannot be arsed. --207.216.10.77 07:21, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Just do it again - the bot will assume you know what you're doing. Zetawoof^(ζ) 09:03, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, generally anti-vandal-bots like Cyde's will only stop you once. — Dark Shikari ^talk/_contribs 10:46, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

WP:AFD/Old borked

All the entries on this page are displaying "0 open / 0 closed / 0 total discussions". I've tried refreshing and the same thing happens. Anyone know what's going on? --Sam Blanning^(talk) 10:48, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try asking User:Mathbot about that (or its operator; talking to bots is often slightly pointless); it seems to have put the zeros there. --ais523 13:22, 23 October 2006 (U T C)

suggestion for easier/quicker reverting

I find it a little time consuming to revert articles, and ATM I don't want to use any of the addons for wiki, as I'm a fairly new user. At the moment I spot vandalisms by going to the recent changes page, looking at the history and comparing the last two versions (or the last two versions by different users), then going back to the last non-vandalised version and saving changs. It would speed up things a lot if there was a link in the 'compare selected versions' screen that read "revert to this version" and added a automatic summary "reverted to last edits by xxxx" (or similar), and maybe a link in the history page to do the same (though I think that may be a little too dangerous).

This could either be implemented as a greasemonkey script, FF extension or as an actual change to the wiki software.

Please let me know what you think, if I'm missing another simpler way of doing this, and which technology would be prefered. If GM is chosen, I think I can code it, otherwise someone will have to take over the technical side. --User24 17:52, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I see you have popups installed. On the recent changes or history page, find the revision containing the vandalism listed and hover over 'diff' or 'last'. You will see a box pop up. Click on 'rv' in the box and then wait. You will see lots of pages flash past and then you will see the article page. Once you see that, you have reverted it. Tra (Talk) 18:03, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. woot! I can even do it on the compare page. cheers and sorry for asking what now appears to be an obviously n00b question. --User24 18:16, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What you are asking for is the Wikipedia:Rollback feature, which is limited to use by admins. Does Wikipedia:Reverting help? User:Zoe|(talk) 18:05, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

yeah, I looked at Wikipedia:Reverting but that just told me to do things the way I already was. --User24 18:16, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Browsing to an article by means of its unique id?

Hello,

I am wondering, if it is possible to navigate to an article by using its unique id. I has examined the XML description of articles and found out, that every article has its own id.

<mediawiki...

 ...
 <page>
   <title>JavaScript</title>
   <id>2512</id>
   ..

</mediawiki>

Is it possible to access 'JavaScript' by means of an URL like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.php?id=2512 ?

Best regards,

 Dennis

To access an article via id, this URL seems to work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.php?curid=2512 I don't know about javascript. Tizio, Caio, Sempronio 18:31, 23 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Perfect! The id 2512 refers in the german wikipedia to 'JavaScript'. Thanks, again.