Help Forum/Archive 1

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Where to propose a new project wiki?

I would like to propose a new project wiki. To do this, here created a page with content: "This wiki will contain annotations, summaries of famous books, literary works, bestsellers."

But removed.

Where to insert your project to discuss, and if you like it - Realized. --Jabbar (Azerbaijan). 13:55, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

How To Perform Global Search/Replace OR Use Variables To Support Product Name Changes

I'm sure that I'm not the first Technical Writer to use wiki as a publishing tool for User Guides. Therefore, my question is: How do I set up product variables? As Marketing changes products names, I'd like to update a variable that then makes the change throughout my User Guide. For example, if Marketing changes a product name from "EdgeGuard" to "Untangle Server" I'd like to avoid having to update every occurrence manually. I've read through wiki support documentation, but can't locate the information that I'm looking for. There are discussions about variables, but I think those variables are programming variables, and I'm not a programmer. Thank you!

You can create e.g. Template:P1 containing "EdgeGuard", and put {{P1}} in the guide.--Patrick 00:43, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Sort order in Thai Wikipedia

Hello, I'm wondering where I can find how to fix the sort order in Thai Wikipedia. The problem is that, in Thai language, words starting with a vowel alphabet need to use the second alphabet (consonant alphabet) as the sort key but the Mediawiki always use the first alphabets sorting by its unicode.

I searched some and found out that someone already asked this question in bugzilla ( http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=164) (#32, Oct 05). And also the related one is already mentioned in unicode collation algorithm for Thai/Lao (http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr10/ in #3.1.3 Rearrangement). And also I found someone talking about LC_COLLATE in English WP for sorting specific alphabet order (but I really don't know about this). Thank you for any answer.

Regards, --Manop 19:03, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Is This Allowed?

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Friends_of_gays_should_not_be_allowed_to_edit_articles This is a page I stumbled across, and frankly I find the name rather disgusting. It should be changed.

  • Disgusting? Dude, it's humor. As a gay man, I find nothing objectionable with it. The page is taking immature attacks (so and so is gay) and tongue-in-cheek assuming this means the poster is a friend of a queer person. What about this do you find disgusting? Mention of penises?

Wiki-Markup: language of Wikimedia article

Hi, recently I translated Wiki is not paper (en) into Wiki ist kein Papier (de). Is there some Wiki-markup to tell servers and clients about an article's language? In HTML and XML it would read something like lang="de". Other examples Help:Edit (en) and Hilfe:Bearbeiten (de). --Plauz 13:26, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I am not aware of such a possibility on the page level, and would like to have that (or know how to achieve it) as well.
Inside a page, there are two possibilities:
  1. if language is switched inside a paragraph of text:
    you can use e.g. the wikicode:
    English [[Help:Editing|Help:Edit]] has been translated to <span lang="de">[[Help:Editing/de|Hilfe:Bearbeiten]]</span> which is German, but arabic words <span lang="ar" dir="rtl"> العظيمه في الامور</span> mean something quite different.
    which yields:
    "English Help:Edit has been translated to Hilfe:Bearbeiten which is German, but arabic words العظيمه في الامور mean something quite different."
    make sure to use dir="rtl" or dir="ltr" whenever the directionaly, left-to-right, or right-to-left, of the languages script is different from the directionality of the wiki, else you'll observe odd behaviour in many browsers.
    Hint: When editing, type the text without markup. When done, select the words to be inside <span> … </span> and klick the "(ignore wiki formatting)" button in the edit menu. Then modify the <nowiki> tags. This is quickly done, and convenient.
  2. marking entire paragraphs using another language is done similarly, only you use <div> … </div> instead of <span> … </span> . Of course, you can put an entire page between those marks so as to correctly tag it's language.
Language tagging - among several other things - supports search engines to correctly identify texts, and will do even more so, when support for words of identical or very similar meanings shall be introduced. So it can be seen as an indication of quality content in the www. Purodha Blissenbach 07:21, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

How can i get Search option like mediawiki

I just want to search even single letter as mediawiki does. and i want the output as mediawiki style...please suggest me

I have done all the Following things

  • modified the MYSQL fullltext search into 3 letters.
  • Restarted the MYSQL
  • Repaired the Table SearchIndex.

Still not working for 3 letters :(

How do I locate this image and use it in Wikipedia?

I have located this image http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/2/23/Kraftwerk_Ekibastus.jpg of a power plant smokestack in Kazachstan which I would like to use in an article in the Wikipedia about smokestacks. How do I locate the image ... and then how do I upload it into the Wikipedia? - mbeychok 19:24, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Images can only be shared across Wikimedia projects from Commons. --Swift 17:10, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Joining a wikiversity course

I've gone to wikiversity school of history several times because I want to join one of the US history classes that says it's open for enrollment. For some reason, I can't figure out how to add my name to the student list. Could anyone help me with this? 128.252.139.137 15:47, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Templates

Is it possible to create some sort of user template (I was thinking "urgent announcements" or something, to be used sparingly) on Meta that will show on all my other userpages on Wikimedia projects? I experimented in the sandbox but it went wrong and I don't want to be mucking up Meta if it's not possible. Thankyou Dev920 19:45, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

As far as I know, message transfer between wikis is not possible for users. You can only use that template inside that specific wiki. Regarding to your experiment at sandbox, you forgot to write [[Meta:Sandbox.... while including the template. --Dbl2010 19:58, 26 August 2006 (UTC)


How to include .js files to a template

Hi can anyone help me on how can I include js files and run javascript functions in a template Thanks in advance!!! MigraineB0y 07:24, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

As mentioned at the top of the page (red box with big alert sign on the left), this wiki serves the Wikimedia projects. Please direct your inquiries to more suitable venues. --Swift 07:51, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Suggestions

Hi, my name is T-man, and at the time I'm a banned user of wikepedia. I was not blocked because of vandalism, actually I created over 60 articles, and developed many more adding tables, images, info and format.

My problem was short temper and lack of diplomacy. However I’d like to share my thoughs, not only because I’d like to be helped to have a second opportunity, but also because I know that by sharing, I could help to the design of new measures, gudelines, programs, rules, WikiProjects or formats.

When I was new to wikipedia, I was incredibly obnoxious, sarcastic and rude. I was often confuded with a vandal. It took me 6 months to understand the concept of personal attacks. As a consecuence, I was put on parole and “harassed” by what could be called a wikistalker.

Then, it took me around 4 more moths to comprehend how sarcasm (including politically incorrect jokes now and then) is a form of passive/aggressive behavior.

I know, for the amount of edits I made (I developed pages like List of Villains or ‘’List of Justice League episodes’’ from scratch to include categorized images, data, tables, etc), it took me an incredibly long time to understand what’s good behavior and why. But in the process I had to deal with great opposition to the changes I achieved. It is incredible how, going against the guidelines, more than 5 editors complained about adding information.

In WP:CMC, my roommate and cousing, who was sadly labeled as a sockpuppet of myself, proposed several wikitables I helped him to design. Several other editors went through the same situation. The saddest part is that most people in talk pages only criticize and delete stuff and actually, they barely contribute formatting, sourcing or expanding the article according to guidelines.

Some psychologists call that ‘’transference’’ (of frustrations). I call it territoriality, and there is a lot of that going around in wikipedia. Like a jungle of egos. Recently I learned that showing appreciation for edits I’m not even sure about goes a long way.

Once, I noted there is an editor with several complaints for eliminating information and engaging on 3RR, I decided the right thing to do would be an intervention of all the complainers…my biggest mistake ever. On one side, he is only one person with his behavior bothering several people he could use the advise, on the other side: a. an intervention of that sort could easily be confused with an attack and b. who the hell am I to lecture him?!

To defend our points of view we have the Guidelines and policies… However, they are still very ambiguous. When I run into a ‘’Wikipedia:Deletionist’’ my win card is the guideline about Subsidiary articles for well sourced detailed information, however, even administrators ignore there is space for pages like “Isaac Newton's early life and achievements”.

I came to the conclusion that only a mayor changes in guideline pages and wikiprojects could solve this situation: Create boundaries: Specific rules for specific cases.

For instance, instead of the ambiguos:

Avoid links within headings. Depending on settings, some users may not see them clearly. It is much better to put the appropriate link in the first sentence under the heading.

To: Do not make links within headings.


Example 2:

Avoid using special characters in headings, such as an ampersand (&), a plus sign (+), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]). In place of the ampersand, use the word "and" unless the ampersand is part of a formal name.

To: Unless it is part of a title or a formal name, do not use special characters in headings, such as an ampersand (&), a plus sign (+), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]).

By the use of the word avoid, you imply there are sitiations in which the links can’t be avoided. And these ambiguous guides are all over the wikipedia. The problem is that these guidelines are written following guidelines to write encyclopedia articles, not encyclopedia guidelines! Wikipedia does not want Linking headers or headers with curly braces in any article at all, why using ambiguous words leaving space for expectation such as “avoid” or “perhaps” or “it’s not recommended”.

Most editors begin with a vague comprehension of what’s encyclopedic, why using confusing words. Guidelines should be as explicit as possible and reflect a sense of security about what wikipedia wants. Wikipedia needs clarifications, clear guides to follow.

Why were several infoboxes rejected in WP:CMC talk page? Because there is no rule about infoboxes. WP:INFOBOX is just a list of infoboxes with no clarification on when to use them.

The same thing with WP:CIVIL. What’s wrong with ‘’’Do not’’’ insult other editors, ‘’’Do not’’’ mock other editors or ‘’’Do not’’’ criticize the editor, criticize the content? “Please be civil, (…) this is considered uncivil, (…) being uncivil might get you in trouble” is not going far enough. Most newcomers are always going to engage in pity argues if they feel their reasons are bigger than the need to be CIVIL in wikipedia, and it is never the case. Be explicit, “Being uncivil will get editors warned by administrators, (…) after being warned, if the editor insists, he will get blocked up to a day.

For the same purpose, I think it’d be necessary to create introduction projects designed to guide step by step the newcomers. I think testing is necessary. Wikipedia should have emergency exams for users with politeness problems. Instead of being blocked over and over again, *some* editors should have the option or obligation (in some cases) to pass internet quizzes.

The quizzes could also be voluntary for people willing to improve their editing or programming skills, or to increase their copyright knowledge.

Another observation I have had in mind for quite a long time is the need for more workshops. There should be the option and recommendation to use /Sandboxes to propose rough changes, start tables or paragraphs sketches without the pressure of being published right away.

I hope my experiences and ideas were useful in some way. I felt it was my duty to share these thoughts. My proposals were done with whatever was on top of my head at the moment. Maybe you could think even better approaches to the problems I pointed. My point is that I see a problem or at least the need to keep up the improvements Choosing and designing each time better systems to prevent conflicts and make better articles is what made Wikipedia as huge as it is right know, it’s up to you guys to lead the way to keep making it better and better. 

 201.114.85.59 00:07, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

...Was this the right place to write that?

Should I go else where? Nobody seems to get replies here, is there a page where I should expect the reply to be or something like that?--201.114.85.59 22:46, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Search in Categories

I am looking for a way to search articles within defined categories.

Is there a way to do this? At the time of writting, it is possible to search within namespaces but not within categories...

Alexandre MELARD <wiki@melard.org>

80.118.132.225 13:42, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

List Category's articles

I would like to list the articles' titles within the same categories than the current article in a sidebox (much like the search or tool boxes...

Do you know if there is any way to achieve this?

I would apreciate your help on that matter.

Alexandre MELARD <wiki@melard.org>

80.118.132.225 13:42, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

It is possible with some extensions, see in-page display.--Patrick 00:30, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I would like to see my wiki inside an iframe of my website

I have my web at www.ka-tet-corp.com/portal2.0/ and my wiki at wiki.ka-tet-corp.com

I've tryed to see the wiki inside an iframe to keep a similar look between the wiki and the web, but, when the iframe tryes to load, it simply opens the whole wiki in the webpage. YOu can see what I mean in www.ka-tet-corp.com/portal2.0/wikipedia.php

So, my question is: Is it possible to display my wiki inside an iframe in may main page?

Thanks in advance!

Captcha help

I feel stupid for asking, but I don't get the captcha. It says As a protection against automated spam, you'll need to type in the words that appear in this image to register an account:. OK, fair enough. But then I don't see any words or any image. There is one half of an equation. So what am I supposed to do here? Type the answer to the equation? Doesn't work. OK, maybe I need to type the number out as a word. Nope, that doesn't work either. Maybe I'm supposed to type the same equation in. Nope not that either. Maybe I'm supposed to type out the equation in words. Nope, not that either. I give up. Is the point of the captcha to keep dummies like me out? It's quite effective then. En:User:Bkonrad


Product Name Feedback Inquiry

Hello all. My question is very random but it's regarding a podcast that I recently tangled with. The podcast was in regard to a new "micro brewery" that used Wikipedia to receive feedback on their name/product by interacting with Wikipedia users. I'm not sure how this was technically approached but it sounded like something that I wanted to find out more about. If anyone has any thoughts on this matter I would appreciate the feedback. The only thing I can think about is that a new category/name was introuduced, new language to where users could provide feeback. Could this be it? Thank you Wikipedia users.

How do I report vandalism on Meta-Wiki

How do I report vandalism on Meta-Wiki? The owner of spam domains I've requested be blacklisted deleted[1] a portion of my request. I'm concerned he'll do it again and I think he should be blocked at least until the request is processed. --A. B. (talk) 15:28, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Dumps

The English language dumps (enwiki) are taking longer and longer to produce. They are taking more like eight weeks compared to the once a week promised in the Schedule section of Data dumps. See discussion at the bottom of Talk:Data dumps How can this issue be raised and where can this issue be resolved? --- Skapur 06:11, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

How to change the language of e.g. the TOC

I changed the language of my MediaWiki from German to English (by changing $wgLanguageCode), but some content is still German (like the table of contents on every page). So how do I change the language for things like that? (Maybe it has sth to do with wgContLang, but couldn't figure it out) Beboe 15:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Author wants to donate book - how?

I wrote a book, "Riding The Tiger: The History of Orphans Intenational" (which is now now associated with the U.N.) which is availbale from the website http://www.oiww.org as a pdf. Can I donate it to this library? How?  :) THANKS! - Jim Luce. 71.247.234.135 06:13, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Please see our sister site Wikisource.--Patrick 11:13, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

no account creation possible afer update to 1.8.2

i successfully updated my mediawiki-installation from an old 1.4.x version to 1.8.2
after update the link to new-account-creation is missing on the Special:Userlogin-Page.
anonymous users cannot create new accounts anymore, i couldnt figure out how to do it as wiki-admin either.
the rights in the localSettings file should be correct:
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = true;
what could be the problem?


Correcting a language names on the interwiki links

The language name for the Azerbaijani name in interwiki links is wrong. That is for a [[az:ARTICLE-NAME]] in the side bar it shows Azərbaycan which translate to Azerbaijan, name of the country or region. It should read Azərbaycan Dili. I would like to correct this, appriciate if anyone can let me know where or how this can be done. --Mehrdad 15:28, 6 February 2007 (UTC)


Can we create Wiki pages with magazine articles?

Newbie question: I'd like to create wiki pages with articles and reviews that were published by a certain music magazine in the past 20 years. These articles are always questioned about, and can really be used as a reference for new texts on other medias. My question is: which is the best Wiki project in which I could post them? I'm not sure if Wikipedia is the best one, as the articles are not *about* the magazine, but really texts published by it. And Wikimedia seems to have more images/videos/sounds than properly texts. Any suggestions? 200.234.208.197 13:37, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Can I block the category creation ??

So that's the question. I would not like the users to create categories without end, but to create articles in the categories I've created. Is it possible? Thanks.

Question about permissions for sysop

Hello, Where can I write for a permission as a sysop, that i can be a sysop for a year long? Thanks and Regards. Greifensee 21:58, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Change subpage separation character?

I have a wiki imported from a pre-subpage implementation for which I'd like to implement subpages...but I used a different separation character (a colon, rather than /).

I am willing to change the mediawiki internals to fix this problem. I am wondering

  1. What I should change to swap this character? (I've found a few instances that seem likely changes)
  2. In future versions, could the subpage separation character be made a user-specifiable setting?
129.105.65.168 16:56, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Accessing Wiki From Local Network

Hi i have just installed wiki on my windows xp machin. The installation says it was sucessful & i have to edi Localsettings.php. Since I am absolutely new to this, so am at complete loss. Will anyone be able to help me 59.144.168.144 14:34, 5 March 2007 (UTC)


My robot problem

I want to run a bot from pywikipedia but I can't. My user-config.py file is: 

import os, re, sys;
mylang='en'
family = 'wikipedia';
usernames['wikipedia']['en']=u'Soroush83';
console_encoding = 'utf-8';

but when I run a bot like test.py in python IDE, such this error immediately apears. What can be my problem? 

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "F:\Webs\Downloads\Downloads\Mozilla\pywikipedia\test.py", line 12, in ?
    import re,sys,wikipedia
  File "G:\Webs\Downloads\Downloads\Mozilla\pywikipedia\wikipedia.py", line 120, in ?
    import config, mediawiki_messages, login
  File "F:\Webs\Downloads\Downloads\Mozilla\pywikipedia\config.py", line 37, in ?
    usernames['wikipedia']['en'] = u'Soroush83';
NameError: name 'usernames' is not defined

I have changed the related lines in config.py like this:

family = 'wikipedia'

  1. The language code of the site we're working on.

mylang = 'en'

usernames['wikipedia']['en'] = u'Soroush83';

Please help me if you can.

  • Should I do anything except running the file after configuring the appropriate files? What do you think my problem might be?
    • My operating system : Windows XP

If this isn't where I should ask this question, can you tell me where or who I should ask it, please?

Thanks a lot. --Soroush83 21:18, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

My problem was solved. I think sth was wrong with TortoiseCVS installation!!! :) anyway. Happy en:Wikipedia:Novruz to everyone. The new year will begin in an hour. --Soroush83 23:10, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Where can I find informations about, which MediaWiki I am currently using?

Hi!

Before a few months I have installed some version of MediaWiki on my server. But today I am quite any longer sure which version it was. Where can I find some informations on the running system about which version I am currently using?

Thanks a lot.--Cwahl 09:28, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

My horizontal lines arent showing up

When a user edit's my page, the horizontal lines ---- are showing up either as white or not at all. Where should I be looking to change the colours of my horizontal lines? I've had a good look through the main.css file and I can't see anything that would apply to the horizontal lines. Please help! 212.219.221.22 12:05, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Metaproject

I want to create a Metaproject to help coordinate and aid several similar wikiprojects across different language Wikipedias, as well as encourage expansion into other Wikimedia projects on the same subject. Is there somewhere I need to propose this or can I just set it up? Dev920 00:00, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki lockup

I am getting this error in my Apache log files:

[Mon Apr 02 13
08:21 2007] [error] [client 172.28.132.221] PHP Warning: require(D:\\IHS\\6.0\\htdocs\\en_US\\wiki/includes/Xml.php) [<a href='function.require'>function.require</a>]: failed to open stream: Invalid argument in D:\\IHS\\6.0\\htdocs\\en_US\\wiki\\includes\\AutoLoader.php on line 302, referer: http://wasasb2.fbfs.com/wiki/index.php/WebSphereApplications
[Mon Apr 02 13
08:21 2007] [error] [client 172.28.132.221] PHP Fatal error: require() [<a href='function.require'>function.require</a>]: Failed opening required 'D:\\IHS\\6.0\\htdocs\\en_US\\wiki/includes/Xml.php' (include_path='D:\\IHS\\6.0\\htdocs\\en_US\\wiki;D:\\IHS\\6.0\\htdocs\\en_US\\wiki/includes;D:\\IHS\\6.0\\htdocs\\en_US\\wiki/languages') in D:\\IHS\\6.0\\htdocs\\en_US\\wiki\\includes\\AutoLoader.php on line 302, referer: http://wasasb2.fbfs.com/wiki/index.php/WebSphereApplications
[Mon Apr 02 13
08:26 2007] [error] [client 172.28.132.221] PHP Fatal error: Class 'StubContLang' not found in D:\\IHS\\6.0\\htdocs\\en_US\\wiki\\includes\\Setup.php on line 169, referer: http://wasasb2.fbfs.com/wiki/index.php/WebSphereApplications

It is causing Mediawiki/PHP to lock up and I have to restart Apache. This is happening quite often. We are running PHP 5.2.0, Apache 2.0.48, and Windows Server 2003. Any ideas? Thank you.

An abuse of Checkuser and Sysop priveleges on English WP - How to resolve when English has failed?

Hi All,

I know this has probably arose many times before but the level of power abuse by wikipedia user Jayjg has been steadily rising for a long time.

When I discussed the possibility of arbitration on English I was blocked indefinately.

The reason for my block was Checkuser confirmed sockpuppet - however Jayjg never filed an RfCU, nor discussed this with any other editor. He unilaterally performed the checkuser without consideration for the community. I cited this as "inadmissable evidence" for an indefblock. At which point my userpage was protected by suspected meatpuppet of Jayjg, SlimVirgin.

Despite the fact that the checkuser rules here on meta state that resolving a dispute with the leaders of a wiki is not a valid motive. It seems that Jayjg is able to disregard the rules. I would like an external view, but every time I have requested Jimbo's attention on my talk page - the request has been removed.

I therefore request the attention of one or more stewards and/or further information on procedure to resolve a problem outside of English WP. --MiddleEastern 15:02, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

inputbox.php download broken!!

The download for "inputbox.php" if broken, it brings you to a page with just text, no download.

How do I install a skin

I'm new to WIKIMEDIA. I want to use a skin I found at the skin gallery. I downloaded the skin folder uploaded it into the skin folder. What do I have to do so that I can use it? I didn't find it in any section of Help. Thanks a lot!

How to use Wikitable

I am a total noob. TOTAL! And I try to find the class "wikitable" to work on my wiki, and It won't work, how do I allow wikitable in my wiki?75.176.12.179 22:30, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

It is defined in mediawiki:Common.css.--Patrick 00:07, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Extension cite.php

I need the extension cite.php for our mediawiki 1.5.8. Does anybody know where to get? 140.78.250.58 10:25, 16 May 2007 (UTC)


Block of category creation?

Can I configure the wikimedia software in a special case, that partiuclar users can't create new categories? Only sort articles in created categories ? Can somebody help? Thanks! (Sorry for my bad englisch...)

How do you create an image mapping; the example given doesn't work

I would like to use image mapping to navigate my wiki pages from images. I checked the example given at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Images_and_other_uploaded_files#Example_using_ImageMap; it works there, but when I copy it and change the image to one that I have in my wiki, nothing happens and I see all that I wrote (including the <imagemap> tags) as text. Please give me a proper example that would actually work. Thanks!

You have to install Extension:ImageMap.--Patrick 09:47, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Delete?

Hi, I've seen this script and I've fixed it a bit but i think that's useless and i don't know if i have to put the delete template or not. Suggestions? :-) --Filnik 08:09, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Formatting Index Page

I need my Index page to be better organized, not just a page full of alphabetized links. I'd like the Index page to be formatted like the category pages - with the letter that each article begins with separating the groups of articles. Is there a way to do this? JP 15:12, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Changing Title Page

Hi, I'm a french user, so sorry for my poor english.

I would like to know if it's possible to change the title page of an article without changing his URL.

For example, I want a title page like Généralités with the url : index.php?title=generalites but not : index.php?title=G%C3%A9n%C3%A9ralit%C3%A9s

Thanks

NewBorn 09:09, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

w:MediaWiki:Common.js allows code with id="RealTitleBanner" to make a different title appear on the page. So you could call the page Generalites, but display at the top Généralités. However, the page as link target would also have to be specified as Generalites, so a properly displayed internal link would have to be a piped link. Also it works only with JavaScript enabled. I don't think the system name of the page can deviate from what corresponds to the URL.--Patrick 09:44, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Mediawiki in sub directory

Hi dear wiki-ers, I havce a drupal site, and I wanted to add a wiki. I've installed Mediawiki in my site under a subdirectory (i.e. public_htmp/wiki) and having trouble with enabling the "nice URLs. I can get the .htaccess to resirect mysite.com/wiki to go to the wiki so the browser actually returns http://www.mysite.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page when I acecss http://www.mysite.com/wiki. by for some reason, if I enable nice urls as described at here, the nice URL get rerouted to the drupal site. Thansk in advance, Udijw 05:51, 30 July 2007 (UTC)


Login name

I'm searching for possibility of displaying the login name of the current user in a wiki-text. Is there any possibility to do this? So what I mean is, when I come to a page I see my own login name in the text and if you come on the same page, you see your login name and so on. Hope this is somehow possible...

Best regards,

DerTobi 88.73.122.94 10:07, 25 August 2007 (UTC)


br:Dibar:Wantedpages

Wantedpages is not updated anymore on the breton wikipedia since the first of september. What is the problem? It is a very interesting and useful page, so it would be great if it could be updated again as it was before (twice a week at least). Thx!Benoni 21:24, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Import pages in Wiki

I need to import *.chm help file to wiki. Parsing is not a problem but i need to automate creating new articles in Wiki and inserting images. What could you recomend? No API in any programming language was found. 213.33.137.171 13:45, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Left menu boxes

Hi. I've just installed mediawiki and learnt how to handle it but I still can't figure out how to edit menus (like on this website "navigation" "beyond the web" "comunity" etc. Can someone explain me how to add/edit/remove those boxes? thank you in advance. 200.122.94.199 11:26, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Tracking Global Changes

Hello. Is there any way in which I can track global changes within the wiki that doesn't involve watch lists? Thanks!
74.246.51.208 19:48, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Inserting an external image

Hi there, I have spend a couples of hours trying to insert an external image at:

As far as I understand a link like this: 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bc/Wiki.png

is working, but not a link like this: 

http://cvs.creatis.insa-lyon.fr/viewvc/gdcmData/Baseline/MR-MONO2-12-angio-an1.png?view=co

However this is a perfectly valid URL !

Is there *anyway* to simply do a <img/> with mediawiki ?

Ref: Using 1.6.10 (sourceforge requires php4)

Thanks, 

88.174.17.130 16:40, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia user style page

I'm wanting to change the style of my userpage and talk page on wikipedia, but don't know how to i've looked in the help section but i'm not seeing any content on how to change the colour background and borders, my wikipedia user is the same as the wikimedia account. SKYNET X1000 19:09, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Image use permission

Ershad Ahmed, the creator of Dhaka Daily Photo website and owner of the images posted on it has sent me the following mail:

Dear Aditya, Thank you for your mail and valuable suggestions. I will certainly go through it in my spare time and let you know if I need your help. Meanwhile, If you think any pic of my blog useful for Wikipedia you may do so giving pic credit to me. Regards, Ershad

He was responding to the following mail I sent him:

dear sir, i have been watching your trmendous blog for some time now, and i can only express my deepest respect for the amazing work you are doing. i also am proposing to take the work one step further.

i am confident that you have heard of the Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) the online free encyclopedia that already has become the ever largest encyclopedia in human history. it may be worth noting that while the Encyclopedia Britannica has fewer than 100 bangladesh related entries, the Wikipedia has over 5,000 already and the number is growing everyday.

if you are interested, you can help the project by contributing your photographs to the project. if you upload them into the central photo and media repository of the project (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Welcome), every contributor who is tirelessly and selflessly trying to develop the bangladesh related article will be enormously empowered. those images will not only be used by the english Wikipedia, but also by the bangla Wikipedia (http://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8_%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE).

if you need any help or naswers in this regard, sir, you can always ask me or post to the Wikipedia help pages.

yours aditya (phone number edited out) an editor at the Wikipedia

His images are plentiful and fills in a lot of gaps in the repository of Bangladesh related images. Can this mail be considered as a permission? If not, what is explicitly required? If yes, do I need to forward this mail to some address? If yes, which address do I forward this to? Aditya Kabir 13:13, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Meta-Wiki

Could anyone explain to me what i could do on Wikimedia Meta-Wiki when I've signed up i was expecting like a welcoming template but never received one, I've mainly been on wikipedia but have decided to go on this site more than i have done on wikipedia, and have decided to be more active on meta. Terra 20:21, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia mobile

Hello everyone! I spent a few weeks atn the hospital and I realized how Wikipedia mobile was important. There are several initiatives started everywhere, but nothing concrete. I wondered if it was appropriate to start a central project at Wikipedia mobile, to consolidate these discussions and pages.

Thanks for guiding me! Antaya 16:20, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

no protection tab

I am running the joomlawiki extension on my site, and need to protect a couple pages. The help pages here told me to click on a 'protect' tab which does not show up, no matter how I login - admin or otherwise. Am I missing something? Is this a Joomlawiki thing, or is there something I forgot to do during installation? Any help will be appreciated. Dwp288 13:24, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Template help

I'm trying to set up a template with an if statement in a table. The problem I run into is that due to the fact that the if statement uses | as a delimiter I am forced to use !, but it causes all text in that row of the table to be bold. Is there anyway around this?64.79.177.254 19:12, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

See Template:!.--Patrick (talk) 00:45, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Username

Hello. Where may I ask to change my username as i wish to unify it on the all project ? Thank You. Mogador99 14:18, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

See Meta:Changing username for Meta and Steward requests/Username changes for wikis with no bureaucrats. Regards, Korg 21:59, 15 April 2008 (UTC)
Merci beaucoup/Thank you very much. Mogador99 03:04, 16 April 2008 (UTC)


How do I display values on page X on page Y

Hello. I am trying to create central sources of information that will then populate different cells in a table. I would like for the central source to be a general page, not a template. I was hoping that I could do something like [[pagename|variable]], and have it fetch that variable from that page. I have a template that looks like this: 

{|
|{{{name}}}
|{{{description}}}
|}

I define these variables on "Page X". On a different page I would like to have it pull the value that is defined for {{{name}}}. I would like it to do this, so I don't have to edit multiple places when I need to change information.

I can't find a way to do this. Is there a way, or is there an extension that will do this? 132.189.76.18 21:13, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Page X can be made an array using #switch. With noinclude/includeonly tags the page itself can produce any rendered result, including one depending on array values, so it can be "a general page".--Patrick (talk) 22:30, 1 May 2008 (UTC)


I am entering this at the bottom as instructed. I cannot find anywhere on the Wikepedia site where and how to upload a simple listing under Magazine Listings. It does not currently appear there. It has been written exactly like the several that appear there, similar length and style and no URL. I see something saying I will have to edit something before I will be allowed to upload the listing - don't understand. I need some plain English assistance! My email is scriabin33@aracnet.com216.99.209.77 22:26, 20 May 2008 (UTC)


Language template

Where can I download the code for the language template?? The documentation only gives me how it should alike, but in my new wiki there is only a red 'Template:Language"…I am new and I want to create a wiki for Erasmus students, who all will be dummies (as me) and seriously, please give me the link which explains it easy how to add a language. And also where I can get the template from - or to activate it. Thanks!

Silesian Wikipedia

Hi. The Silesian Wikipedia went up on 31 March, but the language sidebar links to articles on the English Wikipedia are redlinked. Could anyone advise why this is? Thanks, PeterSymonds 18:57, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

More specifically, someone tried to add the Silesian language version of the English language article. The article exists, but the language code was not recognized. TEB728 19:17, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
It is working now. TEB728 02:43, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Page Title

Hello. My first post so go easy...I run a wiki for my work as an intranet type thing. I was just wondering if you can get rid of a page title (ie the black writing at the top of this page - Help Forum) ...it comes up as default obviously but I noticed on the wikipedia home page there is different formatting. Alexjmartin 08:04, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

I can't vote for the WMF Board Election because of a technical problem

I just today renamed my Wikipedia username from "Shalom" to "Shalom Yechiel" because I want to create a global account for SUL with the latter name. Then I tried to vote in the WMF Board Elections and was told that I can't vote because "Shalom Yechiel" doesn't have 600 edits. I actually have about 25,000 edits, but having just changed my username, the voting software thinks that someone else made those edits. Can anything be done? I am an eligible voter for WMF board elections, and I want to vote. Please help. Thanks. Shalom Yechiel 01:48, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Seeking assistance with blog indexing

Someone has attempted to remove my blog from an index and an RSS feed.[2][3] This person holds a grudge against me and may attempt to edit war. Requesting assistance of uninvolved Wikimedians. Thank you. Durova 19:37, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Report the user who is willing to start an edit war to any administrator in WikiMedia. They'll act as a mediator and potentially even set up software blocks. Gnorthup 01:46, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Defining custom variables

I would like to make a page get a value based on:

  1. A value passed to it.
  2. A custom variable.
  3. Some other method, including making it get the value from another page that only I know.

Please help. Thank you, Gnorthup 02:00, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

2 questions

1. It is allowed to copy templates from Wikipedia to my own Wikia? 2. Where can I get any Main Page layout (everything divided into the tables, as in Wikipedia)? Can I copy it from Wikipedia? Quolav 18:53, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Creating new pages and adding them to the side bar

Hello, I just got wiki software and am having trouble understanding the manuals and finding what i need.

I would like to create on the side bar a list of several countries that I work with and for each one of them to have a page and sub pages. How can I do this? Please help me because I am really lost 89.227.230.121 12:16, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

You can add pages in the sidebar by updating MediaWiki:Sidebar page. You can create several sections using first level headings. However, I don't know how to create a tree-like structure. For more info visit Navigation bar page. --Erioni 08:35, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Usurp an account

Hi. I'm user:Amanuense at spanish Wikipedia. I made SUL two weeks ago, but i can´t enter here with my user. It seems it has created before but apparently has no edits. Could it be usurped? Regards and apologies because my basic english. 190.7.33.83 02:10, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

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