This page contains discussions that have been archived from Village pump (proposals). Please do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to revive any of these discussions, either start a new thread or use the talk page associated with that topic.
< Older discussions · Archives: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, AA, AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, AG, AH, AI, AJ, AK, AL, AM, AN, AO, AP, AQ, AR · 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212
How does one edit a template? I'll need to update {{CurrentLCOTW}} in the temporary absence of
User:Ludraman, who usually does it. Thanks in ignorance.
Filiocht 13:17, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC) Worked it out by trial and error.
Filiocht 13:37, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)
I guess this is what one calls "getting the ball rolling". My proposition is a wiki-based confrontation site. maybe confrontation is the wrong word. Argue. But they argue about issues. n theory, this'd be great. It could work too. Schools always look for "for and against" essays - why not have a wiki-based project on it. I can't do this - my wiki knowledge pinnacle is italicising hyperlinks and writing the stub thing at the bottom of pages. Anyway, my talk page has or will have some ideas on it. -- Wonderfool 14:56, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Is there a page on wikipedia showing useful keyboard shortcuts for editing. e.g ALT-S saves the page. Would like to find more shortcuts. ~
I don't know of a page(although you should check meta). However, you can find them via tooltips, or looking for accesskey in the HTML code of pages. Once you find them, make a page, like Wikipedia:Keyboard_shortcuts, and add them there. That way other people will be able to find such a page, because you wrote it! JesseW 00:24, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)
A user named Enchanter has suggested a page move of New York to New York State because he thinks that a link to New York could mean either the state or the city. Several other registered Wikipedians have responded, all of which disagree. See Talk:New York for details. Any more opinions on this?? 66.245.102.77 17:58, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)
(sections above this (and below the previous tag) were archived on 18:19, Nov 15, 2004 (by User:Violetriga 04:06, Nov 18, 2004 (UTC))'
Currently the MOS says: 'For the English Wikipedia, there is no preference among the major national varieties of English.'
But there are two exceptions to this rule in the manual. There is a poll on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style on whether these exceptions should be removed. The poll will end on 20:00 UTC on 8 November. jguk 19:02, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I hope this is the right place to put this. There is currently a vote going on at Talk:Kobe Bryant's Accuser discussing whether the article should now be moved to the woman's real name. Rick K 23:55, Oct 31, 2004 (UTC)
Currently, if an article does not exist, the visitor gets a message with three options:
I propose to add an option "search for this". When I want to know something about a certain subject, I type it directly into the address bar. Recently, I typed "w are you being served", and received the Article does not exist page. It turned out to be called "Are You Being Served?". I had to paste the text I was looking for into the search form to search for it. If the 'does not exist' message would have had an option "search for this", it would not have been neceserry to do the latter. I'm sure it would be a useful feature, the only minor disadvantage being that the 'does not exist' message would grow. Gerritholl 14:29, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I have drafted a proposal about allowing and encouraging authors of media files to make the source material used for their production available. This is needed to encourage wiki collaboration and modification of images and other material and to facilitate future migration towards new technologies and print.
The proposal is in my namespace: User:Chmod007/Alternate_version_proposal. Please discuss it on the talk page. — David Remahl 13:30, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Since we are expected to post to individual pump sections rather than to the pump, it should probably be protected. That way, people like me who've bookmarked the link to add a new section to the village pump would also come to know of the new policy of posting to individual sections. -- Paddu 21:10, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Moved that from Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). -- Paddu 19:27, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
The cheat has a gold tooth. Can someone add that? Clownfish 19:21, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Hi,
I have a suggestion for a method of using Wikipedia to create a respository of Common Sense which can complement the knowledge bases produced by OpenCyc and OpenMind and help in making further progress towards artificial intellignce.
Wikipedia can be used as a harbour for closer collaboration between AI researchers and the general public as well as for mining common sense. I wish to know your opinion about this.
Please have a look at
Again, I used a list as a random choice. I guess using categories is better. But what is more important is whether the Wiki community likes or dislikes this from happening to Wikipedia. Please let me know on the discussion page.
It's a small thing, but these links at the top of "User Contributions"?
View (previous 50) (next 50) (20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500).
Could we have them on the bottom, too? It'd make it much easier to peruse someone's contribution list.... Catherine | talk 21:38, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)
How about not worrying too much about archiving/removal of old discussions from the pump by having pages like Village pump (proposals) (Oct 29, 2004)? At any time two such pages would be transcluded, with the "add new discussion" links pointing to the more recent one. Once the older one grows old, we just have to remove the old links, create a new Village pump (''section name'') (''date'') page and transclude that. We can have a redirect from Village pump (''section name'') to the latest Village pump (''section name'') (''date''), so that only that redirect needs to be updated.
This would hopefully make it easier to restrict the pump sections to editable limits. -- Paddu 21:16, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)
BTW old discussions could also be removed. I'm neutral on whether they should be archived (since AFAICT archiving is done irregularly -- some discussions are archived & some deleted, I always rely on the history section in case I'm ever interested in what I said in the pump years ago), but I suppose my suggestion would lead to smaller pages. That was my main intention, but my fingers typed an unrelated title in a hurry.
Also what could be done is that the subpages a few months old need not be linked to from the main Village pump, but they need not be deleted until they're several months old. -- Paddu 18:52, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Based on some experimenting on the Dutch wikipedia, i came up with a partial solution for using tooltips in the wikipedia. It works in Mozilla/Firefox, but not in Internet Explorer, and it requires an adaption to your personal stylesheet. See User:Taka/Tooltips. -- Taka 20:30, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Moved to Wikipedia:Reference Desk
On all of my Wikimedia User pages, I have included a link to Special:Contributions/PhilHibbs because I think it is important to be able to see what a user has contributed, especially if there is a suspicion of bias, vandalism, or spamming. I would like to see this available on all User pages with a single click, much as History, Discussion, etc. are. PhilHibbs 16:37, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
It is available in all user pages. -- Jmabel | Talk 23:43, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)
When search is disabled on Wikipedia (for performance reasons), would it be expensive to redirect to the search query if there is an exact match on the title of an article? (ie, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SearchString) My guess is no, and this would make WP a lot more useful from, for instance, the firefox search box. Searching seems to be disabled frequently these days.
It may be that something like this has already been suggested but: Occasionally anons enter articles about local features - locally prominent landmarks, restaurants, schools, etc - that usually end up being nominated for deletion. At the same time there are numerous articles about small towns that contain mainly numerical census data. If some things have mainly local significance, maybe we could encourage people to add them to articles about that locality? - Skysmith 09:22, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I like this idea. It would certainly be a lot less time we have to waste on VFD. And we wouldn't be as reliant on admins. Anyone can merge and redirect. anthony 警告 01:12, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Indeed, it's the best way to do things to have The Big Pickle in Pickletown, rather than as a separate article. There are a few things that gather notice outside of their towns ( Peachoid, e.g.), but most of these are empty calories. As for "no one should delete verifiable information," remember that there are more facts than things in the world. Encyclopedias are not the reference equivalent of a person with Tourette's compulsively trying to touch every tree in the park. It is a work designed for use, not just vaccuuming up. At any rate, where I have seen bad local-only articles come in SCHOOLS (all hail the local 5 & Dime and the hallowed halls of Peabody Primary for Preteens!) and neighborhoods. In particular, most of the latter have come in the cases of places where Rambot doesn't go -- Australia, in particular -- and in places that are too big for such narrow focus -- Seattle, in particular. So a New Page shows up called Merrylake. You find out that it's a park in Canberra. Not the park, just a park. Ok. Or you see a new page, and it's called Valleydown. You find out that it is a subdivision in Seattle. You can't merge that in and have any end to the article, and so you can either speedy delete it or VfD it or, of course, say that it's a verifiable fact and therefore is sacred and that anyone who thinks otherwise is deletionist scum. Geogre 17:24, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
One of the main motives for contributing to a wiki is discussing your interests with other people who share them. It seems to me that there is a need for discussion areas somewhere between article talk pages and the Village Pump. With the various regional notice boards, and such initiatives as Project Crossbow, it looks like a few people agree with me. Here's an idea for auto-generating discussion groups based on subject matter. I'm not proposing that the Wikipedia adopt the idea, I'm just polling for opinions on the matter.
I think the optimum size for a discussion group is between 20-200 members. Below 20, there isn't enough variety of opinion, and groupthink might set in. Above 200, the signal-to-noise ratio drops, although discussion is still possible up to about the 400 mark. As a sanity check, I checked out number of members of various legislatures at List_of_state_legislatures_of_the_United_States. The results agreed with this hypothesis:
Higher House Highest: 67 Lowest: 20 Mean: 38.7 Median: 38
Lower House Highest: 400 Lowest: 40 Mean: 108.3 Median: 100
It should be noted that the second largest body, Pennsylvania's lower house, has only 203 members. Note the difference between the mean and median figures on the Lower House table.
To start, take a list of contributor logins. Throw out any known bots. Throw out any inactive contributors. What “inactive” means is a bit arbitrary, I would suggest no edits for the last 30 (or possibly 90) days as a definition.
It might also be a good idea to limit the list to “elder” contributors, those with 100 or more edits to their name. Before I get flamed on this point, I'd like to point out that I'm currently under 100 edits myself. “Younger” and anon contributors would of course be allowed to participate in these groups, but it might be wise not to assign a contributor to a group until they reach the 100 edit mark. (It is, of course, not possible to assign an anon to such a group.) In addition to cutting down on sock puppets, a contributor might be assigned to an inappropriate group based on too small of a sample size of their edits. If “younger” contributors are to be assigned to groups, they should be re-evaluated for group assignment fairly often, perhaps as often as every 5 edits. (Reassignments would take place during off-peak hours, so no more than one reassignment a day.) Incidentally, any idea how many active “elder” contributors there are?
Anyway, you take the resulting list, and sort it by number of edits. Take the top x contributors. (20 might be a good value for x.) These contributors are the first members of their own groups. Starting at the bottom of the list (to help slow down how fast a group's subject area spreads), compare what articles each contributor has edited, and assign them to the group which has the most overlap. (Limit this to main namespace articles, of course.)
When a group reaches the 200 member mark, split off the two most senior (in terms of edits) members. Starting with the most junior member of the group, assign members to one of the two daughter groups. Since the results will be a lot closer than the general assigning, might want to weight based on number of edits on each article.
After all contributors have been assigned, disband any group at or below the 20 member mark, and disperse its members among the other groups. Again, split up any group that hits the 200 mark.
Auto-generate a page for each group in a separate name space, say, “Special Interest:”. Since it would be hard to write a script to determine the nature of the group, assign a serial number to each group. (Or name the group after the most shared article, and give groups with the same article a number.) This page would have a list of the members, and a list of articles, sorted by the number of group members who have edited the article. The group's discussions would take place in the associated talk page.
After the initial setup, the group system ought to be maintained on a daily basis, during offpeak hours. Assigning new contributors, splitting maxed out groups, delisting inactive contributors, and disbanding minimum-ed out groups. Since you probably don't want to be with the same group your entire Wikipedian career, if this doesn't produce enough churn, then “elder” contributors' group memberships could be reevaluated at 100, 50, or even 25 edit intervals.
Comments? crazyeddie 21:29, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I'm afraid I don't have a site or the coding skills to pull this off by myself. If someone likes the idea and wants to run with it, you have my blessing. I'm not sure how much of a load this would put on the main site, since all the work would be done on off-peak hours. Also, if server loads got too high, updating could be put off temporarily. But it might take an off-site trial to prove the idea.
This idea does have some tie-ins with some other ideas on the page. Somebody got pointed to a "Wikipedians by interest" list. It seems to me that this method would be a more accurate version of the same thing. Another person suggested a "catagory maintainer". Each interest group could elect a maintainer. Slightly different, but same result.
I'm personally now leaning away from making the groups "elders" only. Does anybody have any guesses on the current number of active contributors, elder or otherwise? crazyeddie 17:45, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Also, it might not be good to limit the groups to main namespace articles - there might be a Village Pump BOAF Group (good name by the way). crazyeddie 17:48, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
One last thought - it seems to me that this system would be a possible supplement or even replacement for the catagory system, with lots of room for interesting, serendipitous results. crazyeddie 17:51, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Hi, I think it would be pretty convenient for everyone to have a "Go to top of page" link on every Wikipedia article/ talk page - especially on long pages (perhaps the link can appear automatically if the page exceeds a certain size). -- Simonides 23:40, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
It's good to have as many ways of doing a task as possible. Let the user decide which one they want to use. Even if a user knows to use "Home" or Ctrl+M keys, which is a very small minority of users, they might prefer to use the mouse instead. I know I do. crazyeddie 21:32, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Well, in defense of the conservative viewpoint, this minor addition would take up valuable screen real estate and coder time. However, it looks to me like it wouldn't add too much clutter to the bottom of the screen, and this minor addition shouldn't be too bothersome to code. While this change isn't necessary, it would greatly increase convenience. crazyeddie 18:03, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Just what I suggested at the beginning. -- Simonides 20:09, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
A TOC link next too each section edit link would be better. -- mav 22:59, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Maybe. But I'd think that would clutter up the page too much. I think our best bet is a script that adds a "home" link and second toc if the page is over a certain length. I guess Simonides agrees with me. So what's the next step in getting this idea to the powers that be? crazyeddie 07:09, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I wouldn't mind having some better intra-page navigation help either, to help people reading long articles to find their way around. — siro χ o 08:27, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)
I have another deletion related proposal, hopefully less controversial than the one on the other part of the pump.
I strongly support increasing the number of articles that can be speedy deleted. As policies get more complicated it inevitably makes it more necessary to check the deletion log to ensure admins are complying with policy. To make checking the deletion log easier why not replace the link on recent changes to Special:Ancient Pages? Old pages seems to not be functioning most of the time, and I see no reason why old pages are more of a priority than short, deadened, or orphaned pages all of which get by with only being linked to from Special:Special Pages. For symmetry's sake the deletion log is also much closer companion to the new pages log than is old pages. - SimonP 05:18, Oct 23, 2004 (UTC)
We have a large number of articles that I believe are in a state where they represent a state of 'as good as it can get'. This might be because the article is an enhanced dictionary definition or because the finest word-smithing has now been done and further change might probably detract.
I would propose that such articles are identified, listed and voted into some sort of protected status whereby change could only be carried out provided proper debate had taken place. This would remove lots of articles from possible vandalism, reduces the review of changes to what were finished articles still being fine tuned etc.
I further propose that changes would be done by making a revised draft and that draft be voted on to replace the previously 'frozen' version.
I accept that this is a major change to policy and welcome views of every one. -- Rjstott 06:36, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I'm a moderator for http://wiki.linuxquestions.org , and I've been pondering this same question. We don't yet have featured articles implemented yet, but when we do, I think we'll upload new featured articles to the Linux Documentation Project, which is a traditional peer-reviewed documentation repository. We would make changes based on their recommendations until the article is approved. We would then periodically submit updated versions of the article. The Wikipedia could do the same thing (but you'd have to go through the backlog of featured articles), but first you'd have to create a peer-review setup, since there isn't an existing one in place. crazyeddie 21:46, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
A stable version will be created for offline distribution. If you have ideas for how that should be used for the online version, please comment at User:Jimbo Wales/Pushing To 1.0. Angela . 10:52, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)
I've come up with, IMO, a better format for handling footnotes. The current guidelines are confusing and unnessarily ugly and difficult. Please take a look at Wikipedia:Footnotes and let me know what you think! JesseW 06:01, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I want to see if anyone has opinions on the following page move I suggest:
If there were a tabs on article pages that led to a newsgroup provider, offering to host discussions of the articles topic, many wiki functions could be vastly enhanced and some difficulties avoided and article developement spurred forward. Discuss at wblakesx Wblakesx 17:15, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC) to dialogue.
Should deleted articles still be visible?
Discussion moved to Wikipedia talk:Viewing deleted articles.
The previous poll at Talk:September 11, 2001 attacks has ended, with varying support and opposition for the different options. Based on the response (which was spread across many proposed titles), a runoff between the two most voted on options has been proposed.
There is now a vote on which of the following should be the article title:
Please vote and express your preference. A wider response than previously would be appreciated.
zoney ♣ talk 16:09, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I think it would be cool to contact academics asking them to contribute to articles that as of yet nobody else editing wikipedia seems to have a clue about. Maybe this could become an established project with suggested items and a template email. There are obviously problems with this: each academic would have to agree to be merciless edited like the rest of us(although obviously there contributions would be generally respected by people)... but it could be valuable for filling in gaps.
What do people think? dpen2000 15:32, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Is there any chance that categories could one day be combined with boolean operators? If so, then one could look up categories "Medicine AND Law NOT Psychiatry" to obtain a defined area of knowledge. -- CloudSurfer 08:33, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
We have:
and
Talk:Women's college (the only one with a Talk page) has some discussion about the proliferation and overlap of lists, but it's a bit dated, there's no consensus, and since there are so many different articles I thought I'd ask around here instead of just the one place.
There actually are some meaningful differences among all those pages. I think the two "women's colleges" categories make perfect sense and match the hierarchy for other universities and colleges. Seven Sisters is a subcategory of these two, except that many of the Seven Sisters have been co-ed since the 1960s and 70s and the category doesn't reflect this. The freestanding U.S. list page sorts the women's colleges by state, and the list on the Women's colleges page gives some city locations, both of which are helpful, but the page names don't indicate what's different or what each different list provides.
I am thinking we could improve things a bit:
(I swear I'm going to have to change my user name to "Overthink".)
I am totally willing to do the legwork on all of this, but as the proposed changes are sort of significant, I thought I'd better solicit some opinions first. Does this seem like a reasonable plan? My thinking is that if prospective women's college students or other interested parties are browsing wikipedia, I'd really like to make it easier for them to find the info they are looking for. Thanks for any feedback! — Bsktcase 03:39, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Done!
Thanks for the support or at least the lack of opposition. :) — Bsktcase 22:04, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Some images, while appropriate and informative in the articles they reside in, nonetheless can be awkward to have on one's screen in a public computing environment. It would be nice in some circumstances to flag such images, and then have a user preference to be able to browse the Wikipedia in "PG mode" where the images would not display unless affirmatively clicked on. Shimmin 13:59, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)
I've just created Wikipedia:Pictures needing attention as a place to ask questions about unknown images which could probably find a place on a Wiki article. The idea is that it should be a visual analogue of Pages Needing Attention with a dash of the Reference desk. Part of the idea is to encourage people to contribute images that they had been holding back because they couldn't remember exactly what they were of and where they could be used.
Precedents for this are the occaisional images that pop-up for comment on the Reference Desk, such as the discussion for Image_talk:Wfm_monument_valley_annotated.jpg.
It could also be used for Wikipedia:Requests for image manipulation discussed above.
One problem is that you need to give an image a filename before you can upload it. It isn't easy to get a relevant filename if you don't know exactly what the subject is. -- Solipsist 20:01, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)
It has become quite difficult to find Wikipedians interested in certain things; e.g. when creating or expanding on articles. Maybe there should be a list (preferably at Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by interest) for just this purpose. [[User:Poccil| Peter O. ( Talk)]] 15:37, Oct 11, 2004 (UTC)
I have noticed that some articles feature strong language and offensive content. An example of this is Shock site. In order to let users know that the article that they are about to view falls into one of these categories, I would propose a template displaying the following notice:
I think it is important that people who are 'sensitive' know what type of article they will be reading, beforehand.
Please, let me know if you agree or disagree with the creation of such a template (or if you believe the notice should be modified).-- Logariasmo 07:44, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Yes, the range of what people might find offensive is huge. For a strict Muslim, a woman's face might be offensive. Should we tag all the articles that contain a picture of one? Intrigue 23:38, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I agree - get rid of nearly all the tags. People know that an article about a novel will discuss the plot, or an article about genitals will be about genitals, or that a short article is short. The Recycling Troll 21:27, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Every so often, I run across a US city that apparently has no article. This could be for various reasons, including that the Census Bureau uses quirky definitions of what qualifies, spelling issues, town no longer exists, etc... Next time I see one, I'm going to make a list of such towns so that they can be redirected/written/fixed by someone who knows the area and can determine what can be meant. I'm just leaving this here because I can't remember where I've seen any such links. If someone else does, I suggest using the title Wikipedia:US cities without articles; change the title if you prefer, just please leave a note on my talk page. Tuf-Kat 04:16, Oct 11, 2004 (UTC)
FWIW, some of the "cities" listed on Wikipedia:US cities without articles, are there simply because that form of the name is not where the article (or any redirects) is. For example, we have an article on Mount Shasta, California and a redir at Mt. Shasta, California, but the list was looking for Mt Shasta, California, which didn't exist until I just created another redir. Niteowlneils 19:09, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Ok, I'm new to Wikipedia, but I feel compelled to note that most Wikipedia articles are entirely covered with distracting and unnecessary links..
I mean, it's generally pretty obvious which keywords might have articles associated with them. If I'm reading an article about Abraham Lincoln, do I really *need* to have blue underlined links to terms like "Illinois" or "Chicago"? Why?
Wouldn't anyone interested in a term from an article be able to use the search box and look it up?
At the very least, there should be an option to turn links off, or go to a "printable" version of the article that's not such a mess to look at or print.
If I want to print an article for use in a class, for example, I shouldn't have to go into word and manually edit out fifty pointless links.
If there is already a way to get to a clean article, free from distracting underlining, please let me know. Otherwise, I suggest that implementing a way to toggle off distracting links would be a significant enhancement to Wikipedia's functionality, and I strongly recommend it.
TF
I think a featured article and a featured article candidates category would both be very useful, and lessen the need for the big long (and about to become bigger and bigger...). It would also be very handy as an index. Do I need to gather community support to do this or should I just go ahead and do this? JOHN COLLISON | (Ludraman) 23:29, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
The Portal is fun at the moment. Folks seem to be working on it, and that makes me happy, cuz I had no clue how to fix it. Someone moved it, possibly multiple times, to .. oddly named pages.
We don't let normal users delete pages. Why do we let them move pages? Ponder what it takes.
We don't allow normal users to delete, so why do we allow them to move pages? I have no problem with creaing a "Requests for move" page, but this kind of activity could be absolutely destructive to the pedia.
I propose we limit access to "Move" to admins and above only.
-- Golbez 08:51, Oct 9, 2004 (UTC)
I have just run across my first easter egg hiden in the Wikipedia. I wanted to report it like on WP:-) but it was neither in bad taste or incorrect. Someone had used the colours #fff666 and #ffdead as ligitamate hex colours for a table. I want to mention it somewhere, like Wikipedia:Easter Eggs. However the aforementioned page does not exist. Should I make it for one easter egg? -- metta, The Sunborn ☸ 19:56, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)
There is a proposal to move September 11, 2001 attacks to a new location. Talk:September 11, 2001 attacks currently has a poll/vote on the following names:
Feel free to express your preference(s) and help with any decision to move or not move the page.
zoney ♣ talk 13:16, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
See wiktionary:Wiktionary:Beer parlour#Associative Wiktionary. [[User:Poccil| Peter O. ( Talk)]] 16:45, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
User:Xed, the creator of CROSSBOW, a project to eliminate Wikipedia's systemic bias, has apparently decided to leave Wikipedia indefinitely. Since I didn't want his excellent work to go to waste, I moved his project page (by request) to Wikipedia:CROSSBOW. Those involved should figure out what to do next. [[User:Poccil| Peter O. ( Talk)]] 02:42, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)
I'm back in on this. As some of you know, I thought this was generally a good idea, but wasn't happy with where Xed was taking it and decided I'd do best to stay out of his way. I've taken the liberty of starting two QuickPolls at Wikipedia:CROSSBOW to try to get consensus on where we should go from here:
Anyway, I'm ready to give some serious effort to this thing; I've rejoined and I hope some others will sign up as well. -- Jmabel 03:27, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)
Just to bring everyone up to date, he's back, the project is Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias, and it's launched. -- Jmabel 21:23, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC)
The somewhat delayed Wikipedia:External links/temp seems to be ready to be adopted as a set of guidelines for including external links (and replace its parent page). I don't know if I should bring it to a vote or anything yet. Maybe a few people should give the page a once-over and then we'll decide if its ready. — siro χ o 21:35, Oct 3, 2004 (UTC)
(I split up the discussion, since we are now talking about a slightly different topic. SirJective)
Let's unravel this...
So my second list covers exactly the third, nonwanted case *g* I'll go check on the first case. -- SirJective 14:44, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I upload a part of the list for you to look over it, as User:SirJective/tmp_a. Please find a good name for the list. -- SirJective 17:05, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
At the german WP, I created (following someone elses idea) a list of articles whose title has parenthesis, like "name (topic)", for which there is no article with the stripped title "name". The german list is here. I could create such a list for the english WP (it will contain 4000 articles). At the german WP the list is considered useful for creating missing disambiguation pages or removing the parenthesis where it is not needed.
demo list removed, please see the full list
So what do you think about such a list? -- SirJective 19:03, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
From now on please use User_talk:SirJective/Parenthesis for discussion of articles that should be handled carefully. -- SirJective 20:44, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
There is no listing in Wikipedia for this condition. It must be rare; I've worked in the medical field for 23 years and have never heard it, but it is in the medical dictionaries. They don't specify what it means, however. Gawaine -- 172.128.85.138 11:45, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I propose a "category maintainer" (feel free to suggest a better title) system. A person who is a maintainer of a category would basically have the job of caring for the articles in that category. There should be nothing formal or any obligation about this position; on the top of each category's talk page, there should be a box with a list of people have signed up to be maintainers for the category, and people should be able to simply add themselves at their own will there, at any time.
The only requirement for being a category maintainer would be having all pages in the category on one's watchlist (including articles in subcategories if the category sub-tree is manageable in size) to check for vandalism etc. This could solve our current problem of not knowing which pages are monitored sufficiently.
Though not necessary, a person who signs up for the position should be knowledgeable in the field. This is of course necessary for catching vandalism of the subtle kind. Additionally, instead of asking about esoteric topics at the help desk and hoping for someone who can answer to stroll by, we could look up the people who maintain the category on the topic and ask them. It would also give us a better overview of how much expertise we have in the respective areas of knowledge covered in Wikipedia.
Fredrik | talk 15:30, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
This has tie-in with the auto-generated special interest groups idea that I've posted further down the page. I was thinking that these Special Interest Groups might serve as administrative divisions, but I was waiting to see reactions to the general idea first before adding that complication. The Special Interest Groups and Categories wouldn't be one-to-one, but the effect would be the same. crazyeddie 21:55, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I'd like to move "Thomas Lynch (disambiguation)" to " Thomas Lynch". I moved the previous article under Thomas Lynch to " Thomas Lynch (statesman)"; given that his son (Jr.) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and that there are several other notables with the name, I didn't think it was reasonable to conclude he was clearly the best-known. I believe I've moved all the other links/redirects correctly. MisfitToys 21:09, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
If someone could move Raven-Symone (longer article, incorrect spelling) to Raven-Symoné (stub, correct spelling), that would be swell. (Not that I'm a fan; I just can't stand incorrect article titles...) — tregoweth 02:16, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)
It would be enormously helpful to have a standardised Wiki syntax for pronunciations (i.e., phonetic transcriptions), in a similar spirit to the way dates are currently treated. Currently, pronunciations (of, for example, place names) are given in a haphazard and unsystematic way using a number of inconsistent systems ( International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), SAMPA, X-SAMPA, Kirshenbaum, simplified English phonetics), each with different rationales and opposing intentions, or often just what an author makes up on the spot based on their own accent.
There was a lengthy debate at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (pronunciation) (which I discovered after writing up this proposal) about standardising pronunciation schemes which got nowhere for one fundamental reason: nobody could agree on one system because different people prefer different systems for different (sensible) reasons.
The idea would be to let users enter pronunciation in a number of systems, but that this would be wikified into a single wiki markup, which can then be rendered in various ways.
This is possible since there is a deterministic and straightforward translation between these formats (with the exception that you can only translate into simplified English pronunciation, since it contains less information).
I'm sure many wikipedians would happily weed articles to add the appropriate syntax.
There would be several advantages to this:
1. It would enable people to set a preference for how they prefer to see pronunciations. I, myself, prefer IPA, but some people don't have the necessary fonts so need to use SAMPA, and I'm sure many people would prefer simplified English phonetics.
Most people probably don't care, but this would allow the needs of those who prefer linguistically accurate transcriptions to be met along with those who want something more straightforward.
2. It would lead to more concise articles, since currently people often add pronunciations in more than one system.
3. It would make it easier to actually enter phonetics in the IPA. You could, for example, enter it in the ASCII-based SAMPA system, and after wikification, view it in the IPA. This would be easier than having to figure out the html markup for IPA symbols, and also more meaningful in the source.
4. Standardisation. A pronunciation system should be formalised and centralised in one location, rather than made up in an ad hoc way on an article by article basis. For example, there was a proposal for a simplified phonetic system based on English pronunciation which didn't get anywhere (naturally).
5. Extensibility. In principle, new phonetic systems could be added in future (this is not quite as nerdish as it sounds). Once the framework is up and running, we can add or modify systems, but the point is that this would only need to be done in one central place.
Eoghan 15:57, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Cool. This still doesn't allow customisation like I suggested (and therefore will not help IPA-haters),
but if tipa was adopted as a wiki syntax standard then we could do that.
Eoghan 18:01, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
(sections above this (and below the previous tag) were archived on 10:32, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC))'
I notice several Wikipedia biographies link to my database of pedigrees. (freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesdow) Would there be interest in Wikipedia hosting the entire database? This might have many advantages.
Despite the open (anarchistic?) Wikipedia policies, this is not something I could just start doing myself. For one thing, Wikipedians should help decide the best format.
-- James D. Allen (e-mail: fabpedigree at yahoo or jamesdowallen at gmail.)
There are various specialised genealogies out there, which the wikipedia should subsume and improve on. Some of them are now moribund. See, for example, http://sigact.acm.org/genealogy/ (theoretical computer scientists) and http://www.genealogy.ams.org/ (mathematicians). Eoghan 17:53, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
We need Wikipedia gear. T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, HOODIES, Hats, etc. They'd help raise money and generate traffic/interest besides just being insanely cool. I'd buy one if good quality items were available; CaféPress sucks, but it's probably the fastest way for this to happen. Anyway, I'm sure you guys can figure out the technicalities. ^__^
Anybody with me?
Dudes. I just want to say, that was one of the geekiest conversations I've ever read. Congratulations Sirs
Can we have the one-equals headers back for the Pump? Why do they exist at all if we're not supposed to use them? It muchly improves the look of the pump to have the little HRs under each heading, instead of headers floating in space, and this only happens if the section headers are ==, and the major sections are = or ==. But on another question, is there any use for = headers at all? -- Golbez 15:59, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)
Star Trek information on Wikipedia can be characterized as mostly "barely okay" with the exception of a few stellar articles. My intention is to vastly increase the quality, quantity, and general goodness of all Star Trek related information. I should say that I am not a Trekkie and so I am not as well informed about all things Star Trek as some of you might be, but I am slowly but surely making improvements to related articles. You can too!
My specialties lie in DS9 and Voyager.
What needs to be done:
How to get started:
Go!
Since there already is Memory Alpha, would it not be more profitable to leave documenting Star Trek to them, and work on things that there is actually a shortage of knowledge on? DJ Clayworth 14:38, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Just a note, to expand on Radagast's idea of how the articles should work. I think a good idea when dealing with so-called "fancruft", which many of these articles are is to ensure that the articles are encyclopedic with relation to the real world. That is, each article should explain the significance of its topic to the plots, themes, and effect on the viewer, thus representing it as fiction of a certain significance. No article should just be a book-report, that is not an encyclopedic account of a topic. — siro χ o 23:37, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)
|}
I would like to suggest a formatting change where articles have one or more other uses appearing at the bottom. Current convention is to separate it from the preceding article with a horizontal rule, but this isn't the best formatting when dealing with longer articles. The alternate meaning does not show up in the table of contents, and it is easy to overlook a small blurb at the end of the article. Instead I suggest using one of two other methods: 1). Move the alternate meanings to a disambiguation page and include links between that new page and the current page. 2.) Create a new "Other uses" section at the bottom of the page (see example at right). (It would be "Other uses" only because many articles, including the new Template:otheruses, begin with the comment "For other uses, see ...") — Mike 16:56, Sep 26, 2004 (UTC)
People generally won't complain if you move the different meanings to their own page and create a disambiguation page. I find the horizontal rule method annoying too and I generally treat it as a vestage of the days before we figured out how to do disambiguation. anthony (see warning) 16:11, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Article text. I suggest...Let's make a 'Questions' section of the village pump. — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 23:54, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Reference listWould it be possible to have a numbered reference list show up at the end of the article? For example, some of the more news oriented articles such as John Kerry have lots of citations in the text. These show up as numbered references. It would be nice to also have these show up at the bottom of the page with an actual name (e.g. New York Times Feb 12, 2003) so that one could see at a glance the references used in the article. One could do this by hand, but then the numbers would get thrown off every time a new reference is inserted. I have in mind some template like {reference:nytimes.com|New York Times, Feb 12, 2003} which inserts a numbered link as currently & adds a list to the bottom. Wolfman 22:17, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
http://www.mailinator.com/ will give you a quick throwaway email address. anthony (see warning) 16:06, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
WikiPiccy anyone?I have wanted to add more images to small and medium sized articles. Could a new Wiki, called WikiPiccy, be created, so that 5, 10 or more images could be uploaded and stored, and then some of them linked into WikiPedia? This would be a pictorial adjunct to WikiPedia. N12345n 22:13, 2004 Sep 23 (UTC)
The Accessible WikipediaI was just reading what some have said about Wikipedia... like you can now plug a phone line in anywhere in the world and suddenly have a tremendous encyclopedia at your fingertips. (Harold Rhinegold, I think). But, that got me thinking. There is a large amount of official HTML code that is rarely used and, I would wager, not entirely supported by the major browsers. This code deals mostly with accessibility - web browsing made easy for the blind and immobile. I was wondering if anything could be done to assist this important segment of the population. I don't know anything about accessibility coding, so some of these questions may seem horribly naive:
I guess what I'm getting at here is maybe there should be an option for a blind-compatible alternate page in some cases. I don't know, maybe people would have to select that they're blind (or need an accessible copy no matter why) at the front page, or in their login, or maybe just give the option on appropriate pages. Like {{accessible}} could lead you to a more accessible copy of the page, but remain invisible if you are using a normal browser. It almost sounds worthy for an entire other wikipedia (and maybe this IS better suited for simple:, I don't know) but only a small portion of the pages would benefit from this. Just some rambling thoughts. I'm sure there must be information on the web somewhere about all this. -- Golbez 21:46, Sep 22, 2004 (UTC)
=It seems that this discussion has been inactive for over a week, but as a blind Wikipedian, I would definitely say that this website is accessible. The code makes it easy for my reading software to read the articles and navigate. It also helps that there are no graphical distractions like flash. Of course I cannot access images, but if the image has a name which basically describes what the picture is of, I know what it is about. It is sometimes difficult to learn the codes for editing, particularly for tables, but this is a minor problem which I am overcoming. Academic Challenger 08:28, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC) Interlinking with WikiTravelI don't know just how closely Wikitravel and Wikipedia are linked (in terms of brainpool; I know why travel is separate, and the differences in license, etc.) but I thought it might be useful to maintain a policy of interlinking between the two. I.e. their WikiTravel page on Charlotte would extlink to Charlotte, North Carolina, and ours would extlink to their page on it. That way, the two projects complement each other without actually joining together. Are there any objections to this, or comments, or? -- Golbez 01:01, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
Enabling the instant revert button globallyI have been discussing with Angela the reasons behind disallowing normal users to use the instant revert button. Basically, there is no reason why an administrator can revert a page easily and a normal user is obligued to revert it by force (open > select history > click edit > save as). Angela's concern was that enabling it globally would allow vandals to revert fixes immediatly. However, this is an evitable situation: We could simply have a timer that disallows simple users to use the revert button. Say that the timer is set for 5 minutes: if I revert a page, I can't use the revert button until 5 minutes have passed (as I'm not an admin, just a simple user). However, an admin is not constrained by this timer: he can use the revert button again and again and again without a time limit — just at it is now. This can be achieved by comparing the timestamp of the user's last use of the revert() function on a certain page with the timestamp of the server; ie: user used revert() on X article at 14:00:00 09/20/2004 and the timestamp of the server is 16:00:00 09/21/2004: the user is allowed to use the revert() function. — Joseph | Talk 23:34, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)
I'm against this. A User Interface should make it easy to to the things you want people to do, but it should also make it hard to do the things you don't want them to do. Reverting is one of the things that you want people to think about very hard before they do it. Even as an admin it's sometimes very easy to just push that revert button because you don't like the look of an entry. I have to make myself check it. I confess that sometimes I've even forgotten that 'revert' can undo multiple changes. Whatever we do revert should not be made available to anons. Imagine the havoc when some newcomer finds they can screw up an article by just pressing one button, and that the summary automatically is filled in to look like it's a sensible change. DJ Clayworth 14:45, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC) Honestly, I'd rather lose the ability to auto-revert as an admin than hand it out to anyone who feels like signing up for a username. Most of our widespread vandal attacks have been from registered accounts -- imagine if all Wik's vandalbot accounts had the power to auto-revert? DJ's reasoning is perfectly sound: let's not do this. Jwrosenzweig 22:11, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Disclaimer?I propose adding the following to the bottom of all article: Disclaimer: All information provided on Wikipedia is presented 'as is'. No warranty is offered, express or implied. or something like that. — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 01:26, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Shortcut iconsIt would be very helpful if each wiki had a different shortcut icon. For example, with several wikis open in different tabs, they would have a different icon depending on which wiki is in the tab. I have made some for Meta, Wikibooks, and Wikiquote with Fennec's help, and they are here. What do people think of that? And would someone kindly put those icons on the wikis? -- Yath 03:13, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/favicon.ico" />
IdeaHow about we do a permanent split (no posting on the main Vil Pump page) and then do something like: Village Pump -- News{{Wikipedia:Village Pump (News)}} Village Pump -- Technical{{Wikipedia:Village Pump (Technical)}} and then every heading under the main headings would have an 'add to this discussion' link (like Vfd) and we keep the box with the different village pump links (so we can post). — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 21:01, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Requests for image manipulation --- Good or bad idea?
What will make or break this idea, and also the split of the Village Pump, is whether a sufficient cadre of competent helpers read it and answer the questions posed. I'm not sure I know how to attract such cadre, but that's the trick. I think it's a good idea, but I'm not competent to say how to sell it or what to call it. Andrewa 11:12, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Splitting up the village pumpAs a solution to the village pump regularly being 200kb or more, I propose a trial of splitting the pump into different areas. The five proposed sections are at Wikipedia:Village pump sections. If people want to still post on the main village pump, they can, but they find it easier to find replies to their questions on a more focused page. Angela . 22:46, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)
Sounds fine. I would argue that Wikipedia: Village Pump (help) could simply redirect to the Help Desk. [[User:Meelar| Meelar (talk)]] 23:43, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)
Personally, like Jmabel, I'm skeptical about the value of splitting the village pump. The Help page definitely is redundant and people should go to the Help Desk, that's why it's there. -- Michael Snow 19:52, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
For people who don't mind huge pages, and want to see the whole village pump on one page, there could be a page which included all the other ones via templates. See User:Angela/Sandbox for an example. Angela . 09:36, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
A new feature now lets you edit a page that is included in another one via section [edit] links. This means you can edit this section of this page directly from User:Angela/Sandbox, which makes inclusion of templates a lot more useful. I'm wondering now whether there is any reason not to split the village pump up since the subpages can all be included on one page, and people can edit those from that page. People who are only interested in one section can go straight there, and can watchlist that section, but those who want the whole pump still have that. Angela . 16:26, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC) This page is now included on the main village pump, which hopefully is good for people who want the whole thing, and for people who only want to see sections. The next thing to do will be to move the "miscellaneous" section on the main village pump to a subpage, but I'll wait to see if there are objections to that first. Angela . 01:23, Sep 22, 2004 (UTC)
The miscellaneous section is partly to stop those who don't like having to learn anything new from getting upset. This way, they can continue to post on one page without having to worry about which sections exist. I also think there are some sections that don't fit elsewhere. My recent request for a volunteer to be interviewed by the BBC, for example, didn't really fit anywhere else. Angela . 05:59, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
One minor thing that's always bugged me about how our stub system works is that there are some articles in existence that are stub-length, never likely to be significantly expanded, but certainly worthy of inclusion. Examples: Juturna, Fontus, Eanmund, and Setnakhte. Putting the stub tag on articles like these is an eyesore for our readers. It's a futile cry for help — sources for these topics simply do not exist anymore. They're lost in the sands of time. Despite this, well-meaning editors will inevitably mark these articles as stubs, no matter how many times it's reverted. My solution to this (admittedly minor) problem is Template talk:Notstub, an "invisible" tag. Please read it over, and decide whether it's a good idea or not. Thanks, • Benc • 06:44, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Concise Needs HelpAbout a week after the 400,000th article was posted on Wikipedia, I created a page that aims to list links to the 10,000 to 20,000 "essential" articles that no "encyclopedia" could be without. I have set up some guidelines for what I would like this particular "categorization scheme" to become and put them on the Wikipedia:Concise discussion page and now I need help creating an alphabetical list of links to the "keystone" articles of the encyclopedia. In fact, I would appreciate whatever help I can get with this project. I think it is an important project, one designed to make Wikipedia even more accessible than it is today. N2lect2el 22:36, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
For Wiki News - Offering Email News Alert functionalityI read about the new Wiki News initiative and would like to contribute. Infobeing.net technology can be integrated into the site through Web Services so that users can create keyword-based Agents and receive Email Alerts when relevant news items are published. Our message-routing engine is up and running and the integration wouldn't be too difficult. I'd offer this functionality for free. Please contact me at chad@infobeing.net if there is any interest. Thank you. Chad Manney Infobeing Solutions, LLC Ratings SystemI am interested in knowing when that ratings system that was being tested is going to be implemented. I think its pretty essential that there is some form of a ratings system for these articles aside from the discussion board. Malcom-x-mass 22:35, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC) New approach to newbie vanitiesCrosspost - request fo comments Please read Wikipedia talk:Please do not bite the newcomers#Newbie vanity and comment. -- Wikimol 22:30, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC) How do I submit an article for consideration?I'm sure I've overlooked it but I wasn't sure how to submit an article I'd like to have considered for posting on your website? It concerns an Irish priest, Father James Edwin Coyle, who served his priestly life in Alabama (USA)from 1896 to until he was assassinated on August 11, 1921 on the front porch of the old wooden rectory at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Shortly before the murder, Father Coyle had presided at the marriage of a minister's daughter who had become Catholic to a dark-skinned Puerto Rican. The girl's father walked up on the porch where Father Coyle sat after supper, fired three shots, two missed but one struck Father below the left ear. He died forty minutes later at St. Vincent's Hospital. In a week-long trial two months later, the shooter was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Father Coyle was 48 when he died. He was a native of Drum, Athlone, County Roscommon, Ireland. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham. His grave is marked by a thick, ten-foot high Celtic cross. The murder took place during a years-long period of unfortunate public anti-Catholic economic and psychological persecution promoted by the Ku Klux Klan and a secret anti-Catholic political society called the True Americans. Their motto was "No Catholics in Public Office". During this tense period, Father Coyle was unwavering in his defense of the Catholic Faith and what Catholics believe. It is believed by Catholics in County Roscommon and in Birmingham that Father Coyle's life should be examined to determine if he was a Martyr for the Catholic Faith and if he is a candidate for canonization as a Saint... written by John Wright, Jr., Birmingham, AL. USA, e-mail: jlwjr1927@cs.com, phone 205-979-6745.
Auto create edit summaries?Hey, for certain types of edits (For example, all that is added is the stub message) maybe an auto edit summary should be made-so if somebody marks something as a stub and does nothing else, the edit summary says "Stub". Would save people time making edit summaries. -Cookiemobsta 05:16, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC) a request to simplify the user watchlistWhile going through the watch list looking for new edits and responses to posts on the "village pump" i've noticed that there is no easy way to verify what posts are new verses what are old. there appears to be very little in the way of advancement on that page at all. I say this due to the point i just brought up and another i've been meaning to bring up: as a whole the watchlist is difficult to read. Maybe not difficult, but it could be easier. I propose some sort of flag to recocnize additions to talk pages and reworking the format to which each entry on the list is presented. I feel that truncating information and adding columns (at least one were the posting user is the start of the new column) would make the page less of a hassle. I would make an example of my watch list, but i am unable to edit the format. I apologize if this was brought up outside of the recent unarchived history. Yet i feel it is important. Ramius V. Schweitzer 22:29, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC)
<HotKey>-Click to lookup any word on WikiPedia on Wiktionary?<HotKey>-Click to lookup any word on WikiPedia on Wiktionary? andor on WikiPedia itself?
Front page for all election announcementsI want to propose that the main page is used to announce the current arbitrators election. And also all elections for administrators etc. At the moment there are around a quarter of a million Wikipedia editors, and a recent "election" for an administrator had only about 50 votes for and 17 against. I know there's a mention on the Community Portal page for the arb-com election but most users/visitors won't see that. Obviously the users aren't being properly represented and this leads to mainly activists and often unsuitable people dominating the running of The Wikipedia. I suggest a colourful click-able box on the front page. Like the ones that are being touted around various users' pages, (mainly, it seems to me, for the candidates' and their friends benefit rather than the Wikipedia "electorate".) WikiUser 19:01, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
That's a sensible suggestion, but I want to make sure anyone who visits The Wikipedia knows about elections and can be involved if they wish. 217.204.65.186 20:46, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC) The above post "217.204.65.186 at 20:46, 26 Nov" was from me (the system told me I was logged in), but administrator Neutrality blocked me as I was trying to helpfully point out that. Fortunately another helpful Admin (I think it was Genteen) must've unblocked me. WikiUser 21:41, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
In case it is not widely known, here is a banner publicising the election taken from here. Feel free to copy to appropriate places (User pages/User talk pages). -- ALoan (Talk) 18:53, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Users browsing / editing this page...This might go under technical, but... this is an idea from a forum, where at the bottom of each thread or forum, it has a list of users looking at the page. (With the option to hide your username) Maybe this is a worth wild idea to implement to generate page stats on number of people viewing the page, and what not??? --[[User:AllyUnion| AllyUnion (talk)]] 08:59, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
chalkboardSimilar to a clipboard, it would function as a place where editors could place things that they cut and paste often. Maybe even advancing the idea so far as to have three sections to a chalkboard: single session, multi-session, and functional. the atributes of the third section would include a tie in to the keyboard so that an editor only need to hold ctrl+1 or ctrl+2 (through zero for a total of ten 'hot keys') to paste an object listed as one through zero in that section. The object being a phrase or a word or internal/external link and the list being changable as the needs change. The 'advancing of this could go so far as to join the multi-session and the functional session by leaving a 'window' where the function number could be assigned. Though i can see how advancing this far could be a hinderance. Note: this feature would be saved on the Wiki servers, however when a user logs in they get transfered to the user's computer space, and saved back to the wiki servers only if there have been edits made to the list. Ramius V. Schweitzer 01:52, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC) draft pagesSo as to decrease the amount of actual page edits, i propose the ability to flag revisions and/or page creations as drafts until kinks are worked out. I realize that there is a 'preview' button, yet things still can be over looked. The advantage that i see is for when someone (like myself with the clean up of the covenant page) is working with cleaning up an article through the restructuring of information, and distrobution of information to new 'files', they would be able to fine ttune their method without mucking up the 'edit history' page. Ramius V. Schweitzer 01:52, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC)
Proposal for draft pages and a 'chalkboard'Ramius V. Schweitzer 01:51, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC) Mark users unlikely to perform vandalism?Hey, if people are looking out on the RC page for vandalism, why not have an option to not notice registered users who have made more than (arbitrary numbers) 100 edits or created 10 articles and haven't recieved any warnings or anything? Such people are very unlikely to be vandals (or even make stupid but well-meant edits that need reverting) and it would save time to have an option to not show them. -Cookiemobsta 00:51, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Icon to mark links to Media namespaceI have noticed that links to objects in the "Media" namespace, e.g.,
Media:1000Hz.ogg, are marked with the same icon used to mark external links. That could be confusing for those users who have not customized their CSS to properly differentiate visually between media and external links, because the default shade of blue that marks external links is not quite different-looking from the default shade of blue used to mark media links. So, I drew a new icon (
New template anotherI've noticed that several sysops enjoy leaving this message on vandals' talk pages:
Downline Clones&SnapshotsIs it a question or a proposal : Can wikipedia integrate as a requirement to down-line clones the acceptance as a condition of their free use that they accept a built in giant wiki RSS-like feed of updates/corrections/expansion? Is it hellish expensive /impossible though aren't Clones feeding from the source already ? Do they just add new pages (as opposed to editing within pages )at present or do they take snapshots at long intervals . Don't Clones who take snapshots and everybody already have to accept conditions for everything ? Clones just show me that they're very slow to renew/correct the data , and since really it isn't even clones but vast website populations referring to single pages that suit them , it means they can feed their own perhaps rubbish into Wikipedia and then get it back out, branded with the good name of Wikipedia as a PR plug for their site's stance. The solution would have to be a feed embedded on every page , so ,and leave with each uptake of data leaving . Yes, it sounds a bit controlling but I ask this as a reaction simply to abuse not use .The present situation means that wiki stuff goes down to a lower level that has no interaction,so no checks and balances beyond that moment of data withdrawal. Flamekeeper 22:11, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
So maybe Debian are right and it doesn't work 'cause it's not editable where I find clones/forks parading the brand. Does this mean the train rolls on forever with a wheel off? What I'm concerned about seems to creep inside and I understand is it that the rules accepted from foundation can't change so nothing can be done .Is everything locked up like making DRM look so yesterday ? So re-start another whole wiki is it that fixes the issue ? I'm sorry I don't get it -surely the wikipedia has to blaze a trail for us all . So otherwise - let me get this, the sum total of knowledge has to go in accord (effectively causing error as much as light) with a copyright that sits in a register as constituted by that body , of how many lines ,and wikipedia cannot develope a better solution . I thought pavlov had a problem...but if you're right, Matt ,still there could be an agreement between the two , given goodwill. These are all nice guys aren't they, there's no money is there, so why not? At this rate no one 's going to change anything , the conspiracy we maybe don't know about will always remain un-branded so the beneficiaries get off again. Flamekeeper 01:08, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC) I am told elsewhere(technical) that this proposal to stream-down corrected wikipedia articles would be technically feasible . Flamekeeper 09:22, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
The GFDL is not set in stone. There is a migration clause in the version that Wikipedia requires. So if FSF creates GFDL 2.0 then we can choose to use its terms instead. And that goes for reusers too, of course. There is no risk that the GFDL would require RSS feeds, anyway. — David Remahl 12:30, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC) keeping track of FAsI propose that the Template:Featured put on FA's Talk pages be expanded to include
This will make it much easier to screen FAs for deterioration (inspired by yesterday's FA-o-the-day, Talk:Indus Valley Civilization). This proposal is also related to the "WP 1.0" screening suggested above: we need some sort of handy record, what version of the article was screened (yes, the information can always be collected from page history, but apparently that's not good enough, as the version linked from WP:FA is the current version, not the original featured one). dab 11:35, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Works for me. Maurreen 17:51, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC) Seems like a good idea to me. — Matt 18:02, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Version 1.0?Sundar and I are discussing the idea of another Collaboration of the Week, or something roughly similar. The purpose would be essentially to find, screen, develop or maintain (or all of those) articles or article versions appropriate for a paper or "release" version of Wikipedia. We'll probably start at top-level categories and branch out from there, but other options are open. If you're interested (whether in helping or just discussing), please join us at Wikipedia:Breadth and quality. Maurreen 08:54, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC) Personal PagesI think it would be great if we could have more than one personal page. If we could have a main personal page and two or three other pages listed under our wiki ID, it would be great. -- DoubleRing 19:53, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)
List(s) of canonical articles?I am not an admin, and just a minor contributor. I'm aware of the debate in the media about Wikipedia and its utility. It was nice to see Wikipedia being mentioned, if not praised by Bamber Gascoigne on the UK's BBC Radio 4 channel recently. My proposal is that those wishing to improve the quality and reliability of Wikipedia should form an editorial board (or perhaps several competing boards) and produce lists of versions of canonical articles - i.e. those that have been reviewed by the board and met with approval. Those who agree with the editorial stance of their preferred board or boards could then use the list of canonical articles produced by the board as a filter into Wikipedia. Articles would not then need to be 'locked' against further editing. Ideally, the Wikimedia software could be modified such that an individual could turn on such a filter (or filters) in their preferences i.e. only view or search articles listed by the 'Peer reviewed only' board, or the 'Child friendly' board, or the 'Creationist' board. This approach does not impose a particular editoral board's view on all users of Wikipedia, and does not hinder the addition of information to articles. The list of canonical versions of articles would have to be protected to be modifiable only by those authorised by the particular editorial board producing the list. One possible approach might be to tag particular article versions with a tag indicating approval by a particular editorial board. I'm not putting myself forward as wishing to set up or participate in such a board - it would be beyond my competence. I think the facility would be useful, and may help to cut down on edit wars. WLD 10:13, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Random page categoriesWould it be possible to add a modifier to the random page tool so that it only selects from specific categories? Just a thought that would make my enjoyment of the random page tool even greater. Bantman 00:17, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Harley peters 00:56, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC) Not everything is categorized. The vast majority of Wikipedia articles would never appear. Rick K 07:21, Nov 20, 2004 (UTC)
Approval mechanism for Wikipedia 1.0I've had a bit of a brainwave after reading various approaches to approval mechanisms. My proposed solution is here. My overriding aim as been to produce a solution which is acceptable to the majority of Wikipedians. I look forward to comments. : ChrisG 19:26, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC) New templateHello, everyone. I don't know if this is the right place to post this, if it isn't please move and let me know on my talk page. I just wanted to make it generally known that I have created a template for user talk pages of users that change/remove the {{sandbox}} header. It is Template:Sbox, but when using it you must type {{sbox|123.456.78.90}}, but putting in the real IP address of the user. It comes out like this:
Please (on my talk page) criticize and comment on it. Sadly, it has been vandalised twice in the 10 minutes it's been in existance, so if it looks odd check its history. Thanks,--[[User:Gabriel Webber| Gabriel | talk]] 18:53, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)
A tour through mathWhat: A list page that would walk a reader through the math pages in a sensible order. Why: Wikipedia has a lot of great math articles. But if you don't already know a lot about a term, you can't really learn it from Wikipedia. An article or category that would walk the reader from one article to the next would allow the neophyte to learn new concepts, then build on them by going on to more complex concepts. Who: Someone who got further than AP Calculus. Simple, but powerful. Chris vLS 20:48, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Thesean method or threadI need help in finding a definition of the subject referenced above; Thesean method or thread. dlg
Some things are easier to find in a paper encyclopedia...because there is a concept that certain things (which come together in alphabetical order) are adjacent in the encyclopedia. For example: I want to look up information about a certain Mark Green. It turns out that the one I want is "Mark J. Green". On paper, the two Mark Greens would be together so it would be trivial to turn to the correct page in the "G" volume, and find the one I want. Would it be possible and desirable to have some feature for finding articles which have consecutive titles? Maybe some menu that has the ten articles immediately before and after (in alphabetical order) the one that I'm currently looking at? That would solve many of the problems of slight variations of middle initials or whatever that make it hard for me to find articles on people. Other suggestions are of course welcome. Morris 22:02, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)
Well, we usually have redirects for most common versions of the names, there should not be too much problem finding all the Mark Greens. Typing Green, Mark Green or Mark J. Green will all get you there. Intrigue 04:21, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC) Homework: wikipediaThe creation and maintenience of wikipedia articles seems like the perfect term project for a college class. The wikipedia would benefit from high-quality, informed additions, guaranteed by the grading policy of the Professor, and the Professor and class would benefit from all the normal reasons associated with schoolwork, AND the warm+fuzzy feeling that comes from making the world a better place. Assignments could be as small as requiring each student to make one update to one page, to having the whole class collectively create new topics. To this end, I would like to create an informational document that would explain the concept of the wikipedia to my professors and would encourage them to have their class contribute. It might provide some general guidelines and suggestions for assignments, examples, etc. What do you all think?
In some cases, the results have not been all good. Most recently, the Dartmouth students who created articles on the minutiae of Dartmouth college life. However, the same project did create a high number of valuable additions too. It's important to have a clear and well-thought-through policy for the homework, if possible focusing on the collaborative moment aspect. There may also be copyright concerns, as all content submitted to Wikipedia must be licensed under the GFDL. I'm sure all this is better explained in the link Jmabel provided, so I'll be quiet in class now. — David Remahl 07:33, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)
List of pages to watch for POVI think we need a List of pages to watch for POV. Teofilo Vargas Sein is a perfect example of why we need a page klike that; we could keep control over pages that outsiders commonly change to satisfy their own, personal needs. Another good example of a page that could go into that list would be Los Macheteros. " Antonio Wikipedia Knight Martin"
Proposal to enforce the Three Revert RuleThere is a vote and discussion on whether and how to enforce the Wikipedia:Three revert rule on Wikipedia:Three revert rule enforcement and Wikipedia talk:Three revert rule enforcement. Please come and contribute your comments/votes. jguk 14:22, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC) Does anyone want to help clean up the Wikipedia namespace?The Wikipedia tutorials, policies, guidelines, "clubs", etc. are terribly disorganized, and some of them ( WP:NPOV) are plodding and hard to read. Some pages, also, are far more well-written and accurate than others. Some pages are long-dead for lack of incoming links! Shall we start a WikiProject for the Wikipedia namespace? Ashiibaka tlk 05:37, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Time and Date/Weight and measures.Is it possible to handle wights and measures with a configurable approach like dates and time. Not just for Imperial v Metric but also to include switching between tonne, gramme and Gigagram. While I'm here is it possible to add DD/MM/YYYY to the date formats?-- Jirate 02:01, 2004 Nov 14 (UTC) Link back buttonsI think that wikipedia needs some link back buttons so people who have web sites can advertise this one if they want.
Product feedbackPlease add some type of feedback possibility to pages so that we can say one or some of the following: - confusing - did not get it - too difficult - too technical - written for those who already know it - missing the simple intro paragraph - excellent - one of the best - perfect - very professional etc. etc. such feedback would make it possible for the editors to see if they are on the right track. I see them discussing whether to do this or that on an article, but because there is no real feedback from masses, they are left alone with their own personal opinions. This is bad for articles and bad for the growth of the editors. Quality can suffer if things are not based on quality, but rather than on opinion of how things should be. these poll buttons could be simple, easy to click links, which do not bring you to another page. One click poll buttons. There can even be a single line of form field, where we can quickly write something. One may argue "if you don't like it change it", but for many pages things are pretty well fixed, they have been working and discussing on every word of it for a long time, won't let anybody touch a single coma, justly. One may argue, "add a discussion", but I don't have time to do that in most cases, like many other users. I would press a button, though. Speed matters here.
WikiAdviceHi. I'm relatively new to the world of Wiki, and it's got my head buzzing. Wow! This is soo cool... I've been thinking about all the other great things can we apply this to... Anyways, the idea I thought I'd throw out there for feedback is about the viability of having a WikiAdvice site. I was browsing around on the meta wiki, to see where to suggest my idea, and I think they said that if you want to get feedback on a proposal, to go here. The closest thing I could find on the meta wiki site was that some people proposed a WikiHowTo type concept... I think that WikiAdvice could be much more broader and yet compelling for people to post. After all, everybody loves to give out free advice, right? Anyways, since I am relatively new, and haven't yet made acquaintances with any of the other members of the wikicommunity, I hope that this idea stands on its own, and isn't judged on who's proposing it... I remember that there's a commercial site called http://www.ehow.com/ ehow, this would be an opensource version... As for examples, I think most people can come up with a plethora of advice areas at the drop of a hat. I know that since I'm a new father, new husband, have a new house, am in the business world, and I hear and seek advice all the time. Here's my stream of consciousness list of ten advice articles that people would enjoy writing as well as reading
So... comments? concerns? questions? would people contibute to such a site? Frogcat 20:04, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)
|
This page contains discussions that have been archived from Village pump (proposals). Please do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to revive any of these discussions, either start a new thread or use the talk page associated with that topic.
< Older discussions · Archives: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, AA, AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, AG, AH, AI, AJ, AK, AL, AM, AN, AO, AP, AQ, AR · 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212
How does one edit a template? I'll need to update {{CurrentLCOTW}} in the temporary absence of
User:Ludraman, who usually does it. Thanks in ignorance.
Filiocht 13:17, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC) Worked it out by trial and error.
Filiocht 13:37, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)
I guess this is what one calls "getting the ball rolling". My proposition is a wiki-based confrontation site. maybe confrontation is the wrong word. Argue. But they argue about issues. n theory, this'd be great. It could work too. Schools always look for "for and against" essays - why not have a wiki-based project on it. I can't do this - my wiki knowledge pinnacle is italicising hyperlinks and writing the stub thing at the bottom of pages. Anyway, my talk page has or will have some ideas on it. -- Wonderfool 14:56, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Is there a page on wikipedia showing useful keyboard shortcuts for editing. e.g ALT-S saves the page. Would like to find more shortcuts. ~
I don't know of a page(although you should check meta). However, you can find them via tooltips, or looking for accesskey in the HTML code of pages. Once you find them, make a page, like Wikipedia:Keyboard_shortcuts, and add them there. That way other people will be able to find such a page, because you wrote it! JesseW 00:24, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)
A user named Enchanter has suggested a page move of New York to New York State because he thinks that a link to New York could mean either the state or the city. Several other registered Wikipedians have responded, all of which disagree. See Talk:New York for details. Any more opinions on this?? 66.245.102.77 17:58, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)
(sections above this (and below the previous tag) were archived on 18:19, Nov 15, 2004 (by User:Violetriga 04:06, Nov 18, 2004 (UTC))'
Currently the MOS says: 'For the English Wikipedia, there is no preference among the major national varieties of English.'
But there are two exceptions to this rule in the manual. There is a poll on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style on whether these exceptions should be removed. The poll will end on 20:00 UTC on 8 November. jguk 19:02, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I hope this is the right place to put this. There is currently a vote going on at Talk:Kobe Bryant's Accuser discussing whether the article should now be moved to the woman's real name. Rick K 23:55, Oct 31, 2004 (UTC)
Currently, if an article does not exist, the visitor gets a message with three options:
I propose to add an option "search for this". When I want to know something about a certain subject, I type it directly into the address bar. Recently, I typed "w are you being served", and received the Article does not exist page. It turned out to be called "Are You Being Served?". I had to paste the text I was looking for into the search form to search for it. If the 'does not exist' message would have had an option "search for this", it would not have been neceserry to do the latter. I'm sure it would be a useful feature, the only minor disadvantage being that the 'does not exist' message would grow. Gerritholl 14:29, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I have drafted a proposal about allowing and encouraging authors of media files to make the source material used for their production available. This is needed to encourage wiki collaboration and modification of images and other material and to facilitate future migration towards new technologies and print.
The proposal is in my namespace: User:Chmod007/Alternate_version_proposal. Please discuss it on the talk page. — David Remahl 13:30, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Since we are expected to post to individual pump sections rather than to the pump, it should probably be protected. That way, people like me who've bookmarked the link to add a new section to the village pump would also come to know of the new policy of posting to individual sections. -- Paddu 21:10, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Moved that from Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). -- Paddu 19:27, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
The cheat has a gold tooth. Can someone add that? Clownfish 19:21, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Hi,
I have a suggestion for a method of using Wikipedia to create a respository of Common Sense which can complement the knowledge bases produced by OpenCyc and OpenMind and help in making further progress towards artificial intellignce.
Wikipedia can be used as a harbour for closer collaboration between AI researchers and the general public as well as for mining common sense. I wish to know your opinion about this.
Please have a look at
Again, I used a list as a random choice. I guess using categories is better. But what is more important is whether the Wiki community likes or dislikes this from happening to Wikipedia. Please let me know on the discussion page.
It's a small thing, but these links at the top of "User Contributions"?
View (previous 50) (next 50) (20 | 50 | 100 | 250 | 500).
Could we have them on the bottom, too? It'd make it much easier to peruse someone's contribution list.... Catherine | talk 21:38, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)
How about not worrying too much about archiving/removal of old discussions from the pump by having pages like Village pump (proposals) (Oct 29, 2004)? At any time two such pages would be transcluded, with the "add new discussion" links pointing to the more recent one. Once the older one grows old, we just have to remove the old links, create a new Village pump (''section name'') (''date'') page and transclude that. We can have a redirect from Village pump (''section name'') to the latest Village pump (''section name'') (''date''), so that only that redirect needs to be updated.
This would hopefully make it easier to restrict the pump sections to editable limits. -- Paddu 21:16, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)
BTW old discussions could also be removed. I'm neutral on whether they should be archived (since AFAICT archiving is done irregularly -- some discussions are archived & some deleted, I always rely on the history section in case I'm ever interested in what I said in the pump years ago), but I suppose my suggestion would lead to smaller pages. That was my main intention, but my fingers typed an unrelated title in a hurry.
Also what could be done is that the subpages a few months old need not be linked to from the main Village pump, but they need not be deleted until they're several months old. -- Paddu 18:52, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Based on some experimenting on the Dutch wikipedia, i came up with a partial solution for using tooltips in the wikipedia. It works in Mozilla/Firefox, but not in Internet Explorer, and it requires an adaption to your personal stylesheet. See User:Taka/Tooltips. -- Taka 20:30, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Moved to Wikipedia:Reference Desk
On all of my Wikimedia User pages, I have included a link to Special:Contributions/PhilHibbs because I think it is important to be able to see what a user has contributed, especially if there is a suspicion of bias, vandalism, or spamming. I would like to see this available on all User pages with a single click, much as History, Discussion, etc. are. PhilHibbs 16:37, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
It is available in all user pages. -- Jmabel | Talk 23:43, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)
When search is disabled on Wikipedia (for performance reasons), would it be expensive to redirect to the search query if there is an exact match on the title of an article? (ie, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SearchString) My guess is no, and this would make WP a lot more useful from, for instance, the firefox search box. Searching seems to be disabled frequently these days.
It may be that something like this has already been suggested but: Occasionally anons enter articles about local features - locally prominent landmarks, restaurants, schools, etc - that usually end up being nominated for deletion. At the same time there are numerous articles about small towns that contain mainly numerical census data. If some things have mainly local significance, maybe we could encourage people to add them to articles about that locality? - Skysmith 09:22, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I like this idea. It would certainly be a lot less time we have to waste on VFD. And we wouldn't be as reliant on admins. Anyone can merge and redirect. anthony 警告 01:12, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Indeed, it's the best way to do things to have The Big Pickle in Pickletown, rather than as a separate article. There are a few things that gather notice outside of their towns ( Peachoid, e.g.), but most of these are empty calories. As for "no one should delete verifiable information," remember that there are more facts than things in the world. Encyclopedias are not the reference equivalent of a person with Tourette's compulsively trying to touch every tree in the park. It is a work designed for use, not just vaccuuming up. At any rate, where I have seen bad local-only articles come in SCHOOLS (all hail the local 5 & Dime and the hallowed halls of Peabody Primary for Preteens!) and neighborhoods. In particular, most of the latter have come in the cases of places where Rambot doesn't go -- Australia, in particular -- and in places that are too big for such narrow focus -- Seattle, in particular. So a New Page shows up called Merrylake. You find out that it's a park in Canberra. Not the park, just a park. Ok. Or you see a new page, and it's called Valleydown. You find out that it is a subdivision in Seattle. You can't merge that in and have any end to the article, and so you can either speedy delete it or VfD it or, of course, say that it's a verifiable fact and therefore is sacred and that anyone who thinks otherwise is deletionist scum. Geogre 17:24, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)
One of the main motives for contributing to a wiki is discussing your interests with other people who share them. It seems to me that there is a need for discussion areas somewhere between article talk pages and the Village Pump. With the various regional notice boards, and such initiatives as Project Crossbow, it looks like a few people agree with me. Here's an idea for auto-generating discussion groups based on subject matter. I'm not proposing that the Wikipedia adopt the idea, I'm just polling for opinions on the matter.
I think the optimum size for a discussion group is between 20-200 members. Below 20, there isn't enough variety of opinion, and groupthink might set in. Above 200, the signal-to-noise ratio drops, although discussion is still possible up to about the 400 mark. As a sanity check, I checked out number of members of various legislatures at List_of_state_legislatures_of_the_United_States. The results agreed with this hypothesis:
Higher House Highest: 67 Lowest: 20 Mean: 38.7 Median: 38
Lower House Highest: 400 Lowest: 40 Mean: 108.3 Median: 100
It should be noted that the second largest body, Pennsylvania's lower house, has only 203 members. Note the difference between the mean and median figures on the Lower House table.
To start, take a list of contributor logins. Throw out any known bots. Throw out any inactive contributors. What “inactive” means is a bit arbitrary, I would suggest no edits for the last 30 (or possibly 90) days as a definition.
It might also be a good idea to limit the list to “elder” contributors, those with 100 or more edits to their name. Before I get flamed on this point, I'd like to point out that I'm currently under 100 edits myself. “Younger” and anon contributors would of course be allowed to participate in these groups, but it might be wise not to assign a contributor to a group until they reach the 100 edit mark. (It is, of course, not possible to assign an anon to such a group.) In addition to cutting down on sock puppets, a contributor might be assigned to an inappropriate group based on too small of a sample size of their edits. If “younger” contributors are to be assigned to groups, they should be re-evaluated for group assignment fairly often, perhaps as often as every 5 edits. (Reassignments would take place during off-peak hours, so no more than one reassignment a day.) Incidentally, any idea how many active “elder” contributors there are?
Anyway, you take the resulting list, and sort it by number of edits. Take the top x contributors. (20 might be a good value for x.) These contributors are the first members of their own groups. Starting at the bottom of the list (to help slow down how fast a group's subject area spreads), compare what articles each contributor has edited, and assign them to the group which has the most overlap. (Limit this to main namespace articles, of course.)
When a group reaches the 200 member mark, split off the two most senior (in terms of edits) members. Starting with the most junior member of the group, assign members to one of the two daughter groups. Since the results will be a lot closer than the general assigning, might want to weight based on number of edits on each article.
After all contributors have been assigned, disband any group at or below the 20 member mark, and disperse its members among the other groups. Again, split up any group that hits the 200 mark.
Auto-generate a page for each group in a separate name space, say, “Special Interest:”. Since it would be hard to write a script to determine the nature of the group, assign a serial number to each group. (Or name the group after the most shared article, and give groups with the same article a number.) This page would have a list of the members, and a list of articles, sorted by the number of group members who have edited the article. The group's discussions would take place in the associated talk page.
After the initial setup, the group system ought to be maintained on a daily basis, during offpeak hours. Assigning new contributors, splitting maxed out groups, delisting inactive contributors, and disbanding minimum-ed out groups. Since you probably don't want to be with the same group your entire Wikipedian career, if this doesn't produce enough churn, then “elder” contributors' group memberships could be reevaluated at 100, 50, or even 25 edit intervals.
Comments? crazyeddie 21:29, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I'm afraid I don't have a site or the coding skills to pull this off by myself. If someone likes the idea and wants to run with it, you have my blessing. I'm not sure how much of a load this would put on the main site, since all the work would be done on off-peak hours. Also, if server loads got too high, updating could be put off temporarily. But it might take an off-site trial to prove the idea.
This idea does have some tie-ins with some other ideas on the page. Somebody got pointed to a "Wikipedians by interest" list. It seems to me that this method would be a more accurate version of the same thing. Another person suggested a "catagory maintainer". Each interest group could elect a maintainer. Slightly different, but same result.
I'm personally now leaning away from making the groups "elders" only. Does anybody have any guesses on the current number of active contributors, elder or otherwise? crazyeddie 17:45, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Also, it might not be good to limit the groups to main namespace articles - there might be a Village Pump BOAF Group (good name by the way). crazyeddie 17:48, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
One last thought - it seems to me that this system would be a possible supplement or even replacement for the catagory system, with lots of room for interesting, serendipitous results. crazyeddie 17:51, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Hi, I think it would be pretty convenient for everyone to have a "Go to top of page" link on every Wikipedia article/ talk page - especially on long pages (perhaps the link can appear automatically if the page exceeds a certain size). -- Simonides 23:40, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
It's good to have as many ways of doing a task as possible. Let the user decide which one they want to use. Even if a user knows to use "Home" or Ctrl+M keys, which is a very small minority of users, they might prefer to use the mouse instead. I know I do. crazyeddie 21:32, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Well, in defense of the conservative viewpoint, this minor addition would take up valuable screen real estate and coder time. However, it looks to me like it wouldn't add too much clutter to the bottom of the screen, and this minor addition shouldn't be too bothersome to code. While this change isn't necessary, it would greatly increase convenience. crazyeddie 18:03, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Just what I suggested at the beginning. -- Simonides 20:09, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)
A TOC link next too each section edit link would be better. -- mav 22:59, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Maybe. But I'd think that would clutter up the page too much. I think our best bet is a script that adds a "home" link and second toc if the page is over a certain length. I guess Simonides agrees with me. So what's the next step in getting this idea to the powers that be? crazyeddie 07:09, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I wouldn't mind having some better intra-page navigation help either, to help people reading long articles to find their way around. — siro χ o 08:27, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)
I have another deletion related proposal, hopefully less controversial than the one on the other part of the pump.
I strongly support increasing the number of articles that can be speedy deleted. As policies get more complicated it inevitably makes it more necessary to check the deletion log to ensure admins are complying with policy. To make checking the deletion log easier why not replace the link on recent changes to Special:Ancient Pages? Old pages seems to not be functioning most of the time, and I see no reason why old pages are more of a priority than short, deadened, or orphaned pages all of which get by with only being linked to from Special:Special Pages. For symmetry's sake the deletion log is also much closer companion to the new pages log than is old pages. - SimonP 05:18, Oct 23, 2004 (UTC)
We have a large number of articles that I believe are in a state where they represent a state of 'as good as it can get'. This might be because the article is an enhanced dictionary definition or because the finest word-smithing has now been done and further change might probably detract.
I would propose that such articles are identified, listed and voted into some sort of protected status whereby change could only be carried out provided proper debate had taken place. This would remove lots of articles from possible vandalism, reduces the review of changes to what were finished articles still being fine tuned etc.
I further propose that changes would be done by making a revised draft and that draft be voted on to replace the previously 'frozen' version.
I accept that this is a major change to policy and welcome views of every one. -- Rjstott 06:36, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I'm a moderator for http://wiki.linuxquestions.org , and I've been pondering this same question. We don't yet have featured articles implemented yet, but when we do, I think we'll upload new featured articles to the Linux Documentation Project, which is a traditional peer-reviewed documentation repository. We would make changes based on their recommendations until the article is approved. We would then periodically submit updated versions of the article. The Wikipedia could do the same thing (but you'd have to go through the backlog of featured articles), but first you'd have to create a peer-review setup, since there isn't an existing one in place. crazyeddie 21:46, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
A stable version will be created for offline distribution. If you have ideas for how that should be used for the online version, please comment at User:Jimbo Wales/Pushing To 1.0. Angela . 10:52, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)
I've come up with, IMO, a better format for handling footnotes. The current guidelines are confusing and unnessarily ugly and difficult. Please take a look at Wikipedia:Footnotes and let me know what you think! JesseW 06:01, 19 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I want to see if anyone has opinions on the following page move I suggest:
If there were a tabs on article pages that led to a newsgroup provider, offering to host discussions of the articles topic, many wiki functions could be vastly enhanced and some difficulties avoided and article developement spurred forward. Discuss at wblakesx Wblakesx 17:15, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC) to dialogue.
Should deleted articles still be visible?
Discussion moved to Wikipedia talk:Viewing deleted articles.
The previous poll at Talk:September 11, 2001 attacks has ended, with varying support and opposition for the different options. Based on the response (which was spread across many proposed titles), a runoff between the two most voted on options has been proposed.
There is now a vote on which of the following should be the article title:
Please vote and express your preference. A wider response than previously would be appreciated.
zoney ♣ talk 16:09, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I think it would be cool to contact academics asking them to contribute to articles that as of yet nobody else editing wikipedia seems to have a clue about. Maybe this could become an established project with suggested items and a template email. There are obviously problems with this: each academic would have to agree to be merciless edited like the rest of us(although obviously there contributions would be generally respected by people)... but it could be valuable for filling in gaps.
What do people think? dpen2000 15:32, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Is there any chance that categories could one day be combined with boolean operators? If so, then one could look up categories "Medicine AND Law NOT Psychiatry" to obtain a defined area of knowledge. -- CloudSurfer 08:33, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
We have:
and
Talk:Women's college (the only one with a Talk page) has some discussion about the proliferation and overlap of lists, but it's a bit dated, there's no consensus, and since there are so many different articles I thought I'd ask around here instead of just the one place.
There actually are some meaningful differences among all those pages. I think the two "women's colleges" categories make perfect sense and match the hierarchy for other universities and colleges. Seven Sisters is a subcategory of these two, except that many of the Seven Sisters have been co-ed since the 1960s and 70s and the category doesn't reflect this. The freestanding U.S. list page sorts the women's colleges by state, and the list on the Women's colleges page gives some city locations, both of which are helpful, but the page names don't indicate what's different or what each different list provides.
I am thinking we could improve things a bit:
(I swear I'm going to have to change my user name to "Overthink".)
I am totally willing to do the legwork on all of this, but as the proposed changes are sort of significant, I thought I'd better solicit some opinions first. Does this seem like a reasonable plan? My thinking is that if prospective women's college students or other interested parties are browsing wikipedia, I'd really like to make it easier for them to find the info they are looking for. Thanks for any feedback! — Bsktcase 03:39, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Done!
Thanks for the support or at least the lack of opposition. :) — Bsktcase 22:04, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Some images, while appropriate and informative in the articles they reside in, nonetheless can be awkward to have on one's screen in a public computing environment. It would be nice in some circumstances to flag such images, and then have a user preference to be able to browse the Wikipedia in "PG mode" where the images would not display unless affirmatively clicked on. Shimmin 13:59, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)
I've just created Wikipedia:Pictures needing attention as a place to ask questions about unknown images which could probably find a place on a Wiki article. The idea is that it should be a visual analogue of Pages Needing Attention with a dash of the Reference desk. Part of the idea is to encourage people to contribute images that they had been holding back because they couldn't remember exactly what they were of and where they could be used.
Precedents for this are the occaisional images that pop-up for comment on the Reference Desk, such as the discussion for Image_talk:Wfm_monument_valley_annotated.jpg.
It could also be used for Wikipedia:Requests for image manipulation discussed above.
One problem is that you need to give an image a filename before you can upload it. It isn't easy to get a relevant filename if you don't know exactly what the subject is. -- Solipsist 20:01, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)
It has become quite difficult to find Wikipedians interested in certain things; e.g. when creating or expanding on articles. Maybe there should be a list (preferably at Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by interest) for just this purpose. [[User:Poccil| Peter O. ( Talk)]] 15:37, Oct 11, 2004 (UTC)
I have noticed that some articles feature strong language and offensive content. An example of this is Shock site. In order to let users know that the article that they are about to view falls into one of these categories, I would propose a template displaying the following notice:
I think it is important that people who are 'sensitive' know what type of article they will be reading, beforehand.
Please, let me know if you agree or disagree with the creation of such a template (or if you believe the notice should be modified).-- Logariasmo 07:44, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Yes, the range of what people might find offensive is huge. For a strict Muslim, a woman's face might be offensive. Should we tag all the articles that contain a picture of one? Intrigue 23:38, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I agree - get rid of nearly all the tags. People know that an article about a novel will discuss the plot, or an article about genitals will be about genitals, or that a short article is short. The Recycling Troll 21:27, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Every so often, I run across a US city that apparently has no article. This could be for various reasons, including that the Census Bureau uses quirky definitions of what qualifies, spelling issues, town no longer exists, etc... Next time I see one, I'm going to make a list of such towns so that they can be redirected/written/fixed by someone who knows the area and can determine what can be meant. I'm just leaving this here because I can't remember where I've seen any such links. If someone else does, I suggest using the title Wikipedia:US cities without articles; change the title if you prefer, just please leave a note on my talk page. Tuf-Kat 04:16, Oct 11, 2004 (UTC)
FWIW, some of the "cities" listed on Wikipedia:US cities without articles, are there simply because that form of the name is not where the article (or any redirects) is. For example, we have an article on Mount Shasta, California and a redir at Mt. Shasta, California, but the list was looking for Mt Shasta, California, which didn't exist until I just created another redir. Niteowlneils 19:09, 23 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Ok, I'm new to Wikipedia, but I feel compelled to note that most Wikipedia articles are entirely covered with distracting and unnecessary links..
I mean, it's generally pretty obvious which keywords might have articles associated with them. If I'm reading an article about Abraham Lincoln, do I really *need* to have blue underlined links to terms like "Illinois" or "Chicago"? Why?
Wouldn't anyone interested in a term from an article be able to use the search box and look it up?
At the very least, there should be an option to turn links off, or go to a "printable" version of the article that's not such a mess to look at or print.
If I want to print an article for use in a class, for example, I shouldn't have to go into word and manually edit out fifty pointless links.
If there is already a way to get to a clean article, free from distracting underlining, please let me know. Otherwise, I suggest that implementing a way to toggle off distracting links would be a significant enhancement to Wikipedia's functionality, and I strongly recommend it.
TF
I think a featured article and a featured article candidates category would both be very useful, and lessen the need for the big long (and about to become bigger and bigger...). It would also be very handy as an index. Do I need to gather community support to do this or should I just go ahead and do this? JOHN COLLISON | (Ludraman) 23:29, 9 Oct 2004 (UTC)
The Portal is fun at the moment. Folks seem to be working on it, and that makes me happy, cuz I had no clue how to fix it. Someone moved it, possibly multiple times, to .. oddly named pages.
We don't let normal users delete pages. Why do we let them move pages? Ponder what it takes.
We don't allow normal users to delete, so why do we allow them to move pages? I have no problem with creaing a "Requests for move" page, but this kind of activity could be absolutely destructive to the pedia.
I propose we limit access to "Move" to admins and above only.
-- Golbez 08:51, Oct 9, 2004 (UTC)
I have just run across my first easter egg hiden in the Wikipedia. I wanted to report it like on WP:-) but it was neither in bad taste or incorrect. Someone had used the colours #fff666 and #ffdead as ligitamate hex colours for a table. I want to mention it somewhere, like Wikipedia:Easter Eggs. However the aforementioned page does not exist. Should I make it for one easter egg? -- metta, The Sunborn ☸ 19:56, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)
There is a proposal to move September 11, 2001 attacks to a new location. Talk:September 11, 2001 attacks currently has a poll/vote on the following names:
Feel free to express your preference(s) and help with any decision to move or not move the page.
zoney ♣ talk 13:16, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC)
See wiktionary:Wiktionary:Beer parlour#Associative Wiktionary. [[User:Poccil| Peter O. ( Talk)]] 16:45, Oct 5, 2004 (UTC)
User:Xed, the creator of CROSSBOW, a project to eliminate Wikipedia's systemic bias, has apparently decided to leave Wikipedia indefinitely. Since I didn't want his excellent work to go to waste, I moved his project page (by request) to Wikipedia:CROSSBOW. Those involved should figure out what to do next. [[User:Poccil| Peter O. ( Talk)]] 02:42, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)
I'm back in on this. As some of you know, I thought this was generally a good idea, but wasn't happy with where Xed was taking it and decided I'd do best to stay out of his way. I've taken the liberty of starting two QuickPolls at Wikipedia:CROSSBOW to try to get consensus on where we should go from here:
Anyway, I'm ready to give some serious effort to this thing; I've rejoined and I hope some others will sign up as well. -- Jmabel 03:27, Oct 4, 2004 (UTC)
Just to bring everyone up to date, he's back, the project is Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias, and it's launched. -- Jmabel 21:23, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC)
The somewhat delayed Wikipedia:External links/temp seems to be ready to be adopted as a set of guidelines for including external links (and replace its parent page). I don't know if I should bring it to a vote or anything yet. Maybe a few people should give the page a once-over and then we'll decide if its ready. — siro χ o 21:35, Oct 3, 2004 (UTC)
(I split up the discussion, since we are now talking about a slightly different topic. SirJective)
Let's unravel this...
So my second list covers exactly the third, nonwanted case *g* I'll go check on the first case. -- SirJective 14:44, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I upload a part of the list for you to look over it, as User:SirJective/tmp_a. Please find a good name for the list. -- SirJective 17:05, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
At the german WP, I created (following someone elses idea) a list of articles whose title has parenthesis, like "name (topic)", for which there is no article with the stripped title "name". The german list is here. I could create such a list for the english WP (it will contain 4000 articles). At the german WP the list is considered useful for creating missing disambiguation pages or removing the parenthesis where it is not needed.
demo list removed, please see the full list
So what do you think about such a list? -- SirJective 19:03, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)
From now on please use User_talk:SirJective/Parenthesis for discussion of articles that should be handled carefully. -- SirJective 20:44, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)
There is no listing in Wikipedia for this condition. It must be rare; I've worked in the medical field for 23 years and have never heard it, but it is in the medical dictionaries. They don't specify what it means, however. Gawaine -- 172.128.85.138 11:45, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I propose a "category maintainer" (feel free to suggest a better title) system. A person who is a maintainer of a category would basically have the job of caring for the articles in that category. There should be nothing formal or any obligation about this position; on the top of each category's talk page, there should be a box with a list of people have signed up to be maintainers for the category, and people should be able to simply add themselves at their own will there, at any time.
The only requirement for being a category maintainer would be having all pages in the category on one's watchlist (including articles in subcategories if the category sub-tree is manageable in size) to check for vandalism etc. This could solve our current problem of not knowing which pages are monitored sufficiently.
Though not necessary, a person who signs up for the position should be knowledgeable in the field. This is of course necessary for catching vandalism of the subtle kind. Additionally, instead of asking about esoteric topics at the help desk and hoping for someone who can answer to stroll by, we could look up the people who maintain the category on the topic and ask them. It would also give us a better overview of how much expertise we have in the respective areas of knowledge covered in Wikipedia.
Fredrik | talk 15:30, 1 Oct 2004 (UTC)
This has tie-in with the auto-generated special interest groups idea that I've posted further down the page. I was thinking that these Special Interest Groups might serve as administrative divisions, but I was waiting to see reactions to the general idea first before adding that complication. The Special Interest Groups and Categories wouldn't be one-to-one, but the effect would be the same. crazyeddie 21:55, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I'd like to move "Thomas Lynch (disambiguation)" to " Thomas Lynch". I moved the previous article under Thomas Lynch to " Thomas Lynch (statesman)"; given that his son (Jr.) was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and that there are several other notables with the name, I didn't think it was reasonable to conclude he was clearly the best-known. I believe I've moved all the other links/redirects correctly. MisfitToys 21:09, Sep 30, 2004 (UTC)
If someone could move Raven-Symone (longer article, incorrect spelling) to Raven-Symoné (stub, correct spelling), that would be swell. (Not that I'm a fan; I just can't stand incorrect article titles...) — tregoweth 02:16, Oct 13, 2004 (UTC)
It would be enormously helpful to have a standardised Wiki syntax for pronunciations (i.e., phonetic transcriptions), in a similar spirit to the way dates are currently treated. Currently, pronunciations (of, for example, place names) are given in a haphazard and unsystematic way using a number of inconsistent systems ( International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), SAMPA, X-SAMPA, Kirshenbaum, simplified English phonetics), each with different rationales and opposing intentions, or often just what an author makes up on the spot based on their own accent.
There was a lengthy debate at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (pronunciation) (which I discovered after writing up this proposal) about standardising pronunciation schemes which got nowhere for one fundamental reason: nobody could agree on one system because different people prefer different systems for different (sensible) reasons.
The idea would be to let users enter pronunciation in a number of systems, but that this would be wikified into a single wiki markup, which can then be rendered in various ways.
This is possible since there is a deterministic and straightforward translation between these formats (with the exception that you can only translate into simplified English pronunciation, since it contains less information).
I'm sure many wikipedians would happily weed articles to add the appropriate syntax.
There would be several advantages to this:
1. It would enable people to set a preference for how they prefer to see pronunciations. I, myself, prefer IPA, but some people don't have the necessary fonts so need to use SAMPA, and I'm sure many people would prefer simplified English phonetics.
Most people probably don't care, but this would allow the needs of those who prefer linguistically accurate transcriptions to be met along with those who want something more straightforward.
2. It would lead to more concise articles, since currently people often add pronunciations in more than one system.
3. It would make it easier to actually enter phonetics in the IPA. You could, for example, enter it in the ASCII-based SAMPA system, and after wikification, view it in the IPA. This would be easier than having to figure out the html markup for IPA symbols, and also more meaningful in the source.
4. Standardisation. A pronunciation system should be formalised and centralised in one location, rather than made up in an ad hoc way on an article by article basis. For example, there was a proposal for a simplified phonetic system based on English pronunciation which didn't get anywhere (naturally).
5. Extensibility. In principle, new phonetic systems could be added in future (this is not quite as nerdish as it sounds). Once the framework is up and running, we can add or modify systems, but the point is that this would only need to be done in one central place.
Eoghan 15:57, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Cool. This still doesn't allow customisation like I suggested (and therefore will not help IPA-haters),
but if tipa was adopted as a wiki syntax standard then we could do that.
Eoghan 18:01, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
(sections above this (and below the previous tag) were archived on 10:32, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC))'
I notice several Wikipedia biographies link to my database of pedigrees. (freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesdow) Would there be interest in Wikipedia hosting the entire database? This might have many advantages.
Despite the open (anarchistic?) Wikipedia policies, this is not something I could just start doing myself. For one thing, Wikipedians should help decide the best format.
-- James D. Allen (e-mail: fabpedigree at yahoo or jamesdowallen at gmail.)
There are various specialised genealogies out there, which the wikipedia should subsume and improve on. Some of them are now moribund. See, for example, http://sigact.acm.org/genealogy/ (theoretical computer scientists) and http://www.genealogy.ams.org/ (mathematicians). Eoghan 17:53, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)
We need Wikipedia gear. T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, HOODIES, Hats, etc. They'd help raise money and generate traffic/interest besides just being insanely cool. I'd buy one if good quality items were available; CaféPress sucks, but it's probably the fastest way for this to happen. Anyway, I'm sure you guys can figure out the technicalities. ^__^
Anybody with me?
Dudes. I just want to say, that was one of the geekiest conversations I've ever read. Congratulations Sirs
Can we have the one-equals headers back for the Pump? Why do they exist at all if we're not supposed to use them? It muchly improves the look of the pump to have the little HRs under each heading, instead of headers floating in space, and this only happens if the section headers are ==, and the major sections are = or ==. But on another question, is there any use for = headers at all? -- Golbez 15:59, Sep 28, 2004 (UTC)
Star Trek information on Wikipedia can be characterized as mostly "barely okay" with the exception of a few stellar articles. My intention is to vastly increase the quality, quantity, and general goodness of all Star Trek related information. I should say that I am not a Trekkie and so I am not as well informed about all things Star Trek as some of you might be, but I am slowly but surely making improvements to related articles. You can too!
My specialties lie in DS9 and Voyager.
What needs to be done:
How to get started:
Go!
Since there already is Memory Alpha, would it not be more profitable to leave documenting Star Trek to them, and work on things that there is actually a shortage of knowledge on? DJ Clayworth 14:38, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Just a note, to expand on Radagast's idea of how the articles should work. I think a good idea when dealing with so-called "fancruft", which many of these articles are is to ensure that the articles are encyclopedic with relation to the real world. That is, each article should explain the significance of its topic to the plots, themes, and effect on the viewer, thus representing it as fiction of a certain significance. No article should just be a book-report, that is not an encyclopedic account of a topic. — siro χ o 23:37, Oct 26, 2004 (UTC)
|}
I would like to suggest a formatting change where articles have one or more other uses appearing at the bottom. Current convention is to separate it from the preceding article with a horizontal rule, but this isn't the best formatting when dealing with longer articles. The alternate meaning does not show up in the table of contents, and it is easy to overlook a small blurb at the end of the article. Instead I suggest using one of two other methods: 1). Move the alternate meanings to a disambiguation page and include links between that new page and the current page. 2.) Create a new "Other uses" section at the bottom of the page (see example at right). (It would be "Other uses" only because many articles, including the new Template:otheruses, begin with the comment "For other uses, see ...") — Mike 16:56, Sep 26, 2004 (UTC)
People generally won't complain if you move the different meanings to their own page and create a disambiguation page. I find the horizontal rule method annoying too and I generally treat it as a vestage of the days before we figured out how to do disambiguation. anthony (see warning) 16:11, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Article text. I suggest...Let's make a 'Questions' section of the village pump. — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 23:54, 23 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Reference listWould it be possible to have a numbered reference list show up at the end of the article? For example, some of the more news oriented articles such as John Kerry have lots of citations in the text. These show up as numbered references. It would be nice to also have these show up at the bottom of the page with an actual name (e.g. New York Times Feb 12, 2003) so that one could see at a glance the references used in the article. One could do this by hand, but then the numbers would get thrown off every time a new reference is inserted. I have in mind some template like {reference:nytimes.com|New York Times, Feb 12, 2003} which inserts a numbered link as currently & adds a list to the bottom. Wolfman 22:17, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)
http://www.mailinator.com/ will give you a quick throwaway email address. anthony (see warning) 16:06, 29 Sep 2004 (UTC)
WikiPiccy anyone?I have wanted to add more images to small and medium sized articles. Could a new Wiki, called WikiPiccy, be created, so that 5, 10 or more images could be uploaded and stored, and then some of them linked into WikiPedia? This would be a pictorial adjunct to WikiPedia. N12345n 22:13, 2004 Sep 23 (UTC)
The Accessible WikipediaI was just reading what some have said about Wikipedia... like you can now plug a phone line in anywhere in the world and suddenly have a tremendous encyclopedia at your fingertips. (Harold Rhinegold, I think). But, that got me thinking. There is a large amount of official HTML code that is rarely used and, I would wager, not entirely supported by the major browsers. This code deals mostly with accessibility - web browsing made easy for the blind and immobile. I was wondering if anything could be done to assist this important segment of the population. I don't know anything about accessibility coding, so some of these questions may seem horribly naive:
I guess what I'm getting at here is maybe there should be an option for a blind-compatible alternate page in some cases. I don't know, maybe people would have to select that they're blind (or need an accessible copy no matter why) at the front page, or in their login, or maybe just give the option on appropriate pages. Like {{accessible}} could lead you to a more accessible copy of the page, but remain invisible if you are using a normal browser. It almost sounds worthy for an entire other wikipedia (and maybe this IS better suited for simple:, I don't know) but only a small portion of the pages would benefit from this. Just some rambling thoughts. I'm sure there must be information on the web somewhere about all this. -- Golbez 21:46, Sep 22, 2004 (UTC)
=It seems that this discussion has been inactive for over a week, but as a blind Wikipedian, I would definitely say that this website is accessible. The code makes it easy for my reading software to read the articles and navigate. It also helps that there are no graphical distractions like flash. Of course I cannot access images, but if the image has a name which basically describes what the picture is of, I know what it is about. It is sometimes difficult to learn the codes for editing, particularly for tables, but this is a minor problem which I am overcoming. Academic Challenger 08:28, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC) Interlinking with WikiTravelI don't know just how closely Wikitravel and Wikipedia are linked (in terms of brainpool; I know why travel is separate, and the differences in license, etc.) but I thought it might be useful to maintain a policy of interlinking between the two. I.e. their WikiTravel page on Charlotte would extlink to Charlotte, North Carolina, and ours would extlink to their page on it. That way, the two projects complement each other without actually joining together. Are there any objections to this, or comments, or? -- Golbez 01:01, Sep 23, 2004 (UTC)
Enabling the instant revert button globallyI have been discussing with Angela the reasons behind disallowing normal users to use the instant revert button. Basically, there is no reason why an administrator can revert a page easily and a normal user is obligued to revert it by force (open > select history > click edit > save as). Angela's concern was that enabling it globally would allow vandals to revert fixes immediatly. However, this is an evitable situation: We could simply have a timer that disallows simple users to use the revert button. Say that the timer is set for 5 minutes: if I revert a page, I can't use the revert button until 5 minutes have passed (as I'm not an admin, just a simple user). However, an admin is not constrained by this timer: he can use the revert button again and again and again without a time limit — just at it is now. This can be achieved by comparing the timestamp of the user's last use of the revert() function on a certain page with the timestamp of the server; ie: user used revert() on X article at 14:00:00 09/20/2004 and the timestamp of the server is 16:00:00 09/21/2004: the user is allowed to use the revert() function. — Joseph | Talk 23:34, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)
I'm against this. A User Interface should make it easy to to the things you want people to do, but it should also make it hard to do the things you don't want them to do. Reverting is one of the things that you want people to think about very hard before they do it. Even as an admin it's sometimes very easy to just push that revert button because you don't like the look of an entry. I have to make myself check it. I confess that sometimes I've even forgotten that 'revert' can undo multiple changes. Whatever we do revert should not be made available to anons. Imagine the havoc when some newcomer finds they can screw up an article by just pressing one button, and that the summary automatically is filled in to look like it's a sensible change. DJ Clayworth 14:45, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC) Honestly, I'd rather lose the ability to auto-revert as an admin than hand it out to anyone who feels like signing up for a username. Most of our widespread vandal attacks have been from registered accounts -- imagine if all Wik's vandalbot accounts had the power to auto-revert? DJ's reasoning is perfectly sound: let's not do this. Jwrosenzweig 22:11, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Disclaimer?I propose adding the following to the bottom of all article: Disclaimer: All information provided on Wikipedia is presented 'as is'. No warranty is offered, express or implied. or something like that. — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 01:26, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Shortcut iconsIt would be very helpful if each wiki had a different shortcut icon. For example, with several wikis open in different tabs, they would have a different icon depending on which wiki is in the tab. I have made some for Meta, Wikibooks, and Wikiquote with Fennec's help, and they are here. What do people think of that? And would someone kindly put those icons on the wikis? -- Yath 03:13, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/favicon.ico" />
IdeaHow about we do a permanent split (no posting on the main Vil Pump page) and then do something like: Village Pump -- News{{Wikipedia:Village Pump (News)}} Village Pump -- Technical{{Wikipedia:Village Pump (Technical)}} and then every heading under the main headings would have an 'add to this discussion' link (like Vfd) and we keep the box with the different village pump links (so we can post). — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 21:01, 18 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Requests for image manipulation --- Good or bad idea?
What will make or break this idea, and also the split of the Village Pump, is whether a sufficient cadre of competent helpers read it and answer the questions posed. I'm not sure I know how to attract such cadre, but that's the trick. I think it's a good idea, but I'm not competent to say how to sell it or what to call it. Andrewa 11:12, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Splitting up the village pumpAs a solution to the village pump regularly being 200kb or more, I propose a trial of splitting the pump into different areas. The five proposed sections are at Wikipedia:Village pump sections. If people want to still post on the main village pump, they can, but they find it easier to find replies to their questions on a more focused page. Angela . 22:46, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)
Sounds fine. I would argue that Wikipedia: Village Pump (help) could simply redirect to the Help Desk. [[User:Meelar| Meelar (talk)]] 23:43, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)
Personally, like Jmabel, I'm skeptical about the value of splitting the village pump. The Help page definitely is redundant and people should go to the Help Desk, that's why it's there. -- Michael Snow 19:52, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
For people who don't mind huge pages, and want to see the whole village pump on one page, there could be a page which included all the other ones via templates. See User:Angela/Sandbox for an example. Angela . 09:36, Sep 18, 2004 (UTC)
A new feature now lets you edit a page that is included in another one via section [edit] links. This means you can edit this section of this page directly from User:Angela/Sandbox, which makes inclusion of templates a lot more useful. I'm wondering now whether there is any reason not to split the village pump up since the subpages can all be included on one page, and people can edit those from that page. People who are only interested in one section can go straight there, and can watchlist that section, but those who want the whole pump still have that. Angela . 16:26, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC) This page is now included on the main village pump, which hopefully is good for people who want the whole thing, and for people who only want to see sections. The next thing to do will be to move the "miscellaneous" section on the main village pump to a subpage, but I'll wait to see if there are objections to that first. Angela . 01:23, Sep 22, 2004 (UTC)
The miscellaneous section is partly to stop those who don't like having to learn anything new from getting upset. This way, they can continue to post on one page without having to worry about which sections exist. I also think there are some sections that don't fit elsewhere. My recent request for a volunteer to be interviewed by the BBC, for example, didn't really fit anywhere else. Angela . 05:59, Sep 25, 2004 (UTC)
One minor thing that's always bugged me about how our stub system works is that there are some articles in existence that are stub-length, never likely to be significantly expanded, but certainly worthy of inclusion. Examples: Juturna, Fontus, Eanmund, and Setnakhte. Putting the stub tag on articles like these is an eyesore for our readers. It's a futile cry for help — sources for these topics simply do not exist anymore. They're lost in the sands of time. Despite this, well-meaning editors will inevitably mark these articles as stubs, no matter how many times it's reverted. My solution to this (admittedly minor) problem is Template talk:Notstub, an "invisible" tag. Please read it over, and decide whether it's a good idea or not. Thanks, • Benc • 06:44, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Concise Needs HelpAbout a week after the 400,000th article was posted on Wikipedia, I created a page that aims to list links to the 10,000 to 20,000 "essential" articles that no "encyclopedia" could be without. I have set up some guidelines for what I would like this particular "categorization scheme" to become and put them on the Wikipedia:Concise discussion page and now I need help creating an alphabetical list of links to the "keystone" articles of the encyclopedia. In fact, I would appreciate whatever help I can get with this project. I think it is an important project, one designed to make Wikipedia even more accessible than it is today. N2lect2el 22:36, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)
For Wiki News - Offering Email News Alert functionalityI read about the new Wiki News initiative and would like to contribute. Infobeing.net technology can be integrated into the site through Web Services so that users can create keyword-based Agents and receive Email Alerts when relevant news items are published. Our message-routing engine is up and running and the integration wouldn't be too difficult. I'd offer this functionality for free. Please contact me at chad@infobeing.net if there is any interest. Thank you. Chad Manney Infobeing Solutions, LLC Ratings SystemI am interested in knowing when that ratings system that was being tested is going to be implemented. I think its pretty essential that there is some form of a ratings system for these articles aside from the discussion board. Malcom-x-mass 22:35, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC) New approach to newbie vanitiesCrosspost - request fo comments Please read Wikipedia talk:Please do not bite the newcomers#Newbie vanity and comment. -- Wikimol 22:30, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC) How do I submit an article for consideration?I'm sure I've overlooked it but I wasn't sure how to submit an article I'd like to have considered for posting on your website? It concerns an Irish priest, Father James Edwin Coyle, who served his priestly life in Alabama (USA)from 1896 to until he was assassinated on August 11, 1921 on the front porch of the old wooden rectory at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Shortly before the murder, Father Coyle had presided at the marriage of a minister's daughter who had become Catholic to a dark-skinned Puerto Rican. The girl's father walked up on the porch where Father Coyle sat after supper, fired three shots, two missed but one struck Father below the left ear. He died forty minutes later at St. Vincent's Hospital. In a week-long trial two months later, the shooter was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Father Coyle was 48 when he died. He was a native of Drum, Athlone, County Roscommon, Ireland. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham. His grave is marked by a thick, ten-foot high Celtic cross. The murder took place during a years-long period of unfortunate public anti-Catholic economic and psychological persecution promoted by the Ku Klux Klan and a secret anti-Catholic political society called the True Americans. Their motto was "No Catholics in Public Office". During this tense period, Father Coyle was unwavering in his defense of the Catholic Faith and what Catholics believe. It is believed by Catholics in County Roscommon and in Birmingham that Father Coyle's life should be examined to determine if he was a Martyr for the Catholic Faith and if he is a candidate for canonization as a Saint... written by John Wright, Jr., Birmingham, AL. USA, e-mail: jlwjr1927@cs.com, phone 205-979-6745.
Auto create edit summaries?Hey, for certain types of edits (For example, all that is added is the stub message) maybe an auto edit summary should be made-so if somebody marks something as a stub and does nothing else, the edit summary says "Stub". Would save people time making edit summaries. -Cookiemobsta 05:16, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC) a request to simplify the user watchlistWhile going through the watch list looking for new edits and responses to posts on the "village pump" i've noticed that there is no easy way to verify what posts are new verses what are old. there appears to be very little in the way of advancement on that page at all. I say this due to the point i just brought up and another i've been meaning to bring up: as a whole the watchlist is difficult to read. Maybe not difficult, but it could be easier. I propose some sort of flag to recocnize additions to talk pages and reworking the format to which each entry on the list is presented. I feel that truncating information and adding columns (at least one were the posting user is the start of the new column) would make the page less of a hassle. I would make an example of my watch list, but i am unable to edit the format. I apologize if this was brought up outside of the recent unarchived history. Yet i feel it is important. Ramius V. Schweitzer 22:29, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC)
<HotKey>-Click to lookup any word on WikiPedia on Wiktionary?<HotKey>-Click to lookup any word on WikiPedia on Wiktionary? andor on WikiPedia itself?
Front page for all election announcementsI want to propose that the main page is used to announce the current arbitrators election. And also all elections for administrators etc. At the moment there are around a quarter of a million Wikipedia editors, and a recent "election" for an administrator had only about 50 votes for and 17 against. I know there's a mention on the Community Portal page for the arb-com election but most users/visitors won't see that. Obviously the users aren't being properly represented and this leads to mainly activists and often unsuitable people dominating the running of The Wikipedia. I suggest a colourful click-able box on the front page. Like the ones that are being touted around various users' pages, (mainly, it seems to me, for the candidates' and their friends benefit rather than the Wikipedia "electorate".) WikiUser 19:01, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
That's a sensible suggestion, but I want to make sure anyone who visits The Wikipedia knows about elections and can be involved if they wish. 217.204.65.186 20:46, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC) The above post "217.204.65.186 at 20:46, 26 Nov" was from me (the system told me I was logged in), but administrator Neutrality blocked me as I was trying to helpfully point out that. Fortunately another helpful Admin (I think it was Genteen) must've unblocked me. WikiUser 21:41, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
In case it is not widely known, here is a banner publicising the election taken from here. Feel free to copy to appropriate places (User pages/User talk pages). -- ALoan (Talk) 18:53, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Users browsing / editing this page...This might go under technical, but... this is an idea from a forum, where at the bottom of each thread or forum, it has a list of users looking at the page. (With the option to hide your username) Maybe this is a worth wild idea to implement to generate page stats on number of people viewing the page, and what not??? --[[User:AllyUnion| AllyUnion (talk)]] 08:59, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
chalkboardSimilar to a clipboard, it would function as a place where editors could place things that they cut and paste often. Maybe even advancing the idea so far as to have three sections to a chalkboard: single session, multi-session, and functional. the atributes of the third section would include a tie in to the keyboard so that an editor only need to hold ctrl+1 or ctrl+2 (through zero for a total of ten 'hot keys') to paste an object listed as one through zero in that section. The object being a phrase or a word or internal/external link and the list being changable as the needs change. The 'advancing of this could go so far as to join the multi-session and the functional session by leaving a 'window' where the function number could be assigned. Though i can see how advancing this far could be a hinderance. Note: this feature would be saved on the Wiki servers, however when a user logs in they get transfered to the user's computer space, and saved back to the wiki servers only if there have been edits made to the list. Ramius V. Schweitzer 01:52, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC) draft pagesSo as to decrease the amount of actual page edits, i propose the ability to flag revisions and/or page creations as drafts until kinks are worked out. I realize that there is a 'preview' button, yet things still can be over looked. The advantage that i see is for when someone (like myself with the clean up of the covenant page) is working with cleaning up an article through the restructuring of information, and distrobution of information to new 'files', they would be able to fine ttune their method without mucking up the 'edit history' page. Ramius V. Schweitzer 01:52, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC)
Proposal for draft pages and a 'chalkboard'Ramius V. Schweitzer 01:51, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC) Mark users unlikely to perform vandalism?Hey, if people are looking out on the RC page for vandalism, why not have an option to not notice registered users who have made more than (arbitrary numbers) 100 edits or created 10 articles and haven't recieved any warnings or anything? Such people are very unlikely to be vandals (or even make stupid but well-meant edits that need reverting) and it would save time to have an option to not show them. -Cookiemobsta 00:51, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Icon to mark links to Media namespaceI have noticed that links to objects in the "Media" namespace, e.g.,
Media:1000Hz.ogg, are marked with the same icon used to mark external links. That could be confusing for those users who have not customized their CSS to properly differentiate visually between media and external links, because the default shade of blue that marks external links is not quite different-looking from the default shade of blue used to mark media links. So, I drew a new icon (
New template anotherI've noticed that several sysops enjoy leaving this message on vandals' talk pages:
Downline Clones&SnapshotsIs it a question or a proposal : Can wikipedia integrate as a requirement to down-line clones the acceptance as a condition of their free use that they accept a built in giant wiki RSS-like feed of updates/corrections/expansion? Is it hellish expensive /impossible though aren't Clones feeding from the source already ? Do they just add new pages (as opposed to editing within pages )at present or do they take snapshots at long intervals . Don't Clones who take snapshots and everybody already have to accept conditions for everything ? Clones just show me that they're very slow to renew/correct the data , and since really it isn't even clones but vast website populations referring to single pages that suit them , it means they can feed their own perhaps rubbish into Wikipedia and then get it back out, branded with the good name of Wikipedia as a PR plug for their site's stance. The solution would have to be a feed embedded on every page , so ,and leave with each uptake of data leaving . Yes, it sounds a bit controlling but I ask this as a reaction simply to abuse not use .The present situation means that wiki stuff goes down to a lower level that has no interaction,so no checks and balances beyond that moment of data withdrawal. Flamekeeper 22:11, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
So maybe Debian are right and it doesn't work 'cause it's not editable where I find clones/forks parading the brand. Does this mean the train rolls on forever with a wheel off? What I'm concerned about seems to creep inside and I understand is it that the rules accepted from foundation can't change so nothing can be done .Is everything locked up like making DRM look so yesterday ? So re-start another whole wiki is it that fixes the issue ? I'm sorry I don't get it -surely the wikipedia has to blaze a trail for us all . So otherwise - let me get this, the sum total of knowledge has to go in accord (effectively causing error as much as light) with a copyright that sits in a register as constituted by that body , of how many lines ,and wikipedia cannot develope a better solution . I thought pavlov had a problem...but if you're right, Matt ,still there could be an agreement between the two , given goodwill. These are all nice guys aren't they, there's no money is there, so why not? At this rate no one 's going to change anything , the conspiracy we maybe don't know about will always remain un-branded so the beneficiaries get off again. Flamekeeper 01:08, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC) I am told elsewhere(technical) that this proposal to stream-down corrected wikipedia articles would be technically feasible . Flamekeeper 09:22, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)
The GFDL is not set in stone. There is a migration clause in the version that Wikipedia requires. So if FSF creates GFDL 2.0 then we can choose to use its terms instead. And that goes for reusers too, of course. There is no risk that the GFDL would require RSS feeds, anyway. — David Remahl 12:30, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC) keeping track of FAsI propose that the Template:Featured put on FA's Talk pages be expanded to include
This will make it much easier to screen FAs for deterioration (inspired by yesterday's FA-o-the-day, Talk:Indus Valley Civilization). This proposal is also related to the "WP 1.0" screening suggested above: we need some sort of handy record, what version of the article was screened (yes, the information can always be collected from page history, but apparently that's not good enough, as the version linked from WP:FA is the current version, not the original featured one). dab 11:35, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Works for me. Maurreen 17:51, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC) Seems like a good idea to me. — Matt 18:02, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Version 1.0?Sundar and I are discussing the idea of another Collaboration of the Week, or something roughly similar. The purpose would be essentially to find, screen, develop or maintain (or all of those) articles or article versions appropriate for a paper or "release" version of Wikipedia. We'll probably start at top-level categories and branch out from there, but other options are open. If you're interested (whether in helping or just discussing), please join us at Wikipedia:Breadth and quality. Maurreen 08:54, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC) Personal PagesI think it would be great if we could have more than one personal page. If we could have a main personal page and two or three other pages listed under our wiki ID, it would be great. -- DoubleRing 19:53, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)
List(s) of canonical articles?I am not an admin, and just a minor contributor. I'm aware of the debate in the media about Wikipedia and its utility. It was nice to see Wikipedia being mentioned, if not praised by Bamber Gascoigne on the UK's BBC Radio 4 channel recently. My proposal is that those wishing to improve the quality and reliability of Wikipedia should form an editorial board (or perhaps several competing boards) and produce lists of versions of canonical articles - i.e. those that have been reviewed by the board and met with approval. Those who agree with the editorial stance of their preferred board or boards could then use the list of canonical articles produced by the board as a filter into Wikipedia. Articles would not then need to be 'locked' against further editing. Ideally, the Wikimedia software could be modified such that an individual could turn on such a filter (or filters) in their preferences i.e. only view or search articles listed by the 'Peer reviewed only' board, or the 'Child friendly' board, or the 'Creationist' board. This approach does not impose a particular editoral board's view on all users of Wikipedia, and does not hinder the addition of information to articles. The list of canonical versions of articles would have to be protected to be modifiable only by those authorised by the particular editorial board producing the list. One possible approach might be to tag particular article versions with a tag indicating approval by a particular editorial board. I'm not putting myself forward as wishing to set up or participate in such a board - it would be beyond my competence. I think the facility would be useful, and may help to cut down on edit wars. WLD 10:13, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Random page categoriesWould it be possible to add a modifier to the random page tool so that it only selects from specific categories? Just a thought that would make my enjoyment of the random page tool even greater. Bantman 00:17, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Harley peters 00:56, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC) Not everything is categorized. The vast majority of Wikipedia articles would never appear. Rick K 07:21, Nov 20, 2004 (UTC)
Approval mechanism for Wikipedia 1.0I've had a bit of a brainwave after reading various approaches to approval mechanisms. My proposed solution is here. My overriding aim as been to produce a solution which is acceptable to the majority of Wikipedians. I look forward to comments. : ChrisG 19:26, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC) New templateHello, everyone. I don't know if this is the right place to post this, if it isn't please move and let me know on my talk page. I just wanted to make it generally known that I have created a template for user talk pages of users that change/remove the {{sandbox}} header. It is Template:Sbox, but when using it you must type {{sbox|123.456.78.90}}, but putting in the real IP address of the user. It comes out like this:
Please (on my talk page) criticize and comment on it. Sadly, it has been vandalised twice in the 10 minutes it's been in existance, so if it looks odd check its history. Thanks,--[[User:Gabriel Webber| Gabriel | talk]] 18:53, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)
A tour through mathWhat: A list page that would walk a reader through the math pages in a sensible order. Why: Wikipedia has a lot of great math articles. But if you don't already know a lot about a term, you can't really learn it from Wikipedia. An article or category that would walk the reader from one article to the next would allow the neophyte to learn new concepts, then build on them by going on to more complex concepts. Who: Someone who got further than AP Calculus. Simple, but powerful. Chris vLS 20:48, 18 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Thesean method or threadI need help in finding a definition of the subject referenced above; Thesean method or thread. dlg
Some things are easier to find in a paper encyclopedia...because there is a concept that certain things (which come together in alphabetical order) are adjacent in the encyclopedia. For example: I want to look up information about a certain Mark Green. It turns out that the one I want is "Mark J. Green". On paper, the two Mark Greens would be together so it would be trivial to turn to the correct page in the "G" volume, and find the one I want. Would it be possible and desirable to have some feature for finding articles which have consecutive titles? Maybe some menu that has the ten articles immediately before and after (in alphabetical order) the one that I'm currently looking at? That would solve many of the problems of slight variations of middle initials or whatever that make it hard for me to find articles on people. Other suggestions are of course welcome. Morris 22:02, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)
Well, we usually have redirects for most common versions of the names, there should not be too much problem finding all the Mark Greens. Typing Green, Mark Green or Mark J. Green will all get you there. Intrigue 04:21, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC) Homework: wikipediaThe creation and maintenience of wikipedia articles seems like the perfect term project for a college class. The wikipedia would benefit from high-quality, informed additions, guaranteed by the grading policy of the Professor, and the Professor and class would benefit from all the normal reasons associated with schoolwork, AND the warm+fuzzy feeling that comes from making the world a better place. Assignments could be as small as requiring each student to make one update to one page, to having the whole class collectively create new topics. To this end, I would like to create an informational document that would explain the concept of the wikipedia to my professors and would encourage them to have their class contribute. It might provide some general guidelines and suggestions for assignments, examples, etc. What do you all think?
In some cases, the results have not been all good. Most recently, the Dartmouth students who created articles on the minutiae of Dartmouth college life. However, the same project did create a high number of valuable additions too. It's important to have a clear and well-thought-through policy for the homework, if possible focusing on the collaborative moment aspect. There may also be copyright concerns, as all content submitted to Wikipedia must be licensed under the GFDL. I'm sure all this is better explained in the link Jmabel provided, so I'll be quiet in class now. — David Remahl 07:33, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)
List of pages to watch for POVI think we need a List of pages to watch for POV. Teofilo Vargas Sein is a perfect example of why we need a page klike that; we could keep control over pages that outsiders commonly change to satisfy their own, personal needs. Another good example of a page that could go into that list would be Los Macheteros. " Antonio Wikipedia Knight Martin"
Proposal to enforce the Three Revert RuleThere is a vote and discussion on whether and how to enforce the Wikipedia:Three revert rule on Wikipedia:Three revert rule enforcement and Wikipedia talk:Three revert rule enforcement. Please come and contribute your comments/votes. jguk 14:22, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC) Does anyone want to help clean up the Wikipedia namespace?The Wikipedia tutorials, policies, guidelines, "clubs", etc. are terribly disorganized, and some of them ( WP:NPOV) are plodding and hard to read. Some pages, also, are far more well-written and accurate than others. Some pages are long-dead for lack of incoming links! Shall we start a WikiProject for the Wikipedia namespace? Ashiibaka tlk 05:37, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Time and Date/Weight and measures.Is it possible to handle wights and measures with a configurable approach like dates and time. Not just for Imperial v Metric but also to include switching between tonne, gramme and Gigagram. While I'm here is it possible to add DD/MM/YYYY to the date formats?-- Jirate 02:01, 2004 Nov 14 (UTC) Link back buttonsI think that wikipedia needs some link back buttons so people who have web sites can advertise this one if they want.
Product feedbackPlease add some type of feedback possibility to pages so that we can say one or some of the following: - confusing - did not get it - too difficult - too technical - written for those who already know it - missing the simple intro paragraph - excellent - one of the best - perfect - very professional etc. etc. such feedback would make it possible for the editors to see if they are on the right track. I see them discussing whether to do this or that on an article, but because there is no real feedback from masses, they are left alone with their own personal opinions. This is bad for articles and bad for the growth of the editors. Quality can suffer if things are not based on quality, but rather than on opinion of how things should be. these poll buttons could be simple, easy to click links, which do not bring you to another page. One click poll buttons. There can even be a single line of form field, where we can quickly write something. One may argue "if you don't like it change it", but for many pages things are pretty well fixed, they have been working and discussing on every word of it for a long time, won't let anybody touch a single coma, justly. One may argue, "add a discussion", but I don't have time to do that in most cases, like many other users. I would press a button, though. Speed matters here.
WikiAdviceHi. I'm relatively new to the world of Wiki, and it's got my head buzzing. Wow! This is soo cool... I've been thinking about all the other great things can we apply this to... Anyways, the idea I thought I'd throw out there for feedback is about the viability of having a WikiAdvice site. I was browsing around on the meta wiki, to see where to suggest my idea, and I think they said that if you want to get feedback on a proposal, to go here. The closest thing I could find on the meta wiki site was that some people proposed a WikiHowTo type concept... I think that WikiAdvice could be much more broader and yet compelling for people to post. After all, everybody loves to give out free advice, right? Anyways, since I am relatively new, and haven't yet made acquaintances with any of the other members of the wikicommunity, I hope that this idea stands on its own, and isn't judged on who's proposing it... I remember that there's a commercial site called http://www.ehow.com/ ehow, this would be an opensource version... As for examples, I think most people can come up with a plethora of advice areas at the drop of a hat. I know that since I'm a new father, new husband, have a new house, am in the business world, and I hear and seek advice all the time. Here's my stream of consciousness list of ten advice articles that people would enjoy writing as well as reading
So... comments? concerns? questions? would people contibute to such a site? Frogcat 20:04, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)
|