Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 21:21, 16 September 2006

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

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

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• The search index is often out of date, sometimes taking weeks before it's updated.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

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

MARKUP CRISIS: NEW http://wikipedia.org/ INTIAL PAGE MISSING SEARCH BUTTON IN SOME BROWSERS

The initial http://wikipedia.org/ page (puzzle globe) as viewed in Netscape 7 and Safari 1 now lacks a submit button next to the search field and language pulldown.

There is also a spacing problemm with the logos (Wiktionary, etc.) at the bottom of the page.

It is a true scandal in Wikidom that this most prominent of pages could go live without excruciatingly thorough QA testing!

unicode

hey all, having a problem with my browser seeing unicode. i'm using IE6, and on some pages with lots of unicode instead of seeing the glyph i see a little square box. anyone know how i can fix this? please keep in mind that im not allowed to download anything onto this computer because its not mine. thanks. it would also be helpfull if you left a message on my user talk page if you want to reply because i'm still having trouble finding these deep help pages. thanks. - Patrickjsanford 21:51, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Trouble Staying Logged In

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

Anyone have any idea

I have made sure to enable cookies

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

I have the same problem with Mozilla Firefox and IE

I DON'T have the problem at work

I have updated Java and Macromedia Flash

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

Check you privacy settings (Tools>Internet options). Sometimes, if the setting is too high, cookies will not be saved even if they are enabled. ~ Porphyric Hemophiliac § 02:15, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I hear that Hughes satellite connections are doing this. Do you have a Hughes or Direcway satellite connection? If so, you might be out of luck.

What happend to watermark image id="EnWpMpBook2"?

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

math symbols & pictures problem

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

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

wikipedia and wiki quote....

Is wiki pedia and wiki quote are the Same ...??
I just want to put my website link to wiki Quote...
How can I do that....

Changing the skin

I can't figure out how to change my skin. I went to My preferences but it won't let me click on Skin so I can't change it. Thank you.

Nemato 21:46, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, first of all, I don't recommend changing the skin since a lot of code on articles are less-than-friendly to non-Monobook skins. That being said, what browser are you using? Give the name and version. — Edward Z. Yang 23:55, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

See the fifth bullet point at the top of this page.-gadfium 03:51, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Code unfriendly to skins other than Monobook should be replaced by more accessible code. Personally, I am forced to use Cologne Blue; Monobook simply screws up for me. Intricate code should be previewed and checked on all skins available to users. 02:50, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

I can't edit a page

Whenever I click the 'Save page' button when I'm editting Misplaced Pages:Dead external links/301, my computer crashes. 0plusminus0 22:32, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Ooh, that's pretty huge. What edit do you need to be done? — Edward Z. Yang 23:53, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

I need to remove the bullet points referring to Aubrey Smith, Audley, Staffordshire, and Audrey Marnay. However, for some reason, it will not work when I try to do it. 0plusminus0 14:20, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Nasty note from Misplaced Pages for article I wrote from (aeropagitica)

I wrote my first article. First I searched for the article's name in various forms. The article did not turn up and Wiki asked if I wanted to create it. So I did.

Then I get a nasty note from a person who has his talk page locked down so there is no way to reply to him, telling me I should have been smart enough to search for the article before I wrote it and he was instantly deleting it.

This is the first time I have used Misplaced Pages, that was my first attempt to do anything, and the nasty note was the first contact with Misplaced Pages. I feel my good will evaporating, after all that be nice stuff I read when I first read your welcome pages. Tip02 23:33, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Replied on your talk page. — Edward Z. Yang 23:52, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Although doubtful, I hope that this can be a wake up call for rude wikipedians. I wounder why rude adminstrators don't lose their sysop privleges. I remember once, about a year ago, when I was fairly new, and seeking help on this page. Cyrius, in about the rudest way possible, told me that I was in the wrong place to ask the question. I was lucky, however, becuase Angela, completely ignoring his message, gave me the answer I was looking for. Cyrius' user and talk pages were also protected, so I couldn't ask him to be more polite in the future. The way he responded, I completely understood why someone would want to valdalize his page. I also know why he didn't want to hear what people had to say to him. The point, however, is that the actions of a few rude wikipedians hurt the overall reputation of Misplaced Pages, and scare off new, potentially helpful people, and I think something should be done about it. Please tell me what you think. You may contact me on my talk page. Thanks, Shardsofmetal 23:19, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:TLAs from AAA to DZZ

Misplaced Pages:TLAs from AAA to DZZ is one in a series of articles that are in the project workspace. Before I consider proposing them for deletion, I wonder if anyone can help me - do they actually serve any purpose? BlueValour 22:49, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

You might as well put them up for deletion. If they serve a useful purpose, people will let you know in the ensuing discussion. Icey 01:00, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

The talk page has info about previous deletion requests, that might be useful to you. Icey 12:52, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Icons

I was interested, where are the icons used on wikipedia, like the one that symbolizes a .pdf file?--//Mac Lover _C 17:53, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi Mac Lover. Here's the pdf icon, which can be seen on it's description page. It's automatically placed at the end of links which go to pdf files by the MediaWiki:Common.css file. Search for PDF and you'll find the relevant bit. Icey 18:28, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. But what about the rest of them?--//Mac Lover _C 21:32, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Which do you want to know about specifically? I don't think there's a page which lists them. Here's a few more: FA Star, Spoken Article icon, thumbnail icon, list item bullet, external link icon, etc, etc Icey 00:58, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I'd probably be able to find more myself, where did you find them?--//Mac Lover _C 02:17, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi Mac Lover. I use Opera+Privoxy, so I went to some articles that would contain icons and then looked to see what had been download. If you use Firefox, you can right-click on a page, go to View page info and then click on Media to see everything that's been download, it's pretty useful :) Icey 12:47, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

How can I delete a file that i uploaded?

Hi .. i was just wondering about two things .. 1) How can I delete a file that is on my contribution list, and i dont want to share it anymore?

2) why is this site not very user friendly? it's SOO complicated.

Thanks a lot :)

1) As long as you're the only one who's made substantial edits, tag the article with {{db-author}}, and someone will be around to delete it. 2) Wikiwyg? --Interiot 18:09, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

and how can I tag the article with that ? I really feel that everything is here very complicated :S does a person need to be a professional programmer to use this website ? thanks a lot

Just cut and paste {{db-author}} to the top of the page, and save it. It will expand to be some prepared text that notifies an admin that the article should be deleted. --Interiot 18:27, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

To learn how to edit on Misplaced Pages, try Misplaced Pages:Tutorial. It's linked on the main page near the top, as "Editing".-gadfium 23:57, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Images - purging cache

I need to do a purge to get a replaced image to display. Would someone remind me how to do it, please? TerriersFan 20:08, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

See Misplaced Pages:Purge... use action=purge. (or a null edit works sometimes too?) --Interiot 20:24, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Great, many thanks. TerriersFan 03:26, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Template:ChoralWiki

In Template:ChoralWiki, the link assumes that the ChoralWiki article has the same title as the WP article. That is not always the case. Hubert Parry is at ChoralWiki as Chrales Hubert Hastings Parry. So, can someone blessed with template skills please introduce an optional parameter? Thanks. Guy 21:54, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

• Fixed. —Jared Hunt September 10, 2006, 04:35 (UTC)

Spam blacklist broken

I've noticed that the spam blackist is no longer working, possibly due to a size restriction. Please check User:Naconkantari/sandboxtest to confirm, as it currently includes links that are blacklisted. Thanks, Naconkantari 23:10, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Long pages stop 'rendering' so to speak in long pages

This is kind of strange, but ever since I got my new computer, long pages (like exceptionally long, this page works) will turn into a massive blob of HTML and on extremely long articles simply stop showing the blob HTML. This is extremely annoying. It does this with IE and Firefox. Anyway to fix this? Thanks Userpie 01:23, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Do you have Google toolbar or Google desktop installed? On the edit page of really long articles, it says that updating those programs, if you have them installed, might fix the problem. Hope that helps, Shardsofmetal 23:31, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Static HTML Dumps

I was interested in the WP:MF project three months ago so I contacted Tim Starling about when Wikimedia is planning to update the Static Misplaced Pages site with no replies. Is anyone planning on updating the static copy? It's been nearly a year since the last update, and as I have written on Tim's page, pages like Godseye are not complying with the GFDL standards by not linking back to the original page without JavaScript. (much of the research and discussion done by Superm401 and WB in Wikipedia_talk:Mirrors_and_forks#JavaScript and Wikipedia_talk:Mirrors_and_forks#Zdnet.co.za) Thanks. —Jared Hunt September 10, 2006, 04:18 (UTC)

I don't think it is currently technically possible. Due to the size of the english Misplaced Pages's database it fails every time they attempt a dump as far as I know. Lcarsdata (Talk) 12:40, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Even cutting up in to pieces or something? Because those static ones need some work with copyrights. I'm not even sure why we need them. —Jared Hunt September 10, 2006, 20:14 (UTC)

Prehaps, but a developer would have to do that and considering the date of the other static copies on that page I don't think anyone who has the ability too currently wants to try and do it. 19:49, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't know who to exactly ask though. Any ideas? —Jared Hunt September 12, 2006, 09:06 (UTC)

A new static HTML dump is now in progress. The static HTML dumps, including the one hosted at godseye.com, do link back to the original page without javascript, they do so via the "current revision" tab at the top. Note however that this is not a requirement of the GFDL. The static dumps were designed for the case where the reader has no internet access, thus they contain the necessary attribution and license information within the dump itself. -- Tim Starling 02:30, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

JavaScript help

I am trying to get the JavaScript which allows you to change certain parts of the page:

document.getElementById(id).childNodes.href=url
q=document.getElementById(id).firstChild; q.removeChild(q.firstChild); q.appendChild(document.createTextNode(name))

to work so I can change the links of the navigation bar, however no matter what I have tried it doesn't seem to work. The words in bold are the variables and I found it at Misplaced Pages:WikiProject_User_scripts/Techniques#Altering_existing_interface_links. Thanks. Lcarsdata (Talk) 13:45, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Can you hide the external link arrow?

When you make an external link with single square brackets you get an arrow/square symbol after the piped name, like this link to a page. Is there a way of suppressing this symbol? My aim is to make one-way links to internal Misplaced Pages articles in a series box by using the external link mechanism (unless anyone can tell me how to use ordinary double square bracket links which do not cause an entry in the what links here of the target page). This may seem a perverse thing to attempt. What I am trying to achieve is a compromise in a potentally huge series box (which I am not promoting myself) which makes quality checking of real back-links in article body-text impossible. See discussion here. Any help or comments would be appeciated. Thanks. Oosoom 15:30, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, <span class="plainlinksneverexpand"></span>, like this, alternately ] like this: Misplaced Pages:Village pump (technical). --Interiot 15:33, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Very may thanks. A perfect and rapid answer. Oosoom

I think you could keep the code simpler by adding the class to an existing element, such as the navbox table, as below (multiple classes are separated by a space).

{| class="toccolours plainlinksneverexpand"

—Michael Z. 2006-09-10 16:54 Z

or you could add in your monobook.css:

a.external {background: none;}

GeorgeMoney (talk) 17:35, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Two articles on same place

After a lot of confusion I have discovered that Kendujhar District and Keonjhar District are the same district in India. The first spelling is preferred. The second article is basically a copyvio of the district's website anyway.

Would it be O.K. if I removed the info (copyvio anyway) and redirected the alternative spelling to the preferred spelling? Thanks! Mattisse(talk) 20:26, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I found another spelling Kendujhargarh District with some redirects. I'm getting very mixed up. Mattisse(talk) 20:39, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I believe that is the standard handling. You might also note in the article's introduction about alternate spellings, such as is done with Kava and Platter lift, though those aren't necessarily alternate spellings. — EncMstr 20:43, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

O.K. Thanks! (Just wondering about all the redirects piling up.) Mattisse(talk) 20:52, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Don't worry about redirects—they are inexpensive and extremely helpful for locating articles. Have a look at Special:Statistics. The second-to-the-last link, Detailed tables and charts of Misplaced Pages statistics, shows 1.3 million articles, plus 1.2 million redirects (third column from right). Doing the arithmetic, this makes 3,061,491 non-article, non-redirect pages, most of which must be discussion pages: Now there's something to really worry about!  :-) — EncMstr 21:15, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Can't move page and don't understand directions on how to request help.

This refers to the three different spellings of Indian districts above. I believe I have messed it up. The correct name of district is Kendujhar District. A page also exists for Keonjhar District. There is a prior redirect in April from Kendujhargarh District.

Plus I made some mistakes in not capitalizing District, and then accidently leaving a period on the end that prevented links from working. Net result is that it will not let me redirect Keonjhar District to Kendujhar District.

I looked at the directions for asking for admin help, but I cannot follow them at all. I have no idea what those directions mean. Mattisse(talk) 21:32, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

That was confusing...I hope I did what you want. The page is now located at Kendujhar District, and Keonjhar District and Kendujhargarh District now redirect to there. The page history is now all located at Kendujhar District. Is this correct? —Mets501 (talk) 21:48, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes. It should all go to Kendujhar District. Thanks! Mattisse(talk) 21:55, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

No problem :-) —Mets501 (talk) 21:56, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I can't confirm my email address in "my preferences"?

Hello, I've been trying to confirm my email. However everytime I click in my preferences the "send confirmation" I never receive the email. I recently ask wiki to send me a new password and that worked. Why can't I receive the confirmation email to confirm my email address? Thank you for your help. --CyclePat 03:20, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Have you checked your spam folder? --Brion 08:38, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. Yes, I've check all my spam folders and subfolders as well as verified my Outlook rules. Again, I can receive an email from wiki@wikimedia.org to renew my password but I can't receive the email to confirm my email address so I can communicate with others. --CyclePat 16:44, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Weird red link

I made an edit and the edit summary comes up as a red link. But if you scroll down to the message itself, it shows a blue link , like it should be. I was starting a new header (where the edit summary is the new header), so I don't know what's going on here... Hbdragon88 03:29, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Probably because in the edit summary it has the colon (:Image:Mergist-logo.png), but in the actual thing it's recognized as Image:Mergist-logo.png. —Jared Hunt September 11, 2006, 04:40 (UTC)

Category moves?

I realize that there are obvious issues with category moves in the general case, but in the instance where a category is being renamed, and has been "emptied" for that purpose, wouldn't it be convenient if the move-tab were enabled, to allow a history-preserving move? Now that category redirects have been implemented, I can't think of any obvious technical reason not to do this... Alai 06:07, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Bot problem (korean language)

• I have a question.
• I input to interwiki.py in WIN XP's cmd.exe console.

 C:\pywikipedia>interwiki.py -start:스모그 -autonomous

• following is result...

Checked for running processes. 1 processes currently running, including the current process.

NOTE: Number of pages queued is 0, trying to add 60 more.

Retrieving Allpages special page for wikipedia:ko from %C2%BD%C2%BA%C2%B8%C3%B0%C2%B1%C3%97, namespace 0

Getting 60 pages from wikipedia:ko...

• and, I input 스모그 to web wikipedia (ko:)
• thus, connected to link as follows:

 http://ko.wikipedia.org/%EC%8A%A4%EB%AA%A8%EA%B7%B8

• Why? is different?

%EC%8A%A4%EB%AA%A8%EA%B7%B8

I input 스모그 to web wikipedia (ko:)

%C2%BD%C2%BA%C2%B8%C3%B0%C2%B1%C3%97

I input 스모그 to cmd console

• It is a bug??
• and, I input by file method...

C:\pywikipedia>

C:\pywikipedia>copy con aa.txt

]

^Z

C:\pywikipedia>interwiki.py -file:aa.txt

Checked for running processes. 1 processes currently running, including the current process.

NOTE: Number of pages queued is 0, trying to add 60 more.

Dump ko (wikipedia) saved

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "C:\pywikipedia\interwiki.py", line 1467, in ?

bot.run()

File "C:\pywikipedia\interwiki.py", line 1200, in run

self.queryStep()

File "C:\pywikipedia\interwiki.py", line 1174, in queryStep

self.oneQuery()

File "C:\pywikipedia\interwiki.py", line 1132, in oneQuery

site = self.selectQuerySite()

File "C:\pywikipedia\interwiki.py", line 1114, in selectQuerySite

self.generateMore(globalvar.maxquerysize - mycount)

File "C:\pywikipedia\interwiki.py", line 1050, in generateMore

page = self.pageGenerator.next()

File "C:\pywikipedia\pagegenerators.py", line 162, in __iter__

for pageTitle in R.findall(f.read()):

File "C:\Python24\lib\codecs.py", line 481, in read

return self.reader.read(size)

File "C:\Python24\lib\codecs.py", line 293, in read

newchars, decodedbytes = self.decode(data, self.errors)

UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xbd in position 2: unexpected code byte

C:\pywikipedia>

• korean lanuage is broken...:(
• help~!! :( -- WonYong 06:36, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Help deleting old images

Can an admin delete all the old versions of this Image:Spectrum of blue flame.png image that I uploaded? Something is screwy with wikimedia or something and it only shows the old crappy version. None of the older versions are relevant anymore so can someone just delete them leaving the newest one?--Deglr6328 08:05, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

• You're probably just seeing some delay due to thumbnail caching. Butane seemed to be displaying the "old" version (without the "Swan bands" annotation) until a few minutes ago, but seems to be OK now). Doing a browser refresh at the thumbnail, and/or a page-cache-purge at the transcluding page can help in such cases. Alai 08:31, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Help with link problem

on the page Provisional Confederate Congress I have created the page Richard Johnston (politician), from Virginia (which is his correct name see ) but cannot get it to link corectly (even after reading the piped link help suggestion)from that page. I can get it to link from First Confederate Congress and Second Confederate Congress It won't even link correctly from here! Can someone help? thank you.Iwalters 12:42, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

At the article, you had the piped link syntax the wrong way 'round. The above link is red because the chap's name appears to be Robert, not Richard. :) Alai 13:34, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Formatting Problems

Take a look at this article and scroll down to the picture captioned "Overlooking Sandy Ground, Anguilla". On my PC (Windows XP, IE, browser window full screen 1024 x 768) the picture obscures part of the adjacent text in the "Climate" section, rendering parts of it unreadable. I've encountered similar problems before, and I'm not sure if it's a bug in IE, a bug in Misplaced Pages's HTML generation, or incorrect use of Misplaced Pages syntax. By moving pictures around at random I can usually find a way to make the problem go away, but the effects are very dependent on browser window size, so one never knows if the problem is actually fixed properly or just happens not no manifest itself because of the particular setup of one's own PC. Does anyone know anything about this problem and what to do about it? Matt 13:07, 11 September 2006 (UTC).

I set the screen to 1024x768 and looked at that link with SeaMonkey 1.0.4, FireFox 1.5.0.6, and IE 6.0. I had the opposite experience from usual: it looked fine in IE 6, but the other browsers show Sandy_Ground_Anguilla.jpg partly obscuring the climate text. With the screen at 1280x960, the problem goes away, probably because the climate paragraph isn't long enough to reach the image. I could achieve the same effect by making the browser window narrower (didn't have to change screen resolution). The simple fix seems to be putting the pair of images into a table, as I left it. — EncMstr 20:32, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, that seems to be an improvement. What I see now is one line partially clipped (the bottoms of the letters are missing) but it is at least legible. The fact that the same problem occurs in other browsers suggests that it's not an IE bug per se, but either Misplaced Pages generating dodgy HTML or trying to do something that HTML doesn't really properly support. Anyway, thanks again for your help. Matt 21:54, 11 September 2006 (UTC).

Application & System Software

Why the terms 'Application' and 'System' software do not have an 's' in the end (for depicting plural) while there are more than one system software and application software in the system? Why we don't write these as Applications Software and Systems Software?

I'd suggest you ask this at Misplaced Pages:Reference desk/Language. This page is for questions about technical issues encountered using Misplaced Pages. -- Rick Block (talk) 18:15, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

"User is blocked"

Hi - for a couple of months I've been having repeated problems editing, as I keep getting "User is blocked" notice when I try to edit any page. The problem goes away after I try a couple of times, but recently it has become persistent. Today I've gotten a notice saying that this IP was used by user:Fucker09, who was blocked by user:Malo. Fine, but my IP is something like 70.XX.XX.XX, and not the User:64.233.173.77 that was reported. I've tried purging my browser cache and deleting temporary files, but to no avail. I seek the advice of folks who know about this or maybe experiencing similar problems. Rama's arrow 15:22, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

The IP resolves to Google, which explains the whole thing. You must be using the Google toolbar, or web accelerator, or the Google desktop, right? Whatever you are using is re-routing everything via google's open proxy. On of the proxy must be blocked, and that's why you are getting the email. Please remove whatever accelerator or toolbar you are using, this should solve the problem. Thanks. --Ragib 16:37, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I believe that I have removed the block that you were experiencing. See My list of autoblocks. I am partially responsible for your block. When I blocked this user account, either your IP or a google IP must have been the next account to visit wikipedia, which in turn caused the auto block. Sorry for the inconvience. -- malo (tlk) (cntrbtns) 22:54, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

WP not accepting Edits

Everytime I do a edit, any edit, press the Save page icon, it says "Misplaced Pages Has a Problem", then it sometimes states that I have a Edit conflict - with myself. Martial Law 18:20, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

I am facing the same problem too often for the last 30 minutes. Looks like there is some problem with the servers today -- Lost 18:39, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Requesting a photo

For the article I just wrote Chidambaram Temple, I found a template to put on the Discussion Page to request a photo. However, I can't figure out the right combination of categories to get this article to show up in a category. I have looked at other similar articles, and I have copied the categories of the category that I want to be in. But nothing works. The category remains red on the Discussion page with the Request a Photo template.

So, how does that Request a Photo template work? Mattisse(talk) 19:43, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

P.S. Where is Wiki Commons where I can look for photos to use? Mattisse(talk) 19:43, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

The syntax is {{reqphotoin|someplacename}}, where someplacename might be (for example) India (see template:reqphotoin). The main page for Wikimedia Commons is at commons:Main page. -- Rick Block (talk) 01:41, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! I understood your explanation but misunderstood the instructions on template:reqphotoin. Mattisse(talk) 12:49, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Some table help

As Template:Animorphs was a mess, I attempted to tidy it up. I've neve been very proficient at table markup (especially MediaWiki type), and for some reason the blue background on the "Minor characters" and "species" headers doesn't show, even though the markup is exactly the same as the first three ones. Can someone fix it up and tidy up the table code so I can model future tables after that?

• I think you just had some misplaced semicolons. I fixed these and it looks OK now.

Also, Template:Mario series has been bugging me for the longest time. The first two blue sidebar headers are left-aligned, yet everything after that is center-aligned. how can this be fixed? Hbdragon88 22:11, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

• They all appear left-aligned for me.

  I left aligned the text in these boxes. The difference was the use of "!" (TH) vs. "|" (TD). There's a stylesheet setting somewhere that centers table headers (TH) but not table data. -- Rick Block (talk) 01:33, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Trying to fix flag template

I have created a replacement image for the now missing Image:Bangladesh1971Flag.png (the new image is Image:Flag of Bangladesh (1971).svg) but I am unable to replace it in Template:BGD-1971. Help appreciated! -- Himasaram 22:47, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Help with AutoWikiBrowser

I am having trouble using AWB. After having set up my procedure, when I press "Start the process", I keep getting the error message "You are not enabled to use this." It then opens a window to Misplaced Pages:AutoWikiBrowser/CheckPage, on which I am clearly listed as a registered/enabled user. It is not a problem with my .NET framework either, as I just downloaded the most current version. I have not gotten any response so far on the Computing Reference Desk or the talk page. Can anyone help me? --Ginkgo100 00:03, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

You should probably direct this question to the AWB area as you are more likely to get a response from there. Lcarsdata (Talk) 17:56, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Suggestion: automatic identification of links to geodis

Links from articles that point to {{geodis}} could be collected automatically, by some bot, and in most cases quickly fixed. For the rest a geographical wikiproject could be notified or a note added on article's Talk page. Pavel Vozenilek 01:35, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Template trouble again

I was trying to use parser functions to make the "Preceded by" and "Followed by" entries optiona for Template:Animorphs, but somehow messed up. Not quite sure what happened and I can't fix it. Can someone run through it and fix it up? Thanks. Hbdragon88 03:56, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Right to left language wikis and editing

Hi, I'm not sure where best to post this; the en. pump seemed most appropriate. As a Commons admin involved in routine non-controversial deletions, I have to edit on a large number of wikis, including those for which I cannot read the language at all. Mostly these are straightforward enough; setting my user language to English gives a usable interface and I can perform the minor edits I'm there to do. However with the languages which work from right to left, Hebrew for example, the fact that the code does some rather strange things is annoying (see the image). Both the edit window and the interface text are annoying, making things awkward for me. This is with the default monobook css, at any rate. Is there anything I can do client side to make editing on those wikis less frustrating? Is there somewhere more appropriate for this question?--Nilfanion (talk) 17:35, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I recall seeing a similar question in this very forum some time ago. The answer involved some CSS on the text area (I don't recall which one, but I'd try something like unicode-bidi: bidi-override; direction: ltr), which overrides the Unicode bidirectional algorithms. --cesarb 23:52, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Is it just me, or...

Is everyone else suddenly seeing all of the wikilinks underlined?

This isn't happening on wikibooks or wikiversity, so I assume it's local. Was something changed in monobook? It's really not so nice on the eyes. --SB_Johnny||_books 17:57, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried the suggestions from the third bullet item at the very top of this page? -- Rick Block (talk) 18:27, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I think that a while ago i saw somebody say that links were now going to be underlined by default, so that newbies can easily find them. However, I still the weird effect that half the time links are underlined, and the other half they aren't. Right now, they are underlined for me. Shardsofmetal 20:14, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Nothing has changed, links still aren't underlined by default. I just tested it by logging out and refreshing. —da Pete (ばか) 20:13, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Ah yes, thanks Rick Block! (I wonder why the browser did that, but apparently it did). --SB_Johnny||_books 08:28, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Removal of an underline from a link

Is there a way to remove the underline from a specific link, i.e. one where you changed the color. The underlined link wouldn't bother me so much, except that my green link has a blue (or red) underline. Is it possible to remove the underline? Thanks, Shardsofmetal 20:10, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I suppose there's a javascript you personally could run to do this, but there's no way to do it within the link I don't think, so that it shows up un-underlined for everyone else. --Golbez 20:13, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

There is a CSS class you can use to do this (even works for red links). class="nounderlines" .. --Splarka (rant) 07:24, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I stand corrected and slightly annoyed. --Golbez 10:59, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Finding subpages

The category "Misplaced Pages vandals" was recently deleted. As a result, I can no longer determine what subpages of WP:LTA exist. I still have the ones in my history (WP:'T, WP:LTA/MG and others), but is there a way to see all such subpages? If not, I'm worried that there might be totally orphaned pages sitting under there that noone knows about, are never updated, etc, etc... 68.39.174.238 22:14, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Example (Special:Allpages). Enter common prefix of the page name in "Display pages starting at" and select namespace. --Ligulem 22:28, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

A much easier way is Special:Prefixindex. See this example. —Mets501 (talk) 23:08, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Ah, kewl. It might be good if we could have a link on the top of Special:Specialpages to some documentation about all these nifty special pages. --Ligulem 08:00, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I have added a short description with a link to Help:Special page to MediaWiki:Specialpages-summary. Kusma (討論) 11:13, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Very good. Thank you! --Ligulem 11:50, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Ahem. Next question would be a help description/link on each of the special pages themselves.... For example there is no description on Special:Prefixindex. --Ligulem 11:56, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Where should the description page be? I know that the one for Special:Allpages is at MediaWiki:Allpages-summary (by comparing with de:MediaWiki:Allpages-summary), but do we have a list of all possible MediaWiki pages somewhere? Kusma (討論) 12:02, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Special:Allmessages. Policy #1: Look in Special pages. Because everthing is somehow special :] --Ligulem 12:23, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Those are just the nonempty ones. How do I find the empty ones? Kusma (討論) 12:36, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

No. These are all. The empty ones do have a red link. Entry point on this wiki here seem to be Misplaced Pages:MediaWiki namespace, which also has a talk page. What I miss is a description for Special:Allmessages (answering the question "Where is that message used?"). Do we have to dig into the MediaWiki code for this? Links wanted! ;-) --Ligulem 12:48, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

No. The redlinked ones appear to be those where the non-empty default is not overriden by a custom message. The ones with an empty default such as MediaWiki:Specialpages-summary do not appear at all (it might appear once the special page is updated). Kusma (討論) 13:00, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I finally digged into the MediaWiki code. I think I found something. Look at SpecialPage.php there is function

    function outputHeader() {
        global $wgOut, $wgContLang;
        $msg = $wgContLang->lc( $this->name() ) . '-summary';                          # <- look at this line
        $out = wfMsg( $msg );                                                          # <- fetch MediaWiki message with name $msg
        if ( ! wfEmptyMsg( $msg, $out ) and  $out !== '' and ! $this->including() )
            $wgOut->addWikiText( $out );
    }

(I added some comments above) I guess that code looks for a "MediaWiki:" page under the name "name of the special page" + "-summary" and uses that as the header line. So the header line for Special:Specialpages is at MediaWiki:Specialpages-summary and I bet the header line for Special:Prefixindex is at MediaWiki:Prefixindex-summary. These references are constructed by the MediaWiki software and thus they do not appear at Special:Allmessages. But no warranty for this info (I'm a developer but not a MediaWiki developer). --Ligulem 18:42, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Hot damn! I didn't know some of those subpages EXISTED! Thanx dudes. 68.39.174.238 00:01, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

aluminium

Moved to Misplaced Pages:Reference desk/Miscellaneous. --cesarb 15:38, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Recentchanges for what links here?

I'm looking for something similar to Special:Recentchangeslinked/foo but instead for the pages listed at Special:Whatlinkshere/foo (those that link TO foo), rather than the ones linked FROM foo. --Gherald 20:20, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

You have to collect up all the links, dump them on a separate page, and run whatlinkshere on the new page. User:WatchlistBot does this for various wikiprojects, for what it's worth. --Interiot 22:47, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Undelete images

How is this featre set up on a wiki (MediaWiki 1.7.1). I can't find any info about it on Meta or mediawiki.org tnx —213.94.235.190 22:39, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

As far as I know, once images are deleted, they're gone. You may be able to still view them if Google or some other search engine has cached the pages on which they appeared, although it most likely won't be the original, full-resolution version. The only option left would be to re-upload the image, having determined why it was deleted in the first place by searching the Deletion Log. If the image is inappropriate or violates a copyright, it will simply get deleted again by an administrator. —Quicksilver 17:29, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

See DefaultSettings.php for all configurable options; the relevant bit is:

/**
 * By default deleted files are simply discarded; to save them and
 * make it possible to undelete images, create a directory which
 * is writable to the web server but is not exposed to the internet.
 *
 * Set $wgSaveDeletedFiles to true and set up the save path in
 * $wgFileStore.
 */
$wgSaveDeletedFiles = false;

Obviously you need to set this up before you delete an image you want to be able to undelete. --Brion 21:48, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

OK, so I have the folder ("/deletedimages") which is writable. I set $wgSaveDeletedFiles = true; Now what do I set $wgFileStore to? 83.70.211.156 22:11, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

How to fix a REDIRECT problem

I wrote an article Kukke Subrahmanya Temple in which I put a link to its location in Subramanya. But that link goes to Murukan through a REDIRECT. So I wrote an article called Subramanya (village) and use a pipe to get rid of the village part.

However, since there is no disambiguation page, should I make one? And if so, how? Or is there another way to deal with this? Thanks! Mattisse(talk) 23:13, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I created a disambiguation page for you with links to both the village and the deity at Subramanya. Feel free to change around the wording if you'd like. —Mets501 (talk) 23:34, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! I wonder if I could add to that page Subramanya (god) because I need the old name before it was routed to Murukan because of the temple's name. Otherwise it is to confusing for readers, I think. I'm trying to think in my head how to do that -- write a much smaller page and call it Subramanya (god)? Mattisse(talk) 23:58, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Lost backgrounds and borders

Recently, I've seen both backgrounds and borders disappear in a number of places; for example, {{notabilityguide}} and {{guideline}}. I can't identify the common element; these two examples are CSS classes "infoxbox" and "messagebox". This does not seem to have anything to do with skin. CSS seems to be involved; {{MiniAWFP}} (which does not declare a class) still displays okay; however {{divbox}} ("boilerplate metadata") also works fine.

This is highly annoying, visually disorienting. If this was done deliberately, please steer me to the discussion. If inadvertantly and the cause is known, please reverse the change that led to this problem. If the bug "just cropped up", then I ask for someone knowledgable in this area to look into this soonest. I have plenty of general CSS knowledge but I have not worked on this project's style sheets. John Reid 03:04, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

To trace the bug, you can try digging through the style sheets (listed at Misplaced Pages:Catalogue_of_CSS_classes). For monobook these are: 1. monobook/main.css 2. common/commonPrint.css 3. IE fixes 4. MediaWiki:Common.css 5. MediaWiki:Monobook.css 6. user/monobook.css. The local (editable) ones have histories you can view like the histories of any wiki page, and changes to the hardcoded ones can be traced via: svn. --Splarka (rant) 07:37, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't have the specific local expertise to go fooling around here. Will you please look into this and report? Or are you suggesting that this is a purely personal problem with my own user stylesheets? John Reid 11:11, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

As I don't see any missing backgrounds and borders, you'll either have to find someone that does or figure out what has changed. You should be able to find the problem if you have general CSS knowledge. There are only a finite number of places the problem could exist on a mediawiki install. If you are using the Cologneblue skin (which I am guessing you are), check these css histories in this order (at or around the dates you noticed the change):

• wikiprintable.css
• common.css
• cologneblue.css
• MediaWiki:Common.css
• MediaWiki:Cologneblue.css
• User:John Reid/cologneblue.css

If this yields no useful results, try checking the histories of the templates involved. If this yields nothing, try another browser, or try copying these templates to another project's sandbox, like test.wikipedia.org or meta.wikipedia.org. It very well could be a personal problem *shrug*. --Splarka (rant) 07:39, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Don't see how it could be my problem and mine alone. I did not fiddle with my interface files, nor with my browser or system. I see the problem is now past. I suspect it had something to do with the recent, buggy MediaWiki upgrade. John Reid 21:01, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Login does not "stick"

I can successfully login to Misplaced Pages, but as soon as I browse to any page after this, the login (red username, top right on page) disappears and Wiki forgets that I just logged in.

- this happens in Opera, Firefox, and Explorer

- i am using Hughes satellite - maybe this has something to do with it?

- on rare occassions, the password information sticks. most of the time (95%) it doesn't.

Seems to be a common problem with Hughes Satellite. Try contacting them and complaining. --Splarka (rant) 07:39, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

You can also try the SSL server at https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/Main_Page, which while much slower will probably bypass whatever is causing the problem (which is probably a transparent proxy of some sort; unless they use a MITM attack, it cannot change the content of encrypted SSL connections). --cesarb 20:58, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. I also use Hughes/DirecWay, and coming in through SSL seems to fix everything up for me. Hey look, a real signature: Gleneivey 04:49, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Userbox layout glitch

I've been adding userboxes to my user page, and recently my page has been glitching up a bit. Right above the word "Zodiac" is a gap, but I don't know what's causing it. Sometimes the gap only appears after changing the browser's text size. (I'm using IE6.) How do I fix this? Also, is there a cleaner way to show two columns of userboxes than the way I did it? --jh51681 04:11, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Location dot oddness

Most location dots seem to have worked for me in the past. However, certain british ones are showing me the yellow dot out in the middle of the infobox, outside the image. I have traced the problem to an extra div in such templates as: Template:UKcountythumb Template:GBthumb-bare Template:GBthumb2.

Examples: {{GBthumb-bare|161|200}} gives:

Template:GBthumb-bare

Which shows the yellow dot off the image. This expands to <table><tr><td><div style="position: relative;"><div style="position:absolute;top:5;left:5;"><div style="position:absolute;display: block; left:161px; top:200px; width:8px;height:8px;padding:0;">] </div></div>]</div></td></tr></table> which does the same thing for me.

However, removing the <div style="position:absolute;top:5;left:5;"> </div> producing: <table><tr><td><div style="position: relative;"><div style="position:absolute;display: block; left:161px; top:200px; width:8px;height:8px;padding:0">] </div>]</div></td></tr></table> works perfectly for me:

Which leaves me wondering, why is the extra div there? Does it serve a specific purpose, other than to break these location dots just for me? ^_^ --Splarka (rant) 08:09, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

What browser are you using? Both your examples look the same to me (with Safari on a Mac). I don't know the purpose of the "extra" div, but the rendering issue could be a browser bug. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:54, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I am pretty sure it is a browser bug (using an old Mozilla), but as Misplaced Pages makes concessions to may lesser browsers (it even supports IE!), I am just wondering what use the extra div is serving. --Splarka (rant) 07:05, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Clicking replaces selection

When editing an old text, I have a habit to first mark the text I want to replace, then type/paste over it (without deleting text explicitly first). However, the "Insert" box at the bottom doesn't behave that way. For example, if I want to replace a dash (-) with an em dash (—), I'd normally select the dash first and then click on "—"; however, it will end up next to the dash instead of replacing it. It's a minor annoyance, I admit, but I'd like it fixed if cheap (I don't see that it contravenes common user expectations).

I assume it's up to Wikimedia software so I'm not sure if this is the right place, but just to check...

...and, if fixed, it would be lovely if "Wikimarkup" symbols would be an exception, i.e. should enclose the selection rather than replace it. For example, clicking on <nowiki></nowiki> on:

bar foo baz boo

should result in

bar <nowiki>foo</nowiki> baz boo

Duja 11:46, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

The relevant code is in wikibits, starting at function insertTags(tagOpen, tagClose, sampleText) {. You could probably copy the function to your personal js and customize it as you wish, which would supercede the wikibits.js code. No, I won't rewrite it for you, it is evil (javascript). ^_^ --Splarka (rant) 07:14, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll try it (maybe) & report back if I succeed.
So, you recommend to others what you wouldn't do yourself? :o) Duja 07:57, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Designing a template

I want to design a simple template for some subpages of my Userpage. The template would do the following: (1) Force the actual "contents" of the page into a column of around 60 characters in width, with a left-hand margin of six to ten characters; (2) Include a "toolbox" in a column on the right hand side of the page, kind of like the column which is at the left of every page on WP but customisable by me. Can anyone offer any suggestions as to how I might do this, or where I could find information that could help me? Thanks, --Jim (Talk) 14:35, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

With due respect: I would propose not to ask about user page design problems here. My advice: ignore your userpage. It's not important. Or just ask a userpage artist directly or steal an existing design. I'm sure you find someone :P --Ligulem 15:59, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. The subpages on which I intend to use this template are not just listing a load of userboxes; they are more like sandboxes where I will be writing articles before releasing them to the main Misplaced Pages. I therefore think that the problem is perhaps more worthy of an answer here. --Jim (Talk) 19:47, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Well, probably I didn't quite get what you want to do then. You can create any kind of subpage in your userspace. For example User:James Kemp/x1 or whatever. You can create a whole tree of supages. If your're done with it, just blank it and put {{db-user}} on it, an admin will then delete it (However, deleting does not release storage on the servers, it just hides all revisions of a page from non-admin users).

I have my sandbox tree under User:Ligulem/work. If it comes to template testing, you can for example put the test template content into User:James Kemp/x1 and insert some test transclusions into User talk:James Kemp/x1 (the talk page of a subpage is a handy place for test transclusions). To call your template, just write {{User:James Kemp/x1}} into User talk:James Kemp/x1 (nearly any page can be transcluded into another page).

If you forget any of your user subpages, Special:Prefixindex/User:James Kemp lists them all (ah well, so you already did).

I hope this might be useful for you. Sorry for being a bit snappy first ;-). Feel free to ask more on my talk. --Ligulem 21:12, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Easily center text in table

Is there an easy way to center the text in a column without having to put "align="center"" on each cell? Something like modify the table header cell for that column and it would then apply to the rest of that column? Can anyone give some ideas please? --MECU≈talk 19:22, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

It can be applied by the row (eg <tr style="text-align:center"> or |- style="text-align:center", or for the whole table <table style="text-align:center"> or {| style="text-align:center", but without access to a sitewide style sheet, I don't think it can't easily be applied to just one column. What you could do is make the one column continuous and put another table inside it (messy), or apply it to the whole table and remove it from the cells that don't need it (messy), or use <th> ("!" in wikitable) which are bold and centered in monobook (see below). --Splarka (rant) 07:23, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

For complex tables I like to prepare them externally using an HTML editor such as Dreamweaver. The Composer component of Mozilla Suite may work fine, too. Adjusting alignments by cell, row or column is quick and easy with such tools. When it looks the way you want it, go to HTML source view mode, cut-and-paste the table code into your Misplaced Pages editing window. Misplaced Pages can interpret standard HTML fairly well. However, don't use Microsoft Word for this task — it produces a horrible, non-standard HTML mess. —Quicksilver 17:20, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Please add interwiki links to recent changes

I don't know if the bureaucrats have the right to change special pages, or if I should apply to a steward. Anyway, can someone add interwiki links to the recentchanges; Since it is the most frequently used page by all Wikipedians in all Wikipedias, it would make it easier to them to move between different laguage versions; there wouldn't be any need to go at the Main Page, then to the list of the different laguage versions of Misplaced Pages and finally to the desired version. Just one click away. --Dead3y3 03:15, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

(Moved from WP:BN) — xaosflux 03:42, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

This is certainly something that can be done, but not sure where, can't find it in the MediaWiki space, anyone? Several other proejcts have it in place, see: simple:, fr:, and de: for some examples. — xaosflux 03:42, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Looks like 2 of us found this at the same time in MediaWiki:Recentchangestext, thanks User:Dragons flight! — xaosflux 03:52, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Apparently! Dragons flight 03:54, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot guys! --Dead3y3 04:35, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Is is all right to remove a REDIRECT?

I did't think ahead so I caused this problem.

I moved Noyyal to Noyyal River. Then I realized there was an article on Noyyal, the place, tacked onto the bottom of the Noyyal River article.

So now I want the REDIRECT to disappear so I can use Noyyal for the place and Noyyal River for the river. Can I just remove the REDIRECT or will the river article be lost in Misplaced Pages ether if I do? Mattisse(talk) 15:18, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Go here, click on edit, remove the redirect and start typing -- Lost 15:29, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! Mattisse(talk) 15:43, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Obsolete upload menu selection results in unexpected file deletion

In Special:Upload, the pull-down list for "Licensing:" still includes the option to select {{subst:Non-commercial from license selector}} ("The copyright holder only allows this work to be used for non-commercial and/or educational purposes"). According to Misplaced Pages policy, any images uploaded and thus tagged after 19 May 2005 are subject to speedy deletion. I don't believe it makes sense to keep this licensing option in the menu any more. If a contributor selects this option in good faith, it may result in speedy deletion of the upload at some time in the future, thus wasting the time of the uploader and other contributors who link their article contents to the file(s). I propose, therefore, that this option be stricken from the menu. (I submitted this to Bugzilla yesterday, but it was rejected as not being a "bug". The reply I received was:

"This is not a Bugzilla issue. The list is maintained locally by enwiki admins at MediaWiki:Licenses, and any proposed changes should go to the appropriate talk page/village pump/etc."

—Quicksilver 17:04, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

It's continued presence is intentional. Removing the noncommercial option resulted in people who wanted to upload noncommercial works picking other inappropriate licenses. This way they at least get a message explaining that there is a problem. It is much harder to track down license fraud then it is to deal with these unwanted noncommercial uploads. Dragons flight 17:23, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

reverting a vandal

is there an easy way to revert a spam, vandal or edit? or do we manually have to type the words in an article all over again? †Bloodpack† 19:22, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

There are several easier methods to revert. See WP:REVERT. At first it seems like a lot to do, but after a few times doing it, it's quite straightforward. Once you're used to that, you might look into tools like VandalProof and Navigation popups. — EncMstr 19:34, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

thanks! †Bloodpack† 19:56, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Reference glitches in Hilary Duff

There seems to be something wrong with a couple of the references on Hilary Duff; one of them shows up in all boldface, with one of the single quotes within the title missing; the next reference after that shows up with error messages saying that some fields are missing. I can't find any obvious syntax errors in the references. *Dan T.* 02:35, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Should be fixed now. —Mets501 (talk) 02:43, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Something's happened...

Is it just me or is Misplaced Pages running on a deprecated version of MediaWiki all of a sudden? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 16:23, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

According to Special:Version, Misplaced Pages is running on "MediaWiki: 1.8alpha (r16506) ". Naconkantari 16:45, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

GAH! Firefox, regardless of whether or not one is signed in, is displaying pages in either a messed up skin or as if it was an older version of mediawiki. It looks fine in (yuck) I.E... anyone else having this problem? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 16:45, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

OK, what the hell, now it looks fine... --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 16:48, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Experienced some oddness too around that time (broken rendering and missing pages). Seems OK now. Femto 20:53, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Subcategories

The new subcategory "system??" simply doesn't work for me. I no longer have any clue which subcategories exist under a given main category. When I click on the "+" all I get is the word "loading" and nothing more. Nice try, but no cigar. Please revert to the old tried & true system. --- Michael David 16:42, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

I second this complaint (it's on other wikimedia projects too, BTW). Why did someone try to fix what wasn't broken? --SB_Johnny||_books 17:12, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Image distorting printable version

Although I have several images in Tourette syndrome, I am having problems with only one image distorting the text when I print from Printable version. I can't figure out what is causing the problem. The image of Jean-Martin Charcot in the History section causes distorted text when I print the article using the Printable version, but that is not happening with any other image. Part of the text is cut off, and text shows in the margins around the image, so it seems to have something to do with a frame or a border. Any help is appreciated: thanks! Sandy 21:21, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

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