Wikipedia:Village pump/February 2004 archive 1

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[edit] Stats page is empty

The "Usage Statistics" page displays an empty apache page (since Jan. 28th at least)... Maybe because of recent server problems? Why not insert some dummy page?

Moreover, the display of the empty directory is bad from a security point of view: directory listings should be disabled in Apache's httpd.conf.

Lapinou 20:35, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Unable to access article: Transvaal

When I try to get to the article on Transvaal, it gives a blank page. Same thing happened yesterday...

The page is still in Google's archive though.

I can access Transvaal ("The Transvaal was one of the provinces of South Africa"). Earlier I had a problem where one page (and only one) kept appearing without the left hand menu and the bottom of the screen menu, so there was no "edit this" link (which is what I was trying to do). It sorted itself out after a while. I think the pedia might be a bit glitchy today. fabiform | talk 03:02, 31 Jan 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Article count

For an article count updated rougly every 5-15 seconds, see #enrc.wikipedia on irc.freenode.net -- Tim Starling 14:49, Feb 1, 2004 (UTC)

Clarification: Freenode IRC. Optim 14:57, 1 Feb 2004 (UTC)
People with modern browsers may be able to get there by simply clicking this link: irc://irc.freenode.net/enrc.wikipedia
// E23 19:27, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] IP address?

I was wondering [pardon if this isn't the right place] ... if I look up "wikipedia.org" IP @ DNSstuff ... I get 130.94.122.199 ... but when I navigate to 130.94.122.199 I get the followin msg "Note that the address for www.wikipedia.org should be 130.94.122.199. This server is 130.94.122.197" ... could anyone tell me what the problem is? Sincerely, JDR

You're not supposed to use IP to navigate here. .199 is where www.wikipedia.org as well as wikipedia.org are hosted, and that server redirects any requests for www.wikipedia.org or wikipedia.org to en.wikipedia.org at .197. You should only arrive at .199 when you request en2.wikipedia.org or are redirected there by the pedia itself. Thus, no problem. Jor 23:38, 1 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Scarce information about small cities

Apologies if this isn't the correct place to ask, but I have a question about the entries for towns and cities. I have looked at dozens of small towns and cities and it seems that all have nothing more than the type of information that is available in an almanac. Is this intentional or simply because no one has added other things? As for example history of the area, current conditions, etc.

This is not intentional. Any additional information is welcome. Andres 01:04, 2 Feb 2004 (UTC)
The basic information has been automatically (and contraversially) added from another source, with the intention of being fleshed out by anyone who is able. See the rambot FAQ for details. - IMSoP 01:09, 2 Feb 2004 (UTC) [via edit conflict with Andres]

[edit] Renegade Table Tag on Maine

There's a renegade table tag on the main page. jengod 18:32, Feb 2, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Featured pictures candidates

Wikipedia:Featured pictures candidates is being ignored. Should it be merged with featured article candidates since this gets a reasonable number of people checking it? Example: Snoyes nominated someone else's image on 19 Nov 2003, there have been no comments/objections, but it's still sitting on Brilliant pictures candidates over two months later. By the way there are only 7 candidates in total at the moment (1 nomination, 6 self-nominations). fabiform | talk 20:47, 2 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] An interesting reference tool perhaps

Here's a little gem that a friend found and tossed my way. Let's just not all use it on Wikipedia.org or else we'll be in even worse shape. :) Graphical Google Browser

--Dante Alighieri 00:45, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)


Or, alternatively, I could have spent a minute thinking about what the tool actually does and realize that it just queries google, and not the sites themselves. ;) Oops. --Dante Alighieri 01:05, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Traditional and Simplified Chinese reversed?

I don't know enough Chinese to go to the Chinese pages and figure out how to correct this, but the main "Traditional Chinese" page contains Simplified Chinese text, and vice versa.

There is only one version for each page. In other words, chinese simp is usually links to the same page as chinese traditional (most people can read both so why make two pages?). Sennheiser 03:21, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)http://www.ebestgolf.com

Wha? Specific example? --Jiang

[edit] Transient Article

I just noticed the article for transient. It seems strange and off topic. Did the author know more than I do, or does the article need a rewrite? - Pingveno 03:30, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)

There is no such thing as Houston's Paranelium! hahah (Paranelium isn't even a word) LMFAO! *Teddy Boy hairs are demoted to the 50s quadrant*!!! Before this gets deleted please add it to the bad jokes page!!! Sennheiser 03:33, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Uncle Ed has now converted it to a good stub, so the original will remain in the history. Andrewa 19:46, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)ebestgolf

[edit] Wikipedia:What is an article

Wikipedia:What is an article states that there is no means at present of automatically determining disambiguation pages. Could this be done by detecting the presence of the {{msg:disambig}} metatag-thing? -- SGBailey 11:40, 2004 Feb 3 (UTC)

[edit] Google does Fractals: slashdot on steroids

Sennheiser notes that Google's logo today includes fractals and links to an image search of "julia fractals". Practically every site in the results has been slashdotted. (::evil grin::) Sennheiser suggests that we take this opportunity to improve our fractal articles. The AOTD has been set to Fractal. [1]

[edit] translation

Hi, what is your opinion of the most accurate Greek to modern English translation of New Testament to date ? And where may I purchase it ? Thanks, RustY Haynes hayneshunting@bellsouth.net

The best advice I have is to go here and see what we have to say about translations. We don't give advice, but we try to be comprehensive. Good luck finding what you're seeking. Jwrosenzweig 01:01, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC) (Note: also emailed to address provided above)

[edit] anomaly in What links here

I wonder what made FUnaba (redirect page) apepars three times in "What links here" of Funabashi, Chiba. Is this need some fix? If so, how can it be fixed?

This is a known problem. Just ignore the duplicates for now; it's a bug that they're in the database at all, but filtering them from the list made the query much more expensive on the database server. --Brion 11:24, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. I failed to find a description of this problem in FAQ.

[edit] wikipedia.org.uk

I have registered wikipedia.org.uk, and set it to forward to http://en.wikipedia.org. The forwarding only seems to be successful on the main page.

If anyone from wikipedia admin would like me to assign the site to them, please let me know. -- Chris Q 07:36, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

With an Apache redirect directive either in an .htaccess file or in the httpd.conf it should work for the subpages as well. Example:

   Redirect / http://en.wikipedia.org/

If this doesn't work http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue61/nielsen2.html should have a solution. Gabriel Wicke 12:23, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks,but I am using a cheap "domain parking" service from http://www.webconexion.net. All I can do (without paying extra) is set a "forwars to" page, -- Chris Q 07:31, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)
If all you're trying to do is to make Wikipedia easier to find, then you've done a good job. If you're trying to make the ".org.uk" domain masquerade as Wikipedia, then there will likely be extra work & expenses involved, which can be left to the "Wikipedia Organisation". I wouldn't sweat it if I were you. HTH --Phil 09:29, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Favorite quotes

I'm starting a Wikipedia:Favorite quotes page, because, well... I think there ought be one. My justification is that we already have a "Brilliant prose" page, and that a favorite quotes page is a good way to link to internal debates that were memorable, and should be read by people, rather than buried so that the issues would flame up again. T'will be done. -戴&#30505sv 08:29, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Are these supposed to be funny quotes, or just useful? I've been putting a lot of funny ones at Wikipedia:Yet more bad jokes and other deleted nonsense lately. →Raul654 08:40, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)
Have you seen Angela's quote collections at User:Angela/Deletion, User:Angela/Stubs and User:Angela/What Wikipedia is not? -- Tim Starling 23:28, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)
I'd not seen these. They're just beautiful. :) fabiform | talk 23:42, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Mailing lists

What gives? It has been nearly a day since the last post was archived on the mailing lists. [2] --mav 09:05, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Brion mentioned in one post that mail might be interrupted for a while as part of the new server move. Maybe this it? Unfortunately I can't point you to the exact mail as URLs with the word *mail* in them are dynamic blocked from where I am accessing the internet. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 09:36, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Front page cached?

Trivial thing... but when I go to the front page the "you have messages" link is shown. But I don't, I've visited my talk page, checked the page history, refreshed the front page etc, but the message remains. Is this something to so with the squid that has recently been employed at wiki-central? I remember someone saying that he was caching pages. ;) fabiform | talk 09:48, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

If you're logged in nothing is cached by the Squid, same headers as before. It's only caching anon requests and takes a lot of load off the main server this way. -- Gabriel Wicke 11:56, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Moved all cache-related bug reports to meta:Cache bugs. -- Gabriel Wicke 14:22, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Link Exchange

Hello, I'm looking to exchange links with your site I will place a link to your site from ours [3]. Please let me know if this is possible Regards, Matt

This site is editable by anyone. Theoretically, you could add the link, but I reccomend that you dont. Wikipedia doesn't advertise. If you add the link it will probably be deleted, and if you continue to add the link, you might be blocked from editing. Sennheiser!

[edit] Recent Changes

Is it just me, or is Recent Changes not updating? Mine is stuck at 14:10. Bmills 14:47, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It's just you. Try reload or <shift-reload>. Tannin
Thanks. Working now. Bmills 15:11, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] backlinks

As of November 7th, 2003, Google references 60,300 back-links to us... now its "about 73,700". We're going up quickly, I must say. --- user:zanimum

This number is rather unreliable, and seems to go up and down without any connection to the real number. It serves well as an order-of-magnitude estimate of the real number, but is not reliable enough to use in comparisons between one time and the other. Andre Engels 16:35, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] SWF picture format

Hello fellow Wikipedians, I am a newcommer and am very impressed with this fantastic collective Free Encyclopedia. I would be honnored to make contributions to it, graphics wise, but first I need to now if the format I use and specialize in is suitable for your programm scince I have not seen it in the list of requested formats.

I work with SWF format, wich is a open format. My original technical illustrations and animations uses vectors wich produces very light weight files for fast downloads.

Here is an example showing the innerworkings of a Manual Transmission. It is fully interactive and make only 37K. A single picture (still) would be at around only 2K. http://www3.lino.sympatico.ca/geebee/custom/transmis.htm

I also produce JPGs and PNGs , but mostly I do in SWF because of vectors been so light.

If you find the format acceptable, then I would be happy to contribute as much as I can. I have many already done and some of the requests I see here I can produce quite easily and to top quality.

Best regards, and bravo for this wonderfull project that is, in my opinion, totally in tune with the real nature and purpose of the Internet.

geebee@lino.sympatico.ca

Have you looked at Wikipedia:Image use policy, especially the section on "Format"? I think that's our policy for now. If you have questions, please post them at Wikipedia talk:Image use policy. Thanks, Jwrosenzweig 21:10, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I can't speak for others, but I would not be averse to including flash animations as links. I'd prefer they not be in-line in the articles, and normal still images be there instead. This may need to wait a bit for some technical issues, as currently the Media: links do not set a proper content-type header, so linking to SWF files that way won't work correctly in most browsers. --Delirium 23:49, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)


Until there's a high-quality non-proprietary player/viewer/plugin, forget it. Steven G. Johnson

[edit] Uploading images

Fabiform panics when a cached copy of an image is briefly shown. fabiform | talk 22:59, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

You get some weird cache-related effects sometimes, Fabiform. Your image does have two shades of purple now. Somewhere in your chain of caches, one has not updated. Don't worry about it, it will sort itself out over time. Consider just how many caches there are in the chain between the 'pedia server and you. You may have (a) a browser cache, (b) a firewall cache (if you use an intelligent firewall), (c) other software caches such as download "accellerators", (d) your ISP's cache (they all say they don't use proxies, but they do), (e), your ISP's provider's cache (i.e., the company that does the trans-oceanic cable or satellite link - they cache stuff too, to save bandwidth). Plus I probably forgot some. Tannin 23:06, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I hadn't quite realised there were that many caches between me and wikipedia, thanks for elucidating! fabiform | talk 23:25, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)


I'm experiencing something similiar to Fabiform. I'm trying to overwrite Media:Cnimitz.jpg (black and white) with a slightly modified (cropped and brightened) picture - http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/k06000/k06651.jpg (color). But no matter what I do, the old one keeps popping up. I know for a fact it isn't a cache issue - I ssh'd into a server on a totally different ISP, downloaded the image, and got the old one. What am I doing wrong? →Raul654 11:12, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)
Screw it. I uploaded to a different name and deleted the old one. →Raul654 11:25, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Signature talk link

After seeing color in parts of other user's signatures, Sennheiser attempted to make the exclamation mark talk page link(see User:Sennheiser#Sennheiser's Decision to use ! instead of . for the link to his talk page) in his signature black. Obviously he failed in implementing this feature. Any suggestions? Sennheiser! 01:31, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

You probably saw a purple section, right? That is the "visited link" colour - you'd been to their talk page recently, so it shows up a different colour to their user page, which you'd not been to recently. Several people bold the part of their signature that links to their talk page. Or you can spell it out like this: fabiform | talk 01:40, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Dysprosia thinks that the stylesheet or wiki formatter is overriding your choice of font color for link. Dysprosia 01:45, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Well, Sennheiser saw Green in green's sig on Talk:Mars Exploration Rover Mission. BTW, Sennheiser has his visited link color set to light blue as Sennheiser finds purple ugly. Sennheiser! 01:52, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Sennheiser has now found a nice way to do his signature and is happy with it. (I realized the bold was better than a different color as it prevents confusion) Sennheiser!
Looks like User:Greenmountainboy gets round it by putting the font tag inside the link text - I suppose that makes it <a><font></font></a> rather than <font><a></a></font>. [[foo|<font color="magenta">bar</font>]]->bar. But I agree that it's better to use bold, especially since you could potentially break someone's custom colourscheme if you specify absolute colours. - IMSoP 02:14, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Absolute colours are evil, particulary around links. Please use bold, italic, etc instead. Martin 20:26, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] (Yerzoplazistonian) Civil War Civil War

Looking at the list of contributions for User:SuperBee, I discovered an article called (Yerzoplazistonian) Civil War Civil War. When I click on it, it takes me to an empty article. The article is not nonexistant, it doesn't come up as an article to be created, it's there, though empty. I can click on the "Discuss this page" and get into an edit to create a Talk page. But there's no "Delete this page" link. How can we get rid of this? RickK 02:18, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Rick, it means the page doesn't exist :) SuperBee's MO is to put empty pages on his contribution list on his page. Don't worry about it, unless something's linked to the nonsense page. Thanks Dysprosia 02:29, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I think you mean User:SmartBee. His actual list of contributions shows up the (Yerzoplazistonian) Civil War Civil War page, not just the list he's written on his user page. I've tried to delete it before, but it won't go. Angela. 07:08, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)
Maybe it's a database thing, due to the previous upgrades &/c (I can't remember, I'm a goldfish or something). Dysprosia 07:11, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] File not found

I've been getting intermittent "file not found" messages. For example, I went to VfD, clicked on a link from there and then pressed "back", only to get an error message saying the file could not be found -- this was not a 404 or any such thing, it was a popup box like any other in Mac OSX (Mozilla). Is this part of the recent Wiki-madness due to servers and new features and slashdotting being flung about willy-nilly? Tuf-Kat 04:58, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wikistats unavailable

Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits was moved to [4].

Ah, thank you. That was generated on Sept 26 - Is that the most recent? →Raul654 09:54, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)
PS - I'm astounded that in less than 2 years, Maverick racked up 31,000 edits!
Er, thanks! :) That only counts edits to articles, BTW. --mav 09:10, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] List of blocked users

20:00, Dec 31, 2004, Tim Starling blocked 65.110.6.34 (contribs) (unblock) (Sorry, Wikipedia has been vandalised many times by www.proxyweb.net users)
21:38, Feb 29, 2004, Hephaestos blocked 204.96.197.145 (contribs) (unblock) (michael)

Has Wikipedia been the victim of inter-temporal vandalism? →Raul654 14:24, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

There isn't support in the software to block an anon IP for more than a day, and we had lots of vandalism from that address. So I think Tim manually inserted a block entry into the database for the end of the year. Quite clever, that. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:38, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] uploads broken?

When I tried to upload something, I got

Internal error
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Could not copy file "/tmp/phpfPlElt" to "/usr/local/apache/htdocs/en/upload/7/78/AlbaniaKorce.png".

Morwen 12:35, Feb 7, 2004 (UTC)

I had that to and then tried to archive the Wikipedia:Upload log .. it work shortly, but again it doesn't. -- User:Docu
Disk was full, many gigs free now. Fixed. -- Gabriel Wicke 01:42, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] maintenance

"Please note that the Wikipedia database will be locked for read-only access from 8 February 05:00 UTC = 9pm PST, midnight EST, 5am GMT, 6am CET. This should only last for a couple of hours, and is necessary to allow a major system upgrade."

Ooh, new servers? I've already saved some wikiwork to do in the donwtime. :) fabiform | talk 22:16, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Yeeehaaa. How exciting. I hope the new servers dont break. Sennheiser! 22:18, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Web crawlers robots spiders grokker

I want to buy a Grokker, robot spider or crawler that will datamine internet WWW sites for all the trade boards such as

Alibaba.com chinalocator.com businesfinder.comebigchina.com china_excite.com ec21.com euro-trade.net

An estimated 20,000 such sites exist on the WWW all it needs to do is gather the URLs and then

The spider should also automatically register/enroll/list a company at each of the trade boards with, name, address, tel, fax, email, URL, by product category and its products together with graphic files at each trade board

Is such software available on the market?

Dr. Peter Palms PhD Palms & Company, Inc. Palms Harbour Lights Building, Suite 203 515lake Street South Kirkland (seattle), Washington State USA 98033 Tel 1 425 828 6774 Fax 1 425 827 5528 Email: Grokker@Peterpalms.com WWW: Peterpalms.com

[edit] software suggestion

where do software suggestions go?

There should be a verification screen after clicking on "Protect this page" and on "Unprotect this page" that says "Are you sure you want to do this?" The protection button is right next to commonly used buttons, and once in a while the mouse misses the intended target. Kingturtle 16:39, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I think this page on meta willi do the trick Sennheiser! 16:52, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Older revisions of images inaccessible (fixed)

How comes that older revisions of images are no longer accessible. On the image description page, only the link to the current revision works, while the links to previous revisions give a 404. Are the older revisions lost, or is the link just pointing to the wrong location? I remember that last time I used that link (months ago) they worked. andy 20:39, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Some do seem to be missing, I'm not sure why (aside from a few -- see the big bold message at top). However, many are present. --Brion 22:44, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Well, three out of three I tried were missing, e.g. Image:Thailand provinces.png or one I uploaded just today Image:Thailand Surat.png. For the last one the previous version was existing until I uploaded a modified version today, thus I suspect a real problem there, not just the missing images as noted on top. andy 23:23, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I had this problem as well - when I uploaded a new version of an image the old one was no longer available. Evercat 23:25, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Ok, it seems that there's been breakage somewhere that's causing it to link to the wrong directories. The files are there, but not where the links point. JeLuF's looking into it... --Brion 00:08, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Should be fixed now. Note that pages with the broken links may be stuck in the cache -- be sure to thoroughly reload the image page before reporting that things are still broken. --Brion 00:49, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] help (write to any sailor)

lorrainej55@hotmail.com or lori_lo2003@yahoo.com would like to join a "write to any sailor" scheme.

An official Navy response to such requests can be found here. There are two specific programs available for Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Jamesday 10:04, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Can't Get My Password Back

I inadvertently messed up my password by click the "Email New Password" button on the login screen. I never received the new password, though I tried several passes, and since my old password is gone, I don't know what to do. My email address was supplied, is this a bug? 24.47.182.47 03:09, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It could be a bug. I just tried it to see if it would work and it hasn't sent me a new password either. You could try entering it at sourceforge. Angela. 04:02, Feb 9, 2004 (UTC)
I informed sourceforge. So I can't get my account access back until the bug is fixed? 24.47.182.47 03:41, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)
If you can get to the wikipedia IRC channel, it is possible someone will be able to help you more quickly. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 10:59, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)
All of the temporary passwords came through today, all at once, so something must have been fixed. However, curiously enough, I was able to resign in with my original password, so I'm back! Cecropia 20:23, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] 100k "images"

When I upload a sound clip, I always get the "we recommend you don't upload an image over 100k in size" and have to override it each time. Since a 100k sound clip must be a tiny fraction of a second, I venture that there will never be any .ogg files of less than 100k. Do I need to request a feature to have this disabled for .ogg files, or is there a mediawiki page somewhere? Tuf-Kat 05:10, Feb 9, 2004 (UTC)

100 kbytes mean 6 or 7 seconds for the average mp3 sound (128kbit), and .ogg should be similar. The relevant message is MediaWiki:Largefile, but it's the same for images and sounds. If one wants to have separate checks for them, the mediawiki software must be modified. Alfio 13:08, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Heads up, Virus on mailinglist!!?

I just received an e-mail, purporting to have been sent to the English wikipedia mailing list by Jimbo Wales, with the subject line "HI" and containing nothing but a binary attachement for windoze and macs. I know I am just guessing, but maybe this is forged, and contains a virus? Right? -- Jussi-Ville Heiskanen 09:15, Feb 9, 2004 (UTC)

  • It came up as MyDoom here. Secretlondon 09:16, Feb 9, 2004 (UTC)
  • This is why, IMO, mailing lists aren't all that {contray/inaddition to the mailing lists importance notes above} [and I don't particularly like the a full mailbox (cleans out the cobwebs)] JDR
    • I'd like to correct you. There is nothing wrong with mailing lists. Microsoft is the problem. I got the virus, but it didn't do anything because I don't use Windows. --Sennheiser! 21:24, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)
      • Thanks [lites a smoke off of the OS-flame =-] JDR
    • I have Windows and I never got the message because my email program caught it and never passed it on. RickK 04:01, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Page without content: wiki/Internet_slang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_slang Thanks

(this post is by 200.207.163.47 --Delirium 11:04, Feb 9, 2004 (UTC))

[edit] Wikipedia and Google

I was checking how my article Sangharakshita rated on Google today and found something interesting. Most of the licenced users of Wikipedia's text rate better than Wikipedia itself. For this article the results are:


version of wiki text = rank on Google (9 feb 04. 14:58 GMT)

  • ezresult = 5
  • nationmaster = 10
  • worldhistory version = 12
  • wikinfo = 23
  • encyclopedia4u = 27
  • WorldIQ = 76
  • Wikipedia = 77

Maybe some one could look at why Wikipedia is ranking so badly. Late last year the Wikipedia version rated no5, and then of course Google changed their algorythm in Dec. But while it's encouraging to see 7 different sites offering my article, I would like to see the Wikipedia (who I wrote it for) rate better in the search engines. The situation was similar for other articles I've written. mahābāla 15:02, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I'm sure a lot of it is down to our server problems since your first measurement. I expect that if google's spider either can't connect at all, or times out when trying to get pages, that this "weakens" the link-strength of the pages in question, demoting them wrt the static mirrors. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:13, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)
It may also be, as you suggest, the change in their algorithm. A given article on wikipedia will have a lot more links to it that on some of the mirrors (as the mirrors don't all mirrir the wikipedia: namespace and the User: and User talk: name spaces). Perhaps google's new algorithm misinterprets this as an attempt at "ballot stuffing", and so gives us a poorer score. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:16, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)
This is a good example of how inacurate, inefficient, and irrelevent(as in results returned by) google can be. I'll admint, google is probably the best out there right now, but search technology is extremely complex and is definitely not perfect. --Sennheiser!
re the algorhythm thing, I looked on with horror as the commercial site I maintain dropped from no.1 for our key search words, to somewhere below 100 in Dec 2003. It has rebounded to no.5 now, but our stats (and therefore income) were well down for that month. You may have said somewhere else but I've missed it...are the server problems going to be resolved at some point? Cheers mahābāla 17:10, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Need help with image restore

I just screwed up image:Gutenberg.jpg. I uploaded an image of the Gutenberg bible under the same title, then noticed the name conflict and deleted it again. Of course, then all Gutenberg images were gone, so I tried to restore, but it hasn't come back. Does Gutenberg.jpg still exist somewhere? AxelBoldt 22:15, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Probably. Check a mirror site that regularly downloads tarballs. They should still have it. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 22:27, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Images are not in the download tarballs, but you might still want to check archive.org, or one of the sites that copies Wikipedia's content. Dori | Talk 23:12, Feb 10, 2004 (UTC)
On a second though, the history appears to have the original image (unless it's another weirdness and it's actually the newly re-uploaded one): [5] Dori | Talk 23:18, Feb 10, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Thumbnail size

Timwi and I are having a discussion on the best thumbnail size for pictures. We cannot agree so please put your opinions here. The chat between ourselves is at User talk:Timwi. To help the discussion I have put one pic on Wing to 180px wide and one to 250px wide.

My argument is that 250px is best, as a compromise, so that clicking on a larger version (if any) would be rarely necessary and page loading time would still be reasonable. (I used to say 300px but, for some reason I don’t understand, that size does look too large with the new image code.)
Timwi’s argument is for a roughly 180px thumb. He says that you can see just as much detail at 180px as at 250px and that on a 640 by 480 screen a 250px size unreasonably occupies half the screen width.
(Timwi, if I haven’t put your argument properly please add to it here).

Your opinions, please. I think this needs to be sorted before we have a motley assortment of thumbnail sizes on WP (which is going to look amateur).
Adrian Pingstone 17:49, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Ordinal vs Cardinal

Some of the number pages (like five hundred) have "ordinal" and "cardinal" confused. Please fix this. Ordinal means 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.; cardinal means one, two, three (how many), etc. --Juuitchan

You are allowed to fix it yourself, you know? --Phil 11:35, Feb 12, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Most edited articles?

Where do you find a list of the most edited articles in the wiki? Tried Specialpages and didn't see anything that yelled "most edited" at me.... :) alerante 23:01, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

There's a Wikipedia:Most-edited talk pages. If that's possible, you could probably bug one of the developers into making an articlespace version. Tuf-Kat 03:29, Feb 12, 2004 (UTC)
That'll work for me. The developers don't need to be bugged. :) alerante 22:02, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Featured pictures candidates

Who is supposed to move approved candidates from Wikipedia:Featured pictures candidates into Wikipedia:Featured pictures ? Bevo 17:12, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

If you follow the instructions on that page, I believe the answer is "anyone". :-) Be bold! Jwrosenzweig 19:38, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Use of Citations

Over at Operation Downfall, I added a section on casualities. It draws very heavily from a couple passages in John Skates' Invasion of Japan. If this were an academic paper, I'd most definitely cite it. What is the wiki policy on citations? →Raul654 19:01, Feb 12, 2004 (UTC)

Cite it under a References section I would say. Dori | Talk 19:33, Feb 12, 2004 (UTC)
I concur. More people should cite their references, it would make this all much more useful. Jmabel 01:06, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)
See "Cite your sources" in the style guide. Steven G. Johnson

[edit] Download entire section?

I was wondering is it possible to download the whole mathematics section?

See: Wikipedia:Database download. (you will download other sections but its all in a nice package) --Sennheiser! 17:27, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)




[edit] Full-text search

Will the Wikipedia full-text search feature be re-enabled, now that the new servers are being installed? Google is amazing, but it's not as good as the full-text search feature was. Dpbsmith 23:15, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

  • Please re-enable the Google option; I personally found it much more useful and accurate than the current search feature. For example, searching for "Courtney" does not even turn up pages like Courtney Love that have that word in the title, whereas Google turns up that and other promising links. Steven G. Johnson 17:25, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)
I think it currently is enabled. The best of both worlds would be to have full text on and a link to google. Dori | Talk 17:28, Feb 14, 2004 (UTC)


[edit] References not in english

Sorry the newbie question. I understand that i should cite my sources if i write long sections about complex topics. But what if these sources are in German, not English? Of course i tend to read books in my native language if i can get decent ones on a topic, and not all of them are availiable as english translations. Cite anyway? With a warning that it's not in english? Lady Tenar 00:32, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Cite 'em, Danno. And, yes, if the title doesn't make it obvious, it would be polite to indicate that it is not in English. And welcome. -- Jmabel 00:45, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] A question

I was just wondering, is there any way to make large black bolded text, like is seen on page sub-divisions without using the ==Bolded Text== thing. And I dont mean like This I mean really big G-Man 16:24, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Using wiki code? Don't think you can. That code creates a header-two, which carries actual semantic meaning. Large black bolded text on its own is meaningless. Why do you want to anyway? Jor 16:41, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I'm sure I've seen it used somewhere else, (might be wrong) and I was just wondering how it was done G-Man 16:54, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Try

using CSS

maybe… (<p style="font-size: 120%; font-weight: bold;">) Just don't use a <h2> just to get "big text". Jor 17:07, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)
Does using plain HTML, like this, (<font size=+1><b>this</b></font>) give what you want, or does that count as an H2? I'm not sure whether it's easier or harder than CSS, but it might be better for older browsers. I don't really know much about it. -- Vardion 02:15, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)
<h1 align=center>It Cannot be Done</h1>
Apologies to whoever added the above, but it broke the section edit links for the rest of the page, so I've surrounded it in <pre> tags. Which just goes to show the dangers of using semantic markup just to create visual effects. - IMSoP 18:06, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

[edit] "Located in..."

Not really sure whether this is the place to ask but: Would it possible to set the wikibot (or whatever it is) to change "located in" to "in" where that phrase this occurs in geographical articles? If something is "in" X county etc, it has to be located there and the "located" is completely redundant. Jacquerie27 22:18, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Having just "in" would be more concise, but I don't really think the extra word "located" hurts anything, especially since it would involve thousands of bot edits to remove them all. -- Wapcaplet 22:25, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)
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