Wikipedia talk:Tip of the day

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Shortcut: WP:TIP WT:TOTD
WikiGnomes are welcome here.Please proofread our tips!

[edit] This is the tip of the day project

To display the tip of the day on your user page, read the Tip of the day tip.

To browse the tip collection, see the complete list of tips.

This project is responsible for developing and maintaining the tip of the day templates which are displayed throughout Wikipedia, and the collection of tips that are displayed by those templates.The tip of the day appears on Wikipedia's Help page, on the Wikipedia:Community Portal, and on many user pages too.

[edit] Project procedures

Here is how this works:

Those who would like to participate in this project should place the {{totd-tomorrow}} on their user page, which is a template that displays tomorrow's tip of the day (for monitoring purposes) as well as this project's task list (announcement box).
Submit new entries on this page, below.
Please help prepare the new entries below by proofreading and editing the tips for factual accuracy, clarity, readability, and proper formatting.
The goal of this project is to provide tips and advice for making Wikipedia easier to use, and to help users participate in Wikipedia more effectively.We shall make power users of them all!
Toward this end, we collect useful wikitips wherever we can find them. Do you know an expert on some aspect of Wikipedia's operations? Please ask them to record their favorite techniques on this page (below).
On the adjacent project page is a list of links to subpages, titled by date. Each subpage has a tip stored in it. The entries with a double-hyphen (--) are old tips (the same ones that were displayed last year). They need to be updated, or replaced with new tips.
This project has several templates that automatically display the contents of the subpage with the current date. (Templates are pages that get displayed on other pages, duplicated like boilerplate.) The tip of the day is displayed on Help:Contents and Wikipedia:Community Portal.
When you believe an entry is polished and ready, move it up to the ready to post section, for somebody else to post to the subpages.
Move entries from the ready to post section (that you actually agree are ready to post) to the tip schedule. To do this, you may replace any tip on the schedule that has a double-hyphen between the date and the tip's title. When you do, change the double-hyphen to a single hyphen.
If you feel an entry in Ready to post is not ready, move it back down to New entries. Do not post to subpages the entries that you placed in the Ready to post section (unless you are a veteran of this project and have a feel for what makes a good tip). This ensures that each entry is given final approval by at least two editors.
Entries that are not worthy of this project get moved down to not suitable. Generally, this means that the subject matter doesn't fit here, or the tip is complete nonsense. Include a little message as to why, and your sig.
If you see an entry under "not suitable" that you agree is not worthy of this project (due to inappropriate subject matter), then delete it from this page. But please do not delete entries that you placed there. This again ensures that at least 2 editors are involved in the decision.
Keep an eye on the tip schedule. Proofread tips in the queue before they become today's tip! On the schedule, tips with a double-hyphen haven't been proofread since they appeared the previous year. If you think a tip should run again this year, proofread it to make sure it is still accurate, and then change the double-hyphen to a single-hyphen.

Longtime veterans of this project sometimes add tips directly to the tip schedule. Don't get alarmed, they (RichardF, and The Transhumanist) know what they are doing.

Annual maintenance: at the end of the year, all the tips on the tip schedule need to be copied to the tip archive. First, create a page to display the list of tips displayed the previous year, copy the tip schedule to it, and add a link to it on the tip schedule page. Second, create 365 tip pages, by date, and copy the corresponding tip from the scheduled set to each one as you create them. Third, on the schedule page, change the single-hyphens between the date and the tip titles to left-arrows (←).

Note: The page title of each tip in the archive is a date that includes the year. In contrast, the tip pages in the schedule don't include the year -- this is a failsafe to ensure tips get displayed even if new ones aren't created on time (all the TOTD templates display the yearless tips only).

[edit] User boxes

User boxes for Wikipedian tipsters.

This user is a Wikipedia tipster.

[edit] Required formatting

Formatting required for entries: see the Wikipedia:Tip of the day/February 21 entry for the format.In order to allow users with table-formatted user pages to display the tip of the day template without it messing up their page, please do not include headings in the tips.Instead, we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way with <center><big>'''Tip title'''</big></center>.Each entry should also include a link for users to be able to read more about the topic, if such a link exists.And of course don't forget the tip itself, which should take just a paragraph, or two at the most.(These are tips, not treatises).The best tips are one sentence long.

[edit] Some good places to find ideas for tips

Help:Contents
- Help:Contents/Site map--124.7.174.13 (talk) 07:29, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Community Portal
Wikipedia:Department directory
Wikipedia:Directory

And one last tip for you tipsters:Have fun!

[edit] Ready to post - individual tips

Use your userpage

Use your User page to do stuff you can't normally do on Wikipedia. Try out techniques, have userboxes, try out your template skills, and make a user page worthy of Wikipedia!

Editing

If you are stumped on what to edit next, try using User:SuggestBot. They, however, need to know what you've edited previously. For other ideas on what you can contribute, check out Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia.

"Am I logged in?" Don't be confused.

Do you sometimes make edits, without realising that you weren't logged in? There is an easy way to avoid this. Log in, go to preferences, and choose a different skin. Or change the quickbar so it is on a different part of the page. That way, it's obvious straight away whether you are logged in or not. E.g. you may wish to use the Cologne Blue skin.

If another Wikipedian uses the same computer and likes the same skin, one of you could place the quickbar on the right hand side so that it's obvious who is logged in.

Read more: Wikipedia:Customisation#Skins

Omniwiki!

With this trick you can look up any Wikipedia article directly from any web page by merely highlighting the word you want to know more about and clicking a button! Use the javascript below as a link on your browser toolbar. Make sure you get it all on one line, a simple Copy/Paste will probably only get the first line:

javascript:q = %22%22 + (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection() : document.getSelection ? document.getSelection() : document.selection.createRange().text); if (!q) q = prompt(%22Enter a Wikipedia topic:%22, %22%22); /* if (q!=null) { location=%22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22 + escape(q).replace(/ /g, %22+%22);} void 0; */ if (q!=null) { WindowObjectReference = window.open(%22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22 + escape(q).replace(/ /g, %22+%22), %22DescriptiveWindowName%22, %22resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes%22); } void 0;

Now, when you highlight any word on a webpage and click this link, a new window will open up with the Wikipedia article for that word! You can also change the URL and have the link take you to Wiktionary definitions, or even perform a Google search on the term (put in "http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=") So there it is, have fun with it!

[edit] New entries

Please add new (fresh) tips to the top of this section (the old tips which are being recycled are at the end).

Avoid Double Redirects

Always try to avoid adding Double Redirects. Redirects are special pages that automatically causes the text of another page to be dispalyed in its place. A redirect which leads to another redirect is a double redirect. Wikipedia will not follow the second redirect making it unpleasant for readers.

Read more: Wikipedia:Double redirects

Juthani1 17:58, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Barnstars

You can always appreciate another user, and you can always show it with a barnstar! Barnstars are are little award-like templates that have stars and messages in them! You don't have to be an admin, in fact you don't have to be logged in! Anyone can hand them out, and remember, if you appreciate others, and you show it, then you can get a barnstar too.

[edit] Not suitable

Stubs

If you want everyone to come and help you with your article, just add \{{stub}}. This puts it onto a page where everyone can see that your article needs expanding.

[edit] General discussion

Archives
Discussion Archive 1 Discussion Archive 2 Discussion Archive 3

[edit] I'm not sure how this works

Something like two months ago, I wrote up a potential TotD here, and never heard anything further.Does that mean that it was considered lame and ignored, or did it move into some other process? The workflow from the intial proposal of a draft TotD, to discussion, cleanup and eventual use at a TotD or rejection isn't very clear to me. — SMcCandlish [talk] [contrib] ツ 10:33, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

No, nothing like that. It's just that the project isn't in a hurry, because tips have already been scheduled to the end of the year. But it's all very flexible. Some tips on the schedule (listed on the project page) are repeats. So we can replace those with new tips, for instance. I'll be happy to have a look at your tip submission. The Transhumanist 12:53, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

The tip is a bit long, can you edit down a bit? The Transhumanist 03:06, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Done. How's that? — SMcCandlish [talk] [contrib] ツ 15:45, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

I put a barnstar TotD up above a long time ago and hasn't been touched since. Or did it get moved tom the top and just have to wait another year? What is it? —Coastergeekperson 04^{'s talk}@Feb/14/08 00:38

[edit] General TOTD encyclopaedia article?

I think "tip of the day" should be an actual article, discussing the use of TOTD as a supplementary form of online help in (primarily Microsoft?) GUI applications. I was a little surprised to see it redirect to this meta-type page. 86.138.65.206 16:52, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

See Tip of the day. Needs to be expanded. The Transhumanist 19:50, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] April 3 TOTD

The TOTD for April 3rd is about Esperanza. Since the project no longer exists, it might be a good idea to replace it. -- MarcoTolo 04:55, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

The TOTD for May 17 is also about Esperanza. --Smokizzy ^{Review Me! (Please!)} 01:31, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Jimbo tip?

Today (or yesterday) I saw 'spam Jimbo Wales', presumably for April Fools' Day - but I cannot find it anywhere. Link, anyone? If it was not, it should be BJAODNed.--_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk} 04:10, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Found it.--_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk} 04:14, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pardon

This has nothing to do with Today's tip. It is regarding the automatic message that is on the Log In page. Make sure to have a secure password. Out of curiosity, has there been a recent admin who's password was discovered? Send a message to my talk page. -Yancyfry 02:22, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Internet Explorer advocacy

Today's tip advocates Internet Explorer. I've nothing against IE, but did you really mean to do that? --SueHay 02:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A metaphor for a metaphor?

"Village pump" can't be a metaphor for "community watering hole." A metaphor can only be a symbol of something real, not a symbol of yet another symbol. The village pump on Wikipedia is the real online gathering place the metaphor is supposed to indicate, but "community watering hole" is just an alternative metaphor. I suggest saying something such as "The Village Pump is a metaphor for a community crossroads or meetingplace where news and ideas are exchanged." Preston McConkie 20:31, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] typo in popups tip

Power tool: Navigation popups
... you can activate it form the popups menu ...
A minor quibble also, empowers?
When you install this nifty wikitool, it empowers your mouse arrow.
I love the tip of moment template, thanks to all concerned. Cygnis insignis 05:50, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Five Pillars - Not the same pillars!

Today's TOTD on the Five Pillars - that is, TOTD for October 20 - lists slightly different pillars to to Five Pillars page that it links to.

In WP:PILLARS, it lists "Wikipedia works by consensus" as one of the pillars (next to the yellow icon).

In Wikipedia:Tip of the day/October 20, "Wikipedia is free content" appears next to the yellow icon rather than the green icon, and instead, "Wikipedia has a neutral point of view" is listed next to the green icon.

What's going on here? DonkeyKong64 (Mathematician in training) 06:31, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

The edit leading to version 169225058 of the Five pillars article changed the points to be consistent with the tip. According to the edit summary, it was a revert. Brian Jason Drake 08:51, 14 January 2008 (UTC) [edited Brian Jason Drake 08:57, 14 January 2008 (UTC)]

[edit] barnstars rule

Barnstars make good editors feel appreciated. Try to give one to every editor you think is good. --1bookfan 02:48, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Archives

The 2007 archive only has links to some of the days, and some of those pages don't work (in particular, the prior/next day links don't work on any of the February pages on the list - they have error messages instead - and February 2-4 don't have any tip). Brian Jason Drake 08:37, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] How to Use this template on Other Lrnguage wikis?

Hi, I contribute in gu@wiki and hi@wiki, and visit en@wiki for timeto time as well. I am even one of the Administrator for gu.wiki and would like to use this template on my user page at gu@User:Dsvyas, can anyone tell me how can I do that? or can give me the basic code for template to import the tips from en.wiki here??--Dsvyas (talk) 16:10, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hillary Clinton

Today's totd includes a Hillary Clinton box. It was probably added by one of her supporters and it needs removing. I can't find it in the totd text. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 17:07, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

It was added to the template {{totd}} by someone who seems to be a new user; he added the same template to over 10 templates - I have reverted his insertions and left a note on his talk page. --Gurubrahma (talk) 18:45, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Feed

Tip of the Day could really use an RSS feed, I imagine this would boost readership significantly. --Padraic 18:50, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pronounciation of words

Up to now, I never found an audio-option to hear the correct pronounciation of the words that are explained. Would it be possible to offer such a feature? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.120.169.118 (talk) 08:12, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Categories: Wikipedian tipsters