Wikipedia:WikiProject User Page Help/Help Desk/Archive 1

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This page is an archive. Please do not edit the contents of this page. To enter additional comments edit the current main page and link to this page for context if needed.

Contents 1 User:Clay4president2 2 Right-aligning, columns? 3 Posting PDFs? 4 Newbie 5 CSS in Wikipedia 6 User Page 7 Monobook 8 Scroll Blocks 9 Archiving a Discussion 10 Swap TOC and Userboxes 11 I did swap them, but I got in trouble 12 Userbox/Babel formatting 13 hi 14 Access to user page 15 Pix 16 When to archive talk pages 17 Scrolling Divs? 18 TOC Hide 19 More than one Sandbox? 20 Hiding Category 'Brick' 21 User page deletion 22 Templates? 23 Userbox Table 24 Identity Theft! 25 User:HPJoker 26 user:kirkoconell 27 Copyright 28 User:Avruch 29 Shift Userboxes 30 Error, Setup.php must be included from the file scope, after DefaultSettings.php 31 Cursor styles 32 abuse on user page 33 Formatting boxes 34 Table formatting on narrow windows 35 User Image 36 Footer 37 Copyvio 38 User:Sceptre

User:Clay4president2

This user is using his user page as a place to host a fantasy game. Most of his recent edits are to user space and not the encyclopedia. Is this really necessary? I don't think Wikipedia should be abused like this. I've considered MFD, but is there any other options to do? I've tried talking to him, but he refuses to stop the game. RobJ1981 (talk) 12:19, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind. The editor has said he will be moving the content, so there seems to be no problem anymore. RobJ1981 (talk) 11:54, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Right-aligning, columns?

I'm a complete novice editing Wiki pages. Is there a way, short of using tables, to make columns on a user page? If you have a look at mine, basically what I'd like to do is to have the userboxes under the Babel box -- but to the right of the text. I don't want to include the Babel box in the Userboxtop because it aligns badly. Am I overlooking something obvious? Thanks in advance! Sciamanna (talk) 11:24, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Posting PDFs?

Is it possible to post PDF files onto my userpage? I have six such files; they are article publications of mine. Arguably, they're relevant to a wikipedia user page in that they tell people about my interests. Most of my wikipedia editing has to do with the same topics as these publications. Also, none of it is with vanity presses; it's all peer-reviewed, verifiable content. Just was wondering if it's allowed, and if so, how to go about providing such links. Best, Anthony Krupp (talk) 20:04, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

You could link to them using [http://example.com/example.pdf PDF]. The result would be this: PDF. Cheers, [sd] 02:59, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

Newbie

Major Newbie here. I'm installing MediaWiki on my system so that our association can use the software for a standards review process. The standard has numbered paragraphs (section 3, SS3.1, SS3.1.1, etc.). I want the section numbers to appear in the TOC instead of the numbers that are automatically added by the TOC. Is there a way to do this (suppress the auto numbering of TOC entries), or another better solution? Thanks for your help. I hope I'm doing this right. ;o) MajykHands 00:26, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

This question would best go at WP:VPT. But, a solution would be to go to your preferences, go to the "misc" section, and uncheck the box that says "Auto-number headings" --GeorgeMoney ^T·C 00:44, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

CSS in Wikipedia

I've found the manual for using CSS in Wikipedia markup. I'm attempting to make a userbox with a graphic for the info background. I have thus far been unsuccesful. MrWarMage 19:35, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

So you want, for example, a box with an image as the background instead of let's say yellow? Well if so, that would be impossible unless you put it in your own personal css file. Wikipedia disables certain types of css on the page. For example, you could do <div style="background: red">, but not style="background-image: url(http://example.com/example.jpg)" GeorgeMoney (talk) 02:06, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

User Page

I was wondering if anyone who has experience in the area take a second to look at the display problems I'm having on my user page and possibly give me a few pointers? My userboxes don't seem to want to line up correctly, and I get weird "{{}}" symbols (for lack of knowing their name) in my Babel box.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide me. --Cduffner 23:35, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I fixed it [1] the problem was that you had extra {{'s and }} which were ignored by the wiki-engine because they were extra. GeorgeMoney (talk) 02:13, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure this is it. The problem was with this sloppy edit by a bot - see how he has removed newlines before the |} characters. Removing newlines usually makes no difference, but it does in this case, where the |} are a part of the table syntax. By putting it in the same line as the table entry, they were treated as literal text. I hope this provides you with enough information to restore the table format, if you so wish. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 05:00, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Monobook

What are all these monobooks (monobook.jc, monobook.css, monobook.php) what is the difference, how do they work and what do they do??? (#R!$5897 (T@£k) 13:08, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

If edited in the correct way, they can be used to modify the appearance and behaviour of Wikipedia. For instance, the gallery of user styles gives a list of appearances which can be implemented, and Wikipedia:Tools shows the code for a million useful programs used on Wikipedia. See one of my monobook pages for an example. CarrotMan 09:29, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Scroll Blocks

I wondered if there was anyway to intergrate this:

so that it fits into the text like a thumbnail picture, because I just can't get it to work properly.  Scrumshus ^{Talk to me} 18:32, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Archiving a Discussion

How do I go about archiving a discussion and its history?And the truth shall set you free! 23:57, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Not sure. Maybe you could move the page to the archive and then change the redirect to the new page. — Sebastian 22:14, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

See how to archive a talk page for information. CarrotMan 09:36, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Swap TOC and Userboxes

Is it possible to swap the positions of my TOC and Userboxes so that my userboxes are farthest to the right? TonyTheTiger 20:57, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

I see you solved this in the meantime. — Sebastian (talk) 06:52, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

I did swap them, but I got in trouble

I did just that, and it somehow automatically displayed the userboxes in two columns. But every other day, it cuts off the right column (the whole Babel box). The code I used was like this:

{{Boxtop|Some things about me}}

{{User:Cool Cat/Newbie}}

{{Babel|de|en-3|fr-2|zh-2|it-1|grc-1|la-1|ja-1}}

{{User Washington}}

{{User:Tal642/my userboxes/democracy}}

...

{{Boxbottom}}

... remaining text.

Thanks for your help! — Sebastian (talk) 06:44, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

This problem is still there. (I realized it was dumb to close with "Thanks for your help!")

I found a simple way to reproduce it:

1. Go to my header page User:SebastianHelm/header
2. Click "Edit"
3. Click "Cancel"

It occurs in other situations as well, but I couldn't find a pattern. This seems to be a sure way to repro it. It may not occur always; possibly it depends on how wide the window is, but it worked with maximized window on a 1280x1024 monitor the last few times. — Sebastian 17:14, 2 January 2007 (UTC) - amended 23:56, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

What browser are you using? —sd31415 (sign here) 17:21, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Oh, I see, by your screenshot, that you are using Internet Explorer. Userboxes and such are best viewed in Mozilla Firefox. —sd31415 (sign here) 17:23, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, then I'm glad that I'm using IE - or else I wouldn't have noticed this problem. Maybe there's something wrong in the syntax, and IE is just more severe. (I once had such a situation with a website I created, which was wrong on Firefox. Turned out, I had written "style=something", instead of "style:something". Firefox just balked, but IE understood what I meant, which is unfortunate when you create a website that you want to display nicely under any browser.) So, how can this be fixed? — Sebastian 23:50, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I don't think the problem can be fixed to where it looks fine in IE. See this discussion between Tone (talk • contribs) and me:

· · · · · · · · ·

Just another thing. I was trying to move the links to my admin actions to the yellow box and the flags under it. But I don't quite get the syntax (or it's just because I am really tired already :-)) and besides, sometimes the userbox section shrinks to the edge and I can't fix it. Could you have a look one more time? Thanks. --Tone 00:28, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

It's a bit weird. When I open it, it looks fine. But when I refresh it, it looks like this. I am currently using IE at resolution 1024*786. If you have any idea what's wrong...Thanks. --Tone 10:56, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I mostly use Mozilla Firefox. I looked at my page and your page on my Internet Explorer, and I saw the problem. I tried editing mine without improvement. If you can, you should download Mozilla Firefox, because boxes (and a lot of other formatting styles) are best viewed on Mozilla Firefox.

Indeed, it looks fine in firefox. I swiched some parts and now I like it a lot. Thanks again. --Tone 13:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

· · · · · · · · ·

To the best of my knowledge, there is no way that this problem can be fixed. Your best solution is to use Firefox, since your user page won't look correct in IE. —sd31415 (sign here) 00:26, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Userbox/Babel formatting

Hello, I'm a newbie here at wikipedia. I am trying to setup my userpage by adding my babel and userboxes on the right side of my page. However, when I put in the coding for both my Babel and userbox, they appear side by side and I am not sure how to format the code to make the boxes one on top of the other. Any help is appreciated!! Jimzim66 05:34, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

» Fixed formatting

» Replied

S.D. ¿п? § 13:12, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you kindly!! Jimzim66 18:57, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

hi

hi im new and dont know how to use my userpage what do i do thanks!Pjg12 12:02, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

» Replied

S.D. ¿п? § 12:45, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Access to user page

This is probably staring me in the face, but how do I actually get to my user page to view or edit it? Kritikos99 13:17, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

I guess you've found out yourself. :D Cheers, S.D. ¿п? § 13:04, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Pix

Is there any way to embed pix to userpages from external servers? Whenever I want an image of myself, it gets taken off. Rjsec4ever 12:36, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

No, but you can upload an image (and specify the license). Instructions for doing that can be found at Wikipedia:Uploading images. Cheers, S.D. ¿п? § 12:48, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

When to archive talk pages

Hi, I have been on Wikipedia for a month, and my talk page is full of trivia. I am unclear on what the rules are about deleting junk from it, or archiving the whole thing. What to do? Buddhipriya 20:32, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Instructions can be found at how to archive a talk page. You can cut the old discussion from your talk page and paste it to an archive under User talk:Buddhipriya/Archive #. However, it seems that you have already learned how to do that yourself — good job! Happy editing, S.D. 21:30, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Scrolling Divs?

I was wondering if I can get all my userboxes in a scrolling div on the right side of my user page?... i tried before with div tags but I didn't do it right because it didn't work... --Tikuko 13:43, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

• Never mind, figured it out myself --Tikuko 17:25, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

TOC Hide

Is there any way to make the table of contents on my talk page be toggled to "hide" by default, with the "show" toggle button? Right now it's interfering with my "leave a message" box.--Semper Fi, Carry on DanMP5 | contribs 14:01, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Cancel that, I fixed it.--Semper Fi, Carry on DanMP5 | contribs 04:05, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

More than one Sandbox?

I was wondering how to create an extra subpage (sandbox) on my user page. In one sandbox I have some references which I have to convert into prose, and I need a second space into which I can assemble the parts. Suggestions? Arcayne (^{cast a spell}) 18:04, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I see you figured it out. WODUP 05:54, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Hiding Category 'Brick'

Uhm, yeah. As you can see, the userboxes on my page have resulted in a category 'brick' of insane size. Is it possible to hide this? Tikuko 16:59, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

The only way to do that is to remove the userboxes or subst: the userboxes and manually remove the categories. WODUP 05:56, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

User page deletion

Hello, What tags I put onto my userpage to delete it, not my account? --Drahgo 11:04, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Nevermind found it. --Drahgo 11:20, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Templates?

Hi, are there any templates available for userpages? I seem to be unable to find any, thanks. --_The Hiddey_ 21:36, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Greetings, The Hiddey! Hope this link helps you. Cheers, [sd] 14:53, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Userbox Table

Hello! I'm looking for a simple table example that I can use on my page. Right now everything is on top of itself on the right side, but I would love to have one huge block of boxes instead of a really tall column. Thanks in advance to anyone who helps! mheart 21:10, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

This page gives information on how to create wiki-tables, and Octane has an example of organizing boxes into tables. Hope that helps — [sd] 00:32, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Identity Theft!

Someone (a family member) used my name, or actually, my IP address, to goof around and got me into "trouble" with good fellow Wikipedians. Being a good, forgiving person, a certain Wareh (whom I understand has contributed vastly to Wikipedia and other credibles sites and also recieved the Barnstar) sent me a message via usertalk saying that I should not fool around on the site, which was what the "sandbox" was for. How can I prevent my identity from losing its credibility by others stealing it? Help! I am going to ceate a useraccount to help (I hope) the situation. Will it?

Your question is more appropriate for the help desk. Creating an account will help in your situation (see the benefits). Regards, [sd] 00:32, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

User:HPJoker

User:HPJoker maintains a news (blog) type page on his userpage about baseball. Looking at Wikipedia:NOT#BLOG it appears such a thing is disallowed. However, before taking this to an MfD and possibly turning off a new user, I'd like a second opinion. If another user agrees, I'll make the hard call and start the MfD. I'm watching here. Thanks. Mbisanz (talk) 09:42, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

• This is definitely a case to be taken to Mfd. Wikipedia is not a blog or website hoster. LightAnkhC|MSG 17:32, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

• I took it to Mfd per WP:NOT. See Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:HPJoker‎ . LightAnkhC|MSG 17:42, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually, if you look at the age of my comment, I had asked the user about it and then decided it wasn't worth the MfD effort, but it is your call. I'll probably chime in on the MfD later this week. MBisanz ^talk 18:03, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

• Oh yeah, I see the date now. Still, I think it breaks WP:NOT. I'll see what the guys at Mfd say ;) LightAnkhC|MSG 19:15, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

user:kirkoconell

Hello There, I do not know how to proceed. I've been in an editing war of sorts with some people, user:BayBoyBlues for one. I would like him blocked, but thats another post. I believe he created an account kirkoconell, one n off of my name, and he copied all of my user and discussion page so it looks like it is me, but it isn't. And I am afraid at some point he is going to use that account to impersonate me. I mean it seems against policy to copy my name purposely and then copy my information EXACTLY. Can I get this account deleted and blocked/banned? If so how do I? -Kirkoconnell (talk) 02:24, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

A report should be filed at Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention. MBisanz ^talk 04:46, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Copyright

I would like to put a copyright tag on my user page so it dont get copied by the knobs at BlackWiki and darmowe.org.pl and TerritorioScuola and Reference Encyclopedia and Paki.Ws. --Jay^Tur₁ (Contribs) 17:35, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

You can do what I have done with the last two sections on my user page, the second of which used a subst of the specific {{subst:Userpage}}, but you can also use the generic {{subst:Unencycpage}}.   — Jeff G. (talk|contribs) 06:41, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

User:Avruch

User:Avruch has their page coded in such a way that the sidebar Wikipedia logo is placed in front of a Israeli flag. I think that such use of code is inappropriate. Mostlyharmless (talk) 04:52, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Well I checked over Wikipedia:User_page and it doesn't seem to prohibit such code. And I've seen it used in other contexts. I don't think Avruch is using it in an attack or derogatory manner. You might try contacting him first to find out his reasons and initiate a dialog off of that. And as a last resort, WP:MFD could be invoked to create a binding consensus discussion on the matter. MBisanz ^talk 04:59, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

I regard such use of code as Zionist (self described) soapboxing, which is prohibited or at the very least strongly discouraged. Mostlyharmless (talk) 05:05, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Since its in the userspace, its more of a gray area (as you note). I'm looking at the Wikipedia:General_sanctions on "Palestine-Israel articles", which one could broadly (very broadly), interpret to control, in which case an Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Arbitration enforcement report would be the correct procedure. But since this Helpdesk has never been an "enforcing" help desk, I'd suggest engaging in dialog (as you have begun already I believe). MBisanz ^talk 05:25, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your responses. Cheers. Mostlyharmless (talk) 05:39, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Well then you won't like this edit (NSFW) one bit. :)   — Jeff G. (talk|contribs) 09:49, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

And in the edit after that one, he comments out the image. Current version doesn't seem to have it. MBisanz ^talk 06:47, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

It was just a demonstration, I didn't intend to make it permanent.  :)   — Jeff G. (talk|contribs) 19:25, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Shift Userboxes

Currently, I have the babel and other userboxes on my userpage. Im just wondering, can the nested useboxes be moved to te left? thanks. Ilikepie2221 (talk) 21:30, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

User {{Userboxtop}} on the top of your userbox list and {{Userboxbottom}} at the bottom (look at my page's code). It should automatically appear on the left, but if it doesn't, I'll take another shot. MBisanz ^talk 02:37, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Error, Setup.php must be included from the file scope, after DefaultSettings.php

After logged in, I cant see my user page instead of this message:'Error, Setup.php must be included from the file scope, after DefaultSettings.php' . But i can see talk page and all other pages.By reload or cache delete this problem is not solved. By purging it is okay. But without write ?action=purge in url that error again happened. What should i do? Tanvir che (talk) 13:49, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, this is a tough one. I looked at the code for your userpage, and don't see anything that would cause an error, unless its a userbox template transcluding bad. And your only code file, monobook.js, has a standard script in it that wouldn't cause problems. I'd suggest reposting this to Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). MBisanz ^talk 02:34, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

In my case, this was caused by /etc/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php failing to set a settings file based on the URL name. I had followed a tutorial telling me to use $callingURL = strtolower($_SERVER[’SERVER_NAME’]); to establish the URL. I found that using $callingURL = $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]; instead solved all of my problems. Apologies for the poor editing. Sean Dundon

Cursor styles

What are some of the cursor styles available? -- 224JEFF6 ^{SAY SOMETHIN' KID!} 22:10, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Are you asking about cursor styles for your mouse cursor? That question would be asked at the reference desk reference desk. If your asking about some sort of formatting on your user page or having cursors behave a certain way on your page, I'd have to look into it. MBisanz ^talk 23:18, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

abuse on user page

hi, am just after creating a user page for the first time (so forgive me if i am doing this wrong. anyway, on the project page of the user page i.e. the one it defaults to, i got a message that just has reams and reams of fuckyou s written down that seem to take ages to delete - i haven't actually succeeded as yet Dorsetred27 (talk) 18:12, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

This is your user page User:Dorsetred27. This is a permanent link to a page describing what you can and can't do on your user page. If your seeing a page that says "fuckyou" continuously, its probably a vandal and should be reported to WP:AIV if it appears to be very recent, or just bug me :) at User talk:MBisanz and I'll look into it. Other than that, the only thing I see is a welcome message, which is pretty standard. Happy editing. MBisanz ^talk 05:57, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Formatting boxes

Hello, I just have a quick question. I have a picture on my user page that is in a box i.e. it is surrounded by a border and has a background. The picture in the box is aligned to the left. However, the box still stretches across to the right side of the page. So, basically, I need to have the border fit only around the picture and not all the way across the page. Check out my user page to see what I mean. X Wild Irishman x (talk) 21:53, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Hmm, lemme look around and see whose code I can reuse. MBisanz ^talk 07:04, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I tried and failed to figure out a way to reformat your user page. Try asking The Transhumanist (talk · contribs), he's done stuff like this before. MBisanz ^talk 07:19, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Ok, I found a page that I can use as a template: The Main Page. I can't believe I didn't think about it before, but it has pretty much exactly what I need. Thanks for your help! - X Wild Irishman x (talk) 02:49, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Table formatting on narrow windows

In the My Interests section of my user page, if you shrink the whole browser window the table inside doesn't resize accordingly. I'm hoping someone knows how to fix this. - Jkasd 03:27, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Well it won't make the images smaller. And since their in a table, I doubt it would re-order them vertically. You'd need to find someway to make them all appear on the same time without columns to make them re-order vertically, and that would probably cause more problems when its at a normal resolution. MBisanz ^talk 03:48, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

That seems like a lot of work. (I probably should contribute more instead of worrying about my user page.) It really isn't that big of an issue, since most people seem to have their browser at full width anyways. Thanks - Jkasd 03:54, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

User Image

Hi, on my user talk page - i have an image that links to the user page (the wee scribble pad image at the top left) - however the link doesn't always work - it seems only the top half, or the top-left part links to the page. Any ideas? ← κεηηε∂γ ^{(talk) (secret)} 08:32, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

You've got a lot of complex transclusions going on there. Can you link me directly to the transcluded page that has that part of the header code in it? MBisanz ^talk 02:55, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

The menu isn't in a transcluded page. Try searching for

 Image:Crystal_Clear_app_kaddressbook.png|64px

Its on the usertalk page. Thanks ← κεηηε∂γ ^{(talk) (secret)} 18:30, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Never mind, I have fixed it now. Turns out it was the <imagemap> values. Thanks anyway ← κεηηε∂γ ^{(talk) (secret)} 07:54, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Footer

Hi,

I have put a footer on my talk page, including a navigation bar, but the 'new section' tab places new sections below the footer. What can I do to make the tab put new sections above it instead? Thanks, Guido den Broeder (talk) 13:12, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Had a go, as you will see from the history part on your page... But unfortunately I cannot do it. As far as i am aware it is possible, using absolute or fixed positions, but im not so good with CSS... Maybe someone else will elighten us all... ← κεηηε∂γ ^{(shout at me)} 15:33, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for trying, although you really should do that in a sandbox. Guido den Broeder (talk) 16:47, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Wow... I do apologise for attempting to sort your page and not using the sandbox to do so. Go fix it yourself then you ungrateful little swine! ← κεηηε∂γ ^{(shout at me)} 07:48, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Copyvio

Not cool 72.66.80.133 (talk) 19:21, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

User:Sceptre

I was moving and protecting pages around to make his userpage (and sub-template-pages) editable only by Sceptre and admins. I messed something up along the way, and now the title of the boxes aren't showing. Can anyone help fix this problem? (PS, a look at my move log may help) Maxim_(talk) 21:32, 9 May 2008 (UTC)