Wikimedia Forum/Archives/2010-03

Simple English Wikibooks Deletion

I do not dispute the results of the proposal to close Simple English Wikibooks. However, while closures in the past have resulted in the wiki being locked, this wiki is no longer accessible at all. This prevents the import of any data to English Wikibooks at all and was not expected by those at English Wikibooks discussing how and what to import for salvage. See the textbook-l mailing list thread on "Simple English Wikibooks Deletion" for additional information. -- Adrignola 00:55, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

It's not just SE Wikibooks: quite a few projects nominated for closure were outright deleted, like Ndonga Wikipedia. -- Prince Kassad 08:57, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

I am surprised that the project was deleted rather than locked. Maybe the request needed more clarity; however, I think the default for "closure" is locking, and not deleting. Making the wiki inaccessible was not what was intended; people were voting for locking and not doing away with the content. Pmlineditor ∞ 09:03, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

The wiki was not deleted, the content still exists, it's just not publicly accessible (see bug 20324, comment 9). Roan made a dump of the content so it can be imported, see bug 22625. Cbrown1023 talk 17:50, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm sorry but that doesn't help an administrator at English Wikibooks use Special:Import on selected pages. The current situation is as good as actual deletion. Why couldn't the wiki simply be locked? Why were the wikis on the page you linked to made inaccessible? I frankly can do nothing with an XML file. -- Adrignola 21:29, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

.I have send you a email, and I will help you futher. Huib talk 22:14, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

@Adrignola: Importing pages though uploading XML files is possible with the Importupload right. One would have to create a usergroup for that, though. Making the wiki publicly accessible again and then importing pages via transwiki is a much better way of dealing with this. --Church of emacs talk · contrib 14:40, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

I was somewhat surprised an disappointed by this too. Why wasn't the wiki simply locked, as is standard practise? I don't understand. This is, for all practical purposes, the same as simply deleting the project. Tempodivalse [talk] 01:39, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

For the record, this didn't just happen to simplewb... all of the wikis that were recently closed were done in this fashion. I think that is the new way that the developers are "closing wikis". Cbrown1023 talk 02:58, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, I suppose so, I remember that a Wikinews project was closed in the same fashion some weeks ago. I'm not sure I like it, though. Although the wiki should be closed/locked, I think it'd still be nice to keep it publicly available instead of summarily removing it. It would certainly help any transwiki process, at the least. Tempodivalse [talk] 05:15, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

I believe that Simple Wikiquote was locked and not closed in this fashion. The closure was performed recently. Pmlineditor ∞ 05:16, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Oh, that's right. [1] Doesn't seem to be applied to all wikis then? Tempodivalse [talk] 15:34, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Rob did this batch (see the bug I linked) in a new way, he added it to closed.dblist and removed it from all.dblist. Usually, he just adds it to closed.dblist. Cbrown1023 talk 18:37, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

I've submitted bug 22695 on this issue. -- Adrignola 14:07, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Can I link to wikipedia from meta-Wikimedia

I have a list of pages I have created on wikipedia, and would like to have the ability to link to them from here. Any help would be appreciated greatly. Immunize 15:24, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Take a look at your userpage. For more information, go to Wikipedia:InterWikimedia links. Happy editing, Paradoctor 16:44, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Futhermore, I simply cannot understand how to contribute here. Immunize 14:53, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Expulsión de un administrador

Díganme por favor el correo electrónico de alguien con autoridad, pues deseo pedir la expulsión de un administrador de wikiquote en español, presentar quejas y que me oiga, pero no tengo a quién dirigirme. --88.31.199.185 13:31, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

La remociön de administradores debe ser consensuada por la comunidad local; en este caso deben ser los participantes de wikiquote en español. es:Drini 18:33, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

The Wikimedia disruption project over on Wikiversity [2]

Hi, I am not sure what page to go to so someone here might be able to do it. This project has been started on Wikiversity and its goals are to study disrupting Wikimedia with experiments in practice and classes on all sorts of deception etc. I don't know if that is the sort of thing that Meta is prepared to accept but there appears little objection over there. Obviously someone might say, "Wikiversity deals with Wikiversity," but in this case the target is the Wikimedia projects so here is at least some notice of the project. I thought that projects like that are deleted right away. Hardly Wikimedia Studies 101, is it? Wikiwar 101: Anarchy, Honour Grade. ~ R.T.G 21:08, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

This IP-address is used for vandalism on Meta

I just got this message for starting this page, even though I'm logged in. In case someone needs to know, this IP was dynamically assigned by my provider. Paradoctor 15:21, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

My bad, assumed {{warning}} worked the same here as on en.wikipedia, sorry. Paradoctor 15:25, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

German translation of Founding principles

Just finished it, if you want to clean up my mess, go here. Paradoctor 16:42, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

Brainstorming-stage proposal: Method for consensus building

A WikiMedia Strategy task force is looking at improving consensus-building processes as a known and important need for Wikipedia. I've been thinking about the issue too. I put together a brainstorming-stage proposal, Wikipedia:Method for consensus building. I'm posting here (and also in w:WP:VP) to get suggestions for what it needs to make it work. Ikluft 06:48, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

run category Bot for persian language

i can not use category.py in cmd (command line) on windows for move persian (in persian:فارسی) named category on fa.Wikipedia.org. how person know why i can not this section? thanks

for example: category.py move -from:ایران -to:'جمهوری اسلامی ایران'

i recive this:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\trunk\pywikipedia>category.py move -from
:ا?ران -to:'جمهور? اسلام? ا?ران'
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "C:\trunk\pywikipedia\category.py",
line 85, in <module>
   import wikipedia as pywikibot
 File "C:\trunk\pywikipedia\wikipedia.py",
line 7511, in <module>
   writeToCommandLogFile()
 File "C:\trunk\pywikipedia\wikipedia.py",
line 7479, in writeToCommandLogFile
   args = [decodeArg(modname)] + [decodeArg('"%s"' % s) for s in sys.argv[1:]]
 File "C:\trunk\pywikipedia\wikipedia.py",
line 7368, in decodeArg
   return unicode(arg, config.console_encoding)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode bytes in position 7-8: invalid data

--Surena 17:38, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I guess your problem should be reported here. --Mercy 18:15, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

hi, many person on that wiki have robot for this work. & work nonproblem--Surena 16:57, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikinews Main Page

On the www.wikinews.org page, it shows the little bookshelf icons next to the 1000+ and 100+ headers. While they fit nicely with most of the other projects, I believe they're a bit inappropriate for Wikinews. Instead, there should be another icon which fits better, like a pile of newspapers. -- Prince Kassad 01:49, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

How to correct a Wikipedia page? I have found a Wikipedia article with extremely poor translation from German into English. It also contains a number of factual errors. This is the link: http://deen.witran.org/wiki/Per_Daniel_Amadeus_Atterbom How do proceed to correct the errors? --Atterbom 08:59, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

How do you end an indent that was started with a colon?

When you create an indent using a colon, how do you cancel that indent?

Thanks in advance, K

Just start a new paragraph. Ruslik 16:58, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Cross-lingual translation tool powered by Wikipedia

I have currently developed an application that taps into the power of Wikipedia to translate terms across languages.

As you know, for most of it's articles, Wikipedia provides the equivalent expression of that concept in other languages. With MemeMiner you can effortlessly find out how a certain idea is expressed across the language spectrum.

I've used some some AJAX / JSON / jQuery magic for the interface.

Is there a place I can post the news, an official repository for WikiApps or the sorts?

Feedback appreciated!

I like it and will use it. Can you make an OpenSearch plugin? You want to post notices at w:Wikipedia:Village Pump (miscellaneous) and w:Help:Searching. Paradoctor 19:51, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

The world needs a non-profit wiki-Facebook

I have found huge value in Facebook as a means of maintaining a community awareness of people I care about as well as a means for creating action or values oriented groups. For instance Canadian Against Proroguing Parliament.

But I am deeply worried that this sense of a wonderful 'public' space is really an illusion similar to a mall which feels like a public space but is really a private property. And Facebook is that type of private property.

However a non-profit foundation could run a wiki-like Facebook that would give the world a greater security around the sustainability of the communities we build.

I'm not an organizer, nor talented in technologies. But I sure wish that Facebook had the public substance. I suppose besides funding it there would be many problems, but surely they would not be a different order of magnitude than those face by Wikipedia and Wikimedia.

Thank you for the opportunity to let my lonely howl out.

John Verdon

John, you have an idea here that is both simple and danged good. I'll see if I can't forward it upward and onward. Thanks, Jusdafax 07:08, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

The problem with Facebook-type sites is that (as with many other services such as email) it's hard to make them completely open since users want some information kept private. That lack of openness creates barriers to entry, hindering competition, which is the greatest safeguard against abuse. Lacking such openness, I think it's best to stick with a company like Google with a "don't be evil" ethic. en:Google Buzz looks promising. Tisane 03:11, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

How can I contribute

I am unable to understand how to contribute here. Immunize 18:30, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

The page is here [3] Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 02:00, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

They probably meant editing, not donations. See Help:Editing and Help:Editor. Ruslik 10:02, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I meant how to edit hear, not how to donate. Immunize 23:01, 24 March 2010 (UTC)