Wikimedia Forum/Archives/2009-09

Problem using templates

I recently set up my own wiki using MediaWiki software for a facebook group I am a member of. AANR I am attempting to copy templates from Wikipedia in order to boost the functionality of my wiki, but I am encountering numerous problems that I have so far been unable to solve.

The most apparent one to me at the moment involves receiving an error message of "Template loop detected." I understand what this is, but not why or what I can do to fix it. Example page: Template:!. I've been browsing for answers for hours and am just completely burnt out.

I already have the ParserFunctions extension installed if that makes any difference.

Any help at all would be most appreciated.

Thanks! Adam Christ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.5.204.173 (talk • contribs) 29 April 2009.

You pasted the documentation there instead of the template. That template is the single "|" character. Rich Farmbrough 23:48 1 September 2009 (GMT).

dump download problem

I want to download the pages-articles-xml.bz2 file for importing of wikitaxi which build database base on this dump file for a offline wiki. The size of this dump file shows 5.1G in page, however, the dowload file size is actually 1.09G, how this can happen?

Looking for your answers.

Thanks a lot —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 170.148.96.107 (talk • contribs) 26 August 2009.

URl to the dump page please. Rich Farmbrough 00:08 2 September 2009 (GMT).

Account-only editing

Are there any Wikimedia projects, in any language, which require an account to edit (i.e. no IP editing)? I'm curious if all projects interpret "...that anyone can edit" the same way. Thanks. --Floquenbeam 14:07, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, all content projects allow editing by logged-out users. However, some (I think just enwp) don't always allow IPs to create pages. Cbrown1023 talk 21:01, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Well, there's the Wikimedia Foundation wiki, which requires an account to edit (but that wiki is not really intended for public editing anyway, so I don't think it counts). IIRC every other project allows anonymous editing - although some projects give IPs various levels of privileges, for instance the English Wikipedia does not allow anons to create pages, whereas most other wikis do. Tempodivalse [talk] 23:54, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

Thank you both for the info. --Floquenbeam 16:09, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

abusive interwiki

I am french. I don't speak english but this page fr:Discussion:Klemen Pisk/Suppression interest en, de and 40 interwiki, little or important. For me, it is international promotion.--159.84.110.108 08:03, 2 September 2009 (UTC). I am Macassar forget log.--Macassar 08:07, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Abuse, ETIQ, pestering

Hi. Is the Request for comment the right place to post the report about the possible orchestrated attack on a user or a group of users?
I have a strong feeling that a certain person (in further text: user AbuserETIQ; it's not its real wiki nick) has etiquetted/defamated several users from another Wikipedia project, in order to exclude them from contributing, so they won't be able to prevent him in pushing his POV.
1st problem is that user AbuserETIQ got admin powers on another wiki project in English, that has less traffic. Small community, easier to become admin.
After being blocked on its 1st project, he went to that new project.
The "natives", old users of that new project don't know anything about history of user AbuserETIQ and its disruptive behaviour (still very present on other projects), so he managed (sweet talk) to fool (part of) them. Many haven't scratched the surface.
Unfortunately, the project that he severely disrupted is on another language, and majority of "natives" are not able to understand what AbuserETIQ did on that project.
2nd problem is that user AbuserETIQ has spread disinformation about its opponents that prevented him in its rampage on another wiki. So he abuses his tools as means to win his lost battles, as solving his "unfinished business" on wiki where he was disguised.
3rd problem is that some of those who believed him are admins, that blindly believe him. So they attack etiquetted users even when those users haven't made only 2 or 3 contributions.
4th problem is that user AbuserETIQ is starting controversial and provocative things, things that are heavy insult for some people. AbuserETIQ was badgering anyone that voted against its idea.
Thank you for reading this. Kubura 02:42, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Stewards who aren't really stewards

Hello,

Because the following users are in groups relevant to their actual role in the community and the Foundation, and because they seem not to have been elected as stewards, I'd like to propose removing them from the steward group (both local and global, as applicable).

• Brion VIBBER (staff, sysadmin)
• Jimbo Wales (founder)
• Kate (sysadmin)
• RobH (staff, sysadmin)
• Tim Starling (staff, sysadmin)

This has already been discussed agreed to a few times, but no action has been taken. This time I would like to see wider community input, and then have it actually done in the end. Thank you for your comments.  — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 17:42, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I support this proposal. Their membership of the steward group is confusing, and, as I understand it, not necessary to give them the rights that they need. Guido den Broeder 18:40, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Obviously I support this. Majorly talk 19:07, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

If they don't need/use the tool, so they shouldn't have it. Support Barras || talk 20:16, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

It isn't that they don't need the tools, it's that the userrights assigned by the "steward" flag are already available to them thru the sysadmin/staff flags. Remove the superfluous rights. EVula // talk // ☯ // 20:51, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I support this proposal. It is a good idea to have community input for it, and the proposal itself to remove the rights from the above individuals is also sound. Cirt (talk) 21:52, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I'd say probably go ahead. The rights are redundant anyways. J.delanoy^gabs_adds 03:07, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Seems logical to remove redundant rights. However, what's the deal with Jimmy's stewardship? According to {{StewardsChart}} he was "appointed". This was removed back in February. Was he actually appointed as a steward? If so, by who (the board)? Also, none of these users were notified on their talk pages. Why not? Were they notified via other methods? I don't see any reason to do this without their knowledge. - Rjd0060 03:15, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Mostly because they've already said they don't care. Jimbo is perhaps the exception to that. Feel free to notify to your heart's content :D  — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 03:23, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

My understanding is that Jimbo was appointed in recognition of having founded the community. Originally he may even have used his steward access. Currently, he doesn't, and has recognition in the form of a one-person "Founder" global group which gives him appropriate access, should he require it.  — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 03:25, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

This proposal's forebears seem to have resulted in some friction, for reasons that are not entirely clear. As long as the actual permissions these folk end up with remain sufficient for them to do the tasks they need to do, names don't matter, presumably. So, sure. Relatively unimportant in the scheme of things but why not? ++Lar: t/c 15:20, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

These users are (as far as I can see) not in the global steward-group, but in the local. Global sysadmin-group has userrights-right, so they can give themself any right on any wiki, without going to meta to change their right. The Founder-group as sysop-rights on any wiki, but it is the local steward-group that gives the right to change rights, and it has to be done on meta. If the global group is added userrights-interwiki, then it should be the same rights as Jimbo has now, and he should still be required to go to meta (userrights-interwiki is only enabled on meta). As long as this is done, it's fine by me (but someone please get an OK from Jimbo first!) Laaknor 17:35, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Query: Any updates on this? Cirt (talk) 20:46, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm doing it now.  — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 13:48, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Okay thanks. :) Cirt (talk) 06:35, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Strategic Planning

Let's be without a link to the Strategic Plannig on the main page? [1] Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton ^m 01:46, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

administrator request

Hello! I want to become an administrator in the Lojban wikipedia. I have tried contacting the local steward Pier, but he is unavailable. Activity in this wiki is sporadic at best, but I've taken serious interst on it. I mostly need the rights to delete incorrectly named articles, and to grant bot statuses. I recieved support by one of the current administrators: OldakQuill, which you can check here . I'm not sure that his is the correct place to ask, if it's not please point to the right place. --Homo logos 23:49, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Hello, please make a local announcement/voting, after one week open a request at srp, if there are no local votes, don't worry, we can grant temp-adminship then, which is technically the same and can be prolonged of course. Best regards, --birdy geimfyglið _(:> )=| 14:42, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Publishing "Terms of Use" in Portuguese

Greetings, Meta-Wiki contributors.

It's been a long time since the Terms of Use were translated to Portuguese. It's on proofreading for a long time, too. My fellow editor Thamus and I believe that our work is ready for publishing, but we don't know how to proceed to do so. I ask for someone's help to publish our translation that can be found here.

Thank you. And sorry if I can't write English fluently.--ATDC Raigeki 23:52, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

To tell us that it's ready for publishing, change the status to "|pt |ready" (hit the little +/- in the corner of the status template). I've published it now though, wmf:Condições de Uso. Cbrown1023 talk 00:11, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Bulgaria,Very good Place, And i love it so much before some one named "Peter Atanasov" stole my money around the place, his wife's name is "Desislava Buhcheva". I was making a International SOS for helps here. wish some one will help me or just make every body knows that Peter Atanasov is a totally swindler. we call each other real brothers in the other side of world. and I believe him so much,never thought that he will cheat me. but he did,got my products,and missing!!! the products worth $1200 US dollars. And now,what i gona do is make everybody knows how bad is the man named"Peter Atanasov" ! all his details as follows:

Name: Peter Atanasov Wife: Desislava Buhcheva ADD: Streeet: Zlatorog8,Vh.A,et.7,ap.20

    State: Izgrev
    Sity: Plovdiv
    Family phone number: 00359 32 280178
    Cellphone number: 00359 878505876

Yahoo ID: pichoka@yahoo.com MSN: pichoka_franco@hotmail.com

If you know this man,Please just tell this man to be sincerely with his family and friend.

If you got some questions,or need the cut of our mails to each other, even the pictures of the guy,please just contact my MSN&Email: wonderful-trade@hotmail.com I will reply to you ASAP!! God bless all the kindly persons!

User page ownership

Hi,

I just registered this name as a secondary account, since I want to post this question anonymously.

My primary username is the same as my realname, and few weeks ago, I was blocked for a year in my local wikipedia. Today, I just found out that the head of ArbCom put big red-bordered banner saying that I'm blocked for a year.

Since google puts my user page quite high when my name is searched, I find this red-bordered sign intrusion to my privacy. I called the head of AO and I tried to explain him that this is almost my personal homepage and that this might have some very serious consequences in my private life, since my carrier might suffer. I believe I have some rights regarding my user page, specialy since my username is the same as my real name. Unfortunately, he refused to change his (and ArbCom's decision) regarding this banner. I asked if he could just delete my user page, but he refused.

My local wikipedia doesn't have rules for this issues and ArbCom decision on this is byproduct of some other arbitration (comunity never discussed this issue). I would like to avoid discussion on my local wikipedia since I left this wikipedia some time before I was blocked (i might return after year or two) and I don't want to come back this soon.

What is wikipedia's policy regarding ownership of user pages and the right of user to change it or delete it?

--Anonymous No. 1234 12:35, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm not an expert on Wikip/media policy, but I'm leaving a comment anyway. I suppose Right_to_vanish and en:Wikipedia:Right_to_vanish might be of help to you. Even if you as a blocked editor would not be "in good standing", you should have a right to rename your account to a name that does not identify your real name and have revisions of userpage identifying your real name deleted. Best regards, Finn Rindahl 12:54, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Also adding __NOINDEX__ in your UP will (suposed) prevent your page to be indexed on search engines. — df|  12:58, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

Well, technically, you don't have any "rights" to your userpages or other pages on the wiki. Right to vanish is really a misnomer, it doesn't actually *guarantee* you that you will be able to have your user pages deleted, but is just a "courtesy extended to users in good standing". (Privacy policy doesn't provide a promise that you'll be able to change your username either.) Since you're blocked on that wiki, it's unlikely you will be considered in good standing. I don't know about your local ArbCom policies, but usually, such committees have the last say in a dispute, so it's decision is probably final and can't be overturned. Tempodivalse [talk] 12:54, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Common sense and concern for people's personal reputation should trump the policies of the day when they fail to be appropriately considerate. I agree with Finn, request a global username change; this should address the issue. -- sj · translate · + 17:03, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Grants discussions

I've revived the grants page with a few updated notes about the current grants processes, particularly those supported by the Foundation. Individuals who want support for grant applications for projects to share knowledge in pursuit of the Wikimedia mission can count on Foundation support in a few ways -- from editorial advice to a letter of support, and in rare cases to administration of funds (as with the recent Mozilla grant supporting free video tools).

Please add grants and grant proposals you have been part of to the list there; share ideas for suitable grants or grants in progress; and discuss what other opportunities you see for working with other organizations that support free knowledge. -- sj · translate · + 17:11, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

PS - for people who still have access to the now defunct Grants wiki, there are a few pieces there that it would be nice to merge back into Meta. Let me know if you're interested in helping with that. -- sj · translate · +

Russian Wikisource failure

Several minites ago the Russian Wikisource became inaccessible (any page) with folowing message:

Detected bug in an extension! Hook CentralAuthHooks::onUserLoadFromSession failed to return a value; should return true to continue hook processing or false to abort.

Backtrace:

#0 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/User.php(830): wfRunHooks('UserLoadFromSes...', Array)
#1 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/User.php(263): User->loadFromSession()
#2 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/User.php(3529): User->load()
#3 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/User.php(1905): User->loadOptions()
#4 [internal function]: User->getOption('numberheadings')
#5 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/StubObject.php(58): call_user_func_array(Array, Array)
#6 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/StubObject.php(182): StubObject->_call('getOption', Array)
#7 [internal function]: StubUser->__call('getOption', Array)
#8 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/parser/ParserOptions.php(154): StubUser->getOption('numberheadings')
#9 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/parser/ParserOptions.php(113): ParserOptions->initialiseFromUser(Object(StubUser))
#10 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/Article.php(3995): ParserOptions->__construct(Object(StubUser))
#11 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/Article.php(737): Article->getParserOptions()
#12 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/Wiki.php(464): Article->view()
#13 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/includes/Wiki.php(67): MediaWiki->performAction(Object(OutputPage), Object(Article), Object(Title), Object(User), Object(WebRequest))
#14 /usr/local/apache/common-local/wmf-deployment/index.php(117): MediaWiki->performRequestForTitle(Object(Title), Object(Article), Object(OutputPage), Object(User), Object(WebRequest))
#15 /usr/local/apache/common-local/live-1.5/index.php(3): require('/usr/local/apac...')
#16 {main}

-- Sergey kudryavtsev 08:38, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

PS: Other laguage sudomains is inaccessible too. -- Sergey kudryavtsev 08:46, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Now failure disappeared. -- Sergey kudryavtsev 09:06, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

After a messy code update, there were some issues. They seem to be largely resolved at this point. For future reference, such issues are best sent to mail:wikitech-l or #wikimedia-tech.  — Mike.lifeguard | ^@en.wb 20:49, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Creating a Portal namespace

Where do I go to request the creation of a Portal namespace (Porth) for the Cornish Wikipedia (kw)? Thanks --Kw-Moon 20:08, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm searching for an expert for conflicts in Wikipedias

Hello, I'm an admin in the BAR-Wikipedia. Just now I have opened a new item at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment - I'm searching for an expert for conflicts in Wikipedias. I want to describe and discuss the long lasting conflict between users in the BAR-Wikipedia. It's an more personal request then the aforementioned request for comment article to the problem. If possible one who speaks German, because my active English is not very good. Thanks in advance for advice. -- Sinnierer 19:00, 30 September 2009 (UTC)