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Contents
- 1 Typing consecutive spaces in the Wikipedia iOS app editor causes NBSPs, which can break templates
- 2 What is the best method for article creation?
- 3 The infobox at Syrian Civil War
- 4 Getting locked out
- 5 Featured picture candidates
- 6 Suggestion on random articles
- 7 VisibleWikiWomen editathon in Bangalore
- 8 Request for comment at Talk:List of works by Leonardo da Vinci
- 9 Article "0" has no display title
- 10 Name of Wikidata ID parameter in templates
Typing consecutive spaces in the Wikipedia iOS app editor causes NBSPs, which can break templates
What happened here? Some spaces seem to be replaced by spaces of a different kind. After this edit, the items type and fatalities are no longer displayed in the infobox. --FredTC (talk) 07:54, 15 March 2019 (UTC)
- Those were "raw" (meaning not encoded like
or 
) non-breaking spaces (NBSP), and those don't work as separators in template parameter assignments like regular spaces do, hence the disappearing items – same thing happens if you replace those spaces with
. --Pipetricker (talk) 10:22, 15 March 2019 (UTC)- But how did such spaces get there? I have no way to detect that they are there. When I edit the version I mentioned, and select/copy (ctrl-C) the code for the infobox, then paste it to a notepad.exe file, I cannot see a difference. Can I produce it by accident? How? --FredTC (talk) 11:13, 15 March 2019 (UTC)
- Per the tag of the edit you linked to, in this case the culprit was the official Wikipedia iOS app.
- Some text editors highlight NBSPs (for example LibreOffice Writer) or have an option to do so (the Show all formatting marks, ¶, option in Microsoft Word). There are feature requests for MediaWiki at Phabricator:
- --Pipetricker (talk) 15:10, 15 March (UTC), 23:27, 22 March 2019 (UTC)
- But how did such spaces get there? I have no way to detect that they are there. When I edit the version I mentioned, and select/copy (ctrl-C) the code for the infobox, then paste it to a notepad.exe file, I cannot see a difference. Can I produce it by accident? How? --FredTC (talk) 11:13, 15 March 2019 (UTC)
I have copied the above to WP:Village pump (technical). Please make any technical comments there, and feel free to continue non-technical discussion here. --Pipetricker (talk) 15:40, 15 March 2019 (UTC)
- I had neglected to answer the question of if and how NBSPs can be produced by accident: Per Non-breaking space#Keyboard entry methods it appears to be quite possible if you're using a Mac or Linux, and the lack of visual indication doesn't help. But I would guess they are more likely to be caused by some software bug, such as this current bug in the iOS app.
There appears to be at least one utility which as a side effect of its function converts encountered "raw" NBSPs to
when saving them. This doesn't stop them from breaking things if in the wrong place, but it makes them easier to spot and fix. --Pipetricker (talk) 16:07, 27 March 2019 (UTC)
- I had neglected to answer the question of if and how NBSPs can be produced by accident: Per Non-breaking space#Keyboard entry methods it appears to be quite possible if you're using a Mac or Linux, and the lack of visual indication doesn't help. But I would guess they are more likely to be caused by some software bug, such as this current bug in the iOS app.
What is the best method for article creation?
I've been on hiatus for the last 4 years. The usual method back then was to create the article in your userspace, then move it to main space and hope it doesn't get nominated for deletion. Is there now a better way to create an article where it's worked upon in neutral space and when there is a consensus it's then moved to mainspace and not likely to be deleted? I want to create an article on "aspirational recycling". Technophant (talk) 16:32, 23 March 2019 (UTC)
- Technophant creating a page in mainspace now requires auto-confirmed userright (you're well past that, I'm just updating you on that detail.) Articles created in mainspace or page-moved into mainspace are initially noindexed (the article is live, but search engines won't pick it up yet.) They get reviewed by New Page Patrol, a basic review for obvious problems or possible AFD/speedydelete tagging. Experienced editors can directly build an article in mainspace, however unless the very first save is well developed some an over-hasty NewPagePatroller will likely tag-bomb the incomplete page within minutes. You can try warding off over-hasty Patrol tagging with an {{Under construction}} at the top of the article.
- Developing an article in a userpage is fine, but the Draft namespace is the preferred place to develop an article (i.e. start it at draft:aspirational recycling). It's a public area, and it increases the chance people will help develop it. Note that pages which are abandoned in in draft space (six months with zero edits) may get deleted.
- Experienced editors can page-move from userspace or draftspace out to mainspace, which will go on the list for NewPagePatrol. If you're specifically looking for review prior to moving to mainspace, you can have the draft reviewed by AFC. More specifically you can go through the Article wizard link - that will give basic info about new articles and then it will create your article-page in draft space, and it will put a template on the article to simplify the AFC review process. There will be a handy link that requests that the draft be reviewed for promotion to mainspace. Review standards at AFC might be a little high, with requests for cleanup of things that aren't absolutely necessary to survive in mainspace. Note that a page promoted to mainspace by an AFC reviewer will still get reviewed by NewPagePatrol.
- Note that AFC review and NewPagePatrol are each done by an individual experienced editor. There's no consensus involved. The only special power of a NewPagePatroller is to mark the page as patrolled, but anyone might still nominate the page for deletion discussion. AFC reviewers don't really have special powers either. If an AFC reviewer unreasonably declines your draft, simply requesting another review may get a more lenient reviewer. Mostly AFC helps new users attempting to create their first article. That means AFC deals with a very high percentage of completely non-viable submissions - a lot of selfpromotion and non-notable topics. I haven't checked lately, but I think AFC is generally backlogged a few weeks before a page gets reviewed. Experienced editors really don't need to go the AFC route, and unnecessarily going though AFC increases the general workload. The main reason I focused on AFC so much is because you seemed to to be specifically looking for extra review before moving to mainspace. But there's nothing that can prevent a random editor from nominating any article for AFD. You just need to make sure your article has multiple solid sources to demonstrate notability. Another possibly relevant point, there is somewhat less tolerance for weak articles about companies. The NCORP guideline has somewhat raised the standards for corporate/organisation notability. Some sources about companies which may have previously been accepted are now considered routine coverage, which does not contribute to notability. Alsee (talk) 05:33, 24 March 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks user:Alsee. Good answer, thorough. Consider adding this to a faq or something. Technophant (talk) 16:17, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
- @Technophant: I don't create a lot of new articles, but when I do, I usually use Draft: space first as well, mostly to keep the new page reviewers away while I'm working on it! — xaosflux Talk 17:50, 28 March 2019 (UTC)
- Thanks user:Alsee. Good answer, thorough. Consider adding this to a faq or something. Technophant (talk) 16:17, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
The infobox at Syrian Civil War
Hoo-boy, yeah...two (yes two!) hot-button issues on Wikipedia... Infoboxes! and the Syrian Civil War! Anyway,...
Take a look at Syrian Civil War with its associated Template:Syrian Civil War infobox.... I have tried to discuss the size of the infobox as it relates to the article, I edited it down at one point in time to not be as long, though I was unable to adjust the width. It's causing readability issues for folks using mobile devices and it overwhelms the text. The editors who usually edit the article seem generally satisfied with the content of the infobox but...but...it's *so* huge. Wiki-codeing is not my strong suit so I thought it would be a good idea for some other editors to look it over, try to adjust the size in the Template's sandbox and take a look at how the various versions - Template vs sandbox - look in its testcases page.
I opened a WP:RFC on the talk page and the consensus was to reduce the size but the one version I came up with was reverted to its original form. I subsequently posted in the talkpage about my edits and the size. Maybe some of you coding wizards around here can take a look at the situation and come up with a better solution than mine. Shearonink (talk) 00:29, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
- Shearonink, I can't recall any guidelines specifically addressing infobox size. On my large-screen desktop the article seemed ok, but I can easily imagine issues for smaller screens or mobile. You could try posting at WT:WikiProject Templates. They might not want to get involved in content of the template, but they may have expertise in addressing smaller screens or mobile. I know that the WikimediaFoundation has been concerned with improving template display for mobile, but I haven't closely followed current or future work in this area. As far as the content of the template, a quick skim of the RFC on the article talk page seems to show reasonable discussion of how the content might be trimmed. Content discussion should continue on that page. Alsee (talk) 17:06, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
- I've basically almost given-up. To me the amount of content that the infobox contains makes it seem like the article is summarizing/explaining the infobox rather than the other way around. This infobox is a minefield, both because of the article's subject matter and because infoboxes are...well...infoboxes. I'll post over at the Template Project to see if someone with more expertise could take a crack at it. Thanks, Shearonink (talk) 20:20, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
Getting locked out
I do not understand Wikipedia:Simple 2FA and once lost encrypted data using blowfish? I fear that I will get locked out if I do this 2FA thing. I have a really, really strong password, but just in case, can't I just email a few admins with a simple code word, so in case I get locked out, I can just email those admins again and say the code word to prove identity? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 21:13, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
- Your concern about being locked out is well founded. WP:Simple 2FA (please see the move request at its talk) has good advice but doesn't point out that phones get lost or stolen, or that spear phishing can lure an unsuspecting user into visiting a fake website which mimics Wikipedia's log in, and that fake website can be used to steal your log in credentials even if you are using 2FA. It is likely that the many compromised accounts are due to password reuse where you might have a really good password at Wikipedia, but also use that password at another website. If someone hacks that website (which happens every day!), they might get a list of user/passwords and use that to log in at Wikipedia with your account.Emailing a code to a few people is susceptible to your email account being compromised. If someone manages to hack your Wikipedia account, maybe they can also hack the account you use for Wikipedia email. In that case they might see the codes you sent. What you can do is publish a committed identity on your user page. I've said enough at the moment but I have some thoughts about that if needed. Johnuniq (talk) 23:53, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
- Hi Johnuniq. Yes, hacking of emails. I didn't think of that. Well, I guess I'll stick with what I have: I do not own a phone, Wikipedia is via home PC only, my password is very strong and only used for Wikipedia. I'll take my chances. Many thanks for the thoughtful response. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 03:46, 28 March 2019 (UTC)
- @Anna Frodesiak: admins can not reset passwords or 2FA settings, only system developers can. Should you need to ever deal with a developer for this, you can look in to publishing a Committed identity or the public portion of an asymmetrical encryption key that could be used in the future to authenticate you. — xaosflux Talk 17:47, 28 March 2019 (UTC)
- Thank you, Xaosflux. Understood. I'll check that out. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 22:51, 28 March 2019 (UTC)
Featured picture candidates
Hi, Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates needs more votes. Thanks, Yann (talk) 17:06, 27 March 2019 (UTC)
- @Yann: And if anyone wants to vote without having to click edit, I just made User:DannyS712/FPC voter. --DannyS712 (talk) 04:20, 28 March 2019 (UTC)
Suggestion on random articles
I have a suggestion concerning the 'random button' that presents random articles to read. Everytime I use that button a page shows up about a sleepy village with less than 100 inhabitants and where nothing ever happens, or a weird moth or other type of bug that is so rare and uninteresting that there are only 10 lines of information about it. I would like to suggest that the random pages that show up are pages of things (or people, places, etc) that have a minimum length and are pages that are frequently visited by people who are looking for information about that subject. Thank you. Stijn Adriaansen (talk) 12:51, 28 March 2019 (UTC)
- You might like the results from Special:RandomInCategory/Featured articles. WhatamIdoing (talk) 03:15, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
- See also Wikipedia:Random. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:28, 29 March 2019 (UTC)
VisibleWikiWomen editathon in Bangalore
Hello, Co Media Lab and Design Beku are organising an editathon in support of Whose Knowledge's Visible Wiki Women campaign in Bangalore on 30th March, 2019. You will find all details of the event in the link below. Looking forward to participation from Bangalore Wikipedians.
--Shobhasv (talk) 15:50, 28 March 2019 (UTC)
Request for comment at Talk:List of works by Leonardo da Vinci
A request for comment is underway at Talk:List of works by Leonardo da Vinci#RfC - Horse and Rider. The RfC addresses the following question:
- Should the wax statue entitled Horse and Rider on the List of works by Leonardo da Vinci page be included in the Recent Attributions or Disputed Attributions section?
All are invited to participate. SamHolt6 (talk) 22:59, 1 April 2019 (UTC)
Article "0" has no display title
Name of Wikidata ID parameter in templates
We have several templates that take a Wikidata ID ("QID") as a parameter; and those parameters don't have a standard name. For example:
- {{Interlanguage link}} -
|WD=
- {{Wikidata}} -
|eid=
- {{Public art row}} -
|wikidata=
- {{Infobox gene}} -
|QID=
- {{EditAtWikidata}} -
|qid=
Can we rationalise these? QID or qid seem to be the most common. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:44, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
- I support adding
|qid=
as a standard to all templates that call wikidata from parameters. Most templates use all-lower-case parameter names, "QID" is the canonical name of the thing being requested, and "qid" is short and (relatively) easy to remember. – Jonesey95 (talk) 12:50, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
- I thought we had a huge RFC (a few months ago) that depreciated the use of Wikidata in templates and infoboxes... in any case, I would agree that if we are to use it, we should do so using consistent parameter names. Blueboar (talk) 12:59, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
- @Blueboar: Wikipedia:Wikidata/2018 Infobox RfC GMGtalk 13:12, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
- The closing summary of that RfC is at the top of its Discussion section, with a summary at the end of the summary. --Pipetricker (talk) 14:46, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
- @Blueboar: Wikipedia:Wikidata/2018 Infobox RfC GMGtalk 13:12, 2 April 2019 (UTC)