Wikibooks:Reading room/Administrative Assistance/Archives/2007/October

Image backlog
So we now have 200-some images that are considered speedy-delete candidates since they've not had license information for so long. I've tried to weed out anything that can be tagged, the unused images, and a bunch that could be replaced with images from Commons. I've also fired off numerous emails to the uploaders. I imagine there might be some more that can be replaced with Commons images; I'll try to do that over the next 2-3 days.

Once that's done, would there be support for deleting all these images en masse (and potentially leaving the redlinks)? I think that may be the only realistic way to get rid of the backlog. I realize that most people here "aren't on a schedule" and that technically the backlog can sit there forever, but it really shouldn't. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 14:08, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Support or not, it really is policy that the images be deleted. Beyond that, if there are potential copyright violations in that bunch, it's imperative that we do so. The most common concern is that people want all possible routes to be taken before a painful deletion. It sounds to me like you are investigating all these images properly, so i dont think that can be a concern. The question of what to do with the redlinks is, of course, a difficult one. My suggestion is to leave the redlinks, but to leave a message on each talk page mentioning that the image was deleted because it was not properly tagged. My bot could be modified to do this task, i'm sure yours could as well, Mike. I'm also sure that many other bots in existance could, and maybe we should ask at commons for a bot that could delete untagged images and leave appropriate talk-page warnings on the books (and possibly to the users who uploaded them as well). --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 14:17, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * By "en masse", I meant "all at once, in a single run, with no mercy or second thought." As opposed to a few people deleting a few here and there over the next few weeks. Both are technically fulfillments of the policy, so choosing one over the other is a matter for discussion.
 * I know AWB can handle the deletions, but how would you get around to putting a note on the talk pages where images were used? – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 23:59, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * If we had a list of pages where the images were included it would be a trivial task. It's getting that list that's a problem. I wonder if a bot such as User:CommonsTicker could be modified for this kind of task. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 23:30, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to delete the SD images, leaving redlinks, next weekend. If you're still trying to figure out a way to remove the redlinks and/or leave a message on the talk page(s) where the images are used, then I'd wait so the job could be done cleaner. Otherwise, I think it's high time they disappeared. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 01:48, 2 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I really can't think of a good solution to the problem, and I've been unable to acquire any bot help for the purpose either. I say "go nuts!". Delete the images but leave the redlinks as an indication that an image "should go here". Maybe also keep a list of all deleted image names so that we can go back at a later date and add messages, if a tool for that can be found. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 13:44, 2 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I just had a moment of panic. I was writing this, but I can't find where it says in our policy "images without license info for >7d will be deleted". Can someone point me to the exact line? Certainly it should be there somewhere - it has so much consensus that we do it all the time, uncontroversially. But apparently, I can't find it. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 01:04, 3 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I think the seven day timeframe thats used is based on WB:DP. --dark lama  18:22, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Not objecting to deletion but automation is not required. I've just cleared a quarter of them & will finish the rest off tomorrow if they are still there. From a Commons perspective 200 images really isn't many at all, come to that I've probably hit 200 page deletions in a day here in the past -- Herby talk thyme 18:10, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Main Editor
Is there an assigned Main Editor for every Wikibook? If so how do you find out who is? _Yinyang | Jedi 13:35, 1 October 2007 (UTC)


 * No, there is nobody "assigned" to anything. You can determine for yourself if there are any active contributors in a book by checking the page history. If there are other people, you all work together on the book as equals. If there are no other people, then you are the "main editor" yourself (at least until other people join you). What book is this? --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 13:43, 1 October 2007 (UTC)


 * The Piano book. Thanks for your help _Yinyang | Jedi 12:49, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Applying license info to images
See this note on my talk page. He tried to use the drop-down to add license info, and it didn't work. I had him go back and apply the template manually, and to do so in the future to be safe. Shouldn't that work though? – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 17:52, 2 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I've never heard of that problem before. I know that part of that upload page is handled by AJAX transactions, so maybe there is some kind of bug in that. In general, what he did should work, but there is no problem with doing it manually either. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 18:00, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I just blocked this guy
This guy had added lots of copyrighted text. I warned him, and he did it again. This time, I blocked him for a week. Too bold? Not bold enough? – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 01:31, 3 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Copyvios are serious business. He was warned, there really isnt an excuse to either not see the warnings or to ignore them completely. I would try and get in touch with him on the talk page to work out the issue (and maybe unblock early). If he won't talk then maybe one week isnt long enough. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 02:02, 3 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I've been looking through the diffs. What edits did you see that seemed to be copyvios? From the random sampling I saw, there wasnt anything too too suspicious. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 02:10, 3 October 2007 (UTC)


 * This should look familiar - it's 9th Grade Science. The Civil War/Introduction (deleted now) was taken from this. – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 02:53, 3 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I guess I didnt look at the right diffs. thanks. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 02:55, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

User:Mike's bot account
I've temporarily granted the bot flag to this account because mike is using it for a template substituting job that is flooding the RC list tonight. Any other bureaucrat should feel free to remove this flag if they feel it's inappropriate. I'll remove it myself after this task is complete and we can make a formal discussion of it on WB:RFA. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 01:24, 4 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I will take this chance to call your attention to Bots proposed draft for a Wikibooks policy or guideline. Txs. --Panic 01:47, 4 October 2007 (UTC)


 * You don't need to call my attention to it, I wrote that draft. It's a good point though that in the absence of a formalized policy bureaucrats really do need to use their best judgement, and the cases aren't always clear cut. While this is certainly not a common occurance, the number and capabilities of bots have been steadily increasing, so maybe it's worth a second look. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 01:49, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The task in question is not completed, but mike is taking a break from it for the night. I'm inclined to leave the bot flag active until the task is complete. I don't think there is a pressing need to revoke it only to give it again when he fires the bot back up later. Unnecessary clogging of the logs, I think. I've opening a request on RFA for a more permanent granting of the bot flag for this user since he's demonstrated a clear ability to flood the RC feed. I'll still remove the flag after this job is completed, assuming this bot nomination fails or is delayed. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 02:17, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I'll be finishing the job tomorrow afternoon/night, so unless there's objection, I'll keep the flag for the 2nd half of the job. I'm substituting user talk templates. I am also planning to delete the images that are speedy deletes once I can get it to work. – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 04:28, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Mike has reported to me that he's finished this task, and I've removed the flag. We can discuss the matter further at WB:AN. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 17:56, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Strange Edit
HERE. It's not exactly page blanking, all this user did was remove all the external links and add a little bit of text. I'm not necessarily inclined to revert it, but a "resources" page likely should have external links on it? The list of external links was very long, however, and maybe we need to ask if any of it was spam or not. What should I make of this? --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 12:12, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Ooops - I reverted it - unexplained (effective) blanking seemed bad but I cannot fault your logic on it, feel free to revert me -- Herby talk thyme 12:14, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
 * No sense. I was unsure about reverting it, I was certainly unsure about keeping it. This little "Ooops" might turn out to be the better action. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 12:26, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I just got done asking Herby on his talk page why he had reverted before I saw this. Personally I thought it might of been a good idea what that anonymous user did or was trying to do. No need to duplicate a list of resources, when that list is available on another website. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  12:32, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
 * All in all I agree with Darklama, think I'll go revert me (but feel free to change anything!) -- Herby talk thyme 12:42, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Reclaim MiszaBot account
Hi. Can someone with the necessary powers please rename the account so I can claim it? It has been registered by a vandal and is now indef blocked. I'd like to set up a discussion archiving bot here per a request on my en.wiki talk page. Thanks! Миша 13 20:09, 6 October 2007 (UTC)


 * In order to start this process, please make an edit on your en.wikipedia userpage along the lines of "I requested a rename at en.wikibooks". I know there's some edits there already, but we like to see a specifically requested edit. Also, rename to what exactly? Thanks. -<font color="#000000">within <font color="#7A7A7A">focus 00:21, 7 October 2007 (UTC)


 * This is one confirmation, made in the thread where Whiteknight asked me to set up a bot. This is another, made earlier. Both confirm that this account is owned by enwiki.Misza13 and (the first one) that I request a rename. On enwiki, the account would probably get renamed to something like User:MiszaBot (usurped) - you can pick this idea if Wikibooks have no rename standards of their own.
 * On a side note, is there a centralised venue for requesting bot flags or should I request it here as well? Миша 13 10:57, 7 October 2007 (UTC)
 * You can request bot flags at WB:RFA. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  12:04, 7 October 2007 (UTC)


 * ✅. The user in question has been renamed to User:BLOCKED_VANDAL_001. I am creating the account for you, and will email you the account password at your en.wikipedia email address. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 23:40, 7 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I have taken over the account and am now setting up the archiver. Миша 13 16:41, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Closing vfd's
You can find the necessary stuff on mine & panic's pages. I closed a vfd as three were in favour of deleting and one against. Panic removed the impending doom tag which I consider wrong. I've reverted my closure and will again remove myself from community involvement here. There are far pleasanter more co-operative places for me to edit - I wish you well -- Herby talk thyme 16:49, 7 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree with you in that I consider his actions wrong as well. I wish you wouldnt take his actions as proof that the entire wikibooks community is not cooperative. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 17:47, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Transwiki log
Do we really need this? It's not really used, and transwikis are logged automatically. The only use I can see is to log when stuff is moved out of Transwiki: to wherever (except people don't really do that either, and that is all logged automatically too). – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 18:50, 10 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't think its needed either, except maybe when manually copying over something because import failed. Could be used in that way for keeping track of failed imports which may be able to be fixed at a later date. I think the idea was copied from Wikipedia at some point, but Wikipedia doesn't seem to do that any more, and I don't know of any other projects which bother with it. I would have no problems with having it deleting, marking it as obsolete (if people want it for historic reasons), or using it only for manually copied pages. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  17:13, 11 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I suggest we not delete it for now. The old ones (which were copied) should really be properly imported at some point, and that's our only checklist. Maybe just protect it, then start removing ones we've checked out.
 * If import fails, just import the current revision (it always works for that). -- SB_Johnny | PA! 17:18, 11 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm with Johnny, we do need to keep a record of failed transwikis so that we can go back and import the page histories later. We can delete this page once all the old log items are properly accounted for. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 17:45, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Help importing an image from Wikipedia
I'm trying to insert into a section of the organic chemistry book. It doesn't seem to be on Commons, only on WP, but it's GFDL licensed. Can someone please explain how to do this? Please reply on my talk page. Shalom 16:32, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
 * ✅ - the image is here. – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 16:40, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Two requests
As the title says, I need help on two different things (sorry if I'm putting this on the wrong page). First off, I would like it if the Dynamic Navigation Bars js (from Wikipedia) was included in MediaWiki:Common.js. The reason why will be explained in second request. My second request is for someone to import Template:Header Nav and Template:Footer Nav from StrategyWiki. These two templates make use of the js from my first request in the form of a show/hide link that shows or hides the book's table of contents. Granted, it needs some cleanup once it gets over here, but I can take care of that when it happens (I'd be removing the walkthrough link, removing the need for a parameter defining the main page of the book -- #titleparts is quite good at that -- and modifying a few other things in both the header/footer navs). If you have any questions, comments, concerns, please post them here so we may reach a consensus about these two (three if you consider both imports as separate things) items. Thank you. --Skizzerz talk - contribs 21:07, 11 October 2007 (UTC)


 * We already have our own version of this mechanism (if i correctly understand what you are asking for). The template to use is . You can see the results of this template on Calculus, for example. Is this what you are after? --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 21:18, 11 October 2007 (UTC)


 * We already have dynamic navigation, try . --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  21:19, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Awesome, didn't know about that! Thanks! --Skizzerz talk - contribs 21:30, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

nld images
is supposed to move images to WB:SD after 7 days. I don't think it's working properly. Image:Diversity.jpg is one such case. It has applied properly. It has been listed for over 7 days. Presumably on the 7th day, it switched categories. On the page, it's listed as being a speedy delete, but if you click on the category, it's not there. Not a single image is there. wtf!? – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 18:25, 12 October 2007 (UTC)


 * This a problem with category caching, which can cause the category page not to updated for some time, while at other times, category pages seem to update immediately. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  18:39, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmmm. And purging the server cache doesn't fix it. Anything else we could do? – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 18:41, 12 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Not really. See 5382 and 5527 --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  19:07, 12 October 2007 (UTC)


 * So the job queues get emptied on a rotating basis - will that fix it? Any idea how often we get this job queue emptied? – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 01:46, 13 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually what I was trying to point out with those two bugs, that categories don't get updated sometimes on a page if that category happens to have been added through a template, that a template used a lot can sometimes completely miss going through the job queue preventing the categories from being updated even if you purge the page and that there is nothing that can be done about it on our end, just have to wait for them to fix those bugs. I have no idea how often the job queue is emptied, but I've seen it empty today several times, hence the bugs. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  02:08, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

WB:VIP
I was told a long time ago that the shortcut WB:VIP would take me to the Vandalism In Progress page. It no longer seems to do that. If I happen to be chasing a vandal, where would I post that information? Chazz (talk) 15:57, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * You should post that information here now. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  16:00, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * The old "vandalism in progress" one appears to redirect here as DL says (personally I think a separate page would be more "immediate" but vandalism is not high here now (must be something to do with those open proxies ;)))-- Herby talk thyme 16:03, 18 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Okay -- 205.120.101.109 was vandalizing the Muggles' Guide (Severus Snape). I put a warning up on the IP talk page and reverted his edits, and he seems to have stopped now... but he may start up again. I'll try to keep an eye on that. Chazz (talk) 16:12, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Changing the name of a Wikibook
Is there a way to change the name of http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Technology_Enhanced_Instruction? A better name would be Technology_to_Support_Student_Learning to be more student-focused. ..vt 12:54, 20 October 2007 (UTC)
 * There is a move tab at the top of the page. If you click it, and enter your new name for the page (Technology to Support Student Learning), and hit "move page", the page will get moved to the new location and the old location will be a redirect. If available, make sure the "move talk page too" box is checked. You'll also have to do the same to all the subpages. ie: move "Technology Enhanced Instruction/subpage" to "Technology to Support Student Learning/subpage" along with the associated talk page. Make sure you're entering only the new page name - not a URL (this has been a problem in the past).
 * Please make sure you have consensus with any other editors of the book before proceeding. Moving entire books can be disruptive. Your best course of action is to use at the top of the page to let people know what you want to do. If after a week, say, there is no objection on the talk page, then go ahead. As well, once you have discussed it with any other editors of the book, you can ask me to move the book for you; I have a bot which will make things go quicker. – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 19:02, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm the only author. I changed all the page names. Looks ok. Thanks for your help. --..vt 01:04, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

License compatibility
The Practice of Learning Theories contains content from, which has the following copyright notice: Contributions to http://wow-iu-uh.wikispaces.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License. Portions not contributed by visitors are Copyright 2007 Tangient LLC. Is this GFDL-compatible except for "portions not contributed by visitors"? – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 16:24, 21 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm not even sure if CC license material can be used under GFDL. CC licenses doesn't mention anything about allowing the inclusion of invariant sections which the GFDL does allow for example. Anyone who uses material from this website I think is suppose to have the right to include invariant sections, just isn't suppose to include invariant sections on Wikibooks. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  16:51, 21 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Definitely incompatible. CC images can be included in GFDL documents as "aggregate works", but when the text is amended or changed here on wikibooks, it is under GFDL, and violates the CC license (in the sense that you couldn't then re-release it under CC). Unfortunately, that means that this is copyvio. -- SB_Johnny | PA! 18:02, 21 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I've received an email from the project leader, apparently the wikispaces page is being written simultaneously by the same group as is writing it here. If they are indeed the same authors on that site as here, there is no problem with them releasing the material under as many different licenses as they want. I have encouraged them to post notices both here and there to prove that they are the original authors of both sites. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 21:23, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Heads up
So far on all the projects I look at IP addresses are creating pages or making edits that just leave equfqho (single "word" only) on the page. So far with one exception they have all been open proxies, folks may want to keep an eye, cheers -- Herby talk thyme 14:28, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

User creation log
Spotted some very similar new usernames. They seem to be associated with 68.224.239.145. Perhaps something to watch. – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 01:59, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * The IP is associated with lots of cross-wiki vandalism and (apparently) sockpuppetry. Will block at first sign of trouble. – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 02:05, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Difficulty finding informational pages
For some reason I had a lot of trouble finding the page What Is a WikiBook. I finally stumbled on a link to it when perusing the page about book donations.

Another page I managed to misplace is the one which lists newly started books. This is quite frustrating, as I suspect you can imagine. I finally found it at WB:SLN

Sorry, I'm not sure how to improve these pages' findability. An index of the WB: pages, maybe?

...Selden 19:14, 30 October 2007 (UTC)


 * We're trying to organize things better in a "help book" at Using Wikibooks. That book should contain most of the information that people would try to find. The book itself is relatively new and so might not be properly advertised. Maybe a link to it should be added to the welcome template for distributing to new users. WB:WIW is linked from many places, including the main page, so i'm surprised to hear that it isn't easily findable. Also, new books aren't "listed" anywhere. For a new book to appear in the new book list, you add the tag to it. Technological magic should do the rest. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 20:05, 30 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I have actually updated the links in Template:Welcome, so hopefully there should be a little bit less confusion. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 20:16, 30 October 2007 (UTC)
 * The page Reading room/Assistance includes a block showing the newest books, created by invoking the template named "new". The page Community Portal includes a table titled Find a Book. That table includes a row titled "New Books". However, instead of telling how to find a newly created book, its links tell how to create a new book. It seems to me that it would be reasonable to have link in that table entry which points to a page which essentially includes only the "new" template, perhaps accompanied by a very small amount of text describing how books are added to the list. I'd do it myself except that I'm not sure how to properly configure such a meta-page's boilerplate and link to it. I've only worked on preexiting book pages and created pages for a preexisting book. I'm willing to be bold and try, but I'm reluctant to be reckless and destroy a page central to the site's operations ;) ...Selden 14:38, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * That's actually an easy fix, if I understand what exactly you are asking. I have added a link to "New books" to that table. It goes directly to the Template:New page, which already contains the list of new books and a short paragraph of instructions on how to add new books to the list. Those instructions might need to be clarified or expanded, but it's a start. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 14:55, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * That's exactly what I was thinking about. Thanks! ...Selden 15:52, 31 October 2007 (UTC)