Wikibooks:Reading room/Archives/2005/May

Moving books
I have been an anonymous browser for a few weeks and noticed today that there are books in the History bookshelf that need to go to Humanities/History.

I'm willing to do some work on that, but I see that there is about a month to go before they would be deleted and I would rather maximize my time working on the moving than working out how to move.

I've checked the Help section and seached as I could and continue to have a hard time with it.

Also I don't want to step on toes.

Am I missing a procedure/tool for moving books to a different shelf? (Right now I'm considering creating a book from scratch and copying and pasting.)

Also am I missing where others might be working on this as well?

erraunt


 * Hi erraunt, thank you very much for your great interest in helping to clean up Wikibooks. "Moving books" between bookshelves is meant to be a straightforward task: First copy the entry to the new bookshelf, and then delete the entry from the old bookshelf. You don't have to touch the book at all, just the link to it gets moved.
 * There is no point though, in doing this blindly: If you take a look at the books in the History bookshelf, most of them are in a rather incomplete state.. somebody came up with an idea for a book, wrote a page, and that's it. Some other books (like U.S. History) are excellent books. First-time users might get easily frustrated by the incomplete books, and never make it to the better ones.
 * So, more important than moving books is actually to give development stages to the books. Have a look at the books, and look into all chapters, and provide "development stages" by the template, where you can give 00%, 25%, .. 100%. If you did so for a book, go back to the bookshelf, and provide a development stage there as well: (here with the date). It is all explained in development stages. Have a look at the US_History/Contents page to see, how it should be done.
 * Only after you gave such development stages, you might move the book to one of the active bookshelves. If the book really looks like a stub, and nobody worked on it for more than 3 months, then give 00% and move it to "Suggested Wikibooks". Otherwise you can list it on "Active Wikibooks".
 * There is no point in moving empty books. So, first look into the books, and try to estimate their quality. If you have further questions, feel free to ask anytime. --Andreas 18:36, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Hi andreas, thank you much for your reply. I'll do some digging and follow your advice.


 * So perhaps I've missed something here, but how would we go about moving something (say, A.Einstein%2C_Zur_Elektrodynamik_bewegter_K%C3%B6rper._Kommentiert_und_erl%C3%A4utert. that's quite obviously in another language (German, in this example) from en.wikibooks.org to de.wikibooks.org (or es, or fr, or what have you)? A prompt response would be appreciated, as it seems that quite a few "orphaned" books are merely on an inappropriate language's site.  Thanks guys n gals! -- Orethrius van Degaurde, 03:04 UTC, 07 May 2005

suggested Speaker representing Wikibooks/Wikiversity
I am hosting a 1 hour panel discussion on K-12 Open Source development implications before a crowd of EDU software/content publishers and technology companies on May 24th in Los Angeles. I would be very interested in having someone who lives in California representing Wikiversity join this panel (along with Intel and a K-12 CIO) for this hour long presentation. I would like the Speaker to talk for 15-20 minutes about the development of Wiki content and how schools are welcoming this format along with taking questions from the audience.

I am posting this in hopes that someone could suggest specific individuals for me to contact ASAP about joining this panel.

Thank you Page Gravely Director, Global Education Services Red Hat, Inc. pgravely@redhat.com

Minor vandalism needs to be reverted
How do I get a page reverted to an earlier version if someone has made small, but deliberately, incorrect changes to it?

Example [NOTE: link no longer shows the correct diff. MShonle 00:11, 9 May 2005 (UTC)]

At what point do people get banned for this behaviour and is there a watchlist of such people (IPs)?

Marknewlyn 21:48, 8 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I reverted the changes made and put a short block on the IP. There's no solid line drawn as when to block, or for how long. However, I consider these minor edits that degrade the accuracy or quality of wikibooks to be real acts of vandalism. Thanks for pointing this out. MShonle 00:11, 9 May 2005 (UTC)


 * For an anon, consider user intent and computer connection type. Just a few hours will do for a dial-up connection, but you might as well go a bit past 24 (30 to 40 perhaps) in case of an always-on connection with a user who would reconsider their actions. If they clearly vandalize again (not a matter of opinion) and appear to be the same user, then you know they have a long-term net connection and an evil mind. Cable modem DHCP assignments often last for months, apartment leases are often 1 year, and university dorm assignments are often for 4 to 10 months. So, a year should cover that without leaving the IP address useless forever. AlbertCahalan 05:25, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Capatalisation of Wikibook's pages
Okay, it looks like we need to kick off debate on capitalisation rules for Wikibooks again. AlbertCahalan and I have been discussing the issue on the talk page for Wikibook's manual of style. If you could please share your views there, it would be greatly appreciated. (Donovan|Geocachernemesis|Interact) 06:44, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Helpful Guidelines Please
Hello all,

I am a college student with some free time this summer and am interested in spending a good deal of it working on a wikibooks project - I'd prefer to start from scratch and try to spend the summer getting a good start on a long, comphrehensive wikibook. I plan on using 5-7 textbooks as my basis and will construct my own from them. Beyond paraphrasing and quoting (which i will not do), what else should I avoid? If factual information is presented in all 5 books without sources, then can I assume it to be common knowledge and write my own interpretation of it (ex. 'Native Americans suffered great injustices under Jackson's presidency.')? I read through the copyright section but did not find general guidelines...

Thanks very much, Angad (please post responses or reply to adsingh@haverford.edu)

Stewards election
Hello,

The stewards election has started on Stewards/elections 2005. Anyone can vote provided that he has a valid account on meta with a link to at least one user page, on a project where the editor is a participant, with at least 3 months participation to the project. Stewards can give sysop right on projects where there are no local bureaucrate. Please vote ! Yann 14:40, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Should I donate my book?
I am a real-live author. About ten years ago Motorbooks published my Codeword Dictionary. We sold about three thousand copies. (Which is not as good as having a million-seller, but better than having a million in your cellar.)

Here is an entry: ''ICEBERG (Allied 45) The American invasion of Okinawa on Easter Sunday, 1 April, 1945. The Japanese consider Okinawa an integral part of Japan, and so they defended the island using the same techniques they planned to employ against an Allied invasion of the home islands. The one hundred thousand defenders avoided the massive pre-invasion bombardment by establishing their defensive lines inland (TEN-ICHI). The resulting battle was the largest in the Pacific theater. The island was secured after eighty-two days, at a cost of over 107,000 Japanese soldiers and 150,000 local civilians. This was a rate of over 1,300 Japanese soldiers killed each day. At sea and in the air, the Japanese countered with a massive kamikaze attack (FLOATING CHRYSANTHEMUMS), sinking thirty-four ships, and damaging an additional 368. Over 7,500 Americans were killed on the ground, and another 5,000 in the surrounding sea. The deception operation for this invasion was BLUEBIRD. ''

If I post it here, will it preserved (and edited, I know) for ... ever? I would hate for my work to go away.

Further, if I were to post it, should I do so in one honking huge file, or about twenty chapters?

Paul in Saudi 04:04, 20 May 2005 (UTC)]]
 * That sounds cool. I would double-check with Motorbooks first though.  You may have signed something saying you wouldn't publish elsewhere.  Also, I strongly suggest posting in pieces. In fact, the more you can break it down, the more user-friendly it will probably be.  Isomorphic 04:15, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

No copyright problems I own the copyright. Still, I would hate to loose control of My Baby. (On the other hand, I am fed up with updating it.) Paul in Saudi 11:44, 21 May 2005 (UTC)]]


 * I think you will prefer to publish it in Wikisource. Wikibooks is for writing new books collaboratively and Wikisource to publish books already published and in a final state. ManuelGR 20:07, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Excellent idea Manuel! Let me go over there and poke around a bit. Paul in Saudi 02:32, 22 May 2005 (UTC)]]

What is the best hierarchy to incorporate Phlebotomy into Wikiversity?
I would like to create a study guide/book for phlebotomy, which is a subdomain of Allied Health, which is a subdomain of Health Sciences.

Phlebotomy specialists may work for Pathology/Lab Medicine departments in hospitals, for clinics, or for commercial laboratories. Phlebotomy techniques are used by nurses, medical assistants, and other allied health professionals.

Some alernative hierarchies are:


 * Life Sciences -> School of Medicine -> Allied Health -> Phlebotomy


 * Life Sciences -> School of Medicine -> Phlebotomy


 * Life Sciences -> School of Allied Health -> Phlebotomy

What is the best hierarchy to incorporate Phlebotomy into Wikiversity?

--Jwalling 03:20, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Game guides?
Is it straying too much from the idea of a text book to host wiki guidebooks to games (e.g. zelda) on the site? I think that these would be really helpful and would attract a lot of people as these type of guides are typically on pay-subscription websites or are simply humongous text files. [anonymous submitter, 17:05, 15 Mar 2005]


 * I guess what you are looking for exists already on the Miscellaneous bookshelf:
 * Game Guides and Strategy
 * Computer Game Walkthroughs
 * and so on. Is this what you were looking for? Please add your game wisdom there as well! --Andreas 13:13, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

There is now a dedicated Games Category and Games bookshelf; it has been removed from the Miscellaneous bookshelf. I've spent the last few days working on replacing the messy template organization system that was formerly used for organization. The video games can now be found on the, and the extensive categorization system created for them allows sorting by either genre or platform of release. --Poiuyt Man 00:04, 5 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm impressed! Well done, Poiuyt Man, these are really very tidy bookshelves! --Andreas 15:45, 5 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm hoping it will encourage more game-related books to form now that they are easier to find and navigate. --Poiuyt Man 15:58, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

navigation bar to the left misses "Community portal"
I would like to have a "Community Portal" page on the left. Who has the power to change "Wikiversity" back to "Community Portal"? It must be a person with developer abilities. Who is the right person to talk to?

We need a "Community Portal" (like Wikipedia, Meta, Commons, ... all have) to coordinate projects like Hierarchy naming scheme, Manual of Style, Collaboration of the Month, Help:Development stages, and so on. There already exists a German Wikiversity, why not the English one? There is no reason for the English Wikiversity to take away Wikibook's "Community Portal" any longer. --Andreas 10:19, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)


 * The "Study help desk" link links to which redirects to Community Portal. I don't really see the reason for that, why not call it "Community portal" and link it directly to Community Portal? Or am I missing something? RoceKiller 23:14, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Organization of categories/bookshelves
What's with the default organization of Science - Mathematics - Information Technology - Languages - Humanities - Arts etc.? I changed it to alphabetical on the All Bookshelves page, now I'm wondering if there is a reason behind this order (before I change anymore pages). --Poiuyt Man 12:31, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Special page formatting
While logging in I noticed a few errors in formatting - but there's no specific talk page for the login page, so I'm bringing it to the attention of an admin here. Specifically the problems are related to display of links - you can see the html! Sheridan 22:14, 4 May 2005 (UTC)
 * there's no specific talk page for the login page &mdash; False.  There is.  It's MediaWiki talk:Loginend. Uncle G 12:05, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

edit bait
When I type in an a name in the prompt on this Wiki project, it doesn't offer people to make an article with that name. Wikipedia has that Wikivention, why dosen't Wikibooks have that? --Wikamurai 02:03, 22 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I don't know if you're serious or what, with your "edit bait" title, but this is not Wikipedia. Here we have book-like things that we call books, even though they mostly don't work like books. Adding a missing page doesn't make any sense unless you specify what book it belongs to. Please don't add Wikipedia-style top-level stub articles like Doom. AlbertCahalan 02:30, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

Solutions to textbook exercises?
I'm thinking about starting a wikibook of solutions to textbook exercises for which no official solutions exist, for example to "First-Order Logic" by Raymond M. Smullyan, but I'm not sure whether this is a violation of copyrights. I'm also wondering if it's legal to include the original exercise texts. What's your opinion on that? FlorianMehm 14:57, 22 May 2005 (UTC)