Wikibooks:Reading room/Archives/2008/February

Kinyarwanda dictionary
Hi everyone,

I am looking for a Kinyarwanda-English dictionary. I am a new user and I don't know how to search for information effectively yet. Please help. Enjoy your day!!!
 * I don't know that language, but you probably want our sister project Wiktionary, the wiki-based open content dictionary. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 03:54, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello from Ireland
Hi. My name is Ciarán & I've just joined. I have a strong interest in Irish & general history, & am currently editing the Wikijunior book on Ireland. I'm very new to this, so please bear with me for any breaches of the rules or etiquette. However, please feel free to send any constructive criticism my way.

Slán agus Beannacht (Health and blessings),

Ciarán
 * Hi there! Always glad to see newcomers to Wikibooks. My first bit of constructive criticism is to sign using four tildes ( ~ ). If you add that at the end of your posts to talk pages, the software will turn it into a signature (can be customized via Special:Preferences) and a timestamp. This makes it easier to see who said what, and when. Mine is modified from the default, but serves the same purpose --> – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 03:53, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Salutation from Washington
I'm User:N734LQ, and I'm proud to serve, and be affiliated with this project. Most of my expertise focuses on US Law, particularly those of the State of Washington. I'm a Police Explorer for the King County Sheriff's Office, so I know some police procedure. N734LQ (talk) 06:48, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Images from Commons
I am translating the book "electronics" into italian. Paragraph: Electronics/Thevenin Norton Equivalents. I can not find images "Thevenins Norton Equivalents" in Commons. Please tell me how to get them. Sommacal Alfonso (Alfisomm@libero.it) 15.50 2 feb 2008
 * They may only be on Wikibooks, however if you can tell us which images you require, someone can copy them to Commons if the image license permits it. (We really need a Copy to Wikimedia Commons template for such things, so that users can nominate images that should be shifted to Commons). You could even perform the copy yourself, using the Move-to-commons assistant, but take care to read the license tags on the images to ensure that they will be compliant with Commons' requirements. Webaware talk 01:38, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * FYI, the direct upload option is dead due to yarrow's troubles. But river said "soon" so here's hoping! – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 03:51, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Last time I tried, the indirect, save-and-load option was a bit crook too, but it looked like it was working this morning. I think it is preferable anyway, as it allows you to edit the page text, categories, etc. Webaware talk 07:28, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

How to point out incorrect and simply bad information?
I am new to the "backstage" of Wiki. I recently followed a cite that was provided to a beginner that went to a page in Music Theory that had a chart of Chord Types. I know that Wiki is an evolving process of contribution and I see that things can be edited in an article. The problem here is that this rather important aspect of music theory is so bad that simple editing is not a practical alternative.

There are errors in the chart itself. The explanations are past the level of amateurish and delve very deeply into beyond amusing. The explanations are opinion that is not based on fact or research.

This page may technically pass the copyright aspect of Wiki, but the charts are obviously taken from some book that is designed for a specific and limited genre of music theory (most likely one on Jazz Modal Music Theory) and it is presented verbatim as if it was for general music theory and for universal use. There is information in the chart that has little if any relevance to general music theory. I could go on and on, but you can take any part of this page and find constant questionable and outright wrong information.

My question is: How does one go about correcting this? I am new to Wiki in general and specifically I am only now aware of the Wiki Books part of the overall project. I am not new to music theory and can state that this article would not be published by any publisher that had editors to look at the material. It is simply not helpful to the study of music. It is an amateur's opinion about some cut and paste information that he discovered.

SO, How does one go about starting to get this corrected? Simple edits will replace practically all the text in the article. I tried to find a place to comment on this page but was unsuccessful, that may be to my lack of experience with Wiki, and if so, please direct me there. I will help, but I am hesitant to edit this to such a magnitude as needed with this article without having some input from Wiki as to the best and most accurate way to do this. Please help me to find a way to correct this page.

Thank you --Observer (talk) 14:54, 3 February 2008


 * The best approach is to correct the information yourself and if someone objects to your changes to reach an consensus with that other person or persons providing as much evidence of how valid your argumentation is, if you fail in getting your view validated and you are certain that your claims are valid you will need to request support from the community at large, this is a very hard process but in the event you are correct time is on your side even if you decide not to invest any real effort into it, all you need to do is make you side known, for that you can use the "discuss this page" link.
 * Attempt to avoid at any cost to take an antagonistic stance on disagreements. One can disagree but still respect the opposing view point (and seems you have made some effort there). Hope this helps... --Panic (talk) 21:29, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Book on Writing and Publishing Technical books
For my sins, I'm running a workshop at a conference (SPA2008) in March this year on the above topic. Having been busy with the XQuery book I'm working on, it occurred to me to create a Wikibook on this topic to support the workshop. By 'book', I mean the creation of that complex of resources - websites , collaboration spaces, online as well as published material. One topic of course is the role of Wikibooks. My intention is to set up a framework, then to invite the many attendees who already have books to their name to contribute their top hints before the workshop. We would use the wikibook during the conference to capture workshop outputs and I would hope the book would continue to be developed beyond. This is all a bit recursive of course but how do the experts think this would work, and are there any existing books along these lines - I haven't seen anything in my search so far but may well have missed something.

ChrisWallace (talk) 19:22, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

We have several wikibooks that discuss collaboration:
 * Wiki Science
 * WikiSci
 * Change Issues in Curriculum and Instruction/Wikis in the Classroom
 * Future Teachers Meet Wiki
 * Emerging Instructional Technology

We also have several wikibooks that discuss paper books. --DavidCary (talk) 17:39, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Basic Book Design
 * Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Vocational/Bookbinding
 * The Written Word
 * Technical Book Development -- which I see was started by ChrisWallace. Great job -- way to be bold!

about information security
hey,gnd afternoon.i want a paper about "Information Security"... 21:54, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Missing pictures
I've been browsing False Friends of the Slavist, and notice that some of the images on the maps and some of the templates mentioned on the doc page are missing: see False Friends of the Slavist/Map mir and False Friends of the Slavist/Editing help for some examples. I don't remember these being missing last time I visited the pages. Is it possible that they got deleted in error? Zocky (talk) 08:17, 4 February 2008 (UTC)


 * As far as I can tell, I don't see any explicit image/page deletions here. Some of the templates being used here are rather complex and nested on multiple levels, so it may be the case of even a well-meaning user who made a mistake here and messed up the template heirarchy.  If there are some specific images/pages that you think should be undeleted, either make a note here or contact the project administrators more directly on Reading room/Administrative Assistance if there may have been an inadvertent page deletion.


 * Some of the apparently deleted templates on the editing help page simply are examples for what would be recommended to expand the array of pages being used in this guide. In looking at those red-link pages, there hasn't been anything deleted or anything in the logs about those pages.  Those are templates that have never been created in the first place.  Again, if there is anything missing here, it certainly was a mistake and please help us to restore those pages by noting what you think may have been deleted.  --Rob Horning (talk) 03:30, 9 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Some of the images you are talking about may have been on Commons, and could have been deleted there. Check CommonsTicker regularly for updates about what images from there have been deleted. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 22:07, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

User e-mail
I don't see the logic in not allowing users that don't have e-mail specified on their preferences to not be able to e-mail other users with e-mail set up. Thoughts? Laleena (talk) 00:09, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
 * It would enable the spammers. By requiring you to have a valid and confirmed email set in order to email me through the wiki, we weed out the spammers (though it's not perfect, of course). If this ever changes, I suspect that many Wikimedians would disable the email feature. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 00:29, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Should every plant have its own Subject page?
On the Browse page under All Subjects there are separate entries for Echinacea, Garlic, Maple, Strawberry & Cichorium intybus. If every plant gets promoted like this, won't the Browse page become overgrown? Surely subject pages just on Edible Plants and Ornamental Plants or something like that would be better. Recent Runes (talk) 13:46, 12 February 2008 (UTC)


 * As our number of subject pages increase, attempting to list all subjects like that will obviously become unfeasible. So, as the number gets larger, we will simply stop listing all subjects in a single page, and instead ensure that all subjects are properly organized hierarchically. That way, people can navigate from Subject:Major Subjects down through the tree to any page they want.
 * I'm not sure whether all plants should get their own subject pages, but it might be a worthwhile enterprise for the plants that appear in more then one place such as the gardening book and the cookbook. It really can be left up to user discretion, and if nobody creates anymore plant pages, then we don't need to worry about it. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 14:31, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Cuisine of North India
Hi my name is Adil BarlasAdilbarlas (talk) 12:26, 8 February 2008 (UTC) and I am the one who has created the cuisine for north india this is my own creation and i am the one who has written it specially for wikibooks so please do not delete it and let know the correct procedure of posting if there is any..

Adilbarlas (talk) 12:26, 8 February 2008 (UTC)


 * G'day Adilbarlas, this page has a bunch of recipes on it, and they appear to be copied from other websites. Wikibooks is quite strict about copyright violations, so the recipes that are from other websites with restricted rights must be removed from this page (or the page will be deleted). Also, the Cookbook prefers to keep recipes each on their own page, with cuisine pages discussing the cuisine but not getting bogged down in recipe details. See the Cookbook:Policy page, and perhaps discuss this further on the Cookbook talk page.
 * I'd recommend as a start that you remove the copyright recipes from this page ASAP, so that it doesn't get deleted. Webaware talk 07:32, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Student-Generated Text
Please Help! I am diving head-first into Arctic waters. Are there any of you Wikibook experts and educators that can tell me about how you use these types of texts in your class? I'm trying to do some research on this topic for a class and it seems so new that the information just isn't out there yet! It all seems so exciting but it's a bit overwhelming! Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!Cmcnulty6497 (talk) 00:10, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Hi there. We often have class projects come to Wikibooks to create textbooks. This is a very good teaching technique, as teaching some topic is often the best way of learning it yourself. There are some guidelines for class projects which might help you get started, as well as this module.
 * One of the great things about Wikibooks is that we're a community here, so if you need help there's often someone right at hand to show you the ropes. That goes doubly for class projects; we're always glad to see groups of users working together.
 * In the past, some leaders of class projects have had a few common bumps on the road, and have left some suggestions here and there was another larger section of suggestions somewhere, but I can't find it. Perhaps someone else remembers where it is?
 * Help with markup, tables etc. is in the Help: namespace. To search there, you'll have to go to my preferences in the top right corner, click the Search tab, and add a checkmark beside Help. Hit save at the bottom, then search as normal (the search bot at the left). Quickly skimming some policies like our project scope, naming policy and some stuff about images will be helpful as well. I'm sure someone else will think of something I've missed shortly :) – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 00:51, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair use again (again)
I was hoping to comment on the previous section before it got archived, but I was too late by just a bit. You can read it in the archives, but there seemed to be consensus that we should not ban fair use, but that we should a) clean up what we have so far and b) think about enacting a policy restricting what fair use is allowed.

I had started to go through our fair use images, and they're truly a mess (even worse than I thought, and I was expecting a mess)! I have already started a suite of templates to complement, but for images with no fair use rationale. I'm aiming for all the same templates for that process, but with slightly different language (you can also see I changed the colour scheme so the parallel processes will look similar but distinct. I'm not done yet, but I'll list them here once I have things completed.

Once that's done, I'd like us to please please enact a policy on fair use. Fair use policy Fair use policy/Alternate and Media are the relevant proposals (I think). Given past discussion on this matter, we seem to agree on most points, so this should be easy to do. Let's start talking about it now, so we can begin the cleanup as soon as possible. As of right now, I'm pretending that the process will mirror that for images with no license information (which is probably right on the money, but we can discuss that and change templates as needed). One of the main points that needs to be covered in the policy is what we need in the way of rationale for fair use. has very little, and will have to get changed based on what we decide.

Once we have a policy, I'll change templates to match as needed and we can get started on cleaning out our fair use images, which will be no small undertaking. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 21:30, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Here are the templates so far. for the rationale. If you don't provide that, then it gets (which uses  and puts images into Category:Images with no fair use rationale) and you get  on your talk page. Language is currently you get 7 days to provide the rationale (preferably using the template) or it gets deleted. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 22:23, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Another set for images with licenses we don't accept such as "educational use" or "for wikibooks only" and for which no fair use claim can be made. I included the possibility that the image might actually be under a free license, but that might be complicating matters, since I doubt it'll come up often. For this set, you tag images with (which uses  and puts the images into Category:Images with a bad fair use claim) and notify the user with. – Mike.lifeguard  &#124; talk 01:22, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
 * OK, well this apparently fell on deaf ears. I would like to begin tagging images and notifying users to comply with foundation:Resolution:Licensing policy. This policy requires:
 * Fair use is to be limited
 * Fair use (and indeed all other images) must be marked in a machine-readable format (this means using templates)
 * Fair use images are subject to deletion if they lack an appropriate rationale or if they are outside the limitations on fair use (#1)
 * Since we don't currently have a fair use policy enacted, all our fair use images which are unacceptable (#1 and #2) are to be deleted by March 23, 2008.
 * Since this is a Foundation policy, I'm going to get started; no local policy is required. I'm going to begin tagging and notifying users on their talk pages. I will add templates whenever possible, and will be generous on point #1.
 * Additionally, if there are users with many many fair use images that we should keep (ie. some wikibook would lose-out big-time if they all got deleted) then I will email them, but I can't take the time to email everyone. This will inevitably mean that many images will need to be deleted, per policy as referenced above. This is unfortunate, but is required for the good of the project, the good of the Foundation, and is simply a matter of following policy. – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 21:42, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Watch all pages in book?
Is there a way to watch all pages in a book without manually adding each one? I'd like to add all pages in Chess Opening Theory. ChessCreator (talk) 22:31, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * No, but here's what I do: Add all pages to the Contents page of the book, then click 'related changes' (in the toolbox on the left) on the Contents page. If you'll look at my userpage, I have two links there ("recent changes in this book") that take me to those pages for the Ancient History and Greek History books. Νεοπτόλεμος ( talk | email | contribs ) 22:37, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Qudos to you Neoptolemus! All known pages are already in the category....so this works. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Special:Recentchangeslinked/Category:Opening_theory_in_chess ChessCreator (talk) 22:54, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Nice, I didn't know you could do the same for category pages. After posting my reply, I saw that Opening Theory doesn't have a Contents page, but your solution works just as well. Also, you said all "known" pages: check out this page for a list of all pages in that book. Νεοπτόλεμος ( talk | email | contribs ) 22:50, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately there are so many pages I can't see what is different between Prefix listand Category list. Can imagine one or two differences...but how to spot them, I don't know. ChessCreator (talk) 23:34, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You can find the uncategorized ones here: http://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Uncategorizedpages&limit=500&offset=4000 Just add the categories to those pages and it should all work (but be careful to keep track of which ones you've fixed, because that list doesn't instantly update). -- SB_Johnny | PA! 23:58, 13 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Now I can catch new pages created which haven't have the subject category added to the page. Very useful indeed. ChessCreator (talk) 10:07, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
 * With those new tools, I've found some empty/incorrectly named pages. How do I request a page is deleted? ChessCreator (talk) 10:56, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Found my answer http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Deletion_policy ChessCreator (talk) 12:53, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Batch Insert using ADO.NET in C#
Hi ALL,

my requirement is ,I have to insert values as batch in to one table.

I am in problem to batch insert.

can any one please knows about this?

Thanks & Regards, -Sharada.21:53, 4 February 2008 (UTC)


 * You could use a Data Reader or Hash table. -Ravichandar84 (talk) 04:02, 13 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Have a look at this. Microsoft Certified Professional Developer/Exam 70-528/Web-Based Client Development/Create, delete, and edit data in a disconnected environment. You might get some ideas here. :-) -Ravichandar84 (talk) 04:07, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Help me name a book please
Hi, I'm a little new to this site, and I understand the markup language fine. I am going to start a wikibook about animating weapons for the game Counter-Strike Source. I'm confused on how to name the book title. Should it be "Animating Weapons in Counter-Strike Source", or should it be part of a series on Counter-Strike Source with the book title "Animating Weapons?" Any help would be appreciated. Xz64 (talk) 02:22, 9 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Please do read What is Wikibooks and the unstable branch (feel free to participate on the discussion of the proposed revision), as a partial solution why not add a section to Video Game Design about game modding, where you can give a practical example on Counter-Strike Source and in special "Animating Weapons". --Panic (talk) 03:43, 9 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I think that titles like "Animating Weapons in Counter Strike", or even "Counter Strike Weapons Animation" would be fine titles. I personally don't think this should go into the Video Game Design book. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 22:05, 9 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Okay, my idea is to put the book under the following structure:


 * Department: Electronic Games
 * Bookshelf: Source Engine
 * Book: Counter-Strike Source
 * Chapter: Weapon Animation
 * Module: All modules of how to animate weapons

Is it acceptable? The source engine is the engine on which Counter-Strike Source is played. With Source Engine people could add books for Half-Life 2: Deathmatch and other games. Xz64 (talk) 15:59, 10 February 2008 (UTC)


 * That sounds decent enough. However, I worry that having an entire book on "Counter Strike Source" when you only plan to create one chapter in the book may create a problem in the long term. I'm not sure how many other contributors would be able to write other chapters in that book (of course, if you know other people who know this subject, you should invite them here to help!). Also, we're phasing out the bookshelves/departments, so you don't need to worry about that. Just use the template, to put your book into one of the appropriate subject pages. I can help with that when you get started. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 16:26, 10 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Can a page have multiple subjects? If so, I would just name the book "Animating Weapons for Counter-Strike Source" and go on from there. Xz64 (talk) 22:30, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
 * That's definately where I would start. It's easy enough to rename pages, or to merge them into a bigger book later, if needed. Start with what you know, and we can figure out the big picture later. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 22:32, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

mw:Extension:SubPageList2
Remembering back to some time ago when we were asked if we had any technical wishes for Wikibooks that were not being fulfilled, I stumbled across this on Wikiversity. I haven't had time to read too far into the description of this extension, but this part looks interesting: "Sub Page List 2 is an extension that automaticaly creates a list of the subpages of a page. The dynamic created list will be created automatically on every edit of the page where the SubPageList element is given." That sounds to me like something we can use to generate dynamic TOCs, and make it easier to watch every page of a book. It has some rather confusing flaws, but we could potentially get someone to adopt it and get it up to snuff. – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 15:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Image upload not working
I try to upload an image but the returned page tells me "Protected page." with no further explanation. This happens for all file names. WTF? Psygnisfive (talk) 02:18, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
 * That is very strange. I'd ask you to upload a screenshot, but... Can you copy the exact message given, and also the log entry for the protection? – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 18:24, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikiversity
I am curious if anyone would like to help develop courses for this. Thoughts? Laleena (talk) 23:33, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure if I have time to help, but are any simpler courses going to be offered? Such as teaching basic mathematics?  Those could really be helpful to people.  I see "courses" on the site, but I assume you are talking about more live courses.  Please explain a little more.  --Wes (talk) 01:15, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Logo Updates
I'm not sure how many people here are still paying attention to the ongoing logo selection process at meta, but we're getting to a point now where involvement needs to be increased. Specifically, there are two discussion topics right now that will determine how this process is going to continue: The first is a discussion about when to end the initial submissions phase, which has been open now for some time. Of the few people who discussed the issue, most people agree that we should end the submissions phase soon, and many people are looking at the date March 15th. I apologize for not advertising that discussion better, I was under the mistaken impression that more people were reading the talk pages at meta. The second discussion is an attempt to finalize a complete timeline for the remainder of the logo selection process. If we move at a relatively quick pace, we could have a conclusion by early summer. That may be too fast, however, and so we may wish to slow some portions of the process down. That is all up for discussion at this point. Anyway, I encourage all wikibookians to get involved with this discussion, especially since the first voting rounds are going to begin soon. Finally, any people who are multilingual, we are going to need to get messages out to the other wikibooks language projects to alert them that the submissions phase is ending, and that the voting phase is about to begin. Anybody who could help with that effort would be much appreciated. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 17:04, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
 * m:Talk:Wikibooks/Logo
 * m:Talk:Wikibooks/Logo

Archiving
How do you archive talk pages? Either your own user talk page or contents from a discussion page? ChessCreator (talk) 23:32, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
 * w:Help:Archiving a talk page. We also have a bot User:MiszaBot which can automatically archive your talk page if you like. I forget where instructions are to set that up - probably in the bot's userspace somewhere. – <font color="Indigo">Mike.lifeguard  &#124; <font color="Indigo">talk 23:59, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Structuring my Book Project
I am fairly new to the Wiki world, but I understand the basic building of pages and such. My question is of a conceptual nature. What I want to do is create a community where ESL teachers can leave lesson ideas/materials for other teachers to adapt and use. I want the main page to be a list of the different learning areas (e.g. listening, speaking, grammar, etc.), with links listed under each area that will take the user to different materials that have been added. For example, I want to find materials pertaining to listening. I find the "listening" category and choose among the materials that are linked under that category. Again, my problem is conceptualizing how I would make that possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. -- TESOL Materials —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stevesilsbee (discuss • contribs)


 * This sounds like a very interesting project. As a preface, if you are interesting in creating a general "community", or if you are interested in using all sorts of learning materials, not just textbooks, then you will probably have more luck at Wikiversity then you will here at wikibooks. Wikibooks is focused primarily on textbooks, not all the other materials that you would need to run a course. However, good courses require textbooks for the students, and even training manuals for the teachers, and those can certainly find a good home here.
 * Now, on to some specific answers. If you want to separate out your materials into groups, there are several ways that you could do it. The first and most basic way would be to use a "chapters" format when you name pages. For instance:


 * "My Course/Reading/Material 1"
 * "My Course/Listening/Material 25"
 * "My Course/Grammar/Material 6"
 * Here, the page name explicitly says whether the material in question is for reading/listening/grammar, etc. However, this means that your material would likely be arranged by type, and not chronologically like would be expected on a course syllabus or in a textbook. Another method would be to arrange the material chronologically, and then use categories to specify whether a page was for grammary/spelling/listening or whatever. Your book/course could have categories "Category:My Book/Listening", "Category:My Book/Grammar", and so on, and when you put those category markers on your pages, the software will automatically produce lists of related pages for you. The category markers themselves could be located inside templates that say "This book is for Reading", to not only keep pages organized, but also to keep readers informed of the purpose of each particular page (like a learning objective). I hope this helps you a little bit. I would love to hear more about your project if you have the time to talk about it. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 16:04, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks so much. Last night, I too decided that the page/project would work better at Wikiversity, so I moved it over there. Also, I now have a clearer idea of the organization that will be needed to create it. One last question regarding cleanup: how do I go about redirecting the "TESOL Materials" here to my new "TESOL Materials" page at Wikiversity? Thanks again! --Stevesilsbee (talk) 23:56, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Unless I am mistaken, you cannot do an automatic redirect to a project outside wikibooks. Your best bet is to provide an explanation and a link, a la TESOL Materials. --Jomegat (talk) 00:06, 21 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, you can't do an automatic redirect. but you can make links such as #REDIRECT: TESOL Materials, or use something like instead. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 00:33, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Iranian History
Hi, I am currently writing a book on Iranian History. I'm going alone without any collaborators currently. It would be grt if someone could assist :-) -Ravichandar84 (talk) 04:20, 13 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately, a lot of books around here are single-author projects, at least at first. What may be a good idea for you would be to find people in the outside world who are knowledgeable in this subject, and invite them to join wikibooks and help write it. I would be willing to lend some formatting or copyediting work, but I don't know anything about Iranian history and so am unqualified to really author any content. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 14:11, 13 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I am big on the Islamic Revolution, and I like to look around the Web for information, so you can ask for that. Laleena (talk) 23:25, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Recent Updates
I've recently been updating Wikijunior Bugs starting with the millipede and centipede sections. I was wondering if anyone else was still working on the book and would appreciate help/feedback on articles. I hope to finish this book in the coming month(s). --Wes (talk) 00:56, 18 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Hello Wes, Welcome to Wikibooks! To my knowledge, nobody else is currently working on that book, so you have free reign to make the changes or improvements that you think are necessary here. The Wikijunior: Bugs book is a great candidate for you to adopt, and there is a lot of room for improvements to be made there. When you feel that you have done a lot of work, and think that the book is "finished", you can ask here for people to review it, and you can also nominate it at Featured Books Nominations. If we think the book is good too, we'll display it proudly on the main page, and in the list of featured books. If we don't think the book is ready, we'll give you lots of constructive feedback that you can use to take it through the next mile. Good luck, and happy editing! --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 16:46, 18 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Okay, thanks for the information. I'll keep updating the book until it's in good shape. --Wes (talk) 21:39, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

regarding embedded systems
he u all can u pls forward any information regarding embedded systems bcz i have to present paper on the same


 * Our best source right now would probably be Embedded Systems, although that book is not complete yet, and is still under construction. Once you learn more about embedded systems, and present your paper, consider contributing to this book to help make it a better resource to future students. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 16:47, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Special:Random
Is there any kind of script that feeds the Random Book option? If so, can anyone edit it? Thanks, Laleena (talk) 23:59, 12 February 2008 (UTC)
 * From what I can tell Random Book is a Javascript function, you might be able to find the source for that function by looking at the source for the navigation bar. I've never been an admin of a wiki though, so I'm no expert.  Good luck!  --Wes (talk) 02:00, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Random Book is, indeed, a Javascript function. It was created by User:Darklama, and reads books from the automatically-generated lists at WB:ABC. This list is very long, so is hidden in a drop-down box on that page (click the down-arrow in the lower-left corner of the page to see it). The list is automatically generated using category lists. To ensure that a book appears in the list, it must have the template on it. We have been asking the developers to implement a proper "Special:Randombook" page for some time now, but there has been no success in this request. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 02:09, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Editing the name of a book
I am adding to a book entitled, "Project Managment." The original creator of the Wikibook has misspelled the title. How can I edit the title to correct its spelling?
 * Just move it to the new name. You might also want to click the "what links here" link in the left panel and fix any links to the old name. --Jomegat (talk) 18:12, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
 * But of course it's never just that easy, is it? There's already a book called Project Management, so you'd have to move it first, merge it in, or find a different name for yours. --Jomegat (talk) 18:15, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Creating chapters/moving content
Hi...I had a book moved over from Wikipedia and I want to divide it into chapters (right now it is one long, running file...) but I'm not sure how to move the individual chapters onto new pages and then link them back to the table of contents. Any help for this newbie would be appreciated! Ecomeau (talk) 11:31, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You should create a sub-page for each chapter. Take a look at [|Local Manuals of Style], it should be helpful.  After creating each sub-page, copy and paste the contents into the chapter.  It's a pain, but it will make your book look nicer. --Wes (talk) 13:57, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Ignorant?
zHow do I use this to find out what ignorant means?
 * Try Wiktionary. Webaware talk 02:57, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

New Pages
How do i mark pages as being patrolled. <font color="Black">Terra What do you want? 20:09, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You can request patroller rights here. Νεοπτόλεμος ( talk &#124; email &#124; contribs ) 21:26, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Dynamic page lists
G'day, it seems that WB is still running the oldest available version of DPL. Is there any reason for this, and if not, how can we get the latest version of DPL installed in its place? The major issue with keeping the old version is that it doesn't support ordering by title, only by date/time last categorised or edited. Webaware talk 02:08, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Don't quote me on this, but i think there is either a performance or a caching problem with the newer versions. Down at wikinews, DPL2 has been on the wishlist for as long as I can remember. Bawolff (talk) 06:12, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Ah, that rings a bell. Surely that's in the past by now though, since DPL2 is already superseded. Webaware talk 07:57, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The developers also have an issue with its maintainability. Its a WONTFIX bug. The developers have said that a specific narrow set of wanted features should be added to a new extension. My impression is that the developers consider the extension to be too bloated, too slow, and to use too many/much resources. The DPL that is allowed, is only allowed so long as a wiki is smallish, for instance it will never be used on WP because WP is too big for it. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  02:01, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * That's a bugger; DPL sorted by edit or cat time isn't very human friendly. Something to examine more closely "when more time is available" yada yada yada... Webaware talk 02:55, 26 February 2008 (UTC)


 * <-- (reset tabs)
 * OK, I've added a Javascript class for sorting DPLs, or really any UL or OL, by wrapping the list in a DIV with a CSS class of sortListInHTML (case-sensitive sort) or sortListInHTMLi (case-insensitive sort). I've done the rash thing and just added it to the Common.js, but realise now that it would be better if I made it into a Gadget. I'll do that later, but in the meantime, if anyone notices anything odd about it (like it breaks or something), please leave me a message and I'll endeavour to sort it out pronto. Webaware talk 09:56, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Now a Gadget, "Sort HTML lists" in the interface section. Webaware talk 13:47, 28 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Excellent! I'll play with it and let you know how it's working. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 18:52, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Spam issue
We are writing a wikibooks on metabolomics which includes many links to a site called KEGG. Everytime we try to post a link to KEGG we get a SPAM warning message. How can I let the system know that these are legit links. Here is a typical one:

http://www.genome.ad.jp/dbget-bin/show_pathway?map00010+C00031

Paul A. Craig (username: pac8612)


 * G'day Paul, this is now fixed. It didn't like the ".ad." bit, but I've turned off detection of that for now. Webaware talk 21:12, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I've turned back on the detection and added an exception for genome.ad.jp to the Spam whitelist instead. There are many ad websites and urls that were being blocked by this, that really aren't legit and are nothing but a source of spam. --<span style="font: bold 10pt 'courier new', comic, sans, ms;"><font color="midnightblue">dark lama  01:48, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks mate, it never occurred to me to look for a whitelist! Duh! Webaware talk 02:53, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Why not, are you a racist? :) --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 04:40, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * No, just a bit thick. Anyway, some of my best friends are white :P Webaware talk 05:04, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Muggles' Guide Bot Request
I know I've been relatively quiet lately, but over the past few weeks I've been looking at PDF creation tools for my book Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter. Generally things have been going well with Wiki2LaTeX but what my editing team and I have realized now is that all our relative linking in our pages is making links in the PDF get screwed up. What we need is a bot that can go through all 500+ of our pages and "absolutize" the links. Is anyone up to the task? I can certainly provide more detail if necessary. Thanks. -<font color="#000000">within <font color="#7A7A7A">focus 02:22, 27 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I think that my bot may be able to handle this. I will need to fiddle around with it and see if I can make the algorithm for link expansion general enough. I should have some time this evening that I can play with it.
 * I would like to hear from some of the people who use other tools such as AWB and pywikibot, since I'm not sure what the capabilities of those tools are, and whether they would be a better fit for this project then my homebrew software is. If we don't hear from anybody else, I'll try to have something written up tonight.
 * By the way, my bot is not currently able to read category or prefixindex lists, so we would need a list of all pages that need to be modified. I'll work on that too, if one doesnt exist already. --Whiteknight (Page) (Talk) 19:34, 27 February 2008 (UTC)