Wikibooks:Reading room/Archives/2017/July

Links at left margin
Can the links at the left margin be suppressed? "Main Page, Help, Browse" & etc. Not from the title page of course but some pages might appear better without it. Thanks, ... PeterEasthope (discuss • contribs) 14:04, 5 July 2017 (UTC)
 * have you ever tried by clicking on "Printable version" at the bottom left?
 * Normally it's not supposed to print but to display the printable version, with the following suffix in the URL: &printable=yes. Example: https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=MySQL/Print_version&printable=yes.
 * JackPotte (discuss • contribs) 15:23, 5 July 2017 (UTC)
 * A click on "Printable version" always opens the printer dialogue. The MySQL link you gave, produces a display image but the link in the left margin doesn't.  I don't recognize an explanation but it might register with fermentation.  Thanks ... PeterEasthope (discuss • contribs) 00:06, 7 July 2017 (UTC)
 * [//phabricator.wikimedia.org/T169920 I've asked on Phabricator] and they told me that this link was studied right now. JackPotte (discuss • contribs) 00:16, 7 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Jack, thanks for investigating. I read some of the Phabricator discussion.  Appears that the argument has taken precedence over functionality.  Oh well, if all else fails a work-around can be built, ... PeterEasthope (discuss • contribs) 03:13, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Table of contents not appearing
After a strange edit to a page in the character name appendix to Writing Adolescent Fiction (Writing_Adolescent_Fiction/Character_names/Spanish) and its reversion, I no longer see a table of contents on that page. What's happening here? Cilantrohead (discuss • contribs) 03:39, 6 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I don't know why the TOC went away, but I noticed it was using subjects instead of BookCat, and after switching that the TOC is back. Possibly subjects invokes the  directive.  --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 03:51, 6 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much! DeFinitely something to look into. Cilantrohead (discuss • contribs) 01:13, 9 July 2017 (UTC)

Can You review my edit(s)?
83.28.60.106 (discuss) 17:06, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
 * They've already been reviewed, which is why you're globally blocked from editing. --Atcovi (Talk - Contribs) 18:59, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
 * I think there may have been multiple people on that IP, at least one of which was certainly a vandal, but other edits from the same IP I'm not so sure about. There are, in fact, a bunch of edits by that IP that haven't been reviewed, that might be good-faith (if of varying merit).  --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 00:28, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

De-Recognition of Wikimedia Hong Kong
''This is an update from the Wikimedia Affiliations Committee. Translations are available.''

Recognition as a Wikimedia movement affiliate — a chapter, thematic organization, or user group — is a privilege that allows an independent group to officially use the Wikimedia trademarks to further the Wikimedia mission.

The principal Wikimedia movement affiliate in the Hong Kong region is Wikimedia Hong Kong, a Wikimedia chapter recognized in 2008. As a result of Wikimedia Hong Kong’s long-standing non-compliance with reporting requirements, the Wikimedia Foundation and the Affiliations Committee have determined that Wikimedia Hong Kong’s status as a Wikimedia chapter will not be renewed after February 1, 2017.

If you have questions about what this means for the community members in your region or language areas, we have put together a basic FAQ. We also invite you to visit the main Wikimedia movement affiliates page for more information on currently active movement affiliates and more information on the Wikimedia movement affiliates system.

Posted by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the Affiliations Committee, 16:25, 13 February 2017 (UTC) • m:Special:MyLanguage/Affiliations Committee/MassMessages/De-Recognition of Wikimedia Hong Kong - February 2017 • Get help

Signed for the bot. --George Ho (discuss • contribs) 01:28, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Review of initial updates on Wikimedia movement strategy process
''Note: Apologies for cross-posting and sending in English. Message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki.''

The Wikimedia movement is beginning a movement-wide strategy discussion, a process which will run throughout 2017. For 15 years, Wikimedians have worked together to build the largest free knowledge resource in human history. During this time, we've grown from a small group of editors to a diverse network of editors, developers, affiliates, readers, donors, and partners. Today, we are more than a group of websites. We are a movement rooted in values and a powerful vision: all knowledge for all people. As a movement, we have an opportunity to decide where we go from here.

This movement strategy discussion will focus on the future of our movement: where we want to go together, and what we want to achieve. We hope to design an inclusive process that makes space for everyone: editors, community leaders, affiliates, developers, readers, donors, technology platforms, institutional partners, and people we have yet to reach. There will be multiple ways to participate including on-wiki, in private spaces, and in-person meetings. You are warmly invited to join and make your voice heard.

The immediate goal is to have a strategic direction by Wikimania 2017 to help frame a discussion on how we work together toward that strategic direction.

Regular updates are being sent to the Wikimedia-l mailing list, and posted on Meta-Wiki. Beginning with this message, monthly reviews of these updates will be sent to this page as well. Sign up to receive future announcements and monthly highlights of strategy updates on your user talk page.

Here is a review of the updates that have been sent so far:


 * Update 1 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (15 December 2016)
 * Introduction to process and information about budget spending resolution to support it
 * Update 2 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (23 December 2016)
 * Start of search for Lead Architect for movement strategy process
 * Update 3 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (8 January 2017)
 * Plans for strategy sessions at upcoming Wikimedia Conference 2017
 * Update 4 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (11 January 2017)
 * Introduction of williamsworks
 * Update 5 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (2 February 2017)
 * The core movement strategy team, team tracks being developed, introduction of the Community Process Steering Committee, discussions at WikiIndaba conference 2017 and the Wikimedia movement affiliates executive directors gathering in Switzerland
 * Update 6 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (10 February 2017)
 * Tracks A & B process prototypes and providing feedback, updates on development of all four Tracks

More information about the movement strategy is available on the Meta-Wiki 2017 Wikimedia movement strategy portal.

Posted by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, 20:31, 15 February 2017 (UTC) • m:Special:MyLanguage/Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Updates/Initial announcements review • Get help

Signed for the bot. --George Ho (discuss • contribs) 01:28, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Overview #2 of updates on Wikimedia movement strategy process
''Note: Apologies for cross-posting and sending in English. This message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki.''

As we mentioned last month, the Wikimedia movement is beginning a movement-wide strategy discussion, a process which will run throughout 2017. This movement strategy discussion will focus on the future of our movement: where we want to go together, and what we want to achieve.

Regular updates are being sent to the Wikimedia-l mailing list, and posted on Meta-Wiki. Each month, we are sending overviews of these updates to this page as well. Sign up to receive future announcements and monthly highlights of strategy updates on your user talk page.

Here is a overview of the updates that have been sent since our message last month:
 * Update 7 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (16 February 2017)
 * Development of documentation for Tracks A & B
 * Update 8 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (24 February 2017)
 * Introduction of Track Leads for all four audience tracks
 * Update 9 on Wikimedia movement strategy process (2 March 2017)
 * Seeking feedback on documents being used to help facilitate upcoming community discussions

More information about the movement strategy is available on the Meta-Wiki 2017 Wikimedia movement strategy portal.

Posted by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation, 19:44, 9 March 2017 (UTC) • Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2017/Updates/Overview 2 of updates on Wikimedia movement strategy process • Get help

Signed for the bot. --George Ho (discuss • contribs) 01:28, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

== Start of the 2017 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections ==

''Please accept our apologies for cross-posting this message. This message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki.''

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee, I am pleased to announce that self-nominations are being accepted for the 2017 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees Elections.

The Board of Trustees (Board) is the decision-making body that is ultimately responsible for the long-term sustainability of the Wikimedia Foundation, so we value wide input into its selection. More information about this role can be found on Meta-Wiki. Please read the letter from the Board of Trustees calling for candidates.

The candidacy submission phase will last from April 7 (00:00 UTC) to April 20 (23:59 UTC).

'''We will also be accepting questions to ask the candidates from April 7 to April 20. You can submit your questions on Meta-Wiki.'''

Once the questions submission period has ended on April 20, the Elections Committee will then collate the questions for the candidates to respond to beginning on April 21.

The goal of this process is to fill the three community-selected seats on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. The election results will be used by the Board itself to select its new members.

The full schedule for the Board elections is as follows. All dates are inclusive, that is, from the beginning of the first day (UTC) to the end of the last.


 * April 7 (00:00 UTC) – April 20 (23:59 UTC) – Board nominations
 * April 7 – April 20 – Board candidates questions submission period
 * April 21 – April 30 – Board candidates answer questions
 * May 1 – May 14 – Board voting period
 * May 15–19 – Board vote checking
 * May 20 – Board result announcement goal

In addition to the Board elections, we will also soon be holding elections for the following roles:


 * Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC)
 * There are five positions being filled. More information about this election will be available on Meta-Wiki.


 * Funds Dissemination Committee Ombudsperson (Ombuds)
 * One position is being filled. More information about this election will be available on Meta-Wiki.

Please note that this year the Board of Trustees elections will be held before the FDC and Ombuds elections. Candidates who are not elected to the Board are explicitly permitted and encouraged to submit themselves as candidates to the FDC or Ombuds positions after the results of the Board elections are announced.

More information on this year's elections can be found on Meta-Wiki. Any questions related to the election can be posted on the election talk page on Meta-Wiki, or sent to the election committee's mailing list, board-electionswikimedia.org.

On behalf of the Election Committee,

Katie Chan, Chair, Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

Joe Sutherland, Community Advocate, Wikimedia Foundation

Posted by MediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee, 03:36, 7 April 2017 (UTC) • m:Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia Foundation elections/2017/Updates/Start of the 2017 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections • Get help

Signed for the bot. --George Ho (discuss • contribs) 01:28, 11 July 2017 (UTC)

Improved search in deleted pages archive
During Wikimedia Hackathon 2016, the Discovery team worked on one of the items on the 2015 community wishlist, namely enabling searching the archive of deleted pages. This feature is now ready for production deployment, and will be enabled on all wikis, except Wikidata.

Right now, the feature is behind a feature flag - to use it on your wiki, please go to the  page, and add   to the URL, like this: https://test.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AUndelete&fuzzy=1. Then search for the pages you're interested in. There should be more results than before, due to using ElasticSearch indexing (via the CirrusSearch extension).

We plan to enable this improved search by default on all wikis soon (around August 1, 2017). If you have any objections to this - please raise them with the Discovery team via email or on this announcement's discussion page. Like most Mediawiki configuration parameters, the functionality can be configured per wiki. Once the improved search becomes the default, you can still access the old mode using  in the URL, like this: https://test.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AUndelete&fuzzy=0

Please note that since Special:Undelete is an admin-only feature, this search capability is also only accessible to wiki admins.

Thank you! CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 18:21, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

Copyrighted but freely-available circuits and electronics textbook
https://www.circuitlab.com/textbook/ —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 17:47, 17 July 2017 (UTC)
 * As it is clearly copyright I'm not sure what you are suggesting? QuiteUnusual (discuss • contribs) 12:47, 18 July 2017 (UTC)
 * That someone could read it and learn things about electronics. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 17:30, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

Accessible editing buttons
The MediaWiki developers have been slowly improving the accessibility of the user interface. The next step in this transition will change the appearance of some buttons and may break some outdated (non-updated or unmaintained) user scripts and gadgets.

You can see and use the old and new versions now. Most editors will only notice that some buttons are slightly larger and have different colors.

However, this change also affects some user scripts and gadgets. Unfortunately, some of them may not work well in the new system. If you maintain any user scripts or gadgets that are used for editing, please see mw:Contributors/Projects/Accessible editing buttons for information on how to test and fix your scripts. Outdated scripts can be tested and fixed now.

This change will probably reach this wiki on Tuesday, 1 August 2017. Please leave a note at mw:Talk:Contributors/Projects/Accessible editing buttons if you need help. --Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:56, 27 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Sadly, although these sorts of initiatives by the Foundation are evidently intended to be improvements, to me they are mainly rolling dice to see whether the Foundation breaks something they don't care about. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 18:35, 27 July 2017 (UTC)