Wikibooks:Reading room/Archives/2020/December

CSS in Template pages
Can anyone see why the CSS at Template:NarrowColumn/Styles.css won't save when placed out of comments? JimKillock (discuss • contribs) 21:44, 18 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't quite follow, but are you aware that CSS comments must be placed like this:  ? -- Jules  (Mrjulesd) 22:34, 18 November 2020 (UTC)
 * It basically was throwing off me creating CSS files if it saw any CSS error. So I was able to create Template:NarrowColumn/Styles.css when I commented the whole CSS out, as per, but not otherwise, until I saw my mistake. JimKillock (discuss • contribs) 14:02, 28 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Maybe you can't create css pages with errors, although I haven't tested this. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 01:41, 29 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's right. Felt a bit stupid when I realised this. JimKillock (discuss • contribs) 20:48, 1 December 2020 (UTC)

Styling the term in a definition list.
Hi, A definition list created with " ; term : definition" is displayed with the term emboldened. If the Template:Defn is used, the term can be normal weight. Is there a less cumbersome way to make the term plain rather than bold? Thanks, ... PeterEasthope (discuss • contribs) 20:47, 7 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Afaict, there's a set of templates, glossary glossary end term defn, meant to be used thus:
 * These templates generate html tags
 * which looks like this:
 * foobar
 * That looks the same as would be produced by
 * (or rather, in this case since I'm indenting by two levels, ).
 * --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 21:15, 7 December 2020 (UTC)
 * which looks like this:
 * foobar
 * That looks the same as would be produced by
 * (or rather, in this case since I'm indenting by two levels, ).
 * --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 21:15, 7 December 2020 (UTC)
 * --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 21:15, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

WSExport URL for submissions
Hi, I am trying to understand how currently Wikibooks may export content to ebook formats via WSExport. This gives options for language and page from which to export, eg
 * https://wsexport.wmflabs.org/book.php?lang=en&format=epub-3&page=Latin_for_beginners_(1911)

but the parameters make no reference to domain. How then do I specify the Wikibooks domain in order to create an export? JimKillock (discuss • contribs) 13:10, 4 December 2020 (UTC)
 * The parameter is lang=en-wikibooks] in case anyone else needs this. JimKillock (discuss • contribs) 12:43, 5 December 2020 (UTC)
 * However, it does not currently work. JimKillock (discuss • contribs) 12:55, 5 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't know how you can get the tool to work for Wikibooks. But for Wikibooks you can try MediaWiki to LaTeX which can give several output formats. For basic PDFs you can also click the "Download as PDF" link on the sidebar while viewing the "print version" of a wikibook. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 02:15, 6 December 2020 (UTC)
 * EDIT also see Help:Print versions for more advice on export. For XML export see Help:Export. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 02:18, 6 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks Jules, AIUI it should work – they say this is supported – see T266085 proposal to drop WSExport support for Wikibooks which links to code asking for ?lang=en-wikibooks in the WSExport parameters; it does not seem to work so I have raised a ticket at T269956. JimKillock (discuss • contribs) 18:56, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

2020 Coolest Tool Award Ceremony on December 11th
Hello all,

The ceremony of the 2020 Wikimedia Coolest Tool Award will take place virtually on Friday, December 11th, at 17:00 GMT. This award is highlighting tools that have been nominated by contributors to the Wikimedia projects, and the ceremony will be a nice moment to show appreciation to the tools developers and maybe discover new tools!

You will find more information here about the livestream and the discussions channels. Thanks for your attention, Lea Lacroix (WMDE) 10:55, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Creating a Book
How exactly to create them? Thanks

180.251.147.210 (discuss) 11:17, 8 December 2020 (UTC)


 * We recommend book Using Wikibooks, which includes a section on how to create a book. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 13:41, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

Community Wishlist Survey 2021
'''We invite all registered users to vote on the 2021 Community Wishlist Survey. You can vote from now until for as many different wishes as you want.'''

In the Survey, wishes for new and improved tools for experienced editors are collected. After the voting, we will do our best to grant your wishes. We will start with the most popular ones.

We, the Community Tech, are one of the Wikimedia Foundation teams. We create and improve editing and wiki moderation tools. What we work on is decided based on results of the Community Wishlist Survey. Once a year, you can submit wishes. After two weeks, you can vote on the ones that you're most interested in. Next, we choose wishes from the survey to work on. Some of the wishes may be granted by volunteer developers or other teams.

We are waiting for your votes. Thank you! SGrabarczuk (WMF)

15:03, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

What's allowed in sandboxes; how we should work with importing
Hello there. As my contributors get ready to edit in their sandboxes, I was wondering whether it was kosher for them to copy-paste material that needs to be imported from Wikipedia in their first sandbox draft only. Also, some contributors have already paraphrased the text they want to use from the corresponding Wikipedia article. So, I want to assure the community that importing will be happening and also ask if there is a guideline for text that has already been paraphrased. Obviously the plan is to attribute all material from Wikipedia properly. Thanks for your help in advance. Dr. X (discuss • contribs) 17:15, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
 * As a first draft I think raw copy-paste would be fine. If contributors have already paraphrased, we can retrospectively import from Wikipedia (so only the history is updated). Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 21:33, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

What message to get when you’re blocked
What message will we get if we’re blocked?

Milo Myself (discuss • contribs) 22:51, 7 December 2020 (UTC)Milo Padilla
 * You can find it here - MediaWiki:Blockedtext. QuiteUnusual (discuss • contribs) 14:49, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

What are the community's views on receiving financial compensation for contributions?
Hello, I've enjoyed writing the Wikibooks book I created on end-user computer security; I've also benefited from Wikibooks's hosting of it.

I would like to work on a second version (again hosted on Wikibooks), but I can't get away from the fact that I do not have enough free time to work on it, due to needing to work for money. I could try to get funding for such, which I think may well be possible, but I'm not sure how well that would work in respect of the material being on Wikibooks. In the Wikimedia Foundation terms of use, it states you need to publicly disclose whether you received compensation for contributions you made, so I would have to do that. I can do that, but what do others think about that approach to working on the book. Is it bad? Is it best avoided? Is there no problem with that?

Thanks for reading this enquiry, and I look forward to reading any of the community's thoughts on this.


 * I'm not aware of any particular rules about this. But the most important thing I feel is that this should be disclosure: preferably there should be a note on the book cover or preface that you received financial compensation, and from whom. Otherwise, as long as you stick within the rules for the site (e.g. What is Wikibooks and Neutral point of view) then I can't see a particular problem. For reference you could look at Wikipedia's view on the matter at w:WP:PAY, and I believe that here should be roughly comparable. -- Jules  (Mrjulesd) 22:35, 17 December 2020 (UTC)


 * While agreeing this should be possible, I would caution against giving an impression of ownership. The book isn't defined &mdash;mustn't be defined&mdash; by the paid contribution at its inception.  We need to be sure other (most likely, unpaid) contributors feel entirely welcome and free to contribute also; such open collaboration is the point of Wikibooks. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 05:23, 18 December 2020 (UTC)