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Sections on this talk page may be archived by lowercase sigmabot III after 30 days of no activity. Sections may be OCA archived at the 21 day mark if tagged as ((Resolved)) for 2+ days with no response and/or I think that my talk page is too big.

No RfAs or RfBs reported by cyberbot I since 18:09 2/16/2024 (UTC)

Just a reminder you said you would review the new discussions when you have some time. As I said there, some editors are construing the results of the proposal and !vote more/less broadly than others... The original "Formal poll" asked for editors to be "stating an opinion based on policy or guidelines in favour of or opposed to the use of flags to represent a driver's or team's nation in Formula 1 articles. Some editors (and the contested edit to the MOS) are taking the close to apply to areas other than Formula 1. Clarification and rationale would be helpful.

That's what you get for trying to be helpful – as they say, no good dead goes unpunished . Thanks again. Mojoworker (talk) 18:30, 13 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Bumping thread. — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 18:36, 14 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
• Bumping thread. — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 09:36, 11 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You may not remember me, but I was the one who inquired about tables a while ago (I inquired here: User talk:Technical 13/2015/1#Help With Tables/Templates) I have since figured out what I wanted to change about the table; I want it to line up a little neater. For example: I would like the 10 after barrels in the template to line up with all of the other descriptions, regardless of them being on different show-hides. I also want to know how to change the template's color. Finally, I want a default width that doesn't change when I open show-hides -- I want the width to remain constant no matter what show-hides I open or close. Donkey Kong Fanatic (talk) 03:33, 31 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Sorry about the delay in response DKF. All of those things are things you should figure out by trial and error and I don't have hard set answers to. Google CSS3 and whatever it is that you want to set or change, and I'm sure you'll find plenty of answers to your questions. Good luck! — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 02:39, 26 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, thanks for your comments when reverting me here, but I'm not sure if you understand the confusion experienced as a helper on that IRC channel. While I do see you in -helpers from time to time, these days I rarely see you in -help itself, so it's hard to grasp where your reasoning stems from. I do welcome your explanations.

• It's a temporary away mostly due to the passing of my ex's mother of whom I was fairly close to. She finally passed (I know that looks heartless, but please read on) after living in misery battling cancer for 20 years. The last 5 years or so she was unable to function much on her own and was only kept alive by her selfish children and boyfriend who wanted to collect her checks and was living on life support most of the time. I will return at some point, I just need some more time for reflection and prayer.

I'm confused about the supposed benefit of using WPhelp### over Guest###. In any given day, I see tens, if not over a hundred, instances of the WPhelp nick. The conversation often ends up something like this: WPhelp98392 asks, "Can you help me with my draft?" The helper says, "WPhelp89643: Do you understand conflict of interest?" Then WPhelp98392 says, "Sorry what?" And the the helper must explain with !public. Sometimes the helpee will say "I really have to look at the numbers to see who is who." On the contrary, I see few Guest### nicks, and while they are confusing, they are definitely not as widespread as the instances of WPhelp. These users came from the template #wikipedia-en-help ^connect which does not supply a nick parameter.

• That's not entirely where Guest nicks come from, please see my response on the talk page for an explanation of exactly how it works (I think) and why it is that way. Also, I explain that when I do visit -help, I have no interest in answering AfC related questions, which is filtered for me by those people having WPhelp nicks.

It takes a long time to manually squint to look for each WPhelp's number if not using autocomplete, and when using autocomplete, you really do run the risk of autocompleting the wrong nick. If you remove the nick parameter, just like the way it is in current freenode webchat, then helpees would ideally choose their own username as the nickname field, eliminating the amount of asking, "What is your username?" In short, it would be easier to deal with Guest### nicknames (the few that we'd have) than the piles of confusing WPhelp usernames when everyone literally has almost the same nickname and nobody knows what's going on, with the added benefit of perhaps helpees supplying their usernames. IRC is already a confusing environment for newbies - better to make it less confusing if possible. Kikichugirl (talk · contribs) 03:03, 4 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Making them ALL Guest nicks, actually makes your complaint that "It takes a long time to manually squint to look for each WPhelp's number if not using autocomplete, and when using autocomplete, you really do run the risk of autocompleting the wrong nick." worse by making them all Guest. "If you remove the nick parameter, just like the way it is in current freenode webchat, then helpees would ideally choose their own username as the nickname field" - they have that option anyways, and if they don't it is because someone removed some of the other parameters that were set. I'd be happy to restore those parameters. "In short, it would be easier to deal with Guest### nicknames (the few that we'd have)" - actually, it wouldn't. It would be back to before you joined when they were ALL Guest because the simple names they pick are registered or in use already. That is where we were back when I added the parameter upon consensus in IRC a year or two ago. Anyways...

• Thank you for stopping by Kikichugirl. Unfortunately, this isn't the place to discuss it. Please see the discussion started on the template's talk page and feel free to ask further questions there. Happy editing! — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 11:46, 4 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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Thank you. Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 16:45, 13 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I can understand the dislike of italics, but the re-addition of brackets makes no sense. Sure maybe its good for those who use WikiEd, but as of right now, all other templates don't use the brackets (ex ((Uw-vandalism1)) or ((Unsigned-unk)) (<- silly template anyway)) If I'm not mistaken, it's usually go with the past method unless there is consensus to change it right? EoRdE6^{(Come Talk to Me!)} 14:52, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

On an entirely unrelated note, your Wikibreak notice has been up for awhile now... EoRdE6^{(Come Talk to Me!)} 14:55, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• I put a full description and started a talk page discussion for the italics on Template talk:Please see#Forced italics?. There are actually other templates out there where brackets are used in comments. It is a benefit to those who use wikEd to be able to open the page for the template in a new tab easily (which is useful for quick access of the documentation). It has no drawbacks to those not using wikEd and is not visible to anyone not editing the page. This throws it into the "previous discussion and consensus not needed" subsection of Wikipedia:Template editor.

  I'm aware of that, yet my circumstances haven't yet become conducive to allowing me to devote large chunks of time back to editing enwp directly (I've been working on toollabs:wikiviewstats and toollabs:xtools most recently when I do have some free time) — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 15:05, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

TPS: I've always wondered about bracketed wiki-links in hidden text messages, too, and whether it serves any known purpose. I often see folks attempting to link birth places, etc., in the input data for Template:Persondata. As far as I know, this does nothing but add unneeded text characters. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 15:13, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Yeah, Dirtlawyer1, WP:wikEd actually turns them into clickable links (which is AWESOME and one of the only reasons I use wikEd half the time). — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 15:39, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Dirtlawyer1: You can make Persondata visible - including those links - by adding

table.persondata { display: table !important; }

to Special:MyPage/common.css. More at WP:PDATA. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:46, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, guys, but persondata "links," made visible by use of a script that very few readers use, are still redundant to the links to the same information presented in the article's infobox (e.g., birth date, birth place) and text. I also question whether such persondata "links" are effective -- doing it properly would require that such persondata be disambiguated for common place names (e.g., Perth, Birmingham, Santa Fe, Marion, Dunedin, Charleston, Melbourne, Lincoln, Washington, etc., etc.). Nevermind WP:OVERLINK. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 16:15, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. I've been a proponent of persondata, and have added and/or completed the template for over 2,000 bio articles that I have watch-listed -- I'm not against the use of persondata. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 16:20, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I know that linking within Persondata is unnecesssary - I commented at Wikipedia talk:Persondata/Archive 7#Overlinking in Persondata. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:46, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

RR, I read your linked comment -- I agree. We're on the same page. I'll take your above comment about making Persondata visible in the spirit of "Hey, have you seen this cool function before?" Cheers. Dirtlawyer1 (talk) 19:51, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

So I notice you are big into implementing HTML 5 compliancy (a good thing), and I wondered if you could explain why the wikitext edit box still provides users to option to use <big>...</big> if it is now deprecated (Wikipedia:HTML5#big). Shouldn't it be replaced with ((Big)) or <span style>...</span >, or is there a reason that I should know why it hasn't. Thanks in advance! EoRdE6^{(Come Talk to Me!)} 05:48, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• I'm not sure which "wikitext edit box" you are referring to. I may have it turned off or hidden somehow by my use of WP:wikEd. If it is an interface thing, I can't personally change it but I know that Edokter, Redrose64 or any one of the other administrators who have worked on similar interface pages (MediaWiki:Edittools) would be happy to remove it or update it to something appropriate. — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 13:12, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

To be exact, the <big>...</big> element is marked as obsolete in HTML5, which is stronger than deprecated. It's not in Edittools - which these days is loaded from MediaWiki:Gadget-charinsert-core.js (and is still discussed at MediaWiki talk:Edittools). --Redrose64 (talk) 13:21, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Redrose64: I was referring to Help:Edit toolbar under the advanced tab. I thought this was turned on for everyone, but maybe it is just a default on for newer users? Directly above the edit window for me, under the advanced tab. EoRdE6^{(Come Talk to Me!)} 13:36, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think that it's part of the MediaWiki software, and so I don't think that it's locally configurable; you could ask at WP:VPT. --Redrose64 (talk) 14:14, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

mw:Extension:WikiEditor to be exact, and yes, it is customizable (in JavaScript). I agree 'big (A+)' is somewhat 'anachronistic', and probably should be replaced. This is best raised in Phabricator. For now, while obsoloete, it is still in use on meany pages and is therefor still whiltelisted. -- [[User:Edokter]] ((talk)) 16:12, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• Ugh... Okay. Yeah, I'll see what I can do to fix that. Thanks for the information of where it is Edokter. I'll see if I can't work up a patch for the extension tomorrow or Sunday. This should be a really easy on to do. Would you suggest it should be updated to <span style="font-size: larger;">...</span> as that is the css the most closely resembles the effect of <big>...</big> (yes, I realize how it is rendered is browser specific, but so is the big tag itself). — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 16:21, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think that is the best option. Maybe give it class "big" so it can be styled. -- [[User:Edokter]] ((talk)) 16:28, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

• I was thinking classed too. Should I just add the class and then have it defined in MediaWiki:Common.css? I guess it doesn't hurt to have it classed and styled in-line other than !important will have to be used to override it. I'll sleep on it.. — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 16:41, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It shouldn't require local CSS. Any classed CSS should go into shared.css. -- [[User:Edokter]] ((talk)) 16:57, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Ed. — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 17:01, 17 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello there. I stumbled across #wikimedia-api ^connect No one is there but wm-bot. It looks like you set it up and trained wm-bot to answer some questions in 2013, http://bots.wmflabs.org/~wm-bot/logs/%23wikimedia-API/20130824.txt.

• The logs suggest It gets less than one message a month.
• It's mentioned in m:IRC/Channels#Unsorted_channels, but AFAICT nowhere else.
• I checked with anomie and he'd never heard of it: "I'd have just used #mediawiki, #wikimedia-dev, or #wikimedia-tech"
• The mw:API help pages recommend #mediawiki ^connect for API questions.

So maybe we should retire it. On the other hand,

• "The Data and developer hub encourages third-party developers to access Wikimedia data sets and use our APIs" and that's a big part of my job as WMF Technical Writer, so maybe we should dedicate an IRC channel for this initiative. What do you think?

Thanks for working on API stuff and everything else.

-- SPage (WMF) (talk) 20:22, 20 April 2015 (UTC) , spagewmf on IRC[reply]

• Replying on IRC. — ((U|Technical 13)) (e • t • c) 20:32, 20 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Please visit the section and read my introduction carefully. Thank you. --Dweller (talk) 10:51, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The feedback request service is asking for participation in this request for comment on Template talk:Infobox person. Legobot (talk) 00:10, 24 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

		Editor of the Week
		Your ongoing efforts to improve the encyclopedia have not gone unnoticed: You have been selected as Editor of the Week for being "a strong voice of the technically-oriented editors". Thank you for the great contributions! (courtesy of the Wikipedia Editor Retention Project)

User:Buster7 submitted the following nomination for Editor of the Week:

It is our pleasure to nominate Technical 13 (talk · contribs · count · logs) for the Editor of the Week award. Technical 13 is one of our most regular and productive editors in the technical areas of wikipedia. Tech13 has created countless scripts, saving many thousands of hours, previously maintained a bot with almost 30,000 edits and help to run several bots on IRC. Tech13 is generally one of the most trusted go-to people for resolving all manner of technical requests. And that is just their technical contributions. Technical 13 offers invaluable insight into many Help Desk discussions, gives clear and easy to follow instructions and has an impressive 34,000 edits on Wikipedia. Co- nominated by L235, User: Buster7 and John Carter.

You can copy the following text to your user page to display a user box proclaiming your selection as Editor of the Week:

((subst:Wikipedia:WikiProject Editor Retention/Editor of the Week/Recipient user box))

Thanks again for your efforts! Go Phightins! 15:56, 26 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]