2006-07-31
Wikizine - number: 36
Technical news
... that you can add functionality to MediaWiki yourself?
MediaWiki has the option that you as a user can override the default settings and change the behavior, add functionality and the look of the wiki by editing your [[Special:Mypage/monobook.js]] and[[Special:Mypage/monobook.css]].
There is a useful javascript extension called "popups". It has many functions. Highlights are; preview of the page where a hyperlink leads to. So you can check an edit done by an anonymous without the need to open that page. A "roll back" option like the sysops have to revert easy edits.
See;
Editor(s): Walter Corrector(s): oscar
Thanks for promoting Wikizine to the wikis;
Wikispecies,en.wikipedia,ja.wikiquote,pt.wikiquote
- [More] servers are coming. The WMF board approved the purchase of 20 new servers with a value of $61440.00. There are now already 167 servers in service.
- http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Hardware_Purchase_Jul-06
- http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Wikimedia_server.jpg - View of the distribution of the server around the world
- ["Free"] - There is a project for creating a clear definition about what a free content licence needs to be to be called "free". Main forces behind this are Erik Möller/meta:User:Eloquence and w:en:Benjamin Mako Hill. Input is requested to work on the definition and move it to version 1.0
- http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/7076/focus=7090 - First announcement 2006-05-01
- http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.foundation/8935/focus=8935 - Update 2006-07-30
- http://freecontentdefinition.org/Definition/Unstable
- [Job] Wiki expert in Nigeria needed
- [Wikicat] a project to create an open, bibliographical catalog.
- [Ombudsman] - A special ombudsman commission is founded to take care of complaints regarding possible privacy violations. This includes complaints about the use of the checkuser function.
- [Logo] - The name for the incubator-wiki is confirmed. It stays "Incubator". The project also now has its own logo now and is live. And even the test-wiki has now a logo.
- [Move] - The WiktionaryZ test site will be hosted by the WMF. This does not mean that WiktionaryZ has become an official Wikimedia project.
- [DE.wp news] The Signpost brings a report about how the the German language Wikipedia is doing
- [Front page] - In Japan Wikipedia made it to the front page of one of the leading newspapers with a long and positive article
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tangotango/Asahi - Translation of the article
- http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/27775/focus=27775 - more info
- [Onion] - They say parody is the greatest praise ...
- The Simple English Wikipedia has reached 10,000 articles
- The Chinese Wikipedia has reached 80,000 articles.
- The English Wikibooks has reached 20,000 book modules.
- [Censor] Saudi Arabia blocks Wikipedia
- [Private Wikipedia] - Wolf Mountain Group now offers servers for sale with Wikipedia installed (or any other project/language) on a configuration with updating software and support for this. With this setup companies and organisations can offer access to Wikipedia content yet exercise control because it allows them to remove topics they find less suitable for their audiences.
A very special function is machine translation of the project installed to many native American languages like Cherokee and Comanche. Support for Spanish, German and Latin are expected. These translations are also available on the website Wikigadugi.
- [Wikizine] - In an attempt to get more people from different project and languages exposed to Wikizine nearly all wikis will be visited with a request to support Wikizine in the coming weeks or months. Thanks to wikis who agreed to help recently will be included in the footer weekly.
... that you can add functionality to MediaWiki yourself?
MediaWiki has the option that you as a user can override the default settings and change the behavior, add functionality and the look of the wiki by editing your [[Special:Mypage/monobook.js]] and[[Special:Mypage/monobook.css]].
There is a useful javascript extension called "popups". It has many functions. Highlights are; preview of the page where a hyperlink leads to. So you can check an edit done by an anonymous without the need to open that page. A "roll back" option like the sysops have to revert easy edits.
See;
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:POPFAQ
"Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity." - Rule 6
"Enough... is never enough." - Rule 97
"Even in the worst of times, someone turns a profit." - Rule 162
Editor(s): Walter Corrector(s): oscar
Thanks for promoting Wikizine to the wikis;
Wikispecies,en.wikipedia,ja.wikiquote,pt.wikiquote
2006-07-24
Wikizine - number: 35
Technical news
... that you can add some more buttons to the edit toolbar?
w:en:UserMarkS has written some javascript code that extends the default toolbar with many more buttons. If find some buttons not useful you can easily remove them from the javascript code.
Editor(s): Walter Thanks to: Krog
- [Z] -WikitionaryZ, the pre-alpha ultimate Wiktionary, has new functionality; new "Expressions" and "DefinedMeanings" can be added. This means that a new concept can now be translated in many languages. For more details, read the text about the DefinedMeaning on WiktionaryZ and ask on IRC ( #wiktionary) for more information if needed.
- [Ogg Vorbis] - The fact that the Wikimedia projects are using Ogg Vorbis for audio can be a problem for some users. There is a web based Ogg Player that can be used to make it more easy fore the visitors to listen to the audio. EN Wikinews is using this already. You only need to put the path to the audio file after that of the player.
- [Translators] are requested to help with the translation work for the board election. Currently there is not yet anything to translate. People who are willing to help can put there name on the list with volunteers
- [Election] - The election for a new member of the board of the Wikimedia Foundation will start on the first of September. Essjay and Datrio have been appointed as inspectors of the election. Aphaia will assist them as an alternate election official.
- [WMF Nederland] - The Dutch chapter is organizing a one-day conference in Utrecht, Netherlands. And this on 2 September 2006. The working language will be Dutch. Registration fee will be around 15 euro. Registration is now open.
- [WMF 中文維基年會] - The Chinese Wikimedia Conference will be held on August 26th and 27th in Hong Kong. The working language will be Chinese. Registration is now open. Registration for it is now open.
- [Wikimania2006] is from 4 until 6 August in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Subscription is still possible.
- [Archival] - Library of Congress, Holocaust Museum negotiate with Wikimedia regarding the issue of access to archival materials
- [No Consensus] was reached about the deletion nomination of the article about Angela.
- [Wikinews.ogg] - Announcing something is one thing, doing it and especially keep doing it that is something else. The English language edition of Wikinews has made already over 150 audio "news briefs". The also provide a feed of the recordings.
- [Persian WP] - The Persian Wikipedia has decided to restrict page creation to logged in users like on the English language Wikipedia. The reason is that the have a lot of problems with anonymous users who insert copyright violations. Most of those users are from Iran. And because Iran has not signed international copyright agreement those users have problems with the concept of copyright.
- [Wikimania Awards] - For once Wikimedia is not receiving awards but giving them away. "The Wikimania Awards are a free content writing and media contest that takes place at Wikimania. The contest is for the best video, audio, image, and textual content created for use on Wikimedia projects over the past year." People are welcome do donate prices, join the jury and nominate articles or media. First price is a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet with the greetings form Nokia.
- [High profile] - The New Yorker and the LA Times has published two articles about Wikimedia worth of reading. The article of the New Yorker also mentions the existence of the projects Wikisource, Wikinews and Wikiquote. It is not common for these projects to get attentions in high profile media.
- [Print] - If would like to have a decent printed version of a part of the English Wikipedia then that is now possible. Pediapress offers a very easy way to make a selection from the contends of EN Wikipedia and turn it in to a real physical book. That book is not free but the price looks fair. From the earnings of the "Featured Books" the donate 10% to the WMF.
... that you can add some more buttons to the edit toolbar?
w:en:UserMarkS has written some javascript code that extends the default toolbar with many more buttons. If find some buttons not useful you can easily remove them from the javascript code.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MarkS/Extra_edit_buttons
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MarkS/extraeditbuttons.js
"When I visited the offices in March, the walls were bare, the furniture battered. With the addition of a dead plant, the suite could pass for a graduate-student lounge." -- impression of the WMF world headquarters by Stacy Schiff, journalist.
Editor(s): Walter Thanks to: Krog
2006-07-17
Wikizine - number: 34
Technical news
... that you can use a telephone for calling people?
VoIP, Skype, OpenWengo, GoogleTalk, etc. With all those systems you can call from PC to PC for free. And most have also the option to call to fixt phones or mobile phones, normally not for free. But you still need to mess arround with software, a microphone, a headset, audio settings, allocate bandwidth. And the audio quality is not always very good and also you need to buy credit in advance. An alternative is the service of JaJah.com The make only use of the traditional phones for the connection. No special software needed, no VOIP, no need to buy credit in advance; you pay later. Prices can be similar or even cheaper than SkypeOut. For many western country's it possible to call totally free of charge (possibly only temporary now). You can test there service for free without registration for a free call of 5 minutes from anyware to anyware.
So if you are working on an article and you like to consult with someone who lives in a far away place, maybe it is not even so expensive to give him a call.
http://www.jajah.com/
Quote
"By contrast, when journalists make blunders, and we’ve been provided many an example in recent years, it requires a day or two to make the correction. And, unlike a wiki, the article itself can never be corrected, because it’s printed and on its way to the birdcage." - Larry Sanger
From http://www.dufoundation.org/blog/?p=68
Editor(s): Walter, 18.85.46.138, Gary Kirk - Corrector(s): Gary Kirk, Hector Corerro - Thanks to: Klenje
- [550] The new blocking policy has now been implemented by Tim Starling, resolving bug 550. You can control the type of block by means of two tick boxes. The default settings result in the same behavior as before the change. These default settings are;
[ ] Block anonymous users only
[X] Prevent account creation
(To localize these options, edit [[MediaWiki:Ipbanononly]] and [[MediaWiki:Ipbcreateaccount]])
So if you do not change those setting registered users will still have no access from the school or from their ISP proxy, not have the option to make an account. The default settings give the most total block possible.
Thanks to user [[w:en:User:Lupin]] there is a small Javascript that you can include in your monobook.js so that the default settings are for the "softest" block: only blocking anonymous users, account creation allowed. Or if there is local community approval for it you can include it in the [[MediaWiki:Monobook.js]]-page so it is active for all users.Request for help
- [Update] - The translations of the "Board of Trustees" page need to be updated
- [Awareness Project] This is a WikiProject that aims to spread awareness of Wikipedia and the ability to edit it freely around real-life communities in order to try and attract more contributors from a variety of ages. We hope to gather and catalogue promotional material for members to make use of, and to provide a central point for meetings of this type. The are looking for people to help.
- [Wikiversity] A new push to launch a separate wikiversity project is underway. See the discussion at
- [rm Angela Beesly] - The wp-article of board member Angela is listed for deletion on here request. The article in some other languages is already deleted. And also the the article of Anthere, the well known french wikipedian is removed from the french language Wikipedia. Jimbo's article is still there.
- [Sitenotice] It was brought to the attention of the Wikimedia Foundation on Foundation-l that the Urdu language Wikipedia was using the site notice function to display a verse from the Koran above every page to each visitor. This is considered a breach of the NPOV principle of Wikipedia and an incorrect use of the Sitenotice function. The Koran verse is reluctantly removed by the local community.
- Tread on Foundation-l
- http://tinyurl.com/qkuj6 - Discussion about the sitenotice on the Urdu Wikipedia
- The POV of the Urdu Wikipedia about Israël
- [Wikimania Awards] Media and Writing awards will be handed out at Wikimania in August; nominations for great writing and media are requested on the conference site.
- [Essay] "Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past" by professor of history and new Media Roy Rosenzweig. This article was originally published in the Journal of American History (Volume 93, Number 1 (June, 2006): 117-46), and was reprinted on the web at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. This is a long but very interesting article. It also includes a comparison of historical articles from the English language Wikipedia with other encyclopedias.
- [ERRATUM] The report of last week that Wiktionary has reached the 1,000,000 definitions milestone is not confirmed. It is likely that Wiktionary is close to the one million mark but not yet there.
- [fur.wiki] The Friulian Wikipedia have reached 1000 articles. Friulian is a language spoken by about 600.000 people mainly in North-East Italy
- [ja.wikinews] now exist for one year. Aphaia made an overview of one year ja.wikinews
- [Wikia] has taken over the Uncyclopedia domain name and trademark. Uncyclopedia is a parody of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Wikia has been hosting Uncyclopedia since May 2005. Now the Wikimedia projects and the parody Uncyclopedia fall under the wings of Jimbo and Angela. Wikia/Uncyclopedia and Wikipedia/Wikimedia are legally totally separate. The news of the transfer is not well received by some of the Uncyclopedia community.
- Announcement: Wikia & Uncyclopedia
- UnNews:Uncyclopedia bought by Wikia for 2 Wooden Nickels - This source is not very trustworthy
- [Torrent] a CD-ROM containing a selection of articles from the English language is available for download via bittorrent.
... that you can use a telephone for calling people?
VoIP, Skype, OpenWengo, GoogleTalk, etc. With all those systems you can call from PC to PC for free. And most have also the option to call to fixt phones or mobile phones, normally not for free. But you still need to mess arround with software, a microphone, a headset, audio settings, allocate bandwidth. And the audio quality is not always very good and also you need to buy credit in advance. An alternative is the service of JaJah.com The make only use of the traditional phones for the connection. No special software needed, no VOIP, no need to buy credit in advance; you pay later. Prices can be similar or even cheaper than SkypeOut. For many western country's it possible to call totally free of charge (possibly only temporary now). You can test there service for free without registration for a free call of 5 minutes from anyware to anyware.
So if you are working on an article and you like to consult with someone who lives in a far away place, maybe it is not even so expensive to give him a call.
http://www.jajah.com/
Quote
"By contrast, when journalists make blunders, and we’ve been provided many an example in recent years, it requires a day or two to make the correction. And, unlike a wiki, the article itself can never be corrected, because it’s printed and on its way to the birdcage." - Larry Sanger
From http://www.dufoundation.org/blog/?p=68
Editor(s): Walter, 18.85.46.138, Gary Kirk - Corrector(s): Gary Kirk, Hector Corerro - Thanks to: Klenje
2006-07-10
Wikizine - number: 33
Technical news
... that Skype can be useful for your Wikimedia-work?
On our projects many people work together. And there are many ways of communication to makes the work. But talking to someone can makes things a lot easier in some situations. You can use Skype for this. It is free to use between PC to PC. It exists for Windows. And also for Mac OS X and Linux. Those are crappy versions compared to the Windows versions but the work good enough to be useful.
You can also talk with up to 5 people in a conference call. And if like to host a virtual Wikimeet or a open meeting for you chapter maybe the Skypecast-function can be useful. With you can talk to up to 100 people.
Quote
Editor(s): Walter - Corrector(s): Gary Kirk, Oscar - Special thanks to: Alias, Ruben Slock
Update: 2006-07-12 09:00 utc - fixt broken links
- [<poem>] On the Wikisource project a new tag is now live especially for poems
- [Bug550] will be fixed soon, block options will change
- [localization] - BetaWiki is a project to centralize the translations and updates for the MediaWiki system messages. This way all MediaWiki installations can have a recent and nearly complete translation. When implementing the new translation care must be taken not to insult projects that are using their own translation version by overwriting those with the new version without consulting them first about it. Like was done on the Dutch language Wikipedia.
- http://nike.users.idler.fi/betawiki/Etusivu - BetaWiki
- http://article.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/27664- explanation by GerardM about BetaWiki
- http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.misc/27644/focus=27644 - Protest
- [PLURAL] there is a magic word "plural" that can be used to change the spelling of the user interface depending of the number of items involved. For some languages there are multiple conjugations depending on the number, PLURAL allows for that
One example of the syntax for English is:
{{PLURAL:$1one articleare $1 articles}}
This can be used on MediaWiki-pages the contain text used on dynamic changing pages.
Example:
[[MediaWiki:Categoryarticlecount]] contains the text used on category-pages to say how many items there are in that category. But a category can contain one item and then the correct description would be that there is "one article". If there are more then the phrase should use "articles", the plural form.
You can see this in practice on the Afrikaanse Wikipedia;
And the results on a category with only one item reads "een artikel", what is the singular form.There you see how the magic word it used;
Here you see a category with more than one article and it reads "artikelen", the plural form.
This construction can be used on those MediaWiki messages where the software is aware of the potential of a plural form; the English message should have the PLURAL construct as well.
More about this at;Foundation
- [Wikibooks] project is 3 years old now on the 10th of July 2006. Congratulations! This page gives an overview of the "State of the Project";
- [Staff] The Wikimedia Foundation has hired a new full-time staff member. She will be working in the function of administrative assistant in the Florida office. This person will be answering the phones for the WMF office and emails send to Wikimedia and the English language Wikipedia queue. The WMF has now 5 people in service and 1 contractor.
- [Angela] posted an explanation about her resignation from the Board. The Board accepts her resignation and confirms that there will be a election for a new Board member starting on 1 September 2006. Until that time Angela stays on the Board.
- [Incubator] A vote is proceeding about a logo for the "incubator". This is a wiki where new projects can start and maybe move later to their own wiki if they succeed. There is now a vote about a logo for this wiki and about maybe a new name for it.
- [interview] with Angela Beesley, Elisabeth Bauer, and Kizu Naoko about "How and Why Wikipedia Works"
- [No News] - When someone dies it is always a rush to change their article as fast as possible on Wikipedia. So also with the article about[[w:en:Kenneth Lay]]. Reuters has published an article about the short time from when the article was changed from alive to dead, and about the initial confusion about the cause of death in some versions in the first hour after the announcement of the death of Kenneth Lay. Funny is that Reuters has slightly changed their own article about the Wikipedia article because that had made a mistake. Because it came from Reuters many others have covered it like CNN.
- [Wiktionary], the dictionary project of the WMF has reached the 1,000,000 definitions milestone. Wiktionary, started on 12 December 2002, is the oldest WMF project after Wikipedia. The number of people actively working on the Wiktionaries is, compared with Wikipedia, very few. This means that one person can make a difference - a big difference. [[User:GerardM]] has managed to make an astonishing 13,000 pronunciation audio recordings for Wiktionary, with his bot 200,000 edits on the English Wiktionary and 600,000 on all Wiktionaries.
- [Edits] - the total number of edits in all Wikimedia projects surpassed 150 million.
- [ko.wiki] The Korean Wikipedia has reached 25,000 articles.
- [Campaigns] - On Wikia a new Wiki is created: "Campaigns". It launched on the American Independence Day the 4th of July. It is a new non-Wikimedia project strongly supported by Jimbo. It is a project about increasing the intelligence of politics in the USA. This new project has received a lot of attention by the media.
... that Skype can be useful for your Wikimedia-work?
On our projects many people work together. And there are many ways of communication to makes the work. But talking to someone can makes things a lot easier in some situations. You can use Skype for this. It is free to use between PC to PC. It exists for Windows. And also for Mac OS X and Linux. Those are crappy versions compared to the Windows versions but the work good enough to be useful.
You can also talk with up to 5 people in a conference call. And if like to host a virtual Wikimeet or a open meeting for you chapter maybe the Skypecast-function can be useful. With you can talk to up to 100 people.
- http://www.skype.com/
- http://skypecasts.skype.com
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Instant_Messaging_Wikipedians
Quote
"People talk a lot as if the most important thing in life is to always see things for what they really are. But everything we do, every plan we make, is kind of a lie. We're closing our eyes and pretending that the day won't ever come when we won't need to make any more plans. Hope is the biggest lie there is, and it is the best. We have to keep going as if it all mattered, or else we wouldn't keep going at all." -- Character Allie Keys / science fiction miniserie "Taken"
Editor(s): Walter - Corrector(s): Gary Kirk, Oscar - Special thanks to: Alias, Ruben Slock
Update: 2006-07-12 09:00 utc - fixt broken links
Wikizine - nr.:33 - Tech flash
Technical news
Editor(s): Walter
!!!-***Bug 550 is going to be fixed soon***-!!!
Tim Starling announced on the mailing list that very soon, probably within 24
hours, the way the block function works will change.
Most important changes;
- Allow blocks on anonymous users only (bug 550) ; this means that registered users who are using that ip address still can edit, like users who on the network of a school or need to use the proxy of there ISP
- Allow or disallow account creation from blocked IP addresses on a per-block basis
Here you can see a screenshot form the new interface;
For more information read the posting by Tim Starling;
And even more reading;
Lets rejoice ourselves, spread the news to all sysops on all +600 Wikis and celebrated this wonderful day!
Editor(s): Walter
2006-07-01
Wikizine - number: 32
Foundation
... that there is an easy way for removing many pages from you watch list?
When you like to remove many pages from your "Watchlist" ([[Special:Watchlist/edit]]) it can be that you need to check hundreds of tick boxes. That is no fun. Select the first box and then select that last box while holding <shift> pressed. All that boxes between those to are now selected.
Quote
"On average, Wikipedia will get it more right than the publishers will."
-- Scott McNealy , chairman of Sun Microsystems Inc.
Editor(s): Walter, Gary Kirk, Oscar
- [Board] member of the Wikimedia Foundation and vice-president of Wikia, Angela Beesley, has resigned from the Board of the WMF. Angela emphasizes that her reason for resignation is not another board member's fault. She is only leaving the Board, and will continue to stay involved with Wikipedia and with the Australian Chapter and Wikia. An election to replace the position of Angela on the board is expected.
- [Newsletter] - The Promotion & Translation Subcommittee of the Communications Committee has sent the first issue of their new newsletter out. This newsletter is about the translations effort. What still needs to be translated, what is done and news translation related.
- [$] The WMF received in the month of June 2006 $32,969 in donations by means of PayPal. This is a similar amount as in May and April.
- [Export/Import] Improvements have been made on the import and export functionality of MediaWiki. All wikis can already now export pages with [[Special:Export]]. The import function is off but can be enabled on request by Brion. (make a BugZilla ticket for it). This function can be used to move pages cleanly with full history between wikis. Like for transwikiïng an article from Wikipedia to Wikibooks.
- [WikiSource-l] , the mailing list for the Wikisource-project is now also accessible through gmane.org, meaning you can now read and post to this list like as if it were a usenet newsgroup or use the web-based interface.
- [?..Announce-l] seems to be also on gmane.org since February. Announce-l is the mailing list used by Wikizine. It would have been polite to inform Wikizine about this stranger, ignoring that only the listadmin is supposed to be able to add a list to gmane.
- [£$€] Daniel Mayer, aka Mav, the Chief Financial Officer, is looking for people with professional fundraising experience to help with the Fundraising Committee.
- [Idea] An idea to require a confirmed email address in order to upload images gets support. But it causes also a lengthy discussion about freedom on Wikipida.
- [Fußball] It seems that the World championship football is more interesting then Wikipedia, at least to some.
- http://tinyurl.com/ot4wg (machine translation)
- [???] "Wikipedia - the online encyclopedia that now contains nearly 40 million articles" - at least that's what British newspaper ''The Indepent'' writes.
- [Interwiki] A page is made that provides an overview of the pages from the English Wikipedia from where there are the most interwiki-links, and the number of links. And also a list of the largest Wikipedia that has no link to use articles. See explanation by Andre Engels for the details.
- [UR.wiki] The Urdu Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles. There are 104 million speakers, so there is a lot of potential for growth.
- [Trolls-Everywhere] Not only the large Wikipedias have their trolls. However, trolls can also have a positive effect. Sabine Cretella explains ...
... that there is an easy way for removing many pages from you watch list?
When you like to remove many pages from your "Watchlist" ([[Special:Watchlist/edit]]) it can be that you need to check hundreds of tick boxes. That is no fun. Select the first box and then select that last box while holding <shift> pressed. All that boxes between those to are now selected.
Quote
"On average, Wikipedia will get it more right than the publishers will."
-- Scott McNealy , chairman of Sun Microsystems Inc.
Editor(s): Walter, Gary Kirk, Oscar
