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User talk:Brooke Vibber

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I have declared talk page bankruptcy! All old messages deleted. :) --Brion VIBBER (talk) 19:05, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

How to get in touch with me

Feel free to leave me messages here about articles and such on Misplaced Pages, but if you need to prod me about a tech issue I might not see your message here. You'll get a speedier response if you track me down elsewhere...

  • Most software issues should get added to our bug tracker.
    Even if you grab ahold of me another way, it's going to be easier for me to keep track of it if it's in here!
  • IRC chat - you'll often find me in #mediawiki or #wikimedia-tech during work hours
  • direct e-mail... if you're really sure :)

Speedy deletion of Template:419 warning

A tag has been placed on Template:419 warning requesting that it be speedily deleted from Misplaced Pages. This has been done under section T3 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is a deprecated or orphaned template. After seven days, if it is still unused and the speedy deletion tag has not been removed, the template will be deleted.

If the template is intended to be substituted, please feel free to remove the speedy deletion tag and please consider putting a note on the template's page indicating that it is substituted so as to avoid any future mistakes (<noinclude>{{transclusionless}}</noinclude>).

Thanks. --MZMcBride (talk) 04:37, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Mafia-style hostage-taking cabal

How do I get to this cabal? On Misplaced Pages:List of cabals you are mentioned in the section about the cabal. -- Ketchup Krew 19:19, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:MainPage-Netscape4macfixed-brion.png

Thanks for uploading or contributing to Image:MainPage-Netscape4macfixed-brion.png. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is not a suitable explanation or rationale as to why each specific use in Misplaced Pages constitutes fair use. Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale.

If you have uploaded other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on those pages too. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Misplaced Pages page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free media lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. w 11:26, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

It takes all of three seconds to see it's a screen shot of software used to illustrate the article about the software. Next time please look at things before sending a bot to mark them. Thanks! --brion (talk) 17:24, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Thank you

for SUL. It's great (and will be greater some day, I hope). --Obersachse (talk) 20:16, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Unified Login

Hello Brion VIBBER,
i am Caligari and i am a sysop on the German wiktionary. The SUL-system reported that there is an user called Caligari on this Misplaced Pages. Is it possible to get me this account? Many Thanks in advance. - Best regards, Caligari27 (talk) 20:39, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

See m:Help:Unified login#Can I merge different usernames? and other related questions. Basically, you can either ask a steward to do the rename, or in the case of this wiki, ask a bureaucrat at WP:CHU/U. : - ) --MZMcBride (talk) 20:48, 25 March 2008 (UTC)
Hello MZMcBride,
thank You for these informations. I will request to rename me then. - Caligari27 (talk) 22:26, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Portuguese wikipedia new feature

Hi. Can you help me, please? The portuguese wikipedia community is debating if we should implement a wizard similar to Wizard-Introduction. The only difference would be that, after the unresgistered user completes the wizard, the new article would be immediately created rather than being sent to revision. Could you please let me know if this new feature can be implemented in wiki pt? Thanks and regards, --Rodrigofera (talk) 17:22, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with this wizard. If it's here, I assume it's a local set of pages or JavaScript thingies? --brion (talk) 18:27, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
I forgot to put the link, its here Wizard introduction, can you help me please? --Rodrigofera (talk) 17:03, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
Help me please, --Rodrigofera (talk) 11:04, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Where are the 684 million wikipedians?

Visitors to wikipedia.org in 2008

Assuming that Compete data and Alexa data are correct, why is wiki so popular in South America?Anwar (talk) 07:39, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

thanks man

this is rainboqer thanks for the info! P.S. how do you change your keybord? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rainboqer (talk • contribs) 20:31, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Depends on your OS -- often you'll find something under 'input methods' or 'languages' or 'internationalization'. --brion (talk) 21:48, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Wikinews radio

Hi Brion, writing here because I suspect you check this more often than Wikinews.

There's a start on a discussion over on Wikinews about radio (as opposed to OGG files from Commons). See here. What I'm interested in knowing is how feasible the idea is with free software and codecs.

How I would imagine something like this working is a DPL of recent audio material which a server would stream on a repeating loop. the WN:AUDIO stuff sort-of covers this, but I'm thinking more along the lines of (forgive the proprietary protocol) mms://en.wikinews.org. So, if you want the latest Wikinews stuff you just fire this up in your player and can then get on with doing other things. I suspect this would be of interest outside the English Wikinews community and would be not in the least surprised if the Polish wanted it too.

Can you give a quick comment on how technically feasible this would be and a ballpark on how much developer time it would require? I suspect we could get some of the more technically minded Wikinewsies to help out in bundling up what we'd need, but there are probably security considerations I am not taking into account. --Brian McNeil / 09:55, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like ogg vorbis streaming is pretty standard out there. --brion (talk) 22:07, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

System Developer/steward

I recently passed my A Level computing with a Distinction and was wondering if i could be a developer or a steward as i got the highest mark that you can get (100%) I was wondering if i could upload my programme which does the same work as 10 stewards and automatically reviews the requests for admins and the Bureaucrats. Would love the opportunity to use my software on the wiki and would be proud to offer exclusive rights to the wiki organisation.

Yours Sincerly

Chris19910 (talk) 08:13, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I have copied what Mr Wales said to my request:

Best to ask Brion Vibber or some of the stewards....--Jimbo Wales (talk) 22:06, 24 April 2008 (UTC)


I was wondering if this would be possible. I have been trying to test it but i keep getting told off for trying it out thats why i spoke to Jimbo Wales.

Yours Sincerly


Chris19910 (talk) 10:30, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

The Third of May 1808

Just when you protected it, you protected a vandalized version of the article. Can you fix that? TheKillerAngel (talk) 17:13, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Please unprotect this. I don't see how you have any right to deny editors access to the article. Ceoil (talk) 17:30, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Is it difficult to change?

Hello, I'm from Portuguese Misplaced Pages. There is a discussion about image policy there. There is a proposal that says to allow the use of images uploaded in other wikipedias. For example, if I want to use a image uploaded here, I'd write ] on an article in pt.wikipedia. Is it easy to change wikipedia software for portuguese wikipedia to use images uploaded in other wikipedias? --Virtual Avatar (talk) 23:40, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

I need your help

Please, can you check if its possible to make it Wizard introduction in portuguese wikipedia? The only difference would be that, after the unresgistered user completes the wizard, the new article would be immediately created rather than being sent to revision. Could you please let me know if this new feature can be implemented in wiki pt? Thanks and regards, --Rodrigofera (talk) 10:00, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

LocalSettings

Is it possible, through SVN or otherwise, to read the LocalSettings for Misplaced Pages? Dragons flight (talk) 17:21, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

There's a fairly recent copy of much of Wikimedia's configuration files here. They were last updated in March. InitialiseSettings and CommonSettings would be what you're looking for. Mr.Z-man 23:02, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Disclaimers on Simple English

Hi Brion,

I posted on your simple: talk page but haven't got a response as of yet..

I was wondering if you could spare a moment to give me some feedback of whether I can go straight ahead and replace the current simple: disclaimers (which I believe are from 2004/2005ish) with my proposal disclaimers, which are basically the current en: ones, with a message at the top saying it is the en: versions that bind simple:, but with the text simplified so it can be read more easily.

Obviously, I'm reluctant to be bold, as it's the legal disclaimers, but I've waited just over a month and posted in many places about it without getting a reply, and would really appreciate the go-ahead or don't-go-ahead.

Many thanks, Drum guy (talk) 22:44, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

 Done It's sorted now; thanks :) Drum guy (talk) 23:40, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:Village pump (technical)/Archive 38#Search box problems

I just noticed that over the last cople of days it's been acting up again. Cheers. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 13:45, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Popped the down server back out of the load-balancer list manually; looking into what's causing it to not be properly detected. Thanks for the heads-up! --brion (talk) 03:01, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
Just want to make sure I got this straight, you consulted the entrails of a passing admin, sacrificed two newbies to Jimbo and all is good again, right? Cheers. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 16:31, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

CentralAuth stack trace

Please see not sure where to report bugs, very unfamiliar with bugzilla. I think there is a bug somewhere in CentralAuth. StefanBot (talk) 09:45, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

soxbot v block

SoxBot V (talk · contribs) is a bot created for that very purpose, there are many other bots out there that do the same. – TWG 08:44, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Image:California map showing counties (source).xcf.gz

A tag has been placed on Image:California map showing counties (source).xcf.gz requesting that it be speedily deleted from Misplaced Pages. This has been done under section I2 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an image page for a missing or corrupt image or an empty image description page for a Commons-hosted image.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on ] explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines. --pbroks13 17:26, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Noted on the page; file is not corrupt, it's just not a format we use for new uploads. --brion (talk) 17:37, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages logo

I noticed you changed the file recently, to save on bandwidth. I have further compressed it at Image:Wiki2.png. You can read about it on that image's page, or at Image talk:Wiki.png#Grayscale. If you are satisfied with it, would you upload it to Image:wiki.png? happypal (Talk | contribs) 16:44, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Password recovery

Hi! I sent an email to you (as suggested here) about a week and a half ago about resetting the password of my German Misplaced Pages account, and just wanted to make sure you got it, since I haven't heard any response. If it's not too much trouble, could we get this taken care of, please? Or alternatively, is there someone else more appropriate whom I should ask instead? Thanks! -Bbik 16:39, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Technical question

I had a question (that I actually asked Jimbo Wales first) that concerns storage space. I was hoping you were close enough to the hardware to actually answer this.

Anyway, here it is:

How much total space (in the whole Misplaced Pages project, all name spaces, etc.) is taken up by Misplaced Pages:Requested articles and all subpages (as two raw values, maybe with a percentage)? Also, how many links are present in Misplaced Pages:Requested articles (et. al.), and, assuming the size of the "average page", how much space would it take up if someone created all articles at the same time?

Thanks, Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 01:12, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

No clue! ;) It's tough to evaluate "space usage" in a case like this; text storage is compressed and distributed, and of course you'd have to decide how to consider templates and images (which can be shared between pages) and whether you want to include complete editing histories or not.
If you select your criteria, you could build pretty fair numbers out of the visible page histories/info (or do it in bulk via API queries or loading from an old data dump). --brion (talk) 22:17, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

MediaWiki Help

I'm instlling MediaWiki software onto my machine to turn it into a server (my IBSS is still under development, and this is a good hosting software). I have Apache2.2, am actively downloading MySQL, got a release of jZip, and all of MediaWiki extracted into my C:\Program Files\MediaWiki. From the manual, though, it gets a little difficult to understand.

In the following examples, it is assumed that your website is located at http://www.example.com/ which is physically located on your server at /home/example/web. You will need to adjust the examples to use the appropriate locations for your situation.

  • Use your web browser to browse to the main wiki page. This is the web-accessible folder that you installed MediaWiki into, and is typically /wiki (e.g. http://www.example.com/, assuming you installed MediaWiki to /home/example/web/wiki).

This is a section of the Manual:Config_script part. I set the Apache to have server name www.gwiki.net, but this path isn't found (at least in http:). You can ask me for my computer's name. I don't know how to "browse to the main wiki page." It is 4:47 AM EDT (my local time) and I'm really getting tired. Any help? If it isn't too much, can you actually do anything more to guide me through this process? I don't have much experience in turning PC's into apache servers. Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 08:47, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Update: According to GoDaddy.com, www.gwiki.net is "parked", whatever that means. Also, I got a CGI plugin for Python, but I don't know how to attach the .py script to the .cgi (so what I have is an HTML block in a .cgi script that remains constant, but a script that would change it.). I NEED

Censorship warningMisplaced Pages is not censored.
Images or details contained within this article may be graphic or otherwise objectionable to some readers, to ensure a quality article and complete coverage of its subject matter. For more information, please refer to Misplaced Pages's content disclaimer regarding potentially objectionable content and options for not seeing an image.

HELP!!! 64.136.26.230 (talk) 06:10, 7 August 2008 (UTC) That's Gnorthup to you, Misplaced Pages.

OK, apparently someone has taken this domain...I've changed it, and you can still contact me. But I'm still clueless...I've messed around with the configuration for my server software, I've searched for every alternate domain possible, and I'm still drawing a blank. That and the CGI stuff just peeves me. Really. (OK, not REALLY really, but I'm slightly annoyed). Suggestions are completely welcome. Very welcome.
Please? 70.100.234.244 (talk) 07:17, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Please help me somehow ! User:Gnorthup, even if SineBot says not.

Your words come back to haunt you!

re: Misplaced Pages:VPP#Alter_Template:reflist_pending_feasibility_at_WP:TFD

And Template_talk:Reflist#Editprotect_request_2008-08-01, where I quoted you in the section above. The discussion has been moved to the template talk page so the second link will do.

I've basically called into question whether the community should be allowing the dual column references, based on your comments (as I quoted) back in February (IIRC). I'm sure we'd all appreciate a clarification as the template has become one of the most common on the site. I've raised a question as to whether you could do a <reference-2> magic word in the system software and so make the matter "aggressively cached". Finding the midpoint in the reflist and parsing it to two columns can't be all that difficult! Thanks in advance for your attention to this matter. // FrankB 23:34, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you're talking about, exactly. Multi-column reference lists are a bad idea because:
  1. They look terrible on small screens (limited space and wrapping issues)
  2. They usually print terribly (wrapping issues exacerbated by URL expansion)
  3. They're always hard to navigate
I have no idea why you reference "caching" or what "<reference-2>" would mean. --brion (talk) 01:12, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

An idea

Dear Brion, An idea sprung into my head, but as an amateur to programming I have no idea if it could be introduced into WP (economically) etc.
I often read a scientific article, where the abbreviation of an expression is given at its first appearance and afterwards it may take ages to find that when later in the text only the abbreviation is used.
If we could put a marker on the abbreviations to give the meaning on pointing the mouse onto it this problem would be solved. Of course the editors and the readership would have to be told about the existence of this little gadget. If such a solution to the problem would be viable, then of course it would have implications beyond Misplaced Pages. Regards, LouisBB (talk) 08:20, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

bugzilla:671 :D --brion (talk) 14:38, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

First article

What was the first article created in Misplaced Pages, and was this created by Misplaced Pages itself, or by the first citizen to use it?

Misplaced Pages:UuU :D --brion (talk) 13:56, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Edits before 10:45 am EST today do not appear in any user's contributions?

Gary King (talk) 18:39, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

A DB crash; it's resyncing and should be up to date shortly. --brion (talk) 19:32, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Wikinews has been hacked

has been hacked with a message saying: "This is the Zodiac speaking. Do you think you cowards can run from me? No you cannot, for I am above mortal things. ЕНКЁШКААНЛЁПЕЦЦААЭАН ДАЛЫЧЫНВКЁШКАШЕАНЦА АМЫНЮЛЛЕЯЬЦЦЫМЬЫНЕ НКЫЫЪЕХЦЫЬЕНДЁЪПХЫ НЦЕХЁККААМПЫАКЮЫНКЁ ЛМЕЦЮХАЦЦАЁЪВАШМЕЯ АШЕЁННЫЫНХАЮШКААШ ЫНЮНПЫЦЬЫШЫЙЪЫЦЦ ЬЬЦЕХДЬШЕНПЙШЬККЫЁ НЦЙПЕЪЫЬШЫКЁЯА! " and more not included. Please notify the appropriate person. This is message is going to all system admins. Calebrw (talk) 04:58, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Plain old template vandalism, nothing to worry about. -- Tim Starling (talk) 05:27, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Users in wikipedia in spanish

Hi! I'm an user of the Misplaced Pages in spanish language. I'll talk you in spanish better because my english isn't very well.

Soy un usuario de wikipedia en español y he de avisar a algún usuario con cierto poder dentro de la misma, y veo que tú lo puedes ser, de los abusos de poder que algunos usuarios y bibliotecarios y burócratas hacen en wikipedia contra otros usuarios (entre ellos yo). Los usuarios son y las razones para quejarme on las siguientes:

  • Usuario MiguelAngel fotografo
  • Usuario JMFD
  • Usuario Calapito

Este grupo de usuarios se apropia de artículos de wikipedia como si fueran suyos, evitando un consenso de edición en cada uno de ellos e intentando manipular la información de estos artículos a sus propios gustos. Dichos artículos son los artículos de Mazagón , Fuente de Pinete (Moguer) y Puerto de la Ribera (Moguer) , además de apropiarse también de los artículos que ellos mismos crean y editan a sus anchas. Todo esto se puede comprobar en la discusión de estos artículos en la wikipedia en español.

  • (Bibliotecario y Burócrata) Netito777

Este bibliotecario y burócrata hace abuso de sus poderes no revisando los bloqueos de algunos usuarios de la forma correcta, manipulando páginas de usuarios a sus anchas y editándolas a su manera dando razones inexistentes por la cual debiera de modificar dichas páginas. Algunos de los usuarios cuyo bloqueo no ha sido correctamente revisados y habiendo hecho abuso de sus poderes los ha vuelto a bloquear son los usuarios Danieldomnguez y DANKO-JONES. El segundo de ellos es porque según dice la cuenta de usuario está activa, siendo todo ello mentira.

  • (Check User y Bibliotecario) Drini

También hizo abusos de sus poderes como tal, bloqueando al usuario Daniel dominguez vega, por ser un POSIBLE títere de otro usuario anteriormente bloqueado, es decir, le bloqueo por una posibilidad. Pues es como si se metiera en la cárcel a alguien por una posibilidad de que haya robado algo. Además, le culpó de ser una cuenta de usuario con propósito único, habiendo tenido este usuario únicamente 4 horas para editar en wikipedia (tiempo desde la creación de la cuenta hasta su bloqueo), tiempo suficiente que le dió a este usuario para editar solo en un artículo. Con tan solo 4 horas nadie puede editar en wikipedia en más de un artículo. Este usuario ha bloqueado a este usuario de forma permanente por dos motivos sin pruebas ni sin tan si quiera tener razones de peso para ello.

Por estas razones expongo mis pruebas para que todos estos usuarios sean vigilados de cerca y juzgados por un usuario de poder máximo en wikipedia para que pongan fin a sus abusos y apropiaciones de artículos por parte de quien realice sendas acciones. Confío totalmente en usted para que ponga orden en la Misplaced Pages en español. Misplaced Pages en español está llegando a un punto en el que los usuarios (por ejemplo Netito777) intentan callar la boca de otros porque no opinen o piensen igual que ellos violando el derecho de libertad de expresión en la wikipedia. La prueba de ello está n la página de usuario de Danieldomnguez que ha sido editada por dicho usuario a sus anchas indicando que se violan unas normas que en ningún momento se violan con esa frase en cuestión, pues es simplemente que piensa distinto a sí mismo y abusa de sus poderes bloqueando a este usuario por ese motivo totalmente innecesario.

confío plenamente en usted para que pare estos abusos y corrija los errores que estos usuarios arriba indicados han causado en la Misplaced Pages en español.

Le saluda atentamente, Dadove. --88.7.234.198 (talk) 17:10, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure there's much I can do directly (my Spanish is not quite good enough to resolve a detailed dispute!); you should probably take this to es:Misplaced Pages:Comité de Resolución de Conflictos --brion (talk) 18:15, 25 August 2008 (UTC)
Prefiero que, si tiene usted esa información, me dijera cuál es el usuario de mayor poder dentro de la wikipedia en español, para comentarle esta situación y que él pueda mediar, ya que un miembro de este mismo comité, también está (o puede estar) metido dentro del mismo lío. Si supiera del nombre de ese usuario de poder máximo dentro de la wikipedia en español, se lo agradecería muchísimo. Thanks! --88.7.234.198 (talk) 06:45, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Wiktionary constipation

Greetings!

I'm one of the admins on the English Wiktionary. We've been frustrated for a while over there in that there has not been a successful XML dump since March of this year. This has prevented the analysis of statistics among other things. We would really appreciate it if someone could rectify this issue. Frankly, I have no idea who ought to be contacted (or where), and another admin suggested contacting you. --EncycloPetey (talk) 22:33, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi EncycloPetey, you might try m:Requests for dumps. I don't know if anyone actually checks it, but this is theoretically what it's for. —RuakhTALK 17:48, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
Judging by the page content and edit history, no one ever checks that page. --EncycloPetey (talk) 03:59, 30 August 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, I don't think I've even heard of it. We'll try to get dumps going again soon. --brion (talk) 17:52, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Requesting your attention

Hello Brion, I have sent you an email regarding a problem I reported at http://meta.wikimedia.org/Help_talk:Unified_login#Ran_into_a_problem . When you have some time I would appreciate it if you could look into it.

Thank you,

--Kalsermar (talk) 17:16, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Did I hear right?

I heard you were sick... ~user:orngjce223 how am I typing? 05:31, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Fy

Can you affirm the edits by anonimous on fy:Meidogger:Brion_VIBBER? Aliter (talk) 20:21, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Feature question

Would it be technically feasible to automatically suppress certain kinds of template tags in the article space, except for registered editors who have opted-in to see them? Robert K S (talk) 15:32, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Theoretically, yes. (Suppression via CSS would be simplest, as this reduces caching issues, and would allow JS to do in-page switching.) --brion (talk) 18:39, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Flagged revisions

I've heard that the developer team has completed the work necessary to implement flagged revisions in en.Misplaced Pages. Is there a timeline on when this will be turned on or implemented, or at least given an operational test run? Much appreciated. Cla68 (talk) 02:32, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Please tell me you aren't planning on implementing this here? When this was implemented on Wikinews EN about a month or two ago, it caused no end of arguments and grief. I hope you know what you are letting yourselves in for! Thor Malmjursson (talk) 03:12, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
Wikinews loves Flagged revisions. Don't let the naysayers get you down. (Of course, I don't remember reading anything about any time soon, so I don't know why I'm commenting here...) Bastique 17:39, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Image scaling

In Russian Misplaced Pages scaled images are not displayed. Example. Probably some server software update gone wrong. Can you fix it?DonaldDuck (talk) 15:56, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Polinomi

This morning when I ask the page , about 11 am (local hour in Spain) in the catalan Viquipèdia, the computer ask me ¿do you want to open or download this file? I downloaded it and I have now a strange file in my computer: "Polinomi". Please might you investigate that strange? Vibria (talk) 16:00, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Hi

Hey Brion, You may not know me yet :P Since I am an addict and being active a lot on Wikinews, was wondering can I have an email address on Wikinews. Since that would be the only thing I would be working on (wikinews) and highly addicted to it. Thanks Danger^Mouse (talk) 10:20, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

We don't really provide such e-mail addresses, sorry! --brion (talk) 17:14, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

Main Page redesign

The Main Page Redesign proposal is currently conducting a straw poll to select five new designs, before an RFC in which one will be proposed to replace the Main Page. The poll closes on October 31st. Your input would be hugely appreciated! Many thanks, Pretzels 12:37, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

SF Meetup #8

  In the area? You're invited to
   San Francisco Meetup # 8
  Date: November 8th, 2008
  Time: 2PM
  Place: Metacafe, Palo Alto, California
  prev: Meetup 7 - next: Meetup 9
You received this invite because you added your name to the Invite list. If you don't wish to be invited any more, simply remove your name. Thanks. --ShakataGaNai 18:28, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

xx

strange bug

I've copied this from my talk page, including the advice that you were the goto person. I am reluctant to clear my monobook page until someone more knowledgeable than me tells me if there is goodware or malware in it. Sorry to trouble you, but I don't have good advice otherwise avaialble. Bellagio99 (talk) 22:02, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

AfD nomination of Languages in Star Wars

I have nominated Languages in Star Wars, an article that you created, for deletion. I do not think that this article satisfies Misplaced Pages's criteria for inclusion, and have explained why at Misplaced Pages:Articles for deletion/Languages in Star Wars. Your opinions on the matter are welcome at that same discussion page; also, you are welcome to edit the article to address these concerns. Thank you for your time. --EEMIV (talk) 02:12, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

Job queues, substitution and other fun stuff

Hi! As the tech god of Misplaced Pages, I was wondering if you could lend some godly advice to this discussion about the benefits/drawbacks of template substitution and when to see a doctor. Thanks, Master of Puppets Call me MoP! :) 00:04, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Slight behavior change

Brion - Not exactly wonkyness, but the new version of api.php exhibits a minor behavior change relative to the last version. In the allpages query, if a namespace is specified, the old version apparently stripped the namespace from the apfrom parameter before executing the query. The new version seems to no longer do this. -- Rick Block (talk) 18:37, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Not sure offhand what it should do here; I forwarded it to the mediawiki-api list. --brion (talk) 01:28, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

{{delimitnum}} and {{val}}

  • I’ve been conversing with Z-man, here and he suggested I contact you.

    Z-man wrote that the Extension:StringFunctions extension has some functions that might be able to be used for the below-described templates but it needs to first be reviewed and activated. That’s why I’m here.

    There are two templates, {{delimitnum}} and {{val}}, that delimit numbers (add narrow spaces) in values like this: 6.0224438467(40)×10 kg. Unfortunately, both these templates must rely upon math-based techniques and both suffer from unpredictable rounding errors. For instance, coding {{val|0.29872813|e=-23|u=kg}} produces 0.29872813×10 kg (note the …29) but adding 2 to the value, {{val|2.29872813|e=-23|u=kg}} produces the correct 2.29872813×10 kg. Note that this was extensively discussed here on WT:MOSNUM and received broad support on both there and at WT:MOS.

    I had told Z-man that all we needed was nothing more than a character-counting parser function  to use in these templates. Such a parser function would continually be asked the following question: “are there five or more remaining digits in the string?” If so, move over three more digits, add a space, and ask the question again. Details are at bugzilla:15677 and a detailed description of its functionality is here.

    Can you help in any way? Whereas it would be nice to see an easier-to-use template as is described in bugzilla:15677, looking at the number of articles that currently link to {{val}} and {{delimitnum}}, it would probably be better, if we were going to just make one template, to just re-write {val} with the character-counting capability. And for that, all we need is a character-counting parser function (Extension:StringFunctions?) All it needs is to not choke on big numbers and not have rounding errors. Greg L (talk) 00:28, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

  • If you can’t help, could you answer this one question: how long do you think it would take for an experienced developer to write a character-counting parser function? Greg L (talk) 18:38, 27 November 2008 (UTC)


Image:MainPage-w3m-brion.png listed for deletion

An image or media file that you uploaded or altered, Image:MainPage-w3m-brion.png, has been listed at Misplaced Pages:Images and media for deletion. Please see the discussion to see why this is (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry), if you are interested in it not being deleted. Thank you. Calliopejen1 (talk) 14:06, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Category:Talk

Random Article Improvements / "Interesting Article" Feature

Hey, I noted your comment on the Village Pump about my random article suggestion, and you're right - an interesting article link is exactly what I'm after. I've thought of a number of ways you could implement this, but my favorite one for now is to ask users to rate some pages' "interestingness" and then apply text mining/machine learning algorithms to compute the interestingness across all articles. Btw, I work at microsoft as a software developer, so I might be able to contribute to something like this (although I haven't used php in ages, so it'd probably have to be in c++ or c#). I'm not sure what kind of computational resources you have to throw at it either. bdodson (talk) 08:32, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Mislocalization

Just FYI, I am occasionally seeing the donation banner mislocalized. It will sometimes say Support "Meta" rather than "Misplaced Pages". Dragons flight (talk) 18:50, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

I believe we got that one taken care of... an editing glitch of some kind borked one of the banners. --brion (talk) 01:11, 15 December 2008 (UTC)


Misplaced Pages:Bureaucrats

Hi! As a bureaucrat on Misplaced Pages, I'd very much appreciate it if you would fill in your details on the newly updated Bureaucrats page. Thanks! Majorly 14:28, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

contents on Nazism in Intrauterine device

Hi Brion,

I was browsing the entry Intrauterine device today and found that page was all in red, with contents on Nazism like this:

"We must protect our white nation
And murder the savage subhuman
Jews, Niggers, and Muslims."
- American Nazi Party and Consultec Software Founder David Mack
To donate, contact us at:
40 SQUANNACOOK DR
GROTON, MA 01450
978-272-1289
You're help to kill the black and zionist beasts
is greatly appreciated.
Heil Hitler and White America

I've tried different browsers like Firefox 3.0, Google Chrome and Opera 9.63, but this problem always exists. When I logged out there's no problem. I'm wondering why this thing could happen. Is there any way to solve this problem? Thank you.--Kegns (talk) 15:31, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

I started a thread on WP:AN about this. — Rlevse • Talk • 18:57, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
Template vandalism, being worked on. — Rlevse • Talk • 19:02, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Bug 16786

Thanks for fixing this! —  Tivedshambo  (t/c) 22:31, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

User talk:Tony1/AdminWatch

A question just came up here. Assuming that policy could be changed is it technically possible to allow blocked editors to edit certain other pages for the purpose of making a report? CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 17:18, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Ah, I answered my own question. Cheers. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 18:14, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Rename seemed to crash resulting in inability to log into newly created account

Resolved

Rlevse suggested I drop you a line about my rename which seemed to crash resulting an inability to log into the newly created account. while logging in as xeno: 

A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was:
    (SQL query hidden)
from within function "User::saveSettings". MySQL returned error "1062: Duplicate entry 'Xenocidic' for key 2 (10.0.0.235)".

See also User_talk:Rlevse#something_hokey_with_rename / Bugzilla:17082. Rlevse added sysop to this account in the interim. any help would be appreciated as the watchlist went to the new account. =). cheers, –xeno (talk) 03:50, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Special:WhatLinksHere and length of job queue

Brion,

I've tried both the Village Pump and the Help Desk to get an answer to this question, but so far all I've been able to get is a half answer — "it's the job queue". So, I thought I had nothing to lose by going straight to the top in hopes that you can provide the full story.

I do a lot of disambiguation work. This often involves updates to templates, revising a link in the template so that it points to the correct article rather than to the disambiguation page.

While the pages on which the template appears usually update right away, there's always been a bit of a lag in the "WhatLinksHere" for the disambiguation page clearing itself up. Back in the summer, that lag would range from a few hours to a couple of days. Now, there are template edits that I've made more than a month ago that still haven't been reflected in the disambiguation page's "WhatLinksHere".

As I said, the explanation I've been given is that this is happening because of the length of the job queue, but that doesn't feel like the whole story. Is the job queue materially longer now than it was six months ago? If so, is there a priority given to certain types of jobs - that is, do updates to "WhatLinksHere" receive a substantially lower priority than other items that need to be processed, thereby accounting for the delay. That's the only thing that makes sense to me — otherwise, even if the job queue was long, these updates should still work their way through the system eventually.

I know this probably isn't a big concern in the grand scheme of things; it's just that it makes it difficult to make sure that you've properly disambiguated incoming links.

Any light you could shed on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Mlaffs (talk) 21:36, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

We're currently in the process of fixing up the job queue so we'll have a better idea of what's going on in it. --brion (talk) 17:33, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you

Thanks, Brion, for re-adding titles to permalinks. I really appreciate your work. --Pixelface (talk) 22:44, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

enwiki dump

Hello Brion,

Happy-melon told me to poke you,so... Thanks for terminating the October 08 dump for enwiki. Would it be possible to move enwiki to the head of the queue? Otherwise we'll have to wait another 3 weeks for a current dump of the metadata tables.

Many thanks, --B. Wolterding (talk) 01:00, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Master of Puppets

I noticed the article history of Master of Puppets starts off with this edit by Conversion script (talk · contribs), whose user page says to contact you. I don't see this listed in Misplaced Pages:Usemod article histories. Is this the way it's supposed to be? davidwr/(talk)/(contribs)/(e-mail) 05:29, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

your feedback would be apreciated!

Misplaced Pages:Village_pump_(technical)#merging_consecutive_edits_from_same_user.3F

Thanks! 212.200.240.232 (talk) 11:06, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Edit re-assignment

Hi!

I hope you're the right person to ask this. I had a username change done more than 2 weeks ago and my edits have still not been re-assigned. Is that something you could look into for me? I would appreciate it if you could.

Thanks. Big Bird (talk • contribs) 13:37, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Impersonation

How was it possible for someone to register the name "McGyverMagic" with the A missing? I was under the impression the software checked to see if names look too much like anything that already exists. - Mgm| 11:11, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

There is a check, but it's not all-knowing; it may well miss that. Additionally, sysops can override that to register a name for someone else that's legit but being caught by the filter. --brion (talk) 17:18, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

File:California map showing counties (source).xcf.gz listed for deletion

An image or media file that you uploaded or altered, File:California map showing counties (source).xcf.gz, has been listed at Misplaced Pages:Files for deletion. Please see the discussion to see why this is (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry), if you are interested in it not being deleted. Thank you. Papa November (talk) 22:47, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Image Compression

I noticed that you updated the file:wiki.png file a while by changing the color scale saving several kilobytes. You may be interested in several compressions on various images in heavy use at Misplaced Pages ( I have managed to compress the header logo at www.wikipedia.org by ~5kb). Please seeMisplaced Pages:Village_pump_(technical)#Smaller_Wikipedia_Logo_files.Thank you in advanceSmallman12q (talk) 02:39, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Bug resolution

Can this

Tidying developers' user rights - discussion on meta

Apologies for posting this in English...

There is a discussion currently ongoing on meta about "tidying" the developers' user rights": now that you are members of the global "system administrators" group (with the ability to assign yourself whatever permissions you need) there's no real need for you to continue to have rights like "developer", "steward" and "bureaucrat" locally on various wikis. Obviously the intention is not to say "you can't have these rights, we're taking them away" - that would be completely silly. If you need a particular permission on a particular wiki, however, it's now easiest simply to assign that permission to the global group using Special:GlobalGroupPermissions; the idea is to establish a precedent that, in the interests of tidiness, rights assigned by the developers in the course of their work are "easy come, easy go": they can be both granted and removed at any time.

I'd greatly appreciate your input to the discussion, which is at meta:Wikimedia forum#Tidying developers' user rights. In particular, I'd like to know if you'd like your CheckUser/Oversight rights (which you have in several places) to be excluded from such a practice. Happy‑melon 13:39, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Internal link capability for diffs

Yo Brion, I was looking through WP:VP/T and came across a section asking how internal links to diffs are made. Since there's no way to do this, I think a good way to have the link formatted would be ] or something like that. Of course, I've no idea how to implement it, it's just a suggestion to make diff-linking easier. --Gp75motorsports 15:58, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Wikiquote LT (MediaWiki Help) - #REDIRECT Target page name etc.

Wikiquote LT don't have MediaWiki #REDIRECT Target page name etc. Can You help?  :-) --Redagavimas (talk) 14:28, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Barfy

Thank you for experimenting with Misplaced Pages. Your test worked, and the page that you created has been or soon will be deleted. Please use the sandbox for any other tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Misplaced Pages's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the page does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that they userfy the page or have a copy emailed to you. Cycle~ (talk) 20:28, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Please read

WP:ELNO. --ABIJXY (talk) 05:16, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Here's what it says:

Links normally to be avoided

11. Links to blogs, personal web pages and most fansites, except those written by a recognized authority (this exception is meant to be very limited; as a minimum standard, recognized authorities always meet Misplaced Pages's notability criteria for biographies).

--ABIJXY (talk) 17:52, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

I really don't know what about this is unclear... --ABIJXY (talk) 20:36, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Added id to mobile code in common.js

Totally trivial change, but I added an id to the div so that users can disable it/hide it via custom css/js. Cheers =) --slakr 06:19, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Spiffy, thanks! -- brion (talk) 01:27, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

WikiAtlas

Why aren't you interested in developing our own WikiMapia system? Wouldn't a WikiAtlas sister project be useful to wiki media? Dr. Blofeld 15:57, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm interested, but it is not up to me.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 17:55, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi. I did mention it at the Meta Wiki before but any discussion seems to get overidden with other discussions underneath and in the end it ends up being only two or three people commenting on it! I think that a WikiAtlas sister project would be a great idea and whereas with WikiMapia it is just a map with names, our own Atlas project could have the articles on wikipedia wiki linked on the atlas or at least a summary comes up when you hover over a place name etc so we take the maps a step further by actually providing information about these places by linking to wikipedia. Like WikiMini Atlas but obviously more professional looking maps and details, showing highways, towns and villages, evne landmarks like notable govenrment buildings and churches, airports etc with labels like wikimapia when you zoom in on them. It would also fit in with standard encyclopedias which always have a proper atlas for reference usually in the center. I just thinking that the information provided on maps should be part of our overall project goal to provide knowledge and the goal which WikiMapia is trying to achieve, "with the aim of describing the whole world" is pretty much our own philosophy within reason. I think the wiki project is large enough in scope to make it successful eventually. I know a great deal of people look for maps on the web of places for a reference but where we could differ from google and wikimapia in this respect we would have info summarised about these places too rather than just location. If given time to develop it might even help generate more traffic towards the site and project in the long term if more and more people use it for a reference when looking for maps too. I would very much like to help make something happen in this area, could you mention it to anybody on the board or suggest how we might start a fuller discussion on it? Thanks. Dr. Blofeld 11:32, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

If you are genuinely interested could you please mention it or suggest a way we can work towards making it happen? Dr. Blofeld 15:32, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

This space is probably best handled by OpenStreetMap. We're looking at more collaboration possibilities... --brion (talk) 19:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Log deletion

Please can you delete a log for me... --Samllaws300 (talk) 14:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

User:Heathermtimm, The Uploader

Seems to be inactive now, the only uploader. If s/he wants to upload more images, couldn't s/he just make a bunch of dummy edits to their userspace or something? –xeno (talk) 20:19, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

An A-Z index option in the browser

Hi Brion. I was wondering if it is possible for you to add a choice in people's preferences in gadgets or miscellaneous to quickly access the A-Z index along the top itinery. You know you have the option to have the time displayed alongside user page, preferences watchlist my contributions etc. Could you add an option which features the A-Z quick index link at the top. You'd think as an encyclopedia there would be an option in the browser to quickly access it rather than having to go back and forth to the front page. What do you think? Dr. Blofeld 19:22, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Alphabetical indexes in printed encyclopedias are an artifact of the inert nature of paper publishing; online, the search box will turn up what you're looking for much faster. --brion (talk) 20:33, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi. Well I know of course the best way to search for a topic you want is to quickly type in the search which I use mostly. My request was for venturing into reading what you don't know or articles which you didn't know existed, kind of like browsing through an A-Z encyclopedia in alpha order aonto the next article rather than searching for an article or subject you know of or click a blue link for a related article. It isn't essential but thought as a quick browsing option in preferences not unreasonable. I actually use modern setting. Dr. Blofeld 21:58, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm sure someone at WP:VPT or User scripts could come up with something to suit your needs... –xeno 22:06, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
There are many ways to get to the alpha index pages already, should you be in the mood for it. There's even a link on Misplaced Pages's front page. However since this isn't a useful bit of general navigation, it wouldn't make any sense to add it to the overall UI. --brion (talk) 23:47, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

StatusBot

Hello,

you blocked the StatusBot and I am not sure why. It's job is to change a person's status when they turn online. So it is supposed to make edits when a user is editing. Can you please explain more. Thanks!--gordonrox24 (talk) 22:18, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

That's an abuse of Misplaced Pages's server resources. --brion (talk) 23:45, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
But it is an approved bot. Why would it be approved if it's job was against the rules?--gordonrox24 (talk) 00:11, 28 April 2009 (UTC)
Because someone who didn't know what they were doing approved it, and then we came in and corrected that mistake? This was like a couple years ago wans't it? Why are you asking about this? --brion (talk) 05:35, 28 April 2009 (UTC)
That is weird. The bot was working on my user page until yesturday. Ya, I checked and it was blocked in 2008. That is very weird. Thanks!--gordonrox24 (talk) 11:20, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

RfD nomination of Misplaced Pages:!Long articles

I have nominated Misplaced Pages:!Long articles (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) for discussion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at the discussion page. Thank you. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • 14:31, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

RfD nomination of Misplaced Pages:!Short articles

I have nominated Misplaced Pages:!Short articles (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) for discussion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at the discussion page. Thank you. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • 14:31, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Request for help

I thought it might be a good idea to run a contest or two through the Countries WikiProject to attract editors to improve country coverage on Misplaced Pages, especially the country outlines.

I noticed you are a member of the WikiProject, and was wondering if you could help.

I've posted a message at Countries WikiProject talk page to get discussion started on what the awards programs should be and how they should be run.

Your ideas and feedback would be greatly appreciated.

The Transhumanist    23:14, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

I need a German Misplaced Pages bureaucrat

Greetings. I used to edit under the name Tempo rubato. I recently requested a change to the name Rigaudon. After I made the request but before it was dealt with, a vandal registered the name Rigaudon on German Misplaced Pages and somehow was automatically given the name here. See my request here, but it was also done to several other people who requested name changes around the same time. The thief was blocked and the account was renamed, so I was able to take the name. However, when I tried to create the account Rigaudon at Wiktionary today, I was unable to do so. It asked for my global password, which was not the same as the one that I use here. I asked the bureaucrat who renamed my account what I should do and he suggested that I contact German Misplaced Pages or a steward. I found the German page by following the link at the left of Misplaced Pages:Changing username, but was baffled by all the instructions in German. So I looked at the list of German bureaucrats, hoping to find one who spoke English, and ended on your page. I hope you'll be able to help. I'd like to register Rigaudon at Wiktionary and perhaps a few other projects, and can only do so if the Rigaudon at German Misplaced Pages is renamed. I am not in a hurry. Thank you. Rigaudon (talk) 21:13, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

You can contact any german bureaucrat. They all understand english. --Obersachse (talk) 22:32, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
Thanks. I'll try that. I see from Brion's page that he may not be able to give a speedy response. Rigaudon (talk) 22:53, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
This has been sorted out now. Rigaudon (talk) 20:46, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Images

hi Brion VIBBER,

I wanna be an uploader. What should I do to be a?-- ♫Greatorangepumpkin♫ T 09:59, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

User talk:Brooke Vibber Add topic