Wikinews:Water cooler/technical/Archive/9

Tawkerbot2

Are we interested in installing Tawkerbot2 here? If so, I have a server where I could run it. It's a quite acurate bot for detection and auto-reversion of simple vandalism in the article namespace. In its usual configuration, called calm mode, it never makes a revert twice, i.e. the human is always right. It does not use admin powers and does not block vandals, but seeeing its edits makes it easier for admins to find the vandals. I'll list us here if we are interested. Main reason not to install it is simply that we arn't a very busy site. Nyarlathotep 11:28, 11 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Date oddity

Someone has raised an odd one on my talk page that someone else might have an idea about. Darfur rebel leader signs peace plan is dated May 5, 2006, yet on Portal:Africa it is listed as May 7, 2006. I tried a refresh and moving whitespace in the DPL to get it to refresh with the correct date. Any ideas? --Brian McNeil / ^talk 14:50, 7 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dates on DPL is based on when the category got added (which one depends on how you have your DPL set up). They are only sorted using the actual date category on the Australia portal and the main page. Every where else its when whoever added one of the categories. see also WN:DPL Bawolff ☺☻ 16:09, 7 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why can't we have one standard - that of Australia portal and the main page,so that the articles are sorted only by the original date of posting, and not by the date when last category is added ?Indrajitneogi 19:57, 7 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

New {{poll}} flag

We now have {{poll}}, for use in the same way as {{flag}}. See the top of the Water cooler for an automatic list of open polls. Dan100 (Talk) 09:01, 10 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Discussions of the news

We have had an unending flow of people attempting to create space for discussions of the news. There are two solutions to this:

Blogs

If you write an article I suppose you could post a link to your blog, if the blog allows commenting, on the article's talk page. This practice might be helpful to draw new article writers. We already have a small following from bloggists in general.

pov.wikicities

Another way is to create a link on the article itself using the Template:POV_discussion. Which moves the POV off of wikinews to someplace that is still managable.

By using one of these two methods, POV discussions are possible. --Sfullenwider 00:16, 20 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Many will object to any self links, although it might be a good idea. POV wikiciteis is only one of many debate wikis, so one template does not suffice to handled them, nor does POV wikicites actually have any traffic. You might even link to Uncyclepedia occasionally!

I've created a general template for all manor of discussion links at Template:discussions. It uses links by site name alone, thus preventing the inclusion of POV titles, although POV wikicities links should include the title. It also uses a smaller less obvious font. I've listed many "matters for consideration", but it imposes few hard & fast rules, especially if you remove my "no self links" rule. I'd suggest that people simply edit the list of "matters for consideration" on Template:discussions, and start using it.

Also, you might consider adding a (via) after the primary source which links to the blog from which the first author learned about it. Asasigning credit in such ways is standard blogsphere practice.

Please post a link back to wikinews from any discussion you link to from wikinews, as it brings in more contributors. Nyarlathotep 17:05, 21 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A few of the rules you set forth are a little illogical in a catch-22 fashon. At this point, I think it may be best to let a few people use it and evolve it some. --Sfullenwider 22:49, 21 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

They arn't supposed to be rules, execpt for a few, like the no self links. And yes they are very self-contradictory if taken as rules. But they are supposed to be "points to considder". Your more than welcome to use and/or edit it. I think only MrM opposes any links to discussion sites, everyone else seems willing to look at it on a case by case basis. And, yes, it'll have to simply evolve. Nyarlathotep 17:45, 22 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"history" and signature records not accurate?

I made an edit here at around 13:06 today which correctly identified me (but the time is way off) "Neutralizer 03:18, 19 March 2006 (UTC)"[reply]

but that edit showed up in MrM's user talk page "history" with the right time but as if an anon did the edit??

(cur) (last) 13:06, 19 March 2006 67.71.123.166 ??

It also shows up in the anon's "user contributions" but not in mine at all? Neutralizer 13:44, 19 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Probally some server bug. Don't worry too much about it, if it only happened once. Theres been times before where edits by one logged in user have been attributed to another in the history. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:04, 22 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Evil... heh. irid:t 00:05, 22 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Articles either disputed or in development should not be spidered

We should change robots.txt so that articles in development or disputed are not spidered. This would be done by generating the Stories in Development and Disputed stories sections with a simple Special page, which would be blocked in Robots.txt.

In other words,

Create Special:Development and Special:Disputed, which rewrites to /w/index.php?title=the_title
Add lines to robots.txt
- Disallow: /wiki/Special:Disputed
- Disallow: /wiki/Special:Development
Add parameter to <DynamicPageList> if necessary to generate titles in format (may exist, didn't find complete docs on <DynamicPageList>)

<DynamicPageList>

urlformat="Special:Disputed/$title"

...

</DynamicPageList>

Result would be,

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/My_disputed_story (still works, but not put anywhere reachable)
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Special:Development/My_story_in_development (not spiderable, but clickable in generated lists)
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Special:Disputed/My_disputed_story (not spiderable, but clickable in generated lists)

Comments?

StrangerInParadise 13:38, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That seems like there should be an easier way of doing it, but thats fine. The main problem I have with that is that I think disputed/developing stories should be indexed. It has a big warning on the top if its disputed, people may still want to find them. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:33, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The steps outlined above are to prevent spidering, while keeping the other dynamic functionality of the site. urlformat="Special:Search/$title" could be used, bypassing the need for creating Special:Development and Special:Disputed, though this would be better. The idea is that Wikinews find such things, but Google should not. StrangerInParadise 13:13, 15 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I understand that. I don't understand why we need this. I think its fine that googles sees all. another way to do it would make all developing a subpage of something like Wikinews:Developing (Wikinews:Developing/blah). That may work better, as redirects are left behind. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:21, 19 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think it is fine that Google sees unfinished product, which allows ill-intentioned users to publish God-knows-what via Google under the Wikinews name. I don't understand your counter-proposal, except that it seems more complicated that what I proposed. StrangerInParadise 22:15, 22 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

we're the only ones who can publish stuff under wikinews name (legally; Wikinews is a trademark of the wikimedia foundation. They can re-publish, but they have to choose a different name) My proposal is start a story as a subpage of developing (Wikinews:Developing/Bush, US politicians, accidently shoot each other, again) then once complete move to Bush, US politicians, accidently shoot each other, again. This doesn't work for disputed. However I don't support my own proposal. I think its fine people see it unfinished. I do think itwould be nice if we put {{Developing}} back into template:new page to give a little warning though. Bawolff ☺☻ 00:14, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed your Create a New Article

hi, I was fixing some stuff up on UnNews, and Craig was good enough to give me your bot code, so I figured that I may as well do it for you, so now, when people turn out a new article, it'll have the dynamic placeholders (like {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} so enjoy! --Olipro 03:18, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

~~Dynamic placeholders have not worked in the past~~. Bawolff ☺☻ 17:10, 16 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Forgot about subst: . Thanks Bawolff ☺☻ 17:12, 16 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Spellchecking

Wouldn't a spell checker be great!

use an external editor. In fact,it's the better way to edit articles !

you could use the famous GoogleBar too Jacques Divol 13:02, 7 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Using the Mozilla Firefox internet web browser with the SpellBound extension is a great way to spell-check Wikinews and Wikipedia articles. You can even have multiple dictionaries so if you want to spell-check using US, UK, Australian or other varieties of English, it can easily been done. ^Blank ^Verse 05:04, 25 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

WeatherBot images on Commons: OK to delete?

Hello, the WeatherBot weather images (such as Image:Aus C 10Apr2005at0411UTC.jpg) have been requested for deletion several times on the Commons (most recent is here with links to the others). They still have not been deleted because we are not sure whether Wikinews wants the images or not. (It's also been discussed at least here & here.) So, do you think we might be able to get a final word on this? Either keep or delete, but it's a bit silly for us to keep raising the question and get nowhere. I will check back here for comments. Thanks, commons:User:pfctdayelise 07:45, 21 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think they are ok to delete. The issue has changed a bit since when the last votes were held. The weatherbot is dead, and weather images as far as I know are not used anywhere. --Cspurrier 15:51, 21 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think delete all but Last images. (So that old templates still work, and people could get an idea of how it used to work). So basicly any unused weather bot image. Bawolff ☺☻ 19:28, 21 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why delete? They can be a useful resource for other projects. --MrMiscellanious (talk) – 03:31, 23 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How? I can see no use for them whatsoever. Jon Harald Søby 22:51, 26 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

From my point of view, the WeatherBot images should go, unless someone else started running the bot (I don't think so, though). -- IlyaHaykinson 08:55, 30 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

[These files should be deleted soon...] BTW, it just occurred to me, if you want to start it again, it should be possible to do with one base image and something like w:Template:Superimpose. Well you might want to put white circles for where the numbers should go, then the numbers could be coloured as the circles used to be (to indicate temp range) Or you could just give that up altogether. A solution like this should also avoid the caching problems that meant WeatherBot couldn't just upload continuously over the same file. Just an idea --commons:User:pfctdayelise 06:10, 2 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Keep them. Wikicommons is not paper - disk space is cheap - and they could be of use to meteorology or Internet history scholars in the future. -- Davodd | Talk 20:27, 12 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Daylight saving in North America

Washington D.C., New York City, and most other East cost cities are observing Eastern Daylight time now. Several recent story edits corrected factual errors which incorrectly gave times in EST (putting them an hour from the correct time). Sources for these stories gave correct times, but contributors forget that only a small section of the U.S. is still using EST currently. Check http://time.gov if you're not sure, but at least check your sources! Until North American Winter, many places in North America will be observing daylight saving time. Use this link: EDT coded [[w:Eastern_Daylight_Time|EDT]]. Substitute Central and CDT, Mountain and MDT, and Pacific and PDT when appropriate. If you just totally don't know, omit the time zone. If you know what area, just place the zone as ET, CT, MT, or PT (just like national broadcasters do). Karen 21:15, 26 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Failing to consider this resulted in factual errors to these recent stories:

Karen 22:53, 26 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Great catch (: Bawolff ☺☻ 03:06, 28 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Custom toolbar button for adding sources

The folks at en.wikipedia came up with a nice hack to add custom buttons to the formatting toolbar (the one you see on the edit screen if you have a compatible browser). Try it out e.g. by editing the sandbox and notice the #R" icon, which stands for "Redirect".

We could do the same with our source template, for which there currently is only a JavaScript link below the edit box. If anyone wants to make a button for it, the template for new buttons is here. Let me know if you come up with a nice icon, and I can set up the site JavaScript for it.--Eloquence 07:47, 29 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I might give it a go tomorrow... Frankie Roberto 19:36, 29 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sources to References Transition?

Folks, as y'all might know, Wikipedia's been using a system of using <ref> and <reference/> tags for references throughout the encyclopedic articles. We could easily do the same, even with our current Sources method. For example, we can add <ref>{{source|author=...}}</ref> after a sentence, and then in the ==Sources== section add a <references/> which would automatically generate the footnotes. When a news source is not used in a way that could be tied to a specific though, we would continue to incoporate the sources as we do now or add the refs to the Sources headline. Thoughts? -- IlyaHaykinson 08:59, 30 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Date template fix?

I think this fixes the date template with wikilinks starting the article's first word: User:Ashlux/Sandbox. -- Ash Lux ^{(talk | contribs)} 01:57, 15 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This has now been fixed. yay! -- Ash Lux ^{(talk | contribs)} 00:50, 17 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Images can now be undeleted!

Brion in a mailing list post announced that deleted images can now be undeleted. This only applies to images that were deleted after he added this feature. According to one of his later posts, "Undeletion links are provided on the description page if the page is altogether missing, and on the history tab if it has any deleted history." In addition to being really cool, it also means that all admin actions can now be undone. We should probably also update the various policy pages that mention the inability to undelete images, to reflect this change.--Cspurrier 23:58, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

May I be the first one to say YEAH!!!!. In addition to that, commons can no longer delete are stuff permenatly. Bawolff ☺☻ 02:03, 17 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Article disappeared

Hi,

I wrote some article about Hezbollah receiving new long-range rockets from Iran on 30-May-2006 or so, and lost track of it. Now I can't even find it using the "Search" function. Can someone please explain what happened to it? How can I find it?

Thanks, --Gabi S. 23:16, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I replied to the user on the user talk page. --Chiacomo ^(talk) 23:39, 21 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply. I seemingly created the article before opening my own account. However, whoever deleted it made a grave mistake. The article was edited by several people and raised justified interest, and the facts in it were very solid. Do I have to watch around to avoid such incidents or what? --Gabi S. 15:39, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Changing categories on archived articles

Is it possible to do so? Fy2006 13:22, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, needs an administrator to do it so post on WN:ALERT, there's a section for edits to archived articles. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 13:27, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

html error in Template: Lead

there's an extra

</div>

in it. Doldrums 18:09, 22 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DynamicPagelist2

is it installed on wikinews? (~~doesn't appear to be.~~ (test removed)) can it be. i'm hoping to use it on the new newsroom. should/shouldn't i? Doldrums 16:41, 30 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

according to Special:Version, answer to the first qouestion is no. Doldrums 16:50, 30 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

About the daily print and audio news

Could it be possible to have a static file name linking to the newest of the audio and print releases of the Wikinews? I mean it would be nice to have a cron job to wget my morning's paper into the computer and to open it ready for reading, but since the file naming goes by the date, writing such a script gets a bit difficult. I was thinking something static like "http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikinews/en/current.pdf", which would always be a link to the most recent paper.

From my audio newsbriefs-POV I would dearly appreciate it to have a possibility to just upload the file, without having to "feed it" into podcast via e-mail afterwards, than to update page one, and than to update also the news briefs list. Whether I have to do this with one "constant" file-name or not, wouldn´t be a problem for me.

If I understand correctly the proposed solution would mean, that we do not have an archive of the written/recorded files, because the files would be overwritten every day. This would also be a kind of a space-saver. Yet I suppose there are some people who might be interested in an archive. Gumboyaya 19:24, 6 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

no, the suggestion is not to overwrite previous media. wikinews very much wants to retain all old media. the suggestion is to create a fixed location, which links to the latest release of the newsbriefs. the link will have to be updated everytime a new release is uploaded. it'll mean one more step for the media uploader to do, am afraid. Doldrums 19:37, 6 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmpf, ... another step!

;-))

Just to add my two pennies worth:

I´m over here to read news.

Yet, at the mo, I spend pretty much most of my time not with the actual point I´m here for.

I do spend my time with editing, putting the file to the right location(S), etc. The difference between reading and publishing can be put to (roundabout) 20% (reading) to 80% (the rest) in the most positive way of looking at it.

Hence I´m not to over-enthusiastic, to do more things just for releasing a newsbriefs (even though: I`d do it!!).

But, I´m afraid this imparity could "shy away" other enthusiastic people.

When I recently spoke with a mate of mine about the procedures I have to go through to provide the read news-briefs (for all the possibilities we are offering), he said: "There must be other possibilities to provide your files, and everything else can be arranged automaticly."

Now, ... I have to admit, that I havn´t got the faintest clue of how all of this works. He is the IT-expert. But - alas! - he´s not working with/for Wiki, since he is to busy caring about his company.

So, allow me to resume:

If we put more and more focus on providing our work most "customer-friendly", we should also regard the fact, that there are folks out there (i.e. me) who are not that deep down into computers, but want to participate.

Hence my question: How can we provide our offer to the listeners, whilst making it easy enough for folks like me, who are not that involved into questions of providing it properly, and who prefer to "only" read it? gumboyaya 22:15, 6 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ordering according to date

I just moved a page because of POV issues in the titel: now a 4-day old article is at the top of Category:Health. Is it possible to fix this?--Stevenfruitsmaak 12:06, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

~~Yes. Purge your cache.~~--+Deprifry+ 12:08, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've probably misunderstood your question. I believe it is a common DPL issue and I don't know whether it is possible to fix it. --+Deprifry+ 12:20, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It happened again with "16 August 2006: Study says dogs can smell lung and breast cancer" which moved up in the newsroom. Maybe it's possible to sort according to the timestamp attached to the article? Or to make an exception to DPL for moved pages, but that'd be trickier I guess...--Steven Fruitsmaak (Talk) 12:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Note: this problem won't affect the main page, Australia, and possibly New Zealand because it uses a different sorting method. DPL's work by the timestamp to one the article was added to the category (or by last edit but in general its set as the former). so moving it shouldn't affect that (one would think, but then again maybe a moved page is considered a new page, I really don't know). (Please note that this is a little bit beyond my area of knowladge , so I may be talking total crap.) both user:IlyaHaykinson and user:Amgine would proably be very knowlagable about this. Bawolff ☺☻ 09:48, 25 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately I think this kind of thing does effect the New Zealand portal. Someone changed Mark Rocket first New Zealander to book Virgin space flight and now it appears third on the list of recent stories (even though its actually from May 22nd). It wasn't even moved - it was unprotected, changed, and protected again - so something in that process caused the DPL to show it again... --R2b2 10:18, 25 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DPL sorts by last edit time. Edits include changes to status (protection) and title (renaming/moving) as well as content. Every time you touch an aspect of an article, it will float to the top of the DPL list. DPL has no concept of the "date" that the article was published. Though it could be hacked to. irid:t 04:23, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In a way it has. When specifying addfirstcategorydate=true it sorts by the time of addition of the first category listed in the DPL definition, but obviously also shows that date (I think that's what Bawolff meant by "a different sorting method"). Re hacking, perhaps meta:DynamicPageList2 is stable enough to ask to get it installed on Wikinews? —Dapete 10:03, 6 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

category stuff

why does Category:Europe list only the 9 subcats that it does? and not the others (such as Category:United Kingdom, which are categorised properly. Doldrums 05:32, 25 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki:Sitenotice acting up

style guide link appears unlinked, bold on some pages (eg. main page, RC), but is ok on others (in MediaWiki:Sitenotice itself, editing page, this page). what gives? Doldrums 15:01, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I also have that problem now and then. No idea what's causing it, really. --+Deprifry+ 15:09, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Don't know either. blank edits to the sitenotice seem to fix it (or has in the past anyway). Bawolff ☺☻ 18:34, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Blank edits simply refresh the processed version on disk (the cache). Could be a caching issue. Most certainly a MediaWiki bug... keep in mind, whenever you edit a template that is included on hundreds (or thousands) of articles, MediaWiki must regenerate the cache for every single page that includes it. There is certainly the occasion for hiccups. irid:t 04:20, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

AutoWikiBrowser

Wikipedia's AutoWikiBrowser now supports Wikinews. Very useful if you have to go through all the articles in a category, or want to do a typo-check on new pages. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 18:36, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Point to note if you're trying AWB we have our own list of Typos. This will be used if you overwrite Default.xml for AWB after selecting the Wikinews project. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 07:08, 13 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

purging cached special pages

how does one purge the cache for special pages: eg. Uncategorized categories? Doldrums 06:47, 4 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I tried the standard method and it didn't work, so I geuss it must just happens at regural intervals. I really don't know. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:04, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The pages aren't cached, as far as I know. If your browser is doing caching, you can purge your cache manually. If you're using Firefox, the key combination Control-F5 will refresh the entire page, without caching. irid:t 04:18, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

nope, this is about the server cache, not the browser cache. the page text itself states "The following data is cached, and was last updated 15:32, 2 September 2006." yes, the standard method doesnt work. Doldrums 06:14, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You cant purge the cache on a special page at the moment. There is a reson for this but I cant remember what it is - something to do with the way the pages work. Most Special pages update at intervals - daily, weekly or monthly. There was a Bugzilla bug submitted about 6 months ago asking for it to be fixed but Im not sure where their at with it (search the Bug directory and you might find it) --Errant 09:10, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How to insert picture

Hi Wikinewsie's

Please help me with the following,( needles to say I am a new newsie around!);

1)How do I add a picture to my article which is stored on my desktop? 2)How do I link pics posted on other wikipages/wikinews ? 3)How do we paste comments (viz:Copyedit, minor edit, gramatical correction etc,etc) when an article is updated? Thanks in advance !!!

(It feels great to be around :))

(Editorinsaif 11:34, 12 September 2006 (UTC))[reply]

I've replied on your talk page. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 12:03, 12 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Featured stories

Hi All,

I'm glad people around here are really helpful!!

Could anyone please tell me the following; 1)How do stories appear on the right hand side of the page eg Featured story, This day last year etc? 2)Any special editing required to appear them there?

Thanks again for all your help! (Editorinsaif 06:03, 13 September 2006 (UTC))[reply]

The stories from last year are automatically picked up with {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAYNUMBER}}, 2005. Whilst you might not be able to make changes to the main page you can look at the wikicode for it. The actual code for the historical list is in a template, and can be seen here. All those occurrences of 2005 will need changed to 2006 on January 1. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 07:03, 13 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Error with pages

Check this out... Wikinews:2006/September/14. It's empty. What's the deal with these pages? -- Zanimum 15:38, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

They are not empty, they just look that way :). They contain the DynamicPageList of the day's articles, they are then transcluded onto the main page. --Cspurrier 17:21, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you press "Edit" you will see that the list is generated correctly. --Skenmy^{(talk)|(ideas)} 17:23, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, cool all! -- Zanimum 17:46, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Submitting Audio to the Automatic RSS EMail?

When I try to submit my podcast, it does not seem to work..I have followed the template on submitting your audio to the podcast, but it doesn't seem to work..--Jonphamta 03:08, 27 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Did you put the full URL not the image page? (for example for

/media:270906_1800_newsbriefs.ogg it would be http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/270906_1800_newsbriefs.ogg not http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Image:270906_1800_newsbriefs.ogg) If this still doesn't work, try asking Gumboyaya (he knows more about this then I do) or post the message you sent, here or forward to me. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:13, 27 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It appeared to show up hours later, when Gumboyaya did todays report. But it seems useless now, sine I did yesterdays..--Jonphamta 02:32, 28 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, well at least it worked. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:53, 28 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

broken rss feed

I have the RSS feed displayed on my google personal home page and for some time the most recent story has been Ignatieff leads in tight race in Canadian Liberal "Super Weekend".

The story is dated October 2nd. This is not a problem with Google: Ignatieff... is the most recent story on the Wikinews RSS feed. (http://feeds.feedburner.com/WikinewsLatestNews)

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Cspurrier is probably the best person to talk to for that. F e llow Wiki News (W) 03:27, 12 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed (I think)--Cspurrier 02:37, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Worked for me. -Edbrown05 04:52, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It seemed to have been fixed but hasn't updated in a while.. most recent story is from October 13th

Template:Topics - formating nav boxes

Theres a variaty of formating techniques on various nav boxes. I think we should standardize them Compare portal:computing portal:Europe portal:Ontario. I personally liked the variation in use at computing before the one with just general topics changed from | seperating to [ ] seperating. however acording to template talk:topics that causes problems in some browsers. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:19, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I read the template talk page, the problem I see discussed there was use of <br> to force a newline within a template. This assumes a specific browser window size. There is a technical limitation that prevents use of the bar "|" character within the dynamic nav boxes, but I think there's a comment on them as to what markup to use to get round this. What we actually need is someone who is blind, for people reading the text the separator isn't that critical, what a screen scraper/reader does with it is more important. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 07:15, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Captcha

When the site displays a captcha to stop spammers (a necessary evil at best), the instructions are incorrect. They refer to an image, but the actual action needing to be done is to solve a simple math problem. (At least it is for me... does this vary based on circumstances?) Dtobias 16:07, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikinews:Water cooler#Cross-wiki_question for the discussion. F e llow Wiki News (W) 16:11, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see any relevant discussion at that link. Dtobias 19:56, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think he meant Wikinews:Water_cooler#skill_testing_question_to_create_an_account_is_un-wiki--Cspurrier 20:01, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's what I meant. F e llow Wiki News (W) 20:15, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Stats

This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.

The website used for statistics on Wikimedia projects (http://stats.wikimedia.org/) I am not allowed to access. "Forbidden You don't have permission to access / on this server." Anybody else had this problem or is it just me? --Nzgabriel | Talk 04:48, 18 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It only works if you search for it on Google and click on the Cached botton. —F e llow Wiki News (W) 20:48, 26 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

yes, it doesnt work since some times ... Jacques Divol

DPL2

I've started the process to upgrade us to DynamicPageList2. It is a lot more fully-featured, and while being basically backwards-compatible with the current DPL, the new one uses <dpl> tags instead of <DynamicPageList>. This will hopefully allow both features to coexist, and will let us slowly migrate pages to the new list. -- IlyaHaykinson 05:08, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yaaaaaaaaaay!!! — Doldrums(talk) 05:34, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

wikipediapar

Template:Wikipediapar now supports (well, atleast i think it does) two parameters, the first is the name of the article to link to, the second is an optional link text. if the second param is not used, the article name (first param) is used instead. a cursory look appeared to show that the change has not broken anything in this widely used template. but, i wld like some other editors to look over it, just to be sure. thanks, — Doldrums(talk) 05:34, 1 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Looks great. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:42, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

test

Hello, I seem to be able to post here fine, but I cannot create a Wikinews story, I enter the mathematical solution. In addition, I cannot create an account only my IP. I tried with both Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7... What is going on here?? 70.49.85.112 03:00, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please go to WN:ALERT and post a message under Other alerts. You can then email an adminsitrator who will create an account for you. I'm not an admin, yet... Thunderhead(talk) 04:12, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, thats odd. Basicly, if you give me (or someone else) your email, we can create an account for you, Email you the password, and then you can change the password and have the account. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:46, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I don't think the issue is having someone create an account for me, I think the issue is that my IE7 or F2.0 browers are not allowing me to work through the Wikinews security. Do you know someone on here that is technical enough to answer my question. Thank you 67.71.152.39 18:11, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This is a Toronto, Canada IP address. — Doldrums(talk) 18:18, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

We really need more information about what is happening. When you try to create an article, what happens? Are there any errors? Is you browsers' security setting too high? --Skenmy^{(t•c•w•i)} 18:22, 4 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I have more relevant information now. I can edit and save; however, when I add an http link I get a request to solve a simple math problem to stop automated spamming, I solve it correctly but it does not allow me save my edit, it requests another math problem be solved ! Hopefully, this will be enough to resolve the issue :) 67.71.155.46 13:33, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sources section

I noticed acommon mistake made by users of English Wikinews. Frequently you can find something like this in the Sources section:

==Sources==
*{{source
...}}

*{{souce
...}}

*{{source
...}}

Such code may be more readable, but it produces wrong HTML. Instead of one list containing three elements, it creates three separate lists (the result looks different). So please do not add empty lines between sources.

Correct code is:

==Sources==
*{{source
...}}
*{{souce
...}}
*{{source
...}}

--Derbeth 15:55, 5 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikinews Hotline -- add SMS capability?

I am considering adding SMS-to-email capability to the hotline, to stimulate use. I know that lots of news organizations do this in many countries, so hopefully it'll be just a matter of marketing it well. If I hear positive feedback, I'll set this up (probably via www.aspsms.com, where it's reasonably inexpensive). If folks want to help me out with little donations to help pay for it, I'd really appreciate it. -- IlyaHaykinson 10:14, 9 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

RSS feeds not working properly

I use RSS extensively to get minute news. Wikinews's RSS feeds (which is mentioned in the main page) are not working properly. Till a week ago, it wasn't being updated at all. Now the file updated with a considerable lag. The feed file should be updated simultaneously with posting of new wikinews... Towsonu2003 01:15, 20 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, were Wikinews not wikipedia (they're seperate entities). Umm, I'mnot entirely sure who's maintaining the RSS feed now. (I know it used to be Dan100, but I think someone else does now.). I'll ask on IRC. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:27, 20 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Also the feed has incorect copyright information on it. (says cc-by-sa as oposed to cc-by). Bawolff ☺☻ 01:32, 20 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Re:Bawolff Oh, sorry, weird typo. it was supposed to be Wikinews. Fixed above Towsonu2003 06:21, 20 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, I manage the feedburner subscription, but the code that produces the feed itself is provided by User:Dcabrilo. Dan100 (Talk) 16:11, 5 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

interwiki bot

Hi! Can someone give me a bot status to User:K.J.Bot? I will make some interwiki (to: de, en, es, fr, it, ja, pl, pt) i Category:Date. 194.116.193.55 15:11, 27 November 2006 (UTC) // pl:Krzysiu Jarzyna[reply]

Only bureaucrats can give you bot status. There is a list of them on WN:ADMIN. —F e llow Wiki News (W) 23:38, 28 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Wikinews:Bots. Bawolff ☺☻ 01:31, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Template:New Zealand badly broken

Thanks to some glitch, this archived article from 2005, NZ Prime Minister in mid-air emergency, appears in the {{New Zealand}} infobox, dated November 24, 2006 (the date it was last renamed and cleaned up.) Could someone who understands these things please fix it? --InfantGorilla 22:44, 28 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What glitch? The article "NZ Prime Minister in mid-air emergency" currently does not have a New Zealand template. —F e llow Wiki News (W) 22:51, 28 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The borken infobox appears in several front page articles, such as New Zealand Telecom could be split into three. It should not show a 2005 article, and it certainly should not date it incorrectly. --InfantGorilla 23:04, 28 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Opps. I misunderstood your question. Any articles -for example in template New Zealand- will show once they are renamed. This also happens in the {{Canadian news}} infobox. —F e llow Wiki News (W) 23:33, 28 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Can this be fixed by redesigning the templates? {{Latest news}} does not seem to have this problem. I don't yet know enough about template coding to understand if they have anything in common. --InfantGorilla 00:55, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

have done a "order=addcategory". — Doldrums(talk) 05:45, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That won't make a difference. I think the DPL thinks you re-add the categories in a rename. this is a problem with all DPL's. The main page isn't effected because of its structure,(+portal:Australia). It uses a date based DPL, we're its one DPL per day, however you need a consitant number of articles published daily for that to work well. so in short, no fix. Bawolff ☺☻ 08:41, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

see here for reason of my latest edit which caused some misunderstanding Towsonu2003 07:26, 24 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Reactions to the Iraq Study Report

I thought that when'published' items were supposed to appear on the Main Page. It's quite an important article, perhaps alomost as important as the lifting of the advice to boil water in Vancouver, yet it has not appeared. Fentonrobb 20:36, 8 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

'coz it didn't have the {{date}} template. now fixed. — Doldrums(talk) 21:03, 8 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it is almost as important than the boil water in Vancouver but don't forget that Wikinews strongly supports local reporting. —F e llow Wiki News (W) 21:12, 8 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

RSS feed dead -again

RSS feed is dead again. Can someone fix it please? The last news it has is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WikinewsLatestNews/~3/58405229/STS-116_launch_scrubbed - see http://feeds.feedburner.com/WikinewsLatestNews

It was going really good for the last few weeks :( Towsonu2003 20:06, 9 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed again, thanks Towsonu2003 21:22, 9 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It is dependent upon this being up-to-date when the bot visits it, because of caching this is not always the case. I have one of my browser tabs set to auto refresh this, but it is not very dependable (browser crash, local connection issues, etc often prevent it from working). All you have to do most of the time to update the rss feed is just go to this page. --Cspurrier 21:44, 9 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have a bookmark, "Refresh RSS" that goes to the aforementioned page. As soon as I saw RSS mentioned in RC I went to that page. Would incorporating that template page into somewhere like the Newsroom result in it being refreshed more regularly? I'm thinking it could be hidden down the bottom. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 22:22, 9 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What about DPL2?

Is Wikinews planning to enable DPL2? It's been a long time since the extension occured and it has still not been used in the project that needs it the most. I hope that we all agree that current DynamicPageList is useless for Wikinews in the current form and could serve at best as a temporary solution. Wikinews is suffering from lack of mechanism providing lists of recent articles in categories.

Is DPL2 ready for use? Can it be applied to Wikinews? Are you going to support request to introduce it to Wikinews? --Derbeth 15:56, 10 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ilya said he was going to enable it soon i think (Don't quote me on that). Bawolff ☺☻ 06:55, 25 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

On a side note, I think semantic mediawiki would be a useful think to have. what do you think? Bawolff ☺☻ 06:55, 25 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

RSS broken

RSS is broken again. Why is this happening? This is like 3rd this month... Towsonu2003 07:00, 24 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good question. I don't even know who is maintaing it currently (My bet is on either Ilya or Dan100. but honestly I can't seem to get it out of anyone who to ask). Note if you're refering to the OR feed, that's inic. Bawolff ☺☻ 06:58, 25 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See the other post above --Cspurrier 08:05, 25 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]