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 * Archive 1 (23 July 2017 - 25 November 2017)
 * Archive 2 (1 December 2017 - )

Miraheze Wikistats
It seems like 250 wikis are missing from the wikistats for Miraheze. CoolieCoolster (talk) 13:55, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
 * It is maintained by people outside Miraheze sysadmin (Not sure about status of Miraheze in the wikistats.labs), and they (iirc) need to manually pull the data. We have no control over when they pull the data from us. &mdash; revi  15:15, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, they seem to update daily but their list of what to update is updated nearly never. My second wiki (https://rfobasic.miraheze.org) they have not figured out is there.  And even on https://themirror.miraheze.org, their number of edits (614) suggests their data are a couple days out of date, as I am up to 625.  On the other hand, closed/dormant wikis and those with 0 edits don't deserve a ranking.  Baffling but of low importance to me.   17:58 5-Jan-2018

New wiki suggestions idea
I was thinking about other wikis I could create, however most of them would be too much work for one person to create alone. Maybe there could be a noticeboard or something on Miraheze meta for people to post their ideas for new wikis so that way if two people are interested in the same idea, they can work together, instead of one person working on their new wiki and eventually getting bored and quitting. CoolieCoolster (talk) 16:28, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Right here would seem to be the correct place. We don't need a new institution when we have "Community noticeboard," though we don't seem to have a Community; there was no response at all to my request for Photoshop help, which will soon be removed to the archive.  Sadly (or not), most users are here to create the content they desire, not the content you desire.  If you create the content you desire, the way to get collaborators is to advertise; but I bet most wiki editors would not want broadcasts about what you have done.  Subtle ads about what I have done have been removed from this page.  I have looked in on your list of wikis to create, but we don't have the same interests, so I just suggest that you not start something where you would eventually "get bored and quit."   17:16 6-Jan-2018

Navbox show/hide buttons not functioning properly
I was wondering if I could appeal to someone's knowledge regarding the show/hide buttons on the Navbox template. I don't know if anyone else uses it but I'm going to throw this out "out there" in the hope that someone can shed some light on it. Whenever i create a new page with the navbox, or edit and save an existing page with a navbox, the show/hide buttons appear (most of the time). However, when I refresh the page the buttons disappear, for which reason I have no idea. If I follow a link from a page with a navbox and follow a link back to it the buttons have disappeared. And then sometimes they just appear. Does anyone know why this odd behaviour is happening? As far as I know I have included all the relevant templates and modules associated with it. Currently I have The Great War wiki set to private so I am guessing only admins etc. can access to have a look. Any help, as always, most appreciated. Thanks. 11:53, 12 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I can't explain why the buttons should disappear entirely. I did work with an Infobox once where the author chose a color that was identical to the links, but this made them disappear entirely all the time.  You're aware that Infoboxes require special JavaScript to work?  (See FAQ)  I don't believe that Infoboxes use cookies or any other way of maintaining internal state, so they would not retain their show/hide status if you reloaded or refreshed the page.


 * The first step in diagnosis would be to point the cursor to where the buttons should be and see if it changes form, indicating that there is a link to be clicked on but you simply can't see it. At that point, Firefox Object Inspector could point out the link and even show you the style rules responsible for rendering it invisible.   12:48 12-Jan-2018
 * I have worked with both infoboxes and navboxes before and most of the time I find they have been built too over-complicated, so I sometimes use my own (basic) infoboxes. The navbox has been copied from Wikipedia and for all intents and purposes it works. The show/hide buttons work but only after the initial page save. So, whatever is driving the buttons to show works to a degree. After that it gets sketchy. They are the standard blue link colour and hovering the mouse over the area does nothing - there is nothing there so the mouse can't respond to any action. As far as I can tell I have all the relevant code in the Commons.js page as well, so for now it's a bit of a mystery. Sometimes they show but most of the time they don't. 13:34, 12 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Just as I thought, it's a scripting error related to unloaded dependencies. I've resolved the issue on both The Great War wiki and The Lonsdale Battalion wiki by ensuring that all dependencies used by MediaWiki:Common.js are loaded before anything attempts to use them. -- Void  Whispers 21:49, 12 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the fix, all working properly now. I never would have worked that out. Cheers pal. 22:53, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Problems with wiki on mobiles
The problem is, that my Wiki at https://fuchsia.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page works not with mobile browsers. On desktop browsers it works fine. You can see and read there all. But if anyone wants to see it with an smartphone (for example with Android), then only the topics are shown. If you don't have an Android smartphone, you can test it also online on https://www.browserling.com/
 * What do you mean by "only the topics are shown"? Would it be possible to maybe provide a screenshot? Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 12:17, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Section headers never seem to work on mobile for the main page. We may want to add that to the FAQ, because this is at least the fifth time this has been reported. On regular pages, the display should be fine (if you're not seeing anything, simply tap on the section headers). But on the main page, the content below headers can never be made to display without some meddling. The easiest fix is probably to remove section headers from the main page. -- Void  Whispers 17:03, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * My guess was headers too. We do need to do something about this issue, which is very likely something to do with the MobileFrontend extension. Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 18:26, 13 January 2018 (UTC)

Navigation popups
I noticed added the navigation popups to Meta and thought I'd try them out on my second wiki. All seems to be good so far. I was wondering how you stylise it so it looks more like the Wikipedia one with a simpler look. 18:00, 14 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Miraheze meta one just uses English Wikipedia code, so it should be identical. (Your ping doesn’t work.) &mdash; revi  18:55, 14 January 2018 (UTC)
 * It looks quite a bit different, maybe the "Page preview" link (at the very bottom of Wikipedia next to "mobile view") links to a different type of popup. I did notice the css for it is called MediaWiki:Gadget-navpop.css on Wikipedia but on Meta is is MediaWiki:Gadget-popups.css. Does this make a difference? 19:30, 14 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Regarding "look[ing] different", CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) governs how page elements look, so yes, having different CSS has unlimited ability to make elements look different. If you point to the relevant CSS on your site and describe how you want it to look, I'll advise.   19:33 14-Jan-2018
 * My point here is that if Meta is using the same css code as Wikipedia and I am using the code from Meta, my popups should look the same as they do on Wikipedia, but they don't. So, I am wondering if they are the same popups at all. I am happy to experiment with css, I was just hoping to save some time as my Great War project is already very time-consuming. 22:06, 14 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The Firefox Web Console can show you, when you reload a page, what files your browser is requesting, and thus what .CSS files are controlling display of the page. The Object Inspector (display the pop-up and right-click on it) can tell you what the specific styles are, and let you un-tick each one).  Also, look for comments in the .CSS file.  Code for a pop-up will have an HTML tag including it in a class of object (such as  name...) and the .CSS file will have a range applying to objects of that class (such as  name  display attributes .   23:16 14-Jan-2018
 * That screenshot is not Navigation Popup. That is likely Page Previews. It is not installed on Meta. &mdash; revi  09:32, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * That will be why they look so different, thanks for spotting that. As the extension is in beta release at the moment, would I have to wait for it to be a stable release before Miraheze considers installing it for users? 12:04, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Extension is deployed on Wikimedia Foundation wikis, so it does not require any additional step. Request at Phabricator as usual, thanks! &mdash; revi  12:06, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

Miraheze on MediaWiki.org
I was searching for "independent third-party" references to Miraheze, stumbled on our description at MediaWiki, and made some corrections to the article's Intro. 05:10 15-Jan-2018
 * I noticed, thanks :) Only of course, Wikipedia doesn't treat MediaWiki.org as a "reliable" source. Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 05:42, 15 January 2018 (UTC)

Yes, and my edit doesn't change that. They didn't list us because they found us notable but because we use their product. I found nothing else in the first two pages of a DuckDuckGo search that isn't from one of our wikis, except a page on Wikiversity that is a clone of the Draft that is not being let into Wikipedia. 13:43 15-Jan-2018

Is this a game changer for Wikiversity/Miraheze?
Let me be bold and suggest that this development on Wikiversity has important implications for Miraheze. My contention is that in many ways Miraheze is configured the way Wikiversity and Wikibooks should have been configured. While the Great Wikipedia has dominated Google searches, and deserves its primary spot, something is missing. And that "something" is diversity. There needs to be more than one wiki article per subject. Wikiversity and Wikibooks were attempts to fix that problem. Both failed because they lacked the ability to partition diverse points of view. An article was either on Wikiversity or off Wikiversity. If it was on, it was muddled with all the other efforts from the perspective of a Google search. Miraheze realized that the various "viewpoints" of human thought needed to be placed on separate wikis so that Google could treat them differently.

The extermal link above refers to Wikiversity's decision to create a Draft space that apparently hides all its pages from Google. I don't know the details, but try to find "Wikipedia Draft:Miraheze" using Google. This page on Miraheze is invisible to Google. So is that page. The format of "this" and "that" represent the two extremes Wikiversity might use to display Wikiversity's low quality articles in Draft space. But, while "Draft" space seems to be invisible to Google, all of the Miraheze wikis are independent, and (I hope) will be treated differently by Google.

Miraheze has wisely chosen not to be the judge of a wiki; not to distinguish between the sublime and the ridiculous (that is Google's job.) If this decision to create a Draft space on Wikiversity goes as I hope, then the authors of low quality Wikiversity articles will be faced  with a delima:  either (1) stay on Wikiversity in draft space and be "invisible" to Google, or  (2) put their crap on Miraheze.

But Miraheze should not be offended by this because Miraheze can also host our best work. Miraheze can host the coordination of educational private student wikis wright.miraheze, as well as private collaboration by scholars on wikis like wikiversity.miraheze. The significant feature of both links is not their quality, but the prospect that others will use Miraheze in the same fashion. At least that is my hope and my dream. --Guy vandegrift (talk) 01:12, 16 January 2018 (UTC)


 * COMMENT: For evidence that Draft space is invisible to Google, see this screencapture of a Google search for (Wikipedia Miraheze). It is possible that enough attempts to find the page in Wikipedia draftspace will "train" Google to find it.  But at the time of writing, Google did not know about wikipedia:Draft:Miraheze.--Guy vandegrift (talk) 01:13, 16 January 2018 (UTC)


 * It is not surprising that Google can't or won't find the Wikipedia Draft namespace, as it is formally not a part of Wikipedia. Google could do its job better if its searches extended to Drafts; also if it knew MediaWiki and combed through the history so you could search for something that used to be on a page.  But it doesn't, I guess.  If that's the case, then being consigned to Draft space is comparable to getting your page deleted, in terms of search hits.  Sure, Miraheze remains an option for those treated badly elsewhere.  But moving to Miraheze won't, by itself, result in your page getting read.
 * Separately, I reject the false dichotomy above, as https://TheMirror.miraheze.org is both sublime and ridiculous.  04:55 16-Jan-2018
 * The issue is, it still would be hard for users on Wikiversity to find out about Miraheze. So unless someone makes a proposal that says if they need a place to write their articles, etc. they can use Miraheze, I'm not sure many users will find it. Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 06:20, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I agree that the obscurity of Mirhaheze is a major impediment to my proposal. Apparently that will take time to fix.  I hope you folks stay healthy in the meantime. One thing is certain, as I see it:  We need the kind of diversity that Miraheze is trying to offer. Top-down organizations like the WMF can't handle too much diversity, not because they are rigid or closed minded, but because the way their wikis are configured.--Guy vandegrift (talk) 13:48, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * We are back to the chicken-and-egg problem on view at any American baseball stadium: You don't draw fans until there is word of mouth, nor signs on the outfield wall, to pay for the word of mouth, until there are fans to view them.  Again, the usual solution is to pay to advertise the institution, but that is money on a much larger scale than we are used to, plus dealing with specialists in false claims, plus no guarantees of good results.
 * By the way, Guy, the lesson I take from your pointers to Wikiversity — that they too are creating a Draft namespace — suggests that, in the long term, their rulemongers will want to harmonize their Draft policy with that of Wikipedia, and their article on Miraheze (which again, is a copy of an old draft from Wikipedia) will be moved to Draft too, one more reference site where, officially, we are not mentioned.  14:24 16-Jan-2018
 * As one of the rulemongers I can assure you that the Miraheze article will stay out of draft space. But there was a Volleyball site that didn't bother me on Wikiversity, but some of the others thought it was not sufficiently academic for Wikiversity.  Simply by writing policy guidelines that  direct authors to Miraheze would bring in business.  Also, I would pin more of my hopes on seeing the Wikiversity WikiJournals thrive, because that would encourage people to compose their work in wikitext, often on Miraheze where they can work free from prying eyes.  --Guy vandegrift (talk) 22:17, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * In that case, Wikiversity may want to grab the updated text from the Wikipedia draft.  22:47 16-Jan-2018
 * Goo idea, Miraheze could use a makeover.--Guy vandegrift (talk) 04:24, 17 January 2018 (UTC)

Breadcrumbs for Main namespace
I've started using quite a few subpages on thegreatwar wiki and noticed that there doesn't seem to be any breadcrumbs for Main namespace subpages. Is there an admin setting that turns these on for individual sites or is extension-based? No mention of it in Extensions so hoping it is a simple matter or something I have overlooked. Thanks. 02:35, 17 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it's pretty simple. For some reason the default settings for wgNamespacesWithSubpages does not include the main namespace. Therefore pages are not treated as subpages and do not have breadcrumbs. It's easy enough to fix with a quick visit to phab. -- Void  Whispers 04:37, 17 January 2018 (UTC)