Community noticeboard/Archive 2

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How can I edit a private page that only users registering with a specific @domain.com email address can view?
Hi community!

Has anyone ever tried to set up a private page that only users logging in with a specific @domain.com email address can view? We have this dilemma in my organisation: there is content we want to make public, and content we want to keep classified. What are the best options? We also thought of creating a xx.public.miraheze.org and a xx.private.miraheze.org page, but we would still face the challenge of privacy for the latter... Lots of hug points to those who'll reply!
 * Welcome! Surely this won't be the last word, but a rule of thumb is that information you want kept secret should not be put on the Web in the first place.  However, pages from private wikis (except for the main page) cannot be retrieved except by registered users that you invite on.  This does not depend on their domain name but on you adding them to a list of members.   15:39 16-Nov-2017
 * There was an extension for only making a few pages private, but unfortunately is incompatible with the newer versions of MediaWiki. So yes, you should probably go for the private wiki and public wiki option. Private wikis are secure, and are only accessible by users who are added. Stewards and system administrators can also view them for technical reasons. Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 16:54, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
 * With a private wiki you can also whitelist certain pages. MacFan4000 (talk) 17:02, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much!

How can I limit a search to a specific category of articles?
Is there a way, or an extension I could use, to search for an article in a specific category? CoolieCoolster (talk) 07:31, 19 November 2017 (UTC)
 * You can see how to use Special:Search to limit a search to a certain namespace. I suggest that you search for a page containing both the desired text and "Category:xxx" for the category in question.  Hope that helps!   18:15 23-Nov-2017


 * Franken sorry if victims were offended  18:15 23-Nov-2017

List of CentralAuth testing places
Are there any good places that are non WMF or wmflabs.org that provide free steward access for the purposes of testing centralauth? Thanks --Sau226 (talk) 07:32, 19 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Not that I know of. Providing that level of access is probably not something many would be comfortable with doing. Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 08:18, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

General wiki questions
Given the nature of my wiki - it's a used car review for cars in the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand - how do I keep within copyright law on image usage for stock photos, and would a site like this be exempt from the inactivity policy?

I want the wiki to succeed, and be of use to someone on here.

Any advice is welcomed. --Walkden1986 (talk) 20:41, 23 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Also, I'm looking to import the CSS and automobile infoboxes from en.wikipedia.org but that requires Lua and I'm not quite sure how to get it working (i'm using Wikipedia templates, for simplicity's sake). --Walkden1986 (talk) 20:43, 23 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Hi, the images you upload should have been released under a free license if you want to use them; wikis are subject under the Dormancy Policy, if you want your wiki to be exempt from this rule, you must make an request here; with respect to the templates, Void will be able to help you better with that. Regards. —Alvaro Molina (✉  - ✔ ) 20:49, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Change of credentials
Hi community, I'm coming up with another challenge - please bear with me! We need to change the email account through which we registered the Wiki. Couldn't find anything on the FAQ. Any suggestions?
 * It's right in Preferences, first page, Email preferences, click under Change or remove email address. Miraheze will send an email to the old address with a link you click to agree to the change.   11:39 27-Nov-2017

Spike, you're a blessing, and I am fairly retarded. All went smoothly, thanks for that! We cannot change the admin name on the top right corner though, correct?
 * If by "admin name" you mean your username, you can request to change that on Stewards' noticeboard. Please also don't forget to sign your posts using ~ . Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 05:53, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * @Spike: will do, thanks! Though I am sure I'll do something wrong and I'll just look more retarded. ~Beba

Me too! (1) That last that you are responding to wasn't me! (2) That's why we sign posts, which you tried to do, but putting  around it neatly defeats the replacement of the four-tildes with your name, forcing you to type it in manually. (3) The point of indenting is to set your post off from your neighbor's, not to imitate him, so use a different number of : characters (typically, one more). Cheers! 12:32 PS--Oh, I see you got it right on the Stewards' noticeboard. 12:34 28-Nov-2017

Template with optional parameter
Hello, i'm creating a template and i want to make one line in table optional - when there's no data it doesn't shown. I used example from mediawiki:


 * label1=Text


 * data1=

It works correctly, but when i define a "|text" in article label and data are shown to. Like <<|text=abcde>> and it shows like <> What's wrong and how to show clear "text" without showing label and data? Thanks.
 * Forcing archive. &mdash; revi  10:26, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

Lag time on changes to new wikis
I was just wondering if there are lag times on changes made to new wikis. I have just started a new wiki (created two days ago) but the categories aren't populating and changes made to templates are not showing on the pages where the templates are transcluded. I have to manually purge the cache (not just refresh) to see the changes. Cheers. 17:36, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * The categories are populated by a script which runs jobs. Normally, since we now run this jobrunner on two servers, there should not be any issues with it. Please feel free to open a Phabricator task if you see this issue happening frequently. Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 18:22, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Ok, if it's still doing it in a couple more days I'll put a phabricator task in. As for the pages not showing the most up-to-date revisions, is this connected to the categories issue? This happened a couple of times on my other wiki but I can't remember if it was something that eventually sorted itself out or not. 19:18, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Ehh, JobQueue has been critical for the past ~20 hours. Most likely your cause. -- Void  Whispers 20:18, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I noticed that the pages I created a few hours ago are showing up in the categories but none of the pages created before then are. I copied 291 glossary entries from my other wiki to the new wiki and all of them should show up in Category:Glossary as they all have category links but only the pages that I create now seem to show up. Strange. 01:10, 30 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Since the pages were imported, they all have to be edited before they are categorized. You don't even have to change any content (just click edit, then immediately save). -- Void  Whispers 01:17, 30 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Oh, ok, thanks. That's going to take a lot of time to complete. That's quite a flaw in their thinking, unless there is a reason to it. 01:51, 30 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Hardly! it's only 291 edits for you to do! (Sarcasm!)  It might not be a flaw in thinking; having processing occur at one point in a page's creation, ignoring that pages are created in other ways, may merely be an oversight.  Void, I wonder about your assertion:  Usually, if I save a page without making any changes, it doesn't even result in a recorded edit in the change history, and thus might not trigger processing in the background.   04:21 30-Nov-2017
 * I prefer it when blank saves are not recorded in the history as I don't see the point of recording no change. I've done blank saves before on my other wiki but I didn't realise you had to do the same thing for imported pages to make them show up in categories. They certainly trigger processing because the few blanks I have done already are making those pages appear in the glossary category. Bored of that job already and I've only done 25 pages so far. Could really do with a bot for this type of work! 11:55, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Anyone know how to use the #if parser function?
I am asking for a little help in trying to understand parser functions that allow for missing parameters to hide elements in an infobox. I have used inboxes on thelonsdalebattalion wiki, imported from Wikipedia. To be quite frank, I find them a total headache and unnecessarily over-complicated, with far too many other template and modules to make them work properly. I have managed to get them mostly working, with the exception of coordinates, which is just a nightmare to sort out. So, I'm having a rest from those inboxes and I'm going to go back to what I'm more comfortable with and create my own basic infoboxes. The problems is I don't know how parser functions work. What I would like (if possible) is some example wikitext that shows the #if parser function where the desired output is if a parameter is left empty, it won't be displayed. I will come up with a basic infobox and then I am happy for someone with parser function knowledge to have a re-write of the template. If I can see the wikitext I will be able to replicate it for future infoboxes that doesn't involve me wasting time trying to get all elements of Wikipedia infoboxes to work. As always, thanks in advance. 01:32, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Basic premise is that  displays anything nested with the word "present" if the param is included anywhere. Otherwise, "absent" is displayed. If I was to call that template, but only do something like , the result is "absent". If I call  , the result is "present". Also, it's very important that you setup "param" using  , as otherwise (such as using  ), you will get "present" even when calling  . --  Void  Whispers 01:45, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks for speedy response. I kind of get it but I need to see it in the template, which I have just created here: Template:Infobox book A work in progress. Can you access the thegreatwar wiki, it is set to private at the moment? I am happy for you to tinker with it if necessary. Also, don't laugh too much at my basic template-making skills. If you spot some errors please let me know. I'll pick up any responses after I've had some sleep! Cheers. 02:16, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * It might not be necessary to use  at all.  The code   stands for the first parameter, and   means patch in "foo" if the first parameter is omitted.  All you might have to do is provide nothing between the vertical bar and the closing curly braces.  This alone ensures that "if a parameter is left empty, it won't be displayed."
 * One problem with these is that you are editing the template, but can only see it work once invoked by a different page, and there are several places for your edits not to get passed along, including Miraheze's cache (which you can purge) and your browser's cache (ditto).  03:33 1-Dec-2017
 * I must be doing something wrong because I can't get it to work. Currently I have the following for the author parameter:
 * ← this is still visible when below parameter is empty ← when empty nothing shows here but I need both this (the data) and the above (label) to disappear when the data field is empty.
 * On the transcluded page where I am using the template: if I use  and I leave it blank after the = sign, then yes, that element is empty but I want the whole row to disappear (data and label) and it isn't doing that, so what am I missing?  13:29, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

(Reset indent) on my phone so forgive fuckups but try something like    both instances of  must have the same parameter name and must both include the pipe character. If the param is not empty it will display nothing, if the parameter is anything it will add the template and the parameter. -- Cheers, NDKilla ( Talk • Contribs ) 14:02, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Not wanting to sound stupid (maybe too late for that) but what and how much  am I putting in this tag? I've just added the template to public testwiki if anyone wants to have a go at making it work.  14:42, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Slow down and think carefully; the  must surround everything that you might want to disappear; that is, the entire table entry, from one   line up to but not including the next one.  And I see a parameter "editor" versus "editors" versus "s".   15:08 1-Dec-2017
 * This is why I need to see how it is supposed to look by someone who knows what they are doing rather than trying to figure it out badly for myself. The bit of editor text is straight from wikipedia, just wanted to see what it did but apparently nothing. And now user Artix Kreiger has protected the template page. I can't even edit it now! 15:24, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I couldn't either, and that's why I didn't. I'll play with it at The Mirror.  God help you if you try to follow a recipe in the kitchen!   15:39 1-Dec-2017
 * I have jumped in and the first complication is that we are using a template to generate code to reside inside a template. This means there is confusion between the vertical bars that separate parameters of   and the vertical bars we are trying to generate:  They need to be escaped, and I don't know if I'm doing it right.   15:48 1-Dec-2017


 * All right, look at what I've done to the "editor" entry at themirror.miraheze.org/wiki/Template:Infobox_book and apply comparable changes throughout. Please do not try to write code to pluralize "editor"; instead, create another parallel entry, "editors", if there are more than one and you really want the "s" on the end.  NDKilla did not solve the hard problem by finessing "code for template" because when that code wants to output a vertical bar, we have to code it as  .   15:55 1-Dec-2017
 * I think I'm understanding what you've done. I've just tried in on Public Testwiki (that user has kindly allowed me to edit my own template!) and it works nicely. I just need to apply that to all the other parameters. Thanks for that, appreciate your time and help in sorting it out. I wouldn't have figured that out on my own. Thanks for everyone's suggestions. 16:41, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * FYI, if you do it like this, the parameters will not show by default. -- Void  Whispers 21:19, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I don't understand this (but I didn't understand your comment above, either). If the caller does not provide "param", then our use of   removes the entire line of the graphic.  You added a vertical bar that says to use a null string in the parameter's absence; but the parameter's absence is already covered.  Is there some tri-state logic here?   22:26 1-Dec-2017
 * That would only be true if the caller still does something like param but never passes on a value. If param is never provided it defaults to being present as unless you define a default value (in this case null) in the template. In other words, if we have a template that is entirely , and we call  , it will display  . This value still counts as present in the  parser function. --  Void  Whispers 23:26, 1 December 2017 (UTC)
 * So Borderman has a stylistic choice between omitting the row of the graphic, or having the row be included but have a blank on the right side. "If [it] is never provided it defaults to being present" seems perverse, as provided and present seem virtually synonymous; but yes, there are indeed three possibilities here.  Thanks.   00:25 2-Dec-2017

How do I allow someone to be an administrator on my wiki?
Hello, I created a wiki at https://talkingtomandfriends.miraheze.org. It is still up and coming. When new editors come to it, I might have to make some of them administrators/bureaucrats. But how will I allow them to delete or protect pages? Zkhanr123 (talk) 10:57, 9 December 2017 (UTC)
 * You can go to Special:UserRights. Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 09:15, 9 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks,Reception123. It'll be of a lot of use when my wiki gets viewed by someone other than my relatives. Zkhanr123 (talk) 10:57, 9 December 2017 (UTC)
 * To be clear, making someone an administrator does confer the ability to delete and protect pages. Bureaucrats usually are also admins and can do so too.   15:12 9-Dec-2017
 * Well, bureaucrats don't have the right per se, it's just because the vast majority of bureaucrats are also sysops/administrators. Reception123 (talk) ('C' ) 16:43, 9 December 2017 (UTC)

Add a what links here to various pages on meta
I'd like to have the what links here added to various pages of meta.

I posted an example on my user space:

https://meta.miraheze.org/wiki/User:Rsterbal/Code_of_Conduct

thanks! Rsterbal (talk) 04:33, 16 December 2017 (UTC)
 * You don't state why this is necessary.
 * You can see it by clicking "" in the sidebar, why do we need to transclude it? &mdash; revi  07:11, 16 December 2017 (UTC)


 * No, least of all, to create a separate section containing nothing but back-links. Some of these are passing references or lists of pages, and not of value to the reader of the current page.  If reading a policy page inherently puts questions in the reader's mind that could be answered on other pages, a See also section, like Wikipedia, might be appropriate, though in-line wikilinks are still better.   13:17 16-Dec-2017

Miraheze Finance Graphs
I made some graphs to visualize Miraheze's finances from August 2015 to November 2017:


 * File:Miraheze Finance Graph.png
 * File:Miraheze Finance Graph by Month.png
 * File:Miraheze Balance Change by Month.png
 * File:Miraheze Income by Month.png
 * File:Miraheze Expenses by Month.png
 * File:Miraheze Hosting Costs by Month.png

CoolieCoolster (talk) 04:24, 18 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Good idea! I think the graphs are a good way to better vizualize our finances. Reception123 (talk) (<font color="#FF0000">'C' ) 15:10, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

Navigation Popup available on Meta


The navigation popup available in enwiki is now also available in miraheze meta. Enable it from Special:Preferences's Gadget section. If you ever want to use it on your wiki, copy&paste MediaWiki:Gadget-popups.js, MediaWiki:Gadget-popups.css, MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition, and MediaWiki:Gadget-Navigation popups. By enabling this gadget, your User-Agent and the referrer will be known to the Wikimedia Foundation, and that information will be handled under the rule of WMF Privacy Policy. That's because the gadget loads CSS and JS from English Wikipedia, site controlled by WMF. (I intentionally did this because this way Miraheze local sysops don't have to take care of code maintenance.) &mdash; revi</tt>  12:58, 19 December 2017 (UTC)

What happened to the multimedia viewer?
Is the MultimediaViewer extension not compatible with the latest version of Mediwiki? I find it quite a useful tool for viewing galleries. 22:18, 21 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Are you getting any errors? Is it not working as intended? Reception123 (talk) (<font color="#FF0000">'C' ) 06:45, 23 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I checked the following day and it was working again. There were no errors it just wasn't there. But it's fine now, not sure why it did that. Sorry, my bad, I should have updated here. Thanks for asking. 08:15, 23 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Ok, great then. If you experience anymore issues with it please tell me so that I can take a look. Reception123 (talk) (<font color="#FF0000">'C' ) 08:16, 23 December 2017 (UTC)

In The Mirror
I see there is a second Admin on my wiki, https://TheMirror.miraheze.org - to-wit, AbuseFilter. While I appreciate having access to an abuse filter, the associated user was an oddity on Uncyclopedia, as the abuse filter itself is a robot, while User:AbuseFilter is nobody. The only good thing I can say about it is that the WMF report now shows 2 active users rather than -1. This Admin was a recent addition; what is the strategy? Why did it happen? Is someone else now a fellow Admin on my wiki?

On Uncyclopedia, the best use for an abuse filter was to warn people who deposit links to external websites. This behavior is usually an attempt to use the wiki to advertise. The 'bots that do so do not persist, though a couple of humans who really wanted to give other users a reading list took great personal offense.

The satire news was an exception, as a link to a real news article is usually necessary to put the satire in perspective. As that is what I'm doing here, I don't currently need to define any filters.

Separately (and if this is the wrong place to discuss it, please advise), "community" implies collaboration, and I throw myself on the mercy of any Photoshop-adept Mirahezian who can contribute an illustration to "The Mirror" - something newsy, such as involving jihadis in masks or protest signs, as though seen through the rear-view mirror of a car. I would use it in the masthead at The Mirror, or as the wiki's avatar. 00:17 28-Dec-2017
 * I also noticed that AbuseFilter was automatically added as an Admin on my wiki, and the number of active users is no longer -1 as well. CoolieCoolster (talk) 14:27, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * That account is part of Extension AbuseFilter, that blocks user when user meets certain filter (local, or global) that is configured to block anyone meeting the filter condition. It is not a human account. &mdash; revi</tt>  08:40, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
 * There are one private global filter that blocks the user when the condition is satisfied. I can’t talk about the details, though, for the sake of security and nature of the filter. &mdash; revi</tt>  08:44, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Comments (description) expectations in request form
I made an attempt at requesting a wiki setup which was denied for "Invalid description." However, on the request page there is no indication of requirements for a description or even a description field. The field "Comments" does not at first blush appear likely to be a field for a required description of a requested wiki, and the history of approvals doesn't give much in the way of guidance regarding expectations. I understand that a volunteer community will have some drift with respect to expectations, but a clearer description of what is expected on the request page might help avoid confusion and frustration. Just a thought in case anyone else has noticed the high proportion of declines noting "invalid description" as the Comment (it seems to be by far the most common reason given for declines - although already exists crops up fairly often, as well).Boomerang (talk) 19:05, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

space before signature
I have the unfortunate habit of placing my signature immediately after the end of my messages, which often leads to the signature text/name appearing with no spaces before it. Does anyone know if there is a way to edit the automatic signature (Boomerang (talk) 19:12, 28 December 2017 (UTC)) to include a preliminary space?Boomerang (talk) 19:12, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * See what I mean (?Boomerang...) :-P Boomerang (talk) 19:13, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Nevermind - finally found the "Preferences" page...&#32;Boomerang (talk) 19:15, 28 December 2017 (UTC)

Help needed with main page/portal layout
On my wiki, I originally formatted the boxes of information on the main page like Wikipedia. I thought that it looked outdated, so I have been looking for a style that looks more modern. I am currently using the style of The Lonsdale Battalion for the main page and portals of my wiki, however for some reason the boxes are not aligned with each other properly. If anyone knows how to fix this issue, or another main page style that would fix this issue, please let me know. CoolieCoolster (talk) 05:10, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Link, please.  05:34 1-Jan-2018
 * Here is the main page of the wiki, and the five current portals are on the right on the main page. The main page and all of the portals have boxes that are not aligned correctly at the bottom of the screen. I tried to align them as well as I could by adding spaces to the templates that fill each of the boxes, however different screen sizes or changing the size of the window on a computer can cause the boxes to desync, and even normally the boxes are not perfectly aligned. CoolieCoolster (talk) 05:43, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Got it. Hard-coding measurements is never the right way to go.  You have coded a "wikitable," which will produce a rigid grid of rows and columns, if you simply decline to dictate the width of each.  Let me play with it, and you can revert if you like.   05:48 1-Jan-2018
 * I take it back; the only possible defect I see is that the 80% column and the 20% column have different vertical sizes. 05:55  And that is because, inside your wikitable, you have encapsulated content that takes up different amounts of space.  The 20% column looks awful if I disable images, because in their place I get the name of the illustration, and the names have vastly different lengths.  Re-enabling images and they look tidy, as each image is the same size.   06:02 1-Jan-2018
 * Recommendation: Why is "Main Page/Frame" named as though it is a subpage of "Main Page"? In fact, it isn't; it is in a separate namespace entirely (the Template namespace).  I made one other (centering) edit that you may or may not like.  Will discuss it more tomorrow, bedtime.   06:08 1-Jan-2018


 * It's tomorrow. My only additional thought is that your left section and the right section are never going to line up.  The right section is shorter now because there are only 5 items, but surely the goal is to have so many items that the right section becomes the longer one.  Likewise on https://TheMirror.miraheze.org, I have a DPL list of recent articles, and other housekeeping, on the right; and graphic layouts of 5-8 featured articles on the left.  They never line up either.  Does that look ugly to you?  If not, the only reason is that I haven't drawn a border around each section that would give the impression that they should line up.   14:21 1-Jan-2018
 * I guess it doesn't really matter if the boxes line up or not. I think I will just solve the problem by adding more content to the main page and portals once there are more articles on my wiki. CoolieCoolster (talk) 14:34, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Request Wikicreator
After discussions in the IRC, I would like to request the necessary permissions to begin volunteering as a Wikicreator. Enfaru (talk) 16:43, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * more wikicreators is always good. MacFan4000 (Talk Contribs) 16:53, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Looks good to me but I can't grant it, as I don't have UserRights. ? &mdash; revi</tt>  19:34, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅ -- Void  Whispers 19:36, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

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</tt>  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