This is an archive of past discussions about Wikipedia:Tip of the day. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Don't forget the newbs!
Some general suggestions: don't forget newbies too. Don't post only something that is gonna be used by an experienced WPedian. Having said that, you could post about subst, class=wikitable, class="hiddenStructure". Renata04:59, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
Oh, and it would be really cool to have a topic for the week. For example, one week the tips would be all related to searching, another to navigation, third to templates, fourth to images and so on. Renata02:09, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
Can we have something to click on to add new tip entries? Rather than having to carefully format stuff and copy previous entries? Carcharoth10:36, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
Well, you could put entries on a different subpage, and then use something like this, but as this page is at the moment, it's impossible. smurrayinchester(User), (Talk)17:53, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
Could built a parameterized template that took a header, body, and read more link, then doing a subst: on it would give you your text. - Ravedave03:52, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
And done : User:Ravedave/TOTD_param Example use: {{subst:User:Ravedave/TOTD param |
Header = Returning April 20th, 2006 |
Text = Wikipedia '''Tip of the day''' will begin displaying tips on April 20th, 2006. |
Link = Wikipedia talk:Tip of the day
}}
You may be doing this already, but have you considered creating a corpus of say, 100 "tips" which can then be selected from on a rotation basis, to avoid this project running out of tips again? -- ALoan(Talk)12:12, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
The start date is April 20th, for that very reason. I'm personally writing a minimum of one tip per day (and have been doing so since February 20th), and others have stopped by to contribute as well. Official announcements of the launch will be posted around Wikipedia one month prior, on March 20th, along with a call for volunteers at that time. Until then, I'm testing the procedures and such with the few people who happen to discover this page (I have put a few links out there). :-) --Go for it!16:12, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
By March 20th, we should be ready for a large influx of volunteers. By then I'll have some more templates for the project. --Go for it!16:19, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
By the way, we are shooting for a corpus of at least a few hundred tips. We'll easily make it to 100 tips by April 20th, and it should just keep growing from there. --Go for it!16:30, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
Incidently, having the tip title enclosed on == == signs displays poorly on user pages with tables (see my user page for an example). Could it just be big and bold? smurrayinchester(User), (Talk)19:35, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
Good point, If we wanted to make another style for displaying such as User:Ravedave/TOTDbox it doesn't work. (Personally don't like the current way of displaying it). I think the Div causes issues as well, maybe that should be a table. (Edit - Divs don't cause issues.)-Ravedave22:07, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
I'd still like a plain white background (users can always add coloured backgrounds etc. when they place the box on their user page, but other than that, I like yours. smurrayinchester(User), (Talk)22:12, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
I wasn't planning on placing templates until March 20th. More than a month notice seems a bit excessive. --Go for it!02:38, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
I also noticed there were several pages still including it, since it redirected it was including this whole page. Also we can set up a how to and I plan on setting up some "alternate" templates where its in a box etc, so having a sample is nice. -Ravedave04:03, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Idea... If the template featured an inclusion of {{Wikipedia:Tip of the day/{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}, {{CURRENTDAY}}}}, it would automatically update daily. It won't work currently (without a switch, which isn't a good idea (WP:AUMÓ)), since the scheme isn't up and running, but you can see an example of the link made: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/November 14, 2024.
I should have mentioned that that has been the plan all along. The reason it isn't on the templates currently is because the first active date page is April 20th. --Go for it!17:57, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
Let there be light! (Lightbulb pic and userbox issue)
I found this image on commons, which by the sounds of the image description, was created for the original Tip of the day scheme. Could this be used, or at least replace the smiley in the userbox? smurrayinchester(User), (Talk)19:32, 2 March 2006 (UTC)
Rather than replace the smiley, there's no reason why we can't have more than one userbox for this project. ;-) --Go for it!02:38, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
By the way, that image is on the template (not the placeholder version) - see my last couple of entries in the template history. What I'd really love to see is a light bulb that is lit and glowing brightly. The current lightbulb is unlit, like it just came out of the package. We could either find another lightbulb, or recolor this one. Shiny! --Go for it!03:11, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for pointing out the problem with headings in tables. Could you point me to a specific example, so I can study the problem? --Go for it!02:38, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm already in the process of doing this. (See this page's history). In order to track this better, I'll copy my working file for this to a subpage. As you recycle tips from there and place them on this page, remove them from the subpage, so tips don't recycled twice. --Go for it!02:41, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
When you are in google, working on non-wikipedia stuff, and then you all of a sudden want to do a Wikpedia search, the WP-specific search button on the toolbar comes in quite handy. --Go for it!02:25, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Multi-tips need to be broken up into individual tips
Large tips defeat the purpose of this project. If the tip is too large (or too many tips are crammed into one), it might as well become a page, or a section thereof, and then a link can be provided to it. Or we can get more mileage out of it by breaking it up into multiple tips! --Go for it!02:57, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
Upon a rethink, both have their uses. The multi-tips are good for intermediate and advanced users who want it all in one place. Breaking it up into tidbits so it is more easily digestible by newbies is also a good idea. We can present both, maybe the tidbits first, with the compilation to top 'em off (after a delay). --Go for it!03:04, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
This would work great in combination with theme weeks. Do small tips on each of the days, at the end of the week, so a a compilation of the lot to see it in perspective. - Mgm|(talk)11:55, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
We need a little mascot, like a lightbulb with a (smiley) face on it, to place in Tip of the day related message traffic, etc. (Like when we ask the Help Desk for tips). And perhaps to insert in the tips themselves, for emphasis. It would give this project a stronger identity. --Go for it!08:32, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
I made this in Photoshop, I've still got the original file, so any suggestions such as gradients would be helpful. Or, edit it yourself! --Keycard(talk)08:32, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
OOh. Thanks for the graphic. And I do have a suggestion/question, or a suggestive question...
The reason I say it's unsuitable isn't anything about userboxes in general, just that they shouldn't be a tip of the day. This should be saved for important things regarding wikiformatting and such, not something like userboxes. Ral315 (talk) 02:28, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
On the other hand, users use userboxes. Any time we can save them in their learning how to use them is time which they can spend on other aspects of their Wikipedia involvement. I wish I had a tip like this when I was adding userboxes to my user page, it would have cut my install time in half, because I didn't even know what the heck they were called, and so couldn't find the list of ready-made ones. I finally found out when I came across that userbox that "leaps off the screen" at you, because it was self-referential. --Go for it!03:56, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
How to ask a smart question
Often I come across Help desk or Ref desk questions where people forget to mention the basic facts needed to answer a question (like the country they are referring to), and I would like to see a tip that helps people to ask smart questions making it easier to answer quickly instead of asking follow-up questions to get a useful question. - Mgm|(talk)11:43, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
And some pages like the desks and WP:AFC have rules. It would help if people are reminded to follow such rules every once in a while to stop all the clutter. - Mgm|(talk)11:43, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Two tips coming up. Thanks for the ideas. If you have any more, don't hesitate to drop by and let us know. --Go for it!16:18, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
Wiki-star: Thank you again fellow wikipedians. I must especially thank the users who take the time and answer my questions. I really appreciate it! You won't be disappointed, trust me!
Now, i have one question. I now know completely how to insert an image within an article. However, i do not know how to insert a screenshot of a website. The Neoseeker article is an example. See how the image is a screenshot of the website? How can i also do that?
If you want to use a screenshot as an image, simply take the screenshot from your computer, save it as an image file, and upload like you would any other image. When uploading, be sure that it qualifies under Wikipedia:Fair use and use the appropriate tag (most likely it will be {{web-screenshot}}. -- Natalya05:45, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
Wiki-star: So am i suppose to right click the web page and save the background? Or click file, then save as? I'm sorry, but you have to thoroughly explain yourself.
It would help greatly if we knew what kind of system you're on. If you're on a Mac using OS X you can simply use the Grab utility to take a screenshot of any window. If you're on a Windows box, I have no clue. Dismas|(talk)06:54, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
Wiki-star: I have Windows, and i'm trying to get a screenshot of This Website. But i do not know how and i need help.
Okay, the following may or may not work, depending on your system: Go to the site, and click the "Print screen" key on your keyboard. This should put an image of your current screen in the windows clipboard. Then you can go to a program like windows paint and press Ctrl+V to paste it. From there you can do whatever you want with it.
There is also a software called PrintKey that is very useful for creating screenshots. You can download a free trial at [2]. Hope this helps. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 08:02, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
I've been wanting to know how to do this myself. I tried Meni's trick, and it works! Windows Paint is in the accessories menu. Click "Start", move the mouse pointer over "all programs", then "accessories", and you'll see it there on the drop down menu. --Go for it!09:16, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
A useful addition is that, in Windows, if you hold ALT & Print Screen together it will only grab the currently active window - useful if you were going to crop it anyway this way you don't have to. SeanMack16:34, 11 March 2006 (UTC)
Recruiter needed
We need someone to be this project's recruiter. You'll get to seek out Wikipedia's most knowledgeable experts, and invite them to contribute their best tricks and techniques to this project. Please drop me a note on my talk page, and I'll get you up to speed. --Go for it!04:10, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
I'd be willing to create a template and put it on a lot of users talk pages, but I have two cocnerns: 1. Is that spamming? 2. Can a bot do it more easily? Otherwise, I'd sign up to do it. Please respond to my talk page. Thanks, -Reuvenk[T][C]19:35, 24 March 2006 (UTC)
Tips Wanted List (Tip of the day wish list)
How to get up to speed really fast
Power searching tips
Power editing tips
Power tools tips
WikiJargon tips
Test your Wikiresearch skills (needs test page to go with it)
(If you can think of any tips you'd like to read that don't exist yet, add them to the above list).
Those towards the top are more stable than the ones on the bottom. If you find something inaccurate or confusing, go ahead and edit them, sure.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 04:35, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
OK, then I have a question about about the Search box focus tip. On Mac OSX, Alt F drops in a "Find Text" box and the Tab key puts the cursor into the search box. Does the Tab key do that on Windows systems? --hydnjotalk04:48, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
All the tips, even those on the project page, are subject to correction and improvement, even when they are being displayed. Feel free to improve these tips! Please keep in mind that we try to keep them as concise as possible. Good point on the search-box focus, the tip was for Windows-users only (and needs the Mac info). Good catch! The tab on Windows systems goes to the first link in the chain of links, starting with the first link on the page itself, then moving through the tabs at the top of the page, then top menu, then the sidebar. If you are in the editor, the tab goes to the edit summary box. --Go for it!08:28, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm not sure if if this is what you mean, but in a web browser, pressing tab cycles you through the text fields in the current window. ×Meegs08:44, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
We've almost surpassed the old project already
The original tip of the day project had about 85 tips. At our current rate, we'll pass that in a few more days. (We're up to 69 already). --Go for it!13:34, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
Word choice error
I've been using the word "transclusion" incorrectly. It is a synonym for substitution - (like this:) {{subst sample}} - but I've been using it as "inclusion" which means inserting a template on a page like this: {{sample}}. Transclusion actually copies the source text of the template to the current page. I've fixed most of these word choice errors in the tips, but keep a lookout for them just in case I missed any. --Go for it!13:57, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
An opening identifier will be included on the template(s), but having "Tip of the day:" in the title, just obscures the name of the tip. So I've removed them. --Go for it!14:37, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
Memo
What is meant by the memo on the main page. Do you mean that the tip needs rewriting and expanding, or do you mean that you want it writing over? smurrayinchester(User), (Talk)18:13, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
The tip that was rescheduled to May 11th. Another tip needs to be placed there. The memo is there in case someone else gets to it before I do. --Go for it!17:07, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
This is the number one way to fix really stupid errors, like forgetting to fix the size for a picture or misspelling a common word. Hurricanehink02:15, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
Browsing Feature
I added the following line;
[[{{day-1|{{FULLPAGENAME}}|Wikipedia:Tip of the day/|{{CURRENTYEAR}}}}|Prior tip]] - [[{{day+1|{{FULLPAGENAME}}|Wikipedia:Tip of the day/|{{CURRENTYEAR}}}}|Next tip]]
between the 'noinclude' tags on the April 20, April 21, and April 22 tip pages. This adds 'Prior day' and 'Next day' links which are only displayed when the page is viewed directly (not when it is transcluded) that will allow you to browse forward or backward through the list.
Extend to other pages, remove, and/or adjust as desired. I only put it on the three pages so people can see how it works and decide whether to incorporate it or not. --CBDunkerson01:14, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
That's cool. A definite improvement. I've started to extend this feature to the other tips on the project page, to allow easy browsing of the tips. --Go for it!17:28, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
Recent changes to this template have affected the way the box is displayed on my talk page. It is now merging itself to the table of contents box. I have no idea what's happening or how to fix it. Could someone please check? - Ganeshk(talk)20:41, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions about Wikipedia:Tip of the day. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Bullet points
Not sure how best to add comments here, so I've put these as bullet points. I recently thought of two things that I found useful, and came here to add them as a tip of the day. The problem is that I don't know whether it is already a tip of the day! How can you search previous tips of the day? Carcharoth18:53, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
You can look at what tips are currently scheduled by clicking here or by clicking on the project tab at the top of the page. --Hetar22:30, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
The first tip I wanted to add: When linking to another section somewhere else on the same page, you can use just the anchor (#) symbol, and not write out the whole name. For example, to link to "New entries" above, you could either write #New entries, or Wikipedia talk:Tip of the day#New entries. The latter, full reference, shows up on "What links here". The former, internal, reference, doesn't show up on "What links here". Also, if a page is moved or renamed, then the former style will work, but not the latter. Obviously, both link styles will break if the section name changes - but that is true of all anchor-links. Carcharoth18:53, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
I have written a tip on this. Please see the new tips section above and feel free to improve it or move it to the Ready to post section. --Hetar23:19, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
See tip Wikipedia:Tip of the day/May 6, 2006 "Linking to a section". Don't worry about duplicating tips. Some tips need to be redisplayed more often than others, and if they are rewritten from scratch, it keeps them fresh for the next time they are to be displayed.
The second tip was one I spotted on the Help Desk. Normally, to edit the lead of an article, you have to click the "edit this page" link at the top, and edit the whole page. This can lead to edit conflicts. However, despite the lack of an "edit" link for the lead, it is still possible to edit it as a section and (presumably) avoid edit conflicts. You merely click on any of the section edit links, and then change section=x to section=0 in the URL in the browser window. Reload the URL and there you go: editing the lead as a section! Probably only useful when an edit conflict is likely, such as on high-traffic pages. Carcharoth18:53, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
I have written a tip on this. Please see the new tips section above and feel free to improve it or move it to the Ready to post section. --Hetar23:19, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
I'm also hoping to get an answer about how to sort "What links here" links by namespace (as you can currently do for your contributions list). That would be a very useful tip, if the software allows it. Carcharoth18:53, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
I'm working on a tip library, where the tips shall be displayed by title rather than by date. What there is of it so far is available through the category system. --The Transhumanist23:52, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Also, is it possible to tag tips by subject areas and how "advanced" they are. Then, if the tips start to number in the hundreds, it is easier to find and browse them. I know I would be disappointed if the tip of the day for several days running was stuff I already knew... Carcharoth18:59, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
Category:Wikipedia_tips is, I guess, the tip library you are referring to. One of my other interests on Wikipedia is Categorisation. I'd be happy to help categorise the tips. I'll start with the ones that are there already. Is there a place where those interested could discuss the setting up of a categorisation system (maybe based on the divisions of the current Help pages)? Some category criteria I've thought of already are based on things such as "topic", "essential tips everyone needs to know", and "complexity level" (basic, moderate, advanced). It should end up very similar to the help pages, but easier to browse and the tips would be useful summaries of certain points expanded on in the help pages. One thing - is it encouraged to rewrite the tips if you find they are wrong or out of date? Carcharoth15:27, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
How ironic - whoever wrote the {{fact}} tip of the day made the basic error of not subst'ing the template... :-) I was wondering why the category at the bottom of this page said that this page needed to cite its sources!! Maybe this can be turned into a "common mistake" type of tip of the day? OTOH, I learnt something today, which was that even when you subst a template (effectively copying the template and turning off the regenerating ability of the template), you still need to go and manually remove the category tag if you are only demonstrating it as an example, as here. So overall, take care when using templates and know when to subst and when to leave it as an updating template. Carcharoth23:08, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
I'm sorry to inform that the tip on June 28th is the same as that of April 2nd - both about signing comments --Lemontea02:13, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
Actually, that tip is scheduled to display, with different wording, about once per month. It covers a very common problem that new users have (not knowing how to sign a message). All its permutations are already in place up until the end of the year. --The Transhumanist23:52, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
My suggestion: Wikipedia strives to be neutral. Remember, you have a POV. Think about whether your edits will breach this. If you think other users will think it is POV, then run it past other editors using the talk page for the article. Doing this means people are far less likely to mass revert your edit(s) and is also nice. --Midnighttonight07:52, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for the tip. I'll write it up when I get a chance. Each of the major policies needs a tip. So if anyone wants to write them, please feel free to do so! --The Transhumanist23:52, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Tip idea: I'm not sure how useful this is, so I've not placed it above. I have put {{Wikipedia:Today's featured article/{{Day+1}}, {{CURRENTYEAR}}}} on my user page, so I can look at tomorrow's featured article and make "last-minute" improvements. — MSchmahl11:45, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
I have written a tip on this. Please see the new tips section above and feel free to improve it or move it to the Ready to post section. --Hetar18:21, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
I've got one of those for the Picture of the day. Concerning the topic of the above tip, I'm in discussion with CBDunkerson, who has done a lot with date math on Wikipedia. We are discussing how to set up a warning template for Picture of the day and another for Tip of the day. They would show the entry a month in advance, so that we would have advanced warning that the buffer is starting to run low. If I can find the time, I'll program it myself. --The Transhumanist23:52, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
While it might be easier to install, the current spellchecker is a lot less obtrusive and more specific to its purpose. --Hetar22:16, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
There's a new option in "my preferences" to enforce edit summaries. No user scripts are needed. I hope you don't mind, but I just updated this TOTD to reflect this. --Aude (talk | contribs) 00:46, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
I wanted a more compact version, with some minor changes, so I created {{totd b}} (b for brief or b for second in the series).
I would suggest that the code for the Prior tip - Next tip links be moved out of the individual tip pages and into the template. Aside from simplifying the editing of daily tips, it allows alternative templates (like {{totd b}}) to use their own format. In particular, I would like to add - List of tips.
(This also makes it easier if there's ever a change to be made to the format of these links - so it can be made globally. Better now while there's just a few tips.) --Singkong200504:35, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
From a programming perspective, I don't know how this could be done. Each tip is named by date, and the code for the Prior - Next links generates the links' page names from the current page name (whichever date-named subpage that happens to be) via a variable and some date math templates. This allows all the tips to be linked together in a chain, so you can keep pressing prior or next again and again until you've come to the first or last tip in the whole set. In order to accomplish this, the link pair had to be included twice: once with <includeonly></includeonly> and once with <noinclude></noinclude>, so that it would work from the template (which can only lead to the next or previous day's entry based on the current date) and also work from the tips themselves (to lead to the next or previous page in the sequence, based on the date in the name of the currently displayed tip). --The Transhumanist22:07, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
Maybe it's only my browser, but today's tip (April 9) didn't work as expected on pages like Help:Reader.
The original long URL managed to overrule the width 240 in {{totd3}} and also the width 20%
relevant for four help pages with the Totd (Help, Reader, Editor, Moderator - anything else belongs to a
chapter of the handbook with its own sidebar).
Here's what I've done, just in case if similar problems pop up again:
Trimmed URL in today's tip.
Added width="240" to {{totd3}} for old browsers without CSS - it already had inline style="width: 240".
Simplified messy {{MediaWiki links}} to get two rows, customized header + Totd. That's the template automagically used by the four overview help pages.
Forced width="240" for the Totd in its 2nd row.
The fourth point finally managed to display the original version of today's tip
without using the width of the long URL for the overall box. Actually my browser
displayed a truncated URL. With {{totd3}} the original tip (long URL) would
still cause havoc with my browser. If anybody else has similar issues maybe
replace Totd3 by MediaWiki links, the latter is
designed to survive within width 20% set outside of it. -- Omniplex17:20, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
Tomorrow's tip of the day concerns counting edits, and has a link to Interiot's edit counter. Unfortunately, as of last week the English Wikipedia is no longer replicated on the Wikimedia toolserver, so while the edit counter still works, it displays edit counts as of April 13, and will not be updated for the forseeable future. The contributions tree is similarly affected. I'm not sure what to do with the TOTD entry, particularly at such short notice, but I thought I ought to point this out – Gurch10:14, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
Is using Interiot's edit counter a "bad thing?" I understand the concerns behind editcountitis but that doesn't mean that looking at someones contributions shouldn't be used as a very rough and quick form of determining their work/interests.
Well, there's a lot of things that are "dual use" say. But which are mostly abused more than used. It's kind of interesting to point people at them, knowing that say 90% will abuse them. <scratches head> Are there any good ways to prevent such abuse upfront? Kim Bruning23:03, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
Maybe explain editcountitis, and how its the quality of the edits, not the quantity. And there's always Interiot's javascript tool. -Reuvenk[T][C]23:24, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
Just corrected some vandalism on the current tip of the day, should it be protected?--Rayc14:05, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
I had the same idea today after I fixed it, which would be impossible if it's protected. Maybe semi-protection is good enough (?) -- Omniplex01:33, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
That uses {{Wikipedia:Tip of the day/{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTDAY}}, {{CURRENTYEAR}}}}. The centering formatting is in every subpage. There's no "template" to fix. :-( Rfrisbietalk19:26, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
From what I read at the Community Portal talk they decided it wasn't worth changing the format for. I'd still be open to ideas or changes, but we need to find a way to do it so that it still displayers centered, otherwise it makes its section of the Community Portal (and elswewhere) look like crap. --Hetar05:35, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Random tip template
Does anyone know how to make a template which displays a random page whenever the page it is on is accessed?
To add a link to a category in an article (as opposed to adding the article to a category) create a normal link to the category page but place a colon at the beginning of it, just after the double opening square brackets. Here's an example:
To provide a link to Category:Animals (just like this one), add the text [[:Category:Animals]] where you want the link to appear. (Notice the extra colon at the beginning of the link).
To add this auto-randomizing template to your user page, use{{totd-random}}
If daily support ceases for this project, the main templates can be set up to randomize. At that time, it would be more accurate to call it Tip of the moment. :-) --The Transhumanist05:13, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Template for project monitoring
Please proofread the daily tip...
It's displayed below one day early.
Some tips are obsolete. So we need new tips too. Please share your best tips and tip ideas at the Tip of the day department.
Wikipedia is part of the Wikimedia family. To explore other wikis, see Wikimedia's InterWiki map.
Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:
To add this auto-updating template to your user page, use{{totd-tomorrow}}
This template is for monitoring project maintenance, to make sure the tip has been prestocked so the main template doesn't show up blank on the many pages of Wikipedia upon which it is displayed. --The Transhumanist05:05, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
Thank you. I'm glad my template work could help with technical stuff for this project. Keep on being tipsy. :] --CBDunkerson12:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions about Wikipedia:Tip of the day. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Note concerning blue links on project page
If a tip on the project page has no title, then you can assume it's empty, even if it has a blue link (those pages are merely prepped with the boilerplate links). --The Transhumanist09:48, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Wow, that's a lot of templates
I decided to take a look at the various versions of the tip of the day template, and was a bit surprised at how much it has proliferated.Several Wikipedians have adapted the thing for use in various formatting situations, and a couple of enhanced versions have been created as well.Here's the whole list, with descriptions:
totd-random - this is the tip of themoment template, which automatically displays a different tip every time you enter a page it is on (to a maximum of one time per minute). If it doesn't update, try clearing your browser cache (Ctrl-F5).
totd - the main userspace version of the tip of the day template, with border, centered in the middle of the page.Complete with inspirational lightbulb.
totd b - a more compact version of the above template.Useful for columns.
totd-tomorrow - this shows tomorrow's tip, and is used by Wikipedia tipsters to make sure that the tips never run out.If they did run out, a red link would show up on Wikipedia's Community Portal and Help Page, which would be very embarrassing.This template shows the redlink one day in advance, as an early-warning system.
Tip of the day - the borderless version, with lightbulb.
Since I created this template the 'CURRENTTIMESTAMP' magic word was added - making {{CURRENTSECOND}} possible. Based on that I updated and simplified totd-random somewhat. It will now display a new tip every second, essentially every time the page is refreshed. I also put the list in chronological order to make it easier to update. The July tips are in there, but in the future it can be updated just by adding the new rows in numeric / date order and updating the number at the top of the calculation (currently 126) to match the new total number of tips/rows to pick between. --CBD18:14, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
I've filled July with a selection of tips from this page, revisions of previously posted tips, some brand new ones, and some combinations.If you would be so kind as to look them over before they hit the mainstream Wikipedia population, I'd really appreciate it.Thank you.Now excuse me while I pass out...--The Transhumanist17:33, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Great job! I browsed the July entries and made a few minor changes here and there.My biggest question is on Wikipedia:Tip of the day/July 24, 2006.What the heck is a "resource reference"?!
That resource reference thing put me through a loop too. Really, if your citing information, it should only be to verify it. I was under the understanding that we don't use citations as pointers to more information; that's what a see also or external links section is for. --Hetar01:24, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
I've fixed all <big><center> (wrong order), moved "prettytable" from "ready" to "unsuited" (deprecated template), and "advanced searching" from "proposed" to "unsuited" (too long, complex structure). There are other proposals which are IMO far too long, the searching tip was the worst. -- Omniplex20:06, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
You can also use "<center>" if you like it better because it's shorter, the align="center" is also phased out, in theory. The reason I changed it was "center inside big" instead of "big inside center". The "big" is an inline element, and "center" (both variants) is a block level element. As long as "tidy" fixes such details, and no browser has difficulties to interpret the wrong order this is only an educational point, a "tip of the day" should be technically correct. -- Omniplex03:29, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
A procedural question - do you like to wait until a month's worth of tips are ready, or is it okay to keep them moving through the queue until they make it to a subpage? Rfrisbietalk21:05, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Wait?Nonono, let them floooooooow!No need for them them to pile up.Actually, the project's goal has always been to keep tips scheduled 60 days in advance.As of the end of June, we came within one day of redlinking!Now that's bad.But even though July is now fully stocked, we're still behind our 60-day schedule.So please, feel free to move tips to the subpages.That way, I won't have to!:-)--The Transhumanist15:55, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
This project's announcements/task list template
I've expanded {{Totd-tomorrow}} to be this project's announcement and task list template.So now you can kill two birds with one stone, by seeing the next day's tip and this project's announcements (and alerts) at the same time.Now we all have an easy way to contact everyone on this project.Please place the template on your user page if you'd like to receive announcements and alerts from the other members of this project.Thank you.--The Transhumanist15:51, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Here's what it looks like:
Please proofread the daily tip...
It's displayed below one day early.
Some tips are obsolete. So we need new tips too. Please share your best tips and tip ideas at the Tip of the day department.
Wikipedia is part of the Wikimedia family. To explore other wikis, see Wikimedia's InterWiki map.
Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects:
To add this auto-updating template to your user page, use{{totd-tomorrow}}
Gaps in the collection
Are beginners covered well enough in the tip collection?That is, have we provided all the essential tips beginners need to know?--The Transhumanist15:51, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Counterquestion - at what stage do we decide to start rotating some of the more fundamental tips?Do we ever do so? — Estarrioltalk19:04, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Sure, just say what you want to see reposted. The only danger is that somebody starts to push a POV by repeating the same tip too often. -- Omniplex20:13, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Um, we're getting off-topic.I've covered the rescheduling issue in detail under its own heading below.But in addition to reusing the tips we already have, we need to explore every nook and cranny of Wikipedia for the best tips we can find to achieve this project's goals.What are our goals?I have been assuming they are the following:
To supplement the help system in teaching beginners the fundamentals to make use of the Wikipedia program and Wikipedia's content, and how to participate in the Wikipedia community.
Suggestion: classify tips according to user skill or experience level (beginner, intermediate, advanced, demigod). That way a new user can begin with tips for beginners, and when those start getting stale, the user can move up to seeing trickier tips. Individual Wikiprojects might also make their own tip collections, if they are building up their own separate areas of know-how. If this has already been done, I did not find out about it, which suggests Wikipedia:Tip of the day/Sandbox might point it out better. --Teratornis22:14, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Rescheduling tips
Tips are already being rescheduled.Note the repeats in July.Also, the "signature tip" is already getting reposted in various forms about once a month.The two "dozen best tips" tips also repeat tips in another way.But...
Rather than merely reposting the tips in the same form, we should always strive to improve them.(Of course, there will be some tips that hit home so well that they are hard to improve upon, but most leave plenty of room for improvement.)So, when I reuse tips, I generally try to enhance them in some way, like rewriting them for clarity, or at least paraphrasing them so they don't get stale.It's interesting that after you let them sit awhile (a few weeks) and come back to them, you view things in a new perspective and can instantly see ways of improving them.But when you stare at the same ones day after day, they tend to get fixed in your mind.
Refreshing the tips can take a number of forms:
Rewriting the title.
Splitting tips up (like taking a one-liner out of a tip and building it into a tip of its own).
Combining tips that naturally go well together (like the link tricks).
"Best of" list tips - like baseball cards that list other baseball cards.
Rewriting (editing) tip content for clarity, reducing wordiness, etc.
Rewriting tips from scratch rather than editing them can turn up interesting new points.
Expanding tip content to improve usefulness and comprehension.
Converting tips that merely describe what is available into actual step-by-step instructions.Like how to install Navigation Popups (rather than just tell users about it).
Providing new examples.(For instance, in the Keyboard shortcuts tip, which mentions five or six of them, a different 5 or 6 could be mentioned each time the tip is presented, until all the shortcuts are eventually covered).
Adding an extra reference or two under "Read more:".
Updating tips so they remain relevant and accurate.
Replacing tips with better ones that obsolete them.
Adding internal links between tips - the more robust the collection becomes, the more useful it will become as a reference aid.
Applying previous tips in the content of tips that follow, pointing out when you do.For example, when providing "< nowiki >" samples of links, using the pipe trick as well whenever possible should be standard, even though the tip isn't about that trick.
Replacing "pseudo tips", that merely point to a broad topic page, with an actual tip from that page that the user can make use of without following another link, and then pointing to the broader topic in the "read more:" reference for expanded coverage.
Easter eggs.
But this begs the question of what tips should be rescheduled/recycled in the first place?Well, most of them, of course.All we have to do is figure out the relative frequency at which the various tips should be repeated.
Since Wikipedia welcomes a constant flow of newcomers, there are a few topics that may deserve to be repeated as often as once a month, in order to support these newbies.Like the signature tip, one or more search tips, definitely the main link tip, and a few others.All reworked, of course.This is already happening.Because they are rewrites, you may not have noticed.:-)
At some point, the tip collection may become somewhat complete, and new tip creation in such a case would slow down (to whatever Wikipedia's rate of innovation happened to be at the time).This project could eventually become mostly a maintenance matter, recycling the tip collection in an endless cycle.
So far, I've been taking Omniplex's casual approach: going over the past tips and rewriting the ones that pop out at me.(See the 60-day rule in the instructions at the top of the page).
Speaking of the 60-days, we should always keep the project stocked 60-days in advance - so that the maintainers of the pages we support (help page, community portal, etc.) don't panic.(See the thread on the help page's talk page).
Which help page are you talking about? Unrelated, I've moved one google tip from "new" to "ready", its link is an easter egg. -- Omniplex23:14, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
Pledges
Who wants to take on a pledge?That is, who wants to make a pledge?Then the rest of us can hold you to it.;-)
What kind of pledge?Like "I'll explore the tools section of Wikipedia and create 5 tips by the end of July."Or, "I'll read the current help desk page and post any cools tips that I find."That sort of thing.Are there any takers?
Here are some potential pledges to choose from, in case you can't think of any:
"I'll mine a section (name the section) of the help system over the next two weeks."
"I'll seek out 5 experts on Wikipedia, over the next week, and will ask them for their best tips. (They tend to hang out in projects, like Esperanza, Picture of the day, etc., and they tend to have the best user pages).
"I'll explore 100 user pages (they have all kinds of neat stuff on there), by the end of the month, and will write up the 5 best ideas I find into tips."
"I'll post a weekly message on the Village Pump technical asking for tip submissions (pointing them here).
"I'll post a message on the Help Desk (or on the Newcomer's page) asking the regulars there what tips they think should definitely be covered in the tip collection."
"I'll write one tip per month."
"I'll write one tip per week."
"I'll write one tip per day!"
Etc.
I hereby challenge each of you to make a pledge!
Of course, I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't make a pledge of my own.So here it is:I pledge to get September fully stocked with tips by the time you are done reading this message.:-)--The Transhumanist14:31, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
Exactly what is the process?
I noticed a particular tip from 2004 went directly to Wikipedia:Tip of the day/September 24, 2006, even though I had added a comment that it contradicted the "Read more" link.In fact, it appears to incorrectly describe transclusion. It is not substitution.I thought the note would give us time to rework the tip, but it bypassed the stated process on the talk page.I assume other tips did as well.I don't mind helping out with this project, but I would like to know what process is to be followed.What's written and what's happening don't match. Rfrisbietalk16:46, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
Sorry 'bout the confusion.Here's what happened:we came within a day of redlinking, and so I've been trying to push the project back on schedule, by stocking 60 days worth of tips.(See the exception in the instruction #10 at the top of the page for when the project slips under 60 days.)So on June 30, I stocked July, and I just continued with 60 days' of tips.I skipped August because I didn't want to interfere with your guys' fun, and put the 2nd 30-day batch in September.;-)For Sept. 24, I pulled the definition directly out of Wikipedia:Glossary#Transclusion, which appears to have it backwards.Also, in "What links here" in the toolbox, templates were described as being "included" rather than "transcluded", which contributed to the confusion, but this seems to have been recently fixed.I've fixed the tip.No worries.By the way, I figured that since those tips are scheduled in September, it would give everyone plenty of time to look them over before they hit the mainstream.--The Transhumanist17:50, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
By the way, I've gone back and fixed the tips for May 8th and May 23rd, which also incorrectly reported transclusion as inclusion.You prevented this from happening a 3rd time.Thanks!--The Transhumanist18:17, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
Actually, I believe "transclusion" and "inclusion" are synonymous here. The May tips probably were correct (I haven't checked them yet). For example, "In computer science, transclusion is the inclusion of part of a document into another document by reference." Transclusion & inclusion are the same process. They should be contrasted with substitution. I assumed the tip came from the glossary (so that also needs to be fixed). I still believe the tip needs fixin', so I'll give it a go before it comes up.At least for my own satisfaction, I want to read more about long-term vs. short-term uses for the tip.There doesn't always seem to be consensus on that usage either.By the way, thanks for inviting me to be a part of all this fun!
+1, I prefer "inclusion", but that's only a matter of taste. On the other hand "substitution" is different, it won't reflect future changes of the sourse page automatically. And it can get pretty complex in conjunction with parser functions. If the template isn't designed for substitution trying to substitute it anyway can result in a lot of gibberish on the target page. Probably it still works, but it won't survive any change by an average editor. -- Omniplex23:10, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
Did the "What links here" page note for templates recently get changed from "(inclusion)" to "(transclusion)"? I think it did.This terminology seems to be one of those things "in flux." Rfrisbietalk03:48, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
If this tip is "technical gibberish," what's the "technically acceptable" solution to the formatting design it is intended to support? Rfrisbietalk04:00, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
Heck if I know.But we're volunteers in one of the best research environments on the Net.So if we can't find it via search, we can always ask at WP:VPT:-)--The Transhumanist16:27, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
Okay, I try it. MediaWiki uses XHTML, and XHTML has <br /> instead of <br>. A piece of software "tidy" fixes it on the fly for some projects incl. Wikipedia, but "tidy" also introduces obscure bugs, the devs try to get rid of it. Otherwise there are occasions where using BR and especially several adjacent BR is poor style. But alternatives like several empty lines (Wiki markup), several {{-}}, or even <pre> constructs are anything but not better. On the other hand in tables using <br /> sometimes has the desired effect, where the only alternative would be a nested table, complex and potentially causing havoc with old and/or text browsers. Just saying "<br> is evil" misses those points.
And the tip mixed a completely different topic with the BR-issue, line breaks in paragraphs as edited in an edit box. Such line breaks are completely harmless, and very long source lines can cause difficulties with external line editors and old browsers which don't fold long lines automatically. On display it's the same effect, one paragraph is one paragraph no matter how many source lines belong to it, and it's folded as needed. The tip was an IE-centric POV, is that one of the old recycled tips? AFAIK MediaWiki used HTML before, so maybe the tip is just obsolete. -- Omniplex03:09, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, that was more than enought explanation for me! :-) I believe that was a tip from 2004.Just a few are left in the "Recycle these" bin, and most of them seem a bit dated to me too.Now that the queue is plumping up a bit, perhaps we can spend a little more time on refining the quality of existing and future tips. Rfrisbietalk03:32, 8 July 2006 (UTC)
Where do I post a suggestion, when I know it needs more work before posting? My suggestion for a tip is this.
Do you sometimes make edits, without realising that you weren't logged in? There is an easy way to avoid this. Go to preferences, and choose a different skin. Or change the quickbar so itis on a different part of the page. That way, it's obvious straight away whether you are logged in E.g. you may wish to use the Cologne Blue skin. If another Wikipedian uses the same computer and likes the same skin, you could place the quickbar on the right hand side so that it's obvious who is logged in.
Wikipedia:tips - the previous format just wasn't feasible (and entailed copying all the tips to new pages so that they would show up right in the category system - a collosal undertaking, and not worth the effort in copying or maintaining the copies).So I've replaced it with piped links of the tip collection.The library is about half done, but needs the rest of the tips (at the bottom of that page) sorted, and then the entries in each section arranged in the best logical order of presentation. --The Transhumanist18:01, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
Error-checking
Wikipedia:Tip of the day/August 7, 2006 had some errors when it went to air... it boiled down to the [[google:]] search thing not handling spaces, which I eventually worked out and fixed.
Looks like the error-checking needs to be more vigorous. I'll sign up (not that I'll be checking every day). Having said that... I love the tip of the day. I'm learning more. Thanks. Wipes tear from eye. --Singkong2005talk06:49, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
Project directory
Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory.This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T214:23, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
I changed the code to nowiki lines. I hope that helped, because I couldn't see a problem in IE6 before I "fixed" it. (?)It looks okay at 800X600 to me. Rfrisbietalk02:54, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
Screenshot of original problem added. It was worse with the PRE tag, but still causes (or would be) a lot of bunching in the left column.--Quiddity04:45, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
To Rfrisbie for the bright idea of the yearless year, and for going above and beyond the call of duty by designing, testing, and converting a whole year's worth of tips to the yearless year, which makes the whole tip of the day project much easier to maintain,here is bright and shiny (tip of the day) lightbulb! --The Transhumanist14:27, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebration of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention.Badbilltucker19:34, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions about Wikipedia:Tip of the day. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Try not to use words like greatest and best unless it has been statistically proven. Use (Singer X is considered by many as the best singer) instead of (Singer X is the best singer)
Use your userpage
Use your User page to do stuff you can't normally do on Wikipedia. Try out techniques, have userboxes, try out your template skills, and make a user page worthy of Wikipedia!
Editing
If you are stumped on what to edit next, try using User:SuggestBot. They, however, need to know what you've edited previously. For other ideas on what you can contribute, check out Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia.
"Am I logged in?" Don't be confused.
Do you sometimes make edits, without realising that you weren't logged in? There is an easy way to avoid this. Log in, go to preferences, and choose a different skin. Or change the quickbar so it is on a different part of the page. That way, it's obvious straight away whether you are logged in or not. E.g. you may wish to use the Cologne Blue skin.
If another Wikipedian uses the same computer and likes the same skin, one of you could place the quickbar on the right hand side so that it's obvious who is logged in.
With this trick you can look up any Wikipedia article directly from any web page by merely highlighting the word you want to know more about and clicking a button! Use the javascript below as a link on your browser toolbar. Make sure you get it all on one line, a simple Copy/Paste will probably only get the first line:
javascript:q = %22%22 + (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection() : document.getSelection ? document.getSelection() : document.selection.createRange().text); if (!q) q = prompt(%22Enter a Wikipedia topic:%22, %22%22); /* if (q!=null) { location=%22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22 + escape(q).replace(/ /g, %22+%22);} void 0; */ if (q!=null) { WindowObjectReference = window.open(%22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22 + escape(q).replace(/ /g, %22+%22), %22DescriptiveWindowName%22, %22resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes%22); } void 0;
Now, when you highlight any word on a webpage and click this link, a new window will open up with the Wikipedia article for that word! You can also change the URL and have the link take you to Wiktionary definitions, or even perform a Google search on the term (put in "http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=") So there it is, have fun with it!
You Got Your Sig Together?
At some point after you open an account with Wikipedia you'll probably want to "fancify" your signature, make it more "unique". And Wiki allows for a lot of creativity on your part. Read about that at Customizing your signature.
Here's a tip! You might decide to put a space in your sig, perhaps between your Username link and your Talk-page link. Unless you want your sig to "break in two" at the end of a line, don't just hit the space-bar key, use one of Wiki's "non-breaking space" options. It's real easy, and that way all of your sig will completely wrap around to the next line. Now that's keeping your sig together!
There might be times when you want to use lines as separators on your pages. Wikipedia gives you the Wiki four-hyphen code, like this: ---- and you can also use the HTML <hr> tag. Watch this...
---- renders as a line all the way across...
<hr> gives the same line...
<hr width=50%> renders...
<hr width=30%> yields...
and so on.
Visualizing redirects
There is a way to make redirects stand out from a long list of links by visualizing them. This quick and easy solution was found by Kim van der Linde using customized CSS:
Go to "My preferences", click on the tab "Appearance", and click the "Custom CSS" link behind the skin you use. It opens a page, and you can add there the following code (just copy and paste it):
.mw-redirect {
color: #006633;
}
.mw-redirect:visited {
color: #009900;
}
.mw-redirect:hover {
color: #990000;
}
.mw-redirect:active {
color: #990000;
}
Change the color codes if you want. Save the page, and reload (bypass your cache) to force the new CSS to be included. All redirects will now show up as green links!
Have you ever wanted to inform all editors about what to or what not to do to an article but thought it would be too hard to do and that it wouldn't match if it was seen on the article? Are you reverting many edits on a certain article because of this? Instead, you can insert hidden text! That way, only the people editing the page will see what you want them to see! Here is how to insert hidden text:
First, begin the comment by typing <!--.
Once you have done that, type what you want the editors to read.
Then, end the comment by typing -->.
Once you have completed those 3 easy steps, you won't be reverting as much edits anymore!
Many users adore userboxes. And many enjoy creating userboxes. Still others enjoy humorous userboxes. And quite a few enjoy creating humorous userboxes. Have you any problems making jokes? Then use the Wiki Userbox Generator!
Cyde's generator allows you to create userboxes within a limited number of themes. However, many of the images used in the userboxes created may be deleted or moved. Therefore, you must first check whether the picture exists before copying the code onto your userpage!
If you want to go to an article in any other language from the current language that you are in, you don´t have to go to that article in the current language and search if it exist in the left language bar, not even be switching between wikipedias, you only have to input the ISO 639-1 prefix of the language of your choice followed by the name of the article (in that language). This will directly bring you to the article in that other wikipedia. For example:
Placing: "ES:Satélite natural" in the search box ➔ will lead you here (spanish version of: Natural satellite)
When writing in their computer, people often make use of contractions. Contractions like "IDK", "lag", "lol", "u" (slang) are obviously not suitable to use in article namespace, however, even common things like: "aren´t", "it's", "should´ve" and others, are neither suposed to be part of an article text, so when writing an article, keep in mind to avoid contractions and other informal writing. Also avoid:
The use of scrolling lists in article prose
Using images to display text
Such phrases as "remember that..." and "note that...", which address readers directly in an unencyclopedic tone
An important aspect of Wikipedia is how well articles can be reached from other articles by means of linking. An article that has fewer than three links to it in other articles, however, is called an "orphan," and should be dealt with in a number of ways:
Tag the article as an orphan using the {{Orphan}} template.
Create necessary links on other articles to the orphaned article (but make sure they're relevant).
Remove the {{Orphan}} template from the article when there are three or more links to it.
Also, keep in mind some of the ways to avoid creating orphaned articles...like browsing the templates with red links page when considering making a new article.
In the talk page of an article´s section, wikipedia section or portal section (amog others), if you post a question or comment, you will get your reply in that same section. However, some users will reply comments in your talk page instead of their own. This makes reading back a conversation quite cumbersome; having to switch talk pages back and forth in order to make sense of the conversation, something even worse when the discussion involves more than two users. This is why is suggested as a tip to answer a message in the same section it was created.
For this matter, templates such as {{Talkback}}, {{Usertalkback}} and {{Shoutbox}} became useful:
{{Usertalkback}} - To post the message of this hint in your talk page.
{{Talkback}} or {{tb}} - To notify other user that you have already replied.
{{Shoutbox}} - To make smaller coments (avoiding to create a whole new section for that) and even place the {{Talkback}} template inside.
Occasionally, there are times where a long backlog for speedy deletions exists. Thus, don't panic if a speedy tag you placed on an article isn't acted upon immediately. Other times, a speedy tag may linger for a while because no admin is willing to accept or decline it. Consider taking the article to Articles for Deletion if it is such a case.
Zotero can capture citation data from web pages, including library catalogs (WorldCat) and bibliographic indexes and export them in Wikipedia citation format.
Set Zotero:Actions(cog):Preferences to export Wikipedia citation template.
To cite:
Show the web page with citation information in your browser
Click the Zotero icon on the right of address line to capture the bibliographic data to a Zotero item
Highlight the bibliographic item in the Zotero window
Use Zotero Quick Copy (Ctrl-alt-C or Cmd-shift-C)
Click the Wikipedia <ref/ref> button to insert a reference.
Paste citation into the reference
Voila! A properly contructed wikipedia citation in a few seconds.
Always try to avoid adding Double Redirects. Redirects are special pages that automatically causes the text of another page to be dispalyed in its place. A redirect which leads to another redirect is a double redirect. Wikipedia will not follow the second redirect making it unpleasant for readers.
You can always appreciate another user, and you can always show it with a barnstar! Barnstars are are little award-like templates that have stars and messages in them! They can cheer up someone´s day and encourage that person to keep doing constructive edits on wikipedia (and staying in wikipedia). Barnstars are a joyful way to show recognition to the work of a wikipedian. You don't have to be an admin, in fact you don't have to be logged in! Anyone can hand them out, and remember, if you appreciate others, and you show it, then you can get a barnstar too. (you can also customize them, instead of the usual-given barnstar)
A sysop got you blocked for a reason. Here are some tips on how to get you unblocked and contributing back! First, add {{unblock}} to your user talk page (the only userpage you can edit), and your reason why you got blocked and some things you done accidentally. Then, wait for a sysop to unblock you. BE CAREFUL! Some sysops might decline your unblock by adding a decline reason below your reason. Please try again if you have problems with your sysop blocking.
Have you ever been dissatisfied with having to type out user warning templates? Are you not satisfied with the default user interface? Everyone has, so that's why an association of Wikipedians who can program at an advanced level have made a page, WikiProject User Scripts, dedicated to giving you scripts to improve your experience here.
If you've looked at your Watchlist or at Recent Changes lately, you'll notice that after each entry there is a colored number. This number represents the amount of bytes that have been either added or removed in that edit. Usually this is the same as the number of characters added or removed. Green numbers (+xx) show the number of bytes added while red numbers (-xx)show the amount of bytes removed.
Spell checking available through Google and Mozilla Firefox
Although there is no spell checking available within the Wikipedia Edit Page, you can spell check anything which is in a text form (which the edit box is) if you're using the latest Google Toolbar which has a spell check option available.
Also, the 2.0 release of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, now available to the general public at http://www.mozilla.com/firefox, has automatic as-you-type spell checking in all text fields. The spell checking is turned on by default when you install the browser.
Perhaps the best navigation aid is one you create yourself.Your userpage can serve as a custom navigation tool: simply add the links you need most to it.Note that there are many ready-made link lists available in the form of Wikipedia:Navigational templates.
For easy access to the above link, add it to your user page.
Help organize a loose collection of articles into a coordinated WikiProject
Do you find yourself working on a lot of related articles, and wishing there were some rhyme or reason to how they were written, internally organized, cross-referenced to each other, categorized in Wikipedia, and templated with useful features like sidebars? You can make it happen!
WikiProjects are groups of editors with special project pages for storing guidelines, templates and to-do lists for an entire general topic area, and a Talk page for coordinating on a topic-wide basis.
Starting a WikiProject is easy: Create a page in your userspace, such as User:MyNameHere/Wikiproject Project name, put {{subst:WikiProject|Project name}} in it, and save. You now have a fill-in-the-blanks Project page. Propose your WikiProject, and recruit active editors who work on relevant articles to support the proposal and join the project.
User:AndyZ/peerreviewer is an automated javascript program that highlights areas for improvment for any article on Wikipedia, including sources, lack of categories or tips for uploading images to the page. To use, go to User:AndyZ/peerreviewer and follow the instructions; then, edit any article and click the "peer review" text at the page top for an instant automatic peer review!
Do you merge articles? Are you a translator? Do you dislike using multiple windows to look at multiple pages? If you have a capable web browser, such as Firefox or Safari, you may want try tabbed browsing within your browser window for quick and easy organization of multiple pages of information. Try using ctrl-T or apple-T to open a new tab, or search your browser's help menu to get started.
Wiki formatting often required the use of the pipe key. The pipe key or "|" is located on the keyboard itself. Many editors of wikipedia find it frustrating when they must scroll to the teplate at the bottom of the page and select the pipe. The pipe on the keyboard is located directly underneath the backspace key. By pressing the shift key and this key simultaneously, the pipe symbol appears.
Please add new (fresh) tips to the top of this section (the old tips which are being recycled are at the end).
Think forward
While editing, ask yourself "how will this edit make the article grow?". For example, a section titled like "Criticism of this topic" will fill with criticism only, and a section titled like "Trivia of this topic" will fill with trivia rather than specific and organized information. In contrast, usage of inline citations will result in continuing usage of inline citations by future contributors.
Mikael Häggström (talk) 08:37, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
Here's a tool that can help when you're using AWB. To help find a category for an article, I choose key main words which are closely connected to the subject. For example, if the article was about a hospital in Poland, I would input into the tool "hospital Poland" (without quotes) and it will then search through categories and list some to choose from. In the example above, Category:Poland and Category:Hospital would be the categories I'd pick. It works really well! Here's the link: Common Sense Tool Good Luck Mlpearc MESSAGE00:00, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
Something like two months ago, I wrote up a potential TotD here, and never heard anything further.Does that mean that it was considered lame and ignored, or did it move into some other process? The workflow from the intial proposal of a draft TotD, to discussion, cleanup and eventual use at a TotD or rejection isn't very clear to me. — SMcCandlish [talk] [contrib]ツ10:33, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
No, nothing like that. It's just that the project isn't in a hurry, because tips have already been scheduled to the end of the year. But it's all very flexible. Some tips on the schedule (listed on the project page) are repeats. So we can replace those with new tips, for instance. I'll be happy to have a look at your tip submission. The Transhumanist12:53, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
I put a barnstar TotD up above a long time ago and hasn't been touched since. Or did it get moved tom the top and just have to wait another year? What is it? —Coastergeekperson04's talk@Feb/14/08 00:38
General TOTD encyclopaedia article?
I think "tip of the day" should be an actual article, discussing the use of TOTD as a supplementary form of online help in (primarily Microsoft?) GUI applications. I was a little surprised to see it redirect to this meta-type page. 86.138.65.20616:52, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
This has nothing to do with Today's tip. It is regarding the automatic message that is on the Log In page. Make sure to have a secure password. Out of curiosity, has there been a recent admin who's password was discovered? Send a message to my talk page. -Yancyfry02:22, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
Internet Explorer advocacy
Today's tip advocates Internet Explorer. I've nothing against IE, but did you really mean to do that? --SueHay02:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
A metaphor for a metaphor?
"Village pump" can't be a metaphor for "community watering hole." A metaphor can only be a symbol of something real, not a symbol of yet another symbol. The village pump on Wikipedia is the real online gathering place the metaphor is supposed to indicate, but "community watering hole" is just an alternative metaphor. I suggest saying something such as "The Village Pump is a metaphor for a community crossroads or meetingplace where news and ideas are exchanged." Preston McConkie20:31, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
typo in popups tip
Power tool: Navigation popups
... you can activate it form the popups menu ...
A minor quibble also, empowers?
When you install this nifty wikitool, it empowers your mouse arrow.
I love the tip of moment template, thanks to all concerned. Cygnisinsignis05:50, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
In WP:PILLARS, it lists "Wikipedia works by consensus" as one of the pillars (next to the yellow icon).
In Wikipedia:Tip of the day/October 20, "Wikipedia is free content" appears next to the yellow icon rather than the green icon, and instead, "Wikipedia has a neutral point of view" is listed next to the green icon.
Barnstars make good editors feel appreciated. Try to give one to every editor you think is good. --1bookfan 02:48, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
Archives
The 2007 archive only has links to some of the days, and some of those pages don't work (in particular, the prior/next day links don't work on any of the February pages on the list - they have error messages instead - and February 2-4 don't have any tip). BrianJasonDrake08:37, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
How to Use this template on Other Lrnguage wikis?
Hi, I contribute in gu@wiki and hi@wiki, and visit en@wiki for timeto time as well. I am even one of the Administrator for gu.wiki and would like to use this template on my user page at gu@User:Dsvyas, can anyone tell me how can I do that? or can give me the basic code for template to import the tips from en.wiki here??--Dsvyas (talk) 16:10, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
It was added to the template {{totd}} by someone who seems to be a new user; he added the same template to over 10 templates - I have reverted his insertions and left a note on his talk page. --Gurubrahma (talk) 18:45, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
As I understand it, the display templates update using the magic words{{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} and {{CURRENTDAY}}, which are in UTC. So we can setup a script off-site that, each day at 00:00 UTC, checks the relevant tip page and uses that to update a feed. If somebody reminds me in a week or two I will try to make one, don't have the resources at the minute. --tiny plastic Grey Knight⊖17:06, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
Pronounciation of words
Up to now, I never found an audio-option to hear the correct pronounciation of the words that are explained. Would it be possible to offer such a feature? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.120.169.118 (talk) 08:12, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
Big blooper: December 2
Um ... did anyone bother to check the major change in the style guides (MOSNUM, MoS, MOSLINK, CONTEXT) concerning date autoformatting? How embarrassing. If there's a way of substituting today's Tip to stop WP looking like a bunch of fools, that would be great. Tony(talk)12:57, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
Tip of the day for March 5,2009 "Reserve your username on the sister projects, before it gets taken" seems very out of date.
"Therefore, create an account identical to your Wikipedia account on each of the Wikimedia projects before someone else chooses your name as their own. Even if you never need those accounts, they'll be ready and waiting in case you ever do.
The upcoming unified login will mean that registering a username reserves it everywhere."
Also, I think the project procedures above need to be updated.. specifically #6 -- Ϫ12:36, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
It got shut down. The guy running it stopped, and removed it from everywhere. One day it just disappeared.
That was before I joined, so I didn't even know it had existed. I discovered it in 2006 when I was redesigning the Community Portal. So I resurrected the project, put together a team of people, and we created enough tips to run all year long! We re-established the tip of the day to the Community Portal, and we added it to the main help page as well.
Eventually, RichardF created the "yearless year", and the tips get repeated year after year. The template just starts over at the beginning each year.
They are also available in the tips library at WP:TIPS.
Since the tip display runs automatically, I've practically forgotten about this project.
P.S.: The tip schedule needs work - it needs to be archived to 2008, and more tips replaced for 2009.
Repetition tips
What if someone (without knowing it) post a tip a little similar, similar or very similar to other existing tip? (since there are plenty of them). - Damërung...ÏìíÏ..._Ξ_. -- 02:32, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
If the tip is especially important, it may be repeated several times throughout the year. As you'll see in the schedule, certain tips are repeated, and they are worded differently each time for added impact. For example, one of the most important tips for beginners is to sign their message posts with 4 tildes (~~~~). That tip is scheduled to display about once per month.
If the tip is important enough to be repeated, then no worries. If not, replace one of the versions with a different tip.
Now that the tip schedule is full, we need to displace old tips with new tips. Try to replace obsolete tips or tips that are marginally useful.
The important thing is to improve the quality of the tip collection.
Once completed, each tip should also be added to the tip library at WP:TIPS.
Tips are replaced as fast as people replace them. It's been pretty slow over the past couple of years. Editors have been correcting errors as they spot them, such as when a tip has grown out-of-date and is no longer accurate. In most cases, the tip is simply updated.
To be on the safe side, we have a template that shows the tip-of-the-day one day in advance, so that errors can be spotted before the tips are displayed to the whole community: {{Totd-tomorrow}}.
There's another one that shows a random tip: {{Totd-random}}
(It also has space for this project's announcements).
my name is shahana... i am student of masters in business administration.i just want to share something with u all people... i m 20years old... i have passed 20 yrs of my life but still i am unable to know what is life? i am so much confused with mystery of this life. i want to know what life really is?in my 20yrs of life i just came to know... "life is totally uncertain". it is the name of giving (whatever it is).i think it is a beautiful gift of GOD,if we spend it according to GOD'S will... We just need to understand this.i don't know whether i am right or wrong,but that is all i know about life. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shani.f (talk • contribs) 09:49, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
I'm not really sure where I can put ideas for a tip of the day, so I'm just adding a new section for it. Anyways, I'm not sure if this tip exists already (I checked on the "Tip of the Day" page), but my idea is a tip about inserting hidden comments. It will say this:
"Have you ever wanted to inform all editors about what to or what not to do to an article but thought it would be too hard to do and that it wouldn't match if it was seen on the article? Are you reverting many edits on a certain article because of this? Instead, you can insert a hidden comment! That way, only the people editing the page will see what you want them to see! Here is how to insert a hidden comment:
You can always insert it as a new entry in this page. It doesn´t matter if for some reason it´s wrong, it won´t be added inmediately tot he tips, so nothing is being damaged. - ☩Damërung☩. -- 01:27, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
Just came here to say the same thing. 'Wannabe Kate' was good when working, but has been unavailable for many months. -- EdJogg (talk) 15:47, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
Proofreaders needed...
Out-of-date or obsolete tips have been making it through to the Community Portal and main Help page! We must prevent this from happening again.
Please place the following template code on your user or talk page, and check the tip for accuracy. It's displayed one day early, to give us time to fix it.
{{totd-tomorrow}}
Please make the corrections yourself if you can. And report the tip here, on this talk page, especially if you don't know what to write.
There's a tip schedule at WP:TOTD in case you feel like proofreading further ahead.
Let's compare notes - what tools and methods do you use?
I'm always looking for faster ways of doing things (navigating and editing) on Wikipedia (and in general), and I thought it might be fun to compare what programs and routes we use to get around and get things done on Wikipedia. And maybe some new tips will arise from our discussion.
Let me start things off. I use Firefox 3.6 on Windows 7. I love Firefox's tab capabilities. (Tabs are windows within Firefox, each one displaying a web page that you load into it). I load lots of pages into tabs, and then cycle through them using Ctrl+Tab ↹ (moves to next tab) or Ctrl+W (closes tab). ⇧ Shift+Ctrl+Tab ↹ moves to the previous tab.
The bottleneck with tabs is loading pages into them. If done manually, it can be very time-consuming. So I rely heavily on the Firefox extension WP:LINKY, which loads into tabs the pages from selected links on the current web page. Linky allows Firefox's tab commands to shine, because tabs are only as useful as the pages you have loaded into them, and Linky takes the work out of loading.
After loading dozens of pages into tabs with Linky, I use Firefox's Ctrl+Tab ↹ or Ctrl+W hot keys to cycle through them rapidly when I need to look over many pages quickly. This technique is great for inspecting pages for certain aspects. I also queue pages up in tabs for cutting and pasting the same message onto several talk pages. Linky works well for medium-sized batches. AWB is better suited for batches of hundreds or thousands of pages.
The real power of Linky isn't evident until you make custom lists of links (sandboxes are good for this). Then you can modify the links before loading them, such as specifying sections in the links. Then you can use Firefox tabs for inspecting specific types of sections in articles, like the See also or External links sections, or sections with the same heading, such as "History", etc.
The editor I use on Wikipedia is WP:WikEd, because of its built-in search/replace features.
I also use WP:AWB, for auto page loading and batch processing. AWB is designed for search/replace across a great many pages.
For list building, I make extensive use of Grep for Wikipedia title searches, it really helps in finding everything related to a subject, and I like its streamlined results (titles only). The lists are easily converted into lists of links. I also use the list making features of AWB, and then cut/paste them to a sandbox for conversion to links. Then they can be modified and fed back into AWB for processing (specifying "links on page").
I'm currently learning WP:REGEX, the advanced search/replace language, which is supported in WP:WikEd, WP:AWB, and Grep. So far, the most useful thing I find regex good for is multi-line search-replaces to find and replace things at the beginning and ends of lines. Really helps a lot for adding bullets and link brackets to list items, and for stripping them out. The code for a new line is \n ("backslash en").
In AWB and Grep, Regex allows you to very specifically target pages based on what is contained in them or their titles. The hard part is figuring out how to describe what you are looking for in Regex code. I'm very interested in collecting regex examples.
Well, that's all for now. (If you have any questions about the methods mentioned above, please feel free to ask).
I use Firefox 6.0, and occasionally Safari 5.1 on a Windows 7 machine. (Side note: Transhumanist, why are you still on Firefox 3.7?) Firefox's tab options are, indeed, useful - though I have noticed that having too many tabs (more than 40 or so) open at one time slows my machine quite noticeably.
I use quite a few of the Special:Gadgets on Wikipedia, including WP:POPUPS, the expanded edit summary, and WP:HotCat. HotCat is a particularly useful tool, both here and over at commons:, because it makes it easy to find parent categories as well as providing you a live list of existing categories as you type the new category's name. I also use User:Where/usertabs, customized on my vector.js page.
Finally, for making multiple repetitive edits where I am copying more than one chunk of text, I use Utopia Angel, which is an amazingly simple-to-use clipboard viewer/editor that can be set to "stay on top" of other windows and can store up to your 99 most recent clipboard (CTRL+C) entries and easily switch among them.
Of course, I also use AWB occasionally for various tasks, though I still find regular expressions to be somewhat challenging. AWB is also quite useful for when I want to update my customwatchlist, which are based primarily around category membership, as AWB can easily generate lists of category members (recursively if desired) and export them to a .txt file.
Tomorrow's Tip: How to link to a section of an article
The tip for tomorrow includes the phrase: "...redirects do not follow section links..."
Now you have been able to add anchor (section) links to redirects for as long as I can remember. So, is this referring to something else, or is it simply out-of-date now? (Sorry, I don't have time to follow this up, but thought it important to raise it here.) -- EdJogg (talk) 12:30, 25 August 2011 (UTC)
Google Sorry...
We're sorry...
... but your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.
See Google Help for more information.
I proofread the tips of September 4-30. I edited the tips for Sept. 4,8,10,17,23. I think the upcoming September tips are OK now, with the exception of Wikipedia:Tip_of_the_day/September_20. The tip of September 20 is about an old 'Wikipedia toolbar' addon for Firefox. The latest version of the toolbar was released in 2006, and does not seem to be compatible with an updated browser. I think this tip should be replaced. Arthena(talk)00:30, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
This is an archive of past discussions about Wikipedia:Tip of the day. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
This project is responsible for developing and maintaining the tip of the day templates which are displayed throughout Wikipedia, and the collection of tips that are displayed by those templates.
If you see a bad or outdated tip please fix it! Be bold!
Project procedures
Here is how this works:
Those who would like to participate in this project should place the {{totd-tomorrow}} on their user page, which is a template that displays tomorrow's tip of the day (for monitoring purposes) as well as this project's task list (announcement box).
Submit new entries on this page, below. Please sign your entry, so we can notify you when your tip has been scheduled!
Please help prepare the new entries below by proofreading and editing the tips for factual accuracy, clarity, readability, and proper formatting.
The goal of this project is to provide tips and advice for making Wikipedia easier to use, and to help users participate in Wikipedia more effectively.
Toward this end, we collect useful wikitips wherever we can find them. Do you know an expert on some aspect of Wikipedia's operations? Please ask them to record their favorite techniques on this page (below).
On the adjacent project page is a list of links to subpages, titled by date. Each subpage has a tip stored in it. The entries with a double-hyphen (--) are old tips (the same ones that were displayed last year). They need to be updated, or replaced with new tips.
This project has several templates that automatically display the contents of the subpage with the current date. (Templates are pages that get displayed on other pages, duplicated like boilerplate.) The tip of the day is displayed on Help:Contents and Wikipedia:Community Portal.
When you believe an entry is polished and ready, move it up to the ready to post section, for somebody else to post to the subpages.
Move entries from the ready to post section (that you actually agree are ready to post) to the tip schedule. To do this, you may replace any tip on the schedule that has a double-hyphen between the date and the tip's title. When you do, change the double-hyphen to a single hyphen.
If you feel an entry in Ready to post is not ready, move it back down to New entries. Do not post to subpages the entries that you placed in the Ready to post section (unless you are a veteran of this project and have a feel for what makes a good tip). This ensures that each entry is given final approval by at least two editors.
Entries that are not worthy of this project get moved down to not suitable. Generally, this means that the subject matter doesn't fit here, or the tip is complete nonsense. Include a little message as to why, and your sig.
If you see an entry under "not suitable" that you agree is not worthy of this project (due to inappropriate subject matter), then delete it from this page. But please do not delete entries that you placed there. This again ensures that at least 2 editors are involved in the decision.
Keep an eye on the tip schedule. Proofread tips in the queue before they become today's tip! On the schedule, tips with a double-hyphen haven't been proofread since they appeared the previous year. If you think a tip should run again this year, proofread it to make sure it is still accurate, and then change the double-hyphen to a single-hyphen.
Longtime veterans of this project sometimes add tips directly to the tip schedule. Don't get alarmed, they (RichardF, and The Transhumanist) know what they are doing.
Note: Once scheduled, a tip will display automatically year after year. So it is important to update each tip before it displays again, or replace them with new tips if they have become obsolete! See the project page for the whole year's schedule of tips.
Formatting required for entries: see the Wikipedia:Tip of the day/February 21 entry for the format. In order to allow users with table-formatted user pages to display the tip of the day template without it messing up their page, please do not include headings in the tips. Instead, we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way with <center><big>'''Tip title'''</big></center>. Each entry should also include a link for users to be able to read more about the topic, if such a link exists. And of course don't forget the tip itself, which should take just a paragraph, or two at the most. (These are tips, not treatises). The best tips are one sentence long.
Try not to use words like greatest and best unless it has been statistically proven. Use (Singer X is considered by many as the best singer) instead of (Singer X is the best singer)
Use your userpage
Use your User page to do stuff you can't normally do on Wikipedia. Try out techniques, have userboxes, try out your template skills, and make a user page worthy of Wikipedia!
Editing
If you are stumped on what to edit next, try using User:SuggestBot. They, however, need to know what you've edited previously. For other ideas on what you can contribute, check out Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia.
"Am I logged in?" Don't be confused.
Do you sometimes make edits, without realising that you weren't logged in? There is an easy way to avoid this. Log in, go to preferences, and choose a different skin. Or change the quickbar so it is on a different part of the page. That way, it's obvious straight away whether you are logged in or not. E.g. you may wish to use the Cologne Blue skin.
If another Wikipedian uses the same computer and likes the same skin, one of you could place the quickbar on the right hand side so that it's obvious who is logged in.
With this trick you can look up any Wikipedia article directly from any web page by merely highlighting the word you want to know more about and clicking a button! Use the javascript below as a link on your browser toolbar. Make sure you get it all on one line, a simple Copy/Paste will probably only get the first line:
javascript:q = %22%22 + (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection() : document.getSelection ? document.getSelection() : document.selection.createRange().text); if (!q) q = prompt(%22Enter a Wikipedia topic:%22, %22%22); /* if (q!=null) { location=%22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22 + escape(q).replace(/ /g, %22+%22);} void 0; */ if (q!=null) { WindowObjectReference = window.open(%22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22 + escape(q).replace(/ /g, %22+%22), %22DescriptiveWindowName%22, %22resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes%22); } void 0;
Now, when you highlight any word on a webpage and click this link, a new window will open up with the Wikipedia article for that word! You can also change the URL and have the link take you to Wiktionary definitions, or even perform a Google search on the term (put in "http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=") So there it is, have fun with it!
You Got Your Sig Together?
At some point after you open an account with Wikipedia you'll probably want to "fancify" your signature, make it more "unique". And Wiki allows for a lot of creativity on your part. Read about that at Customizing your signature.
Here's a tip! You might decide to put a space in your sig, perhaps between your Username link and your Talk-page link. Unless you want your sig to "break in two" at the end of a line, don't just hit the space-bar key, use one of Wiki's "non-breaking space" options. It's real easy, and that way all of your sig will completely wrap around to the next line. Now that's keeping your sig together!
There might be times when you want to use lines as separators on your pages. Wikipedia gives you the Wiki four-hyphen code, like this: ---- and you can also use the HTML <hr> tag. Watch this...
---- renders as a line all the way across...
<hr> gives the same line...
<hr width=50%> renders...
<hr width=30%> yields...
and so on.
The Userbox Generator
Many users adore userboxes. And many enjoy creating userboxes. Still others enjoy humorous userboxes. And quite a few enjoy creating humorous userboxes. Have you any problems making jokes? Then use the Wiki Userbox Generator!
Cyde's generator allows you to create userboxes within a limited number of themes. However, many of the images used in the userboxes created may be deleted or moved. Therefore, you must first check whether the picture exists before copying the code onto your userpage!
If you want to go to an article in any other language from the current language that you are in, you don´t have to go to that article in the current language and search if it exist in the left language bar, not even be switching between wikipedias, you only have to input the ISO 639-1 prefix of the language of your choice followed by the name of the article (in that language). This will directly bring you to the article in that other wikipedia. For example:
Placing: "ES:Satélite natural" in the search box ➔ will lead you here (spanish version of: Natural satellite)
When writing in their computer, people often make use of contractions. Contractions like "IDK", "lag", "lol", "u" (slang) are obviously not suitable to use in article namespace, however, even common things like: "aren´t", "it's", "should´ve" and others, are neither suposed to be part of an article text, so when writing an article, keep in mind to avoid contractions and other informal writing. Also avoid:
The use of scrolling lists in article prose
Using images to display text
Such phrases as "remember that..." and "note that...", which address readers directly in an unencyclopedic tone
An important aspect of Wikipedia is how well articles can be reached from other articles by means of linking. An article that has fewer than three links to it in other articles, however, is called an "orphan," and should be dealt with in a number of ways:
Tag the article as an orphan using the {{Orphan}} template.
Create necessary links on other articles to the orphaned article (but make sure they're relevant).
Remove the {{Orphan}} template from the article when there are three or more links to it.
Also, keep in mind some of the ways to avoid creating orphaned articles...like browsing the templates with red links page when considering making a new article.
In the talk page of an article´s section, wikipedia section or portal section (amog others), if you post a question or comment, you will get your reply in that same section. However, some users will reply comments in your talk page instead of their own. This makes reading back a conversation quite cumbersome; having to switch talk pages back and forth in order to make sense of the conversation, something even worse when the discussion involves more than two users. This is why is suggested as a tip to answer a message in the same section it was created.
For this matter, templates such as {{Talkback}}, {{Usertalkback}} and {{Shoutbox}} became useful:
{{Usertalkback}} - To post the message of this hint in your talk page.
{{Talkback}} or {{tb}} - To notify other user that you have already replied.
{{Shoutbox}} - To make smaller comments (avoiding to create a whole new section for that) and even place the {{Talkback}} template inside.
Occasionally, there are times where a long backlog for speedy deletions exists. Thus, don't panic if a speedy tag you placed on an article isn't acted upon immediately. Other times, a speedy tag may linger for a while because no admin is willing to accept or decline it. Consider taking the article to Articles for Deletion if it is such a case.
Zotero can capture citation data from web pages, including library catalogs (WorldCat) and bibliographic indexes and export them in Wikipedia citation format.
Set Zotero:Actions(cog):Preferences to export Wikipedia citation template.
To cite:
Show the web page with citation information in your browser
Click the Zotero icon on the right of address line to capture the bibliographic data to a Zotero item
Highlight the bibliographic item in the Zotero window
Use Zotero Quick Copy (Ctrl-alt-C or Cmd-shift-C)
Click the Wikipedia <ref/ref> button to insert a reference.
Paste citation into the reference
Voila! A properly contructed wikipedia citation in a few seconds.
Always try to avoid adding Double Redirects. Redirects are special pages that automatically causes the text of another page to be dispalyed in its place. A redirect which leads to another redirect is a double redirect. Wikipedia will not follow the second redirect making it unpleasant for readers.
You can always appreciate another user, and you can always show it with a barnstar! Barnstars are are little award-like templates that have stars and messages in them! They can cheer up someone´s day and encourage that person to keep doing constructive edits on wikipedia (and staying in wikipedia). Barnstars are a joyful way to show recognition to the work of a wikipedian. You don't have to be an admin, in fact you don't have to be logged in! Anyone can hand them out, and remember, if you appreciate others, and you show it, then you can get a barnstar too. (you can also customize them, instead of the usual-given barnstar)
A sysop got you blocked for a reason. Here are some tips on how to get you unblocked and contributing back! First, add {{unblock}} to your user talk page (the only userpage you can edit), and your reason why you got blocked and some things you done accidentally. Then, wait for a sysop to unblock you. BE CAREFUL! Some sysops might decline your unblock by adding a decline reason below your reason. Please try again if you have problems with your sysop blocking.
Have you ever been dissatisfied with having to type out user warning templates? Are you not satisfied with the default user interface? Everyone has, so that's why an association of Wikipedians who can program at an advanced level have made a page, WikiProject User Scripts, dedicated to giving you scripts to improve your experience here.
If you've looked at your Watchlist or at Recent Changes lately, you'll notice that after each entry there is a colored number. This number represents the amount of bytes that have been either added or removed in that edit. Usually this is the same as the number of characters added or removed. Green numbers (+xx) show the number of bytes added while red numbers (-xx)show the amount of bytes removed.
Spell checking available through Google and Mozilla Firefox
Although there is no spell checking available within the Wikipedia Edit Page, you can spell check anything which is in a text form (which the edit box is) if you're using the latest Google Toolbar which has a spell check option available.
Also, the 2.0 release of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, now available to the general public at http://www.mozilla.com/firefox, has automatic as-you-type spell checking in all text fields. The spell checking is turned on by default when you install the browser.
Perhaps the best navigation aid is one you create yourself. Your userpage can serve as a custom navigation tool: simply add the links you need most to it. Note that there are many ready-made link lists available in the form of Wikipedia:Navigational templates.
For easy access to the above link, add it to your user page.
Help organize a loose collection of articles into a coordinated WikiProject
Do you find yourself working on a lot of related articles, and wishing there were some rhyme or reason to how they were written, internally organized, cross-referenced to each other, categorized in Wikipedia, and templated with useful features like sidebars? You can make it happen!
WikiProjects are groups of editors with special project pages for storing guidelines, templates and to-do lists for an entire general topic area, and a Talk page for coordinating on a topic-wide basis.
Starting a WikiProject is easy: Create a page in your userspace, such as User:MyNameHere/Wikiproject Project name, put {{subst:WikiProject|Project name}} in it, and save. You now have a fill-in-the-blanks Project page. Propose your WikiProject, and recruit active editors who work on relevant articles to support the proposal and join the project.
User:AndyZ/peerreviewer is an automated javascript program that highlights areas for improvement for any article on Wikipedia, including sources, lack of categories or tips for uploading images to the page. To use, go to User:AndyZ/peerreviewer and follow the instructions; then, edit any article and click the "peer review" text at the top of the page for an instant automatic peer review!
Do you merge articles? Are you a translator? Do you dislike using multiple windows to look at multiple pages? If you have a capable web browser, such as Firefox or Safari, you may want to try tabbed browsing within your browser window for quick and easy organization of multiple pages of information. Try using ctrl-T or apple-T to open a new tab, or search your browser's help menu to get started.
Wiki formatting often requires the use of the pipe key or "|". Many editors of Wikipedia find it frustrating when they must scroll to the template at the bottom of the page and select the pipe. The pipe key is located on the keyboard itself, directly underneath the backspace key (it looks like "\"). To get "|" simply press the shift key and "\" keys simultaneously.
Please add new (fresh) tips to the top of this section (the old tips which are being recycled are at the end).
Think forward
While editing, ask yourself "how will this edit make the article grow?". For example, a section titled like "Criticism of this topic" will fill with criticism only, and a section titled like "Trivia of this topic" will fill with trivia rather than specific and organized information. In contrast, usage of inline citations will result in continuing usage of inline citations by future contributors.
Mikael Häggström (talk) 08:37, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
Here's a tool that can help when you're using AWB. To help find a category for an article, I choose key main words which are closely connected to the subject. For example, if the article was about a hospital in Poland, I would input into the tool "hospital Poland" (without quotes) and it will then search through categories and list some to choose from. In the example above, Category:Poland and Category:Hospital would be the categories I'd pick. It works really well! Here's the link: Common Sense Tool Good Luck Mlpearc MESSAGE00:00, 20 March 2010 (UTC)
I posted the following tip, by Harsh 2580 to the June 23 slot. Here it is (with revisions):
A better wiki editor: wikEd
Whether you are a new or advanced user, you can edit pages with ease by installing wikEd.
To install, simply select wikEd on the Gadgets panel of your Preferences:
Preferences → Gadgets → Editing → wikEd: a full-featured integrated text editor for Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome (documentation)
wikEd provides many abilities, including a multifunctional search-and-replace feature for regular expressions (regex).
wikEd works in the following web browsers: Firefox, Pale Moon, SeaMonkey, Safari, WebKit, Google Chrome, and Opera (version 15 and higher). Currently, wikEd is not compatible with Internet Explorer or versions of Opera below 15.
The main {{totd}} template is displayed at the bottom of the Community portal. Previously, it was integrated into the column formatting of that page, and not nearly as eye-catching. The tip's template formatting complements the new page design.
It's a nice fresh look.
To match this freshness, all stale tips need to be refreshed (revised/updated).
Revising the set entails proofreading every tip to make sure they are relevant and their details accurate and up-to-date. That's 365 tips!
This does not mean they all have to be done at once (but the sooner the better). But each tip slot must be checked and updated before it appears on the Community portal.
So far, I'm up to January 26, and am in the middle of proofreading the tips listed on that list tip.
Feel free to jump in, anywhere in the set. All help is welcome. If you have any questions, please post them below, and we'll work on any problems encountered as a team. Thank you, and have fun! The Transhumanist19:14, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
I've been trying to revise tips (including replace obsolete tips) 5 days in advance of their autodisplaying on the Community Portal. But I'm having trouble keeping up the pace. I've slipped behind the display date at least twice. I could sure use some help! I've been converting each tip from the 2008 version to the yearless version (over the redirect), and proofreading/updating the content of each. The Transhumanist23:41, 17 March 2013 (UTC)
Another way to help
To keep track of tips' accuracy and relevancy, the following 2 templates come in handy. Place either or both of them on your user page or user talk page, so you can keep an eye on tips before the next time their day comes up.
{{totd-tomorrow}} - this shows tomorrow's tip, and is used for proofreading tips before they go live. If you would like to help monitor tips for accuracy before the rest of the Wikipedia community reads them, please put this on your user page or talk page. Thank you.
{{totd-random}} - this is the tip of the moment template, which automatically displays a different tip every time you enter a page it is on (to a maximum of one time per minute). If it doesn't update, try clearing your browser cache.
The following tip was submitted by User:OlEnglish and will appear March 2nd:
Visualizing redirects
There is a way to make redirects stand out from a long list of links by visualizing them. This quick and easy solution was found by Kim van der Linde using customized CSS:
Go to "My preferences", click on the tab "Appearance", and click the "Custom CSS" link behind the skin you use. It opens a page, and you can add there the following code (just copy and paste it):
.mw-redirect {
color: #006633;
}
.mw-redirect:visited {
color: #009900;
}
.mw-redirect:hover {
color: #990000;
}
.mw-redirect:active {
color: #990000;
}
Change the color codes if you want. Save the page, and reload (bypass your cache) to force the new CSS to be included. All redirects will now show up as green links!
I tested the tip, and it really works! Now I see redirects wherever they are. This really helps a lot when working on lists and outlines, because you need to be sure a link leads to where it says it links to. The Transhumanist03:17, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
"If you see a bad or outdated tip please fix it! Be bold!"
...on this (TotD) project page I went ahead and altered it.
I did so in a manner which preserved the refs by adding {{Reflist}} to the TotD. However, if there are existing refs on a page which displays a template like {{totd}} then I suspect that the list could grow unwieldy.
I'm not sure how widely and in how many contexts the TotD templates are used so I leave it up to someone else to decide whether or not to just go ahead and remove the refs (and reflist) completely.
It would likely produce a cleaner look to do so but I'm allowing consideration for the possibility of a still relevant rationale for having them.
Noticed that my attempt to shrink the displayed ref text was inconsistent. So I went ahead and removed 'em. IMHO, more trouble than they're worth in this context. --Kevjonesin (talk) 04:45, 5 May 2013 (UTC)
Here it is again. How do you make backgrounds transparent? --Go for it! 19:09, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
.png)
Rfrisbietalk 22:06, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
of the yearless year, and for going above and beyond the call of duty by designing, testing, and converting a whole year's worth of tips to the yearless year, which makes the whole tip of the day project much easier to maintain,here is bright and shiny (tip of the day) lightbulb! --The Transhumanist 14:27, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
Updated, thanks. -- Ϫ 02:59, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
Fixed thanks for reporting. -- Ϫ 02:39, 31 August 2011 (UTC)
wikEd: a full-featured integrated text editor for Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome (documentation)