Wikinews:Water cooler/technical/archives/2009/July

Talk pages

While having a look at the weather on the Serbian Wiki, I came across this design they have on talk pages for replying to messages-[1]. Would people be interested in having this? I think it helps to sort messages much better, and might help newbies.

Also, something like this on comments page, because at the moment I find it nigh on impossible to differentiate between comments so I can't imagine what it must be like for new users! Dotty••|☎ 12:31, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

This only works because you fiddle about putting code in the page to make the skin show different comments. It won't solve problems of people not signing comments or not indenting them. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 14:06, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Can we try and make a better way for comments pages then, because ips won't sign their comments, not realising they are meant to.    Dotty••   15:17, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

If you try and idiot-proof everything, the world just makes a better idiot. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 18:46, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Yep, but, a wiki is not the most intuitive thing for someone with no experience of them, very different to leaving a comment at BBC or CNN. I don't think it's neccesarily idiots(although some of the comments are dire!)    Dotty••   18:54, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

That was actually from the french wikinews originally if i recall. Its currently available in special:preferences as a gadget. Well it will not make people sign comments, it will perhaps allow people to better see which comment belongs to who. If a lot of people agree, we can enable it by default. (personally i want liquidthreads) Bawolff ☺☻ 20:33, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

What are liquid threads sorry?    Dotty••   21:12, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

See mw:Extension:LiquidThreads. There's a demo wiki here. Bawolff ☺☻ 03:07, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Or even failing liquidThreads, i think we could do a lot using templates to make the system better. (To plug my own idea from a while ago: User:Bawolff/idea. However, from what I've found most people don't like that idea) Bawolff ☺☻ 03:11, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Well the comment thing from the French site is fine as long as people still understand all the Wiki syntax and indent etc, which is highly unlikely. Having looked at the liquid threads, I like the idea. If we could get it implemented, while looking good, I would definitely support. Maybe some way of registered users turning it off if they prefer the standard stuff? Don't know if that would be possible?    Dotty••   07:24, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Searching category namespace by default

Currently when you do a search on wikinews, assuming you haven't changed anything in special:preferences, you search in the main namespace (ns 0) and the portal namespace (ns 100). Since most times when searching wikinews, you are looking for a list of stories on a topic rather than a specific article, perhaps we should add the category namespace (ns 14) to the default search namespaces. Well most categories have a portal, not all do, and its not hard to imagine people will want to find a category page from the search box. Thoughts? Bawolff ☺☻ 03:02, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

I'd say it is a no-brainer to add ns 14. --SVTCobra 22:13, 13 July 2009 (UTC)

iPhone/iPod Touch Icon

Any chance of dropping in our icon for iPhone's & Touch's so that it displays nicely on the home screen if bookmarked. Info here Wikipedia have it-[2]. Don't know who would be capable of this? Cheers!    Tris   21:50, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Upload an acceptable version to commons and file a bug requesting this. --ShakataGaNai ^{^_^} 22:12, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

OK, will do, cheers!    Tris   22:13, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

OK, bug 19831 filed, correctly I hope. If it's not right, please can someone let me know?    Tris   18:55, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Google News adding random 'authors'

GNews woes return: this time, it's decided to randomly pick a name to stick beside articles as the 'author'. Not most articles, but some of them. Redcar, UK steelworkers march to save their jobs is the work of 'Stuart Kerr' (link) and Former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani leads Friday prayers is credited to one 'Ali Akbar Hashemi' (link). Erm... WTF? Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 13:19, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

It is not so random. Apparently it tries to generate the authors out of the information provided with Files/Images. Do we have a contact with Google who may be able to ensure that no author information gets displayed? Cheers, Van der Hoorn (talk) 17:06, 19 July 2009 (UTC)