Wikipedia talk:Tip of the day/Archive 12

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.

Archive 5

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Archive 10

Archive 11

Archive 12

Archive 13

Problem with November 16 Tip

The Tip of the Day for November 16 suggests customizing the Google Toolbar in a browser to search within Wikipedia when the browser is on a Wikipedia page. The problem is that the Google Toolbar doesn't seem to work in any current browsers. I tried the link in the tip article in Firefox, Edge, Opera and Vivaldi. All brought up the page with a note: "Google Toolbar is not available for this browser. Requires Internet Explorer 6+ Windows XP SP3/Vista/7+" When I tried it in Chrome, a message said that the toolbar wasn't needed because its features are built into Chrome.

Perhaps someone needs to do some research on that tip before it comes up again next year. Eddie Blick (talk) 02:43, 16 November 2016 (UTC)

@Teblick: Thank you for the heads up. I've replaced it with a new tip called "How to turn links to disambiguation pages orange". The Transhumanist 08:39, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Problem with "What is Page curation?" page (February 27 tip)

Item 2 under "What is Page curation?" shows "Curation Toolbar" as a link. When I click on that link, nothing seems to happen. When I open the link in a new browser window, the "What is Page curation?" tip appears. Perhaps someone can check on the coding of that "Curation Toolbar" link. Eddie Blick (talk) 15:13, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

@Teblick: Thank you for catching this. I fixed the two wiklinks to point to the correct WP page. To see the updated Tip, you may need to do "Purge" under the "More" link in order to see the updated tip. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 18:44, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

@JoeHebda: You're welcome! Thanks for making the corrections. The topic interests me, so I have applied to be a new page reviewer. Eddie Blick (talk) 19:33, 27 February 2017 (UTC)

Problems with "Wikipedia's top ten power tips" list

Item 4: Search Wikipedia from any website leads to a page that raises a concern.The Conveniently searching Wikipedia page shows (at the bottom) "Last Change: 25-Dec-2010", making it more than six years old. The page refers to Netscape and Mozilla (both of which have been replaced by Firefox) and Internet Explorer (which has been replaced by Microsoft Edge). It shows that the bookmarklet was tested on Opera 6.0, whereas Opera now has version 43 out. I haven't checked beyond the Bookmarklet section, but those are enough problems in themselves.

Item 7: User scripts leads to a totally different page, "How to make a table on a page".

Item 10: Navigate faster using Wikipedia shortcuts leads to a totally different page, "Wikipedia's Manual of Style".

Eddie Blick (talk) 02:31, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

@Teblick: Thank you for the heads up. The links have been updated, and the tip about the bookmarklet has too (it works in Firefox; didn't test it on other browsers though -- it's a simple JavaScript, and so it probably works on most browsers). Let me know if you find other ploblems. The Transhumanist 04:51, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

P.S.: Many of the duplicate tips in the collection were replaced with new tips. That means all the links in multi-tip tips need to be checked and corrected to point to the correct tip. Thanks for the tip off. The Transhumanist 04:57, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

Done - all collections tips checked and corrected. The Transhumanist 02:41, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Problem with "Breaking the 500-edit limit in 'View History'"

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda:The main tip seems good, but I think an error appears in Bonus tip #2. In the sentence "Just go to your browser bar and change the first 6-digits of the offset in the full URL ...", shouldn't the number be 8 digits — four for the year, two for the month, and two for the day? Eddie Blick (talk) 18:26, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

@Teblick and JoeHebda:

Done The instruction has been clarified. I hope "offset bonus tip" it is easier to follow now. Thank you for the heads up. The Transhumanist 02:39, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

As I was browsing the list of the prolifics...

I was looking over the user pages of people, starting from the top of the Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits, to find entries to add to the User page Hall of Fame. As I browsed down the list, I noticed several prolific editors' user pages with the tip-of-the-day displayed. Keep up the good work! The Transhumanist 02:48, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

It's been around for 6 years, and I just came across it

I'm just starting to realize just how vast Wikipedia is.

Check this out, (Wikipedia:Styletips):

Another styletip ...

Quotations: allowable typographical changes

Although the requirement of minimal change in direct quotations is strict, a few purely typographical elements of quoted text should be conformed to English Wikipedia's conventions without comment. These include the following:

Use the style chosen for the article: unspaced em dash or spaced en dash.
Set apostrophes and quotation marks straight, not curly.
Remove spaces before punctuation such as periods, colons, and %.
When integrating the quotation into the grammar of a larger sentence, downcase the first letter of a quotation that is in upper case purely because it starts a sentence in the source (It turned out to be true that "a penny saved is a penny earned").

But generally preserve bold and italic face, and the variety of English.

Update: TOTD for Spoken Wikipedia, Nov. 13.

Today, I added an external link at Spoken Wikipedia for this tip.

Convert Wikipedia article to voice audio

Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 03:11, 20 March 2017 (UTC)

Update to TOTD navigation template

Greetings, With the Tips library updated & improved, I added a third button (Tips library) to the {{Totd nav}}. It's been a long time since I have updated any template structure so if this change is not correct, feel free to update. Thanks. — JoeHebda • (talk) 14:32, 21 March 2017 (UTC)

Crikey, Joe. I did not realize that my update (see thread below) was right on your coattails. I hope it helps. And likewise, please feel free to massage my efforts. Cheers! (side ping to: The Transhumanist) {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 21:05, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

I didn't see it at first, until my cache got purged. I like. The Transhumanist 21:52, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

New tip idea, info about Text-To-speech program

Today I found this from Wikipedia talk:Spoken articles and copied it here.

I use a Text-To-speech Program, it doesn't say words wrong or make mistakes.-Jack (User:Jacksalssome) (talk) 03:55, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

File:I use a Text-To-speech Program, it doesn't say words wrong or make mistakes..ogg

Script:I use a Text-To-speech Program, it doesn't say words wrong or make mistakes.

This is outside my area of expertise so I welcome feedback from additional contributors. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 03:24, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

Maybe he was being sarcastic. Why not find one and try it? The Transhumanist 21:24, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Problem with "Time-saving links: the 'pipe trick'"

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda: "Read more: Links and URLs" at the bottom of the tip takes the reader to Help:Editing. Eddie Blick (talk) 01:19, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Done Thanks for the heads up. Keep up the great monitoring. The Transhumanist 01:46, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Please proof read the tip templates

Hi, JoeHebda and The Transhumanist. I trimmed each tip template of a bit of redundancy because of the Tip Library button. Please check them and adjust as necessary. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 21:01, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Checkingfax Thankyou! :-) — JoeHebda • (talk) 14:12, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

Monthly lists of tips

I have created a list Wikipedia:Tip of the day/January with transclusions of the 31 tips in January. Are people OK with making 12 such lists? It seems helpful to the tip writers but I don't know whether you think users should only be able to see the tips one at a time. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:45, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

* Support – PrimeHunter This may be helpful for anyone who wishes to preview an entire month worth of tips. I am happy to see that it is "generic" in that as we move tips around to different days, it will always pickup whatever is current. I did change the TOC to be horizontal which should also be helpful. Cheers! — JoeHebda • (talk) 14:20, 1 April 2017 (UTC)

I have created the 12 lists:

PrimeHunter (talk) 14:01, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

Interlanguage links

Some tips have interlanguage links. The search insource:fa prefix:Wikipedia:Tip of the day finds many to Persian. They are mostly placed outside noinclude tags, meaning they are included in all pages displaying the tip. That seems very wrong to me. I suggest placing all of them inside <noinclude>...</noinclude> so they only appear on the tip page itself. Some of them have a colon prefix like [[:fa:..]], meaning the link is displayed inline in the page. That also seems wrong to me. Interlanguage links to other versions of the page you are viewing belong under "Languages" in the left pane. I suggest placing them all there by having no colon prefix: [[fa:..]]. If they don't have a colon then they should absolutely be placed inside noinclude. Otherwise any page displaying the tip gets a link under "Languages". PrimeHunter (talk) 23:05, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

I have made the suggested changes in all relevant pages in the above search insource:fa prefix:Wikipedia:Tip of the day. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:23, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

		The Tip of the Day Barnstar
		...is hereby awarded to PrimeHunter, for an elegant fix to an annoying problem. The Transhumanist 03:51, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Question: combine TOTD schedule queue and Alpha list?

Greetings, Today I corrected a few errors in the Alpha list (manually maintained) to sync up with the Schedule Queue. Wondering if it makes sense to combine both into a sortable Wikitable? Here is an example with a few dates.

TOTD Schedule Queue	Tip	Notes
01-January 01	Where to begin?
01-January 02	Article development
01-January 03	Are your hands full? (Use search box as a small but convenient clipboard)
01-January 04	How to make your watchlist easier to read
01-January 09	Digital audio support
01-January 10	Introduction to navigating Wikipedia
01-January 11	Captions
01-January 18	How to easily recall a username
01-January 19	Preview tomorrow's Featured Article	also April 19, October 19
01-January 20	User scripts examples
01-January 21	Good article nominations
01-January 22	How to reduce or enlarge font sizes
02-Febuary 26	Editing projects for school and university classes
02-Febuary 27	What is Page curation?
02-Febuary 28	Writing articles for The Signpost
02-Febuary 29	Please sign your name on talk pages
03-March 01	How to plant a CategoryTree!
03-March 02	Test-drive your edits using a sandbox

Advantage: a single place to make a change when new tips are added or moved to different dates.

Disadvantage: Wikitable structure (complicated)

Note that I am not a wikitable expert, so there may be a better way to format than above. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 00:54, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

Ooh, consolidation. Good idea! The Transhumanist 03:32, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

I'm planning a suggestion to generate the tips with a template which has the formatting in one place instead of 366, and has an optional parameter to only return the tip title. This could be used for automatically updated lists of tips, and to make a small tip of the day template which only displays the title and links to the actual tip. I hope to post more this week. This is just a heads up that it may be wasted effort to work on tip formatting and lists now if my idea is adopted later. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:45, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

PrimeHunter Thanks for this info. Anything that can be done to make tip maintenance easier is great. Since I've only been on WP a few years now what you describe above sounds like "wiki-magic" to me. Is this something that can be previewed, for example, in a sandbox? I'm curious to see what this will look like & how it will work. Cheers! — JoeHebda • (talk) 02:31, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

I have started a new section #Automatic tip formatting. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:06, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

Question about "Motto of the day..."

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda: Maybe I'm missing something. Is "→ All of a sudden, she's playing Hamlet's mother!" supposed to link to Wikipedia:Article development? Maybe the two are connected in some way that I don't see. Eddie Blick (talk) 02:24, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

Teblick...

Well, Wikipedia is both an encyclopedia and a community of encyclopedia-building volunteers. With the latter, morale and mood are big factors. Editors can be a temperamental bunch. And so, some socially-minded metapedians decided to create a program to help set the mood. After reading a few of these inspirational sayings, who wouldn't feel more like editing? Or facing the wikitrolls yet again. I think there may even be some Shakespeare in there. :) If one doesn't make sense, click on purge a few times until one comes up that hits the spot!

If the whole thing still doesn't make any sense, just in case, the designers of the project linked various phrases and terms in the mottos to help pages or community pages to add some utility to the work of art. So, if you click on one of them, you get a helpful little tidbit, sort of like the tip of the day. My favorite motto from the bunch is "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." That's why we don't feed the trolls. The Transhumanist 03:28, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

P.S.: The easiest way to read a bunch of them is to go to Wikipedia:Motto of the day and press Alt+⇧ Shift+* (until you get tired of them). :) –TT

Automatic tip formatting

I have made {{totd format}} and suggest we use it for automatic tip formatting on the 366 daily pages after some testing and tweaks.

It has separate parameters for title, tip, date and read more. It means the formatting can be modified in one place instead of 366. It could also add a tip category with date sorting instead of doing it on each page. There is an optional parameter to only display the tip title. This could be used for automatically updated lists of tips, and to make a small tip of the day template which only displays the title and links to the actual tip. It can also return each of the other parameters by itself but title is the most useful.

As a live test I have used it in Wikipedia:Tip of the day/January 1 (previous revision, diff).

{{Wikipedia:Tip of the day/January 1|display=title}} only returns: "Where to begin?"

The current quotation marks are from the original tip and could be removed there.

[[Wikipedia:Tip of the day/January 1|{{Wikipedia:Tip of the day/January 1|display=title}}]] makes a piped link to the tip with the title as automatically updated display text: "Where to begin?"

PrimeHunter (talk) 12:05, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: @The Transhumanist: After reading above it was hard for me to understand around until I did a "look-at-edit" of the January 1 tip example. Yes this template does result in cleaner tips, especially at the bottom with "stack" removal. Where there is a "more" value, is that optional? A few tips do not have any "More:" information. Will we still be able to see two lists - one by date and one alphabetical? If yes, I'm 100-percent in favor of this. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 15:44, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

more is optional. If it wasn't already then it could easily be made so. Lots of options can be added once a template is used, e.g. if we want some pages to say "See also:" like April 3 instead of "Read more:".

It should be easy to make a by day list with 366 {{Wikipedia:Tip of the day/(date)|display=title}}. With {{Sort list}} it should also be possible to make an automatically sorted list. A sortable table could also be used as you suggested in #Question: combine TOTD schedule queue and Alpha list? Do people actually use the sorted list? It might be more useful if it sorted by a keyword like "Watchlist" instead of placing "How to make your watchlist easier to read" among 48 other "How to ...". But then the 366 pages would have to specify a keyword.

In addition to cleaner code on the daily pages and consistent formatting we would get the ability to quickly modify, add or remove features in one place, e.g:

Make a mouseover for Prior tip and Next tip with the title of the tip.
Add a border similar to {{totd}} to the daily pages
Add a navigation template similar to {{totd month nav}} to the daily pages

PrimeHunter (talk) 16:45, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter and JoeHebda: The sorted list is used to spot duplicates. Sorting by keyword would be good if it placed duplicates next to each other so you could spot them easily. Fine brainstorming, by the way. Automatic tip formatting is an excellent improvement.The Transhumanist 20:56, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. There are few active tipsters so I think we are close to consensus. We cannot trust a keyword is kept the same if a tip is duplicated so I guess we should sort by the full title (although that may also change enough to sort differently).

I skimmed all tips for "Read more" or similar links. I have added an optional more heading parameter to {{totd format}} to change the default "Read more", e.g. more heading = See also.

Wikipedia:Tip of the day/March 8 and Wikipedia:Tip of the day/September 8 say "Try it now" about Special:PrefixIndex.

These have both "Read more" and "See also":

All of them only have two links. The nature of the links may sometimes be a little different but I don't think it looks good to have two separate headings for two links. {{totd format}} currently only supports one common heading but could add an option for two different if wanted. Wikipedia:Tip of the day/April 11 and Wikipedia:Tip of the day/November 24 have special headings but could easily be reformulated to avoid it.

I found 17 tips with "See also" instead of "Read more":

In some cases it looks random and in some it may have been estimated that the links are less relevant to the tip than "Read more" links, or less about reading.

A few tips like Wikipedia:Tip of the day/February 18 and Wikipedia:Tip of the day/March 22 mix bolded and unbolded text in More reading. {{totd format}} bolds the whole more parameter by default but I added an optional more unbold = yes to omit the automatic bolding and let the tip page make its own bolding. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:52, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: @The Transhumanist: IMO all of those "See also" could be changed to "Read more" just to simplify and be consistent. The same with the "bold" mentioned above, bold can be changed back to normal (not bold). Both of these variances may have happened over time with various editors doing a tip a bit differently. I myself may have done this by cloning one of those while making a new tip. Cheers — JoeHebda • (talk) 12:36, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

Suggested revision for tip "Super-customize your account with gadgets"

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda: The last item in the bulleted list points to m:User:Pathoschild/Scripts/Regex menu framework, but that page advises, "The regex menu framework has been merged into TemplateScript, which is much more powerful and compatible with the latest MediaWiki changes." Perhaps it would be good to replace that bulleted item with one that points directly to TemplateScript. Eddie Blick (talk) 01:27, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

@Teblick:@The Transhumanist: Thanks for noticing this. I have made the change, and added another line for responsiveContent Gadget as well. Cheers! — JoeHebda • (talk) 09:43, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

Linking error in Time-saving links: the "pipe trick"

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda: Please check the "Read more" link in Time-saving links: the "pipe trick". It leads to "Help:Editing" rather than to "Links and URLs". Eddie Blick (talk) 01:14, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

@The Transhumanist:@Teblick: Thanks for the alert. I changed May2 (and May 4) TOTD, "Read more" to a better wikilink. Cheers! — JoeHebda • (talk) 03:18, 1 May 2017 (UTC)

Suggestion for List building tip

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda: It might be good to add to "The third step is ..." a comment about correcting live links that lead to disambiguation pages. People who are new to editing Wikipedia articles might not realize how often a newly created link can lead to a disambiguation page rather than to a specific article. Eddie Blick (talk) 02:01, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

@Teblick and JoeHebda: That reminds me... There's a gadget to display links to disambiguation pages in orange. The Transhumanist 22:31, 11 May 2017 (UTC)

Bot request for "Popular pages"

Greetings, Today on another WikiProject (Wikipedia:WikiProject Catholicism/Popular pages) the bot issued this "Popular pages" listing. After viewing, I requested the same for "Tip of the day". From what I read, the bot starts at the beginning of each new month & runs for about 2 weeks to complete this massive task. The popular pages list will help us here with cleanup of most read pages as well as to identify "the least popular" tips. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 21:33, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

The problem is, that the tips mostly get read on other pages, like the help page and community portal page. Direct visits to the tip pages is no indication of how many times they have been read. The Transhumanist 05:53, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Suggested addition for Go to the right desk tip

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda: Should Wikipedia:Teahouse be added to the list of useful sites? It has been helpful to me as I learn about editing on Wikipedia. I think it is aimed more at relatively new users, whereas the Help site is aimed more at experienced users. Eddie Blick (talk) 00:43, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

@Teblick: Go for it. The Transhumanist 05:51, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

@The Transhumanist: I added it. Please take a look and see if you think the revision is all right. Eddie Blick (talk) 19:23, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Nicely done. The Transhumanist 20:56, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Question re: Check your work before you save, using Preview

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda: Why does the link for however you prefer go to Wikimedia Preferences rather than to Wikipedia Preferences? Wouldn't the WP Preferences page be more appropriate? Eddie Blick (talk) 02:57, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

Fixed Thank you for the heads up. The Transhumanist 05:48, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

Added link to Placing external links sections

I added a link in this tip so that External links points to the Manual of Style's section about that topic. I thought that might be useful for people who want to delve more deeply into the subject. Eddie Blick (talk) 01:42, 28 May 2017 (UTC)

Question re: Placing category tags

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda: This question is sort of deja vu from a few days ago. The interlanguage links link points to a Wikimedia page, Help:Interwiki linking. Shouldn't it point to the WP Help:Interlanguage links page instead? Eddie Blick (talk) 02:19, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

@Teblick: Good eye. Interlanguage links are no longer located in a page's wikicode. So, I removed mention of them from the tip. The Transhumanist 01:49, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

Should Preventing markup glitches be replaced?

@The Transhumanist:@JoeHebda: I wonder whether this tip should be replaced. It focuses on using Internet Explorer, but use of IE is diminishing. When Windows 10 came out about two years ago, it included Edge as the built-in browser, replacing IE. Although the tip itself is sound, I wonder how many people can take advantage of its advice. Eddie Blick (talk) 01:51, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

@Teblick: I honestly don't know if the tip still applies. I think it was written long before IE 11. It sounds like a good idea to replace the tip. I look forward to seeing what tip you replace it with (that's the fun part). The Transhumanist 00:49, 10 June 2017 (UTC)

Typo on tip for June 15

The tip is about the [edit] button on different sections but I believe this has changed since the tip was written as now I see [edit section] buttons next to each heading, not [edit] buttons. Mehmuffin (talk) 20:28, 14 June 2017 (UTC)

Now a little late but it looks like all the cool kids who mention things on this page ping @The Transhumanist and JoeHebda:. Mehmuffin (talk) 20:57, 15 June 2017 (UTC)

Mehmuffin, my recommendation would be to take this issue to Village Pump, Technical for help. Every section that I see has a plain [edit] to the right of that section. I have not ever seen [edit section] that you mention above. Also, within Wikipedia are you using the "Vector" skin, or one of the other ones? Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 23:27, 15 June 2017 (UTC)

I'm only seeing [ edit ] also. I've never heard of it showing up as "edit section". The Transhumanist 02:04, 16 June 2017 (UTC)

@The Transhumanist and JoeHebda: Interesting, I was checking for replies from a different computer and saw these and checked, and you are indeed both correct, but as soon as I logged in they all changed to [ edit source ] buttons, although I could swear that on my usual computer they're [ edit section ], I'll check on that tomorrow and maybe ask around at the pump (I am using the default vector skin, so no dice there). Thanks for the quick reply! Mehmuffin (talk) 03:00, 16 June 2017 (UTC)

I haven't seen [edit section]. Unregistered users see [edit]. Registered users may see [edit], [edit source] or both depending on their visual editor setting at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing. I think Wikipedia:Tip of the day/June 15 should continue to say [edit] and not get into preferences. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:09, 16 June 2017 (UTC)

Question: why Prior tip and Next tip not correct before Login?

Greetings, I noticed that before I login, the dates for Prior and Next tips are 3 to 4 days prior. As soon as I login it picks up the correct dates for these two buttons. Any idea of how to fix? I have tried browser "Refresh/reload" page without any luck. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 06:30, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

@JoeHebda: It sounds like it might be a caching problem. What about the tip itself? Before you login, is the daily tip the correct one for the current day? If it isn't, that would explain why the two buttons are off. The Transhumanist 18:45, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

The Transhumanist - Before logging in the October 16 tip is displayed. After I login, the correct tip for Oct. 21 displays. My main concern is for all the IP users & general WP readers not logged in, and whether they also are seeing the incorrect day for the daily tip. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 19:14, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

Try purging the page, and see if that solves the problem. In the meantime, I will watch for the problem on my computer. The Transhumanist 09:23, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

(August 29) Dead link in tip

Wikipedia:Tip of the day/August 29 has a link to http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Open_Source/Open_Content/Encyclopedias/Wikipedia/ which is no longer available. Also, Wikipedia:Awareness statistics is inactive. -- benzband (talk) 15:16, 27 August 2017 (UTC)

Thanks Benzband for this information. I have updated the August 19th tip with better links. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 19:15, 27 August 2017 (UTC)

Tip of the day article up for deletion

As a subject, is "tip of the day" notable?

The nominator believes it is not.

I haven't been able to find any articles or chapters out there specifically about this topic. Can you?

Though I have seen many programs with a tip of the day feature.

And at least one website, but I can't seem to recall its name. :)

Does the ability to point to tip of the day features in programs establish notability, or is that merely original research?

If you can find some citations proving the existence of this concept in the public's eye, please let me know. The Transhumanist 21:18, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

Hi, The Transhumanist. Unbelievable deletion nom. Good save. Having fun! Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 09:26, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

Moving TOTD to Help:

Hi, y'alls. I propose moving the TOTD department to the Help: namespace. What about that? Having fun! Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 08:56, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

That's a lot of work for a name change that won't have any beneficial effect. And many links will be affected. "Tip of the day" in the title already conveys the helpful nature of all of its pages. The Transhumanist 11:02, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

New tip suggestion: Strike out usernames that have been blocked

Could we consider adding the following tip anywhere there is a gap:

Going about your Wikipedia work, would you find it useful to instantly identify accounts and IP addresses which are currently blocked?
Go to Preferences - Gadgets - Appearance and check "Strike out usernames that have been blocked".
This adds a strikethrough to the username of any user who is currently blocked, whether the username appears in a discussion or against an entry in a page history or a list of contributions.

: Noyster (talk), 17:34, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

I was wondering why they were crossed out. But I don't remember activating it. :) Nice tip. The Transhumanist 08:52, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Please consider what users with Hovercards will see. (TOTD -December 20th)

(Image now removed from original post) I am a great believer in the importance of this encyclopaedia covering topics that some might find offensive. I also think its great that a TOTD addresses why we do this. But I was very surprised at today's Tip. Was it genuinely intentional that wikilinks selected for use in the December 20th Tip of the Day on "Freedom of speech and profanity" should so easily allow images to seen by users of any age, just by an accidental or curious mouseover? (namely fisting)?

If it was, then I deplore your project team's insensitivity for your choice of wikilinks. If unintentional - as I hope it was - I'd simply ask you folks in future just to take a moment longer each time to consider how readily some article's main images are shown when moving a mouse across a screen without ever clicking on a wikilink, and how widely they may then be viewed.

Whoever chose those links ought to have heeded their own words: "...because these show up in many places where people do not want to be bothered by profanity." You guys do a great job in helping huge numbers of users learn one step at a time. But I'm afraid you've not covered yourselves in glory with this this one at all. Regards from the UK, Nick Moyes (talk) 11:11, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Thankyou Nick Moyes for your insights about this tip. Today I changed two of those wikilinks to other words. At "View history" it looks like this one has been around since 2009 so I'm glad to update now, always looking to improve. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 15:20, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, JoeHebda. I really appreciate you making those changes. After I had posted I also checked and then realised the same text had been in use for quite some years - well before hovercards were around. Although I'm no prude (you should see my browser history!) I think it's probably also appropriate I remove the image I posted here to illustrate my point. Anyone who wants to find it can always check this talk page's history, or mouse over the word for themselves. Regards, Nick Moyes (talk) 16:11, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

New Tip

You can use the Chrome browser search feature to find a specific term in an article, talk page or even an editing window. This is especially useful in finding content in very long articles or talk pages. Select the icon of three perpendicular dots in the right uppermost section of the browser window and then select the "Find" option. Enter your search term or part of a search term and the browswer window then highlights and provides a count of that word or part of a word on the page. It is also useful in searching references in the article.

A new tip. This has significantly sped up my editing. Best Regards, Barbara (WVS) ✐ ✉ ^{and Merry Christmas} 13:29, 23 December 2017 (UTC)

How Stop Unwanted/unneeded archiving?

Greetings Checkingfax – Today, the updates I placed here were archived & I had to do an Undo. At View history I find:

12:32, 6 May 2016‎ Checkingfax (talk | contribs)‎ m . . (64,943 bytes) (+1)‎ . . (increase archive interval to 180 days to allow tip ideas to fruit)

Since I really know very little of Archiving, I'm asking for your help. What needs to be done to insure that this Lowercase sigmabot III will not archive parts of this Talk page? Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 02:41, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Hi, JoeHebda. All the parameters and their values look proper but since it is causing trouble I removed the value in algo= to see if that would stop auto-archiving. I can do one-click archiving (1CA) whenever things get cluttered. I am not a fan of auto-archiving because sometimes threads need more time to percolate than 7,14,30, 60, or even 90 days allows. Sometimes too they are needed as sort of an FAQ for new readers of an article or talk page so they can get up to speed on what has already been on the table for discussion. Let me know if it glitches again. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 05:00, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Revision needed re: "Preventing Markup Glitches"?

The June 10 Tip suggests that editors avoid glitches in table-based pages by using Internet Explorer to build their pages: "If a page views properly in IE, then the chances are greater that it will display properly in other browsers, rather than the other way around."

Should this tip be revised or replaced? Now that Microsoft has come out with its Edge browser, support for IE is likely to end (if it hasn't already ended). Perhaps before the tip comes up again next year, someone could look into this.Eddie Blick (talk) 02:28, 10 June 2016 (UTC)

Talk page Discussion status:

Started on 02:28, 10 June 2016 (UTC)
Awaiting (date)
Done on (date)

Do not archive this discussion until tagged with Done.

Discussion:

Asking for help, July 2016 tip updates

Greetings (The Transhumanist—Checkingfax—Zppix—MaximumNeptune—SpinkZeroZero—Teblick)

– Below are several tip replacements for the month of July. Please help by adding to the discussions below, and feel free to make any changes that will improve these. Cheers! — JoeHebda • (talk) 14:49, 30 June 2016 (UTC)

* Note: As of August 1, 2016 this message may be removed.

(July 6) - Wikipedia's Manual of Style

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/July 6 - Navigate faster using Wikipedia shortcuts

(Note: duplicate of March 21, September 21, October 15 tips)

Tip title: Wikipedia's Manual of Style

The Manual of Style (abbreviated as MoS or MOS) is the style guide for all Wikipedia articles. Its goal is to make using Wikipedia easier and more intuitive by promoting clarity and cohesion. Style and formatting should be consistent within an article based on the MOS.

The shortcut to the main MOS guideline page is WP:MOS. To add the MOS template to your user or talk page, place {{style}} on there.

Any suggestions for improvement or changes to the MOS guideline begins with discussion and consensus at the MOS talk page.

See also:

Simplified Manual of Style

If there are any additions or updates needed for this new tip, please discuss here. — JoeHebda • (talk) 15:38, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

* Discussion:

Talk page Discussion status:

Started on 15:38, 28 June 2016 (UTC)
Awaiting (date)
Done on 16:59, 4 July 2016

Do not archive this discussion until tagged with Done.

Made some changes above. Hope you like them. (BTW, good to see you again). The Transhumanist 17:59, 30 June 2016 (UTC)

* Done – New tip posted to TOTD Schedule queue, Alpha list, Tips library. — JoeHebda • (talk) 22:05, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

(July 19) - Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/July 19 - Preview tomorrow's Featured Article (Note: duplicate of January 19 tip)

Tip title: Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia

Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia is a list of insights about Wikipedia specifically targeted at people who have limited or no prior experience with the project (such as journalists, new editors, and new readers).

These explanations should not surprise experienced editors but will hopefully help the rest of the world to shape an informed opinion of our work.

If there are any additions or updates needed for this new tip, please discuss here. — JoeHebda • (talk) 13:15, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

* Discussion:

Talk page Discussion status:

Started on 13:15, 29 June 2016 (UTC)
Awaiting (date)
Done 15:29, 14 July 2016‎

Do not archive this discussion until tagged with Done.

* Done – New tip posted to TOTD Schedule queue, Alpha list, Tips library. — JoeHebda • (talk) 20:46, 14 July 2016 (UTC)

(July 20) - How to make a table on a page

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/July 20 - User scripts

(Note: duplicate of October 8 tip)

Tip title: How to make a table on a page

Using the Wikipedia text editor:

Click on "Advanced" at the top of the editing box
Click on icon
Add data into cells, rows or columns
Provide an edit summary and save your work

Another box will appear allowing you to set up the number of rows and columns and style of the table.

Using the Visual Editor:

Click on "Insert" near the top of the page
Click on "Table"
Click on each cell or drag across multiple cells
Merge, add or delete cells as needed
Click on "Properties" to assign properties to cells, rows, or columns
Insert data into cells, rows or columns
Provide an edit summary and save your work

July cleanup of Tips library

At WP:Tips for July, I removed a duplicate (replaced tip) of July 13, and added these missing tips:

The above is to document periodic maintenance which needs to be done in order to keep the Tips library "in-sync" with the TOTD schedule queue. — JoeHebda • (talk) 13:52, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

(July 25) - Wikipedia in brief

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/July 25 - Working on the Main page (Note: duplicate of March 30, May 30 tips)

Tip title: Wikipedia in brief

The Wikipedia in brief page provides a concise explanation of the online encyclopedia's purpose.

Wikipedia aims to be a neutral compilation of verifiable, established facts.

This basic information is valuable to everyone: readers, editors, journalists and the general public.

If there are any additions or updates needed for this new tip, please discuss here. — JoeHebda • (talk) 16:18, 29 June 2016 (UTC)

* Discussion:

Talk page Discussion status:

Started on 16:18, 29 June 2016 (UTC)
Awaiting (date)
Done on 08:14, 20 July 2016

Do not archive this discussion until tagged with Done.

* Done – New tip posted to TOTD Schedule queue, Alpha list, Tips library. — JoeHebda • (talk) 13:26, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

(July 30) - Wikipedia's Quick directory

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/July 30 - Create links faster using tricks (Note: duplicate of March 19, September 19 tips)

Tip title: Wikipedia's Quick directory

The Quick directory is a handy directory of key pages throughout Wikipedia, with emphasis on interaction between members of the community.

Topics covered include:

Bureaucracy
Dispute resolution
For power users
Learning the wiki way
The best of Wikipedia
The worst of Wikipedia
Wikilove and appreciation
Wikipedia laughs

(August 4) - Articles for Creation (AFC) process

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/August 4 - Help reduce the Wikipedia backlog (Note: duplicate of November 4 tip)

Tip title: Articles for Creation (AFC) process

When you create an article through Wikipedia's Articles for Creation process, it creates a draft in the Drafts area. The purpose of AFC process is to help new editors learn how to write better articles.

If accepted, your draft can be a valuable contribution to the encyclopedia. Wikipedia is 15 years old and has well over five million articles. The vast majority of those articles never went through AFC which is only a few years old.

AfC works as a peer review process in which registered editors can either help create an article submitted or decline the article because it is unsuitable for Wikipedia. To nominate an existing draft or user sandbox for review at Articles for Creation, add the code {{subst:submit}} to the top of the draft or sandbox page. The AFC process allows others to review the draft when you're ready and to create the article for you if it's suitable.

(August 17) - Article size

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/August 17 - Please sign your name on talk pages (Note: duplicate of February 29, March 12, October 7 tips)

Tip title: Article size

What is an appropriate length for a Wikipedia article? This is discussed at Article length. An article can be as long as 10,000 words or more, if there are enough sources on the topic to provide for that much content. Undoubtedly there are articles that reach 20,000 words. The recommended maximum length is around 100kB of text. There is no standard for minimum length, an acceptable stub article could be as short as three or four sentences.

If you look at the menu on the left-hand side of any page on Wikipedia, there is a link to Page information. Clicking on that link shows lots of information about the page including it's total size as well as how often it has been viewed. There is also this tool - you just copy and paste the text into there, and it counts it for you.

If there are any additions or updates needed for this new tip, please discuss here. — JoeHebda • (talk) 20:42, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

Talk page Discussion status:

Started on 20:42, 15 July 2016 (UTC)
Awaiting (date)
Done on 10:08, 1 August 2016

Do not archive this discussion until tagged with Done.

* Discussion:

Good tip. Strange thing is, I haven't used this feature in years. I was surprised that the tip mentioned it shows how many views a page has gotten. That would be incredibly useful, so I tried it on Outline of Star Trek, Geology, and United States. Nowhere on any of the 3 data pages did it report how many views the page got. Just a heads up. The Transhumanist 22:30, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

* Note: credit to Joseph2302, Rojomoke, Liz, White Arabian Filly and Dodger67 for portions above from Teahouse answers.

* Comment: for The Transhumanist – Strange about the pageviews. For me Geology and US work Ok. For the Star Trek one only the far right column shows, so I suggest if you could report at WP:VPT so that they can fix (it might be a bug). I also did several "Random article" and they all have good page views. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 20:18, 19 July 2016 (UTC)

I'm not sure we are talking about the same thing. For Geology, the following items are displayed. I don't see where you are picking up "page views":

Display title
Default sort key
Page length (in bytes)
Page ID
Page content language
Page content model
Indexing by robots
Number of page watchers
Number of page watchers who visited recent edits
Number of redirects to this page
Counted as a content page
Wikidata item ID

What items come before and after "page views" in the page information listing that you see for Geology? The Transhumanist 00:45, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

Down at the very bottom of the page, look for External tools section title

Revision history search
Revision history statistics
Edits by user
Page view statistics ( here, this one )
WikiChecker

— JoeHebda • (talk) 01:25, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

* Done – New tip posted to TOTD Schedule queue, Alpha list, Tips library. — JoeHebda • (talk) 15:27, 1 August 2016 (UTC)

(September 4) - Guestbooks

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/September 4 - Supercharge your browser (Note: duplicate of March 4 tip)

Tip title: Guestbooks

Wikipedia Guestbooks, according to Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales, "can help build a spirit of friendliness and co-operation, and help people get to know each other as human beings". All Wikipedia users are welcome to create a guestbook and give permission to other users to sign it. However, creating a guestbook is also a privilege; many users have been blocked just due to begging for someone to sign their guestbook.

Guestbook cautions

Do not beg others to sign your guestbook. Users eventually will come to see your user page, and many will click your guestbook and sign it without being asked.
Never ask a user to sign your guestbook by posting that message on a talk page.
Be patient. Users will eventually come. After all, you should not be here only to see who signed your guestbook...
You are here to build an encyclopedia: Do not spend your WikiTime only signing guestbooks. It may be fun, but users may see you as a person not here to contribute.
Guestbooks are not a soapbox.

If there are any additions or updates needed for this new tip, please discuss here. — JoeHebda • (talk) 23:50, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Talk page Discussion status:

Started on 23:50, 21 July 2016 (UTC)
Awaiting (date)
Done on 14:32, 14 August 2016

Do not archive this discussion until tagged with Done.

* Discussion:

* Notes: credit to The Pancake of Heaven! for creating WP:Guestbooks. This tip is a spinoff from a WP:THQ question about guestbooks. Thank you to Gestrid and Robert McClenon for your TH answers dated 06:54, 19 July 2016 (UTC).

Comment: Here's the Teahouse Question that was asked. -- Gestrid (talk) 00:17, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

* Done – New tip posted to TOTD Schedule queue, Alpha list, Tips library. — JoeHebda • (talk) 19:45, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

(September 6) - Subject bar template

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/September 6 - Use the Article Wizard to easily create new articles (Note: duplicate of March 6 tip)

Tip title: Subject bar template

The Subject bar template is intended be placed at the end of an article, after the References or External links and before any navboxes and categories. It offers an variant to several floating box templates that link to books, portals, and Wikipedia's sister projects but also typically cause formatting issues because of their size and alignment.

The template's documentation contains several examples where links to books, portals and sister projects are shown in various combinations, all within the one Subject bar template. It offers an alternative to the multiple variations of portal templates that may appear in the article's "See also" section.

If there are any additions or updates needed for this new tip, please discuss here. — JoeHebda • (talk) 23:57, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Talk page Discussion status:

Started on 23:57, 21 July 2016 (UTC)
Awaiting (date)
Done on 15:00, 14 August 2016

Do not archive this discussion until tagged with Done.

* Discussion: * Done – New tip posted to TOTD Schedule queue, Alpha list, Tips library. — JoeHebda • (talk) 20:11, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

(September 8) - Wikipedia Search box - advanced

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/September 8 - How to get a list of a page's subpages (Note: duplicate of March 8 tip)

Tip title: Wikipedia Search box - advanced

There are numerous advanced Search engine features available to help locate what you are looking for within Wikipedia.

Syntax

Phrases in double quotes
Boolean search
Exclusion
Wildcard search
Search fuzzily
Search results!

Parameters

intitle:
incategory:
namespace name:
namespace All:
prefix:

(September 10) - Biography articles needing attention

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/September 10 - Where to post requests (Note: duplicate of March 10 tip)

Tip title: Biography articles needing attention

For a biography article that needs improvements, add template: {{cleanup biography}}. This template places the article into Category:Biographies with insufficient biographical information where editors who are interested in biographical articles can find them.

For a biography article that needs improvements, on the article's talk page, add the attention parameter to the "WikiProject Biography".

For example:

{{WikiProject Biography |living=no |class=Stub

|attention=yes

|listas=Franklin, Benjamin }}

This places the article into Category:Biography articles needing attention.

If there are any additions or updates needed for this new tip, please discuss here. — JoeHebda • (talk) 13:38, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

Talk page Discussion status:

Started on 13:38, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
Awaiting (date)
Done on 07:37, 16 August 2016

Do not archive this discussion until tagged with Done.

* Discussion:

"Clean up" and "insufficient biographical information" mean two different things. "Clean up" can refer to needing wikification, copy-editing, or fixing some other mess on the page. "Insufficient information" means the article needs further content added — material that isn't even there yet to clean up.

The template is awkward, and may cause confusion. By extension, the tip may also create confusion, by advising to post a notice that says "clean up needed" that really means something else. I don't think the tip can be fixed without fixing the template first. The Transhumanist 14:00, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

* Agree: Yes, The Transhumanist, I see how this can be confusing. Now I will "ce the heck" above, strikout the template part so that the new tip will focus on tagging WP Bio articles needing attention. Thanks for the feedback. Cheers! — JoeHebda • (talk) 15:56, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

* Done – New tip posted to TOTD Schedule queue, Alpha list, Tips library. — JoeHebda • (talk) 12:46, 16 August 2016 (UTC)

(September 14) - Wikipedia Database reports

Idea: – New tip to replace: Wikipedia:Tip of the day/September 14 - How to create a new page (Note: duplicate of March 14 tip)

Tip title: Wikipedia Database reports

The Wikipedia Database reports are produced from the search queries of MediaWiki.

These reports help users by providing them with utility reports, used by community members to improve the encyclopedia (e.g., Untagged stubs (configuration)) and statistical reports, which have past and present informational value (e.g., Page count by namespace (configuration)).

Please discuss the current reports or suggest a new report on the talk page.