User talk:Brooke Vibber

I have declared talk page bankruptcy! All old messages deleted. :) --Brion VIBBER (talk) 19:05, 27 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How to get in touch with me

Feel free to leave me messages here about articles and such on Wikipedia, but if you need to prod me about a tech issue I might not see your message here. You'll get a speedier response if you track me down elsewhere...

Most software issues should get added to our bug tracker.
Even if you grab ahold of me another way, it's going to be easier for me to keep track of it if it's in here!
IRC chat - you'll often find me in #mediawiki or #wikimedia-tech during work hours
direct e-mail... if you're really sure :)

Speedy deletion of Template:419 warning

A tag has been placed on Template:419 warning requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section T3 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is a deprecated or orphaned template. After seven days, if it is still unused and the speedy deletion tag has not been removed, the template will be deleted.

If the template is intended to be substituted, please feel free to remove the speedy deletion tag and please consider putting a note on the template's page indicating that it is substituted so as to avoid any future mistakes (<noinclude>{{transclusionless}}</noinclude>).

Thanks. --MZMcBride (talk) 04:37, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

sniff another bit of history passing away :)
It is not! I used it! Saved! --Gp75motorsports ^{REV LIMITER} 13:07, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Mafia-style hostage-taking cabal

How do I get to this cabal? On Wikipedia:List of cabals you are mentioned in the section about the cabal. -- Ketchup Krew ^{Heinz 57!} 19:19, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:MainPage-Netscape4macfixed-brion.png

Thanks for uploading or contributing to Image:MainPage-Netscape4macfixed-brion.png. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is not a suitable explanation or rationale as to why each specific use in Wikipedia constitutes fair use. Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale.

If you have uploaded other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on those pages too. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free media lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. w^L^{<speak·check>} 11:26, 22 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It takes all of three seconds to see it's a screen shot of software used to illustrate the article about the software. Next time please look at things before sending a bot to mark them. Thanks! --brion (talk) 17:24, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you

for SUL. It's great (and will be greater some day, I hope). --Obersachse (talk) 20:16, 25 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unified Login

Hello Brion VIBBER,
i am Caligari and i am a sysop on the German wiktionary. The SUL-system reported that there is an user called Caligari on this Wikipedia. Is it possible to get me this account? Many Thanks in advance. - Best regards, Caligari27 (talk) 20:39, 25 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See m:Help:Unified login#Can I merge different usernames? and other related questions. Basically, you can either ask a steward to do the rename, or in the case of this wiki, ask a bureaucrat at WP:CHU/U. : - ) --MZMcBride (talk) 20:48, 25 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hello MZMcBride,
thank You for these informations. I will request to rename me then. - Caligari27 (talk) 22:26, 25 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Portuguese wikipedia new feature

Hi. Can you help me, please? The portuguese wikipedia community is debating if we should implement a wizard similar to Wizard-Introduction. The only difference would be that, after the unresgistered user completes the wizard, the new article would be immediately created rather than being sent to revision. Could you please let me know if this new feature can be implemented in wiki pt? Thanks and regards, --Rodrigofera (talk) 17:22, 9 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not familiar with this wizard. If it's here, I assume it's a local set of pages or JavaScript thingies? --brion (talk) 18:27, 9 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I forgot to put the link, its here Wizard introduction, can you help me please? --Rodrigofera (talk) 17:03, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Help me please, --Rodrigofera (talk) 11:04, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Where are the 684 million wikipedians?

Assuming that Compete data and Alexa data are correct, why is wiki so popular in South America?Anwar (talk) 07:39, 10 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

thanks man

this is rainboqer thanks for the info! P.S. how do you change your keybord? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rainboqer (talk • contribs) 20:31, 15 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Depends on your OS -- often you'll find something under 'input methods' or 'languages' or 'internationalization'. --brion (talk) 21:48, 15 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikinews radio

Hi Brion, writing here because I suspect you check this more often than Wikinews.

There's a start on a discussion over on Wikinews about radio (as opposed to OGG files from Commons). See here. What I'm interested in knowing is how feasible the idea is with free software and codecs.

How I would imagine something like this working is a DPL of recent audio material which a server would stream on a repeating loop. the WN:AUDIO stuff sort-of covers this, but I'm thinking more along the lines of (forgive the proprietary protocol) mms://en.wikinews.org. So, if you want the latest Wikinews stuff you just fire this up in your player and can then get on with doing other things. I suspect this would be of interest outside the English Wikinews community and would be not in the least surprised if the Polish wanted it too.

Can you give a quick comment on how technically feasible this would be and a ballpark on how much developer time it would require? I suspect we could get some of the more technically minded Wikinewsies to help out in bundling up what we'd need, but there are probably security considerations I am not taking into account. --Brian McNeil /^talk 09:55, 20 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like ogg vorbis streaming is pretty standard out there. --brion (talk) 22:07, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

System Developer/steward

I recently passed my A Level computing with a Distinction and was wondering if i could be a developer or a steward as i got the highest mark that you can get (100%) I was wondering if i could upload my programme which does the same work as 10 stewards and automatically reviews the requests for admins and the Bureaucrats. Would love the opportunity to use my software on the wiki and would be proud to offer exclusive rights to the wiki organisation.

Yours Sincerly

Chris19910 (talk) 08:13, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have copied what Mr Wales said to my request:

Best to ask Brion Vibber or some of the stewards....--Jimbo Wales (talk) 22:06, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

I was wondering if this would be possible. I have been trying to test it but i keep getting told off for trying it out thats why i spoke to Jimbo Wales.

Yours Sincerly

Chris19910 (talk) 10:30, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Third of May 1808

Just when you protected it, you protected a vandalized version of the article. Can you fix that? TheKillerAngel (talk) 17:13, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please unprotect this. I don't see how you have any right to deny editors access to the article. Ceoil (talk) 17:30, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is it difficult to change?

Hello, I'm from Portuguese Wikipedia. There is a discussion about image policy there. There is a proposal that says to allow the use of images uploaded in other wikipedias. For example, if I want to use a image uploaded here, I'd write [[:en:image:name.jpg]] on an article in pt.wikipedia. Is it easy to change wikipedia software for portuguese wikipedia to use images uploaded in other wikipedias? --Virtual Avatar (talk) 23:40, 3 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I need your help

Please, can you check if its possible to make it Wizard introduction in portuguese wikipedia? The only difference would be that, after the unresgistered user completes the wizard, the new article would be immediately created rather than being sent to revision. Could you please let me know if this new feature can be implemented in wiki pt? Thanks and regards, --Rodrigofera (talk) 10:00, 14 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

LocalSettings

Is it possible, through SVN or otherwise, to read the LocalSettings for Wikipedia? Dragons flight (talk) 17:21, 15 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There's a fairly recent copy of much of Wikimedia's configuration files here. They were last updated in March. InitialiseSettings and CommonSettings would be what you're looking for. Mr.Z-man 23:02, 15 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Disclaimers on Simple English

Hi Brion,

I posted on your simple: talk page but haven't got a response as of yet..

I was wondering if you could spare a moment to give me some feedback of whether I can go straight ahead and replace the current simple: disclaimers (which I believe are from 2004/2005ish) with my proposal disclaimers, which are basically the current en: ones, with a message at the top saying it is the en: versions that bind simple:, but with the text simplified so it can be read more easily.

Obviously, I'm reluctant to be bold, as it's the legal disclaimers, but I've waited just over a month and posted in many places about it without getting a reply, and would really appreciate the go-ahead or don't-go-ahead.

Many thanks, Drum guy (talk) 22:44, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done It's sorted now; thanks :) Drum guy (talk) 23:40, 18 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 38#Search box problems

I just noticed that over the last cople of days it's been acting up again. Cheers. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 13:45, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Popped the down server back out of the load-balancer list manually; looking into what's causing it to not be properly detected. Thanks for the heads-up! --brion (talk) 03:01, 2 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just want to make sure I got this straight, you consulted the entrails of a passing admin, sacrificed two newbies to Jimbo and all is good again, right? Cheers. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 16:31, 2 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

CentralAuth stack trace

Please see [1] not sure where to report bugs, very unfamiliar with bugzilla. I think there is a bug somewhere in CentralAuth. StefanBot (talk) 09:45, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

soxbot v block

SoxBot V (talk · contribs) is a bot created for that very purpose, there are many other bots out there that do the same. – T W G 08:44, 7 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy deletion of Image:California map showing counties (source).xcf.gz

A tag has been placed on Image:California map showing counties (source).xcf.gz requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section I2 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because it is an image page for a missing or corrupt image or an empty image description page for a Commons-hosted image.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on [[ Talk:Image:California map showing counties (source).xcf.gz|the talk page]] explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. --pbroks13^talk? 17:26, 17 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Noted on the page; file is not corrupt, it's just not a format we use for new uploads. --brion (talk) 17:37, 17 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia logo

I noticed you changed the file recently, to save on bandwidth. I have further compressed it at Image:Wiki2.png. You can read about it on that image's page, or at Image talk:Wiki.png#Grayscale. If you are satisfied with it, would you upload it to Image:wiki.png? happypal (Talk | contribs) 16:44, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Password recovery

Hi! I sent an email to you (as suggested here) about a week and a half ago about resetting the password of my German Wikipedia account, and just wanted to make sure you got it, since I haven't heard any response. If it's not too much trouble, could we get this taken care of, please? Or alternatively, is there someone else more appropriate whom I should ask instead? Thanks! -Bbik^★ 16:39, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Technical question

I had a question (that I actually asked Jimbo Wales first) that concerns storage space. I was hoping you were close enough to the hardware to actually answer this.

Anyway, here it is:

How much total space (in the whole Wikipedia project, all name spaces, etc.) is taken up by Wikipedia:Requested articles and all subpages (as two raw values, maybe with a percentage)? Also, how many links are present in Wikipedia:Requested articles (et. al.), and, assuming the size of the "average page", how much space would it take up if someone ^{(some completely godlike person)} created all articles at the same time?

Thanks, Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 01:12, 15 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No clue! ;) It's tough to evaluate "space usage" in a case like this; text storage is compressed and distributed, and of course you'd have to decide how to consider templates and images (which can be shared between pages) and whether you want to include complete editing histories or not.

If you select your criteria, you could build pretty fair numbers out of the visible page histories/info (or do it in bulk via API queries or loading from an old data dump). --brion (talk) 22:17, 15 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki Help

I'm instlling MediaWiki software onto my machine to turn it into a server (my IBSS is still under development, and this is a good hosting software). I have Apache2.2, am actively downloading MySQL, got a release of jZip, and all of MediaWiki extracted into my C:\Program Files\MediaWiki. From the manual, though, it gets a little difficult to understand.

In the following examples, it is assumed that your website is located at http://www.example.com/ which is physically located on your server at /home/example/web. You will need to adjust the examples to use the appropriate locations for your situation.

Use your web browser to browse to the main wiki page. This is the web-accessible folder that you installed MediaWiki into, and is typically /wiki (e.g. http://www.example.com/wiki/, assuming you installed MediaWiki to /home/example/web/wiki).

This is a section of the Manual:Config_script part. I set the Apache to have server name www.gwiki.net, but this path isn't found (at least in http:). You can ask me for my computer's name. I don't know how to "browse to the main wiki page." It is 4:47 AM EDT (my local time) and I'm really getting tired. Any help? If it isn't too much, can you actually do anything more to guide me through this process? I don't have much experience in turning PC's into apache servers. Graham (talk, contrib, SIGN HERE!!!) 08:47, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Update: According to GoDaddy.com, www.gwiki.net is "parked", whatever that means. Also, I got a CGI plugin for Python, but I don't know how to attach the .py script to the .cgi (so what I have is an HTML block in a .cgi script that remains constant, but a script that would change it.). I NEED

Wikipedia is not censored.
Images or details contained within this article may be graphic or otherwise objectionable to some readers, to ensure a quality article and complete coverage of its subject matter. For more information, please refer to Wikipedia's content disclaimer regarding potentially objectionable content and options to not see an image.

HELP!!! 64.136.26.230 (talk) 06:10, 7 August 2008 (UTC) That's Gnorthup to you, Wikipedia.[reply]

OK, apparently someone has taken this domain...I've changed it, and you can still contact me. But I'm still clueless...I've messed around with the configuration for my server software, I've searched for every alternate domain possible, and I'm still drawing a blank. That and the CGI stuff just peeves me. Really. (OK, not REALLY really, but I'm slightly annoyed). Suggestions are completely welcome. Very welcome.
Please? 70.100.234.244 (talk) 07:17, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Please help me somehow	! User:Gnorthup, even if SineBot says not.

Your words come back to haunt you!

re: Wikipedia:VPP#Alter_Template:reflist_pending_feasibility_at_WP:TFD

And Template_talk:Reflist#Editprotect_request_2008-08-01, where I quoted you in the section above. The discussion has been moved to the template talk page so the second link will do.

I've basically called into question whether the community should be allowing the dual column references, based on your comments (as I quoted) back in February (IIRC). I'm sure we'd all appreciate a clarification as the template has become one of the most common on the site. I've raised a question as to whether you could do a <reference-2> magic word in the system software and so make the matter "aggressively cached". Finding the midpoint in the reflist and parsing it to two columns can't be all that difficult! Thanks in advance for your attention to this matter. // FrankB 23:34, 1 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what you're talking about, exactly. Multi-column reference lists are a bad idea because:

They look terrible on small screens (limited space and wrapping issues)
They usually print terribly (wrapping issues exacerbated by URL expansion)
They're always hard to navigate

I have no idea why you reference "caching" or what "<reference-2>" would mean. --brion (talk) 01:12, 4 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

An idea

Dear Brion, An idea sprung into my head, but as an amateur to programming I have no idea if it could be introduced into WP (economically) etc.
I often read a scientific article, where the abbreviation of an expression is given at its first appearance and afterwards it may take ages to find that when later in the text only the abbreviation is used.
If we could put a marker on the abbreviations to give the meaning on pointing the mouse onto it this problem would be solved. Of course the editors and the readership would have to be told about the existence of this little gadget. If such a solution to the problem would be viable, then of course it would have implications beyond Wikipedia. Regards, LouisBB (talk) 08:20, 4 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

bugzilla:671 :D --brion (talk) 14:38, 4 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First article

What was the first article created in Wikipedia, and was this created by Wikipedia itself, or by the first citizen to use it?

Wikipedia:UuU :D --brion (talk) 13:56, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Edits before 10:45 am EST today do not appear in any user's contributions?

[2] Gary King (talk) 18:39, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A DB crash; it's resyncing and should be up to date shortly. --brion (talk) 19:32, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikinews has been hacked

[3] has been hacked with a message saying: "This is the Zodiac speaking. Do you think you cowards can run from me? No you cannot, for I am above mortal things. ЕНКЁШКААНЛЁПЕЦЦААЭАН ДАЛЫЧЫНВКЁШКАШЕАНЦА АМЫНЮЛЛЕЯЬЦЦЫМЬЫНЕ НКЫЫЪЕХЦЫЬЕНДЁЪПХЫ НЦЕХЁККААМПЫАКЮЫНКЁ ЛМЕЦЮХАЦЦАЁЪВАШМЕЯ АШЕЁННЫЫНХАЮШКААШ ЫНЮНПЫЦЬЫШЫЙЪЫЦЦ ЬЬЦЕХДЬШЕНПЙШЬККЫЁ НЦЙПЕЪЫЬШЫКЁЯА! " and more not included. Please notify the appropriate person. This is message is going to all system admins. Calebrw (talk) 04:58, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Plain old template vandalism, nothing to worry about. -- Tim Starling (talk) 05:27, 15 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Users in wikipedia in spanish

Hi! I'm an user of the Wikipedia in spanish language. I'll talk you in spanish better because my english isn't very well.

Soy un usuario de wikipedia en español y he de avisar a algún usuario con cierto poder dentro de la misma, y veo que tú lo puedes ser, de los abusos de poder que algunos usuarios y bibliotecarios y burócratas hacen en wikipedia contra otros usuarios (entre ellos yo). Los usuarios son y las razones para quejarme on las siguientes:

Usuario MiguelAngel fotografo
Usuario JMFD
Usuario Calapito

Este grupo de usuarios se apropia de artículos de wikipedia como si fueran suyos, evitando un consenso de edición en cada uno de ellos e intentando manipular la información de estos artículos a sus propios gustos. Dichos artículos son los artículos de Mazagón , Fuente de Pinete (Moguer) y Puerto de la Ribera (Moguer) , además de apropiarse también de los artículos que ellos mismos crean y editan a sus anchas. Todo esto se puede comprobar en la discusión de estos artículos en la wikipedia en español.

(Bibliotecario y Burócrata) Netito777

Este bibliotecario y burócrata hace abuso de sus poderes no revisando los bloqueos de algunos usuarios de la forma correcta, manipulando páginas de usuarios a sus anchas y editándolas a su manera dando razones inexistentes por la cual debiera de modificar dichas páginas. Algunos de los usuarios cuyo bloqueo no ha sido correctamente revisados y habiendo hecho abuso de sus poderes los ha vuelto a bloquear son los usuarios Danieldomnguez y DANKO-JONES. El segundo de ellos es porque según dice la cuenta de usuario está activa, siendo todo ello mentira.

(Check User y Bibliotecario) Drini

También hizo abusos de sus poderes como tal, bloqueando al usuario Daniel dominguez vega, por ser un POSIBLE títere de otro usuario anteriormente bloqueado, es decir, le bloqueo por una posibilidad. Pues es como si se metiera en la cárcel a alguien por una posibilidad de que haya robado algo. Además, le culpó de ser una cuenta de usuario con propósito único, habiendo tenido este usuario únicamente 4 horas para editar en wikipedia (tiempo desde la creación de la cuenta hasta su bloqueo), tiempo suficiente que le dió a este usuario para editar solo en un artículo. Con tan solo 4 horas nadie puede editar en wikipedia en más de un artículo. Este usuario ha bloqueado a este usuario de forma permanente por dos motivos sin pruebas ni sin tan si quiera tener razones de peso para ello.

Por estas razones expongo mis pruebas para que todos estos usuarios sean vigilados de cerca y juzgados por un usuario de poder máximo en wikipedia para que pongan fin a sus abusos y apropiaciones de artículos por parte de quien realice sendas acciones. Confío totalmente en usted para que ponga orden en la Wikipedia en español. Wikipedia en español está llegando a un punto en el que los usuarios (por ejemplo Netito777) intentan callar la boca de otros porque no opinen o piensen igual que ellos violando el derecho de libertad de expresión en la wikipedia. La prueba de ello está n la página de usuario de Danieldomnguez que ha sido editada por dicho usuario a sus anchas indicando que se violan unas normas que en ningún momento se violan con esa frase en cuestión, pues es simplemente que piensa distinto a sí mismo y abusa de sus poderes bloqueando a este usuario por ese motivo totalmente innecesario.

confío plenamente en usted para que pare estos abusos y corrija los errores que estos usuarios arriba indicados han causado en la Wikipedia en español.

Le saluda atentamente, Dadove. --88.7.234.198 (talk) 17:10, 25 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure there's much I can do directly (my Spanish is not quite good enough to resolve a detailed dispute!); you should probably take this to es:Wikipedia:Comité de Resolución de Conflictos --brion (talk) 18:15, 25 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Prefiero que, si tiene usted esa información, me dijera cuál es el usuario de mayor poder dentro de la wikipedia en español, para comentarle esta situación y que él pueda mediar, ya que un miembro de este mismo comité, también está (o puede estar) metido dentro del mismo lío. Si supiera del nombre de ese usuario de poder máximo dentro de la wikipedia en español, se lo agradecería muchísimo. Thanks! --88.7.234.198 (talk) 06:45, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wiktionary constipation

Greetings!

I'm one of the admins on the English Wiktionary. We've been frustrated for a while over there in that there has not been a successful XML dump since March of this year. This has prevented the analysis of statistics among other things. We would really appreciate it if someone could rectify this issue. Frankly, I have no idea who ought to be contacted (or where), and another admin suggested contacting you. --EncycloPetey (talk) 22:33, 25 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi EncycloPetey, you might try m:Requests for dumps. I don't know if anyone actually checks it, but this is theoretically what it's for. —Ruakh_TALK 17:48, 26 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Judging by the page content and edit history, no one ever checks that page. --EncycloPetey (talk) 03:59, 30 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I don't think I've even heard of it. We'll try to get dumps going again soon. --brion (talk) 17:52, 2 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Requesting your attention

Hello Brion, I have sent you an email regarding a problem I reported at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help_talk:Unified_login#Ran_into_a_problem . When you have some time I would appreciate it if you could look into it.

Thank you,

--Kalsermar (talk) 17:16, 5 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Did I hear right?

[4] I heard you were sick... ~user:orngjce223 how am I typing? 05:31, 13 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fy

Can you [dis]affirm the edits by anonimous on fy:Meidogger:Brion_VIBBER? Aliter (talk) 20:21, 13 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]