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Welcome to the Proposals reading room. On this page, Wikibookians are free to talk about suggestions for improving Wikibooks.


Wikibooks the project with the least number of interwikis[edit source]

It seems that Wikibooks in different languages are quite separate. As I said previously there isn't a clear interwiki policy, and for this reason each language version is like an independent project. In my opinion, Wikibooks needs a guide more explanatory than that of Wikipedia. --Doostdar (discusscontribs) 20:57, 9 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I imagine that Wikinews has far fewer, as very little content is going to have a one-to-one correspondence. In principle, there is no reason why we couldn't have (e.g.) a guide to Common Lisp in Xulu and a textbook of advanced statistical methods in Quechua and have all of these various books link to one another with structured data, but in practice, Wikibooks is a very small project and individual books on individual subdomains tend to be single-person passion projects, so there just won't be many interwiki links in the first place. —Justin (koavf)TCM 07:04, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Some Wikibooks like German, Italian, French and Japanese are big enough and we need a guide for how to link pages between these projects. I haven't yet added interwikis for categories in Persian Wikibooks. Today I'll start to add Persian Wikibooks categories to Wikidata. --Doostdar (discusscontribs) 07:29, 12 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you to bring this subject up. Since 2015 a part of the community was reluctant to use Wikidata, but because of this decision, I regularly see newcomers being revoked by replacing the "old interwiki system" from most of the other wikis point of view, by Wikidata links. In addition, these good old interwiki links are never up-to-date comparatively to the Wikidata system. With these experiences, I now consider that maintaining the old system is a waste of time and a source of frustration, and propose to vote to import and adopt w:Help:Interlanguage links here too. And that won't impact the individual writers badly, on the contrary because for example they wouldn't be notified anymore in their watchlists for someone adding an interwiki link into their books. These links do not belong to the books contents so let's host them elsewhere and avoid a bad surprise for Wikipedia contributors. JackPotte (discusscontribs) 16:46, 15 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Interwiki policy can help us find hot subjects in each Wikibooks project. For example physics and art are hot subjects in Dutch Wikibooks. --Doostdar (discusscontribs) 07:12, 18 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
To clarify: Would this make it so things like interlanguage links in the sidebar are automatically updated (based on wikidata) without having to edit the articles themselves to create the links? This seems like it would be very useful. @JackPotte in general, what were the objections about? —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 22:38, 18 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
As far as I understand, the reluctance was not about using Wikidata but removing the local links, which are in the markup format. But I can't see the problem myself because the links from the Wikidata database are displayed with the same HTML markups. JackPotte (discusscontribs) 06:08, 19 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Just read through the discussion you linked! Like you said, it seems like the main concern is removing all the local links indiscriminately—this issue can be avoided by leaving any local links that aren't broken. To clarify again: @JackPotte is your proposal simply that we adopt a new policy/guide (i.e. the policy described at w:Help:Interlanguage links)? Since the wikidata-based interlanguage links are already implemented here? —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 12:25, 19 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Exactly, and if the not broken local links are redundant of Wikidata, we should remove them to avoid watching them in real time by bot. JackPotte (discusscontribs) 13:33, 19 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Got it, thanks! I would be in support of drafting a Wikibooks policy like w:Help:Interlanguage links to provide clear guidelines on how to handle these links, and then reviewing and voting on it. —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 13:55, 19 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I emphasize that Wikibooks needs a guide more explanatory than that of Wikipedia. Currently, Wikipedia is known as a multilingual project but what about Wikibooks? Wikipedia is currently working with language speakers and computing organizations to support as many languages as possible. Is Wikibooks doing the same or not? Doostdar (discusscontribs) 09:13, 10 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It looks like there is already a smaller section on this at Help:Editing#Interlanguage_links. Is there any opposition to me creating a draft guide at either Wikibooks:Interlanguage links or Help:Interlanguage links so we can flesh it out? @JackPotte @Doostdar? I can't decide which namespace would be more appropriate. @MarcGarver any insight here? —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 16:50, 10 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Any name you choose, first define what to do with Wikibooks many subpages? As you know Wikibooks has more subpages than othe projects like Wikipedia and Wikivoyage. How should the writer or editor find interwikis for these subpages? Does Wikidata currently accept subpages or not? Doostdar (discusscontribs) 20:47, 11 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Different Wikibooks versions should know how to connect with each other. Now at Persian Wikibooks, for example, I've made a book on Latex named "لاتک". Is it correct to link it with the book named Latex in English Wikibooks or not? If yes, what about the sub pages of these two books? Doostdar (discusscontribs) 20:55, 11 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
In contrast to Wikipedia, Wikibooks consists of many subpages. These subpages usually lack interwikis in other languages. Is it needed to choose interwikis for subpages or not? This is one the questions never answered. --Doostdar (discusscontribs) 20:04, 22 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
That's a great question. My instinct is that it might make sense to link the chapters to the other language versions? —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 01:23, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
This, of course, assume the different language versions are analogous to each other. —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 01:24, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
No, most of books are not translated versions of another Wikibooks version; in other words, they are not analogous to each other. So we need guidelines in Wikibooks to decide how to use interwikis. Otherwise, Wikibooks is not a multilingual project and it would be better to remove all interwikis ASAP. Doostdar (discusscontribs) 13:42, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Subpages should all be linked to Wikidata entries. Whether or not there are any strictly one-to-one interwiki links stored at Wikidata is irrelevant. —Justin (koavf)TCM 16:23, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
For example LaTeX/Introduction should be linked to ...? to Q1358138? Doostdar (discusscontribs) 22:07, 27 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
No, no. d:Q1358138 is an item about forewords as a concept. We shouldn't link every foreword to that one item. Each item in the form of "Book/Foreword" should have its own item. —Justin (koavf)TCM 22:34, 27 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Now, 23 Wikibooks have an e-book called "LaTeX" but only 4 of them have a subpage called "LaTeX/Introduction" so it would be better to remove all interwikis. Persian Wikibooks has a subpage called "LaTeX/fonts and colors" but English Wikibooks has two different subpages called "LaTeX/fonts" and "LaTeX/colors". Doostdar (discusscontribs) 09:20, 31 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
That's fine. There doesn't need to be a one-to-one correspondence for all pages. That was exactly the point I was just making. —Justin (koavf)TCM 11:15, 31 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Now you're talking! One-to-one correspondence for all pages is impossible. For main pages of the books in more than 50% of cases there's a one-to-one correspondence but for subpages it's less than 5% (Between French and German Wikibooks) in my opinion. Don't you agree that Wikibooks is the project with the least number of interwikis? Doostdar (discusscontribs) 10:19, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Nah, second to Wikinews or third after Wikiversity. —Justin (koavf)TCM 10:30, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

mediawiki2latex[edit source]

Hi, mediawiki2latex exports Wikibooks to Pdf, Epub, Odt and LaTeX. I suggest to add a new link to the tools in the in the section Tools. You may try this out yourself just now by copying User:Dirk_Hünniger/common.js to common.js in your user namespace or by using the link above. I did a very similar proposal three years ago, but some work has been done on mediawiki2latex, so I propose it again. Yours Dirk Hünniger (discusscontribs) 12:46, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tried it out on X86 Disassembly/Print Version - It failed, though that may be my fault?[1] I'm excited by this - I think the convenience of having properly formatted electronic book export of Wikibooks has a lot of potential for making Wikibooks materials more easily accessible. Mbrickn (discusscontribs) 21:41, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hey I can confirm that it does not work on GUI on the server. Still it works on the on the command line both locally and on the server. I wild guess would be a broken pipe, possibly I can fix it later. Unfortunately I cannot overwrite the file on wikimedia commons since I lack the necessary permission, still you can look at the version of the file I made 10 years ago. Its here File:X86 File:X86 Disassembly.pdf Yours--Dirk Hünniger (discusscontribs) 08:29, 15 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, I fixed the problem by piping some outputs /dev/null, so likely it was a broken pipe. It worked for me on the server. You may have another try now. Thanks again for the bug report. Yours --Dirk Hünniger (discusscontribs) 09:13, 15 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
ping Mbrickn — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dirk Hünniger (talkcontribs)

question: IP contributors IP address[edit source]

Hi all, I am new here at Wikibooks (well sort of, its a long story). I clicked the Reading room forum and was surprised to find so many choices, none of which suit my purpose for posting my question, so I hope you will forgive me if I posted to the wrong forum.

Anyway, here is my question: I was looking at the contribution history of a page (Israeli History, I think?) and noticed it was created by an IP. I then clicked the contributions of this IP and thought I would try out the Geolocate button at the bottom of that page. To my surprise I was directed to ip2location. com which hung on my request. Just wondering if this is the correct website for a geolocate? Ottawahitech (discusscontribs) 16:54, 17 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

BTW is everybody here also seeing the following text after my post:
  • "Conversion Failed due to timeout or non zero exit code" - Maybe I made a mistake?"
Ottawahitech (discusscontribs) 17:01, 17 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi @Ottawahitech! The geolocate link works just fine for me. Additionally, I am seeing that text, but it's just from a footnote someone added above. —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 21:04, 17 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Kittycataclysm thanks for replying. Additionally I am wondering why the Geolocate link on this project (ENWB) leads to ip2location. com and not to whatismyipaddress. com, which is normally the link that wikimedia projects such as the English wikipedia link to Ottawahitech (discusscontribs) 14:48, 18 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Good question! I'm unfortunately not sure. —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 02:09, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Kittycataclysm / anyone one else: From what I gather interface-admins control this type of thing, I think? Who are the interface-admins on WB? btw is there a list of functionaries on WB?
Thanks in advance, Ottawahitech (discusscontribs) 14:43, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
You can check out Wikibooks:Administrators, which should have a list of all the functionaries. Cheers —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 15:25, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Kittycataclysm, I love the link you provided above which includes not only the current list all Administrators/ Interface administrators/ Bureaucrats (None at this time)/ CheckUsers/ Non-regular administrators, but also a timeline of clickable functionaries right from day 1 of wikibooks. It is a great way to study the historical development of ENWB.
Is there also a list of all successful/unsuceesful Requests for Adminship somewhere? Ottawahitech (discusscontribs) 17:12, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Ottawahitech Unfortunately, that I'm not sure about. —Kittycataclysm (discusscontribs) 18:29, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Ottawahitech:, there are many websites that can do this geolocation for you (an internet search should tell you some). In addition, the IP information tool, available to the majority of users, will tell you the country. Leaderboard (discusscontribs) 18:07, 19 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Leaderboard: Thanks for replying. I see from the link supplied by @Kittycataclysm above that you are an interface admin here on the English Wikibooks, so would like to ask you directly why you chose ip2location instead of the traditional whatismyipaddress. What sort of criteria do you use in deciding what WHOIS service to use? I am asking because, for privacy reasons, I always hesitate before clicking certain external links.
Additionally when I click the IP information tool on META which you link to above I get the following text:
  • This page doesn't currently exist; you can search this title in other pages or edit this page. If you recently created this page, try purging the server cache or searching the deletion log. [btw I cannot follow some of these directions such as editing this page on META since I am infinitely blocked there]
Thanks in advance, Ottawahitech (discusscontribs) 16:05, 9 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Ottawahitech:, the ip2location tool was there long ago - I had no part in choosing it and I think it was there before I even had joined Wikibooks. Regarding your other question, can you try meta:IP_Editing:_Privacy_Enhancement_and_Abuse_Mitigation/IP_Info_feature? Leaderboard (discusscontribs) 16:12, 9 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Leaderboard: Thank you!
I have looked at the META page you linked to briefly, and it appears that since 2020 the staff of the Wikimedia foundation has been working on this large project with the goal of making "it easier for admins, vandal fighters and power users to access information about IP addresses." Even though the name of the project implies more privacy protection for contributors, I see nothing in the introduction talking about this aspect of the project. This is not surprising to me since I find most META documentation lacking in clarity, and contradictory. YMMV
Seems to me that the wikimedia movement has created a whole industry dedicated to fighting vandalism, to the detriment of improving content building. Of course I do not belong to the three groups above, so may not appreciate the importance of these initiatives. I would like to hear what others have to say about this. Thanks in advance, Ottawahitech (discusscontribs) 20:42, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  1. "Conversion Failed due to timeout or non zero exit code" - Maybe I made a mistake?