Gentoo Wiki:Suggestions/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions. 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 Suggestions page.

Completed small tasks for admins
--Astaecker 13:15, 2 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Category:Gentoo Wiki - Rename to "Category:Contents|Root|Top level"
 * File:Larry-hi.png - Add CC-by-sa-2.5 template; add source?
 * File:IconDisc.png - Add CC-by-sa-3.0 template.
 * File:IconPrinter.png - Add CC-by-sa-3.0 template.
 * Main Page - Add category, maybe the new top level category.
 * Template:= - Add Documentation template.
 * "Template:Infobox/row" - Delete; it was an mistake.
 * Template:LinkBox - Add Documentation template.
 * Template:Note - Add Documentation template.
 * MediaWiki:helppage - Change to Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents --Astaecker 12:41, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

all of the above done --A3li 20:22, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Dated Template
A template to mark information as dated, or possibly dated would bevery useful.

eg. {Dated|2011-10-25|This information is probably out of date. If you can, please test and update the article}

would be more useful than

eg. {Warning|This information is probably out of date. If you can, please test and update the article}

Where the date is missing. Hangfire 22:07, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * This one was easy enough ;) Dated a3li

Translating URL resulting in error
Necessity to insert several URLs pointing outside in to the translation resulting in error. Seems like inserting URLs on the english page prompts captcha, but on translation page - it's not available, so can not pass verification, can not submit block translation. On the BIOS Update page search for "TODO" :)mitri 02:51, 19 October 2011 (UTC)
 * fixed :)mitri 16:40, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

Updating page doesn't change percent of translation
Updating English page Gentoo Wiki:Sandbox does not affect percent of translation for existing translated articles :)mitri 02:51, 19 October 2011 (UTC)
 * <@a3li> pages need purging (as discussed in IRC) :)mitri 15:56, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

Relationship with existing Gentoo Wikis
Duplicating effort and spreading documentation across more sites isn't beneficial, just increases the likelihood that things will rot or misinformation will be found. If the infrastructure for this site is good, I'd like to see the existing wikis folded into this slowly, with editing and culling as required. This may be difficult based on licenses --Mark alec 13:53, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * See Gentoo Wiki:Meetings/2011-10-17, topic 2. Astaecker 07:49, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Top level categories
Categories for several things like templates, hardware, software etc. Disi 07:14, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * See Gentoo Wiki:Meetings/2011-10-17, topic 4. Astaecker 07:49, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Policies
Is there already some kind of policy decided? --Astaecker 08:19, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Internationalization (i18n):
 * As the "translate" extension is installed, I guess you decided on the "top (english) -> down (other languages)" approach.
 * How should the i18n-sites be named?
 * subpages: SITENAME/de / SITENAME/Deutsch
 * Translate extension's method
 * Astaecker vote
 * See Gentoo Wiki:Meetings/2011-10-17, topic 5. Astaecker 07:49, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
 * regular pages with i18n extension: SITENAME (de) / SITENAME (Deutsch)
 * Where to position the i18n-links? Goal: i18n-readers want to read the page in their language. --Astaecker 10:29, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * sidebar: unused space, non-distractive for english readers, but not-easy-to-spot for i18n-readers; Wikipedia's solution
 * top: easy-to-spot for i18n-readers, but distractive for english readers;
 * Astaecker vote
 * bottom: non-distractive for english readers, but not-easy-to-spot for i18n-readers
 * Use of Special:MyLanguage for internal links? --Astaecker 12:36, 30 September 2011 (UTC)
 * template to easy writing internal links.
 * Navigation: (the sidebar and the main page should be enhanced)
 * by categories
 * Astaecker vote. For example "main page" see http://de.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Hauptseite
 * : See Gentoo Wiki:Meetings/2011-10-17, topic 4. Astaecker 07:49, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
 * by index pages

Copy MediaWiki's User's Guide
How about copying Mediawiki's Users Guide here. This guide is intended to be copied to new wikis, see Mediawikiwiki:Project:PD help. We are already linking to parts of it in our help pages. --Astaecker 07:34, 27 September 2011 (UTC)
 * See Gentoo Wiki:Meetings/2011-10-17, topic 6. Astaecker 07:49, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Kernel configuration template
done Kernel --A3li 09:53, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

RSS/Atom extension
RSS/Atom extension: To follow the ongoing expansion, please install the RSS extension.
 * A bot reports all changes to the irc channel. As i'm not so much an irc user, I still hope for a rss extension. --Astaecker 09:56, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Reading its description page, it displays an RSS feed. How would you use that to track progress?
 * With RSS I don't have to check "Recent changes" myself, KDE Akregator (or whatever) is doing it for me. --Astaecker 11:20, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * There's an atom feed already available: http://wiki.gentoo.org/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=atom Can you use that? --A3li 11:25, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Ha, didn't know, Mediawiki has a default atom feed. Nice. Done. --Astaecker 11:28, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Enhanced preformatted template for code blocks

 * done File and Code --A3li 09:53, 22 September 2011 (UTC)
 * How about a syntax hightlighting enhanced File template ? See this for an example. For this, we need the SyntaxHighlight GeSHi extension. --Astaecker 07:48, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * More than one line for the RootCmd and Cmd? Disi 09:41, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * should work --A3li 10:36, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * hey, that works but the line spacing goes weird in the last line, I saw Astaecker set up some custom Cmd for more than one command, is that going to become available? Disi 07:11, 29 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Done --Astaecker 12:48, 29 September 2011 (UTC)
 * could you include a  tag for the commands, codes and shells? Disi 08:48, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * That would disable any formatting people could make to highlight certain parts in the code. Not sure we want this --A3li 10:36, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Template for stdout/stderror terminal messages --Hwoarang 10:10, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * use GenericCmd --A3li 10:36, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Note template
Notes template, and probably different templates for each type ( warning, important, information ) like those we have in gorg-xml
 * done? Note and Warning are available --A3li 10:35, 25 September 2011 (UTC)
 * any way to increase the padding around the template environments, especially below them? Using them makes a page look rather busy (for example). --Hypnos 06:00, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Spacing should be the same as for one regular paragraph now. --A3li 12:53, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Add link to kernel guide to kernel template
How about a "how to configure the kernel" link in Kernel template caption bar? Also a "how to edit a file" link in the file template caption bar? --Astaecker 09:17, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * The new content boxes can display additional links. I've added a sample link to Kernel. Not sure if we need that for editing files, I expect people to know that. Maybe link to a Category:Editors if we have something like that one day. --A3li 12:50, 29 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Nice. We should do it even for File and link to nano, because this is at the moment the default editor. This will be good for newbies. Pros will never click on the link. --Astaecker 12:57, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Unlock templates
Unlock templates. As long as the beta wiki is password protected, please unlock the templates, so everybody can enhanced the templates. The fear of abuse is in this phase IMO counterproductive. I, for example, wanted to write some template documentation. --Astaecker 09:24, 26 September 2011 (UTC)
 * for the time being unlocked. just don't break them. Oh, and if you want to use the standard transcluding mediawiki template doc stuff, please don't use that ugly "i" icon. ;) --A3li 10:36, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

InfoBox templates
I suggest templates for an infobox in the top-right corner of the article. The templates have different purposes:
 * External docs: Link to common high-profile external documenation, like Wikipedia (most often it is better to link Wikipedia instead of writing your own introductions) or Gentoo documentation (good howtos).
 * Article status: Tag articles as "wikify" (article needs formatting), "outdated", "delete" (article can be removed) or add open Todo items. This helps readers finding out, if the article is worth reading. Editors have work items.
 * Talk status: Tag discussions as open or done to help readers and article editors finding open discussions.
 * User boxes: To show information about yourself, contact infos, your role (e.g. developer) and your spoken languages (for translation effort).

The templates are stacked in one single infobox.

You find the templates at my user page.

Note: I will change "Infobox" to the camel case "InfoBox" to be in line with MessageBox and ContentBox.

--Astaecker 09:05, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

Small tasks for admins II
Make user private sandbox pages with a link in toolbox section or next to the login at the top of the page for easy discoveribility. --Rei4dan 21:27, 10 November 2011 (UTC)
 * The global sandbox is linked in the navigation bar now --A3li 14:20, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Use "My " just in the first of the links in top-right corner, making it shorter and without repetition: My talk, prefereences, watchlist, contributions. --Rei4dan 12:57, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
 * This is part of the mediawiki strings that I'd rather not change. --A3li 14:20, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

USEflag template
maximum 20 USE flags is not enough... TeX Live
 * Split the use flags into function groups. See Wine. Astaecker 09:01, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
 * cheers, I hope that makes sense how I grouped them :) Disi 11:32, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Split Category:Server_and_Security
Could we split the category Category:Server_and_Security to Category:Server and Category:Security? /Ni1s 14:59, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

I second that motion. On Gentoo we know these two are not the same and you can mix and match these two together or with other settings. --Hook 17:46, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm trying to limit the number of top level categories. Of course Server and Security are two different things, but very much related. They're staying together for the time being for the sake of simplicity. —a3li 20:56, 31 March 2012 (UTC)

Spam
We need a way to deal with spam. --Alec 01:32, 16. Nov. 2011 (UTC)


 * Please report the occasional spam on IRC, or via email. I don't think there's anything else that needs to be done right now. —a3li 10:19, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

INPUT_DEVICES template
Would be cool to have one, like VIDEO_CARDS :) --Disi 09:53, 23. Nov. 2011 (UTC)


 * These will probably be added as they are needed/useful. /Ni1s 22:52, 7 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Done, see INPUT_DEVICES. Astaecker 07:06, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

see also at top of the page?
I am really a little pissed about that :/ Radeon AutoFS, see also my comment in the talk for AutoFS. I think, if, then those links would better fit under Links and not Radeon is a grafic-chip, see also Link to other wiki Disi 14:17, 24 November 2011 (UTC)


 * I moved the references to the Links section Disi 10:44, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

"Best practice" for a new document
I miss a template for a good article. Similar sections a named differently f.e. (Links, External Links, References). in several documents.
 * It should be defined what belongs into a "good" document, and what does not.
 * How to handle external references, do we name all URL's separately at the end of a document or not?
 * which sections should appear in a gentoo-wiki document.(f.e. Introduction, Installation, Configuration, Troubleshooting)
 * How to write (1st person, 3rd person)

Since if it is not defined before, we end up in mass rewrites after some time. We could however create a template or a best practice for new documents, a reference, I bet many users would read it before contributing into this wiki. It is also a good help for those who never made a wiki document, they actually search for reference documents. --Needle 09:52, 26. Nov. 2011 (UTC)


 * Agree with Needle --Wimmuskee 11:38, 03 December 2011 (CET)


 * I am also in agreement with this and think this should be decided fairly soon before a large number of articles are written (and then require correction). Personally I find the biggest problem with reading gentoo-wiki.com is that the style of written articles is all over the place. Especially in regards to the aspect (1st, 3rd person). This would also make the wiki appear much more professional. Although all users may not adhere to this strictly, it would then allow policing of articles. --Feystorm 21:08, 3 January 2012 (UTC)


 * "me too" and it would also help to have rules of engagement spelt out properly. The approach at Wikipedia (The Editors - dah dah dah dum) is probably a bit over the top for this but a bit more obvious policy on dos and don'ts would help everyone. Gerdesj 20:19, 29 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I want to undersign this idea. I have just started writing my first article on this wiki, and was looking for general formatting regulations. I can even contribute in creating such set of rules (I have some editorial experience), but in my opinion it definitely should be started by a developer. Also let me post some links how our friends from Arch try to achieve this: here, here or here, also this or this (I hope it is not prohibited to link to their site in this context :)). --Gorkypl 22:46, 7 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Well why don't we have at it? Gentoo Wiki:Guidelines? /Ni1s 21:17, 8 March 2012 (UTC)


 * That's good. I am happy with that :) Needle 23:43, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

Article wish list / Requested articles
As this "Suggestions" page is more about technical stuff, maybe it would make sense to have a counterpart on the content side.

Users can request for articles they want to read about in w.g.o and uninspired authors can take a look there to create new fantastic articles.

--Mrueg 15:21, 31 May 2012 (UTC)


 * I have started one at Gentoo_Wiki:Requested_Articles — yngwin 06:42, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

weird heading at bottom of page
There seems to be something wrong with the font for headings?!? The same template is used but the font appears larger: see Tuning and Monitoring: screenshot Disi 11:38, 2 July 2012 (UTC)


 * It's not just the heading, the whole bottom part of the Radeon page has a bigger fontsize. — yngwin 11:42, 2 July 2012 (UTC)


 * OK, I fixed it. The emerge template was used inline in a list item, which made the wiki engine mess up the HTML markup. — yngwin 11:50, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

GRUB2 template to add to commandline
Could you create some template to add parameters to the commandline using /etc/defaults/grub? Like and it adds the text on how to change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT and to run 'grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg' etc.  Disi 14:36, 3 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Something like here: Bootloader Disi 14:42, 3 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Is this OK? GRUB2? Disi 09:18, 6 July 2012 (UTC)

(un)fold code button
A button to (un)fold large code and file template blocks, to maintain readability. Hypnos 04:45, 28 September 2011 (UTC)


 * There will be a built-in solution in MediaWiki 1.18, see http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.18#New_plugin_for_collapsible_elements --Astaecker 15:37, 6 October 2011 (UTC)


 * MediaWiki 1.18 is out. See the manual for details. --Astaecker 14:39, 9 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Updating to this version is scheduled for next maintenance —a3li 10:19, 6 July 2012 (UTC)


 * done —a3li 19:09, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

Resume numbered list
When trying to use a RootCmd or  environment within a numbered list, the list counter gets reset to 1. Thus I ended up using bullet lists. (via email)


 * RESO CANTFIX —a3li 19:09, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

== and, but definitely not foo. The advantage of using a template is that, if the need arise, we can change the way inline code looks like by just editing the corresponding template in a single place; otherwise we have to look all over the wiki articles in search for inline code to alter. Anyway I can't find a proper, short name for this new template. Perhaps it's way too generic and we should stick with the LGTM. Hello71 (talk) 22:27, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Use of color here is confusing
The link colors being used on this wiki are confusing. In article text, a darker purple link is to a page that you haven't visited yet (or that doesn't exist), and a lighter purple link is to a page that you have visited. In the navigation menu in the left margin, the meanings are reversed: a lighter purple link is to a page you haven't visited, and a darker purple link is to a page that you have visited. This needs to be changed to be consistent, in line with almost-universal conventions (for color schemes that use different shades of the same basic color, darker links tend to indicate pages you haven't visited yet and lighter links pages you have), and more informative (links to missing pages should be a different color than existing pages you just haven't visited yet). In case it matters, I'm using Firefox 17.0.7 on Gentoo Linux. - dcljr (talk) 07:26, 18 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Actually, come to think of it, I'm not sure that "convention" I just described parenthetically above is correct. What is certainly true is that unvisited links tend to (and should) "stand out" more than visited ones. Apart from the inconsistency I've brought up already, I must point out that having an "all purple" link color scheme is highly problematic, since historically (i.e., from the beginning of the Web) purplish links have meant visited links and bluer links have meant unvisited links. I think the vast majority of people coming to this wiki will expect that. Unfortunately, blue links here mean external links! Madness! [;] We need to discuss a new color scheme... - dcljr (talk) 02:35, 21 September 2013 (UTC)


 * The link colors were messed up from a theme change a while back. I fixed external links, redlinks and unified the navbar link color. —a3li 11:30, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Add svg to $wgFileExtensions
File:Gentoo-logo.png -- This is not right. Converting an SVG into PNG to upload to MediaWiki.

[//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgFileExtensions] [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Image_administration#SVG]

⁓ Hello  71  15:06, 20 August 2013 (UTC)


 * If we get any more SVGs, maybe. —a3li 15:35, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

openid
i vote a3li set this up =D 666threesixes666 (talk) 01:44, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:OpenID


 * OpenID might become supported when the new identity stuff is deployed. —a3li 15:35, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

Infobox user overlay template
It would be a nice to add information about the user's overlay there --Mrueg (talk) 10:06, 2 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Done. See InfoBox user. Astaecker (talk) 08:18, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

The "enabled per default" USE flag in the USEflag template
The USEflag template has a column named "default". I find it hard to say if a USE flag is enabled per default or not, the problem is you do not know which gentoo profile a document writer is using, or the document reader. We should define which gentoo profile is meant by "default" in this template. I have been assuming the "default gentoo profile" is meant here, which is very minimal, but a desktop will user assume the "desktop profile" is meant, which has already more USE flags enabled "per default". Which gentoo profile should we assume as mandatory for this template, so we have a baseline for further editing. I would suggest we should use the minimal "default gentoo profile" as a basis for this template, but I am open for other solutions. Needle (talk) 21:26, 6 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Good point. We should agree on a profile. I vote for a "default profile", based on assumed usage:
 * For most articles, we should default on the "desktop" profile, because it's the most common used one (including "gnome" and "kde" subprofiles), I guess.
 * For the articles in the Server & Security category, we should default on the "default" profile, again because it's the most common used one
 * Astaecker (talk) 08:37, 8 May 2013 (UTC)


 * That's fine with me, and easy enough for anyone else to follow. Needle (talk) 19:32, 13 May 2013 (UTC)

Templates need to be localized
Text formatting templates, such as Template:Note or Template:Warning, need to be either automatically localized, or need standard localized versions (e.g. something like "Template:Note/ru" or "Template:Примечание") available for translators to insert manually. — tetromino 19:22, 11 November 2011 (UTC)


 * I experimented with it. Some solutions:
 * Separation of code and text by using subpages. The templates can be protected and translators can still update the text in the subpages.
 * For automatic localization using subpages I found no way to address the subpage (relativ or absolute) inside the template to fetch the translations, because after transclusion all variables (, etc.) apply then to the target page.
 * Translate the text (and only the text) with the translate extension works, but the tags around the text of the original english template will get transcluded and displayed in the target page. No problem with translated templates. Works too for english pages, if we use the english localized template version.
 * Translate the text without the translate extension we can use for each text string a parameter. The localized template version calls main template, passes through all parameters and add the translated text parameters.
 * No separation. The template gets big and the code is harder to read.
 * Automatic localization means, all translations are in the template. Technically we can use a switch function and e.g. User:Astaecker/Lang subpage template to detect the wanted language.
 * I prefer the "translate extension" solution, because of the quality control of the translations. --Astaecker 11:08, 12 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Translate extension is now in use. --SwifT (talk) 09:21, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

Success Stories
A new category in which users can put their machine configuration.

It is nice to divide docs by hardware/software, but seeing a complete working machine of people is something that makes things much clearer. --Alonbl 23:51, 12. Nov. 2011 (UTC)


 * You can create categories yourself. —a3li 15:35, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

Provide direct links to Help:Formatting and Gentoo Templates on Edit Page
When editing a page, I always go stumbling along trying to find a dumb template or how to format something as the direct links to these pages are not always published on the page I'm editing. Except for the basic "Help" link, which doesn't do much good. How about placing at least two of the most popular Help pages (Help:Formatting and Gentoo Templates) right on the page that is being edited by a user so he/she doesn't have to waste time trying to hunt them down. (Although by now I have most of Help:Formatting memorized, some of Gentoo Templates are new.) The full links follow. Signed: Roger 19:09, 15 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Help:Formatting Pretty much memorized here, but a good one for most others!
 * Special:PrefixIndex/Template: I think this is the one?
 * Help:Gw.com_cheat_sheet Actually, this is more what I'm talking about compared to the 2nd one above as it's more structured (easier read) like the Help:Formatting page!  Lacks many of the templates/commands though.


 * With the g-w.com being down for months on end, I don't think we need that anymore. Editing help is both in the toolbar and the footer. The Formatting page is reachable via the latter. —a3li 15:35, 2 January 2014 (UTC)