User:Teratornis/Wiki tasks

This subpage is about administrative improvements I would like to see on. Even though I am an administrator with some powers, I try to tread as lightly as possible, by documenting everything I want to do before I do it. If you are not me and you want to comment on something, please do so on the |talk page rather than on this page.

To-do
These are tasks I have not completed yet (or persuaded someone else to do for me).

Interwiki links

 * Interwiki links
 * Write a help page describing the interwiki link prefixes available on.
 * For example, see: http://www.bicyclingwiki.com/index.php?title=Help:Interwiki_links &mdash; the important thing is to document at least any nonstandard interwiki link prefixes the site administrators have added
 * Propitiate the site administrators to add some more prefixes, and document exactly how so they don't have to waste time thinking

Categories

 * Categories
 * Make the category I redlinked already: Category:Templates from Wikipedia (12:13, 13 October 2007 (EDT): done).
 * Examine the existing categories to see about making them tree-structured. As of 12:13, 13 October 2007 (EDT), Special:Uncategorizedcategories lists 109 uncategorized categories. Ideally there should only be one, which would be: Category:Categories, i.e., the top-level category.
 * Propitiate the site administrators to add a link to the top-level category to MediaWiki:sidebar for . Like I also did on Bicycling Wiki. (01:41, 30 October 2007 (EDT): now that I am an administrator, I can edit MediaWiki:Sidebar, but I won't unless other administrators see the value of doing so. In the meantime, I'll make categories browseable from Category:Categories.)
 * Discussion about this task is ongoing on - I will take no action until consensus emerges.
 * The consensus appears to be that nobody minds as long as I don't break anything that already exists, and I don't expect to break anything. Although admittedly, breaking things can be fun. Good thing I finished adolescence long ago.

01:24, 25 October 2007 (EDT): my first tiny project relating to categories will be to add the missing sort key to pages in Category:Help. The general sort key one normally adds to sort by page name without the page's namespace prefix is: However, some help pages have subpage names, and we only want the page name component after the last slash to be the sort key. For example, a page like: should have the sort key: which sorts the page under "E" on the Category:Help page.
 * Help:Edit summary abbreviations

One slight complication is that some pages transclude the Essay template, which adds a default sort key of  rather than. I might mention on Template talk:Essay that sometimes  would be better. Of course the user can manually override the default sort key by inserting sort keys into each category link on a page. A stranger complication is that Help:Howtohint has a default sort key of "Goat!". I understand the attempt at invoking the local goat meme, but I don't think this improves the site. I'll just leave the broken sort key as it is in the article, just in case the author is in love with it.

Index

 * Work on my User:Teratornis/Index page, making it like the Editor's index to Wikipedia, only about rationality-type topics. See: User:Teratornis/Index/About and User talk:Teratornis/Index for technical details.
 * It would be nice to have a comprehensive index to all the typical arguments about God, creationism, etc. that come up repeatedly, with links to state-of-the-art answers.
 * The most straightforward way to start would be to index all the articles and pages on.
 * Linking to external sites such as God Is Imaginary and Internet Infidels would be useful; perhaps a separate index page would be best for that.

Templates
I wish to do several tasks relating to templates:


 * [ Examine the existing templates] to see what is on already.


 * Adapt some useful templates from Wikipedia:
 * wp:Template:Tl (12:13, 13 October 2007 (EDT): done: Tl)
 * Talkheader
 * Talkheader no user
 * Google - the Google template is better than the Google interwiki link prefix, because with the Google template you can separate multiple search terms with spaces, but with the interwiki link you have to type  for a space to get the search to work right. Compare the wikitext source for the following links:
 * adsense success story
 * NavigationBox - see
 * Template:TOCright would be nice for pages such as this one which may grow into having very long TOCs.
 * I will think of more.
 * I will think of more.


 * Make a Category:Templates from Wikipedia. Done.
 * Categorize it into: Category:Templates. Done.

Infobox templates
20:34, 18 October 2007 (EDT): So far I have found only one infobox template on :


 * Conservapedia

There may be more; I have not [ examined every template] yet. There seems to be no category for infobox templates yet. Make one:
 * Category:Infobox templates

Navigation templates
had several navigation templates before I arrived:


 * template:sex
 * template:law
 * template:discrimlaw
 * template:conservapedia

These templates use a kind of infobox style, i.e., they float to the upper right of a page. This might clash a little with actual infoboxes, if starts using them (I don't think any infobox templates are here as of 21:32, 27 October 2007 (EDT)).

Wikipedia has a large number of navigation templates that stretch across a page, and usually appear at the bottoms of articles. See: wp:WP:EIW for more information, and check the examples:


 * wp:WP:NAVBOX
 * wp:Template:Relevance fallacies
 * wp:Template:Dawkins etc.

I imported some stuff to we need to create them easily:


 * NavigationBox
 * Category:Navigation templates

Navigation templates will be handy for sticking on the index. They can go right under index entries.

I will make these navigation templates first (giving them short names because I will need to add them to many pages):


 * Helpnav to contain some or all of: Category:Help. 23:09, 27 October 2007 (EDT): I made a first version, and added it to most of the pages in Category:Help.
 * BoRnav to contain some or all of: Category:Best of RationalWiki (or possibly separate navigation boxes for subcategories thereof).

Shortcuts
20:53, 18 October 2007 (EDT): another feature to support the index. Pick some shortcut prefixes that do not conflict with any existing namespaces or interwiki link prefixes. Some obvious candidates:


 * - a shortcut to topics in the : (Project:) namespace, [ namely on these pages].
 * RWI: - a shortcut to topic headings in the index.

Other shortcut prefixes might be useful.

Supporting pages:


 * Template:Shortcut - displays a shortcut in a nice box; I copied this from Wikipedia already.
 * Project:Shortcut - documents how shortcuts (will) work on.
 * Project:Shortcuts - annotated list of shortcuts on.
 * - look for any equivalent existing category.
 * - look for any equivalent existing category.
 * - look for any equivalent existing category.

See the analogous pages on Wikipedia:
 * wp:Template:Shortcut
 * wp:WP:SHORTCUT
 * wp:WP:SHORTCUTS

Talk page guidelines

 * To-do: summarize the discussion from Template talk:Talkheader and start the Help/Talk page page, if nobody else beats me to it.

Customize MediaWiki:Talkpagetext

 * To-do: summarize my suggestion from Template talk:Talkheader.

Done
When I or someone else finish a task, move it here.

Style classes

 * Style classes
 * At least enough to make the talkheader template work correctly.
 * Talkheader needs the  style class which an administrator can add to MediaWiki:Common.css here (which seems to be &lt;gasp&gt; empty now).
 * A comparison page on Bicycling Wiki which an administrator could simply copy here: MediaWiki:Common.css


 * 02:55, 14 October 2007 (EDT): User:Tmtoulouse did this for me. Thanks!

Administrators
is a mobocracy. I just needed to find out who handles technical stuff. Other helpful users left information for me on User talk:Teratornis:
 * Just F.Y.I. Tmtoulouse and Linus are our resident techies/site administrators. Locke [[Image:Eye.jpg|10px|User is Vandal/sysop]]  Always Watching...... 19:44, 11 October 2007 (EDT)
 * Im sure Linus, TM, or Human could install the damn things.--PalMD-If it looks like a donut, eat it 19:47, 11 October 2007 (EDT)

And see:
 * RationalWiki:Administrators
 * RationalWiki:Bureaucrats

Concise lists

 * The recommended administrators:
 * human be in
 * Tmtoulouse
 * Linus
 * Special pages:
 * Special:Listusers/sysop - the sysops
 * Special:Listusers/bureaucrat - the bureaucrats
 * Links that actually document the capabilities of these user classes in MediaWiki:
 * Bureaucrat
 * Administrator

Think about donating some money
I'm taking kind of a shine to this place. I'm even thinking about donating some money. That would seem to require figuring out PayPal for the first time in my life. All this fangled technology.