Wikibooks:Reading room/Assistance

Welcome to the Assistance reading room where Wikibookians help each other solve problems encountered while contributing to books or otherwise taking part in the Wikibooks community.

Moving/renaming books

Hi, I want to rename Introduction to Crochet to Crochet as it's evident that this book will probably involve far more than basic stitches, including free patterns, etc. I'm not sure whether subpages are automatically moved or if I have to do those separately. I also don't want to break anything in Wikibooks. Bastique (discuss • contribs) 19:25, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

They will not be automatically moved. On some WMF wikis, there is a user group that has special rights to mass move pages, I don't recall if it exists locally. Since there are only a few subpages, manually moving all of them shouldn't be too cumbersome. Just make sure you check "what links here" after you move each one to make sure there are no double redirects and you should be good. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 19:56, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

@Koavf: Only administrators have the move-subpages right, but all reviewers can use the MassMove script. JJP_Master (she/they) 20:26, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

Nice. Thanks. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 20:40, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

Just trying to recap what has been said here so far:

• There is a user right called move-subpages on enwb
• Only administrators at enwb currently have this right
• If a user who is not an admin wants to mass-move a book with all its subpages to a different name, they can approach a friendly admin and convince them to carry out this mass-move.

Is this correct? pinging @Bastique @JJPMaster @Koavf Ottawahitech (discuss • contribs) 13:50, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

Or the user (if they are a reviewer) can use the MassMove script. Bastique (discuss • contribs) 00:52, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

I'd like to move Drugs:Fact and Fiction to Drugs: Fact and Fiction, and that has quite a few subpages (e.g. Drugs:Fact and Fiction/2C, Drugs:Fact and Fiction/Adderal, etc.), so it'd be a real pain to move all of them. I'm not a reviewer, so I can't use the MassMove script. TTWIDEE (discuss • contribs) 20:33, 24 February 2025 (UTC)

Books containing medical advice

Does Wikibooks have a stance on the issue of books containing medical advice?

I recently noticed the book Complete Guide to Essential Oils, and I was rather concerned to notice that it makes a wide range of unsourced claims about the use of essential oils to treat medical conditions, e.g. clary sage oil "may reduce hypertension", eucalyptus oil "alleviates urinary tract infections", ravensara oil "helps fight viral infections", etc, etc. While these claims don't quite step over the line of giving specific directions, they seem to come very close to it. Where is the line drawn?

It also concerns me deeply that the book does not make it clear how these oils are intended to be used. An unsuspecting visitor may see a claim like Clove oil ... "relieves indigestion, vomiting, flatulence and diarrhea" and interpret that as a recommendation that the oil be consumed to elicit those effects. Clove oil is not safe to consume and may cause serious injury or death. The presence of warnings on the front page of the book is not sufficient to protect readers who may arrive directly at a subpage of the book.

Omphalographer (discuss • contribs) 02:18, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

I know we have historically relied on the blanket disclaimer in cases like this, but I personally dislike books like these. Medical disclaimers and questions of responsibility aside, books here are still supposed to be well-supported and factual, and this book doesn't even cite reputable sources for the medical/scientific claims it makes. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 02:44, 14 March 2025 (UTC)

Yep, agreed on all points. After a bit of further reading, my impression is that the book intends to discuss the use of these oils in aromatherapy. There's very few reputable sources in that field at all; it's generally considered a form of alternative medicine or pseudoscience. But that's no excuse; the book shouldn't make these sorts of specific claims if there aren't sources to back it up. Omphalographer (discuss • contribs) 03:08, 14 March 2025 (UTC)