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.

How do I improve my wikibook, or is it impossible to improve it?

I'm curious why my recent addition to Wikibooks was tagged for speedy deletion instead of engaging me in conversation on its talk page for collaboration of improvements?

I'm also curious how I may improve it? Or, is it beyond repair? Claiming it is nonsensical displays ignorance on the part of the person who is making that claim which is either due to that person not reading it through, or requiring a tutor to help them understand it. But, no one is offering to ask questions about specific statements or sections of the text to help me make improvements. So, I'm left with the impression that "speedy deletion" is a form of acceptable vandalism?

I'm been through this before. It merely takes two people to delete something. And that requirement has already been met. And none of my objections has been countered with anything other than vague claims of: "nonsensical rouge" and "This is original research of the most egregious kind trying to pretend that the laws of physics are a fantasy. It doesn't belong here."

I've added a warning (under the section, entitled: Synopsis), yet still have not heard from anyone in response.

WARNING — These criteria are intended to garner success under simulation and usually within the context of the Berkeley SPICE family of simulators (but not all the time; other simulators are, also, useful depending upon the situation). Although they are supported by standard mathematical criteria describing the conventional engineering of electrodynamic theory, they are not intended to qualify the physics behind these simulated strategies. That implication is left to the reader to vindicate, or not, through verifiable experience at your own risk of safety and success. User, beware.

And I've added a warning at the top of the page in the format of a preamble.

This Wikibook is not intended for anyone who lacks any background in basic electrical engineering, for it requires a familiarity with: Ohm's Law, Electrical Reactance, Complex Numbers, and their Polynomial Multiplication, basic electricity theory, and familiarity with electronic simulators. Without these skills, you'll be lost trying to understand whatever I have to say. You'll be perplexed anyway even with these skills since nothing you learned in school will have adequately prepared you for what is about to unfold...

There is no guarantee you will understand any of this. So, read through it -casually- once in a while without trying to understand. Repetition, with breaks in between, might help.

I'm assuming that they don't have to respond, because deletion is inevitable.

It doesn't look like it would be suitable over at Wikisource, but maybe it is suitable?Vinyasi (discuss • contribs) 15:41, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Deletion is not inevitable. I don't see a problem with the book but maybe the person who tagged it for deletion can share their thoughts.--Xania ^talk 04:29, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

I asked both of them...

MarcGarver

SHB2000 -- Vinyasi (discuss • contribs) 18:22, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

This one is impossible. Hoaxes are not allowed on Wikibooks. SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 20:35, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

“This one is impossible. Hoaxes...” – Unloaded coils are well-known to exceed conventional expectations of their output. Just ask Jim Murray. {He was trained as a physicist, but switched to electrical engineering to make more money.} This expectation (of unloaded coils) is conceded by electrical engineers (according to Jim). But it took me until now to figure out how to load a coil, because using the standard technique (for loading motor coils) of adding resistance inline with the coil doesn't work (as SHB2000 remarks) since my circuits are not standard! -- Vinyasi (discuss • contribs) 05:35, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Well said. Simulations only benefit those people who are willing and able to help themselves with serious study. To everyone else, it is mere entertainment (at best) or a hoax (at its worst). Involvement is the key-ingredient, normally missing among those people who have been duped by a hoax. Yet, involvement tips the scales of understanding in our favor since simulations are able to model the hoax using whatever parameters the hoax is based on to describe the virtual reality of the hoax.

To wit, ...

I spent $400 of my Social Security to purchase a rare copy of Joseph Newman's 8th edition of his book which he boasted would give the reader everything the reader needed to know to be able to build a successful replication of his device. I read various chapters describing the parameters of its inputs and outputs. On that advice, alone, I was able to deduce that Joseph Newman was a categorical liar since the leisurely speed (of its hand-cranked rotation imparted to his device) could not give overunity under simulation, namely: it could not achieve a gain of reversed current to travel backwards toward his battery pack to trickle charge his batteries (as they supplied the necessary high voltage to run his device). Only by increasing this simulation of ~30 RPMs of rotation to an incredible one million cycles per second would the prescribed effects materialize. I was flabbergasted. No one can achieve that rapid a rate of rotation among physical objects without breaking or jamming the axle of their machine. Yet, on the other hand, neither did I initially realize (until much later) that achieving that high a rate of vibration/rotation (call it what you will) is exactly one of several parameters I have since learned I can vary to achieve overunity in a simulated circuit, namely: capacitance, inductance, frequency, resistance, etc.

What I did not know, but was about to learn from an engineer, is that a noble gas (such as: helium) can vibrate and broadcast a rapidly vibrating electromagnetic frequency when subjected to a strong electrostatic charge. This satisfied my successful simulation!

I wanted to believe in Joseph Newman so much that I was appalled at his blatant lie. Yet, I posted my results on YouTube and elsewhere, nonetheless. Within a few weeks (or months), an electrical engineer got in touch with me and told me that he had given Joseph Newman a secret to build a better device that would become overunity (replacing the permanent magnets of his previous design with helium canisters wrapped with an open coil using PVC sewer pipe for its containment). Joseph used that new and improved model for all of his demonstrations and wowed the crowds with his ability to pump many gallons of water per minute while trickle charging his batteries at the same time that he was draining them of charge. This was a net gain of less than one ampere. If batteries could live forever, then this would have been a proverbial perpetual motion machine. Yet, they can't: especially since he was foolishly using non-rechargeable dry-cell batteries. In any event, this was quite a feat of human engineering! Yet, sadly, he kept the design for this new and improved model to himself sharing his earlier design (which never gives overunity) in his book and a similarly constructed working model for the Patent Office to examine. It's no wonder no one has replicated his efforts and he failed at obtaining a patent! What was he thinking?...Que sera, sera. I used LTSPICE for simulating his device. You may read about my discovery on Quora. Simulations have their limitations, but so does building stuff since there is no guarantee, whatsoever, that either method will succeed. Nor is there any guarantee that we'll understand what we've built or simulated (that's much harder). Seeing is not believing. It takes practice, lots and lots of practice, to learn all of the shortcomings of either methodology and plan to avoid its unique set of pitfalls so as to not be "duped" by those shortcomings. Ergo, "knowledge is different for different people" based on each person's unique perspective and experience.

• "...no longer logical to exclude books on video games that described strategy." -- reversal of an earlier decision to ban video strategy guides
• "...you can use video games as a primary source" -- allowance made for primary source
• "...A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, and politics.
• simulators provide an intelligent tutoring system for self-guided learning
• "...teachers would have to become more involved in the creation and application of research." -- Evidence-based education must avail itself of research to stay current in today's world and simulators provide an impetus for research. -- Vinyasi (discuss • contribs) 05:16, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

gallery

Hi. On the page about files there are examples like

<gallery>
File:Wiki.png
File:Wiki.png|Captioned
File:Wiki.png
File:Wiki.png|[[Help:Editing#Links|Links]] can be put in captions.
File:Wiki.png
File:Wiki.png|Full [[MediaWiki]]<br />''syntax'' may be used…
</gallery>

but "File" is not needed,

<gallery>
Wiki.png
Wiki.png|Captioned
Wiki.png
Wiki.png|[[Help:Editing#Links|Links]] can be put in captions.
Wiki.png
Wiki.png|Full [[MediaWiki]]<br />''syntax'' may be used…
</gallery>

is enough. Am I right ? should I change it ? Soul windsurfer (discuss • contribs) 20:01, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

@Soul windsurfer: Feel free to change it if you want, I don't think anyones gonna mind. ^{— L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 22:35, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

Yeah I agree with you Iyazi babanne (discuss • contribs) 12:48, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Question about strategy guide map

I have spent the last few days dutifully expanding Pokémon Red and Blue. Soon I will reach the Fuchsia City Gym. This Gym contains a number of invisible walls that restrict the player’s movement. You can find a map of this area here. That file I just linked is the most immediate source I can find for this image. (Google can probably find a number of similar maps, but this one is already freely licensed.) I want to use this image while expanding Pokémon Red and Blue/Marsh Badge to explain this part of the game. I know we have imported a lot of content from StrategyWiki in the past. What should I do? I’ve never done this before, and I do not want to cause any copyright complaints. Trying to explain the map without showing it would be almost impossible.

(As an aside, the text in the book I linked was 100% original prose written by yours truly. I used the StrategyWiki guide for that game as reference, and took pains to not copy any text verbatim. I hope you like it.) SupremeUmanu (discuss • contribs) 17:52, 19 April 2023 (UTC)

How do I make a table float to the right side of the page?

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Pending review request

Could someone with the required permissions review my pending change on LaTeX/Bibliography Management? Thanks! (Apologies if I'm too impatient; it has been two days since I made the edit, and I'm not sure how much time usually passes before a pending change is reviewed. I'm used to the faster editing pace of Wikipedia.) Biogeographist (discuss • contribs) 12:42, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

There is no need for edits to be reviewed - with the exception of Wikijunior the latest version of the page is what every reader sees. The waiting time for an edit review can be a year or more due to the size of the backlog (currently 140 days on average, see here). MarcGarver (discuss • contribs) 13:50, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

@MarcGarver: Thanks for the response, but the latest reviewed version of the page (from 14 October 2022) is what I see both when logged out and when logged in, not the latest version, so there is a need for edits to be reviewed! Biogeographist (discuss • contribs) 17:16, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

I struck my last comment because I just checked the page again and now the latest version is displayed, so it seems MarcGarver was right. But I swear that when I checked the page earlier today, only the latest reviewed version of the page was displayed before. Perhaps I was still seeing a cached version or I was hallucinating. Biogeographist (discuss • contribs) 21:53, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

Visual Editor ate my paragraph

I use the Visual Editor for all of my editing. The process of writing Pokémon Red and Blue has taken me to create a new page. I do this by first creating a redlink from the appropriate place in the Table of Contents, in this case the bottom of the “Appendices” section. However, somehow the Status template has somehow “eaten” that last paragraph. For some reason Visual Editor thinks the content of that paragraph is the content in one of the templates that is posted at the bottom of the page. (When I open the dialog box for it, It just calls the field ”wikitext” and names no specific template.) This text box is plain-text, uses wiki-markup, and has no scroll bar, and is therefore unsuitable for writing large parts of a book.

However, when I hit Edit Source, nothing looks amiss. The end-of-book templates are all separated from the last content paragraph. I have no idea why VisualEditor is thinking the way it does. I hope this isn’t a genuine bug in Visual Editor. I would appreciate it if someone more experienced than I try to root out this formatting issue in the book I am currently working hard on. SupremeUmanu (discuss • contribs) 16:28, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

@SupremeUmanu I have also noticed this. I'm not sure if it's a new problem or if it's been around for a while and I only noticed it recently. Unfortunately I'm not sure what's going on. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 17:57, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

This sort of problem is often due to Special:LintErrors but may be due to what the developers call a "complex transclusion" (which seems to be a problem with multiple templates sort of mixing together, so that they behave like one – think about the archive top/bottom templates).

If you're still seeing this problem, your best bet might be to ask for help at w:en:WP:VPT, to see if someone would please check the template for possible problems. They'll want to see a link to the exact revision of the page you were seeing the problem on. Whatamidoing (WMF) (discuss • contribs) 00:34, 10 June 2023 (UTC)

Seeking feedback on proposed wikibook addition: textile sciences & fiber arts

I'm a competent but still rather intermediate (less than 40 years' intensive experience) fiber artist and lifelong independent student of blended textile science and library/information science. I'm not doing any primary research, but instead following in the well-worn steps of the centuries of fiber arts practitioners who have come before me.

What does make me different is skill in facilitating co-learning groups that share information and experience, as even the newest beginner will very likely have experiences that can help the most experienced expert, and everything in between.

Textile sciences are HUGE globally, are an area with a LOT of funds being poured into academic research, and there are literally centuries of published material and a great deal of widely-accepted and virtually uncontested facts that can be shared, as well as a great deal of ever-growing communities globally of independent learners making use of established science to implement the science in both creative and practical ways to solve everyday life problems for themselves and share those things they learn with other everyday folks. Knowledge and resource sharing is literally an almost absolutely universal value for fiber artists of all kinds, and we are almost all drawn to learning communities, very commonly those learning communities actively bridge multiple cultural, country, and language boundaries. But even 30-year-old beat-up textile science textbooks usually cost well over $150 USD, sometimes even $300 or more for less outdated textbooks. That's what motivates me to invest volunteer time and energy to facilitate the collection and collaborative curation of shared knowledge that is freely available to anyone interested in searching for it.

So, I've been looking for a platform to host co-learning resources on many common topics in textile and fabric sciences, and was already of the firm belief that a virtual common library in wiki form (like the ones that I became familiar with in college studying library and information science) would be the most successful long-term place to host a digital sub-commons of this kind. There are more specialized knowledge-sharing bbs-like platforms (the online community Ravelry is the biggest one), but that and other sites available are so specialized that they do not make room for all textiles, including smart textiles, industrial textiles, textile reinforced building structures, medical textiles, mixed textile media, embroidery, costuming, fashion design, machine knitting, raw wool and other raw fiber processing, or nonwoven textiles such as felt, paper, and fiber fusion (facilitated with flexible adhesive mediums).

I've poked around and I'm having a bit of difficulty learning to navigate help resources. Eventually, I would like to branch out after helping grow a community of acquaintances with more technical knowledge to collaborate here on an expanding wiki textbook to include Wikiversity resources, but that is so far ahead of where I'm at.

Before that, I need to get stubs and the core contents started on, while simultaneously reaching out to people I know in various countries to ask them to contribute and offer to help them familiarize themselves with the Wikibooks culture and basic skills... and to do that, I clearly need to familiarize myself with those things first.

I'm very sorry I'm poor at communicating complex ideas in simpler ways, and I'm very grateful to anyone who took any time and energy to read any part of this request. Thank you very much for considering a reply of some kind.

1. Can anyone point me in the direction of video or audio resources (tone of voice and spoken English language content, at least) on becoming familiar with etiquette and culture here - history, what behaviors are welcome?
2. Can anyone suggest cohesive reference pages visually organizing the most commonly used technical skills here on Wikibooks (or just for wikimedia foundation projects in general? e.g. cheat sheets? YouTube videos? Boolean search term suggestions, commandline interfaces and regex operators?
3. Does anyone have any feedback or suggestions on the Textile and Fabric Sciences textbook proposal/nomination I'd like to get started on (if it's a good candidate for starting on Wikibooks? (I was a bit shocked to find that there was only a single result on Wikibooks related to all the searches I tried here on the topic: Hemp Products/Textiles & Fabrics - Wikibooks, open books for an open world. )

Grayautumnday (discuss • contribs) 16:42, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

Hi there @Grayautumnday: , for me be bold and go start on your own book. I am the author of AI Art Generation Handbook when the AI Art is all the rage.

Here is the resources that I used when I am starting on Wikibooks. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Help:Contents . You may draft a page in your username spaces there. Cheers and all the best!

MrAlanKoh (discuss • contribs) 04:47, 11 June 2024 (UTC)

Is this the same as Wikipedia

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Side-by-side paraphrase for a book in the public domain?

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Why does any page from here

even if it's protected, have the option to activate syntax highlighting (codemirror) while other wikis can only be activated if oneself is not blocked? 190.242.129.62 (discuss) 03:49, 18 June 2023 (UTC)

ping to @MarcGarver, It's been 2 weeks since I asked this question and nothing has been resolved, I want to know, why here any user can activate the CodeMirror option for any page regardless of whether it is protected or not? 190.242.129.62 (discuss) 15:32, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

Could you link to a page that explains what the code mirror is? Ive never heard of it. Or at least, not that name. Syntax highlighting doesnt seem like a thing to stop people from using. ^{— L10nM4st3r} / _{ROAR at me!} 21:20, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

because of the global block imposed by Hasley, i have to use open proxies, see mw:Extension:CodeMirror and mw:Extension:SyntaxHighlight, when you click on "view source", several icons appear in the top left part of the source code box, including a marker, if you click there, certain characters change color, on the other hand if you do it in other wikis like Wikimedia or Wikipedia, that doesn't appear, how can this be possible? 108.181.71.43 (discuss) 02:04, 14 August 2023 (UTC)

Creating African Literature Books

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How to get a new book on a shelf

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Expanding an outdated book

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Chat GPT

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Template not working

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Can I get the information on my deleted page?

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Wikibooks:Correct typos in one click not working?

The page says buttons "Replace", "Type", "Remove", etc., will appear, but I noticed that I no longer see those buttons. Is this an issue already recognized? MathXplore (discuss • contribs) 05:46, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

Why no one Contributions create or edit page?

I think no one Contributions edit on Wikibooks it almost no longer to edit. Google search main page not shown search result. 47.234.198.142 (discuss) 01:03, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

I have no idea what you're trying to convey. --SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 01:06, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

Sources?

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Merge assistance

Hello, I would like to merge my updated book with the old one. In particular, there are subpages which I'm not sure if there are administrative standards on how to blank and replace. Thanks. Tule-hog (discuss • contribs) 19:53, 30 July 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Tule-hog! It will depend on the pages in question. I recommend starting by moving your new pages that have no equivalents in the old version to the correct namespace and updating the table of contents. We can then take a look at the remaining content. Cheers —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 21:52, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

Hello!

Done - please see pending changes. Two old pages were orphaned. Tule-hog (discuss • contribs) 22:19, 2 August 2024 (UTC)

Can one publish single articles on Wikibooks?

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Line and paragraph spacing.

Hi,
Wikimedia has what I'll refer to as intrinsic line and paragraph spacing. In some cases an editor might prefer other spacings. Examples are in this page composed some years ago. In the source you can see that I specified line-height explicitly in div and span tags. Does current markup provide a way to achieve the same results?
Thanks,    ... PeterEasthope (discuss • contribs) 18:02, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

I'm a little confused by your question: are you asking if MediaWiki's native Wikitext by itself allows you to have this much control over typography? If so, the answer is no. As you can see from the code used on your example, there is substantial control over these elements of the text using CSS. Using that language, you can manipulate many elements of the layout either locally on your own computer or for everyone who is viewing the page. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 20:07, 28 August 2024 (UTC)

OK; nothing new in Wikimedia to set line-height.
Thx,    ... PeterEasthope (discuss • contribs) 00:59, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

line-height

line-height is specified in the 9th line of the current source of my sandbox and appears to have no effect. PeterEasthope/sandbox Ideas?

styles.css is referenced in the first line of the source of this page. Oberon/oreport Where is styles.css?

Thanks, ... PeterEasthope (discuss • contribs) 16:37, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

How to Request Unblocking of an IP?

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I cant make a account

Please help me, when i try to make a account it keeps on saying, "This was canceled due to secession hijacking. Please resubmit the form." Help please. --112.204.164.240 (discuss) 10:47, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

This is probably a "turn it off, turn it back on again" situation. If you close your browser, restart your computer, and try again, that should fix it. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 11:48, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Doesn't work, I am gonna request a account instead. I am sorry. :( --112.204.164.240 (discuss) 12:13, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

Question regarding book creation

How do I make a book? NoBrainFound (discuss • contribs) 21:47, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi @NoBrainFound—are you asking how to make a book on a technical level (i.e. how to create pages and navigate the project) or on a content level (e.g. what materials to include in a book)? —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 21:50, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

See Help:Contents and the message I am leaving on your talk. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:50, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

Is this in scope?

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Autoconfirmed?

I haven't contributed here on Wikibooks yet, but I'm already autoconfirmed over on the English Wikipedia. I don't seem to be able to edit pages like Cookbook talk:Table of Contents due to needing to be autoconfirmed. Is autoconfirmation here at Wikibooks separate from autoconfirmation at EN Wikipedia? Amstrad00 (discuss • contribs) 20:00, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

Hi @Amstrad00! Yes, autoconfirmation exists here separately from the other projects much how adminship and other roles do. I presume this is to make sure that new users become familiar with the norms of the community before gaining additional rights. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 04:06, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

What a timely answer, you read my mind @Kittycataclysm :)

Is there a way to remove my autoconfirm status? I don't want to commit any infractions here or anywhere else in wiki-land, but I have a very short memory. Since I rarely visit this wiki it is only a mater of time before I do something that others here frown upon. Am I making any sense? Ottawahitech (discuss • contribs) 20:34, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

@Ottawahitech FYI I'm moving this discussion over to your talk page. —Kittycataclysm (discuss • contribs) 15:48, 21 December 2024 (UTC)