Hello world, from Buenos Aires, Argentina! My name is Felipe, I'm a philosopher by training and a freelance web developer by trade, specialized in MediaWiki, the software of Wikipedia. I currently work for the Appropedia Foundation to improve Appropedia. If I made a mistake somewhere, please be cool, let me know and I'll fix it asap, thanks!
Most of my work in Appropedia is with software (templates, scripts, backend, frontend, etc). However, sometimes I also create content as a volunteer. Here's a bit of that:
Important stuff first! - Readers may stop reading anytime, so increase the chances they take away the important bits by putting them at the start of each page, section or paragraph.
Write an intro - And include a main image whenever possible. This will be the first and often only thing users will read. It's also likely to be the snippet shown in search engines.
Keep it simple - Avoid styling and focus on content. Plain text in standard format is usually the most effective and compatible across devices.
Let it grow organically - Start by writing some text. When it grows too big, break it into sections. When they grow too big, break them into subsections. When they grow too big, break them into separate pages (avoid sub-subsections) and leave an excerpt or link behind.
Avoid walls of text - Except in "terminal nodes". Use short paragraphs and "structural" elements like lists, tables, section, subsections, images, etc. Doing so makes the page easier to scan in search of what we're interested in.
Use item summaries - Like it's done in this list.
Avoid excessive nesting - Be it of subsections, lists or any other element, excessive nesting usually signals the need to rethink or restructure the content.
Make every word count - It's often possible to shorten a sentence by carefully selecting or shifting words. Repeat for several sentences and you can shorten a paragraph by a line or two. Do that for several paragraphs and you can shorten a page considerably. Excellence is in the details!
Paragraphs are semantic units - Each paragraph should be more or less independent.
Actively fight complexity and work towards simplicity
Less templates, more content!
Avoid custom namespaces (given the extremely diverse nature of pages in the main namespace of Appropedia, there should be no need for custom namespaces)
Merge related pages to have fewer, better ones
Prefer well-supported extensions, especially Wikimedia-supported ones
Keep MediaWiki updated only to the latest LTS version and never modify the source code
Template:Menu can't use the Mediawiki JS[edit source]
Hi @Sophivorus! I am impreseed with the Appropedia MW & SMW design and structured.
I would like to learn and use some of the Templates for my Wiki site.
I have exported & imported the Template:menu with all the required files like MediaWiki:TemplateCreate.js, MediaWiki:TemplateMenu.js, etc.
I have checked that the above JS files have been imported to my website but it seems that it is not loaded, show . See https://lab139tb.tbpedia.org/index.php?title=Template:Menu.
If you view the source of Template:Menu, t will not showed that JS fiels beedn used even it is in the Mediawiki namespace. Anythings that I should configure to make the JS script loaded ? Lotuscc (talk) 15:15, 8 January 2023 (UTC)
@Lotuscc Hi, thanks for reaching out! At first sight, it seems that what you need is to enable the Extension:UseResource. Let me know how it goes after that! Sophivorus (talk) 13:20, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
Hi @Sophivorus, I insatlled the UseResource Extensuin, check that the both js files MediaWiki content model is Javascript , but it still fail to load/detect it from the page . Very strange behavior > ( By the way when I click the reply , it showed this message "Could not find the comment you're replying to on the page. It might have been deleted or moved to another page. Please reload the page and try again." I have no choice to manually edit the source file).
@Lotuscc Hi again! Weird, for some reason MediaWiki is not recognizing the "usescript" tag and is simply printing it on the page. I'm afraid I got my own debugging to do these days (among which is the Reply button not working), so you'll have to figure it out yourself. If all else fails, try using this other thing I developed which essentially does the same as the UseResoure extension. Good luck! Sophivorus (talk) 14:32, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
Hi @Sophivorus, It seems that the cache issues blocked the detection of userecript tag ? It's working perfectly now after I retried in the next day. Thanks for your guidance. I notice the generation of the PDF pages are not working if the page contains the template instead of the text.
@Lotuscc Hi! Glad you figured it out. Regarding the PDF generation, I'm not too sure what you mean, but the script I wrote at TemplateMenu.js is Appropedia-specific so I'm not surprised if something doesn't work perfectly. If you know some JavaScript (or are willing to learn) I suggest you take a look at the makeBook method to try to figure it out. It's not long and if you manage to understand it, you can probably make it do whatever you want. Good luck! Sophivorus (talk) 15:14, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Template:Civics map & problems with news templates[edit source]
Hi @Sophivorus, thanks for the Template:Civics map.
Can you give me any hope (of a fix) regarding the problems with the news templates?
Appropedia:Village pump#Software update As I understand it at present we can't (at least not without considerable difficulty) remove any news item. Highly problematic should someone ask us to for whatever reason? Because of the ongoing problems with the multiple repetitions in displays I'm tempted to wonder whether I should consider abandoning the templates and go back to doing everything manually, but would much rather there was hope of some sort of a fix.
I don't mind waiting a bit if there are more pressing things, just need some feedback on this. Thanks Philralph (talk) 10:31, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
@Philralph My apologies, I've delayed this way too much. I just started the regeneration of the semantic data which should solve this issue. It may take a few hours though! Kind regards, Sophivorus (talk) 11:23, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
@Philralph I tried regenerating the semantic data but didn't quite work yet, please be patient a bit more, I'm working on this today, cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 11:44, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
Hi @Sophivorus, having problems editing Sheffield community action, each time getting error message: [ZBCMuYFrC7yz0fpYgJA3FwAAAAg] 2023-03-14 15:03:21: Fatal exception of type "Error" (?) Thanks, Philralph (talk) 15:04, 14 March 2023 (UTC)
@Philralph Fixed, thanks for the report and sorry for the trouble! Sophivorus (talk) 18:07, 14 March 2023 (UTC)
Hola @Sophivorus! Te queria preguntar sobre los User impact que estan highlighted en las paginas de usuarios, son un conteo anual? o se cuentan desde que inicie con appropedia? Es que los mios parece que se resetearon, pero tampoco se van sumando cuando estoy trabajando en las paginas. Es una pregunta bien random, pero me gusta ver como avanzan mis contribuciones mes con mes! --Irene92 (talk) 07:42, 16 May 2023 (UTC)
@Irene92 Hola, ¡buena observación! Los conteos si funcionan, lo que ocurre es que Emilio me pidió hace tiempo que hagamos una excepción para los miembros del equipo Appropedia (Emilio, Pedro, tu, yo, etc) ya que aparecíamos como autores de montones de páginas donde nuestros aportes fueron más bien menores, o de forma y estilo y no de contenido. ¿Hace sentido? Si hay alguna página donde verdaderamente eres autora, puedes incluir tu nombre de usuario explícitamente en page data y aparecerás listada (como hice yo en las páginas donde verdaderamente soy autor, véase mi página de usuario). ¡Saludos! Sophivorus (talk) 11:44, 16 May 2023 (UTC)
Hi, user:LucasG here. What started off as ZeroCovid and then Aerosol pandemic is now Aerosol_pandemic and Pandemia_aerosol. The two reasons are that 1) the elimination strategy ("zerocovid") clearly has no chance of being applied for the current covid situation any time soon and 2) the next pandemic may be flu - both would be aerosols and thus the name change. So just to say thank you, and if you let me know what would be needed then I'd be happy to do that work, slowly. One of the changes would be the logo, also clearly for another day... or month. Also, I plan to reshape the portal(s), not fully sure how. The goal is to more effectively invite contributions. Thanks!
@LucasG Hi, thanks for the heads up, understood! I'm currently doing mass replacements of Template:Header because its behavior is going to change drastically. Once I'm done with that, I'll be happy to go back to some specific pages such as ZeroCovid / Aerosol pandemic ones and do a better update considering your comment. Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 15:19, 12 July 2023 (UTC)
Citizens Action Network handbook and templates[edit source]
Hi @Sophivorus, Template:CANhandbook menu had been effectively replaced by Template:CANwiki menu. I've added the category to this. (Hope I've done it right!). I see the old menu is still in use on some pages which I need to get round to archiving! Plus whole CANwiki section needs a lot more work, when I can find time to catch up a bit with it! (Going to be out of action for a while, just a few days hopefully!) Best, Philralph (talk) 15:37, 13 July 2023 (UTC)
Hi @Sophivorus, can you tell me what the problem was with the video and Research section which removed from the article yesterday? Thanks Philralph (talk) 07:56, 11 August 2023 (UTC)
@Philralph Oh wow! Sorry, not sure what happened there, I just reverted myself. Thanks for keeping a sharp eye! Sophivorus (talk) 11:14, 11 August 2023 (UTC)
Possible development of event templates[edit source]
@Philralph Hi! Apologies, yes I've seen it, but haven't found the moment to reply yet. I got it on my task list and will respond this week. In the meantime, have you seen User talk:Philralph#Branding for CASwiki? Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 19:51, 22 August 2023 (UTC)
Hi @Sophivorus, yes I saw User talk:Philralph#Branding for CASwiki. I can say more about this if you like, but in summary I don't feel the need for any change to the discreet and subtle layout we have at the moment, and not a fan of branding. On the other hand I really do appreciate the unclutteredness of the top of pages that we've moved to over the past few years. Philralph (talk) 07:47, 23 August 2023 (UTC)
Hi @Sophivorus, I'm now preferring a much clearer design using existing templates, so nothing further needed, thanks. Examples at Malling, London and UK, Philralph (talk) 08:05, 13 September 2023 (UTC)
@Philralph Hi! It looks super neat, good solution! I'm glad you managed it, and sorry I wasn't able to help on time. Let me know of any further issues or requests and I'll try to do better, cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 11:59, 13 September 2023 (UTC)
Hello, Someone on my team mentioned they were not able to see a linked PDF on this page https://www.appropedia.org/ALL-SAFE/Step_1:_Learn on their phone (but was able to see it on their computer). Could you help me troubleshoot this? This is the laparoscopy in low-resource settings PDF at the very bottom of the page. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by ALL SAFE
I am able to see the file on the phone. Can you please help us verify if this is a problem you can reproduce?—Emilio (talk) 17:06, 11 September 2023 (UTC)
@ALL SAFE Hi! I'm also able to open and read the PDF from my phone with no trouble. It seems like a very straightforward link to a simple PDF. Are you able to reproduce the issue? Can you contact the team member who had trouble and have them reproduce the issue? Awesome page, btw, cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 11:16, 12 September 2023 (UTC)
Updating Appropedia Activity by Month for most recent 12 months[edit source]
Filipe -- Thank you for your reply to my request. I'm _NOT_ a wiki-programmer, but I am an avid user. I'm happy to try any solution you recommend. By supporting this work, I meant I could provide financial support (in terms of dollars per month for a set number of months, most likely). If you can let me know how much funding might be needed to accomplish this particular goal, I can consider working out a means to provide that funding.
Tom Stanton, Founder/Principal, Community Energy Solutions, LLC
Stantontom1@gmail.com
Office/mobile/voice/sms = +1 (517) 775-7764,
generally 9a to 5p, M-F, with other hours by appointment.
https://www.appropedia.org/User:TomStanton
