Protospace Wiki:Wiki-ID system

Revision as of 02:07, 25 November 2021 by Ian.oliver (talk | contribs) (→‎Unusable numbers: new section)
See also: Category:Wiki ID numbers, which is automatically populated with numbers in use, as long as the people who assigned them did so using the template described below

Next available Wiki ID numbers

* These numbers are properly available, in that the proper process was not followed to claim them, but images already exist with them as filenames, so avoid using them until this is fixed

I want to assign a Wiki ID number to a tool or other item

You came here from the Adding New Tools Procedure, right? If not, start there.

For each tool or other item you're assigning a Wiki ID number to (one at a time):

  1. Make sure a page exists for the tool or other item, not just an (unlinked or redlinked) entry in a gallery or list of tools.
    If not, it makes no sense (and can cause confusion to other members and/or damage to the wiki structure) to assign a Wiki ID number at this point.
    On the other hand, it doesn't necessarily have to be listed yet in the "tools we have" gallery or elsewhere. That can be done later (and may not be appropriate at all in some cases).
  2. Pick a red (nonexistent page) number from the list above, preferring lower numbers.
  3. Perform a search by entering that number into the wiki search box, to confirm that it's really unused. Also, go to Special:ListFiles and enter the number into the "Search for media name:" field there, because the main search doesn't look in images' filenames, only their descriptions, even when you click the "Multimedia" option on that search results page.
    If you're not sure it's unused, don't use it! (and maybe edit the list to add a note that you're not sure about it, so someone else can look into it)
  4. Add the number at the end of the tool page's title by using the Move function of MediaWiki. For example, the page that was at Floor jack, blue was moved to Floor jack, blue ID:8. In the default skin (Vector) on desktop, Move can be found in the "More" menu just to the left of the search box at the top right. You can also go directly to Special:MovePage, but then you'll have to fill in the old name so it knows what page you want to move.
    This will automatically leave a redirect at the old name.
  5. Start creating a new page with just the number you've chosen as its title. You can do this by just clicking on the number in the list above, which should open an editor that says "Creating [number]" at the top (or just the number, in visual editing mode). You can also get there from the top of the search results, where it says "Create the page "[number]" on this wiki!" if the page doesn't exist yet.
    Yes, you have an equipment page already (or, at least, you should, if you've gotten this far). This is a separate one, which will be a redirect to that one.
  6. Switch editing mode to source editing, if that isn't the current mode.
    This task can't currently be done with visual editing, due to it lacking a subst option.
  7. Use the Wiki ID redirect template (Template:Id): Copy and paste in the exact code below:
    {{subst:id|TOOLPAGENAME}}
  8. Fill in the redirect destination: Replace TOOLPAGENAME with the exact name of the page about the tool (which you can copy and paste from the top of that page).
  9. Preview and save the page:
    1. Click the "Show preview" button at the bottom of the editor, and look at the preview to confirm you've done steps 6 and 7 correctly.
      In the preview, you should see a bent arrow pointing at a blue (or, more likely, purple) link to the tool's page, followed by the line "This redirect page is part of the Protospace Wiki ID number project. For more information on the project, click here." If the link is red, you entered the tool page's name incorrectly. If you get no link and no explanatory text, you entered the template code incorrectly (or damaged it after copying and pasting). In either case, just correct it and try again.
    2. Click the "Save changes" button at the bottom of the editor to create the redirect.
  10. Go back to the tool page (which you can do by clicking the link of the redirect you just created) and edit the ID number into the template there.
  11. (optional) Come back to this page and edit the list above to remove the number you used.
    If you don't, no harm should happen: It will just turn blue and everybody (who reads these instructions, at least) will know not to use it until somebody gets around to removing it.

I want to help maintain the Wiki ID system

  • From time to time, check the above list for:
    • getting short: use the search function to check the next N numbers and add them to the list if you can confirm their unusedness, where N is however many you feel like doing
    • blue links: check that those numbers were used correctly, and remove them from the list if so
    • numbers with notes about them being improperly/partially assigned, or someone being unsure if they're available: check them and fix them if you can
  • Check for anything that has been done incorrectly, and fix it if you can, or post about it on the forum if you can't

Unusable numbers

The following numbers have been irreversibly damaged by careless editing, usually by assigning one number to more than one item. They have been changed from redirects to disambiguation pages, and their former referents have been assigned new, unique numbers. The damage must be considered irreversible because links via the former redirects may have been made from outside the wiki, and we can't find, let alone update, those. Template:Multi-referent ID is used for these cases.