For now most of the FAQs can be found in Davis Wiki Guide.
Have a question? Ask it here!
How can i post a classified add? I want to soliset. I need work. I want to post a handy man add. Can you help me.
How do I include an image without uploading it to Davis Wiki?
To include an offsite image simply paste in the url of the photo. So if the photo was located at http://wherethepictureis.com/thepicture.jpg you would just paste http://wherethepictureis.com/thepicture.jpg into the page. The wiki sees that it's an external link and then sees that it's an image, so it displays it.
When should I do this?
Do this when you don't really think the image needs to be in the Davis Wiki. Uploading an image (By clicking on Images in edit and then including attachment:thefilename in the page's text) is preferred most of the time. When you upload an image it will be here for years to come, whereas if you just link to it (by pasting the URL) then it will likely disappear in a few years. An example might be a photograph that's very personal (for your page on here). Again, for most cases, uploading is preferable.
Can I link to a certain part of a page? For instance, Coffee/Cafes on the Restaurants page?
See 
Help with Linking.
-
What do you folks think about the notation ["Page name":anchorname Link text]?
-
Seems great. Let's do it! -JH
As far as I know, you can only link to an anchor from within its own page, but phil may change that in the future. - KenjiYamada
It'd be very helpful to be able to link from other pages. It'd help at keeping stuff centralized yet still linkable from different areas. Thanks Kenji. - JackHaskel
How do you delete a page?
The page entitled "Taqueria Super Burrito" is a mess-up, it actually refers to "Taqueria Super Tamale" which already exists. Can someone fix my naming error??
-
Just go into edit and press "Delete" down under the text area. Make sure you integrate what you wrote into the other page.
I accidentially deleted some images from a page, is there an easy way to recover them?
Go into "Info" then "Files" and click on the "deleted images" button. You can then click "revert" to move an old image back on to the page.
How do I make 'redirects' ?
See Help with Linking.
How do I see what IP Address an edit was made from?
When you are looking at Recent Changes, you can simply mouseover the username of the person who made the edit. The IP address is the title, so it should appear in a small popup.
An example of viewing the IP. In this case, JabberWokky made the edit from the IP listed. Remember that cafés with wireless or roommates will usually show all users as having the same IP.
How was DavisWiki created? How could I create a similar Wiki for my home city?
See Wiki History for the history of the DavisWiki. DavisWiki is a wikispot wiki, and you can create your own here.
How do I attach images to a page?
When you go into the Edit tab for a page, click the "Files" button. This will give you some instructions on uploading an image and putting it inside of the page (under "How do I do this?"). Just remember to add the "[[Image(filename)]]" line to the page's text where you wish for the image to appear, where filename includes the extension of the file. This means if I upload mypicture.jpg I would put the line "[[Image(mypicture.jpg)]]" where I wanted that picture, or if it was mybirthday.gif it would be "[[Image(mybirthday.gif)]]".
How do I see which pictures are on a page?
By going into "Images" in the Edit tab you may see the pictures attached to the page already and choose to view them and manage them ("del", if you have the privileges, deletes the picture).
What are the conventions for linking and naming?
Check out Help with Linking.
Is there a way to see a list of all the pages in the wiki?
Check out All Pages.
Can I see which pages link to a particular page?
Yes. Just go to the page, click on the info icon, and then the "Links" tab. This will display the outgoing links for that page as well.
Where can I find out geeky things about this site?
See System Info
My image looks horrible with a border, is there a way to remove it?
In the event your image looks bad with a border, you can use the markup "borderless:myimage.png" in place of "attachment:myimage.png" and that will remove the default border. In most every case an image looks good with a border (especially in the case of photographs), so keep this in mind.
How do I force a one-lined return?
[[BR]] will force a single-return. Normally, just put two returns between blocks of text. It's more readable that way. Sometimes you need to use [[BR]] for pretty looking layout, such as in a table (which don't yet support returns properly). Most of the time, when people write things like:
something
another thing
another thing
They are really making a list of items. In these cases you should make a list. See Help with Lists.
How do I rename a page?
Go into Edit and click "Rename". Links to the old name will automatically redirect to the new page.
I made a page about myself, my business, and/or my organization, but someone keeps editing it! How do I get them to stop messing with my page?
Sorry, but you can't. This isn't a personal web hosting service, nor is it a venue for advertisement. A page may contain information about you or your organization/business, but it's not your page and may be changed by anyone else at any time.
As it says on the "Edit" page immediately below the "Preview", "Save Changes", and similar buttons, by contributing to the Davis Wiki you agree to release your contributions according to a ![[WWW]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/sycamore-www.png){kind=small}
Creative Commons license that allows anyone to make derivative works, as long as prior contributions are properly attributed. Fortunately for us all, the wiki automatically maintains a list of all prior contributions - see the "Info" button on any given page.
Wiki social norms and wiki ethics influence the way we edit as a community, but fundamentally no page is immune from having multiple people edit it. This liberal editing policy helped the Davis Wiki build substance, and it continues to help the site remain a high-quality and relevant resource for its intended audience - the community of Davis.
Don't know what's going on? Just type it in this box and hit enter!
Note: You must be logged in to add comments
2005-08-30 14:38:36 How do I make my Bookmarks page list the pages by what's been recently changed and not in alphabetical order? i.e. like my very own "Recent Changes" page...? —IrenePark
That function isn't there..yet. What's recently changed that you haven't yet looked at is in bold. Aside from that, it's alphabetical. Would it be good to also have a recent-changes-esque toggle?
I guess I'd like a way of checking out the recent-changes to the pages that I personally have edited. Currently I hit the Recent Changes page and scroll down to the ones I remember editing and checking what the next person has done. While using this method I also find other recently changed pages to check out and edit, but ideally I'd like to see the ones I've done already to see if maybe there is a better way of wording or organizing something. Like a way of automatically bookmarking pages I've edited (with the ability to remove them), and a way to toggle by date or name? Or am I asking for too much? ;) —IrenePark
2005-09-05 16:05:24 Considering the creation of the MindyYang page versus its prominence on the Wanted Pages... can we filter out individual names in the Wanted Pages box? Since individual pages are... usually up to the individual. Or rather, have a separate box below names of individuals, but leave the main box on top for people to create pages of such Davis things as organizations, shops, events, etc... —IrenePark
2005-10-14 08:22:08 I can't find any reference to color attributes (other than bgcolor). What about fgcolor, textcolor, etc? —SteveDavison
Those can't be changed, and for ![[wikipedia]](http://wikispot.org/wiki/eggheadbeta/img/inter.png){kind=small}
good reasons :)
2006-01-15 16:28:07 How do I copy from a non-Wiki document (e.g., Word file) and paste into Wiki?? —DaleSorbello
2006-02-17 09:36:40 What are the commands for text alignment besides centering? —TusharRawat
2006-04-03 11:20:59 I do marketing for Campus Events at UC Davis- would it be possible to use the photos posted on daviswiki for various marketing projects- or would their be copywrite/ownership issues? —KellyHarris
-
Check out Copyrights for the answer to your question.
2006-06-22 01:10:41 I was trying to add my pet through the animal template to the wiki animal list, but I screwed up and deleted the template. Can the pet template be restored? Also, how do I link my pet template page to the wiki animal page? I am very sorry about this mistake. The template was great... —ChingChing
-
I restored the template. No worries. To use the pet template to create your pet's page, you can follow these steps: 1. Search for your pet's name; 2. Click on "create a new page with this title" in the blue-grey box; 3. Click on Create as Pet; 4.
Edit away! Then simply edit the Wiki Animals page to add in your pet. The templates are just ideas about how to start a page, so you can be as creative as you like! Have fun, and welcome to the Wiki! —TomNelson
2006-07-14 13:54:06 What happens when one page seems to have become a battleground between the subject of the page and someone who seems determined to paint that person in a very negative light and continually adds negative text to the page? —BevSykes
-
From what I've observed, unfounded personal attacks aren't tolerated, and could result in the community voting to ban the user (such things have come close in the past). However negative statements on a public entry about a person (as opposed to a user's personal page) aren't necessarily bad unless they are clearly false. For instance, there have been rumors of rape against Sigma Chi. While the group (for obvious reasons) did not want the information on their entry, the fact that the rumors themselves exist is an important piece of information. The fact that the rumors appear (to date) to be unfounded is also important. Basically, negative information isn't bad, but personal or unfounded attacks are. Supporters (of the person or group) can always answer negative allegations. Often when there's a furor, deleting builds more anger (since neither side thinks their viewpoint is being presented), and adding more information on both sides helps appease (since both sides get their say). —jw
-
I just wanted to note that /Talk pages are for clearing up and debating content on the regular page. They're temporary and will be deleted after the debate is settled, for the most part. —PhilipNeustrom
2006-07-30 12:41:48 Is there a way to rename images that have already been uploaded for a page? The images on the "WPA" page need to be renamed (to get rid of the ampersand in the filenames that is causing link problems). —MattJurach
There's no way to easily rename the images. But what you're seeing is a bug. Thanks for bringing it up (easy fix). —PhilipNeustrom
2006-08-25 18:21:38 How do I add my comments to a conversation? —KarenKane
Just hit "Edit", located at the top and bottom of every page. You must be logged in to do so.
2006-09-12 02:30:00 Can someone fix the textbook lookup page (http://daviswiki.org/cool_files/books/)? It's not working for me. Thanks. —JiLiang
2006-09-13 Updated. It should be working for Fall 2006 now. —PhilipNeustrom
2006-11-18 08:41:26 has there ever been any consideration to a rating system on wiki?? I would like help implement a star rating system for businesses .. ie car shops, restaurants.. etc... —VinhBoy
2007-04-17 21:31:11 I want to put restaurant reviews (some longish) on my personal page. Someone suggested that I also include them in the comments for each restaurant. I started to do that... but then I had the thought that it might be wrong to have the same content repeated in different places on the wiki. Thoughts? —CovertProfessor
-
Maybe you can include a link to your review on the page. You can also use subpages — something like Users/CovertProfessor/Reviews — to keep things from making your user page too big. If it's a couple paragraphs or less, you can include your review on the restaurant page too. Keep in mind that this is only one person's opinion, so do whatever seems the most organized to you. —BrentLaabs
-
It would admittedly be inefficient, but yeah, review page and maybe some anchored links (they are complicated sadly) eh, it doesn't hurt to have redundancy and copies on the wiki, it serves a point I imagine, and there is plenty of room on the system. ~DavidPoole
-
I may want move to having a separate "review page" if things get too unwieldly... but it seems to me that no one would bother to click on link to a review when there are so many other reviews on a page — I know that I wouldn't. So far, I'm not hearing any objection to having the same content appear in two places, so maybe it's a non-issue? —CovertProfessor
-
I'd say it's perfectly fine. I also don't think you'd be the first, as I seem to recall a year or two ago somebody was duplicating all her (or his) reviews on their personal page just for their own use. —JabberWokky
-
The only issue I can see with duplicated content is that edits to the content in one place aren't automatically synched to the content in the other place. However, you're the only person who should be editing your reviews, so if you don't mind keeping them synched, there is no problem. —WilliamLewis
-
Hmmm.... it would certainly be nice if clicking on one person's review opened up a page containing all their reviews in a list. Until that feature gets invented, I don't see a problem with duplicate content between a user page and a restaurant page. The important things is that the restaurant page's get altered because that's where your comment will have the most visibility. It's also the best way to "advertise" your own page. —CraigBrozinsky
-
That would be a cool feature, but it sounds complicated to implement. Ok, I think I've got enough consensus to go ahead; I can always cease and desist later if necessary. And I'll do my best to keep things updated. Thanks to everyone for your input. —CovertProfessor
2007-04-19 18:47:56 how do you put an image that allready exists on wiki on another page. The typical image code does not work for images that are not stored somewhere on your computer. visit CLIMB to see what im talking about. —MattHh
If I'm understanding your question, the way to do it is to download the image to your computer and then upload it to the other page. —PhilipNeustrom
2007-05-01 11:48:30 what happened to the java davis map button on each page? —CarlosBarahona
2007-06-01 18:51:56 How do I comment on a business if the business is not listed in Davis Wiki? —grtrapp
-
Create a page for the business first by searching for the full name in proper upper and lower case. The wiki will ask you if you want to create a page with that name. You can select the Business Template and fill it in and then add your comment. —JasonAller
2007-07-22 19:57:04 A friend of mine recently went to check a page in the Davis wiki and accidentally typed in http://www.daviswiki.com — which redirects to californiagetaway.org. Pretty sleazy, I think — is there anything we can do about it? I imagine not, but I thought I'd point it out in case other people didn't know about it already. —CovertProfessor
We use the name "DavisWiki" and thus own a trademark to the name, although it isn't registered. We could file a case with ICANN to get the name as it infringes on our trademark and the owner of daviswiki.com isn't using it for any legitimate purpose. However, it's a pain in the butt to pull off. —WilliamLewis
Too bad. :( —CovertProfessor
Registering the trademark would do the trick. Trademark registration costs $270 or so, and I don't personally have the $ to spare for it at the moment (it's fairly non-essential). DavidPoole and I registered the Wiki Spot mark (mark status hasn't been granted yet), so I am somewhat familiar with what is involved. —PhilipNeustrom
2007-07-25 15:37:37 I just tried adding a comment and got a message that I can only add comments up to 1000 characters. I've written longer comments than that in the past. Is this a change in policy? I've searched around and can't find anything about it. Thanks. —SteveGreen
-
It's not so much a policy as a technical limitation. There's the obvious workaround though — just edit the page, write the comment, and sign your name at the bottom. I'm not sure — Philip, could we go to 2000 characters? I've hit the limit myself a couple times. —BrentLaabs
2007-08-26 15:35:46 Why is port 80 blocked for SSL connections on this wiki? When I'm surfing using my cell phone it proxies everything through port 8080 and the system won't let me log in (hence the SSL problem). Any bright ideas? —MistressAlthaea
Please see the entry under Friends of West Pond. It's a Wiki Spot now, and we want it to be in Davis Wiki and linked to/from the West Pond entry. How do we do this (in plain English, please). J E Ryan
-
Howdy! It looks like you accidentally created a wiki entry at wikispot instead of DavisWiki. It's very easy to move it, and I'd be happy to (you have to copy and paste the entry, deleting the old location). Now that it is moved, it can be found right here. — Evan 'JabberWokky' Edwards
I dimwittedly disabled the account I have been using and cannot login again under the same user account. Is it possible to recover the account? Is the effort of recovering the account worth it? Or, perhaps I will just edit under this new account and claim to have a good reason to not edit under my own name... —il
How can I embed HTML code so that a video, for example, will play on a page?
Example code:
<embed src="http://videos.streetfire.net/vidiac.swf" FlashVars="video=7e5130f9-04d4-4113-8d36-295098cd6f2e"
quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="428" height="352" name="ePlayer" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>
If that's not possible, then I could probably adapt this code to work here:
<a href="http://videos.streetfire.net/video/7e5130f9-04d4-4113-8d36-295098cd6f2e.htm" target="_blank">
<img src="http://thumbs.streetfire.net/7e5130f9-04d4-4113-8d36-295098cd6f2e.jpg" width="115" height="86"></a>
<br>
<a href="http://videos.streetfire.net/video/7e5130f9-04d4-4113-8d36-295098cd6f2e.htm" target="_blank">
T.E.A.M. Racing at Thunderhill. Honda Prelude with a bullet-cam mounted on the door, looking at the tires. You can
see the rubber bits flying out of the fenders.</a>
You can see what the embed looks like here.
-
Short answer: You can't. Long answer: You'd have to code a python module for
Sycamore, the software that runs wiki spot. Hopeful answer: I know people have been working on this (embedding video, that is, not embedding html, which is a rather horrific security nightmare and makes it difficult for editors who don't want to have to learn html to edit entries). It is on the way, but see the long answer for a way to get it there more quickly. ;) —JabberWokky
How Do I see others' contact information (i.e. email)?
Short answer: You can't. Post a comment on their user page and they will see a notification message when they visit again.
Long answer: You can't. We don't want to help spammers out by releasing private data, and so we won't release this information beyond Wiki Spot administrators. Only the few Wiki Spot administrators with database access can even view this information (so they can assist editors in special circumstances). The editors themselves can post their own information on their userpage though, thus making it public information.
Why is the time in the Wiki wrong ?
The "recent changes" page shows any change beyond 4pm as belonging to the following day. Could the Wiki time be set by GMT ?
Go to your User Settings page and set the time zone to the one you live in.
Can you set up a button to do the timestamp at the beginning of a comment, the same way there is a signature button?
I don't comment very often, so I can never remember how to add the timestamp at the beginning. The explanation is difficult (impossible?) to find in the editing guide. It would be so nice to just have a button that did this.
-
The signature and timestamp are added when you add a comment using the [[comment]]
macro... any entry that has the macro provides a form that automatically timestamps and signs the comment.
2008-08-19 22:03:59 Is there a page to ask any question about UC Davis? —ThanhVu
How can I get old comments neatly archived?
As a business owner who feels there is some unfair text in the business description how can i go about having that changed? I have tried several times in the editing function and some stick and some do not. I understand comments are not able to be edited, however as a local business owner I would think opinions and other nonfactual critiques would be left out of the blurb about the business. Any tips for successful editing would be appreciated. Thank you.
-
See Welcome to the Wiki/Business Owner as a starting point. This continues to be an evolving discussion, but this wiki isn't a NPOV wiki and the sharing of opinions is encouraged.
2009-05-08 17:20:07 arrgh. I screwed up the Templates/Person. Will you please restore it? Sorry :( —MaggeSanger
-
Done. You can always undo any edit — yours or anyone else's — by clicking the "Info" icon, finding the last version that was correct, and clicking "Revert". —Evan 'JabberWokky' Edwards
How do I correct an Events Board listing? I made a mistake with my event posting for "Midnight Splash" at Rec Pool. It's on August 14, not September 14.
2009-08-02 19:32:39 I have created a page on a topic that is generating a lot of discussion. I'd like to start a "Talk" page under this topic, and move the comments already made by various folks so far from the basic information page to the Talk page. Is there any particular protocol for doing this, besides manually cutting-pasting in the "Edit" forms on the existing and new pages?
Also I would like to reply to earlier comments (not the most recent one), and would like my replies to appear in the threaded conversation format. To do the latter, do I have to manually edit the page and place my comment beginning with a space and asterisk under the one I'm following up, instead of simply clicking the "Add Comment" button? —RussellReagan
-
Don't start a talk page. Most of the time, discussions belong on the original page, as they can offer up as much insight as the original page. And to reply to discussion threads, you either have to manually edit the page or use
Quick Edit after the paragraph you want (using space-*-space either way). —BrentLaabs
-
To clarify, Talk pages on Davis Wiki are typically used for "meta-discussions", in other words, talking about editing that entry, not about the actual subject of the entry itself. A few discussions have grown to spawn new entries, but that's different than a Talk page. Like pretty much everything, there are guidelines and traditions, but no real hard and fast "LAWS OF THE WIKI"... what entry are you talking about? —
Evan 'JabberWokky' Edwards
