Help:FAQ/Problems

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Note: If you're trying to get help for a specific technical problem that isn't answered by the FAQs, try asking in the Reading room.

How do I report that something isn't working properly?

If you think it's a bug in the software, you can send a bug report to the developers. See Wikibooks:Bug reports for directions. It may also be a problem with your browser; see the next question.

My web browser and Wikibooks aren't playing nice!

Report at Browser notes. Include a description of the problem, the name of your browser, the version number, and the operating system you are running.

How do I know if the problem is in the MediaWiki software or my browser?

If you have another web browser installed, you can try to reproduce the problem in both. Failing this, you can describe your problem at the Staff lounge and ask other Wikibookians if they are having a similar problem. If no one else is, it's probably a problem with your particular browser setup.

Some, but not all, images don't show up. What's wrong?

Usually this is caused by ad-blocking software; uploaded files are distributed into random subdirectories, and 1/256th of all images on the server end up in http://www.Wikibooks.org/upload/a/ad/, which trips off some advertisement-blocking proxies. Configure your proxy to allow this directory, and you should be fine.

Is it possible for a vandal to delete all Wikibooks pages?

Not really. Not even administrators can permanently and totally delete pages. Any other users could remove the text of a page, but any other user could restore the text from the history archive. If someone did an extensive attack, they could be blocked from further editing by the admins. Moreover, there are periodic backups kept of the server itself. For more on this topic, see this discussion of "wiki wipeouts" at the original Wiki.

Help - a page I am interested in has been deleted!

When you try to go to the page, you should see a notice saying who deleted the page and the reason why. If you disagree with the reason given or think the administrator made a mistake you can contact them directly on their talk page or make a general request for the page to be undeleted here. (Select "Add New Entry" in the Undeletion section.)