Wikipedia:Help desk

↓    Skip to Today's Questions    ↓

Welcome—ask questions about how to use or edit Wikipedia! (Am I in the right place?)

• For other types of questions, use the search box, see the reference desk or Help:Contents. If you have comments about a specific article, use that article's talk page.
• Do not provide your email address or any other contact information. Answers will be provided on this page only.
• If your question is about a Wikipedia article, draft article, or other page on Wikipedia, tell us what it is!
• Check back on this page to see if your question has been answered.
• For real-time help, use our IRC help channel, #wikipedia-en-help.
• New editors may prefer the Teahouse, a help area for beginners (but please don't ask in both places).

Ask a question

January 11

Associating user id with talk page id in wiki dumps

I'm processing the most recently finished en-wiki-...-stubs-meta-history.xml dump for a research project and have run in to the following questions:

1. Is there an easy way to associate someone's user id with their talk page id (as well as their user page id)?
2. If a user changes their user name, does their associated talk page keep the same page id? How about subpages of their talk page (eg. User talk:User_Name/old)?
3. How does user name changes affect user name collisions over time? For example, the user name "Angela" has had about 28 different user ids associated with it over Wikipedia's history. If an user edited "User talk:Angela" who were they talking to, the current (as of the dump) user id associated with "Angela" or the user id whose user name was "Angela" at that time?

I asked this question on Village Pump (Technical) earlier today but am unsure if that was the appropriate forum for this question, hopefully this is the best place for this question. Thanks for the help!

Andlarry (talk) 00:24, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:VPT was actually closer to the mark, given that questions of greater technical difficulty go there, but if you're not getting a response, it's probably because you are asking a question that goes well beyond what most Wikipedia users normally think about. Your question is sort of like asking a ski instructor to explain the physics of snow. (The Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia.) If you want to research Wikipedia, you have to learn a lot of specialized material, and figure out who the other users are who know that material. If you aren't an expert with MySQL or interested in becoming one, I'd say you're probably in for some tough sledding. There may be some limited help available from the small community (if we could call it that) of people (mostly academics, I suppose) who research Wikipedia. The first step would be to read everything linked from WP:EIW#Research, WP:EIW#Download, WP:EIW#Query, and WP:EIW#MediaWiki. You should either find answers there, or at least a better idea of who might know what you need. Are you doing this research project entirely on your own, or do you have an advisor? --Teratornis (talk) 00:41, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Teratornis, I appreciate for your help! I'm happy to dig into the media wiki software to find my answer, I posted because I ran out of places to look. Thanks for the links, I'll be sure to explore them. Other than a direct answer to my questions, that is the sort of help I was looking for. I do have an advisor, who I can talk to about getting in contact with other wiki researchers. Thanks again! --Andlarry (talk) 01:23, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

And I am sure there is much helpful material over at MediaWiki. – ukexpat (talk) 01:15, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm slightly curious about who is formulating the questions you are trying to answer, and what information he/she used to formulate these questions. Namely, I'm wondering why the information sources that motivated the questions aren't enough to guide the path to answering them. That's a circuitous way of saying that I think before someone could formulate meaningful questions to answer about Wikipedia, one would have to know a lot about Wikipedia, e.g. more than I know about Wikipedia. Because without such detailed knowledge of Wikipedia's internal workings, how would one have any idea whether one was asking the right questions? Generally a thesis advisor should know a lot about whatever he/she sends the graduate student to investigate, at least enough to be able to know what the meaningful questions are, and if not how to answer them, at least where to send the student to learn the existing state of the art which the student will presumably attempt to extend. So I'm a little puzzled by what I'm seeing here - the student asking for help on the Wikipedia Help desk. This is unnervingly consistent with the hypothesis that the thesis advisor is kind of shooting in the dark. What specific background does your advisor have with wiki technology? You don't have to answer here, just take these as thought questions, but for the kinds of questions he/she seems to be sending you to investigate, I'd say the minimum qualification for an advisor to have any idea what he/she is doing would be something like:

• Has edited extensively on at least one wiki. (If there is a way to understand wikis without actually using them, I cannot imagine it.) I'd look for an edit count in the 5000+ range on at least one well-developed wiki and on at least one poorly-developed wiki (so the advisor clearly understands the role of the user community along with the raw capabilities of the software). The standard is high here because we are talking about someone who should have authoritative knowledge and thus be capable of extending the state of the art.
• Has installed and administered at least one wiki from scratch, and preferably written extensions for it. Granted, this is getting into technician stuff, but there is no comprehensive theory of wikis yet that academics could carve out as a domain entirely separate from banging on some code. (Try to imagine a theory of glassblowing which doesn't involve actually blowing any glass. That would probably be more attainable, actually, than a theory of wikis that wouldn't require any direct experience, since glassblowing is just physics.)
• Has published in a peer-reviewed journal on some relevant topic.
• Uses impressive jargon such as "Commons-based peer production" and "Social production of value".
• Is utterly irresistible to women. (Sadly, this doesn't seem to be a consequence of developing expertise on wikis. But fortunately it is also not a prerequisite.)

I don't mean to get all Simon Cowell here, but if you're writing a thesis, you're going to defend it before a committee, and there's a slim chance someone on your committee might have a minimal degree of competence in this topic. In which case you'll have to explain yourself to the satisfaction of someone with my minimal degree of competence. You want to be sure that when you go to defend, you know more about your topic than anyone else in the room. While you're plowing through the voluminuous reading material I linked to above, also read everything I linked from User:Teratornis/Theory of Wikipedia, which lists some authors who are trying to develop a theory for this stuff. You want to read everything by Clay Shirky and Yochai Benkler, for example. If nothing else, Benkler's The Wealth of Networks will cure any insomnia problem. --Teratornis (talk) 06:08, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

My reply at the village pump might also be a good insomnia cure for some people. :-) In short: "probably not", "yes if the page is moved", and "dunno". I've done a lot of research on page history to try to find old edits - see User:Graham87/Page history observations - but I'm not a MySQL expert by any stretch of the imagination. Graham87 06:39, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

PAGESINCATEGORY question

{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Organizations}} is, at the moment, returning a count of 35:

Count: 32

But the count is (as I understand it) supposed to include pages within subcategories. Since Category:Organizations has 21 subcategories; the total, inclusive count is obviously much, much greater than 35.

I've read the relevant (I think) help page at Meta: m:Help:Category#Count, which is rather terse, and gives no clue as to what might need to be done (null edit? separate new page?) in order to get this magic word to work correctly with this category. Suggestions?

(By contrast, {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Living people}} seems to work correctly, returning a number around 330,000.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

m:Help:Category#Count contains a misunderstanding of the source it mentions: m:Help:Magic words#Other_2. The latter says: "Returns the number of pages in a given category, including sub-category pages and file description pages." Here "sub-category pages" only refers to the category page a subcategory is displayed on, and not the pages in that subcategory. Category:Living people really does contain hundreds of thousands pages directly and not in subcategories. The category is not intended for manual browsing. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:16, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Category:Organizations has 21 subcategories as you say. Adding the currently 14 articles gives 35 category members in total so {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Organizations}} is correct. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:20, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Edit no-show

Resolved

I've just deleted some vd at Portal:Contents/Portals#Mathematics_and_logic. The "edit" page looks clean but the actual page still shows the vd version. The page is semi-protected and I'm autoconfirmed. Help? hydnjo talk 02:11, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

strange. It's looking good half the time. Empire3131 (talk) 02:18, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Did you try purging the page? Your edit was made to the subpage Portal:Contents/Portals/Mathematics and logic and not [[Portal:Contents/Portals, so possibly the older version is still showing on the transcluded page. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 02:21, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) You edited [1] a transcluded page. That can happen without noticing it when you click a transcluded edit link. If you want the edit to propagate quickly to a page where it's transcluded then you can purge that page. It appears Portal:Contents/Portals has either been purged already or the software automatically updated it. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:24, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Oops, my bad. I shoulda' realized that when "Save page" returned only the transcluded section. Thanks all. hydnjo talk 02:35, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Delete

I had previously created a template page, which I have now placed within an article. How can I delete the Template page now that there is nothing there? --Sweet Pea 1981 (talk) 03:36, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Only administrators can delete pages. You can place {{db-author}} on it. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:48, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

• If the template is useful for repeated use, I'd like ask you not to delete it. By the way, the template will still exist unless you blanked it. Using subst: to get the material in the article doesn't affect the template and simply adding {{template}} to the page means that deleting the template will also result in the deletion of the content, since the template is still being called. - Mgm|^(talk) 14:33, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

The content of the template - Template:FNBO Direct Rates - was copied and pasted into a bigger article - FNBO Direct, so I think the template can be deleted without adverse consequence. I have tagged it. – ukexpat (talk) 16:06, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

assessing articles

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 02:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

How do I assess an article without a wikiproject template? Also, how would I assess an article as a 'set index' or 'disambiguation' class page? OlEnglish (talk) 03:52, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

First I would ask why the article has no WikiProject template. Is this because:

• There is no suitable WikiProject.
• There is a suitable WikiProject, but no member of that project has noticed this article yet.

I think you need to resolve that conditional branch before doing anything else. If you tell us the title of the article, someone can tell you which branch you are on. As to the second question, I've heard of disambiguation pages, but what do you mean by "set index"? Can you give an example? There are list pages, if that's what you mean. I'm not sure how someone would assess a disambiguation page. I don't think I've heard of that before (which doesn't mean nobody is doing it, I just haven't heard of it yet). There are, however, featured lists, so there is some rigmarole for assessing them. For more information on assessment, see WP:EIW#Quality which for all I know might contradict everything I've said. Trust the consensus guidelines, not the individual editor, no matter how glib and compelling he thinks he is. --Teratornis (talk) 06:25, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Assessments are either for an individual WikiProject or for Wikipedia 1.0, with the exception of the separate featured article, featured list, and good article processes. So, if you want to assess an article, you have to add a WikiProject template. Most WikiProjects support assessing pages as disambiguation pages or set index articles, but you'll have to look at the specific WikiProject template to see if it does. I think that WikiProject templates that don't support those use NA-Class instead. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 19:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. However I have come across articles that are 'assessed' as disambiguation or set index without any wikiproject template at all in their talk pages, and some like Dodge Charger have the template assessing the article as a stub yet it still reads 'set index' at the top of the article. I guess what I'm asking is how is this done? I have "Display an assessment of an article's quality" checked in my preferences. Is this just an obsolete Wikipedia 1.0 leftover feature? Also, does every article NEED to be associated with a wikiproject? Should this be criteria for an article to be upgraded to good article status? OlEnglish (talk) 00:27, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like you're talking about the assessment information displayed by this user script, which only partly relies on WikiProject assessments. For disambiguation and set index pages, it just looks for the DOM objects produced by the templates used to mark such pages. These are essentially page types rather than assessments. (By the way, if you notice a bug with that script, please report it at this page.)

In the case of Dodge Charger, the article is correctly detected by the assessment script as being a set index article; note the {{SIA}} template at the bottom of the page. I'm pretty sure the stub assessment on that article's talk page is incorrect, since a set index article follows the style guidelines for stand-alone lists rather than for articles.

As for whether every article needs to be part of a WikiProject, I don't think it's required. However, there are so many WikiProjects that almost every article will be associated with at least one, and it's helpful to place articles under all applicable WikiProjects so they can better keep track of articles under their scope. It's not strictly required for good article status, though. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:01, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Awesome, thank you very much. OlEnglish (talk) 02:43, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Google

Hello,

I was wondering how to post my Wikipedia article on Google. It is all set when I search for it on Wikipedia, but it doesn't show up at all under Google.

The URL is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morristown_UFO

Thanks so much for your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Soron616 (talk • contribs) 06:54, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

I believe there is nothing we can do to influence Google's indexing schedule. You just have to wait. I've seen delays as long as four days. --Teratornis (talk) 07:03, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

It might take a while to get indexed. There are no incoming links from other articles in the mainspace, so adding links from relevant articles might be a good idea. It will help the spiders find the page quickly. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 07:07, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

You should also add categories. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:17, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

And folks, let's not forget that we are here to create an encyclopedia, not win points for getting articles to show up in Google searches. – ukexpat (talk) 16:08, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm still fairly new, so I hope it's ok that I add my 2-cents. First, as the article does see more views, it will probably change. That's to say that an article isn't "owned" by any one person here. Don't be offended by this Soron616, it's simply our way of being open to all, and improving all the articles here. Your hard work is duly noted, appreciated, and preserved in history. Regarding links: wiki markup seems to work in such a fashion that words that are "internal" links get added to the "keyword" tag in the html markup. (yes, I know the phrase html markup is redundant ;)). This, (along with many other factors), typically causes topics on Wikipedia to eventually rank very highly in Google search results. So, if you have the words that will be searched for "linked" to other wiki articles (UFO, Morristown, etc.) it will eventually be ranked quite high. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ched Davis (talk • contribs) 16:51, 11 January 2009 (UTC) oops ... sig: Ched (talk) 16:53, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

After reading through it ...I might add .. "Job well done" by the way. Ched (talk) 16:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Children/people who inspire

How can I use your directory to find a list of children or people who inspire others? I am trying to generate a list of names for my students to then use the internet to locate the information on such people. Thank you for your help. Theresa Murray —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.156.89.4 (talk) 10:39, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but Wikipedia's neutral point-of-view policy would likely prevent such a category from being created. The person would have to have some sort of magazine or newspaper article written about how they are so inspiring. Xenon54 12:44, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

You could try looking at selected subcategories of Category:Children which shows some children who have become notable for different reasons. But it varies whether they can be called inspirational and it's not the kind of judgement Wikipedia makes. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:12, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Just for fun, I searched Wikipedia with Google for: "inspirational children", and I found a glaring example of peacock language and non-neutrality in St Matthew Academy#The Three Houses of St Matthew Academy. In particular, the glowing praise for Mother Teresa deserves a modicum of balance. --Teratornis (talk) 20:24, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Time lag for updates to "What links here"

I've poked around enough to understand that, when I change a link in a template, there are a couple of tasks that get thrown into the job queue. The first is to update each page that transcludes the template, so that it shows the updated information. The second is to update the "What links here" for the article that used to link from the template, but now no longer does.

I also understand that the length of time before these actions get completed depends on the length of the job queue. Unfortunately, I don't have any context regarding that number. The job queue is currently at almost 1 million — is that long?

I'm asking because it appears to be taking a very, very long time for "What links here" to update, even though the transclusions have gone through. For example, back on December 20th, I changed a link in {{Template:Country Radio Stations in Illinois}}, from WAAG (FM) to WAAG, following a page move. Three weeks later, the "What links here" for WAAG (FM) still shows the pages that transclude that template. I have a number of similar cases. While this often happened in the past, it seems that the lag for this has stretched from a day or two back in the summer to three weeks and counting now.

So, is this normal? Aside from null edits at every single transcluding page, is there anything I can do about it? It's not a huge problem in that the correct information is showing in the articles themselves, but it makes the job of monitoring incoming links to disambiguation pages very difficult when links that have been fixed appear not to be. Mlaffs (talk) 18:33, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

It may be me grasping the wrong end of the stick, but are you sure you've followed the redirect from WAAG back to WAAG (FM)? When I look at the "what links here" for the latter it only shows the following, none of which are transclusions, and all of which are links.

Wikipedia:Help desk (links)

WBWN (links)

Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/WikiProject Illinois articles by quality log (links)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Illinois/Assessment (links)

User:AlexNewArtBot/IllinoisSearchResult/archive5 (links)

WLUV (links)

Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Radio station articles by quality log (links)

Again, I may be missing something, but all of those appear to be correct, and wouldn't need to update following your change in December. _Gb^T/c 19:15, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, my mistake, it's WBWN and WLUV that are the issue, isn't it. To clarify, then, the problem is the fact that WBWN and WLUV are still showing up as linking to WAAG (FM) even though the template transcluded onto those pages has been updated to point directly at WAAG? _Gb^T/c 19:19, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that's the problem exactly. Here's an example that's a day older, and much more wide-spread. {{Template:Cumulus Media}}, edited on December 19th to change a link from KBED (AM) to KBED. There are a huge number of articles transcluding this template, all of which are showing the updated version — some of them have been cleared from the KBED (AM) "What links here", but a huge number of them remain. Mlaffs (talk) 19:34, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Ok, well, just to double check it's not anything else, let me edit one of the two pages to see if that pushes it out of the links list for WAAG (FM). _Gb^T/c 19:35, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

And it's just done that - WLUV is no longer on the list. Must be a job queue issue, then, I guess, although why it's taking so long is beyond me - I wonder if anyone else has any thoughts? _Gb^T/c 19:37, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Updates not appearing

Trying to update electoral results in the riding of Leeds-Grenville from 1988 and before. However when I try and save my updates within the result charts, my updates do not show up! However when I go back to re-edit, they show up on the edit page. Click re-save? They don't show up on the actual page!

Please help!

Political junky (talk) 19:57, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Have you bypassed your browser cache and done a server purge? – ukexpat (talk) 20:17, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

MOTD lag

Is anyone else experiencing a server lag at MOTD? Click the link; what is the last motto in the 'in review' section? TopGearFreak 20:37, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

If you mean the latest one, ie. the top one, then I've got "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute". _Gb^T/c 20:40, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

No, I meant the bottom one. Also, on top, I've got "Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt". TopGearFreak 20:51, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

For me, bottom is "Toot and come in." The weather one is 10 from the bottom. The top one is the same. Xenon54 20:54, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

In that case bottom one for me is "be a person and respect others as persons". It's number 4.14. "Toot and come in" is 4.11, "let me win..." is nowhere to be seen. _Gb^T/c 21:01, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Although on the actual page in question - Wikipedia:Motto_of_the_day/Nominations/In_review - (rather than the one being transcluded onto WP:MOTD) "Let me win" is .1, "toot and come in" is .25 and "if you don't like the weather" is at .15. _Gb^T/c 21:03, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Bottom motto for me is "Be a person and respect others as persons", yet when I go to edit it the motto that comes up is "no guts no glory". I purged the cache and it's the same. Help? TopGearFreak 21:07, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Clicking on edit alongside "Be a person and respect others" from Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations will open up section T-20 on Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/In review, which (because it's not being transcluded properly) corresponds with "No guts no glory" - likewise, clicking on edit alongside "You write with ease to show your breeding", the section above "be a person" on Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations will open up the section above "no guts, no glory" on Wikipedia:Motto of the day/Nominations/In review, which is "what do we live for". The question, therefore, is why isn't it transcluding the latter onto the former properly? _Gb^T/c 21:35, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Have purged both pages, and it looks like the two tie up to each other (to me, at least) now. _Gb^T/c 21:46, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

I have seen this problem before at the MOTD nom page. Even after purging, I saw ones that were not there anymore. Maybe some techy guy can help us with this? Chamal ^talk 00:31, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

image weirdness

Resolved

See WP:RD/C#svg 2 png curious. The image, to all who see it, is a white box, but the image exists. I've tried purging the image page and the RD page, but to no avail. This is seriously weird. Any help? flaminglawyer^c 21:32, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

• I commented on the reference desk page. May be on to something, maybe not. —Noah 22:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

• It's fixed now; there was an error in the SVG code. - Erik Baas (talk) 23:11, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Tweaking Special:LinkSearch

When using Special:LinkSearch, I can't seem to find a way to limit returns by namespace. Does anyone know of a tweak to LinkSearch (or of a different utility altogether) which would allow me to filter or sort returns? At the moment I'd like to be able to limit results to links in the article namespace only. Ultimately it would be handy to be able to sort LinkSearch results by namespace or by Wikipedia page name, rather than just by external link name. Cheers! TenOfAllTrades(talk) 23:52, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

January 12

pictures

why i can't see picture son wikipedia anymore? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.6.72.253 (talk) 00:36, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, they are there. But browser setting can change the displaying of images. Or it might be a connection problem. Chamal ^talk 00:40, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Is it just some pictures that don't display, or are all images on Wikipedia not loading? Can you see images on other websites? Also, what browser are you using? Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:04, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It must be a Firefox thing, because when I use Wikipedia in Firefox, I can't see any images. However, when I use IE7, I can see all the images. Alex (talk) 04:39, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:GA

What's wrong with the WP:GA team? I have a couple of articles nominated, one from January 5 and nothing. Is there a problem? Mario1987 09:15, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

You just have to wait and be patient. I've seen nominations that have never been reviewed in over a month before. Also, I think asking at WT:GA would be the best place to ask that. — RyanCross (talk) 09:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience. Mario1987 09:51, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

No problem at all. — RyanCross (talk) 09:52, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Signpost on my Watchlist?

Resolved

I used to have Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Tools/Single on my Watchlist, so every week I would see the update and read the Signpost. Now this doesn't work as that page is automatically updated. Which page I should Watch to get the same effect?--Commander Keane (talk) 11:29, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• If the page is updated automatically, chances are a bot is doing it. Does your watchlist watch bot edits? You might also want to take a look at the top of my talk page. I have a template there that shows the latest stories and updates automatically too (it's much easier to notice if the update is shown in a visible place. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:39, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• In your watchlist, it's possible to turn on and off minor edits, anonymous user edits, registered user edited, etc. One of those choices include bot edits. You might have that on. Try turning it off. — RyanCross (talk) 11:54, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The page is automatically updated by transclusion. I found Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Issue which is what I think I need, so it is ok now. Thanks for your help anyway Mgm :-) --Commander Keane (talk) 11:55, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Company listing has disappeared

The entry for NetCracker Technology no longer exists. I last touched it in November, I believe, and it was fine then. Why did it get deleted? What do I need to do to restore (and modify) it?

Thank you. Donna Bastien, Director of Marketing at NetCracker Technology. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Donnabastien (talk • contribs) 11:41, January 12, 2009 Jun 1, 2005 (UTC)— Donnabastien (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.

NetCracker Technology --this article was never created. We need to know the exact title of the article if you want to know the exact reason why its missing but I can tell you that if it was deleted it was probably due to or notability or "advert tone" issues. –Capricorn42 (talk) 11:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The page is NetCracker I believe. It has been speedy deleted on 9 December 2008 under criteria G11 (blatant advertising). Please read Wikipedia:ADS for more info. Wikipedia is not the place to advertise your business or organization. Also, our articles have to be neutral and verifiable. Wikipedia:Conflict of interest might also interest you. Chamal ^talk 11:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia:FAQ/Organization has a good overview of the applicable policies and guidelines. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 16:29, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Uploading images without being auto-confirmed

I would like to upload 2 images for a company page but I do not fall under the status of auto-confirmed due to the '10 edits' criteria. Is there any way that I can do this?

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brendanbourke (talk • contribs) 12:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

If the images are free, you can upload them at Commons. You can immediately start uploading images there. Also there is a special user right, Uploader, that allows you to this here too. I'm not sure how you apply for this user right, I'll look into it now. Chamal ^talk 12:31, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

What do you mean, might I ask, by "a company page"? --Orange Mike | Talk 14:30, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

How do I edit a Category title?

Hello,

I am wondering how to edit a category title. A trademark is being used as an uncapitalized generic term in a category title, which implies business associations where none exist. This kind of generic use could damage the trademark (i.e. calling copy machines xeroxes)

I need to edit the category title to remove the trademark and insert a generic term in its place, but I can find no information on how to do this.

Thanks for your time.

Greg —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tapredux (talk • contribs) 13:23, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Categories cannot be moved or renamed. Just create a new category, replace the category tags in articles with new ones and then request deletion of the old category. See the help page –Capricorn42 (talk) 13:29, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Many Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tapredux (talk • contribs) 13:40, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

• Surely Wikipedia:Categories for discussion is the place to go? Once a rename is agreed, a bot goes around changing the category tags in the articles for you. DuncanHill (talk) 14:58, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Agree - that's a more organized and less tiresome way to do. –Capricorn42 (talk) 15:03, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Discussion pages and policies

Resolved

 – per this diff

Hi. Can someone point me to a policy page on discussion pages (if such exists)? Discussion pages are useful to find the NPOV between different POVs. But what if it is a personal attack like "He should be shot." referring to the person the discussed article is about. May such edits simply be deleted? Michbich (talk) 14:45, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I think you're looking for Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines. Article talk pages are used for discussing matters related to the article only. Such comments are not, and therefore can be removed. Chamal ^talk 14:57, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Can and should be removed, and the user posting such a comment should be given an appropriate warning on their user page. Such behaviour is unacceptable. – ukexpat (talk) 15:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree with the above and would also mention the no personal attacks guide. It's content that matters, not the contributor or personal opinions about the subject. TN‑X-Man 16:10, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Does it matter who the article is about? Granted, writing one's unfavorable opinions about the subjects on Talk:Adolf Hitler or Talk:Osama bin Laden would probably do little to improve the associated articles, but would there be a problem with citing reliable sources that find X% of poll respondents favor shooting some individual? Can we list some of the prominent politicians who have vowed to kill Osama bin Laden? We already know, of course, that many people want to shoot many major world figures, which is why major world figures tend to have heavy security. I read somewhere that every U.S. President receives at least 1000 death threats per year. Having people who want to shoot you seems to be a natural result of attaining a position of political consequence. That some wannabe assassin would tip their hand on Wikipedia may be imprudent on their part, but should hardly surprise us. We have articles about people who have enemies, some of those enemies may find their way to us. --Teratornis (talk) 20:41, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Notice

Has the fundraising notice been put on pages again? I thought they removed it on the 9th. 212.219.0.20 (talk) 16:07, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It just reappeared for me too. DuncanHill (talk) 16:09, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, me too. Hm, I thought they disabled this. Anon, if you sign up or login, you'll be able to collapse it. The gadget for users has, however, been removed. Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 16:11, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Which answers my question about why I can't get rid of the bloody thing. I shall not contribute to mainspace until I can remove it. DuncanHill (talk) 16:12, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I suppose the code for the gadget could be used as a .css skin in individual monobooks. See simple:MediaWiki:Gadget-HideFundraisingNotice.css for a copy of the code (just one I have available). PeterSymonds (talk) 16:25, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The gadget appears to have reappeared. DuncanHill (talk) 16:27, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

random on mediawiki -- how/possible?

Hello,

I would like to put in an article an image that randomly changes among a set of images. I found some info on how to randomly pick among ALL images, but how about randomly pick among a set (or even a category) of images? Is it possible, and if so, how?

Thank you.

--Agamemnus (talk) 17:41, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to do this in an article. Where and why do you want to do it? Algebraist 17:44, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, in terms of Wikipedia, nowhere quite yet. This is for a different wiki. (sorry..., and thanks again in advance!)--Agamemnus (talk) 18:01, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

One way of doing this is shown at Portal:Middle-earth/Random-article. How often it'll update will depend on exactly how this other wiki operates, though. Algebraist 18:14, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

But, that relies on caching. How do I make it do something different every time without having the user having "reset" it manually? --Agamemnus (talk) 20:20, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Does the {{Wikipedia ads}} template do something like you want? Also, what do you mean by "every time"? --Teratornis (talk) 20:48, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

By "every time", I mean every time a page loads. And yes, that is what I want. However, I am *extremely* confused by how exactly I would use this... I need to make a new template, right? ... what would that template look like? I don't know which code to cut out, and which to leave...--Agamemnus (talk) 22:24, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Teratornis's example works in essentially the same way as mine, and has the same caching problems. I doubt what you want is possible with pure wikicode. You might be able to do it with javascript, but that's beyond my ken. Algebraist 22:35, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The principle behind {{Wikipedia ads}} could work in your case. You can try something similar to the following in your article:

[[Image:Rotating image {{#expr:{{NUMBEROFEDITS:R}} mod N}}.png]]

where N is the total number of images. This would show a pseudorandom image between Image:Rotating image 0.png and Image:Rotating image (N-1).png when called. This method of pseudorandomness only works in MediaWiki v1.10+ and generates a number between 0 and (N-1) depending on the number of edits made since MediaWiki was installed. Clearly, you can adapt this to your specific implementation. That algorithm is only really effective on wikis with high edit rates – if your wiki is less frequently edited, something like the formula at Algebraist's example might be more effective. haz (talk) 22:47, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you again (and the rest of you, too!)-- I will try this.--Agamemnus (talk) 01:36, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Addition of climate information

I notice that many city locations have graphical information added to their climate sections. I too would like to add such graphs, yet catn seem to find where the current "standard" graphs often added are located. An example is found under Atlanta, "Climate" it shows that the graph comes possibly from The Weather Channel. However, on their website, the graphs are very different. Where do i find the graphs found here on wikipedia?

The data within the climate table at Atlanta come from this page at The Weather Channel. One of the article's editors has created the table from that data. – ukexpat (talk) 18:16, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Specifically, the table was made using {{Infobox weather}}. Algebraist 18:19, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

How to write an article in Wikipedia?

How can I write an article on Wikipedia then subbmitting it? So when I like open Wikipedia and open the article I wrote it would be there. Thanks. AKhShaheen (talk) 18:27, 12 January 2009 (UTC) "

Before creating an article, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

Articles must also demonstrate the notability of the subject. Please see our subject specific guidelines for people, bands and musicians, companies and organizations and web content and note that if you are closely associated with the subject, our conflict of interest guideline strongly recommends against you creating the article.

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. TN‑X-Man 18:28, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Polish Question

I have problem switching to polish languish

Are you possible looking for the Polish Wikipedia? TN‑X-Man 18:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Or do you mean that you cannot change your default language to Polish here on English Wikipedia? – ukexpat (talk) 18:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Edit Count

I've been on Wikipedia for a while and I would like to know the total amount of edits I have done, does anybody know where I can I get that information?.--intraining ^{Jack In} 20:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:EIW#Count. --Teratornis (talk) 20:50, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

At the top of the page, you'll see "My Contributions" .. once there, scroll to the end of the page and you'll see links to edit counts, summary and so forth. Ched (talk) 20:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

For your specific link, go here. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 21:07, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Canada Election Map

Hi, I'm trying to upload a map of the 2008 Canadian federal election but it's going all weird. It's not showing the page and I can't display the page anywhere... Could someone look at it and tell me what I'm doing wrong? It is here, I suspect it has something to do with the SVG being given a different name of the file, but it auto renames it to have no spaces... TastyCakes (talk) 20:57, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Looks like you made the same mistake I did (while trying to upload File:VASR 7 map.svg). I get

        Error creating thumbnail: 
        librsvg-ERROR **: _rsvg_acquire_xlink_href_resource called for external resource:         
       Canadian_federal_election_2008_ridings_map.png base: (null)
       aborting...

when clicking on this link to the image. Your SVG references a png on your computer (probably some sort of base map); it can't be accessed, and an error message is thrown. I fixed this problem by using File-Import rather than copy and paste. Try that and see if it works. Xenon54 21:48, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, what is file import? I uploaded by clicking the "upload file" on the left bar in the commons main page. Could the error have been caused by me leaving the file open on my desktop while I was trying to upload it? TastyCakes (talk) 21:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for not being clear. The SVG references Canadian_federal_election_2008_ridings_map.png, but the server, when it goes to make the thumbnail, can't find it. Likely what this means is you copied and pasted the png into whatever program you used to create the SVG, and it wasn't embedded correctly when you saved the file to upload. I rectified this problem by going to File -> Import in Inkscape and imported (rather than pasted) the images, which embeds them. You can also embed (again, in Inkscape) by going to Effects -> Images -> Embed all images. I hope I didn't confuse you more! Xenon54 23:10, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Great, that worked. Thanks a lot. TastyCakes (talk) 15:27, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

StatusBot

Is there a bot that updates your status as to whether you're in or out when you edit? I'm almost certain I saw something like that before. TopGearFreak 21:25, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Soxred93 (talk · contribs) used to run one such bot, but it was blocked. –Juliancolton ^{Tropical Cyclone} 21:30, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

I use a script -- User:Misza13/statusChanger.js - it requires you to set up the appropriate subpages first, but it works great. It installs "in", "busy" and "out" links at the top in the same row as your user page, user talk page etc links. – ukexpat (talk) 21:33, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

There's also Wikipedia:QUI. It's used to keep track of your 'friends' status and you're able to update your status easily and quickly. I don't use it, but it sounds handy. — RyanCross (talk) 04:14, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Some problems caused by renamed image

Resolved

I just noticed a red link to Image:LoCiconRevised.svg, and it turned out it was deleted because the editor had replaced it with Image:LoCiconRevised.png. Now, I could seen that because I have admin rights; but this is something everybody should be able to see. Ideally, this should just automatically be changed to a redirect. But I can imagine that that may not be possible technically. Is there any way to at least make users aware of that move? Also, I did not see a "what links here" button. Is there a way to see if this is actually used? (If so, I'm thinking of requesting a bot to crawl this list after each image renaming.) — Sebastian 22:05, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

The way to make users aware of the move is for the deleting admin to mention it in the deletion summary. Unfortunately, the admin here did not do so. What links here works fine for me. Algebraist 23:11, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Good to see that there is no live page left that's using the picture. — Sebastian 01:43, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Use of references inside templates

Where can I find documentation on how to use references - <ref> etc. - INSIDE templates? Iterator12n ^Talk 23:00, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It should generally work as normal, though you might have to use {{#tag:ref|reference content}} instead of <ref>reference content</ref> in some circumstances. That's documented here. Algebraist 23:05, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Re. "It should generally work as normal": Trouble is, in a good number of cases it does NOT work as normal, I've seen MediaWiki do some strange things with references inside templates. (I would admit that I've been dealing with some quite complicated templates. Nevertheless...) Re. "use {{#tag:ref|reference content}}": This tells me that its use is deprecated for current versions of MediaWiki. Altogether this part of MediaWiki looks like a muddle. And in cases where things do work now, what guarantee does one have that it'll work the same with a next release of MediaWiki? OK, this is a rhetorical question. Thanks. Iterator12n ^Talk 04:30, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, the feature is not deprecated, but I did send you to the wrong documentation page. meta:Help:Magic words is the correct one. Can you give an example of broken behaviour of references in templates? Algebraist 04:34, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm going to study meta:Help:Magic words (with a bit of reluctance because elsewhere I try to avoid software documentation as much as possible, never mind). Will get you an example of broken behaviour, but it will take a little time to reconstruct the case - if I still can remember how I wormed myself into the case.... For now, thanks!! -- Iterator12n ^Talk 04:47, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

I have seen some templates where the reference tags will work, but the use of a citation template break things. Give us an example and we can probably help to fix it. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:52, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Username conflicts

Hi,

I am using "IndiaWiki" username for Wikimapia.org

I want to use the same for wikipedia for contributing in it.

I am not able to create this user name or any other user name with my email id which I used while creating ID for wikimapia

do I need to create a separate one which is not mapping with wikimapia ? if user database is same, why am I not able to use the same username and password for wikipedia..

Please assist

Thanks Amit Dhumash —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.10.219.38 (talk) 23:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

What do you mean, you are 'not able to create this user name'? What exactly happens when you try? The name 'IndiaWiki' is not taken here, and WikiMapia is nothing to do with Wikipedia, so I can't see any obvious problems. Algebraist 00:02, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Maybe the computer won't allow names containing "Wiki"? I thought that administrators could create accounts for people who request them. Let's see... WP:USERNAME and WP:ACC are two pages you should read for more information. LovesMacs (talk) 00:08, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

User:Indiawiki is registered and IndiaWiki is too similar. See Wikipedia:Request an account. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:19, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

January 13

Request for comment and appropiate topic area

I'm trying to file a request for comment regarding a dispute that's been going on for over a year regarding the placement of a genetics study within the demographics section of Argentina. But I can't figure out which selection is the appropiate.
The options are the following;

Issues by topic area
Biographies	(watch)	{{RFCbio}}
Economy, trade, and companies	(watch)	{{RFCecon}}
History and geography	(watch)	{{RFChist}}
Language and linguistics	(watch)	{{RFClang}}
Maths, science, and technology	(watch)	{{RFCsci}}
Art, architecture, literature and media	(watch)	{{RFCmedia}}
Politics	(watch)	{{RFCpol}}
Religion and philosophy	(watch)	{{RFCreli}}
Society, sports, law, and sex	(watch)	{{RFCsoc}}

Likeminas (talk) 19:33, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

linking articles

Resolved

I am trying to make the name of the sportsman Robin Mcbryde on the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_athletics_in_the_United_Kingdom_and_Ireland, link to his wikipedia page. I did try, thought I did it right but I don't think I did, I can't make head nor tail of the instructions on linking articles. Any help/advice will be appreciated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jymbo04 (talk • contribs) 01:31, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Nevermind it is working now.

Uploading photo

Hi,

I'm having trouble uploading a new photo to a pre-existing wikipedia page. could you please contact me to help me resolve this?

thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cali12345 (talk • contribs) 00:45, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

What sort of problem are you having? —teb728 t c 01:04, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Your account needs to be autoconfirmed (10 edits and at least 4 days old) before you can upload images. – ukexpat (talk) 01:21, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

You could submit a request for the image to be uploaded at WP:IFU. Matt (Talk) 03:02, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Alternately, if you own the rights to the photo free and clear, and are going to be uploading it for free distribution under the GFDL liscence anyway, then perhaps you could join Wikimedia Commons instead. There are no autoconfirmation requirements there, and any files uploaded at Commons are free to use at ALL Wikimedia projects, not just English Wikipedia. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 06:49, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

KenConklins Page on Hawaiian Epistomology and Native Hawaiian Education

My name is Kamealoha Hanohano-Smith and I am a Native Hawaiian Educator, who teaches at a Hawaiian Language Immersion School on a Hawaiian Homestead (similiar to an American Indian Reservation)in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. As I was doing research for a professional development course I am taking, I came across a page in Wikipedia that writes about Native Hawaiian Education written by Mr. Ken Conklin. As a Native Hawaiian I take great offense to pretty much everything in his article, because he paints what I do as a language teacher as racist. What I also note about his page is that there isn't any way that I can edit what he says, most of which are his personal insights that not widely accepted notions of Native Hawaiians and our educational system in Hawaii, the US mainland, and across the globe. I believe he made it this way because he wants to promote an agenda of hate because of his number of negative encounters with native peoples. That's too bad because while there are many natives still living, most of us are of mixed background and have family members that are not ethnically Hawaiian. We truly are a people who have for years been one of inclusiveness. Intermarriage in Hawaii was happening back in the 1800's, years before this idea was acceptable in America and many people who are not Hawaiian speak our language and employed in our immersion schools. There is much in our history and many examples which disprove any assertions made by Mr. Conklin. The idea that are Hawaiian-focused charter schools are exclusive and we only teach kids to play in taro patches is not only not true but really shows that Mr. Conklin at best has a superficial understanding of our native traditions and doesn't appreciate the hardwork we do to teach the children in our schools to be both bilingual and bicultural. We, like any other school in Hawaii have to meet the state performance and content standards; students at our school take these state monitored assessments in both Hawaiian and in English.

If Mr. Conklin is unwilling to open up his page so we can provide comments or counter-arguments, like seems to be the case, I was hoping that Wikipedia would be open to the idea of "us" Hawaiian Language/Culture (not all Native Hawaiians)creating our own page to counter all the negative stuff Mr. Conklins says about Native Hawaiian like myself. Freedom of expression is important and in the past I found myself intriged by many of Mr. Conklins articles because they presented a different view of looking at my people, but lately all of his articles have centered on attacking all that is good that is happening in our community. I know he says alot and writes alot of negative things, but he himself doesn't have a command of the Hawaiian language and to the best of my knowledge doesn't participate in anything in the community to provide solutions to things he see's as problems. He sits behind a computer and just writes nasty things. His article in Wikipedia is no exception. I suppose that if people were to have the ability to edit his article in Wikipedia you would in fact end up with an entirely different page. You and the rest of the world would not be able to recognize the article because there would be so many challenges to everything that he wrote.

I would really like the opportunity to present information on the same topic from the point of view of the Native. There is alot of stuff we need to do better in our Hawaiian-focused Charter Schools. I am the first to admit this, but if Mr. Conklins pages are allowed to stand uncontested, that would be a huge disservice to all the hard working parents, children, teachers, and community members across the nation that have put so much into creating schools that meet the needs of all students, Hawaiian or otherwise.

Me Ka Ha'aha'a (with humility and resolve),

Kamealoha Hanohano-Smith Hilo, Hawaii—Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.212.165.182 (talk) 00:59, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

I found an article on Conklin at Kenneth R. Conklin, but I cannot find the articles to which you are referring. Would you please post links to them? In any event the best way to deal with issues like this is to discuss them on the talk pages of the relevant articles - click on the "discussion" tab on the article's page. Thanks. – ukexpat (talk) 01:19, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Are you referring to Conklin's own Wiki? If so, that site is not connected in any way with Wikipedia, although it does use the same software. You will have to take up your issues with Conklin directly, I am afraid we cannot help you here on English Wikipedia. – ukexpat (talk) 01:24, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Check an edit, please

Could someone check the validity of the claim made in this edit? I'm at work and don't want to follow the link to check. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 02:43, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

The site works for me. –Capricorn42 (talk) 02:51, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 03:31, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Quality / Important Scales - How to edit?

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 03:51, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

An article I'm interested in editing has the following in the banner of the talk page:

??? This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale. 

Is there a way to specify the quality or importance of a particular article or is this done by some automated process?

Thanks! 173.71.219.50 (talk) 03:24, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you can do this by editing the banner appropiately. Exactly how to do this will depend on the banner in question, so you'll have to tell us what article you're looking at if you need more information. Algebraist 03:26, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I should have included in my original question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Computer-assisted_dispatch 173.71.219.50 (talk) 03:28, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Replace the code {{Disaster management}} with {{Disaster management|importance=foo|qualityclass=bar}}, where 'foo' is 'Top', 'High', 'Mid' or 'Low' and 'bar' is 'A', 'B', 'C', 'Start' or 'Stub' as appropriate. See Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment for details. Algebraist 03:36, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Excellent! Thanks for such a quick and concise response. 173.71.219.50 (talk) 03:38, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Minor change: {{Disaster management|importance=foo|class=bar}} 173.71.219.50 (talk) 03:52, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Duplicate article - what to do?

Resolved

 – Redirect now deleted ukexpat (talk) 03:02, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

An apparently misguided user created the page Ida Ljungqvist Playmate. They did this after I took out some of the non-relevant info that they added to the Ida Ljungqvist article. I guess they thought that the second article belonged to me and they would have to create their own article about the same person. I've copied the singular bit of info that wasn't in the original article from this user's new article. And I've created a redirect out of the Ida Ljungqvist Playmate article to point to the original. Is there anyway to get that redirect page deleted? There's no point in keeping it around. I don't see any CSD justification for deleting a duplicate article, so would this have to be prod'd? Dismas|^(talk) 03:43, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Ukexpat has requested speedy deletion under WP:CSD#R3. Algebraist 03:53, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Ah! I see. I didn't think that anything applied. Guess I was wrong. Dismas|^(talk) 03:57, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Tabs and other whitespace

How do I display a random number of spaces at a random place in a line? I wan't to do things like this.
The quick brown fox ^jumped over the lazy dog.
When I wrote this, It had six spaces before the word jumped and six more after it. How did I lose them and how do I get them back? Phil_burnstein (talk) 09:20, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Can be done with HTML or CSS markup. Here is one solution...

The quick brown fox      ^jumped      over the lazy dog.

And here is another...

The quick brown fox ^jumped over the lazy dog.

Look at the edit to see how I did it. Hope that helps. JBarta (talk) 10:04, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

As to why, it is an HTML feature: basically HTML will not display more than one space character. Jbarta used non-breaking spaces, another way you can do the same is with the {{pad}} template and specify the number of spaces. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 12:45, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Removing watermarks from images

I've gone through a number of images from Category:Images_with_watermarks removing watermarks and I'm a little confused about all the various copyright licenses. "Public domain" I understand... no problem removing a watermark from those. But the others? Can someone familiar with the issue give me a simple plain English summary of which watermarks can be removed and which should stay? I'm happy to remove them here and there when I can, but I don't want to create problems. If the issue is complicated or full of gray areas, or depends on this or that, etc... I'll just stick to the public domain images and keep things simple for myself. Any guidance would be appreciated. JBarta (talk) 09:46, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

• What kind of information do these watermarks contain? If it's a giant circled C it indicates the image is copyrighted and that it's probably not free. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:41, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Dan Carey Lacrosse

Just noticed that Dan Carey has an American flag beside his name. He was born and raised in Peterborough Ontario Canada. He is a Canadian Citizen. Hope the flag can be changed at this point. Thank You. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.235.243.102 (talk) 13:49, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

• The article about Dan Carey is correct and hasn't changes since 24 December last year. What article or list are you talking about? - Mgm|^(talk) 13:54, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Searching Wikipedia with Google for: "Dan Carey" finds a few instances of the lacrosse player, for example:

• 2008 Colorado Mammoth season#Roster - which shows an American flag icon next to the name
• 2007 Colorado Mammoth season#Roster - ditto
• 2006 Colorado Mammoth season#Roster - ditto; there may be more, someone can check the rest

Search Wikipedia with Google for: "Dan Carey" lacrosse - may be a more refined search, since there is another Dan Carey.

Note to questioner: when you see a problem on a page in Wikipedia, the Help desk volunteers have no magical way of knowing what page you were looking at, unless you describe it clearly. The best way to describe a page is to link to it. Unfortunately, this is not something that a casual Wikipedia reader would know how to do, as it requires some knowledge of how to edit. --Teratornis (talk) 20:41, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

The Brand Union

Hello,

Today I have attempted to create a wikipedia profile of The Brand Union - the global brand agency that I work for.

We are disullisioned as to why our attempts are imediately deleted when we notice our competitors profiles: Wolff Olins and Landor Associates appearing in a way which we feel has a much more promotional tone than ours.

Please explain why this keeps happening and what changes you suggest we make as it is getting very frustrating!

Many thanks,

Sally Mair

<email removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sally Mair (talk • contribs) 14:41, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello! I've tagged your article for deletion because it does not indicate why your company is notable. The best way to show this is to list independent reliable sources that provide in-depth coverage of your company. Also, please be aware the Wikipedia discourages editors from working on articles where they may have a conflict of interest. Finally, simply because there are other articles that need improvement has no bearing on your article. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 14:46, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Clean-up work has commenced on the articles that you mentioned. --Cameron Scott (talk) 14:47, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Placement of footnotes

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 03:00, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

In the opening paragraph of an article, The Road to Samarcand, I write a sentence which needs two citations, as I see it: "Notable as an example of the author's story-telling ability, it is especially directed at teenage boys." I did not place the footnotes in this sentence, but instead used them later when I returned to the points in the "Plot summary," where the statements were given more detail. Should I have placed the footnotes in the opening paragraph instead? (Please leave notes on article talk page if desired.) Thanking you in advance, Hammerdrill (talk) 15:17, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

See WP:REFNAME. You can name your ref tags and then use them in more than one place. --Teratornis (talk) 20:06, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Beautiful! Thank you. Hammerdrill (talk) 22:10, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Watchlist

Resolved

 – User:Turb0chrg

Hey there! Quick question about the watchlist. For example, I have this entry on mine:

(diff) (hist) . . Talk:Smart grid‎; 12:53 . . (+409) . . Turb0chrg (Talk | contribs) (→gov policy section)

What exactly does the (+409) mean? Is it the difference in bytes of the changes? Couldn't find anything, even on Help:Watching_pages to help me out. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Turb0chrg (talk • contribs) 17:13, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

That means Turb0chrg did a net addition of 409 characters to the article. –Capricorn42 (talk) 17:17, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

As Capricorn42 says, the number indicates the number of bytes added or subtracted to the article in question. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 17:19, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks guys! And I see my Talk page has some new stuff on it, cool! Turb0chrg (talk) 17:30, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Purple links

Why is there sometimes purplelinks on pages I haven't visited? 92.25.199.151 (talk) 18:16, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

If they're purple, that means they are in your browser's history. One way or another, your browser has requested and downloaded that page. For what it's worth, I wouldn't worry about it too much. JBarta (talk) 18:19, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Why

Why the h**k do Images have a side-side bar that, if you keep on moving, shows nothing? 92.25.199.151 (talk) 18:31, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

• That is not just restricted to images. It's on all pages. It ensures that people with varying screen sizes can actually scroll through the entire side bar which wouldn't be possible if the side bar stayed in its place while the rest of page was scrollable. Besides, it's cleaner to have a short bar than a large one with all sorts of nonsense links just to have the sidebar filled. - 87.211.75.45 (talk) 19:15, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

By the way... you can say "heck"... it's not one of the seven words. JBarta (talk) 01:58, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Editing a page but not showing it

I want to work on a page but not publish it right away, how do I save the changed without going live? It seems my only two options are preview and save.

JJ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.53.183.73 (talk) 19:33, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

You can copy the whole text of that page to your talk page and edit/save/work on it there without anyone's interference. –Capricorn42 (talk) 19:40, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Note though that this will still be publicly viewable, it just won't be formally part of the encyclopedia. Algebraist 20:14, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Another thing to keep in mind, if you wish to edit an existing article, other editors may be making changes to the article proper while you are editing a copy of it on your userpage. If you then take your version and paste it in to the article, you may wipe out all the recent changes made to the article by other users. JBarta (talk) 20:26, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

A user talk page isn't the best place to put it - that's where discussions and warnings are meant to go. Better to put it on the user page, or a subpage thereof. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:27, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Right - but it has to be a subpage of the User talk: page because last I checked, IPs can't create a userpage or its subpage. –Capricorn42 (talk) 22:35, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

peculiar character

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 03:08, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi. How do I create a "D" with a line through it? The line crosses the vertical of the "D" but does not extend to the curve on the right hand side. I think it's Hungarian (the name is "Dokovic"). Best, Robinh (talk) 21:09, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Have you looked through the characters listed underneath the edit window? Below the place where you enter your edit summary, there should be a dropdown box. By default, it's set to "Insert", but there are other options. Is the Dokovic listed there? TN‑X-Man 21:11, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Also see D with stroke. TN‑X-Man 21:13, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi TnXman. Never noticed that! (I searched WP:markup with no luck). Yup, it's there (as are the other weird symbols in this chap's name). Watch Hadamard matrix over the next few hours! Best wishes, Robinh (talk) 21:17, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Engineering Economics

I am currently enrolled for my first semester in a community college in Florida. I am wondering what are the required courses and G.P.A. if I wanted to tranfer as a junior to M.I.T. for my bachelors in engineering economics?

Thank You, Carrie Small <e-mail redacted>—Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.139.222.5 (talk) 22:07, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but it isn't Wikipedia's responsibility to list that sort of information. Try a Google search. Xenon54 22:10, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Your best bet may be to contact your school's registrar. Registrars are usually helpful and can probably point you in the right direction. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 22:42, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Etiquette for article talk pages.

Resolved

 – ukexpat (talk) 03:48, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

at this page, I read "Editing another editor's signed talk page comments is generally frowned upon, even if the edit merely corrects spelling or grammar." to mean that article talk pages should not have sections and comments removed. I ask because I noticed that entire section(s) were removed from an article's talk page with the edit note "THIS IS NOT A FORUM". While I do plead guilty to being new, the discussion revolved around what should and should not be included in an article. Is it really appropriate to delete other editor's comments from the "talk" page of an article. Thank You. Ched (talk) 22:33, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Which page are you talking about? Xenon54 22:57, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

As a general rule, yes it is acceptable to entirely remove inappropriate talk page content. It is editing a comment while leaving it in place that is frowned upon, since this gives the impression that the user said something that they in fact did not. There's more information at Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines#Editing comments. Algebraist 23:01, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

You and the removing editor apparently viewed the comments differently. We cannot evaluate the situation without knowing the page. Comments by others should generally not be altered but it's sometimes appropriate to remove them. Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines#How to use article talk pages says "Irrelevant discussions are subject to removal". WP:NOTFORUM says "talk pages exist for the purpose of discussing how to improve articles; they are not mere general discussion pages about the subject of the article". PrimeHunter (talk) 23:13, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Finally found the page, Talk:MS Antivirus. It seems the only section that was removed was a section titled "FYI" that detailed the ways that the malware (that is the subject of the article) spreads - a perfect example of what "to" remove from talkpages. Xenon54 (talk) 23:17, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. The edit summary actually said "Removing FYI section - THIS IS NOT A WP:FORUM" with a wikilink to precisely the section WP:NOTFORUM I quoted above. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:26, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

The problem with leaving forum-type stuff is that it attracts replies and can turn into a slugfest. I've seen replies to discussions that started three years previous. Also a good reason to archive talk pages. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 23:33, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Ok .. Thank you for the input. I didn't want to mention the article because I didn't want to bring attention to any other editor without first talking to them. Since it appears that it was appropriate to remove the sections, I sure don't want to make a point of anything. That's why I wanted to read and ask before I said anything. I appreciate your input, there's a lot to learn here. I thought the text was on topic for the article, and just wanted some clarification on the matter. I wasn't trying to make anyone chase after anything, I just wanted to understand procedure. Thank you all for your input. Ched (talk) 02:14, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Trying to upload a team logo

Resolved

 – TN‑X-Man 14:16, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello. I have been working on the wikipage for the Tennessee Valley Tigers. Specifically, I would like for the logo to appear in the table to the right hand side of the page, similar to how the logo appears in the table being used for the Clarksville Fox. I saw a question earlier where my account has to be confirmed before I can upload photos. Is this what is causing the problem for me with the logo? I admit to being a Wikipedia newbie and not sure what I should do to get the logo loaded. Thanks, Carson Wakefield —Preceding unsigned comment added by CrmsnTydGrl (talk • contribs) 22:39, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

You need autoconfirmed status to upload images, and you need two more edits to be autoconfirmed. Then head over to WP:Upload and follow the instructions. Algebraist 22:43, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your help!

CrmsnTydGrl (talk) 13:52, 14 January 2009 (UTC)CrmsnTydGrl

Changing article titles?

I'd like to make some changes to the wikipedia entry titled "St. Mark's Poetry Project." The primary change that I'd like to make is to the title itself which I can't figure out how to alter. The name of the organization this article is describing is "The Poetry Project" not "St. Mark's Poetry Project." The organization is housed in St. Mark's Church in New York City which, I guess, is the source of the confusion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by PoProj (talk • contribs) 23:21, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

To change the title of an article, you have to move it by clicking on the appropriate tab up the top. However, you will only be able to move articles once your account is autoconfirmed - which currently happens when it is 4 days old and has made 10 edits. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 23:26, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Note Wikipedia:Naming conventions#Avoid the definite article ("the") and the indefinite article ("a"/"an") at the beginning of the page name. The Poetry Project website writes "the Poetry Project" and not "The Poetry Project" with capital 'T' in running text, so "Poetry Project" seems a better title. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:38, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Changing image licenses

I uploaded some photographs taken by a friend, but didn't credit him for them. How do I change the licenses? Lapsed Pacifist (talk) 23:46, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Go to the image page and click the edit tab. There are lots of sourcing and licensing templates, so if you need more information you'll have to tell us which images are involved and what new licenses you want. Algebraist 23:53, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

They're File:Mick nolan.jpg, , File:8806 greens2s 21nov06web.jpg, and . Can you tell me where I can find the other templates? Lapsed Pacifist (talk) 09:21, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

January 14

Forgot Log In information

I feel so stupid but I cannot recall my log in name, much less my password. It should be something like:

UN: Nancy Levens PW: <redacted>

or

UN: westedge PW: <redacted>

but no combination of the above is working.

What do I do?

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.189.119.202 (talk) 00:21, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

If you can't remember your username, you'll have to create a new account. By the way, posting things you think might be your passwords on a public website is a really really bad idea. Algebraist 00:23, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

If these are your passwords on any system anywhere you should go change them immediately. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:37, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

As a suggestion you might want to go through the Wikipedia user list to see if you can find it!.--intraining ^{Jack In} 00:44, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Or if you can remember a change you made to an article, your username would be logged in the history of the article. —teb728 t c 01:59, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

You can also check your old email messages. Wikipedia username might be in the pile. JBarta (talk) 02:01, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

If you manage to find your username by any method stated above, you still can't find your password. You'll have to go to Special:UserLogin, enter your username and then click on "Email new password". A new password will be sent to the email address you registered with, and then you can log in with that password and change it if you like. BTW, I have checked at Special:ListUsers, and neither "westedge" or "Nancy Levens" have been created. Chamal ^talk 02:15, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Adding an internet link

In your Wikipedia article on Leacock-Leola-Bareville, Pennsylvania, you list Riehl's Quilts and Crafts. Riehl's now has a merchant website. It there a way the website link can be added to the Wikipedia site? If so, how? You can confirm this website by calling the Amish proprietor, Sam Riehl, (he has no computer and therefore no email) at <redacted> or I as webmaster can be reached at the email above or at <redacted>.

Steven Garstad —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.197.25.40 (talk) 02:25, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:External links. You will find guidelines and instructions there. Please make sure that the link complies with the guidelines, or it is likely to be regarded as spam. Chamal ^talk 02:59, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

What is the url (link)? I'll add it for you if you'd like. I suppose it's possible that someone may have a problem with a list of such links on the page. I would imagine that Wikipedia doesn't seek to be a web directory. That said, there are already a few such links on the page and one more isn't going to hurt anything for now. If you post it here and it's a working link to a permanent website (www.riehlsquilts.com - or something like that) I'll edit it in for you. JBarta (talk) 03:12, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Notability

Hello, I wrote a page about a sports blog that I recently started. It was deleted becuase an admin said it didn't notability standards, which is understandable at first glance. However, I think it should be allowed because we are mentioned by our peers on their blogs, some of which have wikipedia pages. The most notable one being Deadspin. The admin was not sure if that was acceptable and told me to ask here so thats why I am writing you. Let me know. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Willb241 (talk • contribs) 02:39, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

You may wish to read up on the policies/guidelines behind the decision, namely, Wikipedia:Notability and it's counterpart, Wikipedia:Verifiability. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 02:45, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

This page lists our criteria for inclusion for articles on web pages. Unless your blog meets at least one, it cannot be included. What is your blog? If you provide more details, we might be able to check and provide a better, clearer answer. Chamal ^talk 02:51, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

• According to the deleted contributions of this editor, it's Fack Youk. I'm surprised that he says the administrator wasn't sure. The common practice is and should be: when in doubt, don't delete. I think I'm going to get out a nice large wet trout. - Mgm|^(talk) 05:43, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Apparently the notability assertions were not there, and the admin has expressed his doubts only when he was asked about this on his talk page. Chamal ^talk 06:04, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

diff used to show "rollback vandal"

Resolved

Until several minutes ago, when I showed a diff, in the right column it had "rollback vandalism" and some related things I could click on. Now these are gone. Is there a way to get them back? I use the latest version of Firefox. Bubba73 (talk), 02:49, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Those links sound like you had Twinkle installed. Did you tweak your preferences or change your monobook? Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 02:52, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

I do have Twinkle installed, but I didn't change anything in monoblock. Bubba73 (talk), 02:54, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

It shows only on the last diff. If you check an earlier diff, the links will not be shown. Is this the case? Chamal ^talk 02:55, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

No, it doesn't show up with only a single diff. I think I did upgrade some extension of Firefox today, I wonder if that caused a problem. Bubba73 (talk), 03:00, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

I rebooted, reinstalled Twinkle in my monoblock.js file, purged the cache, and checked Gadgets to make sure it was checked. I still have the problem. Bubba73 (talk), 03:14, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

I deleted it completely from my monoblock file, including the options, and added it back, and now it is working again. Bubba73 (talk), 03:24, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Not quite on the topic but related... Those links will sometimes vanish for me if I have had Safari open for a couple hours and have been visiting a large number of sites. Dismas|^(talk) 06:10, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Autocollapsing TOC

I want to set the TOC on an article so that when it loads the TOC is automatically collapsed (IOW nothing but the word Contents and the [show] link appear). This post from last year says it can't be done, but when I click onto Jurassic Park the TOC displays as collapsed. Interstingly, if I expand the TOC, leave the page and come back, it remains expanded. If I collapse it again, leave and come back it stays collapsed. I'm dealing with a list right now which as it's currently formatted has over 160 TOC headers with more on the way and it's completely ridiculous and ugly. Any suggestions? Otto4711 (talk) 04:30, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

That's how it works -- if you collapse it, that state is remembered until you expand again. – ukexpat (talk) 04:39, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

WP:TOC, {{CompactTOC8}}, and {{TOClimit}} may be of interest to you. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 04:45, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

How to Contact the Australian Survey Corps in relation to finding Maps done in 1970/71 Tour of South Vietnam

HI, I am trying to find out if the Australian Survey Corps still had access to two maps that where added to the Anzac Battalion Book 1970/71 tour of South Vietnam. I am trying to have the limeted edition of this Book reprinted and was trying to locate if possible these two maps. I hope you can help me on this matter.Keith Allan Carter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Keith Allan Carter (talk • contribs) 08:32, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question.

I suggest you go to their official webpage and contact them. Contact details will probably be available there. Chamal ^talk 08:45, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

How to publish an article so it is seen by the public?

Hello,

When I do a search for something on the internet, Wiki pages always pop up. It seems that I can write an article that I can view, but how do I make it visible to the public? I have an account and have written an article on my user page, but I am at a loss of what to do next. I don't know what the help page means when it says "move your article to the live page". What buttons do I need to press to get my article on the internet? When writing back, please keep in mind you are giving advice to a Wikipedia Dummy!