Wikipedia:Help desk

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).

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January 30

new admission

Sir, I would like to join the hindi courses through corresponse. If I just fill the application and send it along with the postal order to the address of central Hindi directorate, will it be ok. Kindly help me to know the procedure for this. Thanking you, Mala Bhushanam <removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.84.205 (talk) 01:41, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our roughly three million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online 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. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Xenon54 / talk / 01:47, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Why is it

That when I went to edit Law's talk page, I ended up at the Undertows talk page? Is there something wrong with the database? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Calcetín (talk • contribs) 02:17, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Note: Above user indef'd as a sock. Calcetín is Spanish for "sock". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:35, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

book by geo. catlin

hello....i'm looking for a book by geo. catlin, named letters and notes on the manners, customs and conditions of the north american indian.......can you help me???...thanks...dg

Ask on WP:RD. Did you try Googling? catlin letters and notes on the manners, customs and conditions of the north american indian finds a bunch of hits. --Teratornis (talk) 03:38, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Movig to the Philippines

I am planning on movig to the Philippines, Hopefully by Dec.2010. I need to know what I have to do to get dual citesienship and how can I buy a hose and build a business. Does anyone in the Philippines offer finacial help fo small businesses or home buyers. Please contact me at ( <redacted> ) I would be most appreciative for your help. Thank you TTaylor —Preceding unsigned comment added by Timtaylor67284 (talk • contribs) 10:00, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Please do not include contact details in your questions. We are unable to provide answers by any off-wiki medium and this page is highly visible across the internet. The details have been removed, but if you want them to be permanently removed from the page history, please email oversight-llists.wikimedia.org.

You may find help on the Wikipedia reference desk, but you are probably better off contacting organisations in the Philippines. You are unlikely to get help here, as this page is about help on using Wikipedia. --ColinFine (talk) 13:15, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Geoff Beckett entry

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 15:49, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi guys,

I'm trying to sort out an entry I did a week or so ago about a Berkshire artist, Geoff Beckett, but it seems my inexperience with Wikipedia is getting the better of me. I've added as many references and citations for him as I can find and I've looked at your notes on writing in an encyclopaedic way and tried to do that but I'm still getting your warnings about it not being acceptable.

I also added some images of his paintings but they have been removed because of copyright problems. He has the exclusive rights to all his paintings and has given me permission to use images of them in the article but he is reluctant for any large, high resolution versions to be freely available. Is this not acceptable?

Apologies for making a meal of this!

Best regards,

Neil —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benyon24 (talk • contribs) 10:50, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

The warnings will stay there until somebody - which could be you - remove them. If you think you have improved the article to the degree that they are no longer appropriate, be bold and remove them - but if other editors disagree, they may put them back.

In my view, the language is still not encyclopaedic: "likes to claim" would be appropriate only as a quotation from a reliable source which used these words. Your references are all to directories or book-sources: please read WP:RS and see what a Wikipedia reliable source is (if you can't find any, then he is ipso facto not notable by Wikipedia's criteria).

As for the rights: Wikipedia is the encyclopaedia which anybody may use, so it requires that all images are released on a kind of license which allows them to be freely reused under that license (see WP:CC-BY-SA). --ColinFine (talk) 13:24, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Very many thanks for this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Benyon24 (talk • contribs) 14:38, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Making small change in article title

I'd like to put a comma in the title of an article. Specifically, I would like to change the article Trinidad Sanchez Jr. to read "Trinidad Sanchez, Jr.", to reflect wikipedia's preferred practice. How can I make that edit? Thank you.Hammerdrill (talk) 16:27, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Try Help:Moving a page. The title you want to use is currently a redirect with no other edits, so you should be able to move it yourself (iirc). If you have trouble, let me know and I'll take care of it. -- Vary | (Talk) 16:40, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Block

1. Why was "Changed Block Settings" introduced? What happened to unblocking and reblocking?

2. What exactly is the point of "Cannot Edit Own Talk Page"? The user can still edit the talk page under another account. Can we go back to protecting user talk pages? 124.180.195.199 (talk) 21:08, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

If you don't get an answer on the Help desk, you could try asking in these other places:

• WP:VPT.
• The talk page of the help page or project page that documents the feature you refer to. I guess that page might be WP:BLOCK or one of the related pages listed under WP:EIW#Access or WP:EIW#Enforce.

Also note that socking around a block would constitute a violation of the block and invite harsher enforcement. --Teratornis (talk) 06:19, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• Can I just comment that in general, user talk pages are not protected. The point of them is to allow any user to leave a comment (including non-registered ones) - protection prevents this. User talk pages may be protected for a short time in the case of high levels of vandalism, but it would only be for a short time. I'm not quite sure what you mean by going "back to protecting user talk pages", as I wasn't aware that this was a regular thing in the past. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 09:42, 1 February 2010 (UTC)
  • Early on, we did protect talk pages of blocked users more frequently. Now, we tend to only do that if the blocked user is abusing their talk page (ranting, general insults, off-topic soapboxing) while blocked — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 18:07, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I have a few questions about citing sources.

1. Can pictures be a citation of the article?
2. If the picture is not a free image, do I still use the image? I saw some article (Such as Hong Kong Discuss Forum, on section Simplified Chinese Translation, I saw the pictures deleted with the reason "You don't need two non-free images to illustrate that a website can translate text - you can just explain it") does not have citation.

--JacquelineX (talk) 23:23, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Picture tutorial or Wikipedia:Media copyright questions may help. -- œ^™ 06:04, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Question about database information.

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 17:53, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I was wondering if it is at all possible to view certain information in database list form? Such as looking at essentially all music you have on wikipedia in one, complete list (all with the links of course, not simply the names of the bands or movies or whatever it may be) according to genre? Is that at all possible?

So instead of typing in a bands (or movies) name, and then according to that genre and relating ones, you find other bands through links on each page, you have the above which seems easier, because through the former what your doing is going from link to link, which is a lot more inconvenient. Like if i type in "Pink Floyd" and then it leads me to other links about pioneering well-known or slightly more obscure (but signed) Psychedelic bands for example.

Although it works, surely being able to just view basically all music you have logged on wikipedia generally, (albeit genre separated) is much easier, so then you know exactly how many articles on music outfits and solo people you have. Then you can pick and choose the ones that capture your interest accordingly.

So basically, my question is, is this possible or not?

MorbidDevilAngel (talk) 23:48, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Somewhat. There is, for example, a page called Category:Musical groups that lists all Wikipedia articles tagged as being in that category. Calvin 1998 ^(t·c) 00:18, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates for an overview of navigation methods on Wikipedia. You may be asking for a Semantic wiki, though, which can generate lists of articles from queries. Wikipedia does not have those features yet. See Wikipedia:Semantic Wikipedia. Also see the Editor's index to Wikipedia, which is an analytical index of Wikipedia's internal help pages. Anyone is free to write similar index pages for various content topics, but I have not seen a content index page on Wikipedia with as many features as the Editor's index. Instead we have some plainer examples such as Index of energy articles. Our content index pages are usually just alphabetic lists of article titles, which may not lead to the most logical groupings of articles. If you have ideas for what would make a good index, you can start a page like User:MorbidDevilAngel/Sandbox and experiment. That's the great thing about Wikipedia - if you have a good idea that could improve the encyclopedia, you are free to demonstrate it to other people, and if you convince them, you can make your mark. --Teratornis (talk) 01:43, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, that seems good enough for me at the moment, i actually have come across the category pages before, but i did forget they actually existed! However i may well consider that suggestion about what might make a good index, i'll have a think about it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by MorbidDevilAngel (talk • contribs) 17:11, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

January 31

Related articles

How do I remove the Related articles gadget on the left of my Firefox browser? It doesn't appear on IE though. Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 01:20, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

are you using any gadgets? or special additions like custom Js or CSS? andyzweb (talk) 01:58, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes. Twinkle, friendly, googletrans, but I don't think they are related. Arteyu ? _{Blame it on me !} 02:52, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

First, purge Firefox's cache. If that doesn't work, try disabling the gadgets you mention and see if one of them gets rid of the panel. Then, you can contact the gadget's author(s) to find out if it's possible to install the gadget without that particular feature. Friendly, in particular, has a history of adding features (such as a UTC clock) without prior notice that don't really have to do with the main purpose of the gadget. Xenon54 / talk / 03:48, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Montage

How do you make a montage on Wikipedia like New York City or Washington DC? Nations United (talk) 01:43, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

The infobox at New York City displays File:NYC Montage 8.jpg. The infobox at Washington, D.C. displays File:DCmontage3.jpg. The montages were created outside Wikipedia with some image software (I don't know which but probably whatever the users happen to have installed on their computers) and then uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as single images. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:10, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Random redirect

Hi this is more of a technical question than anything else. I am trying to make a page that is a random redirect to any one of a number of templates so as I am spreading wikilove using templates like {{subst:Cheezburgr}} and {{subst:Kitten}} I could just use {{subst:User:Andyzweb/wikilove}} and that would randomly choose any one of a random number of templates to put on that user's talkpage. sorry if my question is hard to understand. andyzweb (talk) 01:57, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

A quick answer would be to checkout WP:RAN but I'm not sure that is what you're looking for. Tiggerjay (talk) 05:11, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Merge Yourself

I just wanted to ask this to be safe. If two articles have been proposed to be merged for over three months and most agree with a merger, but no admin has done it, is it okay to merge them yourself? --Shadow (talk) 03:43, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes of course, anyone can do a merge, you don't have to be an admin. -- œ^™ 04:18, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Change Listing Name

I just published an article that is referenced under the search words "UI Veterans Writers Workshop", and that was in error. How can I correct the search title to "Midwest Veterans Writers Workshop" ? Nothing in the FAQs seems to give me a clue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Libris Fidelis (talk • contribs) 04:39, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

I did the move to the page per your request, since it was a mistake, however it appears the page has been nominated for a speedy removal from wikipedia per CSG G11. Tiggerjay (talk) 05:08, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Living Person Bio (author) editorial help

Resolved

 – Mysdaao ^talk 13:20, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Seeking Living Persons Bio posting page(s) location to solicit experienced editor help/mentor in (author) article content. Cannot find this area.Boolalah (talk) 05:38, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

I think you're looking for Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard. --Mysdaao ^talk 05:59, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. Boolalah (talk) 17:41, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome! --Mysdaao ^talk 13:20, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Move Tab missing on a few articles, though present on most....

Hello...I was just curious why most articles on Wikipedia that I encounter DO HAVE "Move" tabs.....whereas a few do not. I was thinking that it probably has to do with the nature of the titles and articles that determines that. Like the article title "Jew", for example, or "Christian" DO NOT have "Move" tabs on the top. Whereas the article title "Congress" DOES have a Move tab. And so does "Church" and most other things I checked. I was just wondering, though, why a few articles simply do not. And it's NOT because of any "4 day" thing in my case, as that does not apply. Also, because as I said, most articles I come across DO have the Move tab on top. Only some don't. Was curious as to why. (I did a search in Help, a few times, looking for this specific question and answer, and I could not find it anywhere, but only the stuff about "4 days" for new users, which, as I said, does not apply in my case). Anwyay, please let me know.....thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sweetpoet (talk • contribs) 06:42, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• Administrators can protect specific pages through page protection and among the specific protection options, they can restrict who can move a page. This is typically done to prevent vandalism. Tiggerjay (talk) 07:20, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• Some articles are protected from moving. In these cases only admins can move them. -- œ^™ 07:23, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Readiness for Requesting Adminship

Hi, I was hoping if anyone could tell me if it would be worth me applying for adminship. My stats can be seen here, here and here. If possible could someone give me an appropriate date and how I need to improve based on the stats I have provided. Thanks for any help you can give. Paul2387 12:38, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

738 edits is not, and has never been enough. The average edit count of confirmed candidates has risen significantly to just under 20,000. While competency is not just based on edit count, certainly it is a measure of experience that cannot be equaled by answering questions. Obviously this can fluctuate; I was nominated a few years ago by the venerable Wizardman with about 3,500 edits, and almost passed, which was not what I was expecting at all.

For right now I would suggest (a) continuing to edit articles, (b) cut down on the edits to userspace (right now they're 21% of your total, get it under 10%), (c) join a WikiProject in a topic that interests you, or (d) take a look at the Community portal to see how else you can help with administrivia, such as cleanup and wikification. Remember above all that adminship is not a trophy, nor does it give you elevated influence in discussions, nor should it be your "ultimate goal." It simply means the community has decided you can be trusted with access to a few extra tools. Xenon54 / talk / 14:10, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

It also seems to help if you have been a major contributor to some articles which became featured. Getting an article all the way to featured status is a severe test of Wikipedia editing skill, and failure to have done this a few times may increase scrutiny on the rest of your contribution record. --Teratornis (talk) 23:03, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Following on to Xenon's comment, your userpage seems to indicate that view adminship as a sort of trophy/prize. That attitude alone (or even the perception of that attitude) may garner you opposition. A good idea is to wait for someone to suggest that you stand for adminship. TNXMan 23:09, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

It might also be helpful if you listened to advice which you had previously been given! Looking at your editor reviews (January 2010 and September 2009), on both occasions you were advised to wait. Looking at your RfAs (14 July 2009, 26 November 2009, 14 December 2009 and 31 December 2009), they all say the same thing: you aren't ready. Read through them all, see what they said. You seem too keen to be an admin, without really showing that you need the tools. As Dweller said on your last RfA Please stop chasing adminship, settle in and become an established editor (ie by editing, not by existing) before requesting the tools. As Tnxman says above, and as mentioned in ERs and RfAs, you seem to be chasing adminship as some kind of trophy or "reward" - it's not, it just gives you a few more tools to help maintain Wikipedia - and some people would say that you don't get more respect or kudos for being an admin, but less! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 09:52, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I suggest editing as a normal user until at least five or preferably ten other editors have offered to nominate you, without you prompting them. --Teratornis (talk) 23:58, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Cluebot III

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 16:09, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Hello Helpdesk, I was just wondering if somebody could please check over my Cluebot III archival setup on my talk page. I've set it up according to the instructions, but I haven't had any action there yet. Thanks! JulieSpaulding 14:01, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

It looks all right to me. Often archive bots only run once or twice a day, meaning even if your deadline's passed you may not see any archiving for a little while longer. Xenon54 / talk / 14:13, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. JulieSpaulding 14:49, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

good day

good day, im unregistered writter from czech republic. im try register under nick "kamizolník" but my ip adress it blocked, im dont know why. please, can everbody transfer this two files from en.wiki at commons? im need him to enprove some articles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JAN_SYROVÝ.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ernst-vom-Rath.jpg

many thanks --77.48.153.172 (talk) 11:31, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

You can request an account yourself at WP:Request an account. JulieSpaulding 14:50, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

re-direct from my name search !!

Hello my name is John Hudgens I live and work in Little Rock, Arkansas. Some time ago a profile of me and my work as the new Ernest P. Worrel was featured on Wikapedia... now i notice that if i search for John Hudgens on Wikapedia, i am re-directed to information about John E. Hudgens... How can someone find any John Hudgens, without being re-directed to John E. Hudgens information. can someone help ? thanks John —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.247.244.255 (talk) 14:26, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Hello, according to the page history of John Hudgens (located here), no such profile existed at that page. However, your name is mentioned at Ernest P. Worrell#Character history. JulieSpaulding 14:53, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Deleted edits

What is a deleted edit? Us441 (talk) 14:47, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

A deleted edit is an edit to a page that has now been deleted. Deleted edits are only viewable by administrators. Xenon54 / talk / 14:51, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Some deleted edits remain visible on Deletionpedia. For example, here are some of mine. I have a lot more deleted edits than that, though. Deletionpedia only shows a small fraction of Wikipedia's deleted articles and pages. --Teratornis (talk) 23:57, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

As Teratornis says, only a small amount of deleted edits are on Deletionpedia. For example, none of my 910 deleted edits are shown there. The latest figures show that there are about 63,114 pages on it. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 09:57, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Subpages

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 16:48, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Is there a way to see a listing of all the subpages from a given page? (specifically, my user page, since I've forgotten what pages I've actually made!) Smaug123 (talk) 15:50, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Special:PrefixIndex/User:Smaug123 – ukexpat (talk) 16:07, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

• Wonderful, thanks! Smaug123 (talk) 16:38, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

You can also find that link at the bottom of your contributions page Special:Contributions/Smaug123. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:38, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

You can also put {{List subpages}} on your user page. --Teratornis (talk) 20:05, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

deleted resume

How do I recover a deleted resume on my computer? I have windows xp---- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stublina (talk • contribs) 15:58, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer just about any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 16:05, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

What is Wikipedia

I do not find the word in the dictionary. There are so many articles and pages about the word that I can not go over them all and get a reasonable understanding about what it is. I am 85 years old and would like to know what it is about before I die. I am seriouse about this. My name is Tabor —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.195.110.164 (talk) 16:47, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Try Wiki, Wikipedia, Wiki and Wikipedia. – ukexpat (talk) 16:50, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Creating bios

How do I create a short bio for this category - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_humorists?

The Erma Bombeck Writer's Workshop (University of Dayton) has many published humorists and syndicated columnists that are not listed. We are meeting in April and I would like them to know how to get a short bio here. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rosevalenta (talk • contribs) 17:12, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

A Wizard is available to walk you through these steps. See the Article Wizard.

Thank you.

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 with which all articles should comply. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite 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 Wikipedia:Your first article. You might also look at 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. An Article Wizard is also available to walk you through creating an article. – ukexpat (talk) 18:00, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Image Citation

Can image(illustrations) be the citation of the article?

If I can, what type of image has to be? (Such as Free Image, Non-Free Image)

Please tell me yes or no.

I used American English.--PowerY (talk) 17:56, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Depends what you want to verify by reference to the image. If it's just the existence of the image itself then maybe. If it's to verify that the image is of what it purports to be of, then probably not, as images (particularly digital ones) can be manipulated. – ukexpat (talk) 20:16, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Few questions on Wikipedia admit simple yes or no answers, and Wikipedia constantly evolves, so almost everything other than the Founding principles is potentially subject to future revision. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia of almost everything, and everything varies a lot, so there may be many cases to consider for a seemingly simple question such as what constitutes a reliable source. See the links to lots of discussion under WP:EIW#Source. Wikipedia's citation templates give a rough guide to the types of things which we have considered reliable sources so far. There is no citation template specifically for citing images in general, although there are some related templates: {{Cite video}}, {{Cite map}}, and {{Cite comic}}. I would guess the free content status of an image would have no effect on its suitability as a source, since we routinely cite copyrighted published works as sources. Copyright status applies primarily to material we copy directly to Wikipedia, not sources we cite (although we are not supposed to link to material which violates copyright, wherever it happens to be). --Teratornis (talk) 23:52, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

div box does not work

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 02:27, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I have borrowed some mark up for a div box notice on my user talk and, big surprise, it doesn't display as I had hoped. If someone could check this out and direct me to the mistake I would appreciate the help. Feel free to repair the thing, but I'm not expecting anyone to do any heavy lifting. Thanks in advance. Tiderolls 18:13, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Seems to be some problem with displaying the output of {{Talkback}}. My change may not be exactly what you wanted, but will it suffice? Deor (talk) 20:51, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Indeed. Thanks for taking the time to help. See ya 'round Tiderolls 22:33, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Advertising

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 22:46, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Is this user page too much like WP:ADVERTISING? Art LaPella (talk) 18:28, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, and it has been tagged for speedy deletion as such. – ukexpat (talk) 20:00, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

And the user name blocked as a spamname. – ukexpat (talk) 20:01, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

difficulty editing a new article

I created a new article,List of life-threatening diseases,just very recently this afternoon.When i hit the save changes button and saw the article,i discovered that only the section on life threatening infectious diseases had been saved. Refreshing the page did not help,and when I tried to add a reflist to the bottom of the page it failed.What is this and what should I do? Immunize (talk) 18:59, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

I've taken a stab at fixing some mark up. See if the page displays as you intended. Regards Tiderolls 19:06, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you.The page is displaying exactly as i desired.The same problem has happened to me many other times on various pages in the past.How do I prevent it from happening again? Immunize (talk) 19:13, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. The link I left on your user talk may help. Regards Tiderolls 19:15, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Please see my question on the article's talk page. Lists are all well and good, but the inclusion criteria for this list are non-existent. – ukexpat (talk) 20:10, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Jessica Alba archives

Resolved

 – Liquidluck✽talk 07:55, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Can someone clean up the archives at Talk:Jessica Alba. There are two sets of archives on the page and I do not understand the syntax of the templates well enough to put the two together.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 19:58, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

I'll take a stab at it. Liquidluck✽talk 20:01, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Still curious as to why there are both an archive box and an archive header after all your efforts.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 07:37, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I've replied at the talk page and added the article to my watchlist; let's continue discussions there. Liquidluck✽talk 07:55, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Union numbering system for local chapters

My question:

What do the numbers in a Union Local represent; i.e., I.A.M. Local "1584"? What does the number 1584 stand for? Is it a location, chapter or something else? I need this answer for a school I attending.

Thank you 76.103.236.210 (talk) 20:16, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Try asking at the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous. -- œ^™ 20:46, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

How do I add old AfD discussions to a new AfD nomination?

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 02:26, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

For example, this archived discussion has old AfD nominations listed in an infobox. Is this generated automatically, or do I list the old debates in a template (and if so, which template), or what? Yappy2bhere (talk) 21:03, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Technically, the code is this:

<div class="infobox" style="width:50%">AfDs for this article:<ul class="listify">{{Special:Prefixindex/Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/NAMEOFARTICLE}}</ul></div>

and NAMEOFARTICLE is replaced with the article name. However, I think it does it automatically if there are previous AfDs. TNXMan 22:48, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

When the article, Rehab (Young Buck album), was deleted the last four times it used a slightly different stem name (The Rehab, The Rehab (Young Buck album), e.g.). Will that make a difference? Yappy2bhere (talk) 23:03, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

I believe so. The code only looks for identically named AfDs. If the article was deleted as a result of an AfD under a slightly different title, I would think the best course would be to mention the previous discussions in your nomination/!vote. Alos, articles previously deleted by an AfD and are substantially identical to the previous version are eligible for speedy deletion under criteria G4. TNXMan 23:06, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

I suspect from the remarks in the debates that it's the same thin article, and therefore eligible for speedy, but I've never seen the deleted pages so I don't really have standing to make the claim. Yappy2bhere (talk) 23:14, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

I've deleted two of the pages as G4. The other was a redirect to the artist's page. Cheers! TNXMan 23:28, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much! That saved me more than a bit of work. Yappy2bhere (talk) 23:30, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

This question seems to come up frequently, especially if there is an unusual article title or debate that breaks the {{afd2}} template. So, I put a template together to handle this: {{oldafdlist}}. Best, UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 18:11, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Where ask question about copyright?

Where would be best place for asking a question about who owns the copyright for an image created as work for hire? RJFJR (talk) 21:28, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Media copyright questions —Akrabbim^talk 21:42, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Also read the Work for hire article for general background. --Teratornis (talk) 23:54, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

February 1

Strange page rendering problem

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 04:10, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

On this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Taranto

Depends on page width and font size, some time the text in the Battle section is covered by the map on the right. For example: http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/5466/clipboard02n.png http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3994/clipboard01mw.png

I can reproduce the behavior in (all win32) Firefox 3.0.17 and Google Chrome 4.0.249.78(36714). MSIE 7 do not have the hidden text problem, but the paragraph starting with "Half the TSRs" will always stay below the right info-box and may leave a large white space on the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.54.49.7 (talk) 00:41, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't see it in Firefox 3.6. In any event, I threw in some {{FixBunching}} templates - did that fix it? – ukexpat (talk) 01:30, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

It works better on Chrome now. It still have the same problem in Firefox 3.0.17. May be time to upgrade... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.54.49.7 (talk) 02:53, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Definitely! If you are worried about any of your extensions not working just install nightly tester tools - it can force compatibility and works like a charm for me. – ukexpat (talk) 02:59, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Do you need to be an admin to nominate someone for adminship?

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 01:25, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Do you need to be an admin to nominate someone for adminship, as well as to vote in an RfA? -NerdyScienceDude :) (✉ click to talk • my edits) 01:02, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

• No. User:Zscout370 ^{(Return Fire)} 01:05, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! -NerdyScienceDude :) (✉ click to talk • my edits) 01:08, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

How Do I Insert Pictures into an Article

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 04:09, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Greetings,

I do not know how to put pictures into an article. Could someone please direct me to the place where they tell you how to do it or offer to help me in this task? Thanks! SWitzki (talk) 02:20, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

• If you want to add an existing image to an article, add [[Image:File name.jpg|thumb|Caption text.]] to the area of the article where you want the image to appear – replacing File name.jpg with the actual file name of the image, and Caption text with a short description of the image. See our picture tutorial for more information.
• If you want to upload an image from your computer for use in an article, you must find out what the proper license of the image is. If you know the image is licensed under a free-license, upload it to the Wikimedia Commons instead of here, so that all projects have access to the image (sign up). If you are unsure what license the image takes, see the file upload wizard for more information. Please also read Wikipedia's image use policy. I hope this helps. – ukexpat (talk) 02:24, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

THANKS! I'll check out the turtorial and see if I can figure it out. SWitzki (talk) 03:58, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Special character

I found some words with a bar on top of alphabet "a" like Chāyāvathi in one page to reflect proper pronunciation. However when I first did a search with normal spelling character, I couldnt find the word. Then I had to manually read thru the page to find this. How to type this character using keyboard?

Thanks Balaji Email redacted —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.45.144.73 (talk) 03:41, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Please do not post contact details such as emails here, as this page is highly visible. As for your question, please leave questions about facts at the reference desk; this page is a help desk for questions about editing Wikipedia. Thank you. Liquidluck✽talk 04:03, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

When editing, you will find a box below your edit box with different alphabets, and you can pick a particular one: the choice 'Latin' includes 'ā'. However, Wikipedia does not provide any particular assistance in this for searching. How to enter accented and other special characters depends on your operating system and keyboard layout; but most systems have an accessory called 'Character map' or something like it, from which you can pick the character you want.

When you are talking about the title of an article where the subject of the article properly has an accented letter, there should also be a redirect from the same name without the accent (see WP:NAME#Special characters and formatting, but if you are talking about searching for a word within an article, I don't think there is any particular help for this. (If the word, even though not the title of the article, is likely to be searched for, it is possible to create a redirect the to the specific section of the article).

In this case, since Chāyāvati is an alternative name for Suryakantam, it is appropriate to provide a redirect from both Chayavati and Chāyāvati to Suryakantam, and I have done so.

Liquidluck - your reply about contact details was appropriate, but the question is clearly one about using Wikipedia, and is appropriate for this desk -- ColinFine (talk) 08:24, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

You're right, Colin, I misread the comment- thanks for pointing that out. I apologize for my mistake, 68.45.144.73! Liquidluck✽talk 08:48, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

editing erroneous info in my bio

I have read the article about me on Wikipedia. Tonight I edited out a paragraph that contained much erroneous data, as well as information on my publishing contracts which is inaccurate and is not public business anyway. It is plain to me that the paragraph was written by an ex-wife who wrote it to inflate her importance in my career. She claims to have been my agent, which she was not. She stated that I was married to someone whom I never married. I became aware of such misinformation when I began to see it posted in publicity for some of my public speaking engagements. Simple deletion of the paragraph is enough remedy for me, even though the misinformation has been spread by Wikipedia's posting for years. But I do not want to see that information put back in. I will advise her to that effect. James Alexander Thom 63.3.9.1 (talk) 06:03, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Sorry about the trouble this has caused you. Your biography hadn't been edited today, but I just deleted the second paragraph since it wasn't referenced. Technically, everything in your biography should go, since it isn't referenced. I've tagged the article with a clean-up tag and I'll try referencing it later today or tomorrow, though I'm concerned that any references I come across will be tainted with misinformation from this article. We're unable to protect the article from editing, but I'll keep an eye on it and hopefully other Wikipedia contributors will as well. Please feel free to contest information in the article by editing the article's discussion page. Liquidluck✽talk 08:14, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Removing unwanted contributions from history page

Some articles have been subject to previous edits that are clearly deliberate hoaxes and contain no truth. If this is the case and can be proven by evidence, is it possible for such edits to be deleted even from the article's history page? Even though the information can be easily removed from the article, the ridiculous edits still remain on the Internet, on the history page. Does anyone know if all traces of an edit can be removed?Tkma (talk) 09:37, 1 February 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tkma (talk • contribs) 09:36, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

• Although it is possible to remove edits from the article's history page (see Wikipedia:Oversight), as a rule, this would be used to remove personal information (such as someone's email address, telephone number etc), or libellous information. Without knowing the articles, I can't give a more definitive answer. If the information is just simply incorrect (such as "The doors on the White House are purple") then obviously this would not need to be removed from the history. The guidelines for Oversight say It is used within strict limits to remove defamatory material, to protect privacy, and sometimes to remove serious copyright violations, from any page or log entry (including if required the list of users) on English Wikipedia. - if the edits fall within those criteria, see Wikipedia:Requests_for_oversight for how to contact the oversighters. If your request does not fall within the suitable area, your request will be ignored - although if you make a few requests like that, you would be risking being blocked for disruptive behaviour. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 10:06, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Wikimedia is displaying an out of date logo for our company

Our company Portmeirion has recently updated its logo.

The image at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portmeirion-logo-green.png

Is now out of date and we need to update or remove it.

How can this be done ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.154.159.154 (talk) 13:13, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

You have to have a registered account and be an autoconfirmed user to upload files. If you don't wish to go through this, you can post a link to the new logo here, and I or someone else can upload it for you. --Mysdaao ^talk 13:25, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this is the way to reply but the new logo can be found at http://www.portmeirion.co.uk/media/black-portmeirion-logo.png Thanks for your help —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hooperleed (talk • contribs) 13:41, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

You replied correctly. I have uploaded File:Black-portmeirion-logo.png and updated the image on Portmeirion Pottery. Thank you for your help improving Wikipedia! --Mysdaao ^talk 14:05, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Inappropriate move of User:Springfieldohio to article

The user page and talk for the above user were inappropriately moved to an article page. I tried to move it back but I can't do that. Thanks. Americasroof (talk) 14:37, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I believe only administrators can move pages over redirects. You have three options: There are several administrators who regularly help out here, so you can wait for one of them to fix it for you; you also can go to the administrators' noticeboard to get one to assist you; or you can tag the userpage with {{db-g6|Dicen que Soy un Mujeriego|replace this text with a reason for moving}} (click the small text "Redirected from User:Springfieldohio" at the top of the article to get to the userpage), although you might run into trouble here because this situation isn't necessarily uncontroversial as CSD G6 requires. Xenon54 / talk / 14:51, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Seems to me that Springfieldohio wrote the article in userspace and then moved it to mainspace; there's nothing really wrong with doing that. I've moved the talk page back to its original name, since that really is a problem, but I don't think anything needs to be done about the userpage. By the way, anyone can move a page over a redirect if (1) the redirect points to the page that you're trying to move, and (2) the only edit in the history of the redirect consists of creating the redirect to the page that you're trying to move. Such was true in this situation, so I don't understand why you couldn't do it. What sort of error message did you receive? Nyttend (talk) 15:10, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Special:Contributions/Springfieldohio shows no edits since working on this on January 8 when it was at User:Springfieldohio. It was moved in [1] by User:Kjell Knudde with edit summary "This is the actual title". I don't think userspace drafts should be moved to article space by others without a request from or discussion with the user, and I see no sign of that. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:31, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks all for fixing. The user is somewhat of a newbie although prolific. I will email him to see what his intentions were. I suspect he was using his user page as a sandbox and somebody else wanted to put the article he was working on into mainspace. In any event I think it's correctly configured now (although I might remove the redirect on the user page). Thanks again. Americasroof (talk) 15:57, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

PS as an FYI. Based on past correspondence with this user, I suspect he edits at a library and must have left himself logged on as this article is wildly different from what he has historically posted (e.g., the article about a Spanish movie when his historical posts have been about the Midwest). Americasroof (talk) 16:11, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Account Deletion

Is it possible to delete a wikipedia account, including deletion of the user page?Trickyskills (talk) 15:26, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

User pages can be deleted but accounts cannot be completely deleted. See more at Wikipedia:Right to vanish. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:34, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Further to PrimeHunter's reply: Due to the fact that Wikipedia content is licensed under the GFDL, all edits must be kept for attribution purposes, and so your account cannot be deleted. You do, however, have the right to vanish, which you can exercise by (1) requesting your user page (found at Special:Mypage) and subpages be deleted, by adding the {{db-userreq}} template to them; (2) requesting to change your username to something that is unconnected with you (possibly a random collection of letters and numbers); (3) never logging in to your account again. The "right to vanish" does not mean anyone has the right to a fresh start under a new identity. Anyone who wants to continue editing should request a change of username instead so edits can be reattributed. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 15:53, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

How to eliminate large white space?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art

See top of article. How to eliminate the large white space. I have tried but cannot get a good fix of the problem. Suomi Finland 2009 (talk) 16:13, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I do not see a white space in this article. If you're referring to the space caused by the table of contents, you can remove that by clicking the "hide" tab in the table itself. TNXMan 16:17, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

That's odd — I do see a large white space; the text begins at the same line as the top of {{infobox nrhp}}, which itself begins at the bottom of the first infobox. I don't know how to fix this either. Nyttend (talk) 16:27, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

The problem is visible only with Internet Explorer (great piece of software). I found the problem within Template:Infobox museum: this is the correct version User:Basilicofresco/test2. -- Basilicofresco (msg) 17:05, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia pages do not open .msg : The server at en.wikipedia.org is taking too long to respond

Dear Sir ,

My search sher shah suri returned pages on wikipedia but the pages do not open with the msg :The server at en.wikipedia.org is taking too long to respond. I fail to understand the reasons . Some pages open while others dont . Could you please investigte the reasons and advise .

I faced problems with following google searches:

kanda india wiki bageshwar district india wiki

Please advise . Thanks .

Sunil K. Aggarwal

On wikipedia the "search" function is case insensitive, but the "go" function is case sensitive. Searching for "sher shah suri" gives a link to the page which you can click on, but if you try to "go" to the same term it will not do so. On the other hand if you type "Sher Shah Suri" and click "go" you will be taken there directly. The article an Sher Shah Suri uses that capitalization because it is a proper noun. LeadSongDog come howl 16:30, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

But the message "The server at en.wikipedia.org is taking too long to respond" sounds like a temporary condition. --ColinFine (talk) 08:21, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Invisibile (useless?) characters

These invisible unicode control characters &#FEFF; &#200E; &#200B; create problems within templates (take a look here). On italian Wikipedia we are wondering about a complete bot removal of &#200E; and &#200B;. Is there any page on en.wikipedia with a single useful left-to-right or right-to-left mark character? -- Basilicofresco (msg) 16:32, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes. These are often necessary to force proper display of bi-directional text. Here is a recent example. Algebraist 18:07, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure to understand why they should be necessary. I mean, do you see any difference between ({{ug|موللا مۇسا سەيرا}) and ({{ug|موللا مۇسا سەيرا})?(take a look below) The second one has no control characters. -- Basilicofresco (msg) 19:51, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

To answer your question, yes, they are completely different. Jan1naD ^{(talk • contrib)} 09:45, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Windows XP italian + Firefox 3.5.7

Are you serious? I see no differences (tested on Windows XP with IE 7, Chrome 3.5 and Firefox 3.5.7, take a look at the image). Do you see them reversed? What kind of browser / system are you using? -- Basilicofresco (msg) 11:35, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Yes one is reversed. Firefox 3.5.7, but does it matter? Jan1naD ^{(talk • contrib)} 13:37, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Now they both look the same, but I see from the history that you changed it in some subtle way in your previous edit. Jan1naD ^{(talk • contrib)} 13:41, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

FALSE. I bet you are not able to show us this "subdle edit"... because nobody edited that line. Anyway there is a strange fact: both sentences above have got the control character (probably my mistake in the first edit). -- Basilicofresco (msg) 14:57, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

My test on Windows XP italian + Firefox 3.5.7

Anyway here are again the sentences:

• (Uyghur: موللا مۇسا سەيرامى‎) lrm mark at the end (hidden character, found here)
• (Uyghur: موللا مۇسا سەيرامى‎) lrm mark at the end (inserted as html entity)
• (Uyghur: ‎موللا مۇسا سەيرامى) lrm mark at the beginning (inserted as html entity)
• (Uyghur: موللا مۇسا سەيرامى‏) rlm mark at the end (inserted as html entity)
• (Uyghur: ‏موللا مۇسا سەيرامى) rlm mark at the beginning (inserted as html entity)
• (Uyghur: موللا مۇسا سەيرامى) NO mark

Does anybody see any difference? Thank you. Basilicofresco (msg) 14:57, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Of course there's no problem with them. Why would there be? If you'd bothered to read the link I provided, you'd know that problems happen when a string of weak undirected characters follow rtl characters, as in the example given there of " Uyghur: (موللا مۇسا سەيرامى; 1836–1917) ". Here the dates display before the text in FF 3.5.7. Adding an ltr mark causes correct display: " Uyghur: (موللا مۇسا سەيرامى‎; 1836–1917) ". Algebraist 15:14, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Finally! This is an answer! I read the link you provided, but the first time I failed to exactly understand the problem. Now it is clear. Thank you very much. -- Basilicofresco (msg) 15:23, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Cans and Can'ts

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 20:09, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Would love further explanation on cans and can'ts on Wikipedia. Especially, rules and etc along those lines. As for me I had instances when I posted something that I didn't know that I could post on Wikipedia. Maybe more and which I can't think of at the moment.

Thank you, in advance.--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 18:22, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

That's a pretty general question because there are a lot of policies and guidelines about Wikipedia, but I suggest you read Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not. In regards to your most recent warning, I suggest you specifically read the section Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#FORUM. You appear to be primarily asking questions about unrelated topics. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and almost all of the discussions are about improving the encyclopedia. The reference desk is good for asking factual questions, but not for asking people's opinions or advice. --Mysdaao ^talk 18:37, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I added a welcome message to you talk page (I know it's a bit late) - it has links to a lot of useful pages.  – ukexpat (talk) 18:45, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Many of your edits have been on the Reference Desk. There are two problematic trends in your posts. These are not problems that will cause others to demand that your account be blocked. These are more of a social "no-no" within the society of the Reference Desk. First, you have made posts that do not contain questions. There is a long complaint, but no question to be answered. The Reference Desk is just that: A "reference" desk. When asking a question, you should focus on what reference you want. Do you want a reference to some statistical number? Do you want a reference to a book on a topic? Do you want a reference to a bit of trivia? Second, you tend to fall into discussion instead of question/answer. The Reference Desk is not a discussion forum. While there is a lot of discussion that takes place, it should (and I mean "should" not "does") only pertain to better gathering references. For many people, the Reference Desk it too boring to mess with. There are no good discussion. There are no jokes. There are no links to kitten videos on YouTube. If you find it boring, please don't despair. There are thousands of discussion forums on the Internet. Just go to the Computing Reference Desk and ask for a link to some that meet the topics you are interested in discussing. -- kainaw™ 18:47, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your responses to my question here. Okay and never even thought of it that way before. --Jessica A Bruno (talk) 19:32, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

list of ex-millwall players

add to list ray brand player from 1951/1961 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brandyfootball (talk • contribs) 20:20, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

There is no List of ex-Millwall players, do you mean Millwall F.C.#Notable former players? And maybe a please next time?  – ukexpat (talk) 21:03, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

can't find my user page

I started to create a new page in my user space. I save it. Now, I can't find it to continue editing it. Help! Wdrefmember (talk) 20:41, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

--->User:Wdrefmember/Wisconsin Directors of Religious Education Federation ..Buzzzsherman (talk) 20:46, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

The only other edit I see you have made (see Special:Contributions/Wdrefmember) is to this page: User:Wdrefmember/Wisconsin Directors of Religious Education Federation. Is this what you mean? If you mean User:Wdrefmember, it is possible that you selected "Show preview" instead of "Save page" by accident. —Akrabbim^talk 20:48, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Wiki Suggestion

To whom it may concern:

This doesn't really belong here, but I couldn't find a place on Wikipedia where users make suggestions about the site. I think that each page, much like movie pages on IMDB or Netflix, should contain something at the bottom of it along of the lines of "Users who viewed this page also viewed: X, X, X and X." While many terms are linked within each page, seeing what other viewers looked at would probably touch on more general topics of interest with lesser obvious,thematic connections that Wikipedia can't intuit.

For instance, today I read the page on the "Donner Party." These kind of stories really fascinate me, but I had no way from the Donner Party page to get to other stories that are like these but are not merely explanations of minute facts about the Donner Party. I'm also very interested in the Dyaltov Pass Incident, and I think these two stories have a lot of similarities in their content such that a user who likes one might be interested in the other. However, there is no physical way to get from one to the other without knowing about both because their connection rests on themes rather than linkable words and phrases. Just a thought, thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.16.64.11 (talk) 22:49, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates for some of the tools we have for grouping related articles together. You can also compile articles into "Books" and portals. Don't forget to search Wikipedia with Google because Google gives you related articles you might not find by following Wikipedia's internal links. Exposing Wikipedia visitors' browsing histories is unlikely to get much traction with the community, I would guess. It might just create more needle-in-haystack problems because you would have no easy way to sort out the "good" readers (whose browsing you might like to follow) from the hordes of casual visitors who might know less than you. You can, however, look at the history of any article you find interesting, see who has edited it, and check their contributions to see what else they are editing. Some users write user subpages to keep notes on what they are doing; for example, here is what I find interesting about the topic of Energy. For more information about attempts by other people to address this type of problem, see Recommender system and Collaborative filtering. A third party could (attempt to) set up a collaborative filter for Wikipedia. If enough people participated, such a site could potentially identify your interests and feed you recommendations from other users who share your interests. --Teratornis (talk) 23:35, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

And of course check the backlinks such as Special:WhatLinksHere/Donner Party. That often shows you many articles (and user pages, templates, etc.) that the article you are viewing does not link to directly on its own. For example, if you are viewing an article about a famous example of something, the backlinks can lead you to related obscure articles that link "upward" in the notability sense. An article about an obscure topic is more likely to link to a related less obscure topic than conversely. An article about, say, Barack Obama will not link to every person who is notable for having worked with him, but if those people have their own articles, their articles will probably link to Obama's article. --Teratornis (talk) 23:46, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Changing an existing article to reflect changed circumstances

In June or July 2009 the Honorable Stephan P. Mickle was elevated from his position as a district judge to the position of Chief Judge in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Florida. The article on the Honorable Robert L. Hinkle now needs to be amended to reflect the fact that Judge Hinkle is no longer the Chief Judge, although he remains on the court as a district judge. THSWarrior (talk) 22:59, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

THSWarrior —Preceding unsigned comment added by THSWarrior (talk • contribs) 22:58, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion regarding Robert Lewis Hinkle. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). --Mysdaao ^talk 23:33, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

The same problem that happened to me yesterday is happening again

Hello,it's immunize (talk · contribs).Yesterday I asked here for help with editing an article I created, treatment of life threatening diseases, where my most recent changes were just not displaying. It was fixed by tiderolls (talk · contribs). Today the same problem is happening on a new page I created, Medical conditions related to autism. Any help would be much appreciated. Immunize (talk) 23:53, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I see it has been fixed by correctly closing ref tags in [2] and [3]. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:59, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

February 2

Hughes Tool Company/Dickson Gun Plant - Houston, Texas

In you article about Hughes Tool Company you failed to mention that Hughes Tool Company opened and operated Dickson Gun Plant in Houston, Texas from 1942 to 1945 under the control of the U.S. Army to produce howitzers and other large tubular guns. They employed 1350 who were transferred back to Hughes Tool Company when the plant closed (this information obtained from "The Handbook of Texas Online"). Dickson Gun Plant reopened in 1951 but I do not how long it remained in operation...this information was obtained from a close relative who was Manufacturing Superintendant during the 40's and again in the 50's. Hopefully you will include the verified information in your article and investigate further some other facts about this plant.Jdhenley (talk) 00:06, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for wanting to improve Wikipedia; but this is not the best place to ask that question. Here you are addressing hundreds or thousands of people, some of whom might have some interest in Hughes Tool Company, but many of whom will not. One way to get a change made to an article is to edit it yourself! However, if you do not have a published source for the information you add, it is likely to be removed. If you do not feel confident of making the edit yourself, or you do not have published sources for the information, your best course is to open a discussion on the article's talk page: you are more likely to find people there who are motivated to work with you on that article. --ColinFine (talk) 08:31, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

nudity censorship

i really have a problem when i look up an actress or a simple subject to find out information about it and find nudity in the pictures. i am a Christian and don't like that when im looking for article information there are pictures with nudity without any censor on them. there are millions of people using wikipedia and a lot of them are most likely children. so therefore i believe there should be an overhaul in the area of getting rid of these pictures. but if only censoring them, censor them. or at least give the option to not show nudity for pages that have it.

please do something about this. i have long been a proponent of wikipedia and don't want to bash the site and have to turn to other resources due to this noncensorship. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.121.191.3 (talk) 01:28, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia contains objectionable content that is not censored, and that is not going to change. This issue has been brought up several times in the past - Muslims cannot view pictures of Muhammad, for example, and some people take issues with the graphic diagrams and pictures regarding such topics as fellatio and sexual intercourse. Time after time, though, Wikipedians have agreed that censoring our articles for the benefit of one group contradicts our policy requiring a neutral point of view - i.e., censoring an article or even providing warnings of objectionable material creates bias. The bottom line is: if you object to Wikipedia's content, the best option is to go elsewhere. Xenon54 / talk / 01:37, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

You might want to read Wikipedia:Options to not see an image to ensure that you do not see images. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 01:40, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

What actress pages contain nudity? Is this Christian user only checking on pornographic actresses? Even those pages here on Wikipedia do not contain nudity from what I've seen. -- kainaw™ 04:31, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Point of order: Some Muslim sects and lines of belief hold that images of the prophet (PBOH) are forbidden, many others have no such restriction at all and in fact are the very source of the supposedly forbidden images. Nothing more, carry on please. Franamax (talk) 05:15, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to expand on Kainaw's concern here. While we throw around WP:NOTCENSORED a lot, it only means that Wikipedia includes graphic images of nudity and/or sex where appropriate to the subject matter. For example, the article erotic art would be expected to have such pictures. However, where such images would be unexpected, for example including a nude picture of an actress in a biography of that actress, would probably NOT be an appropriate use of that image. So, I would request that 70.121.191.3 point to specific articles where nude images are being used inappropriately. It is entirely possible that there is a nude image which has been inserted into an article as a form of vandalism or is otherwise inappropriate to the specific article in question. --Jayron32 04:49, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Wrong Picture at "Salvador, Bahia" article.

There is a wrong picture displayed at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador,_Bahia" page. It is named "Bahia de todos os Santos" and it is located right below "Economy" section. Although the file name is "Bahia.JPG" it shows somewhere in Asia, but not what it was supposed to be showing, a view of "All saints bay" (Baía de todos os santos)

189.115.241.51 (talk) 02:33, 2 February 2010 (UTC) Leo

Table background color

Can A table have background color and if so how do I add it. I am new to Wikipedia and I am very confused about this. Thanks

Fly it 'till the last piece stops moving - somebody, User:Sumsum2010 02:49, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

A table can have a background color by adding options to a style field at the top. For example, this code:

{| class="wikitable" style="background:red"
|-
!  header 1
!  header 2
!  header 3
|-
|  row 1, cell 1
|  row 1, cell 2
|  row 1, cell 3
|-
|  row 2, cell 1
|  row 2, cell 2
|  row 2, cell 3
|}

creates this:

header 1	header 2	header 3
row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2	row 1, cell 3
row 2, cell 1	row 2, cell 2	row 2, cell 3

More description on how to do this can be found at Help:Table#Color; scope of parameters. --Mysdaao ^talk 03:04, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Countries and quality of life

I am confused why I can find , for example the quality of life rating and other important value indexes for countries like Spain and France and yet none for countries like the UK or the USA. It's quite ominous don't you think ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.193.204.123 (talk) 03:50, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Quality-of-life index has Spain and France and the UK and the USA. And 107 other countries. --Jayron32 04:06, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

author needed

Who wrote this quote, "Those who dream by day are cognizant to those who dream only at night" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.143.191.9 (talk) 06:54, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. --ColinFine (talk) 08:35, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

FWIW, that quote is a mangling of Edgar Allen Poe's "Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." Gonzonoir (talk) 09:26, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

White background instead of image

Somehow I started to see a white background here instead of picture, both in Opera and Mozilla, and when I click it there is just a grey chess pattern. The previews at file history however render properly. How to fix that? Brand[t] 07:45, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Mobile version disabled

Hi there, I have accidently disabled the my beloved mobile wikipedia format whilst using wikipedia on my mobile. Despite trying for months and searching FAQ's at the help desk i can not fathom a way to turn this back on. Please can you help Val —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.39.8.228 (talk) 10:17, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Does Wikipedia:Enable mobile version help? PrimeHunter (talk) 11:33, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

No response

Hi,

My username is stuffingtechnologies. I submitted a contribution for an article keyword "bebo." But there wasn't any response from your end. I am not sure if you want to add it or not to. It has bee two months now. Please clarify?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stuffingtechnologies (talk • contribs) 10:19, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I assume you're referring to what you wrote at Talk:Bebo#CEOP Protection. It wasn't clear from what you wrote that you were asking a question or proposing new text to the article Bebo. You do not need to discuss new changes on the talk page unless you think they're controversial. If you wish to add information to the article, you may go ahead and do it. Your account is autoconfirmed, so you can edit the semi-protected page. Because Wikipedia has a policy of verifiablity, you should provide a reliable source for your information as well. --Mysdaao ^talk 13:33, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I need access to diesel automobiles

I need access to diesel automobiles.Wdl1961 (talk) 13:22, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Wikipedia:Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. --Mysdaao ^talk 13:37, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

yeast

explain manufacturing process of yeast? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sankar rajmen (talk • contribs) 14:19, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Hello. Have you looked at the article for Yeast? If that doesn't help, you could try the Wikipedia:Reference desk, maybe Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science where someone may be able to help you. This page is for questions about Wikipedia. --BelovedFreak 14:27, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Bad link

I dont want to sign, just want to inform u have a bad link, under references #7. the link can be found when viewing information on AM3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM3) and the bad link I get is http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/WebPage/mb_081225_am3/tech_081225_am3bios.htm. Sorry If this is the incorrect way of reporting this. But I don not want to sign up... and I do not like editing other peoples 'stuff'. A comment box or suggestion box would be a good idea, instead of me having to do this.... Cheers... EH! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.71.8.251 (talk) 14:45, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Thank you EH: I will try to replace the bad link with one that works. Instead of a comment box we have the talk page on each article, which is a good place to alert other editors when you spot a problem like this. Gonzonoir (talk) 14:49, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Training

Is there certificate tutorial training on Wikipedia?14:59, 2 February 2010 (UTC)~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.178.127.1 (talk)

Is it allowed to use wikipedia as a reference for information when creating new wikipedia articles

Just wondering weather or not you can cite wikipedia as a reference,as I did here. Any help would be much appreciated. Immunize (talk) 15:03, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

You cannot. See WP:CIRCULAR. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:07, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

You can't,but, the article that you (tried to)referenced will have a list of references itself. It may be an idea to look at the references wikipedia article that you triedto reference you may find that those references hold the information that you need, and will be suitable references for a wikipedia article. Darigan (talk) 15:11, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Commons link logo displaying on help page?

Resolved

 –  – ukexpat (talk) 18:23, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Help:File page displays a Commons logo in its upper right corner. This logo works as it does in files from Commons that display it in the same corner: click on the image, and it takes you to the Commons file page. However, Commons:Help:File page doesn't exist, and I can't find a way to remove this logo from the page here. What's going on? Nyttend (talk) 16:50, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

That icon is in MediaWiki:Sharedupload-desc-here, which is transcluded onto Help:File page to show what the "this is a file from the Wikimedia Commons" message looks like. This could be fixed by hard-coding that transclusion. That would mean it wouldn't change when the MediaWiki page changes, but it doesn't seem to have ever been changed substantively. Algebraist 17:05, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)It's because of the template {{MediaWiki:Sharedupload-desc-here}} (shown here with the tlx argument). If you can display the image without using the template, that would fix the problem. TNXMan 17:06, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Problem solved. The icon is now only included on pages in the File namespace. diff —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:19, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

account tied to old address

I tried to log in to create a page, and while I believe I have an account, I cannot remember the password, and it appears to be tied to an old email address. Is there anything I can do, other than create a new account? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.190.174.202 (talk) 17:29, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

No, sorry, without access to the old e-mail account you are snookered. However, when you have created your new account you may be able to WP:USURP your old user name. – ukexpat (talk) 17:35, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Edits on archived talk pages

Sorry if I'm asking the obvious, but I want to make sure that I'm not acting improperly. Virtually all archived talk pages have a notice saying not to edit the page.

• If there are templates on an archived page which make it show up in todo-type lists, e.g. {{3O}} on archived pages where a Third Opinion has already been given, but still shows up here, or where the template's notice or request is still valid and you're going to answer it, e.g. a {{3O}} on an archived page which has never been answered and which you answer, is it acceptable to edit the archived page to, at least, remove the template that's causing an entry elsewhere (presuming that it would be right to remove it from the active/current talk page if it were there instead, of course)?
• If so, if you remove the template because you've done something which needs a comment on the article's talk page, is the correct protocol to:
  • remove the template and put that comment on the archived page or to
  • remove the template from the archived page and put the comment on the active/current talk page?

For example, here I converted the {{geodata-check}} into non–linked {{geodata-check}} text (which is what you're supposed to do when you remove a {{geodata-check}} template, q.v.) and inserted a {{failed}} template on the archive page to explain why I did it. Was that okay to do both those things there? Regards, TRANSPORTERMAN (TALK) 17:43, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Sounds OK to me, per WP:IAR if nothing else. – ukexpat (talk) 18:18, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I also see no problem with using {{tlc}} to remove a template like {{geodata-check}} from an archive page in order to remove it from categories and the what links here list. But please don't use {{Failed}} on the archive page like you did because that is intended for proposed policies and guidelines, and it automatically puts the page in Category:Wikipedia rejected proposals. Something like {{Not done}} or {{Stale}} would be more appropriate, but nothing is required besides an explanation in the edit summary. You should bring it up in a new section on the current talk page if you think the discussion is worth continuing. If not, then nothing more is required. --Mysdaao ^talk 18:29, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

So by using {{failed}} I caused exactly what I intended to cure? Please permit me a self-whack!. One further clarification: if I had needed to do more than could be put in a edit description, like offer a Third Opinion, should I copy the entire discussion over to the current talk page? Move it and delete it from the archive page? Just state my opinion and give a link back to the discussion? Thanks very much for the help. Regards, TRANSPORTERMAN (TALK) 20:04, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I'd rather see a new section on the current talk page with a link to the archived discussion. But I wouldn't object to the other methods either. --Mysdaao ^talk 21:07, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Citing a video reference

Here is a Youtube Video, It contains a interview with Jane Hall about her fictional character. It has casting Info a I want to use for information on her fictional character's page. The video contains all the info I need, it's there... but we can't use youtube as a source can we. So how do I go about it. Say for instance, if any of us watched a re-broadcast or a archive of this episode of Rove, the info is still there. So I'm trying to cite a TV show but I want it to lead back to this piece of media.Raintheone (talk) 18:08, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

There is a template for citing videos, {{Cite video}}, so it may be OK. The folks at the reliable sources noticeboard may be able to help further. – ukexpat (talk) 18:17, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Engineering portal

I was looking through the portals, and discovered that there is no engineering portal. The closest I could find were the Science and Technology portals, neither of which are engineering. As a clarification, while engineering is closely related to technology, it consists of the learning disciplines which use math, science, and art to essentially create technology. Technology is the product, engineering is the process. Anyways, did I miss the portal, or does it not exist? Do you think it would be a good idea to create one, and how could I go about doing that? Would it be better to have the engineering portal as a sub-portal of technology? It just seems to me like it is an incredibly broad topic and needs a portal to provide the centralization of articles that the main engineering page cannot. Thanks, Somedaypilot (talk) 19:12, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

The Engineering Portal is at Portal:Engineering. --Mysdaao ^talk 19:21, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

And the Engineering Wikiproject at Wikipedia:WikiProject Engineering. – ukexpat (talk) 19:25, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Question mark in a section title

I've looked a bit but can't find any guidance so far. Is there anything that discusses a question mark in a section title? I'm of the opinion that this makes it look like wikipedia is asking a question, which implies a POV - that a question needs to be asked. I also think it looks funny and is redundant to the superheading. In the case I'm thinking of, there is a "Controversies" level 2 heading, and a level three heading beneath says "Suitability for children?" - which for me says that wikipedia is asking "Is this material suitable for children" when the same heading without the question mark does not ask but rather points to a controversy - that the suitability for children has been discussed by someone else. Perhaps an odd question, but looks sufficiently odd that I'm interested seeing if there's any guidance I haven't seen yet. WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules:^simple/_complex 20:12, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I agree with you on style grounds alone that headings should never be questions, your POV point is an even better reason. I try to rephrase such headings when I see them. – ukexpat (talk) 20:20, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

But is there any guidance? And should there be? Perhaps a question for the village pump or another policy board? WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules:^simple/_complex 20:24, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I haven't found any specific style guidelines that apply, but there are technical reasons that question marks in article titles can be problematic, explained at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions)#Question marks and plus signs. --Mysdaao ^talk 20:36, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Putting a pic on Commons so I can use it on en.wikipedia

I'm re-working Gundremmingen nuclear power plant. The de.wikipedia article includes a picture that I would like to add to the article, but it's not on Commons so I can't get it to show. I'm afraid I am clueless about how to put it on Commons, though the license seems ok for that. Datei:Modell_AKW_Gundremmingen.JPG. Yngvadottir (talk) 20:40, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure of the specifics, but this page has some good tips. TNXMan 20:44, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Try using CommonsHelper 2. Although it should work for any Wikimedia project the interface is nur auf Englisch at the moment. The file is CC-BY-SA-DE-2.0 (whew!) so there shouldn't be issues once it's uploaded to Commons, provided it's tagged correctly. Xenon54 / talk / 22:00, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure if he speaks german, but you may want to contact User:EVula, who is an admin at Commons and at en.wikipedia, and works a lot with cross-wiki moves like this. I'm not exactly sure if this is up his alley, or how active he is at de.wiki but I think he may be able to help.--Jayron32 22:15, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Userspace subst'ing

I made a subpage of mine to speed up some tedious citing I was working on at List of albums released in 2009, but when I go to subst it, it just shows up as raw text. Why is it not working as it should? I tested in my sandbox, and it worked there. The subpage is {{User:Akrabbim/AMGcite}}, and you can see it at this ref. —Akrabbim^talk 21:42, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

It would appear that you can't SUBST within <ref>...</ref>. I don't know why! However, it works if you do not SUBST it. I have removed the SUBST from the refs in the article, so they work visually - but I think you're going to have to do them all manually, I'm afraid! -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 22:11, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, odd. I wanted to subst them so it wouldn't have my name plastered over all the refs, but I suppose that's alright for now. At some point I'll whip up some documentation and maybe move it to template space. Thanks. —Akrabbim^talk 22:14, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Contents box

How can I delete a contents box so I can put in a custom alphabetical order contents box? MC Steel (talk) 23:30, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Have you looked at Wikipedia:Template_messages/Compact_tables_of_contents? -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 23:35, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks!! I was looking around and couldn't find it. Thanks again. MC Steel (talk) 23:44, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Account

Is there anyway to merge (Mybodymyself) or just delete my previous account (Jessicaabruno)? Have no preference has the one that you choose. --Jessica A Bruno (talk) 23:36, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

• I am afraid that you cannot merge accounts. Due to the fact that Wikipedia content is licensed under the GFDL, all edits must be kept for attribution purposes, and so your account cannot be deleted. -- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ 23:42, 2 February 2010 (UTC)