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July 30

Template for a user using more than one account

I have a two users that keep inserting material into articles, both account are relatively new so I was looking for a warning template to explain that using more than one account is not allowed. Both accounts are relatively new and i dont think this is malicious socking but rather uninformed socking Weaponbb7 (talk) 00:40, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Why use a template when a short note will suffice? I think it's common courtesy to politely let a user know that what they are doing is wrong and give them a chance to fix their behavior before stuffing bold text and red stop signs down their throat. Xenon54 (talk) 00:47, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c) Using more than one account is allowed, though from the way you've couched your post, it sounds like the use here may fall under inappropriate uses, though I can't say without real context. I don't know of any dedicated template, but you can tailor a message yourself—maybe something like Hello ____. Based on your edits, I suspect that you and [[Uesername2]] are the same person with two accounts. Though multiple account use is permitted in [[WP:Multiple Accounts|limited ways]], the manner you have been using these accounts falls under the [[Wikipedia:Sock puppetry#Inappropriate uses of alternative accounts|illegitimate uses listed in our sockpuppet policy]] because you have been __________________. Since I think this sock puppetry violation is inadvertent on your part, I am here to ask you to stop using both accounts to make these edits, from now forward. Thanks.~~~~ Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:58, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

thank you for you assistance, I am never sure how to approach these issues so i personally favor templates but that message is perfect. Weaponbb7 (talk) 01:12, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Glad it fits.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:16, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Universal time

I would like your help with regard to universal time. I am not talking about the rotation time or about the time on earth.. I am talking about universal time of the universe. Is there such a time or does this question not make any sense at all? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Harruk (talk • contribs) 01:18, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think this is what you are really looking for, but does it help at all to know that current theory and observations suggest that the universe is 13.75 ±0.17 billion years old?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:31, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The OP may also want to consider that there is no universal time in the sense that there is no reference frame in the universe where we can say that the clock in that frame keeps the universal time. On earth, we arbitrarily call UTC (Greenwhich mean time) the universal time, and base our clocks on that. Because of the implications of special relativity and general relativity, there is no where in the universe which we can use as a reference point in a similar manner. All time is local time, and your local time is dependant on the velocity you are moving relative to others. So not only is your clock not at the same time as places which are moving at different speeds than you, your clocks are moving at different speeds! That means that what is one hour for you can be 45 minutes for a person moving faster than you are. See twin paradox for just one example of the counterintuitive problems this creates. Also see Relativity of simultaneity, which says that we cannot even say which of two events in different parts of the universe occured first. Its pretty weird stuff, this universe we live in. --Jayron32 02:16, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That explanation makes my head spin... Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 02:24, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The key is question is how much time does your head spend spinning. Is it spinning faster than the person next to you? I'm much older than you, and my head tends to spin slowly. In fact, in my case creaking is probably a better term than spinning.--Bbb23 (talk) 18:52, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Help explaining speedy criterion F2

Could someone help explain speedy deletion criterion F2 to someone who finds it very confusing? Stepho-wrs created a local description page for an image on Commons, and when the local description page was tagged under F2 (which permits the deletion of "empty (i.e., no content) image description pages for Commons images"), s/he placed a hangon. When I tried to explain on Stepho's talk, s/he began with "Sorry, but you lost me on this one" and produced a response consistent with someone who thinks that his/her image, rather than a useless description page, is about to be deleted. I've added a response trying to explain that only the local description page was deleted, not anything with the actual image or its actual description page, but somehow I doubt that this explanation will be sufficient. Nyttend (talk) 01:36, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I added something but don't know whether the user will understand. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:41, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Juan Williams biography

No where in the Juan Williams bio does it state his citizenship status. It staes that he was born in the Republic of Panama. Is he or is he not a naturakized US citizen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.181.100.93 (talk) 01:42, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Being born in Panama doesn't necessarily make one not an American citizen from birth. If both of his parents were American citizens, for example, he may have not have needed to be naturalized as he may have been considered a citizen since birth. See John McCain for a similar example. It is unclear from the Wikipedia article what that status is specific to Juan Williams; however it may also not be relevent enough to have ever been noted by anyone. --Jayron32 02:08, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Template F to C

What's up with that? I was reading Burke and Wills expedition and happened on "90 (32.2 )", the result of Template:F to C. I switched it to template convert, but now I'm wondering if there's some not-so-obvious reason for the original choice. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:04, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The F to C template is used for different locales, in different countries. For example, if your account is set to Celcius/your computer is recognized as being from a Celcius area (ip tracing), it will convert the temperature to the appropriate scale. A p3rson ‽ 05:10, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)It looked correct for me when I just checked the revision prior to your changes. {{F to C}} uses a single unicode entity for the units (contains both the "degree" symbol and the F or C letter": \u2109 is "DEGREE FAHRENHEIT" and \u2103 is "DEGREE CELSIUS", and they render in a bold-like character. Not all browsers seem to be able to handle full unicode correctly:( {{convert}} as you specified uses normal ASCIIish ° and F/C characters, which is a more portable way to display it. {{F to C}} has been unicode since this change years ago. Worse, it has only limited controls for rendering options. I guess there are reasons it's only used on ~20 pages. Might be a nice cleanup task for someone with a few minutes to spare. Could then push for deletion of the template that gives a poor user experience. DMacks (talk) 05:20, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's a good answer, too. A p3rson ‽ 05:37, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Grammatical Error(s) in the "About RfA" Page

Please take note of the following grammatical mistakes in the About RfA Page:

1.

Nomination standards There are no official prerequisites for adminship, other than having an account and a basic level of trust from other editors. The community looks for a variety of things in candidates, and everybody has their own opinion. For examples of what the community is looking for, read some successful and some unsuccessful RfAs.

--- "everybody" is always singular...therefore, it should be "everybody has his or her opinion"

2. avoid using these: and/or, his/her.... these are awkward and have already been outlawed. Therefore, avoid using "/".

3. Never begin a sentence with a preposition such as "To"

I hope you can appreciate this gesture.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stardustalpha2010 (talk • contribs) 06:05, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Um, for the first one, we are trying to use 'their' in a non-standard way. For the second, can you think of a better way to express the same thing concisely without the forward slash? For the third, I'm not so sure. You see, our policies and guidelines are not the kind of policy with so formal vocabulary that you have to check the dictionary. Sometimes there are jokes in guidelines (see the mango in WP:AGF for example.) Kayau Voting IS evil 06:23, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've heard (much too frequently) the old "rule" about not ending a sentence with a preposition, but this is the first time I've encountered someone who thinks it's wrong to begin a sentence with one. To each his own, I guess. Deor (talk) 21:32, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In formal grammar references I've heard/seen it written about:) The beginning case doesn't even appear to have the "Latin origin" type of legacy underlying it. DMacks (talk) 22:16, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your opinions Stardustalpha. Some people agree with you. Others do not. See for example Singular they (though that is not a good article, I admin). --ColinFine (talk) 20:09, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Varan(malayalam 2010 film)

I want to tag the above page but i'm not sure what criteria to put it under.Gobbleswoggler (talk) 07:41, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What problem do you perceive? DMacks (talk) 08:09, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's not enough info and a couple of red links.Gobbleswoggler (talk) 08:18, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Tagged with expand, wikify, uncat, onesource, copyedit and notability. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:41, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have PRODed it per WP:NFILMS. – ukexpat (talk) 14:51, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Currency conventions

Is there a page describing how to designate currency on Wikipedia, for instance whether to use USD or US$?

--Mortense (talk) 07:49, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

MOS:CURRENCY. DMacks (talk) 08:09, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. It redirects and the specific location is Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style, Currencies. --Mortense (talk) 08:27, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Adding figures to an article

How does one add figures to an article, and what formats are supported (e.g., EPS, JPG, ...)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Boute (talk • contribs) 08:42, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to add an existing image to an article, add [[File: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 determine the proper license of the image (or whether it is in the public domain). If you know the image is public domain or copyrighted but under a suitable 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 of the licensing status, see the file upload wizard for more information. Please also read Wikipedia's image use policy. I hope this helps. Kayau Voting IS evil 08:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

KATHIRAVAN BOYS CRICKET CLUB(KBCC)

Is the above page a test page?,Gobbleswoggler (talk) 10:03, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:23, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

creation of article

vijayz

This is known as tamil film hero. but here vijayan is known as vijayz..!

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. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:34, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Archiving my talk page

Can someone who knows how to,archive my current talk page and make me a new talk page.I have read the page about archiving talk pages but am still confused.Gobbleswoggler (talk) 10:50, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Kayau Voting IS evil 11:01, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My also, please archive till 50 section. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 12:06, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Kayau Voting IS evil 12:10, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Redefinition of the Metre in 1983

What has happened to the references on this page.Gobbleswoggler (talk) 10:53, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The creator is working on it. He has not copied the content of the references yet. Please be patient. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:57, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Renomination

Can anybody please renominate Portal:Star for featured status. Reason: More improved now and open more new supports than the last time. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 11:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Done myself, (see here). --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 04:51, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

File:Asd.jpg

Resolved

– Thank you, passing PrimeHunter. – ukexpat (talk) 18:19, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I tried nominating this page File:Asd.jpg for deletion, but I seem to have botched things up. I do not mean to delete any file, just this page - an unnecessary redirect to a file that is creating a bug with another completely different file in commons. Could someone please nominate this page for deletion for me? Thanks, --Santosga (talk) 13:15, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

PROD does not work for files. Please try WP:CSD, WP:RFD or WP:FFD instead. Kayau Voting IS evil 13:22, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have removed the PROD and the redirect. Would a passing admin please delete the Wikipedia file info page? – ukexpat (talk) 14:50, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have deleted it and fixed [1] the only use. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:20, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all, --Santosga (talk) 18:54, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

retrieve booklet

I was creating booklet to print when I was bumped off line; where can I find my booklet?

Renee Priest —Preceding unsigned comment added by Renee Priest (talk • contribs) 14:33, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, it looks like this post is your only contribution. The book may still be saved in your browser's history, however. TN X Man 14:42, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Your account is not autoconfirmed yet so you cannot save books. If your book is not visible at Special:Book then you may have to start over. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:13, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

ERROR IN ARTICLE!!

In your article for former Gov. Rod Blogojevich the hyperlink for his Lt. Gov Patrick Quinn is incorrect. It takes you to an actor's article named Patrick Quinn when in actuality it should take you here ---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Quinn_(politician) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.249.47.198 (talk) 16:27, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. I looked through all of the wikilinks for Pat Quinn in the article and they all look like they're pointing to the right place. Can you be more specific with the location of the incorrect link? TN X Man 16:29, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here on Wikipedia, articles such as Blago's that deal with current events change quickly, sometimes several times every minute. That appears to be the case here; someone else noticed the error at the same time as you did and has already fixed it. In the future, please do not be afraid to be bold and fix simple problems yourself. Here is a quick list of basic markup. Xenon54 (talk) 16:41, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed - The link in question was in the Impeachment trial and removal from office section of the article. - Happysailor ^(Talk) 16:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

CentralNotice

Anyone knows if there's more information about this? They don't even say what the jobs are, except "a series of important senior and entry level positions"? 86.18.101.246 (talk) 17:22, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We are especially looking for:

Current Wikimedia community contributors and leaders,
Insightful observers of Wikimedia and other collaborative communities,
People with specialty skill sets (e.g. statistics, ethnography, and probably a lot other things we've never thought of),
People belonging to language communities of new and growing Wikipedias and other Wikimedia projects,
People with insight into reaching groups currently underrepresented in Wikimedia contributor communities. ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 17:51, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I read that already, but it's obviously vague as to what the whole thing is about. 86.18.101.246 (talk) 17:56, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The page could be clearer, but here's my take on it (which could be wrong). While I cannot speak for the unidentified author(s) of the foundation:Special:CommunityHiring page, my impression is that the Wikimedia Foundation wants to hire people who will at least partially define their own positions. I.e., people who understand online collaboration on a deep level and have their own ideas about how to improve it. In other words, if you have to ask this question, that is if you can't decode the somewhat roundabout descriptions on the page, you're probably not what they are looking for. Just my opinion. Note that Wikipedia and the other WMF project wikis have a lot of contributors with amazingly advanced skills who work for free, so anyone who wants to get paid to work for Wikipedia had better be at least as good as the volunteers, to have any credibility with the user community. Anyway, if you want the real answer, you'll have to track down whoever wrote that page, which looks to be difficult because it's a special page and therefore has no easily visible history. --Teratornis (talk) 18:01, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Do you think they really expect people to apply without even knowing what the jobs are, though? 86.18.101.246 (talk) 18:21, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's a very good question. Again, only the people who wrote that page can tell us. Here's a quote that might explain the (purposely?) vague job description:

“

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

— Arthur Schopenhauer

”

Maybe they aren't looking for "people", but geniuses. I did get an "are you kidding me?" chuckle when I read this: "Candidates who are not already deeply immersed in online collaborative communities will have to show an aptitude for quickly gaining a deep understanding of our communities' technologies, practices, traditions and culture ..." I've been editing on Wikipedia since 2006 and I'm not sure my understanding is "deep" yet. --Teratornis (talk) 18:27, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Downloading photo from Flicr

I hope I'm posting to the right place. I would like to download a photo from Flicr to commons and don't have the first idea how to go about it. I have an account at commons. Thanks. Jack 1314 (talk) 17:48, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

First you save the picture from Flickr, preferably the highest resolution possible, then you upload it as normal to Commons (but you need to watch out for the licensing; Commons only accepts CC except the ones with the 'nc' (non-commercial) clause.) 86.18.101.246 (talk) 17:52, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Upload! Follow the instructions written in the document please! ♪ ♫ Wifione ♫ ♪ _―Œ^{♣Łeave Ξ мessage♣} 17:54, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks guys! Now, what's this keyboardy thing in front me? Nah, just kidding. :) Thanks again. Jack 1314 (talk) 17:59, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See the links under Commons:COM:EIC#Flickr if you want to use one of the various automated or semi-automated tools. For example, I documented some examples of my uploads using Flominator's Flinfo tool (see Commons:User:Teratornis/Flickr examples). You can only upload photos from Flickr to Commons if they have the correct (free) licensing; you can search for such photos with {{Flickr free}}. The great majority of photos on Flickr are not free; however, since Flickr has billions of photos, that still leaves millions of free photos that may land within the project scope of Commons. --Teratornis (talk) 18:07, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Images in a Featured Article

Is there a minimum number of images needed for an article to be a Featured Article?--Olduch (talk) 19:51, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

From reading WP:FACR, it would appear not. – ukexpat (talk) 19:55, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There should be an appropriate number of high-quality images used in an appropriate way. That is, there shouldn't be too many given the length of the article. That being said, FA promotion is done via consensus discussion, and if enough people find a complete lack of images to be a problem, it will not be promoted. I have never seen a featured article with zero images, so functionally, the minimum number would appear in practice to be one; in nearly all cases FAs have more than that. --Jayron32 21:37, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Change name of a page

I would like to change the name of a page (Ministry of Health [British Columbia] ---> Ministry of Health Services [British Columbia]). I can't do this with the 'edit' function. Do I need to request that someone else do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.31.112.214 (talk) 21:52, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Pages are renamed by moving them to new target names. This procedure preserves the page's edit history. Please do not rename a page by copying/pasting its content to a new page name. If you have an account that is at least four days old and have made more than 10 edits (autoconfirmed), you can move a page yourself, but please first review Wikipedia:Naming conventions. If you still wish to rename the page, go to it and click the move tab at the top (near the history and watch tabs). You can then specify a new name for the article. The old page name will automatically become a redirect to the new page. However, if the desired target page name already exists and is other than a redirect with only one edit, you will need an administrator to move the page for you, which can be requested at Wikipedia:Requested moves. Hope this helps. --Mysdaao ^talk 22:24, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

July 31

Article not visible for edit : Syed_Mohammad_Inaamullah

I tried to view and contribute to the aforementioned article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syed_Mohammad_Inaamullah but its not there anymore. Can any Admin help me?--Sonaris (talk) 22:20, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The article is there for me. It was created in 2005 and has never been deleted. What happens when you click the link? Try to bypass your cache. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:29, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that all references to the name 'Mohammad' are being filtered in Pakistan. I have checked other pages which bear or include this name as they work when using proxies. Would it be possible for any Administrator to rename the said article to S. M. Inaamullah or Syed M. Inaamullah? I will take care of the rest. --Sonaris (talk) 00:45, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds like an odd type of censorship. Maybe they are afraid of images of Muhammad in uncensored Wikipedia articles. Does it include for example Muhammad Ali with 'u'? Do you have evidence that it's the same for others in Pakistan and not something local to your computer or Internet connection? I'm not sure we should be choosing article titles based on censorship in specific countries. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:01, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Barnstar use: policy

Resolved

– Kayau Voting IS evil 02:48, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Question: Could someone please give me a link to a page where barnstar policy is discussed and/or suggested?
Reason: I occasionally come across cases where, for example, vandals award other vandals barnstars for their disruptive editing.
Thanks. --Kudpung (talk) 01:50, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There is no policy - barnstars are part of Wikipedia culture. See WP:WPWPA. (And, just to show off, I made that shortcut. :P) Kayau Voting IS evil 02:01, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c) I believe that the barnstar page has deliberately been kept generic enough to keep up the "spontaneity" of awarding barnstars; in other words, to ensure that editors won't be afraid they will be breaking some sort of guideline by awarding a barnstar, there is no guideline in the first place. Essentially, the only thing the page says is "If you are sure the barnstar is appropriate, don't be shy!". Conversely, then, you can't really reprimand someone for awarding a barnstar unless it's clearly inappropriate or disruptive, as the case may be here. Because I'm not one to stick my nose where it doesn't belong, I would not worry about the frivoulous barnstar until the vandal is blocked -- and maybe not even after that -- because I believe that doing so would give the vandal further cause to vandalize pages (for example) in my userspace. Xenon54 (talk) 02:04, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Really, I don't think anyone should care about vandals giving each other barnstars. Those are probably socks, anyway, or meatpuppets etc., and might know each other in real life. So, there's really nothing special about it to care about. :) Kayau Voting IS evil 02:11, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Good thoughts. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 02:13, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. As I understand it then , there is no page that discusses or provides any policy or guidelines regarding the misuse of barnstars.
Query answered.--Kudpung (talk) 02:25, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Strictly speaking, all you know is that none of the responders (and presumably, none of the many silent watchers of this Help desk) know of such a page. That isn't quite the same thing as being certain no such page exists, but at least we know any such page would have to be unusually obscure if it does exist. In theory, all the documentation about barnstars should be linked from the Editor's index (WP:EIW#Award), but even that depends on whether the editors of the index managed to catch everything. In general, it is easier to know that something exists than to know that something does not exist. You only need to find one example to prove something exists, but to prove it does not exist you would have to look at everything. See Russell's teapot. This may seem like hairsplitting, but Wikipedia is enormous with many nooks and crannies to hide odd bits. The surprises never seem to end. --Teratornis (talk) 04:24, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Strictly speaking, a policy or guideline no one can find does not exist. Wikipedia is built on a consensus model, and all of its policies and guidelines exist solely because the community at large endorses their use and maintenance. If there was some hypothetical guideline page which exists, but which several long-time, highly active editors such as ourselves has never heard of and can not find after serious active searching; it does not exist. Wikipedia is not a legal system, and arcane rules which no one follows and no one knows exists do not have the force of anything. Written guideline and policy pages reflect existing practices, they do not establish them. The guidelines and policies follow from best practices, they never get in the way of best practices. See WP:IAR. --Jayron32 01:04, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Cropping

Resolved

– Kayau Voting IS evil 02:48, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Can anybody crop it more: --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 02:10, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Kayau Voting IS evil 02:16, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In the future, WP:GL can do it.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Mono (talk • contribs)

Thanks. --Extra 999 (Contact ^me + _contribs) 04:26, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Reference

Resolved

– Kayau Voting IS evil 10:12, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I need help with refernce on my page im working on,Koji Gyotoku. How do you add information for the bareurls? Spongie555 (talk) 05:59, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Nvm it was resolved Spongie555 (talk) 07:19, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia on Facebook

How do you make a wikipedia article appear on facebook as a fan page? I have seen many pages on facebook that have a wikipedia tab and say powered by wiki and it has all the same information on facebook as on the wikipedia article and you can like the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by WestCoast31 (talk • contribs) 06:48, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's a question you should ask at Facebook, not Wikipedia. By the way, this site is called Wikipedia, not wiki. A wiki is any website using wiki software; there are thousands of them.Template:Z30 Kayau Voting IS evil 08:37, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Searching the Facebook help pages for Wikipedia finds some results that mention "Community Pages". To the extent that I have looked at the help on Facebook, I find it far inferior to Wikipedia's help. And ordinary Facebook users cannot improve the Facebook help by editing it. Incidentally, Facebook should in my opinion not limit its community pages to content from Wikipedia, since Wikipedia deletes most useful content of purely local interest. Facebook should also draw content from City wikis which cover local content in much more depth than Wikipedia. Many if not most people have local interests that do not meet Wikipedia's notability requirements. --Teratornis (talk) 19:02, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Updating references

Resolved

– Kayau Voting IS evil 10:13, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's a page that has some wrong information. I want to correct it and delete the old reference/cite or whatever they're called, which links to a missing web page now anyway, and put two new references. Yet I can't figure out how to do this without red text appearing at the bottom of the article saying that I've broken the refs or something. I gave up reading the manual, I can't make head nor tails of it. Could somebody tell me simply and clearly so an idiot can understand, how I can do this? -OOPSIE- (talk) 08:43, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

WP:Referencing for beginners. Kayau Voting IS evil 08:48, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Visual inline citation guide

Formatting references using inline citations
All information in Wikipedia articles should be verified by citations to reliable sources. Our preferred method of citation is using the "cite.php" form of inline citations, using the <ref></ref> elements. Using this method, each time a particular source is mined for information (don't copy word-for-word!), a footnote is placed in the text ("inline"), that takes one to the detail of the source when clicked, set forth in a references section after the text of the article. In brief, anywhere you want a footnote to appear in a piece of text, you place an opening <ref> tag followed by the text of the citation which you want to appear at the bottom of the article, and close with a </ref> tag. Note the closing slash ("/"). For multiple use of a single reference, the opening ref tag is given a name, like so: <ref name="name"> followed by the citation text and a closing </ref> tag. Each time you want to use that footnote again, you simply use the first element with a slash, like so: <ref name="name" />. In order for these references to appear, you must tell the software where to display them, using either the code </references> or, most commonly, the template, {{Reflist}} which can be modified to display the references in 2 or 3 columns using {{Reflist\|2}} or {{Reflist\|3}}. Per our style guidelines, the references should be displayed in a separate section denominated "References" located after the body of the article.
Inline citation code; what you type in 'edit mode'	What it produces when you save
Two separate citations.<ref>`Citation text.`</ref><ref>`Citation text2.`</ref> Multiple<ref name="multiple">`Citation text3.`</ref>citation<ref name="multiple" /> use.<ref name="multiple" /> ==References== {{Reflist}}	Two separate citations.^[1]^[2] Multiple^[3] citation^[3] use.^[3] References_________________ ^ Citation text. ^ Citation text2. ^ ^a ^b ^c Citation text3.
Templates that can be used between <ref></ref> tags to format references {{Citation}} • {{Cite web}} • {{Cite book}} • {{Cite news}} • {{Cite journal}} • Others • Examples

Template:Z3

Kayau Voting IS evil 08:51, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There's a page that has some wrong information. I want to correct it and delete the old reference/cite or whatever they're called, which links to a missing web page now anyway, and put two new references. Yet I can't figure out how to do this without red text appearing at the bottom of the article saying that I've broken the refs or something. I gave up reading the manual, I can't make head nor tails of it. Could somebody tell me simply and clearly so an idiot can understand, how I can do this? -OOPSIE- (talk) 08:59, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Can you link to the article? Kayau Voting IS evil 09:03, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTR-60 -OOPSIE- (talk) 09:12, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Referencing has many possibilities. We have no way of determining what you do wrong from your post which doesn't even quote the red message. Try to make the wrong edit again but save it and then revert it if you don't want to leave the article in a bad state. Then we can see what you are trying to do in the page history. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:24, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I just did the change on the page and left it there. You can see the red text at the bottom. I don't know how to fix it, sorry -OOPSIE- (talk) 09:41, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Your edit [2] removed a named reference called "softland 1". It was used elsewhere in the article where it only said the name "softland 1" which had no associated reference text after your edit. I restored the text of the reference [3] in another place it was used. This system is briefly shown in a line starting with "Multiple" in the above reference description box, and in more detail at Wikipedia:Referencing for beginners#Same reference used more than once. I realize such things can complicate matters for new users but it's very practical to have when you know how to use it. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:01, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks everyone! -OOPSIE- (talk) 10:09, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome. As you said, the external link in the reference doesn't work, so I have added [4] {{Dead link}}. The old text can still be seen at the Wayback Machine which is now linked at the reference. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:12, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like textbook...

If an article looks more like textbook material than encyclopaedic content, (it is notable though), which maintenance tag should I tag it with? Kayau Voting IS evil 11:46, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Probably {{textbook}}? :) TNXMan 12:27, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ooh, that should have been obvious. Thanks. Kayau Voting IS evil 12:29, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Lines Under Categories

In the article That '70s Show, if you edit the External links section, underneath the categories are lines like "lt:That '70s Show" (with surrounding double brackets). They don't seem to appear in the article itself. What do they mean, and what are they used for?--Bbb23 (talk) 15:46, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

They are interlanguage links. Algebraist 15:48, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I read the page on the links, but I still don't understand their purpose at the bottom of the article. Some sort of editor cheat sheet because the article has references to other country programming?--Bbb23 (talk) 16:15, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The code provides links to the same article in other languages and they (the links) appear at the bottom of the left hand navigation pane not at the the bottom of the main article. MilborneOne (talk) 17:18, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Aaah, I never noticed, thanks much.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:31, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Defamation of Living People

If a biography of a living person is being tightly controlled by non-neutral editors and is potentially defamatory due to omission (suggesting liability for the Foundation), what would be the proper course of action for the defamed individual, short of filing a lawsuit? ValkyrieOfOdin (talk) 16:14, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Users can report alleged libel to Wikipedia in at least two ways. See WP:Libel (e-mail us) and WP:Contact us. However, if you believe something is libelous and you have trouble removing it, you should report it. For example, it would be helpful for you to identify which article is defamatory and why.--Bbb23 (talk) 16:40, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As the page is locked, it is well-controlled. Naveen_jain is the item in question, and the content is barely a biography. The source of the article is largely a single-source series (about a company, not the person) in a Seattle Newspaper. Not only does this seem to raise questions of notability of the subject, the wikipedia content excludes positive information in order to present a negative POV. It smells strongly like WP:NOTBATTLEGROUND and WP:NOTSCANDAL. Furthermore, the act of excluding information and presenting an article that paints a subject negatively is defamation of character, and is a potential liability. ValkyrieOfOdin (talk) 17:12, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The article isn't being "tightly controlled by non-neutral editors." It is semi-protected, apparently because of changes by anonymous users. Auto-confirmed users can still edit the article. Although the article has some contentious history and isn't very well-written, I fail to see any specific libel, by omission or otherwise. I suggest you raise your issues on the Talk page of the article.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:43, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ok. My concern was for liability of the Foundation. Since I didn't go to law school, I don't really feel qualified to make that judgement. I guess the Foundation legal counsel can sort it out if it comes to it. Given the subject and the history of that subject, it seems a very real possibility and a huge waste of Foundation resources. I respectfully disagree with regards to the issue of who is controlling the content (reading through the talk page makes it seem to be a grudge match to my eyes), but I guess the letter of control and the actual results are open to interpretation. ValkyrieOfOdin (talk) 00:00, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you have legitimate concerns, use the venues described above (WP:LIBEL and WP:CONTACT). No one answering here can give definitive legal advice on how to proceed. It is best to handle this through the proper channels. --Jayron32 00:47, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I see you posted some of your concerns on the Talk page. That's a good start. If you're still troubled by the semi-protection block, you can contact directly the admin who placed it, EdJohnston. I agree with Jayron32's comments about legal advice. Good luck.--Bbb23 (talk) 00:52, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for all the input. Yes, I'm bubbling some issues onto the talk page, but I'm concerned about derailing it from the actual article talk. Still, maybe it will help get the article on-track. Thanks again, the issue is closed in regards to this page. ValkyrieOfOdin (talk) 15:34, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Size of pdf pictures in thumbnail

I uploaded a pdf file with a picture (graph), previously cropped via Acrobat to minimize white margins. Horizontal and vertical size are nearly the same.

Problems and questions:

- Problem 1: in the thumbnail display in the article, the figure takes up only a small fraction of the thumbnail rectangle (as if the cropping were ignored) and is horizontally elongated. Question 1: how can the picture be made to fill the thumbnail format more completely and without changing the aspect ratio?

- Problem 2: recovering the picture in full size from the article requires two steps: clicking on the thumbnail, and clicking on the file that is opened by the preceding click. Question: how can the thumbnail be made to yield the picture in full size with just one click? Boute (talk) 16:29, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have re-uploaded the image to Commons, converting it to a png and preserved your licensing and attributed the image to you. Please see File:Plot of decibel and inverse.png. I am not an image expert, but I have read that this is the best file format for this type of image and it gets rid of all the problems you were having I think. If you have other pdfs that you want to convert and not have these problems, you can download (for free) GIMP. Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:20, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Actually the SVG format is a far better option for this kind of diagram – I've converted the image (using pdf2svg) and uploaded to File:Plot of decibel and inverse.svg. AJ Cham 19:09, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Preferences

Hi, does anyone know the mediawiki pages designed to display the content on special pages such as this one? I may be requesting a few changes to some of them... :| TelCo NaSp Ve :| 17:32, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See Special:AllMessages. However, the prefs are deep down in the software, so good luck with that. —mono 19:11, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

.Formatting Problem I Can't Fix

Made some minor factual edits to sue Thompson page a few days ago. Must have made format error(s) because the display seems to include coding, making it not very readable. I can't seem to fix it or even return to the pre-edit display. Can you help with fix? Thanks's from Dan Keenan, Sue's official biographer.Dankeenan41 (talk) 18:01, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed I have fixed the infobox for you, you were missing the ends of a few brackets, and also had mized up some of the lines. For future, it would help if you posted an actual link to the article as well though :) - Happysailor ^(Talk) 18:08, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Upper/lower case letters in user name

Hi, I created an account entering as my desired user name "lucabombelli", ALL lower case. The account was successfully created but named "Lucabombelli", which I do not want to use; I guess there was a rule about the first letter having to be capitalized. So I tried to create a new account named "LucaBombelli", the second best option, but that was not possible, because it was too close to the existing "Lucabombelli". Is there any way to have the all-lower-case name, or both "L" and "B" upper? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucabombelli (talk • contribs) 20:47, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The first letter of usernames and page names is automatically capitalized. You can request a change from Lucabombelli to LucaBombelli at Wikipedia:Changing username. Note that spaces are allowed so you can also request Luca Bombelli if you want - I don't know whether you can create it by yourself. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:21, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No, he would need an accountcreator to create it for him. so nia^♫♪ 00:53, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Need temporary authorization to upload photo

I need temporary authorization to upload a photo. There are no adequate photos on the web I could otherwise link to making the one I need to upload very unique and insightful to the reader. If you wish, I can email the admin the photo and they can upload it. Either way is OK. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Multiplexusa (talk • contribs) 21:05, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Can you tell us what the picture is or give us a link to it (if it's on the web)? TNXMan 22:26, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, knowing the topic of the photo would be helpful. However, please look at the image use policy, and think twice, as Wikipedia is not a respository. Otherwise, go ahead. I reccomend putting the image on a site such as TinyPic (link), and posting a message on my talk page with the link, and any other information about it. A p3rson ‽ 02:00, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Missing space

In the article Sepang there is a display problem where a space in the wiki source sometimes does not appear as a space in a browser nor in the page source. Examples:

Sepangis a town (Should be: Sepang is a town)
the Sepang International Circuitand as the site (Should be: the Sepang International Circuit and as the site)
Bagan Lalangin Sepang district (Should be: Bagan Lalang in Sepang district)
the Malaysian Grand Prixwhich is the (Should be: the Malaysian Grand Prix which is the)

For the first example the page source is:

     <p><b>Sepang</b>is a town

The wiki source is:

     '''Sepang''' is a town

Platform: Opera 10.53 and Firefox 3.6 (the problem appears in both browsers). Windows.

What is the reason and how can I fix it?

--Mortense (talk) 21:15, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed It looks so much nicer now. I fixed the Infoxbox template.--Bbb23 (talk) 21:30, 31 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

August 1

Please help me sort out complaint and Complaint (disambiguation)

I'm struggling with the proper way to disambiguate these concepts. I feel that complaint should be an article about the legal term, since that is how it is mostly used on wikipedia. So I created Complaint (disambiguation) and moved all the other stuff there. However, I'm not sure how to structure that page. My problem is that these aren't really "ambiguous" concepts; they all refer to complaints, but vary in terms of specificity and context.

I'm going to set this aside for a little while; if you have any ideas, please be bold! Thanks. Andrew Gradman ^talk/_WP:Hornbook 01:16, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Huh? really? In real life though, it usually refers to consumer complaints right? Kayau Voting IS evil 02:09, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I took a crack at the form. It is a bit of an odd duck as a disambiguation page.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:24, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I would say very few people outside of a legal environment know what the legal definition of a complaint is and that the page should go to consumer complaint first. EdEColbert^{Let me know} 04:48, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like time to start a move-request discussion to see if the legal term should be used as the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. DMacks (talk) 06:49, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

DMacks, hold on--I'm not (yet) convinced that we should initiate a move-request. While I do agree that most people don't immediately think of the term "complaint" as referring to the legal concept, it happens that about 80% of the usages of complaint on Wikipedia are referencing the legal concept. Perhaps that's because people are only inclined to wikify the word when it's used as a technical term. To me, this is a strong argument in favor of not renaming the pages. Andrew Gradman ^talk/_WP:Hornbook 08:20, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly--my comment was directed to EdColbert. But (to Agradman), WP:RM process is to open a discussion on the article's talk-page to get consensus if there is uncertainty about whether to have a primarytopic vs the dab-page at the simple-name. This help-desk is not widely viewed by editors (as far as I know:)--better to discuss this sort of thing on the article's talk-page, where people who care about it have it watchlisted. DMacks (talk) 08:31, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Aha! Understood. Andrew Gradman ^talk/_WP:Hornbook 09:05, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

MLM Network Marketing

Hello and have a nice day,

There is a company which is start to be a well known company and has many people shoping from it. its a MLM Network Marketing Company called: Quest Net, their website is: www.qnet.net

This company give commissions for people who buy products from it and bring customers. (its Network Marketing)

Is this company true? can we trust this company?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.150.25.218 (talk) 07:59, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Miscellaneous 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 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. Kayau Voting IS evil 08:21, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Website with the Wikipedia Template

I want to start a website that looks and functions like Wikipedia, but that has a different purpose. Is this allowed? If so, how do I incorporate the Wiki template? Also, I'd like my domain name to include the word 'wiki'. Is this allowed? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.66.33.228 (talk) 09:42, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

1)yes; see mw:Main Page. 2)yes; you can read it up on Wikis for Dummies. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:09, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Unattended article

Sir, i was making an article which is based on an Indian Mobile Company. It is the third largest company in market share in mobile phones. It has done many new things in the industry. But when i was searching this company on wikipedia. I couldn't find. So, i decided to write about the company. So that people can know the booming mobile industry in india. So, i want to know why it is being deleted. If i can't make this article. Then i request you to make an article on this company. It is very nice company as it has already beaten market shares of other companies like sony erricsson, motorola etc and soon it'll beat Samsung also. According to its raising popularity.. So i want you to make an article. For more information visit http://www.Micromaxinfo.com/

thank you,

regards, Naveen Saini —Preceding unsigned comment added by Naveennaveennav76 (talk • contribs) 11:58, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Please read WP:V, WP:NPOV, WP:RS, WP:N and WP:AD. They are important guidelines and you must follow all of these when writing an article. Thanks Kayau Voting IS evil 12:04, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, read all of those pages, and in addition, please read {{Nothanks}} which is a warning you could also have received. In short, the text you posted was a blatant copyright violation, having been cut and pasted from preexisting text.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:32, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Collapsable Nav Boxes

Resolved

I like my tidy user page, made possible with wonderful collapsable nav boxes. I use the {collapse top} {collapse bottom} templates. Only problem is their green colour annoys me. Is there any way to change this default colour? I've tried the usual syntax; maybe I'm just getting it wrong. I've searched far and wide for documentation on how to do it. Thanks! --Whoosit (talk) 12:03, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I replaced {{collapse top}} on your user page with the template code itself, and changed the color from that green to "NavajoWhite", so where you see that listed, you can replace it with any color you'd like. See web colors for a list. There may very well be a better way to do this, but it works for the moment.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:26, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Terrific! Thanks! --Whoosit (talk) 12:31, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

{{collapse top}} has a bg parameter for background color. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:35, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If it can be done with a parameter, then that'd be a much better way of doing it:-)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:36, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, should have looked at documentation. I replaced it.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:40, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, but your first hack keeps it text-free. No "Extended Content" dialogue. Which I kind of like. --Whoosit (talk) 14:06, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See the documentation at {{collapse top}}. Many templates have documentation displayed on their template page. You can avoid a title by making an empty unnamed parameter (by adding a pipe | and nothing else) or by assigning nothing to title as in |title=. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:31, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Civil List

Firstly, I don't want to edit Wikipedia. I want to find out something. I'm led to believe that Scientists and others of Eminence have been receiving a pension from the Civil List since 1696. If this is so, I would like to know more about that history and process. I'm led to believe that some of our greatest scientists are or have been pensioned in honour by that list. As Wikipedia describes the Civil List as not income to the Monarchy, but an "expenses" fund, it would be interesting to be made aware of the proportion alloted to pensions for non-royal recipients. If my point is valid, then information should be added to the description of the Civil List as its main function is far from its only one and requires further explanation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.105.188.178 (talk) 13:51, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, this desk is for asking questions about using Wikipedia. You can ask at the miscellaneous reference desk or on the talk page of Civil List, as they may be able to help you. TNXMan 13:55, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Or the humanities reference desk? Kayau Voting IS evil 14:05, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Userbox categories - noinclude, incude etc

Resolved

– Remove the cat from the userbox. TFOWR 19:00, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Long time answerer [sic], first time posterer [sic], unsure whether this belongs here or at WP:VPT...

So — I have a userbox which I created. It has Category:Wikipedians in Scotland within the <includeonly> section, so the userbox itself doesn't appear to be a "Wikipedian in Scotland". Which is good.

However... this category gets used whenever the userbox is transcluded. The userbox is transcluded on User:TFOWR/Userboxes. This means that User:TFOWR/Userboxes gets listed at Category:Wikipedians in Scotland. The same is true for Category:Wikipedia administrators open to recall, though, in my defence, I didn't create the userbox responsible for that.

Is there an easy way to prevent this? What am I doing wrong? Help! TFOWR 15:01, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Userboxes#Caution about user categories says: "Userboxes should not automatically include categories." But many userboxes don't follow it. See Wikipedia:Category suppression. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:23, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Aha! That's just the pointer I needed. Thanks! I think the easiest thing is simply to remove the cat from the userbox, but it looks like there may be some cunning technical way to get it to behave. Thanks again. TFOWR 19:00, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Add <noinclude>{{documentation}}</noinclude> to the end of the template and put categories on the documentation page. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 19:04, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No joy, I'm afraid - unless I've missing something (entirely possible...) I created a copy of the original userbox, with a /doc page, and the damn thing shows up at Category:Wikipedians_in_Scotland. It's no great problem - I've removed the cat from the original userbox, and added it manually to my userpage. Thanks anyway (and, obviously, if you have any further ideas they'll be very gratefully received). TFOWR 21:51, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The suggestion by Gadget850 is a way to do something else: To add a template page to a category (for example Category:Place of residence user templates) without adding the pages transcluding the template. Your goal was to add some of the pages transcluding the template to a category but not all of them. This is what Wikipedia:Category suppression is about. There are different methods depending on the wanted default behaviour. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:14, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm slightly less confused now, thanks! Aye, I did wonder - I've got another userbox that uses the <noinclude>{{documentation}}</noinclude> idiom, so I was familiar with it but couldn't understand how it would help here - that'll be why ;-) I'll return to cat suppression when I've got time to look at it in depth. TFOWR 08:14, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Publishing a document

I have a page ready for publication but am at a loss as to how to get this shown. I have mentioned names already in wiki but cannot see what I should do next —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bluejay700 (talk • contribs) 15:46, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like you figured out how to get the article into main space, although, IMO, it wasn't close to ready. You might ask for help at Requests for feedback, although they are a little backlogged. You need references (see Referencing for beginners) and a glance at Manual of Style would help.--SPhilbrick T 22:03, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Numbered Lists

Resolved

I know to use the # symbol at the start of each new line to get a numbered list:

Apples
Bananas
Grapes

But what if I want a numbered list to go down say 10 items and then start a new column and go down ten lines and then start a new column? Instead of having a long thin column of one word items I would like to have several columns side by side, but with decent spacing between columns. Any ideas? — Fly by Night (talk) 16:22, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

WP:COLUMN would be first place to look. There are several ways to do it. Some may not allow continuous numbering flow into each column. Different options might let you select a fixed column width (letting browser decide how many columns will fit on user's screen) vs a fixed number of columns (their widths adjusting to fit the screen), etc. DMacks (talk) 16:39, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Super, thanks! I used {{colbegin}} and {{colend}} at the beginning and end of my numbered list and it split it into two columns. It even kept a continuous numbering. Thanks again. — Fly by Night (talk) 17:29, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject

Resolved

I am a fairly frequent editor on Wikipedia. I mainly edit on certain topics, but I am not a listed member of any Wikiproject. Is that a problem?Us441 (talk) 19:28, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not. You may join or not join WikiProjects as the spirit may move you. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 19:30, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Article traffic statistics

In the last five days there is no any information about article traffic statistics. All af the article stats are 0. Could you answer me what should be the reason ? It seems to be unbelievable that for example Rolling Stones from 11,1K 20100726 has fall down to 0 and stay there.

Whith best regards:Vezér —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vezér (talk • contribs) 20:25, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

They're being counted but it seems from Henrik's talk page that there is an error with dammit's results. stats.grok.se not providing results has already been reported to WP:VPT. Nanonic (talk) 20:47, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

HOW DO I PUBLISH FROM MY USER PAGE?

I have an article that I am ready to launch but have no idea how to do that. Where do I go for help? Seems to me it should be easy but it's not. ````THOMAS BONTEThomas Bonte 20:40, 1 August 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thomas Bonte (talk • contribs)

You should be autoconfirmed, so the way to "publish" the article is to move it. There is a move button, admittedly not very evident, at the top of the page. You might have to click on a down arrow to see it. However, while you have done an enormous amount of work, it is not yet ready.

A glance through Manual of Style will highlight a number of problems.--SPhilbrick T 21:22, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You have quite a number of spelling errors. I've fixed some, but some are within quotes and within references - I don't want to fix those if the error is in the original. (I went ahead and fixed them, revert if I got any wrong)
I fixed the quoted poem so it doesn't appear in the blue box. If your indentations were important, I can figure out how to restore them, just let me know. (Fixed indentation.) I didn't see the name of the poet, so I used "student poet" if you have the name, it would be better.
I fixed some of your section headings and the capitalization.
I removed the example external link, it was just an example, not a real one.
It still isn't ready--SPhilbrick T 21:40, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Your footnote #22 lists page 368. Shouldn't it be page 382?--SPhilbrick T 22:28, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Now it's ready—I added some further comments to your talk page--SPhilbrick T 22:48, 1 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

August 2

how do I search for article titles?

How do I search for specific phrases in article titles? I tried "intitle:(people)", but it turns up all titles with "people" in them. If there's a way to do this using AWB, that would be even better. — kwami (talk) 00:32, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe I'm missing something, but intitle:"this is a phrase" works for me. Why did your search surprise you? It did what you asked.--Bbb23 (talk) 01:24, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The search didn't return the dozen or so articles with "(people)", but instead the thousands with "people". I now want to do searches of (language) and (dialect), but it's impractical to do a manual selection unless I can narrow down the return. — kwami (talk) 01:34, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know whether the normal search box can search for parentheses. At http://toolserver.org/~nikola/grep.php?lang=en&wiki=wikipedia&ns=0 you can search for $people$ to get titles containing "(people)". I haven't tried whether it works in AWB. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:38, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, thanks! That's handy.

It might, if it were possible to search for titles in AWB. — kwami (talk) 12:21, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sortable Table problem - Recent change in format

I've been creating sortable tables for two years for many lists of museums, as in List of museums in Cumbria. These tables all looked fine, but several days ago the font size for Wikipedia articles changed on my screen (nothing I did), and then the tables started to look different. Even though I think I have the correct layout, suddenly there is a missing separator bar between some columns and rows. In the article listed, for example, note the lack of a bar between the Name and Image columns, and between the rows for Carlisle Castle through Daleman Estate. I have not changed anything, the layout seems identical, but now things are different. Is there something I'm missing? Thank you for any help. Jllm06 (talk) 01:44, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible you accidentally hit the control button and the plus or minus sign, or the control button and moved the scroll wheel on your mouse either up or down? Well, whether you changed it inadvertently or it was a passing cosmic ray or gremlins doesn't matter much; either of the methods I just mentioned will allow you to change the font size back (in some browsers). You can also go to the menu at the top of your browser screen, go to view and then zoom in or out. You can also reset the zoom level to the default with ctrl+0 (zero) Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:36, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The table looks fine to me in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera. You could try to clear your entire cache. If there are still problems then which browser do you have? PrimeHunter (talk) 08:21, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Rating for questions in reference desk

Have this request ever been considered? Is there any plan to implement it? If not yet, can I ask the developer to add the rating for reference desk questions? If I can, where can I request it? Thanks... roscoe_x (talk) 03:10, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikipedia talk:Reference desk page would be a great place to discuss ideas for improving the ref-desks. DMacks (talk) 03:38, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Blacklist

Hi - I'd like to remove my company atechs.com from the blacklist. We had an intern that kept posting a link and then told me (I am the Founder/CEO) that we are blacklisted. Is there a way to get off this list? I can assure we will not spam or post our link anymore.

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.70.12.111 (talk) 03:54, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know which blacklist your employee got you listed on. Wikipedia:Blacklist has links to various places to see what led to the listing and to ask about getting delisted. DMacks (talk) 04:03, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) For what purpose would you like to add a link to your website? Wikipedia has policies and guidelines which govern outgoing links from Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:External links. If you could tell us where you would like to put your company's link and why, we could look into it. --Jayron32 04:05, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It was blacklisted yesterday at MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist#atechs.com. Proposed removals go on the same page. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:12, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

SoCo Lime Recipe Mixes

The Article was good. But there is no Information on how to mix the New SoCo Lime. Even at their own website. Was curious if you guys can get that info? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.110.85.78 (talk) 06:07, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe you can go get the info and put it into the article so that everyone knows the info and everyone is happy. Kayau Voting IS evil 06:23, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We don't have any article about SoCo Lime. And Kayau, please don't tell people to place a recipe in an article. Goodvac (talk) 06:45, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If we don't have an article about, whatever that is, then why is s/he asking? Kayau Voting IS evil 09:21, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My below reply gives a possible answer to that. This page gets many questions from posters who think it's a help desk for some external site or organization. That's why {{Astray}} was made. SoCo probably refers to Southern Comfort which may be "The Article" the poster refers to. A surprisingly large number of posters don't mention the name of the page they are posting about. Maybe they don't realize we have millions of articles and are not mind readers. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:39, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 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 upper right 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.Template:Z25 PrimeHunter (talk) 08:01, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

We have an article about Southern Comfort. Maybe you were thinking of that. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:07, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Another blacklist question

I just typed in a long reply on the RD which included a link to a blacklisted site (I didn't know it was blacklisted). When I attempted to save the page I got a message saying that my changes had not been saved and that I should go back and edit my reply. But when I hit the back button on my browser, my entire reply had disappeared (the original question was still there). wtf. --Viennese Waltz ^talk 08:32, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's browser dependent whether and when your data is preserved when you hit the back button. Make sure to hit the real back button built into the browser and not a back or "Return to" link displayed on the page. It always works for me in Firefox at Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:51, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply. It certainly never works for me on IE7. Unfortunately I'm stuck with this browser. Reminds me that it's good practice to always Ctrl+C before saving. --Viennese Waltz ^talk 09:06, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 42#"What's this?" link next to the minor edit checkbox should open in a new window mentions a script which may (I haven't tried it) make IE7 open a new window from the edit screen in some situations (maybe not when clicking Save) so the form data will still be in the old window - but closing extra windows may also be annoying. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:54, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Image deletion problem

Hello, please can you help me. The following 2 images have been deleted from an article in Wikipedia.org about the Dobhar-chu. File:Dobhar-chu encounter.jpg File:Dobhar-chu encounter 2.jpg Also I have noticed that the following image of a hand drawn map of Omey Island has been deleted from the Omey Island page; File:Omey Island Map.jpg I am the artist and original creator of these drawings. These images were uploaded by Bango Art with my permission. I am not very familiar with the appeal system in operation on Wikipedia and do not understand how to request that these images be reinstated. Please can you help to rectify the situation. Below I have filled in the sample letter that I located on Wikipedia to authorise the use of these 3 images. I hope this will suffice; I hereby affirm that I, Sean Corcoran am the creator and sole owner of the exclusive copyright of the 3 images as identified above. They can be seen on my website in the following locations; The 2 Dobhar-chu drawings; http://www.seancorcoranart.com/articles_140739.html The Omey Map; http://www.seancorcoranart.com/articles_98951.html I agree to release the work into the public domain as had been undertaken by Bango Art. I agree to publish that work under the free license "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0" (unported) and GNU Free Documentation License (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts).] I acknowledge that by doing so I grant anyone the right to use the work in a commercial product or otherwise, and to modify it according to their needs, provided that they abide by the terms of the license and any other applicable laws. I am aware that I always retain copyright of my work, and retain the right to be attributed in accordance with the license chosen. Modifications others make to the work will not be attributed to me. I acknowledge that I cannot withdraw this agreement, and that the content may or may not be kept permanently on a Wikimedia project. Sean Corcoran, Artist/Designer, Waterford, Ireland, July 21st, 2010. www.seancorcoranart.com 00 353 87 2524657

Thank You —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bango Art (talk • contribs) 09:57, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You did not say so, so they don't know if you agree, so they deleted it. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:00, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes but I don't know how to put things right, please help...Bango Art (talk) 10:10, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you do still want to donate the images you can send the permissions message you wrote out above to permissions-en@wikimedia.org, then upload the image files again yourself and supply this permission at the point of uploading - see this page on Donating your images for instructions on how to do so. You could achieve the same effect by placing a "copyleft" notice on the website where the material is already hosted - details on doing so are here. Does that help? Gonzonoir (talk) 10:13, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you but I emailed the address you suggested several weeks ago and haven't recieved a reply of any kind. I will pursue the other suggestions you have given me, thank you.Bango Art (talk) 10:26, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Images deleted, please help

Hello, please can you help.Bango Art (talk) 10:01, 2 August 2010 (UTC) The following 2 images have been deleted from an article in Wikipedia.org about the Dobhar-chu. File:Dobhar-chu encounter.jpg File:Dobhar-chu encounter 2.jpg Also I have noticed that the following image of a hand drawn map of Omey Island has been deleted from the Omey Island page; File:Omey Island Map.jpg I am the artist and original creator of these drawings. These images were uploaded by Bango Art with my permission. I am not very familiar with the appeal system in operation on Wikipedia and do not understand how to request that these images be reinstated. Please can you help to rectify the situation. Below I have filled in the sample letter that I located on Wikipedia to authorise the use of these 3 images. I hope this will suffice; I hereby affirm that I, Sean Corcoran am the creator and sole owner of the exclusive copyright of the 3 images as identified above. They can be seen on my website in the following locations; The 2 Dobhar-chu drawings; http://www.seancorcoranart.com/articles_140739.html The Omey Map; http://www.seancorcoranart.com/articles_98951.html I agree to release the work into the public domain as had been undertaken by Bango Art. I agree to publish that work under the free license "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0" (unported) and GNU Free Documentation License (unversioned, with no invariant sections, front-cover texts, or back-cover texts).] I acknowledge that by doing so I grant anyone the right to use the work in a commercial product or otherwise, and to modify it according to their needs, provided that they abide by the terms of the license and any other applicable laws. I am aware that I always retain copyright of my work, and retain the right to be attributed in accordance with the license chosen. Modifications others make to the work will not be attributed to me. I acknowledge that I cannot withdraw this agreement, and that the content may or may not be kept permanently on a Wikimedia project. Sean Corcoran, Artist/Designer, Waterford, Ireland, July 21st, 2010. www.seancorcoranart.com 00 353 87 2524657[reply]

The question has already been answered above. Kayau Voting IS evil 10:07, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Stub Icon

I tried to do a stub icon proposal, but I failed because the month had no section, as no other proposals have been made so far in August. What should I do?Us441 (talk) 12:43, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Facebook

how am i going to work on facebook —Preceding unsigned comment added by Usman Rukayat (talk • contribs) 13:52, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Miscellaneous 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 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. Kayau Voting IS evil 13:55, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Biography posting

Our father is on his deathbed, but would be very much embarrassed to find himself on Wikipedia. He was decorated during the Vietnam war, managed to finish 2 degrees afterward on the G.I. Bill, then built a sailboat and traveled around the world, three times, alone, on his sailboats, then had and adopted 8 children from 3 countries. We wish to make the information known for several reasons, one is for us to be able to trace our heritage in the hopes someone will see the information. We want to elicit data from dad, then write the article, then have it posted after he passes. How could we do that?

Charlie, <redact> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.255.216.8 (talk) 14:10, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You should only undertake this if you believe that he would pass the Wikipedia:Notability guidelines. While your father sounds like an impressive person, nothing you have presented so far suggests he is notable. (I did not understand your opening sentence – why would being in WP be embarrassing, and if so why would you want to embarrass him? --SPhilbrick T 14:22, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If he doesn't pass the notability threshold for WP, there are other options, e.g wikibios--SPhilbrick T 14:25, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

redirect keywords/terms

Dear Sir or Ms,

Is there a way, through an api or automated pull to generate a list of redirects to specific keyterms. For example, could we pull a download that looks like this.

Keyword Redirect 1 Redirect 2 Redirect 3 Redirect 4 International Business Machines IBM Big Blue Bundesbank Deutche Bundesbank United States of America U.S. US USA America

etc.

[1] Citation text.

[2] Citation text2.

[multiple-3] Citation text3.

[1]

[2]

[3]

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