Wikipedia:Help desk

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August 3

Coloring specific words in a wiki.

Given the following sentence, "This is a color test", how would I code the line such that the word "color" used color ID #FF4F00 (international orange) and all other words ("This is a" and "test") used the color ID of #000000 (black)?

This is a <font color=#FF4F00>color</font> test.

This is a color test. forgot to sign -- VegitaU 00:02, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much.

Title capitalization

Help! I've started a page on a person, and the first name is appropriately capitalized, but the last name is all lowercase. Can this be fixed? I can't figure out how.

The page is Peter_tishler (note the t should be a T).

BTW, somehow this page has already been flagged by someone. It is all original verifiable content, but as you can see I'm still working on the wiki aspects of it.

Thanks.

Ltishler 01:38, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I see you found out by yourself.[1] Someone probably saw the page at Special:Newpages. Some articles are flagged within a minute. PrimeHunter 03:13, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Hello. I have the same question. How do you change the capitalization? Thanks!

Oops. Scratch that. I found the answer as well. Now all I have to do is find the "Move" tab, which doesn't seem to be visible to me. :)

How do I request that someone knowledgeable create a new page/definition

I've been searching for a good definition on the common usage of the term "much vaulted" but since I cannot find that anywhere, I'd like someone to create just such a page on Wikipedia - how do I go about making such a request? —Preceding unsigned comment added by AllanHjensen (talk • contribs)

You're probably thinking of "much vaunted" which appears in a few Wikipedia articles. There is already a definition here: Wiktionary:Vaunt. See: WP:NOT#DICTIONARY. Instead we use Wiktionary for dictionary-type entries. --Teratornis 03:01, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm so not a new user but I can't figure this out

So I'm greedily availing myself of the Help Desk resources, though I probably should be able to figure this out for myself. How do I pipe a link to Wikipedia's random page function on my userpage? So that, basically, a user clicking the link would be taken to a random page. I know I've seen this on other user's pages, but I can't seem to make it work myself and I can't remember where I've seen it done. If you know the answer and would prefer to just fix my userpage instead of answer, that's welcome too. Cheers. Dina 02:29, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

like this: [[special:random|this]] which yields this. -Arch dude 02:34, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Awesome, thanks. Long live the Help Desk! Dina 02:44, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

You might also look at the links under the "Random article" entry below this point: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#R. Get to know the Editor's index; the answers to many Help desk questions are on that one page. It's actually entertaining to look up the answers to Help desk questions that one does not already know. --Teratornis 03:26, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Problem with User; Please help

Hi, Sicelidas is deleting my comments to him on the Talk:Virgil Discussion page; he apparently has a history of doing this on various Classical pages, perhaps deleting comments that disagree with him. It would appear he does not understand Wiki Policy very well, and I would appreciate it if a competant user or Admin could talk to him at length. He also insists on using *complicated* language that I (and I'm sure others) find very hard to follow. He's responses are on the verge of rude. I do not want to upset him however as he does seem very knowledgable in his respective fields. In the future, where should I go if I encounter this again? Thank you. Zidel333 02:59, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

See: WP:TALK#Others' comments. And here are some links from the Editor's index (which I cannot merely link to, because there is no name anchor at this location in the index, so I'm just copying some entries in here):

• Disruptive editing (see also Content dispute, Personal attacks)
  • Wikipedia:Disruptive editing
  • Wikipedia:Disruption - essay
  • Wikipedia:Do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point (guideline)
  • Wikipedia:Harassment (WP:HAR) (guideline)
  • Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User conduct - requires two or more editors to have posted warnings about another editor

--Teratornis 03:22, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Disputing an article

How do i question the neutrality of an article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Saywhatmachine (talk • contribs)

Quick answer: see WP:TEMPLATE#Disputes and warnings. --Teratornis 03:13, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Another way would be to discuss your concerns on the talk page of the article with other editors. --_Hdt83 ^Chat 03:28, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

For more details, go to: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Con and scroll down to the "Content disputes:" heading. Just about everything on the subject is in the list of links there. --Teratornis 03:30, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

What character encoding I should use to see music articles, in the english wikipedia?

What character encoding I should use to see music articles, in the english wikipedia? I tried a lot of character sets here in my Internet Explorer, but none of them show the 'flat' and 'sharp' signs, replacing both with the same empty square...

The sharp article states: The Unicode character '♯' (U+266F) may display as a sharp sign on some computers, and '𝄪' (U+1D12A) may display as a double sharp. So you need unicode - although double sharp is a failure on my machine. I use Windows XP with Firefox. GB 06:50, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

incorporation of cc-by licensed text into wikipedia

PLoS journal articles are CC-BY licensed--can their text be incorporated wholesale into a wikipedia article as can public domain content? I'm currently thinking about this article on the poliovirus. I would include a reference stating where it came from, which would honor the license, but obviously if someone else took that reference out the license would be violated. I'm assuming the CC-BY and GDFL licenses are incompatible but I'm not sure. Calliopejen1 05:42, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

It looks as if the CC-BY licence only requires attribution, which could be insluded in the GDFL if the attribution was in an invariant text part of the content. However putting on an attribution in wikipedia text is inappropriate, unless you stick it in as a foot note/reference or such like. For pictures this should be OK for wikipedia. So for your particular case you could probably do it and declare an invariant section that cannot be changed that attributes the source. GB 06:46, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia's license, however, says "no invariant sections." Does this mean it is impossible? Calliopejen1 08:15, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Events month by month

Ellen Conway 08:43, 3 August 2007 (UTC)Recently at work I noted someone using wikipedia The brought up the current events month by month and at the bottom it showed various people who shared your birthdate I can't seem to find that page on your wikipedia

If you look up any year such as 1980, 1956, etc. the birthdates of particularly notable people are listed as well as month by month events. Dismas|^(talk) 08:46, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

And similary there are articles such as March 16 and September 9 that cover major births, deaths and other events that happened on that date throughout history, and are used as the basis of the "On This Day" template on the Main Page. Confusing Manifestation 12:02, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Book references changed to all italic

All references to books using the "cite book" construction have suddenly started to display with all the text in italic. It should only be the title that displays that way. See for example the reference lists for My Family and Other Animals or National Railway Museum. Devoxo 09:34, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Looks okay to me -- both {{cite book}} and MediaWiki:Common.css have both seen relevant edits in the past 24 hours or so; perhaps the issue was temporary. If it's still going on, try bypassing cache and let us know if it's still happening. – Luna Santin (talk) 09:39, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

It's still happening, and I'm now using a different machine so shouldn't have a cache problem. See, for example, the References section for William Wordsworth. Devoxo 20:48, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

OK now Devoxo 21:16, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Gold piece

I am looking for information on a $50.00 gold piece---It has a standing Liberty on the front and an eagle on the reverse. It has Roman numerals [ MCMLXXXVII } in UNC condition. If you can give me some information about this coin, and what it would be worth, I would be very appreacitive.

Thank you W. A. Dickerson email removed

This is a help desk for the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. It appears that you have a question for a coin collector, not an online encyclopedia. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:41, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

The reference desk may be able to assist you with this. Lara♥Love 18:50, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Be sure to tell them the nation that struck the coin, as I imagine that would make a difference in the value. Is this coin an American Gold Eagle? Also read Gold coin and the links therefrom. You should have no difficulty looking up this coin on the World Wide Web and finding a value estimate, once you know the name of it. --Teratornis 22:28, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Indeed the description of the American Gold Eagle sounds like your coin. For example: Gold Eagles minted 1986-1991 are dated with Roman numerals. Of course the coin should be in uncirculated condition, because gold coins have not circulated in the United States since the 1930's (the Gold Eagle is nominally legal tender, but only an idiot would try to spend one as currency). The market value of the coins is generally about equal to the market value of their gold content, not their face value. Therefore you can evaluate this coin by clicking here: Google:gold price. --Teratornis 22:36, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

User contributions to a specific article

Is there any tool that will allow me to find all the edits made by a specific user to a specific article without having to page through the user's contribitions or the article's history? Deli nk 14:18, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

The easiest way that I know of is to go to the article history, select to show 500 and press 'CTRL' and 'F'. That will open a find bar, key in the editors name and then just go through each entry. If there is another, quicker way, I don't know of it. Lara♥Love 16:37, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Cleaning up vandal's work

User:86.100.3.250 has done quite a bit of subtle vandalism that needs to be cleaned up. S/he was blocked once and came back. I'm not sure of policy and whether s/he should be blocked again/longer, but mostly I'm looking for help restoring vandalized articles. Is this a good place to ask for such help, and if not, where? Matchups 14:33, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

You correctly warned him/her about it. I'll keep this user under my watch. If he vandalizes one more time, I'll report it to an admin. Thanks -- VegitaU 14:37, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Right, we can stop the user from doing too much more damage, but what about restoring articles? Matchups 18:28, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Self redirects in a category listing

Is it OK/unavoidable to have self-redirects on a category page? For example, there are a couple under Category:Bend knots. They are in italics.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 15:32, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Categorization can be avoided with : in [[:Category:Bend knots]] instead of [[Category:Bend knots]]. I have fixed it: [2]. PrimeHunter 15:44, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Icons disappeared

Hello! Please can someone help, for some reason my PC is not displaying all of the icons used for editing an article. Why is this and what can I do to correct it? I only noticed when I was trying to redirect a page and the icon wasn't there. Thank you. DávidSch 17:49, 3 August 2007 (CET).

I know this sounds basic, but have you tried restarting your computer? Sometimes that is all it takes. Lara♥Love 16:35, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

If it Lara's suggestion doesn't work it might help some helpers to identify the problem by giving us the Operating System and the Web Browser you are running. AndrewJDTALK -- 16:47, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Collaboration of the Month

Hello, I am involved in the U2 WikiProject, and am working on starting a collaboration of the month/collaboration of the fortnight. However, I am not quite sure how to do it, and where notification and such need to be placed. Thanks for your help, Neranei ^T/C 16:05, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I would recommend contacting someone with the Rock music WikiProject. They should be able to help you out with that. Lara♥Love 16:32, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Mass changes

I was editing Medal of Honor recipient articles to fix a minor infobox problem (e.g. Charles G. Abrell owes allegiance to the U.S., while Stanley T. Adams apparently pledges his to the U.S. Army). I fixed everyone in the Vietnam War, but am not looking forward to all the other conflicts. Can somebody think of an easier way than editing them one at a time? Clarityfiend 16:23, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure, but it may be something that can become a bot action. Lara♥Love 16:28, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Watch List

When someone sends me a message on Wikipedia, I get a bright orange banner across the top of my screen that says "You have new messages." Is there any way to get a similar banner to notify me whenever a change / edit has been made within my Watch List? In other words, I never know if there is any "activity" on my Watch List unless I specifically go on that page and look at it. Is there a way to notify me, so that I don't have to bother to check it constantly? Thanks. (JosephASpadaro 16:31, 3 August 2007 (UTC))

The best I can do is Alt-Shift-l for your watchlist. Alternatively, install Lupin (talk · contribs)'s Anti-vandal tool, by adding these two lines to your monobook.js:

//recent changes tracker

importScript("User:Lupin/recent2.js");

That will give you a link in your toolbox towards the bottom of the left panel: "Monitor my watchlist". --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 17:31, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

And what is the net effect of the above actions? A change has been made in my Watch List ... then what happens (if I followed the above instructions)? Thanks. (JosephASpadaro 18:22, 3 August 2007 (UTC))

Sorry, I should have given a fuller explanation when I first answered. I don't know how to make it give you a bright orange banner when something on your watchlist is changed - I'm not sure that's possible. Alt-Shift-l is a shortcut key - if you press it when you're looking at a wikipedia page (and you're logged in) it'll take you to your watchlist. Installing the stuff to your monobook.js provides you with a link to a webpage that will check your watchlist for changes once per minute and notify you. Neither of these are quite what you're looking for, but they're the best I've got. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 12:17, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

OK - I see what you mean now. Thanks for the suggestions. (Joseph A. Spadaro 20:08, 4 August 2007 (UTC))

Wikipedia Name Change

Can a user change his Wikipedia user name? If so, how? Where are the rules / policies / conventions / guidelines for what is acceptable or unacceptable as a user name (i.e., rules like "It has to be at least 5 characters long and it must start with a letter and it cannot contain symbols other than letters and numbers" or stuff like that)? If you do change your user name, does everything start up from scratch ... or does your old history (under your old user name) just follow and attach to your new history (under your new user name)? Does your "old stuff" redirect to your new name? Thanks. (JosephASpadaro 16:37, 3 August 2007 (UTC))

Yes. See WP:CHU and WP:USURP. Most of your questions are answered there. Your current history will carry over. Lara♥Love 16:40, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

For guidelines about what's acceptable as a username, see WP:U. (At a glance: you're allowed anything that isn't confusing, misleading, disruptive, promotional or offensive.) --ais523 16:44, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I guess what I am asking is this. My current user name is "JosephASpadaro". Can I change it to "Joseph A. Spadaro" ...? (That is, change it in such a way that it is grammatically correct with the blank spaces and middle initial period ... as opposed to all letter compressed together with no spaces or punctuation)? Thanks. (JosephASpadaro 18:26, 3 August 2007 (UTC))

I'm not sure if you can have punctuation in your username. However, you'd want to submit the request at WP:CHU. Alternatively, you can go into your preferences and change your raw signature to appear as you prefer it (with spaces and punctuation) as I have mine set to show color and include a heart. Lara♥Love 18:45, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Conflict of Interest in page that is protected

Hi. I'd like to change a page (Broccoli, discussion of 3'3'Diindolylmethane in "Cultivation, Preparation, and Nutritional Value" section) that I believe has a conflict of interest where a company appears to be promoting their product by discussing benefits and then in the references (references 8 & 9) linking to their website which links to purchase the product. Wikipedia should not be used for this type of promotional benefit, but rather for the non-biased discussion of topics. How would I go about updating this page to not include this conflict of interest link since the page is protected? Thanks for the help.Saltsister 17:57, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I can edit it and you should be able to edit after being a user for five days, also I agree that there is a conflict of interest, see [3], but let me say that if you have an opposite conflict of interest it's best that you wait for someone else to make the edits. Jeffrey.Kleykamp 18:16, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Understood, thank you for your prompt response. Saltsister 18:40, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Tabbed page format

Hello, I would like to create a page similar to the one here with only 2 tabs. Is there a good refernece document on creating this ? Thx.

This is what you're looking for. Lara♥Love 18:42, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

• Hey Lara, I not quite getting it from the instructions on that page. Is there another tutorial you can think of? If you give me a 2 tabbed template with some text... I would praise you forever!

The tabbed Tutorial page is really a set of pages. It is held together with the tab header page that you don't really see, and then that controls what happens with the individual tab pages. Go here Wikipedia:Tutorial/TabsHeader, and look at the contents (edit the page). Then each of the individual tab pages starts with a little code to identify which tab they are, e.g., /TabsHeader|This=1 is at the start of the Front Page tab page. Good luck. Alfrodull 23:04, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I was able to set up a very simple two tab page (three pages - the tab header page, the first tab page, and the second tab page in my Sandox. Feel free to copy it to get started. It is here. Alfrodull 01:33, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

• I'm still confused on creating the tabs header pg. The first line on your tab header pg. references Wikipedia:Tutorial/Tabs. Do I need to reference this pg? What do I need to put on the first line of the tabs header pg.? I am creating this on an internal wiki site for my co.

Yes, that page, or one with the same content needs to be referenced. So you will need to make a page like it on your internal wiki.Alfrodull 17:27, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Proposed mergers

Hi. I have noticed that there is a huge backlog at Category:Merge by month. I would like to ask if any user can deal with this backlog or if it needs to be done by an admin. Thanks.Tbo 157 18:49, 3 August 2007 (UTC) Can I also ask the same question for Wikipedia:Requested moves.Tbo 157 19:00, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I've fixed the link. You need to put a colon (:) before category when internal linking to it. AndrewJDTALK -- 19:06, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Anyone can merge articles. Just follow the instructions! :) -- Stwalkerster talk 20:23, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Use of sound to subdue humans

I have been asked by several individuals who work at a high security prison, whether or not there is a possibility to use loud ultra high frequency sound to subdue prisoners who are rioting. Currently, the guards use tear gas and are wondering if there is any way sound could be used to temporarily disable dangerous individuals in lieu of toxious gas.

dgager

You want to ask this at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science. The help desk is for editing questions. --Sopoforic 20:17, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

See Less-lethal weapons, Long range acoustic device, and Sonic weaponry. I admit to being troubled by evidence that individuals who work at a high-security prison can't seem to perform a simple search on Wikipedia. What's wrong with our educational system? --Teratornis 22:19, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Threatened with account closure

I added a new article about an online project. The article that I was attempting to add was apparently deleted in the past (I assumed for lack of citations, as that is about all I could decipher from the cryptic messages - I'm new here, sorry).

User "realkyhick" then added a speedy deletion request and when I (researched how to and then) added a {{hangon}} tag, he threated to terminate my account! Is this how your company operates? If so, is it possible to get a refund on my past monetary donations?! I find this threat offensive and uncalled-for.

I've been happy in the past to just enter typo corrections and this is only the second article that I've tried to create. If your guardians are so antagonistic that I'm going to have my account yanked for creating a page (and just now he accused me of self-promotion!! I'm not even affiliated with the content!), I want to hear it from someone with a "@wikipedia.org" after their e-mail.

Good day. Mangler 21:48, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi! It is impossible (as far as I know) for anyone to close your account. However, it is possible that your account could be blocked. However, admins need a reason to block you. It appears that you are trying to create an article about a non-notable topic. Wikipedia cannot have articles about everything, so only those which can show notability about it's subject are allowed. I would recommend you find something notable about Brotherhood 2.0, then try again. Or, do something else, like write an article on one of the topics listed here. :) -- Stwalkerster talk 22:01, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Mangler, having reviewed your work, and the responses from both you and User:realkyhick, I must say that I don't see where realkyhick has done anything wrong. He is stating the gist of policy, informing you of what might happen. Heck, I don't think he was rude either. The fact is Brotherhood 2.0 at the moment would probably fail Wikipedia:Notability if it were put up at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion; I myself would vote Delete for it, and I'm an Inclusionist. If he did anything wrong, than he broke Wikipedia:Etiquette.

Just for the record, it wasn't so much that he marked it for removal (though at the time I did have a comment in the discussion page inviting debate on that topic, which he apparently ignored and just marked regardless). My problem is in the Discussion comments on my user page. I started the article, he marked for speedy removal, I marked with hang-on, then he informed me: " Please stop. If you continue to ignore our policies by introducing inappropriate pages to Wikipedia, you will be blocked."

That seems like quite a threat in response to simply adding a hangon element, doesn't it? Another user removed the speedy, and now there's a third user recommending removal for a different reason, but he's done so politely and I have no problem with that. I found the use of the icon, the bold, and the overall tone quite rude, especially after I tried to follow the only recourse left legitimately to me, the Discussion page and the hangon tag.-Mangler 00:06, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

If however you still feel wronged, find an Admin to help you, or contact the Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents for help. Please note however, he said Block, (temporaily not allowed to edit) not Ban (longer periods to forever). Blocking itself is not too bad, when I first came to WP, I was blocked about 5 times during my WP learning curve. Zidel333 22:36, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree that that user (hicks) could have toned down the response, but he is right in some respects. The encyclopedia eventually filters out what should and should not belong, and in my experience, the subject that the article concentrates on will not last long. Speedy deletion is an early warning sign to you, the contributor.

Creating new articles isn't the best way to start off here, because, yes, over-zealous editors will quickly dissolve any enthusiasm you might have toward contributing. I suggest you take a look at how many articles are regularly up for deletion (184 articles were nominated in just one day), as that will reveal to you more about why deletion is such a big deal. ALTON .ıl 22:23, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry that Mangler took offense to my action. However, I will point out that the article in question was already speedy deleted three times over the past few months, as evidenced by this link. If this user was not the one to originally post those articles (I'm not an admin and have no way to check that deep into the "innards"), then I offer my apologies. However, if he was — and being the creator of this vlog as well as the latest original author, I would suspect it was — then the warning was appropriate, as a third re-posting would indicate that he has had some encounter with Wikipedia policies by now.

You continue to make the unfounded (and incorrect, btw) statement that I'm the originator of the vlog. That is untrue. Hank and John Green are the creators and live in Montana, and Indiana, respectively. I'm sure someone from WP can show that I'm in New Mexico, as per my ip-address. Your insistence on this falsehood is an example of the attitude to which I am lodging the complaint. I myself only learned about the vlog about 2 weeks ago, and it has existed for eight months now. If you're wondering why I have extensive information regarding the vlog, it's because I've watched it in its entirety over the last two weeks, and everything that I've posted here comes directly from the video entries. Just because I watch TV doesn't mean I own NBC either.-Mangler 01:05, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm more than happy to step aside from this whole issue. I noticed that the article now has a prod; I assume the author will contest that and it will go to AfD, at which time I will vote for strong delete. Aside from that, I'll have no further involvement in this. Realkyhick 00:52, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Update: I just checked the talk page, and I see that Mangler says he was not the author of the other articles and had no connection with this vlog. I must say that this surprises me very greatly, given the exceedingly great detail in his article, which would mean more than a regular familiarity with the subject. But I will take his word for it. My sincere apologies. I still, however, stand by my assessment of the subject's notability, and will still vote to delete should it come to AfD. As I have said to others in the past, "The best-written article in the world cannot overcome a lack of notability." Realkyhick 01:05, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

This, I accept (though it was rather dripping with insincerity). I might argue that if 3 different people (and I assume 3 based on the dates of deletion being so far apart) are trying to create this page, it might have some notability, or at the very least a growing one. As mentioned in the article itself, its popularity exploded (about the time I myself discovered it) in mid-July, and so its entirely conceivable that it will continue to do so and indeed have a place here. If now is not that time, so be it. Again, my complaint with you was your assumptions, your tone, and your aggressiveness to threaten me, rather than to discuss in the Discussion page. If those messages were merely templates that you've created, I suggest you rewrite them before casting aspersions to legitimate (and new) users. -Mangler 01:16, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

For the record, the message with the warning icon was made with the template {{uw-create3}}. Realkyhick has not contributed to it but chose to use it, apparently based on an assumption that you had created the page before. The template is part of the series {{uw-create1}}, {{uw-create2}}, {{uw-create3}}, {{uw-create4}}. Note that the last which was not used is a last warning. PrimeHunter 02:33, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

OK, I'm glad that the issue is cleared up. I'm still availible if there are any other concerns. Zidel333 03:33, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

universe

How long is a lightyear?

Do your own homework, and Have you tried Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in knowledge questions, and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that's what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Hint: try Light year :) -- Stwalkerster talk 22:03, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

How to get help and attention to improve a page?

Ive found two pages, which are somewhat contradicting. However, I dont know what page is correct or whether a term has two different meanings. The problem is that in the discussion sector hardly anything has ever been written. How can I get some attention to these pages to get advise and help how to solve this issue? --Smallchanges 22:19, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Good question, I have been in this position before. I would do some research by looking at the article references, or going to a search engine. To draw attention to an article with this particular problem, place {{Contradict-other|[[Article]]}} on the tops of the pages that contradict themselves, replacing article with the opposite article, and then give a description of what the contradiction is on the talk page. I hope this helps, --wpktsfs 22:26, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

pictures from public domain

I am writing a story and need a few pictures of specific places, people or art work. I could find some of these pictures on the Wikipedia website. They all are in the "public domain" and supposedly free to use. If I want to use them, do I have to mention that I found them on the Wikipedia website? Please let me know. I would appreciate your answer. Thank you Bochima 23:09, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

I am not a copyright lawyer, nor do I have extensive knowledge of copyright. To the best of my knowledge, if the images are "public domain" (not GFDL) meaning they have no copyright, you may use them however you like. Please see WP:C for more information. --wpktsfs 00:15, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

August 4

Image Search

How do i search in Wikipedia for just images and not the whole page.

This is the best I could come up with: Wikipedia:WikEh?/Images/. If this does not help, reply here. --wpktsfs 00:20, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

You could use Google Image search. Type the name of what you want to search for then type " site:en.wikipedia.org " after your search term. This will make Google search only in Wikipedia for images. --_Hdt83 ^Chat 00:36, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

You can start by writing a search term in the normal Wikipedia search box, click "Search" and not "Go", then uncheck "Wikipedia" and check "Image" in the boxes at the bottom, and use the search box at the bottom. PrimeHunter 02:13, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Page creations

How do I find out what pages I've created? It ain't here — Jack · talk · 01:39, Saturday, 4 August 2007

Unfortunately there is no link or tool for that as far as I know. See also [4]. PrimeHunter 02:07, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Here are some counters, one addressing your concern, but they seem to be down at the moment. ALTON .ıl 05:57, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Help with username

Hi, i have forgoten my password. I am User:tiptoety, how do i go about recovering it if i never entered my email address?

Nvrm, I got in, Thank you. Tiptoety 02:23, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Luisitania article

Quote Ireland, killing 1,198 of the 1,959 people aboard. The sinking turned sentiments against Germany.

I think its a typo? lol how can more people be lost then were aboard ? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 130.76.32.16 (talk)

The article is RMS Lusitania. 1,198 is less than 1,959 so I don't know what you mean. PrimeHunter 03:52, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Fair Use Rationale

I have contributed to a Doom 3 Enemies page, and it immediately got a Speedy Deletion notice for a no Non-Free Use Rationale, I have since edited it and wondered if this is now correct? This is my first real wikipedia edit..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Doom3-Archvile.JPG — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.132.66.100 (talk) 21:31, August 3, 2007

You actually have to rationalize why it's Fair Use, but you don't have to use that template. For an example, look here. ALTON .ıl 06:02, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

swimming pool safety regulations south africa

What are the current pool safety regulations in south africa regarding fencing

Wikipedia doesn't have that kind of information. I suggest contacting the South African government.--Chaser - T 06:50, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

nice opportunity

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

"As of 2007, the John Robert Powers organization is a network of franchises that charges their clients for acting and modeling lessons. John Robert Powers franchises (hereafter JRP) often claim in their marketing literature to be talent agencies or the like. Critics describe JRP as employing actors as talent scouts, and using high pressure sales tactics.[1]"

I don't think the above description of John Robert Powers is fair.

JRP provides workshops for kids, as well as guaranteed auditions with agents, casting directors, magazines and managers every week - so they can make (face to face) connections with important people.

Yes, there is tuition for classes, as with any class!

Regarding the marketing literature, I've never seen anything to indicate JRP is anything other than a school, that promotes their students.

John Robert Powers basically opens doors for kids by giving them the tools they need to book work - and putting them in front of the right people - on a weekly basis.

Which is all an actor can ask for - right?

why unique selling point of harry porter not included

Hello. Who is harry porter and what has he to do with JRP? Is it Harry Potter? If you can source a valid unaligned third party link that describes a relationship between Harry Potter and JRP then I would say that needs to be in the citation. That would be a great reference. Not all organizations are all bad....but it is hard to find a positive reference to JRP that was not written by someone related to a JRP franchise. Personally I ahve found no such linkage. If an actor in a Harry Potter movie has made any sort of statement about his/her John Robert Powers training...it should certainly be available somewhere.Sheepshear 21:33, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Trivia Wiki

Does anyone know of a Trivia Wiki?

The reason I ask is that I'm becoming dismayed at the large amount of work that went into the large amount of interesting and useful material that is gradually get removed from wikipedia as trivia, by people who (rightly, I suppose) cite WP:EFFORT, WP:INTERESTING, WP:USEFUL and WP:TRIVIA.

I thought it would be a worthwhile project for me (and others if it works well) to transwiki to elsewhere where this material is wanted. (Actually it's not literally a transwiki, is it, where the source wiki isn't a sister project?)

But my question is, is there another wiki out there? One that is GFDL compatible, specialises in trivia, and is already large and well-established enough that it's unlikely to vanish off the face of the web.

Of course, I'm happy to take this to WP:RD, but I'm asking here at the help desk first, rather than cross-posting. AndyJones 08:18, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

wikitravel is the main travel wiki, though its licence is cc-by-sa. This is only technically different to the GFDL but it's different enough that content can't be copied there. --Cherry blossom tree 08:47, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

No, sorry, trivia, not travel. AndyJones 09:12, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, sorry. It's so obvious when you point it out! I suppose the various Wikia wikis accept material that would be deleted as trivia on Wikipedia. --Cherry blossom tree 09:59, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

On the definition of transwiki: according to m:Help:Transwiki, this refers to copying articles between Wikimedia Foundation wikis. As far as I have been able to tell, there isn't even a proper term for copying articles from Wikipedia to some non-Wikimedia wiki (I've used wiki outplacement to describe this process, for lack of anything better). That should tell you something about the scale of this problem - it's almost as if the Wikipedia community hasn't even formulated the concept of trying to preserve the value of other people's work. The problem, of course, is of Wikipedia's own making: the MediaWiki software was specifically designed to encourage random visitors to create new articles, and this goes back to the very origin of Wikipedia as a departure from the earlier Nupedia. Nupedia had a complicated procedure for creating and approving new articles, and it was too slow and difficult to be effective. Wikipedia was designed around the idea of making it easy for anybody to edit anything, and the result has been explosive growth.

In the beginning, Wikipedia was begging for new articles, but today the situation has changed. Wikipedia has 6,936,768 articles, with thousands more being created each day, and a large percentage of new articles end up being deleted. The software still makes it easy for naive new users to create new articles, without requiring new users to demonstrate even the most basic understanding of Wikipedia's policies and what Wikipedia is not. Then admins go around deleting the thousands of inappropriate articles per day which result from the way Wikipedia positions itself to new users.

As far as which wiki to use for "trivia," that's probably too broad a category. If you browse around on WikiIndex a bit, you'll see many other wikis with comparatively narrow topical focus. It seems that lots of people who start wikis are thinking quite narrowly at the time. For example, there are more wikis that focus on one particular musical group or genre, than wikis which accept articles about all types of music. (I suspect that focusing a wiki too narrowly is likely to doom it, by preventing the wiki from attracting enough contributors to form a viable community.) In any case, we can't very well control what everybody else decides to do, so if you want to outplace deleted articles that you would label as "trivia," you might need to classify them further (game trivia, travel trivia, entertainment trivia, music trivia, etc.).

Perhaps it is time to start a WikiProject Outplacement, with the goal of identifying suitable alternate wikis for Wikipedia's deleted articles. As far as I am aware, there has been no organized attempt to do this yet. I did start the section: WP:WWMPD#If all else fails, try another wiki, and in a couple of AfD discussions I suggested an alternate wiki, but the problem is too large for my occasional individual efforts to noticeably dent. --Teratornis 11:01, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Reporting technical problems

Since yesterday we are having technical problems in the Latin Wikipedia. Some/many talk pages are not displayed, I mean, they are displayed blank, there is not even a navigation on the top. See la:Vicipaedia:Taberna#Blank_talk_pages.

To whom should we report this problem? Thanks! --Roland2 08:22, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

It sounds like you might want to put in a bug report at bugzilla. Raven4x4x 08:35, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the hint. I've reported that as a bug, however, I does not look like a bug in the software, it looks like a temporary problem with the database, cache or so. So no coding bug, but something for the server admins or database admins. --Roland2 09:04, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Solved. --Roland2 11:40, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Resolved

how to mesar by caliper

how to meser by caliper —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.130.100.180 (talk • contribs)

See: caliper. --Teratornis 10:29, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

A question about possibility to publish a link

Hello,

My name is Olga Tumilovich and I would like to ask you the following questions:

Question #1: Today I tried to post a link to http://maps.poehali.org/en/ at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_map#External_links, but the moderator has deleted it. I cannot really understand why, because poehali.org is not a commercial resource and is absolutely free. It represents more than 18000 digital images of military topographic maps, which are all avalaible for free. I really don't see the sense of deleting it.???

Question#2: At mapstor.com there is section with article (http://mapstor.com/article/maps.html). Can I link to this section at

1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_map#External_links 2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topography or I can not? Which is the most suiatble place for my article in your point or view?

Many thank to you,

olga OlgaBl 10:43, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

We have a page that details how we make those decisions: Wikipedia:External links. The best place to discuss specific articles is the talk page of the article - for this article, that's Talk:Topographic map. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 12:34, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia features constant tension between inclusionists and deletionists. Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia about almost everything, your edits may be judged by any number of people who may not share your enthusiasm for a particular subject. This creates no end of conflict, because naturally Wikipedia attracts millions of people who like to edit articles about their interests, whereupon they find themselves constrained by Wikipedia's complex and often vexing policies and guidelines. The situation is much different on a wiki which caters to a particular subject area - subject area enthusiasts will typically find such a wiki much friendlier than the (metaphorical) zoo which is Wikipedia. Check out Category:Maps on WikiIndex. You might also inquire at WikiProject Maps, specifically on its talk page. --Teratornis 23:30, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Peter Theo Vasiliou

What cleanup/Deletion tags would be approiate for Peter Theo Vasiliou Thedjatclubrock :) (talk) 11:52, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Why not try improving the article, rather than tagging it. The subject is of reasonable notability, so deletion is unnecessary. Your tagging of a biographical stub as "spam" was inappropriate, so I've declined speedy deletion. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:55, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

deleted pages

When a newly created article is deleted, is that creation deleted from the user cotributions page as User_talk:Majiqmud has received a number of warnings for this but these are not listed in his user contrbutions. ThanksTbo 157 12:09, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes but if they were warned using warning templates with a link to the article it would appear as a red link but even if the article is not cited in the warning the administrators can check the Deleted contributions if reported to AIV. Ds.mt 12:11, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

A user's deleted contribs can be seen at his deleted contribs page. I don't think non-admins can see that : in this user's case, it shows Majiqmud editing Kenyan Animation Industry, Kenyan Animation, Swahilipod, and Learning swahili. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:15, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

how to make an infobox

--1jake312 14:19, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

What do you want it to do? There may be an existing infobox that can be used. Based on your edits, {{Infobox Television episode}} may be relevant. See also Help:Infobox. PrimeHunter 15:18, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Multiple References

Suppose you have a book called "The ABC Story" written by Mr. X and published by Y Publishing and suppose you refer to it 5 times in one article.

How can you make multiple references to a work without it appearing 5 times in the <reflist>. I only want it to appear once but refer to it throughout the article.

How do I do that ?

Tovojolo 15:35, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

At the first citation to the source, instead of using <ref>text</ref>, use <ref name=pick natural name for the reference>text</ref>. The next time you want to cite to that reference in the article, just type <ref name=name you chose earlier/>. You must not forget the trailing backslash.--Fuhghettaboutit 15:52, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Footnotes#Citing a footnote more than once. PrimeHunter 16:15, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Adding Keywords/Names to broaden search to find page?

I'm wondering how to make two more names link to the Daniel A. Farber page using Wikipedia search. For example, someone would like to find the Wikipedia Daniel Farber page, but typing Daniel Farber brings up nothing, they instead are forced to type in 'Daniel A. Farber'.

Since I'm creating the Daniel Farber page, I'd prefer it if people could simply type in Daniel Farber to reach it as well. I read the wikisearch page and didn;t find what I was looking for. B.Soto 15:47, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

We use what's called a redirect for this purpose. What you do is create a page for the alternate name, and simply type #REDIRECT [[name of page you want people to find]] as the text. When they search for that parameter, they will automatically be taken to the correct page. You can format the text for the redirect page by using the editing link right above the text screen which is labeled "#R".--Fuhghettaboutit 15:57, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Daniel A. Farber was just created and has not been indexed by Wikipedia search yet. When that happens it should be the first search result on Daniel Farber if no redirect is made. PrimeHunter 16:18, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

need help urgently

Have been searching for The Pre-colonial West African traditional economy and i dont know how to go about it how much more know how to frame the question pls i would appreciate it if you would just help me thanks

Thanks for posting. I think the reference desk might be able to help you better. We answer questions about using Wikipedia. Lara♥Love 16:35, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Try these Google Searches:

• Search Wikipedia for: Pre-colonial West African traditional economy
• Search the World Wide Web for: Pre-colonial West African traditional economy

--Teratornis 21:28, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

New category

I created Category:Circus films by adding the category to a few pictures. However, the category still shows up as a redlink. Is there a problem? Clarityfiend 16:44, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Go to Category:Circus films and click the edit link, then add some text describing the category. :) -- Stwalkerster talk 16:48, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

And add parent categories to it, for example Category:Films by topic. PrimeHunter 16:54, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Clarityfiend 18:59, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

If your category has a main article (that is, an article which defines what the category is about), you can emphasize it by placing the {{catmore}} template at the bottom of the descriptive text for the category. --Teratornis 23:09, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

User Pages

I just joined Wikipedia today. I'm happy to be a user, and the first thing I wanted to do was create my userpage. I decided that I wanted my userpage to be a lot like Tangerines', with a lot of Userboxes or whatever you call them. But I don't know how to get to Tangerines' user page to see how he did it, and I don't know how to insert those Userbox thingies.

Also, I am wondering whether you need to do anything to become a member of a Wikiproject. I'm very interested in WikiProject: Schools, so can I just write articles about them and then display on my userpage that I'm part of the WikiProject, or does it take more than that? Please fill me in on those things.

--Nick4404 17:30, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi there, and welcome to Wikipedia! All the information you'll need on userbxes can be found here: Wikipedia:Userboxes. To join Wikiproject Schools go here: [5] and follow the instructions. AndrewJDTALK -- 17:34, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

To copy some of another user's User Page, go to their page, hit edit, then copy the text, and then paste that into your own user page. But make sure to make the page you make on your user page isn't identical to the source (some weirdos like impersonating other users). The rules about what you can and can't do with your user page are described at Wikipedia:User page. But a word of caution - user pages are very unimportant, and time you spend decorating them is largely time wasted. If you want to do something productive and worthwhile, that will actually help others, any improvement to a real article (even trivial stuff like spelling fixes) is hugely more valuable (and I'd argue more satisfying) than user page edits. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:36, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Schools/Participants for how to join. Adding {{User WikiProject Schools}} to your user page will place you in Category:WikiProject Schools members. PrimeHunter 18:41, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Also see WP:PROJGUIDE to learn more about how WikiProjects work. --Teratornis 21:22, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

emailing

How do I email a retieved article (set of pages) --Jerryms 19:03, 4 August 2007 (UTC)to a person-jerrym

Just attach the retrieved file to the email. -- Kainaw^(what?) 19:39, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

However, if the recipient has access to the World Wide Web, you don't need to send the whole text of the articles, you can simply send the URLs, like this:

Dear friend,
 
Check out my question on the Wikipedia Help desk:
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk#emailing

Sincerely,
Jerryms

Sending just the URLs of the articles is faster for you and more efficient overall, because you won't be sending e-mail messages that are bloated with e-mail attachments. Also, e-mail attachments are a typical conduit for e-mail viruses and other nasty things, so your friend might be hesitant to open them. If you plan to send a list of articles to a whole list of friends, then it becomes much more efficient to just send the article URLs, especially since out of a whole list of recipients, the odds are that some of them won't be interested in reading some of the articles. --Teratornis 21:20, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

I should add that if you send just the article URLs, you don't depend on the recipient having set his or her e-mail software to display HTML messages. Some people (like me) turn off all the HTML and rich text options in our e-mail clients because we find them annoying, not to mention potentially dangerous due to all the e-mail spam containing malicious payloads. --Teratornis 21:25, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Baritone Guitars

I edited this page to include additonal information not previously presented or needing clarification. There is no way to provide a citation because the information I added is from personal experience of 20 years of building guitars, twelve of which include baritone guitars. I'm not sure how to provide a traditional citation in this regard because the information came first-hand. Suggestions as to how you would like the additions cited?

Dberkowitz 21:55, 4 August 2007 (UTC).

See no original research. If you have original work that has never been previously published, you should enter it on another wiki which accepts original work. For example, search WikiIndex for: guitar. That finds Wiki Guitar and GuitarWiki. Many of these topic-specific wikis are looking to add content rather than delete it on the scale that Wikipedia does, so they tend to have less rigorous policies governing what you can write on them. If you can get your guitar work published in a reliable source, then you or others can write about it on Wikipedia. --Teratornis 22:43, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

I might also add that even though your knowledge is first-hand, perhaps someone else has published it. You might try a Google Search using keywords from your information and see if you can find a reliable source for it. Given all the other people in the world who do things and write about them, it may be difficult to have entirely original ideas. On the other hand, it is not always easy to start with ideas and then go find reliable sources for them. See: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia#Sou for everything you need to know about sources on Wikipedia. For example, these resources may be helpful:

• Wikipedia:WikiProject External links
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Unreferenced Article Cleanup

--Teratornis 23:43, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Making a Page

Im new to this i wanna make a page. please tell me how, thank u i am user piazzajordan2

Hi! Please see Wikipedia:Your first article and Help:Creating a new page, also please do make sure your article meets the notability guidelines. :-) Stwalkerster talk 23:06, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Search box

I think it would be a good idea to automatically have cursor present in the search box each time the page is visited. Google do this and it makes searching much quicker.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.100.29.251 (talk • contribs)

I'd suggest taking this to Village pump (proposals), as you're not going to get much of a response here. - Zeibura ^(Talk) 22:59, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

And I'd suggest you don't, because it's been brought up a few times (it may even be on the "perennial proposals list", and is in fact on the Main Page FAQ - look for "Why doesn't the cursor appear in the search box, like with Google?") and fairly firmly rejected each time, because while it would make things easier for people when they want to type something in to search, for people who like to navigate pages using arrow keys rather than the mouse it makes things harder. There are keyboard shortcuts to put the cursor in the search box, which are listed under that question in the Main Page FAQ. Shift-Alt-F works in Firefox (2.0 at least), and I suspect Alt-F will work in IE, so try those. Confusing Manifestation 11:09, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

It's too bad this can't be a Preferences setting (assuming it can't be). I'm all for letting the user customize his or her view of Wikipedia to the extent possible. One size does not fit all. --Teratornis 16:58, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

August 5

Infobox

Resolved

How do I insert an infobox on a page, such as the ones generally used for celebrities to paste a picture and other personal data?

Sroundtable 00:31, 5 August 2007 (UTC)Kevin McCabe

Have a look through Category:Infobox templates and find an appropriate infobox for the article you want to put one in. Instructions should be included in its documentation on the template page, but if for some reason they're not and you need more help, feel free to ask me on my talk page. - Zeibura ^(Talk) 00:34, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

How to create line breaks in {{quotation|

Resolved

Or a better way to display excerpts from an interview..i.e.

Firmage: I still don’t know what it was. It could have been a relatively mundane rare experience in consciousness, it could have been a bad potato… it could have been a nightmare. Its not like I leaped out of bed and said “Well, I’ve had a vision. I’m gonna go, you know, start a science research institute or something like that. All it served to do I’d say is punctuate, a rising appreciation of some of the larger issues that we all confront together as a human family.

Interviewer: It did more than punctuate, it changed your life quite radically didn’t it.

so it breaks like this:

Firmage: I still don’t know what it was. It could have been a relatively mundane rare experience in consciousness, it could have been a bad potato… it could have been a nightmare.

Its not like I leaped out of bed and said “Well, I’ve had a vision. I’m gonna go, you know, start a science research institute or something like that.

All it served to do I’d say is punctuate, a rising appreciation of some of the larger issues that we all confront together as a human family.

Interviewer: It did more than punctuate, it changed your life quite radically didn’t it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.169.242.88 (talk)

You can make a line break with <br>. PrimeHunter 01:01, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Can't set-up an account

Resolved

Sorry to be so dense, but I can't manage this.

My user name seems fine, likewise my email address, but I keep getting shot back to the wibbly-wobbly "copy this and start again" part, and it doesn't matter what pass-word I use either.

I've probably got the wrong sort of PhD.

I only wanted to add some local knowledge to an entry on a bishop's palace without broadcasting my home address, but I've been faffing around for a couple of hours.

Help Please!

87.113.12.45 01:40, 5 August 2007 (UTC)Cherry87.113.12.45 01:40, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Well it's not your home address that gets broadcast, it's your IP address (that number you just signed your post with). Try Wikipedia:Request an account if you're having difficulties creating one. - Zeibura ^(Talk) 01:44, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

A couple of questions

Resolved

Hi help desk. I have two questions... 1 - I know citing is needed, and I have seen people cite very specific things such as eye color. Is citing small facts like that necessary? I don't see them to be, but I would like to make sure. Thanks. 2 - Someone I've run into seems to think that if something isn't cited, it shouldn't be added. I've re-added some information before that was good but uncited, and the person took it out, despite that I put a citation needed tag. Shouldn't it be alright for it to be left if there is a tag? I would think it would be because someone might later find the information at a cite or might look for it, especially if it's something useful to the article.

Thanks. Jade Owl 21:08, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi. Thanks for posting. What needs to be cited can be found here. Typically speaking, only direct quotes and material that is challenged or likely to be challenged needs to be cited. However, WP:OR states that "Wikipedia is not the place for original research." It further states, "the only way to demonstrate that you are not presenting original research is to cite reliable sources that provide information directly related to the topic of the article, and to adhere to what those sources say." So, you should source anything that isn't common knowledge or necessarily readily available to the public. For example, if you want to include information that yields 20,000 hits on google, you probably don't need to source it. Otherwise, it would be wise. Additionally, articles on living persons have a more strict requirement for sourcing. If the case of tagged information that was removed was for that of a living person, then it was appropriate for that editor to remove it. Lara♥Love 04:57, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Your editor name is JadeOwl with no space. You must use a signature which links to the correct name. If you really want the space then make a request at Wikipedia:Changing username. Your time 21:08 indicates you added the signature manually (probably using your own time zone). Please sign your messages with ~~~~ which will create a correct link with UTC time. Wikipedia:Biographies of living people has strict rules. See also Wikipedia:Verifiability#Burden of evidence. If somebody challenges a claim (even just an eye color) with a {{fact}} tag, then only remove the tag if you add a citation. You should only add information if you have it from a reliable source, and you shouldn't add {{fact}} tags to your own edits. If you don't know a source yourself then don't make the edit in the first place. It's allowed to remove unsourced information, also when it's considered obvious or common knowledge by some editors, but in uncontroversial cases it may be preferred to add {{fact}} instead of removing it. Making inline citations for every detail you add is not needed. As long as it has not been challenged and is not controversial, it's usually enough if the information can be found somewhere in the references section. PrimeHunter 05:00, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Regarding Sockpuppets

Resolved

Now, I realize "sockpuppets" is a negative term and may not even be the term I'm looking for. Basically, this is more of a policy query: can one user actively use more than one account at a time? I ask because User:1300khz, User:1400khz, and User:1490khz are likely all the same user (I can't verify this as I don't have the means). The reason I ask is that this/these user(s) have a tendency to not follow WP:MOS and the guidelines set forth at WP:WPRS to the letter, so I routinely go through and fix up stuff. Thanks for your help. JPG-GR 04:47, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Add User:Pkc5001 to the list of possibilities. JPG-GR 04:49, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

It's my understanding that the use of multiple accounts is fine as long as they are not used to sway consensus, dodge WP:3RR, or the like. Perhaps another editor is more familiar with this. However, if the only issue seems to be failure to follow the MOS and other guides, try letting them know per talk pages. If that's already been tried and failed, you might want to consider WP:RfC. Regards, Lara♥Love 04:51, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Sockpuppets is the right term. They are discouraged in most cases and forbidden in some cases. See Wikipedia:Sockpuppets. PrimeHunter 05:04, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Page not fully loading

Resolved

Hi, i notice that the New Zealand Warriors page isn't fully loading, as such. The footer of the page is visible, but the information edited into the wiki cuts off suddenly. I know the page is 32kb long, but i removed a large chunk of stuff to test out if that fixed anything, but it was still cut off at the same point. The information not showing up is still able to be edited. --IanRitchie 06:07, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

You were missing the </ref> part of the second note, which causes anything following that section to not show up. I fixed it.CindyBo^talk 07:32, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Funny, i hadn't touched that since i put it in - neither had previous edits, i think. Thank you! --IanRitchie 07:56, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Crepuscular_rays&action=history

Can someone (an admin) please have a look at the current edit conflict going on? I'm sure this goes over the 3-revert rule.

If you need to report someone for 3RR violations, you should see Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/3RR. --_Hdt83 ^Chat 07:40, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

No not really, it's just that I would like an outside person to review it, as I don't think a consenus is going to be reached by those two.

In that case, follow the steps for the dispute resolution policy. -- Kesh 13:43, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Consensus has already been reached, thanks anyway --Fir0002 22:19, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

I would not say that consensus was reached. I still believe that my image is the best for the subject representation and is only one of a kind on Wikipedia, which shows all sky rays.I was just tiered from the edit war with fir0002 and I did not know where to look for the help. Besides I was not sure why fir00002 decided to address the viewers to my talk page to learn the reasons why he deleted the images. I believe the best place to display reasons for doing edits in an article is discussion pages in the articles and not an user talk page. Now I'd like an outside person to review it. Thanks.--Mbz1 05:01, 6 August 2007 (UTC)Mbz1

Ray Thomas

Resolved

Greetings, For the Dutch Wiki I have translated the article about Ray Thomas. In that article you mention that the article has no source. Well; the external link contains the source of this article. Please remove the resource-items out of that article. I have no English Wiki-identity, so I leave it up to you. In the Dutch Wiki I am known as Ceescamel. Thanking you in advance. Cees from Amsterdam

The Wikipedia article contains many facts that are not covered in the external link and even so articles should really have inline citations. I have switched the template to say 'more sources required'. --Cherry blossom tree 10:06, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Renaming articles

Resolved

Hi, I want to rename an article, Scales (Furness), to Scales, Cumbria to keep the naming consistent with other villages in Cumbria. Where do I propose such a renaming? I can't find anything on the deletion help pages.Kijog 12:07, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

To do this, simply go to the page and click the "Move" tab up the top (next to history). Type in the new name and reason for moving. The history and talk page (assuming the correct box is ticked) will move along with it. For more information, see WP:MOVE. AndrewJDTALK -- 12:23, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Doh, thanks for that! So obvious now... Kijog 14:43, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Frustration

Resolved

The Wikipedia website keeps sending me to the Main Page. I type in Wikipedia.org, and I get sent to Main Page. Great. But there's no search box there. Wouldn't it be kind of helpful to have a search box there, since that's a big reason why people use Wikipedia?

This might be a problem with your browser, but there is a search box on www.wikipedia.org. It's under the circle of language selection. And if you click on the English Wikipedia button there is a search bar on every page, on the left hand side. AndrewJDTALK -- 12:27, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Contributions

Resolved

How do I view other peoples contributions? Please leave the answer on my talk page - Pheonix 12:24, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Replied on talk page AndrewJDTALK -- 12:37, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

It's fairly simple. Go to a user's page, such as User:Jimbo. On the left hand side where all the navigation button's are there is a section called 'toolbox'. There should be a 'User contributions' link and clicking that brings up a list like this. Any more questions or if it doesn't work, just ask. AndrewJDTALK -- 12:36, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

You can use Special:Contributions also.--OsamaK 12:39, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Please note: I have moved the above 2 responses from the talk page for others to see. :-) Stwalkerster talk 13:02, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

To see other people's contributions to a specific page, check the page history. Also see: Help:Contents/Tracking changes for many related techniques. --Teratornis 16:32, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Linking a search

Resolved

I remember seeing somewhere that there's Wiki markup for linking to a Google search. Does anyone know what that code is offhand? -- Kesh 13:40, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Interwiki linking. For example: Google:Interwiki linking. Note that if your Google Search terms contain any spaces (as they normally will if you have more than one search term) you must separate them with a non-breaking space code:

•  

Otherwise, the MediaWiki software will translate an ordinary space into an underscore when generating the search URL from the interwiki link (that's because in real interwiki links the underscore is necessary, but the Google "interwiki" link is kind of a hack, because Google Search is not a wiki). --Teratornis 13:51, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Ah, that was it! Thanks. -- Kesh 13:57, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Incidentally, you could find the answer to this question by a Google search on the Help desk archives for "Google", but the first half-dozen or so search results are irrelevant. However, since you had seen this technique before, you would probably recognize it toward the bottom of the first search results page. Help desk questions tend to be repetitive, so saving a link to a Google search on the Help desk makes a powerful tool to answer new Help desk questions, and also to answer many of one's own questions that come up in the course of routine editing on Wikipedia. (I expressed that site-specific search as an external link rather than as an interwiki link because I don't know how to cram the extra search options into the interwiki link form.) Between searching the Help desk archives, and the Editor's index, there aren't many Wikipedia editing questions one cannot answer, or at least determine a procedure for finding an answer. I consider this perhaps the most remarkable feature of Wikipedia, how the MediaWiki software encourages the user community to build up a vast store of how-to knowledge about the project itself, which we can then easily search. Ironically, Wikipedia is not a how-to guide in terms of the main article space, but in the project space, Wikipedians have built up a fanstastically comprehensive how-to knowledgebase. I can't think of any more generally-useful lesson than learning how that came to be, because people who know how to organize a project on the scale of Wikipedia can probably organize just about anything. --Teratornis 14:52, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

How to resolve issues with another editor?

Resolved

At the Sebaceous cyst article, an editor has placed an image of a scrotum (presumably his own, given that he is listed as the author of the image) with several cysts. I do not think this image is suitable:

1. It adds very little to the educational value of the page. 2. There are already 2 images, more than enough considering the article's length. 3. The image could easily be considered obscene.

Several people have tried to remove the image, but he unfailingly reverts their "vandalism" and usually leaves a snarky edit summary as well. I have left a comment on the talk page, but I am doubtful that any progress will be made. I am also quite new to the Wikipedia. How should I go about dealing with this? --Tzler 13:53, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not censored, so that's really not an issue. However, it sounds like this is an editing dispute that could use our dispute resolution process. -- Kesh 14:00, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't understand how unnecessary obscene content is not an issue. If someone painted their scrotum red, took a photograph and uploaded it to the article on the colour Red, you can imagine it wouldn't stay up there for long. I will, however, wait for his reply on the talk page and hopefully convince him to remove the image. --Tzler 14:28, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

If he's "unfailingly reverting", read WP:3RR, then take it up at WP:AN/3RR --L-- 14:38, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Profanity says:

"Words and images that would be considered offensive, profane, or obscene by typical Wikipedia readers should be used if and only if their omission would cause the article to be less informative, relevant, or accurate, and no equally suitable alternatives are available. Including information about offensive material is part of Wikipedia's encyclopedic mission; being offensive is not."

Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not censored says:

"...some articles may include objectionable text, images, or links if they are relevant to the content (such as the articles about the penis and pornography)..."

I have posted to the talk page that I don't think this image is necessary for a non-sexual subject. PrimeHunter 15:09, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

timer

Resolved

is there anyway that i can set a countdown timer to put on my userpage? for example if I wanted to countdown to august 15th is there anyway I could set one up to automatically countdown till that day? It doesent have to countdown every second (althoug that would be cool :D ) but just the days. so if i was to go on on august 13th it would say something like "2days left". Anyone know if this is possible? Thanks AlienSandbox 16:13, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

The exact opposite is done in Template:User for. It is a bit complicated, but I do not see why it cannot be converted to count down to date in the future. -- Kainaw^(what?) 16:15, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Fortran template? I don't think you mean that one...:-) Stwalkerster talk 16:17, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Correct, it is Template:User Wikipedian For. -- Kainaw^(what?) 16:21, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

{{age in days}} gives the number of days between two dates or from a date until today. It gives a negative result for future days, but you can take the absolute value with {{Abs}} to get the positive number of days from today until a given date. For example, {{Abs|{{Age in days|month1=8 |day1=15 |year1=2007}}}} evaluates to 6355. Or use #expr to change sign (so past dates would get a negative number): {{#expr:-{{Age in days|month1=8 |day1=15 |year1=2007}}}} evaluates to -6355. See also Help:Magic words#Time and Category:Date-computing templates based on current time. PrimeHunter 17:48, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Pictures

Resolved

I have recently put to photos in different articles, Ruff Ryders and The Duck Factory but they are not showing up. What is the problem?

Hi! Please could you tell me what the filenames of the images were? :-) Stwalkerster talk 16:54, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the file names are Ruff Ryders Logo.jpg and The Duck Factory Cover.jpg (Phreekie)

Thanks. When inserting images, you use the following code:

[[File:Bad Title Example.png]]

which produces

However, you had just inserted

Example.png

I hope this helps, and I have fixed the Ruff Ryders one for you. You can do the other one if you like :-) Stwalkerster talk 17:27, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Excess Quotes?

Resolved

Hello, I have a question about policy. I've come across a television series (Buffy The Vampire Slayer in which nearly every article has a Quotes section, in addition to linking to that episode's entry on wikiquotes. Would I be remiss in removing the excess quotes and quote sections? In most cases, they add nothing to the page, and the same quotes can be found on wikiquotes. I figured I should ask before I went ahead and did anything, however most of the talk pages for the episodes are sparse/empty. Zytch 16:50, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Answered off wiki. For future reference, see WP:QUOTE --L-- 18:01, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Question

Resolved

When editing a page, how do you make a link of an extrernal website accesable by clicking something unrealated. EX: Baseball team roster Pitchers a b c d how would you put a link to a player page that would be accessable by clicking on player a's name? Thanks for the help.

Basically, the url in square brackets, a space, then the text you want to link it to. So:

[http://www.google.com file lake shoe]

produces: file lake shoe, linking to Google. Hope this helps, - Zeibura ^(Talk) 17:15, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Centering Boxes

Resolved

Hi, Thanks for coming to help. If you look at this page, I was wondering whether I could center any of these boxes. Oh, and how do you make text centered as well :P Thank You :) Tiddly Tom 18:49, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately I don't know of any simple way to center userboxes, but to center text use

<center></center>

tags. - Zeibura ^(Talk) 19:18, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your help, do you know a not simple way of doing it :P Tiddly Tom 20:30, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

1000 artcicles, that every wikipedia should have

Resolved

Helo,
I am a editor of the Hungarien Wikipedia, so I`m not really familiar with this English version. I am in a summer camp, and I am going to hold a instruction on Wikipedia, tell people about this great project. On the Hungarien Wikipedia I saw a list, called: articles, what must be in every Wikipedia. I can not find that in this English version, so can you guys help me, that where is it...
Thank you very much Kisb92 19:23, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

See WP:VITAL. --L-- 19:24, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very-very much :-)!!

User Vandalism

Resolved

• 68.201.255.109 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) user editting a page obviously maliciously, has been warned and undone but continues to edit. Beebeegee 20:17, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

• All the users edits were made over a month ago, so it's best to assume it's stopped. If (s)he continues to vandalise, file a report at WP:AIV. - Zeibura ^(Talk) 20:21, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Removing templates

Resolved

I nominated a large number of templates for deletion, but nothing happened. Did I do something wrong?

They are template:MonthR 31 We, template:MonthRf, template:Year A, template:Year A 1 and many more. HandigeHarry 20:26, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

You didn't list them on the discussion page. See Wikipedia:Templates for deletion#How to use this page. PrimeHunter 20:35, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

people by alphabetical index

Resolved

i have been trying to access the list of biographies done alphabetically and all i get is stupid sub catagories you have a main index but i dont feel like spending my life going through it picking one name or musical group out of a hat. I cant believe that there is no biographical index in wikipedia> that would be absolutely astounding could you please direct me thank you —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.36.144.188 (talk • contribs) 20:35, 5 August 2007.

The huge alphabetical lists of people were deleted. See Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/List of people by name. You can for example use the search function instead. PrimeHunter 20:57, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

How to catagorize

Resolved

I recently submitted the biography of our organization International President, Dr. Johannes Maas. He has had a distiguished career building orphanages in India, and served as an advisor for The White House. Our web page is www.feedtheorphans.org. The page is asking me to catagorize the page. Will you please assist me in this process. Thank you. Ms Carol Penrod, Executive Secretary Worldwide Faith Missions

Hi, you might want to look at Wikiproject Biography's 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article because your article needs to be sourced as well as categorized. As for the category, look at similar biographies as Dr. Johannes Maas and see how they are categorized. Then, to add the article to a category, type [[Category:the name of the category you feel is appropriate]] at the bottom of the page. (To preview it, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom). Another thing you may want to look at is moving the article's title to Johannes Maas. See WP:NAMES where it says "Academic and professional titles (such as "Doctor" or "Professor") should not be used before the name in the initial sentence or in other uses of the person's name. Verifiable facts about how the person attained such titles should be included in the article text instead". Hope this helps.CindyBo^talk 21:31, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Lots more info on editing wikipedia can be found in the welcome message on your talk page now too at User Talk:Carol Penrod.CindyBo^talk 22:29, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

wireless secuity

Resolved

What is the basic security framework in a wireless LAN?

I'm guessing this is the same class assignment... see below. AndrewJDTALK -- 22:12, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Wireless Security

Resolved

Hi, there. I am doin my class activity here in class about Wireless stuff.. One of the question that i am going to answer is to "Determine the basic security framework that will be use in WLAN?" So what it would be???

Do your own homework. This isn't the place for information questions, this is for queries about Wikipedia. Although I might suggest looking at WLAN. AndrewJDTALK -- 22:12, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Is there a thing in somthing that says "Make a new page"

Resolved

Please help me.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Piazzajordan2 (talk • contribs).

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

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter 22:17, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

What did I do wrong in writing about Norway Corporation Repertory Company?

Resolved

When I tried to write an article about Norway Corporation Repertory Company, it was flagged for speedy deletion because, according to the tags, I had failed to give a reason for notability of the company. I did not know how to submit it as a stub, and evidently, my efforts to explain why the article should indeed be posted were in vain.

What did I do wrong?

Any answers to that question would be welcome.

Parker Gabriel 22:23, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Obviously Wikipedia wasn't shure of its value. if it is a small page, they have little need, if its a shor page about a company that isn't well known, how do they know the facts? OV

See Wikipedia:Why was my article deleted?. If you don't understand anything in that document, let us know what isn't clear. See WP:NOTABILITY for Wikipedia's notability guidelines. Unfortunately, I am not an administrator so I cannot see your deleted article, which might let me recommend another wiki where you might develop your article free from Wikipedia's rather demanding requirements. Since you know what you are trying to write about, you might search on WikiIndex for another wiki that caters to your subject area of interest. A search on Wikipedia for repertory company finds quite a number of articles, so you might look at some of them to see what sort of article on this subject survives on Wikipedia. And see Wikipedia:WikiProject Theatre. --Teratornis 02:20, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Note to other Help desk volunteers: read the discussion on User talk:Parker Gabriel before adding your comments to this question. --Teratornis 02:23, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

A question about other people editing your stuff on Wikipedia

Resolved

Wikipedia talks a good talk but when you try to edit pages, they MONITOR them. What's the point of having an encyclopedia that is supposed to be the people's encyclopedia if big brother is watching? How is it different than any other site? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.59.138.144 (talk • contribs)

It's not Big Brother, it's users. Like you. Like me. Ordinary people patrol new pages, recent changes etc to spot unhelpful edits. They make the encylcopedia better by kicking out all the vandalism and unhelpful edits that an online encylcopedia needs. Without them there would be a picture of naked women on the Pokemon page, "GEORGE IS GAY" splattered across the BlahBlah Senior College page and quickly people would give up on the concept. If your complaint is that we monitored an edit you made and intervene then it is testimony to the fact that it was a bad edit. If it was a good one, you would have no idea that somebody was watching it. How is it different to any other site? Because Wikipedia gives you the chance to change it. We're just trying to write an encyclopedia here. AndrewJDTALK -- 23:00, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

You may gain some insight into how Wikipedia works by reading this article:

• The Hive, by Marshall Poe, The Atlantic Monthly, September 2006 - an article describing the history of Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is very different from most other Web sites. For starters, Wikipedia is a wiki, a site that is editable by its users. While there are thousands of wikis, and new ones starting every day, wikis are still a tiny minority among the millions of "traditional" Web sites (in which most or all of the editing is by the site owners). On Wikipedia we have 48,517,200 registered users along with a similarly large number of unregistered users. With all those people constantly hacking away at each other's edits, editing on Wikipedia can be very stressful for new users until they read the friendly manuals and learn enough about the policies and guidelines to make sense of what is going on here. Perhaps the biggest mental adjustment is getting used to way that "saving" your edits to a page is different than saving a document in most types of programs a person will have used before. When someone saves a word processing document or a spreadsheet on their personal computer, generally the file stays the same until the user decides to change it. Not so on Wikipedia. When you save your edits here, they only persist until the next user comes along and edits them further (every edit does persist in the page history, but only the current revision of a page is normally visible). Therefore, editing on Wikipedia becomes kind of a game in which you try to figure out what you can add to an article that will stay put. The kinds of changes that tend to last longer are changes that improve the quality of the article, in the view of all the other users who read it. To get an idea of what you are aiming for, check out Wikipedia's featured articles (the articles rated as the best articles on Wikipedia). --Teratornis 02:08, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Speedy-deleting

Resolved

When the speedy-deletion template is put up, it seems to take about a minute for it to get deleted, making it almost impossible to put the {{hangon}} thing on unless you put it on on ur 1st edit. OV

Cos all admins delete it as soon as they see it listed with speedy delete. I'm aware that Thats what speedy-delete means... its just there isn't enough time to put the {{hangon}} thing before it's deleted.OV

Well of course some pages are speedy deleted quicker than others, but if an admin sees what is an obvious candidate for speedy deletion, they aren't going to wait around and see if someone puts a {{hangon}} template on the page. That said, even if the page is deleted, it can easily be undeleted again so you are more than welcome to leave a message with the deleting admin to ask for further explanation. Will (aka Wimt) 22:50, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Why can't we edit the Michael Vick page?

Resolved

Thank you.

If you have a username, you can edit this page. -- GoDawgs 22:49, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

[EDIT CONFLICT] :Because the page is semi protected. This means that unregistered users can't edit it. In this case it is down to vandalism of the page. If you want to propose a change, go to the article's discussion page, next to the edit tab. AndrewJDTALK -- 22:52, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

User accounts must be 5 days old to edit semi-protected pages. PrimeHunter 22:54, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Adding pages to your userpage?

Resolved

How do you do that? I'm really confused. Megan :) 23:08, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

I believe you mean subpages? Just create a link to a page [[User:YOURUSERNAME/NAME OF SUBPAGE]] click it, and edit! i ^said 23:09, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

See: WP:USER and WP:UP#SUB for the guidelines about user pages and user sub-pages, respectively. I have written some user sub-pages, but nothing to boast about yet. For an example of a really impressive user sub-page, see:

• User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia.

--Teratornis 02:28, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh.. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Megan :) 05:35, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

american or british spelling preferred

Resolved

Hello,

Are we to use American or British spelling of words:

practice or practise? center or centre?

thanks, Renee --Renee 23:27, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

It depends on the article. If it is an article directed at Americans (ie: American Football), it should use common American spelling. If it is an article directed at British (ie: Football (soccer)), it should use common British spelling. If it is vague about the audience (ie: Hedgehog), use what you like. Just don't get into an edit war over color vs. colour. -- Kainaw^(what?) 23:29, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

I asked the same thing a couple weeks back here and got a lot of good responses on the topic.CindyBo^talk 23:33, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Also, in addition to what Kainaw said, if there is no tie to a particulary country or version of English, you must follow the format in the original article. For instance, Orange (colour) must remain as colour, because it was originally written that way. i ^said 00:09, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Stray square...

Resolved

What's the deal with that little grey square at the bottom of Dale Smith (The Bill) (above the category box)? Can anyone else see it? --Kurt Shaped Box 23:35, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Removed. There was a stray startbox template near the end. -- Kainaw^(what?) 23:44, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Great. Thanks very much. :) --Kurt Shaped Box 23:49, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Reverts

Resolved

Hi I've reverted a user three times from edits on the page: http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Grace_Hopper (I didn't do the first revert)

With an explantion, but they are just re-editing it. What do I do now to stop this person? peterl 23:43, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

See WP:AIV. -- Kainaw^(what?) 23:45, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

August 6

Stub Articles

I recently expanded an article on Cynthia Rhodes that was previously a stub, but I'm not sure if it's ok to remove the stub tag at the bottom. How do you know when an article ceases to be a stub? --Candy156sweet 01:46, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

You have just as much right to remove the stub status as anyone else. Add a comment on the talk page that you removed it and why you think it should be removed. Then, if someone disagrees, they can discuss it with you. -- Kainaw^(what?) 01:47, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your help. Have a great week!  :) --Candy156sweet 01:54, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Yung Berg: "Superstar (All Night)"

I wanna find an article to this. Anyone help?

An article for that song has not been created. Lara♥Love 04:46, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

I added a page for renanthera monachica and it was deleted

by Wikipedia. It was complaining about not having a tag about licenses.

Yet when I uploaded the picture and inserted it, I checked the box for free to use licensing.

It is giving me some crufty message about tags for use. Can you help? I could not understand the directions and I've been in the computer industry for 30 years.

E4baec 03:01, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Unless your version of Wikipedia is radically different from mine, the image upload form does not have a "box for free to use licensing". There is a drop-list that contains different forms of licensing. There is no option for "free to use licensing" that I can see in the list of options. -- Kainaw^(what?) 03:58, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm 99% sure s/he's saying s/he opted for one of the free licenses. If that is the case, WP:IT may be of help. Regards. Lara♥Love 04:43, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

physcology

compare moral development of Bandura, piaget and Kohlberge's work.````

Perhaps you should post that to Talk:Psycology or Talk:Physiology. Regards, Lara♥Love 06:15, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

worlds greatest wedding

what was the worlds greatest wedding

This question is more appropriate for the reference desk. The help desk is for questions regarding using Wikipedia. Regards, Lara♥Love 06:12, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

While we're on the subject, I wonder why people often invite their friends and family to their wedding but never to their divorce? --Teratornis 14:22, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

For divorce ceremonies with some faith-based rituals you might refer to http://love.ivillage.com/lnsproblems/lnsdivorce/0,,nrft,00.html

For divorce parties and celebrations, see http://www.divorcepartyplanner.com/ Marycontrary 15:16, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

I doubt this question would fit in at the Reference desk either. Try a Google search.--Max Talk (add) 00:05, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I have endeavored to complete a stub-Now what?

I'm a rank amateur who took a stab at editing my first "article", a stub Shannondale, West Virginia because I tired of seeing it, well, stubbing out there. Do I find out whether I receive approbation or condemnation for my effort and how do I get Shannondale, West Virginia "delisted" as a stub? I REALLY don't want to by wikis for dummies but this old dog has about run out his string of mastering new tricks. Thanks Willis.n 06:35, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

See #Stub Articles section, which also asks the same question. --Silver Edge 06:44, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Hi. Thanks for posting. Check out the manual of style to get an idea of how to improve various aspects of the article. Also check out Article development. To declassify as a stub, simply click to edit the page and remove the stub tag near the bottom, just above the category tags. Lara♥Love 06:47, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Album cover

For America's Yodeling Sweetheart, Taylor Ware I tried to add the album cover information but apparently did something wrong. I uploaded the correct photo but had problems adding it to the Wiki page. Any help will be appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Xxxtexan (talk • contribs)

See WP:IMAGES. Lara♥Love 06:49, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

three girls those have balance disorder

dear sir 

we are girls those have balance disorder how could we contact to sand you more about our teragedy case

We cannot help. Wikipedia does not provide medical advice. Apologies.

The Rhymesmith 08:33, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

We're also not all "sirs" here.--Max Talk (add) 00:07, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Article

could I ask how I go about putting an article in the magazine? my name is Nichola and email is Removed thankyou for your time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.179.100.151 (talk • contribs)

I'm assuming you mean creating a new article on Wikipedia.

You will need to first register an account, which has many benefits, including the ability to create articles. Once you have registered, please search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. Please also review a few of our relevant policies and guidelines which all articles should comport with. As Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, articles must not contain original research, must be written from a neutral point of view, should cite to reliable sources which verify their content and must not contain unsourced, negative content about living people.

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. --Silver Edge 09:18, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Moving Category

I want to move Category:New South Wales Central Coast to Category:Central Coast, New South Wales, is there a way to do it without swapping all the articles manually? .....Todd^#661 08:55, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

See WP:CDP#Speedy renaming and speedy merging and WP:CFD. --Silver Edge 09:13, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Re: Hard Water Link to your page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water from www.hardwaterscale.com and a link back if possible?

Wikipedia www.hardwaterscale.com The Free Encyclopedia Pexon Investments S.L. Calle de San Bartolome 9

                                                                              Atzeneta 12132
                                                                              Castellon
                                                                              Spain
                                                                              
                                                                              6th August 2007

Re: Internet link to your webpage regarding Hard Water http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_water

Dear Sirs,

We are very impressed with your website. Of particular interest to us and our company is your page regarding hard water: your link address above.

www.hardwaterscale.com part of Pexon Investements S.L.is an authorised dealer for the internationally selling environmentally award winning Scalewatcher®

With www.hardwaterscale.com up and successfully running, we sell Scalewatcher within Europe as a treatment for hard water. We would be delighted if you allowed us to have a direct link to your web page regarding Hard Water from where clients can then view Wikipedia as a whole.

We feel this would be of real benefit to both organisations in spreading awareness of hard water issues.

Indeed, we would be delighted if you had a link to our home page of www.hardwaterscale.com Is this possible as well?

Looking forward to hearing from you on botter matters.

Yours Sincerely,

Mark Bradley Scalewatcher Agent — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.41.224.139 (talk • contribs)

Sorry, but this would be unacceptable. Please see our policy on external links and our policy on advertising. Wikipedia does not use link trading, although you are free to display and use our content in your materials and websites, provided you follow the terms of the GNU Free Document License. --L-- 11:58, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Aliens in America

The article and talk page for the upcoming show Aliens in America seems to be creating some controversy. Basically, a bunch of editors have seen the preview and decided the show is racist. Now, not having seen the preview yet (which I think is linked from the article) I cannot judge the validity of these claims; it is very possible that this is the case, and likewise possible that the editors are missing the point. But the issue is that they are posting their opinions in the article as well as the talk page. I have tried explaining that it is not up to us to decide that, but only to put in information from outside sources - if a published source calls it racist, then we can publish it, but we can't just say that ourselves. To do so violates both NPOV and is original research. Now, I don't know if I am overstepping my bounds as an editor, or just plain wrong, because I am not all that familiar with Wikipedia policy and I have gotten myself in trouble before. So I decided to bring this to the attention of the Wikipedia community as a whole, and hopefully someone more knowledgable than me can take a look at it. Eran of Arcadia 12:45, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

See: WP:CONTROVERSY. Whenever there is a dispute on Wikipedia, it usually means the people on at least one side of the dispute do not fully understand Wikipedia's policies and guidelines (because the policies and guidelines cover most situations that come up, are generally pretty clear and logically consistent, and are readily available in comprehensive documents for anyone to read). Therefore, resolving most disputes simply comes down to looking up and citing the relevant policy and/or guideline. There are two basic ways to look them up:

• Drill down by browsing from some sort of a contents page. The best one I know of is: User:John Broughton/Editor's Index to Wikipedia
• Use a search tool, such as: Search Wikipedia's Wikipedia: (Project:) namespace with Google

--Teratornis 14:18, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

L has sorted the article out for you. Wikipedia:Verifiability says that the burden of evidence lies with the editor who adds or restores material, so you can add the article to your watchlist and delete that assertion if it reappears, unless it comes back with a citation. Be careful of the three revert rule, though. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 15:07, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Spammer?

Have come accross the following user recently and can´t believe he is still around. Just had to change one of his edits:

Psveindhoven

Talk about a talk page longer than my arm... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.50.54.18 (talk • contribs)

I examined a few edits by this user. He is not a spammer. The external links point to websites that add useful, neutral information on the article topic. Shalom ^Hello 17:41, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

e-mail adres

Good day I am looking for an e-mail adres of the french golfer Julien Gurrier. I was his caddy last year 2006.Is it possible that you can find his adres for me. He gave me an adres:(address removed to prevent spam) to mail him.

The instructions at the top of this page say this page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not a directory, so you would need to look elsewhere to locate this golfer. A Google Search for "Julien Gurrier" finds no results, but Google suggests the alternate spelling: Julien Guerrier. (If you were his caddy, why did you misspell his name? Given that a caddy's job requires understanding a golfer in some depth, I would think getting his name right would be the first step.) Julien Guerrier has no article on Wikipedia yet (which is why his name appears as a red link), but he is still young and earning his reputation. Presumably as he accumulates more placings he will eventually warrant an article here. In any case, the best we can do is tell you to read through all the Google Search results for this golfer, and contact the people who have written about him. Maybe one of those people will tell you how to contact this golfer (or maybe not). --Teratornis 15:18, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

All we currently say about him is that he won The Amateur Championship in 2006. PrimeHunter 15:46, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Adding my Company's profile

Hi! Please refer to the article below: "Online Recruiters Directory is an ideal free database for job seekers and employers alike to identify a recruiter, headhunter or staffing firm to help with their search. The directory, with its main office located in New York, USA, was founded in 2002 by Esther Barzel. The uniqueness of this online portal lies in the fact that it helps job seekers get connected to recruiters keeping in mind their specialty, location, type of firm, type of jobs handled and geography covered. In addition, the directory also caters to employers who are searching for recruiters to fill job positions in their companies. All this without any registration or cost. No wonder this portal has about 1,000 searches daily. Online Recruiters Directory also conducts regular surveys on professional recruiters, employment, job-seeking and compensation." Can someone, who is not involved with the orgaization, publish the article above? The organization does not sell anything, it only helps job-seekers for free. --Anubhaverma 15:24, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

It's still promotional in tone, so it will get deleted. All Wikipedia articles have to be written from a Neutral Point of View, and articles about companies must be notable (see our notability guidelines for organisations and companies). Writing about yourself, or the company you work for is also discouraged. - Zeibura ^(Talk) 15:34, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Linking an Email address via HTML

Greetings,

I have been trying to add my Email address as a link (using mail:to), but I cannot seem to do it without all of the HTML coding appearing. I have tried the following, but it still shows some of the coding that I don't want appearing:

<removed email>

Ideally, it would be great if I could have:

[removed]@ferris.edu

as the only linked portion (as the only text showing).

Are you able to help? Many thanks.

Scott D. Atwell

Go into your user preferences and select the box to allow users to email you. The address with be Special:Emailuser/Pseudo-Ockeghem Lara♥Love 16:00, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

For more information, see Wikipedia:Emailing users, Help:Email confirmation, and Help:Preferences (although note that the last page is a copy of the generic MediaWiki help page, and does not seem to reflect some customizations to the user preferences on Wikipedia). On Wikipedia, we generally do not expose our e-mail addresses directly, as the MediaWiki software has features to allow other users to e-mail you from forms, thus giving spammers one less route to you. --Teratornis 20:33, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

E-mailing a User form

Is there a good tutorial on setting up a page similar to this one ? I'm looking for functionality to allow a User to submit a form pre-populated with text directly from my wiki site. * I tried pasting the source code directly from this site, however was unsuccessful in getting it to work

Thanks for your help.

I don't think i's a good idea to enable pre-programmed text in Wikipedia email, and I'm not sure why you can't copy and paste. It would make it easier to send spam to many users. If you have a message for one or two users, just write the message like anyone else would do. Shalom ^Hello 17:38, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

The pre-programmed text would be used on an internal corporate wiki site where spam is the last thing anyone would want to do. The form would be easier because of the centralized location and ease of use to submit. Can you help?

I CAN'T EDIT A PAGE!!!

Hello. My problem is this: I went to the "Quenn Latifa" page to see her true name. then I went down the page and found some gramer errors, but NOT THE BLUE EDIT BUTTON!!! WHATS UP WITH THAT!? FROM~~!!@@##$$%%^^&&**(())__++ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.228.107.231 (talk • contribs)

I cannot get the article. Anyway, whenever you wanna edit a page, click the "edit this page" tab on TOP. If you just want to edit a section, look for [edit] which is on the right hand side of the line, then click on the word "edit". --Edmund the King of the Woods! 17:49, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Queen Latifah is semi-protected due to vandalism. Only users who have been registered for at least 4 days may edit it. Leebo ^T/C 17:50, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) That is because the Queen Latifah article is semi-protected, which disables editing from anonymous users and registered accounts fewer than five days old. --Silver Edge 17:55, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Four days. Melsaran (formerly Salaskаn) 18:23, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Protection policy says five days. Wikipedia:Requested moves says accounts must be four days to move a page. I don't know why there is a difference. It would be simpler with one limit. PrimeHunter 20:21, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

You may add an {{editprotected}} tag to the talk page with the text that should be changed. Melsaran (formerly Salaskаn) 18:23, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

AWB

I want to remove a certain parameter from a template with AWB. How do I do this? I guess I need to go to Find and replace -> Advanced -> If contains: "{{templatename", but I don't know what to put in the Replace tab. If, for example, I want to remove the "| Cover = " parameter, what should I do? Replace "| Cover = {{{cover}}}" with (none) doesn't work, obviously, because {{{cover}}} isn't the text you see when editing the article. Melsaran (formerly Salaskаn) 18:23, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Collapsible table

On my talk page (click Love in my user name) there is a table on the left for the Virtual Classroom. Is there a way to make that collapsible so that only the title will show with a "show/hide" option? Lara♥Love 19:21, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

 Done Melsaran (formerly Salaskаn) 19:27, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Let me know if anyone objects to the change in this template, if they do, I will make the collapse optional (i.e. {{VC lessons|c=c}} makes it collapsible, {{VC lessons}} doesn't). Melsaran (formerly Salaskаn) 19:41, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

User:The Transhumanist would be the one to talk to about that. Lara♥Love 19:51, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh, I just looked. That's great! Thank you. Lara♥Love 19:54, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Richard kopelle

This is Richard Kopelle.It appears that the site for Richard Kopelle is to be deleted due to not enough third person articles. Please go to Video dog Salon.com and bring up article by Heather Havrilesky "little blue doll". Article is titled "Reassure me Elmo". permalink[13.29 edt. april 19,2006] Also, Fast Company Polls x=2243 Davidj.org ScienceGuardian news Patent authority Reality tv magazine

I did not initiate the article but I would like to see it continued. Richard kopelle 19:52, 6 August 2007 (UTC)Richard Kopelle

If you disagree with the proposed deletion, feel free to remove the prod tag (like the tag says). However, please try to improve the article based on the concerns raised in the prod tag, in this case that it only cites primary sources. Please find some reliable third-party sources, or your article might be deleted (via the articles for deletion process). Melsaran (formerly Salaskаn) 19:56, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

E-mailing a User form

Is there a good tutorial on setting up a page similar to this one ? I'm looking for functionality to allow a User to submit a form pre-populated with text directly from my wiki site. * I tried pasting the source code directly from this site, however was unsuccessful in getting it to work

Thanks for your help.

I don't think i's a good idea to enable pre-programmed text in Wikipedia email, and I'm not sure why you can't copy and paste. It would make it easier to send spam to many users. If you have a message for one or two users, just write the message like anyone else would do. Shalom ^Hello 17:38, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

The pre-programmed text would be used on an internal corporate wiki site where spam is the last thing anyone would want to do. The form would be easier because of the centralized location and ease of use to submit. Can you help?

E-mailing a User form II

Is there a good tutorial on setting up a page similar to this one ? I'm looking for functionality to allow a User to submit a form pre-populated with text directly from my wiki site. The pre-programmed text would be used on an internal corporate wiki site where spam is the last thing anyone would want to do. The form would be easier because of the centralized location and ease of use to submit. Can you help?

* There is no edit button on that site so I can't cut and past the code

Thanks for your help.

This is an inbuilt function in the MediaWiki software. If you are using MediaWiki then visit mw:Project:Support_desk for assistance with this feature. If not then you will have to investigate the support provided by whatever software you do use. --Cherry blossom tree 22:23, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

You might find it easier to build form-driven wiki applications with a structured wiki like TWiki (although in my brief look at TWiki I found a few immediate differences from MediaWiki that I rather disliked - I'd like to see MediaWiki get some more corporate wiki features while preserving all the great things we love about MediaWiki, such as real categories, no ugly CamelCase, actual talk pages, and just the general overall feel of literacy of the project). If you want to try to do this on MediaWiki, see: mw:How to become a MediaWiki hacker. Beware, however, that what you want to do is probably one of those "if you have to ask..." kind of problems, as in if you have to ask how to do this, you might lack the necessary search skills to look up all the stuff you will have to learn on your way to doing it. However, probably everything you need to know is find-able with these two searches:

• Search Meta with Google
• Search MediaWiki.org with Google

--Teratornis 00:28, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

• I did not have my preferneces set to accept email! Once I selected this - all is good.

An opinion from a wikipedian please

Please note this is just a request for the opinion of a wikipedian and not an attack on wikipedia in any way or form. Just out of interest, how seriosly do people take wikipedia and what is its aim? As you may know Wikipedia has been a cause for criticism in the past as it aims to be a proper encyclopedia which can be used for research. Many have criticised this idea saying that it is just not possible as anyone is free to edit wikipedia, unlike Encarta or Britannica wh have paid professionals. This doesnt really apply to articles related to current affairs and hobbies / interests but does apply especially to professional subject areas. Thanks.86.141.52.196 22:07, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

How seriously do people take Wikipedia? Well I doubt if any proper editors consider it a joke so the answer to that is very. What is it's aim? To quote Jimmy Wales - "Imagine a world where every single person is given free access to the sum of human knowledge. We don't have to imagine it. We're doing it.". I presume somebody is going to come along with links to various essays and quotes and pages that will better explain things but the only one I can recall right now is: Wikipedia:Why Wikipedia is so great. AndrewJDTALK -- 22:25, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

For a general community response to these issues you might find Wikipedia:Replies to common objections interesting. --Cherry blossom tree 22:27, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Here's a challenge: read Wikipedia:Why create an account?, register, and then edit for a week. Find out first hand. --wpktsfs 22:53, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

The question seems to refer to Wikipedia as some sort of a monolith: "how seriously do people take Wikipedia" seems to imply that someone could actually read everything here. I think it is more accurate to picture Wikipedia's users as only viewing relatively tiny subsets of pages on Wikipedia. Then the answer to "how seriously do people take Wikipedia" would depend on the quality of those pages they actually read. Wikipedia's quality is at the moment very uneven (for more on this, see: Wikipedia:Wikipedia is failing and Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not failing). Many people might think rather highly of Wikipedia's featured articles and good articles, while not thinking highly of the poor-quality articles, so a lot would depend on which articles a person happens to read. Also, Wikipedia's readers are highly diverse; two readers might form sharply different impressions of the same article, depending on their personal biases and so on. This probably leads to a situation similar to the story of the Blind Men and an Elephant, in which the blind men feel different parts of the elephant and reach very different conclusions about what an elephant is. --Teratornis 00:18, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I might add that to me Wikipedia is like a new and vastly richer form of communication, due to the ease of linking important words in almost every sentence to articles that explain them further. This makes writing easier for the writer and much clearer for the reader. It's getting so I can barely tolerate writing e-mail now, since I have to paste in huge ugly URLs to reference the various complex and or subtle concepts I like to use. --Teratornis 00:33, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

One more opinion here - whenever I search for basic definitions on the internet, I often get the clearest, simplest information from wikipedia. yes, it has been criticized (what hasn't) and it's not perfect. but, when i want depth and breadth of information, i always go to wikipedia. i grew up on encyclopedia britannica, and wikipedia outdistances that by miles!rich 03:18, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the first sentence especially - by comparison with Wikipedia's clarity and standard article layout, pages from other sites that come up in search results often make me feel as if I am overhearing a stranger talking on a cell phone. Most random Web pages that mention a subject seem to assume the reader already knows not only all about the subject, but also the backstory behind the site's mention of the subject. Only Wikipedia seems to consistently answer the obvious who, what, when, where, why, and how questions, and the information is where I expect it to be. You can start with almost any article and get your bearings on a subject; if you need more background to make sense of technical jargon and so on, the article usually links to it (and if not, you can easily add the missing links yourself to improve the article for the next reader). Plus it's just annoying to see typos on other sites that I cannot fix. --Teratornis 05:46, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Just to add a voice of discontent, I don't take Wikipedia very seriously at all, at least not any more. The wiki model, without an appointed "board of editors" means that the content and quality of articles shift continuously, most generally downwards. There is no "trusted editor" or "stable article" system in place to safeguard any editor's genuine improvements against the likes of vandalism and the addition of trivia/vanity/cruft. Even Featured Articles can only be "trusted" to be of high quality for the short period of time around which they obtain Featured status. This means that any article that you edit will have to be watchlisted by you until the end of time in order to maintain its quality. When I started editing about two years ago I was very keen, aiming to improve and substantially expand articles (check out my user page for more info on my Wikipedia-interests). Almost the ONLY thing I do these days is revert articles to the last version I edited and incorporate what little new information has been introduced by subsequent editors (amongst the MANY crufty additions). I have a theory around this issue: the general public view Wikipedia almost as a "public noticeboard" for new information with very little regard to our policies and guidelines. They thus add absolutely ANY information to an article they might think is warr Panted. This creates a HUGE cleanup burden/backlog for more entrenched editors, a backlog that will NEVER be cleared due to Wikipedia's exponential growth. New article creation and additions grow faster than the rate at which "policy-and-guideline aware" editors are created. It is also MUCH easier to make a vandalistic/crufty edit than to come back and clean it up. Policy-aware editors are thus outnumbered and out-gunned by those that are policy-unaware, hence any article's natural state is to decline in quality unless someone (almost always the primary contributor/s to the article) watches and constantly reverts subsequent additions. This is evidenced by the high rate of article deletion (hundreds per day) and speedy deletion. There is more, but I think that gives a good picture for now. Zunaid©® 14:24, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

That is true, unless SOMEONE is watching a FA or GA it will just get worse in quality over time. The school district in my area has completely banned Wikipedia because of its inaccuracies and I'm sure there are plenty of college professors and the like that do not allow their students to use Wikipedia by any means. Isn't the only way to solve this yet keep the whole "anyone can edit" slogan in place would be to only allow registered people to edit and those that have will have to provide additional information about themselves? If this project continues to be this open it will never fully be Encarta or Britannica quality and always be subject to this by the media. FMF 14:57, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is a wonderful place really. The fact that ANYONE can edit makes it the best encyclopedia in the sense that it has the widest range of articles and topics than any other. Of course people who edit it take it seriously - otherwise we'd be just wasting our time. You do meet some jerks along the way, but if you can put up with that, it's a wonderful creation. Long may it continue. Lradrama 15:37, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Just another thing to throw in here, currently we have 6,936,768 articles, which I have to say is one hell of a lot. People are quick to point out how Wikipedia doesn't, hasn't or won't work, but the fact is we have got this far. And as far as I see it, there's not much stopping us from going further. AndrewJDTALK -- 21:50, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Problem with text in an SVG image

I have been trying to upload this SVG image:

File:USA CIA Map.svg

And as you will notice, there is no text in it. If you download the SVG and open it in Illustrator (or other SVG viewers) it will work fine. Could somebody please take a look at this and tell me why the text isn't showing up? I can't figure it out. If you fix it in the process, feel free to upload it over the one that's there now.

This image will be used for a TOC template for "List of xxxxx in the United States" type of articles. (Ex. List of Museums in the United States.) Clicking the state should take you to the appropriate section of the article through use of an image map. I think this could be used for a lot of articles. It appears that you will even be able to scale the image and the link mappings will scale with it, so this could be a very flexible TOC template and I look forward to making it.

Ben Boldt 23:22, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

I think your image uses flowtext/flowregion, which the renderer doesn't appear to support - see this discussion on commons. That details how to fix it in Inkscape; I've no idea how to do it in Illustrator. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:26, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

I see text here? ~ Wikihermit 01:33, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

When you open the SVG directly, it will render locally on your machine. So whatever your browser is using to render it is doing a better job than Wikimedia's renderer. Finlay McWalter: I really think you're really on the right track. I don't have Inkscape, but I'll look into trying to do something similar with what I have. I tried turning the text into actual outline vectors and that made the image show up totally blank! But I'll keep messing around.

Ben Boldt 03:21, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you all for your help. I removed the existing text and replaced it with big abbreviations, then I converted the text to outlines in Illustrator. This avoids the whole text problem. Thanks again, Ben Boldt 07:43, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

August 7

Only source available is down

The now redirected official site, fzerox.com, has information found no where else but on fan sites. The web achieve only sends me to the front page and the page I specifically want is not displaying properly. I have the copy-pasted information from there, so is it possible to use fzerox.com along with the parameter "quote" (with that information) as a citation? Is there anyway to use fzerox.com as a source anymore? FMF 00:31, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

• If you were able to access that web page before, and you used that information as a source in the article, I don't see any reason why you can't cite it as a reference. The {{cite web}} template has a parameter stating the date on which the web page was retrieved. That's done because people recognize that content on a web site changes or gets deleted, so adding the date indicates that it was retrieved at that point in time. If someone is challenging a reference, they'll either have to accept that the information was there in the past, or they'll have to provide evidence to the contrary. --Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 03:36, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Template messages

Just how many template messages exist on the English Wikipedia? Hallpriest9 (Talk | Archive) 01:27, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

No idea, go count them :-). Melsaran (formerly Salaskаn) 03:02, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I'd be counting at WP:TM, since not everything in the Template: space is necessarily a template message - a lot of them would be infoboxes and the like. Confusing Manifestation 04:45, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Entries for Ella Raines and Robin Olds

Hi, I am the daughter of Ella Raines and Robin Olds. Robin has just passed away on June 14th. My sister and I would appreciate you adding the information about Robin and Ella's two children as follows, two daughters, Christina Olds of Steamboat Springs, Colorado and Susan Olds Scott-Risner of North Bend, Washington.

Also, for your information, my mother NEVER taught acting classes. That line in your bio is wrong. Please contact me directly for correct information. Thank you, Christina Olds

I removed the acting teacher bit because it was unsourced and contested; it failed our policy Wikipedia:Verifiability. Adding that they had two children might help the article, but I'm not sure that where they live is relevant. Please, though, in addition to following Wikipedia:Verifiability, please heed Wikipedia:No original research. That said... Thank you for your suggestion! 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. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). 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. WODUP 02:57, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Displaying jpg images

I uploaded 3 jpg images, but only one of them displays on my page... I can't figure out what's different about the 2 that won't display vs. the one that will... the one that displays is the first one I uploaded. CraigNGC 02:53, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

What are the images? I just might be able to help before I go on a wikivacation...  Jonjonbt 03:00, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I see Image:Sigmoid.jpg, and I see Image:Sigmoid.JPG and Image:Sigmoid2.JPG which look like the same image to me. Image:Sigmoid1.JPG was already deleted because it was a duplicate. On User:CraigNGC/subpage, the image isn't displaying in the gallery because it's typed out as Image:Sigmoid2.jpg. Maybe try Image:Sigmoid2.JPG. WODUP 03:07, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Font too large and Wikipedia displays too large

I've searched the FAQ's and purged. How do I get my "normal" Wikipedia display back? rich 03:15, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm guessing browser function. You can just close the tab, or the browser and it should restore it; it does for me anyway. i ^said 03:17, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

If your mouse has a scroll wheel, try holding CTRL and scrolling up. Lara♥Love 03:26, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

If you've got Firefox, go to View → Text Size → Normal. If you don't have firefox, tell us what you do have. WODUP 03:43, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

can i forward?

hai sirs

              can i have the facility to forward any article  to a gmail or yahoo  accout?

if yes tell me how. reply me soon — Preceding unsigned comment added by Megalak (talk • contribs)

No, Wikipedia doesn't have a feature like that. WODUP 04:40, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

To see some things vaguely like this (with more emphasis on vaguely than like), go to the Editor's index, scroll down to the "News:" heading, and look at links such as Wikipedia:WikiProject WikipediaWeekly. --Teratornis 05:31, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

How to indicate a citation is needed?

I know I've seen these before, but can't remember the format. I know it's a superscript where a citation number would go. Is it the words "Citation needed" enclosed in brackets? Or something else?

Also-- I seem to remember these being rendered with blue text (but not as links). How is this done?

Thanks! Bryan

It's a template called {{fact}}, which produces this: . It is a link, but a link to the Wikipedia guideline on citing sources. Confusing Manifestation 04:42, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Opening a link to a topic

Vfg061528 04:42, 7 August 2007 (UTC)I cannot open links to topics retreived in search box; get error message saying a general protection fault has occured; upon closing the error message, Internet Explorer is closed.

How to create a new article

How do I create a new article?

Wikipedia:Your first article. If you are not a registered user, see Wikipedia:Articles for creation. Shalom ^Hello 06:09, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

kidnap article's vanishing act!

Greetings and salutations,

I was reading up on some kidnapping cases and following a link under the 'similar incidents' i stumbled across a very interesting article. I wanted to read the article again (and send the link for a friend) however it has since vanished. This is my second attempt at trying to find it but my searches have been to no avail.

Here is what i remember of the article; - it was set around the 17th - 18th Century. - it was about a young boy found wandering in the streets. He was about 16 when found but had a mind of a 6 year old. - he was thought to be of noble blood, and perhaps was a distantly related to napoleon. - there were a few attempts on his life, and eventually he was killed by an assassin. - there was a statue resurrected with a plaque saying "here a nobody was killed by a nobody".

With all the above remembered you'd think i could find this article... but alas i need your help!!! Please help me to find this again!!!

Kind regards, Claire***

That's a tough question because you cannot provide us with any names or specific dates. Try looking at articles in Category:Kidnappings. Shalom ^Hello 06:11, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

From memory, (and confirmed by my sources), the person you're after is one Kaspar Hauser, whose article is here. Is this what you were looking for? --Benea 13:20, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Jew Watch - Frank Weltner Entry

I encountered the Wikipedia entry for "Jew Watch" (jewwatch.com). When I was looking for more information about him on google.com search I noticed that he had linked a fake Wikipedia entry about himself to his anti-semetic website. I think this should be mentioned in the Wikipedia Jew Watch entry as well as a spoof I encountered (killweltner.com) which I feel might be pertinent subject matter.

Also, why is there no Wikipedia entry for Weltner himself, he seems like a dangerous fellow and I think people should know more about him. Is there not enough know information about him to make an entry at this time?

Thanks

Fascinated Fascinated

There is no article because no-one has yet written one. If, after reading Wikipedia:Notability (people) (in a nutshell: the person must have been the subject of published secondary sources) you think there should be one then feel free to create it. Be careful to closely follow Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy, however. Articles cannot contain critical material that is not taken from reliable sources. This is very closely policed on articles about living people, for obvious reasons. Thanks. --Cherry blossom tree 11:45, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

find Ayat ul Kursi

I have just findout the Ayat ul Kursi

See Throne Verse. utcursch | talk 10:30, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately I don't have the ability to write something on Frank Weltner, I don't know much about his personal life; but if I do have pertinent information to the Jew Watch entry how long do I have to wait until I would be able to edit it considering it is a Semi-Protected page?

compromised user account

A message from my new user account, since my old user account appears to be compromised as of today. Nobody has used the account yet to edit articles. But my old password does no longer work. Is there a way to get my account back? How do I prove I am the real Teardrop_onthefire? Teardrop inthewater 10:22, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

If you had entered your e-mail while creating the earlier account, you can go to Special:Userlogin and click on "E-mail new password". utcursch | talk 10:27, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately I didn't Teardrop inthewater 11:31, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

mojo condoms page deleted

Hi, A page I loaded on "mojo condoms" was deleted as it was deemed to be advertising.

All content was factual and I believe you are being biased against smaller brands/companies. If you going to delete my page please be consistent and delete, "innocent Drinks", "Durex", "Coca-Cola", etc. I am happy to reword anything that caused offence.

Regards Paul Santry

From what I've seen of the article ("mojo provides a fun, edgy, alternative condom brand to shake up the traditional...") it seems to be written in a promotional manner. Contrast this with any of the articles you named to see why this was deleted and they weren't. If you wish to recreate your article in a more neutral style then you may do so, but you may like to read some of Wikipedia:Business' FAQ, Wikipedia:Conflict of interest, Wikipedia:Neutral point of view and Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies). Thanks. --Cherry blossom tree 11:38, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

(Following edit conflict) The article, in the form you posted it, screamed adspeak—like language lifted from a promotional brochure. In fact it did indeed consist of nothing but promotional language; it was a blatant copyright violation of the brand's website, and could have been deleted on that independent basis as well as because it asserted no importance. Note also that if you are connected to this product you should not be writing the article as you would have a conflict of interest. If this article is to "stick", it needs to be written with neutral language and must cite to independent, reliable sources which treat the subject in a substantive manner. (remainder removed as redundant)--Fuhghettaboutit 11:49, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

outdoor space for camping

buzztard music composer page was deleted

I am the author of that software, but have not initially created the page. I was about to extend the page (was more like a stub before), but had to notice that it is gone. This leaves some dangling links. Unfortunately the comment in the Deletion log is not helpful at all. It says "(non notable software, expired prod)". Google has 15,900 hits for buzztard alone where the first hit page is all related to the project. I also question the competence of one person to decide what is notable and not. Besides the product is not expired. Is there a chance to revive that page? Can I access the article and propose a extended version. Ensonic 13:26, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

"prod" is a deletion process. It does not stand for "product." someone places a prod template on the page, and nobody objected for five days. An administrator then reviewed the page and agreed with the original prod when it expired. If anyone had objected during the five days, the deletion would not have happened. SO, tow people took positive steps, to delete, and nobody (of the many people who watch prods) took a positive step to object. Nevertheless, You can still raise an objection and get the article re-instated. Please see WP:PROD for the whole process. Incidentally, the reason prod was invented was to simplify non-controversial deletes. Unfortunately, it sometime nukes a worthwhile article. I'm personally somewhat ambivalent about this, but if you click on "random article" about ten times, you will prpbably see why we need something a bit less cumbersome than WP:AFD to permit reasonable quality improvement. And thanks for spending time tryng to improve Wikipedia. -Arch dude 14:07, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Template overkill?

I keep a subpage for headlines about upcoming films (seen here), and it's fairly long at 123 KB. I use both Cite web and Cite news templates to add the headlines, so I can easily copy/paste them into film articles when they are created. However, at around this point, the templates do not display properly, only showing either "Template:Cite web" or "Template:Cite news", which is the same pattern to the end of the subpage. Is this because I've used both templates too many times in this subpage, or is there another issue? —Erik (talk • contrib) - 13:36, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

There's a limit to how much templates can be used on a page, called the 'pre-expand include limit'. You can look at the generated HTML source for a page, to see how close you are to the limit; the page is pretty long (I've waited for ages trying to load it), and here's the statistics for it:

<!-- 
Pre-expand include size: 2045925 bytes
Post-expand include size: 594763 bytes
Template argument size: 372417 bytes
Maximum: 2048000 bytes
-->

The pre-expand include is just below the maximum, implying that the maximum was reached and the software stopped parsing templates on that page. I'd suggest splitting it into several smaller pages, to reduce the load on the servers, and they'll start parsing the templates again correctly for you. --ais523 17:02, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I've broken it up into further subpages, and the templates all seem to show now. Thanks for the advice, and sorry to put you through these ages of loading time. :) —Erik (talk • contrib) - 17:31, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

needing info. on the role of dalmations with the fire service.

im trying to find information about dalmations and there role with the fire service. i cant find anything. can you help me?24.210.254.98 14:49, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Try searching within the relevant articles (e.g. Dalmatians). If this does not work, do a Google run. If you cannot find it anywhere, you may ask it on the reference desk; the help desk is only for questions about the workings of Wikipedia. Melsaran 15:51, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Images

How do I retrieve an image from the commons. Do I just copy down the code, eg. Image:Example.png, or do I have to upload it again for Wikipedia? - Pheonix 15:08, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you just copy the image name and insert it normally. You don't have to upload it again. GhostPirate 15:45, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Deleting user name from existing entry

I apparently edited without logging in. My user name appears on the HISTORY page. I would like to get rid of it. How? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.69.116.238 (talk • contribs) 17:20, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, that is not possible for legal reasons. The names of all contributors are stored in the history of a page for compliance with the GNU Free Documentation License. Melsaran 15:48, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Req. article list blanked?

OK this is probably the wrong place to ask, but are the requsted article lists regularly blanked? I was checking out medicine-related article requests and someone had blanked it and added only two requests (this was in all medicine sub-categories). Looked a lot like vandalism to me, but because I wasn't sure I didn't revert it myself. Jack Daw 15:40, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Yep, an IP address blanked the page and added some vandalism. I'll try to fix it now. Thanks. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 18:23, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Anchor Links (type #link) in <imagemap>

I ran into a problem with <imagemap> -- it won't let me use anchor links. for example, if you try to use #link, the actual link will go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/#link instead of normal anchor link behavior. I have seen somebody bring up this problem at wikimedia, but the solution was beyond my understanding. It appeared that they were modifying the actual <imagemap> extension which I obviously can't do here. Could somebody please help me with this? Here is the image map I'm trying to use:

It is possible to use a link in the format page#link to use anchor links, but since this is a TOC template, multiple articles would use it. That would make it impossible to make a direct reference to a page in this situation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ben Boldt (talk • contribs)

My first guess about what to do, without actually looking seriously at the problem, would be to try linking from the image map to a redirect page which in turn links to the section you want on another page. --Teratornis 15:57, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

For an example of a redirect that links to a section on another page, see: WP:PAPER, and the redirect page itself, without redirection. You could try linking to WP:PAPER from your image map just to see if this will work. Also note, your question would be easier to answer if you would link to the page(s) describing the feature you are trying to use, which appears to be mw:Extension:ImageMap. You could study the other examples in Category:Wikipedia imagemaps to see if anyone else has managed to link to name anchors. --Teratornis 16:06, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

This is a bug in the ImageMap extension — or, arguably, in Title.php, which should do the right thing automatically in this case rather than requiring the caller to worry about it. Anyway, I've fixed this particular problem in rev:24657. (The reason I haven't fixed it in Title.php is that the code gets rather complicated if there are query parameters and variants involved, and I don't have the time to figure it out right now. Fortunately, ImageMap doesn't need to worry about either of those.) —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 17:07, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Is there anything I can do right now or do I have to wait until <imagemap> is updated? I can't quite wrap my mind around how a redirect page could help. Since these are anchor links, the browser should stay on the same page and just scroll to the appropriate anchor rather than visiting different pages.

Ben Boldt 20:56, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

The one thing you could do is to hardcode the name of the target page in the links. Of course, that rather defeats the point of using a template in the first place. The {{FULLPAGENAME}} variable would help, except that variables don't work in imagemaps either. :( —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 14:52, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Attorney in Arizona

Help me. I need to find an attorney in Arizona that deals with slander issues. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.173.25.197 (talk • contribs)

Sorry, that's not something that we at Wikipedia can help you with. Melsaran 17:40, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

1991 Australian Grand Prix

Hi, I have been improving the ‘1991 Australian Grand Prix’ page, but some of my references have been removed. I would therefore like to ask what the reason is behind the removals?

For example, I made statements within the ‘race’ section that most defiantly need references to prove the claims. This includes reference number three and four, on the page. However the reference comes from an F1 clip from Youtube that is BBC footage. How, therefore can I provide the evidence, in the referencing, without being subject to copyright and editing?

I would like to keep the reference in the page because it is vital to the document and is vital evidence to the claim.

Thank You

Generally, Youtube isn't considered a reliable source due to the fact that anybody can manipulate and post a video with no oversight. If you can find the same video on the BBC site, you can link to it there, but Youtube isn't the best place to look, even if it looks like an authentic BBC broadcast. For more information, see WP:RS and WP:V. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 18:19, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Linking years, not dates

Should years be put in brackets? As in "Joe was born in 1876"? I understand that dates should be put in links, but what about just a reference to a year?MarkinBoston 18:30, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Generally individual years shouldn't be linked unless as part of a full date. --Cherry blossom tree 18:40, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Updating Wikipedia

My company just relaunched our new website and it was brought to my attention that we should update our listing on Wikepedia.

I'm not the most technical person but I did try to update some minor pieces of info which was fine, but then I tried to edit a larger part, saved it and now I've completely ruined our page on your site. I've obviously edited out some important coding because it looks completely different from what was initially there.

I have tried to follow your editing instructions, but as I said, I'm pretty much technically clueless.

Would someone be available to help put those important codings back in so our page looks abit more legible?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. --Scarnp01 18:38, 7 August 2007 (UTC)Paola Scarnato, BTG plc

I think I've fixed it - it was just missing a couple of squiggly brackets. --Cherry blossom tree 18:50, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Login Errors

I just signed up and have been unable to login. I have tried about 8 times unsuccessfully. It tells me my username or confirmation code are wrong. Neither of which is true. I edited a page and wish for my IP address NOT to be shown, so I signed up in order for that to not happen.

Thank you in advance.

Krystal

My only suggestion is to attempt the process again. Lara♥Love 19:25, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

AfD Question

(brownize)

Sirs:

I'd like to learn why my article "Benedictine School" was Speedy Deleted and whether I may somehow re-post it (deletion log: 07:31, 3 August 2007 Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (Talk | contribs) deleted "Benedictine School" (content was: '{{db|Advertising, copyvio from http://www.benschool.org/benedictine.html as well}}

The Benedictine School –Benedictine...').

I actually did mark it "hang on" but did not get a chance to receive comments on which to edit.

While I can see where it might be classified as advertising, it seems arbitrary, in that schools, ie: Benedictine High School, Benedictine Military Academy, Benedictine College, are allowed similar listings.

If the problem is a copyright violation with the school's website, I wrote the web site copy so it is OK with me to use it.

Can you suggest a way to modify my article to be within Wikipedia policies? I include a copy of the text below for your convenience.

Thank you for your consideration.

Steve Goodman Gsteve 18:55, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Benedictine Programs and Services – Benedictine Programs and Services provides educational, residential and day services for children and adults with developmental disabilities, ages 5 through 60. School programs include: functional academics; speech therapy; psychological, psychiatric, social work, counseling and case management; assistive technology; physical and occupational therapy; vocational and transitional services; and intensive collaborative programs designed for students within the Autism Spectrum. Benedictine's Open Community Program operates 28 state-licensed group homes for adults throughout Maryland and Delaware. The Benedictine Foundation is the development office, the mission of which is to secure the financial resources needed to assure the future of the Benedictine School for Exceptional Children and its programs and services. The organization is managed by the Sisters of St. Benedict and is recognized nationally for its pioneering approach to educating and caring for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Sister Jeannette Murray, O.S.B. is Executive Director. The state-of-the-art campus is located on Maryland’s rural Eastern Shore, 14299 Benedictine Lane, Ridgely, Maryland 21660. A fully approved, non-sectarian service provider caring for individuals with special needs without regard to racial, ethnic, or religious background. For further information, call 410-634-2292, or visit the web site at www.benschool.org.

Material taken straight from the school's website is unlikely to be appropriate for an encyclopaedia article. Try taking a look at some good articles about schools such as Westfield High School (Fairfax County, Virginia), Broad Run High School and Lubbock High School. If you can write even a short article in a similar style to these then it will not be deleted. You may also like to read Wikipedia:Conflict of interest and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. --Cherry blossom tree 19:32, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Images

i know this sounds really bad and i sound like a noob. How do i post images or i mean link from wikipedia commons and have them not see the link but the image? Many thanks, .:!Ninja!:. 19:00, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

You can do this by inserting a colon at the start of the link. [[:image:bananas.jpg]] = image:bananas.jpg. --Cherry blossom tree 19:27, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

The question is the opposite: How to display the image instead of a link (as the editor did in [6]). Write [[Image:Paradiso Canto 31.jpg]] to display the image. See Wikipedia:Images for more details. PrimeHunter 21:16, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

How do you add images onto wikipedia?

How do you add images onto wikipedia? I'd like to contribute a few.

Take a look at Wikipedia:Images and Wikipedia:Uploading images. --Tλε Rαnδom Eδιτor (tαlk) 19:17, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

2 Tabbed page in Mediawiki

I see a very simple two tab page (three pages - the tab header page, the first tab page, and the second tab page here.

The first line on the tab header pg. references Wikipedia:Tutorial/Tabs. How do I reference this pg on an internal Mediawiki for my company? What do I put on the first line of the tabs header pg. to make 2 tabs on a page? I tried making it an external link, but that did not work.

General MediaWiki questions will receive the best response at mw:Support desk. This page is for questions about Wikipedia. --Cherry blossom tree 19:36, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Edit alerts

I am active on WP:OLYMPICS and I am often awaiting a reply on the page so that I can do something project-related. Out of curiosity, is there a monospace code that would put the following banner on the top of any page for instance when the project's talk page is edited, just as what would happen if your talk page were edited?

The Olympics WikiProject talk page has been edited.

Thanks to anyone with the hack! Jared (t)  19:22, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I can't see such a tool listed at Wikipedia:Tools, which is where I'd expect it to be. Sorry. --Cherry blossom tree 19:41, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

If you can identify the people you are trying to notify, you could leave notes on their user talk pages. --Teratornis 19:54, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

It would probably be a good idea to ask this question at the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. You will probably get a better answer there. --Tλε Rαnδom Eδιτor (tαlk) 22:24, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Uploaded image does not display

I have uploaded an image that does not display except when you click on it to get the full size image. (image MoO3_chains.png). what am I doing wrong? Axiosaurus 20:38, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Seems to be working fine. The code used was: [[Image:MoO3_chains.png]] AndrewJDTALK -- 21:02, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Ah I see what you mean now. Personally, I've never seen it but I'm sure it's happened before. The image seems to work nonetheless even if it doesn't display on the Image Description page. AndrewJDTALK -- 21:15, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

English wikipedia

Hi. Is there currently any plan to separate the English wikipedia for Britain and America. I know that in articles, the spellings used should be relevant to the country the article is related to or if it is unrelated, that it should be written in the same way that the person who created the article wrote it. Can I ask you if there have been any such debates in the past. Thanks in advance.Tbo 157 21:18, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

There are no plans to split the English Wikipedia in this manner, since however you spell it the language remains more or less the same. See Wikipedia:Perennial proposals#Enforce_American_or_British_spelling for more details. --Cherry blossom tree 22:16, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

er Exuse me i am a very english gentlman and i know for a fact that british and american spellings are different i wish you to change it and KNOW that they are different thank you.

172.206.39.129 22:59, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes we know they're different too. But unlike, say, French or Japanese or Tamil, the difference between US English and UK English is not so much that an article written in one can't be read by a speaker of the other. Given that there is no clear majority of either side editing Wikipedia, there would be no way to enforce one over the other, so the only way to please as many people as possible would be to make 2 English Wikipedias (not counting Simple English, of course) - and given that they would be expected to have exactly the same content, only with different spellings, the effort required to maintain them would be completely unfeasible. Confusing Manifestation 23:11, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Consider these relevant facts:

• Wikipedia is an American invention.
• Wikipedia is hosted in America.
• The Siege of Yorktown was a decisive Franco-American victory.

Clearly, this whole problem began in the late 1700's and stems from the failure of English diplomacy to keep the French out of English colonial affairs (without French assistance, the American rebellion would almost certainly have been crushed, and I'm surprised this point isn't made more clearly to American schoolchildren today, for example when they recite the Pledge of Allegiance which implies God had something to do with picking the winner but no mention whatsoever of the true patrons of America, the French). Had England managed to maintain political control of her American colonies, American English might have evolved in lockstep with the mother tongue just as Canadian English, Australian English, Indian English, and Jamaican English have. All seriousness aside, I have stated my opinion before that I believe the proper place to implement localization is in the Web browser, but this will have to wait until computers can pass the Turing test. I.e., computers must become "smart" enough to "read and understand" Web pages and translate their content into the version most compliant with the user's preferences. The fact that CAPTCHA technology still works tells us that present-day computers are nowhere near up to the task. --Teratornis 15:22, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Sorting varible number parameters for columns and rows

I am trying to create number parameters for sorting (ex. sorting_table|table1|5|10 5 being the number of rows and 10 being the number of columns). Is that even possible? I would like to be able to add or remove rows so a generic sorting template can be used for many different articles. The articles will have similar information but different names.Ricky.Garcia 16:50, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't entirely understand your question. m:Help:Sorting deals with making sortable tables. Does this help? --Cherry blossom tree 22:33, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Sorry,I will explain, I want to be able to create a generic table in which I can set the number of rows and columns within the Template and change without changing the template. Instead of having to have several different templates with the same information.Ricky.Garcia 03:10, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Image metadata

Does anyone know how to go about fixing the links in an image's metadata? I assume there is a script that does this automatically which means an admin will most likely have to take care of it. If you look at the metadata for pictures taken by a Canon camera, the link points to Canon, not Canon (an example of a pic I uploaded yesterday is here - scroll to the bottom). Thanks. ♫ Bitch and Complain Sooner ♫ 21:38, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Heh... yeah, that would be a slight problem. I think that would have something to do with the software, as the metadata is collected when you upload the image. Try mentioning this at the tech pump or failing that Bugzilla, as there is no guarantee someone with access to the relevant system will read this. You'll have greater chances there. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 22:23, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

One of the MediaWiki: namespace pages relating to exif data would have to be changed in a fancy way to make this happen. There may be technical problems associated with this, so it would be best to ask at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical) first. --Cherry blossom tree 22:31, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Spelling & moving re paragraphs

What is the simplest way to check one's spelling in -- say -- a new paragraph one has just written for an article?

Also, what is the simplest way to move a paragraph to another part of an article?

Thank you. Dr.Bastedo 22:50, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

For moving a paragraph, you can just click "edit this page" on top of the article and move it by cut/pasting. And a spelling check can be done using a built-in spelling checker (Firefox has one), using RegExTypoFix, pasting it in Word and do a spelling check there, or just do it manually. Melsaran 22:52, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the response! ♥

Moving the paragraph sounds do-able.

But the other (i.e., spell-check) I am doubtful of. I'll see what I can do, of course. Dr.Bastedo 23:58, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

August 8

How

How do I create an article? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Nuribug (talk • contribs).

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

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation.. PrimeHunter 00:18, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

blocking templates

Are non admin users allowed to place block templates on a user page, if the blocking admin has not done so.86.141.240.149 00:37, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Sure. WODUP 00:50, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Glamis Castle image circa 1880 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/glamis_castle

We would like to use the image on an invitation for a private event. Are there any restrictions? What would be the best proceedure to use it? Thanks Andresinteriors 00:56, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

The image description page at commons:Image:GlamisWide.JPG shows that it's licensed under the Creative Commons ShareAlike 1.0 license. The restrictions can be found on the license page. WODUP 02:24, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

citing wikipedia

when using wikipedia as a source for academic research, how do you cite the internal reference to wikipedia as the source conforming to APA format?

Many thanks 01:56, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Click "Cite this article" in the toolbox to the left on the used article. An APA style citation is included. PrimeHunter 02:03, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

You should also read Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia which contains warnings about using Wikipedia in research papers and the like. WODUP 02:12, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Edit conflict

Do we have to put (edit conflict) edit conflict (EC) etc. when one happens? People seem too eager to add this to indicate what should be an everyday occurrence.ALTON .ıl 02:17, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Nobody has to do it, but it can be useful to indicate that the comment was written before seeing the previous comment. I only use it when it's relevant for that reason. PrimeHunter 02:20, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

The holy grail

WHO IN YOUR APINION IS THE LIVING OR DECEASED PERSON WHOS BLOOD LINE IS OR WAS THE HOLY GRAIL —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 144.138.48.91 (talk)

What do you mean? Melsaran 03:31, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I'd say yes. .V. _[Talk|Email] 03:38, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

My coffee mug can directly trace its lineage to the Holy Grail. Shame it got broken.--Max Talk (+) 03:52, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

The question appears to involve a semi-grammatical corruption of the premise of The Da Vinci Code. --Teratornis 14:52, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Palm

How can I download wikipedia on my palm?

It might be possible if you had a fully featured web browser installed on your Palm. Trying to view the English Wikipedia Main Page on my Palm Tungsten T5 caused the Blazer web browser to crash. Astronaut 09:43, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

It worked on my Palm Tungsten T5 using the Blazer web browser in wide-screen mode (it crashed my T5 when in portrait mode). The T5 was connected to the internet via my mobile phone with Bluetooth. My mobile phone contract allows GPRS internet access but it is slow and expensive to use. I think it is possible to buy a wireless internet card that would fit in the SD card slot which would be faster and could use my home ISP or any wirless hot-spot. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is the text size and formatting gave the web page a strange look. Maybe a better web browser on the T5 is what I need. Astronaut 10:16, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

TomeRaider might help. --Teratornis 14:54, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Nutritional Requrement for Hepatitis B Patients

Please direct me to a site where i would read the nutritional requirements of a Hepatitis B patient--203.87.181.34 04:45, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

For starters you should see the article on Hepatitis B. Please note that Wikipedia does not give medical advice. --_Hdt83 ^Chat 04:47, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Linking and non-redundant section headings

It seems that a heading of a sub-section should avoid repeating the heading of the section that contains it; this seems redundant. For example, Cyanosis#Common causes of central cyanosis is a subsection of Cyanosis#Central cyanosis, so a less redundant sub-heading under "Central syanosis" would be "Common causes". However, the link Cyanosis#Common causes incorrectly suggests to the reader that "Common causes" is a main section of the article and concerns the causes of cyanosis in general. And, if there is a section like Cyanosis#Peripheral cyanosis that also has a subsection "Common causes", the link Cyanosis#Common causes only refers to the first occurrence. Is there a way to link to a subsection of a particular section? If not, is there any point for me to suggest at the Village Pump such a modification of Wikimedia? -Pgan002 05:57, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

If you type out the hyperlink Cyanosis#Common causes of central cyanosis, it would look like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanosis#Common_causes_of_central_cyanosis, which is a long line of text, like most specific hyperlinks. I don't think people will be too concerned about the redundancy there. However, if you are linking inside Wikipedia, you can pipelink by making it look like: Common causes of central cyanosis, but it actually leads to: Cyanosis#Common causes of central cyanosis. You can do this by typing: [[Cyanosis#Common causes of central cyanosis|Common causes of central cyanosis]].

Keep in mind that the section Cyanosis#Common causes does not exist, so it redirects you to the Cyanosis article itself. --JDitto 06:21, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, I was not clear. The redundancy is the repetition of "central cyanosis" in the headings of the article and the TOC; in long articles with many subsections and levels of subsections, this kind of redundancy makes the TOC difficult to read. The headings can be reworded to remove the redundancy, were it not for the linking problems above. -Pgan002 06:36, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, yeah, it does, but it makes it more clear for people who are new to the article and do not know that there are more than one kind of Cyanosis, right? --JDitto 06:45, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings)#Wording, "Avoid restating the subject or article title, or of an enclosing section in headings." I would take that to mean that a sub-section shouldn't include the heading from the section, so "Common causes" would be correct. Confusing Manifestation 07:01, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

signature usage

Poemisaglock 05:58, 8 August 2007 (UTC) I am a fairly new user and i don't understand what the signature option under "my preferences" is for. I checked the signature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signatures) page and it talked about signing your posts. I do this and it shows up with my username (Poemisaglock), but would having a signature replace this? I just don't understand what the point of it is if your username already shows up when you sign your posts. Is there some other purpose of the signature or perhaps it is considered more official than the username? Please clear this up. THANK YOU!

Typing ~~~~ produces i ^said 06:03, 8 August 2007 (UTC) for me. For you, it will produce whatever you have in the raw signature box, or Poemisaglock and the time as a default. You should always type the four tildes after every post you make on a place where it is appropriate, i.e. pretty much everything but an actual article. This page, article talk pages, user talk pages and the like should all be signed. This helps people communicate by letting us know who wrote something. i ^said 06:00, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Image in a table

How do I center align an image in a table? --JDitto 06:04, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

<center> tags work. See my example. WODUP 08:29, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I tried that, but it doesn't work on the weird table found on Chess#Strategy and tactics. --JDitto 02:40, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Admin complaint and request

Admin IPSOS has placed a "False" allegation on my User page[7] and is accusing me of being a liar, and has placed me here:[8] Admin IPSOS seems to state as fact that I am a sockpuppet here:[9]? I am requesting that this be addressed as soon as possible as it has upset me greatly and I am concerned that this Admin is set on providing personal information to other editors that will enable them to harass me. Your cooperation with regards to this matter is sought in a timely manner. Regards,TalkAbout 06:32, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

After reading Wikipedia:Arbitration policy, you can post at Wikipedia:Requests for Arbitration. --JDitto 06:57, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your time and guidance. I will place the complaint there. I know that as Admins you can see that I am not that individual and therefore took this accusation all the more seriously. PEACETalkAbout 07:04, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Admins cannot see whether two accounts are editing from the same computer. Few people have the CheckUser privilege required at Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser. PrimeHunter 14:11, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

deletion of my first contribution "Ari Forman" .... and my research to support it...

Hi... my contribution was deleted. I think I understand why... I didn't add links to the places I found my info/facts. I tried to edit it to read less like an "advertisement" as I did NOT intend it to come across that way. It was my first attempt and I guess this is a common newbie mistake.

Moving forward... how can I undelete this contribution "Ari Forman" and make it appropriate? here is the main source of my info for this contribution. However I have many other links that give more bits and pieces below the main link.

(main source of info) http://www.onthegomarketing.com/bios/ari/ari.html

(other sources of info/facts) http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200502/1107806469.html

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_16_29/ai_n19041558

http://www.worshipworthy.com/category/our-daily-bread/

http://peelmagazine.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=102&osCsid=d17d9caa382

Dannyglasband 06:40, 8 August 2007 (UTC) Danny

up stream in pipeline construction work

up stream & down stream in pipeline construction work

Um... I do not understand what this is about? If you need help without something else besides Wikipedia, you should check out the reference desk. --_Hdt83 ^Chat 07:39, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Move sections?

Is it possible to move sections of an article as a new article. (And keep it's history, of course.) --JDitto 06:49, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure there's a way to move the edit history of just that section to the new article, but you can create the new article with an edit summary that links back to the source and leave a summary in its place, if necessary, on the parent article. See Wikipedia:Summary style. WODUP 08:38, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh, okay. Thanks! --JDitto 02:42, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

{help me} cant get my password86.91.118.155 06:59, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Hello,

I dont know where to look for my question, i tried many times with a email, but every time it comes back. I hope you can help me.

This is what i wanted to ask:

Hello Lindenlab,

My english isnt that good, but i try.

I have a question: my password is saved at my computer. And i dont remember it anymore. So i am unable to go to the site. I tried to answer the question that was asked, but did it three times wrong. Now i dont get my password.

Can you help me please so i can also get into the side?

Thank you very much. I hope to hear from you .

Greetings,

Catharina86.91.118.155 06:59, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

It might be possible to get a new password sent to you. Enter your User ID on the "sign in/create account" page here and click the "E-mail new password" button. It will only work if Wikipedia knows your e-mail address (which you set up on the "My preferences" page). Astronaut 11:00, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Stubs

Is it possible for an article to go from being not a stub, to being reduced to one? That seems to be what happened to the Otherkin article--Honeymane_{Heghlu meH QaQ jajvam} 07:32, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, it is possible for article to go back to being a stub (its happened before). This usually happens when a large amount of information is deleted due to copyright vios, WP:NOT, community consensus, etc. --_Hdt83 ^Chat 07:37, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks--Honeymane_{Heghlu meH QaQ jajvam} 07:43, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

User RfC link gone red

I've just noticed that cross-references I've made in various places to comments at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Eyrian have gone red. (No doubt the same will happen here at the help desk when I press save.) Why is that? Are user RfCs deleted when they are closed? And (since I'm here asking questions) if they are, then why is that done? AndyJones 07:45, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

according to the logs it was deleted because "El C deleted "Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Eyrian" (efforts to resolve the dispute are lacking)". Remember to check the logs on the pages :)--Honeymane_{Heghlu meH QaQ jajvam} 07:50, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Ah, yes, I see that. I'm still not sure I understand the procedure, though: yes, the RfC was closed (and quite rightly: I was one of those who defended Eyrian's position, although I had other comments to make). Why the page deletion, though? Most other discussions are kept visible. Is that the procedure? And if so why? AndyJones 08:02, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Ask El_C. Miranda 11:07, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Foundation

I would like to know who is financing the Wikipedia Foundation? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.19.201.193 (talk)

The Wikimedia Foundation is financed by gifts, because it is a charitable organisation which does not have advertisements on its websites. See also the "make a donation" tab to your left. By the way, tildes are generally made by pressing shift+the key left to the 1, but you can also click the signature button on top of the edit box. Melsaran 11:37, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

The Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia is one of the projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs wikis on the MediaWiki software – confusing, I know) operates on donations and grants. foundation:Finance report might have more detailed information. WODUP 12:11, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Tildes

1)What is the 4 tildes?

2)Did I have one, if so can you give it me, please.

 If I did have one, I cannot recall it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anacrossan (talk • contribs) 

The tilde is the squiggly line probably on the button to the left of the 1 key on your keyboard. On Wikipedia, typing four of them (~~~~) automagically produces your signature and timestamp when the page is saved. WODUP 11:34, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict)

1) The 4 tildes are used to sign your post so people know who you are. They look like this ~~~~ and produce a signature of your username/IP address followed by the time and date.

2) I don't understand your question or the context in which it is placed. I have a feeling you are not connected with the "...who is financing the Wikipedia..." question above. If this is the case, you need to create a new question by clicking the "Click here to ask your question about using Wikipedia" link at the top of this page.

Astronaut 11:39, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

See WP:SIG and Help:Talk page. If you cannot find the tilde on your keyboard, look in the big box below the Wikipedia edit window, which has a line labeled "Symbols:" and you can click on them to insert them into the edit window at the cursor position. There is also an Edit toolbar you can display above the edit window, and it has a button with the Tooltip text: "Your signature with timestamp." If you don't see this toolbar when you edit, you will have to enable it in your Preferences. --Teratornis 15:30, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Irregularity on AfD

There's an ongoing discussion on AfD, Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Laila Richard Sadeq, which is irregular at best and may be deliberate trolling. It was created yesterday from what seems to be an old, closed AfD, although I can't find any evidence in the admin's edit history that he or she was ever involved in the discussion and the user who created the page and who supposedly originally nominated the article in 2005 seems to have only created his account in February of 2007. Having created the AfD, his next step was to alter the dates to the current year. User:Xxdisneyxfanxx then came in, edited out some of the admin comments & added his or her own back-dated comments. User:82.13.21.147 removed the admin notice altogether. Long backstory, short question: how should this situation be handled? This isn't an actual AfD; the process has not been followed. It seems to be a group effort to stir controversy. (Sorry for not using "difference" tags instead of the cumbersome method I've used; I haven't figured out how yet, though I'm sure it's perfectly obvious. :)) --Moonriddengirl 12:25, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Um... that's an odd one. The article should be nominated, the subject does not meet notability or verifiability standards. Ok, I'll probably get yelled at for this, but I'm going to be bold, close off the current discussion as improperly filed and debated, and re-start it properly. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 12:58, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I have completed the AfD nomination on the current AfD debate which has multiple comments and should not be stopped in my opinion. PrimeHunter 13:17, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah.. I think I should have paid more attention to my spider-sense on this one and exercised more caution before voting. However, now that the AfD nom has been sorted out I'm not going to change my vote; It does leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth, though, as I can't shake the feeling that there are agendas being pushed and other motivations behind the original "nomination". I reserve the right to change my nom, as ever, should things that are currently just suspicious become more alarming. Oh, and thanks to Moonriddengirl for pointing me in this direction. OBM | ^{blah blah blah} 13:40, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

trinidad & tobago

population

Trinidad and Tobago says "July 2005 estimate 1,305,000". PrimeHunter 13:54, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Repeated MOS violations/anon IP difficulties on Jennifer Hudson

For the past few days I've had issues with various anon IP users (as well as one user who made the initial edits, User:Ebrownn, who I addressed on their talk page after another user voiced their concern about their use of images[10]) altering the Jennifer Hudson article to fit their own idea of the Manual of Style. I've reverted back each time, possibly accidentally removing some kosher edits in the meanwhile, citing my reasons, but later that day the article is transformed yet again.[11][12]. My question is, what can I do to stop these changes? I don't feel comfortable warning these separate IP accounts; what if it's the same individual? Should I ask for the article to be protected? Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill? Should I just let it take its own course? What Would Jimbo Do? María (críticame) 14:41, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

There has been no discussion on the talk page in over a month. You need to continue the "discuss" part of Wikipedia:BOLD, revert, discuss. Also, you can leave a note for User talk:Ryulong, who is already familiar with the problem, or at WP:ANI if he's not available. I think it's too early to seek semiprotection. Shalom ^Hello 19:23, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

recurring vandalism to JASON Defense Advisory Group

The vandalized article, JASON Defense Advisory Group, was semi-protected. And when the protection deadline of Aug. 4 passed, I reverted the article to the last non-vandalized version. The vandal is back, making the same changes; and I've just re-reverted the article. Can the vandalisms be blocked in some way? AKath 15:19, 8 August 2007 (UTC)Ann Finkbeiner

The following question by User:Prakashpgopinath|prachi]] is not related to my question. Note by User:ConMan: unrelated question now separated.

Since it looks like it's just the one vandal operating on a bunch of IP addresses, and only one at a time, I would suggest that once protection lifts again, if you catch them in the act, you can drop them one of the immediate vandal warnings (such as {{uw-v4im}}), and then if they continue to report at WP:AIV. If they get a few warnings and stop each time, and you can provide enough evidence of that (shouldn't be hard), you can then start looking at making a post either to WP:AN/I or Wikipedia:Abuse reports. Confusing Manifestation 23:00, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Signing

prachi 15:22, 8 August 2007 (UTC) why when i sign in the language turne in Russian prachi 15:22, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

what is a shuttle?

could you tell us what a shuttle is?

This is an online encyclopedia. To answer your question, type shuttle in the box labeled "search" and click the button labeled "go". -- Kainaw^(what?) 15:26, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

About Fountain Of nations article

I Wrote to more topics on the main subject and they won't come up on the articleCheyenneRulz 16:09, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

First, galleries go near the bottom of articles. Second, put external link references inside of <ref> tags. Third, ensure you don't leave the ending > off your </ref> tags. -- Kainaw^(what?) 17:18, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

The Eagle (gay bar)

My article was recently deleted for not being noteworthy. I would think that several dozen gay bars, opened independently throughout the world, all of them dedicated to gay leather culture, would be considered significant, especially since individual gay bars, such as G.A.Y. and Heaven have their own pages. I suspect that homophobia played a role in the deletion, as for any gay man living in any major city in America, whatever Eagle is in their city is noteworthy. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Gitaiba (talk • contribs).

Just for the record, the article was Eagle (gay bar) and Gitaiba has contacted the deleting administrator. PrimeHunter 17:29, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I can't quite detect a question in your post. If you are asking why it was deleted, take a look at WP:ORG. --Tλε Rαnδom Eδιτor (tαlk) 19:43, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Just to point out, editors are encouraged to assume good faith and making accusations of homophobia at the admin who deleted your page is not appropriate. However if you want to take it up, visit User talk:MZMcBride and talk to the deleter. AndrewJDTALK -- 21:37, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Inequity

I'm disturbed at Wikipedia's tendency to paint Christians and, particularly, creationists, in a negative/controversial light, when the avid evolutionists/anti-creationists and evolutionary beliefs and theories are portrayed as positive, unchallenged, or fact. This is a significant anti-Bible and anti-creationist slant on all your articles, which leads me to believe that some supervisory body is making sure input into Wikipedia stays this with this particular point of view. Christian persons, ministries, and subjects are routinely questioned and challenged in Wikipedias articles, while other things like evolution, anti-creationists, and organizations working against biblical beliefs are given the soft touch and a free ride - barely questioning their beliefs.

It would be refreshing and more open-minded to see more equality in the articles. I have no problem with disagreement, but when one side is always shown as being controversial while this is never discussed with the other side, there is surely a biased viewpoint that the editors want to make sure Wikipedia readers see.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit - including you. That means that you are an editor. If you have trouble with the content of an article on Wikipedia, it is your responsibility to fix it. Complaining that the editors have a conspiracy implies that you do not understand that you are an editor as well. -- Kainaw^(what?) 19:01, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Neutral Point of View and Wikipedia:Verifiability - any "good" article should be balanced and any statement it makes that is even slightly controversial should be backed up by a reliable source. If controversial statements are made that don't conform to this, they need to be dealt with (possibly via discussion on the article's talk page). Confusing Manifestation 22:53, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

How do you make a page?

How do you make a page on wikipedia? ChLoRiNaToRx27x 19:39, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

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

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. PrimeHunter 19:42, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

i have created and account but it wont let me log in please help

69.8.33.187 19:57, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Please see Help:Logging in. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 20:54, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

What error message does it display? Wrong password? Melsaran 21:34, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Editing during an AfD debate

Hello. Am I allowed to re-write an article while it is the subject of an open deletion debate, or might this be regarded as manipulative? Should I wait for the debate to be closed first? Thanks TreeKittens 20:04, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

• It's strongly encouraged. Fixing articles is always preferable to deleting them. Cheers, WilyD 20:05, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
  • OK, great. Thanks :) TreeKittens 20:18, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
    • "Re-write" usually implies fundamental changes and can in certain cases be considered disruptive during an AfD, especially if the rewrite will make some editors more inclined to delete the article. But editing an article with uncontroversial improvements during an AfD is fine. PrimeHunter 20:57, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

• If you do re-write it, it's considered polite to then make a note in the AfD, so that people judge based on the new version (some people also leave messages on the talk pages of people who !voted delete, in case it changes their mind). Confusing Manifestation 22:49, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for responding. It seems I was abusing the term 're-write' as I really meant just adding some sources I found and maybe adding some other sourced comments I feel are relevant. Sorry for exaggerating! Thanks again. TreeKittens 00:08, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Manga, Anime and Video game references

Has there been any discussion on Wikipedia about the fact that for a good number of articles 1/5 of the content is "References in Pop Culture" which then go on to list each time the Person, Place or thing has appeared in Manga, Anime and Video games.

I like these as much as the next guy but this seems like pure trivia that is bloating up a ton of articles. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.237.181.100 (talk)

Yes, this is often discussed. See Wikipedia:Avoid trivia sections. In many cases the pop culture section keeps growing and is eventually moved to its own article. At some point it's then usually discussed whether that article should be deleted, which it often is. PrimeHunter 20:47, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:"In popular culture" articles (which is only an essay). PrimeHunter 20:49, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Naming

Hi, could someone clear this up. In articles, are people referred to by their 'latest' title if for example they are made a peer/knight, or are they referred to as what they were at a specific time? E.g. On former Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police, Sir John Stevens is listed as such, a title he held at that time whilst holding that position. He is now however Baron Stevens. Is it correct that he should be listed under a former title, or is he listed under his 'latest'?

If this makes sense, I can't really explain it any other way. Burto88 20:58, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

According to the naming conventions on people, article titles generally "don't add qualifiers (such as "King", "Saint", "Dr.", "(person)", "(ship)"), except when this is the simplest and most NPOV way to deal with disambiguation." Since there are in fact rather a lot of John Stevens, I would say the current title, John Stevens, Baron Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, while rather long, would be best. For similar examples, see Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, William Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney, and in fact this entire category. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 00:28, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Raul Julia-Levy

I have a problem with people vadilism my biographie i need to know can i protect my name ,

RAUL JULIA LEVY —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Rauljulialevy (talk • contribs).

See Wikipedia:Protection policy. It usually takes a lot of vandalism to get protection. PrimeHunter 22:25, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Protected the page for a week, with a request for reliable sources on the talkpage. Bjelleklang - talk Bug Me 22:49, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Displaying latitude/longitude info.

I am editing a page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broxburn%2C_West_Lothian and have just added an infobox. My problem is that the latitude/longitude co-ordinates at the the top right had corner of the page are now displayed twice, they 'overlap.' I think this is because the co-ordinates were previously displayed using a template. So: 1) how do I identify the problem & 2) how do I correct it? Any help gratefully appreciated. Tissues 23:10, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

I've removed the {{coor title dm|55|56|N|3|28|W|region:GB_type:city}} template from the bottom of the page, solving the issue. AndrewJDTALK -- 23:18, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Resolved

external references requiring login

Several of the references listed in Voice of the Faithful require a username and login to NY TImes site. This does not seem correct. 70.19.161.63 23:31, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

While it's generally preferred that we use references that anyone can access freely and easily, where such sources are available, it's a fact of life that you can often find more comprehensive and reliable sources with extra effort -- sometimes that means logging in or making use of an Infotrac (or similar) account, other times it means running to the library for some reference text. Not sure how much there is we can do about that. *shrug* – Luna Santin (talk) 23:39, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Disappearing entries during Wiki rebooting this evening

I was entering half-a-dozen more bibliographic entries (books w/authors, dates, publisher, pages, etc.) when I got a sudden notice of your computer rebooting, maintenance, or whatever.

After this notice, all my latest entries for "Further reading" in the article "Invertebrate Paleontology" disappeared!

All that remained in said section was the first half of the alphabet for the books (done 10 minutes earlier by me on another computer).

Can I or somebody retrieve these "lost" entries? Dr.Bastedo 23:54, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Every now and then, the database locks everyone out so that it can catch up to the zillions of edits we make every day. While annoying, it usually doesn't interfere with your editing (aside from the fact that it takes longer), but if it does, try checking the page history. It's possible your edits were saved, but got reverted accidentally by another user with a similar problem. If you think you saved the page, that's probably what happened. If they are not there, than I am afraid you'll have to re-type it. If it's not in the page history, nobody is able to recover it. Sorry, and good luck finding those missing edits. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 00:17, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your response. ♥ Dr.Bastedo 00:23, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

August 9

Using a few pictures for my website

Without going through all these pages on protocol, what do I have to do in order to "copy & paste" a few pictures (for reference) to my website?

From here to your website, it's as simple as right clicking and selecting "Save image as...". Keep in mind, though, that many images here are under some form of copyright. Such images will indicate this on their image page. Others, however, are under free licenses, which allow you to use them however you like as long as you keep to the terms of that license (generally, you have to attribute the author and license any derivatives the same way). Others still are public domain, which means you don't have to worry one little bit about how you use them. Wikimedia Commons has more images, which are all guaranteed to be either free licensed or public domain. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 00:12, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

How do we find out if an existing page has been deleted before?

Wikipedia used to show a "deletion log" for a page, but someone apparently thought that was too much for us and doesn't mention it unless it actually doesn't exist and has been deleted. Previously I could have modified that address to see what I need, but now I seem to have the veil pulled over my eyes. -Theanphibian ^{(talk • contribs)} 00:56, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

You can view the page's log, at <http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=PAGETITLE>, or you can go to a page's history tab, which should include a "view page logs" link. Various user scripts can make this easier, I believe. – Luna Santin (talk) 01:14, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh all right, I didn't think to check the history :P -Theanphibian ^{(talk • contribs)} 01:19, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

h2g2 template has gone.

Chronology:

(a) someone created a h2g2 template for linking to h2g2 Entries;
(b) it was discussed and deleted;
(c) somone else created a template, unaware that one had previously existed;
(d) the template hung around for a while and was used on quite a few pages (I mainly changed already existing h2g2 links to the template version, as it looked neater);
(e) the template was deleted again, with no discussion anywhere that I can find.

Wikipedia_talk:Guide_for_h2g2_Researchers Template_talk:H2g2

Can the template be restored? Or at least discussed?

TRiG 00:59, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

According to the deletion log, which can be viewed here, the template was deleted by administrator Violetriga for "recreation of a deleted template". According to criteria for speedy deletion G4, content may be speedily deleted (deleted w/o discussion or notice) if it is essentially identical to the deleted version and/or does not address the concerns noted. If you'd like to have the template restored, try discussing it with Violetriga, as the deleting admin, or if that fails Deletion Review. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 02:24, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Joe Ninety

I tried creating an account two hours ago but since given up. I was going to write something baseed on a citation to do with a specticle wearing pupet creation. Anyway,Wikipedia are right. My brother is 39 now,wears lenses and goes by the name "Joe" or "Ninety"...True,kids were considered brainiaks.(it was also rumoured they could spell & read). He took his flak on the chin.Gnite —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.142.109.173 (talk)

If you have problems with account creation then see Wikipedia:Request an account. PrimeHunter 01:49, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Move tab not visible

Hi. I need to rename a topic because of a minor typo, and all sources say to click on the Move tab at the top of the page. I do not see the tab anywhere, regardless of which skin I'm in. Any clue why I might not be able to see it? I can't find the answer anywhere in the FAQ section. Thanks! Tominterval 02:16, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Your account must be at least four days old in order to move or create pages. This is for security purposes, to prevent vandals from creating one-time use accounts to move and create pages disruptively. Hersfold ^(talk/work) 02:26, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you! That makes sense. Tominterval 02:30, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I guess this was about Jerry interval. I have moved it to Jerry Interval. PrimeHunter 03:27, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Loan application

I have problem to get loan

The Help Desk is for questions about Wikipedia. In addition, Wikipedia cannot help you with legal or financial matters. You'll have to ask your bank --Lucid 03:28, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

redlinking

What is redlinking exactly?