Wikipedia:Help desk

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

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

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January 5

Hi

I got into wikipedia thru morfix.co.il a Hebrew English website. How do I search for a word? when I write the word in the search area it takes me back to the English Wikipedia.

the only link that works for me is http://www.morfix.co.il/DETL/detlfs.aspx?q=http%3A//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pantry

I have to manually delete the last word in this above link and re-enter the other word I'm searching. Is there a better way? thanks

p.s. You can e-mail me back at <e-mail removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vicki123456 (talk • contribs) 00:29, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia and discourages dictionary definitions. A sister project of Wikipedia is Wiktionary, which can be accessed at http://en.wiktionary.org. However, we do have a search box that you can use to find encyclopaedia articles. It's on the left hand side of every page. See Wikipedia:Search for more info. NF24^{(radio me!)} 00:47, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The website at http://www.morfix.co.il is not operated by Wikipedia or by the Wikimedia Foundation that runs Wikipedia. It is site which can apparently load a page outside the site (not necessarily from Wikipedia) and add something in Hebrew to it. The site does not appear to have a real search function but just makes an English Wikipedia search on terms in the search box of a page originating from the English Wikipedia. Wikipedia has no control over this and I don't know a way to get url's at that site from a search. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:13, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I tried to look at the morfix help page, and frankly, I have no idea what it does really. It seems to mix in some strange way searches in the Hebrew and English Wikipedias, translations, morphology and whatnot. One thing is certain, this has nothing to do with Wikipedia itself and you should contact morfix for any questions. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 14:24, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Missing Photo graphic

I've seen on some pages (though I can't recall any atm) a graphic in a profile box for a person, that says something along the lines of "we don't have a image of this person. Would you like to add one?". I would like to use this in an article I am editing, but cant' seem to find it. Thanks Chopper Dave (talk) 00:55, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

...moments later - Replace this image male.svg , thanks for looking anyway. Chopper Dave (talk) 00:56, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

How can I create a page on Wikipedia?

I'd like to know how to create a page on Wikipedia.

ArwenUndomiel [my username] —Preceding unsigned comment added by ArwenUndomiel (talk • contribs) 01:00, 5 January 2008 (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 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. NF24^{(radio me!)} 01:09, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Copyright - attribute to who?

I'm making a picture that I'd like to be used here at the big WP but also on a website about bikes. I would like the picture to be released under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license (maybe dual with that other one people seem to like a lot also). I want to know; does the website owner have to attribute it to me or to Wikipedia? And where can they put the attribution? Must it be right by the picture or at the bottom of the page? ----Seans Potato Business 01:55, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

According to the page on Creative Commons licenses, you can choose whether attribution is required, and it would be attributed to you, not Wikipedia if you choose to require it. You can also choose whether derivative works are allowed; if you do allow derivative works, you can determine whether they have to be under the same license as well. The CC license has the possibility of requiring non-commercial use only as part of it, but you can't use it on Wikipedia unless you allow potential commercial use.

Of course, you could just avoid the whole copyright bureaucracy and release it to the public domain. Much simpler if you don't care about attribution and such. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 04:56, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and were you thinking of the GFDL? That's the other commonly used license on Wikipedia. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 04:58, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I was thinking about "GNU documentation" as in this image [:Image:Ligation.svg]. I prefer not to use the public domain on account of it allowing people to copyright and derivative works, and the share-alike license wont allow that. ----Seans Potato Business 10:33, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, so yeah, I was thinking of GFDL... :) Thanks for the help btw. --Seans Potato Business 13:15, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

User0663 - Lunar Impact

Hi This is User0663 and i,m wondering if i could create a new article for you wikipedia Admin guys on how a large asteroid could impact on moon and screw up it's orbit resulting in the moon smashing into (IF NOT THROUGH) The Earth! Resulting in... THE END OF ALL THINGS! this theory of a lunar asteroid impact with screwed up orbit and a falling moon is known as a Lunar Impact.

so can i create a article on this?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by User0663 (talk • contribs) 02:31, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to the ranks Wikipedia editors! Do you have reliable sources to get your information from? Wikipedia is not the place for wild speculation... see WP:Notability for in-depth advice! Even if it turns out that this is not a suitable topic for an article, I'm sure you'll find tons of other ways to contribute. Good luck! ----Seans Potato Business 03:01, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Random note: admins make up only a small percentage of Wikipedia editors. Plenty of non-admins—such as me, for example—help out with answering questions here too. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 05:02, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Converting PNGs to SVGs for company logos

Is the conversion of a PNG to an SVG compatible with the fair use rationale which says something about low resolution (arguably doesn't exist in the world of SVG)? ----Seans Potato Business 03:36, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd say so. .png isn't all that different to .svg, but watch this space. Rudget. 16:20, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

But the resolution on an SVG is arbitrary and doesn't really mean anything. Of course, the law might mean (and to be fair probably envisaged, when it was written) that the display resolution has to be low, and that the ability of people to expand it not a concern. Why ought I watch this space? (are you going to find out for sure?) --Seans Potato Business 17:26, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

No I thought someone else who has a better knowledge of image policy than I would. From the top of my head I'd refer you to Remember the dot, who can practically recite the policy in his sleep. Rudget. 17:36, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll go pay him a visit. --Seans Potato Business 18:46, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

E-mail confirmation

I recently responded to a "Wikipedia e-mail address confirmation" request. I was concerned that the request came from "wiki@wikimedia.org" (rather than wikipedia.org) and the following appeared in the header:

tagged.as.spam.by.relays.prodigy.net.list.66.230.200.216

Thank you,

Asteriskit (talk) 04:04, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The Wikimedia Foundation operates Wikipedia and the confirmation mails come from wiki@wikimedia.org. Wikimedia sends a large number of similar machine generated mails. Some spam filters suspect they are spam which apparently happened here. Dont' worry about that and just be glad the mail wasn't blocked as it sometimes is. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:40, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Block log

Hello, I renamed myself from User:Lex94 to User:Feedback. When I was Lex94, I was blocked once for suspected sockpuppetry (a lie, if I may add). However, when I search my block log, the block is no where to be found. But when I search the block log under my past username, it appears. Feedback ^☎ 05:12, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, as your contributions have been reassigned, and it's been about a month and a half since the rename now, I have to assume that the block log doesn't transfer for some reason - however odd that may be. Either that, or the job queue is seriously screwed up and backlogged, but then we'd be getting other problems as well. Should it need to be checked for some reason, your rename was logged, and it can be checked through that if necessary (which hopefully won't be the case). If you ever go for RfA or anything, just make sure you disclose that our front - it'll go much better for you if you let people know about it rather than letting them discover it on their own. Someone else please feel free to correct me on this if I am wrong about something, and/or providing a reason as to why they don't transfer, as I'm rather curious about it myself. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 05:48, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I believe that when an account is renamed the block log does not go with it, but in most cases the bureaucrat who completed the rename is supposed to block the new account for very short amounts of time (i.e. a couple of seconds) to put the reasons for the blocks on the previous account into the new account's block log. If the b'crat didn't do it, I wouldn't worry about it, just make sure you disclose if you ever run for RfA or ArbCom or something like that. Mr Senseless (talk) 19:08, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

How to remove a page?

What is the procedure to remove a redirect page that should not have been created in the first place?

Thank you, --Jazzeur (talk) 05:20, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Post it at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion, or if it is just there for no reason whatsoever, put {{csd-g6}} on it. Soxred93 has a boring sig 05:25, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

G6 works for some situations but there are specific speedy deletion criteria for certain types of redirects. For those to non-existent pages, you can use {{db-redirnone}}; for redirect to a user page, user talk page, or talk page from the main/article space, you can use {{db-rediruser}}; and for recently created implausible typos, links or misnomers (the most common redirect deletion reason), you can use {{db-redirtypo}}.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:19, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you much to both. Very useful. --Jazzeur (talk) 05:39, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

User Page Help

I made my own sandbox on my user page since I wanted to start to expand the Northport High School article. Somehow I deleted half of my witting that I already had down but luckily I had my witting backed up. So I then went to edit my user page and recopy in the deleted material but then I ran into my problem. My user page does not update when I recopy in the material and save it, but when you go to "edit this page" all the witting comes up. Does anyone know why I can see all my writing under the "edit this page" but not under my user page? Thanks for any help! Noneforall (talk) 07:03, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

You had an unclosed <ref> tag, I fixed it here. Mr.Z-man 07:15, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks a ton, I almost had a heart attack when I lost my work! -Noneforall (talk) 07:17, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Guy Pewsey

I would like to be able to read all articles written by Mr Guy Pewsey if possible? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.178.183.243 (talk) 08:35, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

You will need to know the persons username before you can do this. Wikipedia editors mostly do not use their real names as usernames. The editors real name is confidential and Wikipedia would not reveal it even if they new. Only Guy Pewsey himself cvould tell you this, if you know him.

You should also note that articles are not written by, or belong to, any one single person. It is one of the founding principles of Wikipedia that anyone can edit any article. SpinningSpark 11:42, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Changing the wikitable template....

Is there a way to change the template for wikitable? There is a layout problem in Internet Explorer when table width is set to 100% (a horizontal scrollbar is shown). Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Steppres (talk • contribs) 08:53, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps it is due to the size of the border. You can simply avoid specifying a width of more than 99%.

Example:

abc	def	ghi
jkl	mno	pqr
stu	vwx	yz

Patrick (talk) 11:22, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Infobox Help

For some reason, I can't get Infoboxes to work. I tried just recently to put one on Tom Kenny, but it doesn't seem to want to cooperate. I don't know what the problem is. It's formatted correctly, but it won't display as anything besides text. CoolKid1993 (talk) 12:11, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

That had me stumped for a bit -- still does, really -- missing bracket apparently was the problem, but I'm not sure why that would cause such a serious break. Seems to work, now, though. :) – Luna Santin (talk) 12:55, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help! CoolKid1993 (talk) 15:26, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Renameing your Login Name

Is there any way you can change the name of your username here on wikipedia if so, how? Thanks (talk) 17:45, January 5, 2008 —Preceding comment was added at 17:46, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Changing username. PrimeHunter (talk) 17:53, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

How to actually post an articel for the first time

How to actually post an article for the first time: PLease make this topic a lot clearer. You go on and on for pages and state what you should not do or how to use the sandbox. There is no obvious button to click to "post" or "submit" a topic. I have no idea (nor do you explain) the diffence between "save a page" vs. "show changes"

And on this page you don't have any discernible buttont to "send" this email to the help desk.

Try having your instructions that are currently computer geek level and re-translate for an average layperson. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hlernermd (talk • contribs) 17:55, 5 January 2008 (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 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. The Helpful One ^{(Talk) (Contributions) (Review Me!)} 18:19, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Threatened with a block for re-posting an encyclopedic article

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well.

Last month, two articles that I had written were deleted. The reasons given were strongly worded, but from what I can see, they were not supported by the OR policy cited (WP:NOR). In particular, they didn't contain "unpublished facts, arguments, speculation, [or] ideas"; "unpublished analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to advance a position"; or "opinions, experiences, or arguments" not found in the sources. Instead, they presented ideas taken from different sources as in the example found at (WP: SYN):

Smith says that Jones committed plagiarism by copying references from another book. Jones denies this, and says it's acceptable scholarly practice to use other people's books to find new references.

The policy presents the passage above specifically as an example of "good editing" (WP: SYN).

One of the articles, Interlingua and the characteristica universalis compared, was then speedied because it had been previously deleted. I responded by thoroughly and reliably referencing the article inline, revising questionable statements, and returning the article to Wikipedia. The deleting administrator, User: Pablo, was agreeable to this, wished me happy editing, and everything was fine.

However, the revised article was speedied again, this time by user: Accounting4Taste. The reason given was G4, which applies only when the article "is substantially identical to the deleted version" and "any changes to the deleted page do not address the reasons for which the material was deleted" (WP:CSD). This clearly is not the case for this revised and now thoroughly referenced article.

The other article, Begriffsschrift and Interlingua compared, was prodded. This is contrary to WP: PROD, which states,

Articles that have been discussed on AfD are not candidates for {{prod}}. (bold in original)

I noted this on the article's talk page, as the {{prod}} tag suggests, and removed the tag, something that WP: DP explicitly permits under "Proposed deletion". Then, user: Accounting4Taste speedied this article as well. I had revised the article in response to the original reasons for deletion, so again, I don't feel that it should have been speedied. It's true that I didn't reference it inline, because it was already referenced below the text. In any case, I've now re-revised and thoroughly referenced the article inline. I'm ready to return the article to Wikipedia, which seems to be consistent with Why Was My Page Deleted, since it is far from identical to the original article (See "What not to do about it" at WP:WWMPD).

However, user: Accounting4Taste has threatened to block me. His message is,

Please stop. If you continue to introduce inappropriate pages to Wikipedia you will be blocked from editing. Accounting4Taste:talk 20:52, 4 January 2008 (UTC) (from my talk page)

To my knowledge, neither of these articles was ever inappropriate, and they certainly aren't now. I think the threatened block should be prevented, so that I can post the thoroughly referenced articles and create additional, encyclopedic articles if I choose. I have carefully reviewed and followed Wikipedia's policies and guidelines from the beginning, and that isn't going to change. I'm not at all sure that user: Accounting4Taste should be acting as an administrator at this point, since he has threatened to block someone who is only following procedure the best he can. My priority, however, is just to be allowed to participate.

Another player in this drama is user: CastAStone, who requested the speedy deletions. Thank you for your help, and have a good day. Lumturo (talk) 17:58, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I have posted a note about this at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents and believe that further discussion should take place there. Accounting4Taste:talk 18:04, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The Help Page is probably the wrong venue for this issue. I think that Editor Assistance or Mediation would be a good place to start. Although, a quick and hasty look at the issue seems to indicate that you are ignoring what others are trying to tell you.—Noah 18:09, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, I'll post at one of the sites that the two of you have mentioned. What I'm saying is that those others are mistaken in what they are telling me, and that it's OK to re-post the deleted articles after they've been revised and thoroughly referenced. User: Pedro was fine about how I responded to his deletion. But again, thank you for your help, and I'll address this elsewhere. Lumturo (talk) 19:53, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

outline maps

I need to find out how the notation for latitude is shown on Desk Outline Maps. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.102.252.21 (talk) 21:27, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

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 is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. NF24^{(radio me!)} 22:02, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

capitalization in title & protected uploaded image

I've created a page for an album, entitled Slaughter Daughter. When i created the page, though, it was made as Slaughter daughter (with no capitalized letter D). I'm not sure if this was a mistake on my part or if it just defaulted to assuming it wasn't a proper noun. So my first question is, how can I correct this?

My second question, which may be related, is that the link from the Die Mannequin page referring to Slaughter Daughter isn't finding the page for the album. Maybe it's because of the capitalization? Also, i uploaded a picture for the album before i had actually made the album page, figuring i could then just pop it in. Apparently, i cant do that, because it needs the page to be created, so it protected the details of the image and wont let me edit them. Whenever i go to the image page and try to edit, i keep getting the same message saying it is protected, and the link for Slaughter Daughter there still isn't working, either, claiming the album page doesn't exist. Again, this may be related to the capitalization - I'm not really sure. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pointingandlaughing (talk • contribs) 23:36, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

1. Y Done. In the future, you can click the "move" tab at the top of any page.
2. It's because of the capitalisation.
3. The image should work now. See WP:F to learn how to write a fair use rationale; it appears incomplete. NF24^{(radio me!)} 23:46, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Fixed the rationale for you. It does not need the [[ ]] in the template. I have merged the two rationales that you gave. Make sure you read WP:F on how to meet all the criteria. Woody (talk) 23:51, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

January 6

nazrul

hi why we need negative number —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.236.132.190 (talk) 00:21, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but I fail to see what you are asking, could you elaborate, please? Qst 00:22, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

what do you mean —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.236.132.190 (talk) 00:27, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

That's what Qst is asking. What is your question about? NF24^{(radio me!)} 00:33, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

This page is meant for questions concerning Wikipedia, not for it's content. --Sigma 7 (talk) 00:35, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

No, all Wikipedia-related questions are welcome here, not just Wikipedia only, it's content can be questioned here, too. Qst 00:38, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I think the IP is asking about the little red number next to all the edits. If so, then it means that there are less bytes in the page (it's not WikiPoints! or anything like that).

PS. Someone did actually ask me before if they were points. Lex ^T/_C Guest Book 00:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) My bad. By checking the contributions, I see he/she was asking about [[1]]. However, this is a question for the Reference Desk, just like Sigma 7 said. Lex ^T/_C Guest Book 00:44, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Nazrul, see here. Lex ^T/_C Guest Book 00:45, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

what is the negative number —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.236.132.190 (talk) 00:46, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

See above. NF24^{(radio me!)} 00:46, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I think he/she is pulling a rib on us and is vandalizing. Lex ^T/_C Guest Book 00:49, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

It's always a possibility, but what happened to WP:AGF? To answer the question, the numbers next to edits show how much text was added or removed. A negative number means text was removed, while a positive number means text was added. The numbers are colored for convenience. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:10, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Editing

How do i edit pages?Zuko11 (talk) 01:19, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

See Help:Editing and come back if you have a more specific problem. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:23, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Molecular and Cellular Biology (journal)

Could someone create Molecular and Cellular Biology (journal) with the following content.. taken from an old revision of the Molecular and Cellular Biology page..?--69.118.143.107 (talk) 01:26, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Molecular and Cellular Biology is an academic journal published by the [[American Society for Microbiology]]. The title is commonly abbreviated MCB and the ISSN is 0270-7306 for the print version, and 1098-5549 for the electronic version.


Molecular and Cellular Biology is an authoritative source of fundamental knowledge and new developments in all aspects of the molecular biology of eukaryotic cells. Essential to all scientists in the field, MCB publishes work on microbial as well as higher organisms and on viral systems where emphasis is clearly on the cell.
== References ==
[http://mcb.asm.org/ Molecular and Cellular Biology]


[[Category:Biology journals]]
[[Category:Delayed open access journals]]

{{sci-journal-stub}}

Assuming that that isn't possible due to some sort of strange GDFL restriction, could the page Molecular and Cellular Biology be moved to Molecular and Cellular Biology (journal)? In which case I'll just revert to the reversion indicated above, and turn the redirect at Molecular and Cellular Biology back into a disambiguation page. For that matter could someone also create Molecular and cellular biology as a redirect to Molecular and Cellular Biology. Thank you.--69.118.143.107 (talk) 01:31, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Why don't you have an account to do such things yourself? I'll do them both now. --Seans Potato Business 01:46, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Out of control image on the loose at Backcrossing

I have two questions about my image at Backcrossing: 1) why does it look such appalling quality when it's an SVG made from scratch in Inkscape? 2) why is it out of control? ----Seans Potato Business 01:43, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

It's so large because frame is used. It displays the original size. See Help:Magic words#size. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:06, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

When you use the frame attribute and the thumb attribute at the same time, frame will override thumb resulting in a full sized image.--69.118.143.107 (talk) 02:09, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Why was the quality of the image so poor? It should have been smooth. It needs to be in a frame in order to show the caption but thumb is far to small for the image to be of use. Should be at least 400px to be readable). --Seans Potato Business 02:24, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You can specify a size with thumb. See Help:Images and other uploaded files#Linking. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:09, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

How old?

How old does an account have to be to upload new versions of files, move articles and edit semi-protected pages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rappingwonders2 (talk • contribs) 02:10, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Four days. In the mean time you can ask people here to do your bidding :) ----Seans Potato Business 02:26, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Enlarging words

how do you enlarge words? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wtfdontkill (talk • contribs) 02:28, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

To make all words in your browser larger, go to View -> Text size. To make words larger in Wikipedia on a specific page, use either <big> ... </big> tags or <span style="font-size: X%"> ... </span>, replacing X with the percentage, e.g. 200% to double the size. Does this answer your question? Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 02:52, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

new user

Block quote

How do I start a new page — Preceding unsigned comment added by Crredrider (talk • contribs)

Hi. Welcome to Wikipedia! See: Wikipedia:Your first article. You might also look at Wikipedia:How to write a great article. WODUP 03:30, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Band Page

I am making a band page for Wikipedia and I wanted to know how to make the table that the band pages have. (The one with the picture if the band, the band symbol, and info).

Blast Off Bassist (talk) 03:39, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You can use {{Infobox musical artist}}. Please make sure the band satisfies WP:MUSIC, and include references from reliable sources to demonstrate it. If you want to see what an existing article did then click "edit this page" at top to see the source. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:03, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Forgot Password

I have forgotten my password. I am SMP0328. You can E-mail me at (addresses removed for protection). Please help. --72.89.243.161 (talk) 03:41, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry but User:SMP0328 has not attached an email address to the account, so if you don't remember the password then you have to create a new account (see Help:Logging in#What if I forget the password?). Posting your email address here does not help. You can link the two accounts together on their user pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:00, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

OK, I've created a new account. I've included my E-mail address for that account. How do I link the two accounts?--SMP0328. (talk) 04:26, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You can put a note on your user page saying "I used to edit as User:SMP0328. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 09:29, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

First, thank you to whoever removed my E-mail addresses. Second, thank you to Confusing Manifestation for your assistance. --SMP0328. (talk) 03:46, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Userpage

I have created an userbox on anarcho-primitivism. But during the process of creating userbox, I have mistakenly created two pages namely User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userbox/Anarcho-primitivism and User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userboxes/Anarcho-primitivism. Actually I see that every user who has created some userbox have their own subpage User:X/Userboxes. I want my subpage will remain in plural form, i.e. Userboxes, not Userbox. So I want to save the page User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userboxes/Anarcho-primitivism and delete User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userbox/Anarcho-primitivism. Also I want to rename the page User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userbox into User:Otolemur crassicaudatus/Userboxes. What should I do? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 05:48, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

The problem is now solved. They are speedily deleted. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 06:47, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Advice please

From: <email address removed to prevent spam>

Dear Sir,

I live in Cairo, Egypt. and i tryed to buy from the Amazon website also foodnetwork website and they adviced that they can't deliver the order to my address in cairo also they mentioned that if i have a fright forwarder to do the job for me i mean they can send the oder to them rather for they will send me the oder to my address to cairo. egypt..? Can you do that?

Mrs. Omayma Elsarraj —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.158.160.244 (talk) 08:38, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Hello. I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over two million articles, and thought that we were directly affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is a help desk for asking questions related to using the encyclopedia. Thus, we have no inside track on the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the left hand side of your screen. If that is not fruitful, we have a reference desk, divided into various subjects areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 09:27, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Deleted translated page

I've started to translate the Beekeeping article into Afrikaans Byeboerdery and posted the first section. The first completed section have been posted and nearly immediately got flagged for deletion by some very inconsiderate people.

How do I make it part of the main project while not immediately placing a link from the main page? Before I place a link from the English page to the Afrikaans page I would like to get it as complete as possible.

Could the completed section be returned? If it can't be returned what needs doing so the page could stay in place?Byeboer (talk) 10:18, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You should write the Afrikaans version on the Afrikaans Wikipedia, not here on the English Wikipedia. I've restored the page you created and moved it into your user space at User:Byeboer wa/Byeboerdery. You may continue to work on the draft page there; when you're done, copy it over to the Afrikaans Wikipedia. It might even be possible to move it with the history intact, but I'm not very familiar with that part of the software. Once you're finished with the draft page, you may, if you wish, ask for it to be deleted by tagging it with {{db-userreq}}. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 10:39, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Ilmari. Didn't realize each language had it's own wiki. Thought it was all in one big pot.

I will finish the draft on my user page and then move it across. Will ask for some help then. As for the tagging, square brackets is enough for me. Byeboer (talk) 11:10, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Thomas Pestrov

wtf guys why would you put something like that. to try to get it deleted because it has no proof on the internet or it wasnt shown in record books. As ive told you I have proof and its been in my family for generations. He deserves to be on here if you want proof type in Joel Roberts on google that is his son and there is proof enough. I hate how you guys say something has to be deleted as soon as it is posted and it makes me and millions of others dislike your so called free encyclopedia, i mean if it was so free then you would allow to have people put down facts they know is a fact and their family has known is a fact. And even so saying it dosnt have proof of existence is like saying you dont have proof of Gods existence and a lot of people believe in him and you allow it on your website like when i type in god its on there. But thats not what bugs me its your too lazy to get off your ass and look up crap, so if its something you dont recognize as a fact then you simply delete it, and i demand you send me a message reply to this for this is an injustice towards my free writes of speech, even though the same rules do not apply on the internet as they do online I have a peice of history that is great in its own self and instead of not letting the whole world learn it you delete it. And one more thing my great great great grandfather died for freedom and he believed if you did something just right no one would know that you did but know that someone did something for them without expecting fame or fortune having that is what has brought my family to this time and this age of time. My family has been doing great things for centuries living off his belief and knowing that if we did the right thing was good and it didnt matter if anyone knew it was us, to have pride is to have greed and greed kills more men then the bubonic plague did. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TheStudy1 (talk • contribs) 10:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

You should probably read over WP:BIO to find out how to tell if someone is notable enough to be included in Wikipedia. After that, please read WP:RS to learn about reliable sources, which do not include stories passed down by family members. And finally, please use better grammar. Your final paragraph had 20 lines of text and only 7 periods. The text was next to impossible to understand due to the poor grammar and punctuation. If you need help with English grammar, then I suggest you ask another editor to help you with your entry before posting it on a live page. A page such as User:TheStudy1/sandbox will do. Dismas|^(talk) 11:25, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

People don't "deserve" Wikipedia articles. You may have confused this site for some other type of site like a social networking site or a blog but Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, a tertiary source by definition, so the subjects making up our content must have already been published somewhere else in order to be included here. An encyclopedia should never announce new, unknown and unpublished things.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:33, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Who owns an X-ray or MRI image?

I recently had an MRI done and the doctor gave me a CD with the images from the MRI. I was thinking that they could be used here but I'm not sure about the legality of this. So, who owns those images? Me? My doctor? The hospital where the MRI scanner is? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 11:27, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

This page is for questions about editing Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Reference desk. They specialize in knowledge questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. The Helpful One ^{(Talk) (Contributions) (Review Me!)} 11:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

There's the Wikipedia:Image copyright help desk which should be more useful than the Reference Desk for this question on using Wikipedia.--86.149.57.47 (talk) 12:07, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Helpful One, that wasn't helpful. If you read my question again, the reason for my question was whether I could use the photos on Wikipedia. 86.149, thanks, I didn't know that desk existed. I have posted to another copyright desk before and didn't get any response for the question I asked then, so I'd rather not go back there but I'll try this new desk... How many help desks do we have anyway? Dismas|^(talk) 14:36, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

That link caught me by surprise too. Apparently it was created last week. So how many let's see, here, the new one, the reference desk with 7 separate desk sections, New contributors help desk, WP:VPA, WP:EA, {{helpme}} (sort of a virtual heldesk)... 13?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:38, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Image copyright help desk also surprised me when we already have Wikipedia:Media copyright questions, Wikipedia talk:Copyrights/Can I use..., Wikipedia:Requested copyright examinations. Of course the number of help desks depends on what you call a help desk. Some other places you can ask questions: Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard, and Wikipedia:WikiProject User Page Help/Help Desk for one actually called help desk. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:58, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Woody Allen's film: "Cassandra's Dreams"

Someone on Wikipedia wrote about Woody Allen's new film and tells exactly what happens to the characters in the film - giving away important plot details - such as who gets killed in the film. This should not be allowed - it ruins the film for anyone who might want to see it. Would the reviewer have liked it if someone had told him or her who gets killed in the film, before the reviewer went in to see it?

This review should be removed. I'm going to avoid reading about specific movies on Wikipedia in the future. If it's a thriller, I'd like to be surprised when I see the film. Don't tell me who gets killed at the end of the film.

"Stupid" would be a good description of your reviewer, I think.

Happy New Year, by the way. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.164.108.24 (talk) 12:52, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Happy New Year to you. I'd advise you to read through Wikipedia's guideline on spoilers, which states that articles will contain in depth plot details without warning. Also, remember that Wikipedia is not just written by one contributor (or reviewer), but that many people collaborate over it. — alex.muller (talkpage • contribs) 13:20, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Also note that Wikipedia articles about movies are not suppossed to be in the form of a review. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and should give information about the article subject with a neutral point of view. If we write an encyclopedic article about a war then we don't stop in the middle without saying who won. The same basically goes for movies. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:23, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Obscenity

Why do I see a string of obscene words in Sandbox under "project page". There is also a derogatory comment under "discussion".

This rather puts me off pursuing my first attempt at editing - the article "Silver Line (Washington Metro)" which has an obvious major error, and is muddled on the history and controversy. Plus the there is nothing on the current status of this major delayed project.

ablackwood —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ablackwood (talk • contribs) 13:01, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

The thing to remember is that Wikipedia can be edited by absolutely anyone, and some of those people may be less well intentioned than you. You can remove the obscenity yourself, but take care to remember that Wikipedia is not censored. If you leave a link to where you found the obscenity (perhaps on my talk page) I'd be happy to have a look. And please do continue to edit the article you mentioned, because Wikipedia thrives on the contributions of its members. — alex.muller (talkpage • contribs) 13:11, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

The Sandbox is a place for test editing. You are liable to see all sorts of crap in there. If you are really offended, might I suggest creating a user subpage and tagging it with {{User Sandbox}} to make it your own private sandbox? NF24^{(radio me!)} 14:11, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Please go ahead and correct any errors you see. If possible, include where you found the information, for example <ref>Washington Post, 1 Jan 2007</ref> (the <ref> and </ref> put the text inside at the bottom of the page). --h2g2bob (talk) 15:31, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

judgement and foreclosure

can u refer the page on which correct defination of judgement and foreclosure is mentioned —Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.210.56.31 (talk) 15:49, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

(added title) Try judgement and foreclosure on Wikipedia. Dictionary definitions are at wikt:judgement and wikt:foreclosure on our sister project, Wiktionary. --h2g2bob (talk) 16:03, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I suspect that your question may relate to a judgment of foreclosure. If this is the case and your real property is involved, I urge you to consult an attorney in your locality who specializes in real property litigation.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:14, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Liancourt Rocks needs someone to fix it

Someone deleted this article and replaced it with the text:

This article has been temporarily deleted due to rampant edit warring and disruption. It will be protected from recreation for a short while until administrators have determined how to proceed further.

With full protection. An administrator needs to fix this ASAP. The article has been around for a long time, and this just isn't how we do things. -Theanphibian ^{(talk • contribs)} 17:43, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Discussion over this article is taking place at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Liancourt Rocks.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:52, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. Sorry for the poor selection of places to post this. It seems to be getting resolved currently. -Theanphibian ^{(talk • contribs)} 18:10, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Making a project banner case-insensitive

Is there a method for making a project banner using variables such as England=yes to also accept inputs of england=yes and eng=yes without having to copy the same code again? (as adding alternatives for each variable would triple the code of the template)

The current code is similar to this -

{{#if:{{{England|}}}|
{{!}}[[Image:Flag of England.svg|40x40px|center]] 
{{!}}This {{#ifeq:{{{class|}}}|NA|non-article page|article}} is supported by the '''England task force'''. 
}}

I guess what I really mean is - is there an OR function available for #if:? The main thinking behind the implementation of case-insensitive variables is to make it more user-friendly and catch all those articles that have been tagged using the wrong case.

(and yes I know it would have been more logical to have all variables as lower-case at the beginning, but the project is now in it's 3rd year and over 19,000 articles had been tagged, so retroactively changing all variables on all those talkpages to lowercase would be a big job) Nanonic (talk) 20:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Here's an idea to try: Would it work to just nest the variables, like so:

{{#if:{{{England|{{{england|{{{eng|}}}}}}}}}|

 ? • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 21:49, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

That works brilliantly, thanks! Nanonic (talk) 23:26, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Portuguese Wedding

What paperwork is required for an english couple getting married in portugal? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.121.81 (talk) 22:14, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Note that Wikipedia does not give legal opinions. Have you tried the Humanities section of Wikipedia's Reference Desk? They specialize in answering knowledge questions there; this help desk is only for questions about using Wikipedia. For your convenience, here is the link to post a question there: click here. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:25, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

starting a new entry on a living person

What steps do I need to use to start a new entry on a living person,(which is not me by the way)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mp9779 (talk • contribs) 22:37, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Search first, then see Wikipedia:Your first article for details on starting an article. The Biographies of living people policy is recommended reading - Wikipedia takes "BLP violations" (as they're called) very seriously. Also check out the notability guidelines for people as most people who do not meet this guideline will have their article deleted. Good luck! —Preceding unsigned comment added by NASCAR Fan24 (talk • contribs) 22:45, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Mirror Sites and User Pages

How do I remove my user page from mirror sites? 165.154.18.154 (talk) 22:37, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I posted this question. Leamarie411x2 (talk) 22:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Mirrors are simply copies of Wikipedia; I think they can't be edited. Perhaps the most notable mirror is Answers.com, which disallows editing. You would have to remove your userpage here, and even then some mirrors are years out of date. NF24^{(radio me!)} 22:42, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Note that anything you post on your userpage is released under the GFDL, which allows verbatim copying, so you have little or no legal recourse against mirrors. Algebraist 23:39, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

See my User page at User:Corvus cornix. The yellow box is somewhat of a disclaimer, letting people who encounter your User page on a mirror site know that you are not associated with that site. Corvus cornix_talk 23:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

An area where we can vote on stub articles to be expanded

Hi. I just started an article on Wikipedia vandalism in my userspace (see User:Urban Rose/Wikipedia vandalism) and remember there being a place where I can go to propose that editors select it as a stub article to be expanded (I believe it was called "article improvement drive" or something like that). Could someone please show me where to find the page I'm talking about. I already left a notice about the new article on the community portal but I'm not sure if that's the best place for it.--Urban Rose 22:45, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Looks like you'll have to go it alone: the Article Collaboration & Improvement Drive gets articles to FA-status and I can't find another similar project. Good luck! NF24^{(radio me!)} 22:49, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia ISBN

Hi, I am currently doing an assessment and have used the Article on your website (1931 Hawkes Bay earthquake) I am needing to know the reference number or ISBN for Wikipedia in general or that particular article.

Could you please email me <e-mail removed> and let me know.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.150.115.117 (talk) 23:21, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid we don't answer questions by e-mail. Wikipedia does not have an ISBN, as it is not a book. For information on citing Wikipedia, go to the article in question and click the 'Cite this page' link at the bottom of the left sidebar. 172.202.11.50 (talk) 23:32, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

How to cite from personal knowledge

Hi I edited a page about Martin Keown where I said he was of Irish Ancestory. I see a citation is needed. I can understand that but my evidence is that I actually know his mother and family personally from the village! How does one cite that?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.110.52.139 (talk) 23:43, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, you can't because it is in violation of the original research policy. NF24^{(radio me!)} 23:45, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I recommend trying to figure out where you learned it from, if possible. Trevor "Tinkleheimer" Haworth 23:48, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) One doesn't cite or use personal knowledge. It is against Wikipedia:Verifiability. Only add information from published reliable sources. If you cannot find a published source for your own addition to a biography of a living person after it has been tagged for citation then I suggest to remove the information before somebody else does. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Isn't Keown an Irish name? It's obviously true, must it be cited explicitly? • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 00:11, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, certainly when it has been tagged for citation in a WP:BLP. Besides, I guess it was this more specific edit which is currently tagged. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:22, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Help about an article

Hi friends,

I have created a wikipedia article for Usha a famous and renowned singer from south India. The article is present at the following link -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_usha. I have listed all her accomplishments, awards and felicitations including few external links as an evidence to her achievements.

I referred to the Wikipedia:Notability (music) and found that she meets most of the criteria mentioned for singers and musicians in terms of awards, recognition and media presence. I have the following questions:

1. what are the next steps in adding her name to "disambiguation" page and 2. what is the mode of saving the above article on a permanent basis to wikipedia ?

Your help is appreciated.

Thanks

Devarakonda (talk) 23:53, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi, the disambiguation page to add it to would be Usha. I was going to add your article to it just now, but then I noticed that it had been moved by somebody from Singer usha (where you created it) to Usha (singer). When I checked her website I noticed she calls herself "Singer Usha". So, I have a question, is "Singer Usha" actually her usual name? If so, the page should be moved back to "Singer Usha" first, and then the disambiguation page should point to that.

As for your second question, the article is already saved permanently and is already available to everyone if you search for it. The only thing you might want to do is categorize the article. For example, adding it to Category:Telugu playback singers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anakin101 (talk • contribs) 00:09, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I have added Usha (singer) to the disambiguation page Usha. - PrimeHunter (talk) 00:15, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Anakin, Face and Prime Hunter for your help. I am totally new to creating the article and really thank you for your help.

>>>Anakin noticed that Usha's website calls her "Singer Usha". If this is her usual name, then maybe the page should be retitled to that. I do not believe that this is really how she wants to be called however...

In Tollywood, Usha is famous and renowned as "Singer Usha"- thats how most people know her. It is absolutely OK to be referred to Singer Usha on wikipedia. When I originally created the article, it got saved as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer_usha... notice the small-case "u" in usha...

I will appreciate any help you guys can provide to me in renaming the page to Singer Usha

Devarakonda (talk) 15:12, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

User:Anakin101 has renamed it to Singer Usha. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:24, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

wikipedia stuck in "print mode"

I don't know how but right now, all of wikipedia is stuck in a very basic styling, almost very similar to print mode. For example, the side bar with the navigation and search box is not there, it's in a list at the end of the page. Basically, the boxes that kept the entry in one part and the tools in another section are gone. How do I get this back?

I know it's an issue with only my browser because if I open this in internet explorer or another computer, the problem is no longer there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zhaos (talk • contribs) 23:55, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Is there something reading &printable=yes in the URL? If so, remove it and report back here. Also check your preferences' Skin tab to see which skin you have activated. NF24^{(radio me!)} 23:58, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

It sounds like you have changed skin for your account at Special:Preferences. Maybe you didn't log in to your account when it looked normal in another browser or computer. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:05, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I have fixed the issue. I cleared my browser cache completely and then refreshed. I have no idea what I clicked to get it into that mode. there was no printmode url in the url bar but there are no more problems, it's back to normal Zhaos (talk) 00:37, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

January 7

spoiler warnings

how do you add them to pages? Trig (talk) 00:36, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

It has been debated a lot and Wikipedia has currently chosen to not use spoiler warnings. See Wikipedia:Spoiler. Template:Spoiler was used earlier but has been deleted. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Template:Birth date and age

I have been investigating Template:Birth date and age, as its instances on the articles for Liam Aiken and Camryn Grimes have not updated to indicate their turning 18, but if I use January 7 as the birthday in an instance of the template on my sandbox, it has updated to reflect the fact that it is past 00:00 January 7, 2008 UTC. Is there a reason for this? Hallpriest9 (Talk | Archive) 00:39, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The pages appear to have updated now. Could it be that they just needed to be purged in order to rebuild the page? • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 00:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I just purged Liam Aiken. I haven't purged Camryn Grimes if somebody else want to see the age change. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:47, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

It appears somebody has now purged Camryn Grimes which also says 18 now. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:54, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

How do I submit a n article about a person to Wikipedia when there is already some one by the same name listed?

I am trying to submit an article about a person but when I search wikipedia, there already is information about a differnt person with the same name. How do I list the person in wikipedia - the have no middle initial or nickname. Thanks so much. —Preceding unsigned comment added by CleoFrancis (talk • contribs) 00:45, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Page naming conventions. Without knowing the person I cannot give more specific naming advice. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:52, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

HELP!!!

HI!!! I NEED INFORMATION??? 85.92.186.208 (talk) 01:08, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

About what?   jj137 ^♠ 01:09, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Hi. If this is information about how to use Wikipedia, you are in the right place. You just need to let us know what you want, and if any of the volunteers here are able to answer you, they will. If it is a general knowledge question, you may wish to ask it at the reference desk. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 01:10, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

WIKIPEDA

WHAT IS THIS PLACE?? 85.92.186.208 (talk) 01:13, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi. You are at Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Here are some are some other pages that you might find helpful:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• Tutorial
• How to edit a page
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

Cheers.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 01:19, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

IVE GOT PROBLEMS ITS WORKING WRONG!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.92.186.208 (talk) 01:39, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Could you please explain what problems you're having, or what's working wrong? Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

CANT CHANGE THE LETTER COLOR'S??? IVE GOT SCIENCE TOMORROW!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.92.186.208 (talk) 01:51, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Um... I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you're talking about, but feel free to continue browsing Wikipedia's over two million article's. Remember to SEARCH WIKIPEDIA to find what you want. Alternatively try Google. Good night. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 01:57, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

If you are referring to colors in Wikipedia then see Wikipedia:Colours#Overriding font colour. If it's another program then say which and ask at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:00, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I'm not sure quite what you're asking, but here's a couple possibilities:

• If you have a science question, try asking your question at the Science Reference Desk.
• To change the color of text on a page on Wikipedia, enclose the text in <span style="color: colorname">text here</span>, replacing colorname with the name of the color and text here with the text you want to change the color of. For example, <span style="color: purple">example</span> produces example.

If this doesn't answer your question, try explaining in more detail and maybe I'll be able to help. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 02:01, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

2 MILLION WOW IVE GOT WINDOWS???? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.92.186.208 (talk) 02:04, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Windows is an operating system. It includes many programs with letter colors and the program you want to make a change in may not actually be a part of Windows. If you want to change color in a specific program then say which. Maybe the program name is displayed at top of the window or in a help menu. And Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing is the best place to ask since this help desk is for questions about how to use Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:18, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

If you want to get help from distant strangers in a text-only medium, you should read: How to ask questions the smart way. The questions you pose above are too vague to admit answers, unless one of the volunteers happened to read your mind correctly. --Teratornis (talk) 23:41, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Contact

How do I contact you? I have a complaint —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jungwirthwillkillallrocks (talk • contribs) 01:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Hello, I'm sorry you have a complaint with us. Please see Wikipedia:Contact us for details on how to contact the Wikimedia Foundation. Regards, Keilana^talk_(recall) 01:45, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

If you want to say in public what the complaint is then we may be able to help you here. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:48, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Also, note that Wikipedia is edited almost entirely by volunteers, and is editable by anyone; if it's a problem with an article, you can change it yourself or point it out to someone else who can try to fix it. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 01:50, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

To contact the people who run Wikipedia, well, that's everybody. To contact people who handle specific things, see the directories at the top of the Community Portal, which is also on the menu to the left.

See also: Help:Contents/Communication.

Hope that helps.

The Transhumanist 02:23, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

You actually have contacted us. The Help desk can help with quite a few things, or tell you where to get help if we can't provide it here. So feel free to state your complaint here; if you don't want to state your complaint in public, perhaps you can characterize it generally for us, so we can advise you on how to go about pursuing a remedy. For example, you may object to the content in a specific article (if so, tell us the article name); you may have a dispute with a specific editor; you may dislike some ergonomic aspect of Wikipedia; etc. For each type of complaint there is a procedure for dealing with it. --Teratornis (talk) 23:47, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

How to name new article about person with same name and profession

I want to fix the link to Joan Hill in the Mark Boyle article -- the existing Hill article is about a Native American Artist; the correct Joan Hill for the Boyle article is from Edinburgh. Should I add a disambiguation page for Joan Hill and make a new page Joan Hill (Scottish artist) and rename the existing one Joan Hill (Muskogee artist)? Or should it be Joan Hill (UK artist) and Joan Hill (US artist)? Should I put something on the existing Joan Hill discussion page first, or just go ahead and edit -- advice on protocol welcome. Many thanks.

Jonathan Laventhol (talk) 02:32, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the answer is to your question, but have you checked WP:Style? The answer might be there. Zenwhat (talk) 02:41, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, the basic principle set out at Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people) is that we want the most (1) recognizable and (2) the most unambiguous with existing pages. I would imagine Muskogee artist would be difficult for #1, since even people who know her as Native American may not know her tribe. I would be inclined to identify US/UK for that reason. As to whether its appropriate to move the existing article in the first place, how notable is the UK artist Joan Hill? If the US artist is more notable, it may be more appropriate to add a hatnote to the top of the existing article directing readers to the UK Joan Hill and not move the original article at all. Discussing on the Joan Hill page is a good step if you feel the move is likely to be controversial. Given that it isn't often edited, I suspect it would not be, and if I felt the Joan Hills merited equal coverage might be bold in this case. If you do move Joan Hill and create a disambiguation page, please remember to follow "What links here" so that you can repair wikilinks as necessary. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 03:34, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Heeeeeelp with WP:FRINGE and possible arbitration.

On Debt-based monetary system, which is a POV fork of fractional-reserve banking, me, EGeek, and Gregalton have tried to improve the article by at least removing stuff that violates WP:FRINGE. There is consensus that it needs to be improved. However, whenever any changes are made, Libertarians who seem to be supporters of these fringe theories revert any edits to the page which remove such material, and appeal to WP:CONSENSUS. This isn't direct vandalism -- just wikilawyering that takes advantage of the slowness and tediousness of Wikipedian bureaucracy in order to keep nonsense up. And they don't put forth any genuine arguments for why they're making such reverts other than a vague appeal to consensus. I've noted this repeatedly on the talk page.

I already posted this on Wikipedia:Fringe_theories/Noticeboard a few days ago, in hopes it would bring outsiders to edit the page. That has not helped reached consensus and the topic has been listed for RFC in the distant past. On monetary theory articles, in general, I seem to be going around in circles, because the article on fractional-reserve banking looked good enough to be featured a while back, but now, adherents of the New World Order (conspiracy theory) and Austrian economics have put all of their silly little fringe theories back in.

I would like to either engage the users making the reverts or seek arbitration. However, the users' seem disinterested in discussing their reverts (so mediation is out of the question.). But on the other hand, given the current state of ArbCom, ArbCom will likely reject my request because they seem to want people to assume good faith even where it's clearly absurd and mediation hasn't been tried. Per WP:IAR, I'd like to just say, "To hell with these trolls," and boldly remove all of the nonsense, but then I will probably be blocked for violating 3RR since WP:IAR doesn't seem to ever be a legitimate defense on Wikipedia.

I saw this recently which made me highly skeptical of ArbCom's current ability to address WP:FRINGE violations, since admins who proactively go after such trolls cause great controversy, risking their administrative privileges from being taken away.

So, please, somebody tell me: What can I do to fix that article without having my edits reverted with the summary "omg no consensus" with no corresponding comment on the talk page, and without getting blocked for edit-warring? Zenwhat (talk) 02:20, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

In the long run, you can't escape community consensus. If the greater community wants something a certain way, it will eventually be that way. But a localized consensus may not match the community's desires. So if an editor or group of editors are maintaining an article to non-Wikipedia standards, then what you need to do is seek wider input. Keep in mind that common practice (that is, the defacto standard) doesn't always match policy, which means policy in such an area hasn't caught up to common practice yet. At the core of this approach is WP:IAR - the community isn't straight-jacketed by its own rules. To seek wider input, post requests for editors to come and participate on the article. In addition to occasionally asking for help here at the help desk, also try WP:CBB, WP:RFF, WP:AN, WP:RFE, WP:VPA, and WP:RFC (for articles). If you really want the community to apply the magnifying glass to the article, prepare it for featured article status. Post it at WP:GAN or WP:PR, and once it gets through peer review, nominate it at WP:FAC.

Keep a log of the perp's violations, for use in an RfC on him if it ever comes to that. You can also use that as evidence to request that the article be protected, but that step usually follows an RfC. Keep suggesting mediation, because you are open to consensus-building discussion.

To solve the merge-issue, I stepped-in and boldly renamed the page so it is more closely associated with the article it expands upon.

I hope I've been of help. If you need further assistance, continue to post requests everywhere you can think of (check WP:DIR for all the relevant departments you can find), and on my talk page.

The Transhumanist 03:45, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I disagree that consensus is necessarily inevitable. It seems to me that overall M:Wikithoritarianism is less influential than M:Wikidemocratism because Wikipedia is a "friendly community with wildly inaccurate articles, because of wikilawyering" not "a rude community, made up of academic elitists who don't follow any particular rules." Hence the reason for WP:Expert rebellion. This is reflected in various ArbCom decisions, some of which have caused very good editors to leave Wikipedia, and is also supported by Wikipedia:Harmonious editing club. Part of the problem may stem from the fact that "Wikithoritarianism" is labeled by that name. I plan to write an essay on "Wikindividualism vs. Wikollectivism" soon to go more in detail. Wikipedia will only be accurate if individual editors (like you) continually and courageously engage poor editors and bad faith editors, while adhering to Wikipedia policy. It is a mistake to personify "consensus" as a conscious individual entity that will somehow always automatically get it right in the end. Zenwhat (talk) 03:53, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Not necessarily, but generally it is, IMHO. True, there will always be exceptions. And I agree with you that it is a constant battle. A war of quality assurance. Fortunately, we have thousands of volunteers who focus primarily on watchdogging and patrolling Wikipedia for problems to fix. If you help make them aware of what to look for, you may have an army on your side. Good luck. In the meantime, the best articles generally have dedicated maintainers, sort of like the custodians of literature in Fahrenheit 451, except we're preventing "article burning" instead of book burning. Keep the faith. The Transhumanist 04:09, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Question

Are there any Wikipedia users who have died? If so, could you please list at least one? 138.217.145.45 (talk) 04:04, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:deceased Wikipedians. Algebraist 04:20, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

PLAYING CARDS WITH RELIGIOUS MEANING

I AM LOOKING FOR AN ARTICLE THAT IS OUT THERE THAT TELLS WHAT EACH CARD IN A 52 DECK OF CARDS MEANS FOR EXAMPLE THERE ARE 13 BOOKS IN THE BIBLE, JOKER IS THE DEVIL, 3 THERE WERE 3 WISE MEN,

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP DEBBIE ULLOM —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.112.108.113 (talk) 04:13, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The Wikipedia article on playing card doesn't suggest any such connections, and gives some alternative explanations for the design of a deck. However, the place where you're most likely to get an answer to your question would be on the Reference desk, as this is the Help desk for answering questions about using Wikipedia, not general knowledge. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 04:25, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

(addendum) There's apparently a song that covers such a topic, based apparently on an old tale. Hope that helps, Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 04:31, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

different languages, different accounts?

Problems with different languages. I seem to be able to sign in in the Emglish and the Dutch section, but when I try to go French, Italian or German, my username and/or password or not recognized. Must I make a separate account for each language, or do I do something wrong?

Poldebol (talk) 04:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Simple answer: Yes. You do need to register a new account at every language. Good Luck. Soxπed Ninety Three | tcdb 04:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Slightly less simple answer: this may not be the case for ever (see meta:Help:Unified login), but don't hold your breath. Algebraist 04:56, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Your English and Dutch accounts were created December 29 and 31 in 2006.[2][3] I assume you chose the same password. If the username Poldebol is in use in a language then you must pick another. PrimeHunter (talk) 05:02, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The List (anons edition)

Is there a list of unregistered Wikipedians by edit count? –thedemonhog talk • edits 04:41, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The IP with the highest number of edits of all is 202.156.6.54, which up until August 2006 (no edits since then), was shared by over 300,000 Singapore users. There is a top ten list of anonymous users on http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaEN.htm, fifth table down, although that page hasn't been updated since October 25. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 15:01, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Main Page

When I click on Main Page, I will be referred to the Main Page of that language. How to go easily to another language, or to the wikipedia.org page. Ideal would be of course if I could make a personalised page where I can list all languages I use to search in. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Poldebol (talk • contribs) 04:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

You could make a list of links on your userpage, like this: fr:Accueil, de:Hauptseite, etc. If you only use fairly major languages, you could just use the interwiki links in the sidebar at Main Page. I didn't entirely understand your question, but I hope this answers it. Algebraist 04:52, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

how do companys get listed on wikipedia

the questions is how do companies get listed on wikipedia and is there a format that need to be used? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Acarrjo (talk • contribs) 07:12, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

What company were you thinking of listing? The Transhumanist (talk) 07:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

How do companies get listed? Someone writes the article. Then the tricky part comes - they write it so that it doesn't get deleted for not appropriately demonstrating the companies notability with references to reliable sources. As for formatting, there is an entire style guide for articles, but the idea is that at the beginning an article just needs to be reasonably written, and all the fancy stuff like wiki-markup and infoboxes can get added later, by other editors. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 10:46, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Business' FAQ. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:02, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Also look at our featured articles and good articles - these are articles which the Wikipedia user community has judged to be our best and next-best, respectively. We have a few featured articles about businesses, for example: Microsoft. If you can write an article of similar quality about another business, it is unlikely to get deleted. (Unfortunately, someone new to Wikipedia probably has a lot to learn before being able to write articles to that standard, and the best way to learn is to make small edits to existing articles first, while reading and re-reading our extensive manuals. Creating whole new articles from scratch and surviving the deletionists requires some fairly advanced skills, or dumb luck in some cases such as an article I created very early in my editing experience when I had no idea what I was doing.) Among the many reasons why new articles get deleted, business articles are especially prone to peacock language and lack of reliable published sources. You might want to look at Wikicompany, which unlike Wikipedia wants to be a comprehensive listing of every legally incorporated business. (Wikipedia only wants to list companies which are "notable" and can be "reliably sourced.") --Teratornis (talk) 23:33, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

And also read the second paragraph of Wikipedia is not Google. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 23:34, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I created a page : LUC MOREAU , it desapeared

I created a page named : Luc MOREAU, with text , picture : Luc_moreau_glaciologiste and

a link to his site : www.moreuluc.com (in --- External links---).

Why does it desapear ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by AMIG-ENG (talk • contribs) 07:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

• The page was deleted, twice, once by Mecu and once by Od Mishehu. You could ask them, on their talk pages, why they deleted the page. Those pages are User talk:Mecu and User talk:Od Mishehu. I'm afraid I cannot look at the deleted page, to comment on why it might have been deleted or what you could do to improve it, though. AndyJones (talk) 08:23, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The website does not exist - CarbonLifeForm (talk) 12:35, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

It does exist - the OP made a slight typo in his post. The link is at [4]. DuncanHill (talk) 12:37, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

All your edits have been about Luc Moreau. If it's you or you know him personally then see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:57, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Deletion

I know how to request deletion for an article, but how can I request deletion for a section? 138.217.145.45 (talk) 08:08, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Discuss it on the article's Talk page. If no one objects in a reasonable amount of time (5 days is typical) you can remove it yourself. -- 68.156.149.62 (talk) 09:54, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Disgusting

Why don't any articles say that something is disgusting? 138.217.145.45 (talk) 08:30, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Because "disgusting" is a matter of personal taste. If you're asking why Wikipedia allows material that some may consider disturbing, Wikipedia is not censored. -- 68.156.149.62 (talk) 09:50, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. Articles are allowed to cite reliable sources which say negative things. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:40, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Image copyright

I have seen that user "The Man in question" (not me) uploaded the image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Inducks.png I own the copyright for this image and agree to release it under a Creative Common license, so that Wikipedia can use it freely. How should I proceed? (I'm also not completely sure which licence to choose but I will check this) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.113.41.45 (talk) 10:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Email from an email address associated with the website to permissions-en AT wikimedia DOT org, and people will take care of it for you. As for which license to choose, I recommend the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license (which is one of the permitted licenses on Wikipedia), sometimes abbreviated to CC-by-sa; here is their web page about it. Note that not all Creative Commons licenses are allowed on Wikipedia (the ones that restrict commercial user or derivatives aren't), but that one is allowable. --ais523 12:00, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Different types of references allowed on Wikipedia.

After searching the Help Desk, Google, and a few other places I have to ask here, can someone list the different types of references that are considered valid on Wikipedia? Namely I want to reference media (A movie, TV show, video game, etc...) directly, but I didn't find a matching template. So I'm asking to clear the wind for me so I don't go to a lot of trouble for nothing. Thank you. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 10:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Reliable sources for what's considered reliable, and Special:Prefixindex/Template:Cite for a list of citation templates. {{cite video}} (redirected from {{cite media}}) may be the one you're looking for here. --ais523 11:54, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Using a citation template is optional and anybody can create a template. {{Cite email}} for unpublished emails was clearly invalid but existed for more than a year before being deleted at Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/2007 April 19#Template:Cite email. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:34, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I think I know how I would format a multimedia type reference but would there be direct opposition to referencing a movie or a game? I haven't seen other articles do so which is why I wanna ask before starting a debate over the "validity" of my citations. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 21:39, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

In an article about a movie or a game, the movie or game has often been used as reference for its own content without stating it directly. Other than that, there should rarely be reason to use a (fictional) movie or game as reference. Some people like trivia listings about in which movies, games, etc. an article subject has been mentioned, but this is controversial per WP:TRIVIA, and if the movie or game is named then adding it to the reference section may be unneeded. What is the situation for you? PrimeHunter (talk) 01:10, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

The references I want to make wouldn't be for the intent of trivia, I'm already aware of Wikipedia's policy on trivia. The current project I'm working on is the Dance Dance Revolution series of articles, and since I saw no direct mention of video games on the citation template page I wanted to make sure it was even allowed or if it was viewed negatively by the community. A great deal more information could be provided about these games if I reference them directly. I extended this question to include all types of multimedia so that I could already know the answer for project I may get into down the road. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 02:10, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Referencing official game manuals or independent reliable sources would be better than referencing the game itself. But beware that Wikipedia is not a game guide. Have you seen Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Article guidelines? Discussions specific to video games may be best at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Video games. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:53, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm aware of the no strategy guide rules, and I agree that referencing the booklets would be safer. Yet there are still times where referencing the game as a game would be useful to reader to provide a concise article. I will take this up on the talk page you mentioned and keep watching here for a while longer. Thank you. --AeronPrometheus (talk) 22:43, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Getting started

Interested in learning how to use Wikipedia: The Free Online Encyclopedia. But new to the internet and after looking at the site I am not certain I have the skill level to achieve results. Is it possible to make contact with contributors in my locality, area, region to get support?121.220.60.112 (talk) 11:06, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

You don't need to. All the help you need is at your fingertips online, right here.

See:

• Welcome to Wikipedia

• Wikipedia's Tutorial

• Learning the ropes

• Wikipedia's Help Menu

And if you get stuck along the way, come back here and ask any questions you might have.

The Transhumanist 11:57, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually it's not clear whether a random questioner will need personal, face-to-face instruction in addition to Reading The Friendly Manuals. Of the 48,468,737 registered user accounts, most have few or no edits; Special:Listusers shows that most registered users have not yet created user pages, suggesting that many haven't gotten much past the dabbling stage. We cannot predict how many of these people will eventually figure out what to do here; presumably a number of them find Wikipedia confusing right now. As to how the questioner may locate experienced Wikipedia users in his or her locality, that depends on the locality. If the questioner lives in a major city in one of the G8 countries, other Wikipedia users should be nearby; if the questioner is typing from a mud hut in a remote east African village, there may not be many other Wikipedia users around. To find Wikipedia users in one's area who want to contact other Wikipedia users, see: Wikipedia:Meetup and Category:Wikipedians by location. --Teratornis (talk) 14:15, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I should add that if everybody could self-educate solely by reading instructions, there would be far less need, or perhaps even no need, for such familiar real-world fixtures as schools and business meetings. Probably the vast majority of people have never learned anything as complicated as how to edit on Wikipedia solely through self-study. It's an open question as to how many people could do this. A person's IQ is probably a predictor of his or her capacity to self-educate. Wikipedia is very genius-friendly, but then again so is most of the real world. --Teratornis (talk) 14:21, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Citing a CDROM

Hello, is there a citation template suitale for citing a CDROM version of an encyclopædia? Citebook doesn't seem quite right, as one doesn't have page or volume numbers in it, the same for the cite encyclopædia template. I asked this already on the Village Pump (Assistance) but no answer there as yet, so I though I'd try you good people. DuncanHill (talk) 12:01, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

If {{cite encyclopedia}} isn't quite right, you could try the generic {{citation}}. WODUP 13:22, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Lacking a specific citation template at Category:Citation templates, there's a guideline for doing it manually in this edu pdf, which offers the following examples:

• Bodyworks: Discover the World Beneath Your Skin 1995, CD-ROM, Softkey International, Wimbledon Common, London.
• Rosen, M. 1998, CD-ROM, 'Marx, Karl', in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. E. Craig, Routledge, New York.
• Interactive Physiology 1999, CD-ROM, vol. 2, Muscular System, Instructor's edn, ADAM Software, Atlanta, Georgia

Note that I have not incorporated formating. :)) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 13:55, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

OK, that looks good - many thanks! DuncanHill (talk) 13:57, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Linking to articles in other WP languages

What is the format for linking to a Dutch article http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Bredius from within an article written in English. Rotational (talk) 13:17, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

To link to the article in the text, [[:nl:Abraham Bredius|this]] produces this, and [[nl:Abraham Bredius]] adds the interwiki link to the languages section (on the left side of the page with the monobook skin). WODUP 13:27, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

That said, please know that other Wikipedia articles aren't reliable sources and shouldn't be used to verify any information in in article. WODUP 13:29, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

See also Help:Interlanguage links. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:36, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Random science article

I can find a random article by clicking 'Random article' on the left, but is there any way I can restrict the results to specific contents? I'd like to find random articles about natural and physical sciences, geography, history etc...

Thanks for all answers...

Please help! I'm working on a school project. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.217.48.179 (talk) 15:19, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

There isn't a way to do it with the 'Random article' link I don't think, but there are several other ways to find what you want. Portals are one way. Try Portal:Science (and Portal:Contents/Natural and physical sciences), Portal:Geography, and Portal:History. Categories are another: using the same examples again, try Category:Science, Category:Geography, and Category:History. There are many many subcategories to those to refine it to exactly what you want, although I'm not aware of any way to have articles selected randomly. Also take a look at Wikipedia:Featured articles, which is divided into broad topics and is shorter and more navigable than the categories. I'm sure starting from just one of those pages, you'll find many hours of fascinating stuff. =) • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 15:22, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I know about the categories... But I was really hoping for a random search. Anyone? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.164.109.124 (talk) 16:15, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I only know of an off-site random search for mathematics articles here. I got that from the user page of User:Cronholm144. Arthena^(talk) 18:49, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

For an actual solution which is somewhat brute-force, see: Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 December 6#random article options. This question comes up semi-frequently on the Help desk. --Teratornis (talk) 17:53, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

image tab sometimes broken on image discussion pages?

Description of the problem:
Sometimes the tabs at the tops of pages seem to stop working for images when following tab links.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Visit the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:KDE_logo.svg link.
2. Click on discussion at the top.
3. When the page has loaded click on image at the top.

Expected result:
Contents of the KDE Logo page visited at step 1 to be visible.

Actual results:
"Permission error" is displayed.

How reproducible is the problem?
It is reproducible every time.

Additional query:
Is this expected behaviour?
87.112.74.244 (talk) 14:00, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

It's a little bit annoying I agree. It happens for images which are hosted on Wikimedia Commons (rather than on Wikipedia) because the image page doesn't actually exist on Wikipedia, it's just transcluded from the the Wikimedia Commons description page. So linking to the image description page normally, displays it, but clicking the RED link on the tab invokes the edit action, and that doesn't pull up the description page. The solution is to use the back button in your browser instead of the tab or remove the action=edit from the URL of the page.

I tried to find an existing mention of this bug at Bugzilla but couldn't. I assume they must know about it though - as you say, it happens every time. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 15:47, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Can I put comments on the Peer Review page

I'm one of the people who has been working on bringing an article (Manga) up to GA status. There's a peer review section on the talk page, and we've been through most of the suggestions. Now I want to explain, on the Peer Review page, what we did and didn't do about the suggestions. There are too many to list on the talk page, and that list won't mean much without the suggestions directly next to them. Advice? Timothy Perper (talk) 14:12, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

You could always create a separate subpage for that purpose. I think it's fairly common practice to break off a discussion that would get really long into a separate page to avoid cluttering up the main talk page. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 16:02, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

List of people on stamps

I made a list of people on Ciskei and Transkei stamps both were deleted as they were deemed to be too short an article. However they are no different as to the info you already have on various countries in this category.

Galjoen (talk) 14:04, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

List of people on stamps of Ciskei and List of people on stamps of Transkei were deleted as "very short article providing little or no context (CSD A1)". Both contained a single entry (I wouldn't call that a list) when tagged for deletion, although one of them had a few more entries when deleted. But there was no introduction and no category like for countries in Category:Lists of people on stamps (adding the category with [[Category:Lists of people on stamps]] at the bottom of the list will show other editors that such lists are common). Try clicking "edit this page" at one of those lists and modify parts of the source for use in new pages, and don't create a list when it has a single entry. You can also contact Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Philately for advice. I'm not sure whether Ciskei and Transkei should have their own lists or be part of List of people on stamps of South Africa. Do you want the source of the deleted pages? PrimeHunter (talk) 15:03, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Ailsa Craig Engines

Dear Sirs,

Our family Company biographer has attempted to input some data about the Company on Wikipedia. For some reason it has been removed.

I am the Grandson of the founder of the Company and have agreed for the link/input to happen.

Please would you reply to Mr Sayer and give the reasons for this deletion of entry.

Yours faithfully Chris Kisch —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.113.19.130 (talk) 14:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The reason given for deletion of Ailsa Craig Engines is "This item appears to be a copyright infringement of http://www.ailsacraigengines.co.uk/index.php?page=history, and no assertion of permission has been made." Wikipedia has to be very careful about copyrights, so text copied from another website usually isn't allowed. DuncanHill (talk) 14:41, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Also, as someone closely connected to the company, you have a conflict of interest with regards to this topic. Therefore, copyright issues aside, the article could be considered spam and deleted. Wikipedia is not meant for advertising or promotion, and is written from a neutral point of view. Articles that serve only to promote a company or are written purely as advertising can be speedily deleted from the encyclopedia. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 16:00, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

John Watson (officer of arms)

Dear Sir/Madam,

When searching on the net, I sometimes find my own Wikipedia article on my family memember John Watson[Sometime Bluemantle at the college of Arms in London]

I note that since I submitted this article, various messages have been added to the page, re requiring it to be Wikified or cleaned up. My recent visit informs me that the article may be beleated?

I am at a loss as to what is wrong with the article, as I have researched this man thoroughly, and quoted all the souces used in my research!

Yours sincerely —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.140.128.142 (talk) 15:26, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The article is John Watson (officer of arms). I guess you mean "may be deleted". PrimeHunter (talk) 15:39, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I have cleaned up the article, wikified it, and removed the tags. It would be helpful if the ISBN of the texts could be given and the specific page/year of the Oxford National biography. Regards. Woody (talk) 15:57, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikifying it means adding in square brackets as appropriate to link the article to other articles. In any event, the chap passes the notability criteria. - CarbonLifeForm (talk) 16:18, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

That is wikilinking those links that are neccessary which is the core of wikification. Adding in section headers and formatting the lead whilst converting the refs to wikimarkup is another aspect. As you say though, meets the notability criteria and now looks alright as well. Woody (talk) 16:22, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Logos, fair use and SVG format

I recently uploaded an SVG version of Image:Skype logo.png (tagged with {{Convert to SVG}}) at Image:Skype logo2.svg. Now I discovered this section at WT:Logos where someone brought the imo plausible argument that copyrighted company logos, under fair use, should not be uploaded in SVG format. WP:LOGOS says "For SVG formats, versions of the logo that contain significantly more detail than is necessary to display at the desired (low) resolution should be avoided." I'm not sure what exactly this means, and whether it applies to Image:Skype logo2.svg.

Another, related question concerns the use of fair use images in userspace. Since every instance of a fair use image needs a seperate rationale (and a good reason that necessitates the use of the image), it appears like FU images should basically never be used anywhere else than in articles, and sparingly there. Again, is there any specific rule with regard to that issue? Dorfklatsch 15:46, January 7, 2008

Not sure about the svg, I would think under theno high resolution think, it might be excluded? Don't know, in terms of fair-use in userspace, this is explicitly banned somewhere, a bot goes round and deletes them from userspace if I remember correctly. Woody (talk) 16:01, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

(The bot is User:ImageBacklogBot which cites the Wikipedia:Non-free content criteria, in particular #9. Woody (talk) 16:19, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. Dorfklatsch 20:06, January 7, 2008

Accidental reversion

Hi, I accidentally reverted this person's User_talk:86.152.204.0 edits, even though they were valid. I've tried to apologize on the talk page, but he seems to have taken offence and now (see my talk page) seems to want to leave Wikipedia. Could anyone else post something encouraging on his talk page to make him feel like Wikipedia is less of a hostile place?--RiverRubicon (talk) 15:57, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

This appears to be mostly resolved. A couple different users stepped in to help out RiverRubicon. —Noah 17:06, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

reporting NPOV vandalism by a dynamic IP

Rome: Total War is subject to daily NPOV vandalism by an IP in the 64.24.0.0 - 64.24.255.255 range which keeps editing the sentence "Hannibal Barca, commander-in-chief of the Carthaginian armies during the Second Punic War" to read "Hannibal Barca, the brilliant Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War". I suspect it's the same user since the edits are always the same and come from the same ISP, PaeTec Communications , but looking at the edit history most of the time only reveals this single edit, as they keep switching IPs. Where should I report this to? --BrokenSphere^{Msg me} 17:07, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Best to report it RFP. Rudget. 17:14, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Edit Conflict - If the IP Vandalism is persistent, you can ask for semi-protection at WP:WFPP. Otherwise I imagine you can warn the IP and possibly take it to WP:AN/I. Trevor "Tinkleheimer" Haworth 17:15, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I could request protection at RFP, if you're unfamiliar with how it works. Rudget. 17:16, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

 Done Rudget. 17:19, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I was in the middle of a response, then got word from Rudget that RFP was requested. I've thought about it, but I think it likely that the vandal will return after semi-protection expires if granted, which I've seen happen before elsewhere. Warning doesn't really work since they go back and revandalize using a new IP within the range mentioned above. I think it might be better to take action against the vandal himself, but I'm not sure how to do this since they're using such a wide range of IPs to vandalize from. --BrokenSphere^{Msg me} 17:31, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I agree partially there. By protecting the page, we're preventing any dynamic IP from adding it's POV per this thread. Rudget. 17:37, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Well that's in the works, so let's see what happens. Another thing that isn't as consistent, various IPs I think have been changing the designation of Macedonia to something political; I haven't been handling these particular edits though and am not as familiar with the POV issues involved. BrokenSphere^{Msg me} 17:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Got a week off from POV reversions. Thanks for the report. Will monitor the situation. BrokenSphere^{Msg me} 18:10, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Sprotection to win a content dispute with an anon, yay! the system really does work!--172.132.108.224 (talk) 13:57, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Issue with an image

I've just come across this: Image:Tesco metro manchester.jpg. Clearly, it's in a place where one would expect to have little or no privacy- but I'm wondering whether the image is usable. As far as I understand (UK) law, when taking a group photograph, you must give potential subjects a chance to opt out, and I doubt this was the case here. What worries me (only a little) is that if someone in the photo sees themselves on Wikipedia, they may kick up a fuss. I've been unable to find any specific WP policy on this. Having said that, it's not very encyclopedic and I have commented it out pending advice. Thanks. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 17:30, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I've been there, but I don't think that a good enough reason to keep. :P There's no policy per se but I'd advise bringing to IFD and quote absentee uploader, unencyclopedic etc, if you really want it deleted. See this. Rudget. 17:35, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Content Deletion

Greetings Wikipedia,

I was looking at the list of notable online communities and noticed that Disaboom, a reputed online community for people with disabilities with over 180 million members should be represented. I have attempted to edit this list of sites, only to discover that within minutes, my entry is deleted. Disaboom has been a great resource for my family to cope with my sister being disabled, and I think it would be great if other families knew that this type of community existed. Thank you for your time and help —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kleenex0 (talk • contribs) 19:14, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The article in question is list of social networking websites, where there is an established consensus that the list should only inclde sites that Wikipedia has articles about. The reason for this is to prevent spamming. (And, please note, I am not accusing you of spamming, but it is the case that that list has attracted a lot of people adding their own sites to it as a way of promoting them.) If the site meets the guideline for inclusion of articles about websites, please do create an article about it and then add it to the list, but please create the article and then add it to the list, not the other way around. (Full disclosure: I was one of the editors who removed Kleenex0's addition to the list.) -- AJR | Talk 19:48, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

180 million members sounds highly unlikely to me. Only add such an extreme claim with a very reliable source. I wouldn't accept the site itself for such a number. [5] claims: "Our network of 180 million and growing includes not just individuals with disabilities, but also medical practitioners, caregivers, employers, family members, teachers, and others." My guess is most of the 180 million in the "network" have never heard about Disaboom but are just people in their target group. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:12, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I also question the claim of 180 million members; a Google search for: Disaboom finds a page that calls Disaboom "the first interactive online community for Americans living with disabilities." If "Americans" refers to residents of the United States, there are only about 300 million of us altogether, and I don't think more than half are living with disabilities of the severity served by Disaboom, or make their living as caregivers to that group. For perspective, consider that Wikipedia is a very large online project, and the English Wikipedia only has 48,468,737 registered users from the whole world, not just from one country. A site with 180 million members would be one of the top Web sites in the world, and would almost certainly already have an article on Wikipedia. This is not to say that Disaboom would necessarily fail our requirements for a Web site article, I'm just expressing doubts about the 180 million members claim, which seems impossible if Disaboom only targets "Americans." It would be hard to get 180 million Americans to join any particular Web site, even if the site covered the widest possible range of interests. There might not even be 180 million Americans who regularly use the Web. --Teratornis (talk) 00:13, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

What did I do wrong?

Recently I was warned for editing Jason Kidd's page when I added Mr. Mustache to his list of nicknames. The admin also said I was vandalizing his page. I have no idea how that would be vandalism...I didn't come up with the nick name. Mark Jackson did on the YES Network...so how did I vandalize his page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by EH4L (talk • contribs) 19:57, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I can see two different users reverted your edits, presumably because they didn't think it was true. Calling someone "Mr Mustache" could well be interpreted as a derogatory/vandalism edit by vandalism patrollers who don't have time to check everything. It's also very important for biographical articles that all facts be sourced, see Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons and Wikipedia:Verifiability. (Although in practice your edit might have been left alone if you had explained the addition in the edit summary instead of leaving it blank.) Since you were not actually vandalising the article you can safely remove the warning from your talk page. If you can find a reliable source for Jason Kidd's nicknames, see Wikipedia:Citing sources, and then you should replace the nickname and add the reference after it.

I hope this helps, and I hope you understand that nobody was picking on you, it's just a case of making sure all facts are reliably sourced. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 20:27, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't think you should add a nickname if it's very rare as a Google search indicates. Has it actually been published by others than the person who created it? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:58, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Protect

I want to protect a page. How Do I do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jungwirthwillkillallrocks (talk • contribs) 20:50, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Only administrators can block pages. You can notify an admin and ask to have a page blocked if need be. What page is it that you needed blocked? ~ Bella Swan 20:54, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Go to WP:RFPP and request protection there. :) Trevor "Tinkleheimer" Haworth 21:02, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

And don't forget to look over the protection guidelines first to see if it really needs to be protected. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 21:08, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Adding a Wikipedia article.

I am unable to find an explanation of the expression, "It depends upon whose bull is being gored." Is that because the meaning is considered to be obvious to everyone? Or is it because Wikipedia does not list common expressions along with an explanation of their origins? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.245.82.189 (talk) 21:14, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I believe it would be the second option. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia on articles on various subjects, not a collection of random info. I highly doubt there is any mention of such a quote in Wikipedia, and definitly not an article on it. ~ Bella Swan 21:24, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

You could try looking for it on wikiquote, a separate Wikimedia project devoted entirely to collections of quote. They might have some information on it. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 22:00, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

And the phrase is "... whose ox is being gored"; not whose bull. --Orange Mike | Talk 22:07, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

You can search the Web for variations on the phrase plus some keywords to hopefully narrow down the search, for example: "ox is being gored" definition of the phrase. Unfortunately I don't see a concise definition and etymology of the phrase in the first few pages of results from that particular search, but it's easy to see how most writers use the phrase. Basically it refers to self-interest masquerading as morality, as is common in politics and real life. Many people will claim that something is "wrong" when it harms them (i.e., when their metaphorical ox is being gored), while not complaining about other things that benefit them while harming others (i.e., when someone else's ox is being gored). See also: self-serving bias. The first time I can recall hearing this phrase was from an economics professor when I was an undergraduate. Economics is the Dismal Science because often the best economists can do is provide politicians with a choice of which ox to gore, with no option to make everyone happy. --Teratornis (talk) 23:17, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

815 state highway 37 hammond ny

i just bought this home just wondering when it was built.can u plz help me sincerly yours mr david biddle —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.153.8.7 (talk) 22:37, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

This is the encyclopedia Wikipedia. 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 is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:46, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

If you bought a home in the United States, you probably have to pay property taxes. If so, your taxing authority (the people you pay your taxes to) will almost certainly have records about your home which will include its construction date. Hopefully you also had the home inspected before you purchased it, and the construction date should be in the inspector's report which you should have received. You could also ask your real estate agent if you bought the home through one. This question sounds a bit fishy because in my experience with real estate transactions, nobody buys a home without knowing the construction date, which figures into the assessed value for property taxes, the appraiser's valuation, etc. You might also want to determine the age of all the major appliances, the roofing, and so on, so you can make sure you have money to replace them when their times come. --Teratornis (talk) 00:20, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

cells

if a person were to put together an exibit that will help visiters to a museum understand the basic unit of living things [cells] how or where would they get the information? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.153.234.199 (talk) 22:50, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I suggest asking at the reference desk. This page (the help desk) is just for asking questions about how to use Wikipedia. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 23:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Cell (biology) is a good place to start. Some illustrations in that article are available as scalable vector graphics files, which means you can scale them up to poster size while retaining quality (assuming you can find a large-format printer). As the illustrations are under free licenses, you are free to reproduce them for your exhibit, while complying with whatever attribution requirements the licenses stipulate. See for example Image:Biological cell.svg. --Teratornis (talk) 00:29, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Does wikipedia completely delete articles?

Recently my cousin created an article pertaining to a family activity. This article called "Operation:Groundhog" can no longer be found. It did exist for a few months until its dissapearance. Is there any way it can be retrieved? From M. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 2010mldoyle (talk • contribs) 23:03, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

The article was deleted under CSD A7 - no assertion of notability. It is very unlikely that it will be undeleted but you may be able to get an administrator to restore the contents to your userpage. NF24^{(radio me!)} 23:07, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Also see: WP:WWMPD. (Side observation: I think it is rather deplorable that the design of Wikipedia does little or nothing to insure that before people create their first new articles on Wikipedia, they are at least aware that Wikipedia deletes more than a thousand articles per day! Surely it could not be too difficult to put something in the software that detects when a user with few edits is creating their first new article, and show them a warning screen.) --Teratornis (talk) 23:56, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

There has not been an article called Operation:Groundhog. If you request a copy then you will have to give enough information to find it, for example the exact title or the username that created it. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:16, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Operation: Groundhog with a space was created 10 January 2007 and deleted 2 February 2007. It was very unsuited for Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:31, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

External Links

If an article already has interviews in the external links section, why when I added interviews that were relevant and a good source of further information, removed? Why are some interviews allowed, and others not? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Oracle919 (talk • contribs) 23:11, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

It's possible that none of them are allowed, they just haven't been removed yet. Note that Wikipedia is not a collection of links. If the link contains some particularly relevant and/or useful find that helps the article then it'll be allowed. Or if it's the official website(s) of the subject in question, it's allowed. Other stuff, since it can be found with a simple web search anyway, isn't. See also: Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not Google.

With regard to the specific interview links you added, I don't see anything wrong with them. I see you've already contacted Precious Roy about it, since he went on a spree of systematically removing them. Perhaps other editors here can give their opinion on whether those links conform to WP:EL or not. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 23:29, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Problems with StatusBot

Lately StatusBot does not seem to be showing when I am online, and it used to show when I was... VivioFateFan ^{(Talk, Sandbox)} 23:52, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

StatusBot crashed in September. A replacement, Chris G Bot 3 was put up but I've heard that's only been working very slowly. You could leave a note on Chris G Bot 3's talk page to let the bot operator know about it though. • Anakin ^{(contribs • complaints)} 23:57, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

January 8

Editing Wikipedia

Is there any way to type in enlarged words? --Wtfdontkill (talk) 00:11, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Declare font sizes using <font size="YourSizeHere">Example font</font>. I would only recommend using it on your userpage and perhaps in templates (i.e. a person's name in {{Infobox person}}) but not in article space (where it looks out of place) or in talk space (where it may be construed as shouting). NF24^{(radio me!)} 00:17, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

You can also write <big>big text</big> to produce big text. Section headings are automatically big. See Help:Section. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:23, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

The more big tags you add, the bigger the text will be. <big><big>big text</big></big> appears as big text. Note that <big> should generally not be used in articles. –thedemonhog talk • edits 00:36, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

The phrase "type in enlarged words" is ambiguous. The above answers assume you mean you want to display large fonts on a rendered page for everybody to see. Another possible interpretation is that you want to enlarge the text that only you see in the edit window, rather than the rendered text that displays on the saved page. Are you referring to the font size that everybody sees, or just the font size that you yourself see? On Wikipedia we have some confusion because it is possible both to adjust what everybody sees, and to customize just what you yourself see. (Gee, did I repeat that enough?) --Teratornis (talk) 00:33, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Usual Suspects

Would it be possible to create a trivia section on the usual suspects page, as I recently found this out on IMDB, and think it is interesting:

"Al Pacino also read the part of Dave Kujan, but had to pass due to scheduling conflicts. Pacino has since noted that this is the film he regrets turning down the most."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814/trivia

Christopher Walken also turned down the role of Agent Kujan, and I think these facts should be mentioned on the page, as people use Wikipedia a lot more frequently than the IMDB trivia section

Rossi 1983 (talk) 00:14, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Ian

Trivia sections are discouraged. See Wikipedia:Trivia for more information. NF24^{(radio me!)} 00:17, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

how to start a math project

I have an idea for wikipedia. A project where we create a list of the proofs of mathematical theorems in an easy to access way like ISBN numbers. I have worked out a basic way of doing this but don't even know how to get started doing this through wikipedia. Does anyone know the procedure? Thankx The Isiah (talk) 02:20, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but this sounds like the sort of thing to suggest at the technical village pump. Try asking the folks over there about this; that's where a lot of the developers and programmers read stuff posted there, so someone can probably tell you whether this would work and how. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 02:53, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

You should probably talk to the regulars at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics too. Algebraist 03:45, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I would think that creating a new and original numbering system for proofs could be viewed as original research, no matter how useful it might be. In any case, the inclusion of proofs in Wikipedia mathematics articles is a somewhat controversial subject. There has been debate around issues such as (i) what distibguishes a notable proof from a trivial proof; {ii) should articles include proofs themselves, or just references to proofs in other sources; (iii) should proofs be hidden and made visible-on-demand in some way, delegated to sub-pages or even moved out of main article-space completely. Some of the debate is captured in this project page. Gandalf61 (talk) 14:03, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

need help

  With Respected Sir,

  i am nabbil ahmad qureshi from pakistan.sir i would to like ask that if some one need help can you help them.sir i am a very poor boy i am doing a job here one of compney.i am a office boy in this compney so i want to come over there for my family because i want to give my family all these things what they deserved and before they do not get them life due to some problems.so sir can u help me to i come over there and start any kind of job..sir please help me this is my e-mail address# [email removed] sir i am waiting for your reply.

  Regards   Nabbil Qureshi   cell no # [phone number removed] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.143.112.108 (talk) 02:37, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I think you might be in the wrong place. This is Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia; specifically, this is Wikipedia's help desk. Pyrospirit (talk · contribs) 02:47, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Differnt new message banners

Are there any scripts or whatever that will allow me to change my new messeges banner to somethings more pleasing. Please respond on my talk. BonesBrigade 03:31, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, there is no way the new message banner would be different. Everyone receives the same new message banner. New message banners come in every style, given that it is orange and says "You have new messages" or similar; this is similar to what Henry Ford had said about the Ford Model T. Johnny Au (talk) 04:46, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually there are dozens of css hacks that can change the color/style of the new messages bar.--172.129.26.171 (talk) 13:53, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Change the color? But then they wouldn't be orange! How could that be "more pleasing"?!? --Orange Mike | Talk 18:53, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Can't find where text on page comes from

I noticed that the image page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SnowflakesWilsonBentley.jpg has some vandalism on it -- the text "snoop dawg is gay". I wanted to remove it, but when I edit the page I see only two lines (for two templates) and I haven't been able to trace where that text is coming from. How can I trace that? Thanks. Auntof6 (talk) 06:02, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

The image is at Wikimedia Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:SnowflakesWilsonBentley.jpg Notice that on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SnowflakesWilsonBentley.jpg it says in the template below the image: "This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. The description on its description page there is shown below." --Silver Edge (talk) 06:12, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

How can i create a page about me so some body can search and find on web?

How can i create a page about me so some body can search and find on web? i had already register my self at wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tariq.sdk (talk • contribs) 06:54, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

If you would like to write about yourself as a Wikipedian, you can do so at your user page. If you mean you wish to write an article about yourself, you may wish to read our guidelines about notability and conflicts of interest. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and as such, carries articles about individuals who meet certain criteria. If you simply want people to be able to find you on the Internet, starting a blog under your own name, and reading our article on search engine optimization might be a better way to start. --Kateshortforbob 12:28, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Also see WikiBios which accepts biography articles about anyone. --Teratornis (talk) 17:41, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

copy and paste an article t my word file

---

Why is it that when i copy ad paste an article or picture to my word file, "hyperlink" was copied istead of the actual article or picture?

---

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Renzeris (talk • contribs) 08:58, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure - it seems to be working okay for me! Have you tried "Paste Special" instead of "Paste" in the edit menu? Also, you may like to ask at the Computing reference desk as well.--Kateshortforbob 12:21, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

folder options

hiii

i have read about operating system in wikipedia and i have gained lots of information

i have A PROBLEM IN WINDOWS XP THERE IS NO OPTION OF FOLDER OPTIONS IN THE MENU BAR

PLEASE CAN U HELP ME

202.54.42.17 (talk) 10:22, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

This page is for answering questions about Wikipedia. You may have more luck at the Computing Reference desk, which answers questions about Computers. However, no "folder options" menu is common on a computer where use has been restricted, perhaps a school, university or work computer. --Kateshortforbob 12:12, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

(I'm assuming you mean under the "Tools" item on the menu bar.) --Kateshortforbob 12:15, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

External Links

 Hi,

 I have an article on my website that I would like to share.
 Within wikipedia, there is no "external links" category for
 the link I wish to place my link. 

 My question:Madpoetry (talk) 12:17, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

 How can I start a link under the "external links" category
 since this category does not exist at this point in time.

 Regards
 madpoetry

Go the article you want to add a link to and click "edit this page" at the top. You can then add an external links section (by adding an ==External links== section head somewhere near the bottom) with your link. If you haven't already, you may wish to read our external links guideline which gives information on where external links are appropriate. If you are unsure, you can list the article and your external link here, and someone will be able to give you advice. --Kateshortforbob 12:33, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

how to add a topic to wikepedia>

I am currently a Youth Intern for an organization called The Community Access program, and for a project we are to utilize GPS and ICT to promote our sites. I would like to promote my site by posting a description of what it is and would like to know if it is possible to contribute this to wikipedia?

Thank you

You can respond to this post bye emailing myself at: <e-mail removed; we don't answer by e-mail> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.222.167.142 (talk) 13:51, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

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 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. Algebraist 15:05, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

how do I have someone edit before I begin trying to post?

Hello:

I have a finished article but want editing advice before posting. Please let me know how I can get editing help prior to posting the article.

Thanks!

Craig Turner —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.88.112.74 (talk) 14:49, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi! The best way is to just post it. Other people will then come along and edit it as they please. Stwalkerster [ talk ] 15:17, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

If you are unsure whether it is suited for Wikipedia then you can suggest it at Wikipedia:Articles for creation. If you have an account then you can start by posting it at a user subpage. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:25, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Complaint

http://wikipedia.keny.org/tr/wiki/Crohn_hastal%C4%B1%C4%9F%C4%B1.html in this link;

www.barsakforum.com tüm bu hastalıkların tartışıldığı,hastaların herşeyini paylaştıkları hastaların kurdukları platformdur...

"http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crohn_hastal%C4%B1%C4%9F%C4%B1"'dan alındı

is it "www.barsakforum.com" a web address ? So is it wikipedia a advertiser?

Yours respectfully —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.214.24.11 (talk) 15:12, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately I don't speak Turkish. However, Wikipedia doesn't contain advertising and that website address may have been added as a legitimate external link. External links are intended to provide additional information to articles and that site looks like a web forum of some kind, so perhaps it shouldn't be there? Probably the best thing to do would be to ask for help at the Helpdesk of the Turkish Wikipedia if one is available. --Kateshortforbob 16:32, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I've just noticed that the first link is to a Wikipedia mirror. Mirrors use Wikipedia content, but often but advertising on the page as well to make some money, so that might be the problem. The web forum link appears to only be on the mirror, as far a I call tell. --Kateshortforbob 16:35, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

geographical location of registered users

Hi,

I am a research student in City University, London. Currently looking into the effects of geographical position of members on their online social behaviour. I am intending to work with the Wikipedian's social network as a case study.

As far as I understood users are either registered or not registered. Registered users are recognised by their usernames and non registered with their IP addresses. I know how to retrieve geographical location of non registered but am wondering if there is any way to get the geographical location of the registered users from their pages. I checked some of the user pages but nothing was mentioned about their home town, country or the like.

Any help and comments are highly appreciated —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.40.95.206 (talk) 15:35, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

It's impossible unless you either have access to the checkuser tool, which is highly restricted, or the users actually reveal their location. That's something I for one am not doing to any great lengths. Stwalkerster [ talk ] 15:40, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

It is impossible without the checkuser tool, and that is highly restricted due to privacy reasons. There is Category:Wikipedians by location and its many subcategories, though that is entirely voluntary of course and by no means covers everyone. (Remember that IPs by WHOIS etc are not always accurate, mine resolves to Bradford and I live at least 100 miles from there.) Woody (talk) 15:48, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Archive and TOC position on my talk page & Other

I'm completely stumped here. On my talk page, the archive box used to be along side (on the right side) of the TOC, and today it isn't. I've looked through the different previous versions and they all show it on the left (above the TOC) which is not how it was. Help me figure out how to get the archive box back on the right side of the page, next to the TOC and I'll give you 1,000 bonus points to do with as you chose. - Rjd0060 (talk) 15:45, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Also, is it just me or is Wikipedia a little screwed up today? Noticing that on all of the templates, the colors are off. For example the sockpupet template here used to have a colored background, but does not today, and there have been no changes to the template itself. - Rjd0060 (talk) 15:48, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Call me crazy, but I just did a ctrl+shift+r and now everything is fine. I don't understand what happened. - Rjd0060 (talk) 15:50, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I think it is your computer and personal settings. Your Archive box is to the right of the page on my screen and that template works fine for me. Do you use firefox? Made be a cache problem. Woody (talk) 15:51, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

If you had problems that went away after a refresh, it's possible that your browser accidentally failed to load a stylesheet, or cached a bad stylesheet by mistake (in this case, it sounds like the Wikipedia-specific stylesheet that had the problem). That happens occasionally due to glitches on the Internet, you needn't worry about it. --ais523 15:54, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Search a random article within a given category

Is there a way to search for a random article within a given category? For example, I want to read a random article in some field of mathematics. Clicking on "Random article" would not work - you'd likely end up on some article on some topic different from mathematics.195.101.243.129 (talk) 16:54, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

A similar question was asked a few days ago at Wikipedia:Help_desk#Random_science_article. Arthena^(talk) 17:10, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately the answers to that instance of this question do not mention an actual (albeit rather inelegant) solution which appeared in this other instance of the same question: Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2007 December 6#random article options. This question comes up semi-frequently on the Help desk. --Teratornis (talk) 17:51, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Help with a Move/Redirect

I was looking at the page on the Newdigate prize. The proper name of the prize should use a capital "P" (cf Turner Prize). When I tried to move the page to Newdigate Prize, an error came up because Newdigate Prize is already a redirect to Newdigate prize. So , assuming I am right that both words should have initial capital letters, how do I fix this - blank/delete the redirect page, then move the first page, or is it more complicated than that? Thanks.--ukexpat (talk) 17:13, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

The Newdiagte Prize history, shows it was created about a year after Newdiagte Prize. You may be able to find an answer to this by checking the history of the relevant talk pages. Hope this helps, Rudget. 17:29, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

It requires an administrator to move to a page with a history, because the page must be deleted first. I have done it (more specifically, I have swapped Newdigate prize and Newdigate Prize via a temporary location, to preserve a small edit history from a merger of the two pages). Another time you can ask at Wikipedia:Requested moves. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:51, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

That's great -- thanks for the help. --ukexpat (talk) 22:21, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Uploading a new version of an image

I'm trying to upload a new version of an image and I'm running into two problems:

1. Once I've uploaded the new version, the preview shown to me is still the preview of the original image. How can I force the preview to be properly re-done using the second version image? I don't want any discrepancy between the preview and the image.

2. When uploading a new version, I am asked to fill out the same info dialog box and licensing questions that I had already filled while uploading the original image. I end up repeating verbatim the same info. Why this bureaucratic nonsense? Why should I do it twice? I'm updating the contents of the image, I'm not changing any of its info or licensing. Please fix this procedure. Uploading a new version of a previously submitted image should be as simple as hitting a "Browse" button, then "Submit". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Homunculus 2 (talk • contribs) 17:27, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Our system doesn't recognize any concept of "versions" for images. Once you've uploaded an image, it's not under your control. Each new image is treated as an entirely separate thing. (For one thing, an editor may have preferred the original version.) --Orange Mike | Talk 19:00, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Consider this - what if you replaced, say, Image:John Doe.jpg, a freely-licensed but perhaps sub-par quality photo, with a high-definition screengrab from his latest TV appearance. Or with a photo of John Doe, the botanist. The software can't tell whether they're different pictures, or different versions of the same picture (this would be a non-trivial exercise in any computer programmer's book), so it assumes the worst and makes sure you enter correct licensing information. As for the preview problem, this may be an indication that you need to purge the cache - go to the image page, and add ?action=purge to the end of the URL. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:01, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

When I say I want to upload a "new version" of an image, I'm not talking about an image with a different content, such as showing John Doe from another angle or wearing a different hat. If this was the case, I'd simply upload a new image. I'm talking about a new version of an image with the SAME content. Imagine that I'm creating a map illustrating the distribution of GDP in the world. Imagine that my original version of this map contains factual errors due to misinterpreted data, so that some countries are represented incorrectly. Imagine that I, the author of this image, have just realized that. To fix this problem, the proper procedure should not be to treat the corrected version as a new image, but to simply replace the old one, so that the corrected version shows up wherever this image is referenced. The suggestion that some editor may prefer the old version doesn't apply here, because I can't imagine why an editor would prefer a GDP map with factual errors. In this scenario, the new version INVALIDATES the previous one, it is NOT an "alternative form" of it. Orangemike is incorrect in saying that Wikipedia has no concept of image versions. At the bottom of the property page of an uploaded image is a link that reads "Upload a new version of this file". Clearly, a "new version" of an image exists as a Wikipedia concept. The real question is whether "new version" here means 1) a version altered by adding content (e.g., by adding new countries to the GDP map), or 2) a version that fixes an error or a technical problem without changing the content (as described above). Confusing Manifestation: I'm perfectly aware that software cannot tell the content of two images apart. That's exactly why I, a human being, am telling the software explicitly that we're dealing with two versions of the same image by clicking on a link labeled "Upload a NEW VERSION of this file". Not a "new image of John Doe", not a "new hat on John Doe's head", but a "NEW VERSION" of the same file. Like I said, the question remains whether "new version" means 1) or 2). The scenario I'm discussing is analogous to fixing a typo in the text of an article. When you fix a typo, you're not creating an "alternative", "optional" version of an article. You're correcting a technical problem which shouldn't exist in the article in the first place. A similarly simple correction mechanism should exist for images, where a "faulty" image can be corrected with a single upload, without much hullabaloo and filling out forms that had already been filled for the original. A link labeled "Upload a new version of this file" seems to me like a perfectly logical starting point for such a procedure. Perhaps this link should diverge into two options: 1) Upload a new version with ADDED content, 2) Upload a new version with ONLY technical problems fixed and no new content added. Confusing Manifestation: thanks for hte ?action=purge tip. I wish there was a way to automate this cache update, without manual intervention. Homunculus 2 (talk • contribs) —Preceding comment was added at 05:52, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Template Question

Hi I have just created a template to welcome people to the Derbyshire Wikiproject. It currently requires a pagename which is placed within the template. It all works fine but I was wondering if it was possible to have 2 templates one for when a pagename has been entered so {{subst:Derbyshire welcome|Allestree}} would give

Hello Help desk. You have been invited to join WikiProject Derbyshire, a WikiProject dedicated to improving the Derbyshire-related articles on Wikipedia. You received this invitation due to your interest in, or edits relating to Allestree. If you would like to join or just help out a bit, please visit the project page, and add your name to the list of project members. You may also wish to add {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Derbyshire/Userbox}} to your userpage.

but {{subst:Derbyshire welcome}}

Hello Help desk. You have been invited to join WikiProject Derbyshire, a WikiProject dedicated to improving the Derbyshire-related articles on Wikipedia. You received this invitation due to your interest in, or edits within the scope of the project. If you would like to join or just help out a bit, please visit the project page, and add your name to the list of project members. You may also wish to add {{Wikipedia:WikiProject Derbyshire/Userbox}} to your userpage.

I tried reading up on parser functions but i got a bit confused. I'm sure there is a really simple solution but i have no idea what it is. Dommccas 18:10, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I believe the following will give you the desired results:

{| class="messagebox standard-talk" |- |[[Image:Derbyshire flag.svg|100px|WikiProject Derbyshire]] |align="center"|Hello {{PAGENAME}}. You have been invited to join '''[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Derbyshire|WikiProject Derbyshire]]''', a [[Wikipedia:WikiProject|WikiProject]] dedicated to improving the [[Derbyshire]]-related articles on Wikipedia. You received this invitation due to your interest in, or edits {{#if:{{{1|}}}|relating to [[{{{1}}}]]|within the scope of the project}}. If you would like to join or just help out a bit, please visit the [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Derbyshire|project page]], and add your name to the [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_Derbyshire/Participants|list of project members]]. You may also wish to add '''<nowiki>{{Wikipedia:WikiProject Derbyshire/Userbox}}</nowiki>''' to your userpage. |} 207.58.235.243 (talk) 18:33, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks muchly anon. I knew it would be simple.Dommccas 18:52, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Environmental Pollution

Project work about the environmental profile of a town/locality/village in respect ofpopulation density,green covereducational level of residents,social problems and sources of pollution and there effect on air,water and soil —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.130.50 (talk) 18:40, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

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 is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link, select the relevant section, and ask away. I hope this helps. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 19:38, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Image I uploaded is marked for deletion, but it is my image and I give full permission to use it.

How do I give permission to use my logo? I uploaded the logo to the site covering a show that I do and it is marked for deletion because there is no suitable fair-use explanation. I don't know how to make the changes. I have read through the documentation and all I can gather is that somewhere I need to put in a suitable explanation.

It is all quite confusing. Can anyone assist? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cdoelle (talk • contribs) 19:10, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

You made Image:Mp3logo150x150.jpg and you want to release it into the public domain? or you want to add it into an article with a fair use explanation? --Yamanbaiia^{(free hugs!)} 19:14, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Right, you should add {{PD}} if it is all your own work, but looking at it I don't think it is. Look at this category for all tags. _{WEBURIEDOURSECRETSINTHEGARDEN}^{play it cool.}☆ 20:35, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Public domain isn't the only license available for user-created images; there's also GFDL and Creative Commons (CC). The fair use tag you want is likely that for logos: {{Non-free logo}}. --BrokenSphere^{Msg me} 21:18, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, you need both the {{Non-free logo}} and {{Logo fur}} templates so that there is a fair-use rationale. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 21:51, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

uploaded picture issue

I recently uploaded a picture of myself to you in a thread. i read that one shouldn't post information about oneself, so now I want to remove the picture. I think wikipedia will delete it after a while anyway, but I don't want my record label account to be suspended or anything because of my honest mistake.

I need this resolved ASAP. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wrightbrorecords (talk • contribs) 21:06, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I've deleted the image. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:09, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

My contribution was deleted

Hello,

I was looking for information on the leading word processor on the Commodore 64 computer, PaperClip, by Batteries Included.

I was able to find information about PaperClip here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PaperClip

It referenced a page about its manufacturer, a company which helped build the personal computer industry, Batteries Included: http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Batteries_Included_%28company%29

The page didn't exist so I quickly posted why it was notable:

---

Batteries Included was a pioneering computer store located in Village by the Grange in Toronto, Canada.

In addition to being one of the leading Commodore computer retailers, they also became globally known for producing leading software packages like PaperClip, a leading word processor.

---

I wanted to return at the end of the day to add links and references but found it had already been quick deleted by "Orangemike".

Since their software was ubiquitous it's clearly a notable organization in the annals of computing history.

I want to help Wikipedia grow and don't know where to go from here.

Regards, Lexor1969 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lexor1969 (talk • contribs) 21:29, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I see you have now contacted Orangemike so I will let him reply to you about the specific case and just give general advice. The best way to get a company article kept is to cite reliable sources to demonstrate compliance with Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies). PrimeHunter (talk) 22:08, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I would like my Deleted Page Content

The page 'Robert Fletcher' was deleted on January 8th. I would like the content back so to place on a purchased website space. The content of 'Robert Fletcher' had been upkept for over a year and the information is unlisted on any other resource. Please can cut and paste the page onto my user profile? Many Thanks. Bobbyfletch85 (talk) 22:01, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Robert Fletcher was deleted by Hut 8.5 who can be contacted at User talk:Hut 8.5. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:23, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Precious Info About Prophet Muhammad

dear Sir, i would like here to thank you very much for the valuable info you presented about our prophet Muhammad. my only request is that " please remove any pics representing or characterizing him" as we do not do that for him or for any other prophet. if you do so it will be highly appreciated from your side for caring about your muslim brothers.

thank you very much in advance for your care —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.117.41.124 (talk) 22:02, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Hi there. While we appreciate the cultural sensitivities involved, this matter and related ones have been discussed ad nauseum, and the consensus has been that Wikipedia is not censored, and that refers to things like pictures of Muhammad as much as it does pornography. See also the content disclaimer, which states "Some articles may contain names, images, artworks or descriptions of events that some cultures restrict access to." Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:09, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

A Few Questions concerning Typing

I need some help on how to configure text color, size, and I'd like to know how to center text on a page. This is so I can make my User Page look nice. Cheers. --Violent Proletarian (talk) 22:38, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Your best bet is to find other user pages that look similar to what you want, and then click the 'edit this page' tab to see how they do it. Don't forget, though, that your user page is (or ought to be) a very small part of what you do here. You can dive in to editing and improving Wikipedia's articles right now! TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:42, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

legal rites

will my 18 year old boyfriend go to jail for getting me pregnet at age 15 lyss —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.91.0.205 (talk) 22:39, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately, Wikipedia cannot provide legal advice. Please see Wikipedia:Legal disclaimer. Thank you. Perfect Proposal ^{Speak Out!} 22:49, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Own Account

Is it possible for an individual to make himself a wikipedia page?

Greenbaytyler (talk) 23:07, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

You have a userpage, which is located at Special:Mypage. See WP:UP for the userpage policy. You can't create an article about yourself even if you meet the notability guidelines becuase you have a conflict of interest. NF24^{(radio me!)} 23:10, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Fistula Foundation

Hi, Thanks for taking the time to look at our problem. I just created a page today for our organization, the Fistula Foundation. I wrote and posted the page. Now there is a big block of copy threatenning to delete the page for copyright enfringement because similar copy appears on our website. I wrote most of the copy on the website too. I am the Executive Director of the organization an am empowered to grant usage of this copy on the Wikipedia page containing information about our organization.

I would be grateful if you could delete the big box of copy currently residing on the page saying that we have likely infringed on a copywrite, because while I understand how this happened on the Wikipedia side, it is most certainly not the case.

Many thanks for your help.

Sincerely,

Kate Grant Executive Director The Fistula Foundation kate@fistulafoundation.org www.fistulafoundation.org —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kategrant (talk • contribs) 23:27, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

It is not sufficient to allow use just on the relevant Wikipedia page. Since Wikipedia contributions must be under the GDFL, the material might be reused almost anywhere. Is that what you want? Do you have the authority to decide that? --Gerry Ashton (talk) 00:20, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

http://www.fistulafoundation.org/termsofuse.html says "You may not copy, republish, upload, post, display, transmit, or frame any of these materials without prior written consent from The Fistula Foundation. You may link to, view, download, use, display and print copies of the materials found on this website only for personal, noncommercial and informational purposes as long as: (1) you do not alter or modify the materials in any way; (2) you include all applicable copyright, trademark and other notices and disclaimers; and (3) you do not use the materials in a way that suggests an association with The Fistula Foundation or an affiliated entity. All such copies must include, at a minimum, the following copyright notice: “© 2004 The Fistula Foundation. All Rights Reserved.” Any other use of the website or the information contained here is strictly prohibited." Such restrictions are not acceptable to Wikipedia. --teb728 t c 00:57, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Donating copyrighted materials. Also see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:16, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

January 9

Conversion of no-break spaces to regular spaces

In a talk page edit, I used a no-break space by entering Alt-0160 on my Windows keyboard. Some time later, an editor edited the same section, but didn't edit the area of text that I had. He used the standard Wikipedia in-browser text editor, but he experienced a edit conflict. The no-break space became a regular space. The edit is here.

The no break space was in the sentence "Take care that the output, V, never exceeds 100 V!" between 100 and V.

Can anyone explain why this happened? --Gerry Ashton (talk) 00:17, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Not really sure. If you use &nbsp ; (without the intervening space), it should not convert. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:41, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

&nbsp; was recently added to Edittools, so you can click it below the edit window. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:13, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

how do you edit entry tilte? I notice that words within the title need to be capitalized

When you select "edit page", it doesn't seem to give user permission to edit the title. Help please! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.16.55.62 (talk) 00:25, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Only logged in users can move articles. If you say what change do you want to make, someone else could do it for you. --teb728 t c 00:44, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Pages are renamed by moving them to new target names. This procedure preserves the page's edit history. Please do not rename a page by copying/pasting its content to a new page name. If you have an account and it is at least four days old, you can move a page yourself, but please first review Wikipedia:Naming conventions. If you still wish to rename the page, go to it and click the move tab at the top (near the history and watch tabs). You can then specify a new name for the article. The old page name will automatically become a redirect to the new page. However, if the desired target page name already exists, you will need an administrator to move the page for you, which can be requested at Wikipedia:Requested moves. Hope this helps.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:34, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia Signpost

I know the Wikipedia Signpost was delayed the last two weeks because of the holidays. The holidays are over, so why isn't this week's Signpost up yet? It's usually up by Tuesday morning. I've been checking and checking and checking all day!75.104.128.56 (talk) 00:54, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

This was asked a while ago - The most recent issue appears to be dated January 2. Questions about the Signpost would best be asked at the talk page for the Signpost, here. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:37, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

How do I underline text?

I want to underlie text on Wikipedia. How do I do this? Lex ^{|Talk | Guest Book | Contribs} 01:52, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know there is no underlining code on Wikipedia. However, you could use HTML, like this ("<u>this</u>"). -- RattleMan 02:02, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

That's the official method of doing so. See Wikipedia:How to edit a page#Character formatting. The Transhumanist 02:50, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

disambiguation christ

i want to disambiguate christ to show http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_T._Christ

65.24.127.192 (talk) 02:21, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

There's already a disambiguation for this, so you can edit the page at Christ (disambiguation) to include Carol Christ. For more information, you may want to see WP:DISAMBIG. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 02:33, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

current events 08 jan 2008

hi,

somehow jan 7 and jan 8 are discombobulated on portal: current events. i have tried unsuccessfully to get the dates correct and the proper content in each date but whatever i write in one goes to the other. very frustrating. please help. thank you WikiTony (talk) 04:26, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

I fixed it, it uses a fairly complicated template system, so it can take a while to find the pages. Mr.Z-man 04:36, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Ancient Chinese HIstory: the Dynasties Book

Tang write Chinese phonetic pronunciation aand Major accomplishments of Chinese during that time period writing at a child's level. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.12.170 (talk) 05:08, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Deleting Erroneous Information

My daughter's school friends entered her name in a racy girls site as a joke. It is now appearing on google.com when you google her name. How can this be deleted?

I have set up a password and screen name.

Thanks 06:04, 9 January 2008 (UTC).

Unfortunately, this matter doesn't involve Wikipedia, so there isn't much we can do; however, I'd suggest contacting the webmaster of the site that is being problematic and asking them to remove this information. Cheers, Master of Puppets _{Call me MoP!☺} 06:10, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Project/Oracle 9i

Will you provide me a small poject based on oracle 9i.