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).

Ask a question

Contribution Count

Is there any way to find out the exact number of contributions I have made without counting them all up?
Thanks, Alex 03:32, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Go to your userpage at User:Gyre and click on "user contributions" then count how many pages there are at 50/100/200/etc. per page. Or find something called "Kate's tool" I think it's called. The tool will tell you exactly but I don't remember where to find it. Dismas 04:14, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Kate's Tool. Editcountitis may be fatal. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:19, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Excellent, thanks a lot. Alex 18:05, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Copyright violation

I've studied your Votes for Deletion policy, and I haven't found a good way to figure out your practices without looking disruptive. Five Live Sports Extra quotes from the BBC website it references, but is that a copyright violation even though the BBC is associated with the British government? If not, the article reads like promotional hype anyway. Art LaPella 04:24, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Nice catch. Works of the British government are under copyright, the BBC quite certainly so. When you spot something like this, replace the article text with {{copyvio|url=<url>}} and add it to the list at Wikipedia:Copyright problems. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:46, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

• If you have trouble learning about our VFD policies without looking disruptive, asking about it here is the best thing you can do. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:46, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

global change

A search shows many uses of "per cent" when "percent" is meant (11 pages). Is there a way to replace all of these without having to manually find and edit each article in the search results? Bubba73 05:09, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I can't help with your question, but I'm curious just how wrong "per cent" actually is. I've always considered it to be analogous to "can not"—it can be contracted into "cannot", but it doesn't have to be. Then again, the only times I've ever used "per cent" have been cases where I wanted to indicate the "for each hundred" meaning instead of the generic "fractional" meaning. Perhaps some would find that confusing. :) —HorsePunchKid→龜 05:47, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

AFAIK, "per cent" is a UKism, like flavor vs flavour and color vs colour. Fallstorm 06:40, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

The Times (British) style guide states that per cent is two words. Chambers English Dictionary 2003 does not recognise percent as a word, though percentage is blessed. So this may be a US/UK English difference. Thank goodness we don't have global change. Suggestion: before correcting this, examine the article to see whether it has adopted UK or US spelling. If you can't find any other word that is spelled differently, the presence of per cent therefore defines it as an article in UK English and should be left. See also [1] Notinasnaid 08:10, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

It must be which side of the Atlantic you're on. I checked two paper dictionaries, and they say "percent". Furthermore the chicago Manual of Style says "percent", and that is what I was going by. Yesterday I changed it in one article I was working on, I don't remember any other UK versions of words in it. Bubba73 15:33, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Given that it is directly derived from the Latin "per centum" ("through [each] hundred"), the most correct would be "per cent.". As a Britisher, I agree that "per cent" is used most often over here. smoddy 15:40, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

PS - the one I changes was Heat index. The article mainly uses degrees F instead of C and it mentions so geographic places in the US, so I think it should be percent in that article, and I'm not going to search for others to change. the issue is briefly mentioned in Percentage. Bubba73 15:50, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Just two small points. Firstly, Farenheit is an Imperial measure in origin - so don't take it as solely American. Secondly, it would have been entirely neutral to put it in as "%", given as that was what the rest of the article contained and it came directly after a number. I wouldn't worry too much about it though... smoddy 15:56, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

veracity of information from this website

Hi! I'm a new user, how can i be assured that the information i get from this website are correct since they can be edited by anyone? how can i be sure that the definitions and descriptions are correct? do you have staff to check what other people are inputing? what if somebody published an article or edited a page, but he's not quite sure about the facts on that certain issue, or somebody just made a joke on something? thanks.

See Wikipedia:Common objections - please speak up if that is not sufficient to explain this... JesseW 06:35, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

• Edits are also patrolled by a core of regular contributors who try to catch out as much of the nonsense, vandalism and jokes as they can. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:49, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

personal sandbox for development purposes

It says in the sandbox that it is possible to create a personal sandbox for development purposes on a subpage of a users page. I have looked around the help pages and don't seem to be able to find anything to help with this.

Is this correct?

If so, exactly how to I do create a personal subpage sandbox?

bobg1756 10:50, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

• Yes, you can create subpages in your userspace like User:Bobg1756/Sandbox. Don't forget to link them on User:Bobg1756, otherwise you might lose track of the subpages you've made. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:01, July 20, 2005 (UTC)
• But you shouldn't forget the "User:" in front of the link - you created that sandbox in the main namespace. I have moved it and fixed the link on your userpage accordingly. andy 16:01, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

diabetis.

I'm not certain what question your asking, but if you are wanting to know something about Diabetes that is not covered in our article on the subject, then please ask at the Reference desk. Make sure that you make your question clear otherwise it will be much harder for anyone to help you. Thryduulf 13:20, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Adaptions section vs. Disambiguation on The Dead Zone

The_Dead_Zone has a section on adaptions, linking to movie/TV adaptions of the book. As these are articles in their own right, I wondered if in fact it should be a disambiguation page. I raised this on the talk page but nobody has responded. Can anyone help? Insomniacity 10:15, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

• Apart from the fact they are adaptations (check the spelling), I'd say you should keep them in a section, until there's enough material for a full article before splitting it in a new article and using a disambiguation. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:59, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

make program available for download?

I've written a free Windows program to calculate the heat index and dew point (articles which I edited yesterday). Is there a way I can make it available for download (I don't have any external link to make it available at the present.) Bubba73 16:04, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Well, if you sign up to a free webspace host (such as Geocities) they will let you upload files up to a certain file size. I presume the file is not all that large. If it is large, let me know on here, and I'll host it on my webspace for you. Cheers, smoddy 16:09, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

It is 688KB. My ISP provides the hosting service, but I've never bitten the bullet to find out how to do it. I really should do it that way. Thanks for your offer. Bubba73 17:17, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

PS In fact my wife sometimes teaches a class in how to do it. She's done 2 in the last 2 weeks. Maybe she can teach me, so that's what I'm going to try. Bubba73 21:52, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Possible vandalism?

I was looking at the LiveJournal article the other day and realized two schmucks decided they were notable enough to add themslelves to the notable users section. Neither are notable, so I removed then and added an explanation to the article's talk page. One has since reappeared as a "Super Mario Expert", previously a "humorist". The edits are both by anons, but I'm not sure if this counts as vandalism and/or what to do about it. Could someone take a look at it? Fallstorm 16:52, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Sounds like vanity-motivated vandalism to me. Delete mercilessly... Shimgray 16:57, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

I'd call it "vaindalism", but I think the extra i is too subtle. That, and it's lame. -- Cyrius|✎ 20:14, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Image problem

Hello!

Today I decided to try to get a picture of Slovenian prime minister Janez Janša (you can find him by simply typing his name in search box). As free (not copyrighted) high-quality images are hard to get, I first looked at the article of Janez Janša in other languages. I tried German version and it had a nice picture of him (with permissions for uploading and everything), so I decided to go with that. I clicked on the picture and the filename was Jansa2.jpg. Since I thought the image is already uploaded, I tried simply to edit the english version by putting the command

File:Jansa2.jpg

Janez Janša

for displaying images somewhere in the text. But after I saved the changes, nothing was there! (I mean, no picture, just an empty thumb with Janez Janša written below it). Just like on the right of this text!

Why is that? I thought once you upload the image (before putting it in the article) you can use it in all languages.

Please help!

Lifer21

I'm afraid that isn't so. Each wikipedia has its own set of images, and an image on another one can't automatically be used on this one. If the image is on Wikimedia Commons then it is availabe to all the wikimedia projects. You will need to download the image from the German wikipedia and re-uplaod it either to the english wikipedia or to commons. Note that commons requires you to be logged in to commons, with an account on that project, to upload. Note also that the copyright policies at each wiki are a bit different, check that the image actually is GFDL, not just "upload permission" or that it otherwise fits the policy where you upload it. (Commons does not allow Fair use images, for example, while the english wikipedia does.) I hope that helps. DES 19:22, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

It does. Thank you very much!

Lifer21

Archives

I want to look at the archives of the help desk, they seem to have disapear. How do I get to them?--Anti-Anonymex2^{Come to my page!} 20:03, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

• As said on top of the page: Category:Help_desk_archives Elfguy 20:04, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

disambiguation?

A page already exisits titled "Manny Fernandez." The article discusses the wrestler. I would like to create a page on Manny Fernandez, NHL goaltender. How do I do this?

Thanks, --Ckost

See Wikipedia:Disambiguation for details. In general there are are a couple of choices. You can just add the second articel to the same page, seperated by a horizontal line (which you make with four hyphens). This is a good method if both articles are fairly short. Or you can create a seperate page Manny Fernandez (Hockey player) or some similar name, and then a Manny Fernandez (disambiguation) page that links to both pages. This is more complex, but a good idea if the separate articels are long enough (say if they take up much more than a screen combined). Again, read Wikipedia:Disambiguation before you do thsi. DES 20:41, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Go to Manny Fernandez. I've created a disabiguation page to help you. Just click on the red link. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!} 20:37, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Origin of Wikipedia name

How did you arrive at Wikipedia for your name?

It's all explained on the page for Wikipedia. Let us know if you have any questions that the article doesn't answer. Dismas 21:15, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

It's quite simple. It's a wiki and an encyclopedia. So Wikipedia. You could read history of Wikipedia too. --Dmcdevit·t 21:19, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

triplicate contribution

I have inadvertently inputted three same/similar versions of my contribution to a section titled, 'Rod of the Seasons' and all three of them are listed in my 'contributions' log. How can I delete two of them? (posted by Beadtot)

You can't, but you also don't need to worry about it. Your contribution log is maintained automatically and cannot be edited, but no-one will find multiple contributions to an article in a short time period to be particularly odd. You can find lots of those in mine; it's easy to miss small errors while previewing. — mendel ☎ 02:18, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

IP ban possible?

Alright someone with the IP of '66.195.243.202' posted a VERY inapropriate site for the Wikipedia entry Hamumu, removing a big chunk of important info (I fixed it back to the way it was before that 'vandalizem'...Or at least to a point where no info was lost). I was wondering what could be done about it... (This is a serious issue because kids less then TEN could have seen it [There is a Wikipedia link to the Hamumu site and a link on the Hamumu site going to the article on the wikipedia site]) I was wondering if it could either be removed from the history, or something... --Drgamer

Ah, yes, that site. Normally we give vandals several warnings, but that one is particularly horrid, so I've blocked him for 24 hours. In future, you can report such vandalism at WP:VIP. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:42, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Note that Wikipedia is not censored for the protection of minors. That a site might be inappropriate fo children is not a reason for unlinking it. If this change is spam promotion, that is a good reason to remove the links, but what children might see is NOT! DES 23:04, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Having looked at the edits involved, i see that the link is pure vandalism and has no relation to the articel, and thus is properly removed. DES 23:09, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Note, incidentally, that the site in question is linked from List of shock sites, which is perfectly reasonable. It's a vertiable Pandora's box of links I wish I hadn't clicked :) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:16, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

Vandalism that is currently happening can also be reported at Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism; AIAV is much quicker at stopping vandals, but only if they are currently vandalizing the site (i.e. they are making edits at the time the alert is posted). -- Essjay · Talk 16:08, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

"Ilona Feher" article

Two comments appear in the page:

1. Merge. I discussed why it should be kept separately. 2. Wikified. I do not understand reason and do not know what action to take.

Please advise.

Thanks,

Micke5000

• Wikify means an article needs to be formatted better and links to other articles added. You should discuss such issues on the article talk page. Elfguy 23:50, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
• Wikify: To format using Wiki markup (as opposed to plain text or HTML) and add internal links to material, incorporating it into the whole of Wikipedia. Noun: Wikification. Sometimes abbreviated wfy. See also: Wikipedia:Guide to layout for more. --Dmcdevit·t 00:17, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Learned Hand

I had heard a long time ago that the actor, Peter Strauss, ("Rich Man, Poor Man") is a relative of Learned Hand. Can that be verified, or refuted?

Ruth

• Maybe, but for you to find out, you'll want to ask on our Wikipedia:Reference desk! Elfguy 23:53, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

Barnstar question

I would like to know whether I can award two other Wikipedians barnstars. It was my assumption that I could, but I can't figure out what the instructions are. I tried to click on the image of the star to copy it to my IE 6.0 clipboard. I try to click on it and copy it, as I think the instructions say. However, then I wind up going to its subpage, and not getting the .jpg to paste onto someone's page.

Does this mean that I am not privileged to give a barnstar, or simply that I don't understand? Robert McClenon 01:58, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

No. It is confusing. Anyone can give a barnstar. Copy [[Image:barnstar.jpg|thumb|right|Caption]]. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!} 02:11, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

I tried inserting exactly that Wiki markup, and nothing appears but the caption.

Robert McClenon 15:53, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Wrong filename, try this [[Image:Barnstar.png|frame|Caption]]. MeltBanana 16:02, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

After considerable effort, I succeeded. Thank you to those who answered, as well as to those to whom I gave the barnstars. Robert McClenon

I cannot find my login information

I can't seem to get in using any of my usual combinations! Can someone help me?

ajackl2020@yahoo.com Alex Jackl

If you supplied an email address when you signed up, you can get the password emailed to you; otherwise, I'm not sure we'd be able to help. Good luck, Meelar (talk) 04:51, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Hello. Josh

Helllo i wanted to know if you could make a momentary eletric Switch Timer That will make it soo it can trun on and off every 4 seconds or 3 or 5 or you can set it to what ever seconds u wanted no more then 20 seconds or whatever seconds you wanted that can work with batties or you can plug it in the wall or somthing that i can hook it to one wire.

And how much it will cost me for you to make me some

Plz Email me back at Roundz@gmail.com

THank you!

Sorry, I don't know what idea you had but this is an encyclopedia. Read more about us here, Wikipedia. --Dmcdevit·t 05:50, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

The Ashes

I'm not too sure where to direct my complaint, so this is a good a place as any to start. I am a newbie, I should add. The link to the featured article "The Ashes" brings up a rather interesting portrait of someones tonsiles viewed through their rectum. I would appreciate it if someone could have a look at how this has happened and to rectify it asap. I last viewed the link at 1500hrs Australian Eastern Standard Time.

Thankyou.

It was vandalism by Shnep and was recitfied within a couple of minutes of being posted (I've now blocked him). →Raul654 05:17, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Change User Name

How do u change your user name? Michael Johan 08:56, 21 July 2005 (UTC)---djlethal109---08:56, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

• You can't. You can however create a new account. Elfguy 12:22, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

WHOA! Yes you can, Wikipedia:Changing usernames. These requests are being filled. -- Essjay · Talk 16:05, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

famous writer

I'm looking for a famous British writer who was one of the founders of a footballclub currently playing in the Premiership.

Can you please help me out?

Marco Loef Arnhem The Netherlands (marcoloef@hotmail.com)

Although factual questions on non-Wiki related topics should be asked at the Reference desk, and although you could have found the answer yourself with just a little googling (first search result, even!), I'll answer your question: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lupo 10:12, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

mathamatics

what is 2 to the power of 19?

524288. Why? smoddy 12:14, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

which is two multiplied by itself 19 times, the way "power of" (exponentiation) is defined in mathematics. Lupo 12:19, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Problem redirecting a page

The article All tomorrow's parties was originally a redirect to Bridge trilogy. However, it could also refer to other articles, so I tried to redirect it to All Tomorrow's Parties, a disambiguation page. However, instead of redirecting, all that appears is "1. REDIRECT All Tomorrow's Parties". I checked several times, and the code seems fine. I tried to get in back to the Bridge trilogy redirect, but it gives the 1. REDIRECT again. --Xen0phile 13:01, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

• It seems fixed now. Elfguy 13:23, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Just for future reference, the difference was in the use of the apostrophe; see here. -- Essjay · Talk 16:03, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Change of title

I changed the identification of a photograph of Ascopyyllum nodosum to Ascophyllum nodosum from Fucus vesiculosus but could not change the title. Sorry if I should not have changed this at all! The systemis very complicated (to me)! Osborne Morton. Osborne.morton@mngni.org.uk

• To change the name of an article you can click on the Move tab on the top. Elfguy 13:21, 21 July 2005 (UTC)
• You can't move images. Simply upload it under the correct name, fix the links and and request speedy deletion of the old one. Simply put {{db|your reason}} on the old image and don't forget to mention its new location. - Mgm|^(talk) 14:56, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

medical research proposal

• This isn't an advertisement board. Elfguy 15:09, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

• If you are going to use this behavior, go to uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page uncyclopedia.--Anti-Anonymex2^{Come to my page!} 21:41, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

question

(moved to the reference desk) -- Mgm|^(talk) 14:57, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

• Factual questions should be asked on the Wikipedia:Reference_desk. But be sure to read Wikipedia:General_disclaimer. Elfguy 15:03, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

I don't mean to start a discussion here, I should probably say this on the talk page, but "Good work, Mgm" for moving the question, whatever it was. I see a lot of these "factual questions should..." notes on here (not picking on Elfguy, a lot of editors do it) and perhaps we should have a policy of "don't say move, just move it" similar to the "don't put a cleanup tag on an article if you can clean it up easily yourself." Actually, I think I will put it on the talk page. -- Essjay · Talk 15:59, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Tammany Hall

I apologize for making an erroneous edit to the Tammany Hall page on July 20 2005 by adding the word "Dogfood". I didn't realize that anyone could actually edit your pages instantaneously. I have since read your faq's and now understand how your site works. Please find it in your hearts to forgive me.

• You are forgotten.. I mean forgiven! Elfguy 15:10, 21 July 2005 (UTC)
• We appreciate the honesty. I hope you'd like to stay around. Please consider registering or if you already did to sign your post with four tildes like this "~~~~". -- Mgm|^(talk) 15:32, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Edit Conflict

I'm trying to edit Chad Cordero in Wikipedia. I got an edit conflict when I tried to save the page, but the history shows that the last edit was on July 7. I've tried logging out, clearing my browser cookies, and logging back in again, but I still get the same error. ("Someone else has changed this page since you started editing it.") Win777 15:21, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

• Oh sure... After I edited this page, I can edit again. Resolved. Thanks. Win777 15:23, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Problem with articles (concerning dates)

In the article about Carmine Galante http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Galante it says "Joseph Bannano died of natural causes" in the 1960s so then Philip Rastelli would take over his position. However, the article for Bannono http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bonnano states he died in 2002 which wouldn't make sense because he would still be alive in the 1960s.

That is an inconsistancy, all right. One of these must be incorrect, unless there are two different people both named "Joseph Bonnano" involved in mifia activity -- which might well be the case, one a son or other relative of the other. (And in that case the articles are incorrectly linked, since the liks imply that these are the same person.) Someone needs to consult proper reference sources, determins what the correct facts are, and edit one or both of these articles so that they are consistant and accurate. You might be able to do this if you chose. DES 16:30, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

I added a note about the inconsistancy to the talk pages of the two articles. DES 16:37, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

The Bonnano family page notes he had a heart attack in '68 and retired - I'm not going to correct the articles, as this is just a guess, but I suspect an editor misinterpreted that event as "he had a heart attack in '68 and died". Shimgray 17:28, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

How to edit my signature

How do I edit my signature so that, with four tildes, I can have my talk page link displayed like Mgm and Essjay? --Xen0phile 16:27, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Special:Preferences. The same link is at the top of the screen, labelled "Preferences". smoddy 16:30, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

• Put Mgm]]|[[User talk:MacGyverMagic|^(talk) in the nickname field in your signature in preferences on the top of the screen. If you leave the raw signature field unchecked it'll automatically add [[User:<Your Username> to the front and ]] to the back of that code. - Mgm|^(talk) 17:15, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Testing ... I could not find "sgnature" in User data, Editing, Misc. etc. then I hit on "nickname" as where you might be referring to. Then when I got back here, I see you said it all along & it not get into my brain ... thanks, it is working for me now.AlMac|^(talk) 17:38, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Can't revert eminem page to remove vandalism

Can somebody fix the vandalism on the Eminem page. I've tried reverting it but it doesn't seem to work for me.

Jeff

I have reverted it to an edit yesterday, which should be clean. Cheers, smoddy 16:32, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Where should this concern go?

The other day I noticed an anon user had edited the article for Gwyneth Paltrow so I checked out what the edit was. They had wiki linked Apple Blythe Alison Martin who is G.P.'s baby daughter. I thought it odd that the kid has their own page and looked at it to see if anything was notable. I can see having a page for the kid if they get into acting or whatever but that may be a few years down the road, after all, it's not like the Olsen twins. I'm not really sure I would vote delete if the matter came up for VfD but I wanted to get other people's opinions. I checked out the Wikipedia:Requests for comment page but it says that it should be used if there's a dissagreement. I'm just looking for opinions where there isn't an argument though. And posting on the kid's talk page wouldn't really accomplish anything since the audience is so limited. So where should I take my request for comment? Dismas 16:40, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

I agree that this is inappropriate. Duly, I have redirected the daughter article to the mother's. Cheers, smoddy 16:45, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

That'll work, thanks! Dismas 17:16, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Strikeout problem

Someone tried to strike out an entry on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Albus Dumbledore and got the closing tag wrong. the rest of the page was struck out. i fixed the tag, and it looks fine on that subb-page. But on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Log/2005 July 21 everyhting after the relevant entry is still struck out. i trued refresshing my cache, and redoing the edit, nothing seems to help. advice? DES 18:24, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Looks fine from here. Shimgray 18:44, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia-side caching. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:13, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Would this image be considered fair use?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask. Apologies if not. I'd like to add this [2] image to a MTG article; I'm not sure, however, if that'd be considered fair use. (BTW, it doesn't have to be this particular image. Any image of the card would do.) --Endersdouble 19:52, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

I'm not completely sure, but read Wikipedia:Fair use and see if that helps. Alex 20:01, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

If we can fairuse album covers and such, why not cards? -- Essjay · Talk 20:45, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

Well, it seems to be the whole of a piece of artwork. As I understand the justification for album covers and such (which seems tenuous if you're the artist) it is just a representation of a part of the work. On the other hand, if the work is the entire pack, and the card a representation, that could be another story. If the plan was to potentially add each card to its own article I don't see that could be fair use. But I'm not a lawyer. Notinasnaid 21:26, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Converting Diesel Engine from fossil fuel to veggie oil

Moved to Wikipedia:Reference_desk#Converting Diesel Engine from fossil fuel to veggie oil DES 22:20, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Displaying user contributions by namespace

I've noticed that since the MediaWiki upgrade I haven't been able to display user contributions listed by namespace. There used to be a drop-down box at the top of the Special:Contributions/TenOfAllTrades page that would let me see only edits for a specific namespace: Wikipedia:, Talk:, User:, etc.

I haven't made any changes to my skin or preferences that should affect this (I'm using the default monobook.css); does anybody have any ideas? (My apologies if this went past on WP:AN while I wasn't looking.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:29, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

I asked this a while ago. I went to the pump, but I didn't save for some reason, or noone replied. I really want that back. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!}|^{Vote on my RfA!} 23:06, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

It was removed because, in Brion VIBBER's words, it was "unfriendly to the database". And we all want to be friends with the database. smoddy 23:09, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Fair enough. The database needs all the TLC it can get. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 23:10, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

Bad database! I'm not it's friend any more. *sulks*:) Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!}|^{Vote on my RfA!} 23:13, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

See bugzilla:2686 -- there's 42 votes for this bug, so you're not the only one who misses it. I hope someone will be able to come up with a friendly solution for it. If you're just looking for numbers, see Kate's tool. — Catherine\^talk 23:30, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

gastroschisis

I am trying to find information on what causes a birth defect called gastroschisis. Can you help me?

• Wikipedia:Reference desk. Elfguy 23:41, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

What is EN-3?

What En-3 En-2, etc all means? Where can I find more information?

See wikipedia:babel. It just means what language you speak. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!}|^{Vote on my RfA!} 00:27, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, Howabout.

Current events ?

If an article becomes the subject of Current Events, what template do I put on it to indicate that it is the subject of Current Events and is subject to frequent change? Robert McClenon 02:54, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

{{current}}. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!}|^{Vote on my RfA!} 03:02, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

links

sometimes internet links will not open

• Oh. I'm sorry. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!}|^{Vote on my RfA!} 03:10, July 22, 2005 (UTC)
• Could you give some examples? It may be the sites themselves aren't working. --Dmcdevit·t 04:39, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

Deleted Articles IV

How can I see deleted articles and move them to another site?--Anti-Anonymex2]]^{Come to my page!}> 20:46, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Only admins can view deleted articles. To request an article be undeleted, you have to go to WP:VFU. --Dmcdevit·t 04:43, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

Generally, if the article was legal for Wikipedia to host, (but was deleted for being non-notable or not encyclopedic or spam or some such reason) a polite request on VFU for a temporary copy for the purposes of moving to another site is generally willing agreed to. (At least, last I remember.) JesseW 22:12, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

LaTeX math envinronment and AMS style package

Hi! I have noticed Wikipedia has many great mathematics pages. Many mathematicians use LaTeX for math documentation. I know that Wikipedia currently offers simple LaTeX-like math equation editing such as $y={\frac {a}{b}}$.

However, would it be possible to provide a fuller LaTeX math environment in Wikipedia?

For example, would it be possible to support the LaTeX {\eqnarray*} environment? This would allow multiline equations that are properly aligned. Example (LaTeX syntax): Failed to parse (syntax error): {\displaystyle \begin{eqnarray*} f(x) &=& a+b \\&=& a+\frac{d}{e} \\&=& \sum_{n=0}^N \frac{x^n}{n!} \end{eqnarray*} }

Moreover, many mathematicians use the LaTeX "style" package provided by AMS (American Mathematical Soceity}:

 \usepackage{amsmath}  

This allows for powerful multiline expressions as well as special math fonts; very powerful.

I think it may not require an experienced programmer too much effort to integrate such powerful math tools into the Wikipedia editing toolbox. There is a GNU liscensed program latex2html that I believe should convert equations to gif files which can then be inserted into the Wikipedia html. Having these tools available would allow mathemticians to present more complete and readable proofs for more advanced topics.

Thank you for a great web site! ^___^ It is my browser's home page.

• You may be better off asking the developers at the Wikipedia:Village pump. Elfguy 12:13, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

weird content

when i was looking for info on the peltier effect i stumbled across some weird graphic content on this page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier-Seebeck_effect

It had been vandalised, and was corrected within four minutes sometime yesterday, according to the page history. It seems you caught it during just the wrong window; perhaps a local caching issue? Anyway, gone now. Shimgray 08:40, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Attachments

I have a number of files written while at college which I would like to contribute, where and how do I attach them?

• What kind of files are they. What are they about and what style/form are they written in? - Mgm|^(talk) 10:11, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

• Generally you wouldn't attach them, you would use them to create or edit articles. Probably they wouldn't fit exactly as written, at the very ;east you would need to insert appropriate wikilinks. Wikipedia articels should be written from a neutral point of view and it seems unlikely that these are. If not they would need to be rewritten. What I would advise is that you find relevant articles, and edit them in the normalk way, using your old files as sources of refrence materiel, or as a place to cut and paste text from IF it seems appropriate. First read the general guidelines about creating and editing articles -- they will all apply. DES 14:57, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Attachments 2

Hi, Mike Cunningham, I have a number of articles that may be of use in the form of files written whilst at college,how do I attach them for submission? A big thanks to anyone who can help!!

• Who is Mike Cunningham? - Mgm|^(talk) 11:24, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

  Perhaps the author of the question? Anyways, in response to the question: if you think that you can improve any article, be bold, click "edit this page", and improve it. We would appreciate all your contributions! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 17:24, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Commons and Wikipedia

I recently uploaded Image:0of5.png into Commons and saw the same image page on Wikipedia. If you see the second link, you can notice that it's a bit messed up (if not alot). Anyway to link Commons object using [[commons:_]] kinda thing? Maybe a bug on the MediaWiki. Thanks, -- pmam21^talk_articles 10:13, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

That bug has been reported: bugzilla:2726.--Patrick 14:44, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Animal names

The word 'cotsmondes, turned up in an old document (1865 vintage) amongst names of other animals.No trace found in dictionaries including yours. Eventually it was discovered to be an archaic form of 'coatmondi' often abbreviated to 'coati' and meaning a specices of small carnivorous animal similar to a raccoon. Ciaow

Press packs

If a band releases a "press pack" on its website, can we use those photos as long as we credit the photographer? Never uploaded a pic so I've never dealt with the copyright stuff. Dismas 14:43, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

If an image is distributed as a promotional image, as most "publicity" photos are, it is presumed that the person or orgianization (such as the band) is consenting to its use in any article about the subject of the photo, and thus it is considered to be a form of fair use. The image tag {{Promotional}} is used in such cases, it expands to:

This is a copyrighted image that has been released by a company or organisation to promote their works in the media. It is believed either that the copyright holder has granted permission for use in works like Wikipedia or that the image may be used under the fair use provision of United States copyright law. See Copyrights.

For more on image tags, see WP:ICT, for more on image copyright generally see Wikipedia:Copyrights and in particular Wikipedia:Copyrights#Fair use materials and special requirements. DES 14:50, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Oh I should mention, that of course the photographer should be credited, and the source of the image mentiond, both should be done on the image description page. DES 14:52, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! The image is now up at The Bacon Brothers. Dismas 15:00, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

google and wikipedia

I wrote this article, on the topic of KTV, a couple of weeks ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTV_%28Karaoke%29

I am just at a loss to explain why it is not ranked by google yet. The long standing karaoke page:

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

has a link to my KTV article on it. This karaoke page was scanned by google on 21st July - we can see this by looking at the date for this article in the google cache.

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:XuM1tpQrjDkJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaoke+&hl=en

So, I would have thought that when google scanned this page on 21st July it would have picked up the KTV link on this page and then incorporated the KTV article into its index. But, this is not the case. I just cannot think why. Do you think that it is maybe because of the formatting of the url for the KTV page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTV_%28Karaoke%29

It has these % symbols in it which maybe google "doesn't like"?

Would be v.grateful if anyone can give me a bit of insight.

Google's scanning and ranking process is largely a mystery, and it's not something we can control. The page will be linked eventually, when Google feels like it. I suspect that inbound links (from other websites) make a wikipedia page more likely to be crawled, and subsequently more frequently. But only Google knows for sure, and they ain't saying. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:26, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

Although Google is a mystery, the general way that spiders (programs like Google) work is to visit all the pages that they know about, checking all the links. If a link is found, the page isn't visited right away, but added to a "to be visited" list. When it has finished its current sweep, then it will probably visit those pages. Notinasnaid 17:35, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

pandurang shastri athavale

i searched for the person "Pandurang shastri athavale". apparantly this page is a stub. i know this person well as i am part of his group. can i prepare a proper article on him. also for some odd reasons after i've pasted my work it seems to be reverted back to what was originally there which i deleted to make a fresh start.

The text included is directly from this website. Thus, Wikipedia cannot include it. In addition, it is heavily biased. Cheers, smoddy 17:32, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

The article Pandurang Shastri Athavale seems to have a soemwhat complicated history, including some vandalism. You should certianly feel free to edit this to expand or correct the existing article. However it is not a good idea to just "delete to make a fresh start" and please remeber that whatever you post is subject to editing by others. If you don't want you work edited freely, don't submit it to wikipedia. Also you must not copy work form other sources that might by subject to copyright, and you must write from a neutral point of view, not biased for or against the subject of the article. DES 17:35, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

As someone who was involved in this, I might give some background on this. The first time I stumbled on this page, it contained a piece of text that was probably a copyvio and heavily biased. I reverted it to the last good version (a short stub). Then somebody wrote a rather good (if still a bit short) article on it, but it was then replaced by another piece of very biased text. I reverted to the good article, and this time it was replaced by a very long text which was again a biased copyvio. Next time I reverted, the response was deleting most of the text on the page. I reverted, and now the article has been cut again, but at least there's something put back there.

Now, I believe that all these edits were made by the same person (from a different IP address), as there's definitely a pattern there. It might be the same as the anonymous user who started this thread, but then again, it might not... :) - ulayiti 19:18, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Pictures

Hello! I've been uploading some pictures I took recently, and I'm a bit confused regarding what tag I should place on them. I've read through all the Image Tags, the image help pages, and nothing explicitly tells me what tag to put. In addition, is there a place where I can list one of my images to be "cleaned up"? Thanks a lot! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 18:22, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Which images in particular? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:26, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

Check my upload log. Pics of images around Stony Brook University: Wang Center, Staller, etc. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 18:40, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

• It depends on the copyright of the image. If you took it and want to release it in the public domain, just say so in the description. If it's a copyrighted image and you're using under fair use, put {{fairuse}} and so on. Also I'm not sure how an image could be cleaned up. Elfguy 18:27, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

So that's all I have to do? If I want to release the pics to the public (i.e. I don't mind them being reproduced, etc.), do I have to add a specific tag? Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 18:40, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Really, it depends how you want them released. What do you want people to be able to do with them? I've glanced at your upload log - one thing, please don't tag your own images fair use, I'm reasonably sure that's not a useful way to go about it. (It's not a license; it's a defence for not having one) Shimgray 18:30, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

So what should I tag them with if I want to release them? {{GFDL}}? {{PD}}? Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 18:40, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 18:40, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

The full list of image copyright tags is at Wikipedia:Image copyright tags. For your own work, might I recommend {{GFDL-self}} or {{PD-self}}? They release your work under the GFDL or directly to the public domain, respectively. For new image uploads, stay away from any of the non-free licenses; those are being phased out. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 19:01, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Flcelloguy - you might want to read Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ##Licenses to get an idea of what kind of license(s) you want to release your pictures under. →Raul654 19:04, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks to everybody! I've decided to tag all my pictures with {{GFDL-self}}. Thanks once again! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 19:12, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Example article?

Is there an example article to show what a proper layout of an article should look like here somewhere? • Thorpe • 20:07, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

See the Wikipedia:Guide to layout. --Dmcdevit·t 20:26, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

• A lot of it also depends on the topic of your article. You could see how a featured article on a similar topic has been formatted and laid out. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:02, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

double check please

Having read your articles, I really found it insighful. BUT you did make a mistake. The capital of the Azores is Lisbon. NOT Angra or Ponta Delgada. Keep in mine that the major of the people from the Azores are from ponta delgada and terceira, it does not mean that those cities are the capital. Since the Azores belong to Portugual, last time I looked, the capital is Lisbon. That should be a correction to the capitals. Mine you I am from Terecira. But lets keep the facts straight.

Thanks for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to change it. You can edit almost any article on Wikipedia by just following the Edit link at the top of the page. We encourage you to be bold in updating pages, because wikis like ours develop faster when everybody edits. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. You can always preview your edits before you publish them or test them out in the sandbox. If you need additional help, check out our getting started page or ask the friendly folks at the Teahouse.

So, I recommend that you fix the article! You might just find that it's extremely fun editing articles... happy editing! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 20:46, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

External Link - Autographs

Hello there,

Is it possible to have my web site added as an External Link on your Autographs page?

Title: CelebrityAutographs.com URL: http://www.celebrityautographs.com

Simply curious.

With warmth,

Justin Steffman CelebrityAutographs.com jsteffman@celebrityautographs.com

Technical problem with a page

I have been contributing to an article that is subject to a vote for deletion MrRat. I have noticed that the page being displayed for both the article itself and the vote for deletion page, look as though they have been reverted to earlier drafts. There is no mention of this in their respective history pages. Additionally the page dipslayed does NOT match the wiki content in the database (when you click to edit you get the full content). I wonder if this is a technical problem and if so can someone look into it. Thanks - Dean Marshall.

Sounds like maybe you just need to clear your cache. See Wikipedia:Bypass your cache. --Dmcdevit·t 23:42, July 22, 2005 (UTC)

Number_of_Visits

The following was left on my user talk. I am directing this user here to find the answer.

Hi Sam,

Thanks for your welcome a while ago. I've been recently exploring the vote for deletion pages. I have two questions I haven't been able to find answers for (I've been poking around help pages). The first is how long does a vote for deletion vote last? The second, is there a way to find out how many times a certain page has been visited? This information might be helpful in establishing how useful a certain page is in relation to others.

If you have answers or can direct me in the appropriate direction taht would be great. I don't mind doing my own research but I just can't quite seem to find the information. Thanks! Granite T. Rock 01:54, July 20, 2005 (UTC)

(message placed here by ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ 00:17, 23 July 2005 (UTC))

Q1: Five days. Q2: No, for all but the top few hundred articles this isn't possible. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:23, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

photos

is there a certain place that has photos?

Maybe you'd be interested in Wikipedia:Featured pictures? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:24, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

You might also be interested in the Wikimedia Commons. Thryduulf 00:41, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGE

Please refer to the image on your site at the following address:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ConfederateStatesofAmericaSeal.jpg#file

Can you tell me how I could obtain a higher resolution version of this image so that I could download it to make a decal? (not for commercial use). Thanks,

• It doesn't look like there is a hi-res of that image. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:37, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

Knowing the userid of an emailer

If someone emails me throught the 'email a user' feature is there some way that I can tell what their Wikipedia ID is if they don't tell me? I often get emails that I don't wish to reply to directly (often complaining about being blocked) and if they don't tell me there doesn't seem to be a way of working it out? DJ Clayworth 03:44, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

It has always put the username in the 'from' field for me. -- Cyrius|✎ 05:06, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

• If they don't tell you their username, you can't unblock them. Tell them that and ignore them as long as they don't tell. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:38, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

12-bar blues

Is there a web page that I can go to ,to hear or get an example of this type of guitar playing. I'm looking for more of a guitar demenstration.

• This is more of a question for the reference desk

quicktime pro 7 for windows

I'm having trouble editing and splicing movies with the pro 7 software. Is there any usable tutorial I might find on the internet. The help function already in quicktime pro 7 is not that helpful for me.

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Since this is a factual question, please see the note at the top of this page, and good luck! Notinasnaid 07:14, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

New page not being found by 'search'

I created a new page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Computing. When I go to the search text box and type in 'women in computing' this page is not found. What did I do wrong?

Thanks, BABair

The capitalisation needs to be the same, subject to certain (complicated) criteria. I have moved the article to the correct capitalisation. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalisation). [[smoddy]] 13:15, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

See also my comments at MediaWiki talk:Nogomatch for avoiding this sort of question. Bovlb 15:22:24, 2005-07-23 (UTC)

• Also, the search box doesn't search newly articles. They need to be indexed first. - Mgm|^(talk) 15:41, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

William James Booth

Would you be able to list the above person in your encyclopedia. He is a university professor and author of books with a PH.D. he lives in Brentwood Tennessee and teaches at Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennesse.

He can be contacted at mochatari@earthlink.net.

Carefully distinguish him from other people with similar names, like John Wilkes Booth who assassinated US President Abe Lincoln, as part of a Confederate Secret Service plot to decapitate top leadership of the Union (several other leaders assassination efforts failed at same time), except the American Civil War was over when this happened.

This is not a conspiracy theory ... see ISBN-9-780873-385152 "Confederate Covert Action in the American Civil War."

AlMac|^(talk) 19:38, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

NEED HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGE

Hi. Re the image on this web site below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:ConfederateStatesofAmericaSeal.jpg#file

I am looking for a high resolution version of this image to use for making a decal (not for commmercial use). Any idea where this image came from or who I could contact to obtain higher resolution version of it? Thanks, Robert S.

This was just asked above. Are you the same person? Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!} 15:10, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

Oh. It is the same person. You don't need to ask anything twice. Your question is still on this page. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!} 15:11, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

Removing content from talk pages

Is this sort of an edit allowed by the Wikipedia policy? I thought only user_talk: pages could be blanked/pruned/whatever... and others must be archived. -- Paddu 16:10, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

• Yes, article talk pages should be archived instead of pruned. - Mgm|^(talk) 17:23, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

First Timer's query re: reproduction of old letter in new article

I am finishing an article about health care, specifically a history of healthcare rendered without personal (face-to-face) contact. I have termed it "in absentia health care."

I wish to include 2 old (circa 1932) letters in my article. I have obtained due written permission to reproduce these from my archival sources.

1. Am I allowed, then, to include them?
2. Will I provide a statement at the bottom of the images that credits the source and mentions my permission?
3. These are images within a word document. Is this how they shoud be submitted?

Thanks.

1. I believe, though IANAL, that they have to be released under the GFDL or a compatible licence. You can find an explanation at Wikipedia:Copyrights, and just ask your source to release them under this licence. However, someone else should correct me on this if I'm mistaken.
2. Yes, you can (and should) do this on the image description page. See the answer below.
3. They should be saved as an image file (jpeg or gif) and uploaded. See Wikipedia:Uploading images for detailed instructions.

Good luck, Meelar (talk) 16:42, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

You need not relicense the photos to use them here if that is not desired - all that is necessary is permission to use them here on the Wikipedia. Just add the {{PermissionAndFairUse}} tag to the respective talk pages (see Wikipedia:Image tags for others). --Gabriel Beecham/Kwekubo 16:52, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

"Because I want to" is not a legal qualification for fair use. -- Cyrius|✎ 18:03, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

How to edit a Wikipedia title line?

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

The title of this article incorrectly contains the word COSSAR. It should be COSSOR, as confirmed by Raytheon's web site.

I have corrected the text of the article, but cannot correct the title. How do I do that please?

H. Alexander

Click the 'move' tag at the top of the page, and then enter the new title and the reason for moving. See Help:Renaming (moving) a page. --Gabriel Beecham/Kwekubo 16:52, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Unregistered users can't move pages; I've done the move for him. Shimgray 16:54, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

what is editcountitis?

I have heard the term editcountitis referred to a few times throughout Wikipedia and I know Kate's user edit counter[[3]] displays it on the bottom of the page. What is editcountitis?

Editcountitis is the "disease" of only paying attention to edit counts. This is often referred to as Kate's tool is an important part of Requests for Adminship. It stresses that you should not concentrate on the amount of edits but rather the quality of the edits, friendliness of the user, and so forth. Hope that clears things up. Sasquatch′↔T↔C 21:13, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

Image Copyright Issue

I read the information about how to insert images and the Wikipedia Image Policy. However, I am still lost as to what type of images I may insert. For example, can I grab images from a website like ESPN and put them on my page if I say "Copyright ESPN," or do they have to be my images or images which I've gotten the creator's consent of? Thanks. --Anon

Any images you upload must be created by you, or else you must get the creator to licence them under the GFDL. Downloading images and uploading them here isn't kosher, sorry. Best wishes, Meelar (talk) 21:53, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

It might be best to read the Copyright FAQ →Raul654 21:57, July 23, 2005 (UTC)

Also, only loged in users can upload images. Please create an account. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!} 00:00, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

Ok thanks for the help. My main problem is that I'm wanting to write about a subject that is not really "widespread" (yet), which is why I'm adding it (as opposed to editing) to the Wikipedia. However, because it is not a large entertprise (which is not near here), there is literally no way for me to get pictures other than websites. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks again. --anon

Your basic starting point should be "almost all photos are copyright and I can't use them, so most articles won't be illustrated." The copyright laws don't change because they are inconvenient, unfortunately, or because your intentions are good. If you can make your own photographs and release them into the public domain, that's great, and if you can persuade others to do that, it's great too (how are your powers of persuasion?); but you can't expect others – especially people who make a living by taking or selling photos – to do it for you. Above all, don't try to bend the rules because a picture seems important – Wikipedia mustn't get stuck in legal challenges. Notinasnaid 08:44, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Well not to sound rude, but if I was that inconsiderate, I wouldn't be posting here and asking. The thing is, I've worked with a lot of websites (big ones, I'm talking hundreds of thousands of visitors, not someone's personal friendspace) before which simply use other websites' pictures and state the source (the pictures also have the source and copyright info on them), so that is why I came here to ask. I was a little sketchy on the internet copyright issue.

Now, do the copyright rules apply regardless of country? I ask because I thought I remember someone telling me that it is not illegal to do some things (online) that may be illegal in that country if you are in your own country. I'm also on a newspaper staff, so I'm not about to put Wikipedia into legal jeopardy, I'm just asking, how else can I find out? Thanks. --anon

Hide TOC

Is there a way to prevent a TOC from appearing on a page?

Thanks! -- -asx- 23:35, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

I believe putting in "__NOTOC__" will do it. --Dmcdevit·t 00:32, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

Cool, thank you! -asx- 00:43, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Don't do it unless you have a very good reason to. -- Cyrius|✎ 01:23, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

It's for my user page . . . . -asx- 04:31, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Personalizing of the "Random Article"

Hi,

I hope the title was written with a good enough explanation. Basically, I wanted to tell you that it is a great idea to put in a link for "random article" since many people (like me) browse the internet looking for something interesting to read. My only question - Is there any way to personalize it a bit further? Like i would like a random article from the medical section and an article about a particular type of disease or type of surgery could come up. Also, this way, it could be asked that the search engine that chooses the articles chooses them from different currencies around the world and the person could read a random article about a random currency he never knew about.

In other aspects, I think the "random article" button's great except it takes pretty long to get to an article of interest.

--curtisbindra 00:42, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

May I suggest that you visit the Medicine Portal? It will link you to a variety of medical subjects. John Barleycorn 04:40, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

Change User Name?

When I registered as Ewald wiberg I inadvertently did not capitalize my last name.

Canthis me corrected? How??

Thanks

Ewald wiberg

Wikipedia:Changing username →Raul654 01:32, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

Could an administrator change my name please?

Could my username be changed by an administrator to 'scott05' please? Thanks --Scottf9 02:55, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

See above. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!} 03:10, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

Help writing bots for use elsewhere

Preface: I know bots can be dangerous if not properly monitored, throttled, and controlled. But I've got a tough, rote task I think might be better automated, over on BrickWiki.. namely I want to help another user set up a template for each LDraw color so that we can use the colors in theme descriptions. ( theme Forestmen showing that one cell is green and one red... this won't work for colors that aren't known HTML colors, we need a template like LRed but with an actual cell and the color name in a good foreground color....)

I did some reading here on bots and read through a number of descriptions and so forth as well as Wikipedia:Bots and a number of related pages. Most of the bot authors seem to be reluctant to just make their bot code available, which when you think about it seems a good policy. I know Perl, somewhat, but Python not at all, so any bot I tried to put together would be in perl. I've already found the MediaWiki client

So, my question, am I better off just trying to generate the data for all the templates in some other way (excel macros, say) and then create the templates by hand? There are about 100 needed. Or am I better off trying to plow through the mediawiki client to see if I can get it to do what I want? Or is there an author that can help clueless newbs like me that I should talk to ? (didn't want to pick one at random) Thanks! ++Lar 03:36, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

I don't know anything about that kind of stuff, but Triddle has helped me several times with bot/script stuff. He's also an administrator and runs Wikipedia:Computer help desk. That's who I'd ask. --Dmcdevit·t 21:05, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

Quote collections

Wondering, since I have seen many collections of quotes in articles, and it is not addressed in what Wikipedia is not: should these quotes be there? I would assume that Wikipedia Is Not any of the other Wikimedia projects, but, as said, it doesn't say much of the sort on the Not page. It does say "ask yourself what a reader would expect under "whatever" in an encyclopedia", however. Is there a policy on this? I know that quotes can be appropriate, to introduce an article, or within the context of the main body, I am talking about collections of quotations lumped after the main article. --Superiority 04:52, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

I think it pretty much goes without saying that Wikipedia is not Wikiquote. →Raul654 04:57, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

I think most articles that include quote sections do so with some brevity (or at least they should) -- for some modern and historical figures, it seems natural. Perhaps in the long run this practice will disappear entirely (in favor of relying on Wikiquote), but as it stands I don't think they're awful. If Bob Dylan was a three paragraph article followed by a section of 35 quotes, that's clearly a bad article. Those cases should be remedied. Anywhere a quote can be introduced into the body of an article, I think that's best -- the article text surrounding it can help provide context, NPOV descriptions of people's reactions, etc. But a few quotes added to the end of a decent article....they don't bother me too much, and I can't think of any clear policy opposing them. Jwrosenzweig 05:10, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Thankee kindly --203.167.247.190 02:50, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Throat Cutting Question

My daughter and I have a bet. She says that if the throat is cut on the right side, that it bleeds out in 3 minutes. Whereas, she states that if the throat is cut on the left side, it bleeds out in 3 seconds. (She believes that the blood flowing INTO the brain is fighting gravity and moves slower and the blood coming OUT of the brain would flow faster.) I don't believe either is true and would like to give her the correct information. Our email address is mdblege@sbcglobal.net

Thank you for your response.

For factual questions, see Wikipedia:Reference desk, this area is for help with editing and functionality of Wikipedia itself as explained in the big box at the top with the stopsign. Also, many consider it less polite to ask for emailed replies (even implicitly) than to promise to watch for answers. Hope that helps. ++Lar 16:16, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

do search engines find wikipedia topics/pages?

Do general purpose search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, etc. find the topics and pages listed inside Wikipedia or are they purposely blocked? Thank you. GAP-24-July-2005.

See our robots.txt file. Long story short - no, they are not blocked. →Raul654 17:11, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

They sure do. A search on the english Wikipedia (over 14 million results)[4]. A search on all Wikipedias (over 22 million results) [5]. Now that's just Wikipedia and not the other projects! • Thorpe • 17:51, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Offline version?

my name is net. i've never heard of your organization. is it possible that i might buy a book, disk, whatever, that kinda starts at the beginning? every page i look at seems to be another cycle of its own and i seem to get lost again. of course, my children seem to think i am rather obtuse anyway, so maybe that's part of the problem-haha. i am fascinated and totally lost at the same time! if someone could direct me to a beginning... thank you for your time. net mc clintock

There isn't really a single "released version" of Wikipedia - and getting lost is the joy of an encylopedia. Again, there isn't really a single "beginning"; as an encylopedia is a collection of large amounts of discrete cross-referenced information, it's hard to show a starting point. The top of the Main Page has various links to allow you to browse topics or use an index, if that would help. Otherwise... wander away!

There have been plans to release a single "snapshot" version, but these haven't get got to a release stage, though the German wikipedia sold several thousand copies of a CD-ROM version last year. No printed copies exist, though there have been attempts to create printed WikiReaders, small collections of related articles. Hope that helps. Shimgray 20:43, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia! This encycolopedia doesn't have a beginning or an end as such, but you might like to start at the Main page, the Alphabetical index, A list of the Oldest articles or, more metaphorically, Creation myths. Thryduulf 20:49, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Have you tried the Random Article link on side of page and Recent Changes? If you stumble over any article that interests you, head on down to bottom of page to see what category it is in, to see if any more articles in same category of interest to you. Put them on your watch list, so you know it if they get updated. In fact, explore all the special pages and links in tool box. As a new user, post something about your interests in the new user section, then other people may say hello via your talk pages with respect to links to pages relevant to your expressed interests. AlMac|^(talk) 18:40, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

There is a downloadable PDA version of the Wikipedia available, in the TomeRaider format (see Wikipedia:TomeRaider database). Note that these downloads were last synchronised with the Wikipedia in December 2004; it still is not decided when/how we will make a move towards a single released version. --Gabriel Beecham/Kwekubo 01:34, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Advice on wikifying specific article

Hey everyone. I've been using Wikipedia for a while and decided I'd finally register and try some editing.

I figured I would start by "wikifying" an article of a local school: Notre_Dame_Roman_Catholic_High_School,_Burlington,_Ontario_Canada. I see a couple problems with the article, however I was hoping an experienced Wikipedian could point out some things they first spot as requiring changes.

Thanks a lot, I'm a little overwhelmed right now! :-)

--Mrtea 23:15, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

One good way to improve articles is by following the example of other (better) articles. The very best articles are Wikipedia's featured articles. Of these, there is one about a school, see Caulfield Grammar School. I'd suggest judging the one you want to work on against this one. Feel free to edit the featured article to see how anything is done (like the top-right infobox, this is a table using wikitable markup). Specific questions about an article should generally be asked on the article's talk page rather than here. BTW - don't worry about messing things up. Anything you do can be easily undone and if you use the "show preview" button before saving you'll be able to see what your edits will look like. Someone will almost certainly leave you a welcome message on your talk page. Feel free to ask this person, or me, any questions you might have. Welcome, and happy editing! -- Rick Block (talk) 23:30, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

how to replace insulting edit summary

I wish to replace an insulting comment in an edit summary with a less offensive comment. I've read the Civility FAQ and it states that while this is possible it requires technical help. Where can I get this help? --Jerry mcmanus 00:41, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure only developers can actually change the text. An admin could do a delete of the article and restore without the edit, so you could make the edit again and leave a nicer summary, but you'd need to find a pretty experienced admin. -- Essjay · Talk 00:58, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply, how do I find an experienced admin? --Jerry mcmanus 01:12, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

I'd give it a little while on here; there are quite a few who watch the page. Any experienced admins out there? -- Essjay · Talk 01:23, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

But doing this would lose the edit history (right?). If the edit was made by the user posing the question, I'm not seeing anything I'd even remotely call offensive. If you're worried you may have offended some specific user, you could just explain the situation and offer an apology on the user's talk page. If you're worried that your edit summary will live forever, marring your reputation, you could put something on your own talk (or user) page about it, but I suspect there's very little point in doing this. -- Rick Block (talk) 01:32, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

No, it's not a comment that I made, I wish to change a comment that someone else made. I don't mind people editing my contributions, that's just wikipedia, but when they choose to insult me in the process, I feel that clearly violates the civility policy. I was hoping there would be an easy way to do this, but if there isn't then I'm willing to just live with it. However, that begs the question, if someone is uncivil in their edit summaries, why isn't it easier to replace their comments with something less offensive? --Jerry mcmanus

I agree it would sometimes be useful to change edit summaries. On the other hand, even if it were easy unless someone was making an overt personal attack I highly doubt anyone would agree to change someone else's edit summary. It sounds like you were and are quite offended. I'd suggest rather than pursuing getting the edit summary changed you take this up directly with whoever made the comment on their talk page. You might want to refer to Wikipedia:Resolving_disputes#First_resort:_talk_to_the_other_parties_involved. I think the same principles likely apply. If, after talking with the user directly, you feel further action is warranted the Resolving Disputes page suggests what to do next. Good luck. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:02, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

I think there are various factors that make the process of changing an edit summary a tricky procedure. Edit summaries are part of the history of changes, rather than a change in themselves - if they could be changed, we would need to keep a history of changes to them, and that history could(plausably) have edit summaries of it's own, which brings us right back to where we started. If it didn't have edit summaries, or worse, we didn't keep a history of changes(to edit summaries, remember) then people could change history undetectably. This is a Very Bad Thing. While being able to apply Wikipedia:Remove personal attacks to edit summaries would be a Good Thing, it would imply the ability to easily change history in a way that could not be easily identified. I think the general consenus is that this would not be worth it. JesseW 04:09, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Trouble adding an image to an article

OK, I admit that I am missing something about the process here in getting an image that I want to upload into an article. I have uploaded the image Blue-Skylark-Side-View-B.jpg. I know it is there, because I have it on my watchlist. I have been able to get someone else's image into the article, but not my image. What am I doing wrong? BuickGuy2

• I've fixed it. The image is at Image:Blue-Skylark-Side-View-B.JPG JeremyA (talk) 03:25, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
  • It's case sensitive, in case (haha) you didn't catch that. Even the file extension. So always remember whether you uploaded it as ".jpg" or ".JPG" or whatever. --Dmcdevit·t 03:31, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

I'll probably put something about this on the talk page too but your question made me think of it. Providing links to the relevant articles helps people track down where the article in question is. I guess I should have guessed from your user name but I went to the article on the Skylark bird first and didn't see your user name in the edit history. Then saw your user name and figured it was supposed to be an image of a car which is at Buick Skylark. You can also sign your posts like this: ~~~~ and then people can click on your username to see info about you, rather than having to remember your user name and then search for it. Just thinking out loud really... Dismas 03:32, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Image

How do I upload images onto Wikipedia?--Anti-Anonymex2^{Come to my page! I've gone caliente loco!} 03:21, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

You may want to read the Wikipedia:Picture tutorial. And before someone jumps on you too hard about it, you may want to trim down the size of your signature; definitely the longest one I've ever seen! ;) —HorsePunchKid→龜 03:26, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Oh dear. I hope you're prepared to get those beans out of there yourself! — mendel ☎ 16:24, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Image shows up at home but not at work, why?

File:Kevin mike studio.jpg

The Bacon Brothers

I put up an image for the article on The Bacon Brothers at Image:Kevin mike studio.jpg. The image works at home, even after a cache clearing, but doesn't work from here at work. Here I get the red X broken image sort of image. Should it not be a .jpg and I just missed in the help files where it said "don't use .jpg images", or what? In case it matters, at home I use Safari and here at work I'm forced to use IE. Dismas 04:07, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Hmm. It may not have anything to do with work. I don't have any kind of content filter at my computer right now, but when I click on your image, I get the error message "The image “http:/upwiki/wikipedia/en/c/c8/Kevin_mike_studio.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors." Maybe it needs to be reuploaded, it looks like there is no file at that location. Anyone else seeing it at all? --Dmcdevit·t 04:13, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

I can't see it here, either. For some reason there's a chunk of XML embedded in it (some Apple DOCTYPE, probably just something from iPhoto?). I suppose one could put some XML into the comment header or whatever JPEG's analog of it is, but it's certainly something I've never seen before. It does have some JPEG content, though, at least the appropriate file magic. —HorsePunchKid→龜 04:39, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

I didn't understand a single word you just said. Got EJ? --Dmcdevit·t 04:44, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Sorry! :) When I see a broken image like that, the first thing I do is check the file size. If the imarge is zero bytes, something undoubtedly went wrong during uploading or downloading, and the image simply did not transfer at all. If it's not zero bytes and still not displaying, there are several possibilities, and the next step is to open the image file up not in a web browser or photo program, but rather a text editor like Vim. If it's actually an image file (and not mistakenly some other kind of file, for example, if the file extension got changed somehow), you'll see a lot of binary gibberish, but you'll also see interesting bits of text. The aforementioned file magic is the first thing to look for. A valid JPEG will actually have the text "JFIF" somewhere near the top; similarly GIFs have "GIF89a", PNGs have "PNG", and so on.

This file seems to pass that test. In most of these image formats, you can embed a lot of non-image data into the file, like a description, copyright, authorship, date, and so on. This file, oddly, has a huge chunk of XML data, but maybe Apple's photo products customarily do that for some reason. Strangely, this photo won't open in my web browser (Firefox), but Windows will display it in its picture viewer. I think Dismas probably just needs to re-save the photo or use his photo editor's "save for web" option or somesuch. Hope that's a little clearer! —HorsePunchKid→龜 05:48, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Ah, thanks for that, I feel much more enlightened. We go about it different ways, but funnily enough, we had come to basically the same conclusion. Anyway, that was a pretty good explanation, and now the helper becomes the helpee, so thanks. (I really wich I was more technically adept). --Dmcdevit·t 05:58, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

I guess I'm a geek, I understood it both ways. Thanks for help! When I get home I'll save it in a different app with web ready file format and try it again. Dismas 07:27, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

When I try to open the file with 'xv', a particularly pedantic Unix image viewer, it reports "Unsupported color conversion request". According to ImageMagick's 'identify', the XML that was mentioned earlier is properly contained in the EXIF and IPTC profile sections of the file, although I can't say I've ever seen either of those filled with XML like that!

Ah, I see the problem. You (or someone) has saved it in Photoshop as a color separation. Browsers won't handle that very well; JPEG supports features beyond what browsers implement and this is one. I've tried to convert it myself and will upload the new version, but the color seems off to me so I'm not sure if it's correct or not. If it isn't, you'll need to use Photoshop to save it as a TrueColor JPEG instead of a separation. — mendel ☎ 16:17, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

I've tried opening it in the one shareware image program that I have which is normally quite good, except for this pic. It says that the file had to be "converted from CMYK to RGB color space during opening." and that throws the color off. The image has an effect that washes out the colors a bit and changing the color set washes them out further and is no an appealing change. I'm not sure how to get the color to look right though, I'm no graphic artist. I don't have Photoshop so I'm at a bit of a loss. And yes, all the images that I got in the band's press pack are like this. Dismas 20:54, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

It's working now for me. It looks like mendel fixed it. --Dmcdevit·t 21:03, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

It's working for me here at work now! Thanks to whoever it was! Dismas 00:25, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Multilingual people and their accounts

Is it impossible to have one account with wikipedia that can be kept over several languages? It seems (from looking through the help archive) that each language is very distinct; although some articles can be displayed in many languages. I ran into this rather minor "problem" when I tried to log in through a different language. I'm perfectly content to register multiple times, but I was wondering if there may be a more convenient way. After all, many of us these days are at least bilingual...

• They are all different projects so register on each. Elfguy 13:41, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

• Currently no, although a single cross-language login is being looked at by developers. The current approach is to register multiple times. Shimgray 13:44, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

origin of the word wikipedia

What is the meaning of the word wiki? How and why did the original owners/authors hit upon the word wiki? Has the word any significance, especial or otherwise on the concept of the contents of the material found in the encyclopedia?

Million thanks for your consideration.

Syed Wasiqullah

Read the article wiki. It means any website that anyone can edit. It's not specific to wikipedia. Howabout1 ^{Talk to me!} 15:04, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

The name [Wiki] is based on the Hawaiian term wiki wiki, meaning "quick" or "informal"... [Ward] Cunningham coined the term wiki after the "wiki wiki" or "quick" shuttle buses at Honolulu Airport. Wiki wiki was the first Hawaiian term he learned on his first visit to the islands, when the airport counter agent directed him to take the wiki wiki bus between terminals. According to Cunningham, "I chose wiki-wiki as an alliterative substitute for 'quick' and thereby avoided naming this stuff quick-web." [3] See also: List of computer term etymologies. →Raul654 16:30, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Film about the Diamond Heist

I read recently that a film company, I believe Working Titles, were going to produce a movie about the aborted diamond heist from the Dome. The last time I contacted them they weren't sure they were going to carry on with the idea but recently I read in one of the newspapers another film company was considering it and I wondered if you could shed any light on it. The reason being I own the JCB excavator which was the main "star" Richard Evison www.steam-models.uk.com Tel 01773 541527 07736 105188

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Since this is a factual question, please see the note at the top of this page, and good luck! Notinasnaid 18:16, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Question belongs in Wikipedia:Reference desk where it is more likely to be seen by people who can answer it. AlMac|^(talk) 18:33, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Contents Menu

Is there any way of avoiding a contents menu appearing on an article or is there any way of moving it to a specific location? Forbsey 18:53, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

• __NOTOC__ Elfguy 19:01, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. Forbsey 19:09, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

• Try to avoid using this on articles. Others may like having the TOC around on an article. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:01, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Problems Staying Logged In

I'm using Firefox on Windows XP, with cookies turned on and Wikipedia.org explicitly defined in the sites allowed to store cookies list. However when I log in I'm automatically logged out very quickly. For example if I go to my preferences page after logging in, I get a chance to save one or two pages before I get redirected to a page telling me I must log in to view preferences. Even just browsing articles after one or two hyperlink clicks I'm no longer logged in. This is very frustrating as someone who would like to become more active in the Wiki community.

I use Firefox on XP, too. I don't know that this will help in your case, but when I need to re-login after my cookie has expired (or if I unintentionally log out), I actually go into the preferences, set my cookie options to "until they expire", log in (making sure to check the "remember me" box), then go back and reset the option to "until I close Firefox". It's cumbersome, but it does manage to keep me logged in for weeks at a time, annoying flaws in the new MediaWiki notwithstanding. —HorsePunchKid→龜 20:30, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

correcting lalaine's info

I tried to edit lalaine's info. When I clicked on[edit] i am taken to her career snd not to the 1st paragraph which is what I am trying to correct. What the 1st paragraph says is this:

  "Lalaine or Lalaine Vergara-Paras (born 3 June 1987 in Burbank, California) is a young 
   American actress. Lalaine grew up, and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. She
   is a Eurasian of three quarters Filipino and one quarter Hispanic descent."

I would like to change it to this:

  "Lalaine or Lalaine Vergara-Paras (born 3 June 1987 in Burbank, California) is a young 
   American actress. Lalaine lived in The Philippines from ages 3-8, from 1990-95.  She 
   currently lives in Los Angeles, California. She is of Filipino descent.  Her mom Lilia
   Paras is from Batangas, and her dad is from Pampanga.

She is of Filipino descent, not eurasian.

I think you are clicking on the edit buttons in the articles text (for specific section-editting). What you want to do is click on the "edit this page" all the way at the top. That'll let you edit the whole thing. And welcome to Wikipedia! --Dmcdevit·t 20:51, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

New subject

I added a new subject "auto independence" I wanted to save it as a subpage because I wasn't able to finish it but I didn't know how to do that. When I selected the save page, it came up in a strange way. The first and last paragraph came up normally. Then the part in between came up in a separate block that stretch off the screen. I know that you will decide whether the article is acceptable. If you decide it is not will you delete the whole thing?

Can I copy and paste from a word file?
 DorothyCamer

This is because you started the paragraphs with an indent. Wikimarkup needs you to start a paragraph with a new line. Don't worry about it though. I've fixed it and any other formatting problems can easily be fixed. Yes you can copy and paste from a word file. The formatting will probably be all wrong, but the text is what is important. Speaking of which, you need to remember that this is an encylopedia. Try to write in an encylopedia style. You need references. Where did this idea come from, which person, group or groups came up with it. Because that needs to go into the article. Theresa Knott (a tenth stroke) 22:52, 25 July 2005 (UTC)

By the way, did you think to save it as a subpage because of the note above the edit box suggesting this? I'm asking because we just recently added that note, and I'm looking for feedback on it. JesseW 00:18, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

copyright of facts?

I'm new to Wikipedia and have started to write some articles, but have run into some copyrighted webpages. If a webpage is the only source for a fact, and it is copyrighted, does that mean that I cannot place that fact into an article? Like [6] says that Apache Point Observatory was opened on 10 May, 1994 -but the page is copyrighted. If that was the only source I could find for the opening date, would placing it in the article be an infringment? If not, how much information from a copyrighted page can be taken, reworded, and placed in an article? --Rayc 00:52, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

No, facts aren't copyrighted, only the expression of those facts. So, if you took the exact text (or text remarkably similar to) the copyrighted article, that would be illegal. But to use the text to extrapolate facts, i.e., that date, would be fine. Using another's words is plagarism, using another's facts is research. -- Essjay · Talk 01:00, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

In case it's not clear, though, plagiarism and copyright violation aren't the same thing. Taking someone else's ideas, rewriting them, and claiming them as your own would be plagiarism, but probably not copyright violation. However, this doesn't apply to facts, only to ideas. For facts, you should cite your sources, but it's always OK to put a fact in Wikipedia. Isomorphic 06:14, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Cleanup-translation

Is you cleanup-translation template intended for articles like West Kameng? You have a lot of them. There's no evidence it was translated, but it was written by people who can't write English well enough for me to know how to fix it. Art LaPella 02:17, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

It may be that it is a machine translation (and therefore turns out poorly), so yes. You're welcome to use your own judgment and add it when you see fit (West Kameng looks like it may be machine translated). Don't forget to note it at WP:PNT as well when you do. --Dmcdevit·t 02:23, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

querry

Hi,

I have few questions about obesity and muscle strength, it would be very kind of you if you could help me in this regard:

1. For a given posture whether obese or non-obese has more muscle strength. How does it vary?

2. What kind of muscle strength is involved in emergency situation (e.g. if you're lifting a load and you feel its heavy but still you have to lift that load)?

I would appreciate if you could provide me some information about this or you could suggest some books where i can find these informations.

my email id: devendsp@email.uc.edu

Thank you & best regards- dev

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Since this is a factual question, please see the note at the top of this page, and good luck! Notinasnaid 07:44, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Finding Joe Brovia

We've been contributing some historic material writen by our History Department on major/minor league baseball players inducted into the Pacific Coast League (PCL) Hall of Fame for their minor league careers. Most have been fairly easy to update or add. One problem is a lost entry for Joseph John ('Joe') Brovia that the system doesn't seem to locate. How do we go about finding it if Wikipedia doesn't partial search name entries (We notice the same problem when we search for Raymond Pop Prim by just searching as Pop Prim. Is there a way of entering the name for multiple searches better than we've been doing? Or does it take some period of time to index names in your system fully?

Thank you

Sincerely,

Brian Ross Sr. Editor Minor League News (MLN)