Help Page Patrollers are a group of Wikipedians who patrol the help desk and help users who have placed the {{helpme}} template on their talk pages. The patrol is an optional service. Patrollers can come and go, and there is no official sign up process.

Regular patrollers may add {{User HPP}} or {{user help desk}} to their user page:

This user is a help page patroller

This user volunteers at the
Wikipedia Help Desk.

What helpers can do

Make sure all messages are formatted correctly,
Answer questions,
Check the Help Me Category and answer questions from users,
Check archives

Patrollers

Add yourself with

#~~~ (Joined ~~~~~)

and if you are not using the userbox, add yourself to the Help Desk Patrol Category.

List

Levonscott User talk:Levonscott User:Levonscott (Joined 07:38, 21 August 2011 (UTC))[reply]
StewieGriffin! • Talk 07:04, 4 June 2008 (UTC) I'm Back Founder of the HPP[reply]
RyRy5 (talk) (Joined 00:20, 31 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Hersfold ^(t/a/c) (Joined 21:41, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Soxred93 | talk bot (Joined 19:57, 19 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
...... Dendodge.Talk^Help (Joined 09:34, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Alexfusco⁵ (Joined 14:32, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Bauani (talk) (Joined 22:31, 20 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Kerotan ^{Leave Me a Message} Have a nice day :) (joined 06:27, 21 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
::Manors:: talk to me (Joined 15:10, 22 April 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Sunny910910 ^{(talk|Contributions|Guest)} (Joined 02:21, 4 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Teratornis (talk) (Joined 06:37, 5 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Calvin 1998 ^(t-c) (Joined 01:54, 13 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Mr. Green^{Hit Me Up}Userboxes (Joined 16:13, 16 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Josh Powell (talk) (Joined 14:18, 23 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
-- ShinmaWa^(talk) (Joined 19:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]
-- Natalya 22:45, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Active earlier this year, hope to regain that. Rudget (Help?) 13:23, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
ChristopherJames2008 (talk) (Joined 13:35, 1 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Iamzork (talk) (Joined 11:22, 6 June 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Cedarvale1965-08 (talk) (Joined 02:30, 15 June 2008 (UTC))[reply]
:-) Stwalkerster [ talk ] (Joined 16:12, 15 June 2008 (UTC), but have been doing this for ages)[reply]
–thedemonhog talk • edits (Joined 18:13, 15 June 2008 (UTC); made twenty-three edits to the help desk page prior to joining the patrol)[reply]
IaM7DeadlySins (talk)
Scottydude _talk (Joined 02:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC))[reply]
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ukexpat (talk) (Joined 15:01, 26 August 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Lego K^ontribs T^alk M (Joined 00:51, 12 September 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Chamal ^talk _work (Joined 15:20, 16 October 2008 (UTC), but have been contributing to Help desk long before signing up here.[reply]
Genius 101 ^Guestbook (Joined 22:28, 18 October 2008 (UTC))[reply]
Excirial^{(Contact me,Contribs)} 06:46, 19 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
-Porchcrop ^{(talk|contributions)} 04:29, 28 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
$\xi ri\pi i\vartheta \alpha \xi$ (Joined 09:34, 1 August 2009 (UTC))[reply]
Unionhawk ^Talk ^E-mail 18:16, 4 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
LbB (Joined 14:33, 5 October 2009 (UTC))
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Enti342 (talk) (Joined 21:30, 20 January 2010 (UTC))[reply]
-- PhantomSteve/talk|contribs\ (Joined 07:04, 3 April 2010 (UTC))[reply]
œ ^™ 23:08, 12 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Bobby122 (talk) (Joined 15:17, 27 June 2010 (UTC))[reply]
Sainsf--Sainsf<^> (talk) 15:58, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Imagine Wizard (talk • contribs • count) Iway amway Imagineway Izardway. (Joined 13:43, 27 August 2010 (UTC))[reply]
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—ASPENSTI—TALK—CONTRIBUTIONS (Joined 17:38, 2 March 2011 (UTC))[reply]
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MarkYabloko (Joined 07:45, 11 November 2015 (UTC))[reply]
Boomer Vial^{Holla! We gonna ball!} (Joined 20:50, 24 February 2017 (UTC))[reply]
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Sam Sailor (Joined 21:49, 6 April 2019 (UTC))[reply]
Kichu🐘 ^Discuss (Joined 11:08, 3 March 2021 (UTC))[reply]
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January 6

Where to post for help on a dodgy-looking edit

Resolved

– Poster referred to WP:AN/I ukexpat (talk) 14:29, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a bit concerned that this edit may contravene Wikipedia guidelines by linking to inappropriate material. Where's the best place to report it please? Thanks Rjwilmsi 22:53, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That is very concerning. Post at WP:AN/I, where administrators can deal with it and report to the proper authorities. Xenon 54 23:07, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Have done that. Rjwilmsi 08:19, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Check edits, please

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 03:36, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Could someone check the edits of this user. I'm at work right now and given the subject of the articles that they're editing, I'd rather not check the external links that they're adding (spamming?) while on a work computer. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 01:25, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah. Looks like spam to me. Just links to Celeb-O-Rama. Reverted and warned. -Seidenstud (talk) 02:18, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 02:25, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Text scans on Commons

Resolved

– Poster referred to Commons Help desk. ukexpat (talk) 14:31, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What's the point of having scans of pages and pages of text on Commons? Especially if they're never used. Dismas|^(talk) 03:50, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You may have to ask on commons:Commons:Help desk. commons:Commons:Project scope explains what belongs on Commons, and I'm not immediately sure how the file you mention fits into that. You could also try asking the uploader what he or she intends to do with that file. Maybe it appeared somewhere once upon a time but the containing page got deleted or someone edited out the image. Maybe someone plans to use these text scans in a reCAPTCHA-type of scheme, who knows? --Teratornis (talk) 06:39, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I'll check those pages. There are hundreds (thousands?) of these pages on Commons. Dismas|^(talk) 08:37, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Table height problems

Resolved

On User talk:SpecialWindler/Sandbox4/test, I have a trancluded template. You'll notice the height of the rows do not wrap around the text, and seem to be a particular height. Why is this and how do you get rid of it.

The template code is on User talk:SpecialWindler/Sandbox4/test

Thanks for your help in advanced. The Windler talk 04:02, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See my reply to the next question about substituting the template instead of transcluding it, so you can see the resulting wikitext. Whenever you are having trouble getting a template to generate a table with a particular appearance, you should first manually create a sample table that looks the way you want. Then you have the table wikitext that you want the template to generate, giving you something to compare against the result of substituting the template on your user sandbox page. As it stands, you are trying to compare a mental concept of what you want the template to look like, against the complex code in the template. That puts you one level of abstraction away on both ends from what you really want to be comparing. Do you follow me? If you have the table code that you want the template to generate, then you have turned a very vague problem into a very specific problem. --Teratornis (talk) 06:59, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I've experiemented, and to its simple level, what I want is User:SpecialWindler/Sandbox4/test/expierement/what.

But when I put into a template, (The code here), it dosen't work in the height factor.

Seen here User talk:SpecialWindler/Sandbox4/test/expierement, notice the height of the tables is too high. Why?? The Windler talk 23:06, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Don't worry, I have fixed it myself. The Windler talk 03:16, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Help with a template in development

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 14:56, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Can someone help me with a template I'm trying to develop. You can see it in action here. As you can see there is some extra white space on those rows which do not have a description and I'm having a devil of the time removing it. The inclusion that should be edited can be found here. Any help would be much appreciated. --Deadly∀ssassin 04:38, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

One template debugging trick is to substitute the template into your user sandbox page, and save your edit. Then edit your sandbox page and you can see the wikitext code that results when Wikipedia expands your template. Otherwise, if you only transclude the template during your testing, it can be very difficult to imagine what your template code is turning into, since you never see the intermediate expanded wikitext, only the final HTML rendering in your browser. You can also try looking at the HTML code by viewing the page source in your browser. Occasionally that might also give some insight, but usually the real information comes from substituting the template and looking at the wikitext you are getting. --Teratornis (talk) 06:28, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the tip, when I subst it looks like it's not working properly - the true expression of the #if statement doesn't get through to the substituted page. Could this be a bug in wikimedia, or a problem with my code? The substituted page is here --Deadly∀ssassin 07:05, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Now you're getting warmer. See my response to the question above yours - the next step is to manually create another test page with a table having exactly the structure you want the template to produce. Also, I suggest making another set of test pages with the smallest possible code example that isolates the problem you are having with the #if statement. Currently the problem is somewhat hard to see inside a large amount of surrounding code, which I gather you think is working OK. A basic debugging strategy is to isolate the problem by making the smallest code example that elicits the problem. This is always necessary before you conclude you have found a bug in the MediaWiki software - this software gets a lot of use, so it is unlikely (though not impossible) that you are the first person to run into a previously unknown bug. First you must rule out a coding error on your part. If simplifying your template makes the problem go away, then the problem is likely to be something else in the template that is gumming up the code where the problem manifests itself. See How to Ask Questions the Smart Way which elaborates on how to demonstrate problems so others can fix them. Basically, you want to show other people only the problem, not the problem buried in a bunch of surrounding code which will only distract people and make it harder for them to see the problem. Read and re-read every friendly manual page which relates to the problem: Help:Table, Help:Template, Help:Magic words, and Help:Parserfunctions. If you cannot identify and fix the problem with these debugging tips, you could then present your well-posed examples on WP:VP/T, where there are more users who specialize in the technical side of Wikipedia. Good luck. --Teratornis (talk) 23:20, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks alot for your help. I managed to solve this by nor allowing whitespace and newlines to be stripped from the parser functions. --Deadly∀ssassin 10:25, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion of this article

Resolved

– Jojo comics deleted ukexpat (talk) 21:21, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What criterion for speedy deletion would best apply to this article? Does it even qualify for speedy deletion? The closest of the criteria would be A7, but it is still pretty vague, as the article is not a bio, company, or band, and no specific template stands out. ---RCB _talk 05:27, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Don't think it meets any speedy criteria as books are exempt from CSD#a7. Prod or AfD it if you want it deleted. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 05:44, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't seem to be a book though.---RCB _talk 06:01, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the article says nothing about the media it was published in. Assuming it was a series of comic books or comic strips in some newspaper, a7 doesn't apply. Article doesn't assert notability but still it doesn't look like a speedy candidate to me. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 07:40, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

However, it does appear it is a clear candidate for WP:AFD. Make sure you read the relevant policies and guidelines before nominating. Especially WP:BEFORE - Mgm|^(talk) 10:20, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I've tagged it as no-context. It should be noted that there are actually historical comics by the title Jo-Jo and Jojo; this is none of them. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:08, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You mean its a hoax? It isn't a short article though. I fail to see how {{db-context}} would apply sorry :/ --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 15:17, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually if you strip out the listcruft, it is short. – ukexpat (talk) 15:52, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Messages

HELLO?!?! this had happened more than 10 times

after visiting many articles in wikipedia, the next day i will have a new message saying that I was vandalising an article. OK, so i went to see which article it was, and to my surprise, it was a article that i never see before. and something ironic, I NEVER gave a sh!t about editing any article and didn't even edit anything before. so wad the heck are they saying when they sae that i was vandalising when i DIDN'T EVEN GAVE A SH!T ABOUT EDITING ANYTHING!?

for the last time, I DO NOT TOUCH AND NEVER EDIT ANY ARTICLE'S CONTENT. :) SO PLEASE. i dun wanna receive any more this sh!tty messages —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jovicci (talk • contribs) 07:44, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You have a shared IP address. Someone else used that IP to vandalize articles, and when the IP was allocated to you by your ISP, you received those warning messages. Just ignore them :) --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 07:51, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Now that you have an account, you won't receive those notices if you are logged in. Dismas|^(talk) 08:35, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And just a friendly word in closing -- please do not be so confrontational and please do not use offensive language, albeit thinly disguised. You are much more likely to get helpful responses if you just chill a little. – ukexpat (talk) 14:36, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know, George Carlin made a lot of money off the Seven dirty words, which isn't to say profanity is equally lucrative in less-skilled hands. As Help desk volunteers, part of our puzzle is to determine how much a questioner knows about Wikipedia. Use of profanity and CAPSLOCK indicates that the questioner is probably very new to Wikipedia and hasn't yet learned the customs here. This can be useful to help us determine how to tailor our response. One needs to address a Wikipedia expert differently than one addresses a newbie who doesn't know "SH!T" about Wikipedia, so as not to insult the expert's intelligence, or befuddle the newbie by talking over his/her/its head. --Teratornis (talk) 19:19, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I must just be old-fashioned fuddy-duddy, but a polite, measured approach is more likely to elicit a response from me. – ukexpat (talk) 20:01, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure many if not most Wikipedians would agree with you, but it seems even the least refined supplicants on the Help desk get a response from someone, suggesting we have enough eyeballs aimed this way to assure that a few are connected to some pretty AGF brains. I guess it's all in how one looks at it. When I see someone venting rage on the Help desk, aimed at no one in particular, I tend to feel relieved to know I'm not the only one who feels victimized frequently by the collision of high technology with my boundless ignorance (one can virtually equate "serious computer user" with "swears a lot" - especially when they hear someone say "Get a Mac"). Now if someone were to light up my talk page with vituperation aimed directly at me, I might react a bit differently, but even then I would feel mildly embarrassed if someone were to catch me in a weak moment and derail my sangfroid. In any case, there is a lot of perhaps unintentional yet rather high-handed officiousness in the structure of Wikipedia, reflected in such dubious statistics as the thousands of articles we delete every day. Many of those articles are the work of well-meaning but naive newcomers, who got suckered by Wikipedia's way-too-welcoming Honeypot user interface, which demonstrably encourages lots of people to follow their dreams only to discover after losing hours of work that their dreams did not correspond with our stupefyingly complex and unintuitive rules. It's pretty clear that Wikipedia's design is optimized for people who are experts at using Wikipedia, which is hardly surprising because only expert users know enough to write all the friendly manuals and so on. There aren't enough people taking a hard look at Wikipedia from the rank beginner's point of view. What is it about Wikipedia that systematically and repeatedly encourages waves of newcomers to waste their time creating articles that don't have a snowball's chance? Our response is to continually improve the efficiency of our deletion process, rather than address the actual problem, which is the wrong message we send to some fraction of new users. (Ultimately, some of these problems may be unfixable until computers pass the Turing test, which I suspect may be just a few months before computers realize they don't need humans any more.) --Teratornis (talk) 04:52, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Delete article

I created an entry today and would like it to be deleted, can you tell me how to do it?Esperance10 (talk) 09:05, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Edit the page and put this tag: {{db-author}}--Unpopular Opinion (talk) 09:09, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Too late for that now, other editors have been working on it. – ukexpat (talk) 15:53, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image placement guideline

Quite some time ago I read a Wikipedia guideline (or was it a policy) about the placement of images in articles. In particular, it was suggested that having images both left and right (like in this question), was undesirable and should be avoided if at all possible. Unfortunately, I can't find it any more. Would someone be able to provide me with a link to that guideline/policy? Thanks. Astronaut (talk) 12:14, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's part of MOS:IMAGES - "Avoid sandwiching text between two images that face each other." Nanonic (talk) 12:24, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you have too many images to fit in a section, consider using a gallery tag. --Teratornis (talk) 19:20, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Anderson

Hi, Im writing an article on my band and i just published it. It is unfinished, but is at a safe point to stop and i intend to add to it over the next few days. I recieved a message stating that something is wrong and it will be deleted?

Please can you help?

Ollie

the page is 'anderson (band)'

thank you

Funky0 (talk) 14:18, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It appears that your page Anderson (band), has been tagged for speedy deletion. This happens when an article does not show why the subject is notable. My suggestion is add reliable sources that provide in-depth indepedent coverage of the band. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 14:24, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Added section title. Astronaut (talk) 15:16, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It also appears your (possibly autobiographical) Oliver Chanter article is getting no love. You appear to be approaching Wikipedia in one of the most difficult ways, by trying to create new articles from scratch before you have spent much time editing existing articles and reading the friendly manuals. That would be like me walking into a yo-yo competition (with no training) and attempting to go up against the champions. Before one is ready to perform at a high level, one must first master the fundamentals. On Wikipedia, that means making many small edits to existing articles, and observing what other Wikipedia users do to your edits. That is, you try editing something, you watch the page you edit, and when you see another user changing what you added, you try to understand that user's action in light of what the manuals say. See also WP:WWMPD, WP:LAYOUT, and WP:EIW. If you like to read books, get: Wikipedia - The Missing Manual. --Teratornis (talk) 19:44, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

education

is there any free education courses to study? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.18.15 (talk) 16:09, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe Wikiversity would be a better place to look. BigDunc^Talk 16:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Everything on Wikipedia is both free and educational, so you have 6,926,973 articles to choose from here, although some articles are better than others at the moment. You can start from Portal:Contents or type something in the search box. If you would like more specific advice, you could tell us the subjects you would like to study. Note that Wikipedia is a do it yourself system - we don't rely on human teachers to spoon-feed knowledge to students. Wikipedia users will answer well-posed questions, but in general most people who learn about and from Wikipedia do so by reading the friendly manuals (and reading the friendly articles). --Teratornis (talk) 19:27, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Legality of Palin email screenshots

I would like to include one of the many screenshots of Palin's Yahoo! inbox on Sarah Palin email hack, but I'm not sure if it would be legal. Are the images in the public domain, or are they considered the personal property of Palin? They have been published by several websites, but not by any professional media organizations, so I'm a little weary. For instance, Wikileaks has copies of the screenshots. --beefyt (talk) 18:10, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright issues aside; although the email issue is public, posting screenshots of the email interface might be considered invasion of privacy WP:BLPPRIVACY. I guess that's why the images were not published by the media. Wikipedia is not hosted by PRQ after all. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 18:28, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Internet Based

Which is the main internet storage? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.248.68.57 (talk) 18:40, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This page is for questions about using Wikipedia. Please consider asking this question at the Computing reference desk. They specialize in answering computer questions and will try to answer any question in the universe (except how to use Wikipedia, since that is what this Help Desk is for). Just follow the link and ask away. You could always try searching Wikipedia for an article related to the topic you want to know more about. I hope this helps. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 18:45, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I keep mine in a box on top of the wardrobe. Andy Mabbett (User:Pigsonthewing); Andy's talk; Andy's edits 23:30, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Viewing Images

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 14:57, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For some reason I can no longer view images on any of the pages I go to. Is there any way to fix this problem? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.27.245.132 (talk) 20:00, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Does this happen on all websites that you visit or just Wikipedia? If it happens on all websites, check your browser settings to make sure that image display has not been disabled. – ukexpat (talk) 20:03, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This only happens on the Wikipedia. and as far as i know, i haven't changed any image display settings on my browser. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.27.245.132 (talk) 22:51, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There is a setting in some browsers to block images from particular sites. Occasionally we get reports on the Help desk from users who have somehow accidentally activated this setting for Wikipedia (I'm not sure exactly how, maybe by bumping some hot key combination, all I know is that it seems to be possible to get this setting without consciously asking for it). If you tell us what browser you are running, someone could tell you exactly where to look in your browser settings. --Teratornis (talk) 10:17, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm using Mozilla Firefox. thanks

never mind. i found where to change the browser settings so that the images are no longer blocked —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.27.245.132 (talk) 23:59, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

New to Wikipedia editing and would like to add personal photos to expand on my edit topic.

When trying to upload pictures, to illustrate a text that I have added, I am blocked. How do I go about adding such images that I, myself have taken? - dstein2484 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dstein2484 (talk • contribs) 20:10, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You must be autoconfirmed to upload images. That means you have to make ten edits and stay here for four days before being able to upload. It's a security measure of sorts. bibliomaniac 1 5 20:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) In order to upload images, your account must be autoconfirmed. In other words, your account must be active for four days and make at least ten edits. You are eight edits and three days away. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 20:13, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can still upload those images to commons and use them here though. Commons doesn't have such a restriction. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 20:16, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

need address

for:

Hanesbrand Warehouse Hometown, Pa

Need phone number

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.43.47.194 (talk) 21:29, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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. TN‑X-Man 21:35, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Or, you could Google it! Adammw (talk) 17:17, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

FInfo Tool - 403 Forbidden Error

Hey, was trying to use this tool just now: http://wikipedia.ramselehof.de/flinfo.php

It's giving me a 403 Forbidden error, and I'm not sure who to contact about it. -- Scarpy (talk) 22:41, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The blue link on the 403 page is a mailto link to the server's postmaster, so I would start there. – ukexpat (talk) 22:49, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikiblame on the same server is returning the same error. DuncanHill (talk) 23:32, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I emailed postmaster at ramselehof dot de about both FInfo and Wikiblame. -- Scarpy (talk) 02:20, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Help and FAQ's aren't helping me

I have been round and round this site reading and linking and have yet to find out how I can upload an article to be read, edited, or anything. I have spent the past 4 hours here and have drawn a complete blank. All the links that say they will describe the process, do not. My article would fit a blank spot at Wikipedia and I believe it would be helpful to many. But I cannot find out how to send it, where to send it, or if it can be sent at all. I have written the article using MSWord and converted it to HTML with MS FrontPage. It has been published to my own web site so I know it works. My question is, Can an HTML article be sent to Wikipedia at all? If I have to convert it I will, but where do I E-mail or FTP the file?

Thanks PhaetonDriver —Preceding unsigned comment added by PhaetonDriver (talk • contribs) 23:28, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. Algebraist 23:32, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

HTML is of no use: you need to convert it to WP:Wikitext, and you upload it pretty much the same as you posted your question above. I have a concern, however, about the fact that it is already published on your web site: All text on Wikipedia must be licensed under GFDL. —teb728 t c 23:57, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't tried it but see Wikipedia:Tools#Importing (converting) content from other formats to Wikipedia (MediaWiki) format and Help:WordToWiki. If you wrote it in Word then it's probable better to try to convert directly from Word to wikitext than going trough HTML. You add text to Wikipedia pages by inserting it in an edit box in your browser and click "Save page", like when you posted this question. You cannot use email or FTP. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:24, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It will come as no shock to experienced Wikipedians that your new article, Ponytail Canasta, has already collected a {{dated prod}} template for violating one of Wikipedia's many unintuitive policies and guidelines (in this case, WP:NOT#HOWTO). I suspect it is no accident that the instructions on how to create a new article are somewhat hard for newcomers to find on Wikipedia, because the mechanics of how to put some content on Wikipedia are the least of the aspiring editor's worries. Ideally, one should not find the instructions on how to start a new article until one has read and understood enough of the instructions detailing what an article should and should not contain. (That's a polite way of saying: if you have to ask how to create a new article, you are not ready to create a new article - unless you want to watch it get deleted.) For most users, an understanding of what Wikipedia is about doesn't start to really sink in until they have accumulated around 1000 edits. Once a user has gained that much experience, then he or she probably has enough skills to create a new article with a good chance of "sticking" - or at the very least, by then the user will be aware that Wikipedia deletes thousands of new articles by new users (that's a statistic which deserves more publicity than we give it). For best results, before a person dashes into a minefield, that person should at least be aware that the minefield exists. Knowing exactly where all the mines are hiding is even better. In the case of Ponytail Canasta, you may have more luck putting it on wikiHow, a wiki specifically meant for how-to guides. I removed your accidental red links so they don't show up on some requested articles page. I changed your red links into italics which is the proper way to emphasize text on Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 03:22, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, today seems to be your lucky day. Some experienced Wikipedia users have cleaned up Ponytail Canasta and (probably) saved it from deletion. You should study their changes, and try to understand why they did what they did, by reading their edit summaries in the history page and viewing the revision diffs. --Teratornis (talk) 10:13, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all for the responses and the kind way you told me I didn't do enough reading and research before making my first post. I appreciate any and all non abusive criticism. I will look at the areas described above and I am very happy someone has taken the time to actually do an edit. I was sure it wasn't correct for this site but was hoping it would be a topic that would be read. I did read one persons request for the instructions when I searched the topic. If there is a better place for how-to's I wasn't aware of it. I am eager to read the edits and do what I need to do to make this article appropriate for this or another site. I have written a lot of technical manuals and am quite used to being shredded by editors, to the point that I don't even bleed any more. Thank you all again. PhaetonDriver (talk) 05:54, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I just went to the WikiHow site and read what that is all about, then searched for Ponytail Canasta and it took me to my entry. I like the things that were added very much. The only reference I was able to find anywhere was for Canasta and the best source was here at Wikipedia. So thank you again for adding the graphics and links (which I had not figured out how to do). In my original Word Doc I had several links to other areas within the article and some are again there. Thanks to all that helped these instruction to get posted here. Now I look forward to learning more and more about how this site works so I can contribute more and more. PhaetonDriver (talk) 06:07, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

January 7

sorting table

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 16:46, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi guys, my table used to "sort" but now it doesn't, please help ;) Ryan4314 (talk) 00:37, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is probably WP:VPT#Sortable tables & Firefox 3.0.5. Algebraist 00:39, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Seems your right, solved. Ryan4314 (talk) 04:03, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Creating a sandbox or subpage for new article

Help. I have difficulty setting up subpage or user page. Instead of the article title, the system injects my user ID. Isn't the User ID for account purposes only. I need to be able to name the article. Where is my main page which has the user subpage/sandbox access? I want time to construct the article before posting to main page for review. I have read on the site that subpages are discouraged/banned and sandbox is the preferred mode for 1st timers. Help. Thanks. I need to be able to name my article and work on constructing it before it goes to the main page. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ynotnow (talk • contribs) 04:06, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There are no preexisting links to user subpages. You can create a personal sandbox by editing the user subpage User:Ynotnow/Sandbox. You can create more subpages if you want, for example User:Ynotnow/Sandbox2 or User:Ynotnow/Name of the article you are working on. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:35, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hello there. I'm not sure where you read that subpages are discouraged; we actually highly encourage the use of subpages for drafting new articles or substantial revisions to existing ones. To set one up:

Create a page at User:Ynotnow. This is your main userpage, which will act as an anchor for all of your user subpages.
Edit User:Ynotnow and include this text: [[/Subpage]]. This creates a link to a subpage which you can then create. You can call the subpage whatever you like; the important bit is that the first character inside those brackets is a slash /.
Once you're sure your article meets all of our policies (see WP:YFA for some tips) you can "move" the page to the article space. That link should provide you with instructions on how to do so, but if you need help, we're always open.

Hope this helps! If not, WP:SUBPAGE might be able to help you out as well. Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 04:36, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I guessed Ynotnow read somewhere that article subpages are discouraged/banned. The banned part is true: They are disallowed and not recognized as subpages. The subpage feature is turned off for mainspace articles so a mainspace page with '/' in the name, for example OS/2, is treated like any other article name and not as a subpage of OS. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:44, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In case it's not clear, when we say "Create a page at User:Ynotnow" we mean you actually click on that red link, and you will get an edit box similar to the one you faced when you added your question to the Help desk. Also see the WP:TUTORIAL and WP:CHEATSHEET. If you are new to Wikipedia, be advised that starting new articles from scratch that "stick" can be one of the more difficult tasks here. Some very large percentage of new articles by new users get deleted; the most important factor is the topic area you choose to write about. Some topics in particular are like the La Brea Tar Pits, luring all sorts of unsuspecting new users to their demise. Especially high mortality rates apply to marginally notable areas of youth culture, such as articles about non-famous bands. If you want to write about something really boring, such as a bridge or a dam, or something slightly less boring like a wind farm, there are still many examples of those kinds of installations which are notable enough for articles but don't have articles yet. See WP:NOT for a concise summary of what you should not write about here. If anything is unclear, you know where to ask. --Teratornis (talk) 05:06, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

contribution disappeared by still listed under my contributions

My contribution to the Joseph Priestley page disappeared. What happened?

It still shows under "my contributions": 20:56, 6 January 2009 (hist) (diff) Joseph Priestley ‎ (→Legacy)

I have not received any notices that there was a problem. The contribution was the fact the Priestley had an asteroid named in his honor and I provided a citation.

What might I have done wrong? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessecarllane (talk • contribs) 06:01, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please see the talk page at Talk:Joseph_Priestley#Asteroid -- GateKeeper^(X) @ 06:05, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For general information about how to track changes on Wikipedia, see Help:Watching pages, Help:Page history, and Help:User contributions. Your contributions will show all the edits you have made to every non-deleted page as long as Wikipedia continues to run. However, your edits will only continue to be visible in the current revision of an article if no one else has removed or edited over them. Think of the history of a page as being like a geologic column. The old layers of rock can remain for billions of years, but tons of overlying rock may obscure them. The MediaWiki software which powers Wikipedia provides features for tracking changes, and this built-in revision control system is absolutely critical to the smooth functioning of a wiki. Without the ability to track every edit by every user, Wikipedia would soon degenerate into a mass of vandalism and nonsense. The fact that Wikipedia doesn't turn into garbage is something like a minor miracle, and I guarantee you will not regret any time you invest in learning how this minor miracle occurs. --Teratornis (talk) 09:56, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Why is everyone on here Unionist?

Hiya. Why is everyone here a UK Unionist? There's so many people who are. 78.148.91.80 (talk) 08:41, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Please read the page header; this page is only for questions about using Wikipedia. I'm not sure quite how you're making that assumption, though. haz (talk) 08:54, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The English Wikipedia article claims that only 15.9% of contributors are from the United Kingdom. Presumably most of the rest are less concerned about whether the U.K. maintains its integrity, or Balkanizes. Indeed, probably only a minority of Wikipedia contributors even know what you mean by "Unionist." However, your view of the English Wikipedia may be distorted, depending on which subset of articles you read. Perhaps you have stumbled upon some group of contributors who share a particular point of view - there are lots of groups like that in various parts of Wikipedia (see: Blind Men and the Elephant and Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias). For example, Wikipedia is both highly orderly and highly complex, traits which attract disproportionately many people with high IQs. Perhaps the high-IQ people in the U.K. are more likely to be Unionists (I have no idea) than whichever demographic segment you are in. --Teratornis (talk) 10:08, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wow. Deja vu. _Gb^T/c 10:10, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My troll radar is going nuts. – ukexpat (talk) 19:35, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Renaming a wiki entry title

How can I rename an entry's title? The entry I made was "Dennis mendiola" and I simply want to replace it with "Dennis Mendiola." Is there a way to do that without having to Move the page? My account doesn't seem to give me the option to 'move'. Please help!

Mpestano (talk) 09:17, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That is exactly the proper way to fix the situation. You will have the power to move an article after your account has been confirmed. I'll do it for you this time. Dismas|^(talk) 09:20, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Your account becomes autoconfirmed when it has made 10 edits (and is at least 4 days old but yours is already much older). PrimeHunter (talk) 13:08, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fixing mistakes -- I tried to fix a mistake

I was trying to edit an entry on Anthony Bonner. When I hit the Edit function, the only thing on my screen was a bunch of gobbleygook. The info on the page was not in the edit box.

I consulted the entry on Anthony Bonner because I was listening to a radio commercial in which Bonner's ex-coach, Jeff Van Gundy, was talking about him. Van Gundy was talking about when Bonner was issued a subpoena, but the commercial never explained what Bonner did.

I went to Wikipedia to find out what Bonner did. The article said NOTHING about what Bonner did and was ERRONEOUS about the commercial. The article said the coach in the commercial was "unknown." The coach was identified several times as Jeff Van Gundy, who coached Bonner with the New York Knicks.

How the person editing this didn't notice the name of the coach is pretty amazing. But I couldn't edit the article to correct the information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zwrite (talk • contribs) 09:26, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry to hear that you're having problems trying to edit the Anthony Bonner article - I've had a look and when you click the edit button the contents of the article are all presented as they should be. Maybe have another try to see if it's still the same?

Do you have a reliable source to the effect that the coach was Van Gundy? If so then the article can be amended accordingly. _Gb^T/c 09:28, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can click the "edit this page" tab at the top to edit the whole page. If you click an "edit" link to the right of a section heading then you only edit that section. By default there is no edit link for the lead section and the only section edit link in Anthony Bonner is at Anthony Bonner#External links. I suppose the source could look like gobbleygook to a new editor. It only contains templates and categories so it's different from the displayed page. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:04, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

port folio management

kindly provide any web sites to view current scenario in port folio management —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wphurry (talk • contribs) 09:34, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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. _Gb^T/c 09:39, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

References & footnotes

A simple question. About the reference in articles, where should I put it in the text? Like this?

Hugh MacDiarmid,^[1] Samuel Beckett,^[2] Jorge Luis Borges, Flann O'Brien,^[3] Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Salman Rushdie,^[4] Robert Anton Wilson,^[5] and Joseph Campbell,^[6] etc.

Or, more clearly, like this?

Hugh MacDiarmid^[7], Samuel Beckett^[8], Jorge Luis Borges, Flann O'Brien^[9], Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Salman Rushdie^[10], Robert Anton Wilson^[11], and Joseph Campbell^[12], etc.

Thank you very much. --85.53.134.85 (talk) 11:29, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The reference should be after the comma. The usual way is to use them after punctuation marks. See here for more info. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 11:51, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Move image to Commons?

Can this image be moved to Commons? Dismas|^(talk) 11:29, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Audra_Lynn_bw.jpg -- GateKeeper^(X) @ 19:40, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Um, thank you? Now I guess I should go figure out how you did that... Dismas|^(talk) 06:39, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

GateKeeperX used CommonsHelper to transfer the image from en.wiki to Commons. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 06:43, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

links removed

hi,

yesterday i added some links to some recent interviews i did with music artists such as The Wombats and Patrick Wolf. All of the links i did have been removed, saying i was advertising, but i simply wanted people to come and see the article, there are many other links like the ones i placed on Wiki.

My website is a free website so i'm not after any money from Wiki users etc. Can you please Tell me why this is?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wordyxxx (talk • contribs) 12:32, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Posting links to your own website because you want people to see it is advertising too even if you're not after money. I recommend you discuss the merits of your interview with the people who removed the links (you can find out their username in the article history which contains every single edit ever made to the page) - Mgm|^(talk) 13:26, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Or on the talk pages of the relevant articles. – ukexpat (talk) 19:36, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Help with template

Resolved

– TN‑X-Man 17:12, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See what I attempted to do here. The current "rights" link on Template:Formeradmin is worthless. Is it possible to make a link to the meta rights log showing when the user's rights were removed? Mike R (talk) 15:39, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think I've sorted it – it now correctly links to the user's enwiki rights change log on meta. haz (talk) 16:02, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, looks good! Thanks! Mike R (talk) 17:06, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Who can see my IP

When I am logged into here, who is able to see where I am logging in from? I am guessing only the paid employees, or highest admins. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.11.144.119 (talk) 15:58, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Only those with CheckUser status, and only when there is suspicion of account misuse. You can see the list of CheckUsers here. haz (talk) 16:02, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

But as you can see from this if you don't log in then every editor here can do a WHOIS on your IP address and get details on were you are editing from. BigDunc^Talk 20:33, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

May a subject be part of more than one Wiki?

Resolved

I have searched Wikipedia for an article on the Science Fiction writer Linnea Sinclair. It doesn't exist. But there is a page about her on RomanceWiki [1]. So would it be allowed to make a page with the same name and content on the "regular" Wikipedia? Perhaps there's a Help Page that might help me understand these issues?

Thank you for your kind help. Debresser (talk) 16:32, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You are more than welcome to contribute a page on the author. There are a few things of which to be aware first, however. First, in order to qualify for an article, the person must be notable, which usually means they have received in-depth independent coverage in reliable sources. Secondly, have any of her books been on a best-seller list? That would be a great starting point. To get started, I recommend looking at this guide. For an example of an author's page, check out Stephen King or Tom Clancy. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 16:37, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A wiki is just a type of website and there are thousands of wikis. There is no relationship between RomanceWiki and Wikipedia (except that they use the same MediaWiki software). Wikipedia and some other wikis are run by the Wikimedia Foundation but RomanceWiki is not. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:59, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Note that most wikis not run by the Wikimedia Foundation have different content policies than Wikipedia. Typically, a non-WF wiki will focus on a relatively narrow topic area, and may have more lenient criteria for inclusion within that topic. In some cases (such as Wookiepedia, WoWWiki, etc.), a major motivation for starting the wikis was to create alternative outlets for a large volume of fancruft which fails to meet Wikipedia's standards for encyclopedic content. (People who are topic-area enthusiasts often have a different view of what is "notable" than the general Wikipedia community does - a fan community will often value comprehensiveness over reliable sourcing, which is the opposite of Wikipedia's priority order). This means that a non-WF wiki may have many articles which do not meet Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion. The Linnea Sinclair article on RomanceWiki has very little content, and does not cite any sources. If that's all the material you have on this author, it would be a stub article on Wikipedia at best, and would probably draw early challenges of notability and sourcing. You will need to find some reliable sources that are independent of the subject that you can cite. Your contributions suggest you've been active on Wikipedia long enough to avoid the typical beginner mistakes when creating a new article, so I suggest you try googling for Linnea Sinclair and see what sources you can find. And see: WP:FOOT, WP:CITE, WP:CITET, WP:LAYOUT, and WP:WWMPD. Your best bet might be to create an account on RomanceWiki first, if you haven't already, and try to bring the article up to Wikipedia standards over there, before copying it to Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 23:00, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks everybody for your answers. And yes, I also came to the conclusion that an article on Wikipedia will have to be better than that article on RomanceWiki. I do think this author is worthy of her own page in Wikipedia, as I'm sure the article will show. Thanks again. Debresser (talk) 09:00, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Editing Own Article

Hello, This is Amy fisher and I am contacting you from my website email address [email address redacted] 1.I noticed someone using my name amyfisher and complained to Wikipedia abouth that. A new account Amy Fisher was set up for me which is fine and I am currently using it. However, since I am a public figure and entertainer and my name is copyrighted, I was told to contact you to have the other user name amyfisher removed. Please do that for me. 2.Now that I have an account, how can I delete and rewrite the Wikipedia page about me with actaul factual information and photos of myself that I would like to contribute to my namesake. I would also like to have the ability to update the Wikipedia information on me from time to time. Thank you for your help, Amy Fisher —Preceding unsigned comment added by Amy Fisher (talk • contribs) 18:29, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On the username page it says "You are welcome to use your real name, but in some cases, you will need to prove you are who you say you are. You can do this by sending an e-mail to info-en@wikimedia.org; be aware that the OTRS system that handles e-mail is operated entirely by volunteers, and an immediate reply may not be possible." Also, please check out WP:BLP and WP:COI. Good luck, —Noah 19:00, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A user "Amyfisher" does indeed exist, but has not been used once for contributions since its creation in April of this year, which would suggest that the account is inactive – users cannot be removed entirely from the system, but administrators do have the ability to block the account should it be used inappropriately. With regard to editing your own article, please be advised that such edits are frowned upon (see the policy pages on conflicts of interest and autobiographical edits) and that all content must be verifiable by reliable secondary sources. Also, we cannot help with legal queries here; if you have any, please e-mail the OTRS system. If you have any other queries, then please feel free to reply here or leave a message at my talk page. haz (talk) 19:08, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Since the username User:Amyfisher has no contributions (or deleted contributions) it may be possible to usurp that username by visiting this page. _Gb^T/c 19:25, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt that your name is "copyrighted". There are surely a number of people named Amy Fisher in the world, and it would be very surprising if you could stop them from using their own name. With regard to editing the article about you, it's not forbidden, but you should read WP:COI before you do so. Deor (talk) 20:54, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've already sent her a non-template message with links to WP:AUTO, WP:COI and WP:OWN. --Orange Mike | Talk 21:06, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You mention that you want to upload photos of yourself. You do that at the Upload file link in the toolbar of every page. Note that any photo of you must be released under a free license, i.e. one that allows reuse by anyone for anything. (A professional portrait is not licensed that way unless you have made a special agreement with the photographer.) —teb728 t c 09:23, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am handling this on OTRS at Ticket:2009010710017924. Stifle (talk) 09:41, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Insertion of factual information: Im still new to WIkipedia

over the last day, i have edited information onto a few wikipedia pages. i admit that two of the edits were more opinion than fact, but if i have my own personal pictures which will back up my edits as fact do i still have to wait the required minimum four days of membership before i can insert a picture? should i just wait the required 4 days before i edit such information? please help. dstein2484 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dstein2484 (talk • contribs) 19:20, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You are correct in that your account must be autoconfirmed before you can upload pictures. You have a couple of options. You can wait four days and make the ten required edits, or you can upload the pictures to Commons, which does not have such requirements. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 19:23, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Dstein2484, TnXman gave you the right answer about images. As for "backing up" your opinion with images - I don't think it would be a good idea, as all the editors must try to follow the policies of no original research and neutral point of view while editing articles. :)--Unpopular Opinion (talk) 19:31, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And Commons can be found here. – ukexpat (talk) 19:38, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image of map

How can I make a map to insert in an article? Thank you.Hammerdrill (talk) 19:48, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There is a Project dedicated to maps, take a look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps. – ukexpat (talk) 20:43, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And see WP:EIW#Geo and WP:EIW#Map. What kind of map do you want to make? Wikipedia has an existing set of templates to make locator maps. See the documentation under {{Location map start}}. --Teratornis (talk) 23:39, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Subcategories

Hello, I was looking at the category SVG maps of China and it says it is a category of Maps of China but under the Maps of China category it doesn't come up at the top of the page with other "subcategories". Why is this? I was going to go and move all the SVG maps in the Maps of China category to the SVG category, but I don't want to mess anything up... TastyCakes (talk) 21:04, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Click "next 200" on commons:Category:Maps of China to see the subcategory. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:50, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

January 8

How to communicate with another wikipedian

What is the correct way to answer someone who writes on my talk page? Should I answer on my page or on her page? If I answer on her page, she will get a warning, but the discussion will be broken. Is there a guideline on this topic? I looked for it, but have not found any --Pot (talk) 00:16, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There is really no guideline about it. Some people prefer to reply on their own talk pages, while others prefer to reply on the other's page. If you use your own page, you can use something like {{talkback}} to notify the other editor. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 00:28, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I see. Thank you. I am going to study the {{talkback}} template. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pot (talk • contribs) 00:45, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And see WP:TP, WP:TPG, and WP:EIW#Talk for lots of details. Someday mw:Extension:LiquidThreads might improve the efficiency of MediaWiki's user-to-user communication. --Teratornis (talk) 01:43, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Grannies page has vanished and i can't find it in the delete log

The Grannies page has vanished and i can't find it in the delete log or any hint why it was deleted, did it get moved etc. there is just no trace of it. what do i do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bicker nag (talk • contribs) 00:22, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean one of the pages here? Chamal ^talk 00:25, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As an administrator I can see that Bicker nag created The grannies with lower case g. The deletion log is case sensitive. It was deleted per Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#A7 and Wikipedia:GROUP. See also Wikipedia:Notability (music), Wikipedia:Why was my page deleted?, and Wikipedia:Conflict of interest if you are associated with the band. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:42, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Correct edits being reverted by admins

Resolved

– Inappropriate username blocked--Unpopular Opinion (talk) 04:59, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What shall I do if my correct edits are being reverted by a group of admins. Should'nt the admins be charged with sockpuppetry or they are spoiled brats of wikipedia community who are entitled to enforce their will on other users , even when the user is correct. Then perhaps wikipedia must not declare itself to be free encyclopedia. ref. wikipedia page "Lund (disambiguation)". —Preceding unsigned comment added by ChootKaBhoot (talk • contribs) 00:50, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

On the face of it your edit looked like vandalism. If you have a reference, please provide it. – ukexpat (talk) 01:00, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's a word in Hindi, not in English; and thus didn't belong there. --Orange Mike | Talk 01:07, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Bibliography question

i need to write a bibliography for this site and i need the site editors name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.18.136.232 (talk) 01:12, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There is no "site editor" - we are all editors. Is there a particular article to which you are referring? – ukexpat (talk) 01:17, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For information on how to cite an article, go to the article and click the 'cite this page' link in the left sidebar. Algebraist 01:19, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

getting the help for engineering

please let me know about the all engineering colleges tose are present in the guntur district along with the addresses and the courses offered in them —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.252.224.186 (talk) 01:39, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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. – ukexpat (talk) 01:44, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

We have the articles: Guntur district and Engineering college rankings in India but they probably don't answer your question. If you are currently a student in a secondary school of some sort, do you have a guidance counselor (the specific job title may differ in your locale) you can ask? I would ask your counselor in addition to the Reference desk. Also note the other language Wikipedias; the Wikipedia in the native language of Guntur district (Telugu Wikipedia?) may have more detailed information than the English Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 01:54, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Help with image tag

I recently uploaded this image to the article Dannii Minogue, I have been requested to add one of these tags to it as seen on my talk page. I gained permission to use the picture not by the original author but by the website it was originally uploaded to, Can somebody please help me out as to which is the appropriate tag that needs to be added.--intraining ^{Jack In} 01:48, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

IMHO the best thing to do is ask the website owner (if they own the copyright) to follow the process set out at WP:IOWN. – ukexpat (talk) 01:53, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have an email stating that this image can be used should I forward it to that commons email address?.--intraining ^{Jack In} 01:56, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You could start with that and see what happens. – ukexpat (talk) 01:58, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thankyou for your help Ukexpat, Are you an admin?.--intraining ^{Jack In} 02:00, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No, ukexpat is not. You can check what rights people have by looking up their username at Special:ListUsers. Algebraist 02:11, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. Here you say you "gained permission", but on the File: page you say "Released under free license". Please make sure that the copyright holder is clear as to what permissions they are granting, and specifically which free license (which will then clarify which template should be added to the page). You should have a quick read of Wikipedia:Requesting copyright permission if you haven't done so already. You also need to be clear on whether the website does indeed hold the copyright to the image (presumably it was part of the conditions of upload to grant them full ownership of the image, or something), because if they were only given permission to use it themselves, then they cannot pass that permission on. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 06:11, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't 100% understand all this image uploading terminology or all of the rules and I have not read everything associated with it, I asked the website to where it was uploaded and I was told I do not need permission to use the pictures elsewhere. The website is down at the moment when it goes back online I will sort this out over here. I will also let you know personally aswell.--intraining ^{Jack In} 06:37, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds a little dubious to me, unfortunately, but I agree that the Media copyright questions page is probably the best place to hack it out. I'm no copyright lawyer, I just play one on Wikipedia. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:59, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Year Articles Format Problem

In the year articles eg 218BC the placement of the edit links seems to be incorrect in that there are four edit links on the same line. Is this a bug? If so are there appropriate people aware of it?

Thanks, davidzuccaro (talk) 03:05, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's a known problem. See WP:BUNCH. Algebraist 03:08, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image filetype reformat

Resolved

Can anyone reformat File:20081121 Manny Harris shoots Free Throws at 2K Sports Classic.jpg to a filetype that I can crop with Microsoft Paint?--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 03:25, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

MS Paint cannot crop a .jpg file? – ukexpat (talk) 03:52, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I can crop said photo in MS Paint. All I did was open up MS Photo, copy said photo, and paste it into MS Paint. I then used the cutting tool to crop it. « Gonzo fan2007 (talk) @ 06:50, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That works. I had been downloading it from flickr and attempting to open it. For some reason it did not work.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 07:45, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ah that explains it. On some images Flickr uses a form of image protection that prevents right-click-and-save - I think it overlays a transparent image or something like that. – ukexpat (talk) 15:23, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OMG help me....

Has everything gone weird on Wikipeida i.e. the headings are no longer bold and the font's changed, or have I bugged up my options some how? Ryan4314 (talk) 04:37, 8 January 2009 (UTC) Note: originally posted here; moved by Skomorokh 04:42, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Everything looks normal to me. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 04:54, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This happened to me once (and a came crying here, just like you). You probably changed the font size in your browser - try holding control and scrolling up (on your mouse's scroll wheel) to get it back to normal. If your mouse doesn't have a scroll wheel, try CTRL++. flaming lawye r^c 00:04, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WP:COI

Should this edit be removed per WP:COI? Other thoughts on the matter are welcomed as well! Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 06:36, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

COI is not in itself a reason to revert edits and delete articles. A {{cn}} tag for the assertions made in the first para that he added would be sufficient (but then, if no source is provided for a few days the text should probably go out as unverifiable). imo, second para should be removed as pure WP:OR. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 06:45, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Photos of Mount Woods Antarctica

I have tried several times to find a picture of a mountai named for me. Mount Woods (84°40′S 64°30′W / 84.667°S 64.500°W / -84.667; -64.500) is a bare, ridge-like mountain, 1,170 m, standing 4.5 nautical miles (8 km) northeast of O'Connell Nunatak in Anderson Hills in central Patuxent Range, Pensacola Mountains. Mapped by United States Geological Survey (USGS) from surveys and U.S. Navy air photos, 1956-66. Named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for Clifford R. Woods, Jr., hospital corpsman at Palmer Station, winter 1967.

{{usgs-gazetteer}}
{{antarctica-geo-stub}}
[[Category:Mountains of Antarctica|Woods, Mount]]

Clifford R. Woods Jr
HMC USN Retired

It happens that recently I learned how to search Flickr for photos suitably licensed to upload to Commons, and I wrote a handy {{Flickr free}} template to search for such photos, so let's see if it works here:

Search Flickr for images with the keywords: "Mount Woods" Antarctica under these licenses: cc-by or cc-by-sa
Search Flickr for images with the keywords: Patuxent Range Antarctica under these licenses: cc-by or cc-by-sa

No luck with those searches, but I will try a few more. --Teratornis (talk) 07:56, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This mountain seems to be somewhat obscure, most likely due to the remote location. Commons has some photos from Antarctica, but I don't see any of this mountain yet:

One problem with photos on Flickr is that many are taken by everyday people on vacation. Often they don't know exactly where they are or what they are photographing, so even if someone would have been in a sightseeing flight that went over Mount Woods, and they uploaded a photo of it to Flickr, there's no telling what they would have labeled it. See for example the interesting but not consistently organized photos here:

Search Flickr for images with the keywords: Antarctica under these licenses: cc-by or cc-by-sa

According to the Patuxent Range article, the U.S. Navy photographed the mountain during Operation Deep Freeze I. On the plus side, that would mean if you can find photos from this mission, they will be {{PD-USGov}} and thus usable on Wikipedia. On the minus side, the date of that mission was long before the World Wide Web, reducing the chances that someone would have uploaded the photos so we can easily find them. You might try asking a reference librarian (as in an actual library) for books that may show photos from this mission. Since the photos would be the work of U.S. government personnel on their official duties, the photos would be public domain and thus usable on Wikipedia. --Teratornis (talk) 08:39, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A bit of googling finds this site, with the quote:

"We would like to show pix of all the main mountain ranges but so far have not been able to locate so much as a shot of Mt Kirkpatrick, Mt Fritjof Nansen, Mt Betty, the Patuxent Range etc. - contributions invited!"

The author of that page seems to be an expert on Antarctica, so if he can't find a photo of the Patuxent Range, the odds of finding a photo of Mount Woods are not looking good. You could try asking on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Antarctica. --Teratornis (talk) 09:00, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image

Not sure how to add an image to an article, can someone plase add the image that i linked in the article at vertigo (light)? (new article so that it could be linked on disambig) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Addlight (talk • contribs) 08:33, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Its an image from a website and I don't think it qualifies for fair use, as a non-copyrighted equivalent should be easily available. If you have a free image, upload it to commons and then use in the article.--Unpopular Opinion (talk) 09:44, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

admission

how do i get admission into university of edinburgh —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.100.69.11 (talk) 15:48, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You should ask the University of Edinburgh, or the person in charge of university applications at your school. This page is for questions about Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Algebraist 15:51, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A-class review

Is there a place to find well-functioning A-Class reviews. Other than WP:MILHIST, I do not know of any projects that have well-functioning A-Class reviews.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 15:54, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Terrible use of general questions or subject criteria.... and use of computer technology...

Let me say that I have an important subject that could have effect on the entire planet but your site is too difficult to use.. Don´t tell me ..a major in computer tech. wrote this!! We have email now gentlman...wake up to the new millenium!! email me if you would like to know more as I have degrees in computer systems and about 30 years in the field but my interests right now lie in astronomy in regards to my findings and a quick search has found no answers to my questions. Thank you. K.Threader... Ont, Canada... Evora, Portugal <redacted> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.154.30.112 (talk) 15:55, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome to Wikipedia! Did you have a specific question about using Wikipedia? Also, check out the astronomy wikiproject. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 16:02, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I love Wikipedia and all that... but if someone has "an important subject that could have effect on the entire planet" perhaps CNN is the organization to contact. Cheers, —Noah 17:27, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The "could have" part sounds like it might conflict with WP:CRYSTAL or WP:NOR. Note that Wikipedia tends to feel like an inhospitable place to cranks of every stripe, so if your information strongly conflicts with mainstream science or some other well-established body of orthodox knowledge, you should first try to publish in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal, and then if your work is notable, someone will eventually write about it on Wikipedia. Also note that if Wikipedia seems "too difficult" to you, then you are probably approaching Wikipedia the wrong way. The apparent difficulty of Wikipedia to a given person is a function of two things:

What they are trying to do on Wikipedia.
How rapidly they can learn by reading the friendly manuals (which, informally, is a measure of how smart they are, because IQ correlates with the speed at which a person can make sense of previously unfamiliar situations).

There are some tasks on Wikipedia which are extremely difficult for new users, such as to create completely new articles on questionable topics, and make them "stick". In contrast, other tasks on Wikipedia are trivially simple even for brand-new users, such as correcting typographical errors in existing articles. Someone who is interested primarily in helping Wikipedia will naturally start by making small corrections to existing articles, and gradually learn to do more of the complex tasks. The more you learn about Wikipedia, the easier it becomes to learn the next more difficult thing. On the other hand, a "drive-by user" who has very little interest in Wikipedia itself, but only as a means to promote some particular interest, will often find Wikipedia frustrating because Wikipedia simply is not set up to provide instant gratification to the casual user who approaches Wikipedia with lots of initial assumptions about how Wikipedia should work. (To make a somewhat salacious analogy, Wikipedia is more like a wife than a hooker - Wikipedia demands long-term commitment and respect before she satisfies. Wikipedia demands that you understand her in depth, rather than use her as merely an outlet for one narrow desire.) One can argue that if Wikipedia were set up to please the cranks, Wikipedia would only be as popular as they are, instead of being one of the top five Web properties in the world. The bottom line: if you want your content to be part of a Web site so loved by millions of people that it raises millions of dollars in donations with each fund-raising drive, you have to play by our rules. Ask yourself how many top-five Web sites you have built - do you have any idea what it takes to build a site such as this? Very few people do. Without a solid understanding of what it takes to build a top-five site, one cannot know what is "too difficult" in the context of building a site like this. It is also difficult to break into the top five in any other popular form of global competition (e.g., music, sports, acting, politics, etc.). It is difficult to become world class in anything. If Wikipedia were simple, it probably would not rise above the millions of junk Web sites out there that nobody looks at. --Teratornis (talk) 20:26, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As usual Teratornis you have hit the nail squarely on the head and with your usual clarity and humour! This one is a keeper and template-worthy. – ukexpat (talk) 20:35, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

While Wikipedia was relatively easier back in 2004 when I started, it wasn't a walk in the park. Everything you need to know is written down somewhere and there are plenty of helpful people around. You just need the commitment to actually read help files for things to become clear. References could be made easier though. It would stop a lot of unreferenced material being dropped in on a daily basis. - Mgm|^(talk) 05:50, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Types of blocks

Would someone please give one-sentence replies to each of the following questions:

What is a softblock?
What is a hardblock?
What is an autoblock?
What is a rangeblock?

Thanks, --Goodmorningworld (talk) 16:11, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In the order you requested:

A softblock is a block on a user's account, but enables account creation should they wish to create another account. This is generally used for inappropriate usernames.

A hardblock is a block on a user's account blocking account creation, so the underlying IP is blocked from that as well. This is used for vandalism only accounts and blatantly inappropriate user names.

An autoblock is placed automatically on an IP address if it was recently used by a blocked user. See WP:Autoblock.

A rangeblock is a block on an IP range if a user/IP is evading blocks on different IPs belonging to that range. See WP:Range block.

Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 16:18, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For a lot more sentences, see WP:EIW#Enforce. --Teratornis (talk) 20:58, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Becoming a Moderator

How do I become a moderator? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.88.104.181 (talk) 16:57, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There are not "moderators" on Wikipedia. Please see WP:ADMIN for more information on administrator responsibilities. Also note that unofficially, the minimum requirements are in the ballpark of 6 months of editing experience with about 5000-6000 edits. And a registered account. Tan | 39 16:59, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And to see the process at work, see WP:RFA. – ukexpat (talk) 17:02, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with using a Non-free use media on another page

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 15:00, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Can you please explain how to fix the issue of the image?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:South_tn.png

Do I have to add more Non-free use media rationale description box in that image page for every article I am going to use the photo in???

Thank you --Zaher1988 · ^Talk|_{Contributions} 17:33, 8 January 2009 (UTC) [reply]

Yes. Add another rationale for Mohammad Zgheib military base and remove the warning notice. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 18:14, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have modified the file, is it like this?? can you check please??

In addition, how put a rational for a template, in case i want to use the image inside a template, is it the same way as an article??

thank you --Zaher1988 · ^Talk|_{Contributions} 18:48, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That looks good. Fair use images aren't allowed in templates. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 19:42, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Great Thank you. --Zaher1988 · ^Talk|_{Contributions} 07:01, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

New Pages

Is there any way to extent the limit of the NewPages shown here to more than 30 days. It will be very useful for small wikis. Thanks--Abhishek Jacob (talk) 17:45, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If no-one here knows, you could ask this at the Mediawiki support desk, which is a more appropriate place for questions about other wikis. Algebraist 18:24, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a link to get you started [2]. —Noah 20:40, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

putting up an article

How the heck do I put my article on to Wikipedia? There are so many instructions I can't figure it out. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cgib55 (talk • contribs) 21:04, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. Algebraist 21:05, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Inappropriate deletion

Resolved

– Article userfied. ukexpat (talk) 14:59, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A notable article, Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, was recently created by a new editor Fbarw. An automatic bot tagged the article for deletion on the grounds of a copy violation. Fbarw then copy edited the text, put a {{hangon}} tag on the article as instructed, and opened a discussion section on the talk page. Immediately afterwards the article was deleted anyway. How do I get this reversed? --Geronimo20 (talk) 21:53, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I would suggest leaving a message for Orangemike, as he is the admin who deleted the article. He should be able to restore the article for you or move it to userspace where you can work to improve it. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 21:56, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Also, you might want to check out Wikipedia:Deletion review. haz (talk) 22:35, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've userfied it for Geronimo. --Orange Mike | Talk 00:53, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How to obtain real help.

When I prepared my first article a couple of days ago, I was expecting to find one or more "templates" that suite my article to choose from and prepare it before posting it. I found none, and so, I posted it they way I wrote it using MS Word. The article, is not as well presented as I want it to be and I would like to add some photo's soon, but I am afraid it will make things worse. Off course, "Cleanup" and "wikitize" appeared straight away.

The process to post an article may look simple (and I am sure it is) but for the first timer is like conquering Everest. I have noticed that some individuals are volunteering help, and I approached a number of them by e-mail but received no reply.

I can see what is wrong with my posting, how can I improve it.

Also, words like "Cleanup" and "Wikitize" are too general and in my case confusing as it covers everything from language to presentation.

How can I get some real help.

Akrogiali —Preceding unsigned comment added by Akrogiali (talk • contribs) 22:11, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I would recommend that you check out Wikipedia:Tutorial, which is a good guide on Wikipedia markup and how to format pages, and Wikipedia:Your first article, which gives more general advice. haz (talk) 22:32, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The best way to contact a Wikipedia user is through their talk page - if the user name is, for example, ConMan, then their talk page is at User talk:ConMan and is usually linked in their signature. Edit the page and leave a message (and sign with ~~~~) and they will be notified the next time they log on. I agree that the "cleanup" tag isn't particularly specific, which is why it's generally asked that people who leave it specify their concerns on the article's talk page. The "wikify" tag, on the other hand, refers specifically to using wiki markup, and particularly to linking relevant words in the article to other articles. Taking a quick look at the article Vlastos suggests that the main things you will want to attempt as part of the cleanup are to add links, give the article some structure with sections, and find some categories to put the article in. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 22:36, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I quickly added a couple of categories to the article. Have a look at some of the other articles in the categories to see how we use wikimarkup to format the articles, create links to other articles, add inline citations, etc. Gentgeen (talk) 23:10, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Tags such as Wikify and Cleanup don't have to be seen as inherently negative. It can also be seen as a call for others to come help out: "hey, there is some good stuff here, please help make it better!" There are people who review the lists of articles with those tags, they go fix stuff, and then the article gets improved. If the article never got the tag it might sit for ever as an orphan in the dark corners of the database. —Noah 23:11, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The process to create a new article on Wikipedia that "sticks" is far from simple. Most people need to accumulate around 1000 edits to existing articles before they will have absorbed enough understanding of Wikipedia to create entirely new articles (with confidence that their work won't get deleted). There are a number of things you need to know that I guarantee are nothing like anything you have experienced before. If something you saw on Wikipedia seems to suggest that what you are trying to do is in any sense easy for anyone who recently arrived, then I think we are sending the wrong message somewhere. Wikipedia is not simple and we should not try to pretend it is or can be simple. Like many people, part of my motivation to start editing on Wikipedia was to create a new article, which I did, and by pure blind luck I happened to pick a topic that was notable enough to stick - that was before I had any inkling of how many new articles by new users Wikipedia mercilessly deletes. By now I have enough experience and I've read enough manuals to feel fairly confident when I create new articles, but the process really is stupefying for a newbie. I wonder why we let anyone even attempt it with less than 500 edits. I guess we have a lot of people on Wikipedia who enjoy deleting articles. --Teratornis (talk) 08:26, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Need rollback

Here. All these edits are unsourced changes in birthdates and personal information many articles as well as unconstructive linking to DABs. Too many for manual reverts. Mjpresson (talk) 23:10, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As well, never an edit summary. Mjpresson (talk) 23:11, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Rollback feature#How to apply for rollback (I'm an admin but not familiar with the procedure). PrimeHunter (talk) 23:39, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Alternatively, you can use something like Twinkle. Chamal ^talk 00:13, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but right now I don't have rollback privileges and this user has altered many articles across the board which all need revision until user learns to provide sources and summaries for these types of changes. Mjpresson (talk) 00:44, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not providing summaries or references is not a valid reason for using rollback - this is a tool to revert instances of vandalism only, if you don't like the way an editor has done something then you can undo their changes but don't use rollback. Jdrewitt (talk) 11:05, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

FWIW, there were only 27 edits made by this IP over 16 different articles; and most of the edits have been reverted anyway. I doubt a rollback is actually necessary. Astronaut (talk) 05:38, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

need information

<moved from WP:VPM> flaming lawye r^c 23:59, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Sir/madam

i am student of master of library and information science, & i wish to complete my research work on wikipedia. title of my research is " www.wikipedia .org : A Knowledge source" actually i want to introduce wiki as a collaborative platform of knowledge. Sir/madam i need permission for the same from u. if u permitted i need some more information like few email ids of the contributors of wiki, that i can sent them my Questionnaires i want to know there experience of editing wiki, taking info from wiki.

i will be thankful to u if u give a permission and information for my research.

thanx

warm regards <named removed - better safe than sorry :) > —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.163.79.66 (talk) 14:55, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia doesn't have e-mail in the database. and they would not give them to a anon. Empire3131 (talk) 00:39, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This appears to be a legitimate request from a graduate student who is studying to become a research librarian and is unfamiliar with our site processes. I'm going to answer at the IP's talk page, since I doubt this individual will find the discussion here, and include information about registering an account and requesting volunteer survey participants. Durova^Charge! 00:50, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The questioner should read the (voluminous) existing research before reinventing any wheels. The questioner should read everything I linked from User:Teratornis/Theory of Wikipedia, and also see WP:EIW#Research. If the questioner isn't able to figure out how to get back here to read the replies, I don't see the questioner making much headway with "www.wikipedia .org : A Knowledge source". --Teratornis (talk) 08:10, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

January 9

About images on Wikipedia

Hi. I'm just wondering, images on Wikipedia that are free-use should go on Commons, correct? For featured images, shouldn't they also be free-use? So then how do we have featured images on Wikipedia? Thanks. ~A H 1^(TCU) 01:52, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, here is a featured image on Wikipedia: File:Me109 G-6 D-FMBB 1.jpg which is actually on Commons. See Wikipedia:Featured pictures and Wikipedia:Featured picture criteria. The latter says:

A featured picture: ... Has a free license. It is available in the public domain or under a free license. Fair use images are not allowed. To check which category a particular image tag falls under, see the list at Wikipedia:Image copyright tags.

That means any featured picture on Wikipedia would be a candidate for moving to Commons, in the unlikely event that it hadn't already been moved. Have you found any featured pictures on Wikipedia which are not on Commons yet? --Teratornis (talk) 06:54, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No Article?

Hello. Why is there no article on how some countries' governments, including members of the United Nations, seek to boycott, divest and apply sanctions on Israel for their recent terrorist attacks? If this is not a suffice enough question, then I would be pleased to re-word it into: How can I safely produce a professional mature article about it on Wikipedia without having it taken off by the "Patrol Team" or other members of Wikipedia. I'll be looking forward to at least a negative response. Cheers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.95.138.124 (talk) 02:42, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

We have an article that should contain this information: International reaction to the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict. If you have well-sourced information that should be there but isn't, then please add it. Algebraist 03:34, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Also, you may want to discuss any changes on the article's talk page. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 03:55, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Help with Book Titles

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 14:58, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am currently working on a biography of a British writer and I was wondering how to present the titles of some of his work that had differing publishing titles in the UK and the United States. Which would go first and how would I present them? Thanks! Ip208man (talk) 02:51, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

British author, so UK titles first. Only mention the US title if it was different. Astronaut (talk) 03:31, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, so how would it look? Right now I have it written:

UK Title - Publishing Date (US Title: Book name)

Would that conform to WP:MOS? Ip208man (talk) 04:10, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Our article on Tanith Lee has a suitable example:

Shadowfire (1978) (US title: Vazkor, Son of Vazkor )

or you could ask for better guidance at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Biography. Astronaut (talk) 05:18, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I will use that as guidance. Ip208man (talk) 06:48, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Log-in

Hi; I've registered, and used the validation link in the email I received to authorize the account. The screen note in Wiki said the validation had been received. I then tried to download a picture. The screen note said I wasn't authorized because I hadn't registered and been validated. I tried the email link twice, was told twice I had been validated...frustrating. Any help appreciated. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sensei01007 (talk • contribs) 03:33, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Can you be more precise about how you tried to "download a picture"? Your email address is confirmed because this link works. I'm guessing you tried to upload a picture but the system told you weren't autoconfirmed. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 04:15, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Can I use an articel on ebay.

I want to sell a DVD on ebay. Can I use an article from Wikipedia on my ebay auction page? Thank you, Bob —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bobk1957 (talk • contribs) 03:35, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes.--intraining ^{Jack In} 03:52, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can use the article, but per the GDFL, you must attribute the content to Wikipedia. TN‑X-Man 03:56, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I mean it is fine with Wikipedia, However you need to make sure Ebay allow you to. I can't see why Ebay would have a problem with it though. Do a google search to see if it has been done before. Personally I would do it if I feel it would help to boost up the bidding.--intraining ^{Jack In} 03:58, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wrong link Tnxman this is what s/he should be reading--intraining ^{Jack In} 04:02, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In theory yes. In practice you have to do all sorts of things you don't want to. Like a list of all the contributors. Like including the FULL text of the GFDL. Prodego ^talk 04:06, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There's nothing to stop you linking to the Wikipedia article, though. Algebraist 04:51, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to copy the whole article verbatim, make sure you don't copy any fair use images. --Teratornis (talk) 06:58, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

unicru answer key

please let me know the answer key to the unicru test. Cindy k —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.174.92.167 (talk) 04:41, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect, based on your question, that you found one of our over 6.9 million articles and thought we were affiliated in some way with that subject. Please note that you are at Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this page is for asking questions related to using or contributing to Wikipedia itself. Thus, we have no special knowledge about the subject of your question. You can, however, search our vast catalogue of articles by typing a subject into the search field on the upper right side of your screen. If you cannot find what you are looking for, we have a reference desk, divided into various subject areas, where asking knowledge questions is welcome. Best of luck. Algebraist 04:51, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually this has to do with a recent story published in the Wall Street Journal. The Unicru material in question has been deleted and is not available on Wikipedia. —Noah 05:02, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is being discussed in depth at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Admin misusing viewdeleted. – ukexpat (talk) 05:18, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Help:Comment tags

Resolved

– Help:Comment tags speedily deleted as nonsense. ukexpat (talk) 14:36, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, hope this is the appropriate place to raise this, but what happened to Help:Comment_tags??? Dickdock (talk) 05:12, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Clearly nonsense created by someone. Speedy delete has already been requested. Astronaut (talk) 05:41, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Rename page

Hello! I am register user under name citycollegethessaloniki. I would like to rename one page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_College_Thessaloniki). In the help I found the following: With the correct page displayed, click on the "Move" tab near the top of the page (in default Monobook skin). The problem is I can't see the "Move" tab. Many thanks in advance. Regards. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Citycollegethessaloniki (talk • contribs) 11:09, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You have to be an autoconfirmed editor to move pages. For that, your account should be at least 4 days old and you should have made at least 10 edits. You only have 2 edits right now, so you'll get the ability after 8 more edits. Chamal ^talk 11:36, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Satyam Computer Services

Can someone take a look at this article, there is something messed up in the code somewhere in internet explorer there are massive white spaces and in firefox, in the "aftermath" section there is a row of edit tabs - I guess it has something to do with the images in the article? --Cameron Scott (talk) 13:09, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It does. See WP:BUNCH. Algebraist 13:12, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't fuck around with wikicode - someone want to fix it? --Cameron Scott (talk) 13:15, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Done – ukexpat (talk) 14:49, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Who Posted this...

Bold text I would like to know if it is possible to find out who the creator of a certain article is. Specifically Im am looking for the creator of the 'MTV Latinoamerica' or 'MTV Networks' articles.

Mtvlantw (talk)mtvlantw —Preceding undated comment was added at 16:08, 9 January 2009 (UTC).[reply]

Check the history of any article you want, and click back to the very first edit. That's the creator. Tan | 39 16:09, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Sometimes it won't be in the first 50, but the API allows you to go up to 500. It should say:

(50) (100) (250) (500)

on the page history (click the "history" tab on any existent page). This reveals that the creator was Vision2 (talk · contribs). Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 16:15, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

An account which has been inactive for over two years, for the record. Tan | 39 16:16, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you want the information in order to cite Wikipedia then see Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:29, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with deletion bots

Hi. I keep getting into a problem in that I've uploaded something, usually with non-free fair use licence, and the bot still complains about it or some moron has deleted it out of the page (made it orphaned). I rarely log in or keep many backups, and its just not fair to give only 7 days to do something - usually when I've got no idea it happened because I rarely log into Wikipedia. Is it possible to get these sorts of notifications emailed to me, or someway of notifying the bots not to delete stuff I have uploaded? So far, i've had at least 10 or so files deleted because of Wikipedia's in ability to properly notify me. Am I missing something, cause this is really giving me the shits! Adammw (talk) 17:13, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Getting the notices emailed to you is not possible... however, do you use RSS or Atom? That would be a solution. —Noah 17:58, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Why is it not possible? Wikipedia already have my email and use it for forgotten passwords, why not also for new messages? And for RSS or Atom, I can't see how to even get a feed of my talk page! The link to the RSS feed on most pages links to the global recent changes, not my talk page. Adammw (talk) 04:21, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, I wasn't specific enough in my reply. It is most certainly technically possible for the coders of the Wikimedia software to write, test, and implement such a feature. However, for a number of reasons they have chosen not to do so; or if they have it certainly is not turned on for the Wikipedia site. The prime reason (that I can imagine) would be that many people would use the service and they would need a dedicated server to send out thousands of email messages a minute. That is added bandwidth and hardware needs on an already strained system. RSS, on the other hand, requires people to pull info rather than push it out to them, which is less process instensive. The Atom feed for your talk page is: [3]. Enjoy, —Noah 06:20, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps if you took more care over what you uploaded, you wouldn't get so many "disputed fair-use" or "Image copyright problem" notices. For everything that you upload, make sure it has a copyright notice and fair use rationale for every instance where it is used in the encyclopedia.

When it comes to your uploads being orpaned and deleted, the RSS/Atom feeds sound like a good idea. Also, if you kept backups, you would find it easier to re-upload deleted stuff. It might be worthwhile finding out why your files were orphaned. For example: File:Rihanna - Don't Stop The Music.ogg was deleted from Don't Stop the Music (Rihanna song) in this edit on 5 Jan. Ask the person who deleted it for his reasons, by leaving a new comment on his talk page (but please remember to assume good faith and do not write something that could be considered a personal attack - so no calling people "...some moron..." please).

Astronaut (talk) 16:28, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

New to WIKI- how do I add internal reference and links?

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 20:53, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to add a link to another Wikipedia page as a source which is actual pubilc domain inforamtion on climate. However since the city is not directly references on that wikipedia page, will it be honored as an actual source of reference? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dstein2484 (talk • contribs) 18:07, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand what you're asking. Can you explain more clearly what you want to do, naming the articles involved? Algebraist 18:15, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

i'm not sure but i think maybe the question is whether wikipedia articles can be cited as reliable sources for other wikipedia articles. the answer as far as i know is "no"; but you can list relevant pages in the "see also" section of an article. or is it WP:markup that he/she's asking about?? Sssoul (talk) 18:21, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you would like to cite another Wikipedia article, consider instead citing the sources the other Wikipedia article cites. That will allow readers to directly access the source instead of having to go through another level of reading. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 18:40, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I will cite the orginal source! sorry, there were typos which made the question confusing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dstein2484 (talk • contribs) 20:44, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WAL-MART TOP MANAGEMENT

What are the names and Titles of the management team of Wal-Mart in Bentonville ,Arkansas —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.106.37.10 (talk) 19:55, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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. Algebraist 20:05, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And see the names of their senior execs listed at Wal-Mart. – ukexpat (talk) 20:15, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

non-display of italics in Opera for MacOS

I thought I should come and note this; I usually use Camino for browsing but downloaded Opera for MacOS today because of its smaller memory footprint (I usually have other programs, e.g. audio, running in the background while browsing) and was about to add italics to an article's mention of a title (an opera title, to be specifid) only to discover that the Wikicode double-apostrophe was already there. Is this a known glitch about viewing Wikipedia in Opera, and is it also the case in other versions of the same browser?Skookum1 (talk) 20:43, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Where did this error appear, and did you check it in Camino as well? It isn't documented here, but you can always drop a line at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical).--Max Talk (+) 22:11, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
- Works fine in Camino, which is my usual browser; I only downloaded and installed Opera yesterday and haven't used it in MacOS before....I'm thinking that maybe the italics thing didn't work in the Windows 2K version either, which I remember trying out and not continuing to use also; I'll take it to the Village Pump. thanks, didn't know where else to ask than here.Skookum1 (talk) 15:38, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

wiki markup problem

This page clearly has some problems with the markup used to create a math formula in the body of the article. Fixing this is beyond me, and I'm also not sure what is the most appropriate maintenance tag to mark the page with. ike9898 (talk) 21:23, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I fixed it by removing the \mbox functions which aren't necessary and aren't listed on Help:Displaying a formula. Perhaps it would be useful for pages like this to be added into a 'pages with broken parser functions' hidden category. Nanonic (talk) 21:39, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And then after checking through the page history after my edit I noticed that the previous version displayed correctly, seems all it needed was a Null edit to kick it back into life. Nanonic (talk) 21:48, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Retail companies list

Would like a list of Canadian and United States retail compaies that would list their product and head office address. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Popshechr (talk • contribs) 22:46, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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. Algebraist 22:57, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Actually writing my article

I've read through the info, but can't find the link for going to the user page to start writing my article and then submitting it. What am I missing? Jerilynnb (talk) 22:50, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You cannot create an article unless your account is 4 days old I think. If you want to do it now until that works, you could create in at User:Jerilynnb until you can copy and paste it. Grsz ¹¹ 22:54, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can create an article as soon as you have an account. Here's a standard message on creating new articles:

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

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

If you still think an article is appropriate, see Help:Starting a new page. You might also look at Wikipedia:Your first article and Wikipedia:How to write a great article for guidance, and please consider taking a tour through the Wikipedia:Tutorial so that you know how to properly format the article before creation. Algebraist 22:56, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

minor name in past history versions

I am very upset that the name of a minor is in history for Schaumburg High School versions dated 23 June 2007 to 23 Nov 2007. How do you delete this name from the history pages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.228.246.72 (talk) 23:04, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It might be a candidate for WP:Oversight —teb728 t c 23:37, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Another alternative is for an admin to delete the page and restore it without the offending edit. I believe that (if I'm remembering this correctly) this is now easier to do than it was formerly. Cheers! TN‑X-Man 23:53, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

January 10

ultra sound said i had thick womb lining witch is moving

I have poly sistic overies, the other day i went for a scen which showed i had a thick lining of my womb which they said looked like i would have a period a of yet nothing has happened and i have had a very small light sot of blood. What is wrong? Is there any chance i could be pregnant in the very early stages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stacey18 (talk • contribs) 00:03, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

We cannot give medical advice here. If you are worried, consult a doctor. Algebraist 00:05, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Created Articles

I Just wanted to know who has created maximum number of articles in english wikipedia. is there any tool available ? 59.92.128.134 (talk) 01:12, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know. This tool shows article creations by a given editor (I have a whopping total of 3, not counting redirects), but I don't see a way to list editors by article creations (see for example the links under WP:EIW#NewA, which would be the logical place for someone to have listed such a tool). Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits only gives edit counts (I'm #3721 on that list, which means 3720 Wikipedia editors are running scared). Presumably the editor with the most article creations is somewhere on that list, probably toward the top. You might have to be more specific: do you mean maximum total article creations, or only of articles that survive? Do you only care about articles started by a human? I think some bots have mass-created articles. If nobody answers your question here, you could try asking on Wikipedia talk:List of Wikipedians by number of edits, where the discussion looks active. --Teratornis (talk) 05:12, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Why Are Edits Not Showing Up On the Page?

I edited copy on a page however they are not showing up on the main page. How can you edit the content so the changes show up on the public page? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dedecker (talk • contribs)

The edits by you that I'm seeing are to The International Cat Association and to Rachel Hirschfeld (attorney). Your edit to the former still stands as the most recent edit to the article; your edits to the latter have been in part removed and in part revised by User:Orangemike (we don't, for example, include ^TM symbols in articles). You can see the edit history of an article by clicking on the "history" tab at the top of the page. Are there edits you've made other than these, which aren't showing up? Deor (talk) 02:27, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's also possible you have to bypass your cache to see the current version. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:02, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Someone deleted our link

Resolved

Someone deleted our link, www.vacreepertrail.us, from this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Creeper_Trail

How do we replace the link, and how do we find out who is doing this?

Thanks for any information. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metayel (talk • contribs) 01:45, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Probably because it was considered linkspam. The best thing to do would be to discuss it on the article's talk page. – ukexpat (talk) 03:03, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It was deleted by User:842U in this edit. See Wikipedia:External links. The talk page is Talk:Virginia Creeper Trail where a section can be started by clicking the "new section" tab. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:14, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your prompt response. We are new at this and your answer is very helpful. How do we award you a Barnstar? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Metayel (talk • contribs) 11:10, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not many users who are new to Wikipedia know what a barnstar is - I'm impressed. See WP:EIW#Award. But why not be original? You could name your next two cats "Ukexpat" and "PrimeHunter", respectively. All seriousness aside, if your use of the plural "we" is not because you are Monarch, then see Wikipedia:Username policy#Company/group names. --Teratornis (talk) 19:13, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Citations

Resolved

– ukexpat (talk) 21:55, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If I am using shortened notes with wikilinks for the citation format, how do I handle different papers written by the same person in the same year? Thanks, Reyk _YO! 03:23, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have not used that citation style before, but in the example you linked to, the link format appears arbitrary, so you could probably just append letters a, b, c, etc., after the year. For example, in the example you linked to, an id like this:

*<cite id=refHaines2007>

could probably just as well be:

*<cite id=refHaines2007a>

and so on. You can probably use any alphanumeric string for the id, as long as it is distinct. The id is just creating an anchor you can link to. See Help:Anchors for more about how that works. If you are editing an article that is in a topic area with many similar articles, you might see how people have styled the other articles. You don't have to follow their style, but if you do it might remove a pretext for edit warring. If you can find a good article or featured article that uses this citation style, maybe this problem has come up before. But that might be tough, because I think citation templates are getting more popular. (Do you not like citation templates?) Also see the note on Wikipedia talk:Citing sources/Example edits for different methods#Shortened notes with wikilinks vs. HTML 5. --Teratornis (talk) 05:33, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think I've got it worked out now. Thanks. Reyk _YO! 06:01, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Creations

Am I able to create my own article on someone who i may feel from my community would possibly be searched one day? Or for anyone really as a cool gift? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Im.Krispy (talk • contribs) 05:21, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is not the place for giving someone a "cool gift". There are a lot of articles like that being created everyday, and they are deleted within a few minutes. For Wikipedia to have an article on someone, they should meet the biography notability guidelines. Also, the facts must be verifiable and neutral. Chamal ^talk 05:29, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is a great place for giving a person a cool pillar based gift. For instance, let's say that person is a big fan of Cincinatus... you could spend hundreds of hours making Cincinatus a Featured Article and then, on your talk page, dedicate the work to them. That would be a great gift! —Noah 05:46, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That would be cool for a editor you really wanted to thank! Empire3131 (talk) 16:11, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. Everyone should dedicate a page to the user in this signature: --Teratornis (talk) 17:44, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For example, someone could dedicate this page. --Teratornis (talk) 17:46, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Logins Repeatedly Stop Working

I was using LittleHawk as a loging a few times, then could not login and was directed to create a new user account. I created BraveLittleHawk and that worked twice and then again I was directed to create a new account. My actual email has always been <email removed>. I am having the same problem with Facebook and Delicious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.50.104 (talk) 08:39, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Check your computer for spyware. Or maybe you forget your password after creating new accounts?--Unpopular Opinion (talk) 08:46, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For the record LittleHawk (talk · contribs) and BraveLittleHawk (talk · contribs) have not been registered as yet. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 08:50, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

please, tell me

I want to write a page "umaglesi liga" in georgian and infobox in that georgian page, but I can not write the infobox. How can I write an infobox in Georgian? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Delibashvili (talk • contribs) 09:53, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is the English Wikipedia, therefore it is for English language articles only. If you want to create a page in Georgian, you should do so on the Georgian Wikipedia. haz (talk) 11:37, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Since not many Georgian speakers read this Help desk page on the English Wikipedia, we can only provide general advice on how a bilingual person would investigate the problem.

The first step is to be aware that the English Wikipedia is the largest and best-developed of all the Wikipedias. Several of the other large ones (German Wikipedia, French Wikipedia, etc.) are also well-developed. Once you get past the top ten or so, the remaining Wikipedias tend to fall off a cliff in terms of their level of development. That means many things which are easy on the big Wikipedias may be very difficult on the small ones. In particular, the big Wikipedias have a vast selection of templates written by highly skilled users, which the less-skilled users can use very simply. On the small Wikipedias, it is like going to a frontier colony, where the comforts of civilization may be absent, and the users must be more self-reliant.
See if the Georgian Wikipedia has a Help desk, and ask your question there. It seems a link to the Georgian Help desk appears in the "languages" box to the left of the top of this Help desk page (i.e., ka:ვიკიპედია:ცხელი ხაზი). See if you get an answer there.
If nobody on the Georgian Wikipedia can help you, then you are on your own. You will have to search the Template: namespace on the Georgian Wikipedia for a suitable infobox. If none exists, then you or a more skilled Georgian user will have to translate a template from the English Wikipedia (assuming the English Wikipedia has a suitable one).
- The details of how to do this are far too complex to explain in the answer to a Help desk question. However, everything you need to know is in writing already, as part of the massive internal documentation of Wikipedia. See for example the links under WP:EIW#Translate. To survive on the frontier, you need a frontiersman's skills. Which means you need to read lots of friendly manuals.
Alternatively, you can simply wait a few years, by which time other users will presumably develop the Georgian Wikipedia into something more usable by people who don't want to read all the manuals.
- Note that the English Wikipedia had no infoboxes at all when it started. I'm not sure when infoboxes first appeared or became widespread, but it seems the documentation about them only goes back to around 2006. Regardless of the exact timing, the English Wikipedia was able to grow rapidly for its first few years without any infoboxes at all. Infoboxes are nice to have, but I'm sure there are many other needs on the Georgian Wikipedia that you might address more easily. I.e., on the Wikipedias you should pick the low-hanging fruit first. Only do the difficult things when you have run out of the easy things. Maybe by then, the difficult things will have become easier, because other users will have improved the tools, and your knowledge will have increased.
  - As an example of some very low-hanging fruit: Wikimedia Commons has an enormous number of media files which all the Wikipedias can use. Not even the English Wikipedia is using all the existing media files that it could. All you have to do is browse around Commons, find some interesting photos, and then find articles on the Georgian Wikipedia to put them in. It's usually easier to start with the photos and then find the articles, rather than go the other way (start with an article and try to find a photo for it, which often becomes a Needle in a haystack problem - it's much easier to start with the needle, and put it in the haystack).

--Teratornis (talk) 18:25, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Inasmuch as Umaglesi Liga is a football league, you might be able to translate Template:Infobox football league to Georgian. It is built on top of Template:Infobox, which apparently has a Georgian version at ka:თარგი:ინფოდაფა; so you might be able to use that. Or you might be able to use ka:თარგი:ინფოდაფა directly. —teb728 t c 21:48, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

New Page

How do I start a new page, after 6,000++ edits I still dont know how to do this.--Woogie10w (talk) 11:24, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, that's surprising! Anyway, you just have to search for the title using the searchbox, and if the article isn't already there, there will be red link right on top saying "you searched for....". Just click on that and you can start editing. Or just below it, there will be another redlink saying "Create the page". Click on that and start editing. I guess you would know about how the article subject should be notable and all that, so no need to give you all the prep talk :) Cheers. Chamal ^talk 11:32, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Have a look at Help:Starting a new page and Wikipedia:Your first article for help and guidance. Hope that helps! haz (talk) 11:37, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can also make a subpage in your userpage like User:Woogie10w/NewArticle to work on your article in peace and move it to the article namespace when it's ready to face the crowd. - 87.211.75.45 (talk) 15:50, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

6000 edits and you haven't found the Editor's index yet? I hope that is a record. If not, then Wikipedia's user interface may be seriously broken. You should put a link to WP:EIW on your user page. The answer to almost every question about using Wikipedia is somewhere in there. For example see WP:EIW#NewA. Also, you should consider reading the Help desk more often, or try to answer questions here. You can learn a lot about Wikipedia by reading the Help desk, in much less time than by experiencing all the same problems yourself. --Teratornis (talk) 18:33, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't find out about the EIW until I had around 7,000 edits and saw you answer a question and link to it - you're the only person I've ver seen mention it actually, despite how useful it is. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 20:39, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

30,000 edits in and that's the first I've heard of it. Looks like a very useful reference page. --Onorem ♠Dil 21:54, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Now I'm wondering what useful things I haven't heard of yet. --Teratornis (talk) 05:32, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

First time I've heard of EIW too. Chamal ^talk 05:45, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Placing tags in wrong places

Why do people place Reference shortcuts and Citation Tags after sentence and before full stop? 92.25.199.151 (talk) 13:44, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

According to Wikipedia:MOS#Punctuation_and_inline_citations, they shouldn't. I recall a style guideline stating that both could be used as long as each article is consistent but I can't seem to find it. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 13:50, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You're thinking of WP:Footnotes#Ref tags and punctuation. -- Rick Block (talk) 16:22, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's it. Thanks. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 18:37, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

One would think a bot program could find reference tags that violate WP:REFPUNCT (does anyone know of one?). When you fix one of these, be sure to put something like: "fixed ref tag per [[WP:REFPUNCT]]" in your edit summary to help educate the other users, and to possibly guard against another user reverting you incorrectly. As hard as it may be to believe, not every Wikipedia editor has read and memorized every friendly manual page yet. And of course the manuals are continuously growing and changing despite the fantasy view in WP:CREEP that Wikipedia can somehow remain simple even as it becomes the largest compendium of human knowledge ever assembled. --Teratornis (talk) 18:42, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And of course, one finds, as here, contradictory policies/guidelines. For what it's worth, I would delete the MOS as unreadable. DuncanHill (talk) 18:48, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You might describe the contradictions on the talk pages of the contradictory guideline pages. Sometimes the talk pages are active, with a lot of users who take the documentation seriously and try to improve it. --Teratornis (talk) 19:22, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image Dilemma

I wish to upload a set of scientific diagrams about a star system called Epsilon Aurigae, but I'm not sure of exactly how I can incorporate it. Are there any set copyright laws on diagrams from scientific papers? I do not know which license I should choose. The link that contains a two that I am eyeing can be found here. --Starstriker7^(Talk) 16:31, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That website does not state that its contents are available under a GDFL license or something similar so we must assume they are copyrighted. The only way for them to be used on Wikipedia is for the copyright owner to release them following the process set out at WP:IOWN. – ukexpat (talk) 16:42, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A strange stub template

I was taking a look at the article about Christian von Koenigsegg. At the bottom of the page I found a strange piece of text that looked like an ad (it can be seen here [4]). I tried to remove it but I just couldn't find this text when I hit the edit button. When I tried removing this stub template ({{automobile-bio-stub}}) and hitting the preview button this text disappeared. Could anybody here explain what this is? Should any action be taken? J-C V (talk) 17:01, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See [5]. Someone mistakenly started an article inside a stub template. DuncanHill (talk) 17:09, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Reverted. You can add the template back. It seems that Alltwodogs figured out that wasn't the correct place to make his article (he created it as Matthew McGinn) but forgot to undo his edit. Xenon 54 17:12, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Signature

I tried to change my signature to the default one, but it didn't work. Schuym1 20:33, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

In Special:Preferences, clear the textbox and untick the 'raw signature' box. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 20:37, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Paraphrasing terms definitions from published books

I am a new article contributor, and I have a series of articles I'd like to add, several of which were inspired by a book published in 1978, Managing for Responsive Research and Development, Stewart P. Blake, author.

Mr. Blake coined in his book several useful terms related to the meta-science of multidisciplinary research and problem-solving.

My first question is, can I enter articles that paraphrase his definitions (he wasn't particular formal at defining them) and use his book as a reference for those terms?

My second question is, I wrote (and published in the journal of the California non-profit corporation Synthesis Institute) an article that extended Mr, Blake's ideas. Is that article an appropriate source? (Note, full disclosure, I was at the time and still am Synthesis Institute's CEO.)

Thank you for your help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by BruceTow (talk • contribs) 23:28, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is not really an answer. But I have some concerns about what you propose to do. In the first place Wikpedia is an encyclopedia not a dictionary. Even if the scope of your proposed articles goes beyond definitions, the subjects of Wikipedia articles need to be notable. This means that to be included here a subject needs significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject. —teb728 t c 00:36, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

January 11

Associating user id with talk page id in wiki dumps

I'm processing the most recently finished en-wiki-...-stubs-meta-history.xml dump for a research project and have run in to the following questions:

Is there an easy way to associate someone's user id with their talk page id (as well as their user page id)?
If a user changes their user name, does their associated talk page keep the same page id? How about subpages of their talk page (eg. User talk:User_Name/old)?
How does user name changes affect user name collisions over time? For example, the user name "Angela" has had about 28 different user ids associated with it over Wikipedia's history. If an user edited "User talk:Angela" who were they talking to, the current (as of the dump) user id associated with "Angela" or the user id whose user name was "Angela" at that time?

I asked this question on Village Pump (Technical) earlier today but am unsure if that was the appropriate forum for this question, hopefully this is the best place for this question. Thanks for the help!

Andlarry (talk) 00:24, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WP:VPT was actually closer to the mark, given that questions of greater technical difficulty go there, but if you're not getting a response, it's probably because you are asking a question that goes well beyond what most Wikipedia users normally think about. Your question is sort of like asking a ski instructor to explain the physics of snow. (The Help desk is for questions about using Wikipedia.) If you want to research Wikipedia, you have to learn a lot of specialized material, and figure out who the other users are who know that material. If you aren't an expert with MySQL or interested in becoming one, I'd say you're probably in for some tough sledding. There may be some limited help available from the small community (if we could call it that) of people (mostly academics, I suppose) who research Wikipedia. The first step would be to read everything linked from WP:EIW#Research, WP:EIW#Download, WP:EIW#Query, and WP:EIW#MediaWiki. You should either find answers there, or at least a better idea of who might know what you need. Are you doing this research project entirely on your own, or do you have an advisor? --Teratornis (talk) 00:41, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Teratornis, I appreciate for your help! I'm happy to dig into the media wiki software to find my answer, I posted because I ran out of places to look. Thanks for the links, I'll be sure to explore them. Other than a direct answer to my questions, that is the sort of help I was looking for. I do have an advisor, who I can talk to about getting in contact with other wiki researchers. Thanks again! --Andlarry (talk) 01:23, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And I am sure there is much helpful material over at MediaWiki. – ukexpat (talk) 01:15, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm slightly curious about who is formulating the questions you are trying to answer, and what information he/she used to formulate these questions. Namely, I'm wondering why the information sources that motivated the questions aren't enough to guide the path to answering them. That's a circuitous way of saying that I think before someone could formulate meaningful questions to answer about Wikipedia, one would have to know a lot about Wikipedia, e.g. more than I know about Wikipedia. Because without such detailed knowledge of Wikipedia's internal workings, how would one have any idea whether one was asking the right questions? Generally a thesis advisor should know a lot about whatever he/she sends the graduate student to investigate, at least enough to be able to know what the meaningful questions are, and if not how to answer them, at least where to send the student to learn the existing state of the art which the student will presumably attempt to extend. So I'm a little puzzled by what I'm seeing here - the student asking for help on the Wikipedia Help desk. This is unnervingly consistent with the hypothesis that the thesis advisor is kind of shooting in the dark. What specific background does your advisor have with wiki technology? You don't have to answer here, just take these as thought questions, but for the kinds of questions he/she seems to be sending you to investigate, I'd say the minimum qualification for an advisor to have any idea what he/she is doing would be something like:

Has edited extensively on at least one wiki. (If there is a way to understand wikis without actually using them, I cannot imagine it.) I'd look for an edit count in the 5000+ range on at least one well-developed wiki and on at least one poorly-developed wiki (so the advisor clearly understands the role of the user community along with the raw capabilities of the software). The standard is high here because we are talking about someone who should have authoritative knowledge and thus be capable of extending the state of the art.
Has installed and administered at least one wiki from scratch, and preferably written extensions for it. Granted, this is getting into technician stuff, but there is no comprehensive theory of wikis yet that academics could carve out as a domain entirely separate from banging on some code. (Try to imagine a theory of glassblowing which doesn't involve actually blowing any glass. That would probably be more attainable, actually, than a theory of wikis that wouldn't require any direct experience, since glassblowing is just physics.)
Has published in a peer-reviewed journal on some relevant topic.
Uses impressive jargon such as "Commons-based peer production" and "Social production of value".
~~Is utterly irresistible to women.~~ (Sadly, this doesn't seem to be a consequence of developing expertise on wikis. But fortunately it is also not a prerequisite.)

I don't mean to get all Simon Cowell here, but if you're writing a thesis, you're going to defend it before a committee, and there's a slim chance someone on your committee might have a minimal degree of competence in this topic. In which case you'll have to explain yourself to the satisfaction of someone with my minimal degree of competence. You want to be sure that when you go to defend, you know more about your topic than anyone else in the room. While you're plowing through the voluminuous reading material I linked to above, also read everything I linked from User:Teratornis/Theory of Wikipedia, which lists some authors who are trying to develop a theory for this stuff. You want to read everything by Clay Shirky and Yochai Benkler, for example. If nothing else, Benkler's The Wealth of Networks will cure any insomnia problem. --Teratornis (talk) 06:08, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My reply at the village pump might also be a good insomnia cure for some people. :-) In short: "probably not", "yes if the page is moved", and "dunno". I've done a lot of research on page history to try to find old edits - see User:Graham87/Page history observations - but I'm not a MySQL expert by any stretch of the imagination. Graham87 06:39, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

PAGESINCATEGORY question

{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Organizations}} is, at the moment, returning a count of 35:

Count: 32

But the count is (as I understand it) supposed to include pages within subcategories. Since Category:Organizations has 21 subcategories; the total, inclusive count is obviously much, much greater than 35.

I've read the relevant (I think) help page at Meta: m:Help:Category#Count, which is rather terse, and gives no clue as to what might need to be done (null edit? separate new page?) in order to get this magic word to work correctly with this category. Suggestions?

(By contrast, {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Living people}} seems to work correctly, returning a number around 330,000.) -- John Broughton (♫♫) 00:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

m:Help:Category#Count contains a misunderstanding of the source it mentions: m:Help:Magic words#Other_2. The latter says: "Returns the number of pages in a given category, including sub-category pages and file description pages." Here "sub-category pages" only refers to the category page a subcategory is displayed on, and not the pages in that subcategory. Category:Living people really does contain hundreds of thousands pages directly and not in subcategories. The category is not intended for manual browsing. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:16, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Organizations has 21 subcategories as you say. Adding the currently 14 articles gives 35 category members in total so {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Organizations}} is correct. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:20, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Edit no-show

Resolved

I've just deleted some vd at Portal:Contents/Portals#Mathematics_and_logic. The "edit" page looks clean but the actual page still shows the vd version. The page is semi-protected and I'm autoconfirmed. Help? hydnjo talk 02:11, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

strange. It's looking good half the time. Empire3131 (talk) 02:18, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Did you try purging the page? Your edit was made to the subpage Portal:Contents/Portals/Mathematics and logic and not [[Portal:Contents/Portals, so possibly the older version is still showing on the transcluded page. Cheers. Chamal ^talk 02:21, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) You edited [6] a transcluded page. That can happen without noticing it when you click a transcluded edit link. If you want the edit to propagate quickly to a page where it's transcluded then you can purge that page. It appears Portal:Contents/Portals has either been purged already or the software automatically updated it. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:24, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, my bad. I shoulda' realized that when "Save page" returned only the transcluded section. Thanks all. hydnjo talk 02:35, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Delete

I had previously created a template page, which I have now placed within an article. How can I delete the Template page now that there is nothing there? --Sweet Pea 1981 (talk) 03:36, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Only administrators can delete pages. You can place {{db-author}} on it. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:48, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

assessing articles

How do I assess an article without a wikiproject template? Also, how would I assess an article as a 'set index' or 'disambiguation' class page? OlEnglish (talk) 03:52, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

First I would ask why the article has no WikiProject template. Is this because:

There is no suitable WikiProject.
There is a suitable WikiProject, but no member of that project has noticed this article yet.

I think you need to resolve that conditional branch before doing anything else. If you tell us the title of the article, someone can tell you which branch you are on. As to the second question, I've heard of disambiguation pages, but what do you mean by "set index"? Can you give an example? There are list pages, if that's what you mean. I'm not sure how someone would assess a disambiguation page. I don't think I've heard of that before (which doesn't mean nobody is doing it, I just haven't heard of it yet). There are, however, featured lists, so there is some rigmarole for assessing them. For more information on assessment, see WP:EIW#Quality which for all I know might contradict everything I've said. Trust the consensus guidelines, not the individual editor, no matter how glib and compelling he thinks he is. --Teratornis (talk) 06:25, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Google

Hello,

I was wondering how to post my Wikipedia article on Google. It is all set when I search for it on Wikipedia, but it doesn't show up at all under Google.

The URL is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morristown_UFO

Thanks so much for your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Soron616 (talk • contribs) 06:54, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I believe there is nothing we can do to influence Google's indexing schedule. You just have to wait. I've seen delays as long as four days. --Teratornis (talk) 07:03, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It might take a while to get indexed. There are no incoming links from other articles in the mainspace, so adding links from relevant articles might be a good idea. It will help the spiders find the page quickly. --Unpopular Opinion (talk) 07:07, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Children/people who inspire

How can I use your directory to find a list of children or people who inspire others? I am trying to generate a list of names for my students to then use the internet to locate the information on such people. Thank you for your help. Theresa Murray

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